Fallen Star (11 page)

Fallon rolled her shoulders, but the ache in her body wouldn’t go away. “What in fury did you do to me?”

Mohr’s hand closed on her shoulder and he turned her. “Your third nanite dose. One more dose to go and your processing will be complete. Walk.”

Fallon walked. “Where are we going?”

“Medlab.”

Sobehk ...
Fallon stretched her stride.

Mohr snorted. “Are we in a hurry?”

Fallon frowned. “I’m going to see Sobehk, right?”

His fingers bit into her shoulder. “That’s
A’syr
Sobehk to you,
rehkyt
, and yes.”

Fallon gritted her teeth.
Bastard
. But he was taking her where she wanted to go.

A sharp turn to the left, a mechanical hiss, and Fallon smelled antiseptic and blood. They were in the medlab. Sobehk’s rich scent washed over her. He was somewhere close by. Her heart clenched then thumped hard.

Mohr tapped her shoulder. “Wait here.” His footsteps moved to the right. He took a long pronounced step.

Fallon frowned. He must have stepped through a doorway. She waited about four heartbeats then turned to the right and followed, sliding her feet across the floor to keep from tripping or knocking into something she couldn’t see. Her toes encountered something hard. Lifting her knee and pressing forward told her that she’d either found the wall or a door. She caught a nose-full of the medic Tah’s scent ... and someone else’s.

For no good reason, every hair on her body shivered upright.
Danger
 ... Alarmed, she rolled to the right, pressing her shoulders back against what she hoped was the wall and not the door.

Voices murmured. Fallon focused on her hearing and waited for her augmentations to take over. The murmurs became distinct speech.

“Did you do any conditioning on that
rehkyt
whatsoever?” Mohr sounded annoyed.

She sucked in a sharp breath. They were talking about her.

“Why, did she bite you?” Sobehk’s voice was soft, breathy, amused, and cut through her heart like a knife.

Sobehk
 ... Fallon blinked moist eyes. He lived.

“She’s defiant, disrespectful, and flinches when she’s touched!”

Bitch and complain.
Fallon rolled her eyes. Mohr was whining like one of her damned instructors from the institution.

“She’s feral! What did you expect?” Sobehk released a snarl. “She just needs proper care and thorough reconditioning.”

“What she needs is a thorough beating.”

Fallon snorted. Mohr was in a pissy mood.

Sobehk laughed. “She is a Prime! Of course she needs a beating!”

Tah chuckled softly. “An experienced
upuaht
nehkyx
should have no difficulties.”

There was that guard dog word again, but Fallon’s translator completely tripped over the following word. Too many holes in her language context archives. She puzzled over it, but the translator refused to accept the word. There was no context for it. It had to be outside her experience.

“Proper care and training? That’s all? You’re sure?”

Fallon frowned. She didn’t recognize that masculine voice at all.

“Damned sure, Khan. I followed her for three days. She’s feral but not heartless.”

Fallon couldn’t stop the curl of warmth that bathed her heart. Sobehk didn’t think she was heartless.

“It took three days?” Khan snorted. “Why didn’t you leave her?”

Sobehk sighed. “I couldn’t.” His voice was so soft Fallon barely heard him. “That station was ... awful. I couldn’t leave her there.”

There was something in Fallon’s eyes. She was forced to wipe them against her shoulder.

“We’ve had a number of fear-based reactions, but she’s shown no signs of overt aggression, merely a strong instinct for survival.” Tah’s voice seemed calm, but a thread of annoyance was also apparent.

“You’re saying that she learned to fight like that for survival?” The disbelief was crystal clear in Khan’s voice. “Even in
rahyt
she displayed a suspicious amount of control. That leads me to believe that she is quite accustomed to dealing violence.”

Fallon tilted her head. According to her context translator, that
rahyt
word seemed to be connected to “rage” and “insanity.” She had no clue where her internal comp had picked it up, but it was interesting to know.

“Did you look at the file on that rodent-run station? Of course she’s used to violence!” Sobehk sounded like he was pissed. “But not once in three days did she attack anyone or anything that didn’t attack her first!” A growl rumbled. “She’s feral with damned good reason, but she’s not a killer by nature.”

Fallon felt a smile nudge her lips. He was defending her.
Damn
 ...

Khan sighed. “Even if everything is as you say, an internal inquiry must still be done.”

“I’m not arguing with that.” Sobehk growled softly. “Just be nice.”

“Nice?”

“You heard me.”

Fallon’s brows shot up.
Nice?
This from Sobehk?

“I’ll do my best.” Sour amusement colored Khan’s voice.

“You’d better.”

Fallon heard footsteps approaching.
Shit!
She scooted along the wall away from them and bumped into something that felt like a chair. There was a subtle metallic hiss on her immediate right.

“Isabeau?” It was Mohr.

She turned to face him. “Here.”

“You were supposed to stay where I left you.”

Fingers dug into her upper arm. She winced as she was tugged and turned around.

“Not particularly obedient, are you?”

Fallon snorted. “Not my style.” Never was, probably never would be.

“Now there is an understatement.” Mohr sighed and caught both her upper arms. He grunted, lifted her off the floor and took a long step forward.

Fallon bit back a small sound of alarm.

He set her down and released her arms. “Go on.”

She took a small step forward. She could smell Sobehk directly in front of her. Tah’s scent seemed to be coming from her right. She heard the softest rustle of fabric on her left. The other person, Khan ... The hair on her neck rose.
Trap
 ... She froze and barely stopped herself from turning to face the sound. “I need my eyes.” She wasn’t moving a muscle without sight.

Silence ruled for about three breaths.

“Let her see.” Sobehk’s voice sounded tired, but firm.

There was a subtle shimmer through her augmentations. Fallon shivered. What were they doing now? The deep darkness began to fade from her vision. She blinked in the sudden brightness and realized that she was staring at the foot of a chrome medical bed in a rather small steel gray room. The wall behind the head of the bed blinked with a holographic display covered in incomprehensible streams of data.

Sobehk sat propped upright under a pale gray blanket. His hair was unbound, a sweeping fall of frost that draped off the side of the bed. He was dressed in a cream robe open across the chest. Dark bruises stood out against skin nearly as white as the bandages around his middle. His face seemed hollow and dark smudges lay under his tired blue eyes. “Hey, kitten.” He smiled. “You look good.”

“I had a bath.” Fallon stared, completely unable to look away from Sobehk’s pale and bruised form. Blood and damnation ... he was alive. “You look like shit.” She winced. Why in fury had she said that?

Sobehk grinned. “Thank you. I feel like shit, too.” He patted the blankets. “Come here.”

She started forward, jerking at her hands pinned to her back. She needed them. She needed to touch him. A small distressed sound escaped.

Sobehk held out his hand and glanced to her left.

Fallon’s augmentations shimmered and her hands were free. She lunged across the small room to the left side of his bed and grabbed his hand with both of hers. She pressed her nose into his warm palm then stared up at him. He was real, he lived. Her heart tried to shatter in her chest. His image smeared as her eyes overflowed.

“Hey, don’t ...” His arm curled and he leaned toward her, pressing her head against his chest with his free hand. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

She closed her eyes and heard the steady thump of his heart under her left ear even as the rich perfume of his skin filled her head. She opened her eyes and her gaze dropped to his bandages. He lived, but ...

She jerked back but didn’t release his hand. Her lips curled back from her teeth. “You big stupid bastard!”

Sobehk blinked then scowled. “What?”

“Don’t you
ever
do that again!” Her fingers dug into his hand. “I told you he was fast! You should have let me handle him!”

Sobehk’s lips curled back from his teeth. “You? I’m supposed to ...!”

“Supposed to what?” She shouted over top of him. “Supposed to get dead? I’m faster than you, you stupid, egotistical idiot! Don’t you
ever
do that shit again!” She jerked one hand free and punched the mattress for good measure. “Do you hear me? Don’t you
ever
put yourself in danger like that again!”

Sobehk’s hand clenched tight around hers, and the dark heart of his blue eyes shifted to feline slits. His mouth opened and he released a coughing roar that rattled the instruments on the back wall. “You listen to me, you little pain in my ass!”

Fallon flinched back, but she refused to look away. She dug her fingers into his hand and the blankets.

“I’m the master -- you’re the
rehkyt!
I’m the one that’s supposed to protect you!” A growl thundered in his chest.

Fallon opened her mouth, but her shout died in her throat. “What for?”

Sobehk blinked and gaped. “What
for?
” He rolled his eyes. “That has got to be the stupidest question ever to come out of that mouth of yours!”

“You and your big fat ego!” Fallon jerked on his hand. “You should have let me take him! I’m faster and better at fighting than you!”

“Better?” Sobehk curled his lip showing a long fang. “I caught you, remember?”

Fallon curled her lip and showed her teeth, too. “It took you three days, and I almost made it that last time, too!” She scrubbed her free hand across her watery eyes and glared at him.

Sobehk grinned. “I still got you.” He tugged her closer. “Come here.”

Fallon sighed and let him pull her against his chest. She pressed her cheek against his heart and curled her fingers into his silver hair. Blood and fury, he smelled good. “I’m still going to kick your ass, as soon as you’re well enough.”

Sobehk wrapped his other arm around her and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “We’ll just see about that.”

Laughter rang out. “What happened to ‘nice’?”

Sobehk snorted. “Fuck you, Khan.”

Khan’s laughter softened to chuckles. “All right, I’m convinced.” He sighed. “But I still need to do a map before I can release custody.”

Custody?
Fallon stilled then turned to look over her shoulder. Only three strides away, a man sat in a small chair. He was draped from head to toe in the folds of a voluminous hooded robe that began as blood-bright scarlet and darkened to deep black where it reached the deck. Fallon couldn’t believe she hadn’t even noticed him.

Within the hood of his robe, bright copper eyes gleamed predator green within their feline-slitted hearts. A shimmering black circlet graced his brow. His sharply sculpted pale face was completely devoid of softness, and yet his mouth was surprisingly full and sensual. “Such a direct gaze.” He raised a slender brow and looked over at Sobehk. “I’d say that you left off the conditioning altogether.”

“There wasn’t time.” Sobehk sighed and brushed a hand against his bandages. “This happened within minutes of her collaring.”

“I see.” Khan rose gracefully from the chair, lifted his hands and dropped the scarlet hood, revealing hair the color of rich cream bound severely back into a complicated braided tail. The graceful curve of his ears had the same cuts in the lower arch as Sobehk, but the rings piercing his lobes were as black as the band around his head.

Fallon glanced around, but neither master-surgeon Tah nor Mohr were in the small room. They must have left while she was still blind. And the door was missing.
Damned mimetic ship.

Sobehk’s hand squeezed hers. “Isabeau, this is
Mehdjay’syr
E’sey Khan. He’s a lord-officer from the office of Security and Intelligence. Address him as
‘Syr
Khan, or
‘Syr
.”

Fallon swallowed hard. He was an investigations agent. An icy finger slid down her spine and every hair on her body shivered to life. She was in a small room with no door, with a wounded man and an investigations agent.

And she was a criminal that had just killed somebody.
Great ...

Chapter Ten

Khan stepped toward Fallon. The black hem of his silk robes whispered across the deck. “Hello, Isabeau.”

Fallon automatically backed away.
Scary, scary man ...
She could tell just from his gliding steps that he was augmented to the hilt and combat trained. He could kill her, and easily.

Sobehk’s hand tightened on hers, holding her at his side. “Isabeau, stay with me.”

Fallon turned to see Sobehk’s pale face. He didn’t look well. She did not need to add to his stress. She took a breath and nodded then looked back at the lord-officer. “
‘Syr?
”

Khan folded his hands behind him. “Isabeau, I need to map the contents of your mind.”

Fallon sucked in a sharp breath. “You want my
mind?
” He wanted her to turn over her personal data, her private programs, her memories and experiences ... everything that made her who she was? Was he
insane?
She bit back her initial comment. What he was, was dangerous. Pissing him off was probably not a good idea. “What for?” She cleared her throat. “
‘Syr
.”

Khan glanced at Sobehk then focused on Fallon. “Somehow a rather nasty assassin ended up onboard this ship. It killed two men and severely wounded two more ...” He looked down. “I was sent from the office of Security and Intelligence to find out who sent it and why.” He shrugged with elegant precision. “We collected as much data as we could from the ... assassin, but we couldn’t collect much.”