by Stacy Jones
Dropping down to avoid his swing, she came up blade first but only managed to catch him on the tough scales covering his bare chest. He had to be close to seven feet tall, and there was only a foot or so between them. She’d need more room to gain momentum in order to reach those soft throat scales again.
He reached for her, claws outstretched, crocodile mouth opened wide, revealing row upon row of yellowed, dagger-like fangs. But, in doing so, he left his sides unprotected. Aria took advantage.
Slashing at the skin over his ribs as she ducked under his reaching arm, she ignored the sting as his claws lightly scored her back, leapt up onto the stasis tube, then launched herself at him as he turned.
He wasn’t quick enough to throw her off that time and stumbled back with a grunt as she landed on his chest. He raised an arm and tried to slash her face with his claws, but she caught his wrist. Gritting her teeth, she strained to hold his arm away from her as she stabbed her blade into his neck.
Unfortunately, that left both her hands occupied. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she saw his gaping jaws diving down at her, his sharp, yellowed fangs dripping with saliva. She tried to drop to the floor to avoid those fangs, but he caught her with his other hand, pinning her to his chest.
Aria screamed behind clenched teeth when he chomped down onto the muscle between neck and shoulder with a wet snap. Fire raced down her arm and back. Pain made her vision go white.
Ripping the knife out of his neck, she stabbed at the hinge in his jaw repeatedly, desperate to make him let go before he chewed her fucking arm off.
Tirox yelled her name from the other side of the room before a whistling sound reached her ears. Something thudded into the guard so hard he stumbled forward and almost fell, but he let go of her shoulder.
With a low, warbling kind of groan, he tried to reach for his back. Aria didn’t take the time to look and see what had hit him. She took the opening and released some of the pain-filled fury burning through her and hacked at him, stabbing at his eyes, neck, jaw hinge, and nostrils, anywhere that looked even remotely soft.
That dark part slinking around in the back of her mind surged forward. A savage snarl curled her lips, and a ruthless, cold kind of satisfaction spread through her when the guard stumbled, his reptilian eyes going unfocused, before he dropped to his knees.
Aria held on, following him down, and continued to stab at him even when he tipped backward and sprawled bonelessly on the floor.
Seconds later, she felt Kix’s arms wrap around her waist and lift her off of the guard. He ignored her efforts to shake free so she could stab the asshole a few more times and carried her backward.
“He is dead, Aria. You are making a mess,” he remarked dryly.
“He fucking bit me! Did you see that? Fucking bastard! That hurt! Let me go. I just wanna stab him a few more times,” she fumed.
Her shoulder was a bright, throbbing ball of pain and only added to the anger sizzling in her chest. She felt… vengeful, violent. She wanted to fight, to maim, to hunt someone down and release her aggression on them and, at that moment, it didn’t particularly matter who. Everyone, aside from her mates, was fair game.
Kix changed his grip on her, twisting her around so they were chest to chest. He frowned, the ripples on his forehead deepening, and cocked his head like he was listening to something as he stared searchingly into her eyes. After a couple of seconds, understanding softened his features. Cupping her ass, he lifted her higher until they were eye to eye.
Speaking softly, calmly, he murmured, “I can feel your rage. This is not you, my song. You must push it back, control it. You are no longer just the Assassin. Do not let it overpower you.”
It took a long minute of him repeating himself before her wrathful trembling slowed and finally stopped. He was right. That wasn’t her.
Taking a few deep breaths, she concentrated on pushing that other part back to the depths of her mind. She focused on the mission, on her men, on helping these people. Bit by bit, the rage lessened and the need for vengeance dissipated.
“Fuck,” she breathed, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head. Gazing back up at him, she gave him troubled eyes. “I lost control.”
“I know, aessa. You are back, now. That is all that matters,” he whispered reassuringly, softly sweeping her hair off of her face before tracing the line of her cheekbone with his fingertips.
Her frown deepened. He didn’t understand. “I wanted to hurt people, Kix. And it didn’t matter who. Slaves, guards. They all felt like threats. What if that happens again and I can’t get myself back under control?” she asked worriedly.
“It will not.”
He said it with such surety, his beautiful, blue gaze unwavering as he stared at her, but Aria wasn’t anywhere near as confident. That other part was strong.
“But what if, Kix? What if that other part takes over when—?”
Tirox came up beside them and cut her off. “Other part?”
Shaking his head, he gently but quickly wrapped a torn strip of spray-paint fabric around the wound on her shoulder to stem the bleeding then lifted her out of Kix’s arms and brought her to his chest.
Aria cocked a brow at them handling her like a doll, but let it go. Having them hold her close was comforting, and she needed some of that, much as she disliked admitting, even to herself, that she needed reassurance.
At that moment it clicked that they were taking the time to reassure her. She’d been so preoccupied with her own shit, she hadn’t even thought to check and make sure they’d taken care of the other guard and the ant.
Scanning the room, she found both guards dead and the ant unconscious on the floor behind the stasis tube. Aria grit her teeth and mentally berated herself. It was one thing to trust her men to have her back. It was an entirely different thing to lose focus to the point where she forgot to check for other threats.
Goddamnit! A fucking rookie wouldn’t even make that kind of mistake.
Tirox brought her gaze back to him with a finger under her chin and stared down at her seriously. “There is no other part. There is only you. I do not believe their magic is strong enough to put traits into our spirits that were not already there. Vhraress is still you, just as Zvikah—barbarian—is me. It always was. Trying to separate it, to believe it is other and bury it, will not work. You do not carry the burden of the deaths you dealt, but you dealt them still, my heart. You must accept that.”
Denial immediately tightened her stomach. “No. No. That would mean I killed those people, Tirox. Not some homicidal, animalistic creature they created inside me. I can’t accept that.”
“We are all light and dark, my mate. We are all animals with a skill and taste for violence. When our awareness is trapped, so, too, is the balance within us and our choice to temper those instincts with honor and compassion. But, that does not make them any less ours.”
Aria understood what he was saying and couldn’t deny it made sense, but she also couldn’t accept it. Regardless of what he said, if that dark part was and always had been hers, then she was responsible for all the people she’d hurt and killed.
Swallowing hard, she clipped, “We don’t have time for this. We need to go. It’s been at least five minutes. The alarm should’ve sounded already.”
With that, she let go of him and dropped to the ground.
Tirox sighed. She could feel his eyes boring a hole into the top of her head, but after a pause, he turned and walked back to the guard she’d butchered without another word.
Aria assumed he was going to take the crocodile guard’s weapon and frowned when he bypassed it. Instead, he flipped the guy over onto his stomach. That was when she realized what made the thunk she’d heard when the asshole had his fangs buried in her shoulder.
“Wait. You killed him?” That darkness growled from within its cage, peeved he’d stolen her kill. “You didn’t need to do that. I had him.”
Tirox didn’t even blink at the affronted tone she couldn
’t quite keep out of her voice, just peeked at her as he yanked his ax out of the guard’s back and nodded agreeably before murmuring, “Of course, my heart. I was just being overly cautious.”
Aria narrowed her eyes, but he sounded genuine, and the dark part was appeased. Sighing, she rubbed her forehead.
Fuck’s sake. Get yourself together, Aria. We don’t have time for this shit.
Chapter 11
Aria and Tirox stripped the dead guards of their weapons while Kix inputted the code to open the stasis tube. She heard him calling Skaa’s name and turned to watch him trying to shake her awake before he apparently gave up and lifted her out of the tube, slinging her limp, naked body over his shoulder.
“You don’t know how to wake her up?” Aria asked over her shoulder as she made her way to the door, Godzilla’s gun gripped in her hand.
“No. I believe—hope—she will awaken on her own, given time,” he responded grimly as he followed behind her.
Glancing back, Aria eyed him critically. He seemed to carry Skaa without any strain, but how long could he keep that up? What if they needed to run? Dodge bullets? Stop, drop, and roll?
What other choice do we have? Leave her here? Not an option.
“Fuck. We’ll just have to carry her. If it gets dicey and she still isn’t awake, we might have to find a place to stash her.”
Pressing her back to the wall beside the door, Aria aimed the strange but, thankfully, fairly straightforward gun as she typed in the code to open it. It was too big for her hands and balanced strangely, but she’d found what she was ninety percent sure was the trigger. What she hadn’t found was a clip, so what it fired was anyone’s guess.
If this turns out to be a laser gun, I’m going to be happier than a crackhead in an evidence locker.
She bit back her smirk and dipped her head out, scanning both sides of the hallway.
“Clear.”
Exiting, she went left, moving cautiously but quickly as she led the way. Kix was in the middle with Skaa over his shoulder. Tirox brought up the rear, walking backward, so he could watch their asses with the other guard’s gun.
Kix had tried to take the rear position, arguing that he at least knew how to use a gun, but she’d refused. He was the only one who could ‘find’ the codes to open the various doors. If one of them got hurt, they needed him to get them out. Besides, Tirox was smart. She’d shown him the basics before they left the modification suite and trusted him to catch on quickly. If nothing else, he could fire wildly to distract the enemy, giving her time to pick them off.
After a few minutes of following the curved hall, they came upon a junction.
“Which way?” she breathed.
“Right.”
Aria pressed her back against the wall and checked both ways. It was empty. Narrowing her eyes, she tilted her head, trying to hear anything to hint that someone was hiding behind one of the doors lining the hall. Nothing. It was perfectly silent with the exception of her and her men’s breathing.
They hadn’t come upon a single being as they crept about. No guards patrolling, no ants walking around.
“Why hasn’t the alarm sounded?” she muttered to herself.
Frowning, she glanced at Tirox, still standing with his back to her, facing the direction from which they’d come. His senses were stronger than either hers or Kix’s. Maybe it was silent or made for senses she didn’t have.
“Babe, do you hear or feel anything that could be an alarm?”
“No, my heart,” he responded without relaxing his guard.
Her frown deepened. She hadn’t seen anything on the Godzilla guys that resembled an earpiece or communicator of any kind. Of course, that didn’t mean they hadn’t had something, just that she hadn’t recognized it.
“Something’s off. Even if the alarm is conveyed through communicators, we should be seeing increased activity, security patrols. Something,” she whispered.
Even if the guards Zhrovni had sent to collect her and her men had fucked off before performing their duties, it shouldn’t have taken this long before they found them missing.
“We cannot stay here, aessa. We must either press forward or retreat.”
Kix’s voice was low and tight with unease, telling her he felt it, too. But he was right, they couldn’t just stay there, and going back wouldn’t help.
Exhaling sharply, she nodded and slid around the wall, but her steps were quicker now, and her senses were strained.
Close to ten minutes must have passed as they traveled deeper into the underground labyrinth, and with every one, her muscles tensed further. The sense that something was off intensified until her stomach was in knots.
This is starting to feel a hell of a lot like a trap.
As much as she hated the idea, she began to seriously consider the possibility that they needed to abandon their mission of freeing the dragon and escape while they had the chance. They could find a way back in, free a few slaves at a time. But they damn sure weren’t going to free anyone if they got caught.
She was still debating what to do when Kix led them to a door. Taking up position facing opposite directions, she and Tirox watched the halls, guns aimed.
Seconds crawled past while Kix stood perfectly still, eyes closed in concentration as he tried to find the code. Anxiety was a drumbeat beside the pulse throbbing in her neck.
Fuck. We have to leave. This is wrong.
Just as she was about to pull Kix away, to tell him to find the way out instead, Tirox warned, “Enemies. Your side.”
Her shoulders loosened, and her lips parted on a relieved breath, even as she adjusted her stance to block more of Kix and readied herself. Finally, something was happening.
She could hear them now: heavy footsteps followed by the click of claws.
Godzilla guards.
Raising her arms, she corrected her aim to account for their height, evened her breathing, and waited.
The first ugly bastard had barely rounded the corner when she fired.
A sound like a muffled sonic boom echoed in the hall just as the guard was flung at least twenty feet backward by a seemingly invisible force.
Aria blinked, surprised, before a grin stretched her lips.
“Not lasers, but still cool as fuck,” she remarked approvingly.
A shout of alarm sounded from behind the corner. The next guard ran into view, his own gun up and sweeping for whomever had just shot his buddy. Taking aim, Aria fired at his face, sending his neck snapping backward with an audible crack as his body went flying.
Just as three, no, six, guards rounded the corner, she noticed a big fucking problem.
The first guy was getting up.
“Shit! The guns are set on stun! Tirox, find a dial or button to crank ‘em up!” she yelled as she continued firing.
A heartbeat later he replied, his voice remarkably calm, “There is a spot on the left side.”
“Press it, and fire!”
A slightly louder sonic boom reverberated in the hall a split second before one of the guards bellowed in agony as half his torso was blown off. Blood splattered the walls and the guards behind him as he was hurled backward.
Trusting Tirox to cover her, she took her eyes off the enemy just long enough to find her own button. Aria pressed it, but before she could resume firing, a blow to her side sent her spinning back into Kix.
Arms caught her and yanked her sideways before the pain could even register. Shaking her head, she looked up in time to see Tirox jump into the small, rounded room after them.
Kix darted forward with Aria clutched under one arm and Skaa still slung over his opposite shoulder. He quickly tapped in a code on the panel set in the inner wall to the right of the door then ducked back against the wall.
Even through the blood rushing in her ears, she heard running footsteps getting closer as the door began sliding shut and raised the gun still clutched in her right hand.
Come on, come one, come on…
Just a
s it sealed shut, another shot boomed from the hall, leaving a dent in the smooth, grey material of the door.
Aria sighed in relief when the elevator began descending smoothly and slumped slightly in Kix’s hold, then hissed when that put more pressure on her side. At her sound, Tirox whipped around, lowering his gun for the first time, just as Kix set her on her feet. They both had panicked expressions on their faces as they bent to examine her side.
Glancing down with them, she saw a purplish bruise already spreading over her ribs. It hurt to take a deep breath, but she didn’t think anything was broken.
Pressing lightly on the bruise, she felt around for any sharp pains. Not finding anything, she declared, “I’m okay, just a graze. Nothing’s broken. A couple bruised ribs at the worst.”
Kix opened his mouth, no doubt to berate her for getting shot, but a shocked yelp escaped before he could say anything.
He jerked upward, standing ramrod straight with eyes as wide as saucers.
Chapter 12
“What?” Aria demanded, her heart skipping a beat. “What it is? Are you hit?”
Kix blinked down at her. “She… pinched me.”
That was not what she was expecting to hear. Her face screwed up in confusion. “I’m sorry, what? Who pinched you?”
In answer, a drowsy purr of appreciation came from the vicinity of Kix’s ass before Skaa slurred out, “Fine rump. Odd coloring, but well made.”
A slap echoed in the elevator and Kix jerked, his eyes going impossibly wider. He darted her a look she interpreted as being part gobsmacked, part reluctantly flattered by the compliment, and part genuinely worried, like he thought she was going to kill her friend for touching his ass.
Aria bit her lip, trying to hold back, but when Tirox snorted she couldn’t stop the chuckle that spilled from her. Kix’s look of stunned bewilderment made her laugh harder until she was bent over, one hand on her knee, the other wrapped around her middle.