The room went still.
Eliana caught and held the Purveli’s gaze. “I’m fast,” she warned him softly. “Faster than you can imagine. I’m strong, too.” She glanced down at his chest, then met his eyes once more. “I’m the one who punched through the wall and stabbed you.” She lowered the blade an inch, bringing it close enough that his lashes brushed it when he blinked. “I’m the one who stopped you. And I’ll stop you again if you even try to harm us with senshi or any other bura in your telepathic arsenal. You don’t know me and you may not fear me, but you should. You do not want to make an enemy of me. These men are my friends. I care about them. If you so much as give them a mild headache, I will inflict pain upon you like you have never experienced before.” Again she glanced at his torso, then met his eyes. “And the scars you already bear will be nothing in comparison to the ones I’ll give you… if I let you live.”
One of the warriors whispered a curse, his tone full of admiration.
But Eliana continued to study the Purveli to gauge his reaction.
What she saw in his eyes was not at all what she expected.
Those silver orbs that held her stare didn’t fill with fear or resentment, defiance, or even weary capitulation.
They filled with hope.
The antidote Adaos administered to the Purveli would take several minutes to work. Until then…
Dagon caught Eliana’s gaze and jerked his head toward the doorway.
Without a word, she sheathed her dagger and left the infirmary.
Following on her heels, he closed the door behind them.
The security team stood straighter.
“Dismissed,” Dagon said and watched them file away.
“Thank you,” Eliana said as soon as they disappeared from view.
“For what?”
“For ordering Adaos to give him the antidote.”
He shrugged. “We need information. That’s the only way we’ll get it until his throat heals.”
She nodded. “And I meant what I said in there. I won’t let him hurt you or the others.”
She said it with such endearing earnestness that he wanted to draw her into a hug.
Instead, he arched a brow. “Because you care about us?”
A flush crept into her cheeks as she smiled. “Yes, I care about you. How could I not? You’re all so damn appealing.” She glanced at the closed door, then sent him a wink as she whispered, “But you’re my favorite.”
Leaning down until his lips nearly touched her ear, he whispered back, “You’re my favorite, too.” He pressed his lips to the soft skin of her neck. “And I plan to prove it again tonight.” When he straightened, she stared up at him with brown eyes that acquired an amber glow. His pulse leaped when she slid her tongue across her lower lip as though she could already taste his kiss.
He shook his head. “So damn appealing.”
“Awwww.” Smiling, she patted his chest. “You used an Earth curse word to describe me. That’s so sweet.”
He laughed. “Appealing and odd,” he qualified.
She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah. I was hoping it would take you longer to figure that last part out. Now quit distracting me with your sexy self. I need to tell you something.”
According to his translator, sexy meant alluring or physically attractive.
Pleasure raced through him.
Then she stepped closer, her pretty face sobering, and tilted her head back to look up at him. “I don’t think the intruder is who you think he is.”
“He’s a Purveli.”
“I know. But I don’t think he’s working with the Gathendiens. Did you see the scars on his body?”
“I admit I paid them little notice.” Many soldiers had scars. Some even wore them like badges of honor. And Dagon had been tense the whole time he’d been in Med Bay, ready to pounce if the Purveli said anything even remotely threatening to Eliana.
“Well, they aren’t the kind one receives in battle. The fact that I heal quickly doesn’t mean I don’t scar. My scars just fade really fast. And his scars don’t look like mine. They don’t look like they resulted from battle.”
“Battles on Earth are fought differently than those in space.”
“I know. But I’ve seen the scars some of your guys carry from old blaster wounds and the like, and the Purveli’s scars didn’t look like that either.”
He frowned. “Did they look recent?”
“Yes. And his wrists are raw beneath the restraints.”
“He hasn’t been conscious long enough to damage his wrists.”
“Exactly.”
He considered it.
“There’s something else,” she added with apparent reluctance.
“What?”
“When I did my thing with the dagger and threatened him, he didn’t seem angry or resentful or stupidly determined or any of the things my enemies usually throw at me when I do stuff like that. He seemed…”
“What?” he asked when she trailed off.
She shrugged. “Hopeful.”
He glanced at the wall behind her as though he could peer through it and study the restrained man on the other side.
“Are the Purveli good manipulators?” she asked. “I mean, could it all have been a ruse to confuse me because I don’t know anything about his people?”
“No one knows much about his people. They keep to themselves and discourage others from visiting their planet.”
“Then he could be working with the Gathendiens and just be trying to throw me off?”
Dagon slowly shook his head. “The scars and marks you mentioned indicate otherwise.”
“Do any of his people ever go rogue? Could he be a criminal on the run who is palling around with the Gathendiens while he hides out and… I don’t know… escapes prosecution or something?”
“I have encountered very few Purveli away from their homeworld, so I don’t think it likely.” He supposed they shouldn’t ignore the possibility though. Being an escaped prisoner could plausibly explain the marks on the Purveli’s wrists. It could also account for the Gathendiens not worrying about poisoning him with the blue suit. Gathendiens would suffer no qualms over poisoning a criminal who had already been issued a death sentence.
It could not, however, explain the hope Eliana had discerned in his eyes.
“I hate to ask this,” she said with a hint of a grimace, “but could your people or the Lasarans or whoever maybe have been too pushy while trying to bring the Purvelis into the Aldebarian Alliance? Could they have inadvertently driven the Purvelis to work with the Gathendiens instead?”
That he could answer with certainty. “No. The Alliance never uses force to recruit new members. And the only nation the Gathendiens seem to have an accord with are the Akseli, whom they sometimes hire to do their dark bidding like the mercenaries on your Earth.”
“Are the Akseli members of the Alliance?”
“No. They were expelled when their government shifted toward tyranny.”
“So you don’t think there’s any chance the Gathendiens would try to form a pact with the Purvelis?”
“No. If the Gathendiens were interested in the Purvelis, their interest would lie not in working with them to make war with us but in obtaining the resources their planet offers.”