I froze like marble. Die? He was dying?
“How long does he have, doctor?” Warden Egara asked.
“The ReGen pod is repairing the damage, but the venom is not breaking down in his system. It’s…mutating into something else. The poison will continue to kill cells in his body at nearly the same rate our ReGen pod can heal them.”
“Do you need the entire jellyfish? Or just a tentacle with the poison?” I had a pretty good idea where I could get a tentacle or two.
“I need the poison in its original form. The creature is of no concern.”
“Will the pod thing keep him alive while I go get one?”
“Yes, barring another unexpected reaction.”
I didn’t want to know the mechanics of Velik’s unexpected reaction. A detailed explanation would just freak me out. The pod was going to keep Velik alive and I was going to go get this doctor a freaking jellyfish tentacle if I had to go out into the ocean and bring back one of the damn things attached to my skin. “I’ll be right back.”
The doctor nodded. I turned and took one more look at Velik under the closed pod’s translucent covering. An Atlan warlord. The most feared fighter in the Coalition Fleet. A beast. And he was dying because his body had a nasty reaction to a stupid little creature, smaller than my fist, that floated around in the ocean.
God. He looked so peaceful in the healing pod. A real Snow White in the forest moment. Except this time the handsome prince had taken a bite of the poisoned apple and I was going to kiss him better no matter how many stupid jellyfish I had to catch.
I was not going to lose him like I’d lost everyone else. I couldn’t do it. I really, really didn’t think I could mentally survive losing my happily-ever-after before I even had a chance to live it.
6
Velik, Forty-Eight Hours Later
* * *
I knew the inside of a ReGen pod when I saw one. This one was new, barely a scratch on the cover. Not that a disoriented warlord had ever pounded a few of them with his fists. Only the Prillon warriors did that.
Eyes closed, I took stock. I felt great. Calm. At peace. My beast seemed to be…subdued and content. A shock, as I’d been fighting him night and day for months. Now?
Quiet.
Thank the gods.
The lid to the enclosure slid open and Doctor Mersan stood over me. “What are you doing here?” He was an Intelligence Core specialist, more likely to be found fucking around inside someone’s head—literally—than babysitting a standard ReGen pod. He’d saved my life many times, but he wasn’t supposed to be here, on Earth.
“Helion sent me. Wanted to make sure you survived.”
“Survived what?” I couldn’t remember a fucking thing. Nothing. I’d been running on the beach, as I’d done dozens of times before. Then…waking up here.
“Apparently, warlord, your kind has a deadly reaction to one of this planet’s small sea creatures. It’s called a jellyfish.” He turned and raised one hand to indicate a clear jar where a nearly translucent blob floated in a clear fluid.
“What?” I stared at the creature. It was smaller than my hand. No exoskeleton. No bones. “That thing almost killed me?”
“Indeed.” The Prillon doctor stood next to my pod, his face his usual emotionless mask. “Can you sit?”
I felt fine. “Of course.” I sat up and swung my legs over the edge. I was naked, which was standard procedure. I was not modest. Even if I was, this Prillon had seen me this way dozens, if not hundreds, of times.
Alarm spiked through me when the room spun. “Fuck!” I grabbed the edge of the ReGen pod and held myself upright. Barely. Without my hold on the pod I would have ended up flat on the floor. “What the fuck?”
“As I suspected. Just sit there for a couple minutes while I do some tests.” Doctor Mersan moved efficiently, holding one small device after another near my head.
“What is wrong with me?”
“It appears the venom in the jellyfish destroyed a substantial number of neurons in your brain. The peripheral nerves appear to be less effected.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
