Julia is not afraid enough and it is a problem. I did not need to make the other females fear me, they were already scared enough at first. But her? I have only seen her afraid once.
That day I found her with a hurt foot, hiding, her gun gripped in her hand, her eyes and aim locking directly on me when I appeared in front of her. It was by pure chance I found her. She had done a good job covering her scent with dirt, obscuring her tracks, and being quiet. I could have passed her right by.
Her fear had startled me. She had not been afraid of me upon our first meeting. Suspicious, yes, but I had sensed no fright. But it was the fear I scented that gave her position away.
Once our eyes had met, panic flashed in hers but then it was gone. She had heard me coming but had not seen that it wasme. Her only fear was that she was about to be abducted, to lose her freedom. Back then I had not realized how dangerous her fearlessness would be, and because of that, I have had no choice but to try and make her understand how easily her precious life might be snuffed out. I am grateful she remained inside Zaku’s home for as long as she did.
Her safety is the most important thing to me and if it means letting her return to her people, I will do it. A life of loneliness is still better than death. I will not have her hurt or die on my account when I have no safe place to take her.
“I’m done.”
I cock my head in Olivia’s direction, coiling my tail under me to return to her, only to find her lifting the side of her shirt and fiddling with the banded cloth covering her wound. She winces but does not drop her shirt as I near. Instead, she peers up at me.
“Am I going to die?” she asks, her brow wrinkling deeply.
I freeze, taken aback by her question. Sliding my gaze over her, I take a moment to search her form. I lean away to look at the partially bloody cloth covering the wound under her arm, noticing some of it is fresh. Peering back at her masked-face andworried eyes, I shift my hand forward towards her bandages and wait for her to answer my unspoken one.
The nod she gives me is unexpectedly sharp.
Careful with my touch, I wrap my tailtip around her arm to support her as she slowly holds up the side of her shirt higher. I lean forward until my face is hovering next to her wound at the crux of her armpit. I close my eyes and release a deep, rumbling hiss, hoping it might help relax her.
Faster than normal, her heartbeat jumps, but swiftly dulls back to a slower tempo due to the weakness of her wounded body. Not strong by any measure, but the consistency of its pattering has me switching my focus to her veins, which barely thrum from blood loss.
Inhaling her scent deep into me, I focus on it to the exclusion of all others.
Pulling away, I gently uncoil my tail from Olivia’s arm and let her rest it at her side. Her shirt lowers with it. “Have you been hurt elsewhere that is not known to me?” My eyes shift to her legs, her shoes, then back to her mask.
She wears a loose black shirt that Julia had loaned her this morning and a pair of blue pants. Besides grass stains at the knees, they have been kept mostly clean. She is lighter in coloring, like Daisy or Laura, but with dirty blonde hair rather than straight blonde. Her hair falls flat against her cheeks to round out around her jaw and chin. Lanks of it are matted together, tousled about her ears. Nothing about her looks healthy, but none of the females, except maybe Celeste, had a dissimilar appearance upon their arrival.
Most had all been so pale it was like they had never been in the presence of the sun. Which, I know now, they never really had, not even Shelby or Julia.
“My arm aches but it’s getting better,” Olivia says.
“You do not smell sick nor smell infected. Yet,” I answer her initial inquiry. “You sound weak because you are weak. But that will change once you will see those who can tend to you. You will get better.”
She tilts her head and frowns up at me. “What makes you say that? How do you know I’ll get better?”
“Because I plan to make sure of it.”
She side-eyes me, checking me over, her eyes hooding tiredly. I have accepted her fear of me and I do not plan to try and change that, but that does not mean I will not help her get back to her people and to those who can heal her. Even if it puts me in increased danger. If the humans cannot save her, then I will seek out Azsote and his female or bargain for access to Zaku’s pod. It is the right thing to do.
And it is what Julia would want.
“I lost my aunt on the ship.”
I hesitate and stare at her before speaking. “I have lost my family too.”
“You kind of remind me of her.” She takes a long breath, and winces the entire way through it. “She was also self-sacrificing.” She takes another, long, slow breath.
Self-sacrificing?
“It’s what ultimately got her killed, I think. I feel like I can barely breathe.” She draws in another heavy breath, flinching inwardly as she begins to release it. “It hurts. I miss her.”
I frown down at her, noticing how her hand cups the side of her torso. “What is wrong?”
She wheezes and shakes, leaning to the side. “I can barely breathe,” she repeats, then sputters into a coughing fit. I slip my tail around her back to keep her from falling on her side. “Krellix?—”
I lean in to seize her mask with my hands, yanking it down. “Breathe,” I order, hissing down at her, frantically searching for the source of what is making it difficult for her.
