Chapter 26
Zelup sat up with a shout, his breathing rapid and his body covered with sweat.
He looked around him, realizing suddenly that he was no longer engaged in a battle with a monstrous beast. Instead, he was sitting on the old medical unit, surrounded by familiar faces.
“He’s out of it,” Calabez said, grabbing one of his brother’s hands and pulling him off the cot. “We thought we’d lost you.”
“What did you do?” Zelup asked, aghast. “Why did you pull me out?”
Calabez looked at his younger brother, Juston, in confusion. Juston ran his hands over his flowing black hair. “You were in danger. Mayra said so.”
“Fuck,” Zelup said, catching sight of Ladee, who was crouching behind the medical unit holding his master. “You! Get me back in there!”
He climbed back into the unit and readjusted the neural cap on his head. Lying down, he waited for the robot to re-engage the mechanism.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Juston asked. “You can’t go back in!”
“He’s right,” Calabez said. “You were getting the shit kicked out of you in there. Look!”
Zelup peered down at his body and grimaced. There were marks all over him, bruises that seemed to come from the inside out.At least they aren’t slices from those claws or I would have bled out by now. Although they were in the same place, the wounds were different, likely due to their psychosomatic origin.
“Doesn’t matter,” Zelup said. “I need back in. She’s still in there, and now you’ve left her at the mercy of a monster.”
Juston was shaking his head, but Calabez’s face was thoughtful. “Whichsheare we talking about here?”
“Dawn,” Zelup muttered. “Dr. Illya. I need to get her out.”
“What about this one?” Juston asked, jerking a thumb at the alien female.
“She’s the Guardian.” Zelup located the robot again. “Get to it, Ladee. Now.”
The robot moved forward but Calabez intercepted him, holding him still. “Wait a minute,” he said, his voice heavy. “Can you bring the doctor out of this?”
The robot frowned. “She has given me orders not to try.”
“If you ignored those orders, is it possible?”
Ladee adjusted his monocle, blinking up at the Vartik. “We did develop an emergency protocol in case something like this happened.”
Zelup growled. “And why didn’t you say something about this earlier?”
Ladee frowned. “Dawn ordered me not to bring her out of it unless there was proof of danger. The marks on your body provide that proof. I believe they are sufficient evidence to start the emergency protocol.”
“Fuck this,” Zelup said. “You don’t know if it will even work. Put me back under first, and then you can try to bring her out.”
Juston threw up his hands in frustration. “What is your problem, brother? You know your duty here. We are to bring back the Guardian, not some random Territhian female. We can’t risk putting you back in there.”
“Shut up, Juston,” he growled in response. “Or I’ll shut you up.”
His younger brother bristled, instantly spoiling for a fight. Juston’s temper was notorious, and Zelup wasn’t certain that he could defeat him. Still, he’d fight his way through every brother he had to get back to Dawn.
“We’re wasting time!” he howled. “While we’re sitting here, the monster could be ripping her limb from limb!”
“And yet here she sits, unharmed,” Calabez drawled, his legendary calm holding. “As does the Guardian. Let’s let the little fur ball try and bring her out of it.”
Zelup groaned before hopping from the medical unit and charging toward his brother. “I’m not asking. I’m telling. Either you allow the robot to put me back in, or I beat the living shit out of you, then Juston, and then I have the robot put me back in.”
Calabez’s eyes widened. “I get it. You’re pissed. But if I might interject, I think you’ve lost sight of certain facts. You’re next in line for the Vartik throne, a leader of our people and a much-needed general in the fight against the demons of Danzmin. Remember them?”
