Sarazen's Claim, Book One (2 page)

"I noticed. What are you commander of, because you're even bigger than him."

Ga'rae's eyes, which were a remarkable greenish gold, sparkled when he smiled at her in amusement. His head was shaved too, just one thick braided rope of inky black hair that spilled down his back and made the green tattoos on the side of his head and neck stand out in bold relief, "I command only this medical bay, little one. Be not afraid, a light will shine down on you and scan your small self for further injury. You are very brave," She blinked languidly and closed her eyes while those white spots became brighter and more difficult to see through, "No choice. Got more chevrons on my arm, I'm in charge, can't fall apart or the crew will freak."

She turned her cheek into the gentle stroke down her hair, listening to them murmur in their deep, guttural language above her, "Tell me of you, little warrior, you may sleep soon, but not just yet."

"Not a warrior. I study plants. Flowers. Trees. Sometimes animals. I'm really dizzy,"

"The wound you have sustained is extensive, little one. The Commander is going to give you his blood to replace what you have lost."

"M'kay. I need type AB negative, is the Commander, a type AB negative?"

"He is whatever you require,"

"Universal donor..."

She didn't know why she found that so funny, it shouldn't have been funny but giggles bubbled out of her anyway. She felt that gentle hand stroke her hair again, and her giggles turned to little hiccupping tears, "Shh," One of them soothed, and she gave a soft little cry of pain when a massive arm slipped under her shoulders and gently eased her up into a sitting position, "It will be alright, the pain will stop soon, drink this." The cool rim of a cup was placed to her lips, and she obediently opened her mouth to let the thick, warm fluid flow over her lips. The taste made her gag a little, spicy and metallic, but thick like a protein shake.

She hated protein shakes and did her best to just choke it down quickly, shuddering and turning away when the cup was removed, "Gross," One of them chuckled, and she felt the sharp bite of a needle in her throat, "Whazzat?" She slurred, trying to force her eyes open, trying to blink away the tears now streaming freely down her cheeks, "A tonic to soothe your pain and a small language transmitter that will travel through your blood to settle into the proper area of your brain. It will allow you to understand our common tongue, and many others."

"Oh. Kay."

"Remove the barb," The commander ordered tersely.

She opened her eyes when she was turned on her side, and a gentle brush of fingers was followed by a firm call of her name. The Commander was crouched beside her so that her face was level with his chest, and she didn't have to strain to look up at him. “What barb?” His touch was gentle, though his voice was hard, no softening to his words, no mincing them, "There is a tracking barb embedded in your shoulder. It will continue to broadcast your location as long as it is within your body, and to remove it Ga'rae will have to cut into your skin. You will not feel it unless Ga'rae is clumsy and ruptures the vial inside, and then you will feel it."

"What's in the vial?"

"Essentially, acid."

"Is Ga'rae clumsy?"

"Not usually. But his patients are not normally as frail and delicate as you."

"I'm six feet tall, I'm not delicate, or small, or frail."

"Your bones have a fraction of the density ours do, and your flesh is soft,"

"You're a giant Viking alien, and why wouldn't it be soft? I'm a girl."

"I am a Sarazen, not a Viking,"

She opened her mouth to tell him just exactly how much of a Viking he was, but something felt weird in her general shoulder area, and the medic’s soothing voice followed the strange sensation. "The barb is removed, Commander. I need not use the re-generator, your blood is already repairing the damaged tissue." Tarek glanced up and away from her, and she took the opportunity to study the tattoos that swirled in thick lines over his shaved scalp and down his throat, disappearing down under the collar of his armor.

He had a beautiful face, beautiful chiseled lips that shaped around every word he spoke, though she wasn't really paying attention to those words. Just how sharp and leonine his features were. She imagined that if he had let his entire head of hair grow out, instead of just that thick braided stripe down the center, it would look like a lion's mane. She saw dimples wink in his cheeks, but he wasn't smiling. He didn’t really seem like a smiley sort of guy. But she reached out anyway to clumsily stroke her fingertip down the cleft in his chin, almost jerking her hand back when his eyes snapped back to hers and he frowned at her, "Sorry," She mumbled, trying to maintain a serious face while he stared at her. "She needs to rest, Tarek." Ga'rae grunted from behind her, and without taking his eyes off of her, the commander grunted back, "She will do so."

He stood up and she had to roll back onto the table to keep him in focus, but it turned out she didn't have to even do that, because he slipped his arms under her and carefully lifted her back up against the hard, cold metal of his armor. She stared at him, and he stared right back, "I should walk," She whispered, and his tawny eyebrow arched up, "I disagree." He told her firmly, standing there holding her like it was no effort at all to do so. Like he carried women around all day every day, and for all she knew, he probably did. "What little crew is left is relying on me to lead, I should walk." His eyes warmed a fraction, but his armor was still just as cold, "Females who study flowers do not lead warriors." He told her bluntly, and she snorted, "Maybe where you're from, but they probably don't know that. I certainly don't know who any of them are past the stripes on their uniforms, but it's still my responsibility."

He stared at her for a moment longer, lips tight and his eyes narrowed while he thought about her words, and then carefully set her on her feet. She thanked him, took one step to the side and promptly fell on her ass. Or she would have, if he hadn't been right there to wrap his massive armored arm around her waist and haul her back to her feet. "I will allow you to walk, at my side, until your people are out of sight, then I will carry you and I will hear no arguments," His tone alone would have made her agree, but the fierce look on his face quelled any argument she might have made, so she just nodded in answer. The glass partition slid up without even a whisper of sound, and she realized how quiet it had been in the little room, when it slid up and all the sounds outside came rushing back in. "Lieutenant, are you alright?" One of the men asked, nervously looking from the big armor plated warrior holding her up, to her and back so fast she wondered if he was as dizzy as she was. "I am, thank you ensign...Brock."

The man, who was younger than she was, unzipped his uniform top and offered it to her, making her realize, belatedly, that she was just in her under tunic and pants, and nothing else. She bluffed her way through her blushes and reached out to take the shirt gratefully, only to freeze when an honest to God growl vibrated through the mountain holding her up, "You will receive fresh clothing in your quarters," The commander snarled, eyes flashing brightly at ensign Brock, lips peeled back from his teeth in a feral grimace. "Right. Thank you, Brock. At ease, uh, your turn for medical. Get that cut checked out on your head."

Three

The commander moved her forward past his warriors, and once she was out of sight she was whipped right back up into his arms and carried down the long, wide corridor to what appeared to be some kind of lift. The doors opened, they closed, then a few seconds later they opened again and Tarek was carrying her down another corridor that looked exactly the same as the one before, to a door with no distinguishing marks or nameplate to identify that it was the correct one.

But when the door slid open and hissed closed behind her, there was no mistaking it as an officer's quarters. The furniture was elegant and comfortable looking, the living area large, and the sleeping area even bigger. But it was devoid of personal items, so she assumed it was guest quarters, in which case they were far nicer than any that had been aboard the
Aria
. She thought about the ship then, her home for the past five years, and her bottom lip trembled because it, along with everyone she knew, her little collection of her parent’s personal items from Earth, her own things, and her research of all the planets she'd visited.

Gone. Just like that.

"The heat of battle is cooling, little one."

She sniffled, and even though he wore his battle armor, she could feel him flinch in reaction to the sound, like he didn't know what it was. "I wasn't in a battle," She hiccupped, tears starting to fall, and she watched them slide down the surface of his silvery armor and onto her tunic where she was pressed up against him. "Yes, you were. Stand here," His tone was gruff, but he set her down like she was so delicate that one wrong bump would shatter her to pieces. She watched him reach up to what looked like an engraving on the shoulder of his armor, and was fascinated by how it soundlessly started to fold up, or collapse or something, starting from the toes up and in what seemed like seconds retracted into a thick metal torque around the strong column of his throat.

She forgot all about the
Aria
for the moment, because he was shirtless underneath his armor, his bronzed skin tattooed further down over his shoulders, every impressively cut muscle on display, all the way down to his low slung brown trousers. And the armor hadn't bulked him up by even a fraction, he was in fact, that large. Seven feet tall and as some of the elders might have said, built like a brick shit house. "That was so awesome," She blurted like a total idiot, and his lips twitched, making one of his dimples wink at her. "How does that even work? Is it nano tech, or liquid that gets hard?" She reached up to touch the torque, but he stopped her with a gentle touch and his lips twitched again, "We can discuss my armor at another time, come this way."

His hand slid down her arm and to her waist, leading her forward into some kind of cubicle and told her to close her eyes. "You will feel a mist, it is an enzyme wash. Open your mouth if you wish, and it will cleanse your teeth as well." An enzyme wash? How awesome was that? She felt the mist and turned her face up to it, loopy from whatever the pain meds were that she'd been given and giggled because the soft spray smelled like the strawberries she'd grown in her hydroponic lab.

But it tingled, like mint and tickled her skin, and had absolutely no taste when she opened her mouth and felt the mist foam a little. "This is so weird," She chortled, and then a warm burst of air whirled around her like a mini cyclone and she felt refreshed, squeaky clean, and when the Commander told her she could open her eyes, she looked to see that the blood that had dried on her skin was gone, her clothes clean… Her skin felt softer than she could ever remember it being, and holy shit, her collection of freckles from the Solar Room aboard the
Aria
were gone too. "Come." She was told again, her marveling interrupted, and she wondered if that was the Commander's favorite word.

He kept his arm solidly around her, which gave her the perfect opportunity to ogle his gorgeous body up close, and she took full advantage of it. "Discard your clothing and put this on," He ordered, handing her a white shapeless looking dress thing from somewhere. She looked around for a privacy screen, but didn't find one, and as medicated as she was she wasn't thinking, and would likely look back on this moment later and be mortified.

She whipped off her undershirt and wiggled out of her pants, took the dress from the Commander and tugged the silky soft material over her head, jolting a little when she felt it shrink and hug her upper body for a perfect fit. "That was weird," She looked up at the Commander to confirm the weirdness, and he was staring down at her with an expression that both thrilled her and frightened her at the same time. His eyes were hot on her skin, his nostrils flared and his cheeks ruddy with lust. It was enough to have her taking a wary step back, "I have already told you not to fear me," He purred dangerously, and her skin prickled with uncertainty, "You did," And she would have said more, except a sharp pain in her low abdomen stole her breath and made her hunch forward, pressing her hands to the spot that felt like someone was using a focused laser on her insides. "Ow, shit!" She hissed, and before she'd even managed to take a breath, Tarek had scooped her back up and was a stride away from running back out the door with her.

Ga'rae was just finishing up with one of her other crew, but Tarek snarled at the young man to get out of his way and put her back on the table. She understood their guttural language now, which was amazing, but the searing, tearing pain in her abdomen was so intense it was really all she could focus on. She felt another stab of something in her neck, and almost immediately the intensity of the blowtorch in her abdomen was turned down to a dull burn. "Clary, when did you suffer this mutilation to your abdomen?"