The Raspite Prince
Chapter 2

I wake up with machines all around me. They beep at a normal rate. The hum of the other monitors is soft but audible.

With a prick in my arm, I automatically react.

The woman from the ship calls out for aid as I hold her by the throat against the wall.

I see what I'm doing but can't pull back, because I am not in my right mind.

"H-e-l-p." She desperately gulps for air.

Three armed guards rush through the sliding doors and grip me—one from my back, one around my waist, and the other around my feet. Another man comes in behind them. I toss the woman across the room and swing at the others. I see it all, but I can't control myself. If I saw all of this through another's viewpoint, I'm positive I'd be paralyzed with fear.

"Calm down. We're trying to help you." I recognize his voice, and for some reason, it pulls me back into my senses. I stop struggling and fighting as the guards hold me tightly. The stitches that were in my side begin to bleed. Not too badly, because I'm healing, though slowly, for me. I try to focus on the man for a moment.

"Who, where, why?" I stumble over my words. My black hair with blue highlights dangles down each side of my face.

"I'm Lieutenant Wolf. Calm down. We just want to help you. We're going to put you back on the bed."

The three men place me down and strap me to the bed. I struggle for a few minutes, but the woman sticks me with a long needle filled with clear liquid.

"Please..." I try to say something else but pass out.

I dream of my childhood and how guarded I was. In fact, my guard, who had died, had been with me since then. Everyone, including her, had done what was necessary to keep me calm. I was saddened by the fact that even my own mother was afraid to hold me, but my father wasn't. He was the only one who showed any real affection toward me.

I have flashes of running through the hills outside the castle grounds, where my father watched ever so carefully over me. I fall and roll in the grass. Once, I rolled over a small rock and cut my leg. My mother took a few steps back, but my father didn't hesitate. He ran up and comforted me, with no concerns that my powers could have activated. He always knew exactly how to calm me.

Then the memory of the bullet striking my father played out in slow motion. It happened in a flash, but in my mind, I saw every fleeting second of the end of my father's life, including the look on his face when he saw the man pointing his gun at us. Father pushed me, right before I looked away from his arm on my stomach. The bullet entered his skull, and the blood from the wound splattered my face.

All at once, I feel anger and dismay, that the only one who ever loved me lies dead at my feet. I struggle to pull myself out of the sadness, but the nightmares keep charging in. I see them, the faces of the innocent people, the fear that those closest to me had in their eyes, as my flames engulfed the assassin. The looks and screams of those people haunt me as I grasp the reality.

It is all my fault.

Those people died because of my curse.

The humming, beeping, and other noises from all the medical equipment make my ears twitch as I come to once more. My dreams fade from my mind as I force myself to wake. I open my eyes and search the room, taking in as much of my surroundings as possible. The small oval-shaped room has three other beds in it, with monitors over them. However, they are empty. There's a small computer desk panel, a large cylindrical white tube holding up a flat, oval, glass panel, and a white chair, with added cushions, that looks like a floating egg with a fourth cut out. This is over near the singular sliding door.

On either side, a guard stands, watching me with a cautious look in their eyes. One has a black eye, and I vaguely remember him from the first time I woke. The woman that was here earlier monitors the machines attached to me. As she notices a spike in my heartrate, she sees me looking at her.

"Hello there. My name is Doctor Katherine Reece. Can you tell me your name?" She smiles softly. She has mild bruising on her throat, so I'm not sure why she's being nice. I could have easily killed her, although I don't have that kind of strength outside of survival mode.

"Where am I?" I ask. My voice is returning to normal, but my head is a bit fuzzy. I'm not sure if it's because of the drugs or if it's because my body's not allowing me to fully heal.

"You're on the SSRA Commerce ship 1287," she responds.

I take a deep relaxing breath and turn my gaze to the ceiling. "I made it to the Commerce after all." I'm so exhausted from the ordeal that my voice is almost a whisper.

"What do you mean?"

Before she can get any more out of me, I fall back to sleep. I relax and allow my body to do its healing. And this time, no memories or dreams, only a peaceful regeneration process. All the damage caused by the sword mends from the inside out.

"How's she doing?" Lieutenant Wolf's voice is distinctive. It's strange how his voice pierces me even in the deepest trance.

"She's doing great actually," the woman doctor says. "It's really peculiar. I've never seen a body repair a wound of this nature so rapidly. No wound, for that matter. It's astonishing."

Even when I was fighting my healing, it was ten times faster than a normal being's.

"Nor do I believe you will ever see one again. This one is special." The lieutenant says.

I glance over at the two of them, who face the opposite direction, studying my charts. The small transparent sheet of glass in her hand must be a computer that holds the files she needs for her job. The things they use here—the technology—is amazing. Back on my home planet, we use bulky devices, as well as paper files.

"She's a magnificent being," the doctor responds. "It took four times the normal amount of morphine to knock her out. Her wounds are healed as though they never existed."

They talk back and forth like this for a few minutes. I don't think they realize I'm awake, so I listen to everything they say.

"She's truly incredible. I had no idea," he says as they flip through the files.

How can he have any clue as to what I'm capable of? He just found me. As they lean over her device, I assume she shows him my stats.

"You can let me go. I won't hurt anyone. I promise."

They turn to face me, and for the first time, I get a real look at the lieutenant's face. He's a younger man, with jet-black hair and a strong face. I haven't been exposed to many men, but I'm somewhat intrigued by his looks. His eyes are a startling green, and he's altogether in very good shape. I can't help feeling attracted to him.

No, I tell myself, do not get distracted. I can't be sure if this attraction is because he's my savior, the first man I've ever studied closely, or some other force out of my control. I'm mesmerized by him, but I try desperately not to show it. I can't let it distract me.

"Yeah, well, you gave Dr. Katherine quite a fright earlier," he says with a sideways grin on his face. He takes a step toward me. The look he gives me creates an unknown tightening sensation in my chest.

"I didn't mean to. Sometimes my body reacts without my mind working properly. It's, um, hard to explain. I promise I won't hurt anyone else." I lift my hands up to be pardoned from my restraints.

"Sir, I don't know about that. Maybe we should give it some time." The doctor, like everyone else who has seen my power, sounds frightened. She reaches for her bruised throat with a look of reservation in her eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask, looking at them. I must know the answer to the first question that stirs like a fire burning in my mind.

"Go ahead." Lieutenant Wolf's the closest to me as he unlatches my first hand. He still has a smile on his face. I catch him glancing at me once or twice in an unusual way.

"Why didn't you just leave me there?" I asked them to leave me in my tomb, and I want to know why they didn't. The Lieutenant pauses, staring directly into my eyes. Focus. He, in such a short time, seems to have crept into me, into my thoughts, and I blush slightly.

"Leave you where?" the doctor asks. My strange question must have distracted her. She doesn't seem as afraid of me.

"On the ship, alone."

They both have perplexed looks on their faces. They turn to each other and then back toward me.

He stops midway through my last band that's attached to my foot. "I think you're right, doc. We should leave the restraints on her for now. She may not hurt anyone else, but she may pose a threat to herself."

"I'm right here. I can hear you. Don't speak of me as though I'm a child. If you knew what happened on that ship, you wouldn't have brought me to yours," I say angrily as I help him finish releasing me. I lower my gaze in shame—all those lives lost because of what I am.

"Then tell us what happened. Why's everyone dead and charred except for you? Why where you the only one who survived with no life support? According to the ship's logs we acquired, it said the life support was out for three days." The Lieutenant is somewhat intimidating with his demanding tone, and it rather frightens me, since no one has ever spoken that way to me for fear of my powers.

I raise my eyes as a few strands of my hair fall in front of them. "You were right to say I'm special Lieutenant Wolf, and you need not worry about me hurting myself. I can't." I'm sitting, halfway covered by a blanket, with the most uncomfortable gown adorning me. "If, like you said, I survived three days with no oxygen, that should tell you I'm hard to kill. Besides, I don't want to hurt myself. I just don't want that to happen here. My father and I were headed to the Commerce to seek refuge from the Raspites."

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