by Amelia Jade
“I’m trying.”
The double sword-armed thing looked at the float, and then with a casual movement of its lower body kicked the entire mass of metal at Vanek. He yelped and dove out of the way. It bounced and rolled across the floor before tearing the wall off the warehouse as it exited the side wall. More light poured inside, though it was still obscured by the rain.
“Please don’t lose, Vanek,” she said as he got back to his feet. “I need you not to lose.”
“Why?” he asked, struggling to stand, still planting himself between her and the attacker.
This was her moment. She felt it. The time to reveal her feelings to him was upon her. All she had to do was open her mouth and speak up.
So why was her jaw locked tight?
Images of her father rose up, burying her under a lifetime worth of abandonment and fear of opening herself up to pain. Her muscles clenched tight, her brain fighting against her heart in a struggle for supremacy. She looked at Vanek, watching him wearily get to his feet once more.
He was doing this for her. Trying to fight this implacable monster, this juggernaut, not for himself, but to save her. No matter what happened, he needed to know that she cared. That she would be able to move past the anger she felt over the previous night. And if they were both to die there, he deserved to know that he wasn’t dying uncared for.
Without being…
She couldn’t even think the words anymore. It hurt too much. She couldn’t bear that pain.
Not again.
Vanek was knocked down, scrambling backward out of range of the attacker, and Harlow was forced to flee as they closed on her position.
Tell him!
But she couldn’t.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vanek
He fell back before the Outsider.
It was over now. He wasn’t going to be able to last. For a brief moment his heart had soared as he’d thought Harlow was going to tell him something about how she felt. But in the end she’d not spoken, staying quiet as the Outsider used its advantage against him.
Vanek was peeved that it was using his own strength against him after sapping it from him the night before, but there was little he could do about it. Despite eating far more ration bars than he ever wanted to see again in his life, he had been unable to recover fully. There just wasn’t enough time.
“It’s okay,” he said as he bumped up against her, urging her to keep moving. “I understand.”
Harlow got to her feet and started backing away with him. Vanek could barely hold his sword arm upright now, wobbling somewhat unsteadily as they retreated together. At some point her fingers found his free hand, squeezing them tight.
“You need to run,” he said.
“What?”
“Run. Away. Get out of here. Corde and Kallore are on their way. They’ll be here soon. You need to survive until they do. They’ll kill this thing. But I can’t, Harlow.”
“What? Vanek, you need to! Fight it!”
“Can’t,” he said, the word garbled and barely understandable through his fatigue. “Too tired. Go now. I’ll use what I have. I’ll hold it off. You need to run. Save yourself. Please.”
“I thought you were going to kick this thing’s ass.”
He smiled at her condescending tone. Normally it would have given him a boost as she played to his ego, but now he was just too exhausted, too far gone. There was nothing left. No energy left for him to spend.
“Looks like this is it for me,” he said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be strong enough.”
He sagged to the floor, pushing back as he went. The Outsider came after him but he used some of the last of his strength to hit it with a fireball, the unexpected blow flipping it over and back across the warehouse. No damage marred its black chitinous exterior as it rose, his attack catching it off-stride more than anything.
“You have to be strong enough, Vanek. You need to survive this.”
“Can’t.”
She snarled and rushed back to his side. “Now you listen to me,” she snapped, looking him straight in the eyes. “There is no way the man that I love is going to lose to some emo-alien motherfucker. You got that?”
Vanek’s gaze fixed on her with sudden vigor. “What did you say?”
“I said I love you,” she said, surprise echoing in the whites of her blue eyes, as if she hadn’t believed herself capable of saying it. “Dammit, I love you.”
And she kissed him. Vanek’s ears perked up at a sound and he pulled her out of the way, lunging to his feet as the Outsider’s sword plunged down where her back had been.
His sword flamed to life, and he easily swatted the blow aside as energy poured into him. Every muscle of his body swelled with power and his sword grew brighter with each hammering beat of his heart.
Vanek faced the Outsider, gripping his sword in both hands as he stared it down. “Now you’re in big, big trouble,” he growled into the deafening silence of the warehouse.
The creature shrieked, the first noise it had made and lunged at him, moving faster than he’d ever seen. Vanek blocked the blows as best he could, but it was simply faster than he was. He backed away, astounded by the ferocity of the creature.
It batted his sword out of the way and a bladed arm came to rest against his chest. Vanek roared as he realized despite it all that he’d lost. Harlow’s admission of her love was simply too little too late. It was going to suck the rest of his lifeforce from him, leaving nothing but an empty husk of a corpse.
He closed his eyes, preparing to accept his defeat. The red-orange glow of his fire disappeared as he let it flicker out, and for a brief second the back of his eyelids were black. That didn’t last however, as a blue glow, brilliant in its brightness, burst into being. Vanek’s eyes popped open and he witnessed something remarkable.
Tendrils of blue energy emerged from his chest, but this time they didn’t surge into his opponent, empowering it. Instead they latched onto the sword-arm, holding it fast. The Outsider struggled, but it was held firm.
Vanek howled as his body arced with energy, pouring more and more of it into the sword arm. The Outsider began to panic, pulling fiercely, but it didn’t matter. The tendrils of energy plunged deep into the black armor-like substance, and it began to shake. The entire warehouse was bathed in blue light now, and he grinned evilly as the sword arm simply disintegrated, starting from the tip where it was pressed against him and moving up its length. Black ash burst outward and the blue energy exploded, blasting the Outsider across the warehouse.
“KICK HIS ASS, VANEK!” Harlow shouted from behind him. “Then get over here so I can show you just how much I love you!”
He turned to grin at her, lifting one hand to point at her. Red-tinged eyes went wide as he saw his skin begin to glow.
“I’ll be right there,” he said, his voice deeper than he’d ever heard, louder and more powerful than even when he spoke in his dragon form, filling the warehouse to bursting. “There’s something I need to do first.”
Vanek stalked across the distance as the Outsider rose to its feet, the entire front of its armor riddled with cracks. It shrieked again and came at him, its arm even now sprouting a new sword as liquid-like tendrils of its armor leapt upward from what would be its fist in a nauseating lifelike healing manner.
But that was nothing compared to the transformation happening in Vanek. His heart swelled with the love of his mate, and as he walked across the warehouse that power manifested itself in flame. Black hair that fell to his shoulders bounced lively as it grew brighter and brighter until each strand was a living flame itself. His skin crackled and came to life, turning red-orange as flames erupted all across his body.
A living avatar of flame, he greeted the Outsider with a booming laugh. A blue nimbus of energy at his core, he went on the offensive, and for the first time in history the Outsiders learned just how powerful a mated dragon could be.
One fiery hand rose up and grasped a black-bladed sword, h
olding it firm. Vanek snapped the blade in half, tossing it at the creature. Its other arm rose to block it, and as it did he casually sliced off its other arm with a backhand blow.
It tried to get away, but he stepped forward and without a second thought plunged his fist into its chest. The flames effortlessly parted the matte-black armor and his arm sunk in nearly to his elbow.
“Goodbye,” he snarled, and poured energy into the other creature.
It shrieked over and over again, but imbued with the power of his mate and her love, he held it firm. Nothing was going to escape his righteous wrath now. The black armor swelled and began to crack as its body filled with an energy that wasn’t its own. Light began to be visible through the cracks, and as they grew wider the flames eating it from the inside revealed themselves.
“It’s time for you to die,” he said, and with a howl sent even more fire into the Outsider.
It shrieked louder than before, the sound assaulting his ears, but it was too late.
Without warning the armor burst as the flames literally blew it apart from the inside, showering the warehouse in fragments of its armor and a rain of purple goop.
Vanek sagged backward, his eyes wide.
He’d done it. He’d actually done it. He’d killed an Outsider!
The flames surrounding his body died away, and with a shake of his arm his sword vanished into thin air as well. It was over.
“Harlow?” he asked, turning around.
“I hope you have a good explanation for this one as well,” she said, spitting out purple goo and wiping it from her face.
“I love you,” he said, saying the words again.
“I love you too,” she echoed. “But what the hell, man? I’m covered in purple goo!”
Vanek couldn’t help it. He roared with laughter. The look of stunned disbelief on Harlow’s face only made him howl harder. A moment later, despite everything, Harlow joined him. They fell into each other’s arms, lying on the ground, screaming with laughter as relief over everything filled them.
Corde and Kallore found them like that ten minutes later, staring bizarrely at the two purple-goo covered figures in a mixture of confusion and happiness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Harlow
“You know, I saw you fight the…what did you call it, Outsider?”
Vanek nodded, his hand gripping hers a little tighter.
“I saw it happen. You turned into fire, like a torch. It happened in front of my eyes, right in here,” she said, pointing at the warehouse looming up in front of them. “Then there was the purple goo, which by the way, does not taste like chicken. But I still don’t believe it.”
Her mate chuckled heartily from next to her, though he wisely refrained from saying anything. It still made her heart flutter when she thought about it.
A mate.
In the aftermath of the Outsider attack, Vanek had told her all about his real mission with the military, and the countdown he’d been working with to try and kill one. It had instantly reaffirmed her hatred of the military with the way they’d treated the man she loved. But he’d brushed that aside, and so she’d been forced to as well.
He’d also revealed to her that she was his mate. It had taken her a bit to get over her initial skepticism, but the more she’d thought about it, the more her arguments against it began to resemble Swiss cheese. There was something special about the bond she and Vanek shared, something tangible and yet undefinable. Her attraction to him was far stronger than it had any right to be, and it wasn’t just about the physical connection, though that was definitely more than a fringe benefit.
“What are you thinking about, my love?” he asked as they stood outside the warehouse.
“You,” she said plainly. “Us. Being mates.”
“Having trouble accepting it still?” Vanek asked the question gently, but she could sense his worry behind it all, though he tried to hide it from her.
“Just like the Outsider thing, and you claiming to be a dragon, I’m in disbelief, despite there being ample amounts of truth.” She squeezed his hand and leaned her head on his arm, feeling the tautness of his bicep against her temple. “It goes against everything I’ve ever been taught. Everyone knows dragons aren’t real. So believing in it is just going to take some time.”
“I understand.”
“Come here,” she said with a grin, reaching up and pulling his head down to her level so she could reassure him that she wasn’t having any doubts about him.
Once Harlow was satisfied she’d thoroughly assuaged any concerns he might have had, she released her hold on the back of his head, and removed her other hand from between his legs. She grinned as Vanek shifted uncomfortably from side to side, the results of her handiwork still visible in his jeans.
“That,” he paused, looking down again, “was not very nice.”
“You won’t be saying that once I finish what I started,” she teased, bouncing her eyebrows suggestively.
Vanek nodded thoughtfully. “Perhaps. Although you might find it difficult to do so if you can’t move your hands.”
Long black hair fell across his face as he looked down at her, obscuring almost everything except for the wicked look in his eyes. Harlow’s breath caught in her throat at the implications.
“Is it getting hot out here, or is it just me?”
Vanek smiled and took her hand once more. “Come on, let’s go assess the damage.”
Cringing but knowing it was necessary, she let him lead her up to the sliding door. Neither of them had been back since the fight, and she was dreading how bad it was going to look. Her poor floats.
“I still can’t believe you cut one of my lovelies in half,” she griped, shaking her head as he slid the door out of the way. “What did they ever do to you?”
“Get in the way of me killing a monster.”
She glared at him. “Don’t you go having appropriate answers! That’s not allowed, okay? I need to get my complaining out now.”
Vanek looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “I’m pretty sure you’ve been doing a lot of that the past few days.”
Harlow nodded. “Well yeah, what did you expect? Every time I started to complain I got laid. That’s positive reinforcement of my behavior if I ever heard it.”
“I was doing that to try and shut you up!” he protested. “I wanted to make you feel better.”
“And you did!” she said, flashing him a toothy grin. “And how!”
Vanek shook his head. “I’ve been had.”
“Oh yes. Very much so.”
He groaned and flicked on the lights.
To her surprise they flashed on almost right away. Looking upward she saw that the big spotlights had been replaced by large banks of neon-tubed lights, far quicker to come to life.
It was what the lights showed her though that really made Harlow’s jaw bounce off the floor.
“Vanek…” she said, staring in amazement at the sight before her. “How…?”
“Do you like it?” her mate rumbled shyly.
It sounded weird coming from him, but something she’d learned over the past week was that Vanek wanted nothing more than to make her happy. He would do whatever it took to make that happen, but he was still learning modern customs, and his nerves came more from ensuring he hadn’t overstepped his boundaries than anything else. It was cute and so utterly adorable.
“Like them? I love them!” she shouted, sweeping forward to examine the row of brand-new parade floats.
The six machines, coated in dull black paint so as to be as unobtrusive as possible, were lined up in two columns of three. If they could sparkle like a brand-new sports car, they would. She admired the clean lines and sharp welds of the reinforced steel cages that were locked into their upright position. Driver’s seats were clean and devoid of rips and tears, unlike her old ones. The wheels had plenty of tread on them.
“Oh Vanek, it’s perfect,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck and le
tting him hoist her into the air. “How did you manage this?”
“I had a little help,” he said with a smile. “The military, once provided with proof of the fact that these things could be killed, were more than willing to continue funding our program. So the money was there. Corde and Kallore did most of the heavy lifting. I think they felt a little embarrassed that they weren’t able to kill the thing, when I was.”
She smiled and kissed him a few more times. “Did you ever figure out what the difference was?”
“We think so,” he said a little more solemnly, setting her down and stepping closer to the nearest machine, running his fingers along the steel piping. “You’re aware that the Outsiders can somehow sense the bond between a mated pair, right?”
“Right. Something to do with the lifeforce, right?”
“Precisely. We’re still not sure what, but the two are obviously intertwined. The difference is, you acknowledged that bond while I was still fighting it. That somehow gave me protection from it, and greater power to confront it. The others, their mates didn’t truly open themselves up to the bond until after the fight.” He shrugged. “As near as we can tell, of course. There’s no hard science behind this, but after discussing it with the others, that’s the conclusion we came to.”
Harlow thought it over. “So what you’re telling me is that I killed the Outsider when I told you I loved you. Which I do, by the way.”
He chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. “Well, I mean, I stuck my flaming hand inside the creature and made it explode. So I kind of killed it.”
“Maybe. But without me, you wouldn’t have had a flaming hand,” she said, bouncing her index finger off her chin in exaggerated thoughtfulness.
“If it weren’t for me, the Outsider would have killed you,” Vanek pointed out.
“But if it weren’t for me—”
His lips found hers, cutting off any further words.
“Hey!” she protested as he lifted her into the air once more, holding her tight. “I’m not complaining this time!”
She wrapped her short legs around his tight waist as best she could, digging her fingers into his thick mane of hair as they kissed.
