"Well, because of that you might have killed her and every other person in that compound. If we had known that she was human we might have had a better chance of coming up with an antidote or understanding this situation better."
"What the hell do you want me to do about it now?" Lynx said defensively.
"Go get Ty," Samira suddenly said and everyone fell quiet.
"Ty?" Lynx asked, "Do you seriously think that now is the moment for you to have some sort of reunion with your mate?"
"That's not what this is about," Samira said, sounding slightly disgusted, "Look at Rain."
Lynx looked down at Rain again and saw that her lips had parted and her head seemed to have turned slightly.
"She moved more."
"The more we talk, the more she moves," Samira said. "Get Ty and tell him to bring the box that I gave him."
Bannack rushed out of the room and a few minutes later came back in with Ty, who looked breathless and was carrying a small metal box in his hands. Lynx held the compact out to the young warrior, who took it and smiled down at Samira.
"Hey, Babe. What do you need the box for? What's going on?"
"Ty, did Ciyrs leave any of his healing ointments?" Elianna's voice asked.
"Yeah," Ty answered, "Some. Why?"
"We have an idea," Zuri's voice said, "but it is going to take a lot of courage on the part of one of you. You need to get those ointments and a sharp dagger. Go fast. You don't have much time."
The mention of a dagger made Lynx feel sick. He could only imagine what she had in mind, and the thought was horrific even though he knew it was likely the only option for saving Rain, and possibly the others as well.
Lynx halfway listened to the instructions that George, Zuri, and Elianna gave to the other warriors as he gazed down at Rain. He might have imagined it, but it seemed that her color was slightly pinker and her lips had plumped. He hoped that she could feel him near her and that if she could, he was giving her comfort.
It was nearly an hour later when the warriors had finally gathered everything that they needed and Bannack was standing beside the bed, his hand tightly gripping the handle of a dagger.
"Are you sure that you want me to do this?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at Lynx.
"Of course I don't want you to do it," Lynx said, "but it's the only way. Just do it as quickly and carefully as you can."
"Lynx," Elianna's voice came through, "you need to be ready with the bandages and the healing ointments."
"And Ty," Samira said, "be ready with the box."
Lynx wanted to close his eyes and not witness what was about to happen, but just as in the visions, he felt tethered in place, unable to look away and compelled, forced to watch as Bannack carefully pulled back the blankets that covered Rain and respectfully pushed aside the tattered edges of the nightgown near the puncture wound where the Covra had injected her with the clutch of eggs and the locking toxin.
In one swift movement Bannack plunged the tip of the dagger into the puncture wound and drew it back toward him, opening her skin. Lynx felt his stomach turn and the angry, aggressive need to protect her surge up within him, but he held himself back. He knew that this was the only chance. This is what had to be done.
Through the new opening in Rain's stomach Lynx could see the yellow orb that had been attached to the front leg of the massive Covra before the smaller one took it to force it into her so that she could incubate it and then act as the first source of nourishment for the new hatchlings. Bannack tilted his dagger so the blade tucked under the clutch and then pushed, forcing the orb up out of her body and onto the floor. There was a hint of greenish slime and then along with it, a trickle of blood.
"She's bleeding!" he shouted.
"That's good, Lynx!" George's voice yelled from the compact Ty held up so that the professor and Elianna could supervise the procedure. "Now help him finish."
Lynx rushed forward and started applying the healing ointments to the wound, following Elianna's instructions carefully as he packed the wound with a thick herbal paste, covered it with a thinner salve, and then wrapped it carefully. When she was fully bandaged and Bannack had destroyed the eggs, Lynx dropped down on the edge of the bed and looked up at Ty.
"Go ahead and open the box," Samira instructed.
Ty nestled his ring into the top of the box and Lynx watched in awe as the metal gears turned and the sides of the box opened.
"Which disc should I use?" he asked.
"The third one should be fine."
Ty reached into a narrow drawer in the box and Lynx watched him withdraw a small flat object, which he settled into another section of the box. Suddenly Samira's voice filled the room from the box.
"It's working perfectly," Ty said.
"Good," Samira said, "Just put it on the table beside the bed and keep it playing. We have to get some rest and then we will be right back on our way to you in the morning."
"What is that?" Lynx asked.
"It's a voice box," Samira told him. "As long as you restart it when the disc ends, it will continuously play my voice."
"Lynx," Georg said, "watch over Rain. Stay with her as much as you can. With as much of those healing ointments as you have, the other warriors should go see how many others they can save."
Lynx nodded.
"Thank you," he said, turning to watch Rain's movements in response to the sound of Samira's voice. "Thank you so much."
Chapter Six
Zsilvia watched George close the compact, hand it back to Loralia, and then turn to sweep her into his arms. She clutched at his shoulders, drawing in the scent of his skin and clothes still wet from the rain.
"How did you think of that?" he asked when he stopped hugging her and pushed her back slightly so that he could look at her.
Zsilvia smiled at him and then looked over at Ivy.
"It was something that Ivy said to me."
Ivy looked up, the expression on her face startled.
"It was?" she asked.
"Yes," Zsilvia said. "You told me that when I spoke, George lit up like I was making his heart beat for the first time; that I brought him to life."
Ivy nodded.
"It's true."
George pulled Zsilvia in for another embrace, seeming to pull her even closer now so that her entire body crushed against his.
"It is true," he agreed. "I was nothing before you. I went about my life and I thought that everything was fine and that I was happy, and then I met you and realized that I hadn't lived a single moment of my existence until the day that I saw you."
Zsilvia rested her lips against his and relaxed into the feeling and taste of his mouth. She knew exactly what he meant because she felt the same way.
"I don’t understand, though," Ivy said, breaking the kiss. "George felt that way because Zsilvia is his mate. When Lynx spoke to her, though, she didn't move."
Zsilvia looked over at the lovely blonde woman and realized that in all of the chaos of their conversation with the warriors, they hadn't noticed that Ivy was sinking back away from them. She had spoken up early in the conversation, but had then seemed to disappear. Zsilvia felt guilty that they had pushed her away, whether they realized they had done it or not, simply because she was having difficulty following what was happening.
The rest of them had been living with this problem for longer than Ivy had, and she had not been there for the first talks that they had about the Covra. She didn't know about the creatures or the stories that Loralia's grandfather had always told her and the rest of the young of the species about the fearsome monsters that fought with a skill so terrible he wouldn't even tell them what it was. Of course, they knew now that that weapon was the ability to lock a species in place, take from them their very ability to live without actually killing them, so that they could manipulate them as they wished, or fill them with a virulent toxin that immediately turned the infected person into a vicious, vio
lent killer that would destroy anything he encountered.
"It was not the voice of her mate that Rain needed," Loralia explained. "What she needed was to hear the voice of her kind. My grandfather always told us that the Covra had a single weakness, something that weakened them to the point of barely being able to survive. What if it was that weakness that made them hate the Light Ones so much? And what if they used it when they infected them not just to ensure that their kind would be protected from it, but that the Light Ones would never be able to wake up before the hatchlings arrived?"
"A human voice," Zsilvia said.
Loralia nodded.
"If the Covra are weak to the sound of a human voice, when the Light Ones arrived they would want to eliminate them as quickly as possible. As they got older and weaker, though, they realized that just being near the voices of those people could destroy them before they would be able to actually fight them in battle or have them kill each other. Instead, they could use the technique that they often used to kill their own prey. They locked them in place, knowing that only the voice of their kind could ever awaken them by making their hearts beat again, and that no other humans were on Uoria."
"They had no way of knowing that more would come decades later," Zuri said.
"Just in time for their new generation to be born," Elianna said.
"Exactly," Loralia continued. "But what scared them first was the warriors. A Denynso voice is so similar to a human voice, maybe it has some of the same effect on the Covra. They hated to hear it. So as much as they were trying to protect their young from the men, they were also trying to get rid of the Denynso that weakened them even more than their age already had just by speaking."
Zsilvia shuddered.
"How many of them do you think they will be able to save by getting the egg clutches out of their bodies before they hatch?" she asked.
"A few," Elianna said. "I know that Ciyrs brought enough of his healing ointments for all of the warriors to need them a couple of times during the journey, but Bannack told us that when the others split off to go to that other kingdom that he went with them. He would have brought along half of the supplies. And four of the men have already had to undergo major surgeries. The supplies are likely dwindling now and they won't have enough to treat everyone in the settlement."
"Do we have enough?" Zsilvia asked.
"I think so. We brought three times what Ciyrs did plus enough of the supplies to make more. That should be enough."
She indicated her bag plus the ones that Zuri, Samira, and George had with them.
"We need to get a few hours of rest now before we keep going," George said. "We need to be as strong and ready as we can be when we get there so that we can do everything we can for the Light Ones. I have a feeling that the slow pace of the hatching is just the beginning."
Loralia nodded.
"It will get faster. Remember what those papers we found said. As soon as one set of hatchlings emerges, they begin communicating with the others that are still inside the incubators. It works much the same way as a creature that they lock only responding to the voice of its kind. The sounds of the first hatchlings tell the others that it is time to hatch. The more that get out and have a chance to communicate, the faster the rest will hatch."
Chapter Seven
Lynx paced around the room, his hands clenching and stretching as he tried to rid himself of the pent up energy that had built in his chest and wasn't seeming to move no matter what he did. The longer that the box with Samira's voice in it played, the more the aggression and intensity grew within Lynx. It was like he could feel Rain pulling closer and closer to the surface of her consciousness. She was coming out of the locked state and as she did, his mind and body were responding to her even more.
In the days that he had been watching over her, Lynx had been able to suppress much of the feelings that the Denynso men experienced when they were near their intended mate. He could focus on trying to understand why she was locked and what he could do to protect her so his mind didn't wander as much to the thoughts of bonding with her and finally making her fully his mate. Now that they thought that they had discovered what would release the Light Ones from the bonds of the Covra, however, the defensive instinct born into each of the Denynso warriors was giving way to the forceful emotional and physical response of being so close to his intended mate but unable to touch her.
Outside of the window he could hear the gut-wrenching sounds of the rest of the warriors fighting off the newly born Covra. They were hatching at more frequent intervals now, and the young that emerged from the people seemed more aggressive than they had at first, as if simply having others around was giving them even more strength and energy.
He wondered how many of the people in the settlement they had lost now; how many of the people who Rain knew and possibly loved, people who Lynx had felt responsible for since they first encountered the settlement, were now not locked in place, but dead where they had taken their final step.
He wanted to be out with the men fighting, but he knew that he couldn't leave Rain. There was no way of knowing when she might wake up or how she would react when she did. They were still unsure of whether the people would be able to survive even after waking up or how they would respond to the presence of the Denynso. It was possible that as soon as her eyes opened, the age would catch up to her and she would simply die where she lay. The thought was too horrible to contemplate and Lynx forced it out of his mind, replacing it with images of her when she was awake; what he would say to her, how he would explain what was happening to her.
It wasn't until he saw the light against the tightly closed curtains over the window change that he realized he had been holding vigil over Rain throughout the night. He turned off the small lamp on the table and stepped up to the window to push the curtain back. The glint of the sunrise crept into the room, illuminating the wooden floor like liquid. It was a new day.
Just as the sunlight touched Rain's face, he heard a sound come from her that was like a gentle blend of a sigh and a whimper. Lynx knelt by the bed and looked into her face, watching as her head turned gradually from side to side and her body stretched. Rain's face contorted in a cringe and he knew that she was feeling the pain from the incision in her stomach. He inched closer and touched his hand to the pillow beside her head.
"It's alright," he whispered, "I'm here. I'm right here."
Rain made the cooing sound again and her lips parted. She drew in a gasping breath and held it within her for a few seconds. As the breath slid out of her lungs, her eyelids fluttered and then slowly slid up until Lynx finally looked into her eyes.
Lynx felt his heart jump and he straightened slightly so that he could bring his face slightly closer to hers, but not so close that it would frighten her. He didn’t know what she was thinking as her eyes explored his face. He resisted the urge to touch her cheek or to lean forward and kiss her. He didn't want to push too far too fast even though now that she was awake and looking at him, he was even more confident than ever before that she was made to be his mate.
Rain's hands slid up from under the blanket and she stretched her fingers, and then her arms. He could see the color coming into her skin as the blood in her body began to flow again and warm her. The gentle pink flush was even more beautiful and he felt himself falling deeper in love with her. She hadn't taken her eyes away from him, and an instant later Lynx felt her hand join her gaze as it came up to rest on his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned his cheek into her palm, sighing at the touch of her skin. He felt her thumb stroke along his cheekbone and he reached up to cover her hand with his, applying slight pressure to press her skin closer to his.
"Lynx," she whispered and his eyes snapped open. "Lynx," she said again, "is that your name?"
Lynx was so shocked that he could barely bring himself to speak. He nodded, leaning closer to her.
"Yes. How did you know that?"
She smiled at him, the
expression further softening her face and making her eyes glitter.
"I could hear you," she said. "Whenever you were talking, I could hear you. It was like I was dreaming. It wasn't quite real and I couldn’t wake up or respond to you, but I could listen to you and it comforted me."
The admission made Lynx's heart swell and he smiled at her.
"I'm so glad." Suddenly he felt his mood darken. "Do you know what's happening?"
Rain turned away from him, looking up at the ceiling as if thinking about his question. She started to shift and struggle, and he tucked his hand behind her shoulders as they lifted up off of the mattress so that he could help her sit up. She winced when the pain of her incision hit her, and Lynx reached behind her to fold her pillow so that she could recline back on it. Her body relaxed as the position helped to ease the pain, but her hand dropped away from his face to press to her stomach.
"I only know what I could pick up from listening to you while you were in here with me."
"Do you remember the Covra?" he asked carefully.
Rain nodded, the expression on her face telling Lynx that there were horrific memories of the creatures coursing through her mind as she thought back on them.
"Yes. They did this to me, didn't they?"
"Yes. Everyone in the settlement."
Rain's head dropped back and her eyes closed.
"How long have we been here?" She asked. Lynx hesitated and she lifted her head to look at him. "Lynx? How long?"
"More than a century."
Panic crossed Rain's face and she sat up sharply, gasping in pain as she straightened.
"What happened to me?"
Lynx reached forward and brushed a piece of hair away from her face. Suddenly he realized that he was touching her, but he wasn't having the vision of her last moments as he had every other time he had made contact with her.
"What is it?" she asked, obviously seeing the look of surprise on his face as he continued to touch her hair and stroke her cheek.
Alien Romance Box Set: Uoria Mates II Complete Series (Books 1 - 10): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 34
