DarkWind: 2nd Book, WindDemon Trilogy by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

at him, they found him staring at Barb. “Lady, I would like a word with you.”
    Having been apprised of the warrior’s situation, Barb nodded and stood. She caught Caitlin’s gaze as she turned and headed for the door.
    Iyan’s right cheek jumped in what might pass for a smile for the forbidding man as Barb joined him. He stepped out of her way, indicating she was to precede him from the room.
    “McGregor?” Caitlin called and found his frosty gaze locked on her. When he didn’t reply, she took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then spoke to him in a soft, but firm, voice. “Treat her as the lady you called her.”
    The warrior stiffened, his shoulders taut, his eyes narrowed. “I am well aware of how a lady is to be treated,” he snapped, pivoting on his heel. The women watched as he put a possessive hand to the small of Barb’s back as he escorted her down the corridor.
    “That one could be a handful,” drawled Cathy.
    “More than a handful could be painful.” Lisa giggled.
    Caitlin laughed despite the deep concern that was making her as nervous as a green recruit on her first space mission. She slumped in the chair, closed her eyes, and shut out the crude remarks her female crew was making.
    “What’s troubling you, Cait?” Helen asked, leaning toward her friend.
    “This is so far beyond our experience,” Caitlin sighed. “I’m so afraid there is going to be real trouble ahead, Hel.”
    “We’ve seen trouble before, my friend,” Helen reminded her.
    “Not like this.” Caitlin opened her eyes and stared unseeingly across the conference room. “We were both insolated during the war, working inside buildings while our men folk fought and died. I saw the carnage of the battles up close, but I was never involved with the skirmishes.” She looked at Helen. “You were inside a bunker two miles inside the planet, protected even more so than the rest of us.”
    “Pat saw some action.”
    “Nothing that was life threatening.”
    Helen shook her head. “No, but our lives are up for grabs every time we step foot inside one of these blazing candles.”
    “I know.”
    “And we gotta go some day.”
    “Aye.”
    “And we each took an oath to help mankind.”
    “I’m afraid, Hel.”
    “Yeah, well, me, too, but what will be will be.” The communications specialist shrugged. “And there’s nothing we can do to change what the gods have decreed for us.”
     
    Khiershon Cree lay listening to the conversation two decks below where he lay. He sensed Caitlin’s fear and it hurt him as no mental thought ever had. Still weak as he was, he could not go to her and take her in his arms, comfort her, and assure her all would be well. She knew nothing of the resistance forces in place on Chale as well as on Rysalia. He turned to his side, physical pain wracking his battered body, and as he did, a white-hot streak of agony shot down his spine. He cried out, gripping the cot so hard, the thin mattress ripped apart in his grasp.
    “Captain?” the warrior left to guard Khiershon exclaimed as he hurried to his commander’s side. “What is it, sir?”
    Cree was panting, sweat oozing from his face and chest. The force of the pain enveloping his body was so intense, he could barely draw breath, let alone answer.
    The guard ran to the Com-Link. “Dr. Kelly, he’s in trouble! Hurry!” he yelled into the unit.
    Caitlin’s head snapped up and she shot out of her chair like a rocket, Lisa fast on her heels.
    Iyan frowned as he saw the Terran woman running down the corridor toward him as the elevator doors opened. He barely had time to move out of her way as she and another female plowed into the cage.
    “Sickbay!” Caitlin shouted.
    McGregor grabbed her arm. “What’s happened?”
    “I don’t know!” Caitlin hissed, jerking free of his hold.
    Before McGregor could ask anything else, the elevator stopped on the sickbay deck and the Terran woman shoved him out of the way and ran from the cage. He stumbled