Already driving the blade down, Simone managed to halt the motion at the last minute. Shock seized her as the voice registered. “Eliana?” She glanced around.
“I’m up here. On the view screen thingy.”
Her heart began to pound as she looked up and spotted her friend’s face on a screen that floated near the bed. “Eliana! Where are you? Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m good. I’m on a Segonian warship called the Ranasura. Don’t kill Janwar. He didn’t poison you.”
Simone glared down at the muscled warrior beneath her. “Is that what he told you?” She lowered the dagger’s point to his chest, touching it directly above his heart.
Why wasn’t he struggling?
“Yes,” Eliana replied, “but I’d know it even if he hadn’t because I was poisoned, too.”
That jerked Simone’s gaze back up again. “What?”
“Janwar didn’t poison you. The Gathendiens did.” Nothing in either her friend’s words or demeanor hinted at any doubt.
Simone looked down at Janwar in confusion. “You didn’t poison me?”
Resting his strong hands on her hips, he murmured, “I am so attracted to you right now.”
She blinked as a tingle of awareness darted through her. “What?”
Eliana snorted a laugh. “Now isn’t the time, Janwar.”
Shaking her head, Simone looked at Eliana. “What’s happening?”
“You’ve been in a coma for three days,” her friend said gently. “Some of the damn Gathendiens laced their tail spikes with bosregi poison.”
Poisons back on Earth didn’t affect Immortal Guardians. The bioengineered virus that had set itself up as their immune system always protected them from such, nullifying the chemicals or…
Actually, she wasn’t sure how that worked.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Eliana said. “Poisons don’t usually affect us. But this one does. Big time. I got caught in the hip with a Gathendien’s tail spike and was out for the count within a few minutes. I nearly died. And we worried for a while that you would die.”
Simone frowned. “Are you sure it’s the same poison? I didn’t start feeling sick and lose consciousness until an hour or so after the battle ended.”
“That’s because you’re older than me. And stronger. So your… immune system,“ she said with a meaningful look, “was able to hold it at bay a little longer.”
Translation: the virus that Simone’s body housed had fought the poison longer and harder because older Immortal Guardians were almost always stronger than younger ones.
“Adaos!” Eliana called over her shoulder. She appeared to be sitting at a counter in a med bay similar to the one Simone now found herself in.
A tall, muscular man in a pale gray uniform entered from a doorway on one side. “I’m not going to fetch you more jarumi nuggets, Eliana,“ he grumbled. “If you want another snack and don’t want to abandon your vigil, ask Brohko to bring you some.”
Eliana grinned. “I already did. He said they’re on the way. But look.” She motioned to the view screen.
Adaos glanced toward it. His eyebrows flew up. “She’s awake. Excellent.” Then his brow puckered. “Why is she down on the floor, straddling Janwar?”
Heat flooded Simone’s face as she realized her position… and that she only wore a bra and bikini panties. Rising, she hastily backed away from the handsome pirate, her fingers still curled around the hilt of his dagger.
Janwar grinned, unperturbed, and rose. Even though he’d come very close to dying at her hands, he seemed to be in high spirits as he straightened his shirt and—
Her eyes widened.
—tight breeches that failed to hide the effect her straddling his hips had had on his body.
She swiftly looked away, feeling completely off balance.
Adaos turned to Eliana. “Do you Earthlings always awaken, eager to inflict harm upon others, or did she lose her memory, too?”
What?
Eliana laughed. “She didn’t lose her memory. She thought Janwar poisoned her.”
“Ah.” Adaos turned back to the screen. “He didn’t. The Gathendiens did.”
“That’s what I was telling her. Would you show her a side-by-side comparison of my wound and hers and explain everything?”
“Of course.”
“Janwar,” Eliana said, “you’ve already heard all this. Why don’t you get some rest while I catch Simone up on things?”
He opened his mouth.
“I’m sure she’d like to have a shower,” Eliana continued before he could speak, “and a few minutes to gather her thoughts.”
“Of course.” He turned to Simone. “The cleansing unit is through there.” Crossing to a cabinet, he withdrew a pile of black cloth. “I took the liberty of having our clothing generator duplicate the clothes you were wearing.”
She frowned. “What happened to my clothes?” They were the only ones she had.
“I had to cut them off you. But I pieced them together as well as possible in hopes that the clothing generator could reproduce them. This was the closest it could come.” He held them out to her.
“Thank you.” Her hands brushed his as he transferred the clothing to her arms. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
Dipping his head in an informal bow, he strode from the room.
“He’s such a sweetheart,” Eliana whispered. “He didn’t leave your side the whole time you were unconscious except to shower and use the bathroom. He even sang a little when he thought I was sleeping.”
Simone stared at her.
Adaos did, too. “Janwar did?” he asked in astonishment.
“Yep.” Eliana grinned. “He read to her, too. Mostly medical texts.” She met Simone’s gaze. “He doesn’t know you’re an Immortal Guardian or about the virus or that we sometimes slip into a deep sleep when we’re healing. I think he was trying to stimulate a response and lure you back to consciousness, or—in the case of the medical texts—bore you so much that you’d awaken and demand he read something more interesting.”
Simone laughed.
Eliana’s visage sobered. “But you came damned close to dying, Simone. Bosregi poison is strong enough to kill the virus.”
Ice filled her veins, chilling her to the bone. “What?”
“In large quantities, the virus can fight off the poison, but our normal viral load isn’t enough to get the job done. I only survived because Adaos had drawn samples of my blood prior to the battle and had enough on hand to increase my viral count. But Janwar didn’t have that.”
“Then how did I survive?”
“He kept transfusing you with Segonian blood. Every time he did, the virus would replicate and resume attacking the poison. It wasn’t enough to eliminate the poison, but it slowed the progression enough for Janwar’s men to find an antidote aboard the Gathendien ship.” She bit her lip. “Even then, it was touch and go for a while because we didn’t know how much to give you.”
Simone’s mind whirled. Had the poison succeeded in destroying the vampiric virus, she would’ve been left with no immune system. “I nearly died.” The notion shook her. She hadn’t feared death in hundreds of years. To know she had suddenly come so close to it…