Page 6 of Collision!
“Show me.”
“It’s not bad,” she protested even as her fingers uncurled.
“How do you know?”
They both stared down at her open palm.
A tiny row of puncture wounds marked the middle.When he squeezed her delicate bones together, a single clear bead welled up, followed by a swirl of scarlet.
“It tingles,” she whispered.“Why?”
With a grunt, he circled his thumb, wiping away the mingled fluids.“You are reacting to my quill-scales.”
Her skin was too soft; only a few areas of thicker calluses on her fingers, randomly situated, had partly protected her.
But not enough.
Abruptly, he remembered she had made the colorful veils in the Starlit Salon.He had seen her working alone there after Felicity had invited everyone to the recital.The shrouds had not seemed to serve any particular purpose—anyway, not before becoming the refuge of the resonark in its plasmic form—and they were not even fabricated but woven by hand.
These hands, insufficiently hardened, mostly too soft.And yet one had reached out to steady him when he stumbled.
A waste of material, effort, and flesh.
“You won’t die,” he said gruffly.“At least not from this minimal exposure.”
To his shock, she let out another laugh.“Is that supposed to be comforting?”
He stared at her.“Would my comforting matter?”
When she tilted her head, the end of one braid slipped down over her shoulder.The brushy end tangled in the smaller quill-scales around his knuckles.
With a slightly frustrated breath, she tilted her head the other way, freeing the braid.“Sorry, sorry.Is contact alone a problem?”
“No.Only penetration.”
Her breath this time was deeper for some reason, the rise of her breasts hitching.“That’s…good, I guess.”
“If you won’t come, then stay here,” he growled before stalking off.
But his sensitive hearing caught her mutter: “Oh, IwishI could come…”
Why did she say that when she’d been resisting him?
Itdidn’tmatter, he told himself.He needed to dilute his venom in her body, then he could get back on track.Just him, Lub, and the engines.
The med kits had been calibrated for the species aboard, so of course the one in this module had an antidote for Szauralithyn toxin.He’d never had to use it.
No one had ever touched him.
She was waiting right where he’d left her, surrounded by shadows and looking a little lost with her shoulders hunched, cradling her hand.
When he took her wrist again, she flinched.Her gasp didn’t move much air, and yet he felt it like a punch.
Disgruntled and a bit dismayed, he said, “Just me.”
“I didn’t see you.”Her voice shook.
There’d been no need to squander lumes on himself and Lub, but the engine module must seem so dark to Earther eyes.He tapped at the doubled datpad affixed to his uniform sleeve, and the ambient lighting increased, bright enough to make him squint.
