Hella snorted, drawing my attention to her. Her amusement made crinkles appear at the outer corners of her eyes. “I don’t know why either of you are worried about Patty. She’s always been a survivor. From what I’ve been told, her transformation has just made her more deadly. She’ll be fine.”
That was the understatement of the century. Patty had some freaky plant powers now. Roots and vines that she could grow herself or manipulate existing plantlife to devastating effect. She was like Poison Ivy, but less tree hugger and more world domination. It made me supremely nervous that Patty and Hella seemed to be so close. I should have never allowed that idiotto persuade me to steal a ship and land on Ara’Ama for an ill-conceived rescue mission. Jack hadn’t needed our damn help and we’d almost died when we’d been exposed to the airborne Red Plague when we exited the ship. Most of the soldiers that had been part of the landing party that had gone down with Jack and Ohem had died.
Jack finding Anu and the Archive buried underground on Ara’Ama was the only thing that saved us. Anu had been working on a vaccine for centuries after the fall of the Rijteran Empire. The aliens with their hardier constitution had fared better, but Patty and I being human had hindered the effectiveness of the vaccine and our prognosis had been pretty grim until Anu had spliced our DNA with alien genomes, altering our biology and thus saving our asses from our own stupidity. Now Patty was a killing machine and I was an alien vampire minus the blood drinking and aversion to sunlight.
I still hadn’t punched Patty out for any of this. Though, in her defense, I was a grown ass woman and could have said no. She was damn persuasive though. Plus I watched her knock poor Ghix unconscious with a liquor bottle and didn’t want to tempt her.
Ohem chuffed a laugh, his bioluminescent lines and dots flaring briefly with pale yellow light. “I have no doubt she and Rema will handle their own, but it would make Jack and I feel better if Callie and Aga are there to assist."
A shrieking howl echoed from somewhere in the distance outside of where Jack and the others were. Hella closed her eyes, her mouth flattening in a straight line. “Goddess help me but I am going to kill them all before we ever even get onto the ship.” She turned and stomped off, her voice rising into a bellow that faded the further she got away. “Brig, I swear to the Goddess if you don’t wrangle your devil spawn!...”
Jack sighed heavily and rubbed at her temples with both hands. “My baby cousins—all fifty of them—are like crack-addled Tasmanian devils. The aunts won’t stop having kids! The older ones that are adults are fine, but my god all of the younger ones are under fifteen and it’s going to drive me to drink.”
Ohem nodded his head behind her, his tails making an appearance as they shifted around them in agitation. “Jack warned me that Rijitaran children could be a handful, but I must say I severely underestimated how chaotic they could be.”
He looked at me, his lights flaring brighter as he held up the thicker middle of his three tails. There were obvious chew marks all along the end of it. “These are taking forever to heal. I’ve said that we could probably just unleash all the young into the Unity capital and wait until the dust and ash settled.”
Jack’s answering laugh had an edge of madness to it, and I looked up at Rathal who shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, ‘I told you so’ at me.
Jack sighed once she got herself under control. “Look, we will see you on Tuanov. I’m glad you are okay,” she said, smiling at me before it faded and her war bitch glare pinned Rathal to the floor. “Rathal, I’m still going to beat you bloody for kidnapping my friend, but we will settle that after the war.”
He dipped his chin at her. “Looking forward to it, Rijitera. But before you go, the message I wanted to send?”
Jack’s eyes widened. “Oh crap, yeah of course. You have access. Knock yourselves out. Hey, Callie?” Jack met my eyes, pinning me to the spot with their intensity. “I love you. Stay alive.”
A knot tried to form in my throat and I swallowed it down. “Love you too. See you soon.”
The holovid snapped closed and the red sphere floated back up into the ceiling where it had come from.
We stood in silence for a long moment and then Rathal huffed a soft laugh and looked down at me. “You could have asked for a rescue.”
He was looking at me like the cat who’d gotten the canary. Or more aptly, like a wolf who’d caught his sheep.
I crossed my arms. “I married you, didn’t I? Of course I’m not leaving.”
His smile widened. “I know. I am just enjoying the reassurance.”
I frowned at him. “I’m not leaving you. I want you and I’m staying. Try and make me leave, see what happens.”
His happy laughter made me want to climb him, but he seemed to decide to take pity on me because he changed the subject. “You wanted to send a message to your parents?”
“What? Yes!” I gasped, clutching at his arm. Fuck. I was going to cry. “When? How?” I demanded, my voice breaking.
Rathal grabbed my hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing my fingers. “Right now.” He looked at his wrist for a second and his hololink rose up and expanded. “Record,” he said, and his hololink blinked once and then I was looking at my own face. He looked down at me expectedly.
My heart dropped through my stomach and into my shoes. “Oh shit, now, now? Oh, okay. Um. Hey, mom?” I grabbed the back of my head and rubbed at the short hair. “Uh, I’m alive. I know you’ve probably been freaking out and I’m so sorry. I didn’t leave because I wanted to. Uh. Jesus, how do I even explain this?” I asked, rubbing my face and looking at Rathal for help.
Rathal’s ear flicked backwards, the four multicolored earrings catching the soft light of the garden stones, and then his hololink showed two screens back to back, one with my face and the other recording his.
“She was abducted by an alien race called the Vrax. Another alien rescued her, they have become friends and allies in a war for the safety and freedom of the galaxies. Your daughter is a hero and a damn fine pilot. And no, I am not Anubis. My name is Rathal of Erral and yes, I too am yet another alien. One who has had the extreme honor of becoming your daughter's husband and mate. I greatly look forward to meeting you and your husband in the near future.” He looked back at me and gave me a ‘get on with it’ look.
I licked my suddenly dry lips and laughed nervously. “Yeah. That. Look, this is a lot to take in, I know. You’re going to think I’m crazy and that Rathal is fake. I’m telling the truth, I swear. I’m okay, I’m alive, and I promise when I’m done doing what needs to be done here, I’ll come back for you okay? I love you both so much. Give Dad a kiss for me okay? Bye.”
I looked at Rathal who nodded. The hololink blinked out of existence and I let out a shaky breath. “Fuck that was way harder than I thought it would be.” I stared at him. “Thank you. Seriously. I appreciate it so much.”
“I didn’t do it entirely altruistically, so don’t go getting hearts in your eyes just yet, but I am glad that it made you happy,” he teased, brushing the backs of his fingers along my cheek.
I grabbed his fingers. “It did. Thank you.” I leaned forward on my tiptoes and kissed the soft fur of his cheek.
