The last sparked tears.
Jak’ri hugged her close, rocking her a little. “It’s okay.” He kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay. We made it off the ship. We’re free now.”
And hopefully would remain free long enough for his messages to generate a search-and-rescue by his people and every freaking member of the Aldebarian Alliance, if they weren’t already searching.
“I can’t stop shaking,” she whispered and wished she were stronger. How had Eliana done this every night for hundreds of years? How had she risked her life engaging in battle with psychotic vampires again and again and again?
“My hands aren’t all that steady either,” Jak’ri admitted.
She squeezed him tighter. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“Not so.” Resting his chin atop her mussed hair, he sighed. “When you kept charging into harm’s way…” Now he squeezed her tighter. “Well, to borrow one of your Earth phrases, I was scared shitless.”
A weary chuckle escaped her. “I really do need to clean up my language.”
“I like your language.” He stopped rocking and made a thoughtful sound. “Hmm.” His chin left her hair. “Computer,” he said, sounding less weary and more alert, “does your language array include Earth English?”
“Affirmative.”
“Can you send a linguistic update to my translator that will include Earth English?”
“Affirmative.”
“Initiate update. Secta Hanan Translator model one five three three five, personal passcode six seven seven dash one dash eight nine three dash four four nine six eight.”
“Initiating update.”
Ava looked up at him.
“Update complete.”
He arched a brow. “Say something in Earth English.”
Loosening her hold, she straightened in his lap. “You’re annoyingly attractive and unruffled considering what we just went through.” She, on the other hand, probably looked like someone who had just stumbled out of the forest after having been raised by wolves.
He grinned. “I understood that.”
“Are we being followed?”
He glanced at the console. “Not yet.”
“But you think they’ll come looking for us.”
Smile dimming, he nodded. “They’re probably scrambling their fighters right now. They’ll initially follow the course leading to Mila 9. But they’ll eventually consider other options and do what we did—look for planets with favorable atmospheres and search those, too.”
Ava fervently hoped it would take them a long time to do that.
“Don’t forget,” he said, most likely noting her morose expression, “this pod was manufactured by the Akselis and was designed more for making a fast escape than for providing shelter in the event one’s ship suffers catastrophic engine failure or the like.”
“Does this pod have weapons?”
“Affirmative,” the computer answered.
Her hopes of surviving grew. “I wish the Lasaran escape pod had been equipped with weapons.” Although she doubted whatever limited weaponry a pod might possess could’ve held off a Gathendien warship. If anything, it might’ve just pissed them off and prompted them to blow her to tiny bits. “Then again,” she added, “if it had, I might not have met you.”
Even though most of the time she’d spent with Jak’ri had been in dreams and much of their conversations telepathic, she was beginning to think the pain and horror she’d endured at the hands of the Gathendiens had all been worth it because it had brought the two of them together.
His expression changed as tenderness entered his silver eyes.
He had lost far more than she had at the hands of the Gathendiens. Did her being here with him help? Did he draw comfort from her the way she did from him?
Her heartbeat picked up when he rested his hands on her shoulders. He gave her a reassuring squeeze, then drew those big hands down her arms in a gentle caress.
Ava winced and sucked in a breath as the pain in her arms increased exponentially.
He froze. Alarm replaced the tenderness in his gaze. “Ava? What is it? Are you hurt?”
“It’s nothing,” she said, trying to be stoic and tough like the action movie heroes who just shrugged or walked it off if they were shot or took a knee to the family jewels. But she had winced, damn it. And now he was looking her up and down as if he feared she might keel over dead in the next instant.
“Why the srul didn’t you tell me? Since your movements didn’t seem to be hindered… except for your limp… I thought the blood coating you was Gathendien.”
Looking down, she grimaced. A lot of blood coated her. And some of it was Gathendien.
Gross.
“Where are you injured? Let me see.”
She motioned to her upper arm, where a nauseatingly deep gash marred her freckled skin. “I kept forgetting about the Gathendiens’ tails and some of them wore metal spikes on them.”
“Where else?” he asked. But he’d already spotted the gash on her thigh and the scorch mark on her other arm where one of those energy bolt things had skimmed her.
Following his gaze to the latter, she grimaced. “Yeah, I might have exaggerated a bit when I said I was fast enough to dodge energy bolts.”
“You were limping, too.”
“I stepped on one of their damned tail spikes. What about you? Are you injured?”
“No,” he answered absently as his brows drew down in a deep V. “Let’s get these wounds cleaned up and taken care of.”
CHAPTER TEN
At Jak’ri’s unspoken urging, Ava stood up and backed away to give him room to rise.
This pod was definitely roomier than the other one she’d been in.
“Why aren’t we floating?” she asked as he retrieved the medic bag and opened it. The Lasaran pod had boasted artificial gravity, but she’d assumed that was a luxury.
Gathendiens didn’t seem the type to indulge in such. Nor did they look like they could afford it.
“Most pods are equipped with artificial gravity,” Jak’ri muttered as he searched the big bag’s contents. “Even small floating objects can initiate alarmingly large malfunctions so what was originally considered a luxury in early space travel was soon deemed a necessity.” He drew out a canister that reminded her of the WD-40 she always kept on hand at home. “We’ll use this to clean the wounds, then I’ll apply some bandages.”
Glancing down at herself, Ava repressed a shudder. Her shirt and shorts nearly looked tie-dyed they were so stained. “This pod doesn’t by any chance have a shower, does it?” she asked hopefully. “Or a cleansing unit?” Whatever they chose to call it. She just wanted to wash the Gathendien filth off.
“No.”
When her shoulders slumped, even that minor movement hurt.
“But you can use this to get clean.” He held up the canister. “And we stowed some clothes from the lab in the medic bag. You can change into those while the pod disinfects what you’re wearing.”
She glanced at the lav the pod possessed. Even though it had been designed for larger warriors with big thick tails, she still thought getting clean in there without bruising something would be a challenge. And though she had come damn close to getting naked with Jak’ri in their last shared dream, the notion of stripping down to her birthday suit in front of him made her stomach jump. And not necessarily in a good way. She was thinner than she’d been in their dreams. Some might say scrawnier. And she was riddled with marks and scars from the Gathendien’s scalpels. So she couldn’t help but feel self-conscious. Jak’ri was thinner than he’d been in their dreams and marred with scars, too, but he was still ripped with muscle and freaking hot.