He cursed out loud when Durgin burst through the door a moment later. What's with everyone acting like moronic hero-wannabes today?
Lochiana reached his side, out of breath and with a manic expression in her eyes. It wasn't exactly panic, more like an urgency to get the fuck out of there. Her hand wrapped around his arm, and the touch sent rivulets of scorching heat through his body. He wanted to do many things to her, with her, but all of them would have to wait.
Chrysa ran into Durgin's arms, and together they circled the monster and reached Femror and Lochiana. The beast was blocking their way out, more pissed off than ever.
"We have to get out of here," Femror said.
"It's blocking the way," Lochiana replied.
"We'll go back to where it came from." Durgin eyed the big gaping hole on the other side of the room.
It was obvious they couldn't fight the monster. If only I had my spear with me, he thought bitterly.
They ran for the only way out left to them, plunging into the darkness without thought. Two steps in and Femror's feet met nothing. The ground had vanished, only cool air greeting them as they fell down to the unknown.
Chapter 35
Lochiana felt the rough, cold ground under her palms before anything else. Her pulse pounded in her ears at the same rapid pace her heart drummed inside her chest. She took deep breaths to try to calm down. Panicking wouldn't solve anything. If I could stop falling down holes, it would be great, she thought as her eyes adjusted to the gloom.
"Hello?" she called out, and it echoed all around her. She heard a grunt not too far from where she lay. "Who's there?"
"It's me, Femror," he replied right before his callused hands found her arm. "Are you in one piece?"
"I think so."
She began to slowly discern his silhouette in the darkness. He was very close, his warm breath fanning across her face. Her skin tingled where he touched her, and she was glad for the cover of shadows. She didn't want him to see her flushed cheeks. Lochiana felt a clench between her legs and she chastised herself for her wanton feelings when they were facing a life-or-death situation. They didn't even know what had befallen their companions.
"Are you able to stand?" His voice felt like a caress. He'd never addressed her with such tenderness before. What was going on? Had he hit his head?
They stood up together, and yet Femror seemed reluctant to let go of her arm. He called out his sister's name, and they heard nothing but the echo of his voice. Lochiana remembered she had stuffed a small light pen in the back pocket of her pants and pulled it out.
The faint glow gave her a vague idea of where they were, an underground chamber hidden underneath the mammoth spacecraft. How in the world are we getting out of here?
She pointed the light toward the ceiling and found a chute of sorts. That was where they had come from. She continued her exploration, keenly aware of Femror next to her. He had let go of her arm only to place his hand on her lower back protectively. She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and tried her best to ignore the fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach.
The light hit a wall and Lochiana caught a yellow shimmer from it. They moved closer and crouched together to have a better look at the strange porous substance that seemed to grow on the rocks.
"What do you think this is?" she asked.
"I don't know. Some type of fungus, perhaps." Femror swiped his fingers over it and brought the yellow smear to his nose. "Odorless."
Lochiana unfurled from her position and aimed the light around the cave, noticing more clusters of the same organism. They were everywhere, in a varying range of colors. Suddenly, her nose started to itch and she sneezed a couple of times. Femror had the same reaction.
He cursed out loud, making Lochiana laugh. She didn't know why she thought the situation was funny.
"Why are you angry?" she asked between giggles.
"I never, ever sneeze. Something is off here." He rubbed his nose, forgetting the fungus on the tip of his fingers, which resulted in painting his nose yellow.
Still laughing, Lochiana reached out to wipe the smear off. Her breath caught when Femror grabbed her wrist and stared at her with the same hunger she had witnessed from him before. No, not the same hunger—it was ten times more intense. It was overpowering, overwhelming, raw. She didn't shy away from it that time, though. Instead, she let the unrelenting need unfurl from the center of her core and spread throughout her body. She wanted him so much she couldn’t think straight. Where was that unadulterated desire coming from? It was as if she could finally see clearly what had been in front of her all along.
Lochiana sucked in a breath when he caressed her wrist with his thumb. His eyes seemed to glow a fiery yellow in the darkness. She felt a tug toward the Draki warrior as if there were an invisible line linking her core to his.
Suddenly, he let go of her arm and took a step back. Lochiana felt cold immediately, missing his scorching touch. His breathing had become labored, and everything about his frame told her he was as tense as a coiled spring. The veins on his neck bulged as he clenched his jaw. He looked like a predator, but Lochiana wasn't afraid. She knew on a cellular level that Femror would never hurt her, though how she was so certain of that, she didn't know.
She took a step in his direction, not wanting to fight the compulsion that urged her to move nearer.
"Don't come any closer," he warned, but it sounded more like a pained groan.
"What's going on? Why do I feel…" Lochiana paused, not knowing how to describe the emotions swirling in her chest, or her body's reaction to him. "Why do I want you to touch me… everywhere?"
"Do you also feel the pull?" He took a step forward.
"Yes."
Femror's nostrils flared. "Forgive me."
"For what?"
"For this." He breached the gap between them, cradled her face between his hands, and crushed his lips against hers in such a savage manner that it left no room to doubt what was going to happen between them. The craziest thing of all was that Lochiana welcomed the assault with sweet abandon.
She opened up to him, to his invasion, matching the frenetic rhythm of his tongue beat for beat. She laced her fingers together behind his neck as she tried to meld herself to the warrior. Through the layers of her clothing, she could feel the double drums of Femror's heart, and wondered if that was the reason everything about him seemed to be twice as intense.
His hands trailed down her sides, and when his fingers brushed the underside of her breasts, Lochiana hissed and bit his lower lip. Femror groaned right before he cupped her ass and lifted her. She felt him walk until her back was pressed against the rough wall. He ground his pelvis against hers, showing Lochiana exactly what awaited her. His arousal's friction against her core made her light-headed and boneless. There were too many layers between them; she needed to connect to him skin to skin.
She trailed her fingers down his ripped torso until she found his length. Femror made an animalistic sound in the back of his throat and suddenly stopped moving. He pulled back and watched Lochiana's face.
"I've desired you since I first saw you, but are you sure this is what you want?"
Lochiana didn't understand where the question was coming from. Couldn't he see the burning need etched on her face?
"Yes.” Her answer whooshed out her lips in a heated whisper. “I don't understand what's going on, but I have no wish to stop it. I want your mouth everywhere. I need you inside me just as I need air to breathe."
Femror took one, two deep breaths before his hands made quick work of the ties on her pants. He cupped her sex, inserting two fingers inside, and her eyes rolled back in their sockets.
"Yes," she whispered as her nails dug into his back.
He removed his fingers, and Lochiana opened her mouth to complain only be silenced by his tongue. He kissed her slower that time, almost reverently, before he leaned back.
"I'll try to be gentle, but I can't promise anything."
; "I don't care about gentle. I want you to claim me."
Chapter 36
Samiah watched Durgin dash back inside the starship and was powerless to stop him. One thing was clear—they couldn’t leave this place without them. She turned to Malachiax and was shocked to see he had turned his back on the ship and was preparing to mount his animal.
"Where are you going? We must go after them."
"No, you heard Durgin. We must get to the portal and find a way to shut it forever."
"You can't be serious." When he didn't answer her, she grabbed his arm and turned him around. "Malachiax!"
Samiah didn't recognize the man she loved. The hard set of his jaw, the emotionless gaze showed her a different person. She ventured into his head and brushed his conscience with a featherlight touch. She felt a stir, right before she saw something that didn't belong to Malachiax's beautiful mind. An idea that wasn't his.
A loud roar followed by a thundering crash brought Samiah back to her own head.
"I'm sorry, Sami, but we need to go." Malachiax pulled his arm back from her hold and mounted his H5. He pressed the control panel and steered the ride up the path back to where they had come from, not looking back even once to make sure she was following him.
Samiah stared at her mate, frozen, without understanding what had just happened.
Gary touched her shoulder to get her attention.
"I believe he has been compelled."
She whipped around in the Jackurian's direction. "What?"
"When Durgin issued that command, I believe he used his gift."
"That's impossible. He wasn't even looking in Malachiax's direction."
Gary shook his head. "I'm afraid his powers are stronger than he realizes. I don't think he intended to compel Malachiax. We don't have a choice now. We must go after your mate."
As if Samiah was ever going to let him venture out in the open alone. She glanced one more time at the starship’s wreckage and hoped her friends would find a way to get out of there alive.
She climbed back on her mount and took off after Malachiax. When she reached the plateau, he wasn’t there. She yelled his name and received no reply. With a curse, she increased the speed of her ride, going in the direction she thought was the exit. As the solid rock wall drew nearer, Samiah closed her eyes. If she had gone in the wrong direction, the impact was going to hurt like a mother. Here goes nothing. She felt a slight air resistance right before the scorching orange sun of the desert warmed her skin. The sandstorm had passed, thank all the Sacred Powers.
She spotted Malachiax galloping at full speed out in the distance, and she increased her mount’s pace. Gary must have been right; Malachiax was acting like an obsessed person. She didn't know how he could possibly know which way to go.
She turned to Gary, “How does he know he’s going in the right direction?”
“He must have put the coordinates into his H5’s navigation system.”
“What? We can do that?”
“Yes. Didn’t you read the manual?”
Samiah grumbled and chose not to reply. What else could these superpowered animals do?
Samiah's hand hovered over the red button that would give her mount a speed boost but remembered it had rendered her ride useless for minutes afterward the last time she’d used it. She eventually caught up with Malachiax, and her heart felt better when he at least acknowledged her presence.
"I'm sorry. I can't help it," he said as if it cost him too much to utter those words.
"Durgin compelled you."
"I know. I'm going to kick his ass when I see him again."
"You can fight it, Mal. I know you can."
Malachiax stared straight ahead and grimaced. "Perhaps, but it's not worth the struggle. The portal must be sealed no matter what."
Yes, but at what cost?
Chapter 37
Durgin landed on something soft and cushy before he rolled onto the floor with a thud. He squinted at the glaring blue light that seemed to emanate from everywhere. Once his eyesight adjusted to the brightness, he noticed he was surrounded by several translucent oval-shaped pods. He touched the one nearest to him and his finger made a dent. The material was pliable.
Standing up, he scanned the room. He was still inside the ship, somewhere in a lower compartment filled with these soft, membranous pods. He took a step forward and his boot crushed something. Looking down, he saw the floor was littered with pieces of broken crystal that seemed to pulse with energy. He realized the light in the room was coming from them. He bent down and picked up one large piece. Indeed, there was trapped energy inside, pulsing as if the stone were alive. Uncurling from his crouched position, he pocketed the crystal to examine later.
Where were his companions? Where was Chrysa?
He heard a low whimper before he could call her name and made a beeline toward the sound. He found the Draki princess sitting on the ground, hugging her knees and swaying back and forth. He crouched next to her, not knowing if he should hug the female or do something else.
"Chrysa, what's the matter? Are you hurt?"
The Draki shook her head and continued to cry softly. Durgin followed her gaze and saw the shape of a person inside the pod. More of my father's experiments. Durgin grimaced as bile pooled in his mouth. He didn't wish to peer closely to see what kind of horrendous creature his father had designed.
He grabbed Chrysa's hands and pried them away from her knees. "Come on. We have to go."
She didn't offer resistance as he pulled her up, but before she let him drag her toward the edge of the room where he had seen something that looked like a door, she said, "All they ever wanted was a second chance."
Her comment made him pause, but one quick glance at her tear-streaked face and he decided to forgo asking any questions. He didn't want to upset Chrysa further. She was such a conundrum. One moment she could be a fierce warrior princess, and the next, she was as fragile as a flower.
The door at the end of the chamber slid open with a whooshing sound when they got near it. On the other side, they found a room in complete darkness. Durgin ventured in first, triggering the motion sensors. The lights above flickered to life until the entire space was bathed again in that strange fluorescent glow. It only took Durgin a moment to guess what this place had been used for and his heart skipped a beat. There might be hope for them after all.
In the center of the room, a sleek connector stood on a small dais. Durgin's excitement was warranted, even if most of the relays in Arcadia were disabled. The connector in that room was the prototype his father had shown him a couple of months ago. It didn't rely on relays’ energy to operate. Instead, small batteries composed mostly of krax stone powered the device. Durgin didn't know exactly how the technology worked, but in that moment, he didn't care. He bent next to the device, glad he’d had the chance to see it in operation before. A compartment on its side contained the operating control. It had been so well designed that no one could see the outline of the hidden slot. He pressed on it and the operating control slid out from its hiding spot.
"What's that?"
"A connector. We're getting out of here."
"What about Femror and Lochiana?"
Shit. Durgin had forgotten about them. In theory, these new connectors didn't need a matching set at the arrival’s location; the connector wasn’t fixed in one place but traveled with its users. Basically, they could be beamed anywhere they wanted, as long as they had the coordinates. He wasn't sure about the distance limitations, though. That gave him an idea.
"Are you able to see with your gift the exact location of your brother and Lochiana?"
"I've been trying to locate him this whole time."
"And?"
She shook her hand. "I'm getting nothing but utter silence."
Durgin stood up and touched her hand. "You must try again."
She frowned and glared at Durgin. "Don't you think I know that? It's this place. Something is dampening my reach."
"W
hat if you had an amplifier?"
"What do you mean?"
"What if you used my energy to propel yours?"
"I've never heard of such a thing being done before. How would that even work?"
"Call it a hunch?" Durgin smiled at her sheepishly and her frown deepened. "I've done it before," he finally confessed, and the humor vanished from his expression. "I have the power to enter someone's mind. The core of your power resides in your psyche. I could maybe give you the boost you need."
"You want to enter my mind? Are you insane?"
"I won't read your thoughts or compel you. I swear." Durgin raised his hand.
Chrysa bit her lower lip and stared at the ground. Finally, after a loud exhale, she brought her gaze up again. "Okay, let's try this, but no shenanigans."
Durgin stepped into her personal space and she stiffened. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you." He stared into her eyes and felt the surge of power ignite his core. He knew his deep purple irises would be swirling right now, and yet, Chrysa didn't look away.
He was prepared to battle his way in—most people had natural barriers around their minds—but Durgin entered Chrysa’s mind with ease. It wasn’t that she didn’t possess barriers. In fact, he could see a wall of thorns and roses woven around her psyche, but she had created a gate for him and left it open.
He sucked in a breath as he was greeted by the most breathtaking and at the same time impossible world. He was on top of a mountain covered by a deep green carpet. Flowers that came up to his waist had faces and they sang a lullaby. Out in the distance, a castle made of water glimmered under the pink-colored sky. Durgin looked up and saw a school of winged fish making different patterns as they flew over his head.
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