by Alyx X
Time to teach these Coxians how scary humans really are.
The guy didn't even see me; he was so focused on the boys and their guns behind me. I spared them a quick glance, noting how well Myro was defending the weakened Fey, fighting off anyone who came close with fists and feet.
I couldn't tell how much of the blood covering their faces and arms was from others or themselves, but I had to trust they could handle it. Now, I needed to do my part.
My muscles coiled as I grabbed the knife, sliding it through the air and slamming the blade into the back of the Coxian's ankles. The blade slid along flesh, tendons and bone, spraying blood over my hands. The guy screamed in a way I’d never heard before, truly sounding alien for the first time since I’d started this wild ride. He fell dramatically, arms in the air and the scream fading to a hiss as he crumpled.
No one turned, they just moved closer to Myro and Fey as they let round after round fly. Luckily, the boys had scooted back into the hallway enough to use the small entryway as cover. The computer console above my head exploded as bullets rained down, blood spraying over me as more Coxians screamed in pain and death.
I didn't turn. I didn't dare. I didn't want to see if one of my guys had fallen. I continued forward, Coxian blood on my tongue from the knife, the taste bitter as I reached the next Coxian and took him down. He fell equally dramatically, making me feel as though I was far more competent than I likely was. Even though I’d been successful with my kills so far, I had to remind myself that I was small, human, and crawling around on the ground in order to make these kills.
As I was scooting like a beetle to my next target, everything went silent.
Silent, except for a laugh that didn't sound sane. To me, the mad man's laugh sounded similar to Ambassador Murray as I’d de-cocked him. It held that same maniacal twist of insanity, and I froze, glancing back, sure that Myro and Fey had completely lost it.
They were still standing, thank god, but they weren't the ones laughing. Their eyes were glued somewhere in the middle of the bridge, and I swept my own across the room to land on Fey’s father. He was grinning in a way that matched the evil laughter, and I suppressed the urge to hide.
"My son," the voice began as the laughter ended, Fey's father's true insanity taking hold. "I should have known that Myro was not back on Earth, the guy doesn't have the guts. At least I would have thought so before now. Did you two really think that you could take me down? That you wouldn't be discovered?"
He laughed again, but I froze against the floor, lifting my eyes to the guys who weren't even looking at me.
Two. He had said two. He didn't know I was here.
Giving the knife a quick wipe down on my disgusting and tattered shirt, I clamped it between my teeth again and continued on, careful to make as little noise as possible. No one was paying me any attention, all eyes glued to the cackling ruler of their planet.
"No, Father. We never expected you to discover our betrayal, but we fully expect to be the ones to walk out of here alive today." Fey stood straight and still, his gun still tight in his hand. My heart warmed at his words, even if I didn’t quite believe them.
"Do you?" Fey's father laughed with that same insanity. "Do you really?" The few remaining men in the bridge laughed alongside their commander, believing he’d save them. My eyes were flicking all over the room, looking for potential threats, potential ways out of this.
I had felt the guys waves of passion enough that I knew something was coming. I could feel the weight in the air, the twist in my stomach that always came before the waves of erotic need.
What? Was someone planning on fighting via orgasms and dry humping?
I twisted, ready to race back and pull one of my boys down if needed. Except it wasn't their power, and it wasn't a sexual need that I was feeling. Mulling over the feeling for a heartbeat, I realized it was anger.
It was anger that was making the boys grunt and groan. Anger that was making Fey's pointed gun move from his father's head, to Myro's.
"Shit." I hissed low enough that I don't think anyone could hear me over the mad man's laughter.
Fey's father, all of the gods of their planet really, didn't make people want to jump into an orgy. They had other powers. And his was inciting rage.
I nearly dropped the knife, threw it away before I did something terrible, but then I realized that, like with the boys, I could fight this. I felt the rage, but it wasn't controlling me. Likely because I wasn’t the intended target of this particular alien wave of unwanted emotion.
If I could resist the urge, I could stay focused. It was up to me.
"Knock it off!" I yelled, gripping the knife behind my back as I jumped to my feet. The older Coxian jumped as high, his eyes wide as he finally noticed me for the first time.
He knew exactly what I was. And he was terrified.
I knew it! I kept my internal party calmed as I faced the Coxian, knife aimed at his nose, and really saw him for the first time. He looked nearly identical to Fey, if Fey was fifty years older. He even had grey in his hair. I knew I shouldn't say that he was hot, considering I was nailing his son, but if Fey aged this gracefully I would be fine with that.
"A human," he said shakily as he finally found his voice. "What the... how did you...? No!"
"Well, your boy rescued me, Myro brought me here, and I've killed everyone on your ship in order to save Fey and kill you," I said with a shrug, rattling off answers to what I think were supposed to be questions. Grymm was blinking at me, still startled enough that he hadn’t reacted to stop me yet.
I readied myself, keeping my knife steady as I braced for another wave of his hatred power, ready to fight it off. But nothing happened. He stared at me, shaking as his power withdrew and Fey dropped his gun, looking from his father to me in confusion.
"Then do it. Make it clean."
A soft gasp went through the room, but I didn’t take my eyes off of Grymm. Wait. Was he begging? He sure sounded like he was begging.
"What the hell? You aren't even going to fight?" Fey twisted the gun back over to his father, clearly expecting this whole thing to be a fight. He was as ready as I was.
"Why?" Grymm gasped, still looking not at the knife, but at me. He stared me right in the eyes as though he expected something to happen. "There is no point. Why haven't you killed me already? Just kill me!"
I was frozen, unsure what to do next. Here I was, expecting some epic showdown, and instead I had an alien lord begging me to end him? Even Myro looked disappointed.
"Well, at least we know that they are in fact scared of humans," I said with a shrug as I sheathed the knife. If we had him where we wanted, I was going to let Fey make the final call. With just the little I had heard about the old man, Fey deserved that.
"Yeah, but why?" Myro mumbled, still staring at Grymm as if he could read his mind. "What's so scary about humans?"
"You don't know?" Fey's father asked with a laugh that was more nervous than maniacal. "You mean she hasn't shown you? She's been lying to you... and now we will all die."
My shoulders sagged, "What the hell is he on about?"
Here I was thinking we would get answers. I looked to my guys, who both shrugged, the tension in the air palpable. Before any of us could make a move, "Hreesh-var knucct eerth," chimed from the computer behind me. A few people jumped at the robot voice, but I looked to Myro for a translation.
"We're landing. Finish him now, Fey, before we enter the atmosphere." Myro was confident, more in-control than I’d yet heard him. Fey nodded and stepped forward as the ship shook and the massive window that had displayed the golden planet shifted into shimmering lines of gas and flame.
Gas and flame that seemed to move through the thick walls of the ship, move over my skin. Move into me.
Erupt out of me.
I recognized what was happening a second before it happened. A second before an electricity, a crackling of energy I had never felt before exploded, filling me with something like power.
"Holy fuck, I am superman."
22
Kylie
The look of sheer terror that Fey's father had given me made sense.
He had seen this before, this lightning that was shooting out of my fingertips. He had seen the waves of light that were rolling over my skin before. He knew what it was, and he knew how much trouble he was in.
"What the hell is going on?" Myro shouted, his eyes wide as he stared at me. Fey, however, was grinning as I stood there, holding out my hands to them as if they would be able to explain what was going on.
"You think I know?" I mean, I knew what was going on. I was fucking superman. But how the hell did he learn to control it? Because I was pretty sure that I was about to explode. About to turn this ridiculous golden spaceship into ribbons of metal before we even came in for the smooth landing that the ship, which was clearly on auto pilot, was nearly making.
I could see the other Coxians in the bay, servants of every shape and color shuffling around as they prepared for Fey's father’s return.
He was clearly a force to be reckoned with, the ruler of this planet. Looking at him now, right cowering in the middle of the bridge, I nearly laughed.
Chicken.
"You have brought a demon to our planet, that's what you have done." He finally whispered, his voice shaking as he looked from the still sparking power in my hands to the boys. "You have brought a killer among us. She will kill us all. You have doomed our race."
"Oh, get a grip," I snapped, waving my hand to the side in irritation the same as I had a million times before. Except this time a ball of fire and lightning shot from my fingers, zoomed across the room, and slammed into the opposite wall. Gold metal splintered and flew everywhere.
Fey's father screamed, Myro let out a small gasp, and Fey said something in Coxian that sounded too eager, considering I had shot a hole in the side of the bridge.
"Holy fuck!" I clenched my hands as I stared at the hole, realizing that I really needed to get this under control. I really wish I had listened to the histories of superman, there might have been some kind of a hint there.
Instead, I did the only thing I knew; I breathed. Inhale, exhale, same as I had when I was running from TerraLink so long ago. It seemed to work. My hands were still on fucking fire, but my veins didn't feel like they were powered by electricity. I ached to send that power into the man who had threatened my happiness, threatened to kill the two men I’d grown to love, but I had promised Fey that right. Slowly, I tried to reel the power back into me. It came into my chest, reluctantly and slowly, where it then sat, thrumming angrily.
Close enough for now.
"Just kill me! Kill me, then I can't be held responsible!" Grymm didn’t sound regal. Definitely not like someone who had ruled a powerful planet for hundreds of years.
"Seriously? Knock it off!" I screamed at the old man, putting my hands on my hips without thinking, thankfully my own fire didn't seem to burn me. "I'm not going to kill you. These two, though... you are so dead." I wasn't going to add that it was all contingent on if I was able to control this power or not.
If Fey didn’t do something soon, I might have to make myself a liar. I exhaled the same as I had before, attempting to push the power, or fire or whatever, back under my skin where it hopefully wouldn't accidentally kill anyone.
"Tell us what you know about humans," Myro said gruffly, then strode forward into the destroyed room, slamming Grymm into the blood-splattered Captain’s chair. I hadn’t taken the time to count the remaining men in the room, but a few reacted to their ruler being treated so disrespectfully, taking small steps forward or raising their weapons.
Three. There were three left, and I growled menacingly enough to confirm their fear of the human that their Captain was speaking of. All three of the men looked at me with so much fear that I again had to contain my laughter. If they only knew how weak and non-threatening I’d been only moments ago. Sure, I could handle myself, and I’d taken down plenty of their brothers on this ship with a knife, but compared to Fey—or even Myro—I’d been a minor threat. Now? Now I felt as though I could destroy this entire ship with a glance.
Returning my attention to the main attraction, I saw Grymm glaring at Myro. He didn’t move, but another soft wave of that anger-inducing power went through the room. Though I could easily ignore it, I watched Myro’s eyes grow red.
Bastard. I wanted to know what was happening to me, but I wasn't going to allow him to control my Myro. Without thinking, I lifted my hand and flexed my fingers, sending another line of energy to him.
"Shit!" I shouted as the power left me, realizing that I hadn’t exactly thought that one through. The light slid through the air, slamming into the headrest next to Fey’s father, turning the thing into smoke. "Double shit!"
Myro jumped at the tiny explosion, but managed to keep his grip on Grymm. Fey's father wasn’t as composed. He screamed again, jerking in his seat as he sobbed. "Okay! Okay! Human women are dangerous. They will kill us all—"
"Move it along, Father, we have already heard this part," Fey was now in the middle of the bridge, standing straight and strong, despite his mangled body. He aimed his gun as his father's head, but the old Coxian was still staring at my hands.
"The first human female that was brought here, she came after she was scorned by a man on Earth. She killed hundreds, and then took one of us to her bed..."
"And she was your mother, wasn't she?" I asked, sure I had already pieced that much together. He nodded as the ship touched down, the floor jerking slightly from the smooth impact.
"Yes. We killed her, when we were old enough. We kill all females... it's not worth the risk."
I was going to be sick, "You kill the females?" Myro and Fey had believed their race incapable of creating females… All three of us exchanged horrified glances, and Myro tightened his grip on Grymm’s throat.
"Yes," he nodded around Myro’s hand, "It's not worth the risk... but we have needs... and our sons have... strengths..."
Ugh. He actually looked excited about that. I almost rolled my eyes, but I didn't want to accidentally shoot lasers from them.
"So, they’re scared of me because I can kill them? That’s pretty obvious." I said, looking at my still-flaming fingertips. "I've got to say, I'm disappointed. I thought it would be more than that."
"You have fire shooting from your hands and you’re disappointed?" Fey asked with a laugh, exchanging the most conspiratorial look I’d ever seen with Myro. It seemed crossing galaxies, falling in love with the same woman, and saving each other’s asses had finally warmed them to each other.
Myro rolled his eyes, never giving Grymm an inch to move. Then, they shared another look I couldn’t decipher, and grabbed the old and quivering man. He whimpered as they pulled him to his feet, revealing that he had, in fact, soiled himself.
I tried not to laugh. Poor guy was genuinely scared of me. I mean, I was scared of me too...
I shrugged, "I guess it depends on what I can do with these Coxian abilities."
"Well, let's go find out." Myro grinned, he and Fey already heading toward the door.
"Wait." I rushed over to them, shoving myself between them and the door. I was careful to keep my hands down, treating them like loaded weapons. I didn't want to risk anything. "I thought we were taking over the ship and leaving?"
"Says the girl who was all in for starting a coup a week ago," Fey leaned in, his eyes sparkling even through the bruises that surrounded them. "And now you have the power to do that."
"Out of control power." I reminded them with a stomp of my foot. A stomp that sent me hovering off the ground a foot or two. "Holy fuck!"
"This keeps getting better." Fey was grinning up at me, but I was floundering, worried about what other powers I’d accidentally discover while here. What if I shot off a limb, or launched myself into space?
"Better? Someone put me back down!" Thankfully, Myro obliged, pulling me gently down like a knight before his
lady. The beauty of that gesture was lost on me for the moment. "I can't fight like this."
The words had barely left my mouth when stomping echoed down the halls, coming right toward us.
"I guess they found the bodies," Myro said with a shrug; he was still easy going. I, however, was back to being one step away from exploding. All of that breathing hadn’t done shit, because waves of golden flame were running over my skin again.
"Too late," Fey's father wheezed, back to laughing like the mad man he was. "You should have killed me when you had the chance. Now you have no hope."
"Oh shut up," I snapped, over the whole Fey-gets-to-kill-him thing. This guy needed a lesson, and I had a well of power begging to be released. I slapped my glowing palm right over his handsome face, the golden flames licking up the sides and beginning to do their job. Burning him. Melting him. His laugh quickly turned to a scream, and Myro released the guy with a flinch, letting him collapse onto the floor.
I crouched down, placing another palm over his chest, trying to push my power into his heart. I hoped it was in the same place as a human’s. Burn him from the inside out. Before our eyes, his skin dried and cracked, his scream growing into a horrified moan as he turned to dark ash. I heard several gasps from his remaining crew, and I glanced up to see mirrored expressions of horror on my boys’ faces.
That look was what stopped me. Otherwise I thought I might’ve kept on bleeding my power into the evil ruler of Cox, letting it sink into the ship and eventually into the dirt of the planet that had given me this ability. But looking into their faces, the faces of the two who’d gone to hell and back for me, I stopped.
I had to.
I couldn’t become a nightmare to them, even if the power whispered to me that it would all be so easy to let go. I had to stop. And so I did.
