Lustral || Complete

XI

     A light snore sounded against Liri's ear and woke her from a quickly fading but undoubtedly good dream. With a smile pulling at her lips, she breathed in Ardon's woodsy scent and enjoyed the achy, well-used feeling of her body. She ran her fingers over Ardon's warm chest and along his muscled arm, tempted to wake him up for another round. 

     Her stomach growled, pulling her back to reality and the list of things she still needed to accomplish before reaching Dubrovn. With a heavy sigh, she slowly eased herself from Ardon's comforting embrace.

     After a quick rinse, she slipped into her clothes and stepped from their quarters.

     "Hello, Lady Delaney," a silver-haired Shifter said.

     "Hello there, Thirty-two. How are you feeling?"

     They walked down the Calypso's arched, metallic hallway. "Good, I slept better than I have in years."

     "Excellent." Liri squeezed the woman's shoulder companionably.

     "After our talk with you yesterday, we discussed what you said about picking out a new name instead of sticking to our numbers."

     "I hope that it wasn't rude of me to think you should, but--"

     Thirty-two held her hands up. "Call me, Sali."

     A large smile tore across Liri's face. "Really?"

     Sali looped her arm through Liri's. "My mother told me a story about a brave girl named Sali Mason, that rescued all the toys in her village from the evil fire witch. I loved that tale, and it's all I remember about my time with my mom before Bazentine Werks."

     "It's a great name and memory."

     Sali nodded. "A lot of us are picking new names. And little Toby is doing well with the other children shifters."

     "Toby?" Liri quirked her brow.

     "The toddler that you and Mr. Rowe rescued."

     "Oh, that's right." Liri touched her forehead, then chuckled. "Ardon mentioned it to me, but I was a little... distracted."

     "I would be too if I was locked away with the likes of that handsome devil." Sali wiggled her eyebrows.

     "Shh!" Liri hushed her, a blush bloomed across her cheeks. "You'll make me wish that I didn't leave our quarters, but I need to get back to Nalla and keep scouring the files from Bazentine Werks."

     "You didn't find anything showing that Mr. Dante was attempting to shut the program down?"

     "No, not yet." Liri's stomach growled. "Dang it, I'm famished."

     "I bet you are." The matronly woman giggled like a teenager eliciting the same happy noises from Liri.

     "I'll talk with you later, Sali," Liri said with a wave goodbye as they reached the infirmary.

     "Good luck," Sali said as she walked back the way she'd come.

     "Hello, Doctor," Liri greeted.

     "Liri." Sasha nodded, barely glancing in her direction as he fiddled with beakers filled with various colorful concoctions.

     Liri leaned over the white crib and smiled down at Nalla. "How is my girl doing this morning?" She adjusted the space-blanket out of the infant's face and traced a fingertip along the silky-cheek.

     "Nalla's fever is gone, and she's settled down."

     "She looks much better than yesterday."

     "I suspect it was the shock of being away from that room you found her in. Nalla might not have ever left that crib before."

     The color drained from Liri's face. "You mean to tell me that she was never held?"

     Sasha shuddered. "Would you want to be soothed by a giant bug?"

     Liri frowned. "Does she know the difference between what she is and the Mantoids?"

     "There's an ongoing debate about when a child recognizes that type of thing, but with her genetics, who really knows what she thinks."

     "Then I'd think being held by someone is something she'd have appreciated when she was scared or upset."

     Sasha pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'd cry if they touched me."

     "You'd cry if anyone touched you, so that doesn't count."

     "True." Sasha chuckled.

     "What else did you find out?"

     "Nalla's shifter genes come from a deceased female, One-eighty-three. Her father's name wasn't stated in the documents you recovered from Bazentine Werks, so without testing the Dubrovn population, I won't know the answer to that. And the addition of the Mantoid traits is layered in with a coding process I've never seen before. Beautiful work really, I had no idea the Mantoids were so good at gene manipulation."

     "Do you have a guess as to who her father could be?"

     "I suspect that it's one of the partners of DPL." Sasha pushed his glasses up his nose with his middle finger.

     Liri's shoulders sagged. "That's what I was afraid you'd say."

     "You didn't want a sister?"

     "I always dreamed of having one, but not like this. Do you think you could test her against me to find out?"

     "Sure."

     "Do it then." Liri removed her cloak, rolled up her sleeve, and held her arm out.

     Sasha pulled a pair of gloves on and then one blonde strand of hair from Liri's head.

     "Ouch, you could have warned me you were going to do that." She rubbed the stinging spot.

     "Wouldn't have been as satisfying."

     Liri chuckled as she pulled her cloak back on. "You are a strange human, but I like you anyway."

     "You have a good temperament and are clean."

     She quirked a brow. "Does that mean you like me too?"

     "At a distance, yes." 

     Their chuckles blended together as Liri moved to the computer close to Nalla's crib and pulled up the files she'd been scouring through for the last day and a half.

     "Don't start that up again until you have some food," Sasha warned. "You didn't eat yesterday, and Ardon had to carry you to your quarters to force-feed you."

     "I was just warming the computer up is all."

     "Um-hum." Sasha frowned.

     "Lady Liriandra!" A wide-eyed female shifter ran into the infirmary. "There's a problem with one of the Shifters. Captain Syd told me to come and get you."

     "Great, now what's wrong?"