by Anna Carven
Bitter blood entered his mouth. The Kordolian flailed a little then went still, blood gushing from his neck.
Thud! He dropped the bastard to the floor. Suddenly, he was able to see a little as the nanites went to work on his eyes.
His vision became clearer, until he was able to make out the dark lines of the ceiling and the two bodies he’d left in his wake.
And someone was rushing toward him from behind, a plasma gun pointed at Nythian’s head.
His arm shaking, the Kordolian fired. Searing blue plasma shot past Nythian’s head, barely missing him.
The noble’s arm trembled. Clearly, it wasn’t his shooting arm.
Nythian took one step, two steps. In a single fluid motion he picked up his blade from where he’d dropped it and leveled it at the Kordolian’s neck.
He would kill this creature for daring to even think about his mate.
The noble staggered around, blood gushing from his wound. His face was pale, almost white. Soon he would be dead from blood loss, but Nythian wanted to make him suffer before he killed him.
A flicker at the edge of his now-perfect vision made him pause.
Then the Xargek’s bloodied claw came crashing down, and he lowered his blade, rolling to one side as it narrowly avoided him.
Shit. Nythian was still naked. His nanites were tied up repairing the massive damage to his organs.
He couldn’t summon his armor right now.
The Xargek screamed, yellow venom dripping from its mouth. Sensing a kill, it rushed at him, becoming a black-and-yellow blur.
Nythian rolled again and again, narrowly avoiding its thrashing claws. His hand connected with something sharp and curved…
The Xargek’s severed claw!
His fingers curled around it. He had one chance to kill this wretched thing.
The Xargek came down again, and this time, he didn’t dodge. Instead, he brought up his right arm and leg, and the Xargek’s claw sawed through flesh and bone.
His forearm split in two, and suddenly his hand was no longer attached to his body.
Nythian wasn’t bothered about that. Grunting with exertion, he sat up and slammed the Xargek’s claw into its very own neck, penetrating the soft vulnerable point beneath its maw.
The creature’s strength evaporated. It crashed to the floor in a tangle of insectoid limbs.
Gasping, Nythian reached for his severed arm. A fog of pure rage clouded his mind. His Kordolian prey swayed and toppled to the floor beside him, blood spraying everywhere.
Nythian rolled to his side and stared at the dying noble. “Who are you?”
“Wha—”
“What is your name?” Nythian barked, knowing that a man on the verge of death would blindly follow orders.
“I… I am General Sarkiss,” the noble whispered. “And if you kill me, you are in a whole lot of fucking trouble.”
Nythian let out a derisive snort. As if that name meant anything to him.
Wait.
Sarkiss… Was that not one of the names that Alexis had mentioned when she told him of the Kordolians that had attacked her? Wasn’t he the one who had organized all those failed assassination attempts on her?
Nythian’s urge to kill became so strong that he feared he would go mad if he didn’t tear Sarkiss’s throat out right now.
He needed to avenge his mate. The desire was so strong that for a moment, he almost blacked out.
But…
Nythian trembled all over as he realized he would not get his blood-revenge.
Amidst the all-consuming anger, a tiny voice of reason entered his mind. You can’t kill him. Look at the big picture. It was Alexis’s calm, analytical tone, telling him that he had to keep Sarkiss alive.
Tarak wanted him alive so he could interrogate him.
That was the whole point of this little side-mission in the first place.
Sarkiss’s eyes drooped. He was losing consciousness from all the blood loss.
Nythian swore. Moving clumsily around the dead bodies, dragging himself through pools of blood, he picked up his severed lower arm and reattached it.
The nanites did just enough to hold it together, working slowly now that they were depleted.
He pulled himself to his feet and walked across to Sarkiss. Nythian found a discarded plasma gun and pressed it against his Callidum blade. Then he fired, and searing plasma engulfed the sword. For a moment, the entire blade glowed white-hot, before fading slightly to a pink blush.
He pressed it against the bleeding stump of Sarkiss’s arm, cauterizing it, stopping the endless flow of blood.
Sarkiss screamed and promptly passed out. He wasn’t in a good way, but he would live. Their kind were notoriously hard to kill.
The smell of burning flesh floated through the air, mingling with the bitter scent of Nythian’s own blood and the foul stench of the Xargek.
There was so much blood around him, and most of it was his. He’d be surprised if there was any black left in his body at all.
The scene was utterly repulsive and monstrous, just like him.
Nythian thanked the Goddess that Alexis would never have to see him like this.
But he’d survived.
He would get to see her again.
That was all that mattered.
Content in the knowledge that he’d completely destroyed his enemies, Nythian closed his eyes and drifted away on a tide of darkness and pain as billions of tiny machines crawled through his body, making him whole again.
TWENTY-EIGHT
“WHAT’S HAPPENING, LODAN?” Alexis paced back and forth behind the pilot’s chair, annoyed that he’d suddenly become cagey.
Apparently, Nythian wasn’t answering his comm.
"It isn’t like him,” she muttered, a feeling of unease settling in the pit of her belly. Nythian was the most solid and dependable person she knew. “What if something’s happened to him?”
But she couldn’t imagine him getting taken down by anyone either. He was so big and intimidating and just generally an all-round badass.
“The target cruiser isn’t showing any signs of distress,” Lodan said, as calm and serene as a cold lake on a summer’s day. The man had ice in his veins. “No acceleration, no slowing down, no organic flight patterns. I’m betting they’ve put their sylth on autopilot because they need all hands on deck to deal with a little problem downstairs. Pilot’s probably dead or incapacitated by now. Nythian’s had more than enough time to sort things out.” He stretched out his long arms and legs. “I’m starting to feel a little cooped up in here. I think it’s probably safe to go down and latch onto them again. I’ll go in and see what’s taking him.” He turned to his co-pilot, a slender, severe looking Kordolian who wore his long white hair in a high topknot.
Lodan issued orders in quick-fire Kordolian. The co-pilot nodded, turning toward a holoscreen that glowed with indecipherable blue characters and diagrams. He wore strange gloves and a sleek visor; Alexis figured these were the controls.
Lodan used a different method of flying, his long, fingers curled around curved black manual controls. “I’ll get it into position and connect with the docking point. You do the rest, Aidon.” His golden eyes went a little distant, and he eased back into his chair. “Get into your seat, Alexis. I anticipate a smooth connection, but you just never know.”
Feeling edgy and impatient, she settled into the passenger seat and felt the tentacle-like restraints lock into place around her body.
Everything about this ship was utterly alien. If not for Nythian and Lodan and their reassuring gruffness and the way they made her feel totally comfortable in the face of spectacular danger, she would have been spooked right now.
An eerie silence fell across the cockpit.
For a moment, Lodan and Aidon were perfectly still; a pair of cold silver statues welded to a dark, organic machine.
The whole scene looked so alien, so glacial.
She didn’t belong here.
Alexis fo
und herself yearning for Nythian; she missed his warmth of his arms and the comforting rumble of his voice.
Then Lodan blinked, and the illusion was shattered. “It’s done.”
Already? Just like that?
She hadn’t felt a thing.
How unnerving.
Lodan detached himself from the pilot’s chair and Alexis did the same. He ignored her as he moved swiftly and silently, exiting through doors made of thousands of unravelling black fibers.
She followed right behind. “Where are you going, Lodan?”
“Into the enemy ship. Nythian’s obviously caught up with something. I’m just going to go and make sure he’s okay, give him some help if he needs it—which he probably doesn’t.”
“I have this crazy urge to come with you, but I’m guessing you’re going to tell me to stay back here because it’s too dangerous.”
“Nythian’s my friend,” Lodan shrugged as they passed into a dark room where she could barely see. “I don’t mind taking him on in a training battle, but I don’t ever want to fight him because I’ve done something stupid like putting his mate into unnecessary danger.” Lodan moved in the darkness, but she had no idea what he was doing, because he was like a goddamn shadow; all she could see was the faint silver outline of his face. “Don’t worry, Alexis,” he said softly. “I know him better than almost anyone. If he’s quiet, there’s good reason for it, but he isn’t dead.”
“But what if he’s injured or incapacitated?”
Lodan chuckled softly. “Then there’s nothing to worry about, because he won’t be injured for long.” He stepped out of the dark chamber, entering the dimly lit corridor. Frowning, Alexis stalked after him.
Now she could see again. She blinked. Lodan’s tall frame bristled with all kinds of weapons; guns, blades, small round devices she assumed were explosives of some sort.
While they’d been talking in the dark, he’d been arming himself.
He paused in the middle of the corridor and turned to her, a gentle—almost kind—smile on his face. “I’ve been Nythian’s partner for a long time, Alexis. Believe me when I tell you that it would take a lot to bring him down. Sure, he goes off the deep end sometimes, but it isn’t what you might think. Let me go down there and make sure everything’s clear. I’ll holler if he needs you.”
She could only stare at him as he turned and disappeared into the shadows.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” A soft voice made her turn. Noali stood there, barefoot and wearing nothing but a simple cornflower blue cotton dress.
She looked ethereal, so out of place on this dark, forbidding ship that it was almost ridiculous. As she approached, the Tharian power in Alexis reacted, sending an electric ripple down her arm.
Despite her delicate appearance, Noa was a little bit terrifying. A small part of Alexis reacted to Noa with pure fear; that was the Tharian side of her, a fragment of billions of years of knowledge passed down to her by Anuk. Deep down, she recognized Noa for what she truly was.
But Noa was also an ally, and she was human. Alexis pushed away that irrational feeling of fear.
“I mean, they’re so powerful they almost seem invincible,” Noa said, “but then they go on these ridiculous missions that are so dangerous that any ordinary mortal would think they were utterly insane. And they’re so damn nonchalant about it all. I have to remind myself that he was doing this long before we met. The kind of training they’ve been put through…” She shook her head in wonder. “Ash is injured, and that’s crazy, because it’s been a long time since any enemy’s put a scratch on him, but he still managed to escape easily. Nythian’s cut from the same cloth. He’ll be okay.”
“Then you understand that I can’t help it if I’m worried.” Alexis walked forward until they were just inches from each other. The tingling in her arm grew more intense. “But I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. Still, I’m going to go down to edge of the tunnel and wait for him. I just can’t help it. I’m sure you know what I mean.” Her hand crackled with power now; she almost felt like she would deck anyone who got between her and Nythian—especially if he needed her.
“I’ll go with you,” Noa offered, a wry smile ghosting across her lips. “Ash has ordered me to keep myself busy until he arrives. He hates it when I fret over him. Follow me. I know my way around here a little.” She confidently walked off into the darkness, and Alexis followed her down to the lower decks.
Nobody challenged them or stopped them, not even the silent warriors they passed on one or two occasions.
It was as if they had some sort of special status.
Finally, they reached the lower hatch, which was connected to a dark tunnel that disappeared into nowhere. A pair of armed-to-the-teeth Kordolians stood guard. “You can’t go any further,” one of them said, offering them a respectful nod. “Lodan’s orders.”
“We’re not going to do anything reckless,” Alexis reassured him, although she was burning with the urge to go down there and find her man. She swore she could almost feel him.
“He’s down there,” Noa confirmed. “I can sense him. Something feels different, though. It’s almost as if—”
That’s when Lodan emerged through the hatch, fully armored and as dangerous looking as any Kordolian she’d seen. Even though she couldn’t see his face, Alexis knew it was him and not Nythian. Lodan was equally tall but not as heavily muscled.
He pulled himself to his feet and allowed his helm to melt away.
She would never really get used to that sight.
When Nythian didn’t appear, her anxiety skyrocketed. “What’s happening?” she demanded. “Where is he?”
“Easy,” Lodan said, his expression sanguine. “Nythian’s fine… well, he will be.”
“What do you mean, he will be?”
“Physically, he’s okay, but he’s a little confused right now… a little angry. It happens sometimes when we lose a lot of blood. I don’t want to fight him when he’s like this. It wouldn’t be good. Just give him some time. I’ve seen him like this before. This is the way he wants us to handle it. He’ll come to his senses eventually. There’s no danger down there now.”
“Damn it, Lodan. A lot of blood?”
“We heal,” the pilot said quietly. “The blood always returns to the whole. The training always kicks in eventually. Give it time."
She had an inkling about Nythian’s insane healing abilities, but she didn’t really know how much damage he could sustain… how much pain he could tolerate.
When she was in her most vulnerable state, he’d looked after her. In the same way, Alexis felt protective of him. She couldn’t stand that they were separated by these dark metal walls. “How do you know this is what he wants?” she demanded, her voice rising.
“Last time this sort of thing happened, he told me so.” Lodan grimaced. “He was quite explicit about it. Took me a whole rotation and three plasma-protein shots to heal from his explanation.”
Alexis wasn’t buying Lodan’s explanation. Ugh. Males. She exchanged a look with Noa before turning back to Lodan, her eyes narrowing. “You said there’s no danger, so why can’t I go and see him?”
“Trust me, you don’t really want to go down there right now.”
Her frustration mounted. She knew she was being irrational and terribly impatient, but she couldn’t help it. When it came to Nythian, all her cool, calm detective’s reasoning flew out the window.
A faint howl echoed from below, driving her crazy.
“That’s it,” she snapped. “I’m going down there.”
Lodan stepped in her way, a dark, immovable wall. “Alexis, don’t make me restrain you.” A dangerous note entered his voice and she tensed. Lodan might seem mild on the surface, but he was as lethal as the rest of them. “I’ve seen this before, and not just with Nythian. We have our own way of handling these things. Let it be, human.”
Alexis could have stepped down.
She could have trusted that Nythian’s batt
le-partner knew what was best for him, that leaving Nythian to fight his demons alone was the right thing to do…
But it just didn’t sit right with her.
Besides, she was crazy for him. She burned with the need to be close to him, to feel his warm hands on her bare skin.
Lodan couldn’t understand that… could he?
She took a deep, shuddering breath, meeting his golden eyes. “You’re his battle-partner, Lodan. I get what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate it, but I’m his mate. You don’t get to decide what’s best for me, and I’m not some delicate flower, either. Let me go down there.”
“No. Last time I’m going to say this, human. Just be patie—”
“Don’t you think Nythian’s suffered enough?” Alexis didn’t know everything about Nythian’s past, but she’d seen enough to know that one didn’t become as tough as him without going through hell first.
He was the one who’d so gently and patiently coaxed her back into the world of the living, protecting her from everything… even herself.
She would do the same for him, always.
“You’d better let her go, Lodan,” Noa chimed in. A vaguely threatening energy filled the room, and the wispy ends of her hair began to rise.
The Kordolian guards on either side of them tensed, their hands dropping to their weapons.
“Noa…” Alexis glanced at her in alarm. What was this strange pressure all of a sudden? “What are you doing?”
“Sorry. That wasn’t supposed to happen. This power… I forget sometimes. I’m not allowed to fight with it until I learn to control it better.” Her eyes went distant for a moment, and the pressure dissipated. She turned to Lodan. “She’s all in now, you know. You can’t have it all one way, Kordolian. We humans get crazy about our mates too. You really think he would be a threat to her? Your cold and harsh Kordolian ways aren’t the only way of dealing with things. She’s probably the best thing for him right now. One day, you might understand what I’m talking about.”
“Hm.” Lodan inclined his head, staring at Alexis for a while, his expression indecipherable.
She felt like she was being dissected under that intense golden gaze. In some ways, he was just like Nythian, holding deep and complicated secrets behind a tightly controlled exterior.