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screaming at him to get the headless body off her.
    Norik lugged the corpse aside and knelt down beside her to offer whatever comfort he could to calm her down. Jasmine grabbed hold of him and sobbed into his chest. People weren't supposed to die because of what she did, they were supposed to live and the bad guys would get arrested and taken away for a very long time. Yes, she had seen dead bodies in her career, but never had they been killed in front of her very eyes or landed on her. So Jasmine allowed herself this moment to lose control. She felt she deserved it. Several bodies were now on this ship, all because they had the rotten luck of being on the same transport as her.
    Norik had to let go of the knife so he could wrap his good arm around her. She seemed inconsolable but focusing on her allowed him to push aside the knowledge that he had just killed two people. Something he had taken great pains to never ever do. Not after what had happened with Lilah. He clung to Jasmine almost as hard as she did to him. Each drew support and strength from the other as yet another adrenaline rush faded.
    "Where's the other one?" Jasmine sniffed and pushed her bloody and snot covered face from him.
    Norik cleared his throat before he answered, "Tied up. He did not try to kill me so I thought I should be lenient."
    "That was nice of you," said Jasmine. "What about me? Do I get to live?"
    "Well, that depends," he said to her and slowly licked his lips.
    Jasmine stared at his mouth. He's going to kiss me , she thought. Her heart quickened in anticipation as she coyly asked, "On?"
    "On if you ever do something as stupid as that again," said Norik angrily. "What were you thinking? Do you even think?"
    "I um," she said very disoriented at being told off instead of kissed.
    "You do not, do you?" he said and pulled away from her. Norik couldn't believe her and let her know it. "Is this how you operate? Bumble your way through assignments and hope that someone else will be there to help you if something goes wrong?"
    Jasmine dropped her hands from him and watched as he got to his feet and staggered away. Her eyes were wide with shock that someone would say that to her, especially after she'd almost died. Twice!
    "Selfish woman," Norik ranted and stumbled on his way to the door. "Nosy, annoying, stupid woman."
    "I am not stupid!" she yelled after him but he had already left. Incensed, Jasmine got up and ran for the door. She almost flew ass over end when she tripped over Stompy's head, but managed to right herself before she spilled out of engineering.
    Finding Norik's body on the deck stopped the angry words from spilling forth, instead she dropped to her knees and assured herself that he was still breathing. He was, but he was also still bleeding. She shoved him over and rolled him onto his back.
    "C'mon Norik. You're not allowed to die," Jasmine told him as she pulled what remained of her shirt off and balled it up. She ripped his sleeve and tugged it from his good arm to use as a new bandage. "You can't leave me here alone."

    * * *

    The first sign that Norik had that proved to him he wasn't dead, was the dull ache he could feel throughout his whole body. The second sign was when he moaned. Opening his eyes would help but he didn't want to do that. Not yet. He wasn't sure he wanted to know where he was. Something warm pressed up against him and he thought it wise to investigate what that was. He ordered himself to open his eyes and when he did, he was greeted by the sleeping form of Jasmine. She was curled up on his left side. Her arm flung across his naked chest and her head snuggled into his armpit. He gently lifted his own head to look at her more closely while she slept. The left side of her face was mottled with vicious bruises.
    Norik wanted to touch her, to smooth away the injury but his arm wouldn't respond to his brain's nonverbal commands. He tilted his head to the right and found his shoulder tightly wrapped with actual