Page 12 of Healer Hunted

Noa started to make a sound, about to warn me, but I raised a hand. “Listen Mikasul, you know I can’t do that.” There was nothing inside this room that made for good ties, and she’d need to be restrained or she’d run to the nearest guard to sound the alarm. I’d prefer it if I could knock her out, but I was all out of sedative.

The human woman proved as innovative as always, she grabbed the bottom sheet of her bunk and started tearing it into long strips. Yes, that would definitely work for ties, but I could make things easier for us in another way. Approaching the Aderian female, I crowded her into her bunk, aware that her aura was sparking with fear now. Not typically the impression I was going for as a doctor, but this time it didn’t bother me.

Mikasul didn’t know exactly who I was anymore, she was unsure of me. I pinned her by the throat, my pointer fingers finding the pressure points on the sides of her spine, depressing gently on the nerves there. In moments her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out. She wouldn’t stay out for long, but as Noa and I tied her up and gagged her, that certainly made things a lot more pleasant.

We were ready to go in a few minutes, Noa only taking a last moment to grab a final strip to tie up her hair. Then she dug a little scrap of fabric out from under her mattress, briefly showing me a few glistening earrings and a few hotel guest cards. Pato made an eager sound, tiny hands reaching out to grab for them. Noa smirked at the monkey and tucked them into the front of her shirt, pressed between her breasts.

Ah, so Pato liked to collect things huh? That was going to be interesting when he met Fluffy, I had it on good authority that Fierce’s pet Riho loved to collect the shiny wrappers of ration bars. At least he seemed happy enough to let Noa transport his little stash of things.

I checked the time, still a couple hours before dawn. If we were lucky, Mikasul would confirm that we seemed to be headed for the spaceport next to the resort when they found her come morning. That would possibly give us a little extra time to make our escape and get as far away from here as we possibly could.

“Wait Noa,” I told her just as she started to open the door, “Let me take care of that collar.” I fished out the scissors and the pair of needles from my pocket, I’d carefully rolled them in a strip of fabric. My breathing stalled as I waited for her to trust me with that tamper-proof collar or not. It was a big thing, if I made a misstep I’d cause her a lot of pain, and she would know that.

Tilting her head at an angle, she lifted her chin, but it still took her a moment to turn around and offer me the pale column of her neck. My palms were sweaty when I lifted them to get to work, so I wiped them on my shirt first. At least this didn’t require any kind of sterilized equipment, it was just going to be a few clicks, I hoped.

The clasp looked the same as those on the collars my friends had worn, as the collar I’d worn for three years myself. Though it was far smaller, thankfully, my fingers were well adapted to the finest of procedures. I was a master surgeon for a reason, though I’d never expected this to become my specialty.

The collar slid down her neck with a soft snicking noise, snagging in the neckline of her oversized sweater, and she made a soft shuddering noise. I acted on instinct, stepping closer, until my front was pressed against her back, my palms on either side of her head against the door. I dropped my face into the soft blonde hair piled on her head, drinking in her scent, the soft warmth of her slender body. “You are free,” I said against her delicately rounded ear shell.

A shiver rattled along her spine, she sagged against my body, her head tilting until I could see her face. “Thank you, Luka.” Then she turned, her arms curling around my neck, and her pink mouth brushed against mine. I pushed back, pressing her into the door so I could feel the press of her breasts against my chest. My urges overwhelmed me until I had her pinned to that door, devouring that pretty mouth of hers, her taste swamping my senses.

Noa moaned, the sound a caress, her aura filled with an answering desire. She was as into this moment as I was, welcoming me eagerly when I pressed the hard bar of my cock against her most private place. She curled one leg, hooking it over my hip, and I was seriously contemplating opening up those too-large pants so I could stroke, and taste, her most private place.

A noise alerted me, then Pato suddenly climbed up my leg, leaped for my shoulder, and started chittering in my ear. Yes, I got it buddy, we needed to go. The time to fool around would have to be later. When I pulled back, Noa’s eyes were heavy-lidded, she looked up at me through her lashes, all slumberous. It cost a lot of willpower to pull away, but I somehow managed it.

“She’s waking up, let’s get out of here,” I said, then for good measure I added, “We need to get to the spaceport. Guest ships are leaving first thing in the morning, we need to be on one.” Noa’s eyes went wide, darted past my arm to look at the Aderian female tied up on the bed, then she gave me a nod shadowed by a frown. Yeah, that was obviously stupid to say if it was my real plan, smart girl.

We stepped out of the tiny bunkroom and into a still empty hallway, it was lined with doors spaced close together. Rows upon rows of tiny bunkrooms to house my mother’s slaves. One such door swung open as soon as we walked past, I was in front of Noa in a heartbeat, my body primed to attack this newcomer.

It was the Xurtal female, and behind her, I saw a pale blue face from an alien species I had never seen before. I froze, unsure if this was a threat or not, the female had given me a message once for Noa after all. She stared at me with a fierce glare, her dark red eyes narrowed dangerously so that my skin prickled in warning.

“Aradne, Moira!” Noa whispered at the two, she sounded happy to see them so I eased to the side, relieved not to have to confront the former gladiator female. I was pretty sure I’d end up squashed if I tried that, and I liked my parts in working order, especially since Noa seemed interested now.

My girl hugged the two women, whispering with them. Then the Xurtal female shoved a bag into her arms and with a rough motion send her stumbling into my arms. I caught and righted her, but when we looked, the two females had already disappeared into their rooms. “Ready to blow this joint?” I asked, and Noa laughed quietly, so I assumed I’d messed up that colloquialism. Though I was pretty certain I’d heard Camila say it more than once.

Chapter 8

Noa

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? We can all get out of here!” I asked the two women. Moira didn’t say anything, she was sweet and shy, and even now, she ducked her head and simply looked at the ground. Aradne was nothing like that, she gave me a fierce look, and pointed over my shoulder at Luka.

“You and hot stuff over there need to get out, he’ll alert the authorities as soon he can, we’ll all be free then,” she made a shooing motion. Her stern features relaxed into what almost passed as a maternal smile. “We’d just get in your way,” she waggled her eyebrows and I felt heat stealing up my neck. Did they know that I’d been playing tonsil hockey with Luka a moment ago? I almost reached up to touch my lips, sure they were kiss swollen and giving me away.

“Take this,” Moira murmured, and a bag was shoved into my arms. Opening the flap was enough to tell me it was filled to the brim with ration bars, they must have gone to steal those from the kitchens shortly after everyone had gone to bed. This was more than enough to keep Luka and me fed for a couple of days, even if I hated the taste of that stuff. “Thank you!” I said, “I promise to get you out of here!” I quickly took Pato’s little stash of things out of my shirt and tucked it into a pocket of the bag.

Aradne was not the type to do well with sentimental stuff, that much was obvious in her brusque way. She pushed me in the direction of Luka, with much more force than even she probably intended. I stumbled and crashed into his arms, which was no hardship. Luka caught me in his arms, my skin tingling at the proximity.

Then he made me laugh with his ridiculous phrase, it reminded me so much of home that I felt a pang of unexpected homesickness. It also made me wonder where he could have picked that up, that was such a human thing to say. Who had taught him that?

Pato was riding on Luka’s shoulder, my hand curled in Luka’s hand, as we made our quiet way up from the basement level and into the hotel proper. Once there, we needed to be extra careful because guards were patrolling, and more than usual since the cameras were down.

We reached the big lobby and had to duck out of sight because two of them, both Rummicaron, were walking across the space. Unlike a normal hotel, like I’d worked at before on Earth Colony Four, there was no front desk employee at night. There was some kind of AI interface but that was it, because this hotel was only reached by spaceships, they knew exactly when they’d have new arrivals.

The potted plant we crouched behind barely provided enough cover, but the guards were already with their backs to us. I held my breath because our fast jog meant it was coming in pants, as soon as they turned a corner I let it out in a soft hiss. That was close! Now we needed to head out the front entrance, past the maze of manicured gardens, and out the dome. The hotel was located at the center, with the spa buildings spread out like a horseshoe. The spaceport was close, but guests were still ferried across in closed shuttles so that they never had to experience the ashy air outside the dome.

We could try to get on one of those shuttles just outside, but I had a feeling that making the hike on foot would give us better odds. I was concerned that Luka had so blatantly mentioned our plans in front of Mikasul, but there was no other way off the planet as far as I knew. We had no other option. Judging it safe, I got up and started to go across the lobby for the exit, but Luka pulled me to a stop and shook his head. “Not that way, that’s too obvious, follow me.” Ah, so he did have another plan, he’d been fooling my snitch of a roommate.

He pulled me deeper into the hotel, leading me through several corridors, then we reached the resort entrance. Wide-eyed, I checked if that’s where he wanted to go, worried he was not making any sense at this point. The space port and the front entrance were a really obvious choice, he had a point there. What other way off the planet was there though?