Sarazen's Hunt

by Isabel Wroth

  “Tarek mentioned there had been some headway made with Reykar’s files?”

  Alec’s stomach clenched as the conversation turned. Needing something to do to distract her from the painful emotion that threatened to wreck her, she went to the couch and picked up a half finished memory braid, combing through the black strands carefully to continue the weave.

  “Yes. He knew he was working with one of the Original Council members and took copious notes on their conversations.

  “Recordings of their work most times. Reykar’s first entry was to explain what he’d done to my sister.

  “He gave her the serum used to prepare a body for stasis, not the one to ensure a painless death. He was determined to find a cure and found my willingness to give up before every avenue was explored, deplorable.”

  It set her teeth on edge, made guilt sear through her as it had since Quoll came to her with the data he’d collected. It made her question again and again, had she given up too quickly?

  “He was an arrogant fool and in light of what he’s caused, he was in no position to judge,” Clary shot back hotly, helping Alec to smile a little. “Up until a few days ago, there wasn’t even a hint of a cure.

  “Ga’rae and Gwen are an unbelievable pair, and believe me, with what data they got when they tried to help Meg, they kept looking for one.

  “As a biologist I can tell you with a fair bit of certainty, without some kind of natural immunity, creating a cure out of thin air is next to impossible.

  “You made the best choice you could under the assumption there was no cure, and waiting for one would only mean more pain and suffering for Meg.

  “I don’t know what I would have done differently, if I would have made the same choices as you did, but I didn’t spend half my life facing an enemy I had no power to stop.

  “The plain fact is you made a choice for Meg, honored her wishes, and Reykar betrayed your trust. He betrayed the pride by taking such a risk, and look what happened. That he did it in secret and worked with our enemies only makes it worse.”

  Alec gave a nod, grateful for Clary’s understanding, but Alec wasn’t sure she was ready to forgive herself just yet. She swiped her arm under her nose, shaking her head to banish the tears trying to blind her.

  “When we found him, he thought I was Meg. Kept saying he’d saved me. But with the larvae sucking on his brain matter, who knows what he really meant?

  “Meg went through the entire process. Quoll said Reykar recorded all of it, but I haven’t been able to watch. I understand what he was trying to do, but I can’t forgive him. Maybe if it had been someone else’s sister...”

  “No one is asking you to forgive Reykar, Alec.” Clary murmured gently.

  Absolved by her kindness, Alec struggled to breathe past the pain. Past the horrendous grief she had been forced to revisit, knowing exactly how much Meg had been allowed to suffer.

  Kalix was instantly there, flooding her with his presence, his love, sharing the burden of her agony so she could continue.

  “Thank you.” She said aloud, and not just to Clary. “The um, the warriors we captured stole vials of her infected blood and got it into prisoners they had waiting in the wings.

  “Apparently, N’kara wanted to get the blood off planet, but when his team screwed up and nearly got caught, they dosed the prisoners and decided they’d smuggle out a full grown specimen later.”

  “They nearly got caught?” Clary got up and had come to ‘sit’ beside Alec, watching her work the weave.

  Alec smoothed a stubborn strand, wondering how Zhenya was going to feel about this. Asking Loro for some of her hair and explaining why she wanted it had made the Keeper get a little emotional.

  Loro had been ready to hack off the entire fistful of her long braid before Alec explained she only needed a little bit.

  “Eurn got too close a few times, walked in or out and nearly tripped over the struggling prisoner.

  “The bad guys had some kind of device that completely masked the broadcast frequency of the prison collars.

  “Quoll is taking it apart to see how they did it so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again. And with thirty of the assholes in custody—several embedded in communications and transport—we now know how Reykar got his test subjects in and out without anyone being the wiser.”

  Clary sighed, a tired, exasperated sound. “The triple TP are nothing if not good at infiltrating.”

  “Triple TP?”

  “Traitors to the Pride. Elenna said we were giving them too much power by agreeing to call them by their chosen name,” Clary explained.

  “What about the two prisoners you found in Reykar’s lab? I hear one of them actually breathed fire.”

  Alec nodded, doing a little double take when she noticed Clary hiccup and press her hand to her chest uncomfortably.

  “I didn’t see it, but that’s what Eurn said. Kalix and I agreed they deserved to go free, no questions asked.

  “Zyre is the one who gave us names and descriptions of all the uh, Triple TP guys he’d seen, we got the rest after some intense interrogation of the traitors. All he and his friend wanted was a ship and some of my hair.”

  “Your hair?”

  “Weird, right? I asked why and they wouldn’t say. Are you okay? You look a little... sweaty.”

  Clary’s smile turned a little enigmatic as she reached out of sight for something to fan herself with.

  “I’m pregnant again and the first few months are nothing but hot flashes, hiccups, and morning sickness.”

  Alec tried to not express how horrified she was, but she must have failed miserably as Clary laughed.

  “Uh, congratulations. Have fun with all that.”

  “Don’t think you’ll be hopping on the baby train?” Clary teased, her smile so like her father’s.

  Alec shrugged, glancing up when she heard a familiar boom of laughter and echoing giggles in the hallway.

  “Kalix and I talked about it. Since we’ve got twelve kids under the age of fifteen to look after, and a planet riddled with parasitic spewing water monsters, he asked Tor give him a hormone inhibiting... birth control shot... thing.”

  Desperate to change the subject, Alec asked after that unrelated trouble Clary had mentioned a while ago.

  Clary sighed, plucking at her skirt uncomfortably for a moment. “There was a skirmish between some of our warriors and the Triple-TP. We lost several of them, and one of the commanders was taken. Experimented on. We just got him back last week and he’s having some trouble acclimating.”

  The pride leader looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned her gaze back to Alec with a careful edge of hope in her expression.

  “You said Loro helped you make friends with your beast the same way you made friends with your rage.

  “Do you think now—if you were hypothetically unable to communicate with Kalix via your bond— you would be able to come back from bloodlust on your own?”

  Alec shrugged, her fingers deftly twisting the strands of hair around and around the soft disk in her hands.

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  Clary made a thoughtful sound, tugging at her earlobe in a way that made Alec smile. Sage had done the same thing when she was embarrassed or deep in thought.

  “I may put in a call to Loro. See if she can help us out.”

  “I’m sure she’d be happy to try.”

  “Are you happy?”

  Clary’s question caught Alec a little off guard, forcing her to look up from the braid she was making for Zee to meet Clary’s warm, crystalline green gaze.

  Sage and Sully had both been redheads, and while it was obvious Clary had inherited her mother’s loose, gingery curls, those eyes were all Sully.

  Clary waited patiently for Alec to answer, and it took her a moment to move past her memories to give the question some thought.

  Was she?

  Her heart still hurt, freshly scored with the knowledge of how badly Meg had suffered at the hands of someo
ne who had vowed to treat her with honor.

  What Reykar had done, no matter his intentions, was horrific, and so hard to understand. There would be no forgiveness for him, and knowing his suffering had ended too soon only added acid to her wounds.

  Alec felt guilty and struggled to believe she was not to blame for her sister’s fate. There was a possible cure now.

  Could Meg have survived if Alec had agreed to put her in stasis? Been brought back even after the total devastation of her internal organs? She would never know, and that’s what hurt the most.

  Even though Meg had asked for death, Alec did feel like she’d just given up.

  The door opened and Kalix walked in, shirtless with only his silver torc around his neck, dark leather trousers, and his heavy boots.

  He was sweaty, his hair pulled back into the braid all the warriors seemed to favor when on duty, likely having dismissed his armor only seconds before.

  Happiness for her was this: watching Kalix coming toward her with a stern face and a smile in his eyes. Knowing no matter what, they were strong and undefeatable together.

  Hearing the laughter and giggles of the children continue out in the hall, in spite of the enemies swimming up from deep below the surface of the planet.

  Happiness was waking up each day with a purpose.

  Happiness was the warmth that permeated her entire being when her mate bent to press a kiss to her forehead.

  Alec understood now it was sorrow she felt whenever she thought of all the wonderful things that had happened to her since coming to Saraz.

  Sorrow that Meg would never know what it was like to have a mate as strong and adoring as Kalix was. Or a place to call home. And while the fight against the Scylla continued, it was no longer a struggle for survival.

  There were so many things Meg wouldn’t get to do, which meant Alec had to do all those things with enough life for she and Meg both.

  Was life perfect? Not even close.

  Could she claim happiness and mean it?

  Bitch, you better.

  Whether or not it was Meg’s voice or that of Alec’s subconscious, she laughed and let herself mean it.

  “Yes. I am.”

  Clary gave a satisfied hum, but Alec had eyes only for Kalix.

  ~Report, Commander.

  Kalix snorted softly, carefully taking the braid in progress from her hands so he could seat himself and pull her across his lap. A quick glance revealed Clary had slipped away to leave them alone.

  ~Another wave of Scylla obliterated, no casualties to our people. Little Ilya successfully snuck up and pounced on me in the hall. As you can hear, the cubs are celebrating their victory.

  Alec grinned at the pride in her mate’s voice. ~A good day.

  ~Indeed.

  ~And tomorrow?

  ~We live. We fight. We love.

  Kalix held her, one arm wrapped tight around her back, his hand resting on the shorn side of her hair to keep her cheek snuggled up to his throat.

  The gentle vibration of his rumble coursed through her, raising pleasure filled goosebumps, the tickle causing her to catch her breath before her body melted in total, absolute relaxation.

  ~I am satisfied with your plan, Commander.

  He rocked her with his laughter, trailing a line of kisses up the edge of her face.

  ~I live to satisfy you, my One.

  Grief nipped at her heels and twisted through her every day, fueling the rage that never truly went away. But life went on in spite of Reykar’s lunacy, and there were moments like this she was learning to live for.

  Moments of joy, of pleasure, of absolute love and understanding that balanced it out in—

  The end.

  Zyre

  He stood at the small viewing portal of his new ship, watching the dry, cracked surface of S6 grow farther and farther away.

  Atmosphere gave way to stratosphere and soon it was the entire planet shrinking from view. From up here, one would never know the glowing dust-colored orb housed such... evil.

  The things he and Erufir had been witness to in the bowels of that laboratory had been horrific. Amazing. Terrifying. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

  “We did the right thing,” Erufir uttered from where he sat at the controls. “They would never have let us leave if they knew.”

  “No, they wouldn’t have.”

  Zyre glanced down at the small disk in his hand, at the way the reflective surface winked in the light.

  Such a small thing, and yet precious beyond measure. So precious.

  “It won’t be long. We have everything we need to create a vessel.”

  “Everything except Erusha’s permission.” Zyre looked back out at the vanishing planet, wondering at the workings of fate and the movements of the Horned Gods.

  All that had happened, from the moment their ship had broken down on what he and Erufir had thought was an island on a deserted planet, to the moment they had been purchased by one of Reykar’s minions at the slave market.

  The things they had witnessed... had it all been for this divine purpose?

  “I have what she needs. All it will take is a simple exchange,” Erufir declared flatly, but they both knew it wouldn’t be so easy.

  What Erusha would demand as payment would cost Erufir his life.

  ~No. It won’t. I won’t let him die. I won’t let either of you die. You’re mine. Everything will be alright. You’ll see.

  Zyre couldn’t help but smile, pressing his closed fist and the disk over his heart.

  “What did she say?” Erufir asked, pretending to adjust something on the console. Pretending he wasn’t breathless with anticipation.

  “That everything will be alright.”

  Erufir grunted, frowning intently, shooting him a sideways glance when Zyre sat down beside him in the co-pilot’s seat.

  “There is no reason to think otherwise. I’ve set our course for home. We’ll be there in a few weeks.”

  Author’s Notes

  Alright, I know what you’re thinking... ‘Damnit! She did it to us AGAIN!’

  I’m only a little bit sorry. Like, a pinch of sorry. Just a pinch. I can’t help it. I’m a literary sadist and I personally love when I get to the end of a book or a movie and have no doubts there will be more—MUCH MORE—to come.

  Commander Brennaugh’s tale is next on the agenda, and a short novella to answer all your questions about Zyre and Erufir...which will happen this year.

  Cross my heart and hope to die the little death! So don’t be too mad at me ;)

  With book 8 on the shelves, I’ve updated myself and now have an automated mailing list to send out newsletters with important announcements and whatnot, so if you’d like to be on my super awesome list of cool people, click the link and drop me your details!

  http://eepurl.com/ds1gB1

  Or follow me on facebook, where there is now a new exclusive Sarazen group for all things Saga related. So pop on by and join the club!

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2049987545242210/?ref=bookmarks

  And finally, for any of you aspiring writers who dig my style and maybe want to write your own book, or if you’ve written a book and are interested in the advice or consulting services of a published author I’m now offering Solutions 101, Consultations, and Rescue Remedies for Writers in a Pinch!

  If you’re interested, you can email me at isabelwrothconsulting@gmail.com for more info!