Chapter 28
Jaime
I wake up in a bed. An actual bed, with a mattress, blanket, a pillow—damn, I missed pillows—and a harried-looking Steven sleeping in a chair by my side.
I’m sleepy, but not in pain, and a few test twitches confirm that I still have all of my fingers.
So far, so good. “Steven?” I try, my throat achingly dry.
His eyes shoot open. “Jaime! Oh my god, Jaime! Fuck! I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t wake up. Jesus fucking Christ, Jaime, never do that to me again!”
He holds a glass of water with a straw to my lips. It tastes clean, not muddy. How refreshing. With the most pressing matter tended to, I manage to focus again. Seeing Steven is great, but it’s not him I need right now. “Adam? What happened to Adam?”
Steven frowns. “The pilot? We didn’t find him, and we had to leave because another solar storm was coming, but if he’s still there, we will—”
“No,” I interrupt him. “The pilot’s name was Pon. He died in the crash. Adam was with me when you found me. Is he…” I can’t even finish the sentence, the possibility of Adam not being alive too terrifying to say out loud.
“Ah.” Steven shifts in his chair. “The Wehdi.”
“That’s what his people are called?” At another time, I’d find it interesting. “Actually, never mind. Is he okay? Please, tell me he’s not—”
“He’s alive.”
The three simple words have me slumping into my pillow as a wave of relief washes over me. Alive. He’s alive. Everything else is inconsequential. “Thank fuck. You arrived just in time. That venomfang bite…”
“Yeah, apparently he was already recovering when they brought him on board. Whatever it was that was smudged over his wound neutralized the venom. He was just weak.” He grimaces. “Well, not that weak. They had to sedate him to move him to the holding cell. Jaime, what the fuck?”
“The holding cell? What are you talking about? What did he do?” It never occurred to me that Adam might have been some sort of criminal.
He’s always been so sweet and caring, but I assume even good people can get in trouble with the law.
It’s not like the crew of the Supernova are completely on the right side of the law, either.
“Why would you do that to him? Adam is a good person.”
Steven watches me incredulously, but someone else responds.
A male of the same species as Adam, with a prominent scar cutting through one of his eyes, enters the room with a sad smile.
“His name is Rizven, and… He might have been a good person once, I can attest to that, but he’s not himself anymore.
He’s dangerous now. I can attest to that, too,” he adds, rubbing his scar.
Staring at him, I realize he’s familiar, and not just because he looks similar to Adam.
“You’re the guy from the hologram! Adam—Rizven had a picture of you two together in his cave.
” Rizven. That’s going to take some getting used to.
“Look, whatever he did, I’m sure he didn’t mean— Oh.
” A memory emerges, Adam sliding his fingers down my face over the same spot where this male’s scar is located.
It was after he saw the hologram. Before he started crying.
“He did that to you. Fuck.” Okay, so this guy has a valid reason to hate Adam, but still.
“Hasn’t he been punished enough, though?
He spent god knows how long on that terrible moon, all alone.
Surely, you could forgive him. I know for sure he regrets it deeply. ”
“I never blamed him for it. I never stopped searching for him, either. I cannot express how happy I am that I finally found him, even if it’s not him anymore.”
“I don’t understand.” I feel like I’m missing a vital piece of this puzzle.
“Rokesh is Rizven’s brother,” Steven says, as if that explains everything.
“Yes, and as such, I would like to formally apologize for whatever my brother did to you,” Rokesh says, bowing his head slightly. “He’s not himself, but that is still no excuse. I’m just happy you’re alive. If he had killed you…”
“I’m only alive because of him. And what are you talking about? What do you mean, not being himself? I mean, sure, he hasn’t remembered everything and his speech is still a little stilted, but you can’t lock him up! Anyone would have gone crazy on that godforsaken moon.”
Steven’s frown deepens. “Jaime, some of the Wehdi suffer from an untreatable condition that turns them completely feral. Rizven has it, too. That’s why he attacked Rokesh. His own brother! Jesus Christ. You were so fucking lucky he was out cold from that venom. He would have torn you to shreds!”
Rubbing my temples, I wonder if I woke up in some alternate dimension.
Nothing here makes sense. Nothing. “I want to talk to Adam. Rizven. Sorry, but neither of you is making any sense. I’m sure Rizven can shed some light on this.
” I also need to see him to make sure he’s okay.
To hug him at least, if he still wants that, now that he’s with his own family.
“Talk to him?” Steven stares at me, mouth agape. “Jaime, that guy’s basically an animal at this point. Um, sorry,” he murmurs to Rokesh.
Rokesh waves his hand. “It’s okay. You are not wrong. Rizven is in the final stage of the red fog, driven only by his basic instincts.” His eyes bore into me. “However, Jaime said… Excuse me, but did you say ‘his speech’?”
“Yeah. I talked to him just yesterday.”
“You were unconscious for three days, Jaime.”
I glare at my stupid brother. “Then I talked to him three days ago! He’s the one who told me that the thing in the river was a probe, right before the venomfang attacked.”
Rokesh clears his throat. “Um… Are you certain you weren’t…hallucinating? I mean, you were down there for a long time, surely—”
“Exactly!” I cut him off, so pissed I’m on the verge of punching someone.
“I was down there for a long time. How long do you think I would have survived on my own? Look at me! I’m a fucking cripple, not exactly prime survivalist material.
Your brother found me when I crawled out of the river and he’s been keeping me alive ever since.
Even that bite he got was because of me, because I smashed a baby panther with a stone and its mother was pissed at me.
He didn’t speak at the beginning, but after we—” My cheeks heat with embarrassment.
I’m not shy about sex, but there’s no way I’m talking about my relationship with Adam with his brother and mine. “Um. He started speaking eventually.”
“T-that’s impossible,” Rokesh says, his voice trembling. “Once the afflicted lose the ability to speak, they never recover it. They never recover anything. There have been hundreds, thousands of attempts to cure them over the centuries, and nothing, nothing, has caused even a minor reversal.”
“Dude, I don’t know how else to tell you this.
I did speak to your brother. I am also done speaking to you and you will either take me to see A—Rizven or I’ll crawl over there myself, and since I’m fairly certain I’m naked under this blanket, you probably don’t want to witness that.
” I’m bluffing. I’m far too weak to be crawling anywhere, though the thought of seeing Adam sparks new strength.
Steven exchanges confused glances with Rokesh, and when the latter nods, Steven turns back to me. “Fine, you can see the guy, but first, you’ll eat and get dressed. I’ll help you.”
Rokesh gives us privacy as Steven helps me into loose pants and brings me a plate of food. Alien food, not pizza or pasta, but it’s not worms, so I won’t complain. “Jaime…” he starts as I eat, his eyes growing misty. “I thought… Fuck. I’m sorry. I should have come with you.”
“Steven, none of this was your fault. If you were on that ship with me, we might have both been dead by now.” I might not have met Adam.
Or I would have met him, but Steven would have immediately attacked him, and then Adam would have killed us both.
My brother is not the type to patiently let a curious murder-chameleon lick him.
“Thank you for coming for me. Truly.” Now it’s my turn to get teary.
“I-I never gave up hope. That’s why I made Adam bring me back to the ship, because I knew you wouldn’t give up. ”
Squeezing my shoulder, Steven sighs. “I will always come for you, Jaime. You’re my brother. But…that guy? I saw him, Jaime. When he woke up. He went completely nuts and nearly killed Lyriana. She’s fine, but… We had to stun him, and as far as I know, he’s not been any better since then.”
“Perhaps it’s an after-effect of the venom? He did sound like he was hallucinating. Perhaps his body hasn’t flushed it all out yet. I mean, I only caught eight millipedes for him. Maybe I should have gotten more.” Is this my fault?
“You did what now?” Steven stares at me. “Jaime, what the fuck were you doing down on that planet?”
“It’s a moon, big brother, and I was doing whatever I could to survive, which, admittedly, wasn’t much. Adam did most of the heavy lifting. Literally. He carried me across that jungle. Twice. Steven, I…”
Steven’s eyes narrow. “Jaime? Please, tell me you do not have the hots for the completely feral, mortally dangerous alien?”
“No, Steven, I don’t ‘have the hots’ for Adam. I fucking love him. I mean, the sex was great, too, but—”
“THE WHAT?! Jaime, we are clearly not talking about the same alien. There’s literally no way you could survive sex with that insane beast that Rokesh has locked up.”
I smack his shoulder. “Don’t call him that! And bring me to him. I need to see him.”
“You need a shrink, but fine!” he adds before I can hit him again. “I’ll bring you there. You can see for yourself that what you’re saying is impossible.”
“I did not hallucinate the best sex of my life, Steven.”
He groans, mumbling something about too much information and crazy little brothers, then scoops me up into his arms. Steven is strong, perfectly capable of carrying me, but it still feels strange to be supported by just two arms. Not to mention that my brother is not nearly as cuddly as Adam.
Rizven. Damn, I should probably start using his actual name, but I keep forgetting.
He’s Adam to me. My Adam, if he still wants me.
Even if he doesn’t, I’m still helping him out of this mess.
How much does it suck to be rescued from a planet he’s been stuck on for years, only to get locked up by his own damned brother? It’s un-fucking-believable.
Rokesh is waiting for us in front of a door, his expression inscrutable. “He’s here,” he says, using an access card to unlock the door. It slides open, revealing a room divided in half by a shimmering force field. And behind it…
A roar echoes through the room the moment we enter, followed by furious snarling and hissing.
The force field lights up as claws hit it, over and over.
There are claw marks all over the walls in the other half of the room, and the floor is covered with shreds of blankets and clothes.
Amidst all of that destruction, a feral beast rages. My feral beast.