Mekhi (The Broken Book 1)

by Serena Simpson

  “Yes.”

  “What happened Slade?”

  “You’ve been using your ability more and more, but only when you're unaware of it.”

  Mekhi nodded, now wasn’t the time to think about what that meant. He ran a hand over Tee’s body, and it lifted so he could place a gray mat under her. Once he lowered Tee he made an incision on the underside of her body. Then he directed the blood that was filling her abdominal cavity to flow out. The mat caught it absorbing the fluid.

  “It’s you and me Tee.” He started the transfusion adjusting the drip. Once he was sure her body could handle it, he went and started another table for Quinn’s operation.

  “Compared to Tee’s operation yours will be a breeze.” He laid her on the table and gave her a sedative to make sure she was out. He placed another Voya over her and looked at the damage done to her shoulder.

  “Do you know how that happened?”

  “Not yet I haven’t asked her about the incident. All I know is several males broke in and hurt her and Tee.”

  “They came through the bedroom and bathroom window. The glass was cut making a space big enough for one of them to stick a hand through.”

  “So, it was a professional.” He was connecting her bone, which had snapped out of place. She had several torn ligaments as well as bone fragments.

  “I’m going to heal the bones and dissolve the fragments, and jumpstart the healing on the ligaments. She’ll have a lot of questions when she wakes up.”

  “Are you ready to answer them?”

  Mekhi turned to stare at Slade.

  “She’s my mate. I hope she can accept me.” He realized as he finished putting her back together that he never answered Slade’s question.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Hello?” Where was she? The bed underneath her felt soft almost like sleeping on a cloud, but it was firm enough to give her great support. They made beds like this? She was missing out. The walls were a comforting blue. It helped to make her think of clouds and air.

  She sat up feeling a tug on her shoulder. The horror of the previous night came back to her. Tears rolled down her face as she thought of Tee. She slumped back in the bed not wanting to deal with life. Then she made herself get up. She would cry forever after she made sure Tee had been taken care of.

  “Hello?” She called out once again. The room was spacious, it may have been as big as her whole apartment. There was a chair pulled close to the bed making her think someone may have spent the night sitting in it.

  She stood and realized someone dressed her in an oversized t-shirt. One long inhale told her it belonged to Mekhi. What was she doing at his house? This room belonged to him; the hospital didn’t treat you this nice.

  Well, that was out of place. There were several black garbage bags in the otherwise pristine room that drew her attention. One peep at the door behind the bags told her it was a walk-in closet. Don’t pry she told herself but the bags were calling her name. They shouldn’t be there. She peeped into one that was partially opened to find it filled with her clothes.

  She waited for anger to overtake her that her place had been violated, but she was numb. The only anger she could conjure up was for the man who killed Tee. She forced her mind away from Tee and her little body and focused on finding an outfit to wear. That’s when she realized that she had a sling on her arm. Shouldn’t it be a cast? She remembered thinking at one point it was broken.

  It throbbed but not as much as she expected. The painkillers they gave her must be great. She shook her head, stop thinking of yourself; you must find Tee. She opened door after door wandering around the space until she found a bathroom. All right, this wasn’t a bathroom it was a modern spa that looked like it could have come from the days that only the rich pampered themselves like this. The bathtub looked like a sunken pool. For a few minutes, all she could do was stare.

  Get it together. She awkwardly washed up not knowing if she could get her arm wet. Once dressed she shivered, the house seemed too quiet. Could the rooms be soundproofed? She hoped that was it. She knew this was where Mekhi slept and lived, she could feel him in here. Knowing she was acting weird, she walked toward the door she hoped opened to the hallway. Once she found it, she called out several times, but no one answered. She kept walking until she found the stairs. When she made it downstairs, she found the kitchen. Knowing where she was made her feel more comfortable.

  She went outside to enjoy the warmth of the day and to have a chance to breathe. So much had happened that her brain was having a hard time putting it all together.

  “Hello?” Nothing they must have left the house not realizing she would wake up. Her hand patted the back pocket in her jeans realizing she didn’t have her phone with her.

  Not knowing what else to do, she wandered around pondering her new life without Tee. Once again, she shied away from that thought and turned her mind to the calculations and dimensions of the land. She tried to think of work, but thoughts of Tee wouldn’t let her. Instead, she focused on the beauty of the land allowing herself to explore the area for the joy of it.

  A loud sound stopped her from moving. Her hand went to her heart only to realize it was beating too fast. She turned to watch as a tiger came over the hill and headed straight for her.

  A scream worked its way up her throat and out of her mouth. Whoever said don’t show fear when a two-hundred-pound tiger was chasing you was out of their mind. She ran putting distance between her and the large cat. That’s how she knew she would die. It kept playing with her falling behind and then putting on speed to catch up.

  She turned her head and fell. Good going, Quinn. She curled into a little ball. The tiger pounced on her ripping her to shreds. That didn’t happen the sane part of her mind told her. The beast laid next to her butting its head against her hand looking for rubs. The meds she was on were better than she thought.

  “Tee.” She looked up at the sound of Mekhi’s voice. She couldn’t see him and then he was there as if he uncloaked. His eyes were flashing, and his lips quirked as if he were fighting a smile.

  “We talked about this. I told you not to scare Quinn.”

  The tiger lifted its head and looked at Mekhi.

  “I wasn’t asking you to hide from her, just ease her into the situation.”

  Well, at least she would have company in the loony bin. She gave in and petted the tiger. It would not stop until she did. Then the big cat shrank and became an adorable ball of fur named Tee. She climbed on Quinn and nestled into her arms.

  “Mekhi?” She held onto her sanity with a loose grip. It wouldn’t take much to send her over the edge.

  “Hold on Quinn, there’s a reasonable explanation. You need to eat, and then I’ll explain.” He bent down and picked up her and Tee.

  “I dreamed Tee was a tiger. How could I be dreaming outside?”

  He took her inside but didn’t stop in the kitchen. She clung to him as he carried her up the stairs and took her back to the suite of rooms she was in earlier. Then sat her down in a chair.

  “Is this your living room?”

  “Yes, when I want to be alone, I can come here.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “Do you remember calling me after you were attacked?”

  “Yes, but I’m not sure what happened after that.”

  “I took Tee to Dr. Young, but he couldn’t save her life. You gave me permission to work on her. I had to give her a transfusion, but I saved her life.”

  “You’re a vet. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m not a vet. The more accurate term is healer. Which means I have the knowledge to work on more than species and have been honing my skills over several centuries.”

  “You mean years.”

  “No, I mean centuries. I’m not human, Quinn.”

  She laughed. Mekhi never stuck her as the funny type, but he must have a twisted sense of humor.

  “Tee.” She jumped down and moved away from the chair that Quinn was sitting
in before her body became as large as a tiger.

  “Please, Mekhi I need normal. I need a life without people blowing up my trailer and trying to kill my cat over things that make no sense. Tell me this is a dream.”

  “I’m sorry Quinn. It's all real.”

  “What are you?” She whispered, before resigning herself to going off the deep end.

  “I’m an alien.”

  She laughed, but it was hysterical because nothing he said was funny.

  “They will put us both in straitjackets.”

  “I would never allow them to capture me.” He moved back, and his form changed.

  He was different, a monster. She curled up on the couch and whimpered. Some things in life couldn't be fought, and this was one of them.

  “Are you going to kill me now?” Tee, the tiger wanna be growled making Quinn shiver.

  “Tee, you know better.” Mekhi’s voice was sharp, and she put her head between her paws.

  “Quinn, stop setting your cat off. You know I won’t hurt you. Tee knows I won’t hurt you.”

  Quinn wasn’t sure what was happening to her. Nothing she saw or heard made any sense. She wanted to cry and scream and run for the door. All she wanted was out, but she was so numb. A wave of cold invaded her body she couldn’t fight. It seduced her telling her not to fight, to just give in.

  “I don’t know what to say. I can’t fight it anymore. It will kill me, or maybe you will kill me. I thought you liked me.” Her head felt like it was full of cotton. “Where am I? Who are you?”

  Tee shrank and jumped into Quinn’s lap. “Get it away from me,” She screamed it’s burning me.

  Mekhi grabbed her and ran out the door.

  Chapter Twelve

  Quinn opened her eyes, she was in the same bed she woke up in earlier. Tee was lying beside her in her massive cat form letting her know that it hadn’t been a bad dream. What was she going to do with a two-hundred-pound cat? She wouldn’t fit in her small apartment. Thinking of home brought back all the memories of what happened. There was no way she could live there again. Did her mom know? She would be freaking out wondering where she was.

  Finally, she turned her head to acknowledge Mekhi, who was sitting on a chair next to the bed.

  “None of it is a dream?” Her voice rose to a level of hopefulness before it dropped because she knew better.

  “It all happened.”

  “Explain, maybe this time I can keep my head together.”

  She was stroking Tee loving her deeper purrs.

  “You’re bigger, but you're still my snuggle bug.” Tee loved the attention.

  “I’m an alien.”

  “Glad you started with the thing that was freaking me out the most. Haven’t you ever heard of easing into the conversation?”

  “No.”

  Aww, he was an alien. What was she thinking? She laughed long and hard before she got herself together.

  “I’m handling it a little better than earlier.”

  “You had a nasty infection. It was messing with your cognitive abilities.”

  “Are you sure it’s better?”

  “Yes.”

  She shrugged. It was worth a shot. “Then why aren’t I freaking out and hiding? I’m going to do that later, but right now I can’t muster up the energy I need to do all those things. So, tell me the truth while I’m incapable of running.”

  “Someone threatened you and tried to kill Tee. They’re coming back for you, Tee told me.”

  “Can you talk to her?”

  “It’s more like images. She showed me you, running across the room to throw your body over hers saving her from certain death. Now she’s big enough to protect you.”

  “She wants to protect me?” Her voice was soft and thick with emotion.

  “She loves you.”

  “I love you, Tee.” She threw her arms around her. It was true no matter what size she was or what happened to her. Tee would always have her heart.

  Mekhi's words were spinning around in her head. The fact that he felt that her being targeted was more important than him being a human eating alien out to destroy all life on Earth confounded her.

  She giggled then she wiped tears from her eyes. All she could picture was Mekhi with a robotic body trying to catch humans to eat. Damn even as a robot he was hot.

  “Do you want to share?”

  “No, keep talking.”

  “I am created, which is what we all call ourselves The Created. On a planet, far far away. Yes, I see the humor in that. There was a race that spent so much time pondering new ideas and creating that they lost the ability to fight for themselves. After several inventions that didn’t work, they created us.”

  “Created, as in a laboratory?”

  “Yes, but worse. They collected DNA from all over the known universe, known to them, not to you. They combined it in a lab and came up with us. We’re fighters, killers, assassins. You name it, and you’ll have us.”

  “That’s what you do for the government? You take care of their dirty work.”

  “We do. You’re taking this pretty well.”

  “It’s all the pain meds you gave me. They are keeping me rational.”

  He hadn’t given her any medications, but this wasn’t the time to tell her.

  “When the fighting was over, I had nowhere to go, so I drifted around.”

  She stared at him. He had been stared down by the enemy and never felt the desire to flinch, but he felt it under his tiny warrior’s stare.

  “My brothers, the ones I was created with died. I was all alone after the war.”

  She nodded accepting what he said although she knew there was so much more to that story. He had told her some of this earlier, but she couldn't remember much.

  “Eventually, I met the males I now call brothers, and we ended up on Earth.”

  “Nowhere better to end up. That story has a lot of holes in it, but at least you told me enough to let me know you trust me.”

  “There is no human on Earth I trust more than you.”

  She nodded it would do for now.

  “How did you help us?” She looked at Tee and then indicated her arm.

  “On your planet, they would call me a doctor or a specialist with an ability to multi-task. Where I come from they call it normal.”

  “Why doesn’t my arm feel broken?”

  “It’s not, I sped up the healing. The joint and the tendons are still sore, and you need to wear that sling. Your body is not used to healing so fast.”

  “Since all of this happened last night I must agree with you.”

  “It’s been five days.”

  “What? Please tell me you're joking!”

  He shook his head.

  “My Mom! I bet she thinks I’m dead. I need my phone.”

  He went to a drawer and pulled it out. Thankfully, it was off, so when she turned it on, there was a charge.

  “You should have called my mom and told her I was all right.” She was dialing the number shaking as she thought of her.

  He opened his mouth. “Don’t Quinn me. If something happens to me, you call her. Do you understand?” She looked at him with fire in her eyes.

  He nodded saying nothing.

  “Mom, I’m all right.”

  “Quinn, where are you? I have the police looking for you.” Her mother was scared, but she could hear the anger in the bottom of her voice.

  “I’m with a friend. He should have called you. I already told him off about not doing so. Mom I was out of it. I didn’t know time was passing. Honestly; I'm so sorry.”

  “Are you okay baby?”

  “I’m fine?”

  “And Tee?”

  “She’s fine. Why did you ask??”

  “They found blood at your apartment. I thought it was yours, but they said it belonged to a cat after they tested it.”

  “She’s fine.” Tee was now a little thing standing on her back paws waiting to be picked up.

  “Quinn, I need
to see you and your friend.”

  She smiled, her mom hadn’t missed that one. Quinn didn’t have friends, not anymore.

  “I don’t want you going back to that apartment.”

  “Where else will I go? I live their mom. It’s the only place I have to lay my head, but not until I get an alarm system.”

  Mekhi stood up and walked to where she was standing. He took the phone from her.

  “Hi Mrs. Connors, this is Mekhi, Quinn’s friend. I can assure you she is not going back to that apartment except to get anything we inadvertently left behind. We will also give notice to her landlord. Yes, ma’am, I can’t wait to meet you, here’s Quinn.”

  “Mom? Yes, he is a nice, polite boy. I think you’ll like him. We’ll see you soon. Yes, I’ll make sure he’s with me.” The phone went dead, and she shook her head.

  “Well, my mom likes you after just a few words. Amazing. She has hated every guy, I even thought of for the last four years.”

  “That’s because they didn’t belong to you tiny warrior. You were waiting for me.”

  She was standing in the middle of the bedroom with her mouth wide open as he turned and left. Tee, the traitor, changed shapes and followed him.

  “Where am I going to stay?” She followed him into the living room.

  “Here.”

  “You have an extra room I can borrow?” Of course, he did. The place was a mansion. “I can’t stay long, just until I find another place.”

  “You’ll sleep in my room.”

  Visions of him in the bed with her, their legs tangled teased her mind. Stop it, he’s an alien, there must be a law against it.

  “You change into a monster.” Her voice shook a little as she remembered the beast he turned into.

  He changed in front of her eyes. He stood tall, no wonder the ceilings in this place were so high. At one time, his coat looked like it might have been shiny. Now it was dull and missing patches of fur. When she looked into his eyes and saw Mekhi, not a monster.

  He went to the floor lying down. She didn’t confuse the posture with being helpless. Tee went and laid beside him totally unafraid, even though he could tear her in half.