The female mesakkah sighs again. “They keep doing that. Do you know how hard it is to rescue someone when they keep trying to get away from you?” She waves a hand in the air. “I’ll go find them and make myself at home. I assume you’ve got a lavatory here on this bucket of bolts? Those two are in need of some serious cleaning.” She saunters down the hall after them as if the ship is hers.
I press my hand to Mathiras’s cheek, turning his face so I can kiss his mouth over and over.
“Uh, was that Bethiah I just heard?” Adiron asks from the doorway to the bridge. “And do I want to know about the humans?”
“Probably,” Mathiras says, and then sucks on my lower lip, giving it a swipe with his tongue that makes me shiver. “Long story.”
“Where’d Zebah go?” Adiron asks as I plant my mouth on Mathiras’s once more. I missed him so much. I want to claw him all over and climb inside his skin. I want to drag him to the showers and make his cock hard (and then soft) all over again. I want to go into bed and let him touch me until I’m scared and then he can hold me until I’m ready to be brave. I want—
Mathiras hisses as my hand skates up his arm.
I freeze, noticing for the first time that I smell blood. “You’re wounded?”
“Someone grazed me with a knife.” He shrugs. “It’ll heal.”
I grab his hand and turn his arm carefully, until I see the spot that’s soaked in blood. Hot rage blisters through me and I have to clench my jaw to keep from exploding. I want to twist the necks of everyone on that station. I want to tear them apart. I want to make them suffer. How dare they touch my Matty? “I’m going to kill them.”
“Helen,” Mathiras warns. “You are not. And he’s already dead.” He squeezes my waist with his other arm. “You do know I can handle myself, right?”
Clearly he cannot, since he’s bleeding. But I force myself to take deep, gulping breaths. “Let’s go to med-bay before I get really upset. Please.” I have to swallow hard, because the urge to break something is still rampaging through my system. “Please.”
“Of course,” he says, and holds my hand tightly. “I promise you I’m fine, Helen, but we can go to med-bay. Come on.”
CHAPTER 63
MATHIRAS
I’m still not convinced they didn’t tamper with Helen’s brain when they cloned her and gave her those reflexes. I’m even more suspicious after the slightly unhinged look she has on her face at the sight of my wound. Her hands flex and squeeze, as if she’s trying to keep herself in check, and I’ve never seen her so focused as she is on my (admittedly very minor) wound. A heightened sense of protectiveness, perhaps? Increased emotional attachment to an authority figure? It would explain why she latched on to me so fast.
It doesn’t change how I feel about it. It just helps me understand her a little more.
I let the computer in med-bay stitch up my arm and slather it with numbing antibiotic cream. Helen holds my other hand tightly, her nails digging into my palm, and I calmly explain what happened when we went in the Belly. “I know our plans are changing. But after seeing those humans there, I couldn’t leave them behind. Not while knowing what’s waiting for them if I turn my back. We can figure it out. It’ll just mean an extra pit stop.” I pause, and then add, “Maybe more than one.”
Adiron chimes in on the intercom, where he’s been listening in. “Can we pit stop by Jerrok’s place? We could drop them there and pay a visit, and someone from va’Rin’s people could snag the humans.” He sounds hopeful. “It might be a good idea and won’t take us too far off track.”
“But we don’t know if Jerrok would want to be flooded with humans,” I point out. “And I’m not sure his station can handle this many extra breathing bodies on board. They’re in panic mode and apt to damage something, and you know how Jerrok gets. It’s better if we take them straight to Risda.”
“Dammit,” Adi sighs.
Helen pets my good arm. “I don’t mind things taking a bit longer. I love that you want to do this for them. You’re a good person, Matty.”
Her eyes are growing calmer by the moment, and I lean over and kiss the tip of her nose. “We’re not out of danger yet, though. We still have to meet up tonight, rescue Zebah, and snag that slaver as well as freeing the humans.”
“Do you think it’s a trap?” Helen reaches out and brushes a lock of my hair back behind my ear.
I give her a wry smile. “When is it not a trap?”