struck Rasc and got a glimpse of their face under the hood. It was an attractive face, with full lips and a long aquiline nose. The hands that gripped the disruptor were large and masculine. Their eyelashes were long and thick, but the eyes were cold and hooded. They had no facial hair at all, and the skin was smooth as if they didn’t shave often. They scowled at Kylon and moved the disruptor, indicating he’d do well to stop gawking and keep moving along.
By the time they all got back to the cells, Rasc was sagging more than a little and needed Kylon’s arm around him to keep him on his feet. He was jostled by someone as they came in the doorway, but almost immediately another arm on the other side shored Rasc up. Kylon looked up in surprise to see Tio, his former “cellmate,” who smiled at him good-naturedly, obviously not holding a grudge. “Do you have him now?”
“Yeah, I’ve got him,” he replied.
“I saw what happened. They hit him hard—maybe broke a bone.”
“I’ll take care of him.” Tio nodded and moved on. Kylon had almost made it to the cell door by that time, so he took Rasc inside and eased him down to his bunk. Quickly, he began stripping off Rasc’s shirt. Setin, who had ducked in with them, pressed something into Kylon’s hand and then slid quickly back out into the flow of men going down to their cells before the guards noticed.
A big purple bruise was forming over Rasc’s chestbone, or collarbone as the humans called it, the bone that connected the arm to the body. Kylon really hoped it wasn’t broken. He’d seen a lot of broken chestbones in training, and they took several weeks to heal properly. He seriously hoped they’d gotten lucky and this was just a bad bruise. Painful, and he’d need to keep it in a sling for a while, but not as catastrophic as a break might be to their plans.
It was a common injury Kylon had seen a lot of during training. Those bones were easy to fracture because they were frequently exposed to force and were often the thinnest, with little support by muscles and ligaments. Therefore, the chestbone was vulnerable to falls or any direct blow to the shoulder or a fall on an outstretched arm, frequent occurrences during practice.
He helped Rasc lie back on his bunk and gently palpated the still darkening bruise to see if he could feel any obvious breaks. He didn’t, but laid Rasc’s arm across his body and told him to hold it there with his other hand until he could make a quick sling.
“I don’t need that,” Rasc grumbled, trying to sit up. Kylon pushed him back down and gave him a stern look.
“Lie still. I think it’s only bruised, but I need to immobilize it.”
Probably since even the effort to sit up had caused him to go pale, he nodded, and lay back down, holding his hand beneath his arm to support it like Kylon had showed him. Kylon tore a strip off his sheet to make a quick triangular sling and got that tied around Rasc’s neck and his arm slipped inside it. Then he reached in his pocket to see what it was that Setin had slipped him.
Rasc peered over into his hand at the small tablet. “It’s a Molly. An opioid. God knows where Setin got hold of it.”
“I don’t know if we can trust it.”
“If Setin brought it to me, it should be okay,” he said, taking it in his hand and dry swallowing it. He lay back on his cot and sighed. “It’s not too strong, but it might take the edge off at least.” He lay back on the cot and winced. “Opioids release dopamine, a chemical in my body that…”
“I’m familiar with opioids and humans.”
“You are, huh? Yeah, I forget sometimes how Tygerians know everything.”
Kylon smiled and shook his head, not offended at the insult like he would have been had anyone else said it. Something about the wry smile that touched Rasc’s lips as he made his sarcastic remarks…then again, he was beginning to get used to his snide comments by now.
“Yes, please try to remember that fact,” Kylon replied. “It will save us both time in the future.”
Rasc gave a little snort as he winced again and closed his eyes. Kylon gazed down at him, thinking the scruffy look he had going on really did suit him. He