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Serenity shivered as she remembered the sight of that nasty needle fang.
She glanced around at the ground. There was a long flat rock nearby that might be another slug. She kicked it, and it clattered away. A real stone.
After another quick glance, Serenity felt confident there were no more of the little buggers lurking nearby.
Next she needed to check Hruk’s vitals.
She pressed an ear to the ukkur’s massive chest and listened. His powerful heart was still thundering away inside, and his rib cage was expanding and contracting with the slow, steady in-and-out of his breathing.
Serenity was no paramedic—especially not an alien paramedic—but Hruk’s condition seemed stable, at least for now.
To all appearances, he was just sleeping.
The problem was the ankle where the slug had stung him. That didn’t look so hot. The skin around the puncture wound was red and swollen, and it seemed to be getting worse.
Another thing that concerned Serenity was the fact that the ukkur was sprawled out on his back. She didn’t know exactly what effects the slug venom might have, but if it caused Hruk to barf, there was a danger of him choking. She wanted to roll him onto his side, just in case.
Serenity wriggled her fingers under Hruk’s arm and heaved with all her might. She grunted and strained, pushing with every muscle in her body.
Nothing.
It was like trying to upend a freaking car. The dead weight of the massive ukkur body didn’t even so much as budge.
Shit.
Serenity plonked back on her naked butt, exhausted. She mopped the tears away from her eyes.
It was decision time.
Her first option was to stay here with Hruk. Maybe the venom would run its course after a few minutes, and then the big guy would wake up like nothing happened. In the meantime, Serenity could shoo off any opportunistic critters that might try to nibble his unconscious body—assuming said critters were not too big.
That all sounded like wishful thinking.
Serenity’s second option was scarier. She would have to set out on her own. If she could make it back to the canyon, then she could get help. If it wasn’t already too late.
But this situation was bigger than Serenity and Hruk.
She had a message to deliver. Shehadto get back to the encampment to warn the others of the impending nith invasion.
If she waited around for Hruk to get better, they might not make it back in time.
Then again, if she tried to go it alone, she probably wouldn’t make it back at all.
But she had to at least try.
Serenity stood up. Her legs were not back to one hundred percent, but they were doing better. She walked to the edge of the boulder and peered out at the sunlit wasteland again. God, it was hot. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but soon she figured out which way Hruk had been running before they stopped.
She squinted in that direction. In the distance, shimmering in the intense heat, Serenity saw what looked like a dark ridge. Was that the mesa where the canyon was located? Maybe she really could make it after all.
“All right,” Serenity muttered to herself, “Let’s do this.”
Before she departed, she turned back to the unconscious ukkur warrior, sprawled on his back in the space between the boulders. She darted back to his side, bent over his savagely handsome face, and pressed a kiss to his lips.
“I’ll come back for you,” Serenity whispered. “I promise.”
One last thing. She removed the knife and sheath from Hruk’s hip. The sheath was attached to a leather cord, and she tied this around her waist, letting the weapon hang against her butt where it wouldn’t get in her way while she was walking. And then she was off, moving across the blazing wasteland as fast as her weary legs could carry her.
CHAPTER 22: SERENITY
