Beyond Galaxy's Edge (16 page)

He unclipped his harness.

“Justyn! What the hell are you doing?” Nissa strained against her harness, trying to reach him. “Strap back in.”

“I need to slow our descent. I can’t do it from here.”
Keeping one hand on the armrest of his chair, he let his body drift upward. He pulled his way toward her. Holding the back of her chair, he cupped her face with his other hand. He pressed a rough kiss to her lips. One filled with desperation, despair and the love he’d never dared confess to her.

“You’re going to the engine? You’ll die for sure!”

“But you won’t.” He stroked her cheekbone, down
to the point where her pattern ended.

“No. Justyn, I won’t let you—” Her voice had taken on her captain’s tone.

“You’re not the captain here, Nissa.”

“Justyn—” This time there was a wobble to her voice.

He winked at her. “I’m pretty good at getting out of tricky situations, remember?”

She gripped her harness. “I’m coming—”

“No.” He stilled her hands. “I need you here. If I can get
the controls active, you need to fly the ship.” One last caress of her jaw and he pushed away from her. “Hold on tight, sweetheart.”

Nissa woke to a throbbing head, a wet sensation down the side of her face and a cloying heat sticking to her like an out-of-work pleasure worker.

Her vision was blurry but blinking a few times brought the world slowly into focus.

She saw a giant pink flower covered in cracks.

What the—?
She squeezed her eyes closed, shifting in her chair. As aches and pains assailed her
body, she stilled and opened her eyelids once more.

The cracks were the shattered viewscreen. The flowers were part of the vegetation outside.

She’d never seen anything like it. Thick vines tangled with giant plants full of oversized leaves and huge flowers. Everything was in neon colors—greens, yellows, pinks and blues.

Memories rushed in and hit her all at once. The attack, the
Mercury’s
wild freefall, the ship stabilizing at the last minute…the crash.

Justyn!

Nissa struggled to unclip her harness. She shot to her feet and nearly crashed to the floor as her body sagged. She gripped the console to stay upright and pressed a hand to her head. It came away covered in blood. A quick probe and she realized it wasn’t life threatening.

She went to leave the cockpit when something
yanked on her foot.

She tripped and hit the grated floor with a hard
thump
. She groaned and rolled over. And spotted the dark-green vine wrapped around her ankle.

What the hell?

The vine had come in through the viewscreen. She kicked at it and it tightened. She stilled. Was the damn thing sentient? Reaching down, she gripped the thick tendril and yanked.

It tightened more and dragged her
across the floor, closer to the viewscreen.

Smothering a shocked cry, she slid a hand into her boot and wrenched out her compact, standard-issue Patrol knife. She slashed at the vine until it let her go. The vine reared back and slithered out the cracked window.

Goddess
. Heart pounding, Nissa got to her feet, used the manual release to open the cockpit door and hobbled toward the engine room.

The last thing she remembered was the ship just leveling out as they came through the atmosphere. All her hails to Justyn on the comm had gone unanswered as the sea of thick green below rushed up to meet them, then…nothing.

Justyn. Please be okay.
She scrambled down the corridor, gripped the railings and leaped down a small set of stairs.
Please be alive, you foolish, brave man.

Just near
the engine room, the corridor was blocked by debris. She grabbed at the ruined wall paneling, metal sheeting and wiring, tossing each bit behind her as she made just enough room to squeeze through.

For the first time in years, she prayed to Asara, the snake goddess her mother had worshiped, whispered pleas tumbling from her lips. Beyond the debris, the engine room doors hung crookedly.

“Justyn!”
She pushed forward and stumbled to a halt.

Most of the engine room was…gone. Torn away on impact. There were a few meters of metal flooring remaining, and a twisted lump of metal that was all that was left of the engine. Beyond that, a wall of green vegetation and tangled vines.

Her stomach dropped to her knees.
Oh, no. Justyn
. She shook her head and pressed a fist to her mouth, barely aware
that her hands were shaking. He couldn’t be gone. He burned so brightly with life, and there was no way she could imagine that light gone from the galaxy. Gone from her life.

Then she heard a groan.

Racing around the remains of the engine, she found Justyn sitting against the wall, his long legs splayed in front of him and his head falling to the side.

“Oh, Goddess.” Nissa knelt beside him
and cupped his face. “Justyn, can you hear me?”

“Don’t…shout.”

His words were slurred and his breathing labored. But he was alive. Her heart gave a glorious leap.

Then she saw the blood.

It was spreading in a rapidly growing pool beneath him.

Frantically, she ran her hands over his body, searching for the source.

“Not sure…I’m up for…getting naked with you right now, Captain Smooth.”
He tried for a grin but it was more of a grimace.

She shook her head. “You’re bleeding out after crashing a starship and you’re still trying to flirt.” She needed to keep him talking and conscious.

“Nothing…would stop me flirting with you.”

She stared into those silver-gray eyes for a long moment. She didn’t know when those beautiful eyes had become such a steady part of her life, but they
had. A cherished part. Her fingers touched metal. She’d found the source of the bleeding. A piece of steel was lodged in his side. “Where’s your medscope?”

He sucked in a breath with obvious effort. “Medbay. Back down the corridor. Third door…on right.”

She gripped his hand and squeezed. “I’ll be back in a minute. Wait here.”

“Not planning to go anywhere, sweetheart.” His eyelids drooped.

“No, hey!” She shook him until pain-filled eyes met hers. “You have to stay awake.”

“So tired, Nissa. Come lie with me.” He hummed a few bars of a song with that line in it.

Her heart pounded in her chest. Goddess, he was losing it. “Sing for me, Phoenix. I’ll be back before you finish the song and I’ll get you fixed up.”

“Right.” He blinked slowly and then launched in a bawdy ditty about
a barmaid with a big smile and bigger…feminine charms.

Nissa couldn’t help but smile. But once she reached the corridor, his voice was slurring and starting to stutter. She pushed through the debris and fought her way into the medbay. The room was barely bigger than a cupboard and medical items were strewn all around the small space, but thankfully everything was well labeled.

As she hurried
back to the engine room, she realized she could no longer hear Justyn singing. Silence.

She ran faster. She exploded into the engine room and cried out.

Justyn’s head had fallen to his chest.

And green vines were wrapping around his limbs and chest like snakes.

Some of the vines were lying in the pool of blood, vibrating gently. It was then she realized they were feeding on the blood.

“Get off him!” Without thinking, Nissa grabbed up a length of pipe. She eyed where the vines were coming in through the breach in the hull and swung.

Metal hit vegetation with a meaty squelch.

Some of the vines retracted, slithering away. Others stubbornly stayed, too interested in their meal. The skitter of several small…things clicked against the metal floor, and out of the corner of her
eye, Nissa saw a bunch of tiny, black…creatures scramble away.

Wild-eyed, she scanned the space and spied a laser cutter on the floor. She snatched it up and flicked it on. The golden flame burned brightly.

She went after the nearest vine.

This time, it let go of Justyn so fast the tentacle-vine whipped past Nissa, knocking her off her feet. Crawling across the floor on her hands and knees,
she slashed at the others. She heard a high-pitched squeal from outside, then they all suddenly let go and retreated out of the engine room, disappearing back into the jungle.

Swallowing the bile in her throat, she turned the laser cutter off and stared out into the jungle. She sensed the damn blood-sucking vines were still out there, watching and waiting. And Goddess only knew what else was
hiding out there. They had to get somewhere safer.

But first, she needed to heal Justyn up enough to move him.

“Justyn?”

No response. His head hung heavily, his shaggy hair covering his face.

She went to work on his side, wrenching out the wicked shard of metal. Justyn groaned, but then went silent. She flicked on the medscope, waving the blue light over the open wound.

Don’t let me
be too late
. She kept the medscope over the large gash. She knew it would be healing the broken blood vessels under the skin. She saw the skin knitting. The device would also be eradicating anything that could cause infection.

The small silver cylinder gave a quiet beep and she turned it off. Except for the tear in his shirt and the sticky pool of blood, there was no sign that he’d been injured.

When she looked up, he was watching her. He smiled. This time it was his trademark grin.

“Thanks, Nissa.” He grabbed her hand.

She tangled her fingers with his and just held on for a second. All the fear she’d kept hidden bubbled inside her, soothed by the obvious fact he was okay.

She released a long breath. “Thanks for getting us down here in one piece.” She eyed the tear in the hull.
“Your ship is not in one piece, though.”

“Nope, the ol’ girl isn’t going to make it out of this one.” Suddenly his brow creased, his body stiffening.

“What’s wrong?” Had the medscope missed something?

He let out a groan. “Fuck, it’s like acid in my veins.” His back arched, the tendons in his neck straining.

What was going on? Nissa looked over him, and spotted a dark patch on the inside
of his left forearm. She grabbed his arm, turning it over for a better look.

“What the fuck is that?” he said between gritted teeth.

It looked like a splotch of old-fashioned ink. It covered half his forearm. “I’m not sure—” She gasped. Something was moving under his skin!

“Jesus!” Justyn writhed. “It hurts like hell.”

She watched whatever had burrowed into him wriggling its way up his
arm. She swallowed against the nausea churning her gut and looked again at the black mark.

In the center was a small hole. Something had definitely gotten in.

“I’ve got to get it out.” She tried the medscope but it didn’t register anything. Next she probed the black wound.

The entire splotch moved!

Nissa jerked her hand back. The blackness on his skin was the
tail
of whatever was inside
him.

“Get it out!” Justyn yelled, still squirming in pain. His entire body was drenched with sweat and it wasn’t just from the humidity.

She gripped the black tail, gathering it together and then she pulled.

Justyn’s scream rang through the ship and out into the jungle, startling something that shook the nearby trees.

She fought back tears. “I need to find a way to numb the pain—”

“No!
Just get it out.” Agony-ravaged silver eyes bored into hers. “Just do it, Nissa.”

With a nod, she got a better grip on the invader. It wriggled in her hand, trying to burrow deeper under his skin. “On three.”

He gave a nod.

She leaned forward and kissed him. “One.”

He stared into her eyes, opening his mouth for the next count.

Nissa yanked.

He screamed again. Part of a long, black,
leech-like body came out of his arm. She pulled again, but the creature was fighting her, no doubt gripping into his skin and causing more torture.

“What happened to two and three?” he panted.

She got to her feet, pushed one boot against the wall for more leverage. “Thought it was better this way.” She yanked with all her strength behind it.

But the leech was stubborn, refusing to let go.
She kept pulling, Justyn’s screams ringing in her ears and sweat dripping into her eyes. Her chest heaved. Goddess, what if she couldn’t get it out?

The fight continued, and Nissa wasn’t winning.

She was sobbing now, her arms aching.

“Nis-sa.”

Justyn’s labored voice.

“St-op.”

She didn’t release the leech, but she stopped pulling. Justyn seemed to settle a little.

“It isn’t safe here.”
His voice was barely louder than a whisper.

“I know. Once we get this out, we’ll head back to the cockpit. The windshield’s cracked but we can board it up, stop the…wildlife from getting in.”

“Nissa, it’s not coming out.”

She refused to look at him. “Don’t be silly—”

“Nissa.” His voice was stronger now. “I think night’s coming and I don’t want you here when the darkness hits.”

She glanced
out at the jungle again. It was hard to tell through the dense canopy, but it seemed to be getting darker. She shivered. “I’m not leaving you!”

“I want you to go. Board up the cockpit, hunker down, and contact my brothers.”

“No.”

He blew out a frustrated breath. “Come here.”

She leaned closer and he grabbed her. The leech slipped out of her hands. Justyn yanked her close and devoured her
mouth. He smelled like blood, sweat and man. All three things screamed “alive” and that was all that mattered. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back.

He pulled back, his gaze boring into her. “I love you, Nissa.”

Her heart stopped and she felt like the ground had dropped away beneath her. “What?”

“I’ve been in love with you a long time. I think from the first time you told
me you were going to arrest my ass. Then I caught you checking out my ass. I couldn’t believe such a beautiful, smart, sexy woman might be interested in a smuggler like me.” A sheepish smile. “Why do you think you
almost
caught me all those times?”