"NOOOOOO!" Malachi screamed and dove forwards.
He caught Tamar before she hit the ground and shoved the alien away, so hard that it impacted a large oak at a bad angle. Slumping to the ground, blood leaking from between its lips, it laid still. Malachi gave it not a second glance.
"Okay, that didn't go at all like I planned." Tamar tried to smile, but the pool of blood coming from her mouth didn't seem very funny to Malachi.
"Don't talk, just lay still and heal. You're going to be fine."
"Your a poor liar, you know that right?"
"I'm going to fix you up. There's no way I've put up with you for almost three weeks to just let you die now."
"Looks like you're going to have to get your information from someone else." Tamar's eyes rolled back in her head as it lolled back over his arm.
"No, no, no,no,no." Malachi closed his eyes and concentrated.
After a few deep breaths he laid Tamar on the ground. When a quick sensor scan showed nothing within range, he closed his eyes and began. Laying his right hand on top of Tamar's chest he focused his will down until a tiny black thread crept its way from his index finger, and aided by his on board, which he had decided to name Claw, he maneuvered the thread until it slipped into the gaping wound the Rougarians blade had left.
Within seconds he'd found the most series wound. The artery which supplied most of the blood to her liver had been cut nearly in half. With every beat of her heart, she was killing herself. She healed at an astounding rate. Already the tissue around the wound was knitting back together. But ever she wouldn't heal this wound in time. So he decided to help.
Flattening the end of the thread into a tiny patch, he wrapped it around the damaged artery and squeezed it gentle. The flow of blood dropped from a gush to a trickle, then finally stopped.
"Her heart rate is a little slow and blood pressure is one ninety over sixty five. But I still don't know what you're trying to prove with this little stunt? What? Are you going to stay affixed to this young woman for the rest of your life?"
"No, all I need to do is wait until she heals and then withdraw the patch. With any luck, she'll sleep through the whole thing."
That might be a little trickery than you think."
"Why?" Malachi asked.
"Because that wound is not healing at all."
"What do you mean it's not healing?" Malachi looked down to see that the entrance wound was almost closed. "Why is that artery not healing?"
"Because you used this suit to close it." Claws words sent a chill up his spine.
"I warned you about this back on the Nest. The material of which this suit was created has some unique properties, one of which is its ability to absorb and redirect energy. That patch is holding that artery closed, but it is also keeping her body from repairing the damage. If you remove it, her body will not be able to heal that wound before she bleeds out."
"Fine, then we leave it in." Malachi's voice took on a steely tone.
"And be stuck to her forever? You can't do that."
"I didn't say I was going to be stuck to her." Before Claw could argue, Malachi gathered a huge amount of energy at the point where the thread met the small patch. He waited until he saw Tamar's eyes flicker open, then he burnt the patch free from the thread.
Without a sound, he slumped unconscious to the floor. His mind cut off by a wave of pain so uncomprehendable, it shut everything down in its path. It was as if someone threw a switch and his body shut down.
Tamar took a few deep breaths and winced. She, by all rights, should be dead. Her mind had known it the instant the blade had entered her side, there was no way anything could survive that amount of internal damage. Opening her eyes, she winced again. There was a terrible burning pain in her side every time she moved. It was a fire just below her ribs.
She snapped her eyes open. The weight on her legs was Malachi's limp form splayed across them. Pulling her legs out from under him, she scurried back, startled.
"Mal?" she asked, tapping him with a toe.
When he didn't move, she crept forward and shook him by the shoulder.
"Get up. We have to get moving." Still, she got no response. It was then that she started to get worried.
Tamar rolled him over and put her cheek over his mouth to check for respiration, then chided herself for her own stupidity. She wasn't going to feel anything. His suit enclosed every inch of him, she didn't even know if he had to breathe anymore. So she put her hand, palm down, on his chest. For a few seconds she started to panic until she felt the slight rising and falling of it. Pressing a bit harder, she felt his heart beating, very, very slowly.
"I don't know what you did, but you're lucky I'm not entirely human or I'd never be able to move you at all." With practiced ease, Tamar swung Malachi onto her back in a fireman's carry and set off.
They had decided to camp in a small park inside a medium-sized city. Tamar had no idea what the city's name was, and she cared even less. The world of humans was a strange place she had no interest in visiting. People were cowardly creatures that cared only about their own comforts, and nothing else. She had no use for a society that put the acquisition of wealth and power above everything, including their fellows.
But this man, the man she carried now, he had showed her that not all people were horrible. He was strange in a way she'd never known before. How could someone go from a complete idiot to absolute bad ass in the space of a few seconds was beyond her? That book he read was even more puzzling. She'd been taught that its teachings put women in bondage to men, that women had been subjugated for centuries because of it. Yet Malachi studied in daily, and didn't seem that bad.
As the sweat began to pour down her face and sting her eyes, she decided that those thought were better for another time. For now, she needed to put as much distance between their last alien contact as she could.
"I hope this nap of yours ends soon. I can't drag you forever." She chided her unconscious passenger.
A couple of hours later, Tamar was stalking around the perimeter of a very old, very rundown gas station. She'd stashed Mal's unconscious body inside on the small couch in the back. It must have been a break room or something with the vending machines and all.
She was not going to let anything near him. Because even though the Rougarians were the greatest threat to both their safety, they weren't the only one. It was remarkable how fast nature began to reclaim its lost territory. There were packs of wolves again stalking the fringes of the vacant city's. They hunted deer, antelope, and anything else they could find. Tamar was sure that if they had the chance, they wouldn't pass up a chance to take both of them for a snack.
"Why am I here?" She asked herself during one of her frequent inspection of Malachi. It was only twenty of thirty minutes between the times she checked on him. Each time it was the same, he'd was breathing, but little else. So it took her only a few seconds to check on him and she was gone again.
The question, though, would not leave her alone. Why was she here? What was she doing protecting this man? Miles away, she could have been miles away by the time he woke up. If he ever woke up, she'd be so far from him he'd never be able to find her.
Stopping in mid stride, she sank to her knees. She knew why she hadn't left. Tamar needed him, and for more than protection. He'd saved her life more times than she was willing to admit, only that wasn't the reason she was still there. He was unlike any man, any person she'd ever met. He was kind, considerate, even funny at times. Yet he could be the fiercest person her mind could have ever imagined. The dichotomy between his two personalities intrigued her. For the first time in her life, she wanted to know someone more. It was a marked difference from her normal approach to interpersonal interchanges, where she'd simply kill the person and be done with it.
The sky to the west had just begun to brighten when Tamar noticed a faint red light glowing from one of the many broken windows of the gas station. With all the power off, there could be only one explanation. Bursting into the room where she'd laid him, there was no light, not even a flicker, nothing. Had she been mistaken? She was kind of tired. No, she had seen a red glow from here. It had to mean something. The next thing she knew, she was on her knees clutching her side. The burning was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. It was like acid being poured into her side and allowed to flow into her organs. Then, as fast as it started, it was gone, as if it had never been there.
"TAMAR!" The walls shook as Malachi shot off the bed to his feet.
Tamar was just coming to her feet when she watched his legs buckled and he dropped to his knees.
"Mal!" She made it to him, grabbing him under the arm for support.
"What happened to you?" Tamar strained, helping him to his feet.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm fine. I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm fine." She rubbed her side, a thought intruded into her mind. "What did you do to me?"
"I saved your life." Malachi shrugged Tamar away and stretched his hands over his head.
"There were no medical facilities anywhere near us. You are no surgeon, so what did you do to me?"
"I saved your life." The four word response dripped hidden meaning.
"What exactly did you do to me?" The hair on her head and neck began to bristle, her eyes flashing.
"I stopped your bleeding. That knife tore one of your major arteries apart. If it wasn't for what I did, you'd be dead right now. So some gratitude shown would be nice."
"How dare you!" Tamar rounded on him, her open hand connecting with the side of his head, the claws leaving heavy, deep furrows in his suit.
The blow toppled him like a ten-year-old. He went sprawling onto the floor, where he lay still. To Tamar's horror, she looked at her claws and saw they were wet with blood, his blood.
"Mal!" She bounded over to him and flipped him over onto his back.
"Yeah, what do you want?" His suit was just finishing sealing itself and the scowl on his already forbidding face spoke volumes.
"I am so sorry," she poured out. "They did so much to me growing up. All the procedures, the needles, the knives, and everything else they put me through. I told you, you weren't allowed to do anything to me. When I said that, I meant anything. You should have just let me die. I don't want anyone doing anything else to me unless I say so, even you."
"Even to save your life?" Malachi was mystified as to why she had such a death wish, but was beginning to understand.
"And why would I want so badly to stay in this life? Why do you want to keep me here so badly?" Tamar asked the question before she realized what she was saying. But since it was out there, she decided to take the conversation for a ride.
"Because I couldn't let you die."
Holding him in her lap, she almost dropped him when he'd said that.
"W, wh, why not? What am I to you?" Her hands had begun shaking. She knew he could feel it, but she didn't care.
"You are so much more than you realize, Tamar. You've been told your entire life what to be and how to act. I want to keep you around long enough for you to figure out what you want to do and how you want to act."
She was stunned. This man cared for her, really cared for her. That acknowledgment brought a warmth to her heart and a sizzle to her blood. For the first time in her life she felt something for someone. She had no idea what these feeling were, but she knew where they were leading.
"But why me? Am I just the best of limited choices?" With a mock scowl, she tapped him on the chest.
"You know, you are the only woman I've seen since arriving here, so it could be that." Tamar punched him this time.
"Sorry about knocking you down. I thought you'd dodge, or just stand there. What happened?" She showed him the blood on her claws.
"Your guess is just as good as mine. Don't worry though, I'll be fine in a while. Right now we need to get moving. We're only about twenty miles from the first of those mining shafts."
Tamar nodded and headed for the door, expecting Malachi to take the lead. When he was still behind her when they got outside, her concern began to rise.
"What's wrong with you?" She asked.
"Just a little tired, that's all. Not to worry, I'll be fine in a bit, only we might be going slower than you're used to." He rested for a few seconds, hands on knees, then started in the direction of the mine.
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