Glenn, Stormy and Hagen, Lynn - Pax's Blues [Lady Blue Crew 2] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (11 page)

“What the hell is that on your shoe?” Tank asked as he stepped out into the hallway.

“Something slithered across my shoe.” Pax wrinkled his face, curling his lips back. “It was covered in this stuff.”

“Something? Could you be more specific?”

Pax blinked at Tank. “It was green, and it slithered. What more do you need to know?”

“Actually, we might need to know a lot more.”

Pax swung around to see Imlay standing behind him. The man was rubbing his chin as he stared at Pax’s shoe, a thoughtful expression on his face. “More? Why?”

“If I’m not mistaken, and I hardly ever am, what you just described was an Uryclian Mucus Slug. Their mucus can be deadly when it comes into contact with other species.”

“Deadly?” Pax gulped.

He dropped the shoe.

* * * *

“Will you hold the light still?” Gigi whispered as he and Pax crept around the corner of the upper deck. “It’s hard to see with the beam jiggling everywhere.”

Pax narrowed his eyes at Gigi, turning the light up to illuminate his face. “You’re only saying that because you have two shoes. Do you know what it’s like walking around with one shoe on? Walking around with one shoe isn’t fun. I can’t stop limping like one side of my body is shorter than the other. You try walking around with one shoe on, and see how you like it,” Pax whispered back.

“Just hold the dang light still. If that slug thing jumps us from behind, how are we gonna see if the light is bouncing around?” Gigi was the last person in the galaxy to run out and slay a monster slug, but he had tossed and turned half the night, constantly checking under his bed. It made for one grouchy-ass man when sleep was taken out of the equation.

“What are you going to do with that spatula anyway, smack it to death?” Pax whispered as they rounded another corner.

Gigi rolled his eyes as he pointed his large and shiny spatula at Pax. “I don’t have access to the weapons room. This was the next best thing.”

Gigi and Pax jumped when they heard something moving. Gigi listened closely for a couple of seconds, but the sound didn’t repeat. “Let’s try the kitchen. It’s bound to get hungry.”

Pax nodded his head rapidly as they moved toward the mess hall. Gigi pushed the door open an inch, sticking his head inside. He yelped when Pax pushed him, making him enter the mess hall fully. Gigi glared back at Pax, who was waving him on while still standing in the corridor.

“I can shine my light from here.” Pax pointed his light at Gigi.

“Chicken,” Gigi huffed before turning around. He was a bigger chicken, so why was he the one who had to come in here? Gigi looked above his head and saw that the ceiling was void of slug monsters. Next he got down on his hands and knees and peered under the table. There was nothing under there.

Gigi stilled when he heard a pot fall in the kitchen and hit the floor loudly. It was the middle of the night. Who could be in there in the middle of the night? Crewmembers could be in there in the middle of the night, but wouldn’t they turn a light on?

“Pax!” Gigi snapped the blue-skinned man’s name in a loud whisper. Pax stuck his head in from the corridor, his eyes darting around. They landed on Gigi with a questioning look.

Gigi pointed at the kitchen just as another pot clanged loudly, hitting the floor and bouncing a few times. Pax’s eyes rounded as he shook his head back and forth before pulling it back out into the corridor. One blue arm stuck in through the door, the light jiggling around as the arm shook.

Gigi got up from the floor and walked over to the door, pulling on the arm until Pax was inside the mess hall with him.

“Shouldn’t we get someone…bigger?” Pax asked as he started backing toward the door.

“I want to be sure that slug thing is in there before we make a big scene. If it’s in there, we could trap it. It may fight back, but we have the upper hand. The element of surprise.”

“But it’s only six inches long. How is it going to fight back?” Pax asked as he took one more step back.

“It could. Are you willing to take the chance?” Gigi asked as he grabbed Pax’s unwilling hand and pulled him toward the kitchen. They both stood outside the kitchen, their ears pressed firmly against the door, listening.

Pax’s eyes grew very large as the light began to shake all over the place. He gulped as he stared at Gigi. “Something just crawled across my sock.”

Gigi swallowed hard and looked down just in time to see the end of something green slither under the food replicator. He grabbed Pax’s arm to keep the light from shaking all over the place then slowly pointed it over at the food replicator.

Both Pax and Gigi screamed when two slimy green worms scurried out from under the food replicator and started slithering across the floor toward them. “Run!” Gigi shouted. They made it as far as the new extra-large table Remy had bought.

Gigi climbed on top of the table then reached back for Pax. Once Pax was on the table next to him, Gigi started looking around, moving from one side of the table to the other. “Where’d they go?”

“They?” Pax squeaked as his head swung around frantically. “There’s more than one?”

“I saw two.”

“We’re going to die.”

“Just don’t get off the table, and we should be fine. I don’t think they can climb up here.”

“You don’t think?”

Gigi yelped and grabbed the back of his head when Pax smacked him. He looked at Pax in confusion. “What in the hell did you do that for?”

“Because you got us into this freaking mess. I was happy sleeping next to my mate, and you had to come up with this harebrained idea.” Pax waved his hand around the dark room. “And look at us now.”

“Well, I couldn’t sleep,” Gigi snapped. “I kept—” Gigi shuddered. “I kept thinking about one of those things getting into the room.”

“Well, now we’re stuck in the mess hall, without our mates, mind you, and we’re surrounded by the damn things. Is that any better?”

Gigi shrugged, grimacing. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“And it’s all over my freaking sock!”

Chapter 7

Colt woke to find his mate missing. He immediately rolled out of bed and stood straight up, grabbing his pants as he headed toward the door. Why in the hell would his mate be gone in the middle of the night? All kinds of scenarios played in his mind, Colt liking none of them.

He grabbed a phaser off of the table in his quarters before heading out to find his little bird. Colt saw Livewire in the media room and headed toward him “Have you seen Pax?”

Livewire jumped as he grabbed his chest. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again! I thought you were the damn slug.”

Colt felt incredibly confused about the man’s reaction. It was a damn bug. How the hell could it scare a grown man? Colt looked around the room and then back at Livewire. “Why are you sitting in the dark?”

“My horoscope said I should,” Livewire answered a little too quickly. The mechanic jumped up from the sectional sofa and looked past Colt as if looking for someone. “Are you alone?”

Colt looked over his shoulder, his eyes scanning the dark corridor. “Last time I checked.”

Livewire seemed to be relieved by Colt’s words. Colt didn’t have time for Livewire and his strange ways. “Have you seen Pax?” he asked again.

“Not lately. Do you want me to help you look for him?”

Colt felt like the question was cocked and loaded, but two sets of eyes were better than one. “Come on.” Colt turned on his heel and headed away from the media room. He picked up his pace and began an all-out run when he heard Pax screaming. Colt’s heart was in his throat at the sound of fear in his little bird’s voice.

“Pax!” Colt shouted as he burst through the mess hall doors. He came to a skidding halt, Livewire crashing into his back, both of them falling to the floor.

“What the hell did you stop like that for?” Livewire asked as he sat up and shook his head.

Colt ignored him as he watched his mate jumping around on top of the bench table, tearing at his sock. Colt pushed to his feet and ran to the table. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he tried his best to assess his mate for injury.

Remy and Imlay came barreling into the mess hall, Blade and Crank close behind.

“My sock!” Pax shouted as he continued to hop on one foot, his hands struggling with the other foot, pulling at his sock, trying to yank it off without touching it as much as possible.

Colt grabbed his little bird and sat him on the table then he dropped to his knees. He lifted Pax’s foot up to look at the stretched out sock and wondered what all the fuss was about.

“Get it off!” Pax shouted in panic.

Colt quickly pulled it free and held it up to his mate. “Would you mind telling me why you’re so desperate to part with it?”

Colt saw Pax cringe back and then slowly sat forward. Colt held up the sock. It was dry. There was nothing on it. He couldn’t figure out why Pax was freaking out. It was just a sock.

His mate’s head slowly tilted to the side as a full-blown blush heated up Pax’s face. “Not really.”

* * * *

“We’ve got to do something about these damn worms,” Remy said as they all sat around the table later that morning. “Imlay seems to believe they could be Uryclian Mucus Slugs, in which case, they could be deadly. We can’t have them running all over the ship.”

“I found one of the little fuckers in my shower last night,” Crank snorted. “The damn thing was soaking like he was in a mineral bath on Lost Star Three.”

“Is it just my imagination, or are more of them showing up?” Colt asked as he looked around the table. “Pax and Gigi saw two in here last night.”

Pax shuddered at the idea that there could be more than one of those slimy creatures. How disgusting. He squirmed until he could bury his face in Colt’s neck then breathed in the man’s strong scent. He felt like he was going to be sick.

“Maybe there’s a nest of them on the ship,” Tank said.

Yep, Pax was going to hurl. He covered his mouth and swallowed hard, his stomach rolling. Just the thought of those slimy creatures slithering across the floor, his sock, on every available surface was enough to send Pax over the edge.

He wiggled out of Colt’s arms and went running down the hallway to the bathroom in their room. He heard heavy footsteps following him as he dropped to his knees and threw up in the toilet over and over again until there was nothing left in his stomach.

“Here, little bird,” Colt said as he wiped a wet cloth over Pax’s face.

A moment later, a glass of water appeared in front of him. Pax grabbed the glass and took a large gulp, rinsing his mouth before spitting the liquid out in the toilet. Once his mouth was all cleaned out, Pax handed the glass back to Colt and leaned his head back against the wall.

“I really hate those damn slugs, Colt.”

“I know, little bird.”

“I want them gone.” Pax swallowed hard. “I don’t feel safe anymore.”

Colt grimaced. “Okay, little bird. I’ll make sure they are gone as soon as I find them.”

Pax frowned as a sudden thought filled his head. “They are drawn to water and food.”

“What?”

“Think about it. Except when we first saw them, every time one has been spotted it’s been near food or water. Tank’s shower, the mess hall—both places that have food or water.” Pax cocked his head to one side. “I think they are just trying to survive.”