Page 64 of Veiled Vixen

I feel that bond we were meant to have. I feel the tug and pull. I feel my cocks stiffen a little. Which makes me sad and sick. Because there is nothing sexy about this woman before me.

She is… broken.

I sit there with her, just staring at her ashen face. Feeling helpless. Knowing that I’m wasting time. Luck is expecting me back on Harem with a solution to the shit show the rebellion has turned into. Everyone down on the lower levels wants to kill Serpint. Tray and Brigit are either dead or missing. Asshole and Booty too. Draden might be alive, but if he is then what is he? Delphi is hiding secrets, and she’s still not Jimmy’s true soulmate. The Baby wants to leave, Succubus is… well, I have no clue what that AI is up to at all. Crux is the walking dead and longing for Corla. And Corla might be awake at this very moment. Sending messages to God knows who.

And Nyleena is pregnant.

I feel sick just thinking about that. Will this happen to her too? Will Luck be here in my position, watching his soulmate waste away, in a matter of weeks if we can’t get Nyleena to Earth? Will going to Earth save her from this fate? Or is it just a myth?

“Why is this happening to us?” I mutter.

“ALCOR,” Veila whispers back.

I look over at her, surprised that she’s awake. But her eyes are still closed and she has not moved since she crawled onto the couch hours ago.

“It’s not just ALCOR,” I whisper back. “You have to know that, right? ALCOR didn’t make me and my brothers. ALCOR didn’t get you pregnant. ALCOR didn’t do any of the shit that’s happened since Serpint brought Corla here. So it’s not ALCOR.”

She opens her eyes and I almost wish she hadn’t. They are the color of… well. The only word that accurately describes the color of Veila’s eyes is death.

She is dying.

Her legs move and then she’s lifting herself up. Propped up on both hands. I scoot across the couch to help her and this time she lets me.

She is dying.

She leans into the back of the couch, feebly pulls the blanket up her bare legs, and then sighs. Like this took every bit of energy she has left inside her. “Can you get me some juice?”

I make to get up but the bot is already there, hovering next to her with a glass of bright pink tushberry juice in his grippy hand.

Veila takes it and drinks it down in one long gulp with her eyes closed. And when she opens them again, they are just a tiny bit more alive. At least there’s some pink in there. “More,” she whispers, then closes her eyes and leans back again.

The bot retreats and comes back with a tray of fruit and a whole decanter of juice. He pours her another glass and she drinks it, then sets the glass down on the tray perched on the couch and reaches for a berry.

She comes alive again as she eats this berry. Her skin begins to glow a little. And it’s a true pink glow. Her hair lightens up and the listlessness in her body strengthens before my eyes.

Finally, after many minutes, she looks at me. “Why are you still here? Why didn’t you kill me and go back to your station?”

I take a moment to think about her questions. They’re good ones, for sure. But there is only one answer that makes sense. “Soulmates,” I say. And then I shrug. “I can’t leave. I don’t want to stay. I feel like a traitor for staying with everything that’s happening on Harem right now. And everything you did to me, and Jimmy, and Tray and Brigit. Not to mention all those Akeelian boys on your Lair Station. I should want to kill you, but…”

“Soulmates,” she says, her voice stronger now.

“Who are you?” I ask.

She smiles. Or almost smiles. “I wish I knew.”

“What happened?” I ask.

Her eyes dart over her shoulder to the open door of the medical bay.

“No,” I say. “Not that. I get it. You were… and now you’re not. I mean what happened to you? Why are you like this? Why did you do all those terrible things?”

A small huff of incredulous air puffs out her pink lips. “You wouldn’t even believe me, Valor. And it’s not a story I like to tell, so I’m not going to bother explaining my actions to you.”

“They’re going to kill you,” I say. “And I might not understand what’s happening to you right now, but I get it. You’re not… her. You have no power, do you? They’re going to kill you, Veila. So you can hide away in this ship all you want. But eventually they will break in. They will mow down all your cyborgs and find their way through that forest garden out there, and then they will find you here and they will end your life. And there’s no way out of this. The gates are locked. You came to hide from the outside world but this world in here is just as dangerous. So you can keep your secrets to yourself all you want. It’s not going to make a bit of difference now.”

She takes a long breath and holds it in. Then lets it out very slowly. “And if I tell you my story? What then? You’ll save me from them?”

I shrug. “I dunno, Veila. I’m not sure you’re actually salvageable.”