Corbin, however, shut himself in the glass room with me as though he meant to stay.
I lifted an eyebrow but said nothing to him. He shook his head. “I’m not leaving, Sienna. I’m a Super Soldier. I don’t believe you can make me sick.”
I wasn’t sure that was true. “We don’t know that.”
Wade walked into the other room. I hadn’t seen anyone else yet, and it was strange to be on this ship without Evander running around. Not that I’d been here very long, but the ship itself seemed like it was coated in the essence of Evander. I hated this place.
“I don’t want to go back in cryo.” I hoped Wade could hear me through the glass.
He tilted his head. “I’m glad to see you, too.”
I winced. He was right. That had not been the nicest greeting. I wasn’t myself, and I didn’t know if I’d ever be again. “Sorry.”
He nodded. “You know, if you wanted to kill yourself, there are easier ways.”
Corbin groaned. “He’s a little bit upset with you. Took beautiful care of you once he roused from the stupor he was in. Make no mistake. Wade is in love with you, same as the rest of us, but you scared the shit out of him while he was locked in this room.”
I’d known that was a factor, and I’d done it anyway. Rage flooded my system, and it was mean, not to mention misdirected. Even understanding all of that, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I shouted at Wade through the glass. “I’d do it again.”
“I know you would.” He wasn’t backing down on this, holding my gaze like he was ready to go round for round with me if that was what I was going to do.
Corbin sighed. “Come on now. This isn’t helpful.”
I rounded on him. He was even closer than Wade. “Don’t tell me what to do. Everyone is always telling me what to do.”
The door to the med bay opened and Blaze strode in, followed by Devil. They would’ve already know what was happening. The way they could hear everything, know everything, it was akin to the problems I’d had with Evander’s Super Soldiers. There was no such thing as privacy.
“That must be some noise in your head.” Dev walked toward me, and Blaze winced. He probably wouldn’t have said that to me, or at least not like that.
They stood side-by-side, staring at me through the glass. I was suddenly reminded of the time the space-faring zoo had arrived on our planet. For twenty-four hours, we’d observed animals we’d never seen in our lives through glass cages. They hadn’t stayed long because the authorities were after the owners for some kind of credits they owed. Still, I’d been sad for the animals trapped inside the cages, and I’d left early.
In that moment, I was the animal in the cage.
I pounded on the glass. “Keep staring. Better yet, go get your tablets and take a picture of me. It’ll last longer.”
Dev and Blaze stared at each other for a moment before they both looked at Wade. He shook his head. The silent communication was going to make me nuts. I paced to the other side of the enclosure, having to move around Corbin.
Wade shook his head. “Corbin, I’d prefer if you would come out of there. We can’t be sure she can’t make you sick.”
My stomach dropped. I wouldn’t be responsible for him dying. I pointed to the door. “Out.”
“I’m good. I don’t get sick. Advanced genes and all that.”
I leaned against the wall. “I just spent a huge amount of energy and received a lot of pain to keep you all safe. Do you think you could please not make that for naught by possibly getting sick when we could prevent that?”
The door opened and closed; Kellan and Anders entered, followed a second later by Trenton. I supposed I could ask who was flying the ship, but it always seemed to be some kind of remote thing they did by their tablet. At the very least, I trusted them not to leave the ship floating in space where we could get hurt.
If that was even possible. We’d beaten Evander, hadn’t we? I’d taken them down. There shouldn’t be any more problems in that regard.
“Must be nice to be done with having to fight Evander?” I asked the room, not caring which one of them answered me. And Corbin still hadn’t left the enclosure with me. I guessed he really wasn’t going to, and I didn’t have it in me to keep trying to make him.
Anders placed his hand on the glass, and it was so sweet I walked back so I could reach mine up to do the same. “Several of them got away. We had to all wake up. It was just Trenton trying to handle everything. But we have the ship, so it’s mostly over.”
I closed my eyes. “I did all that, and we didn’t even win. How did they wake up so fast?”
“They were on the other side of the ship. Didn’t get hit with the first effect, I think.” Kellan sighed. He paced between Wade and the glass enclosure. “You have to fix this, Wade. I can hear she’s not okay.”
Trenton shook his head. “Kellan.”
“I told you she wasn’t going to be okay,” Wade yelled at the top of his voice. It was such an un-Wade thing to do that it startled me. For a second, I stared wide-eyed at him while he slammed his hand down on the table. “She completely overexerted herself. It turns out that they gave her illnesses they were making to try to take down Super Soldiers, and I don’t have the slightest idea how to fix that. I can’t fix any of it. So, please, tell me again how I have to fix this, Kellan, because I am one hundred percent sure that I’ve just been lazy and not in the mood.”
Sarcasm dripped from his voice, and he sounded so lost to himself that I couldn’t help but feel like I should fix it. Like I should be responsible for making Wade feel better. But the truth was I’d done everything I could do to keep us alive, and I had nothing left to give. I was an empty jar, and the lid was closed.
I was sorry Wade was suffering, but that was as far as I could go.
Kellan lifted an eyebrow. “I wasn’t suggesting…”
“No,” Wade snapped, slamming his hand down on the table next to him. “You’re more than suggesting. You’re outright saying.”
“Okay,” Trenton yelled. He looked pale, not himself at all. I touched the glass. It was frustrating to be separated from all of them, but nevertheless, I shot Corbin a look. He needed to get away from me.
They all turned to stare at Trenton. He took a long deep breath. “She’s sick.” He looked over at me. “You’re sick. I’m not going to speak about you like you’re not here.”
I nodded as I sank down to the floor, still near the glass. “Thanks.”
“Welcome.” He knelt down and touched the glass on the other side of where I sat as though we could feel each other through the glass. I wasn’t sure I could feel anything at all. Even if we’d been skin-to-skin. A few seconds later, he turned around to regard all of them again. “Instead of yelling because we all feel like shit that we might be losing her, let’s strategize about what we can do about it.”
I sighed. “Aren’t we on the ship that can do something about it? This is an Evander vessel. I haven’t seen others that I remember, but this one seems pretty big and substantial to me. Why aren’t the cures here?”
Blaze shook his head. “They don’t bother with things like that on vessels that transport Super Soldiers. We’re expendable cargo. They can always make more of us. They have an abundance. They’d have that kind of thing on the ships that transfer the board of directors.”