Read Online Captured by Julia Rachel Barrett - Free Book Online

  He knelt on the floor beside the tub, and propping her up with one arm, sponged her face, neck, and chest, even wetting her hair.   Her head fell against his shoulder.
    “Ekkatt…” she spoke his name around chattering teeth.   “Wh…wh…why?”
    “Because you are sick, Mari.”
    “You…you came back…came back for me.”
    “Yes.”
    “Wh…what do I have?”
    “The Tist Fever.   It is common among my people.”   Now was not the time to tell her how deadly it was to humans.
    Mari fell silent as he continued to pour water over her.   Her skin gave off so much heat that he almost expected to see steam rise.   The teeth chattering continued unabated.   Ekkatt hoped the medication would begin to work and reduce her fever.   He’d have to give it to her every four hours along with the baths.   Even if she survived the fever her lungs might fill with fluid, and she would suffocate.   That was how the disease killed humans. It filled their lungs until they drowned.
    “Ekkatt,” came her weak voice.
    “Yes, little human?”
    “Perhaps you should…should kill me now.   It might be kinder.”
    Ekkatt lifted her head from his shoulder and looked into her face. He was astonished at her words.   He saw the corner of her mouth turn up, and she managed to wink at him before she closed her eyes.   He realized she was teasing.  
    “No, little human,” he said. “You will not die.”
    “ Little human ,” she murmured.   Mari didn’t speak again for three long days.  

Chapter 8

    “No, I can walk by myself.   You don’t have to baby me, Ekkatt.”
    “You sat up for the first time yesterday.   There is no need for you to walk to the b’yat.   I can carry you.”
    Mari crossed her arms, and what he’d come to recognize as the stubborn look came over her face.   “I will walk.   It’s good for me to walk.   I need to move around, make my lungs work a bit.   I told you, I am no stranger to illness.   I’ve had something like this on earth.   It’s called Influenza A, and when you catch it, believe me, you wish you would die, but you don’t.”
    “Because you are lucky.   Most humans die of Tist Fever.”
    “Oh…now you tell me this?”
    Ekkatt actually grinned at her.   “I did not wish to frighten you.   My people say that if one believes he will die, very often, he does indeed die.”
    “Mind body connection.   We say the same thing on my planet.”   Mari stared straight ahead.   “Sometimes I forget,” she said.
    “Forget?”
    “That this is not my home.”
    Ekkatt made no reply.
    “All right.” Mari pushed herself to her feet. “I’m walking to the b’yat.”   She shuffled toward the small building. The long blanket he’d wrapped around her naked body trailed after her.   Ekkatt followed to make certain she didn’t trip and fall.   When she reached the outhouse, Mari turned and looked at him.   “Go,” she said. “Sit over there.”   She pointed to the step.   “If I need help, I’ll call you.”
    Ekkatt sat leaning back against the cabin.   He closed his eyes, letting the warm sun wash away some of his weariness.   He’d barely slept in a week. He’d been determined that this woman would live.   Between the medicine and the baths he’d been able to manage her fevers, but then she’d begun to cough.   He feared she’d reached the end of her strength, and the disease would take her.   On the fifth day, miraculously, she’d rallied and swallowed some concentrated nutrient broth.   Now she coughed only in the mornings, and she’d been able to eat and drink for the past two days.   The woman had lost flesh.   He would help her gain it back.   She needed to be strong when the snows arrived.
    Her body, while much more slender than the women of his own race, was otherwise the same, Ekkatt mused.   It was only her hair color and eye color that were different. Her skin did not contain quite as much pigment, but then he knew that the skin