Argurma Monster (The Argurma Chronicles #2)

Chapter 5

Beverly jerked away, sweat pouring off her, and nearly doubled over at the piercing agony within her side. She clasped her hand to the bandage, panting raggedly. It was just a dream, a terrible dream. Her throat felt raw, and she knew she had been screaming, but it was nothing compared to the deep, clawing ache of her wounds. She swallowed back her cry as she sagged against her bed, rocking with agony. She whimpered in the darkness but heard another sound in the far corner of the room that made her eyes part to stare blindly in that direction.

“Who is it? Who’s there?” she croaked.

A low, pitiful, pained moan rose in response that made her skin prickle, and her heart clenched as she heard the rasp of familiar words that had long tormented her during her stasis. “Bring her to me. Please. Please. No more. No more. Please. Beverly. Griiga.”

Her tongue wetted her cracked bottom lip as she slowly rolled to the edge of the bed, her eyes watering with the pain as her stitches pulled sending daggers of agony through her.

“Talech?” she whispered, and she grunted as her feet dropped to the floor before crying out in pain as her ravaged torso protested.

She nearly crumpled to the floor right then and there, but she caught her weight against the wall and stood there for a long moment as she dragged in labored breaths until she stabilized enough to inch one foot forward. One foot and then another, she crept toward him, forcing herself to stumble across the room as she slid her hands along the wall, his grunts and cries of pain shredding her heart even as they pulled her like an invisible string.

Her fault. She should have stopped it. She should have found a way. She shook violently with the effort to walk but her guilt assailed her in addition to some sort of instinctive response to him that she couldn’t control now any better than she had been able to control it then. Regardless, she couldn’t let him suffer. She made her way slowly, painfully, until she could make out his huddled form and sobbed with pain as she stumbled forward and dropped to the floor beside him. Her hands ran over him blindly.

She found the thick horn-like spines on his shoulders, the coil of his vibrissae sliding over her hands as her hands slid up his chest and toward his head. Her fingers brushed the spurs along his jaw, and he turned his head into her palm, leaning into her touch. Talech’s massive arms curled around her, and he clung to her as he trembled, his vibrissae twisting erratically as he uttered nonsensical sounds and words while caught in the depths of his nightmare. Beverly wept for him and for herself... two damaged creatures abandoned on an island together.

Whether it was pity, for him or herself, or something more, she didn’t move from his side. She held him as he sank into her arms. She held him until he quieted and until his tremors stopped as his glowing blue eyes slowly opened. Talech’s eyes slowly cleared as he peered up at her, and he shifted as he lifted his weight from her. Her body screamed with relief and she could feel a hint of wetness where some stitches may have pulled loose—she mentally pushed all of that aside as she eyed him.

“Are you okay?” she murmured.

He nodded as his vibrissae dropped to a more relaxed state. “Yes. The past revisited me as I slept. Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she lied. “I also had a nightmare. It is a natural response to trauma.” She bit her lip and glanced back toward her bed. She didn’t think she could make it back on her own. “But I think I need help getting back into bed.”

He clicked his mandibles and stood, gingerly gathering her up into his arms in the process. She tried her best not to whimper at the stabbing pain, but it escaped and was treated to a faint hiss by the male who held her.

“You are in pain.”

“So are you,” she countered as he strode toward the bed. “How do you expect me to leave you on the floor to suffer alone?”

He came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the room and glanced down at her. “You wish for me to be near?”

She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “It may be easier on us when we’re having nightmares if we have someone nearby. I woke up afraid as well,” she admitted. “It would be good to have the comfort.”

“Comfort,” he hissed and then proceeded to walk again. “Yes. We will protect and soothe each other.” His eyes dropped to her uncertainly. “You touched my spurs.”

She grimaced. Was that uncouth in some way. She had no idea what sort of social interactions were expected among the Argurma. While the other scientists in the lab were more interested in how his biology worked, they shot down her attempts to revise their study to include an emphasis on the social norms of his species. Because of course not... why would they wish to learn anything that made him less an experiment in their minds.

Resting a hand on his chest, Beverly measured the rapid beat of his hearts. He was still in shock as he was coming down from the nightmare.

“Who was Griiga?”

His eyes flickered and he frowned. “Griiga,” he said slowly, and then an awareness came that was filled with sadness. “Griiga... you knew her. She damaged you and I killed her.”

She blinked up at him in shock. “What? E-302? But how?”

“Changed,” he rasped. “Griiga was dorashnal. My companion from my youth. Changed and experimented upon. Humans cut away her vibrissae and awoke spontaneous mutations. They made her into a monster.”

Beverly’s hand went to her mouth in horror. He had been robbed of so much and then he had killed his pet for her. Now that she thought back on it, E-302 had never attacked him. Talech had chased after them and had been the one to deliver the blow when she had never once tried to harm him.

“Oh, gods,” she whispered.

His gaze dropped to her as he gently set her on the side of the bed. “Do not be sad. She was driven mad. It was a mercy killing.” His mandibles clattered softly as he sighed, and the bed shifted with his added weight as he lay down beside her. Turning toward her, he brushed a hand over her hair. “Sleep, Beverly. I will protect you.”

“And I will protect you,” she whispered.