Page 16 of Bradi

Marisa reached into his utility belt and grabbed his knife. His eyes narrowed as if daring her to stick him with it. As much as she wanted to jab him, she wanted to check her wounds first. Grabbing hold of the material, she sliced it off just below her crotch line. Following suit on the other side, she smiled as she handed his knife back to him. “There, I’m now stuck in the universe’s shortest shorts.”

“Doc.” Bradi exhaled deeply. He touched her inner thigh lightly and heat pooled between her legs. He didn’t seem to notice that she damn near creamed herself with just the touch of his fingers, and she wasn’t about to point it out to him. “This one is bad. Can you heal it?”

“Heal it? What, I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll need to find something to act as a needle.”

Bradi put his hand up, motioning for her to stop. “No, I mean heal it. Not mend it.”

Marisa’s heart beat furiously and she fought to maintain her composure. “Umm. Stop looking at me like that.”

Bradi leaned down and put his face directly in hers. “Listen, lady. I don’t give a shit about whatever it is you don’t want people to know about you, but you see these cuts?” He ran his hands lightly over her thighs, sending shockwaves of excitement through her body. “These will not only get infected, they will draw predators to us. Is that what you want? Do you want a group panthers or a pack of wolves to happen upon you overnight because they followed the scent of blood?”

Marisa looked around at the edge of the forest and swallowed back the lump in her throat. “How do you know that there are panthers and wolves here? A month ago, you couldn’t even remember your name to board the ship after you spent the night living it up at the bars, and now you’re suddenly a survival expert!” She eyed Bradi for a response, but he gave none.

Instead, he looked at her like he wanted to throttle her. In the next moment, he grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her. The kiss rocked her to her very core and she swayed a second before he tore his mouth from hers. He moved away from her quickly and stormed off into the woods, leaving her to sit on the edge of the shoreline—alone.

“Janelle?” He didn’t stop or answer her. Marisa gulped as he stalked off deeper into the jungle. She’d only seen pictures of vegetation as strange as this and could only imagine how many plants and animals in there were deadly. The tall, black-barked trees had yellow leaves that seem to sweep to the forest floor. They were massive and distinctively different from the trees in the Earth museums.

A soft splashing noise in the red sea behind her caught her attention and she turned around quickly. The head of the mammoth eel appeared a few feet offshore, and Marisa found herself crab walking backwards to get away from it. The sand was softer than she was used to and she sank down slightly. The eel lunged forward and narrowly missed striking her as she rolled to her side.

Pushing upwards in the pinkish sand, she somehow managed to get to her feet. She ran forward, stumbling again and again because of the pain in her legs. The long, jagged cuts opened more. She bled at an alarming rate. Risking a glance over her shoulder, she hoped that she was far enough away from the water to prevent another attack.

Much to her surprise the eel began to slither from the sea. It moved toward her with a speed and efficiency that terrified her.

“Bradi,” she whispered, as the need to panic beat at her.

Something growled in the bushes behind her and she didn’t dare turn to see what it was. From the events that had happened since crashing, she could only assume that it was bad. When she heard matching growls coming from there, too, she knew that her suspicions were correct. She was screwed.

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