Bean's Heart (Hearts of ICARUS Book 7)

by Phillips, Laura Jo

  “Thanks,” Ria said, pleased. “It did take a bit more effort and time to get through their thick skulls. I’ll have to remember that.”

  “Shall I drop the shield now?” Bean asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” Vari replied. “There’re twenty Doftles out there, and they’re all armed. I’m sure Pandora, Iffon and I can handle them, but I’d prefer not to risk you, Ria, or Star getting hurt before we can dispose of them.”

  “Okay then,” Bean said. “No problem.”

  Vari and Ria both watched as Bean focused her attention on the Doftles. Those on the end suddenly stumbled sideways, as though something was pushing them.

  They watched as the Doftles were forced into a group surrounded by a transparent circular wall. They shot it with their lasers, stabbed at it with knives, pounded on it with pain batons and kicked it with their feet. Nothing they did damaged or weakened the wall.

  “Wow, Bean, I’m impressed,” Ria said, and they all laughed.

  “Our shield is down,” Bean said. “Let’s go.”

  Vari took the lead with Ria and Star in the center and Bean behind them. Iffon reduced his size in order to save energy, though he remained in the white raptor form with silver talons and beak, and guarded their backs from Bean’s shoulder. Since the ceiling was too high to be seen, there was plenty of room for Pandora’s long, sinuous body to move snake-like above them, her wings partially unfolded, the strange light that came from everywhere and nowhere all at once gleaming off her scales.

  “This must be a space station,” Vari said. “It’s too big to be anything else.”

  “Vari, turn right up ahead,” Bean said.

  Vari glanced over her shoulder, then nodded. “Right it is.” They walked another couple of minutes, then she turned right at an intersection of corridors. “I feel like we need to move faster.”

  “I agree,” Bean said, the urge growing in her the moment Vari spoke. They began jogging, passing closed doors and empty corridors as they went.

  “Left ahead, then right again,” Bean said just loud enough for Vari to hear. A few moments later they turned left and at the same time, they all heard a flapping sound overhead.

  “Oh goody,” Pandora said, her enormous body folding into a U shape as she turned in the wide corridor so that she faced back the way they’d come. “I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to have any fun at all.”

  “I’ll cover,” Iffon said, leaving Bean’s shoulder, then increasing in size as he rose to hover above them.

  “I’ll just be a moment,” Pandora said. A high pitched scream of challenge reached them and they all turned to see an enormous hybrid with a rude caricature of Rayne Dracon’s face flying straight at them.

  “It’s blue,” Bean noted worriedly.

  “It’s all right,” Vari said. “Pandora won’t have a problem with that.”

  “Good,” Bean said, then looked forward again as Vari continued on. A moment later they all heard the crash of two enormous bodies slamming together too high up for them to see. The hybrid screamed again, but the sound was cut off midway.

  Vari, Ria and Bean turned again, just in time to see the hybrid hit the floor behind them with a heavy thud they could all feel.

  “That was too easy,” Pandora pouted as she turned back toward them. “Oops, spoke too soon,” she said. Again they heard a clash of bodies. “Go on ahead, Vari. I’ll catch up.”

  “You better,” Vari replied before turning back around and starting off. They jogged faster this time, all of them sensing that time was running short.

  “Ria,” Bean said as they ran. “Can you do that emotion reflection thing while in your alter-form?”

  “Good question,” Ria said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know. Never tried it. Why do you ask?”

  “Because that’s what you’re supposed to do. I don’t know why, but I think now would be a good time to see if you can sense our emotions in your alter-form.”

  “Excellent idea,” Ria said. A moment later she was an enormous katrenca, seven feet tall at the shoulder, Bean guessed, with rich blue fur and green eyes flecked with gold.

  “You’re gorgeous, Ria,” Bean said, smiling.

  “She says thank you, Bean,” Star said, still trotting along beside Ria, though she was now dwarfed by the katrenca. After a couple of minutes Star spoke again. “Ria says she’s having no trouble sensing our emotions, and that it’s even stronger in her alter-form.”

  “Fantastic,” Bean said with relief. Vari turned right as Bean had instructed, and they continued jogging. “When you reach the end of this corridor, turn left, Vari.”

  “Watch out!” Iffon shouted into their minds from high overhead. They all spun around in time to see two hybrids run around the corner behind them. One looked like a cross between a dog, a goat, and a lizard, the other like a panther, a snake, and a creature too alien for any of them to identify.

  Bean was so surprised that it took her a moment to remember to put up a shield. Then Ria’s katrenca leapt over her head and attacked the feline creature. Star was barely a step behind her, racing fearlessly toward the canine creature, baring an impressive array of long, sharp white teeth.

  Bean and Vari watched in awe as Ria and Star battled the hybrids with controlled ferocity, making rather short work of them. Just as Ria turned to see if Star needed help, the Brun ripped the throat out of her opponent. The creature fell to the floor and another one leapt over it, its jaws wide as it aimed for Star. She crouched down, causing the thick necked hybrid to soar over her, its claws skimming just above the fur on her back. She spun around surprisingly fast, grabbing it by the back of the neck before its feet touched the floor. She shook the powerfully built hybrid once, twice, then flung it hard against the wall. They all heard the thing’s neck snap, giving them a new appreciation for Star’s strength.

  “That was astounding, Star,” Bean said, grinning.

  “Thank you, Bean.” Star’s head turned, ears stiffening as she focused on the corridor behind them. “There are more coming.”

  “Nah,” Bean said. “There’s a shield up now. They won’t get close to us for a while at least, and only if they can find another route.”

  “Let’s get moving then,” Vari suggested.

  They all fell back into line and continued following Vari as she ran up the corridor to the end, then turned left as Bean had instructed. They ran for another couple of minutes, then came to a stop when Vari saw half a dozen Doftles blocking their way. Beyond the Doftles was what appeared to be a bridge, or control room.

  Vari threw two dairi, then immediately threw two more. “Weeble is in there,” she said, catching the first two returning dairi and throwing them again before catching the second set. She threw all four of them once more, then returned them to her clothing.

  “I thought that whole detach heads thing was a joke,” Bean said as they approached the entrance to the control room, stepping over the Doftles’ remains.

  “Only the word detach, and I blame Salene for that,” Vari said, pausing a few feet from the entrance. “Ria?”

  “She says she’s got this,” Star told them while Ria slunk forward, head lowered, ears flat, teeth bared, the tip of her katrenca’s tail twitching. Star remained at her shoulder, her posture matching Ria’s except for the tail. Star’s was held straight out, her hackles raised from the back of her head to its tip. Bean followed behind them, then moved to stand at Vari’s other side.

  The bridge held about twenty Doftles, Weeble at the center of them, standing on his metal legs, hissing furiously. Bean heard noise behind them and turned to see several monstrous hybrids racing straight at them. She immediately raised a shield just big enough to block the corridor, satisfied when they ran into it at full speed.

  “You got that, Bean?” Vari asked, throwing her dairi at the nearest Doftles on the bridge.

  “Yep, corridor blocked,” Bean replied as she watched Vari’s dairi fly. The slender weapons slid through the necks of every Doft
le she aimed at with ease before returning to her hands to be thrown again.

  “I can’t put a shield in front of us while you’re throwing your dairi,” Bean said worriedly.

  “I know, Bean,” Vari said without taking her eyes off the Doftles or Weeble. “Just be ready.”

  Bean nodded, then looked up as a soft sound caught her attention. A yellowish green hybrid had slipped under Iffon’s guard and was dropping straight downward at Ria, it’s claws outstretched, wings folded back. “Star! Overhead!” she warned urgently without actually shouting.

  She was surprised to see the enormous white Brun leap straight up at least twenty five feet, much higher than she would have imagined possible. Star clamped her jaws on the throat of the hybrid and sank her teeth into its flesh with apparent ease. Then she twisted her body sharply and the hybrid went limp as they both fell back to the ground. Star landed gracefully on all four paws, flung the body away with a flick of her head, then leapt back into place beside Ria.

  The whole thing had taken no more than a few seconds. When Bean turned back toward the control room she saw that Vari had killed all but six or seven Doftles without any of them making a move to defend themselves. Instead they kept closing ranks in front of Weeble like a living shield which was completely unnecessary since Vari never threw another dairi at him.

  Weeble rose up high on his legs and rushed forward without warning. He moved so fast that Bean barely had time to throw up a shield in front of them even though she was ready to do so. By then, Weeble was no more than a step or two from Vari.

  That’s when he froze in place, several of his legs raised to stab at Vari, Star, and Ria. Bean watched, barely breathing as a thin trickle of blood left one of Weeble’s eyes. He fixed his attention on Ria’s katrenca, once again honing in on the true source of danger to himself. His legs twitched, his fists clenched, and he managed to raise two more legs before opening his mouth and screaming. Ria’s katrenca roared at the same moment, causing Bean to clap her hands to her ears.

  Weeble’s scream cut off abruptly, leaving a heavy silence behind as the mesh covering his head suddenly changed. Where before it had been mostly transparent, it now appeared to be solid, but only the part that covered his head. Bean frowned, studying the odd phenomenon. After a few seconds, she saw movement, slow and subtle. She blinked a few times, still trying to figure out what she was looking at.

  Then it came to her. Weeble’s head had literally exploded inside the Kunian steel mesh. The movement she’d seen was blood seeping through the tiny holes of the mesh, then running down his torso before dripping onto the floor.

  Bean was distracted from the morbid sight when she saw Vari raise a dairi. “One sec,” she said, then lowered the shield. “Okay, go ahead.”

  “Thanks,” Vari said, then threw her dairi a few more times, dispatching the remaining Doftles on the bridge.

  “Wow,” Bean said. “We did it. Weeble is absolutely…if messily…dead.”

  “He sure is,” Ria said after shifting back into her humanoid form. She grimaced, then shrugged. “I know it’s a bit gross but I figure if Tani’s advice works for Vari, it should work for me. And it did. Obviously.”

  “Tani’s advice?” Bean asked.

  “Nothing with a brain lives long without a head,” Vari said.

  “Ah, good point,” Bean said, nodding. “Well, except for Xanti.”

  “Xanti?” Vari asked. Then she smiled. “You’re right. Their brains weren’t in their heads, were they?”

  “Nope, but as they no longer exist, I suppose they don’t really count anyway.”

  “I’ve never actually done that, before,” Ria said, frowning at what had been Weeble’s head. “Somehow, being in my alter-form increased my ability to multiply his emotions.”

  “That’s interesting,” Vari said thoughtfully.

  “Kólasi,” Ria said, her eyes fixed on the viewport on the other side of the bridge. “The Colony is straight ahead of us and growing bigger by the moment. I think that might be why we felt an urge to hurry.”

  “We have to figure out how to turn this thing around,” Vari said.

  “Excellent idea,” Bean said, looking toward the viewport even though she knew only Ria could see anything. “How do we do that?”

  “I was kind of hoping one of your messengers could tell us that.”

  Bean frowned. “I’m not sure…,” she broke off as the sound of flapping wings filled the air. “Oh, crumpet jam,” she whispered as a dozen hybrids flew over the shield she’d blocked the corridor with.

  “I think in this instance, hauk would suit better than crumpet jam,” Iffon said, increasing his size as he turned to face the oncoming hybrids. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t get a turn at some of the fun.”

  Bean watched as Iffon flew straight at the hybrids, screaming a challenge that caused some of them to hesitate. Then he was upon them, silver shod talons stretched out to grab one hybrid while his beak tore into another. He dropped the first two and had two more before Bean could blink.

  “Good great galaxy he’s fast,” she said, smiling proudly up at him.

  “Pandora’s on the way,” Vari said. “She says there are about a hundred more hybrids running toward us, plus a dozen more flying.”

  “I’m sorry, guys, but I can’t make the shield high enough to block the flying hybrids. I can’t even see the ceiling in this place.”

  “That’s okay, Bean,” Vari said. “Just blocking those on foot is more than enough, though you might want to make that block a bit higher.”

  Bean immediately set about raising the shield she’d put in the corridor so that it went as high as she could make it. “They’re coming,” she said as soon as she finished with the shield.

  “Who’s coming?” Ria asked.

  “The messengers, the Basulor,” Bean replied. “They’re only three of them left, but they’re coming.”

  “Bean, shield your heads,” Iffon warned. She obeyed instantly, without even looking up. A split second after throwing a hastily made flat shield over them a dead hybrid hit it. A second later another one crashed into it as it tried to reach them, only to vanish when Pandora grabbed it with one set of claws, then used another set to rip it in two.”

  “Thank you, Pandora,” Bean said, a little stunned by how strong she was.

  “You’re welcome, Bean,” Pandora replied as she grabbed another hybrid out of the air and repeated the action while doing the same with two rear sets of claws.

  Bean watched Iffon dispatch two more hybrids, then looked down in time to see three tall, slender beings with pale blue skin appear in the center of the bridge. They all looked up at the same time, their oval black eyes widening. Bean flung out one hand, throwing a shield up over their heads to prevent the hybrid diving straight down from reaching them. Pandora swooped in and caught it just as its claws hit the shield.

  “Thank you, Lady BreeAnna,” they said into her mind.

  “You’re welcome,” Bean replied.

  “I hope you can steer this thing,” Ria said, her eyes again fixed on the viewport beyond the Doftles. “We don’t have much time left.”

  The beings bowed slightly, then turned as one to face the viewport Ria was watching. “They’ve found a way around the shield, Bean,” Star said. Bean turned and saw that Star was right. They’d either cut through the walls or she’d missed a door. Whatever they’d done, there were far too many running toward them.

  “We need to get to the center of the bridge where the Basulor are,” Bean said, already running toward them. Vari, Ria, and Star immediately followed without asking questions.

  “Pandora, Iffon, get down here,” Bean called. “Hurry!”

  She felt Iffon’s reluctance but he didn’t hesitate, diving straight down at them alongside Pandora. A flood of hybrids and Doftles poured onto the bridge just as they reached the small group gathered around the Basulor. Iffon immediately reduced his size and Pandora changed back
to her tiny humanoid form, then Bean created a shield that surrounded all of them, enclosing them in a ball. Moments later, they were completely surrounded.

  “Bean, your nose is bleeding,” Vari said a couple of minutes later. “You’re using too much power.”

  “I know, Vari, but I have no choice. There are far too many of them for us to fight. They’ll kill us before we have a chance to do anything, and the Basulor need more time.”

  Vari turned toward the strange looking Doftles and saw that they were all focused intently on whatever they were doing. As much as she wanted to tell them to hurry, she realized all she’d do is break their concentration, which wouldn’t help any of them.

  “Iffon?”

  “There’s nothing I can do,” he said, standing on Bean’s shoulder now. “If I try, I’ll break her focus and the shield will vanish.”

  Bean kept her attention on the shield, forcing herself to draw more and more power as she felt it shrink and thin. There were so many hybrids surrounding them now that it was like a solid wall of moving flesh. Leathery wings, grotesque faces, clawed hands and feet, dripping fangs. All of them beating and scratching and kicking at the shield relentlessly.

  The tickling sensation on her upper lip grew and she understood that the bleeding had increased. She couldn’t stop, though. If she did, they would all die. And if that happened, the Doftles would gain control of the Colony and use it to destroy the Thousand Worlds.

  If it was the last thing she ever did in her life, she could not fail. But her body was weakening, and along with it her ability to draw on her power. Tears of desperation formed in her eyes as she clenched her jaw and focused harder.

  Then she felt Vari move to her left side, and Ria to her right. They each took a hand and clasped it in their own. She couldn’t look at them, couldn’t speak to them, couldn’t relax her focus for a moment. But she squeezed their hands gently with her own to let them know she was aware of their presence, and grateful for it.

  “We stand together as one, Ausreba,” Vari said just as Pandora landed on Bean’s unoccupied shoulder. Star moved, shifting her stance so that her body touched all three sisters, connecting them together.