Star Kissed

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Mandy groaned as she opened her eyes. Her body felt sore, as if she’d spent the past week at the gym. She rubbed her face then tried to focus. The crinkling sound of a hospital gown was familiar – the same that greeted her when she awoke for the first time in the future.

Confused, Mandy stared at the material.

“Which Naki bastard did this to you?” Cesar’s face came into her vision. His dark eyes were angry, his face tense.

“What?” she asked. Her voice sounded rough. Her memory wasn’t working right; she didn’t know why she was in the hospital and it hurt to try to think at all.

“Someone put you here. Who?” Cesar demanded.

“What are you talking about?” Mandy pushed herself up, recognizing a healing ward. Cesar sat beside her round bed while a Naki in silver nearby appeared to be checking his watch. “What am I doing here?”

“You had the shit beat out of you by someone.”

“Seriously?” she looked down at herself.

“They have some sort of advanced medical magic or something,” Cesar said. “They fixed everything.” He twisted to face the lingering Naki. “Hey, doc, tell her what was wrong.”

“Skull fractures, broken ribs, internal bleeding, contusions on –”

“I get it,” Mandy cut him off. What is going on? She sighed. “I’m all fixed up, right?”

“You are healed, yes, though your body will retain its current level of exhaustion for several days,” the doctor said.

“So, what the hell happened?” Cesar asked again.

Mandy thought hard.

“Was it the guy you were sleeping with?”

“Akkadi?” she voiced then shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t do this. He’s …” captured or killed on some other planet. This memory made her breath catch. “How long was I out?”

“Two days.”

“I think I should go,” Mandy said and swung her legs off the side of the bed. Fear brought clarity to her mind, and she suddenly needed to know about Akkadi.

She heard the whisper of the guard, though this time, it was from the device in Cesar’s head.

“Tell her not now. I’ll do it later,” Cesar snapped back at the voice. “I swear these people are pains in the ass.”

Mandy snorted. She tried hard to recall something else of the day that led up to where she couldn’t remember more. The visit to the planet, the children’s ward, Akkadi going missing and Helen going after him …

Hichele.

“Oh, that bitch!” Mandy muttered. She stood and took a few steps towards the door before she felt a wall of dizziness hit her.

Cesar rose quickly and grabbed her before she fell. Mandy groaned. Her body went limp in his arms.

“You aren’t going anywhere yet,” he said firmly, guiding her back to the bed. “What bitch? I spent two years fighting for a living, and I’ve never seen that much damage done by a woman.”

“No, she had her guard do it,” Mandy replied. She released him and sat on the bed.

“Hey, doc, why can you put bones back together but not cure exhaustion?” Cesar called to the Naki in silver.