As if reading his thoughts, Valerie reached out for his hand and squeezed, giving him an extra jolt of confidence.
“I’ll be okay,” she whispered to him.
He nodded.
He sensed Ravu and Tavak lingering behind him, but staying far enough away that it wouldn’t be a distraction.
“Need anything?” Tavak asked.
“Veki,” he said, fishing out a scalpel wrapped in sanitation film from the med kit. “Just stay close.”
There were no numbing agents, however, though he took out a sedative injection, breaking the seal. When he held it up to Valerie, she pressed her lips and nodded. It wouldn’t be enough to take away the pain, but it might be enough to knock her out for a brief while.
“Everything will be all right,” he told her as he pressed the small needle tip into the back of her neck. A small hissing sound broke out as the liquid seeped into her. “I promise,mellkia.”
“I know,” Valerie whispered, giving him a soft smile, her eyelids immediately beginning to droop.
After another steadying breath, Dravka took up the scalpel again, waiting a few more moments for the sedative to kick in.
Then he started.
* * *
It didn’t take an hour.
But it was undoubtedly one of the longest spans of time in Dravka’s life…those ten minutes.
Ten minutes of his hearts pumping, of watching blood seep from his female, feeling her jerk and groan when the sedative couldn’t keep her under long enough.
He’d needed Tavak to soak up the blood with gauze. Humans bled. A lot. He hadn’t realized how much but their blood must be thin. And he’d only made a small incision, just large enough so he could reach the tracker.
He felt it with the tip of the blade. A grating metal sound, though he couldn’tseeit. And he hated that he’d had to drag the blunt edge of the blade across her bone, so he could be sure about where the tracker lay.
At times, Dravka wanted to roar with his frustration, with the wrongness of this…causing her pain. But it was inevitable.
He kept his hands steady, however. They’d never been steadier. All those years of tinkering with things, all those years of making little trinkets for his sister and his father were paying off. They’d made him careful. They’d made him precise.
Keeping his voice low, sensing that Valerie had passed out again, he told Tavak and Ravu, “It’s fused to the bone.”
Which was what he’d been afraid of.
He was also afraid that they were running out of time. Not because of the transmissions the tracker was pinging back to Everton…but because he was worried Valerie would bleed too much. Soon, he would need to laser the incision closed after he disinfected it.
“Vauk,” Tavak cursed.
“Let me see,” Ravu said, pressing a hand onto his shoulder.
Dravka hesitated, keeping the tip of the blade steady inside Valerie’s shoulder, poised just over the tracker.
“She’s my friend too, Dravka,” Ravu said quietly. “I’ll try not to hurt her. But I need to feel if there is a vulnerable patch on the tracker. If there is, I can simply destroy it if I can slice through the chip. Destroy it so we don’t have to remove it. Not now at least. We just need to stop it from sending transmissions toher.”
He was right. And Ravu had no doubt seen and worked with these kinds of things—black market tech, trackers included—back on Jrika.
Though he was loathe to do so, Dravka growled and let Ravu take over, knowing that it was the best decision for Valerie, for them all. Ravu might not have as steady hands but he would know what to look for.
Dravka stayed at Valerie’s side, however, wiping a cool cloth from the med kit over her forehead when he saw her perspiring, though her eyes were closed. Her whole face was pale, leached of color, and it made him feel powerless.
“Everything will be all right,mellkia,” he murmured to her, smoothing his thumb across her cheek.
