Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (66 page)

Several minutes later, bundle in hand, he caught up to her, then stilled. She was shock-still, her head cocked to the side. She seemed to be listening to something. Hunter knew that look, knew that her Reader senses were kicking in, and wondered at that. He could sense nothing. But just in case, he motioned for Jace to be ready for an attack and slowly slid his sword from its sheath at his waist.

“Ri?” he asked softly, nudging her to get behind his big body. She shook her head at his question.

“There’s something out there, in the woods,” she whispered. “It doesn’t want to hurt us. It’s just … curious.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know. But… I think it’s a female. It is concerned because we’re close to its nest. It isn’t dangerous… yet. But if we move much closer, she’ll be really upset and someone could get hurt, I think.”

Hunter nodded at Jace, who punched a few commands into his scanner, noting the location so they could avoid it hereafter. No sense in riling up the natives, especially if they were aware enough that Arianna could sense their thoughts.

“In case it’s sentient,” Hunter said softly, guiding Arianna backwards with a hand on her waist, “Let’s just leave it. Can you tell it that we mean no harm, and that we will try to avoid its nesting grounds?”

“Of course,” she murmured, doing so. The creature seemed to accept her promise and Arianna relaxed a bit more. Hunter sensed her tension dissipating and relaxed, sheathing his sword. He turned to look at Ri, arching a questioning brow at her. She smiled and kissed his chest. “So… what are those red leaves over there? That’s the most gorgeous shade of crimson I think I’ve ever seen! If we can use it as a dye, wouldn’t that be incredible?””

“They’re just weeds, as far as we can tell,” Jace said, following her gaze.

She hurried over to kneel beside the red-leaved plants, looking at them closely. A large insect chose that moment to buzz around her head and she automatically swatted it away, losing her balance. She grabbed for the first thing she could reach, which was a thick stalk of the red leaves. The cry she let out as the leaves were crushed in her fist made the fur on Hunter’s back stand up. He and Jace were at her side in a matter of seconds, and in that short time she had already started swelling, her face turning red as her throat closed up. Jace bellowed for a medic, then slung his ever-present pack off his back and dug through it for the medicines he was never without.

“What is happening?” Hunter demanded, holding Arianna still so that Jace could inject her.

“I don’t know. There should be no poisonous plants here! We did not pass any that I was aware of.”

“Then she must be having a reaction to that fiber plant,” Hunter guessed as Ri calmed down and her color began returning. She stared up at him, fear in her eyes, then weakly moved her arm. He looked down and saw the scrap of red leaves in her hand. Frowning, he wondered what she meant by them. They were just pretty red leaves… but all over her palm, where she had obviously grasped them, were blisters. They were huge. Some had already burst and were weeping a mixture of yellow pus and blood.

Jace made a concerned noise and brought his scanner to her palm, testing a bit of the fluid. Then he very carefully took hold of the plant and pulled it from her skin. She shrieked in agony, her body bowing, as the entire top layer of her flesh came with it, great patches of skin peeling off, having already attached to the plant somehow. Hunter had to hold her still so that Jace could finish removing the thing. Jace apologized to her the whole time, assuring her that he had to do it. As the last bit came off, Ri trembled and wept against Hunter’s chest. He used their mental connection to drain off as much of the pain as possible, but there was simply too much of it. He was shaking and clammy as well, by the time she calmed down a bit.

“I’ve stopped the allergic reaction,” Jace said quickly, looking up at Hunter, “But I think the poison is a two-level substance. The first reaction is anaphylactic, closing the airways and throat. I’m more concerned with the speed of her skin’s reaction. The necrosis is spreading, even though I removed the plant.”

“The plant has tiny spines on the bottom,” Trey, also a trained medic, said, having just arrived and quickly surmising what had happened. He had the plant in his hand and was turning it over to examine it. “We should take it back and let Erik look at it. He’s a botanist. But why would it affect her like that? It does nothing at all to us.”

“Back on Earth, some people have reactions to plants that others don’t have.” Bev panted, having run after her men at their leaders’ bellows for help. She was now leaning over and looking at the plant. “Like poison ivy. I had brothers that got it really bad, but I could roll in the stuff and not get the first blister. Ri could just be allergic to it, and you guys aren’t.”

Before anyone could stop her, Bev touched the plant, as well. Her reaction was just as quick and dangerous as Arianna’s, but Jace had already been reaching into his pack for another syringe when he saw her hand moving. He injected her before much damage could be done, but the tip of her finger, where she’d barely touched the spines, was already peeling and blistering.

“To the infirmary with them both,” Jace snapped out. “And warn the others. None of the women are to so much as brush up against the red-leaved plants! And Trey, don’t touch Bev until you have washed your hands! The oils in the plant might be to blame.”

Rom bolted off to relay Jace’s warning to the others while Erik guided Bev, and Hunter carried Arianna to their mounts. Jace took the sample of the red plant and, knowing Arianna would kill him if he didn’t, thought to grab the benign stalks Hunter had already cut for her fiber experiment. He leapt onto the back of Hunter’s mount, grabbing onto his brother’s waist as the beast galloped toward home.

“What’s going on?” Tanya asked, as Rom came running back to the valley and signaled everyone to gather around.

Amy, who had been granted permission to come along on the trip, though her group was ordered to stay well away from Hunter’s family, shook her head. “I don’t know. It sounded like someone got hurt. I hope it wasn’t Hunter or Jace!”

“Amy!” Tanya hissed warningly, but one of Amy’s men had heard her. He narrowed his eyes on her in warning. Since the beginning of her ‘training’, her men had been tightening their watches on her, though they were starting to loathe her. They kept her near them simply to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t do anything to harm either Bev or Arianna, as she constantly spoke of doing. She didn’t care about the punishments they meted out when she disobeyed them. She had a course of action and the determination to see it through.

“The commander and doctor have chosen their mate,” Rian told her succinctly. “You should forget your pursuit of them and accept what is.”

“No,” Amy said, curling her lip at him. “Arianna gets those two hunks, and I’m stuck with you losers? I don’t think so! I’m so much better than she is.”

“The fact that you feel the need to tell everyone makes it clear that you are not,” Rian snorted. Then he shook his head and stepped away to listen to what Rom was telling everyone about the plants. Amy listened as well, delighted that Arianna and Bev, the fatties, were the ones injured. She couldn’t keep back her grin.

“Maybe she’ll die,” Amy growled, but softly enough that only Tanya heard her. The other girl grabbed her arm and dragged her a little bit away from the gathering.

“Amy, please!” Tanya said urgently. “You can’t talk like that! We are not on Earth anymore! You don’t know what these guys will do to you if they hear you dissing our leaders like you have been. You’ve already been punished. Hunter said he’d have you executed if you tried to hurt Ri again. He is totally in love with her, and I think he’d do it.”

“You don’t believe that, do you?” Amy laughed, jerking her arm free of her friend’s hold. “He wouldn’t really execute me. They want their precious babies. They won’t kill any of us when they need to build up numbers for the colony. And admit it: you don’t think Bev or Arianna deserve the handsome beasts that they got.”

“What I think doesn’t matter,” Tanya reminded her, not wanting to admit that she’d come to respect and even like the other two women. Neither of them seemed to have a mean bone in their body and they were always available for consultation with any of the women, no matter the time or the subject. They were proving to be exemplary leaders, just as Hunter had told the girls they would be. Amy was the only one who didn’t think so. Her continued hatred for their human leaders pissed Tanya off. Grabbing Amy by the straps of her bathing suit, she jerked the other girl up, staring at her angrily. “The fact is, Hunter and Jace chose Arianna, even after they saw the rest of us. They wanted
her
, not you. Get the fuck over it! We have to learn to deal in this new world, and you’re playing high school drama games. Grow up, Amy, and adapt.”

“Look,” Amy gritted out, grabbing Tanya’s arm in a vise-like grip that had the other girl sucking in a pained breath. “All we have to do is get Arianna out of the picture, and then you and I can take over as leaders of the group. We could be goddesses here!”

“Arianna is a really nice lady,” Tanya said slowly, as though speaking to a developmentally challenged toddler. “And so is Bev. They are happy, and their men adore them. And I don’t necessarily want to be a leader. Have you not seen how hard they have to work? They’re constantly having their lives interrupted when something happens. Leave it alone, Amy. I will
not
help you anymore.” She jerked her arm free and curled her lips distastefully. “Hell, at this point, I’m not sure I even want to know you.”

Amy stared at the girl she’d called friend as Tanya hurried back to the group, curling her arm around one of her mates’ and letting him hold her. Crig seemed surprised, but allowed the small intimacy. Amy glared at the men she’d been turned over to. They ignored her unless they were training her, and even then, she had to do something outrageous just to get them to give her some attention. They hadn’t even bothered with touching her in a sexual way in the last two weeks, which was pissing her off to no end. Idiots. Those men didn’t know how to treat a woman! Flouncing over to the group, Amy paid close attention to what Rom was saying about the plant, the precautions that were to be taken for all the women, and the deadly reactions to the plant.

As the groups of warriors packed their women up and followed their commander and his precious bitch back to the compound, a gleam entered Amy’s eyes and a new plan began forming in her nasty little head.

Perhaps she could have the big, handsome leaders, after all. It sounded as though it wouldn’t take much to remove Arianna from the picture. As Rian guided her back to their picnic area and she mounted their riding beast, Amy pretended to be docile as she took note of just where the red plants could be found. She’d have to find a way to get out of the compound and get back here to retrieve some. Fortunately, her men were too clueless to keep a very good watch on her. She’d be able to manage it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jace studied the beautiful but vicious plant while Bev and Arianna were hooked up to IVs and being treated for the necrosis, then took samples of the goo that still oozed from their hands and tested it, as well. Finally, he revealed that not only did the plant’s oils have the effect of causing anaphylactic shock, but the tiny spines on the bottom of the leaf were loaded with a second toxin that ensured that anything trying to harm the plant would not escape unscathed. It took a bit of pressure for the spines to release their venom, so it was much more of a defense mechanism than the oil, which coated the plant and was just downright nasty.

As Arianna’s hand was liberally slathered with a special salve used for burn patients then wrapped with bandages, Jace entered the plant’s information into the medical data banks, along with the combination of meds it had taken to stop the advance of the necrosis. After that, he told Hunter that he wanted every member of the compound to carry an emergency nano-injection kit if they left the gates, just in case. If one of the women happened to brush against the plant unknowingly, she would not have time to do more than call out for help, if that, before the toxin took effect. If everyone had a kit available, none of the women should die from the plant, though they might be hurt and possibly have a long recovery time, if the necrosis wasn’t stopped quickly enough. He and Hunter took Ri back to their quarters.

Finally back in her own home, Arianna sat on the couch and stared morosely at her hand. For awhile there, they had all been a bit worried that she might lose her hand. She feared she’d always have a scar from this little mishap, but it was good that she had found out about that plant when Jace was with her! She would never have made it back to the compound, if she’d encountered the leaves while alone.

Arianna tilted her head back against the pillows Hunter had packed behind her, watching as the men cooked dinner. This world was amazing, in many ways. But it was so very dangerous, as well. She had forgotten that today. She had also managed to forget, for awhile, that the men she was in love with were a different species. They were not human, and that was evidenced today by the fact that both she and Bev had experienced life-threatening reactions to the plant, but the men could literally crush it in their grasp and it didn’t leave a mark. And yet, when one of the medics, who had been testing the plant, touched his woman’s shoulder in reassurance, she had also reacted violently and had been transported to the infirmary. There was a patch on Kim’s shoulder now, in the shape of Torm’s hand, that was red, blistered, and peeling.