Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection (146 page)

“Noah, thank you. I know contacting your father was difficult for you, but you came through wonderfully.”

Lionel had been sent off with the Complex Director for a run-down on the facility’s manufacturing platform and capabilities, and Kennedy had dragged him into a break room down the hall.

Noah stared at her hands as they grasped one of his and squeezed. The tanned skin and perfectly-manicured nails wound gracefully around his far more rough-hewn hand. An emerald-and-gold ring adorned the middle finger of her right hand. Her grasp felt soft. Warm and welcoming.

He forced his gaze up to meet her sparkling green eyes. They matched her ring, naturally. “You could have done it yourself. You—”

“Noah, we talked about this—”

“You could’ve had one of your admiral friends send a couple of uniforms to escort him here, his wishes be damned. You didn’t need to send me. Not really.”

Her throat worked as her eyes darkened. When she finally spoke, her voice practically quivered. But was it anything other than an act? He’d seen her work a room; he’d seen her play his father like a violin only minutes earlier. Her skill in false flattery and ego manipulation was a sight to behold.

“I thought I was helping.”

“Because you’re trying to fix me, trying to shiny me up so I can be a proper boyfriend.”

“No—”

“I don’t need fixing, Kennedy. I don’t
want
fixing.”

Her brow knotted up in apparent consternation, and she closed the distance between them. “I know you don’t. And I’m not…I’m sorry. I was trying to do the right thing.”

She was so damn convincing…and so damn cute. He forced a smile and reached up to run a hand under her chin. “Just don’t do it again, okay?”

She clutched his hand before it dropped away, atypical hesitation marring her—

—his damnable father pinged them both to announce he required a lab and a list of equipment. They groaned in unison, and she stepped away.

He followed her out of the break room and decided not to feel guilty about enjoying the view. He’d ride this out, since for now there were benefits. But he’d been stupid to ignore who and what she was. Stupid to fall under her spell and get emotionally attached. He’d been so bloody
stupid
.

He couldn’t be stupid any longer. It would cost him too much. So when it became a better option to do so, he’d bail.

15

PANDORA

I
NDEPENDENT
C
OLONY

I
T CAME AS SOMETHING OF A SURPRISE
when Caleb awoke to find himself alive.

His skin felt tight, alternately cool and hot. Eventually he realized it was due to large swaths of it being held together by medwraps. Interestingly, there was almost no pain. He had to be swimming in narcotics.

He sensed added weight on his left arm. Unless it was damaged to the point of requiring immobilization. He queried his eVi for an injury report, but unfamiliar medical recovery ware overrode the interface.
That bad, then.

He opened his eyes and immediately thanked whatever gods there may be that the room was only dimly lit. He blinked until he remembered how to focus, marginally. His optical implant was offline, but it was a problem very far down his list of concerns.

Alex was curled up on the floor next to him. He appeared to be lying on a divan which had been converted into a makeshift medical cot. Her head rested on his arm.

He must have jostled it when he looked around, for she bolted upright.

Bloodshot, bleary eyes met his as a heavy but wondrous breath fell from her lips. The expression spreading across her face could light a galaxy. He let its warmth wash over him. Given a little time, it might heal his wounds all on its own.

“Caleb….”

Dried blood scored thick streaks across her neck, shoulders and arms. A rusty crimson smudge ran down her jaw, as if she’d made a perfunctory attempt to wipe it away and failed. Her hair hung in tangled clumps, snarled together by what he feared was also blood. Had she been injured? He tried to remember the minutes and seconds before he’d lost consciousness…he didn’t think so. But were there other attackers or—he willed himself calm. Whatever had happened, she was here and alive and safe.

He reached up, his arm trembling and weak, to run fingertips shakily along her face. “Baby, you’re covered in blood. Are you hurt?”

A ragged laugh-turned-cry erupted from her throat as she pressed her cheek into his hand. “No, it’s all yours. I…it seemed like it was my turn.”

“Only fair, I suppose.” His throat grated on each word as they scraped their way up past the abrasiveness to emerge half-formed on a thick, swollen tongue. He tried to summon a bit of saliva and work it around in his mouth. His hand collapsed back to the cushion; he was already exhausted from the effort of holding it up. “So what’s the damage?”

She studied him cautiously for several seconds, but finally swallowed hard and sat up straighter. “Well, the laceration in your side tore up a portion of your liver, perforated your gallbladder and nicked your right kidney. You also have two broken ribs, a fractured left eye socket and a concussion. And thanks to a tear in your carotid artery…you needed a transfusion of two liters of synthesized blood.”

He sighed, and thus discovered the broken ribs. “I should be good to go in about six hours, then?”

Her nose scrunched up as she shook her head, plainly incredulous at his professed bravado. “Maybe twelve. Or a hundred and twelve. Let me guess—you’ve had worse?”

He considered the question. “Not actually, no.”

“How do you feel? Do you want me to get the doctor?”

“I warranted a real, live doctor? Nice. No, I’m good.” As if to prove it to her, he carefully pushed up to a sitting position and let his legs fall to the floor. Ah,
there
was the pain. But it eased once he stopped moving—or once more narcotics flooded his veins in response to the stimuli. Probably the latter, as the ache in the side of his neck that hadn’t been sliced open bore all the hallmarks of multiple recent nanobot injections.

Alex rushed to place her hands on him, ready to catch him if he fell. He didn’t like appearing weak to her, but he had little choice. He
was
weak.

Once satisfied he was stable she found his eyes with her own. “I’m so sorry I ran away from you. If you hadn’t come searching for me, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“No, but something far worse might have instead. And you weren’t running from me, you were just running. Right?”

She nodded a hurried assent. He tried to smile, sending a shot of pain lancing through his left cheekbone. “I’m sorry about Ethan.”

Her brow furrowed in surprise at his choice of topic. She exhaled faintly. “So am I. He was a part of my life in a transient sort of way for a long time. But I’ve had some time to ponder matters, sitting here hoping…hoping you would wake up, and here’s the thing. People are always moving in and out of my life, yet at the core it’s always been me—only me. But now there’s you.”

Her eyes were stricken and glistening with unshed tears. “And it terrifies me. You said I wasn’t afraid of anything, but you were wrong. If I lost you, I would be undone. I’m not as strong as my mother, and I don’t know how I would cope. But even—”

His heart pounded against his sternum, when it really wasn’t in any condition to be performing such acrobatics. “Shhh. You’re far stronger than your mother, but that’s not going to happen.”

“Of course it could happen. You almost died tonight, almost bled out in my arms….” The end of the statement faded to a whisper.

“Don’t be silly. I’m invincible.”

“No, you’re
not
.”

Granted, he didn’t feel particularly invincible right now. Yet he was alive when few others would be, a fact which argued in his favor. He forced a shaky smile despite the pain it caused, desperate to reassure her. “Near to?”

She stared at him for a beat before dropping her head onto his lap and resting a cheek on his thigh. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be invincible. I’ve got you.”

Her words knocked the air from his chest. The tangled nest of doubts, uncertainty and bitterness which had been festering in his thoughts since learning the truth about his father crumbled to dust, to be replaced with a stark and shining clarity of mind.

This was what Samuel had never seen, never factored into his damaged logic: the possibility of finding a person you
shouldn’t
walk away from. Not because they needed you, but because you needed each other. Because you were stronger together than alone.

She had saved him. Twice now in fact. In between, he had saved her a few times. Perhaps they would go on like this forever, saving one another again and again in endless circles.

He didn’t need to protect her—not from himself and the darkness that would always reside within him, and not from the evil deeds the world and its denizens wrought. He needed her standing beside him.

Gobsmacked but not wanting to keep his realization a secret for a second longer, he gingerly leaned down and kissed the top of her head, then raised her chin until she met his gaze. “Alex, you—”

She rose up on her knees to rest her forehead against his. “Don’t worry. I know.”

“No, you don’t. You don’t even begin to comprehend what you are to me. But if you’ll allow me, I’d like to try to show you.”

Miriam almost answered the holocomm request without checking its header—the urgent inquiries and reports were constant and unremitting—but noticed the sender right before doing so and paused long enough to square her shoulders first. For a brief span of time her attention had strayed from the ongoing war in favor of concerns which were more pressing. But she’d had enough time to get back up to speed to be confident she possessed any answers he might require.

Brennon looked up from the screen in his hand as the connection initiated. His eyes were sharp despite an evident lack of sleep, but his mouth was drawn into a thin line. “Admiral, we have a problem.”

“Prime Minister, we have many problems.”

“Well, now we have a new one. I just finished a conference with Chairman Vranas. Several Alliance military ships have attacked the Federation colony of New Cairo, killing thousands and causing major damage to their infrastructure.”

Miriam cursed under her breath. “
O’Connell
.”

“We can assume so. The ships gained easy access to the planet because the defense arrays had been updated to not view Alliance ships as a threat. This clearance has now been revoked, so we’ll be required to get special permission to approach any Federation worlds.”

“Understood. Sir, I took pleasure in giving the blanket order to blow O’Connell out of the sky, but I don’t believe we can spare the ships to chase him down.”

“Be that as it may, we can’t ignore this problem. There has to be some action we can take to reign him in. The Senecans are pissed and rightfully so. I can assure them he doesn’t represent the Alliance all day long, but the fact remains he’s an Alliance general and he’s killing their citizens. It’s putting a significant strain on a fragile relationship, which is something we cannot afford right now. Where are you?”

She frowned. “Pandora. I’m here to—”

“Good, you’re close. I want you to go to Seneca and smooth things over in person.”

“I’ll depart for there within the hour, sir. What would you like me to tell them?”

“Whatever it takes, Admiral.”

“Yes, sir.”

He terminated the connection. Miriam traversed the length of the conference table and back again, her hands clasped at the base of her spine.

She had rarely felt the cost of adhering to duty above all other considerations so acutely as she did now. The war needed her. The soldiers needed her. The people needed her. She was incomprehensibly grateful to have been here to help when her daughter needed her…but now the rest of the galaxy needed her more.

Miriam found Alexis in the small study where they had taken Caleb after the attack. Of course finding her was hardly difficult, for she had been nowhere else since they had returned from the garden. The door was open, and Miriam stopped at the entrance to watch them.