Chapter 14
“Itold you to stay away,” Mace growled, prepared to rip off Sorley’s arms.
He took two steps inside the med bay when Nia suddenly blocked his way, her face flushed. “Stop! He hasn’t done anything. He—”
Ignoring her squeal of alarm, Mace grasped her elbows, lifted her, and plopped her out of his path. One more step and she was in front of him, hand on his chest, pushing him back. He ignored the awareness spreading through to every part of his body from her touch and encircled her wrist above her bonds to tug her behind him, this time keeping hold. She wouldn’t be able to block him again.
Arms by his sides and face pale, Sorley straightened to his full height, but Mace didn’t stop advancing until their faces were only inches apart. “I told you not to return.”
Sorley visibly swallowed. “I know, but I had to see my boy.”
“Kilian needs his father,” Nia said, twisting to the side and yanking on the wrist he held. Mace tugged her behind him. Her frustrated breath heated the side of his arm.
Trying to ignore her squirming, Mace stared at Sorley his ire continuing to rise. This man attacked Nia, hurt her, and Mace had every right to retaliate. Fuck, it was the law. And he would have proceeded to educate the man on how precarious the rest of his life hung, when something small bashed against his calf.
Mace twitched and whirled around. “Did you kick me?” he asked, incredulous.
“Yes.” Nia yanked on her arm again. “Stop jerking me around.” Her russet eyes flashed at him.
Mace guided her beside him, loosening his grip to hold her hand instead. “Then stay put.” He returned his attention to Sorley but couldn’t help but note the way his side warmed as they stood together, how small her fingers felt in his, and how she didn’t try to move away.
“If you touch her again,” he said to the man in front of him, “I’ll kill you.” The boy behind him was shaking. The fear in his eyes as he stared at Mace twisted something in his chest. A child shouldn’t fear him; he would never hurt an innocent. But this man had attacked Nia.
“I’d deserve it if I did,” Sorley replied immediately, meeting his gaze straight on.
The quick response gave Mace pause. Hesitating, he glanced at Nia who stared at their joined hands as if frozen. It had only taken minutes for her to sway Sorley with her charm.
“Are we good here?” he asked, and her eyes snapped to his.
Her gaze jumped between him and Sorley, then she nodded. “Yes. We’re good.”
Mace loosened his hold with reluctance, allowing her fingers slip through his. Her face flushed as she looked anywhere but him.
A charged silence had settled over the medical bay. He scanned the rest of the occupants, meeting everyone’s gaze in case they thought they could get away with hurting Nia.
When everyone seemed suitably respectful, he strode to the door to speak to Elec. “Anytime he’s in here, I want to be notified. Don’t leave for any reason while he’s here. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Any threat he makes toward her, you shoot first and ask questions later. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
One last glance over his shoulder revealed everyone”s gazes still fixed on him, including Nia”s. Brow furrowed, confusion swam in her eyes.
No one would have the opportunity to hurt her again. He would make sure of it.
And that included himself.
Running an agitated hand over his face, he strode out of the med bay, down the corridor, and slapped the panel to call the lift. When the door opened and he stepped on, he released a slow breath.
As the lift ascended, his emotions tumbled over themselves, trying to gain foothold. The need to beat the shit out of someone or something raged against the desire to take over Elec’s post and glare at anyone in the med bay who so much as looked at Nia wrong.
The way she tied him up inside didn’t make sense. If he took an objective step back, and reviewed his choices over the past few days, he knew it looked bad. None of what he’d done since returning to Orion fell into familiar patterns. Attacking a fellow commander, bribing a processing official, keeping a captive in his quarters instead of sending her to common holding—Cache had the right to give him displeased glances and question his commitment level.
That being said, he still had a ward to look out for. He would protect Nia, but he wouldn’t allow her to become a weakness. His work with the tyros, his command here, stopping the CORE from whatever plan they concocted in Sector Four, those should be his priorities.
Feeling empowered, like he’d come to some sort of profound conclusion, Mace stepped off the lift on the fifth level of the atrium and headed for training. He’d only left because Elec had signaled Sorley’s return.
Once through the main corridor, he jogged down the steps to Grey’s side at the edge of the matted arena. His friend raised his eyebrows in question.
“It seems I need to—” Mace stopped when he saw what the tyros were holding. “What in the…?” They all had knives. It was his turn to raise his eyebrows at Grey. “I was only gone a few minutes.”
Grey shrugged. “They pushed me. I thought they could learn a lesson.”
Mace winced as one of the tyros got cut. Then again. And again. Stars above. “You’re so easy to manipulate when I’m not around. Grey, they’re not ready.”
“I know that. But they didn’t.”
“They’re going to kill each other slowly with flesh wounds. They’ll bleed from scratches overnight and be dead by morning.”
“I did call in a couple of medics,” Grey jerked his chin to the side, “but told them to stay put until something serious happened.”
The pair of medics seemed to exist in a constant state of wince, one covering his face with his hands and peeking through his fingers, the other with her shoulders hunched by her ears.
One more slice, and another gasp, and Mace had had enough. “Hold!” he shouted over the din of hisses and groans. Panting, everyone stopped their sparring.
Mace strode to the pair he’d been watching, Shand and Freya, and the rest of the tyros formed a loose circle around them.
“What the hell?” Mace asked, grabbing Shand’s arm to examine the cut along his knuckles. “Why did you take the slash?”
“When using knives, expect to get cut, sir,” Shand replied, keeping his eyes straight ahead.
“Did Sub-Commander Grey spout that bullshit to you?” Mace asked, not needing to look at Grey to know the answer.
“No, sir.”
“Do you know why he would never spout that bullshit to you?”
“No, sir.”
“Because it’s bullshit.” Mace directed his next to the whole crowd. “Expect to get cut doesn’t mean allow yourself to get cut. Who here is unharmed at this point? Who doesn’t have a cut on them?”
No one raised their hands.
Mace shook his head, then glanced at Grey briefly. “We’re going to need more medics.”
His friend shrugged.
Mace returned his focus on his students. “Who here wants to learn how to use a knife?”
They all raised their hands.
“First lesson: a knife isn’t in your hand to use. It’s there to kill. Don’t fool yourself. You’re never going to waltz up to your enemy and have a knife fight like you’re having right now, with dainty-ass jabs and pretty slices of flesh. In battle, we use a knife to kill, not injure. Now, if that’s always your only objective, answer me this: who here is ready to learn how to wield a knife?”
No one raised their hands.
Mild surprise whipped through Mace. “Smart unit. Put the knives away. Get your wounds seen to, then clean up your sorry asses. I don’t want to see your faces again until this evening after your schooling. Dismissed.”
The tyros scattered, tossing their knives into the cleaning stations in the bulkhead and forming two neat lines to await their turn with the medics.
Mace ran his hand through his hair and stared at Grey. His friend’s mouth quirked at the corner before he said, “And they learned their lesson.”
Nia knew, without turning around, Mace had returned to collect her. She didn’t need Sorley’s back straightening, the slow nod he gave toward the door as he sat beside Kilian’s bed, or the soft, “Yes, sir,” from Elec. She would have known from the way the air in the medical bay shifted and changed with Mace’s presence.
The regenerator held firmly in her hand, Nia ran it over the girl’s knee once more, ignoring the intrusion. “And straighten it,” she encouraged, and the girl responded by resting her knee flat against the bed. “Good job. Almost done.”
She began at the top of the kneecap again, making sure all the ligaments were repaired and the dislocated knee joint was healed to her satisfaction.
Assisting the girl off the med bed and discharging her into her mother’s care, she then went to Kilian’s side to make sure he was comfortable. She didn’t have to, but derived perverse pleasure in making her warder wait—and felt his eyes on her the entire time.
After stalling as long as she could, Nia turned to the door and met Mace’s gaze. His brow was furrowed, eyes sharp, and she broke his stare to take off her white jacket and hang it on the hook by the door.
Ever since he’d left after confronting Sorley, he hadn’t been far from her thoughts, making it hard to concentrate. She resented that. He shouldn’t be able to consume her brain space. But instead of being able to push thoughts of him aside, the memory of him defending her, of gently holding her hand, kept intruding over and over again.
“Ready?” he asked, the rumble of his voice cutting through her abdomen.
Breaking his gaze, Nia nodded. He touched his vambrace, causing her wrists to lock together. Head held high, she followed him out the door.
Watching the play of the muscles of his back beneath the fabric of his uniform as he walked ahead of her, she knew she should probably see the station’s psychologist. Did captives have mental health support on Orion? But maybe if she confessed her confusing thoughts and emotions, they wouldn’t stay private. Her cheeks began to burn. She hadn’t been given any procedural directives when she’d started. No one had said Tellusians kept the same sort of doctor-patient confidentiality as CORE physicians did. The reckless nature of their medical system made her shake her head.
They stepped on the lift in silence, and as it descended, Mace cleared his throat. “I’ve found the prosthetic you requested.”
Distracted from her tangent thoughts, her heart fluttered. “Really? That’s great.” She bounced off the lift when the door opened and met his gaze. “For a while there, I thought maybe you couldn’t get it because of how everyone was acting.” Her chest felt lighter than it had been a moment ago.
He followed her out. “It’ll be delivered to your med bay in the morning.”
“Fantastic news.” She couldn’t stop her smile as they walked side by side. “Thank you. Kilian will be so excited.” With a bounce in her step she hadn’t felt in a long time, she envisioned the boy’s face lighting up, and the image propelled her the rest of the way to Mace’s quarters.
He scanned his hand, and she hopped into the room. When she turned to face him, he was moving backward into the corridor.
“You’re leaving?”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I mean—sorry.” She shook her head to clear it. “I was wondering if I could have access to the terminal?”
His eyebrows lifted more.
“Books,” she blurted, feeling like a complete idiot now. “I wanted some books to read. Please. There’s not a lot to do in here, and I’ve been going a bit stir-crazy.” She lifted her arms and dropped them again, knowing her face reddened as usual.
Mace hesitated, then crossed to her in two steps. Taking hold of her hand, he tugged her to the terminal.
Nia inhaled sharply, her eyes fixed to where his hand held hers—how she didn’t pull away, and her fingers curled naturally inside his like they’d done earlier in the day.
Before she could fully examine her treasonous reaction, they arrived at the terminal. He dropped her hand to press his against the scanner. The shiny black surface activated, and Nia kept her eyes averted from the huge dent she’d made her first day.
When he took her fingers again, she twitched. His palm warmed her knuckles as he pressed her hand flat against its surface. After the scan, he took his hand away before punching in more codes, both on the terminal and his vambrace.
Nia curled her fingers into her palm, trying to squeeze the tingles away.
“I’ve given you access to some of the station’s libraries,” he said, his fingers slowing. “You’re not supposed to, but I’ve overrode the system.”
“Thank you.” The names of libraries scrolled across the screen in three languages, one she couldn’t read: Library of Law, Library of Architecture, Library of Fiction. Nia read each heading to distract herself from the fact Mace hadn’t left yet, hadn’t moved away, and his body continued to warm her side.
After a long, quiet minute, she looked up at him. His furrowed brow smoothed when she met his eyes.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, but still didn’t move away.
Nia nodded, heart beating strangely in her chest. Why did it feel like the whole station had tilted on its side when her feet remained firmly on the deck? Her breaths shortened, almost to the point of panic. Why was he making her feel this way? Her fingers twitched, this time stopping before she could reach for her PALM and a dose of suppressant.
Mace straightened suddenly, like he’d been struck with a power surge, and headed to the door without saying another word.