Page 2 of A Mate for Vasek
Okay, so he might have done that on purpose.
Just because Bakum wouldn’t pay for a treatment didn’t mean Vasek would let her die. And by the looks of it, if he didn’t treat her, shewoulddie. He was cutthroat when it came to business, but he had a heart.
The female’s small frame shook as he approached, and a scent of fear stung his nose.
Dawn
Dawn looked around the unfamiliar room. She’d been going in and out of consciousness and had no idea how she’d ended up here. The last time she was fully aware of her situation, Bakum had been dragging her through the New Rhean wilderness.
Bakum had been adamant that New Rhea didn’t have many dangerous beasts, and he’d been right. The only close call she’d had was when that ancient-looking crocodile-meets-sturgeon monster thing had tried to eat her while they were crossing the river.
But what Bakum hadn’t accounted for were the sheer number of dangerous plants they’d have to go through. One of these plants had given her that painful rash on her leg that felt like it was going to burn her up from the inside. She’d screamed whenshe’d touched it, and Bakum had gotten angry. He’d picked her up to shake her like he usually did when he was unhappy with her, and had brushed up against the nettle-like leaves. The big brute of a Tallean had wailed like a baby.
Bakum’s rash had healed up the next day, but hers had stayed. The worst part started when the pain of the rash subsided. Her whole body ached, and even breathing hurt from how tired her muscles were. She felt feverish and chilled all at the same time. And she kept passing out.
Bakum hated that, since they were technically on the run, but no amount of shaking woke her. So he’d dragged her along.
Dawn was surprised he hadn’t just taken the valuable dress she was wearing and left her to die in the wilderness. But that was most likely because he’d spent so much trying to evade their pursuers already and needed to sell her to recoup costs. He knew Dawn had been important to her previous owner, and he knew that their pursuers were after her as well as him, but he didn’t know why, and she wasn’t stupid enough to tell him. So now he had to drag her around while running for his life.
Ha! Served him right for killing Kotch and ruining her only chance at getting back to Earth.
When the idiot had gotten stabbed on his way back into the port, Dawn had hoped that he’d find a medic, and fed up with her illness, get both of them fixed up. But nope. That asshat was stupidandcheap. She should’ve known he wouldn’t spare any credits for her.
The only thing she had to be thankful for was that Bakum was better than the guys who were after them. Those thugs, her previous owner's newest hires, were total monsters. They’d been literal pirates before taking this job. Really bad pirates, since they struggled to make decent credits.
With Kotch gone, Dawn thought the pirates would go right back to plundering and murdering, but instead, Kotch’s friend Morad had rallied the motley crew, and they were coming after Bakum and her.
She guessed it wouldn’t matter much now. She’d heard the medic’s words, and they’d confirmed what she already knew: she was really sick. She was freezing all the time, and everything hurt. And just staying awake was difficult. Her life over the past few days was just a series of memories, a chunk here, a sliver there. She was surprised she was even still alive.
What she hated the most wasn’t even dying. It was that she was going to diehere.In New fucking Rhea. And right before her chance to get back to Earth.
A few weeks ago, Dawn had caught news of a group of human slaves planning a ship heist. Unlike many in these parts who tried to escape to Reka 5, these future runaways planned on flying the ship to Earth. They had a route and everything. Even figured out ways to refuel on the way.
Dawn had heard from plenty of other survivors that Earth wasn’t a good place to return to anymore. And everyone knew the best place for displaced humans to go was Reka 5. The colony, where humans and Talleans had equal standing and ownership of intelligent beings was completely outlawed, was just a hop and a skip from New Rhea. But she wasn’t interested.
There was also Kean’s compound. According to a few people she’d spoken to, if you made it to his compound, the drug lord-cum-ruler of Vosthea would offer you a job, an actual credit-paying job, and protect you from whomever you escaped from.
But Dawn wasn’t interested in that either. She just wanted to see home one last time before she croaked. And this outlandish escape plan had been her chance.
Too bad Bakum had shown up and fucked it all to hell by murdering her owner and dragging her all over this backwater hellscape over some stupid disagreement.
Now she was going to die without ever making it home. She didn’t even know what day it was. There was a big chance she’d already missed the proverbial boat, and her friends were already up in the great unknown, making the big trek home.
Dawn forced herself to be grateful for all the little things, like the fact that she was sitting on a comfortable chair instead of the hard floor, and the fact that the blanket around her smelled really nice. Was that the medic’s scent? It was so much better than dirt and sweat.
The medic knelt in front of her. Unlike Bakum, this Tallean male had kind eyes. His face was another matter. Several scars interrupted his right cheek crease, giving his otherwise handsome face a dangerous look. The creases were the most inhuman part of Tallean faces.
“What’s your name?” he asked, looking directly at her.
All Talleans had green eyes, though they varied in shade. Bakum had yellow-green eyes, and her now-dead owner had bright, emerald-green ones. But Dawn had never seen this particular shade before. The medic’s eyes were so dark she would’ve thought they were black if it weren’t for the glint of green that shone through when he tilted his head.
Then, realizing she was staring, Dawn cast her eyes down. They landed on the large claws that stuck out of the front of his thick-soled boots. That was one part of the aliens she’d never gotten used to. It was hard not to be afraid of those claws when she’d witnessed them tearing someone apart more than once. She looked down at her hands instead.
“What’s your name?” he asked again in his rich baritone.
“Dawn.”
“Dawn. I’m Vasek. When did this illness start?”
