Thorrn by Skye MacKinnon

Author:Skye MacKinnon [MacKinnon, Skye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peryton Press

9

Thorrn

She couldn't even stand the sight of me. She turned away, unable to look at my damaged body. I shouldn't be surprised. If the females on Albya were awake, they'd turn in disgust as well. A male was nothing without his mating antennae. How else was he supposed to find his mate? While females had antennae, too, they were smaller and didn't have the same reach. They only helped to confirm the match, but the females couldn't use them to find their male from afar.

Jenny had no antennae at all. She wasn't able to feel that we were mates. Or could she?

Suddenly, she screamed. At the same time, an alarm bellowed from the speakers above. The lights began to flicker. Something was very wrong.

"Get me out of here!" Jenny yelled. I didn't even think. I simply dragged her out of the medpod and wrapped all four arms around her, protecting my mate from whatever was hurting her. The nanites in the pod rose in strange tendrils as if searching for her. Some of the healing substance was still on her skin and it seemed to hurt her. Jenny whimpered, clearly in pain.

"It's alright," I muttered even though it wasn't. Nanites weren't supposed to behave like that. I'd never seen a medpod malfunction.

I grabbed her discarded clothes and used them to rub her body, trying to get all the remaining nanites off her skin. I avoided looking at Jenny's face. I knew she was crying and seeing those tears would only make the pain in my heart worse. She'd got hurt in my presence, again. I hadn't protected her.

I was a failure.

"What's going on?" Vaxx asked through the intercom. "I'm getting all sorts of error messages. It looks like an electrical fault near the lab."

"Get Cyle!" I shouted. "My mate is hurt!"

My brother would know how to help. No way was I going to put her back in a medpod. I wasn't going to risk it.

"Changing course. I'll notify him. We'll be at his location in three clicks."

That was three clicks too long. Jenny was still whimpering, trying to rub her arms, but too weak to do it properly. I carried her out of the room, away from that sgidding pod, and gently lowered her to the floor. Maybe the cold metal would soothe her pain.

"Where does it hurt?" I asked, even though I was sure of her answer.

"Everywhere," she whispered. "It burns."

Pit air iteig! How could the nanites that were supposed to heal her do this? Her bruises had disappeared, leaving her skin soft and pale, but at what cost?

I continued rubbing her skin with her clothes. Most of the blue colour had faded, but from the way she was still in pain, the nanites were clearly still there. I needed a scanner, but I couldn't leave her alone, not even to run to the lab. I wasn't a scientist or healer; I had no clue what I was looking for. I needed Cyle.

How long had it been since Vaxx had changed course? One click? Two?

Her clothes were soaked.

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