Chapter 17 Jorusk
I fight through my Inferno’s bliss to reach for her.
A tear breaks free and rolls down her cheek, and it cracks my soul.
“I’m sorry,” I say again, bracing her shoulders. “You didn’t have to.”
She shakes her head then nods. “I needed to kno…”
Brynna coughs embers and inhales a rattling breath. “Oh god.”
I frantically jerk my shorts back on, tie the sleeves of my race suit around my waist, then help her guide her feet back into her panties and suit.
Tapping my wristband, I call my crew. “Osiris, Jorusk. Do you copy?”
He responds as I frantically help Brynna back into her bra and her arms back into her sleeves as she coughs.
“I read you. What can I do, brother?” Osiris responds.
“We need the nebulizer. Grab the Lazariot-Drath mix Aura gave us. Brynna’s in a lot of pain.”
“On it.”
“Heading your way now.” I pick Brynna up, clutch her to my chest, and whisper in her ear. “Hang on. I’m going to go as fast as I can.”
“Okay…” Brynna’s rasping breaths quicken.
I dive over the edge of the cliff and fold my wings back so we drop fast. At the last second, I stretch them as wide as I can and brake hard.
We land by the doors. I snatch up my bands and fold my wings up.
I slip the shackles over the tops, knowing they will make me more aerodynamic in the hallways instead of running with sails at my back.
Then I bolt out into the passage and run down the male dorm corridor toward the distant hangars where the team is docked.
“Jorusk…” Brynna wheezes. “Can’t.. breathe…”
“I know.” Fuck! “Almost there.”
I move with every spare ounce of energy I can muster, which isn’t easy when I’m still coming down from my climax. Adrenaline helps. But my Inferno is infuriatingly quiet.
Running up the ramp, I rush us into the medbay where Osiris is ready and waiting.
I lay Brynna back on the bed like she is made of glass.
He straps the mist-filled mask to her face.
Brynna’s hands shake as they reach up and brace the clear rubber to her nose and mouth.
She drinks in the air like it is the most wonderful thing she’s ever experienced.
Osiris gets her connected to a vitals monitor so we can track her oxygen perfusion.
“Holding steady,” he says.
Brynna’s eyes release more tears, and I slump down on the bed beside hers, knowing this is going to be the end of us.
She can’t handle me.
I am too dangerous.
Sidius, Rykarn, and Vryskas run in and stop when they see Brynna on the bed, clutching the nebulizer to her face.
“What happened?” Sidius asks.
I can’t unlock my jaw. I’m not ready.
“Jorusk,” Sidius says again.
Anger wakes my monster from his ignorant bliss. Staring down at my fated in so much pain and knowing it’s my fault makes me want to torch the entire universe. What’s the point of such a match if we can’t be together?
The brewing chaos inside me flares. I get up.
Sidius stops me with a hand.
I snarl at him.
He lets me go, and I storm down the hall to the thermal generation room. The door slides open for me. Once I’m inside, it clunks shut. I look back to see Sidius outside. He switches on the system, and lights blink on along the generator’s veins.
I pry the panel from my chest and toss it to the floor, letting the full fury inside rise to the surface of my skin.
My body ignites. The bands holding my wings melt and fall to the floor.
Flames lick off of my body as I darken to black with orange lines of heat cracking my shell, deeper and broader until I am a roiling humanoid mass of molten rock.
The generation veins rotate around me faster and faster, blinking and converting my heat to energy that the ship will store and use later.
When I’ve filled the chamber with fire, I finally feel my rage peak. I’ve hurt the one I want only to protect.
A roar from the anger shakes my ribs and sends embers dancing with the flames.
“Jorusk.”
I hear the voice but ignore it to hide inside my pain.
DIA calls my name again from my wristband.
“What?” I bark at her with the underlay of my Inferno, a strange sound I’ve not heard from myself before.
“Brynna is calling for you.”
I cover my eyes. “I need to stay away from her.”
“Don’t take the easy route, Jorusk. Do not make her endure this pain she feels for no reason.”
“How can I ever face her again when I hurt her?” I snarl, my fire still swirling through the room.
“It had to happen sometime. She is human. You are Drathis.”
DIA is maddeningly pragmatic.
“And you just let it happen?” I ask. “Do you know how to fix it?”
“Osiris is doing what is necessary. It must happen naturally. The way in which your Inferno first enters her is how we must treat her. But she should heal, and her tolerance should increase after each session.”
“Each?” I growl. “You mean every time we get close, she’s going to be like this?”
“Until she has a tolerance for your heat, yes. But that is the benefit of being human. She can adapt.”
What a fucked up way to live.
“Temporary pains like this are training for the mission.”
“You say it like she wasn’t just dying!”
DIA speaks calmly over my wristband as my fire flickers lower until I’m in a dark room again. “She would have without intervention. But you did the right thing. Now she needs you.”
I look at the door and consider just healing Brynna and leaving for good. I do not like the idea of hurting her more just so she can be with me. I want to make her feel better, not worse.
The door slides open, and Vryskas is before me, wings twitching. “Pull yourself together.”
I sigh. My fire sputters out, and smoke leaves my nose.
“You good?” he asks.
“Not really.”
Vryskas patiently waits.
“Just trying to cling to this shred of sanity between the battles and almost dying and now her. It’s like everything that matters to me is destined for some horrific and tragic end.
And it makes me just want to leave,” I say.
“If I can’t do anything right, if nothing is ever enough, why am I trying? ”
Vryskas leans in the doorway. “It’s not you, brother. It’s just the life we’re born into. If you give up and walk away now, you’ll miss out on the moments that make this hell worth it. You think I never considered running away from this team?
“I tried to save my sister that day you found me. They clawed her to death in their tower. I tried to defend her, but the Tusks were too strong.” Vryskas’ whole body tenses.
“She was all I had left, and I saw her Inferno darken just as one of the royals launched me out of a tower window with a boot.
“I didn’t care if I lived or died. My life was tied to hers. But you picked me back up. And we have saved many, together, brother. Has it been easy? Hell no. But the most important things never are.”
Vryskas moves aside. “Don’t abandon her when she needs you most just because you’re angry. If she dies because you’re gone, you will never forgive yourself.”
I slip past him, then look back at Vryskas and the shimmer of pain in his eyes. “I’m glad you’re with us, too. Who else is going to put up with Rykarn’s bullshit?”
Vryskas cracks a sad smile. “I just pretend he’s Liaska, and I can’t get mad at him just in case it’s the last time he pokes fun at me.”
I rest a hand on his shoulder and tread carefully back to the medical bay, fearing how I will find Brynna. Osiris watches over her, monitoring the nebulizer and her vitals. Sidius has taken up my post on the neighboring bed, his wings hanging down the other side.
Rykarn rests back against the wall beside me when I enter. His wings are tightly folded, and his eyes barely leave Brynna to glance at me. “She’s a fighter. But she doesn’t deserve this.”
“I agree.”
“We need people like her on our side.” Osiris hugs himself. “You have to control it, J. You have to.”
“I know. It didn’t listen.”
Rykarn glares at me now. “Then fight harder.”
He shoulder bumps me as he walks out.
“What was that all about?” I ask Sidius and Osiris.
Sidius gets up and motions to the bed. He grabs me by the arm. “Do not ever abandon your mate when she is in pain again.”
“You know why I did.”
“I don’t give a shit if you’re a fucking god going to end the universe with your power.
You stay with her.” He jerks me in an angry outburst, uncommon to him.
His eyes fume with light. “You fight, and you stay with her. Never let a female face this wretched universe alone.” He releases me to pound a fist against his chest. “That is in our blood as much as it is in yours. She is lucky we are here, so someone is always with her. Promise me.”
I lick my lip as shame crawls up my neck. My wings twitch.
He releases me. “Fieri is on his way.”
Fieri? “Why?”
“Nebs are circling the border lands of the Amphiran nebula. Their homeworld is at risk. They are pushing the fleet away with mine fields like the one that surrounds your homeworld. But that is moving the Nebs toward the Mindor and Thorian solar system. So we’re being recalled.
Fieri is going to be your guard while we go fight.
This isn’t good. “I’m coming with you.”
“No, you are not.” Fieri steps into the room in his Amphiran Rogue armor with a green stripe over the shoulder. “You are to finish your race.”
“What for?” I demand. “The war is coming for our allies!”
Brynna groans and reaches for me.
Taking her hand, I’m surprised by the coldness of her fingers. I sit back on the bed beside hers and brace her hand between both of mine to warm her, while my heart is torn in two different directions.
All of my brothers look at me with mixed expressions. Even Fieri. They want me to join them, but they know my priority is not the war right now.
Brynna grabs her mask and pulls it away from her face just enough to talk. Her words smoke inside the mask. “Burn off some steam? You’re…steaming.”
“So are you.” I dart my eyes at her mouth and the redness of her skin. “How are you feeling?”
She rasps a laugh that spits embers. “Like I kissed the fucking sun.”
I hang my head, mortified by what I’ve done to her.
“Osiris says this is the treatment plan.” She replaces her mask and takes in a deep breath, then removes it again. “So I should be good for the Grenade Maze, even if I’ve already taken one to the back of my throat.”
As she sucks in another breath of vapor, I look up at Osiris, who’s got an arched eyebrow.
“My choice, Osiris,” Brynna says through the mask. “It was my choice.”
“Please don’t ever do that again,” I beg her.
She wipes her eyes and turns her head to look at me. Brynna winks.
“I’m serious.”
“Whatever this shit is, I like it,” Brynna mumbles, glancing at Osiris.
“It’s a blend of Lazariot healing serum and our Inferno stem cells, something Aura’s team concocted.”
Fieri grunts. “Mostly Eluni at this point. She and Elix’s MONA like to engineer new things.
But it should be enough to help you begin to adapt and grow your own Inferno to adapt your cells to Jorusk’s.
But that’s it. You get one. No mixing with other species after this. You’re becoming Drathious now.”
She’s becoming like us? I like it, and I don’t.
Brynna lifts her hand. “As long as there’s a treatment plan with a target outcome that’s decently predictable, I can handle it.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” I tell her as I trace her soft fingers between mine.
“This is life, Jorusk. We break bones falling down the combine steps or wrecking our hoverboard. We set them, then get meds, go through therapy, and we heal. I’m used to it.”
“Bryn…”
“I’ve eaten some hot peppers, but that was a first.” Brynna grins when Osiris clears his throat behind a fist and turns away from us to hide his grin. “My tongue still tingles. Brings a whole new meaning to burning love. Stars, this shit is good.”
She finally notices Fieri at the foot of her bed. “Oh, hey, big purple electric dude.” Brynna leans toward me and points at him. “He’s a big softie on the inside.”
Fieri frowns and rests his hands on his hips. “Brynna, you’re going to ruin my reputation.”
She opens and closes a hand in his direction. “Come here.”
Fieri hesitantly takes her other hand. “I do not do this sort of thing.”
“Yeah, yeah. But you should.” Brynna rolls her head to look at him. “You know who you remind me of?”
“A devil dog,” Rykarn mutters from the doorway.
“More like a cerebus,” Sidius snorts.
Fieri’s electric green eyes brighten when he glares at them.
“My father.” Brynna visibly squeezes his hand. “You protect, you serve, and you sacrifice yourself when no one is looking. And it’s all because deep down, you care more than you want anyone to know. Because it scares you to think of losing anyone you care about. Especially Jorusk.”
Fieri looks from her to me. And for the first time, I see pain in his eyes.
“Why?” I ask her.
Fieri sighs. “We’ve all lost hopes and dreams over the years. I will excuse Brynna’s assertion because she is drugged up. Just always hoped if I’d had a son, he’d…be like you.”
He continues, “Cinuska does not like that. She wants you to be led by one of your own. But they do not know you the way I do. And it’s why you must get back to your race. Both of you.”
Fieri pats Brynna’s hand, then slips her grip and walks out.
Osiris checks the screens beside Brynna. “She should be good in about fifteen minutes, so you can make the Grenade maze. Brynna gives him a thumbs up. But I’m not ready.
I don’t want to let my friends leave without me.
“It’s okay,” Osiris says as Brynna closes her eyes. “We’re going to be fine.”
“You don’t know that. I should be going with you. I’m not fucking royalty.”
He adjusts his wings and sits on the bed across from Brynna.
“You are more important than royalty. Now that DIA is up and running, we have access to a lot of information we didn’t have before.
That’s thanks to Fieri, Aura, and their team.
And that’s because you helped them. You were loyal when it would’ve been easy to run.
“When they powered her up, we learned who you really are and what you mean to our people. Without you, we don’t make it home to the colony that’s still out there, still hiding, and still in one piece. We need that, brother. We need you alive.”
“I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to.” Osiris changes a setting on Brynna’s nebulizer, and her numbers climb toward normal again. “You just have to stay alive. And that’s more likely to happen here. I’m sorry.”