I sank back onto the floor, lying prone and concentrating on keeping steady pressure on the self-inflicted gash in my thigh. She would be back soon, I told myself. There was no one in the theatre. She would find something to wrap my leg and be back before I even stopped worrying. She was not in danger. Besides, she had a blaster for protection.
“A blaster she barely knows how to use,” I said to myself.
For a moment, I considered getting to my feet and following her, but even propping myself up on my elbows sent a wave of dizziness crashing through me. I would be of no use to her out there, and every fiber of my beinghated that.
I was a raider of the Vandar. I was the battle chief of a Vandar horde. I might not know much, but I knew that, and I knew it was my duty to protect. Protect my people, protect those who could not protect themselves, and protect the woman who made my heart race.
Despite all the reasons I could not fall for her, should not fall for her, the fact remained that I could not stop myself. I was as powerless to keep myself from desiring her as I was to make her do anything she did not want to do. It was maddening.
But the longer I lay waiting for Skye to return, the less I could remember why being with her would be a bad thing. If there was genuine danger, surely I would sense that.
Just as I was drifting off, my hand slipping from my leg, a sharp sound outside the room jolted me awake.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Skye
Ishould have brought more than a blaster. Not because I needed to shoot someone, but because I needed something to carry supplies.
“A tote bag would be more useful than this,” I said under my breath, as I pulled the secret door closed behind me and squeezed around the rack of clothing with the blaster pointed at the floor.
Not only had I never fired a blaster before, I wasn’t sure how much good it would do me if I faced trained Imperial soldiers. Being armed might not help me.
As I let my eyes adjust to the darkness, I listened for movement in the building. Athena had assured us she was the last one in the theatre and that she would lock up after herself, but that didn’t mean others didn’t have keys or even that suspiciousImperial guards might not come back to do a more thorough search.
I waited until I was sure that there was no one else moving around with me before walking on my toes across the dressing room. I opened the drawers in Athena’s table as quietly as I could, but I found nothing that would work as a bandage. One glance at the spangly, glittery dresses on the rack told me they would be useless.
Casting a last, worried look at the clothing rack hiding the secret room, I slipped into the corridor. I needed to move fast. Kolt might be conscious and keeping pressure on his leg, but the amount of blood he’d lost worried me, as did the hue of his skin. His usual golden-bronze skin was almost as pale as mine, and that wasn’t a good thing.
I tried not to let my thoughts spiral as I tiptoed down the hall, but it was hard not to worry. The plan, which had seemed like a good one at the time, meant that Kolt was now injured. How had I ever thought that his stabbing himself with the end of a spoon was a good idea? I knew better than that.
You didn’t have another option, I reminded myself. You had to escape, and he refused to let you be the one to be wounded.
“Stupid, macho Vandar,” I whispered, even though there was no heat in the words.
As much as I despised the Vandar for taking Jasmine, I couldn’t deny that Kolt had been nothing but brave and generous. Maybe there was some male macho shit going on, but there was more than that. As much as I was loath to admit it, the Vandar battle chief wasn’t the brute I’d thought him to be.
That’s because he kissed you like you’ve never been kissed before.
I groaned as I shook my head and tried to banish the memories of his lips on mine, even as my pulse quickened and heat scorched my cheeks. It was more than the fact that he was a startlingly good kisser. Ever since he’d lost his memory, he’d been softer. Whatever impulse he’d had to appear tough and heartless had vanished along with his memories.
Which means the Vandar who’s been kissing you is not the real Kolt, I thought. Before he hit his head hard enough to make him forget who he was, he’d been dismissive, annoying, and verging on hostile. But now, he was like an entirely different Vandar.
“What happens when he remembers everything?” I asked out loud, the hush of my voice a comfort in the ominous silence of the corridor.
Would he be horrified that we’d kissed? Would he regret revealing himself to me? Would he take back everything he’d said to me?
I couldn’t think about that now. Not when I didn’t know if he’d ever remember. At the moment, I had to focus on saving him and then on both of us escaping. All the rest could wait.
Suddenly, I spun on my heel. The bathroom. How could I forget? Athena had said it was right next to her dressing room. I hurried back down the hall and opened the door next to the dressing room.
My heart plummeted. It was a storage closet, not a washroom. Before I closed the door, I hesitated. Maybe the closet contained something I could use to wrap Kolt’s leg. I squintedas I scanned the shelves, since the inside of the closet was even darker than the hallway. Rolls of paper, balls of twine, piles of fabric scraps, heavy-duty tape …
“Jackpot,” I said, trying not to cheer out loud.
I could use the fabric scraps as bandages. I picked up a roll of silver tape. I could even use that to close the wound, although I didn’t want to be Kolt when we eventually pulled it off. It didn’t matter. We would escape by then, and once we’d reunited with the Vandar, a real medic could fix him.
