Leaving Earth (8 page)

Kendall rolled her eyes. "Get over it. Go back to bed and get some rest."

Laney was going to fight her on it. Kendall saw the protest in her friend's eyes. But when she opened her mouth it was for a jaw-cracking yawn, not a complaint. "Fine," she huffed.

"Go without me."

Kendall had a bad feeling that disaster was looming, that sense she used to get going into some battles, so she returned to Daggar's room and removed the balls before she left. No way was she going to get wrapped up in a murder 69

Leaving Earth

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investigation and kept horny all day. She felt Daggar's anger at the decision, and shook it off, still not certain she really believed he could get in her head. But as they got directions and hurried out before Laney could change her mind, she swore she could hear him swearing under his breath about her disobedience.

She shrugged it off and followed Britt through the maze of corridors that led them back into the huge common area they'd first encountered yesterday and then down a large hall she hadn't been in yet. Britt was entirely too familiar without the layout of the Palace.

"Go exploring last night?"

The other woman grinned and Kendall just shook her head. She knew better than to try to curtail Britt's curiosity. Or whatever it was.

Laney wasn't joking when she'd said the building was huge. It took them twenty minutes and a couple of false turns to reach the offices that housed the Earth party. No one paid attention to the door, which stood open, allowing them to enter unnoticed. There were few people around and the atmosphere was quiet, somber. Jumpy. The secretary jerked around, his hand on his chest, when Britt cleared her throat.

"Is the Ambassador in?" she asked evenly.

"Who are you?" he countered suspiciously. The door opened behind him and a tall thin man stepped through. His lips widened in a politician's smile and Kendall distrusted him instantly.

"Britt Anderson and Dr. Marks unless I miss my guess. Right ladies?"

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She let Britt answer. "Yes. We need a word in private, Ambassador."

Since he hadn't been introduced and he seemed to know Britt, Kendall assumed they'd met before. He stepped out of the doorway and motioned them in.

"Certainly." He shut it behind him and rounded the large desk to take a seat while they took the two chairs in front of him.

"The Sergeant Major sent us," Britt started. He cocked an eyebrow. "Be careful who hears you call her that. The Delroi get testy when she isn't called Lady Torfa. They feel somewhat ... territorial about her." Britt's only reaction was her signature one shoulder shrug.

"What can you tell us about the doctor?"

"His name would be a good start," Kendall interjected dryly. She couldn't believe she hadn't asked Laney, but in the rush to get out of the family quarters and leave her behind maybe it was understandable.

"Adam Peters."

No way. "
The
Adam Peters?" The Ambassador raised an eyebrow. "Is he famous? He's a disease researcher or something."

Yep. That would be the one. Adam Peters was the bestknown and most well-respected researcher of infectious diseases on Earth. She hadn't heard he'd left. What the hell was he doing here? And why had he been murdered?

"Where's his lab?" Did his death have to do with his work?

"In the hospital in the warrior caste's side of the Palace. There are clinics throughout the place, but that's where all 71

Leaving Earth

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the labs are. He's working with a Delroi healer. Tallus, I think his name is."

Britt stood and shook his hand. "Thank you. We'll be in touch."

He stopped them before they could leave. "Dr. Marks." She turned back to face him. "Yes?"

"We won't have a doctor until Earth sends a replacement. Could you fill in?"

She found it hard to believe the Delroi healers wouldn't treat the Ambassador's people and she hadn't come to Delroi to take on an isolating job like that, but she couldn't say no.

"Call if you have an emergency." Hopefully, he wouldn't call. She followed Britt out of the offices and they made the long trek back to the warrior's wing in silence. Once they were safely back inside, she turned to Britt.

"Is it me or was that weird?"

"He's a creep," Britt answered. "I couldn't believe it when he was appointed." She shook her head. "But other than being a smarmy politician I couldn't find anything to keep him out."

She changed the subject. "So who is Adam Peters?"

"A brilliant researcher. I sat in on one of his seminars in medical school. Last I heard he was focusing on HIV5." She went into lecture mode as she explained it to Britt.

"Like the old virus, HIV5 is primarily passed through sex or blood, but several researchers, including Peters, are convinced the next version could make the evolutionary leap to an airborne virus. Considering how quickly and horribly 72

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HIV5 kills, that's a nightmare." She paused, shuddering as she considered possibilities she didn't share with her friend.

"Once airborne, if the new strain is as aggressive as the last, it will be damned near impossible to contain. A new plague." They both fell silent as they walked, lost in their own thoughts. Kendall didn't want to think about horrible diseases or murdered doctors and found herself wondering where Daggar was. What he was doing. As if the thought opened a floodgate, she felt him, could almost hear him. He was furious, listening to several raised voices before calling for a silence. She strained to understand him, to really hear the words and not the emotion behind them.

Her focus was shattered by an explosion that rocked the floor under her feet and made her ears ring. She reached out a hand behind her to steady herself against the wall, while shaking her head to clear it and meeting Britt's gaze. The spy was looking back the way they'd come, where they'd passed the entrance to the family's quarters with a slightly sick look on her face. Kendall knew she wanted to go check on Laney without asking.

"Go," she said. "I'm going to the hospital. There'll be injuries."

Britt nodded and hurried back the way they'd come, and she turned to find the healers. The hallway she followed ended on a wide corridor and she saw the entrance to the hospital, thankful Laney had pointed it out the previous day. It was chaos when she walked in. The room was large with beds set up on opposite walls and a path down the center. The wounded were trickling in and she absently noted head 73

Leaving Earth

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wounds, fractured bones, and various other lacerations. On Earth, her assessment would have been none were too serious since all the warriors walked in on their own two feet. But she'd learned over the last few months that really wasn't a good way to assess a Delroi warrior's health. She looked around and tried to determine who was in charge, decided it was the mature, though beautiful, woman arguing with a warrior about lying down. Kendall approached and waited until the healer was finished with the man and moving on.

"I'm Kendall," she introduced herself. "I'm an Earth doctor, but I can help."

The woman cocked her head to one side and studied her for half a second. "Laney's friend."

"Yes."

"You have battlefield experience?" Kendall snorted. "Too much."

She nodded, a flash of sympathy crossing her face. "I'm Cilia. Let's start with the head wounds. I'll take this side of the room."

"No problem."

"Daire," she ordered and a younger woman rushed over.

"Assist Dr. Marks."

The young woman, Daire, nodded. Kendall was taking the right side of the room and didn't wait to see if the nurse followed her, but when she picked her first patient her request for instruments was met immediately. They worked steadily, silently, in perfect tandem. Kendall set bones and sewed up lacerations. Several warriors left against her orders 74

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but they wouldn't be deterred and she was too busy to argue. She was working on the last, sewing up surface cuts mostly, when there was a distracting commotion at the door.

"Hurry," the warrior on the bed muttered and she tied off the last stitch. He jerked to his feet and barked at the people in the door. "Over here!"

As they approached, she saw they carried someone on a litter and then she noticed who it was. She swore she felt her heart stop beating as they transferred Daggar from the litter to the bed. His hair was matted with blood, his chest drenched and she experienced a moment of panic when she realized he wasn't in her head anymore. She didn't get any sense of him.

Cilia rushed over and glared at her for doing nothing. The expression snapped her back to the moment. "Scissors," she muttered, but Cilia already had them, cutting away his long hair so they could see where the bleeding came from. She caught her breath when the area was exposed, seeing a shard of stone protruding from the top of his head.

"Give me those large tweezers, Daire," she ordered. The nurse had anticipated her and slapped them in her open palm. Cilia caught her wrist before she could proceed.

"Careful. This is the Warrior Overchief."

"I know who he is."

She thought Cilia would argue and take over, but then Barak Trace appeared at the healer's side, leaned over and whispered in her ear. She didn't stop to wonder why the spy was here. Whatever he'd said, Cilia nodded. "You're sure you want to be the one to do this?"

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Kendall pressed her lips together and leaned over him without answering. The other healer worked well, but Kendall knew her own skill better than anyone else's. She wouldn't trust anyone but herself with this. She couldn't explain it, couldn't explain anything. But she was not going to lose him like this. Not if she could help it.

He moaned as she slowly pulled the stone free and she found herself chanting his name to herself, as if to hold him to her. Her relief made her knees weak when she saw it removed, saw it hadn't penetrated his skull. She dropped it in a tray Daire held out and went to work on the rest. She and Cilia worked to remove four more fragments from his head, before starting on his chest.

Kendall alternated between terrified and furious. Just how close had he been to the damned blast? She was cleaning out the final cut when he woke. One minute he was out and then next his eyes were wide open staring at her. He didn't budge as she prepared the needle.

"Do you want a pain killer now that you're awake?" The question came out testier than she intended. She was pissed and worried and pissed because she was worried. And she didn't even know this man. Her professional reserve had been gone from the moment they'd laid him down.

"No," he answered, his voice was gruff and she was so damned glad to hear it. There seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from the warriors hovering nearby. He reached for her hand before she could proceed. "
Der'lan
," this time the room's sigh was a gasp, "the others?" 76

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"Britt has her," she answered softly, knowing he was really asking about Laney. She would have felt jealous, but she'd been trying not to worry about the same thing as she worked.

"I'm starting now."

He nodded and she slipped the needle through his skin. He didn't move an inch and it was quickly finished. She felt his sigh of relief more than heard it. Dropping the needle on the tray and pulling off her gloves to add them, she turned away but Daggar caught her arm.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to clean up." She had to get out there, catch her breath and get her head screwed back on right. She looked down. And get out of her clothes. She was covered in everyone else's blood. Cilia intervened.

"Come on, dear. I have clothes in the back office." Kendall slanted her a look. The woman was wearing a tightly cut short shirt and loose almost see through pants. No way was Kendall putting on something like that. She'd go back to her room to change, but she felt Daggar's disapproval, sensed that he didn't want her out of his sight even for a few minutes. And she didn't have any idea why she was going to comply. Probably because it was so distressing to see him so badly injured. Not that she was about to admit that. Sighing, knowing she was giving in on a battle she probably shouldn't, she followed Cilia into the office. The woman walked to a wall cabinet and pointed out a door at the back of the room. "Shower. You go first. I'll leave some clothes inside the door."

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Kendall frowned. "I can't believe you have anything that'll fit me."

Cilia grinned. "Trust me."

Not likely. The smile wasn't malicious, but it set Kendall's guard up. Fuck it. She didn't have another option right now. She walked into the bathroom, stripped, and stepped into the shower. The door opened and closed as she let the hot water pound over her flesh, as she scrubbed the stink of blood from her skin. None of it had actually touched her, but she smelled it, felt coated with it all the same. It was always like this after a battle triage.

Daggar was growing impatient. She felt him, almost heard him snapping out orders to the warriors around him, while at the same time he tried to command her, cajole her to hurry. She had a sudden image of them together, him leaning over her, holding her hands high above her head. Kissing her gently, tenderly, knowing the dominance to come, knowing how it would thrill her. She hurried up.

After toweling off, she reached for the pants Cilia had left. They were the same style she'd seen other Delroi women wearing, with a fitted waist and loose legs. She groaned. If they belonged to the much smaller woman, they'd never fit. They did and Kendall spared a moment to wonder who they belonged to.

She reached for the shirt with a rising sense of dread. The idea of exposing her belly, of showcasing her boobs, didn't thrill her. Daggar seemed to growl in her head, trying to hurry her up. Better get it over with. She pulled the shirt on. 78