Chapter 16
Danitalin
Shaking from the cold, feeling like a drowning Nia, I clambered up the riverbank where Jaxin had left me.
It was a struggle to push the massive laser cannon onto the bank, but I did my best to shove it securely ashore.
We couldn’t afford to lose our best weapon right after an attack like that.
Guilt filled me because my thoughtless search for the Radin giant’s language had caused this. I was certain it was all my fault.
My senses were also reeling from all the violence and pain, but not nearly as much as I would have expected after the recent burnout I’d suffered.
On shaking legs, I collapsed beside the cannon in the sand and considered my options.
There was no sign of Jaxin or the giant, but I knew he’d gone after the native to rescue him.
I hoped fervently that hauling such a massive creature from the water wouldn’t be too much for the strained muscles in Jaxin’s chest.
I was soaked to the bone, my hair coming undone from Jaxin’s braid, and I had no supplies.
I was armed, though, and burnout or not, I was going to use that damn cannon if anyone showed up.
At least now that I was out of the water, I was no longer quite so cold, because the summer heat clung thick and heavy beneath the trees here.
Rising unsteadily, I wrung water from my shirt and pants.
My eyesight was well-adapted to the darkness, so I edged my way to the side of the little cove to peer through the trees downstream.
Could I see them? Were they coming back?
I was certain I saw a shape in the river, but was it the giant?
Closing my eyes, I unfurled my empathic gift instead and searched for any hint of emotion.
Jaxin had gone cool and closed off as soon as the fighting started.
I worried I wouldn’t feel him even if he were there.
The giant was passed out; he might not be feeling anything at all.
He could be dead. No, there they were, a flicker across my mind.
Pain in my chest, my arms, my abdomen, it ached and burned, but I gritted my teeth through the agony and focused.
Now I was certain: they were coming closer; at least, the giant was.
The water splashed as Jaxin pushed the massive, unresponsive form onto the beach.
I tried to help by pulling, but it was impossible to be of much aid.
He was so big and so very heavy, and even unconscious, that massive black tail with its sharp barb was pretty terrifying.
The pain raging through my body was also very distracting, causing me to shake as I pushed through it to help.
In the end, even Jaxin couldn’t do much more than drag him halfway out of the water.
That left a pair of legs dangling awkwardly in the current, but enough was beached that he didn’t slip away.
I stepped over that scary-looking tail to reach my mercenary.
He was still cold, still emotionless, and I clutched at his arm so I could wrap myself in some of that coolness.
The pain that wracked the giant’s body made my eyes water, but that was a useless response.
I needed Jaxin’s tissue regenerator to help.
“Are you okay?” I asked first, my hands going to his chest to test the strained muscles there with gently probing fingers.
His armor hid too much, and the giant’s injuries overwhelmed my gift so completely that I could not pick up on Jaxin’s much more subtle feelings when he was masked like this. “That can’t have been easy.”
“I’m fine,” he said gruffly. Then his hands clasped my shoulders and he pushed me back, tilting me so he could see my face.
“You’re hurting. It’s his injuries, isn’t it?
” He swore and searched the trees. “How much distance do you need not to feel it?” Now, warm concern washed over me, so clear that it briefly blotted out the pain radiating from the giant behind me.
“Too much,” I told him. “I’ll be okay. Give me your medical supplies.” He handed them over immediately, no questions asked, but I could see, in the angry tilt of his jaw, that he wasn’t pleased. I couldn’t feel that, though, because he’d pulled his walls back up.
“Talk me through one of your exercises while I work on him,” I said, as I quickly checked his supplies before kneeling by the giant to get to work.
“Maybe it will help,” I said, though I didn’t think it would.
It would give Jaxin a purpose, though, and that seemed worthwhile.
I liked listening to his deep bass as he described one of the Rummicaron mental exercises he employed to shut down his feelings.
The pain I felt did ebb, but I thought it was the focus, not the exercise.
Jaxin secured our perimeter and turned on his portable heater so he could dry my shirt and heat rations for us to eat.
I worked on the giant’s many burns and gushing wounds, suturing them shut, healing them with the tissue regenerator, and bandaging those injuries too large to heal in one go.
He never stirred, and I did not dare use any of the pain relief from Jaxin’s kit; they hadn’t been tested on one of his kind yet, and it was selfish to try just so that I wouldn’t feel his pain.
It was so dark that even my eyes began to struggle to see by the time Jaxin pulled me away from the giant’s body and forced me to sleep.
“Enough. Either he lives or he does not, but you must rest.” He pulled me tightly into his arms, heedless of the rest of my still mostly wet clothes.
I did not think I could sleep with my patient so nearby, exhausted or not.
Fear also tingled down my spine, warning me that the fight—and the empathic backlash from it—might trigger the nightmares.
Jaxin’s presence was such a cool comfort that I found myself quickly surrendering to sleep anyway. My amazing, secretly sweet, and passionate Rummicaron would protect me. The shield of his cloaked emotions seemed to wrap around me the way he’d wrapped his arms around me. It was enough.
Things were different when I roused several hours later.
Light streamed through the canopy of green and golden leaves above my head.
My body was warm and relaxed, cradled by blankets and the soft sand of the riverbank.
Jaxin sat next to me, his bulky frame solidly between me and the giant.
I could admire the darker tip of his back fin from this angle and the way the black armor clung to his back and wide shoulders.
The giant was also awake, and he’d risen to a sitting position across the sand from Jaxin.
He no longer immersed my mind in a wave of pain, though he was far from healed.
There was a gentle pressure at the back of my mind that allowed me to more objectively analyze what kind of wounds remained: cuts to his legs, more burns on his back I had not been able to reach, but nothing was life-threatening any longer.
He had to have a natural ability to heal that was more robust than mine.
“Morning, little one,” Jaxin said, proving he was very much aware of me even though I hadn’t moved yet. He was still a cool spot against my senses, but I felt the mild ache in his chest through it. I should have worked on him with the tissue regenerator last night, but he’d prioritized my sleep.
Reaching out, I pressed my hand to his hip, stroking the hard armor because I just wanted to assure myself that he was well—with more than eyes and empathy.
“Morning,” I said. “Is he… are we?” I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to ask.
There was no threat coming from the giant, but that didn’t mean we were now friends.
Jaxin wasn’t holding the cannon in his arms, but it was right next to him, ready for action at a moment’s notice.
“He’s doing well. I think he tried to tell me his name, but it sounded like grinding rock to me.
He’s a chatty fellow, actually, but I’m not sure what he’s trying to say.
” Jaxin sounded casual, not in the least concerned, but a lance of worry rushed through me at the comment.
I recalled how my exhausted body had seemed to fall under a sort of hypnotic trance during that previous confrontation I’d had with the giant.
He had to have some kind of ability with his voice, what if he’d done something to Jaxin?
“Jaxin,” I started, rising quickly on my elbows.
The soft sand made me sink, and it was a rather clumsy action that resulted in me clinging to his back and grabbing hold of his fin to steady myself.
He laughed, and something unwound in the air and eased across my senses.
Tension I hadn’t realized was there abruptly vanished.
“He tried to hypnotize me the night before,” I tried to warn anyway.
The laughter abruptly cut off, and morphed into a fierce growl. “He did what? Now you tell me!” He reached for his laser cannon, as if he meant to incinerate the giant on the spot for the offense. I grabbed hold of his arm and clung, only barely managing to stop him from picking up the weapon.
“It didn’t work,” I assured him. “It was probably a self-defense mechanism, and clearly, it doesn’t work on you either.
” Possibly because Jaxin had been wrapped in cold, emotionless Rummicaron conditioning before I woke.
He’d only broken from it when I made my clumsy attempt to rise.
“Let’s try introductions again, okay? Maybe saving his life means he finally leaves us alone, and we get to the extraction point safely. ”
Jaxin huffed, but his hand dropped from the weapon. Then, he plucked me right out of the sandy blankets and pulled me into his lap. I did not miss the possessive glare he leveled at the giant as he curled me into his arm. I nestled there, allowing his warmth to surround me.