A low rumble sounded from his chest. “I am your mate, Ash. I will always know what you need.”
Why did that sound so comforting? Not long ago, those words would have freaked her out.“Did I help?” she wanted to know. “Do you know what that creature was?”
His hold tightened. “Yes.”
She pulled away and looked up into his turbulent eyes. “And?”
“Of my list of possible species, the one that bit you is the one I feared the most.” He pulled up a file on the largest screen. It displayed a model of the creature that attacked her.
“That’s it!” she pointed to the image with a shiver.
“This is called a Gylbala-3R. Gylbala4 is the fourth planet from a star in a system quite far from here, and 3R is the creature’s classification. It does not have a name, as Gylbala4 is not inhabited by creatures advanced enough to name them, and conditions there are too extreme to be colonized by space-faring life form. It is visited by research vessels, however.” He rubbed his chin. “The strange thing is that these creatures are typicallymuchsmaller. Your description is exact, however.”
“So a giant version grew on Earth.” Ash sucked in a breath. “How did it get to Earth?”
“That is a good question. With this one appearing so very large, it is possible that it is a genetically mutated version. Or possibly a mechanically enhanced form, being tested. One of our enemies, the Zelopian species, frequent that quadrant. They could easily have experimented on Gylbala-3Rs.”
“Mechanically enhanced.” She mulled that over. “Like an android?”
He frowned. “Possibly. That would indicate that its appearance on your planet was intentional.
“Despite the great size of the creature you saw, Gylbala-3Rs are no larger than a piece of sand when they spawn.” He sighed. “So on the other hand, it is possible that this Gylbala-3R became attached to a piece of gear or clothing of an alien who later visited Earth and there, it grew. But that does not account for the size of it.” He shook his head. “We do not know.”
Ash swallowed hard, processing this new information. “Why is it the one you feared the most?”
His gaze swept her face, and not in a lover way, but in a clinical way. “Because they are extraordinarily toxic.”
“Do you think…” she paused, curled her fingers into his sides, “the poison is still in me?”
“I will run some scans and blood tests,” he replied carefully. “However, I am hopeful that if you were going to grow ill, you would have by now.” He turned to his workstation and eased away from her. “I will return to you in a moment, but I must inform the tracker of our findings, and the possibility that it is either mutated or part machine and that an outside force could be controlling it.”
Ash waved him off, fighting a wave of dizziness. “Of course. Please.”
She got off therejuand moved toward the washroom. A splash of water to the face never hurt, and she could use a drink of water. Her mouth felt incredibly dry. She’d gone two steps when the dizziness hit her harder than before. She reached back and grabbed the edge of therejuto steady herself. The room swam before her eyes, threatening to turn the whole space upside down on her. She gasped and closed her eyes. It was the stress, she told herself. The memories of that night had hit her hard.Of courseshe’d be dizzy.
But it wasn’t going away, and truth be told, it wasn’t the first time she’d felt it. It had floated at the edges of her vision when she’d been walking through the Baylan park and sometimes during her physical therapy. Now, however, it had a strong grip on her. There was no moving, since she couldn’t tell where the floor was. Zade was at his workstation on the other side of the glass, speaking through hisv-linkto the tracker. When she opened her mouth to call for him, nothing came out. Then, all of a sudden, her stomach made a great heave and shethrew up all over the floor. Through her swimmy vision, she looked down in horror to see her vomit was black.
Her grip on therejuwas failing. Darkness crept in from the edges, tunneling her vision. Everything was becoming muddled, fuzzy. Vaguely she heard Zade call to her. Arms came around her as she was falling, sinking, fading away. Into blackness.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Zade
Zade stood there, holding the limp body of his mate. A million thoughts pounded through his mind, all of them relating to panic. All he could do was stand there, holding her as heat seeped through her clothing and into his hands. She was growing hotter by the moment. Her skin was ashen and her vomit…well, that color meant one thing.
All the toxins hadnotbeen removed from her body. All this time, it had been there, waiting. But for what?
He stirred enough to lift her onto thereju. Instantly, the bed assessed her and set off a myriad of red lights on her monitor.Yes, I am awarehe thought furiously to himself. With deft hands, he attached ports to her veins and set therejuto administer several different medicines while it ran tests and scanned her body. He ordered the cleaning bot to restore the floor to sterile conditions. All the while, dread rose in him like a blast that had yet to hit him. His hands remained steady, even as his mind reeled and his heart pounded.
Why now?What had he missed? How could he tell, with all this emotion clogging his process? Zade had always been the one with the solutions. It was why he had risen to head physician of the entire base ship. It was why the health of the commandclass was entrusted to him. Yet here he was, staring at his female, having never felt so alone in his life, let alone so helpless. He could not organize a single thought.
With all the ports and tubes and everything in place, Zade tapped hisv-linkand opened a communication with his father, the last Baylan to hold the position of high physician on the Raplan-B.
Ger Baru-Nok responded immediately, thank the stars. When his father was involved in research, he often removed his communicator for long periods of time.
“I am in need of council.” Zade ran a shaking hand through his hair. He explained the situation to Ger, who listened in silence, as a good physician did, even though Zade was certain he was rambling, repeating some details, forgetting others.
At the end, Zade heard Ger let out a long sigh. “You cannot save her,” his father said.
