Page 16 of Derius

Panic ran through her for a few moments, terrified of what might have happened to her lover but then gradually she relaxed against the strange surface beneath her. Inexplicably she had the feeling Derius was close by, watching over her. She murmured his name as the dark took her under and away from the pain and confusion.

* * *

His reserves were draining and his bursts of speed became shorter and shorter but finally he saw flyers overhead and sensed boats coming toward him. He waved a tentacle at the sky but remained in his shifted form, continuing to swim forward. He hoped there were Ardannans in the boats or the flyers or both. His people would recognize him as a shifter. The humans might think he was a threat, stirred from the deep by the wave and threatening Leonie when nothing could be further from the truth.

He slowed as the boat in the lead approached, reversing engines and stopping, holding position. Raising the gripper tentacles, he opened the top one to reveal Leonie’s form, extending her toward the boat, up over the rail and holding her there so the humans could move her to the deck and begin treating her.

Exhausted, he retracted his tentacles and curled up, bobbing in the waves. There were splashes and a moment later two swimmers approached him. With relief he recognized Nikko and Ethaan.

“Derius, man, you shifted,” Nikko exclaimed in awe as he swam right up beside Derius, who swiveled one eye to watch him. His pal touched the hard carapace. “We’ve got your lady now and the medics are working on her. Time for you to change back, okay?”

He emitted a high pitched sound and released his hold on the tarakhan form. Dimly he was aware of the golden sparkles of the change in the air and water and closed his eyes. His arms were leaden and he couldn’t kick with his legs to tread water because his muscles weren’t responding. Nikko and Ethaan grabbed him and towed him to the boat. Hands reached down to assist him over the rail and to the deck, where someone wrapped him in a towel. He started to crawl toward Leonie, but Nikko hooked his hand under Derius’s arms and got him to his feet. Together they made their way to where frantic efforts were being made by the paramedics to keep her alive.

“I want her taken to our ship,” Derius rasped out to Nikko, who had the power to make that happen. “She needs more sophisticated treatment than they can provide here. She might have the bends as well—the capsule sank pretty deep before I could rescue it.”

The boat he was on made a sharp turn toward shore and raced through the waves at a high rate of speed.

Nikko grabbed his handheld from a sealed pocket in his swim trunks and stepped away. “I’m on it. You look like you need medical attention yourself, pal.”

Frustrated by his inability to get closer to Leonie, Derius didn’t reply. He lowered himself to the deck and sat, legs out, watching his mate, who never opened her eyes once. Someone brought him pants and a tee shirt and he got dressed right there on the deck, uncaring who saw him. He wasn’t leaving Leonie.

Chapter Eight

The Ardannan ship hummed around him, easily maintaining her orbit around the Resort Planet. Derius sat in the medbay recovery room next to Leonie’s bed and watched her face for any sign of her reawakening. He held her hand as he’d been doing for hours, ever since the doctors finished their various treatments and procedures and assured him she’d be fine. The staff had examined him too but his actual injuries had been repaired when he shifted to his tarakhan form. He’d been exhausted when brought aboard the ship and had received an inject or two but nothing to be concerned about.

He was dreading the conversation to come, unsure if Leonie could handle the truth about him and how he’d saved her.

As if she’d heard him thinking her name, she gave a small groan and moved in the bed. He rose to his feet, still holding her hand, as her eyes opened. She tried to sit up, looking about wildly until she saw him and then she reached for him with a glad cry. They hugged, Derius being careful not to apply too much pressure. He kissed the top of her head, her hair tickling his nose. “How are you feeling?”

She took a deep breath and released him, sinking onto the pillows but keeping her hold on his hand. “Kind of aching all over. Where are we?”

“On the Ardannan ship. I insisted you had to be taken care of here, by our doctors.” He swallowed hard. “You had quite a few injuries and you were developing the bends. It was more than the Resort Planet clinic could handle. Nikko expedited the emergency medical evac for me.”

Leonie touched her free hand to her forehead and frowned. “I don’t remember everything, mostly a lot of quick impressions and flashes. What happened to us?”

“It was a rogue wave,” he said. “Several hundred feet high. They develop sometimes in the chaos of the ocean, if the currents and the surrounding swells are just right. We have them on Ardanna too. Delain told me they’d never seen one on Resort Planet before but given the vast oceans there it’s inevitable. We had no chance, even if I could have turned the boat into it. I managed to hit the distress beacon and the life capsule activator. Thank the Lords of Space you’d gone into the cabin.”

“I do remember walls coming up, trapping me, or so I thought but then the next instant there was all this whirling and the boat was breaking apart outside the capsule. I was being tossed around—I think I may have broken my arm.” She glanced at it and ran her hand down the smooth skin to her fingertips.

“You did but the docs here gave you a session in the rejuve resonator.”

“I vaguely recall a nurse saying you’d saved me,” she said. “But how? You must have been injured as well when the boat broke up.”

“I have to explain something about myself,” he said.

“All right. I’m ready.”

“Many thousands of years ago an alien ship crash landed on Ardanna Prime. The alien crew were humanoid but had special…gifts. Eventually they intermarried with the Ardannans.”

“I thought you said this was going to be about you?” she interrupted.

He nodded. “Trust me, you’ll see the connection in a minute. My ancestors were tied to the seas even back then and were a simple clan of fisher people. The aliens who intermarried with my family were also deeply engaged with the ocean. So, to make a long story shorter, the aliens passed along certain of their characteristics in the DNA of their descendants. Not every Ardannan has these gifts and even among those who do, the abilities don’t always express themselves. It requires a trigger to activate the first time.”

“A rogue wave?” she said with a laugh, telling him she wasn’t taking this too seriously yet.

“A fated mate in danger. You and I, we love each other, right?”

She squeezed his hand. “Absolutely.”