2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Zoric's scales rippled with shock as he looked down at the woman in his arms. Her face should have been impossible - the universe didn't grant second chances at finding one's bonded mate. Yet every instinct in his body recognized her, craved her, needed to protect her.
The familiar ache in his chest, a constant companion since losing Dorcas, transformed into something new as Angela took another precious breath. His arms tightened around her, claws carefully positioned to avoid breaking her delicate human skin. Every breath she took was precious to him and his own lungs burned with the need to breathe for her.
The sterile human facility assaulted his chemoreceptors with layers of artificial scents - disinfectant, fear, stress hormones, and beneath it all, the sweet-salt taste of Angela's distress lingering in the air. His tongue flicked automatically, gathering more data about her condition than their primitive medical equipment could detect.
Diplomatic protocol demanded he step back, let the humans handle their prisoner according to their customs. But the newly-formed bond thrummed between them like a living thing, making every cell in his body rebel against letting her go. He'd forgotten how overwhelming a new bond could be - or perhaps it was different this time because he knew the cost of losing one.
"Mr. Zoric," the human interrogator snapped, her voice grating against his auditory membranes. "You can't be in here."
The title felt wrong - too human, too formal for what he had just become to Angela. But explaining that their souls had essentially merged would only complicate an already volatile situation. These humans, with their rigid hierarchies and suspicion of the unknown, weren't ready to understand the depth of what had just happened.
"Just Zoric, Dr. Phillips," he corrected her but made no move to leave. The other half of his soul was still chained to a chair and it would hurt her to snap the chains by pulling her. Removing her from them was going to require the assistance of at least one of the humans around him.
"Zoric," Dr. Phillips corrected. "You are not authorized to be part of this session. I must ask you to put Private McBride down and leave."
"You were hurting her," Zoric protested. "You're not supposed to do that."
"We were not the ones hurting her," one of the soldiers behind him said.
"She was suffocating," Zoric said. "Couldn't you tell? And you triggered it on purpose."
"I did not," Dr. Phillips said. "I would never do that to a patient. We have not mapped all the things that trigger that response. I will have to make a note of this."
She looked down at her notes and her mouth curled in distaste. It was an expression he'd seen many times in his life and he schooled his own to not show his reaction to it. Not that any of the humans there could read his expressions. Or would bother to try.
"Did you have anything available to stop her from suffocating?" Zoric pressed. "Any way to shock her and keep her brain from killing her body?"
"How do you know-" Dr. Phillips started, but one of the soldiers interrupted her.
By the amount of decorations on his uniform, Zoric knew he was important in their hierarchy but he couldn't remember his title.
"We have a complete medical kit here and available," the soldier said. "Including a defibrillator that could be used to bypass the self-destruct."
"Why weren't you using it, then?" Zoric demanded.
The soldier glanced at the interrogator and straightened his shoulders. "We did not realize how much physical distress the prisoner was in."
"You couldn't tell she was about to die?" The woman in his arms gave a small squeak of protest when his arms tightened around her and he immediately held her out so he could check her for damage.
She needed new clothes, and a chance to wash her face, and she'd probably like to brush her teeth.
"Did I damage you?" he asked, searching her face.
"No," she answered, her voice hoarse. "Not worse than anything else, at least, and I don't like being constricted."
"An understandable reaction," Zoric said. He couldn't stop looking at her.
"Is she in any more danger?" Dr. Phillips asked, interrupting his perusal.
"No," the soldier next to him said, and looked at him to confirm.
"The immediate danger seems to have passed," Zoric said in reluctant agreement.
"Good, then we may continue," Dr. Phillips said. She looked at her chair and the realization that the liquid from the table had dripped on her seat showed in the horror on her face.
Zoric couldn't imagine how she'd actually managed to avoid getting the vomit on her clothes.
"No," he said. "You won't."
"We should certainly move to a different room so someone can clean this," the interrogator said. "But I have several more hours with the prisoner and the immediate danger has passed."
"No," Zoric insisted, pulling Angela back against his chest. "You're done for the day."
"That's not your call, Mr.- Zoric," she corrected herself. "You shouldn't even have access to this room."
Zoric had to fight the urge to shrink in at her tone. Angela had relaxed against him, though, and he would fight anyone to keep her where she belonged - cuddled into his chest.
"I am here to act as an advisor," he told her. "And I could feel she was in serious medical distress before any of the people who were supposed to monitor her condition. I do not trust your assessment of her capabilities right now to be anything other than self-serving and dangerous."
"Have you met Private McBride before?" the soldier behind his shoulder asked. Zoric really should learn his name and rank. That would come with time, though.
"I have not," Zoric answered. "I was given a brief description of the situation which did not include her name. As I have been sent to act as an advisor, I would advise you to refrain from any more questions today, and to get the prisoner a new set of clothes."
One of the guards came forward with a set of keys and bent down to remove her leg shackles from the chair.
"I did not authorize her removal," Dr. Phillips said. "You can not disconnect her from that chair."
"We'd have to do it anyway if we were going to change rooms," the higher ranking soldier said. "And I can't see a compelling reason to leave her in clothes covered in vomit. After she's been cleaned up, we'll do a medical assessment and bring her back if she's fit."
Zoric could feel the annoyance coming off the interrogator and panicked for a brief second that she was also someone he could bond with.
"If I'm going to be any help, you're going to need to remove him from this room before you take her to get cleaned up," a very annoying voice said behind him.
He turned to glare at the other advisor. Ae-cha wasn't exactly his nemesis but the Elite had been fighting the Remnant for their entire recorded history. Nobody knew how far back the feud went but Zoric suspected it had started on another planet.
He was also certain that they had both been in the wrong in whatever had started the conflict. Ae-cha did not share this view on their history.
Angela whimpered and buried her face against his neck. Zoric's heart ached at her obvious discomfort and continued to hold her.
"I will not leave while she is still in obvious distress," he announced. "If she needs to be moved somewhere else to get clean, I will carry her there."
Ae-cha and Dr. Phillips scoffed in unison but the soldier next to him nodded. "We're taking her to medical. There's a shower there and she can get checked over by the Doc. She'll be under guard the entire time but she needs to be removed from this room."
"She doesn't need to be carried," Dr. Phillips protested.
Zoric ignored her to find the best way to lift Angela. With her arms secured behind her back, it was awkward, and the look on her face told him she wasn't exactly comfortable. But he felt better with his arms full of the troubled woman than he would have watching her shuffle down the hallway.
The moment he stepped out into the hallway with his precious burden, he was surrounded by guards. Ae-cha and Dr. Phillips were forced to follow.
He could taste the chemical sterility in the air before they turned the corner to the hallway of the medical facilities. It was a curiously human taste, layered as it was over all the other human smells. Whatever other things it was trying to remove, it couldn't completely hide the passage of all the human bodies.
The acrid scent of bile filled his nostrils but the underlying taste of the woman in his arms was still there in the moist air between them. He wanted to taste it directly from her skin with no other interference.
When they walked through the doors to the medical facility they were met by a veritable flurry of doctors and nurses. Several of them were pushing a hospital bed and tried to take Angela from him.
"Sir, you have to put her down before we can take her shackles off," one of the guards told him.
Zoric noticed the fear and uncertainty in the eyes of some of the medical personnel and he nodded. Everything in him demanded he keep her in his arms but he took the step he needed to turn and put her on the bed.
The restraints were unlocked to let her arms fall to her side, then secured to the side of the bed. They started pushing her away, towards another set of doors, and he moved to follow but the guards restrained him.
"She needs a shower," he called after them. "And new clothes."
"They'll take care of her," the higher ranking soldier told him. "Female nurses and guards will make sure she gets cleaned up."
"Thank you," Zoric said.
"Colonel Schuh," the man said, and held out his hand. "We didn't have time to be properly introduced."
Zoric shook his hand. "Of course, thank you, Colonel Schuh. I appreciate your help."
"I appreciate your quick thinking and attention," the Colonel said. "You caught that she was in distress before any of the rest of us did. May I ask how you noticed from that far away? You hadn't even made it to the monitoring station."
"Would you believe me if I said I wasn't sure?"
It was the truth, though Zoric had some theories. From everything he knew, what had happened was impossible. If you had already met, and lost, your Bond Mate, you didn't get another one. When he'd let Dorcas go, he'd resigned himself to being alone for the rest of his life.
"I believe you," Colonel Schuh said. "But I hope it doesn't stay that way for long. You're here as an advisor on a case we've never seen before but I'd like answers if they exist."
Ae-cha moved up next to them and the look on her face told Zoric she was going to be unpleasant.
"Zoric's people have more than a passing familiarity with the self-destruct commands that your prisoner has in her brain. If he's at all sensitive, he would recognize the signs as soon as he was in range."
"What kind of familiarity?" the Colonel asked.
"Well, it's certainly not with removing them," Ae-cha said with a grim smile. "That's my people's specialty."