Jaded by Viola Grace Page A

Volunteer and agree to leave your home, we can save your life.”
    She licked her lips. “What is happening to me?”
    “Our blood doesn’t mix. My species is very set in their ways and so are their genes. Those genes are running through your body and trying to provide you with the same skin structure as I possess. When I tried to close your wound as you did mine, I bled into you a little.”
    She nodded weakly. “Right.”
    “Well, my blood is killing you. If you want to live, you have to sign. According to your people, this is the only way it will work.” He extended the tablet.
    Dora released her right hand and whispered, “Sign it.”
    Jayd looked into her sister’s dark brown eyes in the sea of red. She had cried the entire time that Jayd had been in the hospital. Her gaze was begging Jayd now.
    With a shaking hand, she used her finger to sign the bottom of the contract and pressed her thumb in where directed.
    The moment that she completed her agreement, the two men snapped some tubes into poles and a net of energy ran between them. The silvery man released her tethers and lifted her from the bed, slipping her onto the makeshift gurney.
    As one of the men released her from the IV drip and monitors, the other propped open the door.
    “Can Dora come with me?”
    The silver man looked surprised. “If she wishes. She can stay with you right up until the moment you have to leave, but if she is seen to be entering one of our facilities, her life may be in danger until your population settles into acceptance.”
    Dora blinked. “I will stay with her.”
    “No, you won’t. You are going to go home, and I will get in touch with you the moment that I am feeling better.” Jayd kept her voice as severe as she could.
    Dora smiled weakly and nodded. “Make sure you stay safe.”
    “I will have someone contact you as soon as I can.”
    Her silver friend smiled, showing sharp teeth. “Someone will contact you every day. I will place the order in myself.”
    Dora nodded, came around and pressed a kiss to Jayd’s forehead.
    They didn’t need to say anything else. The alien group walked out with her and slipped her into one of their flying transports.
    Jayd lay still and watched and waited while one of the men, who had come to escort the silver alien, moved a device across her wound.
    “It is healing more rapidly than you normally would have, but we will accelerate the knitting of your tissue.” He spoke with a thick accent, but his nearly human features were comforting.
    “Whatever you like. I am in your hands.”
    He smiled and reached for another item, pressing it lightly to the wound. Cold and heat alternated for the ten-minute flight to their highly defended facility near the currently under-construction spaceport.
    She could see through the windows in the side of the transport and her hands clutched the side of the gurney out of reflex. As they landed, a medical team was waiting and she was bustled into a facility whose walls were covered in a strange metal.
    Her other wound was sealed and once she was in one piece, they slipped her into a medical robe with her bloody jeans and underwear discarded.
    The only thing human in the room was now her. The smiling attendant from the hospital stayed at her side and explained what each procedure would do. “Ambassador Winvin is an Ontex. His species transfers from male to female every now and then, and he just finished a transfer, so his body was still hopping with those same transformative cells. Those are the ones that arrive when an Ontex is wounded and they are what entered your system.”
    “Winvin?”
    “Yes, the Ontex ambassador was there to celebrate the official grand opening of this Volunteer Centre.”
    “What is your name?”
    “Tenenlor. I am a Tival. We are a servant race to the Alliance. We don’t have any fancy talents or even potential to develop them. That is left to races like yours.”
    “Like mine?”
    Whatever they gave her had eased the pain