It was dark in here, wherever they were. He picked Arin up and ran as far away from the suffocating corridor as possible.
Normally, she might make a smartass quip or grumble to him about something right now, but the fight had gone out of her. She was breathing fast, her eyes wide, her body limp in his arms, as if all the life had been sucked out of it.
“They’re calling for me,” she said weakly as the comm device in her ear buzzed faintly with the sound of human speech. “The last retrieval is about to take off.”
As they hit a pocket of clean air, she started to gulp it in, taking deep breaths. “There’s no way we’d make it back there,” she gasped. “I’m going to have to let them take off.”
“TheArawen’swaiting for us in the third docking bay,” Rykal reminded her, setting her down gently. To his relief, her respiratory rate was slowing and her skin was fading to its usual color, although her nose was still red, and she was sniffling terribly. “We can’t go back into the corridor. I won’t risk you.” He ran his fingers through her soft, golden hair.
“I usually have a pretty good sense of direction,” she said, her voice raspy, “but I have no idea where we are right now.” She reached out and flicked on the small light-thing at her wrist.
Her eyes grew distant as her comm buzzed. “The last human transport is leaving. They had no choice. The gas leak, or whatever it is, has spread to Docking Bay One.”
“This is my fault,” Rykal growled, bitterness creeping into his voice. “I shouldn’t have delayed you.” Those small, stolen moments; thatkiss, however delicious it may have been, they were now coming back to haunt him. Those precious fewsivscould now mean the difference between life and death for Arin.
Rykal had never had the responsibility of looking after another before, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was somehow failing her.
Giving in to his impulses. Lack of self-control. Those were his weaknesses.
Arin took a deep breath and slapped him gently on the underside of the head. Rykal wished she’d hit him harder. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty, soldier, but it won’t help you now. Instead of beating yourself up prematurely, find us a way out of here.”
Rykal raised his hand in a mock salute. “Yes, Ma’am.” His response made her smile. Her strength was returning, and that energized him. He looked around, gauging their surroundings.
They were in another docking bay, this one dark and disused.
“Rykal, the airlock’s open.” Torin spoke over the comm. “We can’t wait much longer. It’s going to close soon.”
“I’m coming. Just give me asivto figure this out.” If he were on his own, he’d don his helm and run through the poisonous corridor. He’d reach the third dock with ease.
But he couldn’t,wouldn’tleave Arin. Not now, not ever.
“We’re moving into the airlock now,” Torin informed him. “We’ll wait as long as we can. But if this thing closes, the best we can do is loop back and find another retrieval point.”
Voices filtered to Rykal from beyond the walls. He shook his head.
Voices?
The freighter was supposed to be deserted, but they were definitely human voices.
“There are humans coming this way,” he said to Arin.
She stared at him as if he were hearing things. “Voices? I don’t hear anything.”
“Shh.” Rykal pulled her against him, listening carefully. The voices were accompanied by footsteps. It was the sound of multiple booted feet hitting the polished floor. The intruders stopped at the place where he’d carved a hole in the wall.
“Sergeant Arin Varga,” a human female yelled, “are you in there?”
Arin switched off her guide-light and looked up at Rykal. “Looks like mother’s sent a search-and-rescue team,” she whispered.
“Mother?” Rykal’s ears twitched in surprise.
“It’s a long story. Listen, I’d better go with them. It’s best if you join your people. I don’t think a warship full of human peacekeepers would be the best place for you, but I need to be there to explain the situation.” She caressed the side of his face, her gaze full of tender longing.
Rykal understood perfectly. He could make it down to thethird docking bay, but her fragile body might not survive. He would have to leave her here. His instincts railed against it, but he had no choice.
First and foremost, she had tosurvive.
“I want you so badly,” he growled. “I don’t want to give you to anyone.”
