Finally, the light above the door turned green, and we pushed through at full speed, or as fast as we could go, toward the nearest elevator down the hall.
“Yes, Killian,” I said as I adjusted his weight.“As soon as you feel better, you can tell the rest of your kind that the king of Xenoxx is a Faid if that makes you happy.”
He blinked heavily.“You died in the same explosion that killed your wife.”
“Yes.”I jabbed the elevator button repeatedly, knowing full well that wouldn’t bring it any faster.“Axxel brought my clone and the Faid tech to what was left of the embassy to make it look like I didn’t die.”
The Killian went quiet as we stepped onto the elevator, then, “So basically…you’re immortal?”
“What?”I had a moment of indecision between pressing the Bar button and the Medical Bay one on the inside of the elevator door.
Finally, I chose Bar.It was five o’clock somewhere, and knowing the doctor, he was taking full advantage of an entire floor of this ship devoted to his favorite hobby.
“Faid tech doesn’t turn off, and clones can’t die.”The Killian winced and blew out a ragged breath.“I mean, they can, but you can just get another clone.”
“Right.Sure.Just get another clone at Clones R Us.”This one cost me over three billion credits and took years for the company to create, but whatever.
The Killian squinted at me.“That’s where you got your clone?”
“Definitely not.It was Clones R We.Big difference.”If Roxxanne had heard that particular dad joke, she would have rolled her eyes at me.
“Yeah, I can’t tell if you’re shitting me or not.The point is, you already told Nera you like glittery teeth, remember?Vampires?Twilight?”
Pain erupted in my chest at both the memory of the conversation and the recording of it that had broadcast onAlien Love Island.That had been one of my first encounters with Nera, who’d worn a tight red dress then while walking through a jungle with sunlight dappling her skin and long, wild hair.I admitted I’d readTwilight, as any sane alien warrior king would do, and her smile had completely disarmed me.
“I remember,” I rasped.
“Most human women like vampires.Tell her you’re immortal, and she’ll come around.”
“You’re really giving me relationship advice right now with a poison bullet in you?”
“There’s no better time to do it.”He groaned.“Because the Xenoxx word for vampire is tooth, and I have so many…floating teeth in my mouth…”
As soon as the elevator door opened to the sprawling bar, the Killian threw his head back, his whole body seizing.
“Doctor,” I shouted and half dragged, half carried the Killian toward the balding man at a corner table with a line of empty shot glasses set up in front of him.
He swiveled his head toward us, and it bobbed on his neck too much for him to be anywhere near sober.
Adrenaline surged through my veins, a volatile cocktail of anger and desperation, and once I’d crossed toward him with the Killian, I swept the shot glasses from the table and hefted the Killian onto it with a loud thud.
Then I got right in the shriveling doctor’s face.“Fix him or youdie.”
His alcohol haze evaporated in a second, and he looked down at the strained Killian, who bucked and flailed all over the table.One of his curled green horns caught on a chair and tossed it halfway across the room.The other horn snatched up a barstool and swung it toward the doctor, who was thankfully lucid enough to dodge it.
“What kind of poison bullet was he hit with?”he asked, lunging for his doctor’s bag under the table.
“I don’t know.”I unhooked the chair from the Killian’s horn and removed all other chairs in the vicinity.“I wasn’t the one who shot him.”
The doctor flicked a skeptical eyebrow up his forehead as he rummaged around in his bag.“Take a guess, then.The wrong antidote could kill him.Weadling or dragon-eye poison?They both turn your veins black like his are, but he doesn’t have the time for me to draw his blood and check which one for myself.Use what you know about the person who shot him,ifyou know.Weadling is black market stuff.Dragon-eye is wicked expensive.”
“Dragon-eye,” I said immediately.
If Bling was working for Earth Space Fleet, they were paying her well to help cover up their mistakes.They might have even bought the poisoned bullets for her.
The doctor filled a syringe from a vial, squirted some of the contents into the air to remove the bubbles, and hovered it over the groaning, seizing Killian.“You’re sure?”
No.I wasn’t.And it could cost me the life of my enemy I was so desperate to save.
