Chapter 22 #2
Evie wrenched herself free and stumbled forward, her hand going to her throat.
She took three steps toward Jarran and the heat stopped her.
She raised a hand against it, shielding her face, and he saw the frustration and the longing and the relief all tangled together in her expression.
The Virilians angled themselves around her, putting their bodies between her and Durik.
Taron’s hand caught her elbow to steady her. She was safe.
Jarran faced Durik alone.
The Sifter leader stood stripped of weapons, leverage, and escape. He lifted his chin and spread his arms wide. “Go ahead, then. Kill me. That’s what Pella Rin would do.”
The urge hit him. It was a compelling option, for sure.
He could snap Durik’s neck, incinerate him, or pick one of the many lethal options available to him.
He could punish Durik for every moment Evie had spent with a blaster to her head, for every engineered female robbed of her own mind, for the guards Left and Right, and everyone at Korath-7 who had been killed during Durik’s abduction of Evie and him.
His hands burned with it, but he let the urge pass through him and away.
“I won’t kill you.” Jarran’s flames crackled softly. “I prefer to help things grow. That’s who I was meant to be.” He paused. “Instead, you and I will both face the consequences of our crimes.”
Durik’s face twisted. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Niir stepped forward and took him by the arms, leading him across the deck. Durik didn’t resist. He’d run out of fight.
Jarran turned to Harc, the Saar-king who’d come to support the Virilians.
The Baylan stood apart from the Virilians, arms crossed, observing without interfering. The telekinetic who could fold metal with a thought had held back from the standoff and let it resolve on its own terms. Jarran respected that.
“I will return with you to Korath-7, peacefully,” Jarran said.
“I never wished harm to anyone there. Your people were never unkind to me, and I am grateful for the care they provided.” He held the Baylan’s gaze.
“I have vital information about the Sifter network. Locations, technology, conditioning protocols. Everything Pella Rin built. It needs to be known so the Sifters can be eliminated for good.”
Harc studied him for a long moment. Then he inclined his head. “The Korath-7 and I welcome your cooperation.”
Jarran nodded, then turned to the Virilians. They stood in a loose group, watchful, but not hostile. He looked at each of them before settling on Taron. His brother, with the lighter green eyes and a blaster rifle dangling from one hand.
Jarran lowered his head in a show of respect. “I love you, little brother. If I had been myself, all those tericycles ago, I would never have joined the Sifters. And I would have died before I let you be drawn into them.”
Taron’s eyes were bright and fierce and his throat moved as he swallowed hard.
“I tracked down information about Xill Rin,” he said roughly.
“After the doctor told me about the neurological procedures. I was able to corroborate the story. The timeline matches. The technology matches.” His voice dropped.
“I always wondered what happened to you, to make you change so much. Now, it seems, we have an answer.”
“And answer that needs to be verified,” Virak put in. “But this new information must be considered.”
Jarran closed his eyes. When he opened them, Taron’s face was blurred by the heat shimmer between them. “I wish I’d never crossed paths with that creature on that ridge trail.”
“So do I.” Taron’s mouth pressed thin. Then something in his expression cracked, and it wasn’t anger underneath. “Welcome back, brother.”
Jarran turned to Virak. His king stood straight-backed and imperious, his dark tail moving in slow sweeps behind him. Jarran lowered his head. “I will stand trial for Pella Rin’s crimes, my king. Whatever the Virilian authorities decide, I will accept.”
Virak sniffed. He tilted his elegant head and considered Jarran with an unreadable expression. “Let us first see what our Baylan friends pull from your fiery head, shall we?” One brow arched. “I’d hate to put the wrong Virilian on trial.”
Jarran blinked. He hadn’t expected leniency or consideration. He bowed his head again, deeper this time.
Then he looked at Evie, who stood between Trak and Taron. Her arms were wrapped around her middle and her light brown eyes looked red-rimmed and shining. Her hair was wild and her skin was flushed from the heat. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He smiled at her. A real, full smile, which she seemed to like. “I love you, Dr. Evie Carr. I will always love you. And I am sorry for drawing you into this.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t draw me into anything.
Durik did.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“If we hadn’t been abducted, I would have left the Korath-7 that day and never gotten to fully know you.
Um. You should know I’d resigned from my position as your doctor and was scheduled to leave later that day. ”
“You resigned?” He frowned. “Why?”
The smile that crossed her face was watery and fierce and entirely Evie. “Because I feared I was falling in love with you. That’s hardly professional.”
Stars. He wanted to cross the distance and take her in his arms. He wanted to kiss her until the heat faded and they were just two people standing together. But the primal form had other plans, and his body was still burning at a temperature that would sear her skin on contact.
Trak gave a theatrical sigh and cocked his head.
“Well, we’re stuck, aren’t we? Can’t very well move him anywhere until he comes out of primal form.
” He turned to the group. “I’ll acquire a pair of yulian leather pants so the people at this fine station aren’t subjected to the sight of Jarran’s cock for the next five to seven cycles.
” He paused, and his mouth twitched. “Impressive though it is.”
Evie let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. Taron pinched the bridge of his nose. Drex looked at the ceiling and muttered something under his breath.
Jarran barely heard any of it. His focus was on Evie. She was all he could see, standing there in the ruined docking bay with tears on her cheeks and a fierce, hopeful expression that had grounded him since the first day she’d walked into his life. She loved him. That was all he needed for now.
For the first time, standing in the ashes of everything Pella Rin had built and everything Jarran had burned down, he felt a small, stubborn flicker of hope.
That one day the fire would fade and he could help in ridding the galaxy of the Sifters for good.
That the consequences would come and he would face them, and one day he might kneel in real soil, on a real planet, with sunlight on his back and Evie beside him.
He couldn’t imagine anything more perfect than that.