Crashed: Stranded on the Prison Planet: Book 1 by Katie Neptune

Author:Katie Neptune [Neptune, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Ademho

As soon as I can move both hands, I stuff myself back into my pants and sit up. I’m painfully erect. My cock was the first thing that moved when the antivenom began to work, and since I haven’t been able to erase the sensation of Pacey’s small hands on my skin, it’s now throbbing and leaking a little at the tip. I hunch over in the dirt, begging my body to calm down. This way lies frustration only, I warn myself.

When I’m under control again, I stretch the muscles in my bitten arm. They ache, but not nearly as badly as they did before. The swelling is down significantly, too. Almost back to normal.

I try not to think how close I got to the end of me. After I chased down the third Dizit, Pacey’s running figure ahead of us in the trees, it took all of my remaining strength to kill him. I felt my body shutting down as I collapsed to the ground beside the body. I pulled my pack from his back, but I couldn’t make my fingers work to open it to get to the first aid kit. The pain in my arm blinded me until I felt my eyes close and my heart slow. As my life ebbed, I felt regret and anger, and something sharper, something like despair. It was humbling.

I drink thirstily from the canteen Pacey left by my side and then get to my feet. I see my female—the female—by the dead Dizit and approach. She’s fingering something from his pack.

“I wouldn’t eat it,” I warn her.

She jumps, her eyes flashing to me with a mixture of guilt and relief. I wonder what she feels guilty about.

I gesture to the jerky. “Dizits have very strong stomachs. That meat might be rotten.”

She drops it and stands, looking me over. Her cheeks are red, but she meets my gaze readily enough when she’s done checking.

“I’m well, thanks to you,” I tell her. I want to hug her small body to me, to profess my profound gratitude, but I’m covered in blood and I’m not anxious to see wariness return to her face.

Shaking her head, she says, “Not thanks to me. It’s my fault you got hurt. You were trying to hide me.”

“The Dizits would have robbed me regardless. That’s how they operate. They bite their victims and steal their packs. I was trying to bribe them with information from the Citadel when they got tired of negotiating and attacked me anyway. I shouldn’t have delayed in killing them. I forgot they would sense your heat signature. It’s my fault you were taken.”

We watch each other for another long moment before her cheeks crease in a tentative smile. “Okay,” she says, “it was both our faults. No harm, no foul.” She bites her lip. “That’s true, right? You’re okay now?”

I nod and pat my sore arm. “No permanent damage.” I’m absurdly pleased she worried about me. “And you? You’re not hurt?”

“Just hungry.”

Immediately, I hurry to the cozen bush beside the stream.

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