No Remedy

by Christine d'Abo

  Faolan’s mouth tightened into a thin line, but he nodded. “Just be careful, please. The last thing I want is for you to die on a fool’s errand and your brother to be left alone after I’m gone.”

  “Faolan, you’re not going to die.”

  “But I might.”

  “Not if I can do anything about it.” She hated fighting with him about this. The constant round and round never got them anywhere but frustrated. “How’s Gar? Is he there?”

  Faolan smirked. “He’s getting cleaned up. He’ll be out in a minute.”

  Mace couldn’t stop from snorting. “Do I even want to know why you delayed in answering my call?”

  “Do not say a word!” Gar’s voice drifted over the communication channel from the background.

  Mace smiled at Faolan’s grin. “Your brother is a shrewd negotiator. I wouldn’t dare go against the rules.”

  Gar appeared behind Faolan, his hands coming to rest on his shoulders. “Your husband is going to kick your ass if you’re not careful.” Leaning down to get his face into the view screen, Gar gave her a lopsided smile. “Hi, Macie.”

  “Hi, yourself.”

  Gar kissed Faolan’s cheek. “I believe we had a deal.”

  Faolan rolled his eyes in a very Gar-like manner. “I’m going. Slave driver.”

  “I’ll be checking up with Doc to make sure you actually made it down to the med bay this time.”

  “It seems I have to cut our chat short, pet.” Faolan winked at her. “Are you coming home soon?”

  “Soon. I promise. Be healthy.”

  “Always.”

  Gar leaned back into the screen. “Give me a second, Macie?”

  “Go, go.” She waved him away.

  Low murmurs buzzed off the com screen, but she wasn’t able to make out the sounds. If there was something important going on, Gar was sure to tell her. They had no secrets when it came to Faolan. She knew more about his sex life than she’d ever wanted to know about anyone’s. It didn’t matter that the details had been vague and Gar had blushed bright red when they’d slipped out.

  She hated being so far away from them, knowing that if anything happened to Faolan, chances were she’d miss her opportunity to say good-bye.

  “Sorry about that.” Gar took the seat in front of the communicator, scratching his face. “He’s missed out on his last few appointments with Doc. I had to . . . convince him to get his ass down there for a checkup.”

  Mace chuckled. “Explains the grin on his face at least.”

  The siblings stared at each other for a moment. Gar looked tired, and not in the Hey, I just fucked the hell out of my husband way. He’d shaved his goatee months earlier, so the scruff covering his face was an unfamiliar sight. As were the wrinkled shirt and less-than-perfect hair.

  “Are you okay?” She leaned forward. “You look like hell.”

  “I’m—” Gar snorted, turning his face away for a second. When he looked back, she saw nothing but utter exhaustion shining back at her. “He’s given up, Mace.”

  “Oh no.” She fell back into her seat, as the pressure of the past year suddenly doubled and began to press down on her shoulders. “What happened?”

  “Nothing. Everything.” Gar huffed out a breath. “He was on the bridge shouting out commands. We had a Loyalist patrol jump into a sector we were passing through and we needed to make a quick escape. We jumped to another quadrant, and when we came back into real space, he threw up before passing out.” Gar spoke in a clipped fashion, like each word physically hurt him to say.

  “But he is okay now?” Gods, I should be there.

  “For the time being. But we’re not going to be able to dimension jump much longer given how bad his condition seems to be now. Macie, I don’t think he’s going to live much longer.”

  “What . . . what has Doc said? Is there anything she can give him to help?”

  “He won’t bloody well go and see Doc. He sure as hell won’t take any more of the medicine. Says what’s the point in dragging things out longer than need be? The end is going to catch up with him sooner, not later, and he’d rather not prolong the pain.”

  “But we’re so close to an antidote!” Tears blurred the image of her brother on the screen. Mace jerked the heels of her hands across her eyes, clearing them. “He can’t give up on me now. Not after everything I’ve done to try to make this better.”

  “It’s not that so much as . . . He’s so tired, Mace. I know he hardly sleeps anymore. He spends most of his time on a computer or datapad, writing down his thoughts and telling me things he thinks I’m going to need to know once he’s gone. I’m finding it so hard. Harder than anything else.” Gar wiped at his own tears and let out a soft laugh. “I never cry.”

  “You cry all the time. Big baby.”

  Gar rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t have to if you and Faolan would stop torturing me. I’m a damn former bounty hunter. Nastiest one in the galaxy. Gods, the guild would have a field day if they knew what’s become of me.”

  “Speaking of bounty hunters, I have a question for you.”

  Gar wiped his face. “Oh no. What’s up?”

  “An old friend of Alec’s, ex-lover actually, showed up a day or so ago. It was one of the reasons we left the planet when we did. He’s a bounty hunter with the guild. He said a bounty has been put on Alec’s head and everyone in the quadrant is out to get him now.”

  “The guild? Who is it?”

  “Byron.”

  Gar sat up straighter. “You’re kidding. Byron? Big guy, weird silvery eyes? Shoot first, leave other people to pick up the pieces later?”

  Mace smirked. “I see you know him.”

  “He was one of the few people I met during my tenure there that I could tolerate. One of the few I could count on to actually watch my back and not shoot me when I wasn’t looking. He and I ran the occasional mission together.”

  “So you trust him?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. But if your Alec is a former lover of Byron’s and he went through all that trouble to find him, then I would say you’re safe as long as he doesn’t perceive you as a threat.”

  Given Alec’s revelation in the bed, she really wasn’t sure where she stood with either of them any longer. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “The last I’d heard of Byron, he’d taken over running the guild after Krieg’s death. If he’s left Zeten and the guild to go off on his own, there must be a major power struggle happening now to determine who’ll run the show. I’ll have to alert some of our friends to stay extra cautious of guild ships for the next little bit. Any old agreements to look the other way may suddenly be null and void.”

  “Great. One more thing for us to worry about.”

  Gar waved her concern away. “The guild has been around for too many years for it to implode. Someone will step up and fill the void, they always do. Things will settle. Where are you now?”

  “Pymiran sector. Know it?”

  “It’s an old guild safe zone. There are a few planet bases Krieg set up over the years in case the Loyalists got annoyed with him and he had to go on the run. If Byron brought you there, he’ll be taking you to the second planet from the gas giant.”

  She typed in the coordinates. “I see it. I’ll run a scan to make sure things are safe before we get too close. Anything else I should be aware of?”

  “No. Just . . . stay in touch, Mace. In case I need you.”

  He didn’t have to tell her why. “I will. Please try to get some rest. You’re no good to him if you’re sick too.”

  “I will. Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  The channel went black as she ended the call. Dragging her fingers through her hair, she fought the urge to break down in tears. She’d never shied away from any challenge in her life and somehow she’d always managed to come out on top. But this? It was almost too much.

  Faolan couldn’t die. She’d lost too much of her family to bear to lose him too. She wouldn’t let
it happen.

  The door chirped at her, announcing the presence of someone in the main area of the ship. Knowing it was likely Byron, she pulled herself together and tried to figure out how much she should tell him about her connection with Gar.

  She stood and opened the cockpit door, stepping out into the room. Before she had a chance to say a word, a large hand grabbed her and slammed her back against the wall. It took her a second to recognize Byron through his pissed-off expression, as the oxygen rapidly depleted from her brain.

  He held up a datapad for her to see. “What the hell is this?”

  “A datapad?”

  Byron leaned into her body a bit harder. “Don’t be a smart-ass.”

  She managed to suck in a strangled breath. “How the hell am I supposed to know? It’s not turned on.”

  With a single press of his thumb, the screen came to life, revealing a coded document. “This very much looks like a guild bounty warrant.”

  The pad was a leftover from Gar’s old life. “Quite possibly it is.”

  Byron dropped the device to the floor, crowding in close until he filled her vision. “I didn’t have time to really look at the ship when we first got here. But Alec is resting and I was able to check things out. I know this ship and its owner. And you’re not him.” Lifting a blaster to her head, Byron growled. “What have you done with Gar?”

  There were very few people Byron respected in the guild, even fewer he’d come to like. The one fellow hunter he’d managed to develop a friendship of sorts with was Gar Stitt. Byron had teased him, calling him “Ice Man,” trying to force a crack in Stitt’s armor . . . but in the way he’d have teased a little brother, with fondness behind it. When Byron tried to give the younger hunter advice, Gar would refuse to listen to him, usually following the brush-off with a punch. Byron learned early to duck. It was as close to camaraderie as either of them got.

  Then Gar had been given a shit deal and taken advantage of by Jason Krieg, the former head of the guild—but he’d somehow beaten the odds and made an escape. The last time Byron had seen him, Gar had been running away from Krieg’s charred remains with his arms around another man. Byron could have stopped him, but he could tell something had changed in Gar, and it didn’t take a genius to know it had to do with the man he’d been holding.

  The idea that Gar Stitt’s ship had somehow fallen into the hands of this upstart, mercenary female pissed Byron off to no end.

  “I asked you a question.” He wasn’t sure what angered him more, the possibility that Gar was dead or that Mace might have moved on to Alec as her next victim.

  Byron knew he could be intimidating when he wanted to be. Normally, though, those he slammed against walls and threatened to kill didn’t start to smirk and chuckle. Mace looked more than a little amused.

  “You think I did something to Gar?” Mace somehow shook her head, despite the little space she had. “I’ll have to make sure to let him know you care enough to get pissed off on his behalf.”

  Pulling back, he let the blaster tip slide from her head. “You know Gar?”

  Mace rolled her eyes in a hauntingly familiar way. “You could say that. I’m his sister.”

  “What? No, he told me his sister was dead. Dead and burned. He’d seen her corpse.”

  Mace gave him a not so gentle push, giving herself enough space to slip away from the wall and make her way across the room. “Krieg murdered our parents. He would have killed me as well, but I managed to get away when his men came after me. Faolan and his wife grabbed me when they were fleeing the planet and kept me with them.”

  “Faolan? As in Faolan Wolf?” Gar sure knew how to pick them.

  “That’s him.” Mace tucked her hair behind her ears and hooked her thumbs into the top of her pants. “Krieg got another body—I have no idea how and I don’t want to know—and burned it. He convinced Gar it was me and kept him around. Gar didn’t know what had happened until he was sent to bring in Faolan and Krieg attempted to have him killed.”

  He hadn’t known the whole story behind the events that had ended in Krieg’s death, even after he’d let Gar and Faolan escape the planet three years ago. Krieg’s personal records had autodeleted when Byron had tried to break the encryption code. None of the guards knew anything beyond what Krieg had told them.

  Now the pieces began to fall into place. The slight Zeten accent in Mace’s speech. The familiar way she rolled her eyes and the way she attacked everything head-on.

  “So you’re a Stitt as well? The boy continues to surprise me.”

  “Actually it’s Simms. Gar changed his name when Krieg took him in. It was why I wasn’t able to find him.”

  Byron nodded. “So he’s okay, then?”

  Mace turned her face away, but not before he caught the flash of something in her eyes. “Yeah, he’s alive and kicking, still being a pain in my ass.”

  “But?”

  She bit down on her lower lip. When she looked back up, Byron’s throat tightened at her expression. “It’s Faolan.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s sick. Krieg had him dosed with ryana poison. We thought he was going to be okay for at least a while after we found some medicine, but it isn’t helping him anymore. He’s dying.”

  Byron was a bastard. With the exception of Alec, very few people were able to worm their way past his defenses. But standing there, watching Gar’s little sister cry for a man who was slowly being murdered, Byron’s heart broke. He crossed the room and pulled her into an embrace, ignoring the way her body stiffened.

  Finally she relaxed against him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “And that’s why you were with Alec. You were hoping he could work out an antidote.”

  She sniffed, turning her face so her cheek rested against him. “All the information I could find, what little of it there was at least, pointed to this mysterious backwater scientist being the best hope for a cure. I forged the credentials I needed and went to Naveeo to find Alec and help him. But I don’t think we’re going to have time. Faolan’s dying faster than we’d originally thought.”

  Fuck. Of all the concoctions Alec had developed over his years as a Loyalist, ryana was one of the worst. It certainly wiped out the genetically engineered “invasive fungal spore mutations” Alec had designed it to eradicate. But what it did to humans . . . was beyond cruel. Byron hadn’t learned about its use as a slow, painful murder weapon until after he’d left the Loyalists and joined up with the guild. He knew Alec’s motives had been innocent, but even he had briefly hated the man who’d brought that evil stuff into existence.

  “Does Alec know any of this?”

  Mace sniffed again and pulled back. He gave her a minute to compose herself, and ignored the redness around her eyes.

  Finally she shook her head. “No. He doesn’t know. I’m wanted for a few unpleasantries I’ve perpetrated over the years. I couldn’t take the chance he would either turn me in to the authorities, or kick me out the door. And if it got out that Faolan was critically ill, there would be more than a few enemies trying for the opportunity to take his ship.”

  “There’s a safe house in this sector. It was the reason I brought us here.”

  “Gar mentioned it.”

  “You were talking to him?”

  Mace nodded. “I wanted to make sure you weren’t flying me into a trap. I’ve already plotted a course toward the second planet.”

  “You’re efficient, you Simms kids. There’s an old base we can hide out in. This sector is pretty much off the grid for most of the guild now. Hopefully, anyone familiar with it is either dead or not in the least interested in us. It’s been years, but I’m pretty sure there’s a place for Alec to set up a lab. He can make himself a cure for the Brasillian syndrome, or at least whip up a palliative, and the two of you can continue your work to save Faolan.”

  “Is he okay?” Mace sat down on the old couch in the middle of the room. As she spoke, h
e could hear her unspoken questions, her hesitation to ask what she really wanted to know. “Alec, I mean. I hate knowing he punished himself like that. Gods, he could have died and then he would have been no good to anyone.”

  Knowing Mace felt the same way about Alec made Byron hopeful she could eventually look past his being responsible for ryana. Still, if Faolan actually died, there was no telling how she’d react. Despite sympathizing with her, he wouldn’t let her do anything to hurt Alec.

  “He does that. Years ago when I first met him, he was so excited about the science but couldn’t relate to the politics. Smartest man I’ve ever met, but a complete idiot in some ways.”

  “And you looked out for him.”

  Of course, they hadn’t started that way. Byron hadn’t been able to stand being in the same room as Alec when he’d been assigned to the scientist’s protection detail. Alec wasn’t his type at all—too book-smart, and terrible at following simple directions. It wasn’t until the political pressure started to build and Alec realized how dangerous the Loyalist infighting could be that he came to Byron asking for help. Byron started out guiding Alec on how to handle certain members of the council, telling him what to say in certain situations. The more time they spent together, the closer they’d become.

  The first time Alec had kissed him, Byron thought it was nothing more than basic attraction. The first time Alec had dropped to his knees and begged Byron to tell him what to do, he’d known there was a lot more to it than that.

  “I did try to look out for him and give him what he needed. For the record, I’ll do whatever I can to keep him safe.”

  Mace cocked her head and gave him a good hard look. “Do you love him?”

  “There was a time when I thought I might have been able to. I thought he had feelings for me. Now?” He shrugged.

  “Because he ran away?”

  “Because he didn’t trust me to help him.” Gods, he’d been furious for days, long after his incarceration and subsequent dismissal from Loyalist guard detail. It was as if Alec had flown into a black hole. “I still don’t know exactly what happened. And I don’t know how to ask him.”