Serpents of the Abyss (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #2)

by S. J. Sanders

  The relief was instant as he careened inside, his wings flapping wildly to slow his rapid descent. Releasing the pressure in the air pockets along his tail, he swung his tail down, the tip catching in the soft sand. He gave one last flap of his wings to steady himself before he dropped down into the sand and drew his wings up protectively around him. It would be little protection against the winds and sands that might pierce his hiding spot. All the same, he dug his claws into the nearby stone, his determination to stay alive mounting. He had to stay alive for Lori!

  His muscles locked as the storm drew overhead, a tremble rushing through them. He could feel the wind and sand dropping down into his meager shelter. Something impacted the sand behind him and he snapped his tail up around him to leave it less exposed to falling rocks. The wind screamed everywhere at once, singing to him of his doom as it shrieked with a hundred voices.

  He was going to die.

  A song of sorrow rose in his heart.

  Lori. Ashlava, I have failed you.

  “Slengral? What are you doing?”

  The deep voice penetrated his grief and terror. The storms did not speak unless it was one of the deathly ones who had come to retrieve him. If so, he would ask to be reunited with his mate in the next life.

  Something firm struck him hard, and Slengral’s wings instinctively snapped up so that he could whip around and defend himself. He slashed out with a snarl but was side swiped by the thick tail that came at him again. Flung onto his back, he stared up at the sand churning above the opening in the rocks. Two faces leaned over him, one smirking as the other scowled down at him.

  He vaguely recognized the latter male, but Daskh’s unfriendly glare gladdened his heart.

  “What are you doing?” the male repeated, his voice even gruffer than before.

  “The storm…” Slengral began. He shook his head, dazed. “How are you here through it?”

  The other male broke out in loud laughter, the sharp sound making Slengral want to strike him. He hissed with promised violence, which the stranger all but ignored except to back up with a placating gesture. Daskh’s mouth hiked up at the corner before he leaned down to grip Slengral’s arm and haul him upright.

  “This is not a storm dangerous to us,” Daskh rumbled. “It is a storm of Seshanamitesh strength that will help us free our mate.” He glanced around. “And Kehtal, I assume, since he is not here.”

  “He was captured,” Slengral confirmed. With the next heartbeat, his eyes narrowed. “And what do you mean speaking of ‘our mate?’ There is no ‘our,’ only mine,” he hissed.

  To his surprise, Daskh did not break eye contact nor lower his head in submission in recognition of Slengral’s claim as Lori’s mate. The large male’s jaw tightened, and he drew himself up to a massive height, his enormous wings fanning out on either side of him.

  “It is the way with human mates,” the male snapped. “All of the other nests are doing this to better care for them. Ehsash can verify.” Slengral blinked when he recognized the other male whose grin widened with Daskh’s words. “I have fed and sheltered Lori. I have provided for her needs as well as those of Hashal. I even made certain to find him care so that I could come for my female. I will face danger for her. I will not be denied by you my right to court her as a mate.”

  “Impossible,” Slengral hissed. “No Seshanamitesh male has ever shared a mate, and it will not begin with me.”

  “It has already begun,” Daskh snarled. “You said yourself that that you saw males hunting mates in groups.”

  Ehsash nodded in the distinctly human way that Slengral had not seen any other male do outside of those in his nest.

  “You have been relying on other males to help you with your mate. There is no shame in that. Other males discovered this necessity with the females they have rescued. They banded together as nest brothers and found it beneficial for all, especially the females who need that extra care. It is out of love for their mates that they come together.” He cocked his head. “Just as it is for the sake of their mates that they are here now, over two hundred males fighting for your mate.”

  “Two hundred.” Slengral’s eyes widened as he lifted them to the whirling sand above.

  “Two hundred and twenty,” Daskh confirmed, his brow dipping unpleasantly. “Will you fly with us, and fight with us to free our mate? Or do you prefer to protect her alone?”

  Slengral gritted his teeth, his body vibrating with tension. His friend’s point was not lost upon him, as much as it infuriated him to admit. He had always needed them. He had been incapable of properly caring for her in their harsh world alone.

  With a snarl, he yanked free his velkat from its harness and stretched his wings wide. “Together then,” he hissed.

  A triumphant grin stretched Daskh’s face, and he nodded, freeing his own velkat.

  “Together.”

  Wings flapping, they ascended, shooting up into the whirling red cloud. Slengral was disoriented for a moment, even with his inner lid protectively covering his eyes. Then he was enfolded into the heart of it and saw the sheer numbers of Seshanamitesh all around him, their wings furiously beating, their battle cries filling the air. His hearts leaped, and he added his voice to theirs as they winged across the sands toward the colony.

  They descended like a black cloud in their fury. Velkats and claws struck the dome. Wings and bodies beat against it, eliciting sounds of panic and terror from within. Large metal poles that he had been unable to topple alone came crashing down. The glow within the colony extinguished, and screams from within rose at their renewed their efforts to break through.

  When an eerie green light filled the dome, it cast everything, including him and his brethren, in a terrible glow. He knew that that they looked monstrous, like the creatures of nestlings’ nightmares, and he delighted in that. He wanted to strike fear into Lori’s captors and into all of Seshana’s defilers. He would strip this place from them and make it his own.

  Letting out a savage bark, he renewed his attack, drawing with him those at his side as they plummeted to the colony. He was determined to break through. He would break through.

  Somewhere there was a crack.

  He shrieked with triumph and shot forward amid the black cloud of male bodies descending.

  Chapter 43

  “Lori!”

  Vi’s voice snapped Lori to action, adrenaline and excitement racing through her blood. Followed closely by icy horror as Kehtal surged forward at the same instant with a deadly shriek.

  “Kehtal, no! Stop!” she shouted as she grabbed the end of his tail and pulled with all of her strength.

  Although she tried to dig her nails into the scales at the same time, his tail pulled free too fast for her to maintain a grip on it. He had darted forward at an impossible speed.

  She heard a scream and masculine shouts of fear. Her heart jumped. She knew that there was no way that he could bring himself to a complete stop in time before he hurt someone. To her surprise, and relief, Kehtal swerved at the last minute, colliding with the wall of their cage. She winced as the loud sound of impact vibrated through their cell.

  “What the fuck, Lor?” Vi panted as she, with Eddie’s help, slowly edged around the fallen Seshanamitesh and entered the cell.

  “Sorry, Vi, one sec!” Lori shouted as she dodged her friend and went running to Kehtal’s side, her concern for him outweighing her relief at seeing her danger buddies once more. She caught a glimpse of Vi’s shocked face as she streaked by before dropping to her knees beside him.

  Skating her hands along his tail and back, she felt for a sign of anything different that could indicate a possible injury. She wasn’t a doctor, but she hoped that the muscle groups in the back were similar enough that she could at least feel for anything irregular.

  “Kehtal, are you okay?” she whispered.

  A low groan answered, and then his wings and tail shifted, his wings snapping closed against his back and his tail coiling beneath him as he pushed up fro
m against the wall. His gavo flicked slightly, his crests flattening totally before expanding upright once again. His chest expanded with a breath, and then he whipped around, citrine eyes glittering as Kehtal possessively dragged her up into his arms, growling as his eyes narrowed on the two men in the room. She patted his chest soothingly.

  Wait, two men? Lori blinked against the low green lighting and picked out Eddie and a man she would never have expected to see.

  “Mister Everly?”

  The Darvel Representative gave her a wan smile. “Delighted to see you again, Ms. Straford.” He gave a nervous glance toward the door. “As much as I appreciate you keeping your friend from killing us, we really need to hurry this along and get moving.” His concerned look focused in on Kehtal. “Is he a problem?”

  Lori wrapped an arm around Kehtal’s bicep even as the male’s growl grew louder. She knew for a fact that Kehtal could not understand Everly, or anyone else in the room for that matter, but the way that Everly gestured to him definitely let the Seshanamitesh know that he was talking about him.

  “He’s fine,” she assured them. “He’s one of the Seshanamitesh who’s been caring for me down in the caves.”

  Vi let out a slow breath. “Okay. He’s definitely intimidating though. If he could not glare at us like he wants to rip our heads off, I’d feel much better.”

  “Ease up,” she murmured to Kehtal. “That’s Eddie and Vi. They’re my team… my friends. Everly over there is helping to get us out of here.”

  The male’s body shuddered as he let out a deep breath, the tension draining from him. He didn’t let her go but she wasn’t going to quibble over a tiny detail like that. Kehtal’s eyes blinked, but his gaze never left Everly as he lowered his head slightly in gratitude.

  “All right, so what’s going on now and why are you helping us?”

  Everly gestured frantically to the door. “I will explain on the way. Right now, we need to get out of the classified lab while the officials keep busy evacuating the uncontaminated, otherwise we’re going to be stuck here for a good long time when they remote seal it.”

  “Shit,” Lori whispered. Leaning in against, Kehtal she explained to him what Everly said and the male’s eyes widened with understanding.

  “Contaminated?” Eddie barked, but Vi shoved on his arm, pushing him out the door of the cell.

  “Ask questions later,” she hissed. “I’m not getting buried alive in this place for anyone.”

  Lori couldn’t agree more. She gave Kehtal a pat on his shoulder to get his attention so she could instruct him to follow them, but it turned out that she didn’t even need it. The male slipped out of the cell right behind the smaller humans running in front of him, his shifting gavo the only sign of his wariness as he kept up with ease.

  Everly looked back over his shoulder. “As soon as we get to the upper level, we will be safe. There’s a weapons storage unit there where we can arm ourselves. I believe that is also where they stored your… ah, friend’s spear.” Arriving at another doorway, he slammed his hand against the keycode pad, his opposite hand twitching with impatience at his side as the panel scanned his bio-signature.

  “I won’t be able to help you any further once we get to the upper levels, but I suggest you take your weapons and head outside. The dome is breached, thanks to your friends—not unjustly, I will add. I objected to Darvel and United Earth’s plans from the start. I wanted to cooperate with them, but the brass didn’t agree.” His lips turned downward in a grimace of disgust. The moment the door slid open, he ran through, still talking rapidly to them. “In any case, most of the guard and citizen personnel will be too busy loading the transports to intercept you, but the further distance you put between yourselves and them, the safer you will be.”

  “Get outside, got it,” Lori agreed.

  “Wait, why can’t we go too?” Vi shouted, less than two steps behind the representative. “I don’t want to get stranded on this damn planet.”

  Lori’s lips thinned. She already knew the answer to that one but didn’t have the heart to break it to her friend. Thankfully, Everly addressed it, rapid-fire.

  He shook his head. “It’s too late. If you breathed the air at all outside of the dome, even through your filtration unit, you have been contaminated with the air and your cells have already begun to dangerously mutate. You are dependent on the natural gases of this planet. It’s why Mr. Wik got sick when he attempted to leave.”

  “Son of a bitch…!” Eddie hissed.

  “The secret to surviving on this planet is the increased mutagens that were found in Ms. Straford’s blood. Until I can work out a return team with Darvel that won’t aggravate the locals, you are going to have to keep your exposure to the outside as limited as you have been.”

  “Explains the weird fucking shifts,” Vi grumbled as they raced up the remaining distance of the steeply inclined corridor to the door at the end. Leaning one shoulder against the wall while Everly set to work on the lock, she swiped a hand over her face. “Fuck me. Fuck all of us.” She stared over at Lori. “I’m sorry, Lor. This is shitty as hell knowing I’m going to be stuck here for the rest of my life, but at least it’s not as bad as it could be. I’m a grunt. I know you had big plans, though.”

  Lori shrugged, her embrace tightening around Kehtal. “It was all a ruse. I never was going to leave here. That job they promised didn’t exist.” She sighed, her lips curving in a wry smile as she leaned her cheek against Kehtal’s shoulder. “It’s not so bad for me. I have my mate.”

  Vi choked, her eyes widening. “Mate?” Her eyes slid to Kehtal, horror and curiosity on her face. “Him?”

  Kehtal turned his head so that his cheek pressed against the top of her head. “I do not know what the human is saying, but she is looking at me strangely.”

  Lori chuckled and gave his chest another pat. Something settled uneasily in her chest. If Darvel and United Earth pulled out, leaving their human and alien crew on Seshana, there was a chance of Kehtal or Daskh mating with Vi once she became comfortable with them—or another human there. The thought made her feel ill. Lori knew she shouldn’t be feeling that way. That she had no right to be possessive over either male when she was mated to Slengral.

  “I think she doesn’t want you for a mate,” she teased.

  He bristled, the muscles under her tensing. “I do not want that female. Tell her that I am sorry, I am for another. She has nothing to worry about.”

  Her smile widened, and she rested her cheek against his chest. She didn’t know why the sour note in his voice at the idea of mating with Vi made her happy. Vi was a beautiful and strong woman, and a good friend. A friend who was staring at her in a perplexed manner.

  “No, Kehtal isn’t my mate,” Lori reluctantly informed her. “My mate is outside. Kehtal is a good friend who managed to get captured when he came looking for me, but he said to assure you he’s interested in someone else.”

  A sly look came over her friend’s face as the last door opened and they hauled their ass through. “Well, hey, I guess I couldn’t knock the alien loving once I got used to the idea. You sure seem to be happy with it, but somehow you two are looking a hell of a lot closer than just friends.”

  “Well, hell,” Eddie chuckled. “It does seem like it would have some interesting opportunities. I can’t say I’d mind a lady who could strap me down like he looks capable of.”

  Lori’s cheeks reddened as Everly, arriving at an enormous sealed locker, looked back at them.

  “Although interspecies relations are against United Earth’s and Darvel’s policies, in this particular situation I would encourage it. You will live longer, healthier lives if you can complete the mutation. Mating seems to be the easiest way around it. Because of this and the health hazards, I will be approaching both Earth and Darvel with the plans to leave M285 as an independent planet in the coalition and to serve as an exception on our interspecies bans.”

  Operating the bio-locks on the doors, Everly swung them o
pen and pulled several plasma rifles from inside, handing them out to them before straightening his suit jacket nervously before plucking something out of his breast pocket. It was a small datapad. He ran his fingers over it, engaging with the colony systems.

  “Here is where we must part,” he said grimly, his eyes lifting and meeting Eddie’s. “Mr. Wik, given your cool head, intelligence, and long contract here as one of the few surviving members from the early teams, I would like to surrender control of the colony to you until such time that the colony at large decides to change that. Please place your hand here so I can code everything to your biometric signature. Hurry, please. I do not have much time before the last shuttle leaves.”

  Eddie, staring speechlessly, immediately flattened his hand against the screen, and a light surrounded its perimeter before flashing green. Everly smiled and handed the datapad over.

  “For you, sir. Trust me when I say I will be in touch. Despite the fact that my interests did not align with the way that things were conducted in this matter, I still serve the corporation’s greater interest.”

  “You mean there’s someone on Darvel’s board who’s supporting your decision here?” Lori asked.

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “Of course there would be,” Vi muttered bitterly. “No one from Corp does anything out of their goodness of their heart.”

  Every smiled down at her apologetically. “It is the nature of things. Just know that there are people in your corner who will work with you and the…ah, Seshanamitesh, if I said that correctly.” He glanced over at Lori for clarification. At her nod, he continued, “There are still important minerals and ores necessary for United Earth’s growth, and because of that we can’t entirely give up on the planet. But it will now be decided by the Seshanamitesh now that the coalition has become aware of their presence. We are trusting the colony to work on building relations with them.”