Canebrake's eyes widened as his grip went slack. She'd severed important nerves making it impossible for him to move. His breath hissed out on a long sigh as copious amounts of blood started pouring from his wound and onto her. Hope wanted to retch as it pooled where they lay. She could barely breath, but satisfaction filled her as Canebrake's eyes dulled.
Viper
Viper waited as the computer finished processing. When the screen finally flashed the identity of who'd logged in to tamper with the camera feed, Viper tore out of the room in abject horror.
He'd left Hope in the hands of his enemy.
Boaz followed swiftly on Viper's heels.
When Viper reached his office, it was locked. Viper yelled in rage as he threw himself into the door splintering the thing as if it were no more than a twig.
The sight that greeted him was a nightmare. There was so much blood.
"Get this asshole off of me!" Hope wheezed.
Viper raced over and rolled Canebrake's body aside. That's when he noticed the dagger he'd given Hope lodged in the traitorous male's neck.
The day Viper's mother had passed it on to him she'd been hesitant at first, till Viper told her how he felt about Hope. Hyla had smiled and hugged him wishing Viper a happy and long mating, just like her own.
The dagger was symbolic of his protection, clearly it had been more than that.
"Are you hurt?" Viper pulled Hope to him, checking her for injuries in all the blood that covered her.
All he could see were darkening fingerprints around her throat. Viper growled and debated mauling Canebrake's body.
"Nothing a bath and ibuprofen won't solve." Hope looked down at herself in disgust. "I really liked this shirt!"
Despite Hope's bravado Viper could tell the adrenaline running through her was giving way to tremors. He scooped up his mate and headed to the infirmary. He was beyond glad she wasn't mortally wounded. How much would they be expected to bear?
"I leave you alone for five minutes and you kill one of my generals." Viper teased Hope to break the serious mood. He was bound to have a breakdown with all these near misses.
Hope smiled
"I assume you learned he was the problem?"
Viper nodded as he stepped into the shower stall in one of the medical bays.
"I am constantly amazed by you!" Viper exclaimed as he started to strip his subeo.
"I'm a little like Pandora's box." Hope said.
"Tell me about this Pandora's box." Viper said as he began washing her. Viper wanted to keep Hope talking. He couldn't stand it if she broke down on him.
He listened with amusement as she related the mythical tale of the woman who opened a box unleashing chaos into the world.
"But the very last thing to come out of the box was Hope." She finished as Viper washed away the remnants of the bastard's blood.
It was an apt tale.
"You are indeed a force to be reckoned with." Viper nodded.
They were finally clean and much calmer. Hope hugged Viper with her head pressed to his chest.
"I'd welcome a little boredom for a bit." She sighed, and he agreed.
Hope
When it was her chance to speak Hope stood in front of a group of about twenty Anguis mourners, those closest to Adder. They were gathered in an austere stone mausoleum with crypts holding revered Anguis from Viper's family stretching back a few hundred years. Even the weather on the usually clear planet seemed on the verge of a storm.
Viper's arms were wrapped around Hyla, his face serious and filled with sorrow, while his mother looked lost and broken.
It stabbed at her heart. Hope could understand Hyla's sorrow, it had been her sorrow too, not more than a week ago. Being separated by death, from those you loved, held such a bitter finality. It did not matter if you believed in an afterlife or not, it stripped you bare with sorrow all the same.
"I can't put words to what you're feeling now for I know nothing can span the depth of your sorrow and loss." Hope looked into Hyla and Viper's sad eyes. "This is a poem written by a man who must've lost someone near and dear to him when he wrote it. I hope it translates." Hope cleared the lump in her throat and thought of Adder. He had treated her like a beloved daughter and she wanted to honor him one last time, with something from her heart.
"Stop all the clocks..."
As Hope read each line, she watched the emotions swell in Hyla's eyes. The Anguis didn't cry but their eyes weren't any less expressive.
Viper's eyes drifted closed as he listened to the solemn sound of Hope's voice and she knew, like herself, he thought of their near miss. Hope spoke the poem for him as much for Hyla and Adder.
Hope's throat tightened further as she reached the poignant part of the poem that described love being all the four directions on the compass of the heart. No doubt that was how Hyla felt for Adder, it's how Hope felt as she looked at Viper.