“From who? You’re my enemy.”
“Who saved you, as you said. From your friends.”
She shook her head.
And everything started spinning again. “That’s not good.”
“What?” he asked and held out his hand.
“I thought we were on the ground,” she said. The world was still spinning, and everything felt really weird.
Rational.
Stop this, Veta. You were trained for injuries. Think.
Yet it was hard.
“You seem damaged,” he said. “You are leaking blood.”
She waved her arm. “I have a medical kit. Somewhere.”
He held out his hand again. “Allow me.”
“To what?”
“Assist you.”
She wanted to say no. To handle this, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her head throbbed so badly, she thought she might throw up.
“I just…”
His hand was right there.
And it was hard to get up out of the chair, lying on her back, as she was. She pulled at the red gown. “This stupid thing,” she muttered and tried to jerk it off.
“I am capable, I can assist you. Take my hand.” He leaned in closer. “Can you not hear me?”
“I can hear you!” She threw her arm around. “I’m stuck in this damn gown, with you, and my ship…”
The Rhimodian reached into the ship and pulled her free of the restraints. It felt like flying, the movement so free and smooth. He yanked her up and out and into his arms.
Veta looked into his white eyes. “What? Put me, uh… Down. Put me down.”
“You are weightless. Tiny and scrawny.”
That almost was a compliment. Until the scrawny part. She was not a little girl. Complete with curves that she used when necessary to get whatever she had to get.
Scrawny was never a word to describe her.
Veta swung her legs, wiggling her body to break free.
He opened his arms, and she sort of fell to the ground.
And if this had been a perfect moment, she would have come around, with a couple of quick hits, had him to his knees.
That only worked if her head didn’t hurt.
It throbbed so bad, and she swung herself around and wound up falling forward. Probably should have hit the ground.
But he grabbed the back of her cloak.
“You need medicinal attention.”
She righted herself and turned to glare at him, seeing his hand as red as her cloak. “I’m fine. I don’t need you to take care of me. I can. I can take care of everything. That’s what I do.” She turned to walk back to her escape pod to grab the medical kits.
The last thing she remembered was falling forward and hearing him sigh.
And what a deep sound it was.
