Kier risked a glance toward the front of the cave. Thargen’s swinging axes were holding back a group of four skeks, but two others had slipped past him. One of those was facing off against the sedhi, who was beating him with her auto-blaster as though it were a club. The other had the azhera pinned on the floor, their bodies a tangle of bloody claws and snapping jaws.
Growling, Kier fired a quick succession of bolts into the torso of the skeks in front of him, rammed his shoulder against the creature’s broad chest, and ducked to use it as a shield as he swung an arm back to shoot at the skeks attacking the azhera, which he could barely see at the edge of his field of view.
He couldn’t tell if he’d hit his target. There were powerful blows raining down on the body he was using as a shield, and the dead skeks was much too heavy for him to support for long. He shifted his arm to fire blindly around the dead skeks’ torso before shoving the corpse aside. The next enemy in line was already wounded and reeling, scorched plasma wounds smoking on its gut. Kier finished it quickly—and then he was finally at the opening to the passage.
The optics of his helmet saw easily through what must’ve been complete darkness in that tunnel—more skeks were approaching, their large bodies blocking the narrow passage too thoroughly for him to get an accurate estimate on their numbers. He could only assume their line stretched back for the tunnel’s entire length.
Kier fired indiscriminately into the tunnel. Both blasters flashed warnings—overheating was imminent.
“We’re nearly clear up there,” the sedhi called. She entered Kier’s peripheral vision a moment later, leaning against the wall as she moved toward him; her right thigh had a long gash across it, bleeding freely. “Something has stemmed the tide.”
“Our extraction window is open,” Kayl said over the comms.
“I still see them all over the woods,” said Yuri.
Thargen’s voice, hoarse but gleeful, carried back to Kier as he shouted, “Keep shooting those toothy fuckers, terran.”
Skeks howled in the tunnel, and their guns boomed. Projectiles bounced of Kier’s armor. He ignored the pain of the impacts. He had to keep shooting; he and his companions would be overrun before anyone reached the ship if this tunnel were left unguarded.
“Are you ready?” Kayl asked.
“We require a few moments.” Kier shoved himself aside, taking cover against the wall while keeping one blaster firing into the tunnel. He holstered the other blaster and reached for the explosives case on his belt.
The empty explosives case.
A hard lump of dread sank in his gut.
I do not like sensing that from you now, pulsed Kayl. You are supposed to be on the verge of escape.
A minor complication, brother. Feel free to kick your feet up while I resolve it.
“How many more?” the sedhi asked from beside Kier.
“Too many, I fear,” Kier replied. “And I will need to change power cells soon.”
Realization struck him suddenly. He dropped his gaze to the sedhi’s auto-blaster—the same one Thargen had been using minutes ago. “Give me the power cell.”
“It’s almost fried,” the sedhi said. “It’s cheap, unstable and probably unshielded.” Her eyes rounded for an instant before she opened her blaster’s chamber and ejected the power cell onto Kier’s waiting palm.
The power cell was smoking, but not yet melted. That meant it wasn’t depleted.
One chance at this.
All other sounds faded as Kier planted his foot on a dead skeks, leaned in front of the tunnel opening, and threw the power cell inside. He squeezed off three shots with his blaster.
The third hit its mark.
His helmet’s optics flared with a white flash as the power cell exploded, briefly silhouetting the approaching skeks before obliterating them. Kier tossed himself back against the cover of the wall as debris, glowing orange with heat, sprayed from the tunnel’s mouth. The howls of the skeks in the passage were drowned out by the sound of falling stone.
Kier knew without looking that the damage would only grant them a temporary reprieve. “We need to go.”
The sedhi preceded him along the ledge and dropped down quickly despite her injury. At the front of the cave, Thargen brought an axe down on the skull of the last standing skeks, splitting its head and neck in two. The vorgal was covered in blood—most of it blue, but there were spats of red mixed in.
The azhera was on his feet again, chest and shoulders heaving with ragged, panting breaths and dirty fur matted with glistening blood. He had the butt of his auto-blaster on the ground and was leaning on the weapon like a crutch.
Shouts echoed out of the passage as Kier dropped onto the cave floor; those voices hadn’t come from close to the opening, but they were not nearly far enough away.
Riniya was still curled up on the floor, and the kaital was beside her again, head down and body shivering. The sedhi was already helping the ilthurii to her feet, and the young borian was standing nearby, albeit unsteadily.
“We will be down in thirty seconds,” said Kayl over the commlink.
Flicking blood off his weapons, hands, and arms, Thargen jogged over to Kier and the others, deactivating the axes and attaching them to his belt as he moved. “Time to get the fuck out of here.”
Kier couldn’t help but sweep his gaze over the vorgal. Thargen was covered in cuts, and one of his eyes was squeezed shut; a gash over his eyebrow had poured blood over that half of his face. But he was grinning, and the wild light in his eye was undiminished. Beyond him lay dozens of corpses, a field of death and gore. How many had the vorgal killed?
“Thought we were past the creepy staring.” Thargen laughed as he crouched and lifted Riniya, settling her over his shoulder. The kaital recoiled when the vorgal reached for her.
“Can you walk?” Thargen asked.
She shook her head.
“Come on, then,” Thargen said with surprising gentleness in his rough voice. “Promise no one’s gonna hurt you anymore.”
Kayl’s voice pulsed in Kier’s mind. Make haste, brother.
“This ordeal is nearly through,” Kier said, retracting his helmet. The stench of blood, scorched flesh, and unwashed bodies stung his nose immediately. “We need but walk a few meters farther.”
For a few precious seconds, the kaital simply remained trembling on her knees. Another howl from the rear tunnel set her into sudden motion. She flung herself at Thargen, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he scooped her up and stood as though completely unburdened by the two females he was carrying.
The azhera wobbled, one of his legs buckling.
Kier hurried over to him, ducking to get his shoulders under one of the azhera’s big, furry arms to support the weakened being’s weight. The azhera leaned against Kier heavily; even in his current state, he likely outweighed Kier by at least fifteen kilos.
“We are touching down now,” Kayl said.
“We must move quickly.” Kier walked forward, grunting as the azhera struggled alongside him, and crossed the corpse-littered cave as fast as he could. The sedhi and ilthurii were at the corner of his vision, helping one another along. Outside, the plasma cannon was still firing with its rapid, one-two cadence. It was the predominant sound, but it was not enough to silence the pops of skeks gunfire and their ragged war cries.
Almost, brother, Kayl pulsed. You are almost here.
As Kier reached the bend that would lead to the opening—where the bodies were piled three-deep—a chorus of howls sounded from the rear of the cave. Kier twisted to look back, and every curse he knew flitted through his mind simultaneously.
The skeks were already out of the tunnel.
One of them fired its rifle as it charged toward the drop-off. The bullet struck the floor beside the borian, who was at the rear of the group. The borian reflexively stumbled aside. His legs gave out beneath him, and he fell with a cry.
Thargen’s lips peeled back—not in a grin now but in a furious sneer. His open eye met Kier’s
for an instant before he turned to face the oncoming skeks.
No. Oh, no.
Kier spun around, raising his blaster pistol. The azhera staggered, clamping a hand on Kier’s shoulder to keep himself upright.
The skeks—a group of at least half a dozen—leapt down from the ledge. Thargen took a long step forward and roared. Kier had never heard such a sound from any creature in all his life—it was thunderous, raw, brimming with a fury so primal it may well have predated the universe itself.
And it made the skeks hesitate.
Kier leveled his blaster and opened fire.
There were voices in his ear, voices in his head, but he ignored all of them, focused entirely on his weapon, his targets, and the people between the two who he did not want to hit.
Unfazed, Thargen heaved the kaital up, swinging her so she lay across his shoulders and partly atop the volturian, and closed the remaining distance between himself and the borian with another long stride. He crouched, muscles bulging, and caught the borian by the bicep.
More skeks emerged from the tunnel. The azhera tightened his hold on Kier’s shoulder and raised his auto-blaster, spraying bolts of plasma toward the passageway.
Thargen surged upright, turned toward Kier, and ran, dragging the panicked young borian behind him. Sweat trickled down his face, cutting paths through the blood spattered on his skin.
“They are bringing up—” Kayl’s voice was cut off by an explosion from outside that rocked the cave. Bits of stone and dust fell from the ceiling, clouding the air.
Kier’s heart froze, and the entire universe went still.
“Rockets,” Kayl finished flatly. “That one missed, but they are likely to bring the whole cliff down atop us even if they do not land a direct hit on the Fang.”
Thargen hurried past Kier, stomping over dead skeks. “Do I need to take your fucking tails in my mouth and drag you, too? Move!”
Skeks stirred toward the back of the cave, their figures obscured by the dust. Kier squeezed off a few more shots as he turned. Then he and the azhera scrambled around the bend.
The Fang’s entry ramp and cargo hold were all that was visible outside the cave; the cloaking field was holding, at least. The sedhi and ilthurii were already up the ramp, and Thargen stormed up just after them, the borian struggling to get onto his feet as he was towed along.
Skeks shouted from just around the corner behind Kier. He gritted his teeth and pushed harder, driving the heavier azhera as fast as he could. His feet finally came down on the ramp, and the azhera threw himself forward onto hands and knees, chest heaving even harder than before.
Kier sent a mind-pulse to his brother. Go!
The Fang’s engines thrummed, and the craft lifted off the ground.
A hand closed around the end of Kier’s tail. He glanced over his shoulder to see a bloodied skeks grinning up at him from the ground. It yanked hard on his tail, tugging him backward—opposite the motion of the ascending ship.
Kier’s stomach lurched as he rocked on his heels and his torso tipped past the edge of the ramp. He felt the ship slipping out from beneath him.
Kier! Kayl’s thought-voice yelled.
Something snagged on the front of his belt, halting his backward motion and increasing the strain on his tail tenfold as the skeks, still holding on, was lifted off the ground. Kier gritted his teeth. The ship gained altitude quickly, making the fires, trees, and enemies seem to shrink below.
The dangling skeks growled a single word. “Food.”
Kier swung his arm back and fired two plasma bolts into the skeks’ face. Its grip went slack, and the skeks plummeted to the ground at least fifty meters below.
Drawing in a ragged breath through his nostrils, Kier turned his attention ahead to find Thargen in front of him. The vorgal’s feet were planted wide apart, and one of his hands was braced against the doorframe. His other hand—or rather two of its fingers, as a quick downward glance confirmed—was hooked under Kier’s belt.
Thargen tugged Kier away from the edge and slapped the button to raise the ramp. Kier forced himself to breath slowly, seeking some semblance of calm.
You have greatly exceeded the limit on brushes with death I have afforded you, brother. Kayl’s mind-pulse was dry as ever, but that dryness could not mask the relief beneath.
If I recall correctly, Kayl, so have you.
“Thank you, Thargen,” Kier said.
Thargen was covered in blood and dirt, his clothing tattered and torn, and several of his cuts seemed to be actively bleeding, but he grinned all the same. “Woulda been funny if I had to actually catch your tail in my teeth, huh?”
Kier chuckled and shook his head. Whatever failure they’d suffered tonight, this had not been a loss. The surviving captives had been rescued, and Kier and Kayl had survived to carry on their hunt. That was thanks in no small part to the vorgal in front of him. “It might have taken me some time to find the humor in that.”
“Thargen?” someone called from deeper within the ship.
Thargen turned around. Kier sidestepped to look around the broad-shouldered vorgal.
Yuri was running down the corridor, her little boots clanking over the floor. Her eyes were wide, and her skin was pale.
“Sorry, zoani,” Thargen said, taking a step toward her and putting his arms out to the sides, “I’m covered in blo—”
Yuri leapt at Thargen, slamming into him hard enough to knock him back a step, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Thargen embraced her in turn and drew in a deep breath, tipping his face against her hair.
The two did not speak, did not acknowledge the exhausted, battered captives huddled around them nor the daevah within arm’s reach, did not even move save to squeeze one another tighter.
Even without sharing a psychic link with either of them, Kier could feel the love reverberating from Thargen and Yuri, could feel it flowing from their hearts like rays of light from a star.
And that light, for those few seconds, only deepened the shadows in the gaping chasm in his heart, drawing attention to the void in his triad, his incomplete daevalis. Until he and Kayl found their mate, their na’diya—which seemed unlikely, given their singular purpose in life—they would not know anything like what this vorgal and his terran shared.
Such is not for the likes of us, Kayl pulsed, a hint of melancholy coming through with his words.
For I am wrath, Kier replied.
And I am vengeance, Kayl continued.
Their minds finished the mantra together. And our only fate is to slay the tretin called Vrykhan.
But for the first time in many, many years, those words—which Kier and Kayl had exchanged so often—did not feel quite right. They did not feel quite so…inevitable. And though there was much to say and much to do, Kier couldn’t pull his attention away from Yuri, Thargen, and their uninhibited, unfiltered display of love.
Twenty-Four
They were home.
It was almost unreal to Yuri after everything they’d gone through, but she and Thargen were finally back home in Arthos. Yuri stared out the hovercar window, looking down at the bright neon lights, towering buildings and walkways, and crowded streets of the Undercity.
A shiver ran up her spine, and she clutched the small, gift-wrapped box in her lap. Looking down on the crowds like this, she couldn’t help but flash back to the horde of skeks charging toward the cave where Thargen and the others had made their stand. That was one of several memories from the last few weeks that would haunt her. Fortunately, she had many, many more good memories to outweigh the bad.
She glanced down at the big, warm, green hand possessively covering her thigh. As if sensing her thoughts, Thargen squeezed her leg. Yuri trailed her eyes up along his thick arm to meet his gaze briefly before he returned his attention to driving.
Nearly every moment with Thargen on Sotera—the planet they’d been marooned on, according to Kier and Kayl—had been wonderful. If it hadn’t been for the skeks and smugglers, it wo
uld have been a little taste of paradise. She’d miss those autumn colors, the clear water, the fresh air, the soft red grass, and most of all, the beautiful open sky.
Of course, the air had burned her lungs when she’d first breathed it, the days were chilly and the nights had been downright freezing, the thunderstorms were a level of terrifying she’d never imagined possible, there’d been little food to be found, and the rocks and fallen needles had torn the soles of her feet to pieces—but she stood by her prior thought. Under different circumstances, with the right equipment, their time on Sotera would’ve been the sort of vacation she’d needed for a long while.
But now they were home, and Thargen was taking her to his home to meet his family and friends…and to reunite her with her brother. She was both anxious and excited.
The hovercar sped up suddenly, making Yuri’s stomach flutter. Thargen banked to the side, tilting the hovercar at a harsh angle to dart past a slower vehicle.
“Why does it feel like everyone here drives even slower than before?” Thargen grumbled.
“I am sure that our destination will not go anywhere,” said Kayl from the back seat. “Would not some patience be prudent?”
Yuri turned her head and looked back at the twins. They were dressed in the same sort of form-fitting black jumpsuits they’d worn throughout the return trip on the Fang. The high-collared suits made the twins look leaner than they appeared while wearing their armor, but the daevahs were in no way weak or lacking muscle definition. Their tails were resting on the seat between them, hooked around each other with their ends flicking leisurely.
They both met Yuri’s gaze, and Kier smiled.
“I’ve been away from home for weeks, daevah,” Thargen said. “If I didn’t let an army of skeks stop me, I sure as hell won’t let the Infinite City’s infinite fucking traffic do it.”.”
As though to illustrate his point, he increased the vehicle’s speed further, cutting across the wide airway and passing directly in front of several other vehicles in the process.
“You are even more reckless a pilot than my brother,” Kayl grated, brow creasing.
Savage Desire (The Infinite City Book 4) Page 39
