It was then that I realized that a part of me wasn’t sure it wanted to be free—oftheseDrakes, anyway.
My pulse pounded harder.
Which only emphasized that I was, indeed, in damned big trouble.
9
Jaz
The Drakes permitted Yani to mend their deepest wounds. The more minor ones were already healing well. Their reticence turned out to be fortunate, as our beleaguered cellular regenerator ran out of juice long before we ran out of injuries.
Finally, as Yani cursed and shook the unresponsive device, Zyair asked me, “How long until we fall out of slipstream?”
I glanced at the chronometer. “Just over four hours.” I swallowed. There was no avoiding the destination—once the coordinates were set, you were stuck until the slipstream spat you out. We were headed into Nirzk territory whether we wanted to be, or not.
Not.Definitelynot.
Yani glanced at me as she snapped the regenerator into the charging unit. If we did, in fact, wish to be free of the Drakes, what better place to start than with their mortal enemies?
A fuzzy head popped out of Yani’s coverall pocket. Apparently when the Drolgok had nipped into the engine room, she’d done more than just jimmy the engine quiet.
Xandros leaned into the sickbay. “Is that a hedgegopher?” he asked.
Okay, it was difficult to not smile at an enormous alien leaning in to wave his thick finger at Sookie while making silly clicking sounds with his tongue. This was sooo not Drake behavior.
Or maybe, it was. Truthfully, I didn’t really know. They so seldom mixed with the human rabble that most of my knowledge of them was based on rumor and innuendo. Maybe all Drakes coaxed hedgegophers out onto their hands, and tickled behind their ears.
Yani seemed unfazed by this behavior. The Drolgok didn’t bat an eye at three-hundred pounds of solid muscle making cooing noises.
Yep. That’s what he was doing now. Sookie was enraptured. So was I.
Instead of even so much as raising a brow, Yani looked at me and said, “We need the navigation cube.”
“I’ll fetch it.” I turned to leave.
“Bring it to the galley,” she called after me. “It’s the only room big enough for all of us.”
Wasn’t so sure about that, myself. But it was the largest space we had, other than the storage bays. One of which was currently occupied by a fucking asshole, in every sense of the word.
“Rhodes and I will do a more thorough search of Senaik’s room and meet you back at the galley.” Zyair said. He added something to Xandros in Drakonian that I didn’t catch.
“Gotcha, bro,” Xandros replied from where he stood in the hall, petting Sookie. He offered the hedgegopher to Yani. “Do you want her back?”
Yani shook her head. “She looks happy there. Just bring her to the galley with you.”
To my surprise, when I headed down the hall, the big Drake fell into step with me.
“I don’t need help with this,” I stated.
“You got it anyway,” he said easily.
I couldn’t look at him. I mean, Sookie waspurring. “And if I don’t want it?”
He shrugged. “I am hard to stop. It is easier to comply.”
Well, he had a point there. I settled for not looking at him as we strode along. Because I didn’t want to acknowledge how damned sweet it was that he tickled Sookie under her furry chin.
The bridge was quiet, and for a moment I paused, staring out at the empty space beyond the viewscreens. Of course, it wasn’t really empty, but it always looked that way in slipstream. And it was carrying us into trouble.
