Interlude

Chapter 29

Ghosie

Earlier

Laser bullets fly all around me. I duck and take out the two Nelecs in the trees above the dragon and me before looking at the warlock, who is wrapped up. Lila is trying to untangle him, but I know it isn’t going to work. Nelec web is one of the toughest substances in the galaxy. Every little piece she manages to remove grows back stronger. The only way to untangle him is for me to disrupt it and drag him out.

I watch as Brannock tries to get Lila to move, and she stubbornly refuses. Cursing drags my attention to the front of the fight. Zeydan is down too. Both of our most powerful players were taken out. We need them back in the fight if we are going to win this, and only I can help with that.

I hurry over to them. “Go, I’ve got this,” I shout at them. “Lead them away, and I’ll make sure the warlock and god are safe.”

They pause for a split second, exchanging a glance, but I see the moment they decide to trust me. They race to join the others, the dragon also leaving my side to follow.

“We need to move. We need to draw them away from Xavier and Zeydan so Ghosie can do his thing,” Brannock shouts at Saxon, who is quick to follow his lead. He takes off, drawing the Madovians away. The cat and snake change course and follow, and it works—the temptation to chase too much for the Madovians. They follow the rest of my friends, taking the green circle of protection with them.

I breathe a sigh of relief, looking around to make sure all the Nelecs and Madovians left behind are actually dead. I don’t want any of them sneaking up behind me while I’m trying to free the other two.

I take a moment to use my gun on them, putting a couple of shots in each head and body just to make sure nothing is going to leap up and attack us, then I shove my guns back into my leathers and approach Xavier. His eyes are wide, but he’s still unable to move, the web causing his body to become numb. The sounds of the fight fade into the distance, leaving the surrounding forest eerily quiet.

I crouch down next to the warlock. “We have to be quick. We don’t want the trees to start draining you of your life force,” I tell him as I watch a root start to snake out from the closest one. “This is going to be a little uncomfortable for you because I need to touch you, and my fur is going to make you happy to see me,” I tell him, slightly ashamed, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.

It’s fine, just get me out of here. We need to catch up with the others.

I blink in surprise at hearing his voice, but I really shouldn’t be surprised since he’s a warlock.

My hands start to vibrate, my matter disruption powers causing them to blur and pass through the sticky web, wrapping around the warlock’s body. I need to be careful, I need to use the same power on his body to make his matter disrupt enough to pass back through the web without breaking apart. I watch as his body starts to vibrate, and his eyes roll back in his head. I hear him groan in discomfort as his body reaches the right frequency, and then I drag him through the web, the sticky substance passing harmlessly through his disrupted form.

I drag him forward so he isn’t caught in it again and allow my powers to sink away from him. His body reforms in front of me before I remove my hands. He stumbles a little, the numbing feeling fading instantly. He clenches his hands, and his jaw is tight. I reach out to steady him.

“No!” he shouts, holding up his hands and stumbling back from me. Hurt stabs at my chest, and I guess he must feel it, because when he looks up, his eyes are foggy.

“Whoa, no. Thank you, but I was fighting my need to rub my body against yours. If you touched me again, I would have succumbed and climbed you like a tree,” he rasps as I see him impressively fight off the effect of my fur. “Although I reserve the right to try this again, now is not the time.”

I chuckle and leave him to recover as I move over to do the same thing to the god. When I get to him, I drop to my knees, and a wave of panic rushes over me. There are three tree roots wrapped around his legs, and they are pulsing. I can literally see them sucking the power out of Zeydan, his fox form fading in color before my very eyes.

“Whoa.” Xavier approaches me. “Those trees are no joke.” He reaches out to grab one to rip it off the god, but I hold up my hand.

“Stop. It’s probably better that we don’t touch them either,” I tell him, pulling out one of my guns and checking the charge. It’s half full, so I aim it at the tree root farther back so I won’t risk hitting Lila’s future mate. I think harming a god is probably bad for one’s own karma as well. Carevasta bears used to worship the old gods, but Markit, the god of air, was our patron god. Regardless, I want to stay on his good side if I have hope of exploring what Lila and I could possibly have.

The sound of the laser firing is a sharp ping in the air, and it hits the first tree root, severing it. It lets out a piercing sound, almost like a scream, before it slithers back toward the tree it came from. The remaining part around the fox’s leg shrivels up and falls off, turning to that black dust the minute it hits the ground. Thankful it was successful, I make quick work of the other two roots, watching as they both react the same way. I pass my gun back to Xavier before reaching for the god. He’s unconscious, so I can’t apologize for the effect of my fur. Then again, I don’t know if it will affect him. His body blurs, and I drag him through the surrounding web, his much thicker than the one that had been around the warlock. I’m assuming more than one Nelec attacked him.

When he’s clear, I lay him down on the ground. “What are we going to do with him? We can’t leave him here without any protection, the trees would be on him again in no time.”

“Lila would never forgive us,” Xavier agrees before waving his hands, his powers unaffected because the tree roots hadn’t gotten to him yet. The large fox rises into the air and hovers. “This is going to suck for him, but it’s better than leaving him behind. Come on,” he calls and starts to follow the path the fight went. I watch in amazement as the unconscious floating god bobs along behind him, occasionally smacking into a branch when the gaps are smaller than he can reasonably fit through.

“He’s going to be covered in bruises,” I mutter, taking up the rear to guard him. I pull out my gun again, almost certain there is nothing left alive behind us, but I don’t want to make an assumption and have it bite us in the ass.

“Better than dead,” is his flippant response, and I guess he isn’t wrong.

We pass an occasional dead Madovian, both of us putting laser shots into them just to be sure, but when we finally catch up to everyone, the two of us stop and stare at the sight in front of us. Saxon and Tirrian are crouched beside a whimpering Maxsim while Silac, back in his humanoid form, albeit covered in Madovian blood, is doing the same thing I did and making sure everyone is dead. It looks like a massacre. There are Madovian body parts strewn everywhere, some even hanging from trees, with their blood on almost every surface.

“Holy fuck,” I mutter, taking in the carnage.

“Aww, man, we missed it.” Xavier pouts. “I didn’t get to kill a single one.”

Saxon chuckles. “That’s because they got the drop on you. You snooze, you lose,” he jokes, and Xavier flips him off.

Tirrian rolls his eyes at the Vilaxian. “Don’t lie, we didn’t do this either.”

“Who did then?” Xavier asks, sounding as confused as I feel, but then I look around and notice people are missing.

“Where are Lila and Brannock?” I ask when I don’t see either of them.

“They did this,” Tirrian says as he strokes his hand over the lightning cat, trying to soothe him. He’s dripping blue blood from a significant gouge in his side.

“Just the two of them?” I can’t believe those two could cause this much mayhem.

“Maxsim went down, and Lila lost her shit, going into berserker mode, and Brannock followed her down the path. When all of the Madovian’s were dead and she turned her attention to us, he distracted her by making her chase him. I’m assuming he’s trying to get her to switch back out of berserker mode.” The dragon doesn’t seem too worried as he pulls a communicator out of a pocket of his leathers.

“She was going to kill us.” Silac sounds a little perturbed, but Xavier waves a hand.

“She wasn’t herself, and she will get better. Brannock says the older they are, the easier it is to switch off. They’ll either be fucking or fighting to cool the berserker mode. I’m personally hoping for fucking.”

I blink, stunned at what I’m hearing.

“You’re okay with your intimate fucking him?”

“Not only am I okay with it, I encouraged it. Poor guy hasn’t had a release in over seven hundred years. That has to be causing some pent-up emotions.”

Saxon scoffs at his friend, dragging our attention back over to the injured cat. “I’m going to return to the ship with Maxsim and get him to Link so he can heal him. I don’t know how long Lila is going to be, and he needs medical treatment now. Link should be able to patch him up until Lila can return and use her Celestian powers on him.”

We hear the dragon radio the ship and give them the details. There’s a reply, but I don’t pay attention because I notice the god start to twitch.

“Xavier,” I call to get the warlock’s attention. He turns back as Maxsim and Saxon disappear, leaving behind the dragon and the snake to help us find Lila and then her grandma.

He lowers the god to the ground, and we watch as his whole body shivers before he reforms into his humanoid form. Xavier waves a hand, and he’s clothed in one of those skirts he was wearing earlier.

“Ugh.” He groans, rolling into a sitting position before pulling up his knees and grabbing his head. “What the fuck happened?”

“It wasn’t just the Madovians, they had Nelecs too,” I explain, and he hisses aggressively.

“They took out you and the warlock before we even noticed they were in the trees,” Silac explains.

“Lila?” Zeydan’s head whips around as he looks for her and struggles to his feet when he doesn’t see her. I put out a hand to help him but stop myself, cursing the effect of my fur. Silac takes my place, steadying the god.

“She’s fine. We’ll catch up with them soon, I’m certain,” Tirrian assures him.

“She and the Aaz’axian are just working off the aggression.” Xavier winks suggestively, and I can see the exact moment the god comprehends.

“Ah. Well, good. Okay, let’s go, it isn’t far.” He stumbles slightly and groans, grabbing his head again, but he leads us away from the site of such cruel destruction. I heard rumors and tales about the Aaz’axian forces, but seeing it certainly hammers home how deadly they are. It’s no wonder the Una’s race was decimated in their war.

We follow the god, and while he said it wasn’t far, it’s still at least an hour of us stumbling through the forest, which seems to get even thicker the closer we get to the middle.

About twenty minutes into the walk, a piercing scream echoes through the forest, the first noise I’ve heard apart from our own breathing and occasional quiet curse. I think we’re all just subdued, thankful we survived the fight with the Madovians. We may not have if Lila and Brannock hadn’t assumed berserker form. There were way more than we anticipated, not to mention the Nelecs.

“What is that?” I ask as we freeze. Zeydan’s brows furrow in concentration as he scans the tree line, but Xavier just chuckles.

“Lila has a good set of lungs on her, and I hear that Aaz’axian sex is kind of brutal. I’ve seen the barbs Brannock has on his cock, and I’m not surprised we can hear her.” He slaps the god on the shoulder. “Trust me, she’s fine.”

He keeps walking, and Tirrian follows after him. Silac hisses, and his forked tongue darts out like he’s tasting the air, his nostrils and hood flaring before he follows them.

I clench my fists, the urge to find them and save her riding me hard. That scream sounded like she was in agony, but I have no doubt if Xavier was worried, he would have disappeared in a flash to find her. I grit my teeth and hurry to catch up to the other three, hearing the god behind me muttering something under his breath. I’m not certain, but I’m almost sure I hear him mutter about making her scream even louder when he gets his chance.

I’m panting, and my fur is soaked with sweat when we finally make it to the location. We have literally had to squeeze between trees for the last five minutes, but it opens up into a space big enough to hold a large sarcophagus that glows with a grayish light.

Xavier conjures up bottles of water and hands them out. I take one, nodding my thanks before guzzling it down. The others do the same before they all take a seat around the clearing.

“We may as well rest and wait for Lila. A few more minutes isn’t going to hurt.” Xavier leans back on his hands.

I don’t join them. Instead, I walk around the enclosure, trying to get a feel for its frequency. I know everyone is counting on me to save the day, and I really hope I don’t let them down. I reach out and lay my hands on it, allowing my powers to try to sync up with whatever magic is running through the box. I smile and heave out a relieved breath as my magic and its frequency align, and my hands start to push through whatever the substance is.

“Should I wait for Lila or keep going?” I ask, unsure if I should proceed or not. I thought it was going to be harder than this. I turn to look at the others who are all watching me with varying degrees of shock and surprise, but a noise in the forest behind them has them all jumping to attention. I stay where I am, not wanting to cut my hands off by yanking them out, and hold my breath.

Please don’t let it be another Madovian, and if it is, someone kill that bitch because I can’t move.