Page 17 of Logic Broken

Fierce and his Ferai beast appeared next, a grin in place. His sharp sense of hearing must have picked up on what Sunder was saying because he slapped the Tarkan male on the shoulder in passing. “If there’s a trail to follow, Snarl and I will find it.” He tapped his fist to his chest in Ziame’s direction. “Don’t worry, brother, we will find Akri.”

I turned to follow Fierce onto the shuttle, nodding at my friends in passing but jerked to a stop when my com started chirping with an alarm. I couldn’t go pale the way a human did, but I felt the blood drain from my face. That wasn’t any alarm. It was the alarm.

“What the fuck is that noise?” Thorin demanded, sticking his head out of the shuttle with a disgruntled expression on his face. Beyond him, Fierce had his hands clutched over his ears, protecting his sensitive hearing from the violent screeching. I had no time to be considerate of any of their feelings, and though I wanted to help Akri; this was far more important.

“I can’t come,” I said, and to my own ears, my voice sounded a little faint. The confused, excited feelings of my brothers assaulted my empathic senses when my shields dropped from the chaotic mess in my head. “Noa’s water broke,” I added.

I was a medical doctor, I’d delivered babies before, but suddenly I was more nervous than I’d been before my first exams. I should have been running for Noa’s location, but I was still rooted to the spot. “Hey, come on, brother, this way,” Sunder said calmly, his hand on my shoulder turning me to the hangar bay door. “You can do this. I’ll be with you every step of the way. This isn’t my first baby either.” He was right. Sunder was actually the only male who’d delivered a baby on the Vagabond. Why not make it two?

I broke into a run as soon as I was in the hallway, a cacophony of voices erupting behind me. Sunder’s presence at my back was steady and calming. When I bust into the med bay, Noa was sitting on the cot, Arianna at her side, the two smiling like they hadn’t a care in the world. “Woah, what’s the rush, darling?” Noa had the gall to say.

“Your water broke!” I pointed out as I rushed over. Why wasn’t she stressed? She looked so calm and peaceful… I yanked out my hand scanner to appraise her situation, checking the baby’s vitals by rote.

“I know, and I warned you like you wanted me to,” she said, folding a hand around my scanner to push it down from my face and look me in the eye. “But the contractions are still mild and far apart; it’s gonna be a while yet.” I took in a deep breath at her words, letting them settle over me. I couldn’t be in this much of a panic when I was about to deliver my son. We still had time, I could prepare myself.

“We’ve got this, brother,” Sunder rumbled, “Go hug your mate. It’s going to be fine.” Yes, good advice. Hug Noa, that was good for the oxytocin levels; she needed that. I needed that. Everything was going to be fine, my brothers would find Akri, and I would be holding my son in my arms by the time they returned victorious.

Chapter 11

Jenny

Pacing in the small glass-walled cell didn’t make me feel any less stressed, but it helped with the frenetic energy coursing through me. They’d locked me in here hours ago, but I had seen hide nor hair of Akri. There was an empty glass cell I could look into on my left and one on my right, identical to mine, kitted out with a freaking metal toilet and bare cot.

They had taken me from the computer room directly here, and not a single word was said. Two guards had speed-walked me here, holding me roughly by the arms. I was pretty sure one of the two was the guy we’d locked up in the storage closet. Not surprising that he carried a grudge and pinched a little harder than he should. The other one, he had no excuse, so I made sure to glare at him.

All Akri had said behind me was that if I was harmed in any way or taken from him, he’d refuse all cooperation. That didn’t reassure me, but he sounded so certain and calm. How could he be this calm when the slightest threat before had set him off into a fighting rage? He had to know something that I didn’t, but it just proved to me that he was not losing control of himself; he could reign in those urges when he had other options.

I just didn’t know what those other options were, and not knowing was making me extremely anxious. I wanted to know where he was and if he was alright. None of what he’d demanded of that lab coat-wearing Ovt had included an assurance of his own well-being. After what we’d shared, what we’d been through together, I couldn’t stand the thought of him getting hurt.

“Where are you?” I mumbled out loud, my eyes going back to the camera directed at my cell from the hallway. I felt extremely exposed in here; with all that glass and white, there was nowhere to hide or take cover. The idea of having to go pee on that toilet when that camera was right there… It made me sick to my stomach; it was humiliating.

As if they were taunting me with it, they’d propped my backpack up against the wall right in front of my cell. I could see it but I couldn’t get to any of it. If I at least had a blanket, I could huddle under it and find some measure of privacy.

The sound of footsteps echoed against the unvarnished white walls and the glass. I got up to lean against the front panel, trying to see who was approaching. Was it Akri? Was that a bit of orange and yellow? My heart leaped in my throat, excitement and worry filling me. Yeah, it was. Akri was hanging limply between two guards in desert fatigues. The two Ovt males were struggling to drag his sizable bulk along.

I desperately searched his body for any sign of injury. Why was he passed out? What had they done to him? I knew we were the ones breaking into this place, but that was no excuse to torture someone. Why were they doing this? And why had Akri even made such demands, as if he knew he had that bargaining power? I really hated not having all the facts right now.

They didn’t even look at me as they opened the cell to my left and tossed Akri down onto the cot in it. He landed partially on it face down, his legs dangling over the edge, toes on the ground. To my horror, the back of his shirt had been cut apart and I could see markings along his spine. What had they done to him? I wasn’t sure if I was looking at blood, but those round markings definitely looked painful, as if he’d been jabbed with a needle repeatedly.

“You bastards! Why are you doing this,” I yelled, hitting the glass panel with my fists. The guards both looked up, their gray skin shimmery from recent bathing like the Ovt preferred. One of them grinned a wide, toothless smile my way, black beady eyes blinking once before he turned away. The other leaned in a little closer to the glass of my prison, smacking his fat lips together, long gray tongue slipping out as it licked along the side of his face, wetting his eye.

I flinched back, disgusted, though I knew it was a normal thing for Ovt to do, considering they couldn’t cry like most other species could. It was extremely unpleasant to look at, and it was considered rude to do it in such a blatant way. He was trying to offend me, the jerk.

But I got it; there was no point railing against them. They were just a pair of low-level goons; they weren’t the ones calling the shots. It felt good to glare at them and stick up my finger as they left; they didn’t know what that meant, but I sure did.

As soon as I was alone with Akri, I rushed to the wall separating us. With my entire body pressed against the glass, I tried to see if he was still breathing. “Akri, wake up! Talk to me, please!” I felt a wave of fear and anxiety crash over me that was far too familiar. How often had I stood next to my mom’s hospital bed feeling exactly like this while she was losing her final battle with disease?

When the tip of a tentacle twitched and then lifted into the air, my whole body went limp with relief. I sank to the floor, resting my head against the glass as I watched that small bit of movement. “Please, you have to be alright.”

I hadn’t let anyone get close to me back on Earth after I’d officially become an orphan. Losing my father at a young age and then seeing my mom lose her fight with ALS as a teen and young adult. It had made me wary of risking my heart like that again. I made friends easily when on a hike or in a bar, or at a party. I could chat with anyone, but really expose myself? Really let anyone in? I hadn’t done that since my mom passed.

With Akri, it was different. He’d wormed his way into my heart in just a matter of days. I hadn’t even realized, but it was true. I didn’t think I was in love yet; I hadn’t let myself fall that far, but care for him? Yeah, immensely, and not just because he was helping me.

A noise like air hissing reached my ears and then Akri was suddenly rolling over on the cot. His dark eyes were even darker than usual as if most of the dots of white had gone out. “Jenny,” he murmured, “I’m alright. I need approximately seven more minutes to recuperate.”

I made a sound that was a cross between a laugh and a sob, pressing my fingers to my mouth to muffle the sound. He was alright; he sounded just like he always did. “Okay, you can have seven minutes.” He could have as many minutes as he wanted, as long as he was going to be okay.

With eyes like a hawk, I watched him the entire time he lay there. I could see his chest move up and down as he drew in deep breaths, his eyes were closed, and most of him was limp. On his back, the other tentacle was facing me, and that one didn’t move like the other was; it worried me all over again. Had that lab coat-toting jerk done something to it?