29. Clair #2
Clair stared at him, but the big Hybrid’s face gave nothing away.
“Did you just say something?” she asked.
He frowned.
“No.”
Clair frowned—what was she feeling from him? It felt like…a wall.
She couldn’t explain how she knew it existed, but she could feel it now—a smooth, dark barrier somewhere inside her mind, shutting her away from something on the other side.
Something Kaelus was hiding.
Before she could question him further, however, the flying recorder-bee drifted lower.
Clair looked up.
“Can you get that for me?” she asked.
He reached up with his unhurt arm and captured the tiny mechanical insect.
‘Thank you.” Clair retrieved his data tablet from where it had fallen beside the chair. To her immense relief, the screen lit when she touched it. “See?” she said. “Kindred engineering. Built to survive being thrown at psychopaths.”
Kaelus frowned.
“That is not one of its listed specifications.”
Clair laughed.
“It should be.”
She looked through the tablet’s available connections and spotted the recorder-bee almost immediately.
“There you are,” she murmured.
“What are you doing?”
Kaelus asked.
“Downloading the recording,” she said distractedly. “Hang on—I’m almost done.
At that moment Sendar groaned.
Clair eyed him.
“Please tell me he’s not waking up before this finishes.”
“If he does, I will hit him again,” Kaelus growled.
Clair raised one eyebrow.
“With the tablet?”
“No.”
“Good. Because this thing now has our entire criminal case,” she said.
The download finished. Clair immediately duplicated the file—then duplicated it again.
Kaelus watched her.
“Three copies?” he asked.
“You know I like to back everything up,” Clair told him.
“Yes, I know.”
His mouth twitched and for a second, everything felt normal. They were just Clair and Kaelus again—two scientists solving a problem.
Except one of them had been shot and the other had just spent the afternoon curing him with sex, Clair thought. Normal was probably no longer an option.
Clair tucked both tablets—hers and also Kaelus’s— securely under one arm.
“Now what?” he asked, frowning.
“Now we get out of here.” Clair shivered. “I’m more than ready to get out of this dungeon and back out into the sunshine.”
Kaelus nodded.
“Agreed.”
He bent to retrieve the blaster from beneath the restraint chair, but the movement made him stagger.
Clair caught his uninjured arm.
“Hey, take it easy, big fella!”
He grimaced in pain.
“I am fine.”
“You are not fine!” she exclaimed. “You have a hole burned in your shoulder and you’ve lost God knows how much blood, so for once in your life, will you stop arguing and let somebody take care of you?”
The words came out more fiercely than she intended.
Kaelus looked down at her and something passed through his golden eyes.
Was it sadness? Longing? Clair didn’t know but she could almost feel his emotions…then that strange barrier in her mind tightened again and she felt nothing.
“I do not deserve your care,” he said quietly.
Clair stared at him.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged.
“Nothing.”
“It didn’t sound like nothing,” she pointed out.
Kaelus looked away.
“We should leave.”
Clair put a hand on her hip.
“Oh no, you don’t get to say something cryptic and depressing like that and then just—”
A low moan interrupted them. Looking down, she saw that Sendar was beginning to wake.
Kaelus immediately shifted to stand in front of her. Even wounded, exhausted, and barely able to stand, he placed himself between her and danger without thinking.
Clair looked at his broad back—at the scorched hole in his shoulder where he had taken a blast meant for her. She looked at the man who had chained himself to a chair rather than risk hurting her.
Her heart fisted in her chest. Whatever had happened between them while the virus controlled him, this was Kaelus.
This was who he really was—the male who would rather die than hurt her…the male who had taken a blaster bolt for her without hesitation.
The male you love, whispered a little voice in her head.
The realization wasn’t new—Clair had known it before. But now there was no room left to pretend.
I love you, you big idiot! she thought fiercely. Why can’t you see that?
Kaelus’s head jerked slightly and he looked at her with a quizzical frown.
Clair’s heart leapt into her throat—had she said it aloud? Surely not. But for one moment she’d thought that he’d heard her.
Then Kaelus bent, grabbed Sendar by the back of his clothing with his good hand, and hauled the unconscious scientist upright.
“We need to get him to the authorities,” he said roughly. “And we need to get you examined.”
“Me?” Clair exclaimed. “You’re the one who got shot!”
“Yes, but you lost consciousness after—”
He broke off abruptly, his jaw going tight and Clair wondered what he was thinking.
After they made love? After he savaged her?
Clair didn’t know which phrase he had been about to use and the silence between them suddenly felt enormous.
She sighed.
“Fine. We both get examined.”
Kaelus nodded.
“Agreed.”
“And after that, you’re going to explain why I can hear you in my head,” Clair added.
Kaelus’s face tightened.
“You are exhausted. You may be imagining things.”
“Oh, bullshit.”
“Clair…”
“Kaelus,” she returned mockingly.
They glared at each other and Clair clenched her jaw. Even half dead, he was infuriating! For some reason that made her want to laugh and cry at the same time.
She settled for taking his uninjured arm and putting it around her shoulders so she could help support some of his weight.
Kaelus resisted.
“I can walk.”
“So can I.”
He frowned.
“That is not the point.”
“It is exactly the point. Now lean on me before you fall over and squash me flat.”
“I would not squash you,” he growled.
“You weigh about three times what I do,” Clair pointed out.
“Not quite,” he grumbled, but he finally gave in enough to let her help.
Together, with Sendar dragging limply from one of Kaelus’s hands and the evidence secured beneath Clair’s arm, they started back toward the main Archive with the recorder-bee following obediently behind them.
They needed to get Kaelus’s arm checked and get Sendar locked up. But once that was done, she was going to get to the bottom of why she kept thinking she was hearing the big Hybrid’s voice in her head, she promised herself.
Because she was sure she wasn’t imagining it. Something had changed after they had sex—Clair wasn’t sure what it was, but she was determined to find out.