by Liz Paffel
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m hungry and tired. I’m sure you’d love a shower and something to eat.”
“I really do. I’m going to head back to my quarters if that’s okay with you.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
His smile was infectious. If only Alora could have seen her brother well before she left.
“I still feel great.”
She wished she could relate. They finished and Brandon left, taking a moment to speak to the Axxeon guards, who remained at the door. Her insides rolled as a burning sensation worked up her throat.
Bracing herself with her hands on the side of the sink, she took a few deep breaths until she felt a little better. Quixx’s image popped into her head, followed by a wave of intense grief.
She held back the desire to cry.
And promptly threw up.
Chapter Sixteen
You are dead to me.
Quixx rammed his fist into the console of the terranx mobile craft. He needed to scrub his mind of these memories that served no purpose. Yet, he could not stop wondering if Priya was touching the filthy Nozing and working feverishly to save his life.
How could she not understand what the Axxeon had lost at the hands of the Nozing? Surely her calling as a healer allowed her to scrutinize those who were unworthy of her skills. The Axxeon did not believe in giving chances to enemies. Especially ones as vicious and hated as the Nozing. The more he thought about her hands on the beast, the faster he drove the craft. He needed to be done with this mission and return to the compound before...
Before, what? He had ordered Priya to leave once her work was done. He’d been so adamant about it that he’d instructed his warrior to escort her from the compound when her work in medical was complete. She would be gone before he returned, and then he’d leave for Axxeon 9 and prepare for his assignment to B-2 Delta.
He would never see Priya Kotbf again.
Slowing the craft, he ran a scan of the surroundings. He’d managed to bypass the worst part of the rioting city, maneuvering his craft on silent with the cloaking shield engaged. The humans had been unable to see him, but he had viewed everything around him. The confusion, the anger. The complete devastation. Now, slightly outside the city, the situation was calmer. The fires had died out here, leaving behind smoldering pits where buildings had once been. The violent outbursts had run out of steam, leaving behind a dazed and lost ambiance that panged him in the heart. The humans here were defeated.
They looked hungry. Cold. Unsure of their next move.
He knew these feelings too well. The looks on his people’s faces had been the same after the mass deaths, and again when their planet entered a deep, fatal freeze. The farther he went from the city, the less human activity he encountered. Buildings burned with no one attending them. Cars had been abandoned in the streets.
Everything was quiet. Strange for what he knew was considered a suburb, where the yards and streets were usually filled with human offspring. There wasn’t a sign of a child anywhere.
“Third Command, acknowledge.” Hahn’s voice came through Tryllin’s headset. Once he arrived at the female’s residence, he would switch to telepathy in order to remain as silent as possible. His warrior’s instincts warned him that an enemy could be waiting anywhere, ready to snatch the weapons or the female from him.
“Acknowledged.”
“Your coordinate location suggests you have left the city.”
“Correct.”
There was a static pause. “We have intercepted a transmission.” Hahn’s voice was rigid. “Switch to nas-raht.”
Nas-raht was their telepathy communication system, and the Prince would not be requesting it unless the information he was about to relay was severe. Quixx felt behind his left ear at the base of his skull. A silver cable connected to the implant port there and ran to the temporal sensor above his left eye. He lowered the eyepiece which turned on the connection between them telepathically and lowered a view screen that Hahn would be able to see through Quixx’s eye.
They were about to become one brain.
He had to keep his thoughts about Priya out of their connection.
He lowered the eyepiece and felt the familiar jolt of electricity bolt through his temple and coil in his frontal lobe. Blinking rapidly, he shook his head to clear his vision and settled into the mental connection.
Connection secure. Go ahead, my Prince.
Human leaders are escalating their plan to thin their population. Intelligence intercepted a transmission stating the city will be peppered with air-strike artillery under the guise of controlling the riots, beginning at first light of the new day.
Quixx looked at the map on the console view screen. The leaders will bomb their own people for reacting unfavorably to a situation they caused?
This has been their intention all along, Quixx. To reverse overpopulation and begin cultivating a stronger, more intelligent race of humans.
Just like the Nozing, he thought.
Yes, exactly like that.
He moved the screen with one finger, focusing on the view so Hahn could see it too.
What of the human female, Priya? Shall I force her into lockdown to save her from returning to the city?
Quixx stiffened. She is of no concern to me. We should not force her to do anything against her will.
Hahn grunted. Since when are you above forcing your hand?
I said that she is of no concern to me.
That wasn’t the truth. She should be here now, helping him navigate this mission and ensure he didn’t mess up with the female, as originally planned. Instead, she was tending to the enemy. His mind strayed to the impending bombing. She could not return…
He shut it down. Those thoughts were not for the Prince to know. Concentrating hard, he was able to control his thoughts. But the tension and anxious flutters in his gut he could not control. He slowed the terranx as he crossed over what had once been a bustling interstate. It was quiet now, with a handful of abandoned cars left haphazardly across the road. He maneuvered twenty feet above the asphalt, scanning the area below. He was coming into what the humans called a sister city to the one he’d just left. Like its twin, it was in a mixed state of active fire and smoldering rubbish. There was little human activity on the outskirts, but as he encroached into the city center, signs of active rioting were everywhere. Two bodies lie in the street, motionless. Debris was scattered down the empty streets.
To think, human leaders initiated this in a twisted measure of reducing the population. It seemed like nothing more than wargames enacted for sadistic enjoyment. Something the Nozing would enjoy. Human leaders had no idea what they were getting into when they’d made a pact with the Nozing. Perhaps some had hoped it would turn out this way. Across every species he’d encountered in his nearly one-hundred-year life, Quixx had always found or heard of those with unbalanced natures who enjoyed participating in devastation and ruin.
The Axxeon were fierce warriors and selectively showed no mercy. But they did not kill simply for the sport of it.
And to think Priya wanted to come back to this. No matter how many times he tried to put that thought away, it returned.
Your navigation system indicates the target location is two hundred yards ahead. I will initiate a scan of the residence.
Quixx angled the terranx to follow the map on his screen. The neighborhood he had viewed previously from Command appeared before him. His target was a sprawling yellow house with a large open area of grass in the back, just enough he could safely land the terranx with enough room to make a hasty escape if needed.
An alarm sounded on the console. Movement was scanned from the rear of the house.
Quixx, there are lifeforms inside the dwelling. Stay cloaked while I run a dimensional scan.
I will hold.
He watched shadowy movement through windows in the lower level. Whatever was inside had a human-like form and stood tall enough to block out part of the windo
w. Narrowing his eyes, he swung the small craft to the right, following the movement of the shadow inside. Humans were not that tall. His heartbeat with a rush.
Nozing.
Confirmed, Hahn said. Scan for any cloaked craft around you.
Quixx rose above the top of the buildings and initiated a shield-detection scan. They had developed new technology to detect the Nozing unique cloaking methods, but this terranx had not yet been updated with the newer scanner. Unless the enemy was using a basic shield, he would not be able to detect it.
He clenched his jaw. I can detect nothing.
Commander, keep yourself cloaked and lay low. Do not engage. Continue to hover the craft for immediate departure should the Nozing run a scan and detect you. There are too many inside for you to fight alone.
He was always prepared to fight, but he was not prepared for battle. While he was willing to attempt to take them all himself, he had a duty to Second Command, his Prince. They’d hoped, if any Nozing had survived the previous attack, that they’d come for their own prince, giving the Axxeon a chance to level them once and for all.
Now, only a handful of Axxeon remained at the compound. Not nearly enough to fight back.
Understood. I am breaking nas-raht momentarily.
Before Hahn could respond, Quixx disconnected the cable from the base of his skull and leaned back tensely in his seat. He could not complete his mission until the Nozing left. He could not defeat them all. He could not get back quickly, as he had promised his King. And he had left things very badly between Priya and himself. Her city was under extreme threat beginning at daybreak. He could not allow her to return there, yet, he’d told her to go.
She did not belong to him, nor did he want her to, so it did not matter. Everything was certainly not going to plan.
Grinding his jaw from left to right, he watched the shadows move inside the residence. She was treating one of them. Saving the life of a high-ranking enemy beast-- a war criminal--who should have been left to die.
How could he allow any mate of his to disobey him in such a way?
This is why he would never consider her as a mate. She was too stubborn and did not follow commands she did not agree with. She was… very strong, intelligent, and resolute in her convictions.
She had honor. Even if he did not agree with the platform.
His comlet buzzed. Hahn wanted him to resume nas-raht. He rewired himself.
We wait now.
Yes. Quixx checked his controls to make sure everything was in place. How many warriors remain with you, my Prince?
Including you and I, there are nine. Plus, the Queen’s brother, the human female, and the Nozing Prince.
Perhaps… you should keep her inside the compound as long as possible.
I thought you might agree. I will see to it.
A bit of relief washed through him and it was increasingly difficult to keep his mind off Priya as time ticked by, and night began to fall. Quixx was wound tight, ready to burst with impatience. But he held until finally the console screen showed movement inside and one by one, the heat signatures fell off the screen.
They are leaving.
Can you see them outside?
Scanning now on live view. Hahn paused. Yes, they have a human male with them. He looks as if he’s been beaten. He is being carried out.
A human male? No one else was supposed to be inside but the female.
What of the woman?
No sign of her. Hold. Let me rescan.
Quixx’s scanner showed all of the heat signatures were gone. Hahn’s scan would go deeper, so he waited for the all-clear. A low hum reverberated through the air, followed by ripples in the atmosphere around him. Then, a loud whoosh that increased in intensity as it rolled over his head. The Nozing craft was leaving. He held his breath, hoping they were not scanning for cloaking shields. The sound left until everything was suddenly still and silent.
He landed the craft and lowered the hatch. He bypassed the drop-down step and jumped to the ground. Drawing his biotaser, he held it aimed and ready as he crouched and inched forward toward the back door to the residence. Dusk had fallen, so he relied on the night view on his eyepiece to guide him.
System scans detect one heat signature on the floor on the second level. Take the stairs, turn immediately to the left. No movement detected.
Quixx slowly made entry into the house, pausing to listen for any sound. He was glad to have Hanh on comms with him, but he trusted his own instincts more than their technology sometimes. Especially where the Nozing were concerned. Isn’t that what Priya had said? Neither of them had trusted their instincts in the past, and it had resulted in very bad things.
It was time to trust himself.
There were no lights on inside, so he navigated by his eye piece, following the illuminated grid displayed for him. As he ascended the stairs, his heart beat harder. The Nozing had given the political man of this house the weapons that kill the degarzee. Why had they come back?
The weapons may no longer be here. Perhaps the female was no longer here, either.
Determined to see this through, Quixx made his way through the dwelling. There, just to his left as Hahn had said, lie a body on the corridor floor. He scanned the area for any other signs of life. Nothing. Using his light, he focused it on the form and dread pulsed through him.
It was the blonde female that he had come to collect.
Her face was badly beaten, blood soaking the side of her head and matting her hair, her clothing dotted with damp, dark stains. Crouching beside her, Quixx felt for a pulse at the side of her neck. She moaned softly, her eyelids fluttering softly before opening into thin gaps. Her jaw began to quiver as fear became palpable as it radiated from her thin form. He lowered to one knee beside her.
“I am Axxeon,” he said quietly. “I will not harm you.”
She winced in pain. “King Tryllin?”
“No. I am Quixx.”
Her head rolled into the floor, lips parting in agony. “You shouldn’t be here,” she gurgled. “They are coming for you. They want their Prince back.”
“What do you mean they are coming?”
A tear created a pink path over her bloody cheek. “I’m sorry. I… they had my father. They knew I was going to turn… to turn over the weapons and escape. They traced my last transmission with King Tryllin.”
No. No!
She drew a shaky sob. “I’m so sorry… they know where your compound is.”
Chapter Seventeen
Priya stood in front of the mirror with her shirt pulled up, equally horrified and stunned.
A bright green line shot vertically from her umbilicus to the top of her pubic bone. On either side of it, little hexagon shapes had formed, their outlines faint but growing darker in spots where the shapes connected. She blinked a few times, thinking maybe she’d fallen and hit her head without remembering it.
The last thing she recalled was throwing up in the sink, and then pulling two blankets over herself to ward off a chill she couldn’t seem to get rid of. Even now, gooseflesh covered her skin and she longed to submerged herself in a scalding bath, just to get warm.
She’d pulled herself together enough to check on the Nozing before she must have fallen asleep cocooned in her blankets. She’d woken to the lights flickering overhead. Afraid they might go out, she raced to the bathroom behind the partition. A tightness in her abdomen concerned her that she was getting some sort of gastrointestinal problem. But then she’d had the urge to look at herself in the mirror. She’d pulled up her shirt to inspect the painful area on her lower abdomen.
And saw this.
Wetting her hand in the sink, she scrubbed at her skin as if that might get it off. Then she poked it, ran a nail over the pattern. Nothing made a difference. She’d been stamped somehow with Axxeon solarderm. The more she scrubbed, the more frustrated she became that it wouldn’t come off. Of course, it wouldn’t. Something was happening to her. She needed Quixx. The ache in her ches
t expanded as she imagined herself in his arms, wrapped up against the heat of his body as he held her.
She needed him—
A loud clang sounded from inside the medical bay, followed by the squeak of the cot rolling forcefully back on its wheels. Putting herself back together, Priya rushed out into the main room and pulled up fast.
The Nozing stood in the center, his arms outstretched and bent upward at the elbows. Silver gray wings unfolded from behind him, spreading out in huge fans on either side of his body. The veins on the sides of his neck strained and popped, his chest muscles tense and bulging as he flapped the wings slowly, then with enough force to cause wind to stir things around the room.
Priya covered her mouth with a hand, joy pumping through her. She’d done it! His wings had fully emerged.
Suddenly, the door burst open and the Axxeon guards ran inside. They stopped short too, with expressions of wariness and awe as they aimed their weapons.
“Wait!” She yelled. “Wait, please.”
The Axxeon advanced. The Nozing turned to face them, wings at full span. A long nail-like spike curved from the top joint of each wing, looking like the deadly claw from a T-rex. She suspected the Axxeon could do their worst and somehow, this incredible creature would withstand it.
She couldn’t let it come to that.
Remembering the comlet Quixx had given her, Priya pulled it from her pocket and tapped on it. A red light came on. “Hello? I need someone with authority to come to medical. Please tell your men not to shoot the Nozing. Hello?”
She turned to the men again. “Please, don’t do anything. Everyone remain calm.”
Tapping the comlet again, she brought it to her mouth, having no clear idea how to use it. “Hello? I don’t need a blood bath here. Please.”
A blip of static came through, followed by a wavering yet firm voice. “Stand down on order of Third Command.”
A breath of relief punched out of her, tingles racing over her neck. She recognized that voice. Her belly pulled tightly, launching another round of nausea into her throat. “Quixx?” His name squeaked from her throat.
