by Rena Marks
“You won’t,” Amanda said.
“Training will be good for you,” Robyn said. “It’ll take your mind off things.”
Sunny nodded. “That’s what I’ll do. I’ll go find Shawn or Jason. Anyone.”
Without another word, she left the office.
“I don’t know how to help her,” Robyn said.
“I think she’ll always wonder what she can become. Somehow, someway, we need to ease her mind.”
“Do you think she’s really afraid of hurting Beast? They’ve become close.”
“I imagine it’s a possibility.”
“He’d be the perfect one to monitor her. His massive strength means he can take a lot more than the normal person.”
“But he’s the last one she’d put in harm’s way. We’ll have to think of something else. Hell, for all we know, she could waste years on security detail and nothing would ever happen as far as her soul-sucking capabilities.”
“She’d be isolating herself for nothing.”
“In her mind, it’s not for nothing. It’s a precaution, a just-in-case.”
“Maybe she wouldn’t mind being tagged?” Amanda winced. “I know how it sounds, but remote tagging means we could always track her and monitor her biorhythms for minute changes.”
“It would have to be her decision,” Robyn agreed. “Why don’t you ask her?”
“I will. In the meantime, I need to get going. I have three doctor friends who should be arriving. I’d like to show them around Xenia and see if they’re tempted to remain.”
Robyn nodded. “I’m going to check on Steele. We’ll see if we can catch up to you and the doctors.”
“Sounds good.”
Chapter Five
“Baby? Are you still here?”
Steele was quiet in their apartment even though the life signs switch on the wall showed a person in the bedroom. Turning the corner, Robyn saw Steele spread-eagled on the bed. His eyes stared straight ahead, vacant. Robyn knew he was in the midst of communicating telepathically with another Xeno Sapien. She crawled next to him and waited, stroking his abs absently until he came back to her.
“We have a problem,” he said, his deep voice sounding monotone from the link he’d been in. “Blaze is being trained to help man the front gates. He thinks the excitement was too much for him. He collapsed, writhing in pain emanating from his back. I can’t sense why—he’s put up blockers unconsciously from the excessive pain. They’re trying to get him onto a stretcher to bring him in, but they have to load him onto his belly.”
“I’ll go find Amanda. I’d just left her; she went to meet a few friends who are doctors. Do you want to stay here and communicate with him?”
“Yes.” Steele cocked his head to the side. “My gift is growing. I no longer just talk with someone inside my head. Now I find I can get pulled into that person’s vision, so it feels as though I am there, witnessing a movie. I should like to explore that option.”
“Are you the only one this is developing with?” Robyn cocked her head.
“So far, yes. All the others are only speaking telepathically.”
She kissed him and rolled from the bed. Near the front door, she picked up a hair band, twisting her long hair into a messy, looped bun on top of her head as she headed down to the main wing.
Once in the main wing, Amanda was nowhere to be found. Once again, it reminded her of their need to communicate between them. Robyn headed over to her computer and tracked her on the cameras, locating her talking to one of the guards at the front gates. She called the gate and left instructions for the guard to tell Amanda to immediately return to the main hub. While she waited, she took the watches she’d bought during the excursion to pierce Lily’s nose. She used a small-sized screwdriver to open the back covers and pulled out the tiny microchip. She replaced it with one of hers, already programmed to scramble frequencies so no one could listen in. But the coolest feature was that they worked like linked twins, picking up on the same frequency. She and Amanda would always be on the same page with these.
She screwed the back covers on and attached one to her wrist. She picked up the other and headed out, waiting for Amanda.
AS SOON AS ROBYN LEFT their suite, Steele opened his pathway to Blaze. They were setting him on a stretcher carefully, leaving his back exposed. He’d ripped off his own shirt, the remaining tatters hanging in shreds from his waist. He writhed on the backboard with lumps of movement wriggling over his back like a being about to escape.
Steele tried not to let his horror come through the pathway.
What is it? Blaze managed to gasp. I can’t see it.
“It” was a giant parasite, fighting to break free. But he didn’t say it.
It’s fine, Steele assured him. Just hold still. Let them get you into the medical wing. You’re heavy, and when you writhe, they’re afraid you’ll slip from the backboard.
He watched Blaze hold still as the others picked up the backboard and carried him across the walkway toward the building.
“Jason?” A small blond woman wearing a pantsuit of all one color stood with two males.
“Irina! Have you seen Amanda?”
“No, we just arrived. She’s going to meet us here. Can I help?”
Jason shrugged helplessly. “We don’t know what happened. He collapsed in pain emanating from his back. He tore his own shirt off, and we found...this.” He gestured to the rolling beasts under Blaze’s skin.
The woman called Irina leaned down to where Blaze’s face was turned to the side. “Hello. I’m Dr. Irina Mescar, and I’m going to help you, okay? What’s your name?”
“B—Blaze.”
“Nice to meet you, Blaze. My fingers might be cold.”
She removed the satchel that was tied around her shoulder, handing it to Jason. Apparently used to helping his sister, Jason got busy unzipping it while Dr. Irina ran her fingers across the creatures that threatened to erupt from his back. Against the reddened color of his bulging skin, her fingers appeared bone-white.
“Feels hot,” she muttered. “Get me a temperature strip. Oh, hold on...not yet,” she said to Blaze, holding her hands flat over a roving piece of gigantic worm. Her hands seemed to soothe the monster that threatened to rip open his skin.
Jason tore a small piece of tape from a roll, handing her the piece attached to his index finger. She reached for it and taped it across his back.
“It’s his skin that’s warm, not what’s underneath,” she said.
“What’s in me?” Blaze spat out.
“Nothing horrible,” Dr. Irina said, rubbing his back comfortingly. “I’ll take care of you, Blaze. I promise.”
Blaze seemed to calm under her touch.
“Scalpel,” she said to Jason.
Jason looked at her, and an understanding seemed to pass between them. Steele wished he was there in person so he wouldn’t have to be careful to shield his horror from Blaze.
He watched her long fingers grip the scalpel expertly. She didn’t seem to be nervous at all.
“You’re sure?” Jason mouthed.
She nodded confidently. “Blaze, this won’t hurt terribly. Your skin is feverish, which will block the pain receptors. Instead, it’ll feel more like relief.”
“What are you letting out?” he gasped.
“You. But you’ll feel some blood and pus escaping from the wound. The floor’s going to be messy. Hope you have friends who won’t mind the cleanup,” she smiled grimly and pressed into him with the scalpel. “Hold as still as you can,” she gritted.
It took effort for Blaze to hold still under the blade, but Steele could see what she was doing. She was cutting a perfectly straight line from his shoulder to his waist on the right side of his back. The skin gaped apart, and a bony protrusion escaped on a flood of bloody liquid. What the hell was it? A parasite? The thing moved, stretching out with the help of Dr. Irina, fluttering overhead, dropping gelatinous gunk off to where wet feathers could finally be seen.
A wing.
“Blaze, how are you feeling?”
“Better,” he said, and Steele could tell he was telling the truth. There was still excruciating pain from his left side, but not even the open wound ached on his right.
“Okay, we’re letting the other one out. Hold still for me again, please? The scar that I cut will always be the exit wound for your wings, so I’d like to get it as straight as possible.”
“No need to make me pretty, doc,” Blaze muttered.
“That won’t be hard to do.” Steele barely caught her soft reply.
The blade sliced into the top layer of his skin. More bloody gel erupted, and gushed onto the floor. She helped the delicate bone extend from the wound, where it shook itself free of the liquid that weighed it down.
From the table, Blaze groaned in relief.
“Amazing,” Dr. Irina said. “The edges of his skin around the cuts? They’re already knitting themselves around his wings. It’ll be interesting to see if they stay erect, or if they shrink and wrap back inside.”
“If I keep an erection for longer than four hours, I promise to see a doc,” Blaze said from the table. “Will you be available?”
He missed the flush that rolled across Dr. Irina’s face.
Jason smothered a grin. “She’s talking about your wings, bonehead.”
“So was I.” Blaze’s voice was unapologetic, now that the danger had passed. “Honestly, I think they just needed out, this first time. I can feel the blood flow letting up.”
It was true. His wings did appear to be shrinking slowly, not quite as magnificent as they had appeared.
Two more people came running up, Amanda and Robyn. “Looks like we missed out on all the action. But not any longer. Robyn came up with these cool watches so we can always find and notify each other of emergencies. Sorry, Blaze. How are you, buddy?” Amanda leaned down to talk to him.
Robyn held out her hand to the new doctor. “Hi, I’m Robyn.”
Dr. Irina was a mess, soaked in the wing fluid Blaze had shaken from his feathers. Her blond hair appeared darker and pink with blood. She held out her hand, realized she still held the scalpel and quickly passed it to her left hand to shake Robyn’s hand. “I’m Dr. Irina Mescar. I went to school with Amanda. She told me you needed a few more doctors here, and I was supposed to meet you in the main lobby. I had hoped to look a little more presentable.”
Robyn smiled, and the dimples that he loved so much pressed into her cheeks. “I think you just made an awesome impression, considering you’d never even seen a Xeno Sapien before today but jumped right in to successfully treat one.”
“How did you know it was wings trying to escape?” Jason asked. “The rest of us thought it was a squirmy alien tentacle...complete with a big sucker-mouth...”
“Hey,” Blaze said softly. His wings continued to shrink, and Dr. Irina absentmindedly stroked them, encouraging them to fold into themselves.
“His temperature. The edge of the strip shows his normal temperature, which runs hot at ninety-nine degrees. The center of the strip showed one hundred and one, but the other end of the strip showed whatever was inside was also at ninety-nine. Which means it was likely his own body part because it was at the same temperature. Only his skin was hot, meaning there was an infection. His wings needed out.”
“Blaze has DNA from an avian humanoid. Because he was wingless, we assumed his human DNA made it so that the wings never developed.”
“We never thought they’d develop under his skin,” Robyn added.
His wings had shrunk enough to fit under the flaps of skin she’d just cut. “Blaze, do you want me to try tucking them back in?” Dr. Irina asked.
“Yes. I think they like the warmth inside my body.”
“If the edges of his skin are knitting,” Robyn said, “I imagine the slices will close. Does that mean the next time his wings want to emerge, they’ll rip through the scabs?”
“I think so,” Dr. Irina said, tucking one of the wings back in. Someone brought her a wet cloth, so she cleaned the gunk off his back. “It’s why I wanted to get the cuts as clean as possible. The scars will always remain, and he’s so fair-skinned.”
“Wait ‘til you see his hair all cleaned up. It looks darker now that it’s wet, but there’s a reason why we named our little ginger Blaze,” Robyn teased.
Amanda reached out with a small device, smearing a sample of his gel onto it. “This wing fluid is an antibiotic gel. That’s why the edges of his skin are healing so quickly. You are amazing,” she said to Blaze.
Irina worked on his other wing, tucking it inside carefully and cleaning off the skin around it. “Oh, my word, look at that. The skin on his right side has already knit.”
The three females leaned closer, which made Jason lean back. “You’re in your element, aren’t you, buddy?”
“Don’t hate me because I can fly,” Blaze said. Despite the words, his voice was weak with exhaustion.
“Let’s get him to his quarters so he can shower and rest,” Jason said to Amanda. “You three can look him over there.”
“Let me show Irina to the guest quarters,” Amanda said. “Robyn, can you go with Blaze to his room?”
Robyn nodded.
Two of the Xeno Sapiens helped Blaze up, but it was hard to know how to help him. They couldn’t wrap an arm around his waist without separating his wounds. They couldn’t extend his arms over their shoulders without separating his wounds. In the end, Blaze held his arms close to his body and they took his elbows to help him get to his room.
“Steele is still with me,” Blaze said to Robyn, looking over his shoulder.
“This is the longest he’s ever held it. Tell him to break it off. He’s going to be exhausted.”
Tell her I will come down in person.
“He said he’ll meet us in my room.”
Chapter Six
By the time Steele entered Blaze’s suite, two of his brothers, Reson and Covet, were seated in the small living quarters, dwarfing it with their large presence.
“Dr. Robyn’s helping him bathe. It was too crowded in there,” Covet said.
Steele moved to the hallway where he could see Blaze seated on the edge of the tub, Robyn rubbing a washcloth carefully over the back of his neck. His hair had been washed and was back to the fiery blaze that earned him his name. Of all the Xeno Sapiens, Blaze could definitely pass for human if one didn’t already know he was an other. Right now, with his back to the door, it still looked sore and reddened, his wings tucked inside the swollen bulge.
“Turning a corner to see the view of your ass is going to give me nightmares,” Steele said.
Though he looked exhausted, Blaze tossed a smile over his shoulder. “I can’t help it if your sweet little woman wanted to get me naked.”
“You’re just in time,” Robyn smiled. “I was about to call for muscle.”
“Yeah, let Steele do it,” a voice called from the kitchen. “We were thinking we’d rather fix him a snack.”
That seemed to worry Robyn, and she bit her lip. The Xeno Sapiens were fascinated with cooking, and it didn’t always go well. They’d been restricted to only cooking with a human present.
Steele winked. “I’ve got this, precious. Go keep them from burning the place down.”
“You’re perfect,” she whispered, standing up and handing him the small washcloth. Blaze stood, painfully slow.
“You forgot to dry my dick,” he called out to Robyn’s rapidly retreating back. From the kitchen, Steele could hear Covet and Reson snicker in deep tones.
“Steele will get to it,” she yelled back. “Oh, hello, Dr. Irina,” she said loudly. “Nice to see you again.”
“Shit, man.” Blaze paled, his tiny freckles standing out against his skin. “Grab me a towel to put around my hips.”
“Relax,” Steele said. “She’s a doctor. She has no interest in your dick.”
“Pfft. Robyn’s a doctor, too, and she was interested in your ugly. Han
d me the damn towel.”
Steele tried to hold back his grin as Blaze tucked it around his groin. His arms stretched better now that his back was more healed, so Steele looped one around his shoulders to steer Blaze from the small bathroom and into his bedroom. Once there, he grabbed a pair of loose sweats and tossed them at him.
“Underwear, too!” Blaze snapped. “She’s going to be in the same room, running her long, sexy fingers down my back. I need layers to keep my dick down.”
Steele shrugged and grabbed a pair from a bottom drawer. “You know, going commando was how I snagged Robyn. But you do your own thing.”
“If it was just her and me, I’d consider it. But the rest of you knuckleheads will be snickering. Now help me get my foot in. I can’t bend yet.”
Steele grunted and subjected himself to an awkward position of bending at the waist and trying not to look at the crown jewels of the avian species as he tried to loop the boxers around one foot.
“Oh,” he said in surprise. “They’re blue. Your balls.” He was aware of the horrified pitch in his voice.
“Do you think she’ll like them?”
“Um...I don’t know.”
Anyone else?
Renegade’s thoughts came across first, like a calming big brother. I’m sure she will.
If not, ask her if she likes big black ones with a golden dick, Beast said.
Shut up! A few voices sounded simultaneously, so it was hard to decipher who all they were.
That’s not funny, Beast. At the sound of Sunny’s voice, Beast went strangely silent.
I’m sure someone will find them sexy, Blaze.
Lily! Get off the adult communication.
That kid. Steele wasn’t sure how she managed it; the other teens couldn’t eavesdrop without them knowing. Steele turned his head to the side as he pulled the boxers up Blaze’s waist. “You look very handsome,” he said, trying to reassure him.
“Just help me get my sweats on.”