“Chrys?” I reach in and touch her face, turning it up to me, and she murmurs something.
The woman in the escape pod is my brother’s bondmate’s sister.
A woman I’ve only seen a handful of times on a comm screen, but whose face has burned into my memory…
A woman who should be on Earth.
A woman who’s bleeding…
Double fuck.
I look up, searching the icy horizon, listening for the sound of a monster’s thoughts, but I don’t hear them.
She lets out a moan of a breath and shivers. Her clothing certainly wasn’t meant for the Zone.
It’s skin tight, only one leg and one arm covered in the colorful diamond-patterned fabric. A hole is cut out at her stomach, exposing her navel with dark spiderwebbing emphasizing a glittering jewel, and her shoes look barely thicker than socks. Her bared skin is like a gallery. Lines and shapes and images draw my eyes over her, and I have to force myself to stop trying to see them all.
I need to get her out of here.
Reaching in, I check for any obstructions and then lift her out. She lolls against me and mutters something incoherent.
Her thoughts are babble, like background noise.
She shivers again, and this time, she doesn’t stop.
I don’t have time to search the pod for anything else, but I do have an option.
Carrying her to the bike, I lay her over it, hating the way she looks like the cavrinskh carcasses Trench takes home.
It takes a moment to get my suit open to my waist. Another minute to get it off my shoulders, but it takes no time at all to slice through the fabric and cut it off.
Wrapping her up in it like it’s a blanket, limbs bundled up tight, I hold her close to me and rub her back, hoping the shivers will stop.
“Come on, Chrys.” I want her to warm up a little before I have to speed across the ice.
Her head moves when I say her name, and her eyes open for a moment. She looks at me with two different sized pupils and her mouth in a little “O.”
Mint chocolate chipflutters through her mind.
She leans nearer, just close enough that she can lick my cheek, and then she passes out again.
Damn.
But she has stopped shivering.
I check that everything is wrapped up, making sure I have a good hold on her before kicking the bike to life, taking off with barely a second glance at the smoldering wreck sending polluting the sky.
I should call Risk or Shock and let them know I’m coming, but I don’t want Drift to know she’s here… I don’t want him to take her away from us.
Thatshould make me turn around. I should take her to Trench’s outpost. I should take her to her sister, but I left my helmet at the pod, so I can’t anyw?—
The explosion is deafening.
Skidding the bike to a halt, I hold her closer and turn back to the unsightly wreckage. It’s worse now that it’s in pieces.
What remains—amid the fire and smoke—has carved out a crater. No one survived that.
I need to go homehome on the rangeare there antelope in Wyoming?
