Serpents of the Night (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #5)

Chapter 45

Slengral’s eyes turned repeatedly to the signal moving on his comm. Why was it moving at such speed? He exchanged a cautious look with his nest brothers and both males frowned in response as they glided over his head to glimpse at the current location of the comm they were tracking. They found it as strange as he did. Lori was not alone, if she was attached to the comm at all.

Was it a trap to make their ashlava more agreeable? He would not put it past a Vehal male given what he was reared to believe about them. Regardless of where the comm had originated from, Lori had clearly come into possession of it in the mountains. He had no doubt since the moment the tracker turned on that she was among the Vehal, and it had weighed upon him since they lost connection with their mate. Such males could not be trusted. Vehal were known to aggressively claim females for their own, and that made his gavo expand fully with aggression as he flew toward the signal.

A grim smile hardened the corners of his mouth. If the Vehal thought they would be able to cleverly control him or his nest brothers then they were mistaken. If they thought they would succeed in keeping her captive and cooperative for one of their males to keep her as a mate, then they would quickly realize their error. He would deal with them without mercy and steal his mate back away to someplace safe. He would not allow a strange male to take advantage of the situation to force his way into their nest. And if any had dared to mate with her in the absence of her mates, he would be happy to kill them. Not only he would—but a quick glance at his nest brothers’ expressions and fully raised gavo confirmed that they too would help bring the male down. With Jathella carrying Hashal, even Daskh was ready to break males if necessary.

Their eager flight to their mate had quickly changed to a deadly-earnest hunt as they flew swiftly across the night sky. There were no caverns and tunnels to move along, they were Seshanamitesh of the night as they moved in and closed the distance between them and their enemy. It would be convenient if they had Lori with them so that they would be able to carry her away quickly, but if not, he had no trouble with scouting it out and then returning to rain down on it with the full force of the Seshanamitesh of Raza for the insult and daring. Regardless, they would take their mate away and establish a new nest hidden where their enemies would not find her, or their offspring.

They could not return to the colony as that would be the first place his mother would search for them, but Seshana was a big place. Perhaps they would start their own shinara. Jathella, Buosoa, and Kitanara were them and would eventually look for males to mate. Perhaps some of those mated at Raza would be interested in joining them as well so that Lori would not become too lonely for the company of other humans. The more he thought of it, the more viable the idea seemed. It would be a hard life at first, but they would not allow their mate to suffer.

After everything, they deserved peace and the tired part of him welcomed it. After being imprisoned for so long within the palace, he no longer had the will to continue fighting against the Aglatha. Nor did he wish to maintain a long, drawn-out conflict with the Vehal once they rescued their mate. All he wished for was a comfortable place to nest. He was heart-weary of living a difficult life without a truly safe place for his family. They deserved better.

And they would have it... just as soon as they dealt with this final obstacle.

His jaw hardening, he banked hard as he came around the side of the mountain and from the periphery of his vision, the rest of his formation sailed neatly behind him, their wings cutting through the gathering fog. The fog was rapidly thickening around them, but he had little trouble navigating within it. It distorted his vision a little, but it was not any worse than the pitch-dark depths of the caverns. The moisture in the air was merely a little disconcerting as he was not accustomed to such an abundance of water.

He glanced again at the comm. The signal’s pulse was becoming quicker as they closed in. It was not much farther. The other comm should be—there!

His head turned as they continued to glide along the mountainside as the rocks rose in peaks and ledges that broke through the fog, bare rock and hints of vegetation whispering seductively of safety. He ignored it, however, as his gaze fixed on two large shadows moving toward him through the fog. There was a hint of deep blue and green for a moment before two large males broke through the fog with powerful snaps of their wings. Slengral growled, and the sound was echoed by his formation as it slowly expanded, his nest brothers and females he could not consider anything less than his sisters, spreading out through the air, preparing for the attack.

A sharp, barking shriek pierced the air, however, and Slengral held up a hand, signaling his formation as his head cocked in surprise. It could not be. He sent out a warbling shriek in query and nearly fell from the air when the confirmation came, jubilant and strong. Therxian!

Slengral sent back a call of familial welcome to his brother as his formation slowly closed in once more, his sisters pulling back respectfully as they identified his relation to the one approaching them. Even Daskh and Kehtal dropped back some to give a polite distance for his reunion with his brother.

Therxian’s indigo color was unmistakable now as the male flew in closer and issued a call of welcome in return. Broad wings angling to the side, his brother swooped in a slow arc so that he momentarily sailed directly above Slengral before dropping through the air, rolling to his side in familiar acrobatics that drew a hissing bark of laughter from him. Therxian was always a rogue among the males born in the palace, and it seemed that his playful nature had not changed much as his brother circled and rolled around him playfully through the air.

The suspicion and anger Slengral held rapidly unraveled and faded as he watched his brother with amusement. This was not the actions of a male looking to trap and coerce him. Nor was Therxian of the temperament to do so. The male was too honest—something which had not served him well in the haga—to willingly carry out a harmful deception. He knew that his brother had disappeared within the territory of Vehal, but he had not imagined that it would be him who would find Lori. And if his brother had found Lori then she was truly safe. He did not have to worry about another male trying to claim her. His brother would not allow it.

Though that did not mean that his brother would not make the attempt himself.

His eyes narrowed on the male for a moment as he scented the air when Therxian glided close to him in an attempt to catch a trace of Lori’s pheromones on the male. To his relief, there was none, and he trilled softly as he snapped his wings open wide and joined in the game.

A song of greeting and kinship replaced their calls as they flew together, their wings and tails sweeping through the air as their gavos snapped and fluttered in accompaniment as they air-danced together. His nest brothers and his sisters continued to follow but now they were joined by the unknown green male who dropped into position with them. There was some anxious fluttering of wings as his family swooped around the strange male cautiously before slowly re-establishing the flight formation as if nothing had happened.

Therxian’s wings expanded fully as the male settled into a smooth glide at Slengral’s side, his red eyes turning toward him with a familiar look of mischief that Slengral had not even realized how much he missed over the revolutions.

This way, Therxian signaled with a shriek that suited flying better than plain speech.

Slengral snapped his gavo in agreement and flew after his brother as the male shot forward with an impressive speed that seemed to come from wings strengthened from flying for revolutions in open skies rather than navigating the tight tunnels of the Aglatha. Slengral trilled as he fell into pursuit, streaking through the air with their formation spread out behind them.

They climbed the side of the mountain, gliding between jutting peaks. The closer they got to the mountain, the thicker the fog was but Therxian remained within sight and continued to call back to them to guide them through the thicker areas that obscured everything around them completely.

His brother rolled in the air to look back at him. The male smiled and that was Slengral’s only warning before he folded his wings and dropped like a stone. Startled, Slengral folded his wings as he dived in pursuit, his body twisting to control his descent as they slid between a narrow gap in the cliffs. The air got increasingly humid as he descended, the water vapors of the fog clinging to him in a way that felt soothing after the days exposed to the desert sands. He would find a pool to soak it away later—preferably with the company of his mate. He was certain that the mountain contained numerous pools within it, and he was suddenly not as eager to steal her away so quickly if she was safe in such a place.

He marveled at all the growing things, some of which towered at heights that exceeded even the length of full-grown Seshanamitesh. Sweet-smelling flowering plants also bloomed in the night air, releasing their alluring perfumes. There were vining galthie that shimmered from where they were rooted to the larger plants with tall, solid stalks. The blooms lit up their surroundings as they dropped down into a scooped-out area within the mountains that appeared as a flattened bowl shape of greenery and stone rather than jagged cliffs and rising peaks. And there in the center of it, the fog slowly receded as they descended to reveal structures made of stone and unfamiliar material rising up like an above-ground shinara, not unlike the human colonies.

Slengral trilled softly to himself, marveling at the sight as they glided in low. Male and female Seshanamitesh could be seen everywhere, working and lounging together, some arguing in what appeared to be trade, and among them, human women and men were scattered. He even saw a human male lounging in the coils of a Seshanamitesh female! The male waved at him as he passed overhead. Slengral shook his head, hardly able to believe it. This... this was the Vehal?

His eyes slid over the community as Therxian landed in the distance before his eyes fell on a lone female, her belly rounded with life, stepping out one of the buildings, her eyes rising to the sky and fastening upon him. His hearts leapt within his chest, and he felt such pain rise up from them as the last vestiges of his sorrow were released. His hearts were breaking and healing at once. His ashlava... she was whole and well!

With a shriek of delight, he dropped and snapped his wings wide, catching the air as he scooped his mate from the ground. Her shout of surprise filled his ears but there was such joy in it that it made him tremble with happiness, his joy igniting from hers and catching fire through him until he felt as if he were nothing but a vessel of pure, radiant happiness as she pressed her lips repeatedly against his scales.

His mate. His love. His everything.

With wings beating hard, he rose back into the forest. A call went up from below as males and females celebrated their reunion. Lori’s arms waved back down at them, her happy laughter filling his ears. None lifted up from the ground to fly with them, even his newly-gained sisters dropped to the ground, leaving him and his nest brothers their privacy with their mate.

In the ancient times, before male dominion became too crushing and before females had withdrawn into the caverns below, males and females celebrated the union of their mating in the air, knowing that their freedom was with each other, and their future born by the effort of their wings together.

Holding Lori close, his head dipped, his twin tongues slipping into her heat as her lips pressed his mouth in a kiss. His tongues stroked and tangled with her singular tongue, drawing up her pheromones as her lust deliciously bloomed. His sants extruded in a dizzying rush and he moaned in ecstasy as his fingers delved beneath the strange material wrapped around her and found her sex wet, hot, and exposed completely to him. He shuddered in delight and in a want and need that nearly crushed him after so many rotations believing that she was dead. He hungered and ached for her in every way, and she opened for him in turn, accepting him and drawing him in as her legs rose up around his waist and her arms wrapped firmly around his shoulders. She bloomed for him and his nest brothers, promising an end to all of their suffering.

With a shift of his hips, his sant pressed into her welcoming heat and her pleasure became his as they arched together, their cries of pleasure muffled by their kiss as they were made one again. They were each other’s freedom. Each other’s pleasure. Each other’s joy and love.

And he, with his nest brothers—they would be their ashlava’s wings.