by Abel, Regine
“Afraid of heights?” Bane asked in a taunting tone, his multifaceted eyes—impossible to read—staring intently at me.
“Not in the least,” I said defiantly.
A barely-there smirk stretched his sensuous, perfectly human lips. It struck me then that he didn’t have the mandibles I’d seen on him before.
“There’s no shame in being scared,” he teased, the rumbling of his purring voice vibrating against my chest.
“The only thing I’m scared of is you going weak and dropping me,” I said, deliberately needling him.
Instead of his smile broadening in fake outrage, he suddenly sobered, his face taking on an unnerving intensity.
“That is the one thing you will never have to fear, Tabitha. I will never let go of you.”
My stomach did a double somersault, and my mouth suddenly went dry. In that instant, I knew his words had a far greater meaning, but I didn’t quite know how to interpret them. Was I imagining that his arms had tightened around me, and that his gaze had lowered to my lips? Damn those multi-faceted eyes that hid so many secrets.
I opened my mouth to give him some smart reply to distract myself from my thoughts wandering in a far too dangerous territory when movement beyond his shoulder caught my eyes.
“FUCK!” I hissed, letting go of his neck with one arm to fumble at my weapons belt. “Dodge left!”
Bane didn’t question me and complied, casting a glance in the direction I was looking. Standing between an outcropping of large rocks a few feet from the wreckage of their fighter vessels, a handful of Kryptids were aiming their blasters at us. He cussed again in his clicking Kryptid language. I pulled out my blaster and aimed at our attackers. Despite my awkward position, I managed to kill one and graze another. But we were far too exposed.
The hybrids that were burdened carrying us scattered. The other two who weren’t carrying one of us raised their shields and darted towards the attackers, blasters blazing. A loud grinding sound announced our ship finally toppling into the cave. Our enemies seized that moment of distraction to their advantage.
Bane saw the shot coming at us at the same time I did. He tilted just in time for it to clip his wing. He clenched his teeth through the pain, his flight pattern slightly faltering for a second before he dove towards the ground where his chaser was located. I wanted to use my energy shield instead to cover us, but I feared it would further impede his ability to fly.
Just as we were landing, another shot found its mark, striking Bane’s calf. He grunted, but nevertheless settled us down smoothly. The dark, reinforced fabric of his pants was charred around the point of impact and blood was trickling through the torn material. But Bane didn’t pause. As if he couldn’t feel any pain, he grabbed my hand and broke into a run heading towards his ship. Lifting the wrist of his free hand, he summoned his energy shield and held it to his side, facing the attackers, with me running on the opposite side of him, furthest away from harm.
Casting a glance over my shoulder, I looked for my teammates to make sure they were being safely flown into the other hybrid ship. Almost twisting my ankle on the uneven terrain reminded me to look where the fuck I was running. Even after the sounds of blasters died off—the surviving Kryptids having probably been taken out—Bane didn’t slow down.
His determination in getting us—or rather me—to safety, did weird things to me. He could have gotten to his ship so must faster without me in tow.
The chaser’s doors were already opened. A hybrid I didn’t know stood at the ramp, waving us in. Bane only slowed down once we were inside the vessel. He deactivated his shield and pulled me in front of him.
“Are you injured?” he asked, the harshness of his tone failing to hide his genuine concern.
He cupped my face in his hands, tilting it this way and that, looking for a wound. He then patted my arms while giving me a once over.
“I’m fine,” I protested, feeling awkward, especially under the intense stare of his brother. He was watching the whole scene with an unreadable expression on his baby face, incredibly at odds with his massively muscular body. “You’re the one that needs medical attention.”
“Right,” Bane mumbled, although he continued to check me for a few seconds longer before appearing satisfied that I hadn’t sustained any injury. “Rogue, this is Tabitha. Tabitha, Rogue.” He barely gave us a chance to nod at each other before he started drilling his brother with questions. “Long-range scans?”
“There are no more enemies in range. Reaper took care of the ones who were attacking you,” Rogue answered with a deep voice even more out of sync with his sweet features.
“Our mothers and brothers?” Bane asked, his broad shoulders stiffening with tension.
“Safe. Storm managed to finally make a clean break with the help of the Xians,” Rogue replied. “And the escape pods containing our oldest young siblings have all been safely retrieved.”
Bane exhaled a loud breath, his face taking on a vulnerable expression that made me want to hug him. It was extremely brief, but enough to show me the loving son that lurked beneath the tough and stoic mask he hid behind.
“Excellent,” he said. Then, to my utter shock, he took my hand again and led me after him deeper inside the ship. “Any casualties?”
“A few, but all were successfully reborn,” Rogue said.
I couldn’t tell if my imagination was playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn his voice had slightly hardened while he stared at our joined hands. Feeling awkward, I tried to pull free, but Bane tightened his hold and gave me what instinctively registered in my mind as a ‘behave’ glare.
“What of the Warriors?” Bane asked as we traipsed through the sleek, metallic grey corridor of his ship on our way to what I assumed would be the med bay.
Rogue pointed at me with a gesture of his head. “Beside hers, another of their battleships was destroyed. But the Xians were able to recover their females’ escape pods.”
The sliver of contempt in his voice when he’d gestured at me and spoken of ‘our females’ didn’t escape me—or Bane. He frowned at his brother’s back as Rogue took the lead, preceding us inside the medical bay which clearly also served as Incubator room. Six different hybrids had two Shells in stasis in the cylindrical tubes lining the walls of the state-of-the-art clinic. My gaze was immediately drawn to Bane’s Shells, standing fully naked, his naughty bits hidden by a similar natural loin plate the Xian Warriors had.
While his skin-tight armor had hidden nothing of his fabulous body, seeing him thus exposed took it to another level. His black scales surrounding his muscular grey skin made my mouth water. It had been years since a man had gotten me so hot and bothered. But Bane was seriously messing with my head and hormones.
“Like what you see?” he asked smugly.
My instinctive reaction was to deny, but even as I opened my mouth, I decided to be honest.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Nice scales,” I said, lifting my chin provocatively.
Bane gaped at me for a second before regaining his composure. “I did not expect that answer,” he conceded, looking at me with a strange expression.
“You asked,” I replied with a shrug.
“I did,” he said with a smile.
Rogue slapped some equipment loudly on the medical tray next to the examination table, startling us. Though I couldn’t read the emotions in multifaceted eyes, there was no question Rogue hated me, or at the very least seriously resented my presence on board—or rather next to his brother.
“Is there something wrong, Rogue?” Bane asked in a voice filled with an underlying warning.
“You need to get on this table so that I can mend your wounds. Then we need to be off to make sure our other brothers are fine,” Rogue said with a slightly clipped tone.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, a clear battle of wills going on, which further made me uncomfortable. Rogue lowered his eyes in submission, but Bane was still clearly troubled by his brot
her’s reaction. Bane caressed the back of my hand with his thumb before releasing it with obvious reluctance, leaving me confused as fuck. The sexual tension between us was undeniable, but no relationship could have been more doomed from the start than whatever this was.
Bane settled on his back on the examination table. He’d no sooner laid down than Rogue was already pressing a hypospray to his neck.
“I don’t need anesthesia,” Bane argued, although it was already too late.
“No need to play the tough man in front of the female,” Rogue mumbled. “She’s not that pretty.”
Mouth gaping, I gave him a disbelieving look at such rudeness. Bane attempted to reply, but his words slurred, and he soon went limp. It struck me as odd that he still appeared fully conscious. Turning his back on me, Rogue went to fetch something. I normally didn’t put up with bullshit but failed to see the point of getting into an argument with him. I’d be gone in a few minutes anyway.
Turning my back on them with a huff, I absentmindedly examined the med bay while reaching out to my girls.
“Linette, how are things?” I asked telepathically.
“Besides wishing that sexy-as-all-hell hybrid was still holding me tight? All good,” Linette responded. “Although, the one called Reaper that took out the bugs that were shooting at us takes badass to a new freaking level. Did you know that the hybrids’ scorpion tails also shoot darts? I want to fight like him when I grow up.”
I snorted and shook my head, stunned by her being suddenly so vocal. She was usually the more demure of the bunch. That Reaper must have been something.
“Any word from our boys?” I asked.
“Wrath and Rage are on their way, but trying to shake some pests tailing them. The battle is dying down. Lexot is bailing. Apparently, there are more ships coming that do not appear to be his.”
“General Khutu?” I asked.
“According to the hybrids, yes,” Linette said. “They want to haul ass out of here ASAP before the General reaches us, but they don’t want to put us on a shuttle to go back to our men. They’re protective as fuck, and it’s actually not annoying.”
“They’re Dragons,” I said, feeling unusually proud as if they were my people for some reason. “I bet—”
“RUN!”
Bane’s voice slammed into my mind, somewhat distorted, as if I was hearing him underwater. Through the weak psychic link, I felt pain—excruciating pain. My head jerked around to look at him over my shoulder, and my heart skipped a beat. His pale grey skin had darkened. The visible veins of his neck and hands had tripled in size and seemed on the verge of bursting. The spot where Rogue had injected him with the hypospray had blackened, with dark purplish tendrils spreading from its center.
Poison!
As these details entered my brain, a familiar cracking sound had me spinning around to gape at Rogue. He was shifting into his battle form, a vicious look on his face as he stared at me. Beyond his shoulder, the light on the two tanks containing Bane’s Shells had turned red, the bodies within showing clear signs of distress.
In the time it took me to activate my shield and reach for my blaster, Rogue was already rushing me, still mid-shift. A pair of obsidian spears had protruded from his forearms. I raised my shield in front of me, fearing he would attempt to impale me with one of them, but he swiped his arm sideways. The spear slammed into my shield with such violence, the pain radiated in my arm and made my teeth chatter as I was flung across the room. I crashed against the wall then flopped onto the ground with a loud thump. Stunned, the wind knocked out of me, I struggled to remain conscious.
Through blurred vision, I watched as Rogue’s scales thickened and spread over his chest and shoulders. The ones on his brow extended to cover his head like a helmet. Vicious-looking spikes protruded around his forehead. His scorpion tails, growing out of his shoulder blades like with our Warriors, recurved over his shoulders, the hollow tips of their sharp stingers aimed at me.
“This feeble creature is what you picked over me?” Rogue hissed, his voice full of venom.
It took me a second to realize the nonsensical question was addressed to Bane, not me. Rogue turned to glare at Bane whose body had begun to spasm from the poison coursing through his veins.
“The General said you would betray us. I didn’t want to believe it. I’d told him I’d prove him wrong, and you do this?”
He leaned over Bane, baring his teeth at him. For a moment, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when Rogue’s face took on beautiful, feminine traits with dark blue skin, the rest of his body remaining in a hybrid battle form.
And then I understood.
“We would have ruled together. We would have given birth to the most powerful army in the universe. And you cast me aside for this whore? I WAS TO BE YOUR FUCKING QUEEN!”
The Mimic who had taken on Rogue’s appearance savagely struck Bane’s chest with the ball of her scorpion tails. I heard his ribs crack and blood exploded from his mouth.
“But have no fear, she will join you in death,” the Mimic hissed before turning her face towards me.
Her dark gaze bore into me as her face shifted back to Rogue’s.
“Dread! A Mimic is killing Bane in the med bay!” I psychically shouted to the only other hybrid whose psychic signature I could link to after having personally met him.
Recovering from my dizziness, I fired a barrage of blaster shots at her while forcing myself up. She yelled in anger as a couple of hits found their mark. Raising her shield before her, she fired from her scorpion tails’ lethal-looking spikes the length of hat pins. I dodged to spare the integrity of my shield, and they embedded themselves into the wall with a loud thud.
Her throat undulated as if she was on the verge of regurgitating something. I immediately recognized an upcoming mouth dart. Waiting until the last minute, I dove forward, the dart whizzing past me above my head. Gun blazing, I rolled towards her then jumped back onto my feet, using my momentum to slam my shield into her face. The Mimic stumbled back. Pressing my advantage, my foot connected solidly against the side of her head in the best roundhouse kick I’d ever performed. It sent her crashing against Bane’s examination table, then down to one knee.
It suddenly struck me that, although she’d somehow managed to take on the hybrid’s battle abilities—something I’d never heard a Mimic doing before—she had not mastered using that body and the odd weight distribution of the battle form. Despite my respectable combat skills, a true Warrior, Xian or hybrid, would have slaughtered me in seconds.
However, she didn’t let me get another blow in. She spit acid my way, my shield going up barely in time to block it. I didn’t even want to know how it would have eaten right through my flesh and bones as it touched me. Bane’s mind brushed against mine, distant, faint… dying. But the Mimic didn’t relent. She was literally spitting a continuous flow of acid, forcing me to back away while my shield’s integrity was depleting at an alarming rate. I couldn’t even get a shot at her because she immediately redirected the acid stream towards my hand when I tried to aim.
Moments before my shield collapsed, the door of the med bay opened on Dread’s heavenly face. He rushed her with a furious roar. She dodged, slamming her shield against him to throw him off balance. But she knew better than to fight him. Spreading her wings, she dashed out of the room, Dread hot on her tail. Before he exited the room, the bright light of a flash grenade blinded him. He stumbled back, covering his eyes.
Dropping my shield, I rushed to Bane’s side. I took his clammy hand into mine and rested my other palm on his forehead, caressing it gently with my thumb.
“I’ve got you,” I said, my gaze boring into his.
If hybrids were anything like our Xian Warriors—and I suspected they were—Bane’s soul couldn’t voluntarily depart his body without help. Only death or a Portal could free him from the torturous prison his current Shell had become. Spasms no longer shook him, but he was breathing in shallow, gurgling gasps. God on
ly knew how much longer it would take before his body collapsed, but I refused to leave him in this agony any longer than necessary.
“Tyonna, Bane is dying. Reach out for his soul and transfer him to me,” I mind-spoke to our Portal. “This is his psychic signature.”
“Got it,” she replied.
“Enter the Portal into me,” I told Bane.
Seconds later, the light faded from his eyes, and what little air he still had in his lungs rushed out of him. And then I felt him—the very essence of him slipping into my psychic vessel. The beauty of his soul overwhelmed me. Gratitude, tenderness, vulnerability, and infinite love radiated from him. There was something beyond magical to sheltering another soul within oneself. Once you did, a part of them forever remained with you, and you with them. I poured all my affection into my psychic vessel, to soothe and heal him.
“My Queen.”
I felt the thought from Bane more than I truly heard it. Stunned, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. Then his mind went into hibernation. It was standard with the Warriors. Without a physical body to form thoughts and analyze speech, they quickly fell into a form of stasis, or coma-like sleep while awaiting rebirth.
Dread stormed back into the room just as I was straightening. My hand immediately went for my blaster, uncertain if he was truly himself or the Mimic. He cast a horrified glance at his brother’s dead form before looking at me in a panic. The relieved expression on his face and the way his eyes misted as he gazed upon me removed any doubt I may have had about his identity. He approached me with cautious steps then cupped my face in his hands with reverence.
“You caught him,” he whispered, his shaky voice revealing the extent of his love for his brother.
“Yes,” I said, my throat tightening.
He caressed my cheeks with both thumbs, his lips stretching in a trembling smile. Then, leaning forward, Dread gently kissed my forehead.