He made a startled grunt and came to a stop, his gaze sweeping over my body. His dark hair was on the longer side and he had blue eyes. I made my own sound of surprise. I’d never seen a Draax with blue eyes before. Didn’t even know that was possible.
Ellis, get the fuck out of here!
Right. Time to run.
The Draax took a step toward me and I turned and raced down the hallway toward the other end. Just as I made the corner, a second Draax appeared in front of me. I tried to stop, but my shoes skidded on the smooth stone floor. I crashed into the Draax with a loud grunt and fell backwards onto my ass. The impact jarred a cough from my throat. I tried to scramble away but the Draax was quick. His big hands gripped my arms and he lifted me to my feet. I stared into familiar copper coloured eyes.
Shit. Double shit.
Keep your cool, Ellis. You’ve talked your way out of worse jams than this, right?
Right.
“Um, hey,” I said. “I’m Ellis. I met you on the ship, right? Sorry about the whole vomiting thing, I wasn’t feeling all that great.”
The Draax cocked his head at me before saying something in his own language.
Right. No more translators.
I coughed again. I was so fucked I could practically taste dick in the back of my throat.
The other Draax had joined us and he said something to the copper eyed one. The Draax shook his head before staring at my hands. A frown marred his admittedly perfect looking face and my breath caught in my throat. He was angry with me.
It’d be hard to talk them out of killing me or throwing me in prison without a translator. Shit, why had I never tried to learn any of the Draax language? I was gonna die because of laziness.
I realized the Draax was rubbing his thumb over the top of my hand. I glanced down and immediately felt a little woozy at the blood that was smeared across my hand and still dripping out. Which was weird, because the sight of blood – even my own – had never bothered me before.
The ache in my back had returned and it was difficult to breathe. I coughed hard, bending over with the force of it. Shit, on top of everything else, whatever nasty lung infection I was brewing was starting to hit me hard. Weird that the gallberry serum hadn’t helped but maybe I’d only been on it for a little bit. Truthfully, I had no idea how much time had passed.
My coughing fit finally eased but I stayed bent over as I drew in a ragged breath, not particularly enjoying the whistling wheeze my lungs made. I glanced up at the two Draax. The blue eyed one was leaning against the wall. His look didn’t scream I’m gonna chop you up into small bits with my shiny sword, but it wasn’t a friendly look either.
I shifted my gaze to the other one. He had what almost looked like sympathy in his copper eyes and when I realized the heavy warmth circling my upper back was his hand, I quickly straightened and stepped away.
The blue eyed Draax’s hand shot out and caught my arm. I froze like a scared mouse as he shook his head at me. I wasn’t normally such a chicken, but I was tired and kind of terrified and definitely freezing despite my thick hoodie and the sweat that was sliding down my back.
My legs were overcooked noodles and I locked my knees to keep from collapsing to the floor again as the blue eyed Draax tugged me back down the hallway. I staggered forward a few steps and then my locked knees gave out. Before I could hit the floor, the copper eyed Draax caught me.
He cradled me in his arms, and I stared numbly at him as he carried me toward the room I’d escaped from. The door flew open and lab coat Draax burst out into the hallway, his eyes wide. He stared at the three of us, relief crossing his face before it turned to annoyance.
He said something and disappeared back into the room. We followed him in and the copper eyed Draax set me back on the bed before pulling off my backpack and setting it on the floor. Lab coat Draax brought over two round green rings connected by a black chain. He opened one ring and I didn’t