Harmony dried them both off and put their clothes back on. She found an extra shirt in Tanner’s saddlebag and hauled him up to put it on. “I’m so worried about you,” she said, gently caressing his face.
Harmony squinted at the setting suns, dreading the night that was to come. Predators, smelling both the dead hydrocore and Tanner’s wound, would be on the hunt tonight and she didn’t expect to get much sleep fending them off.
“I’m fine, baby,” he said, forcing himself to stand up. His long brown hair hung in thick locks around his face and shoulders, tearing drops of water.
Harmony’s heart twisted in fear that he might be too sick to make it back in time. What am I going to do? I’m not a doctor. We need to move faster.
Tanner struggled to climb up the embankment but didn’t have the strength. He collapsed to his knees and snarled in pain. She climbed up to help him but the ground was so slick, they both ended up sliding back a few feet. Harmony had an idea.
“Don’t get up, just wait,” she said, scampering up to find the hyperia. The animal, deciding it was on its own for dinner, had pulled Tanner’s rations bag off the saddle and was trying to tear it open. Harmony stomped the ground to startle it but the animal only hissed at her and continued its pillage. She backed away and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. These useless beasts are such mercenaries. All they care about is food.
Another idea occurred to her. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a dry piece of meat and held it out to the hyperia. His nostrils flared and he quickly trotted over. Harmony forced herself to stay put as the creature approached with too much enthusiasm for her liking. Tearing off a piece of the meat, she dropped it on the ground a few feet down the hill. The hyperia grabbed the treat in his razor-sharp teeth and chewed it slowly. Step by step Harmony lured the creature down the hill until it was close enough for Tanner to grab the saddle. Using the saddle as a ladder, he climbed up onto the mount’s back and rode up to the trail. Harmony joined him a moment later.
Tanner smiled at her. “That was a big step for you considering how much you hate animals.”
She let out a huge sigh. “Yeah, I’m making great strides.”
He glanced over at the last rays of sunlight and frowned. “We’re going to have to make camp here, aren’t we?”
“I’m afraid so. It’s too dangerous to travel at night. Between your wound and Prime’s carcass, this little hunting party probably smells like a banquet to the local predators. I think this is a good spot since we’ve got quite a bit of tree cover. It’ll be easier to defend against unwanted company.”
“Well, we’d better get our camp made.” Tanner eased himself down and held onto the hyperia for support. “Cuz I got a bad feeling this is gonna to be one hell of a long night.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Harmony collected as much firewood as she could gather, lit a fire and hung a small cooking pot over it. Working from memory of an old cooking class she once took at her Kirillian private school, she collected several herbs, a wild root vegetable and the dried meat in Tanner’s ration pouch. She tossed all the ingredients into the pot with some river water and let it cook for a while.
Tanner seemed a little better since she’d doused him in the cold water but the infection was far from gone. She sat down next to him with her legs crossed and removed the bandage covering the wound. It looked deep and was still seeping blood. She was going to have to stitch it.
She glanced over at Prime bundled in the netting. There he was, the object of a two-year obsession, finally hers. He’s slowing us down. We would probably be moving three times faster without him. But if I leave him, all our suffering would have been for nothing. I don’t know what to do.
Tanner reached out and stroked her hair. It was such a warm and gentle gesture it made her freeze. She glanced into his eyes and saw worry, but not for himself—he was concerned for her. “I just need to rest for another minute and I can help you gather some more wood.”
“Seriously, Tanner, you’re very ill. Just relax, I can take care of both of us.”
His eyes were bloodshot and his lower lids were rimmed in dark pink. He blinked several times like he wasn’t sure where he was. “I’ve been having the strangest dreams lately…”
Harmony fought back tears. The fever was starting to affect him again. Too bad her Flesh Mend patches wouldn’t work on a human. She’d have to rely on more primitive treatment methods and hope for the best. Opening her medic kit, she fished out an antiseptic wipe, a needle and some surgical thread. The antiseptic contained alcohol and was going to hurt like hell but simple soap and water wasn’t helping to clean the injury anymore. “This is going to hurt a lot,” she said, trying to prepare him. “I’m sorry but I don’t have anything for the pain.”
He let out a deep, heavy sigh. “I can take it.”
She nodded grimly. “I know you can.”
“I dreamed we were living on a luxury space station near Kirillia and we had kids, and I think we were married…” He babbled on without a pause, speaking in a long stream of endless thought. He was so absorbed in telling the details of his story he appeared to forget she was there.
She disinfected the wound, threaded the needle and leaned over the gash in his leg.
He hissed and bared his teeth in pain as the alcohol settled into the ruined flesh. “Wait,” he said, waving her hands off. “I want to say something before you start.”
She angrily wiped a tear from her eye. What she wouldn’t give not to have to be the one to stitch him up. The thought was tearing her up inside and all she wanted to do was get this over with. “What?”
“I know I’m sick and may not make it, but I want to say this while I still can.” He seemed to be drawing from an inner strength that was threatening to abandon him at any moment. “I’m in love with you, Harmony, and it’s never only been about sex. I admit that at first I wanted you to fall for me so I could gut you. I hated you because you were Kirillian but after a while none of that mattered. The truth is I’ve loved you from the first time we met. I’ve never said that to another woman. I’ve only ever felt this way for you.”
Her heart twisted painfully inside her chest. More tears fell from her eyes. “Please stop talking so I can concentrate. You’re going to be fine. Don’t worry, I’ll get you back.”
“I’m sorry I fucked the hunt up for you.”
“You didn’t fuck it up. You saved my life and I’m glad you came for me. If I hadn’t been so stupid and arrogant I would have brought you with me in the first place and none of this would have happened. We could have caught Prime together.”
“You didn’t need me. You could have done it alone.”
“No, I think it’s pretty obvious that I couldn’t. I let myself get too close to this one and lost my objectivity. He should have just stayed another skip but instead I made him the enemy. If you hadn’t come along when you did, Prime would have killed me and that would have been it. He’d still be out there wreaking havoc and you’d be single again. Let’s face it, you’re not getting any younger. I may be your last chance at love.”
Tanner coughed out a laugh. “Why don’t you leave me here in the morning and take him back. I’ll be okay until you return.” He was getting weaker and could barely keep his eyes open.
“Now you’re just rambling like a lunatic. I’m not leaving you.” Harmony tried to swallow the huge lump in her throat. “You’re my partner and I love you.”
Tanner squinted at her as if the act of keeping his eyes open had become too much for him. He gave her a crooked grin.
Harmony took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Lifting the needle, she pushed it through the top of the gash, dragging the first stitch into place. Tanner moaned but didn’t move.
One down, twenty or so more to go.
After an eternity, Harmony finished and leaned back on her haunches to look at her handiwork. Tanner had mercifully slipped into unconsciousness and except for the occasional shudder he’d tol
erated the stitching fairly well. The wound was red and angry but at least it had stopped bleeding. The horizontal gash had managed to bisect one of his alien tattoos and her crude sewing skills had done a pretty horrendous job putting it back together. Breaking out some clean bandages, she wrapped the wound, managed to pour some of the soup down his throat and covered him with a blanket.
The three moons were partially obscured by some low clouds and the temperature had mercifully lowered to a manageable eighty degrees. Tanner seemed to be resting easier with the milder weather and Harmony was grateful. He had mumbled something about waking him up to relieve her for watch and she patronizingly agreed that she would. It was a lie of course. He was in no condition for anything.
Then she settled in to wait for the first scavengers to appear.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The poison in Tanner’s blood brought a sickness with it that was difficult to fight. It moved through him in nauseous waves, stripping his awareness and plunging him into strange fever dreams. These mental blinks had becomes so frequent he was having a hard time figuring out what was real and what was the fever.
In his altered consciousness, he lived other lives in minutes, lives he missed when the waking world came to call. He dreamed he and Harmony were married and living on a lush garden planet not that different from pictures of Eden he’d seen in books as a child. They roamed the forests hand in hand, their children (all five of them) following in their wake, giggling and hiding behind trees to surprise them along the way.
Tanner twisted in his sleep, waking just enough to feel the agonizing pain in his leg. He was sure he was going to lose it—if he survived this at all. Through a blurry haze he could see Harmony kneeling next to him, tilting his head up and pouring cool water down his throat. He tried to tell her how much he loved her, how deeply she was woven into his soul, but no words came out.
He licked his lips and tried to form words in his head. “Leave me here. Take the hydrocore back to the city. The longer this trek takes, the more chance you have of losing the carcass to something big and hungry. You can always come back for me later.”
She hesitated before speaking and her lips moved into a determined line. “I can’t do that, Tanner. I already told you I’m not leaving you. Now drop it and go back to sleep. Stop waking up just to irritate me.”
“The damn thing’s going rot before you can collect the bounty. I thought you wanted to get back your perfect catch record? This is what you’ve been working toward for the past two years. You can’t just piss it away.”
“I don’t care about any of that right now.”
Tanner placed his hand on the side of her face. “I’m really sick, baby. I think we both know I’m not going to make it out of here alive.”
Her bright copper eyes flashed in anger. “Don’t say stupid crap like that. You are going to make it out of here and that’s that. Now shut up and quit sapping your strength with your never-ending bullshit.”
“Okay, but first I want to say I love you, Harmony. I know you don’t feel the same way about me, but I wanted you to know I meant it.”
Harmony leaned down and placed her cheek against his. “I believe you, Tanner, and I love you too. But don’t you give up, you bastard. You’re going to live and I’m going to get you out of here no matter what I have to do. So just hang on.”
Tanner smiled. She was such an awesome woman. He wondered if she meant that part about loving him. Even if she was lying it made him feel good. Too bad he wouldn’t be around much longer. The two of them as a couple would have been really great. He closed his eyes and let the fever drag him off to the land of strange and haunting dreams.
Night descended quickly. Harmony kept the fire fueled, checking her timepiece every few seconds as she prayed for morning to come. This was a most dangerous time and she struggled to stay awake as exhaustion saturated her aching muscles. Somewhere off in the distance a sharp roar tore through the trees, causing a group of night birds to flee farther up into the canopy. Harmony gripped her buck knife tighter and nestled closer to Tanner. Oh, how she wished she had a blast weapon. Damn these AEssyrians and their ridiculous laws.
Tanner, who’d been sleeping fitfully since she’d fed him, heard the noise and twitched but didn’t wake up. That worried her more than the predators did. Usually everything woke him up.
Harmony got up and dusted her trousers off, listening intently for anything moving in the woods. She heard nothing so she went over to inspect Prime.
In death the normally rich brown exoskeleton was fading to dusty beige. Small cracks had begun to form on the carapace and a few layers had rubbed off from the friction of the net. The one eye he had left had sunk into a dark pool of tarlike liquid. He didn’t look like much dead, but the sight of him filled her with a great, warm pride. There he was?Prime, the one that got away, curled up in a tight death ball and wrapped in her capture net. He was even beginning to smell.
Wouldn’t it figure that even deceased he was a problem to her and a major reason why it was taking them so long to get back. This bounty had consumed two years of her life and it had finally come to an end. But now the end she had always envisioned was slipping away. Prime once again was going to snatch victory from her.
Because of his size and the net around him, Prime was a terrible burden to drag. The netting keep getting caught on jungle floor, hooking on fallen branches and jagged rocks. Each time he got hung up Harmony would have to stop the hyperia, jump down and untangle him. Deep down she knew she had to cut him loose, but if she did, not only would she not get paid for his capture, she’d lose face in front of the AEssyrians—not to mention how angry Edna would be. It was hard enough to earn respect doing this job; she hated to have a perceived failure haunt her for the rest of her career.
Harmony walked back and checked on Tanner. He had another fever and his lips looked pale. A light sheen of sweat covered his face and chest but his hands were icy to the touch. A moment of anguish slammed into her heart, threatening to make her cry but she fought it off. Tears wouldn’t help here. Then something bumped her from behind.
Harmony turned around, surprised to see the hyperia standing close to her, nudging her with his muzzle. She glanced warily at its mouthful of sharp teeth and waved her hands as though it was a cat relieving itself in her garden. “Shoo,” she said, backing up and rummaging in her pockets for some dried meat to toss. Anything to get it away from her. “Go away. Leave me alone. I don’t have any food for you.”
But the creature wasn’t listening. The more Harmony backed up, the more it tried to get close to her. Then she heard the crisp snapping of dry brush and the hyperia pinned its ears back and hissed, backing as far from the source of the noise as it could. Fearing the animal might bolt, she grabbed its lead line and wrapped it around her fist a few times.
From out of the bushes behind the hyperia emerged an AEssyrian Spotted Lion. It was a massive beast, all black with faded dapple spots covering its back and a thin mane. Its burnt-orange eyes blazed with a marauding hunger and locked on Harmony. At first she thought it was after Prime but when it continued to stalk closer, its head low and menacing, she knew it wanted Tanner and she was in the way.
Harmony gripped her knife so hard her knuckles throbbed. The hyperia gave several hard jerks on the lead line, frantically trying to run. The rope bit into the flesh of her hand but she held fast, not taking her eyes off the lion. When the hyperia accepted it was stuck, it turned on the lion, hissing, and stomped its feet to drive it off.
This was no time to show fear. If the predator sensed she was afraid, it would definitely attack. Fortunately for Harmony, she was an alien species and the lion was unfamiliar with her scent. That uncertainty caused him to hesitate and stop his advance.
Harmony pressed her advantage and rushed the lion, startling it with a roar of her own. The beast flinched and took a few uncertain steps back, glancing anxiously between her and the hyperia, who continued to hiss and emit a few growls of its o
wn. She came at him again and again, yelling and waving her knife with such ferocity, the lion finally broke off and disappeared back into the jungle.
Harmony turned to make sure the hyperia was still with her. The animal was and even came over to watch the woods where the lion had vanished.
She gave it a cautious pat on the head. “You’re a big help when the danger is gone. But at least you did warn me.” She reached into the saddlebag and got out a few pieces of dried meat. The creature gulped them down gratefully.
She crouched down by Tanner and checked him for fever. He was a little warmer than the last time she’d felt him. If she didn’t get them back soon, he wasn’t going to survive. Harmony settled down behind Tanner and pulled him back against her, wrapping her arms around his chest. Then she buried her cheek in his soft dark hair. She inhaled his rich masculine scent and all she wanted to do was hold him and make everything all right.
A strange calm took over. As she waited for the suns to make an appearance, she had a moment of emotional connection. Ever since childhood she had been ill at ease with her feelings and now suddenly she felt the need to embrace them. After all, Tanner had always done it, why not her?
Feeling the warmth of his skin against hers, she realized she’d found the missing piece in her life and she’d be damned if she was going to lose it. It was as if all the secrets of the universe were revealed for the first time.
That was it. She’d made her mind up. There was only one thing left to do come first light and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Once the first hint of light colored the sky, Harmony was up and putting the saddle on the hyperia. She didn’t want to have to ride this thing, but she was completely out of options. Tanner needed to get back now. After she’d packed up everything, she came over to get him up.
She shook his shoulder. “Tanner?”
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