by Amelia Jade
The energy began to manifest across his fingers, jumping between them and his palm as he continued to suck in all that his body could handle. His biggest weapon strike was only available to him when he was outside under the open sky, but that didn’t mean he was helpless. Far from it in fact.
Deep footsteps thundered behind him as the ready suits from the portal below formed up on his guard detail. Their heavy weapons would be more than welcome in helping him exploit any weakness in the creature’s armor.
Up ahead the raging battle came into view as men fell back from the oncoming creature in a steady rhythm while hitting it with everything they had. Aric didn’t see a single scratch on them.
“Order them to the sides on my command.” He spoke with complete authority, trusting that someone in his group could get through to the dozen or so men doing their best to slow the creature down.
Bringing his hands together in front of him Aric set his feet, pressing them deep into the ground. Energy arced between his fingers and jumped from one hand to another. He fed some of the overcharge he’d sucked into him into the space between his palms and a blue ball appeared and began to glow. His hands shook violently. Up ahead a man screamed as he didn’t get out of the way in time, his life ending in a split second as the Outsider drained him of his lifeforce.
Aric fed the pain of the loss of another brave soldier into his brewing maelstrom, as well as his fear for Kaitlyn and everyone else he’d ever known. Then he added his own fear, that he might not be strong enough to stop the Outsider and they would all be doomed because of him.
“Now,” he whispered, the strain of holding the energy nearly rendering him incapable of speech. His arms trembled, but he held on, using the mighty strength of his dragon for all it was worth.
Something was said, a soldier screamed, and suddenly there was nothing between Aric and the oncoming nightmare.
“VRAAAAAA!” The garbled scream ripped from his throat as he unleashed the thunderous bolt of energy, trying to take full advantage of his powers in defeating the enemy before anyone else died.
Light filled the perpetually dim tunnel, forcing soldiers to shield their eyes lest they go blind as an azure bolt of pure electricity momentarily joined his hands and the Outsider.
The shockwave flung everyone down. Soldiers were picked up and tossed into the tunnel walls. Loose equipment transformed into flying debris. Aric flew back twenty feet, scraping his arms nearly raw as he tried to stop his momentum.
Picking himself up, he blinked rapidly, trying to get a fix on the Outsider. The temporary blindness from the attack faded, and he saw the creature farther up the tunnel. It had been blasted a good fifty feet.
But it was still standing.
“That’s impossible,” he whispered, tossing another blast, though this one was only deigned to slow it down and buy the soldiers more time to recover. He directed a third at the roof, showering the Outsider with debris.
“EVERYONE BACK!” a suit shouted, using an external speaker to amplify its voice. “Retreat to the main cavern.”
The unarmored soldiers did as they were ordered. The suits stayed. So did Aric.
He lifted his hands again, the energy crossbow forming. Although it wasn’t necessary for him to use that to fling energy, by having a repetitive form, it became easier and quicker. It also helped him channel his powers better. This time though, it wasn’t enough. He spent a few seconds focusing, and the crossbow grew in size rapidly.
“What the hell is that?” a soldier in a nearby suit of armor asked.
“In the old days, they called it a ballista,” Aric explained, aiming the bolt of energy within at the oncoming Outsider. It sizzled and crackled, the tip a brilliant blue-white, where all the force of the impact would be concentrated.
He waited until the creature was no more than twenty feet away before pulling the trigger.
A six-foot-long lance of energy shot out. The Outsider tried to jump to the side, and the bolt creased along the armor in what would be the armpit of a human.
“You hurt it,” one of the suits said as the creature came upright.
Aric looked closely and saw what he meant. A thin line of purple goo trickled down the armor. A wound. It was possible. Almost immediately it closed, but it didn’t matter. Aric knew he could hurt the thing now. Hopefully he could kill it.
“I need more time,” he said, backing up, trying to figure out his next attack.
Two suits stepped forward without hesitation. Flaps on their feet fell down, digging into the dirt, turning the suits into reinforced weapons platforms.
A high-pitched whine reached his ears a moment before streams of yellow spat out from both arms of the suits, intersecting right on the surface of the black exoskeleton armor.
Brass shells filled the air as the suits sent hundreds of rounds at the creature, staggering it and rocking it back. Aric watched in horror as the creature brought up an arm. Strands of armor rippled and shot up and out, weaving together in a near living display as the arm reformed into a shield, angled to deflect the bullets away from its body.
Then it started forward again.
Missiles spat out, erupting at the feet of the creature. In response it widened its feet, giving it a sturdy platform to weather the explosions.
“Fall back,” he said, and together the three of them, along with the two other suits that watched their back, slowly retreated back toward the cavern far below, where the soldiers were probably hastily setting up more heavy weapons or some sort of other nasty surprise.
They would be ineffective. He knew that now. Only Aric had the power to stop the creature. Maybe.
Around him the hallway grew brighter. It was a gradual thing, and he didn’t realize it until they passed the first of the doors into side tunnels.
Like the one that Kaitlyn was in.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kaitlyn
Silence reigned.
It had all happened so quickly that she was still in shock, trying to process the change in her world. Aric. Dragons and their mates. Aliens. Love.
That’s right. He’d said he loved her. She had that image etched into her brain. His eyes had finally come alive at last, the deep blue circles dancing and happy. And all it had taken was her.
As quick as it had happened it was gone. Aric had left, taking the soldier with him, and leaving her alone in the room. Nobody had tried to take her elsewhere, to move her to safety. They must believe that for whatever reason, nothing was trying to get to her. Like the other day, she sat in the room at first and waited for him to come back.
It was unbearable within minutes. The way Aric had told her he loved her, as if he wanted to get it out so that she knew in case he never got another chance, weighed heavily on Kaitlyn. She hoped and prayed that he would return to her, that he would defeat the monster and come back, but the way he’d left made it impossible to believe that fully.
Kaitlyn stood. She needed to find Aric, to tell him her secret. There was more for him to fight for. Much more. If he could summon the courage to tell her how he felt, knowing full well she might not feel the same, then she owed it to him to be brave, to respect his courage.
The door opened and she peered out into the hallway. It was eerily quiet, devoid of any life whatsoever. She followed the corridor back toward the main tunnel, careful to avoid making too much noise. At every corner or intersection she paused and waited before peering around the edge to ensure that nothing was lying in ambush. This was a military base after all, and they were under attack. Caution was the name of the game on her part.
At last she reached the main tunnel, the thickly armored doors closed. Nervously she palmed the button to open them, terrified of what she might find on the other side, but driven by a need she couldn’t control. This was beyond her now. She wasn’t going to fight or put herself in harm’s way, but she needed to talk to Aric, to tell him.
He was going to be a father.
Nothing happened. The doors stay
ed shut. Kaitlyn tried again, but to no avail. The red light stayed on. It was locked, and she didn’t have the key to open it. Slumping against the wall she slid to the ground, dejected. The base was on lockdown, and only someone with the clearance could open the door.
Clearance.
She looked down at the ID badge still clipped to her shirt. The same ID badge that had allowed her into the tunnel in the first place.
Hope soared. Scrambling to her feet, she fed the magnetic strip through the card reader and then tried the door again.
Like magic the heavy armored doors began to retract into the walls one by one, until she could see the tunnel beyond. Noise blasted out at her from the other side. Gunfire, shouts, and something else. Something that reeked of a power she couldn’t comprehend.
Easing her head out around the corner, she looked up the tunnel. A blast of light momentarily blinded her and she jerked her head back. What the hell had that been? When her vision returned she tried again, slower this time.
“Aric,” she gasped, witnessing something out of a movie.
Aric. Her Aric, standing his ground against the most nauseating, nightmarish creature she’d ever seen. It was tall, covered in black armor that humped and writhed as it repaired itself and shifted, all while moving forward in an odd gait that made her stomach rumble unsettlingly.
She watched as he flung everything he had at the alien. Bolts of lightning, beams, even arrows fired from a mighty crossbow, but it all seemed to do little more than slow the thing down. Step by step it advanced, and Aric and the four battlesuits at his side retreated down the hallway closer to her.
Aric unleashed a mighty blast that took the creature from its feet. Even before it hit the ground he and the suits were retreating some more, buying themselves more time. The creature hit the ground and then got right back up, shrugging off the barrage of bullets and missiles the suits sent its way.
“Kaitlyn?” Aric gasped as he came to a halt in his retreat and started to turn back. “What are you doing here?”
The other two suits stepped up to fill his spot as he darted over to her.
“Aric, I needed to tell you something.”
“You need to go,” he said urgently. “Run. Get away from here. I can’t stop it. If it gets through…it’s going to be bad, Kaitlyn. Get out of the country. Go home. Trust me on this.”
She shook her head. “No, not without you, Aric. You need to fight, you need to win!”
“I am fighting,” he said, defeat coloring his voice. “But I can’t do it. I can’t beat it.”
She gripped his shoulders and locked gazes with him. “You need to, Aric. You can’t give up now. You need to fight.”
“I’m fighting, Kaitlyn. I am. For me. For these soldiers. For you.”
Without thinking she snatched his hand and placed it to her stomach. “What about for your child?”
Shock froze Aric in place. He stared at her, his head slowly lowering to her soft belly, where she held his hand tight. Wonder quickly banished the stunned expression, followed by joy and happiness. “You’re serious. When did this happen?”
“The first time,” she admitted. “I only just found out a week ago. I…I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”
“You’re sure it’s mine?”
Some women might get offended by that, but she didn’t. He had no idea what she had been doing with her personal life the first time they slept together.
“Not a chance it’s anyone else’s,” she assured him, recalling the painfully long involuntary celibacy streak she’d had leading up to her wild romp in the office with Aric. “All you. You’re going to be a father.”
Explosions echoed up the hallway.
“The plane,” he whispered to himself. “That’s what changed. You were with child.” He slapped his forehead. “How could I have not noticed that! Of course. It all makes so much sense now. The money, the weird way you look at me sometimes.”
“That part’s because I care deeply for you,” she said, hesitating.
“ARIC!” one of the suits shouted as they backed up some more, almost even with the entrance now. “A little help?”
“Go,” she said. “Fight. Fight for me. For our child. For our love.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“Yes, okay! I love you, Aric. There, I said it, and I meant it,” she laughed, terrified as the nightmare apparition stalked closer. “I love the you I’ve seen this trip. If that’s the real you, then you’ll have me for as long as you want me.”
Neither of them said it, but the word forever came to mind right away.
Aric grinned, squeezing her hand tightly before he stood.
“Step aside,” he ordered.
Kaitlyn gasped. His voice had changed. It was deeper than she’d ever heard. Melodious and powerful.
Blueish-white energy leapt from his skin, mimicking the way the creature’s outer armor healed itself, arcing in and out as it traveled up from his hands.
“Time to end this,” Aric whispered, stepping forward to do battle with the Outsider.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aric
His eyes began to glow with the energy, his skin turning almost silvery-blue to match. More power than he’d ever felt before surged to the surface.
Thrusting a hand forward, a beam of lightning as thick as his wrist lashed out, sawing off the Outsider’s left arm at the elbow before continuing on and burying itself in the corridor to ground out.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he growled. “Party’s over.”
He expected the Outsider to turn and flee, but once again the alien surprised him. It charged, lowering its upper body and slamming right into him. Aric yelped and was bowled over, though he managed to hold onto the thing’s leg. It went down in a pile and the two of them rolled over one another until they emerged in the cavern itself.
The suits came after them, spreading out wide and putting themselves between the creature and the portal.
Aric smashed a fist into what would be the head on a human. The armor dented and then rebounded. The Outsider’s remaining arm appendage came around, the end reshaping into a club that knocked Aric aside. His left arm went limp, the blow numbing the connection to the arm itself.
Anger welled up in him, originating from two sources. One was the Outsider itself and its unwillingness to just die. The other was directed at Kaitlyn.
She’d known about their child for nearly a week now. A week, and in that time she’d hidden the secret from him. Only because he was in danger of dying had she finally revealed her secret. Would she have done so if things were different?
Aric knew he would forgive her, there was never any doubt in his mind, but he felt the anger was warranted. This wasn’t a tiny secret; this was life-changing. His mate was pregnant with his offspring. That wasn’t something you hid from another party!
Aric lashed out with another blow of lightning but the Outsider moved out of the way and it struck a bank of computers. Sparks flew everywhere, panels popped off, and screens exploded in a spray of glass as the systems tried to handle the surge of energy.
“Oh no you don’t,” he snapped as the Outside dashed past him and went for the portal itself.
They may not have been outside, where he could call down a lightning strike to obliterate the alien, but they were out of the tunnel now. He had some space.
Aric removed the restraints from his mind, and his dragon, awoken and ready from all the fighting, rushed to fill it. The cavern shrank rapidly in size relative to him. Wings ripped from his back, blotting out many of the lights strung from the ceiling, while his neck elongated and his face became a snout filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth.
He spat a bolt of lightning the thickness of an oak tree at the Outsider. It missed, but the concussive explosion when it hit the ground tumbled it aside. Aric lunged, picking the thing up in his mouth. He flung his head back and forth like a dog wrestling for a toy before releasing at the end of one arc.
The Outsid
er pinwheeled through the air before crashing into the far cavern wall with a disgusting crunching sound. Purple goo seeped from several cracks in the armor, but it still tried to extricate itself.
Aric walked over, whirled, and just as it worked itself free his tail slammed it back into the wall. He followed that up with another lightning bolt. With the armor broken the energy found its way into the innards of the alien, and it exploded, raining showers of black armor and goo down upon the other soldiers in the cave, all of whom shouted and ran for cover just a little too late.
Anger satiated, he returned to his human form, brushing off bits of black exoskeleton from his shoulders as he strode through the ruined command center toward the tunnel where Kaitlyn awaited.
His mate.
Not just his mate, he corrected. His mate and his child.
His family.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kaitlyn
They lay in bed, firmly held in each other’s arms.
“Don’t let go,” she whispered from where her head was resting on his chest.
Aric’s arm lifted and rose to her head, gently stroking her hair, running his fingers through it.
“Okay, that’s acceptable,” she amended.
Wordlessly Aric continued his attention to her scalp, sending tiny shivers down her spine each time his fingernails dragged across her skin. It was sinfully delightful. Kaitlyn sighed, her body sagging as she tried to sink further into him, luxuriating in the sensation of being held. It had been a long time since she’d felt that comfortable with someone, and that hadn’t held a candle to the way Aric made her feel.
“I’m glad you turn into a pretty dragon,” she remarked, fiddling with his shirt where it had bunched up under her cheek.
His chest bounced, ruining the peaceful vibe of their restful cuddling post-battle.
“What?” she asked, staying propped up on an elbow and watching his face contort painfully. “What’s wrong? Is it something from the fight? Are you still hurt?”
