mouth, about to make a crack about their therapist having an opinion on that approach, but the joke died on his lips. Too much had changed. Xori wasn’t their therapist anymore. Hell, given where things were going, she might not be their anything. She’d been the only one who’d been able to help them. If she walked away, then they were fraxxed in more ways than he wanted to count. Without her, he was going to lose Ward. He could feel it. His brother was carrying too much guilt for things that weren’t his fault.
They reached the club, then their quarters. Fortunately, they didn’t run into anyone who knew where’d they’d been, so they didn’t have to answer any questions. The second Ward had changed and left for the gym, Vic grabbed his comms and reached out to Xori again.
She didn’t answer. This time, he recorded a brief message.
“Hey, Blossom. We woke up, and you were gone. I need to know why, so call me back when you get this. Whatever it is, I hope we can fix it.”
He hit send before he changed his mind or tried to re-record it. She’d either answer him, or she wouldn’t. If she didn’t though… How the fraxx could he pull Ward out of the dark without her? How could they move forward if the one they were moving toward wasn’t there anymore?
He was putting on his work uniform when another idea came to him. He stopped to tap out a quick message to Owen, asking if they’d heard from Xori, and if Tink could tell them what time she’d left. He paused, then added another question. Had the AI noticed if she was upset? He should have thought to ask Tink before they left the ship. Dammit.
Frustration seethed through him, and he did the only thing he could to calm himself down before his shift began. He sat down on his bunk and pulled out a few pieces of his precious stash of origami paper from the shelving on the wall behind his head. He selected a sheet and started folding it, letting himself get lost in the process of creation. By the time he left for work, there were three new figures resting at the foot of his bed - a wolf, a fox, and a flower whose star-shaped petals were the same shade of blue as Xori’s soft skin.
She hurt.
Nothing agonizing, but her shoulders and arms ached, and she had no idea why. Xori cracked her eyelids a little, expecting to see the familiar walls of her bedroom. She didn’t see anything she recognized from home. The lights were so bright they made her eyes water, so she closed them and took inventory with her other senses instead. There was a low, steady rumble that filled the air and buzzed through her bones. The air was cool and surprisingly fresh. She tried to move and couldn’t. That was alarming. She made another attempt. She wasn’t able to shift her body more than a few centimeters.
What the fraxx?
She opened her eyes again and looked down. She was strapped into a safety harness, her hands secured in front of her by a pair of magnetic cuffs that covered nearly half of her forearms. Well, that explained why her arms hurt. The cuffs forced her arms into an unnatural position, her elbows almost touching. She raised her hands to ease her discomfort, and twin blades of pain stabbed into her joints, her muscles screaming in protest.
“Ma’am. This is Five. The asset has regained consciousness,” A male voice from somewhere to her right spoke. She stole a sidelong look at him, then at the rest of her surroundings.
The male was human and looked to be in his late twenties, with lank brown hair and a stocky build. He was seated less than a meter away, watching her with cold, impassive eyes. It took her a second to recognize him. It was the male from the train station, though he didn’t look intoxicated now.
“Don’t do anything stupid, and I won’t have to do something regrettable.”
She nodded, keeping the motion small, and turned to face forward again, eyes downcast. Better to seem meek and frightened, which wasn’t a stretch. She was terrified and clearly in a lot of trouble. But who had taken her, and why?
Dammit. She should never have left Vic and Ward’s bed. She felt a surge of loss and fear. What if she never saw them again?
A quick assessment of her situation left