Page 32 of Wrath
“All right, cut out the BS. Did something happen?”Linette mind-spoke to me.
I chuckled.
“Your husband is a wonderful man, Lin. He helped me put things into perspective. And then Wrath did the rest. Thank you for not letting me run away as I initially wanted to,”I replied telepathically.
“Oh sweetie! I’m so happy for the two of you!”Linette said, the strength of her emotions flooding our psychic link.
“Things are still at the early stage,”I cautioned.“But I’m no longer fighting it.”
“Wrath is the best. He will make you very happy,”Linette replied.
“I believe it.”
After filling my plate, I came back to the table and ate in a friendly atmosphere with my companions. Dread and Myriam showed up just as we were leaving to go join Wrath in the brig.
We found him standing inside the maintenance room right at the entrance of the brig, staring at the incinerator Linette and Varnog had built specifically for today’s tests. He smiled when he saw us, his gaze lingering on me before settling on Nathalie.
“Are you well enough to attend these tests?” Wrath gently asked our medical officer.
“I’m fine,” Nathalie replied. “I might need to bow out at some point to get some rest, but I’m feeling good for now.”
“All right. Just don’t overdo it,” Wrath warned.
“Promise,” Nathalie responded teasingly.
I loved how much care Wrath always showed towards his crew. It wasn’t just duty talking, but genuine concern. We were important to him, and it showed in his actions, in his words, and even just in the way he looked at us. I remember Wrath saying that Legion called him a nurturer. I had found that statement odd at the time. But now, I could see it plain as day. And that made me melt even more for my man.
My man…
I couldn’t believe I was embarking on a new relationship. This was exciting, but also confusing. A part of me wished Wrath had come to me the minute I had walked into the room to give me a hug or a kiss in greeting. It was silly as he likely wondered where things stood between us now that I’d had the whole night to sleep on what had happened last evening. I suspected he was leaving it up to me how public I wanted to make our relationship, which was very considerate. However, now that I had committed to pursuing this, I wanted to be openly claimed.
But what if I get a relapse of grief?
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Wrath said, fetching the Jadozor head in the containment chamber next to the incinerator.
The damn head was massive, bigger than my torso. I couldn’t help but admire Wrath’s strength as he carried it with one hand as if it weighed nothing. However, my stomach knotted with unease at the sight of the foaming that immediately triggered around the edges of the creature’s neck the minute Wrath removed the head from its sealed container. The wretched thing was already trying to grow back its missing body.
Wrath unceremoniously tossed it inside the incinerator and sealed the door. He fired up the device and stepped away, coming to stand next to me. Without thinking, I stepped closer to him and slipped my hand through his. For a split second, he seemed stunned. Then his hand tightened around mine, and he slightly turned his head to look at me with an affectionate smile. It erased any doubt I still held that he had been waiting for me to define the terms of our relationship moving forward, both privately and publicly.
I leaned against Wrath. He let go of my hand to wrap his arm around my waist. I loved the possessiveness and protectiveness of that gesture. It had been so long, I’d forgotten how good it felt to thus be claimed, to belong to someone who wanted nothing else than to wholly belong to me as well. The seeping sense of guilt I expected never came. Wrath gave me a psychic caress, which I returned. The memory of his consciousness wrapped around mine as I fell asleep last night came back to the fore. I’d never felt so worshipped. I was already addicted.
But the sizzling sound of the Jadozor’s flesh burning in the incinerator called back my attention to the task at hand. Despite the integrated air purification system that vented the fumes outside the ship, I could have sworn the sickly-sweet scent of burnt flesh was permeating the room. The temperature on the incinerator steadily climbed. In no time, all the tissue had melted off the Jadozor, leaving only the skull behind.
Myriam and Dread joined us moments later.
Stepping forward, Linette turned on the monitor she and Varnog had mounted on the wall behind the machine. It displayed a zoomed-in view of the contents of the incinerator. Once the temperature exceeded 220°C, Linette tapped a couple of instructions on the interface of her armband. Mechanical arms smashed into the skull, rendered brittle by the excessive heat. The bones shattered. To our dismay, aside from the teeth, which we had expected to remain whole, a silver looking, bean-shaped object, the size of a plum, sat in the middle of the broken bones.
“That has to be its pituitary gland,” Nathalie said.
“Yeah, I think so, too,” Linette said with a nod.
“Can’t you try to smash it?” Wrath asked.
“Gland smashing coming right up,” Linette replied, using the arms to try and crush the gland. It resisted. “I guess we need to continue cooking its ass.”
And cook it we did.
Linette tried to squash it again at 500°C, then at 750°C, and then at 950°C. Still to no avail. By the time we reached 1,100°C, the Jadozor’s teeth had taken on an ashen, grayish-white appearance. Some of them began to fracture and crack, fragments falling right off while the gland remained undisturbed.