Shared Mercy Book 5 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 2.3 Just Get Over It

"She's a threat, not only to me, but to our whole culture." Vole looked over the female across from him. She was a petty female jealous over her lover, but she would so much more with Vole's direction.

"I believe you," Jeza said, her voice strong, distinctive, and, perhaps most importantly, loud. There was an underlying anger to it, like she's craved to shout at someone for too long, or is afraid nothing but her voice will reach them.

Vole wondered if Jeza was stupid or desperate to come to him. There was no love lost between him and Argo. "I've been trying to tell the Clan Head Assembly how dangerous she is, but their heads are too turned by her . . . abilities . . . to take me seriously. But you do, don't you? You can see where all those around you are blind."

Jeza nodded, looking entranced by Vole's praise.

"First, you must apologize to Argo and the creature." Vole waited for the expected outburst, then continued smoothly once it was over. "If you want to unite to Argo, you will take my advice. Apologize, as bitter as it is, to return to Argo's good graces. Apologize to the creature so you may move close to her. I hear she is being fed milk and honey to restore her strength. I need you to slip this honey into her drink." Argo held out the small pottery jar.

Jeza took it, her former anger apparently subdued. Vole was wary of her dubiousness.

"Of course, you don't have to do any of this. Maybe you were wrong about Argo. Of course, this creature has garnered the loyalty of Rile, Rile! The great untouchable Gabe and even the pure, priestly Cale have . . . relations . . . with her. What chance does Argo have? Or you against that?" Vole nodded at the fierce look that wiped away all doubt from Jeza's face.

Apologizing to Argo was easier, so Jeza did that first. Vole had told her it would be more effective with a measure of truth in it, so she admitted her jealousy of the powerful and exotic female Guardian. It worked, at least partially, and Argo seemed content to let her stay for dinner at his clan table. Jeza skipped the apology to Alex because she didn't need it in order to poison her next drink.

Alex stirred in the middle of the night; unusual in itself and more worrisome when she moaned. Rile's scent surrounded her and she twisted to his side. His pheromones were like a warm blanket and comforted her for a moment.

Cale, Rile, and Gabe instantly awoke. Cale frowned at the sweat on Alex's brow and her obvious pain. Alex's face looked riven with pain, her eyes glazed and unfocused. Her breathing was ragged and fast, like an air-raid siren.

She didn't answer Cale's questions until he sharply phrased them as a healer's questions to a student about her symptoms.

"Double vision, abdominal pain, and cramps," she gasped out.

"Double vision? That sounds like the honey sickness, but that's only in infants." Cale sounded perplexed.

"Honey sickness? In infants?" Calm Alex usually emerged around medical issues. "That sounds like botulism, a neurotoxin."

"Neurotoxin? Do you think your powers can counteract it?" Cale asked.

"Should. A general stimulus charge." Calm Alex answered again.

Cale wiped her brow with the edge of his sleeping shirt. "Do it."

"I don't know. I'm still weak." Calm Alex was driven out by another spasm and Alex curled into a ball, gasping.

"Try, Alex." Rile was all comfort and support, but she was lost in a sea of pain.

"I killed Alex," Cale said quietly. "I didn't take into account the honey sickness in her weakened state and now she'll die because of my stupidity."