by Viki Storm
That’s when I see a little dot appear on the horizon. It gets bigger and I see it’s Auvok. The closer he gets, the more I can see the murder in his eyes.
“Auvok!” I scream.
“I’m coming,” I hear him shout. I let myself relax, just a little. He’s here. He came for me. I knew he would.
He reaches the boat and hops inside, picking me up and holding me tight. I close my eyes, savoring his strong embrace.
“What did I do to get so lucky?” I ask him. “To have someone like you looking out for me?”
“All you had to do was plummet to the ground in a flaming ship,” he says. He releases my handcuffs and I fling my arms around his neck. “From the moment I saw you, I knew we were destined. I knew you were mine. Warriors protect what’s theirs. Virixians hold their mates sacred above all else.”
“Thank you,” I say. He kisses me, but it’s all too short. He bends down and yanks the shard out of Tinio’s neck.
“I am sorry I killed you from afar like a coward,” Auvok says. “But I could not risk my mate’s safety to give you the luxury of an honorable death.” Auvok then lifts him up and throws him overboard. I can’t believe how easy he just picked up Tinio, who’s a huge, strong guy to begin with.
I’m coming over tingly, hot and more than a little itchy. It’s the heat, perhaps, or what Auvok described before, the Urzk Vix. Such a close brush with death, I need Auvok, I crave closeness—I must participate in the act of creation to help erase the stain of the violence.
“Come on,” he says. He lifts me into his boat, using his knife to cut through the expanding foam to liberate my feet.
“I think I need you,” I say. “Now. On this boat.”
“I know that I need you,” he says. “But not now. We’re about to go destroy the jewel. I need to save my Urnora.”
“Your what?”
“It’s the Virixian language. My warrior energy. I cannot expend it this close to an important mission.”
“What about after?” I ask.
“After?” he says with a smirk. “After, you will be subjected to the full force of a Virixian warrior’s lust. I will take you rough, I will take you with reckless abandon. You will learn that I’m not the gentle type.”
Chapter 16
Auvok
My sweet darling female, in my arms where she belongs. My mate, my fate, my future. I growl filthy promises in her ear and can sense her desire, red hot between us. It will cloud my judgement, but there’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do is get the jewel to the archaeologist who knows the incantation necessary to destroy it. Then Vela will be safe from the cultists who wish to wield the gem.
I guide the boat back to the shore, where we wait in the searing sun for Ennest to get us. I see my ship appear on the horizon, getting bigger until it’s close enough to land.
“You let him fly the Vulp?” Vela asks. She’s trying to conceal a smile—but not trying all that hard.
“I had little choice,” I say. “I’d let the Vulp crash into the side of a mountain if I had to jump out and save you.”
“You’ve already saved me three times,” she says. “If you have to do it a fourth time, I’ll consider voluntary house-arrest until my bad luck wears off.”
“Protecting you is my job,” I say. “What sort of male would I be if I could not?”
“I don’t want to need protecting,” she says.
“Nonsense,” I say. “In this Universe? Everyone needs protecting.”
“You guys working on your suntan?” Ennest pops open the hatch and calls out to us.
“Come on,” I tell her. “Who knows, maybe next time, you’ll be the one to save me.”
“Yeah, right,” she scoffs. “That will be the day, a Virixian warrior bailed out by a girl like me.”
“You never know,” I say. “We have been bonded for a reason.”
“And the reason is so we can continuously save each other’s asses from mortal peril?” she says. “No offense, but I hope not.”
I get her into the ship and kick Ennest out of the captain’s chair. “If there’s one scratch on this ship,” I warn Ennest.
“Oh there’s a couple,” he says. “I bumped up against that mesa over there when I was in holding pattern.”
“Auvok,” Vela says, putting her soft little hands on my arm. Her touch calms me, like a cooling balm on a blistering burn.
“Kidding!” Ennest says, holding up his palms. “You guys don’t have jokes on your planet?”
“No, we don’t,” I say. I want to wipe that stupid scared look off his face. He’s trying to challenge me in front of my mate. Little does he know that the two of us are already bonded—we’ve been destined since before the stars formed in the Void.
I don’t trust myself to talk, so I grit my teeth together as I take us to the cavern. It’s the same abandoned mining system that Taxuu named, the one with shafts that go under the surface deep enough to disrupt the molecular structure of the gem.
I land the ship at the mouth of the cave. “We must go on foot,” I say. “Have you made contact with your mentor?” I ask Ennest.
“He said he’s inside, preparing the ritual,” Ennest says. I bite back a snort of laughter. The ritual. We can travel beyond the speed of light, but to destroy a little red rock we need incantations and magic words? He produces his comm-panel and shows me a crude map of the twisting pathways. A blinking red dot designates the meeting place.
I consulted Taxuu and he said that we’d be hot but okay as long as we didn’t go below three kilometers, where our lungs and blood vessels were at risk of collapse.
Vela looks over her shoulder at me, her eyes wide with a strange mix of terror and determination. “I admire you,” I tell her.
“Me?” she says, those beautiful eyes now squinting in confusion.
“You always want to do the right thing, don’t you? Always want to help others. It’s a strange trait that I don’t always understand. A feminine trait. Us males, we just want to break things.”
“Speak for yourself,” Ennest says. Suddenly, a thought strikes me.
“Ennest?” I ask him. “Do you mate with other males, rather than with females?”
His face turns red and he sputters out a hasty and rambling answer that’s unintelligible, except it tells me everything I need to know. I’m utterly relieved.
“You have my apologies,” I say, extending my hand to shake in the odd human custom. “I assumed you had designs on my mate, and I wished to strike you down.”
He looks at my hand, then takes it for a brief pump up and down. “Apology accepted,” he says. “I tried to tell you, but I, uh, I wasn’t sure if Virixians understood the concept.”
“I can’t say I understand it,” I admit, “but we are familiar with the concept and bear you no ill will, if that’s what you mean.” I clap him on the back and laugh, feeling foolish for having suspected him of coveting Vela. Sometimes, even a warrior’s instinct is wrong.
“Can we get this over with?” Vela asks. “You ever hear the expression ‘like ripping off a bandage?’ Do you bruisers even bother with bandages?”
“We do not,” I say. “A little bit of blood serves as Urzk Vix. Instead, we say ‘sooner begun, sooner done.’”
“I’ll lead the way,” Ennest says. He holds out his comm panel and orients it to the direction of the tunnel.
“Not that I don’t trust you,” I say, “but let me plant a beacon at the entrance. I’m not afraid to admit that going into the black tunnels makes me uneasy.” I take one of the small cylinders out of my waist-pouch and nestle it between two secluded rocks. I activate it and sync it with my comm. Vela and Ennest do the same. This way, if we get lost or disoriented, we can find our way back out.
With that complete, we start our descent. It’s instant relief from the fierce sunlight, the cool rock walls sheltering us from all around.
The old mining paths are still well-worn and demarcated with posts and ropes. We walk for what see
ms like forever. Vela never lets go of my hand.
It’s an odd feeling, my mate by my side. I like it. I wanted to leave her safe in the Vulp, but now that we’re down here, I’m glad that I didn’t. It feels like she’s part of my squadron, part of my team, and with our forces combined, there’s nothing we can’t do.
I lost the feeling of camaraderie when we were exiled. I only take solo jobs, preferring to keep my brothers at arm’s distance. That close connection, the brotherhood, the feeling of family—it’s what got us into the mess that led to our exile. Our feelings were too strong. We lost sight of the mission, of our orders. We lost sight of right and wrong.
But dearest Void, how I’ve missed being part of a team. And with Vela, our bond is so much stronger, so much more pure—it’s like the bond with my fellow warriors only jacked up on steroids. This is what it’s like to have a true partner—the joy filling me up threatens to overflow. Every single moment in my life from now on, I’ll have her to share it with, I’ll have her to help me, have her by my side.
I’m glad it’s dark in here because the dopey smile on my face would embarrass the fuck out of me right now.
“Turn here,” Ennest says when we get to a fork. “Down these steps.”
We go farther down. It’s so dark, the illumination from our lights only cast a faint pall, barely enough to illuminate the hands that hold them.
It feels like forever, like time stops when you go down below the surface. We’re in the bowels of the planet; time’s stopped. We might as well be floating in the Void of space. An uneasy prickle starts to needle my chest, uncomfortable and incessant. I think back to my time training as a young lad. I wanted nothing more than to earn a Name. When they made us drink the sensory deprivation draughts and taught us to fight without our eyes and ears, I had no fear then. I had the spirit and desire to kill and destroy and be feared by everyone who dared to whisper my name.
Now is quite different. Now I’ve got something to lose. I hold Vela’s hand a little tighter.
“Right there,” Ennest says. At first, I think my eyes are playing tricks on me, but I see it. A flat area next to another branching network of paths. There’s a small light globe on the ground and a man’s shadow behind it.
“Let’s hurry up and get this over with,” Vela says. “I’m seriously freaking out down here. If we got lost? We’d wander for days until…”
“No,” I say, rubbing my hand up and down her back. “We planted the beacons at the entrance. We can get out.”
“What if our panels break or lose signal? What if they get smashed by a rock?” She’s losing her composure, spiraling into panic. This happened sometimes when we were training as lads, and the best way to snap someone out of it is to belt them across the mouth. Pain works on the sympathetic nervous system. While the mind is reeling out of control, caught between the whims of fight and flight, a bit of pain gives the brain something to focus on. A tangible target for the adrenaline. The body then goes to work focusing on the pain, leaving the mind refreshed.
But there’s no way I’m going to punch Vela in the face, like I’ve done many times with my warrior brothers.
Instead, I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her. I feel her relax into me as our lips dance together in the dark. “It will be okay,” I tell her.
“You didn’t promise,” she says.
“Only a fool would promise something like that,” I say, thinking of the gnawing unease lodged in my chest.
“Let’s go,” she says. “Ennest is already down there.”
We follow and sure enough, Ennest is rapidly talking to an older male, human. He’s tall and broad, silvery hair and weathered face, huge hands with stubby fingers. He looks like he’s spent a lifetime digging in the dirt.
“Greetings,” he says to us as we approach. “You have no idea how relieved I was when good Ennest here said that you’d secured the Jewel.”
“Relieved isn’t quite the word I’d use,” Vela mutters.
“Friends, allow me to introduce you to the famous Cyan T. Vasser, the Third, the most esteemed archaeologist and scholar in the field of rare antiquities. Now we will say the words and cast it back into the mine,” Ennest says. He’s fiddling with the tarp spread on the ground, spreading it properly and removing the wrinkles. There’s a few objects spread about, a knife, a spade and an old-fashioned candlestick.
“The jewel,” the archaeologist says. His outstretched hand reaches towards me, his hands no longer appearing chapped and stubby. The fingers seem longer, thinner, like the twisted vines strangling a tree. His palm is smooth, pale white.
“I’ve got it,” I say. “Tell me how we destroy it.”
“It’s got immeasurable power,” Vasser says.
“I told them, sir,” Ennest says.
“Yes, on its own, it’s just a jewel. Rare, yes. Expensive, of course. But powerful? No. It must be joined with a staff. That’s when its power will be truly unleashed.”
The tingling in my chest is stronger. He didn’t answer my question. “Auvok?” Vela says. She’s close at my side, hugging my arm. I hate to do it, but I shake her off. Her touch does not calm me this time—it heightens my battle instincts.
I need to be ready to protect her.
“Hand it over,” Vasser says. He shoots out his hand and it’s definitely changed shape. A gnarled and knotty hand reaches for me, the ancient tendons creaking as the fingers beckon for the jewel. But I don’t give it to him.
The hem of his sleeve pushes up as he strains toward me and that’s when I see it—that’s when we all see it.
On the inside of his wrist is a tattoo. An eye with a spiral in the center.
And I notice something else. There are seven eyelashes ringing the top of the eye. Seven.
My blood turns cold. We’re not just dealing with a crazed cultist.
Just like ten orbits ago, on the mission that brought about my exile—I’m face to face with one of the Seven Rent Souls.
Chapter 17
Auvok
I leap back, gripping Vela and pushing her behind me so that I can protect her from this bastard.
“I’ve waited years,” he shrieks, the frequency needling my ears. Vela clamps her hands over her ears, grimacing and doubling over. I want to do the same, but I can’t. I’m on high alert. I can’t let him get the jewel. Cyan Vasser reaches into his cloak and pulls out a long, ornately carved staff. It’s shiny platinum or palladium, the low light catching on every ridge.
“Ennest, you rat,” I hiss.
“I didn’t know, I swear!” Ennest protests. His eyes ache with pain and betrayal and I actually believe him.
“Ennest,” Vasser says. “You were so easy to manipulate, like a good little dog, you fetched the prize for your master. You’ll be rewarded, don’t worry. When I usher in a new dark era, I will keep you as a trusted counselor.”
Ennest says nothing, but a tear tracing a dusty path down his cheek says everything.
“The jewel,” Vasser says. “It was forged by my great-great-great-grandfather. It is mine by birthright.”
“You’re the descendant of the jeweler from the legend?” Vela asks. “That’s real?”
“Indeed and I am the rightful owner,” Vasser says. “When I was a child I discovered my family’s dark legacy. I learned everything I could about the Master of the Void. I followed him to Viltra and begged for the chance to serve. He accepted my humble offerings. been searching for the jewel these long, long years.”
He snatches the jewel from me and holds it and the staff overhead and joins them together.
“And I will start with you!” He points it at me. “A Virixian warrior would make a nice addition to my retinue.”
I pull Vela away, shielding her with my body. “Hide,” I tell her. “Use your comm and lock onto the beacon’s signal. Get out now!”
“Not without you,” she says.
“Go!” I shout. Her eyes well with tears, but I harden my heart. Her feelings can be a little
bruised if that’s what it takes to keep her safe from this maniac. I grip her shoulders and spin her around towards the staircase out of here.
She takes a few steps up then pauses, turning back to look at me.
And that’s when I feel it. Like an icicle inside my brain.
My arm starts to move, reaching towards her. My thoughts are red. Pain, anger, destruction—Vela.
Resist, I scream at myself, a captive in my own brain. Fight it, you bastard, all your training all your discipline, you’re not going to fall to an old man and a piece of jewelry.
My leg jerks forward. All my strength, I can’t stop it. I’m focusing my energy and power on my legs, trying to root them to the spot—but still they take another step closer to Vela.
And my thoughts just went from red to black. Hate, ultra-hate, death.
It feels like my skin is an ironclad cage, binding me to the will of the archaeologist and the Rod of Supreme Power. I’m locked inside, powerless only to watch as he uses my body as a tool to hurt Vela.
“No!” I scream. With a wrenching agony, I claw at my chest. He might wield the jewel, but flowing inside my veins is the power of our Bond. The light of every star in the Universe strengthens my resolve. It feels like ripping a root out of the dirt, the sensation of the archaeologist leaving my brain. “Go, Vela, please. If he makes me hurt you, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”
“I’ll be waiting in the Vulp, ready to fly us to safety,” she says, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“If there’s one scratch on it,” I warn, trying to smile.
“Don’t threaten to spank me,” she says, “because then your ship will be covered in scratches.”
Before I can respond, she races up the stairs.
Knowing that Vela will be safe frees me considerably. Now I can focus on the problem at hand.
“The only thing you’re going to create,” I say, “is your own grave. You dare intrude into the mind of a Virixian warrior? You dare try to harm my mate?”
Those black thoughts are back, swirling around me like a shroud.
I rush the archaeologist, tackling him to the floor. The Rod flies out of his hand and skitters across the ground.
