“I am not,” Zanth said.
Prog reached out and smacked him upside the head. I liked him more and more each day.
Zanth rubbed the back of his head. “All right. I am sorry.”
Selmay twisted, the angle of her body showing the scar on her left check, the ragged edges. “I hate the E'mani more than all of you children. Soon you will see.”
“Good.”
Silence followed that pronouncement.
“Okay. That makes four. We need to let Marin know we are leaving.”
“He is out right now. He took a patrol toward the Bretylyn.”
“He never mentioned it.”
“Zara and him.”
My ass instinctively clenched. “That's nice. Well, we will let him know when we get back. We should be able to handle a few E'mani.”
Hana made a strangled noise. “That might not be the best idea.”
“It's a great idea.”
Zanth raised an eyebrow. “Four of us against how many?”
Selmay answered before me. “Given the number of E'mani I killed yesterday, about six. We can easily take out a group of that size.” She held up the blaster she'd carried since yesterday. “Big strong men like you should have no trouble taking on that many.”
“Who are you to tell us what to do?” Zanth said.
Hana moved next to me, while Prog flanked Zanth.
“Boys, she is on our side.”
Hana whispered to me, “I am not a boy.”
“It was a figure of speech—oh, forget it. She is like me. We can trust her.”
“How do you know that?”
Selmay's gaze met mine. “I just do. Let's go.”
Now that we knew the route, the trip took fewer hours. Thank God for small favors. Also, the more people along seemed to speed the way. The landscape remained just as depressing though. Everyone seemed to feel it except for Hana, who chatted happily. Selmay strode ahead of all of us. Prog flew overhead and monitored for signs of ships.
The longer we walked, the more coiled I became. We were hunting our enemies, not to kill them but to experiment. The irony and hypocrisy of that wasn't lost on me. How could I live with this?
As it was, all the violence wore on me. I hated Xade. But I didn't hate the E'mani clones. They were victims like me. It seemed all we found here were victims. Pawns of the Five. The Five needed to die, starting with Xade, but by going on this course, what did that make me? Was I becoming what I hated?
Selmay smacked me upside the head. I stumbled forward. “Hey! What is up with that?”
“Pay attention, little girl; you were about to stumble down the hill.”
I glanced around and saw the drop off beside me. “Sorry.”
“What has you so distracted? Thinking about your love?”
I blanked for a second. Who? “Marin? No. Ethics.”
“Ah, Xade never worried about that.”
“Never.”
“He always felt that the greater good would make up for losses along the way. For a while, I believed as well, until I became one of those losses.”
In a way, that made me feel better. By worrying about it, I already proved I was ahead in my thinking. My heart lightened. “Thank you.”
Selmay raised an eyebrow. “What for?”
“Answers.”
“I am confused.”
Hana popped in between us. “What are we talking about?”
“What is right.”
“You mean sexually?”
I snorted. “Jeez, Hana, is it all sex and men to you?”
“Yes.”
Selmay linked arms with Hana. “Tell me more.”
“More what?”
“Selmay is more sex-crazed than you.”
Hana blinked and then glanced over at Selmay, who smiled and patted her arm. “We need to talk, little girl.”
I grinned at Hana's panicked expression. She'd be fine, I was sure. Selmay wasn't that scary. Only a wee bit in that dark kind of way. Hana might even like that. Oh, my mind had to go there. Stop thinking about Hana and Selmay.
I tripped and leaned down to get a rock out of my shoe.
A boom rocked the area around me.
I glanced up in time to see Zanth spin, holding his shoulder.
Prog let out a piercing scream and zoomed over our heads toward a distortion in the air behind us.
As soon as Prog's body hit the air, whatever cloak they had on the hover craft dropped.
I saw a trio of E'mani on silver disks in a V formation to the side of us. Prog took out one and crashed him into another. The third swooped down toward me, weapon out.
Selmay hit me from the side, taking me down and out of the way of the blast that followed.
My ears rang as I watched Prog rip the third man from his perch. Zanth already sprinted toward the downed fighters. Hana ran toward me and helped me up as all of us righted ourselves and joined the boys in the fight.
“Keep one of them alive.”
Prog's head swiveled one hundred eighty degrees to look at me. “Alive?
“What is that?” Hana stumbled to a halt beside me.
Selmay brows came together. “What? The neck thing? All Avaresh can do that.”
“Eww.”
I echoed that in my thoughts. “Alive!”
I hit into the nearest E'mani with a crash. He fell and I landed on top of him. I grappled for his gun. He was unexpectedly weak, and he dropped the gun immediately, protecting his face.
I took up the discarded weapon and scrambled back, holding it in front of me. In the process, I totally missed the original E'mani who fell now getting up. His blade took me in the shoulder due to an inadvertent stumble as I stepped back. It saved me from his cutting off my head.
Hana screamed with me and took him down with an imbued blade. Selmay's strike followed by only a second, cutting off his head.
Prog and Zanth tossed the remaining one between them. My guy lay prostrate on the ground, crying.
Seriously, I felt more and more sorry for these dudes. He had snot and everything trailing down his face. Then I took in his uniform and my gut clenched. I remembered all the times an E'mani stood by as I screamed. Good feelings gone. “Get up.”
Sniveling dude crawled to his feet and wiped his nose on his sleeve. He stood at attention saying nothing, looking down.
I knew that pose. Damn it. Again, with the pity.
“What is your name?”
Prog held his clone by the neck, unconscious I hoped. Zanth came up next to me, twirling his blade.
The clone didn't answer and kept his eyes down.
“You.” I reached out and poked his shoulder.
He glanced up and blinked.
I stooped down and poked him the forehead. “You, what is your name?”
“We do not have names.”
“How do they tell you what to do?”
“We are trained from conception to do our jobs.”
“So, what were you trained to do?”
“I patrol.”
“And?”
“And what?” His forehead creased and he tilted his head.
“What do you do on patrol?”
“I watch for the Fost and kill them if I have to.”
Zanth hissed. Prog held him back.
He would do.
“Pick a name.”
“We have no names.”
“Use your brain.”
“What is a brain?”
Oh lands, this wasn't going well. “Pick a name for us to call you.”
“Call me Rezi.”
I blinked. That was easy. “Okay Rezi. Are there more of you?”
“Yes.”
Wow. “Where are they?”
He pointed up to the sky.
Selmay groaned. “You might as well talk to a wall. A clone will not know any useful information. And now we have our sample. Let’s head back to town.”
Rezi stood quietly, looking at us surrounding him.
Zanth moved up behind me and grabbed my shirt. “What is this?
I’d forgotten about my wound. I reached behind me and felt a tear in the skin. When I brought my hand around, it was covered with red.
“Well, shit.”
Prog ripped his shirt and looped it around my shoulder. Zanth, not to be outdone, bundled up his own shirt and used it as a pressure dressing.
Marin was going to kill me.
Chapter Eight
I left Rezi in Roger's loving hands. The look in the E'mani's eyes still freaked me out. Hope and fear all rolled up in one as he looked at Roger. I remembered having that same look on my face with Xade. A maybe-this-guy-wouldn't-be-that-bad kind of look. This whole adventure rounding up E'mani for experiments got to me. My skin crawled. I didn’t care what happened. I would not become Xade.
Erin was outside the door as I exited the labs.
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
“There is something I want to talk about as well.” I grasped her hand and pulled her next to a tree. Some of the blue sap stung my hand, and I rubbed it on my leathers.
“There is something wrong with Roger,” we both said in unison.
Her fear endorsed my own. Thank God. “I thought I was being paranoid.”
“I have been reviewing his data. There is no way the hepatitis was a mistake. He had to have changed the virus. He weaponized it. Successfully even. You should have seen him after the attack. I know you were gone and are even now still recovering, but he was happy, nigh on gleeful, about what happened. He didn't hide at all; he stood out there and laughed. And sometimes we brought the E'mani in, and he was so fascinated by what he saw. The same with the hurt Fost. The more I have watched him, the more fearful I become. He doesn't feel anything but satisfaction.”
“He's a sociopath?”
“I think so.”
Woo. I wonder if Xade knew. Who am I kidding? Of course he knew. That could have been what drove him to recruit Roger in the first place. “Can you prove it?”
“I’m not the biologist. I’m a virologist. I can tell you the disease had changes to its structure, but not who did it.”
“Could it have been organic?”
“Yes, diseases mutate all the time.”
“So we don't know if he is up to anything.”
“No, but I don't trust him.”
“Neither do I but I say for now, we watch him and see what he does in the future. Maybe it was a mistake, and he hates the E'mani.”
“I hate the E'mani too, but I had trouble watching them fall like they did. Roger didn't. He seemed immune. I don't know what it is; it scares me. I know we are right, but I can't prove it, not so the Fost believe. They don't understand science. They would go along with what you say though...”
“I can't do it. I would be crucifying him, and we don't know if he did anything wrong. Plus, we need him. He might prove to be the key to destroying the E'mani.”
Erin nodded. She rubbed her hands over her arms. “Okay, then we watch.”
“We watch.”
When I entered my room, I didn't expect a fight. Marin sat on the bed with his hands on his knees, gazing at the floor.
“Hey.”
His head rose. “Elizabeth.”
That formal tone was so not good. I put my backpack on the floor and then put my hand on his shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“You tell me.” He reached out and grabbed my wrist, pulling me forward.
I flinched and yanked my wrist out of his hand. “Watch it, I got injured earlier today.”
“Yes, I know.”
My gaze flew to his. “Is that what this is about?”
“Why did you not tell me you were going out? Why did you not even try to find me?”
“I had a team. When I looked for you, I couldn't find you, and you had already left earlier in the day with Zara.” So there. I crossed my arms and waited.
“How hard did you try to find me?”
“Why are you mad?”
“My mate goes into combat without even letting me know what she is up to. She is injured and wonders why I am upset. You could have died. That quickly, you could have been taken from me.” His voice rose on the last word and his nostrils flared. “Why? I do not know why I am upset. It happens all the time around you.”
My brows climbed my forehead. “I was fine. I had a team. Our information—”
“Yes, information obtained from the wife of the current villain we are hunting.”
“Selmay is as much a victim of Xade as I was.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw what he did to her. He did the same things to me.”
Marin withdrew. “What?”
I flushed. “Not the sexual things. I meant the torture.” Creeped my own self out with that idea. “And my wound will be healed by the morning.” I reached out and cradled his face in my hands. “I'm fine.”
Marin's arm went around my waist and pulled me into his body. He burrowed his face in my neck and breathed out in a rush. “I know. That is all that matters. I cannot shake this fear. I want you to check in with me throughout the day, can you do that?”
“Um, no.”
Marin's head rose. “What do you mean, no?”
“I’m a grown up. I’m not checking with you before taking action. I will discuss everything I do with you when I can, but I certainly am not going to run everything by you. That is ridiculous.”
“It would ease my mind.”
“Okay, if I do that, then you need to tell me what you do. Can you agree to that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Where were you today? When I woke up, you were gone.”
“I did not wish to wake you.”
“That doesn't answer my question.”
Marin stared at the wall. “I had to check out Bretylyn.”
“And did you go alone?”
“I took a group.”
“Define group.”
“I took a person with me.”
“Who?”
“Why does it matter?”
“Who?”
“Zara.”
“And I am supposed to be okay with that?”
“Nothing ever happened between Zara and myself. You know this. I have told you this over and over. I feel sorry for the girl. She is in love with Thorn, and he sees her as a sister.”
“Soyou two have been having nice, enlightening talks?”
Marin's head dropped into his hands. “There is nothing between us.”
“I know that. But you can see what I mean. We have to trust each other. I can't run around wondering what you are doing and telling you what I am doing all the time. It gives us little time to live life. And in actual fact, I did look for you to come with us. Then I found out you were with Zara and...” I shrugged.
“I did not want to wake you. Zara was waiting at the gate. I had not paid attention to the schedule. All she could talk about was Thorn and Selmay. She really hates Selmay. I am pretty sure Selmay has replaced you as her most disliked person.”
“Oh goodie. Since when did you become her bestest buddy?”
“Since her father died. She has no other clan.” Guilt nearly rushed in for one second until I remembered her snide look toward me when cuddling with my hubby.
“We are not her clan.”
“Yes, we are.”
“You know what I mean. You are not her brother nor her daddy. You do not need to be talking to her. She is with Near now and happy.”
“She is not happy.”
“And why are we talking about her anyway?”
“You were the one who brought her up!”
“I dearly regret that now.” I unlaced my vest and slipped it off, examining the leather and hole.
An eighth of an inch. Not a bad blade.
Marin's hand eased over my wound. “Does it hurt?”
“Kind of.”
“Let me clean it for you and put a real dressing on.” He grabbed a tow
el and dipped it into the wash basin.
I sat on the bed and, one armed, lifted my shirt off. Marin moved my hair out of the way and gently cleansed the wound. He dabbed the same spot over and over until he whispered, “I would die if I lost you.”
What? I whipped around. “Don't say that. If you lose me, I expect you to move on and rule the Fost as they should be ruled. You are pretty awesome when you are not being a dumb ass.”
“No, I think if I lost you, there would be no me left.” He put the towel to the side and pulled me onto his lap. “Please be careful with you.”
“I will.”
His hands stroked down my side. I grinned and nuzzled his neck. “Wanna have sex?”
“Not with that wound. Not tonight. I just need to hold you.”
I put my hand on his cheek. “It is a tiny wound. Mini really. I am fine.”
“I need to know that.”
I pushed him back on the bed and pressed myself against him. There was this one corner of his chest that made a perfect pillow. I slung my leg across his and snuggled. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I would not let you, anyway.”
“Let?”
“Let.”
I sighed and sat up.
Marin lounged back and stared at me, his eyes damn near memorizing my face. He placed a finger on my bottom lip. “Before you get upset. I mean, I will always follow you, I will always find you. You are my other half. Without you, life would have no meaning.”
Damn, he was good at that. The words. I ended up sounding like a ninny, and he sounded like a damn romance novel. How did he do that?
My heart twisted as I looked at his fierce eyes. “Good.” I settled against him myself. “Good.”
Chapter Nine
The next morning when I woke up, Marin was gone again, the jerk. Especially after that talk last night. I’d been looking forward to some nookie. No matter.
I dressed and headed to the lab. Time to see what information Dela dug up yesterday and check on our prisoner and Roger. I just didn't know what to think, there. My steps sure, I traveled to the lab quickly. Dela waited at the front desk, typing away. As soon as I entered, he looked up with a somewhat unsettling smile. “There you are.”
“Yes, I am here.”
“The key that Selmay gave me about the Five proved helpful. They apparently break down the work into respective responsibilities. Xade is all about medicine, destroying disease, making the clones, and keeping this planet feasible. This is where the crystal is, and it does a lot more than extend their life. It is the rock from which they build their ships. It is the one thing that allowed them to advance this far.
Distant Memory: She remembered everything (Solum Series Book 3) Page 5