Chapter 24 #2
I’m going to be too late. My fire is present but not nearly enough.
Where, the fuck, are you when I need you? I growl at my Inferno. I don’t give a shit if you’re sick. He has Brynna! And she’s carrying our first egg!
Fire surges out from my chest as my Inferno finds its way through the poison. I race across the hangar, fold up my aching wings, and dart inside the ship. My momentum sends me careening into a hyperdrive system, sending it shooting sparks and cracking.
I fall to the floor. When I pick myself up, I see the Talhuskin with his arm around Brynna’s neck and a gun to her head.
“Finally got you, Drath.” The Talhuskin grins. “So predictable. Anything for a female.”
A frozen net captures me from the side, then another, sending sickening chills through me again.
I withdraw inside myself, find all the pain of fallen brothers and friends, and hold on to my purpose now: protecting my mate and our first hatchling.
Not this time.
My Inferno rises within me, roiling with fury, burning hotter, melting the ice, evaporating the poison, and freeing me. Maybe it’s the recent dose of medicine. Maybe my monster is finally stronger than their weapons.
It doesn’t matter.
The surprise on his face is still satisfying.
I close up my mask so I don’t breathe in the toxic vapor. Brynna seems to figure out something’s going to happen and closes up her helmet with a simple verbal command.
Rage grows in me the tighter he clutches her. He’s not going to let her go.
Five more Talhuskins surround us, creeping into the cargo bay from other passages.
There’s only one weapon I have left. I keep my eyes moving as I hold out my hands and gather my fire into orbs in my hands.
The moment the first Talhuskin makes a move, I throw the blast and scorch them against the wall.
The next fires a gun at me, but my blaze incinerates his bullets.
I smirk and conjure more Inferno grenades, taking the Talhuskins down in a blazing firestorm.
“Let her go!” I snarl.
The Talhuskin shrugs. “No.”
Brynna’s eyes widen, seeing something behind me.
I catch a Talhuskin sneaking up on me from behind. He’s forgotten the reflective surfaces of his own ship. Lifting a hand, I aim backward and thrust a fireball at him. He becomes a simple scorch mark against the wall.
The male holding Brynna shoves her at me, then throws himself into an escape pod and launches it out into space.
I catch my mate. “I want you safe. Take a pod and call DIA. My band is busted.”
“Okay.” She touches my mask. “Go kick his ass.”
Helping her into another escape pod, I seal the hatch and watch her launch.
When she’s off, I hike up to the cockpit and take out the guards with two pyretic balls of fury.
Grabbing the co-pilot by the head, I snap his neck.
When the pilot tries to get up, I grab his wing talons, break them free, and jam them into his sides.
I lean in close and whisper in his ear, “For my people.”
Hauling him out of the seat by the talons in his sides, I check the crew count and see I’ve still missed two. I get myself on an intercept course with the pod the Talhuskin took and turn to confront the last of them.
A hand reaches around the seat and tries to grab me. But that’s his mistake.
Anger heats my body to a raging orange fire. He screeches and falls back, smoking.
DIA appears in the sky, scooping up a different pod.
“Jor-sk, DIA. Mate on…oard. Bryn…safe. Egg inte-rity 100 percent.” My cracked wristband flashes with a green light. Relief fills me. DIA will keep them safe.
I track the other pod out toward a Denarsoan ship fleeing Mesannok, no doubt hoping to get picked up.
“I don’t think so.”
“Neither do I.” A Talhuskin fires a poisoned ice gun at me. I duck, and the seat’s back shelters me from the frigid blast. I swing a hand over the seat and throw a ball of flames backed with rage through his chest. He staggers and tumbles down the stairs.
Finally.
“Jor-sk, Bryn. As soon…you’re done, come hom…”
Her voice is a beacon in the void. I will.
I familiarize myself with the Talhuskin munitions systems and coat the pod that the Talhuskin took with ice bullets. They suffocate the thrusters, sending the pod careening out into space. I just want him to feel the fear we know so well before he dies.
Switching to missiles, I send one racing out into space. It punches into the pod and bursts ice and metal into space. Then I bank for the Denarsoan vessel that took me to General Kaslok.
The nose glimmers with the first light of a pending portal jump.
“Oh, fuck no.” I release the entire payload of the Talhuskin ship, sending missiles, standard lead bullets, and the remaining ice rounds pummeling their ship.
“For all the females you’ve taken and hurt and all the families you’ve torn apart.”
The ship’s propulsion detonates, and the husk fragments. The portal light fades, and I bank for DIA, who lingers at a distance from other ships. Remaining Nebulous vessels retreat. Mesannok’s marker lights switch from blue-white to green, and it makes me smile.
I switch on coms to the Talhuskin homeworld and fire up my Inferno so when they see me, they get the full visual of my fury.
The screen ahead of me lights up with five Talhuskins on a bridge of one of their other ships.
“What is this?” one demands.
I grin, making sure they can catch my pointed teeth.
“I am Jorusk of Drathis. I have overcome your poisoned ice. Now, I have taken your ship.” I glance at the placard on the dash.
“Vyno. I have darkened the lives of its crew.
I killed Bakka, your Denarsoan contact, three years ago.
And I killed Prince Kalihtanis for his betrayal of our allies, the Amphirans, Thorians, and Mindor. Enaenev afara. Justice served.
“You’re next. Hurt my family again, or my friends, and I’ll be sure you never see me coming.”
I end the call and climb through the ship, drop the ramp, spread my wings, and soar across the stars toward DIA and my mate, who carries our first hatchling.
DIA lowers her ramp. The sealscreen glows just inside. I set down on the ramp and walk inside to the human female with metal wings who waits for me.
The moment the ramp whistles shut, the sealscreen pops. Brynna rushes to me and throws her arms around my neck, tears rolling down her face.
“Thank the stars,” she says before kissing me.
I wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up. “Bryn… Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
“How did you get on Mesannok?”
She sets a hand on her chest, showing me the personal portal clipped into her armor. “Thanks for that.”
“I hate to interrupt,” DIA says. “But we should really assist the Orillium in casualty collection before we lose too many more.”
I take Bryn by the hand and lead her up front, encouraging her into the pilot’s seat. “You and DIA guide us in. I will collect the pods.”
She catches my arm as I turn to leave and pulls me down to her for one more breathless kiss. “I love you.”
Brynna turns her attention to the skies, and I can’t help but take a moment to just admire her in her armor, flying my native ship, fighting for my kind despite what we look like and how pissy we can be from time to time.
“I love you, too.”
She smiles back at me. “Go. I’ve got this. DIA and I are becoming good friends.”
I’ve come a long way from feeling like a lone demon wandering aimlessly from battle to battle. Then a dark angel walked into my life, and everything changed.
Guess I’ll have to thank Eluni for that damned arrestor. She is totally going to gloat.
But it has already been worth it.