Frost Bitten (BxB)

Chapter Twenty

I felt like I had been tossed off of a cliff, when I finally gained consciousness. And at first, I couldn't even see, but I could hear sparks still flying every so often, metal lightly tapping against something, and for the briefest of moments, I actually wondered if I was dead. I mean, I sure felt like it.

But this time was different. I didn't feel that dark, cold void, nor did I see Asurah's dad sashaying around anywhere, so with that in mind, I deduced that I was alive. Well, for the most part. I groaned in agony when I finally gained the ability to move, and when I opened my eyes, I winced when sand fell from my lashes. The ship, well, what was left of it, was basically a crumbled mess. Wires were hanging everywhere, pieces of the outer shell of the ship were missing, and half of it seemed to be buried under the sand. Sand that I was laying on as I dragged myself into a sitting position, wincing as a heated pain pierced through my side and left leg. I grimaced when I saw the sharp piece of metal jutting out of my leg, just under my kneecap, and decided to just leave it there for now, as it would keep the cut plugged up. My side, however, was a different story. The jacket I had been wearing was now soaked in blood, forever staining the faux fur lining the inside. And of course, there was nothing, at least from what I could see, that could have caused the massive cut in my side, so my blood was basically gushing out all over the place.

I took a painful breath and pulled my jacket completely off of me before I bundled it up and pressed it against my injured side, hissing through clenched teeth at the pain that radiated through me at the action. After a moment, I took another breath and grabbed on to the nearest thing to me, which happened to be one of the pilot seats. I practically used up all of my strength to pull myself to my feet, and my eyes scanned the area for any survivors. My heart quickened when I saw Teiken half buried under the sand, his eyes closed as a massive amount of blood trickled from a dangerously deep cut against his forehead, and it took me a moment before I was finally able to wobble over to him, nearly falling to my knees on more than one occasion. When I was finally close enough to him, I laid my injured leg out before I settled on my right knee, a worried frown pulling at my face as I gulped and gently shook him, praying to, whatever the hell was out there, that he was alive.

"Teiken? Teiken, can you hear me?" I called out, my worry growing tenfold when he didn't move.

After a moment though, a breath of relieve slipped through my lips when I saw his lashes twitch, before two brilliant orange eyes were revealed, confusion swimming in those sunny depths. Confusion that only intensified when that gaze flicked over to me. "Joseph? What...what happened? Why are you bleeding? Why...am I bleeding?"

I pursed my lips. "Ferriah tipped his people off. They fired at us and we crashed somewhere."

"Delkele and Jox? Are they alright?"

I looked away from Teiken, my gaze investigating the area for any sign of either of them, whether it be a lock of dark red hair, or skin as white as snow. My fear only grew when I saw neither of them, and I worried that they had been thrown completely off of the ship when the third missile hit us. I then spotted something black in the sand, and growling, I hobbled over there and grabbed his hair before I yanked Ferriah out of the sand. His eyes were wide and unfocused, and a fool would have noticed the massive cuts across his chest and face, and I was pretty sure his leg was broken, judging by the bright white bone poking out of his dark skin.

But I didn't give a crap about his status, or whether he was hurt or not. He had tipped his friends off and I was now pissed.

He yelped when I shoved him hard against the wall, his eyes rolling to the back of his head when I punched him hard. Blood now spewed from his nose down the onyx expanse of his skin and over the hand I had clutching his throat. "You bastard," I growled, sinking my nails deeper into his skin, "you couldn't even be helpful for three damn minutes?! All I want is my damn husband back, yet everything seems to want to go against that. So what the hell!?"

It irritated me when Ferriah started chuckling, blood spilling past his lips as he glared at me. "I will not allow you to harm my king. I only did what was necessary to protect him."

"Really? And you think committing suicide will help you protect him?"

The bastard scoffed and spit blood in my face, causing me to growl and shove him harder against the wall. "I will die for my king. I will not die for some lowborn, human scum."

Fed up with this jerk, I punched him yet again in that damn smug face of his, and when he finally began to look loopy from how hard his head had slammed against the wall behind him, I let go of his throat and let him fall to the sand, the Tronian barely conscious as I hobbled over to Teiken. "Come on, we need to find Delkele and Jox. Think you can stand?"

Teiken sat there for a moment before he nodded, the man allowing me to help him up before he was able to stand on his own. He nodded towards my leg, or well, the jagged piece of metal that was sticking out of it. "Do you think you can walk?"

I snorted and waved my hand, pausing when I felt another sharp pain pierce through me. "I'm fine. I've been through worse than a small pain in my leg."

Teiken stared at me and shook his head as if he didn't believe me. And before I could even react, he had already moved over to me and threw one of my arms over his shoulder, his free hand carefully going around my waist to support me. "You're a terrible liar, Joseph. Just like Asurah." His gaze then slid to the unconscious Tronian, his brows briefly twitching in irritation as those orange eyes slid back over to me. "What do we do about him?"

I sighed and looked over to the prisoner, the man slumped over in the sand, his hair tangled and clumped with blood. Yes, what do we do with the jerk that tried to get us killed? Surely we couldn't just let him stay here, after all, he could find help and get word to Vextian that we were here. I couldn't have that, not when we were so damn close to my Asurah. Besides, I'm sure that, whoever the hell was on the other line, believed that we were now dead, especially after being hit with three missiles and crashing pretty harshly against the land below.

Actually, now that I thought about it, how the hell did we survive? Surely after all that, we should be nothing more than a bag of bones and meat, buried under the sand, right? Yet here we were, still standing strong with nothing more than a few scratches.

Well, I thought grimly to myself, you don't even know if Delkele or Jox made it or not.

If they had flown from the ship like I believed...Teiken and I could be wasting our time searching for bodies. But I...I had to know. I had to see for myself if they were alive or not.

After that little debate in my head, I focused on answering Teiken's question. What to do with Ferriah. "Find something to tie him up. I want to search for Delkele and Jox, but I don't want him to escape and give Vextian the heads up."

"Why not just kill him?" Teiken wondered with a frown, orange gaze pinned to me curiously as his brows pinched together. "He tried to kill us, so why should we burden ourselves with his presence? Would that not go against everything we're currently trying to accomplish?"

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, sand falling from my curls as I began moving towards the unconscious Tronian, causing Teiken to move with me. "We still need him. He knows these lands much better than we do, and I'd rather not deal with a bunch of scary creatures that could tear us into pieces."

"And if he gets us into another dire situation? Or leads us into a lair of deadly creatures? Or worse, somehow manage to get our guns and shoot us in the back?"

I looked at Teiken, my expression hard as my lips pulled into a frown. "Then we kill him. Or sacrifice him to some scary beast. Whatever it comes down to. He's not going to ruin my chances of seeing my husband again. So let him try. He'll be the one to die in the end anyway."