Taylor's hand remained perfectly steady. "I’m her guard, and she’s my charge to look after. Let go of her before I kill all of you. Don’t think for a second the brass cares what I do to you." It would be too easy to blow their heads off and be done with it. Roberts would not care. Neither would Hunt. They had broken into a secure room and almost jeopardized their most valuable war asset. She had every right to kill them.
Instead of yielding, Bower yanked Maia closer, taking hold of her other arm. "She’s an ikthian, Taylor. They live for fucking. Are you going to deny her something she’s probably aching for right now?" He leaned over Maia’s shoulder, letting his lips trail close to her neck and over her energy suppressor. Maia flinched away.
Taylor’s grip on the gun wavered. Bower had her enraged. She did not trust herself to make a clean shot, one that would leave Maia entirely unharmed. But before she could act, Bower went stiff. His grip on Maia loosened, and he fell to the floor, scrambling across the carpet. His eyes flew open, rolling wildly with fear, and his limbs began to jerk. He screamed and clawed at his skin, as if he was trying to tear it off and rip out whatever was underneath. The sound reminded Taylor of Jackson.
The other two soldiers backed as far away from Maia as possible, sprinting for the door. Taylor did not move to stop them. Instead, she stared up at Maia. Her silvery skin shimmered as if she was covered in sweat. Taylor forgot to breathe. She was terrified that Maia might turn on her next. Maybe the ikthian had decided to make her escape, and the last thing she would know before she died was the agony of the toxins as they seeped into her blood, just like the rest of her squad.
Instead, Maia staggered backwards. The collar around her neck began to spark, and she let out a yell. She took a deep, heaving breath, staggering over to the couch and collapsing onto it. She tugged uselessly at the collar, and a pained expression crossed her face. Her muscles began twitching, and her eyes rolled back into her head.
Taylor’s fear was quickly replaced with concern. She hurried over to the couch, watching helplessly as the painful shocks of the collar made Maia’s limbs jump. She thought she caught the scent of searing flesh, and she was horrified when she realized that the skin around Maia’s throat had been cooked down to a raw, ugly shade of purple. When Maia stopped moving, Taylor reached to check her pulse, only stopping herself at the last moment. She looked at Maia's chest instead. There, she could see her heart beating rapidly but steadily just above the dip in her throat.
Deciding that Maia would last the few minutes it would take to get the first aid kit, Taylor hurried back down the hallway. She tore through the bedroom and into the bathroom, barely stopping long enough to open the door. She fumbled through the medicine cabinet, and her hands shook as she pulled out the first aid kit. Taylor checked on Maia again as soon as she returned to the couch, and was relieved to see that the spasms had stopped. Maia's brow was still knitted with pain, and she had not regained consciousness, but otherwise, she seemed all right.
Although her first instinct was to remove the toxins from Maia's skin and begin treating the burn around her neck, Taylor knew that she had to take care of Bower first. She headed towards his limp form, but stopped when her foot kicked a discarded hall pass. It was probably how Bower had broken in. She picked it up, frowning when she noticed the name ‘Bouchard’ written beneath an unpleasantly familiar photograph.
Taylor pocketed the card and covered the last few steps between them. Bower was still on the ground, but he was slowly regaining consciousness. Angry, slick patches of red had been burned into his flesh, obviously from Maia's poison. Taylor did not know whether to be relieved or disappointed that she had not killed him. Taylor dangled the passcard in front of him. "You know stealing is wrong, don’t you?"
Bower glared at her, but he did not make any move to retrieve it. He spat on the floor to clear his mouth, limbs still trembling. "So what are you going to do about it? Report me?" His words were slurred from whatever Maia had done to him, and his eyes were cloudy with pain.
Instead of leading him on further, Taylor tossed the card to him. "I’ll let you return this to him however you want. You get out of here, and never come near the prisoner again. Nobody needs to find out what happened, especially the part where you got your ass beaten by an ikthian in a fully functioning collar."
Bower did not respond. Defeated, he staggered to his feet and dragged himself into the hallway, falling back to his knees more than once when his shaking legs gave out. Taylor waited for the door to shut and watched the lift descend all the way before returning to her quarters, and Maia.
Chapter Twenty Three
Taylor returned to find Maia still passed out on the couch. Her silvery-white skin was bruised in several places, and jagged scratch marks cut into the skin of her cheek. Apparently, there had been quite a fight before her arrival. The worst injuries lay around her neck, right underneath the collar. The top layer of skin had burned away, leaving welts and a ring of cauterized flesh where the collar had reacted.
Taylor deactivated the suppressor and carefully pried it off of Maia's throat, trying to do as little damage possible. She had seen worse on her tours of duty, but this was a major wound for a civilian to experience, even an ikthian. She dug out an application of antibacterial and injected the serum into Maia's shoulder. Aside from a few shuddering breaths, Maia did not react. Next, she ripped open a packet of topical gel and rubbed into the wound around Maia's neck, careful not to touch any of her flesh. The slick, oily coating on her skin seemed to have evaporated, but Taylor did not want to chance it.
In just a few minutes, Taylor could see an improvement. Maia's complexion looked better, and her breathing returned to normal. She slept peacefully rather than lying in an unconscious heap due to shock. The injection Taylor gave was a rapid healing agent that was primarily used to keep soldiers from blacking out from bullet wounds, though the damage done to Maia’s neck had been worse than a good, cauterized shot to the leg would have been.
When Maia let out a groan and began to stir, Taylor sighed with relief. She had been worried about Maia, more than just for the sake of her job. Maia opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling for several long seconds before looking at Taylor. She drew in a shuddering breath and tried to sit up, but quickly settled back down. With some effort, she reached up and touched her throat, groaning when her fingers came into contact with the tender, still healing skin.
"Take it easy," Taylor said. "You’re lucky you’re not dead."
Maia gave a weak nod. "It felt as though I might have been for a moment. Thank you for helping me. I assume I did not recover on my own."
Taylor smiled, pleased to hear that Maia could still speak without much difficulty. "Yes. I helped you after I took out the trash. Those men won’t bother you again."
Maia did not acknowledge her statement right away. First, she pulled herself up into a slouched position on the couch. "They were animals."
Taylor did not know how to respond to the charged emotion in Maia’s voice. There was something strangely familiar about it, but she could not quite place where she had heard that tone before. She shook herself, putting the question aside for later. "There were supposed to be more guards here, people I trust. I won’t let this happen again."
"I know you won’t," Maia murmured. Taylor's relieved smile became a frown as Maia closed her eyes, probably gathering her strength before attempting to sit up again. "What happened while I was passed out?"
"I went to get a first aid kit. Once I checked to see that you weren’t dead, I made sure Bower and his goons got out of here quick. Whatever you did to him worked, because he was screaming like he was going to die." Taylor was unable to hide the admiration in her voice. She had seen ikthian combatants in action before on the battlefield, and had always had a wary respect for their innate abilities, but she had never expected to see the same from Maia. For a moment, she wondered why. Perhaps it was because, sometimes, at least, she viewed Maia as more human than ikthian.
Taylor nodded, remembering the way Bower had twitched and writhed on the ground as the poison flooded his system. "I think he got the message. Anyway, we’re in a stalemate now. They broke in here and threatened the safety of a valuable prisoner of war…but I'm worried they might guess that we’ve been..." Taylor’s voice trailed off, but Maia seemed to realize what she meant.
"Are you afraid that they will tell your generals what we have been doing?"
Taylor sighed. "A little. I’m worried that they’ll strip me of my rank and assign someone else to guard you." She left the worry that another guard would treat Maia poorly go unvoiced. She did not want to scare the ikthian right after she had being assaulted.
"I do not want another guard," Maia said, but the words came out scratchy, and she raised her hand to her throat. Apparently, some of the pain was inside as well as outside.
Taylor placed a hand on Maia’s shoulder. "Here, I’ll get you some water. You probably need it."
"Do we have any leftover food?" Maia asked. Taylor noticed the pleading look in her eyes. She stood up and headed back to the bedroom. A few moments later, she returned with a full glass of water and a box filled with rations. Maia drank half of the glass before setting it aside and opening up the box of food.
"Thank you," she breathed, picking up the first thing she could reach and biting into it. Taylor watched her devour the sandwich before moving onto another. She would need to get more food after Maia finished.
"It’s not a problem," Taylor said. "If you have everything you need, I’m going to make a call." Maia only made a vague gesture with her hand as she continued devouring the meal.
Taylor left the room and wandered into the bedroom. She activated her datapad. "Contact Andrew," she said. The device blinked in acknowledgement and had the muscular soldier pulled up on the holoscreen a moment later.
"Hey. What’s up?" he asked.
Taylor glared down at Andrew's face on the screen. "I need to have a discussion with you."
Andrew must have picked up on the venom in her voice, because his brow furrowed. "Uh, sure. When do you wanna talk?"
"Now, preferably," Taylor said. The holographic image winced. "Something serious just went down, and I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again."
"What’s the problem?"
"Remember your friend, Sergeant Bower?"
Andrew frowned, his dislike for the Sergeant obvious in his expression. "I wouldn’t call him a friend, but—"
"Whatever you call him, he just tried to assault my prisoner," Taylor interrupted. She could not swallow down the frustration in her voice, even though Andrew was not the real target of her anger.
She was somewhat gratified to see her friend’s eyes widen, and then shift away guiltily. "And when you say assault, you mean…"
"The situation was taken care of before it escalated to rape, but I'm pretty sure that's where it was headed." Taylor deliberately left out the fact that Maia had stopped Bower herself. The last thing she wanted was for the generals to hear that Maia's collar was not working properly. They might collar her with an even stronger one. "Now, I wonder where he could have gotten that idea from?"
"Look, that’s not fair," Andrew protested. "Yeah, I told a few people what you were doing. Maybe that put some ideas in Bower’s head, but that's because he's a sick creep, not because I encouraged him. I didn't tell him to break in and hurt her. Besides, you’re the one that went and pissed him off. Don’t go pinning this all on me."
For a moment, Taylor wondered if she had been too harsh on Andrew. Her run-in with Bower at the mess hall had certainly been a contributing factor, but the irrational part of her wanted to pin the blame on someone. "You shouldn’t have told Bower anything about the prisoner. Your big mouth almost cost us everything. If she had been killed, we wouldn’t have anything left to bargain with. The Dominion could start bombing runs on Earth again!"
When Andrew looked sufficiently chastised, Taylor started to calm down. "I want you reporting for guard duty tonight. You’re personally going to make sure that Bower and the rest of them don’t come back for another try. There’s no way in hell I’m going to lose this prisoner." Even as she said them, the words sounded strange. She did not view Maia as just a prisoner anymore, and referring to her that way felt wrong.
Andrew mumbled his reluctant agreement and ended the call, leaving Taylor to deactivate her datapad and stare down at the blank screen. She had expected to feel better after yelling at Andrew, but all it had done was point out her own mistakes. Guilt began to creep up on her, guilt for allowing Maia to be hurt. The thought of what might have happened if Maia had not been able to override the collar made her sick.
Taylor pushed those thoughts down and went back into the living room. To her surprise, Maia was still awake and sitting up on the couch instead of sleeping. She tried to offer Maia a smile, but was greeted with only a cold, distant expression in return. "Listen, I'm sorry about the shouting." Taylor knew she had more to apologize for, but was unsure how to broach the subject. "You’ll have another guard outside the door tonight, and I’ll stay with you in the bedroom, just in case."
This time, Maia did offer a brief nod of thanks, although she did not say anything in response. Taylor could guess where the sudden hostility was coming from. The more she replayed the conversation with Andrew in her mind, the more horrible it sounded. She had referred to Maia as a prisoner and talked about her like a bargaining chip instead of expressing any sincere concern for her. It had been to make Andrew understand the serious consequences of his actions, but if Maia had overheard…
"Do you think you can stand up and get to the bed on your own, or do you need help?" Taylor asked, wanting to push past the awkward moment as quickly as possible and make sure that Maia got a proper night’s rest. With the help of the medicine, Taylor knew she would feel much better in the morning.
"I…I think I will need your assistance," Maia said, although her reluctance was clear. "Do not worry, you can touch me safely now."
Taylor bent down, sliding one arm beneath Maia’s knees and folding the other under her shoulders. "Wrap your arms around my neck," she said, and Maia obeyed. It only took a few moments to carry her into the bedroom and deposit her gently on the mattress.
"Try and get some rest," Taylor whispered. She let her hand linger on Maia’s shoulder, and then tugged the sheet up over it, making sure to leave the burn on Maia’s neck exposed to the open air. Taylor moved to climb into bed on the other side, but when she wrapped an arm around Maia, she noticed the ikthian was already fast asleep.
Chapter Twenty Four
The next morning, Maia woke to find herself draped across Taylor. She sighed and breathed in the human’s scent. It was familiar, even though they had only been together a short time. Maia's heart sank as she remembered what Taylor had said the night before. No matter how comfortable they were together, Taylor still only viewed her as a prisoner.
With a groan, Taylor shifted beneath her. Maia rolled off to the side and watched her wake up. Taylor’s dark gaze roamed along her body, pausing at her throat. Maia touched the flesh there, now nearly healed. She sighed in relief. The pain was gone, and hopefully, there would be no major scarring.
"How’s your neck?" Taylor asked. "It looks a little better than yesterday." She reached out and touched the tender skin, resting her fingertips less than an inch away from Maia's. "It’s probably healed enough to put the collar back on. I can’t let my superiors find you without it."
Maia blinked and removed her hand. She had completely forgotten that the collar was missing. "I…" She swallowed back the protest forming in her mouth. What had she expected? That Taylor would simply let her walk around without the collar? As far as humans were concerned, she was a living weapon, and Taylor still saw her that way, despite everything they had shared. She was angry with Taylor, but even angrier with herself for
getting her hopes up. After the conversation she had overheard last night, this behavior should not have been a surprise.
Taylor climbed out of bed and got to her feet, and Maia felt bitterness well up inside her. The human had gone back and forth between disappointing her and giving her hope since she had been taken. She barely registered Taylor’s, "Here. I’ll be right back," or her departure from the room. Instead, she waited in numb silence until Taylor returned with the collar a moment later, holding it out expectantly and waiting for her to lean forward so that she could lock it back into place.
Maia felt as though an opportune moment hovered in front of her. She could escape right now. She had the capability. She could destroy Taylor like she had done to Bower. And then what? She would be hunted down by the other humans and slapped into another collar, removed from Taylor’s care, and thrown into a cell where she would have no one. Hesitantly, she reached out and took the collar. She even snapped it into place around her own neck.
"There," she said, her voice hollow. She settled back down on the bed and stared at nothing.
The mattress sagged next to her as Taylor tried to get back into position to hold her, but she deliberately moved a few inches out of reach. "What’s up?"
Maia swallowed. She was torn between sobbing and crying out in anger. She was hopeless, completely hopeless, and probably sick for allowing her feelings for Taylor to grow for as long as they had. She should have fought more. She should have taken her freedom, no matter how remote the chances. Instead, she had shackled herself and sealed her fate, binding herself once again to a woman who struggled between seeing her as a person and as an asset of war. "I am just wondering…"
Dark Horizons Page 14