Aftermath - Ann Aguirre [81]
“Wish I’d packed a thermal blanket,” I mutter, trying to get comfortable.
“I have one,” he says. “If you are amenable to sharing it.”
“Hell yes, I am.” It’s fragging cold.
But after he digs it out, and we arrange ourselves front to back, it’s weirder than I thought it would be. Because he feels human behind me, his chitin covered in two centimeters of skin. So the hardness beneath could be construed as muscle and bone, not what it is, and that’s disorienting because he doesn’t feel like my old friend. He feels like a human male spooned up against my back.
“It is a practical decision,” he says quietly. “The faux- skin is an excellent conductor, so we both benefit from proximity.”
I guess he read something of my thoughts, which takes some doing since my back is to him. Then I realize I’ve tensed against him and make a conscious effort to relax. Of course, I’m being ridiculous; this is Vel, whom I trust as much as anyone in the universe. And he just lost the woman he loves. Try not to be an idiot, Jax.
Beneath the blanket, it’s delightfully warm, and he offers additional heat at my back. But my side hurts where the creature bit me; it’s a heated throb, as if the Nu-Skin and our antibacterial isn’t enough to fight the alien microbes.
I shift several times before he says, “Are you in pain?”
“Yeah.” Mary, I hate admitting that.
“I can administer a local painkiller.”
Ordinarily, I’d say, No, I can tough it out. But without it, the only way I’ll sleep is if I roll over, and I don’t know if I can drop off while curled up against his chest. The alternative is no better; I feel strange about spooning my front to his back.
“Please.”
He rummages and comes up with a disposable drug kit. One tiny prick into the skin of my side, and I already feel the delightful numbness spreading. It might not solve the problems my wound is causing, but it makes me care less.
“Is that better?”
“Much, thank you.”
Vel sets his pack within easy reach, and I set my shockstick near my head. This time, it’s easier to settle against him. I don’t know if it’s the drugs, but since it’s a local, it shouldn’t affect my state of mind. I let myself enjoy the reflected warmth from his faux-skin and the snug protection of the thermal blanket. Wind whispers through the canopy, lulling me, then new noises echo through the jungle: shrill shrieks, raucous calls, gentle chirrups. The sounds blur into a soothing symphony, and I fall asleep faster than I expected.
I wake to a nightmare of teeth and claws scrambling up the tree below me. These creatures are different from the ones on the ground. Smaller, lighter, with talons curved for climbing, and they bear spines on their backs for impaling their prey. I scramble backward, conscious of how far I have to fall. The narrow ledge will make fighting a bitch, and where the hell is Vel?
He drops from above, his twin blades in hand, in the time it takes me to locate my shockstick. Though I’m hardly awake, I wade in swinging. The movement pulls the bite in my side, but there’s enough painkiller left in my system that it’s a bearable ache, not a sharp, stabbing pain. Right now, there are only two, though their screams may bring others.
I hit mine hard enough to knock it toward the edge, and I follow up with a side kick, which sends it tumbling off the platform. It tries to control its fall, clawing at branches and vines, but succeeds only in battering against the trunk on the way down. It hits hard and does not get up. In the time it takes me to dispatch mine, Vel has already sliced the other creature’s throat. The blood smells different from the other monsters we fought, less rotting vegetation and more mineral in origin. Life on this planet is truly