Page 41 of The Arabis Triad

He slumped forward, his head falling into his hands. Paxt almost thought Ashir wasn’t going to answer when he sat back, brushing his hair from his face. He looked drawn and exhausted. Paxt felt much the same way.

“I don’t even know if I dreamed what happened once they got me tied down,” Ashir said. “Maybe it was a hallucination.”

Coltan positioned a probe to each of Ashir’s temples and then administered a shot to his arm. “This will drain it all out, but it might take some time. Might as well tell us anything, no matter how trivial you think it may be.”

Ashir rested his head against the back of the chair and sighed. “As I said, I’m not sure if I was dreaming or not, but, and this is going to sound crazy, I was trapped along a beach. It was very similar to the shore and lake we took Evelyn to, but it was dark. Cold. There was no color, only black and gray. The sky overhead was made from very dense clouds that never stopped moving. Like they were alive. I thought I saw her on the beach. I started to walk toward her, but the clouds dropped from the sky and surrounded me. I couldn’t see anything, or move. Then my body was forced backwards and I woke up on that table to see… see Evelyn…” His voice cracked. He closed his eyes, his head lolling to the side as his body went limp.

Coltan sent Paxt an unapologetic look. “I also gave him a sedative. He needs to sleep and rest. He’ll need it to rid his body of the radioactivity.” His brows rose. “Now, your turn.”

Paxt closed his eyes, splaying his fingers though his hair. He grimaced when he caught dirt, stones, and knots. Coltan was right, though. If he didn’t sit soon, he would drop, and then he would be no good to his brothers or his mate.

He jabbed a finger at Coltan. “Do not sedate me.”

Coltan patted the spare medi-bed. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Sit, and I’ll see what damage that explosion did.”

Managing not to grumble, Paxt stretched out on the bed. His tired body groaned with relief.

Coltan passed the scanner over his body. “Multiple abrasions. Lacerations. Cracked rib. Make that two. How were you still standing, brother?”

Paxt grimaced. “Just fix me and make it quick. We have too much to do.’

Coltan tapped the screen at the head of the medi-bed. The transparent panel began to cover his body. “I’ll set it on the fastest setting, but you’ll go under.”

Paxt waved an impatient hand. “Do what you must. But... what about you!”

“I’ll get to my wounds after I see to you. You’re the most stubborn of us all,” Coltan said.

“I’m not!” There was a hissing, and healing mist billowed around him. His body went heavy and his lids dropped. Coltan hadn’t wasted any time.

The last thing he heard was Coltan swearing at him, something about being a stubborn Drumas turd of a brother, that he hated being the only one awake in a room of sleeping bodies, and he’d better hurry up and heal because they had a mate now and he needed all of them more than life itself.

It was a notion he wholly agreed with. He loved his brothers with his soul and he was in love with his mate with his heart. He couldn’t conceive of a life without all of them, but if Evelyn didn’t wake up from what the scaled ones had done to her, he didn’t know if he could live. Not even for his brothers.

He had no idea what they’d done to her and she hadn’t stirred at all during their trek back. He couldn’t begin to understand how or why or what had been left behind in her forehead. Or what permanent damage might have been done to her.

He tried to sense her through the connection of their bond, but there was nothing in reply. Darkness descended and washed him away, along with the sickening, wrenching hole in his stomach.

Chapter Sixteen

Evelyn

White-hot pain raged through Evelyn’s body. She didn’t know where the pain began or ended. She was caught in a never-ending stream of torture. She couldn’t see. Speak. Hear. But she felt.

God, did she feel.

The torrent caught her up, tossing and turning her, twisting her, rupturing her inside out. She must have blacked out because the next thing she knew, she’d been washed up on the shores of a cold beach. Her head throbbed and there was a searing hot pain from the middle of her forehead.

At first she thought it was the same lake her guys had taken her to. But there were no warm suns and she was standing thigh deep in frigid water. Her legs were so cold, they hurt. Clenching her teeth, she forced one foot in front of the other and tumbled onto the cold sand.

She blinked, her sluggish brain taking a long moment to catch up where she actually was. Above her, a black sky churned with unnaturally billowing clouds. The shore extended indeterminably in either direction. In front was a representation of the rainforest she’d walked through, but instead of the fresh, vivid greens, the prehistoric leaves were made of shades of gray. Deep, dark shadows nearly swallowed them. Behind her, a flat artificial ocean undulated into a distant horizon. The air was stale and dull, filling her lungs with heaviness despite the crisp breeze.

She crossed her arms over her stomach, absently scratching her itching skin. She peered one way and then the other. There was nothing, but utter silence, apart from the sound of wind in her ears.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded dull, as though she was inside a soundproof studio.

She didn’t understand where she was. Where was Paxt? Coltan? Ashir? This seemed like the lakeside, but it was definitely not the same.

She didn’t want to go walking off into the jungle. It didn’t look friendly at all. Instead of welcoming bright green foliage, it was dark green and filled with ominous shadows. The beach stretched indefinitely from either side, blending into unknown darkness. The suns had vanished and the light was fading fast. Swimming was out of the question. She brushed away goosebumps that smattered over her chilled, bare skin as a brisk breeze washed over her.

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