Page 71 of Taken for Granite
“Are you the medic?” She knew he couldn’t answer. What else could he be? A turncoat gargoyle working for the Rose Syndicate? No, he had to be a medic from the Khargal ship.
Tas arrived, landing next to her in a flurry of wings and kisses. “Juniper! Are you well?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Where’s Chloe?”
“She is safe. I left her with a friend.” He inspected her, lightly touching the spot where she banged her head in the SUV. “What did they do to you?”
The medic said something with a smirk. Tas growled a reply and the medic paled.
“It’s just a bump—and what did he say?” Juniper asked, realizing at the moment she would have to learn an alien language full of sounds that she didn’t think a human could make.
Tas continued to stroke her hair as if to calm himself. “He jests that I am slow in my advanced age and myHondassawould be better served with a younger warrior.”
Juniper tossed a sharp look to the medic. “Not. Interested.”
“Good, because he would be short several horns and not so pretty.”
The medic let loose a good-natured chuckle and pressed a syringe to Rhoda’s neck.
“What’s he giving her?”
“It is for pain,” Tas said.
“Will that work on a human?”
He raised one shoulder. “Who knows if Khargal medicine will work on a human? If we do nothing, she will die. If the drug works, it will ease her pain.”
“Or it could kill her,” Juniper added.
Tas turned his gaze to hers, the silver burst in his amethyst eyes more prominent and giving him a cold expression. “And?”
“Fine. Point taken.” This was his enemy. He didn’t care if Rhoda lived or died, but Juniper cared, and that was the only reason Tas brought the medic.
The medic produced another canister, applying it to the wound in Rhoda’s stomach. It sprayed a yellow foam that expanded and coated over the wound.
“It expands and seals a wound, stopping bleeding, and allows a patient to be moved. I have used it myself, long ago,” Tas explained.
The medic stood, lifting Rhoda in his arms. A strange expression crossed his face as he regarded the woman in his arms, then he nodded at Tas and leaped up into the sky.
“How difficult is your language to learn?” she asked.
“Very.”
Fantastic. She would spend the rest of her life stumbling through an alien language.
She must have pulled a face because Tas shook his head with a chuckle. “You will receive a translator implant on the ship. Dozens of alien species live on Duras. No one is expected to speak dozens of languages. We use the translators.”
“You have one?”
“Yes.” He folded his ear forward and tapped a spot. “It is implanted there. Very painless. Now, it is time,” Tas said, rising to his feet. He scooped Juniper up in one motion and then they flew.
As far as a last day on Earth went, she couldn’t think of a better way to go than in the arms of the man she loved.
23
Juniper
Awarm tingle passed through her like a wave, followed by nausea. Juniper fell to her knees, using one arm to brace herself against the floor while she heaved.
