Page 31 of Rogue: Planet Athion
His frown deepened. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
“What he meant was that he’s sorry for your loss,” a new voice interrupted.
I looked to the door to find another Athion, this one tall and broad. His skin was an aqua blue, and his eyes were a silvery gray that sat eerily in his face. His hair was so dark it was almost black and cut close to his scalp, forcing his features to stand out sharply. He looked like a damn marble statue, if marble were blue, and his clothes hugged him in all the right places.
“My loss?” My voice cracked. “What doyouknow about it?”
He glanced at Xavier. “Enough to understand that you’re hurting right now. We’ve all lost people, loved ones … friends.” He walked into the room. “We just want to make sure you’re kept safe. My name is Tide.”
I touched the patch on my arm. “You took blood?”
Lore nodded. “Standard protocol.”
I shrugged. “Is it not standard protocol to wait till the subject is conscious and ask for bloody consent?”
“Would you have had us wait to remove the collar too?” Lore bit back.
Ooh, he was going to get on my nerves, this one. I bit back on the desire to nut punch him.
Xavier stepped closer. “Rogue, come on. We’re not the enemy.”
The anger seeped out of me. He was right, of course, he was right, but Marlon and Killion were gone. Anton was gone, and all I needed right now, all I wanted with every fiber of my being, was to see Vex.
I took a shuddering breath. “Vex isn’t my enemy either. He isn’t anyone’s enemy. I want to see him.”
Lore and Tide exchanged glances, but it was Xavier who spoke. “You were unconscious for almost forty-eight hours, Rogue. The teleportation had an unanticipated effect on your human body.”
“So?”
“Vex is … He’s not himself right now. He’s going through withdrawal.”
What was he talking about? “Withdrawal? He’s not a junkie.”
“From the drug that was in his system,” Lore provided.
“The one they fed him for years in his gruel,” Xavier reminded me gently.
Oh, God. Oh, shit. “You left him to deal with that alone?”
I glared at Xavier. “He saved my life before Anton did. In the arena, Vex saved me, and then he shielded me from Marick. He kept me safe.” I straightened my spine. “Take me to him. Now.”
Tide sighed and nodded. “Very well, follow me.”
“Are you serious?” Lore asked him.
Tide leveled him with a stern look. “You’re too smart to ask such a dumb question.”
And then he led the way out of the med bay.
* * *
I barely noted the details of the ship as Tide led Xavier and me from the med bay, across a dimly lit corridor, down a flight of steps, and into a whitewashed room that looked onto another room where Vex paced. He was dressed in a white shirt and loose-fitting black pants. The shirt was practically see-through with sweat, his hair was plastered to his forehead, and he paced the room beyond in evident agitation.
I rushed to the window. “Vex!”
“He can’t hear you,” Xavier said. “He can’t see you.”
Vex walked over to the glass and glared right through me. He was hurting, it was in his amethyst eyes, in the pupils that were dilated and fixed.
