Nylicia is leaning against the wall on the other side of the bed, her form flickering in and out. Vedlyl hovers nearby, that odd panic in his eyes.
“Nylicia . . . are you alright?” Vedlyl asks.
“I’m fine.” She seems to be forcing herself to stay here with us. Her normally golden-tinged skin is several shades too pale, her form more transparent than I’ve ever seen.
Still, she’s determined to finish what she started. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“Nylic—”
“No, listen to me, Vedlyl. I managed to perfect the design of the terets. Bring them here. Please.”
He hesitates a moment, then disappears.
“Now, you two . . . do me a favor.”
“Anything,” Evesse and I say.
Eve has to pretty much peel herself off the canopy. She falls down onto the bed. The canopy re-forms right behind her.
Nylicia lowers her shaking hand away from her face, and the hardness of her expression makes me take a step back. “Kick some serious ass. Destroy everything you can. The beings that did this? I have a personal bone to pick with them.”
CHAPTER 17
– Earth. Astoria, Queens, NY. (USA)
DYLETRI
“H ere? You traced the rip to this part of the planet?” Cy asks right after we flash into the alleyway between two buildings. “Why here?”
Ianthen looks like he’s shitting bricks. “Yeah, why here specifically?”
What the fuck is going on with him?
“I don’t know,” Xreak says. “The actual rip happened closer to the water. Right by the bridge.” He walks to the end of the alley and sticks his head out to look around. “We’re going to have to throw up a Gnetica en masse.”
Ian walks closer to Xreak, his sword in hand. “How much of an area do you think we have to encompass?”
The others pass me, each one staring at me curiously. I avoid their stares, unwilling to let them see any hint of what’s going on in my head.
Zen walks up behind me. “Your tranquility grid is shot. Nonexistent. Completely destroyed.”
I don’t know why he even bothers whispering. The others can hear him anyway.
“Shut it, Zen.”
Xreak is kind enough to ignore us. “I don’t know how much of an area we’ll have to cover yet. I can’t sense anything other than the rip.”
“I don’t sense anything, either,” Ian says, and the rest of us agree in chorus.
Zen stares at me out of the corner of his eye. I grit my teeth and fight to keep a calm façade.
Because that’s working. Yeah, that’s really fucking working.
There’s some sort of danger threatening the human world, but all I’m focused on is how a certain girl’s blood had rushed against the surface of my tongue.
And how her skin tastes. Sweet and musky and so much like sex that my body’s still aching.
What the fuck?
You want her.
But why?
She’s delectable. How dare you even ask that?
I flip the mental finger at the asshole inside me. This is just perfect. I’ve gone the godly equivalent of split-personality disorder.
And I can’t let any of these fucks realize that. One wrong move from me and the danger out there will be forgotten in favor of the “Dyletri-interro-round.”
I can already imagine them manifesting flashlights and aiming them at my face.
“We haven’t had to use a Gnetica on this planet in centuries.” Nythi stops next to Xreak, peeking her head out. “The human world has electronics covering every inch of it now, especially here. We’re right next to Manhattan for Our sake! How do we know we can even generate one strong enough to hide what’s happening from the humans if something does go down?”
She has a point. Even in ancient times there were instances of humans who were strong enough to see right through our shields. Yeah, most mortals are easily controlled or straight-up fooled, but every once in awhile there’s that one strong-willed mortal who has the power to see through any ruse.
Including the gods energy veils—mirrorlike barriers designed to reflect any part of the surrounding area we need to hide.
And hold in anything we don’t want getting out.
The problem is, as with anything energy related, modern technology interferes. If something goes down, we run the risk of some real pain in the ass complications. Either the Gnetica won’t work and the humans will see what’s happening, or we’ll end up shorting out all the power to this side of Queens and part of Manhattan, as well.
Good luck hiding that one.
Well, it can be done, but that’ll be a headache, too.
“There’s fucking people everywhere,” Sil complains as we all step out of the alley.
She isn’t mistaken. Down by the water, there are dozens of cars parked with their lights on and people just milling about.
This is a popular hangout for the humans. Even worse, there are cop cars patrolling off in the distance.
It doesn’t occur to me that the area is familiar until I take another couple of steps out of the alley and look up, seeing two massive bridges right overhead. I spin around and come face to face with the restaurant Ismini’s friend owns. The very one she works at.
“Wait.” I hold a hand up. “This place . . . that’s the place Ismini worked in . . . Her home is around here somewhere. This is where Enteax and Lisrn were chasing her the night I came for her.”
Silence.
No one in the group makes a sound as they turn to look at me. I stare at the sidewalk, as my mind rapidly adds up the facts.
“Xreak!” My voice leaves me on a growl. Anger pounds through me at the conclusion I’ve come to. And I don’t like it. Not one damned bit. “You never told us who you suspect of ripping open the Kystm.”
“The Aviraji.”
“What!” Several voices call out at once.
I’m the only one not surprised.
“Xreak, why didn’t you tell us?”
“Seriously, dude. How could you not tell us?”
“Xreak, what the fuck?”
“Silence!” Xreak bellows out. “I have yet to confirm it, and jumping to conclusions wasn’t going to do anyone any good. Then again, if you’re telling me you saw those two following the girl . . .”
“I fucking did. I plucked their likeness right out of her mind.” Livid doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling. All of my protective instincts are flaring again, manic and out of control.
It doesn’t matter that the girl is back on Enzyria, safe. I’m ready to bite someone’s arm off and use it to slap the shit out of them. The mere idea that the Aviraji want something with Ismini is more than my mind is capable of handling at the moment.
I’m teetering on a biological edge as it is.
“Has Zex been informed?” I ask in an effort to distract myself. If the Aviraji are breaking a peace treaty that has been in place ever since the end of the last war, then Zexistr has to know. His longtime lover, the mother of his daughter, is one of them.
“Yes,” Xreak says. “He’s on his way to her realm to investigate.”
Liz scoffs. “A lot of good that will do. The asshole is pussy-whipped and therefore blind to who she really is. Even if she were guilty of anything, do you think he’d stand up against her?”
“Zex cares more about the fate of the Universe than he does her,” Cy says in a hard tone.
Liz purses her lips and rolls her eyes at him. “Yeah, okay. And I’m Cleopatra reincarnated, and all that shit.”
“You were ancient by the time she was born, you fucking genius.”
“It’s called sarcasm, asshole. Learn it.”
Xreak opens his mouth, about to say something, but a blast of dark energy rips through the air and cuts him off. As one, we all stiffen, sending out an energy wave of our own and willing it in a one-mile radius around the bridge and the surrounding area.
“Anyone noticing any powe
r issues yet?” Zen asks.
From where we stand on the corner of a regular city block, the Gnetica pulses and grows. It expands out past the park, past the public pool, past the myriad of people who remain oblivious to it, and past the bridge, pulsating upward until it surpasses the tops of the buildings and even the bridges high above.
I see every detail, down to the small geometrical marks within the molecules of the field. Each one is like a handprint with its own energy inside it. I feel it, too, the hum of power resonating in my ears and on my skin.
A roar fills the air that’s ear-piercing and familiar—in the worst way possible. I haven’t heard that sound in thousands of years, but nothing can ever come close to the ear-splitting aggravation of that screech.
Sil gasps. “ceFtuts.”
I groan. Dealing with those nasty motherfuckers is the last thing we need. My lip curls, my eyes focusing on a spot by the bridge in time to see the first portal spiraling open.
Fucking hell. The ceFtuts are one of the most powerful and monstrous things I’ve ever encountered. Early on in the last war, the Aviraji decided to experiment with creation. Hello, gene-splicing. They created a whole new species by pouring together the DNA of every vile creature in existence and combining it into a genetic cesspit of fuck-ugly.
The result was the gigantic, four-legged, lumbering pieces of rotten flesh that are storming out the open portal, their massive heads thrown back as they let out brain-shredding screeches.
“Keep them contained!” I scream, barely able to hear myself above the creatures’ shrieks. “Don’t let them out of the Gnetica! They’ll run straight for the humans!”
Not that my command is necessary. I know we all remember what those creatures are capable of. What their insatiable hunger will drive them to do.
Taking off at the same time, several of the gods go one way while the rest of us go the other. I jump across the street, over a line of parked cars, and land at the edge of the park, where I locate the rip in the Kystm.
It’s next to one of the massive columns of the bridge nearest me. A dark, small spiral, no bigger than a child, and yet large enough for whoever is behind this to shove enough energy through to open the portals.
Another one opens to the left of where I’m standing, right on the street in front of a block of homes. At least eight more ceFtuts come barreling through, three of them heading straight for the edge of the Gnetica.
I push another wave of energy out and into the shield.
Three of the franken-mutts run into the reinforced Gnetica, their massive bodies crushing their faces into it. The sounds they let out on impact are strangely doglike and satisfying as hell.
Zen and Liz come up on either side of me, and together we storm straight towards the animals.
It’s clear the beasts are trying to get through the shield so they can attack the homes in front of us, and we’ll be damned if we let them kill the humans in those houses.
Or any humans at all.
I rip my sword out of its harness, arching it through the air and willing the blade to slide out to its full length. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to wield the weapon, but my soul recognizes it immediately. The energy I consist of latches on to the sword and melds with it once more.
My blade widens and morphs, extending until it’s four feet long and at least two feet wide. No human can ever wield it.
Not just because of its size, either. It isn’t made of normal metal but a titanium-looking amalgam that’s as much energy as matter. It fuses itself with my will and only remains strong as long as I do.
And I’m never stronger than when I’m furious. Considering how my body’s still roaring and these things are the reason I was pulled away from Ismini’s luscious little—
No, I just didn’t . . .
Yes, we just did.
With a roar, I dematerialize and shoot across the street, reappearing right above one of the ceFtuts. I land on the fucker’s back, my sword sliding three feet into the thing’s huge, ugly head. It bellows, rising up on its hind legs and thrashing around, trying to dislodge me.
Unfortunately, a sword to the head isn’t going to be enough to kill the ceFtut. The only way to kill them is to flip them over and stab them under the chin.
Later. First I want to make its life hell before ending it.
I pull the sword out and plunge it in again, this time between its eyes—bloodshot, monstrous eyes that are clouded over with a sickeningly gray film. Twisting the blade and gritting my teeth, I send a wave of raw energy pulsating from my hands and down the sword’s length.
The freak beneath me makes that odd whimpering sound again and runs around like a fucking bronco while trying to buck me off its back.
CHAPTER 18
DYLETRI
I see Liz wrestling another ceFtut to the ground and flipping it over. The moment she stabs the right spot, its legs all kick out at once, and one last screech is ripped from its throat before it blows apart, its form dissipating into a black swirl.
Unwilling to let go of my plaything so easily, I stab the ceFtut under me again. I keep going, each stab punctuated by the motherfucker inside me that’s laughing and having a blast at my predicament.
Aren’t you at least a little worried that you have a hard-on while riding that thing?
I growl, partially in disbelief that my psyche has split so profoundly—that there’s another entity in me, mocking me and having fucking fun while doing it.
An entity that was once very much one with me.
Is this what Zeniel has to deal with when it comes to his other half?
“Dyletri, there’s more of them! Kill that shit already! We have portals opening up all over the place!”
Zen’s words reach me just as I deliver yet another stab to the ceFtut I’m riding. The blade slides through what seems to be its ear. It’s desperate, trying to stretch a neck it doesn’t have to bite at my arms. Each snap of its teeth unleashes a wave of toxic air in my direction.
In one swift move, I jump off the ceFtut and use the sword in its body to lift it over my head. It kicks its legs as I flip it through the air and slam it onto the ground, not giving a rat’s ass about the fissures left in the concrete.
I jump on the ceFtut, puncturing the soft flesh under its chin before it can do anything else. Just like all the others, it disappears in a puff of black smoke, its last screech echoing into the night. The sound mixes with the two dozen other screeches rending the air.
Four more portals open around us, waves of ceFtuts pouring through.
“There’s no way!” I scream. “No way the Aviraji aren’t behind this. They’re the only ones with enough power to do this!”
“I know that now!” Xreak storms past me and slams his spear right through two of the creatures. With a roar, he spins around, flinging the ceFtuts off his spear and into the fence blocking the entrance to a public pool.
The metal bends in before straightening again at Xreak’s will. Reminded, I look back at the sidewalk and will the cracks left behind by the ceFtut to disappear.
“Kill as many you can. I need to try to close the Kystm before more of these portals pop up!” Xreak destroys the two ceFtuts he just flung off his spear and jumps up into the air, zooming over to the other side of the park. He lands on his feet in one lithe move before taking off and heading straight for the Kystm.
I unsheath a second sword, extending it to its full height and merging my energy with it.
An image of Ismini flashes through my mind unbidden. All I can see for two seconds is her skin. The blood that rushes beneath it.
Her pussy, spread for me, wet and ready for me. For my tongue. For my cock.
Imagine her soaked. At your command. Spread wide as you take her with your cock, drench her with your cum . . .
Motherfucking shit!
Another roar breaks out of me, the sound rivaling any the ceFtuts are capable of putting forth. Desperate to eradicate the images and the voice tormenting my br
ain, I run face first towards six of the beasts, my body lighting up from all angles.
As I stab two of the ceFtuts between the eyes and hurl them back several yards, it’s really myself I’m attacking.
My whole life, I was almost numb to everyone. A mere tool, detached from others. There to service them. Fuck them.
I only ever felt for Dimithinia.
Until now.
I’m hooked up to an engine of need, on full blast, gunning it against my will. Whatever I felt for Dimithinia, it comes nowhere close to the magnitude of what I felt less than an hour before, back in my room.
With another female.
Another war cry exits my mouth and waves of raw energy fly out of me.
In a blur of movement, I flip two ceFtuts onto their backs and stab through their chins in one strike.
It isn’t enough. I need more. Wish these creatures could fucking bleed so I’d end up covered in it. I run through ten more of them, and it still isn’t enough.
Two new portals open. More ceFtuts emerge. It’s like they’ve been lying in wait, reproducing faster than rabbits in the lowest dimension for years. There seems to be an endless supply.
I slam into another one, hoping Xreak will get that Kystm closed ASAfuckingP. I’m so busy flipping it over and stabbing my sword where it needs to go that I don’t sense the other one coming at me.
At least not until its pounding feet and decayed breath are two feet behind me. I spin, ready to take that piece of shit head on.
I end up frozen in place instead.
Gaping.
A feminine cry fills the night, its fury raw and potent, as a tiny blur lights up the sky overhead.
My eyes widen, and for a second, I almost believe the fucker inside me is playing tricks on me and I’m hallucinating—that the small figure that lands on top of the ceFtut heading straight for me is one of the goddesses and my reawakening powers are superimposing the image of my sexy tormentor on to another form.
But as the milliseconds tick by and the image before me remains unchanged, I’m forced to admit who it is.
Ismini.
Gods, even her name is enough to fuck me up.
Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2 Page 13