"I'm aware."
"She's a proximity weapon, sub-Commander.There is no containment protocol for this.The only clean solution?—"
She slid down the wall until her ass hit the floor.She didn't need him to finish.Putting an energy-bolt through her brain was the easiest way to save the Emperor.It was the only logical tactical choice.She'd have said the same thing herself if it were someone else in the box.
Funny how that didn't make it feel any better when it was her.
Raaevik caught the conversation too.Spinning around, he stepped directly between the clustered warriors and her pod.A roar tore out of him, deep enough she felt it vibrate through the pod.His claws descended, long and lethal, snapping out to their maximum length.
"No one touches her!"he bellowed."Try it, and none of you leave this rock alive."
"No one is killing Emily!"
A voice bellowed from the doorway, and they all snapped around.The Emperor strode through the doorway, authority radiating from him and the four huge combat robots that followed him like ducklings after their mama.Huge, armoured and heavily armed ducklings.Stopping in the middle of the room, Daaynal swept a furious glare over the assembled warriors.
"She is under my personal protection," he snapped."Find another solution.Now."
The room went silent.So silent she could practically hear the blood dripping onto the metal floor.Through the glass, she watched Raaevik.He stood between her pod and the rest of them, chest heaving, claws still out.
Daaynal was talking to the ranking officer, issuing orders, and Raaevik wasn't listening.He was looking at her.Just at her.The same way he'd looked at her in the dance studio when he'd held her too close.The same way he'd looked at her in the corridor when she'd told him to stay.
“Raaevik...don't,” she ordered.“Don't you fucking dare.”
She saw his jaw set a full second before his body moved.
Then he slammed his fist into the containment unit's locking mechanism, and the keypad shattered in a shower of sparks and broken plastic.The heavy door hissed open, cycling contaminated air directly into his face.
And he walked inside.
No.
"Get out," she gasped."Raaevik, get thefuckout of here."
He didn't stop.The pod was too small for him… his shoulders filled the space, blocking the light from outside, and she was trapped between him and the back wall with nowhere to go.
"I'm poison!"She shoved herself into the corner, knees up, arms clamped against her chest."He touched my wrist and died inseconds, you stupid?—"
He dropped to his knees in front of her.Close enough to touch.Close enough to kill.
And her brain just...stopped arguing.
Because he wasn't going to leave.She could see it in the set of his jaw, the way his eyes held hers without flinching.He knew what she was.He'd watched that medic hit the deck.And he'd smashed the lock anyway because that's what this impossible, stubborn bastarddid—
He was going to die in here.With her.Becauseof her.
Not the pathogen.Not Korrait.Her.Every breath she pushed into this sealed space was another lungful of whatever was living under her skin, and he was kneeling in it, and any second now his eyes would go red, and his body would seize, and she'd have to watch the only man she'd ever?—
Oh, fuck.
She loved him.
She'd known.Of course, she'd known.She'd been dodging it since she'd met him, burying it under sarcasm and survival instincts and telling herself it was just stress, just proximity, just what happened when a stupidly attractive man kept saving your life and looking at you like you were the only thing in the room.But it wasn't.It washim.
The man who'd torn a room apart with his bare hands and then been too afraid to touch her face.Who was kneeling in front of her right now, choosing to die rather than let her be alone.
And she was going to be the last thing he ever touched.
"Raaevik, please..."Her voice broke."If I touch you, I'll kill you.I don't want to kill you.I love you,please."
