“What do you mean it made you sick?” asked Corran, I’m sure his brain already thinking of a million scientific reasons why that would have happened.
“I mean it made my throat burn, like it was eating my insides. I had to cough it up before I could even continue.”
As furious as I was at the guys, it felt like I had lost something important knowing that our blood bond had been severed.
“Corran, how does that happen?” asked Derrial. “I’ve never heard of that occurring.”
“Kella,” Corran answered, scornfully.
“What does Kella have to do with anything?” asked Thane.
“Kella was heading up another team. The Council said that he was working on different farm techniques when I asked. I didn’t bother to inquire further because I was busy with my own stuff and I’ve never been particularly impressed with anything Kella has ever done. But this had to be something he was working on…” Corran explained, the end of his sentence trailing off.
“Blood transfer is an integral part of the Vepar’s life," said Derrial. “Why would he be working on something that disrupts that?"
“What's that phrase that Ella always uses, oh yes, that's the million-dollar question," Corran said.
"How long do we have to give her our blood before she starts suffering?” Thane asked, sounding a little bit frantic.
There was a silence, and then a roar and bang as one of them smashed something against a wall. Evidently the answer wasn't good.
I noted that they hadn't talked about what they would do with the baby if I was pregnant, and they hadn't talked about any preventative pills. Maybe they didn't have that in the Vepar culture because of their fertility issues. I had a sense that even bringing something like that up would cause issues that I didn't want to get into at the moment.
I did need to know the differences between caring for a Vepar fetus and a human fetus though. I couldn't help but think of what happened to poor Bella in those Twilight books when she got pregnant with a vampire baby. What if this Vepar baby implanted its little horns into my uterus or something, or maybe it required blood to grow. I didn’t even know if Vepar fetuses required a shorter or longer pregnancy than human babies.
Corran hadn't said anything about any of it in our discussions.
I didn't know if I was pregnant, or if the doctor had a change of heart in the end. I needed to stop worrying for now though. I guess I would cross all of those bridges when I came to them, if I survived to that point that is.
"If they've created something that breaks the blood bond, surely they have something to fix it,” Derrial muttered. I was sure his mind already came up with possible solutions. They took turns being the leader, but I had noticed that Derrial took the lead more often than not.
"I wonder…" said Corran.
"Wonder what?" Thane snarled, obviously annoyed with Corran’s analytical mind at the moment.
"I wonder if Kella’s experiments have anything to do with the rumors that we've heard," Corran expounded slowly.
"The rumors that an unusual amount of our people have seemed to be going crazy lately?" Derrial asked.
"Yes. We've never really studied everything that the blood bond provides our people. I wonder if the blood bond experiments and the fertility issues are somehow connected."
"I don't care about any of that. I'm only concerned about the fact that our mate might die because of it. Do you think you can come up with something that fixes it?" Thane asked. "If she is pregnant, there's no way for us to reverse it. You know this."
Despite how furious I was, I felt a twinge of sympathy for how upset Thane seemed to be.
"I'm sure I can figure it out, but again, I would assume that they have an antidote for the blood bond issues already created. We just need to get to Kella’s lab."
"We’re heading to his lab then," Derrial said. “Thane, come with me. We’ll need to look at what routes we need to avoid to the capital city. Corran, go check on Ella and see if you can calm her.”
I couldn’t hear anything after that, signaling the end of their conversation.
I sat there, unable to really move with everything I just learned. Vepar pregnancies weren’t reversible. The guys had possibly known that my parents had been here all along. If I was pregnant, I was definitely going to die without the blood bond being fixed. Some of the Vepar were going crazy.
There was so much that they kept from me. I hated this feeling that we were always unequal in our power.
We were now heading to the capital city, where I assumed the lab was. That meant it would be who knows how long until we would have a chance to save my father. I couldn't let that happen. If I did die, then no one would ever save him. It was the least I could do to take care of him. And I still needed to find my Mom.
I wandered back into the bedroom and sat on the bed, thinking of a plan as I did so. I had no idea how to fly a ship, but I was pretty sure that there were smaller emergency cruisers located on all of Corran’s spaceships, if we were on one of Corran’s spaceships to begin with.