"While you were locked, every time I touched you I could see the last few minutes before the Covra injected you. It was how I was able to figure out what had happened. I did it with every person in the settlement and found the weakness of the creatures."
"Their eyes."
"Yes. But now I’m not having the vision. I can touch you without seeing it."
Rain smiled faintly and touched his hand again.
"I guess you don't need to see it anymore."
The need for her surged within him, but he knew that now was not the time. He needed to tell her everything. She deserved to know what had happened to her kind and what they were doing to try to save them. If she remembered the Covra and their weakness, maybe she knew something that would help them as they continued to fight.
Chapter Eight
Zsilvia adjusted the bag on her hip and pressed on, walking as fast as she could across the open field. The group had spread out slightly, walking along in pairs or individuals several feet away from each other rather than as a tight group as they had when they were first approaching the boundary of the compound. It seemed like they were at once immersed in their own thoughts and experience of the new space, and trying to take up as much area as they could so that they would be better able to detect any threats that might come their way.
Suddenly she felt George give her hand a shake.
"What?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Look."
Zsilvia followed his point and saw the arch looming ahead of them. A figure appeared in the arch and Zsilvia heard Samira gasp behind them.
"Ty!"
The figure looked up and in an instant was running toward them. Samira ran ahead, dropping her bag so that she could move faster. When they reached each other, Ty swept Samira up into his arms and kissed her deeply, holding her a few inches off of the ground until their mouths parted and he lowered her to her feet.
"You're here!" Ty said happily, "I missed you so much."
"I missed you, too."
The rest of the group sped up to meet them and Zsilvia watched George approach Ty, holding out his hand.
"Hello," he said, "I'm George."
"He's the new professor for the university exchange program," Samira explained.
Ty nodded and took George's hand, shaking it firmly.
"I'm Ty. It's nice to meet you. Thanks for taking care of the girls for us."
George laughed.
"They've been taking care of me just as much. How are things in there?"
Ty glanced over his shoulder.
"They aren't good. It seems to be getting worse. Three more died this morning."
"How is Rain? Did the voice box work?" Samira asked.
"I don't know," Ty said, taking her hand and starting to guide them toward the arch. "Lynx hasn't let anyone in since last night."
"Have you been able to do surgery on any of the others and get the eggs out of them?" Zuri asked.
Ty nodded.
"We did all of the children first. None of them have died and we just couldn’t bear the thought of that happening to any of them. We had enough of the ointments to take care of all of them and about ten of the adults. There are so many more, though."
There was a shout from the arch just ahead and they all took off running toward the settlement. As soon as they got through the arch they saw a man lying on the ground ahead of them, his leg splitting open as horrific-looking black creatures emerged. Zsilvia recoiled, but George ran forward, his hand unhooking the blade at his hip as he went. Ero shouted again as he slashed at one of the creatures, missing its eye but severing one of its legs. The Covra hissed and reared back, presenting the sharp points on the ends of its legs. George skidded to a stop beside it and brought the tip of his blade down into the creature's eye, holding it in place as the Covra thrashed and hissed.
Zuri ran forward and joined the fight, pulling a short spear from her bag and tossing it toward one of the other creatures as it scurried in their direction. The spear embedded itself in the Covra's eye, but the spider-like creature continued. Ero lunged forward, pressing the Covra to the ground and pressing the spear deeper into its eye until the gleaming black body stilled and disintegrated into the ground.
With the final young Covra dead, Zsilvia watched Elianna drop her bag to the ground and start digging through it. She pulled out containers of ointments and a roll of long bandages.
"What are you doing?" Zuri asked.
The man's hand twitched slightly and Elianna nodded toward it.
"The eggs were in this man's leg, not in his abdominal cavity. The Covra didn't have far to go to get out, which means that they didn't eat through vital organs or arteries. This injury isn't life threatening and he's responding to our voices. I think we can save him."
George took his blade and cut away the leg of the man's pants so that they could better access the wounded area. His skin looked tattered and the muscles lay open, but Zsilvia had seen far worse injuries on some of the warriors when they returned home from battle. She knew that if they were able to get the right healing ointments onto him and bind it up quickly, he could be spared.
Ero and Zuri stepped away from the rest of the group to embrace and Zsilvia watched as he wiped a tear away from her cheek. Even in the horror of what was going on around them, the pair had found a moment of peace to enjoy together.
"Rain's awake!"
The sound of another voice coming toward them brought Zsilvia's attention away from Zuri and Ero and toward the settlement that lay below. Vax ran up to them and touched Ero's back.
"Rain is awake," he repeated. "Lynx sent me to tell you."
"Start talking!" Ivy said, reaching out to rest her hand on George's arm briefly where he crouched, packing ointment into the wound as Elianna cleaned the skin around it, "Now! Start talking!"
"She's right," Zuri said. "If Rain is awake, that means that the voice worked. Maybe it works like the Covra hatching. The more voices, the stronger the effect. Everyone talk. It doesn't matter what you say, just talk to him."
"Zsilvia, can you go with Vax and find somewhere that we can bring this man when we are finished with him? If we can get him awake, he's going to need rest to recover."
"Absolutely."
Zsilvia kissed George on the top of his head not wanting to stop him from his reassurances to the man that they continued to work on. She followed Vax swiftly down the hill and into the settlement, looking around her in shock at the unmoving people that dotted the street. It was just as the men had described it, and yet seeing it made it even more horrifying. She could see a few children in positions that indicated they had been playing when the Covra had gotten them, and the sight of the bandages wrapped tightly around their little bodies from where Ty and the others had cut out the eggs was at once comforting and disturbing.
"Where is Lynx?" she asked.
Vax pointed out one of the buildings and Zsilvia ran toward it. She knew that she was supposed to be finding a place for the man at the entrance to the settlement to rest, but something compelled her to see Lynx and Rain. She entered the house and climbed up the stairs toward the sound of voices. The door to a bedroom on the upper hallway stood halfway open and she knocked on it carefully before pushing it open.
"Hello?"
"Zsilvia!" Lynx said in surprise, "When did you get here?"
He had been kneeling on the floor beside the bed and now climbed to his feet to greet her.
"Just now. The others are still up the hill."
"This is Zsilvia," Lynx said, looking at the pretty woman sitting in the bed. "She is the one who had the idea about you needing a human voice to unlock you. Zsilvia, this is Rain."
"Thank you," Rain said, reaching for her hand.
Zsilvia took her hand and squeezed it.
"Of course. Now I must ask a favor of you."
Rain looked at her quizzically.
"What?"
"The re
st of my group is at the entrance to the settlement trying to save a man that is up there. The Covra put their eggs in his leg rather than in his stomach so when they hatched they didn't kill him. They are talking to him now trying to unlock him and when they do they want to bring him somewhere to rest so that he can recover. They sent me here to find him a place, but I think that he should be back in his own home. If he can't tell us, can you tell us who he is and where he lives?"
Rain nodded.
"I can." She paused and looked at Lynx, and then back at Zsilvia. "How many have died?"
"I don't know," Zsilvia said quietly, wanting to keep her as calm as she could, "but we are going to do everything we can to keep anyone else from dying. You can trust us."
Chapter Nine
Loralia stepped back from the woman stretched across the wooden floor and tied her hair up so that it was out of the way. Bannack knelt on the floor beside the prone woman and carefully cut into the area around the puncture wound that the Covra had created. He moved cautiously but swiftly, removing the clutch of eggs with the fast, confident motion that came from having performed the same procedure several times before.
Outside Loralia could hear Zuri, Elianna, Samira, Ivy, and George shouting as they moved up and down the street. After the man who they had encountered when they first entered the settlement woke and was strong enough for them to settle him back into his own bed in his home, they realized that Elianna had been right. Their plan became to focus their surgical efforts on those who contained the Covra eggs in the most vulnerable areas of their body including their backs and their stomachs while also using their voices as much as possible to wake the people as quickly as they could. This allowed them to save those who would have died almost instantly when the Covra young hatched and then react if the eggs within any of the others hatched, leaving injuries that wouldn't threaten their lives.
The hiss of Covra young falling under the blades of the warriors echoed around her, but Loralia tried to concentrate on the songs the humans sang instead. They had been shouting for some time now and had suddenly started singing songs that they remembered from Earth, which struck Loralia as strangely funny. The Light Ones would never have heard those songs, except for the few ancient lullabies that the women and George cobbled together with the few words or partial lines that each of them remembered, but somehow the loud, jubilant singing seemed to be working even more powerfully than just them shouting out words and greetings. The woman that lay on the floor as she tended to her incision while Bannack destroyed the eggs was shifting and murmuring slightly, and Loralia knew that she would wake soon. She poured a small amount of serum between her lips to keep down the pain of the procedure and finished wrapping her in the bandages.
Just as she did with the others that they had helped over the course of the day and a half since they had arrived in the settlement, Loralia would sit with the woman until she was fully awake, find out her name, and give her a brief explanation of what was happening. She would help her into her bedroom, bring her water and food, and encourage her to get some rest so that her body could heal. Then she would move on to the next. Loralia was hoping that they were making fast enough progress through the Light Ones and would soon finish. The count of the dead was already so high, and she didn't know if she could bear to see the tears of another wife who realized her husband had died, or the look of terror on the face of a man who didn't know where his wife and children were.
"Pyra?"
Loralia was climbing down the stairs of the house after helping tuck the woman who had told them her name was Andrea into her bed. Bannack had left the room to give the two women privacy to talk and now was standing at the front door of the house looking out over the street.
"They're back!" he exclaimed and ran out of the house.
Loralia followed after him, picking up her skirt so that it wouldn't tangle around her feet. Pyra was standing in the middle of the street with the other warriors who had gone with him to the other kingdom around him. Behind them was a group of people who she didn't recognize. One of them turned to look at her and Loralia immediately stopped. She was struck by the ethereal beauty of the man looking at her, but there was something else. Something radiated off of him, something inherent and inexplicable that made Loralia not want to get any closer to them.
"Bannack," she called out to her mate, stopping him before he got all the way to his leader and the others.
Bannack turned and came back to her, a questioning look on his face.
"What is it, Loralia?"
"There is something strange about them, Bannack," she said, taking hold of his arm, but not looking away from the beautiful creatures who crowded behind the warriors.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I don't know, but there is something really odd about them."
Bannack took her hand and moved it off of his arm.
"Do they seem dangerous?" he asked.
"Not really."
"Then there are more important things that we need to be doing than thinking about them."
Bannack walked away and Loralia felt her stomach turn slightly. She knew that he was right. There were still people throughout the settlement who needed their help and Covra young were hatching at a far faster pace than they had, making it essential that they all work together to ensure that they destroyed all of them and saved the Light Ones. She took a hesitant step forward and then followed Bannack, trying to trust him as much as she had always asked him to trust her.
"They've agreed to come help us," Pyra was saying as Loralia approached. "They say that their elders told them stories about the Light Ones and the war. They sent explorers to try to help them when they stopped hearing from the Light Ones, but none of them were ever able to find the settlement. None of them who were alive at that time were ever able to see the settlement or any of the Light Ones again."
Bannack looked out over the group of the beautiful strangers and Loralia saw him nod.
"We really appreciate you coming," he told them, "We need all the help we can get."
As he explained what needed to be done to save the people and kill off the Covra, Loralia backed away from Bannack and made her way away from the main street. She needed to get away for just a moment. The sounds of death and pain around her had become too much, and now the uncomfortable sense radiating off of the strangers pushed her past what she felt like she could handle. She needed to get away from the fear and the chaos, to take a second to breathe.
Chapter Ten
"You're up!" Lynx said as Rain made her way carefully down the stairs.
He got up from the chair where he had been sitting in the living room and rushed up to her, wrapping an arm around her to offer support and help her the rest of the way down.
"I'm alright," Rain laughed, "I feel fine."
Despite the reassuring words, Lynx wouldn't let go of her until he got her all the way to the sofa and lowered her down.
"Are you hungry?"
"Starving."
Lynx rushed into the kitchen and brought her a plate of the lunch he had prepared for himself while she was still sleeping. She had spent much of the time since she had first woken up resting, but her occasional soft sighs and movements took away his fear that she was sinking back into the lock that had kept her away from him. They ate quietly together and then Lynx put the dishes back into the sink before sitting beside her and taking her hands.
"The warriors killed the last of the Covra this morning," he said.
Rain's eyes widened and a smile broke across her face.
"That's amazing."
Lynx opened her arms and Rain dove forward into them. He swept her against him, wrapping her arms around him like he had wanted to since the first time he saw her. He buried his face in her hair and rested a kiss to the side of her neck.
At the feeling of his lips on her skin, Rain stilled. She pulled back slowly, lifting her eyes to his. Lynx hesitated for a moment, then
leaned forward and touched a kiss to her lips. Rain drew in a breath and then looked at him again.
"I heard you talking to the other men," she said softly. "You called me your mate."
"Yes," he said.
"I don't understand what you mean by that."
"You realize that I am not human. None of us who were here first are."
"I know. Even a century isn't long enough for us to evolve that much."
Lynx smiled and shook his head.
"No."
"What are you?"
"Denynso. Our kind mate for life. There is one other person who was made for each of us, and once we find that person and bond, we are together for the rest of our existence."
"And you believe that I am that for you?"
"I don't believe it," Lynx said, "I know it. I have been waiting for you my entire life. I knew it the moment that I saw you."
"How did you know?" Rain asked breathlessly.
Their faces had started to move toward each other and Lynx indulged his desire for her by sweeping the tip of his tongue along the center of her lips.
"I could feel it," he responded. "When my kind find our intended mates, we immediately know. We become aggressive," he kissed her softly, "and protective," he kissed her again, "and we can't think of anything but our need to bond with that mate."
"Is that all?" Rain asked, her face now so close that his forehead rested against hers.
"No," he said, sliding closer to her, "I knew when I saw you that you were meant to be my mate," he took her hand and placed it on the inside of his thigh, flattening his hand over hers so that he could slide her palm up, "because my body has never needed someone like it needs you."
Lynx brought her hand up to rest on the hard swell that had formed at the front of his pants. She gasped and he pressed her hand down more insistently, cupping it so that she held his surging erection against her palm. He moaned as she gave a slight squeeze and turned her hand to better hold him.
Rain looked into his eyes and buried her other fingers into his hair. She held his head firmly and their mouths met again. Lynx touched the tip of his tongue to her lips and she complied with the gentle pressure, opening her mouth to allow his tongue in to massage hers. As their kiss deepened, Lynx tucked an arm around her waist and stood, sweeping her up so that he cradled her against the front his body as he made his way across the living room and up the stairs to the bedroom.
Alien Romance Box Set: Uoria Mates II Complete Series (Books 1 - 10): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 35
