Page 18 of On a Rogue Planet
“Dathan.” Mal let a warning note fill her voice. “He’s still a man under all of this.”
Her cousin watched her with a steady blue gaze. “You sure?”
She turned back to Xander. Under the pretense of checking him, she pressed her palm to his forehead. He moved a fraction, pushing into her hand.
She pulled her hand back and this time was drawn to the medallion that hung on a silver chain in the center of his chest. She flipped over the circular pendant. It was warm from his skin and was the same cog design as on his uniform.
“He’s a CenSec, Mal,” Dathan said. “He might have started out human but I doubt there’s much left under the machine.”
She fingered the medallion. “He’s human too. And his name is Xander. Xander Saros.”
“Saros?” Dathan cursed. “You can’t be serious?”
She frowned. “What?”
It was Niklas who answered. “Xander Saros isn’tjusta CenSec. HeisCentax Security. General Xander Saros, head of Centax Security. And the deadliest CenSec ever created.”
She looked back at the clean lines of his handsome face.The deadliest CenSec ever created. He might be that, but Mal knew in her gut there was more to him. She was certain of it.
Eos checked the scanner. “He has some internal bleeding. Nothing too serious.” She lifted a pressure injector. “Can I give him something for the pain?”
Mal frowned. She knew a little about Centaxians and nothing about CenSecs. “I think he has filters that can block the pain but they weren’t functioning after he was hit by the energy weapon. I have no idea how a cyborg will react to drugs.”
“Better not risk it.” Eos set the injector down. “Another twenty minutes under the scanner and he’ll be good as new.”
Mal gave into the urge to touch him. She brushed a lock of dark hair off his forehead.
Those amazing eyes opened again. The neon green was gone, leaving only stunning emerald interspersed with rings of gold.
Mal snatched her hand back, but he reached out, inhumanly fast, and grabbed it.
“Where am I?” His voice was raspy.
She tried to keep her voice steady, cool. “Xander, thank the stars. You’re safe.” But she saw he wasn’t focusing, his pupils were dilated and the green luminescence was leaking back in.
Suddenly, he sprung off the bed.
The medscanner crashed to the ground. He grabbed Malin and yanked her around so her back was pressed against his body. His strong arm circled her neck, restricting her air.
She scrambled to stay on her feet as he pulled her backward, her hands gripping the unyielding muscles in his arm. “Xan…der.”
“Hey! Let her go.” Dathan’s hard gaze was glued to Xander.
“Stay back.”
The ice-cold voice in her ear made Mal want to shiver.
He kept moving backward. Toward the door, she realized.
“Look, let’s all stay calm.” Dathan held his hands up. But Mal saw the anger burning in his blue gaze. “She—all of us—we’re just trying to help you.”
Mal felt Xander’s arm flex, but he didn’t release her. Her own fingers dug into his skin. He was so strong. He might kill her before he got his bearings.
Xander pressed his fingers to the side of her face. “I have bio-electrical implants in my fingers. I can kill her in an instant.” The words held no inflection. Nothing to show one way or the other that he cared about taking her life. “Stay. Back.”
With another fast move, he yanked her through the doorway. Then he was pulling her into the large, cavernous hangar, and deeper into the shadows.
The hangar was filled with her salvaged scrap, all set in neat piles, and larger items her cousins had brought back from treasure hunts.
