Chapter Nine

Caden picked her up and placed her on the sofa.

“You have to fight Sage.” His hands were on her shoulders holding her down before he picked her up and placed her on his lap. His arms were like a steel belt around her holding her in place.

“Why?” The word was guttural as if it was torn from her. She looked up with bloodshot eyes.

Why did she have to fight? The voices inside her head were silent while each tried to come up with a convincing argument.

That’s what I thought. She spoke to herself unable to muster the strength to talk to Caden. It was time to say goodbye. Wasn’t there a saying about having fought the good fight? How long had she been hanging on? Was it from the very first day that Jim had changed, started his process of becoming the monster he is today? She couldn’t remember all she knew was her death was a gateway for him. He’ll take it anyway it came.

It was the feeling of being lifted that made her focus on her surroundings. He was carrying her somewhere. She really didn’t care where but curiosity a voice she could never get rid of was watching.

He brought us to the bedroom.

She flung her head wildly, she didn’t want curiosity to talk to her. She was tired of the voices it was time to sleep now.

You said sleep.

Now the alien in her head was talking to her. Why wouldn’t they all shut up, so she could get some rest? She closed her eyes hoping to drift off when she felt it.

“What are you doing?” Opening her eyes was a challenge.

“I placed you in a stasis field it will keep you from hurting yourself or trying to hurt me.”

That seems reasonable. Her rational side was talking, but she wasn’t listening.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move, all she could do was scream in her head because the use of her voice was beyond her. She opened her eyes just enough to get a look at his face. He looked devastated. Was this how he looked when he thought his brother was dead?

Rational thought fled, and she was in a world of fire. Every part of her hurt, and all she wanted was to be put out of her misery. Her cells fired up making an electrical charge the went from organ to organ. It hit her heart making her panic as she felt death coming her way. Why did she have to always be different from everyone else?

*~*~*~*

“What can you do for her?”

Xander, Cait, and Tristan were in the room. He wouldn’t let anyone else come and see her this way. You either had to be family or a physician.

“Nothing.” Cait was talking, but she wasn’t saying what he wanted to hear.

“What? I don’t understand. Will this stop on its own?”

“No, it will kill her.”

He roared his outrage and started to change. Xander had him flat on his back struggling to keep him still.

“Stop it, if you lose it who will help Sage?”

Sage, his beautiful mate. He had to keep it together for her. He could kill Cait first and then keep it together. No, that wouldn’t help his mate. He repeated ‘his mate’ until he finally calmed down enough to knock his brother off him.

“I wonder at times why the ancient ones created males. Maybe they were males and wanted to spread the plague.” She looked up to find two sets of eyes looking at her. With a sigh, she ignored them and went back to examining Sage.

“I can give her a drug that will help fight the effects for a while, but it won’t stop them. I could give her a blood transfusion that will allow her to live a few days longer.”

“Why won’t that stop the spread?”

“Her body will eventually assimilate the blood making it hers, and the infection will replicate and overcome the transfused blood,” Tristan told him. He was examining a sample of Sage's blood.

“That can’t be right?”

“Are you saying you know more than me?” Tristan was standing in his face breathing hard.

“Doc, you need to move back.” Caden could feel his body trying to change as he hung on knowing that Sage needed him.

“Make me.”

“Gladly.” Xander grabbed him by the back of his neck spun him around and punched him, dropping him at his feet.

“We might have a problem,” Caden said looking at Tristan.

“You mean other than your mate is dying, and you would have killed Tristan if I were a second slower?”

“Yes. Cait, how was Cole able to heal Mia?”

“He didn’t know what he was doing.”

“That doesn’t matter; she's still half Kur’ik.”

“Caden, I don’t have an easy answer for you. Mia is what she was always meant to be. Sage will be what she was always meant to be. That may mean she will die. I can’t change that, the same way I couldn’t change what happened to Mia.” She bent over and gave her a shot. “Stasis field on or off?”

“Off. Xander will you remove Tristan for me?”

“What are you going to do?”

“The only thing I can do, but I’m not sure what it is yet. Cait likes to talk in circles at times.”

“If you need me.”

“Always.”

Xander picked Tristan up and headed for the door.

“Caden whatever you decide to do, keep her away from water.”

He watched as they walked out the bedroom and then the front door closed behind them.

“She can be really helpful at times.” She gave him a twisted smile letting him know she heard that last comment.

“That’s Cait for you nothing is ever straight forward, but she means well.”

“I can talk, and I don’t feel the urge to rip my skin apart.”

“Wait for it, it’s coming back. The shot she gave you will only work for a while.”

“Did she leave any extra?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way.”

“So, this is a temporary reprieve from the death sentence I’m under?”

“Unless we can come up with another plan.”

“I’m going to have to downgrade her Christmas present to a card.” She reached out placing her hand on his.

He moved closer and took her into his arms. His hand stroked the side of her face. She inched over until she pressed against him.

“How long do I have?” She laid her head on his chest breathing in his comforting scent.

“I don’t know.”

“I’m glad you stayed with me. I don’t want to be alone.”

“Would you prefer someone else to be here?”

“I remember seeing you in the shadows. I know it wasn’t that long ago, but today it feels like it was a lifetime. You intrigued me. I thought I imagined things at first. Then you stepped out just enough so I could see you a little closer. It was that moment when I wished my life was different. I wish that I had seen you on the street, and you were going to come up to me with a cheesy line that would make me smile.”

She placed her palm on his chest over his heart. “Will you tell me what you are?”

“I’m from a different planet, but I’m sure you figured that out already.”

She nodded but was silent waiting for him to continue.

“The universe is large and not all of it is friendly. My planet isn’t nice, or polite to genetically engineered beings like myself. We have a program that makes Kur’iks using enzymes that have been amassed over the lifespan of our planet. No one knows where they come from, I doubt the ones in command have a clue. They use them to make fighters for a war that should have ended thousands of years ago. As long as they are not using biological Kur’iks, then it's permissible to keep fighting a war that makes no sense.”

“You feel real and biological to me.”

“I don’t have a mother, and I don’t have a father, but I am a biological entity with upgrades. Most can’t be seen on the outside, but they are there.” He pushed back his hair and showed her two small round buttons on the side of his head.

“This is not natural; it controls my eyes.” He touched one, and his eyes lit up.

“I love your eyes. Do you need to touch the button to do that?”

“No, it’s just another way they made sure to let us know we were different, expendable.”

“No one cared if you died?”

“They could just make more.”

“I know the feeling. No one can make another one of me, but I have felt for a while that no one cared if I lived or died.”

“Why?”

“All my friends are gone. It was easier to go along with the program than to fight. I looked around one day and realized I was alone. The only person who seemed to care was Fire, but she wasn’t my friend. How could she be when she was independent, and strong while I was struggling to stand upright?”

“Do you still feel that way?”

“No, it takes all kinds to form friendships, and I think if we had a chance, we could become good friends.”

She walked her fingers down to the bottom of the shirt he had on until she was playing with the hem of it. She grasped it and began pulling it up. She was watching him to see if he was repulsed by her actions.

When his shirt was halfway up, he tugged it out of her hand pulling it over his head.

“I told myself if I survived this thing I was going to become celibate as long as you weren’t close enough for me to touch.” Her palm found his heart, she could feel it thumping against her hand.

“It’s ironic that I won’t live long enough to keep that promise. It’s rather good because I would want you too much.”

She rolled over until her upper body was lying on his.

“I’m going to kiss you now. If you don’t want that, this is your chance to protest.”

He never moved, so she brought her head down and placed a sweet kiss on his lips. When she moved away, her eyes were bright, and she was smiling.

His arms tightened around her, and he flipped her over his body, so she was lying on her back. His mouth slanted over hers moving until she opened. His tongue went in darting around taking in the flavor of her kiss. His tongue dueled with hers giving her pleasure that was more intense than any she felt before.

“Oh my,” She gasped before he went in for another kiss.

He sucked on her tongue shooting streams of desire through her. She felt her nipples harden and her pussy weep with longing. She pulled back needing to catch her breath.

“You’re a great kisser for an alien.”

“I aim to please.” He whispered in her ear making her body shiver with need.

His hand came up and caressed her neck allowing his fingers to touch her one at a time. Every time he stroked her, she got a little hotter. Her body was going up in flames, and she wanted to dive into the river of fire he was creating within her.

Time to die. The evil voice in her head said.

She ignored it needing to get a little closer to him. Her fingers were clutching at his shoulders as she tried to rub her body against his to ease the ache that was occurring.

“I need more,” She pleaded before a scream of pain left her lips. “I can’t take it.”

“Hold on Sage. There is a way to cure you to defeat what is happening to your body.”

Nothing he can do will help you. You’re going to die, and Jim is going to ascend.

She clutched her hair trying to pull it out from the roots.

“Tell me I can’t hold on much longer.”