Page 13 of Healer Hunted

I pulled the access card Pato had scavenged out of my pocket, letting us inside the darkened, and blissfully empty interior. “This way,” Luka insisted again, and I followed him through treatment room after treatment room until we reached one with access to the gardens, a private area enclosed on one side by the dome. He seemed to confidently know the way, so it felt right to follow him, even if I didn’t know his plan.

The same card allowed us access to the outside and now I inhaled greedily as fresh, flower-scented air filled my lungs. The ground was soft and spongy beneath my soft-soled shoes, our steps quiet as we darted across the open space, and behind a row of hedges. Then Luka made us follow the curve of the dome, outside the line of trees and hedges that camouflaged some of the ashy ground just outside it.

“Where the fuck are we going?” I asked, starting to get worried, was he trying to make us run around the edge of the dome back towards the port? What was going on? It had seemed like he’d been very familiar with the internal layout of the hotel and the resort, had he just been confidently making random choices instead?

“Getting us out of here, I promise,” he answered, and then with satisfaction, “There, see that? That’s our way out.” He pointed in the distance at a dark cluster pressed up low against the silvery foot of the dome. I tried to decipher what exactly it was supposed to be, but it wasn’t until we were nearly there that I realized it was a door, recessed into the ground, and partially hidden by plants. An access point to the outside of the dome, I doubted my guest all access card would work on it though.

Luka’s eyes went up to scan the inside of the dome, then he checked the door before he stepped in close to the access panel and pulled a card out of his pocket. My eyes widened in surprise when I realized the dark blue piece of plas was that of a security guard. I’d seen the Rummicaron staff use them to get in and out of places, though come to think of it, why were they using cards instead of their palm prints?

“Rummicaron skin has all kinds of microscopic barbs, touch sensors don’t work all that well for them,” Luka said. His dark eyes glimmered at me as he explained, “This might give a read in their system though, so I hope they don’t think to check for it.”

The door made a clunking, hissing noise when it unlocked. Luka had to wrangle the thing out of place as if it was a little twisted and bent in its frame. Judged by the thickness of the panel, it was also really heavy. He managed to let it close quietly, pulling it shut behind us with a grunt to get it to fit again and the lock to engage.

He looked up, ash falling from the sky in soft flakes, already covering my hair, and my shoulders, and now doing the same to him. Jihari was a volcanic planet, with dozens of them nearby, they were steady though, rumbling and spewing ash and fire, but never actually erupting in any dangerous way. Not at the location the resort was built. From what I understood, the mineral-rich spring water they guided into the spa through special channels was what drew people here.

“We need to head in that direction, let me know when you’re flagging okay?” Luka said, and he pointed me in the direction of a range of mountains, the much smaller silver dome of the science outpost glimmering far in the distance. Finally understanding his plan, I appraised the distance. That was far, much farther no doubt than it appeared. Trudging through all this ash was probably also not all that healthy, but Luka had to know that, he was a doctor.

We set out, with the tiny monkey tucked into Luka’s sweater to protect him from the falling flakes. My mind lingered on the feel of my bare throat, the fact that we’d just left the resort. We’d made our break for it, we weren’t home free yet but wow… My chances were so much better with Luka at my side.

Then my thoughts lingered on that scorching kiss we’d shared, maybe that pheromone issue had a point. Maybe it was telling me I should get with this guy, that we’d make pretty babies together. Wasn’t that how it was supposed to work?

Honestly, the thought of tiny babies with charcoal skin and bright blue eyes… Not a bad thought at all, and if they’d have those adorable pointed ears and Luka’s killer smile. Yeah, I was practically melting into a puddle in my shoes.

“You okay Noa? You’ve gone awfully quiet,” Luka said, he cast me a smirk over his shoulder that made my lady bits tingle. It was so mischievous, so knowing. I had a feeling he knew just where my thoughts had headed. Okay, maybe not towards cute babies with his genes. But he definitely knew that I’d just been thinking of jumping his bones, or rather, one bone in particular.

I shrugged, trying to act casual. “Just happy to be free.” Then my dirty mind got away with my tongue and I added, “Thinking of ways to celebrate.” In response, he threw back his head and laughed a full-throated, real belly laugh. His black eyes twinkled like a starry night, they didn’t look so freaky anymore. Not on him, they were kind of pretty actually.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” he murmured, his hand reaching out to curl around the back of my neck, his thumb rubbing over my bare throat. Eyes dropping down to my lips, he added on a husky groan, “I can’t get the taste of you out of my mind. Soon, Noa, very soon.”

With that promise, he took my hand and urged me to follow him away from the huge resort dome. This landscape was barren and bleak, black rock in twisted, melted formations its main feature. It offered little cover initially, but occasionally Luka would point at a streak of pink or silver striations. Once there was a whole flat clearing of yellow sparkly stone, which sadly stunk to high heaven. Pretty looking sulfur no doubt.

I looked over my shoulder after we’d gone an hour and realized that we were dipping into some kind of valley and the landscape had obscured everything but the uppermost portion of the resort dome. It might not feel like there was much cover to be had, but we’d made much progress in the dark of the night, we couldn’t be spotted from the ground any longer.

The rock below my feet was sharp though, some stretches we walked on what almost appeared to be shards of black glass. Luka explained that it was obsidian and I was tempted to pick up a larger piece, just because it shimmered so prettily. The stuff was cutting up my shoes, the simple slippers not suited for this kind of rough terrain.

“Luka,” I said when a shard cut through my shoe into my foot. I couldn’t go on like this, but I didn’t know how to solve the problem. He turned around to look at me the moment it happened, almost faster than I’d said his name. His mirror-black eyes slid from my eyes down to my feet. He kneeled down, placing one of my hands on his shoulder for balance. He picked up the injured foot and with eerie precision pulled the shard free from my sole. I flinched and I saw how that made his brows lower into a fierce frown, “I’m sorry, I should have realized your footwear was not adequate for this kind of hiking.”

I rolled my eyes, my fingers digging into the firm muscle of his shoulder, “Are you kidding me? Where were you going to find me anything better? It’s not like we had time to go shopping.” I smiled when that made him chuckle, his fingers gliding over my ankle, delicately touching my skin.

“That is a fair point, I just wish I could take better care of you,” he said, and then he rose, swinging me up into his arms without warning. I made a tiny squeak that I managed to quickly suppress but I caught his devious little smirk, he’d heard me alright.

“Next time warn me, babe,” I told him. Not that I was going to complain about the lift, I was happy to curl my arms around his neck and let him carry me for a while. I’d had one hell of a day, I was exhausted from everything that had happened, Luka had mostly been sitting on his ass for the past three weeks, he could do a little of the work.

“Babe?” he said, his head tilted at an angle as he gazed down at me for a moment, then his eyes flicked back up to intently survey our surroundings as he walked. There were flakes of ash clinging to his long lashes, his anthracite skin having lost its luster with the dirt now smeared on it. I imagined I looked even worse, my blonde hair had probably gone ash gray at this point.

“Yeah babe, that’s a pet name earthlings say to each other,” I clarified, waving my hand to redirect a particularly large flake of ash from landing on my nose. Pato was smart, hiding out beneath Luka’s shirt, I could feel his little monkey butt press against my shoulder, and sometimes I caught a tuft of his white hair tickling the edge of Luka’s throat.

“I have heard of this, Camila says it to Thorin,” Luka said, he nodded as if it all made sense to him. “They are mates. You may call me babe.” I shivered, hearing the implication in those words and trying to wrap my head around it. I knew I’d just had thoughts about Luka babies, but really, that was just a tiny little fantasy, I wasn’t actually thinking of having those for real. Mating sounded so permanent, people didn’t do that kind of thing anymore these days. Not on Colony Four at least.

So I snarked, “Romance is dead, it’s just all about procreation nowadays. Don’t you know?” My own mother had struggled to raise me on her nursing salary and long hours all by herself. I’d been left with the neighbors most days, and that lady had four kids of her own. She had no time for me or her children, only for the endless male visitors that came and went, supporting her for a time before dropping her like a brick.

Luka tilted his head so I saw the patient smile on his face, his stride steady as he kept going through the desolate landscape. He wasn’t even out of breath after carrying me for a while now. I had noticed that we were now starting to climb. I could already feel my calves burn in sympathy.

“Maybe UAR humans no longer practice matings,” he said, then narrowed his eyes in concentration. “Marriage,” he added triumphantly, somehow finding the correct word for it in my own language. “But I know that’s not true for the human females my friends have mated, so you can be convinced otherwise. Once we are safe, we have all the time in the world to figure things out, Noa. Do you wish to go home?”

The words brought on a pang of homesickness for some of the nicer parts of Colony Four. Like the communal park where people would go picnicking in droves on national holidays. The scent of the food stalls that lined Mainstreet, and the glimmer of the skyscrapers to the north where the rich lived, which looked like a crystal palace painted pink and gold in the morning sunlight.

Then I thought of those rich, and how hard life was down there for the poor, like myself. How my mother’s death by a rich drunk driver had meant that from sixteen and up I’d had to fend for myself, with no chance at an education to improve my status. No, that’s when I’d very quickly decided never to rely on a man for food, like my neighbor, or love, as my mother had.