32. Darcy
32
DARCY
F allon and I didn’t speak much on the ride home. I’d never considered myself an excellent conversationalist, and I was too emotionally drained to chit-chat right now. Fallon, for his part, seemed lost in his own thoughts. Or maybe he was just trying to respect my need for quiet.
But I knew I’d have to talk to him, and soon. To apologize for everything. For not telling him about my mom, Massimo, my past. And for what he’d no doubt heard before he’d come crashing in. That thing about me saying I’d never wanted to get married. No matter what I’d said afterwards to my mom about staying with him, I knew that had to have hurt him. It would have hurt me, more badly than I even wanted to think about, if I’d heard him say something like that.
Though we did move faster than we had with the wagon on our wedding day, the sun had long since set by the time we passed Silar’s property. All was quiet there.
But things weren’t so quiet as we continued on our way. The closer we got to Fallon’s – our – ranch, the louder and louder something became.
Barking.
“Something’s wrong,” Fallon said from behind me. His tail whipped around my waist, like a shuttle seat harness, as he urged Kolt into a sudden run. I sucked back a yelp of surprise. I would have bounced right out of the saddle if not for Fallon’s hold on me. Yeah. I will definitely need lessons if I’m going to try to ride.
“What is it?” I said, strangled by the buffeting wind caused by our new speed. My hat nearly flew off of my head, and I scrambled to hold it down.
“I don’t know,” Fallon said, his voice tight with urgency. “The gates are still closed. The fence looked good this morning. Sora might smell a predator. I need to get you inside the fencing and-”
His words cut off. The whole world tipped.
I slammed backwards into Fallon’s chest. He gave a heavy-sounding grunt, grasping me tightly with his tail and one arm, the other holding fast to the reins as he urged Kolt to calm. The shuldu was bucking, and Fallon’s thighs turned to fucking steel as he struggled to keep us both in position.
Just as quickly as Kolt had bucked, he slammed his front hooves down on the ground and was running. Running way faster than before. Fallon and I were still on his back, but barely.
“There’s a genka,” Fallon bellowed.
I didn’t dare trying to look around to see where the predator in question was. I was barely able to keep up with the bumping and thumping of Kolt’s chaotic pace.
“I’m going to try to steer us to the nearest gate,” Fallon shouted over the rapid-fire beat of Kolt’s hooves and Sora’s frantic barking from inside the fence. “As we pass it, I’m going to lower you down as best I can so you can get in.”
“Not without you!” I choked out.
“Kolt can’t run fast enough with both of us. We can’t outrun the genka like this. I’ll get you inside and then I’ll take care of the rest.”
Well, I just about hated the sound of that plan, thank you very much. But what the hell did I know about genka, or even shuldu, for that matter? Fallon was the expert here. I’d trusted him until now.
I’d have to just keep on trusting him.
“OK!” I shouted.
Fallon whistled, then spoke swiftly to Kolt, seeming to angle the mount both with the reins and by wrenching the muscles of his legs. Soon, Kolt had aimed his terrified sprint towards the fencing. We careened towards the fence at an alarming rate. It felt like I was in a shuttle that was about to crash.
True to his word, when a gate came into view ahead, Fallon adjusted his grip on me. As Kolt dove by it, Fallon lifted me and dropped me as gently as that sort of speed allowed. Which was to say, I crashed to the ground in a crumpled heap. The adrenaline meant that I didn’t feel any pain. I lurched to my feet, fumbling with the gate’s latch. I got it open, turning to see if Fallon was looping back around to come through it…
Only to see something big and fast lunging up at Kolt with impossible, liquid speed. It swiped a massive paw at Fallon’s leg, ripping claws through leather and flesh.
No!
Kolt panicked, but instead of bucking this time, he put all his weight on his front hooves, kicking powerfully backwards. One of his back hooves connected with the genka’s ribs. The kick also sent Fallon flying over Kolt’s head.
Fallon hit the ground and he didn’t get back up.
And then I was running, my legs pumping, lungs burning, boots kicking of massive amounts of dust. Kolt bolted, racing past me and heading through the open gate. Another animal came through the gate at the same moment. I wouldn’t have noticed if not for the manic fits of barking.
Sora.
Sora was way faster than me. She reached Fallon before I ever could have hoped to, standing over his immobile body and barking her gorgeous, furry head off at the genka.
For the first time, I got a good look at the alien predator. It was nearly as big as Sora, somewhat feline in shape but with no tail and with what looked to be scales instead of fur. It seemed like it had at least been disoriented, if not badly injured, by Kolt’s kick. It hobbled sideways, as if in pain, or dizzy, as I finally reached Fallon and Sora.
I skidded down to my knees beside my husband so fast I knew I’d barely have any skin left. Not that that mattered now. A dark pool of blood had formed beneath Fallon’s injured leg, staining the dirt.
“Fallon,” I cried, grasping his shoulder and shaking it firmly. “I need you to get up. I can’t carry you back!”
I had to get him back inside the fencing before he or Sora got hurt. Sora’s barking grew suddenly louder. I looked up and jolted, seeing that the genka had regained some of its sharpness. Silver eyes pierced the night as it slowly crept closer.
“Get back!” I shrieked. I pushed my arms under Fallon’s back and half lifted his torso, hugging him to me. Fucking hell, even just the top half of him weighed a megaton. My arms shook as I dug my knees and clutched him protectively against my chest. “Get away!”
We had bears on Terratribe II. For some species, you were supposed to make yourself big and angry and loud to scare them away.
But then again, weren’t you supposed to play dead for other kinds? And a genka wasn’t even a bear, for fuck’s sake!
But my screaming had some effect, at least. The genka hadn’t been scared off, but Fallon was rousing himself at the sound of my voice. His eyes flickered open, dark for a moment, then a sputtering white as he sat up all the way and saw me, saw Sora. Saw the genka, still creeping closer.
“Get inside! Take Sora with you,” he hissed, scrambling to his feet. His injured leg immediately gave way when he stood, sending him down to one knee. “Blast!”
“I’m not leaving you out here to die. Tell me what to do,” I said hurriedly, never taking my eyes from the genka. It was growling now, still coming tentatively closer. “Does it have any weaknesses? Are you supposed to be loud? Play dead? Try to fight? What?”
“I had a knife,” Fallon groaned, trying and failing to get up again. “It was in my satchel on Kolt.”
“Kolt kicked the genka then ran inside,” I lamented.
Shit. No knife for us. If I hadn’t come running out here straightaway like a fucking idiot, maybe I could have grabbed one, or something else, anything else.
But then I saw it.
A leather bag, lying in the dirt, clearly knocked from Kolt’s back when Fallon had been. Fallon saw it at the same moment I did. His tail shot out to snatch it, but we weren’t quite close enough.
The genka was, though. Close enough that it tried swiping a paw at Sora. Sora went fucking crazy, barking and lunging to bite. The genka hissed, its scales puffing up in response. But it didn’t retreat. That thing was bold, or maybe really hungry. It wanted a Fallon fucking sandwich and was not prepared to back down without a fight.
Well, neither was I.
Before Fallon could tell me not to, I was on my feet and running for the bag. My heart collided with the walls of my throat as I reached it, grabbing it with fumbling hands. I’d planned to chuck the whole bag over at Fallon, but it was already too late for that. I’d moved away from the safety of my little huddled herd and the genka had zeroed in on me as the easiest prey.
It leaped, and it was only the lasso-like snap of Fallon’s tail around its neck that kept its fangs from locking around my throat. I couldn’t think fast enough, but luckily my body functioned where my brain didn’t. I jumped backwards, only a hair’s breadth from getting disemboweled by the same claws that had sliced open Fallon’s leg.
His leg. Fuck. We couldn’t stay out here like this. He was losing too much blood. He wouldn’t be able to keep his hold on the genka’s neck for long. Even now, the genka was pulling so hard that Fallon’s whole body was being jerked with the motion.
I tore open the bag, quickly finding and pulling out the knife. I ripped it out of its hard leather sheath.
“Take Sora and get inside!” Fallon said again. He sounded weaker now.
And I looked at my husband, doing everything in his power to hold the genka back. I looked at his beautiful, pleading face. The face of the man I’d come to love.
“No.”
Not caring a single fucking iota if I got my throat slashed, I wildly swung the knife at the animal. It didn’t connect. So the next time, I threw it.
It didn’t sink into the genka’s body, but the blade did drag forcefully against the creature’s right eye before it clattered to the dust. The second after it hit the ground, Fallon grabbed it, just as the genka shrieked, blood pouring from its eye, and wrenched out of Fallon’s tail’s hold.
My breath and my blood froze. Fallon’s newly-freed tail snapped around my waist, dragging me forcefully down to the ground behind him and Sora. He grabbed Sora’s collar with his left hand, brandishing the bloodied knife in his right.
But he never had to use it. Apparently, the kick, Sora’s barking, and now the knife to the eye had finally been enough to convince the creature that this wouldn’t be such an easy, worthwhile meal after all. It was already running, a little slower than it had before, for the treeline and the area of the creek. I clutched fiercely to Fallon, not daring to blink until the thing was entirely out of sight.
“There may be others. They’ll smell my blood. You have to go,” Fallon was muttering, pushing me towards Sora.
“What do you mean, ‘you?’ We have to go, Fallon!”
“I’ll slow you down too much. Go with Sora. I’ll… I’ll crawl back on my own.”
“Crawl back?! Not on that leg,” I snapped. I was suddenly struck with a dizzying sense of irony. Remembering Fallon saying the exact same thing to me, back on my very first night here.
“Get up,” I told him, completely ignoring the idiocy of the suggestion that I’d leave without him and watch him fucking crawl back to the ranch, bleeding and alone.
I was already standing up, pulling Fallon’s arm as I did so. “Shut up and get up right now, Fallon. We’re going back together or not at all.”
“You know, in this moment, I rather wish you were not so brave,” Fallon groaned. “If you were a coward, you would already be safe.” He grunted, then hissed loudly as he buried his knifeless hand in Sora’s fur, using her bulky shoulder as a pushing-off point. I kept pulling at his arm, and with a lot of grunting and difficulty, he finally got back up to his feet.
“Lean on me,” I ordered him, already slinging his bulky arm around my shoulders and throwing mine around his waist.
“I’m too heavy.”
“You’re not.”
He was. He most definitely was. Even now, my whole frame threatened to buckle.
But he didn’t need to know that.
“You lean on me, and I’ll lean on Sora if I have to,” I said brusquely, already taking a step forward and dragging him along with me, forcing him to do an unsteady hop to keep up.
“See?” I said. I lifted my chin and kept walking firmly forward. Fallon held onto me, hopping and limping while Sora kept pace anxiously beside us.
She wasn’t barking so much anymore, which had to be a good sign. She didn’t seem to sense any other predators and was now entirely focused on herding us towards the open gate.
By some miracle, we made it without another genka popping up or Fallon passing out or me folding over like a piece of bent paper. Fallon slammed the gate closed behind us, securing the high-up latch with a practised flicker of his tail.
I felt Fallon trying to disentangle himself from me, but I only clutched at his waist harder.
“Don’t stop moving now,” I half-ordered, half-begged. If we lost momentum, I wasn’t sure we’d ever make it into the house. Luckily, this gate wasn’t way at the back of the property or something.
We were close to the house. We could make it.
Fallon didn’t bother trying to argue with me. He just took a stoic, long-suffering sort of breath and started moving in his pained, awkward hop-lurch as Sora raced off to check on the bracku.
The steps up to the porch proved more difficult. Fallon ended up sitting on the bottom one and propelling himself backwards, one step at a time on his butt, while I helped to pull. I swallowed down clutching fear at the streaks and drips of blood he left behind.
By the time we made it into the kitchen, we were both so exhausted that I knew we wouldn’t make it to the bedroom. But at least we were inside. I left Fallon sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, and raced to the bedroom for that metal box of medical supplies he’d pulled out for me. I found it in a drawer, snatched it up, and brought it along with a pillow back to the kitchen.
“Are you injured anywhere else besides your leg?” I asked him as I tried and failed to pull his blood-soaked trousers off. Giving up on that, I pulled the knife from his hand and began to hack the leather, as quickly and carefully as I could, away from his leg.
“I do not believe so. I was a little stunned when I fell from Kolt. But I don’t think anything is broken.”
“Good. So it’s just your leg, then.” I considered calling Magnolia on my data tab for advice, then decided against it. It would take too long, and it was already obvious to me that the most important thing right now was stopping the blood loss.
I frowned, though, when I saw that the blood was already slowing. The wounds – three black, ragged slices into his thigh – were deep. They should not have been stopping bleeding already. Unless…
Unless he’d already lost so much blood that it was too late.
Blanching, I wrenched my gaze up to Fallon’s face. He seemed alert enough, though his jaw was tense with pain.
“Your bleeding is slowing,” I told him.
“Zabrian blood clots more quickly than human blood. It’s happening faster now that I’m no longer moving. Did I not tell you that once before?”
I blinked, then gave a shattered sigh.
“You did. Jesus. That scared the ever-loving shit out of me. OK. With that in mind, do you think that you need sutures?” I dug around in the medical box, pulling out a small bottle. One quick sniff after opening it told me it was the natural antiseptic he’d used on my knee.
I dumped the whole thing upside down.
Fallon’s leg spasmed, his abdominal muscles contracting with his whistling breath.
“Sorry. I only did that because I love you,” I said, already turning my attention back to the box, rummaging around until I found fresh bandages and what looked to be a suture kit of some sort. Not that I knew the first thing about suturing, or even sewing. We had tech back on Terratribe II for that, and it was never something my mother had focused on drilling into me.
“So, what do you think. Sutures, yeah?” I asked, turning my face up to Fallon’s.
His expression made me falter. He was staring at me, his eyes as big and white as my mother’s best dinner plates.
“What?” I said, anxious all over again. “Is something else starting to hurt?”
“You love me.”
“What?”
“You just said, ‘Sorry. I only did that because I love you.’”
“Oh.” I hadn’t even realized it. Well, there was no going back now.
I didn’t want to go back.
“Yeah. Well. I wasn’t planning to tell you like this, but…” I swallowed, then linked my gaze with his. “I love you, Fallon. I love you more than I’ve ever loved another person. Ever. And I’m so sorry for everything. For what I didn’t tell you about my past. And for my mom coming. If she hadn’t come, we wouldn’t have been outside tonight.”
I was too worn-down to let anger fully take hold of me again. I needed to focus on Fallon.
“I was worried,” Fallon said quietly, “when you said that you never wanted to be married. That you never wanted to be a wife. I worried that I was now contributing to your unhappiness. That it would be kinder of me to-” his voice broke “to let you go.”
“Oh, God, no. Please, don’t say that, Fallon,” I choked out. Tears filled my eyes, and for the first time in almost fifteen years, I let them fall freely.
“You are crying!” Fallon said, dismay etching his features. “I read about this.” His hands came to hold my face, his thumbs halting the salty progress of my tears.
“You don’t make me unhappy,” I said between sniffs. “I don’t think I’d even recognize happiness without you at this point.”
“You know that is all I care about,” he said fiercely. “Keeping you happy. You did not want to be married? To be a wife? Well, maybe you do not have to be my wife, then. You could just be mine. ”
I laughed through my tears. It hurt so fucking good.
“But that’s just the thing, Fallon,” I told him, blinking my soaked lashes. “I already am. Yours . Your wife, your love. Whatever you want me to be, I’m yours. Now,” I added with another shaky laugh. “Would you please show me what the hell to do with this suture kit? Because I did not throw myself in front of a genka and then drag my husband, whom I love dearly, all the way back here just for his wounds not to heal.”
Fallon promised to do so. But not before he bent his head and kissed me.