The Huntress (34 page)

Stone felt a chill work its way down his spine. He’d been right about the kid. Not that he felt any different, but she was blameless and much too young to die. He moved to stand next to the table and watch the kid sleep. “Don’t have a clue how to help her.”

“Just be there. She fell asleep for you. If Mea should go, I think she’ll stay for you.” She paused then continued in a softer voice, “I also think the reverse is true.”

Struck by her words, he studied Regan’s fragile face, drawn even in sleep. Would he be able to keep himself straight for the kid? Even if Mea left them? All he really knew was that he couldn’t let anything happen to her. It was possible that he needed Regan as much as he needed Mea.

Sinking back down onto the seat, he took her hand again and waited. When she woke and found Mea in the same condition, he held her as she cried. He continued to hold her when she slipped back into unresponsiveness. Warren brought them food and drinks, but Stone ignored his own, coaxing Regan to eat. She drank in little sips but refused all food. When it was clear that she wasn’t going to take any more, he ate and drank himself, not paying attention to what he swallowed.

Time dragged on. Conley came and went, busy communicating with both his hunters and the space station’s med unit. The station served as a research facility, studying the planet it circled for the huge variety of medicinals growing on the surface. They had a fully equipped med lab and were ready and willing to help. Warren spent his time either talking to Mea or trying to force more sustenance on Stone and Regan.

Shortly before reaching the space station, Mea began to fail. She stopped breathing on her own and Ema had to intubate and breathe for her. She had one seizure—then another.

By the time they docked at the station, Stone was sure they’d lost her. When a swarm of people in lab jackets rushed into the
Starfire
with a long tube, he held Regan out of the way and watched dully. Once they secured Mea in the stasis tube, the group hurried out.

Stone caught Regan’s hand and followed, pulling her along with Warren and Conley right on his heels. The station wasn’t large, so they arrived at the med lab quickly, but one of the med techs around Mea’s tube barred their way in. The four stood outside and stared at one another. Watching their faces, Stone saw his own dark despair mirrored there. He felt like a ghost.

The four of them stood frozen outside the med lab until someone led them to a lounge area. Conley bombarded the woman with questions, but she said she couldn’t tell him anything yet.

Stone held his peace, hope gone. He sat in a soft chair with Regan pressed up next to him and wondered just what the hell he was going to do with her. He wished he could stay with her, but the truth was he was a criminal of the worst kind. He wasn’t good for her. With Mea gone, the likelihood of him staying out of trouble was slim, and if the kid was with him, he’d just drag her down, too. She deserved a good life, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t find that with him.

Several hours hitched painfully by while they waited for word, each of the adults taking turns pacing the short space. When a man finally approached, Stone had to stare at him carefully to make sure he wasn’t a mirage. It seemed his whole life had turned into this lounge and these people and the interminable wait.

The man’s first words left him reeling.

“She’s going to make it.”

They all stared at him in thunderous silence. Stone shook his head, trying to clear a ringing in his ears. He must have heard wrong.
“What?”

“Hunter Brin is going to pull through. It was rocky for a little while there, but about an hour ago she stabilized nicely. I didn’t want to bring the good news until it was a certainty, though, so we waited until we were sure.”

“Oh, thank god.” Conley’s voice wavered like a much older man’s. He sagged onto a seat, putting his head in his hands.

Warren was a little more composed. “Thank you, doctor. The news is a shock, but a good one. We didn’t have much hope. Thank you.”

Stone slowly climbed to his feet on numb limbs. He staggered a step toward the doctor. “Wait. She’s—going to live?”

The man smiled sunnily. “Yes. She’s going to live.”

“Can I see her?” Regan was suddenly at his side, her voice sounding so young and frail that Stone’s chest tightened.

The smile faded from the doctor’s face. “Well, now’s not such a good time, honey. She’s in a floater tank. There’s not much to see and she won’t know you’re there. Give it a couple more hours, and I think she might be awake for a few minutes, long enough for a quick visit.”

With a reassuring smile, the man turned away and was gone before Stone could insist on seeing Mea. Slowly he turned to look at Warren and Conley. “I can’t believe it.”

Warren started to chuckle, features losing their drawn appearance. “Should’ve known, though. That one, she’s always been a miracle.”

Conley looked up at that, staring at the android with tears running unchecked down his face. “A miracle,” he agreed in a shaky voice.

“Daddy?”

Stone looked down into Regan’s pale but now animated face.

“I’m thirsty.”

With a nod like a sleepwalker, he took her hand and left the lounge to look for the cafeteria.

*******

Several hours later, Stone was considering severe bodily harm and possible maiming. He and his companions had begun snapping at each other in the lounge, restless and irritable. No one had returned to talk to them, nor could they find anyone or get into the med lab for an update.

When a woman finally appeared, they nearly pounced on her.

“What the hell’s going on?”

“Where is she?”

“Where’s Mama?”

She held up placating hands, looking from one to the other in vague alarm. “Please, please! I’m sorry we haven’t given you news, but we’ve been busy with our patient. We thought you’d prefer visiting her when she was in a comfortable bed rather than the floater tank. She’s still asleep, but just as soon—”

“I want to see my Mama!” Regan cried in a shrill voice.

Stone put an arm around her, eyeing the doctor with menacing intent. “You heard her.”

A light frown passed over the woman’s face, but confronted with three determined adults and a child on the verge of hysteria, she caved. “All right, but only for a minute.”

Mea wasn’t asleep when they stepped into her room. Stone stopped breathing at the sight of those fathomless emerald eyes, stunned into immobility at how close he’d come to never seeing such beauty again. If she’d died, his life would have been colorless, ugly, cold as sin. Her death would have leached all beauty from his world. He shuddered at the narrowness of his escape.

Mea smiled faintly as Regan broke away from Stone and ran to the bed. “Oh, sugar, what’s this?” she whispered in a voice almost too low to hear, but it drew the others toward her like a magnet. “Don’t cry, baby. I’m going to be fine.”

Regan lowered her head on Mea’s arm with harsh, wracking sobs.

Sighing, Mea soothed a hand over her hair. “Come up here then, so I can hold you.”

When Regan began to climb on the bed, the doctor surged forward in alarm. “Oh no! No, you’ll upset—”

Stone thrust an arm in her way, barring her from interfering.

“She’s the best medicine I could have right now, Doc. Calm down.” Mea smiled a little for the fretting woman while Regan carefully arranged herself at her mother’s side, head resting on her chest. Mea continued to run a hand over the girl’s head. “Your hair grew. Pretty soon we’ll have to trim it again.”

Regan stopped sobbing, but tears still poured from her eyes, and she clung to Mea.

The hunter kissed her on the forehead and closed her eyes with a sigh. “I’d sing you a lullaby, but my voice is shot. Could you sing to me, honey?”

“Okay,” Regan whispered and began a lullaby in a wavery, little voice.

“That’s nice,” Mea murmured and seemed to sink into sleep.

The kid continued until the song was done, tears drying up as she rested against her mother.

“All right, everyone out now. Come on, child, get down. We don’t want—”

“She stays,” Stone cut the doctor off, tone hard.

The woman shifted uncomfortably and looked at the other two men, but neither gave her any support. “Fine. But you three need to leave—”

“No.”

“Now, look! I can’t have you disturbing my patient. She’s asleep and the visit is over.”

Unexpectedly, Conley backed him up. “We’re not leaving her again. We won’t keep her awake or get in the way of her healing, but we need to stay, Doctor. Sorry, but we’re not going anywhere.”

Glaring at them, she put her hands on her hips. “If her vitals waver even the slightest while you are in here, I will have you all bodily removed, is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Conley said, suddenly meek.

With an angry toss of her head, she stomped out. Stone didn’t watch her go, his attention riveted on the two in the bed.

Regan yawned and then smiled sleepily. “I can hear her heart,” she whispered, eyes sliding closed. A moment later, she was asleep.

Silence filled the room, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Stone was content just to watch Mea breathe, and he guessed the other two felt the same way.

After a long pause, Conley took a deep breath and turned to Stone. “Now I’m going to thank you, and you’ll accept my thanks or I’ll take you outside and kick your ass,” he growled, but a smile lightened his face.

“Well, if you’re gonna kick my ass—you’re welcome.”

They grinned at each other.

“How cute. You’ve bonded,” Mea whispered with stinging sarcasm. Stone felt a chill grip the back of his neck when her eyes, as hard and cold as green ice, came to rest on him. “Stone, I want you to leave.”

“What?”

“You rescued us both. I give you my thanks for that and I can forgive you for what you did to me, leaving on Xerxes. We had a deal. I can handle that. But I’ll never forgive you for what you did to Regan. Because you saved her from the slavers, I won’t hunt you down and kick the living shit out of you for how you hurt her, but you will leave now before you hurt her even more.” Her voice was low and even, not a hint of anger in it, but her eyes glittered dangerously.

Stone felt sucker-punched, his gut sick and burning, muscles rigid with pain. “Mea—”

“Leave.” She turned her head away.

With a worried frown, Conley stepped forward. “Mea girl, I don’t think—”

Her eyes impaled him. “You have something to say, Director Conley?” Conley blanched. She continued in a softer tone, though her expression didn’t gentle, “I don’t blame you, Uncle Mike. Her being there was entirely my fault. I should never have adopted her and put her in that situation.” She looked at Stone again, and he felt acid burn in the back of his throat at the distance in those eyes. “You were right about that at least. Now, go.”

He folded his arms over a pain radiating like sliver spikes in his chest. “No.”

“Leave or I’ll have you forcibly removed,” she murmured with a dismaying lack of emotion, her eyes narrowed.

Before he could refuse again, Conley appeared at his side, expression sympathetic. “Come on, son. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee. She needs to sleep, and we aren’t helping her do that.”

Torn, he didn’t move for a moment, facing Mea. But she looked away, resting her chin on the top of Regan’s sleeping head and closing her eyes.

Conley gripped his elbow and gently pulled him toward the door. When they were out of the room, the older man let him go and patted him on the shoulder. “Just give her some time, son. She’s got a lot to work through. Don’t worry, her punishments don’t last forever.” He smiled feebly.

Stone supposed that had been a joke. He wanted to shout at the man, tell him he wasn’t his damned son and nothing about this situation was humorous, but he could force no sound through his tight throat. He went with Conley to the cafeteria like a lamb to slaughter.

Chapter 29

Several days passed like dripping molasses. After getting Ema to heal his side, Stone spent most of his time in the lounge, hoping Mea would change her mind. Regan visited him often, and every day the kid looked better and better, although she flatly refused to have the tattoos removed from her hands. Warren was absent much of the time, busy with the reconstruction of his face and body parts, but Conley sat with Stone with surprising frequency. From him, Stone discovered that Maulkin had planned on starting a war—and that might still happen down the road, since the other slaver planets were now in an uproar over the death of their leader. Maulkin had become their martyr.

Conley also gave him more details of Mea’s incarceration. She had been a spectacle for the slavers, entertainment for Maulkin’s court. Maulkin would send fighters into the cage with her, promising them that they could have her if they could subdue her. She killed three of his men before he smartened up and switched to slaves fighting in proxy for their owners. “She said not one of them—touched her.”

“You mean raped her.”

“Yeah. She kept killing ‘em off.”

Stone’s relief was tempered by the memory of what she’d looked like as a result of their
entertainment.
Every time he thought of it, he wished he could return and dismember them all. Conley seemed to feel the same way.

He was grateful for the director’s company, but his conversations with the older man tended to be stilted and uncomfortable. Eventually Stone would ask if she’d changed her mind, and Conley would say no. That would be the end of the conversation.

A steady stream of Mea’s colleagues flowed through the starbase, most of them stopping in to speak to the director before they visited Mea. They were polite to Stone but didn’t pay him much attention. He gave most of them the same in return, but when one particular hunter stepped into the lounge, his reaction was very different.

“Hammond, what the fuck are you doing here?”

Conley sounded hostile, but Stone’s reaction was much more primitive. He surged off his seat and stalked toward the blond.

“I didn’t come here to fight—”

“Too bad,” Stone snarled and pounced on him.