That was so close. Too damn close. With a trembling hand, she tossed the knife to the floor.
Ally was alive, but she was still stuck to the sword hilt, and the sword was still stuck in the wall. Panic threatened to swamp her. She held it back by pure force of will.
“I’m okay. I am. Let me bloody well sit up,” Ally said grumpily. A space cleared around her though Rimmil cradled her as she spoke. “The queen is dead and so is the Bak-lal fleet above.”
Yes!
The girl would live, though her arm was bleeding and gashed, but herself... Talia felt her forehead wrinkle as she again strove to stay calm. Crying wasn’t a heroic thing to do but the queen was dead and she was fucking welded to a wall.
She tugged again. Nothing. The smoke had cleared so she could see her poor, grayish hand.
“Shhh. My turn to be a hero.” Dassenze scrubbed his hand through her hair. “I have this. I can kill this dark matter creature. All I need is it and you separate.” He wrapped his hand over hers and she felt his fingers wriggle as close as possible to the sword hilt.
“What are you doing?” Oh damn, she had an idea what he intended. Not good. “Heyyy. I need my fingers.”
Ow, she was afraid just imagining this.
“It will hurt. You will lose parts of your hand, my princess, but we can heal this. Be brave. I must do this. Okay.”
“Nooo.”
Brask arrived too. “We got you.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind and she felt his chin move on her hair as he nodded to Dassenze. “Go.”
“Okay.” Dassenze looked in her eyes again and she realized how much pain this was causing him already.
“Go.” She swallowed then nodded.
He wrenched her hand from the hilt and molten fire seemed to burst over her hand. Her screams and weeping were uncontrollable. Shrieking, she tried to roll away, tried again, but the men held her arm still while they wrapped it in something.
“Shhh. Shhh.” Both of them were kissing her, even as her hand was bandaged.
She could see so much blood.
Fuck, she was a pussy. Ally had died for a while and she was squeaking over her hand? It hurt so much though, throbbing pain, sending spears lancing up her arm.
“I’ll...I can handle it. Let me up.” Her voice had gone hoarse she’d screamed so much. She’d fallen backward at some point. She was just in time to see Dassenze with the dark matter sword, freed from the wall, and he was freakily touching it. Her sharp intake of air drew his attention.
Oh, she needed a distraction.
“It can’t get to me. Watch.” Then he began to bend the black sword into a circle, curling it up into a ball, then an even smaller ball. Somehow he was rolling it so that it shrank into a smaller and smaller sphere. He grunted as if the effort needed had increased. Golf-ball sized, then marble sized, and now he rubbed his palms together and it was gone? A magician’s trick?
Dassenze dusted his hands together.
“What the hell?” She gripped her bandaged hand at the wrist as if to strangle the ache. Where were the painkillers? “What did you do?”
Dassenze shrugged. “Courtesy of a man called Oscar Gordon. Dark matter should not exist as that did. It fills the interstices of the universe and should be invisible to our eyes. I returned it from whence it came.
Hmmm. “Fine. Don’t explain.”
Brask chuckled. “My thoughts entirely.”
Order was coming from chaos. The booms from the monster hitting the wall were gone. There were only people talking quietly.
Shit. Ow. Her hand was trying to pretend it was on fire again. Brittany had Ally’s arm to attend to; she could wait.
Willow had been lent a shirt by Rimmil as well as his tights. Luckily the Igrakk had underwear. Still she couldn’t help admiring his thigh muscles. He was too busy smoothing Ally’s forehead to notice her attention anyway.
“Ahem.” Brask stepped in front. “None of that.”
Smirking was surely out of place right now, but she couldn’t help herself.
“I’m wounded. I need something to divert me.” Fuck, she did too. Were there fingers missing? She wasn’t game to ask.
“If you need that we can strip.” Dassenze raised his eyebrow area. “But not now.” He had pretty gold eyebrows. She’d never quite noticed that. “Keep her under control.” He strode away, shouting for Stom to report.
Steve was okay; so was everyone. Everyone. The warriors who’d been guarding the hatchway climbed from the duct and now, aww, she grinned, Stom was whooping and embracing Willow.
“Don’t squeeze me so tight,” she protested, grinning as she wrapped her arms about his neck.
“Stom,” Dassenze interrupted. “The monster with tentacles? The one that was trying to get in?”
He left off kissing Willow. “I think they all lost interest when the queen died. Haven’t opened the hatch yet but everything just stopped, all at once.”
“Okay. Good. Listen everyone. It appears that we have been successful. Ally says she killed both the factory queen and that she also has disabled the fleet above.” Silence fell. “I don’t understand how, but the probe that sends me data has confirmed that the fleet has gone silent. There is no longer data to support the idea that any substantial number of the Bak-lal are alive.”
“So...” Steve ventured. “We won?”
“It appears so.”
The whoops took a while to die down. Talia would’ve jumped around with the others if she hadn’t been worried her hand would fall off. At the sight of her no-doubt twisted face, Brask turned and went to Brittany, kneeling to say something. Requesting aid, she guessed.
Damn. She sucked in a shaky breath, bowing her head as pain swelled into her arm again.
“Talia?” A hand landed gently on her shoulder. A woman’s hand. She raised her head. It was Brittany, looking pale as ivory and terribly tired. “I wish I could help you, but my power is exhausted right now. Give me a little time?”
“Sure.” She nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t quite, of course.
The trek back to the surface was long and arduous, but she had her two men to help her and the Bak-lal were aimless and scattered. Even the spider girl at the hatchway had lost interest in anything but staring at a wall. Putting her down had been on everyone’s mind, but they’d left her alive. Sad, really. Who knew what might be achieved with medical attention? Perhaps the Bak-lal converted could be saved?
When they stepped from the tunnel into the park, all of them turned their faces up to the sun. It looked the same. The dead alien fleet would be up there, but their sun looked the same.
Steve fell to his knees and kissed the ground then rolled over on his back. “It’s still up there, Dassenze.”
“Yes.” Dassenze strolled to him and stared up also. “It is fine. You lost a few million years of use but there is a billion left.”
“Ahh. Good to know.”
“Talia?” Brittany came to her. “I still can’t do anything. I think it may be gone. My power seems gone.”
Her head rang as that statement sank in. “Really?”
She nodded. “I tried my powers on a small wound before and you know I also tried on your hand a few times. Can you?”
“Uhh.” She turned her good hand over. “I haven’t tried.” She’d been able to pull things to her. She extended her arm. When nothing came, she shut her eyes and tried again. Nothing. The feeling wasn’t there. It seemed she’d lost more than the two fingers Dassenze had told her about. “No. I can’t, but the Igrakks will heal me. Dassenze said their fleet is coming. Another few hours only. Willow too? Has she any powers? How about Ally?”
“Not Willow either.”
“I overheard.” Dassenze walked over and stood at her shoulder. “Ally said earlier that her head was at peace in a way it’s never been. She was also asking me about Betty.”
“Betty! I’d forgot.” Mortified she sucked in her lip. “Will she be okay?”
“I think so. I’l
l have the stasis bed collected as soon as we have transport.” He nodded at Ally. “I think, however, that she has lost her ability to hear thoughts, and for her, that’s good.”
Talia smiled. “Yes, yes it is.”
Brask appeared on her other side. “I don’t think your planet could take it if you and the other Gorilla Girls still had your powers.”
Without thinking, Talia smacked him on the arm. Oops. And oh ffffffff. She crouched over. Somehow the impact had jarred into her bad hand.
“Karma is a bitch.” Brask had an arm around her waist. “We’ll see if we can find you some painkillers from a store nearby.”
“Karma is a bitch?” Gasping, she cocked an eyebrow at him.
Brask shrugged then grinned. “You shouldn’t hit an Igrakk or your master.”
“Master?” Her squeaked retort was cut short as Dassenze scooped her into his arms. “Shush. You’ll only get yourself in trouble. You come over here to the seat with me while I send Brask off to find those painkillers.”
“Wait!” She put out her hand to Brask. “Maybe you should stay?”
“Why?” He frowned.
“I’m not sure I can trust this guy.”
At that her own sense of humor overcame her and she started giggling.
Brask snorted. “Take care of her.”
“I will.” Dassenze hefted her a little higher in his arms. “I’m also starting a list of her indiscretions so I can spank her ass.”
Horrified, she blurted, “I’m ill.”
“We’re fixing that soon.”
His triumphant smile, as he walked along, made her huff, but inside she was happy. Teasing these two was fun and being in his arms was the best feeling ever. She turned her head and smelled him, snuggled in. The adrenalin and the hurting had tired her out to the very end of her tether. Her eyes closed.
She was in pain, weary down to her bones, and wounded, but her poor, half-nuked planet was safe and she had two alien lovers to help her get through the rest of her life. Win, win, for sure.
Or...maybe that was half-lose, win, win?
She wrinkled her nose, thinking.
Oh to hell with it.
They’d given the finger to the aliens, whipped their spidery metal asses, and made their fleet a graveyard. Fucking A-grade win.
“Tell me when you get to the...”
“Hmmm?”
Where was it they were going? The sun beat down, warming her. The walking rocked her.
Somehow, she fell asleep.
Chapter 30
Talia turned the cast before her eyes, wondering what was going on under the white, plast-steel surface. The medic had offered her a transparent cast but she’d opted for this. Two of her fingers were regrowing. Just thinking that made her feel ill, let alone seeing. Shock and not knowing what injuries her hand had suffered had perhaps spared her the worst on the trek to the surface. That and Dassenze and Brask being so attentive.
They’d decided to have an Aussie barbecue before everyone split and went their ways. Beer, steak, sausages, and conversation about anything and everything, except how close they’d all come to dying.
Embers from the open campfire drifted upward to the night sky. The fire pit was surrounded by chairs salvaged from abandoned buildings near this lake where the Doomslagger still rested. The poor ship was going to take a few weeks of repair before it was ready for space flight.
The smoke and embers of the fire reminded her of how Willow had once been. Even so, the crackling as the wood burned and collapsed and the dance of the flames soothed her. She looked upward, musing. Up there were stars and planets, real places, places where someone could settle down and live.
It was weird and exciting, scary even, and it damn well filled up her mind with ideas of adventure. What if she could go almost anywhere in this whole enormous expanding universe?
The Bak-lal were defeated to within a hair’s breadth of being extinct.
The universe was safe, and all due to what had happened here, on Earth.
Everyone had ended up around the fire, both the crew and warriors from Doomslagger and the bond mated. Ally and Rimmil were sitting on a blanket smooching, as if tomorrow smooching was going to be banned. Young at heart with desires to match. That girl was supposed to be naïve, and she was going to need surgery to separate her from Rimmil.
Judgmental? She grinned. Not that she hadn’t been screwed and brought to orgasm against a wall with everyone watching.
Even remembering that had her quivering.
Right now, with her males so close and this whole bond mating being so new she wanted to do worse than Ally, as in hand down her panties time.
She bit her lip. Behave.
Ally and Rimmill, as well as Jadd and Brittany, her little sis, were going to head off soon, to wherever the military decided they needed to be. Being heroes and heroines gave some privileges so it would likely be somewhere awesome, as long as they could prove it was safe for the bond mated to leave the Earth.
Stom and Willow were supposed to meet up with other Feya, halfway across the galaxy, but she’d heard them talking about joining Ally and Rimmil for a while. It was difficult seeing someone you’d cared for vanish to some faraway destination with so little fanfare. Willow and Ally had lived together since they were both young.
Whereas her and Brittany... She glanced at her sister, where she stood talking to Jadd. They’d lived apart before. Wasn’t easy though. Half of Australia away was a wee bit different from half the galaxy.
“Found you one.” Brask walked her way bearing a stubby of beer. Behind him, the esky was full of ice and the tops of beers rose above the surface like icebergs. This was a crown lager. Yum.
She looked up through blurred vision, determined not to wipe her eyes.
“What a find!” Seeing her men sometimes did weird things to her. Leaping about like a mad puppy and hanging onto their legs while panting and grinning was entirely possible. Thank god she was a dignified sort.
“Are those tears?” A man took hold of her shoulder and drew her closer then kissed her cheek. Dassenze. He’d appeared out of nowhere.
“Maybe.” She leaned into him then Brask when he stood on her other side and she just...breathed.
Safe and loved. They were the best words to express how she felt when near these two.
“I missed you two.”
“I was only getting you a beer, silly.” Brask kissed the top of her head and hugged her. “It’s all the chemicals they use to make you speed up healing. I’ve been wounded too. It messes with your head. Another day and you’ll get over it. Stom wanted to tell me about Willow.”
“She’s fine now?”
“Yes, she is. Not a thing wrong. That dark matter creature has left no damage, according to him and the doctors.”
“I have good news too,” Dassenze added. “Though I don’t care to test out the separation of bond mates problem, I have organized for us three to leave Earth on a starship by first using conventional engine systems. The ship leaves tomorrow.”
Tomorrow? She felt her eyes widen. Blinking was not happening. “Uhhh?” She had a fair idea what he meant, but still. She whispered, “Say again?”
“It means we can gradually draw away from Earth orbit without warp jumping. Safer.”
Brask added, “I’d hate to jump twenty light years via a warp only to find out it’s lethal for bond mates to be that far from your planet, Talia.”
“Okay. Yes. That is a good idea.” I’m leaving my planet. Ohmigod. Ohmigod. She clutched the cold beer bottle. The condensation on the glass wet and chilled her fingers.
“We should be able to tell quickly.” Dassenze studied her. “Let’s say goodbye to the others, then we’re taking you somewhere to distract you.”
The three of them sneaked into a gap in the circle of people around the fire.
“We’re going off-planet tomorrow,” Dassenze announced. A hush fell. “We’re testing out the boundaries, seeing if we can leave safely. I�
��ve advised that each of us individually test this. It is possible some of us are different.”
The women looked as nervous and shocked as she felt.
Stom sat in some big old woven cane chair with Willow on his lap and curled against him. The firelight played over his zebra stripes and made him seem the most exotic of all these big alien men. He stroked the back of her neck. “Lord, I think all of us would like to say thank you to you for leading us. Without your guidance we’d never have made it out.”
So much for not speaking about the battle they’d been through. Made sense, though. She glanced at Dassenze; like always he seemed to be ready for this and he merely nodded.
“I want to thank you also. All of you. For your bravery, for your devotion to something so difficult and terrible that most would have baulked and fallen, but you did not fall or refuse the challenge. You prevailed. You stood firm and you prevailed. I am honored to have been among you.”
He took a step forward and held out his arms as if to give them a blessing, but then he did something unexpected, he turned and smiled at Talia, then he took Brask’s hand and drew him down until they had both gone to one knee before her.
“Most of all.” He gently took her cast-wrapped hand in his and Brask took her other hand, placing the beer on the ground. They both said the next words in unison. “We are honored to have been allowed to be the mate of our Talia.”
Glowing with embarrassment and joy she saw that the other men, Stom, Rimmil, and Jadd, were also going to one knee before their mates, Willow, Ally, and Brittany. Dassenze looked around, checking to see the others had followed suit.
“I’m sure you all agree with me?”
The chorus of yes murmured in baritone by the men sent a shiver through her.
“Without our females, our beautiful warriors and healers,” Dassenze said, “The universe would be a more violent and infinitely deadlier and sadder place. “We are forever in your debt, Talia.”
Her smile was shaky, especially as she heard the other males repeating the words and adding Ally, Willow, or Brittany. Her little sis had found a man, as had she. Two of them. Maybe she was an overachiever. She tugged to free a hand to dab away the tears welling in her eyes but neither of them let go.
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