THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

lifted her head. It wobbled a little as she leaned back against the arm and shoulder Tony had put behind her for a support. “Water. My throat’s burning.”
    Tony looked at me.
    I fisted my hands and turned to beat against the wall of the hut regardless of what the energy sizzling through the structure did to me. And it did hurt. Badly.
    But a section the size of an opening started wavering.
    I stepped back into a defensive position in front of Tony and Gabby.
    When the opening finally appeared, Mathias entered first and stepped to the side. That allowed room for Callan to duck his head and walk in, a guarded expression in place. Mathias had a serene look, which I trusted as much as I trusted anything else in this strange, hostile world.
    Not one bit.
    Mathias started to speak, but my frustration knew no limit right then.
    “What’s wrong with you people? You accuse us of being some murdering tek-nah-tees but you place no higher value on life either, do you?”
    I’d expected Mathias to snap right back at me, not to turn rigid as a statue at my accusation as if I’d slapped him. Or maybe insulted him. I’d feel bad for yelling at him since he seemed to be the only calm one in the bunch, but Gabby had gotten worse during each minute that Mathias had ignored our calls for help.
    He drew a breath and spoke with the authority I’d heard in our earlier meeting. “We have to make the run to check for new children dropped from the transenders.”
    Tony piped up. “What’s that got to do with Gabby bein’ sick?”
    Callan’s only reaction to Tony’s words was a tightening of his jaw. His gaze moved to me and his words came out with a hard clip. “We need four who are experienced enough to do this. The young ones lack the strength and skill to face the challenges of this transender location.”
    “Still waitin’ on the punch line, dude,” Tony groused.
    Callan turned on Tony. “Shut up, tek-nah-tee.” 
    I couldn’t deal with both of them. “Tony, please.”
    Gabby moaned and shivered.
    When Mathias’s attention shifted to Gabby, his face scrunched with concern. So he finally noticed the puffy red skin on Gabby’s arms? He demanded, “What’s wrong with her?”
    Shaking his head, Tony gave him a look of rank disgust. “What the eff do you think we’ve been yellin’ about for so long? She’s having some kind of reaction. Needs a doctor. D.O.C.T.O.R. You got one?” 
    Dismissing him with a curt lift of his chin and speaking once again to me, Mathias said, “We do have a healer–”
    “Great.” My relief flooded out in that one word.
    “But as I was explaining,” he continued. “He is one of only four qualified to go on the observation run.”
    “Be serious,” Tony argued. “You gonna send him out someplace to maybe find someone while Gabby gets worse?”
    That stoked the fire that had simmered in Callan’s eyes since he’d walked into the hut. He turned all that fury on Tony. “If not for your kind, we wouldn’t have to go looking for children dumped in this place. If not for your kind we wouldn’t fear those children being eaten by a croggle or harmed by deadly plants. Don’t lay her sickness or possible death at our feet when your SEOH is behind all this.”
    Tony looked at me. “Who’s he talkin’ about?”
    “I don’t know.”  And right now it didn’t matter, because I was tired of waiting on help for Gabby and didn’t want everyone to keep talking about her dying in front of her. I figured Callan wanted something and getting to that point sooner would be in Gabby’s best interest, but I posed my question to both Callan and Mathias.
    “What’s it going to take for us to get help for Gabby?”
    A vein in Callan’s neck pulsed, restrained power waiting to be unleashed. I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. His lips parted to speak, but before he uttered a word his gaze drifted down to where I’d torn the bottom half of my shirt off for Gabby. He stared at my exposed skin as if he hadn’t expected to see that and had lost track of the conversation.
    I shifted my stance, crossing my arms as I did.
    He jerked his attention up. I quirked an eyebrow to let him know I’d caught him studying my body. I enjoyed the moment of catching his control slip. It had been oddly…flattering.
    Not something I’d let him know.
    When Callan didn’t answer my question, Mathias jumped in, saying, “I have sent for our healer. We will see if he can do anything first.”
    I