Chapter 44
Romival
She was hurt and dirty, but she was alive. She had fought hard, even knowing she stood no chance of victory. Absolutely beautiful.
He put a hand behind her and helped her sit up. She winced, alerting him to some pain somewhere, but her eyes were focused as she looked at him.
Her happiness only lasted a moment before it broke when Hattie retched again.
“Hattie!” She called to her, trying to get up.
Tuvo was already standing, Hattie in his arms. The soft, tiny human was groaning in pain, bleeding from the back of her head and from three, long claw marks on her shoulder.
It was the former injury that really concerned him.
He didn’t know if it was true for humans as well, not since they seemed to defy convention that all other species adhered to, but vomiting with a head injury was quite bad and required immediate attention.
Tuvo seemed to have the same thought because he looked at them, his back towards the snarling Sizuka, dismissing her completely.
“I’m taking her back to Calvitorum immediately. Romival, you can handle it from here.”
It wasn’t a question, but Romival grunted an affirmative response anyway.
He helped Holly step out to the side so Tuvo could take her away. Hattie’s eyes were closed, and her face was scrunched up in pain.
And her skin was oddly… green? Like a green sort of yellow. Sickly and unhealthy. Not a color he had seen on the humans before but one he knew immediately was wrong. He disliked it almost as much as he disliked that awful, deathly gray-blue.
Holly continued to stare after her friend, clearly concerned.
But his attention turned back to Sizuka.
The ratchi female was snarling at him, all of her sharp fangs on full display, her claws all stiff and ready to fight – though some had been broken off past the quick. A darting glance at the ground where the fragmented nails had landed then up to the scuffed wall told him what happened to them.
He smirked, proud.
“Vi Vakara is quite a warrior, is she not?” He asked the angry female.
Sizuka hissed. “What did you do to my sisters?”
“The females you abandoned?”
“They were not abandoned! They sacrificed themselves to bring an end to you! I will not let their sacrifice be in vain!”
“Part of me admires your dedication and loyalty to your clavas,” he said, stepping forward. “It is an honorable thing to be loyal to your clan. But the greater majority of me can only feel anger that you would dare commit such a dishonorable act against these defenseless females.”
Sizuka threw back her head. Laughing. She called him something in her language that he didn’t understand and so meant nothing to him. Though, just judging by the amused way she spit it out, he could imagine it was some variation of ‘stupid’.
“You think they’re defenseless?” She hissed, glaring at Holly who remained crouched behind him.
He took a step to the side, blocking her from Sizuka’s sight.
The ratchi female laughed. “I’ve never seen a more insidious female species in my life.”
Romival cocked his head curiously. What was she talking about?
“You don’t see it, do you?” Sizuka hiss-laughed at him before leveling a broken claw at Holly.
“So sweet and soft and sexual? That’s obviously a defense response.
Too weak to protect themselves, so they’ve become helpless and pretty and practically infantile in an effort to draw strong males to protect them.
Why do you think every male on your planet is so enamored with them?
They’re a trap. And my son – my son! – fell for that trap and was killed for it! ”
“Your son was killed because he did something dishonorable and was retaliated against.”
She hissed, not even hearing him anymore, shaking her head as sorrow welled up in her eyes.
“Do you have any idea… When the ship auto uploaded the records of the flight to the clavas hub, I had to watch as my son’s vital signs were cut off…
Have you even an inkling of what it’s like for a mother to see such a thing! ?”
He did not, but his heart hurt for her. This female that had lost everything, her entire clavas.
They were a rogue group, one that saw no crime in harming and kidnapping others, but they were still a clavas and their love for each other was genuine.
He understood why she would feel the need to get her revenge, even just a bit of it.
But understanding didn’t mean he could allow it to happen.
“Your heart is hurt, female. I see your pain. But this accomplishes nothing. Cease your fight and surrender yourself to our mercy.”
“Death before defeat,” she roared, charging.
Romival was ready before she reached him.
He batted away her first strike, dodged the second, but wasn’t prepared for the muscular tail that came swinging at him.
Domini couldn’t use their tails in such a way.
He didn’t predict such an attack. He grunted as it slammed him to the side, the hard spikes, almost like claws themselves, cutting into his flesh.
It moved him out of the way.
Cleared the path to Holly.
His Holly dropped back, gasping. Her face blanched with fear. So white and eerie and wrong. A lack of color that offended him with its meaning.
Growling, he slammed his claws into the ratchi’s tail and yanked, jerking her back as she swung her undamaged hand out to slice through Holly’s neck. His action and Holly’s quick thinking in throwing herself out of the way, meant the blow went wide, missing her completely.
Grunting with effort, her threw himself and the ratchi back. She hissed, turning her claws on him. He caught her wrist, put his knee to her chest, then used her momentum to throw her clear over his head, away from Holly.
He turned, coming back up in a low crouch, growling, his own fangs bared.
Sizuka slammed her fist to the ground, angered by Holly’s continued survival. She charged again, aiming for him now. Intending to remove the obstacle to her true target.
Romival threw himself at her. He caught her wrist as she tried to cut him with her claws then used her momentum to yank her forward.
He spun himself around behind her and jumped, planting his feet on her hips.
Claws on one hand dug into her shoulder, pulling it down, while the other grasped her head, piercing her scalp, and pulled it the opposite way.
Exposing her neck.
Dishonorable actions, but a worthy foe, and his fangs ached to feast.
He struck, biting easily through her scaled flesh. Though he had never drank from an enemy before, he knew instinctively what to do, where to aim, and knew he had been successful when he felt an unfamiliar but satisfying pop as he broke her throbbing artery.
The rush of smooth, heated, slightly earthy blood filled his mouth. For possibly the first time in his life, he was drinking fresh blood. Blood was a major part of his diet, as with any domini, but it always had a slightly citrus tang to it from the fruit juice added to keep it from clotting.
Not this. This was hot and untainted and alien in flavor, but it was incredible.
He understood completely now the primal urges of his fellow domini.
This was how he was meant to hunt. This was how he was meant to feast. He had been doing a serious disservice to himself by denying this part of his own nature because he was a ‘studious’, ‘non-aggressive’ male.
Sizuka tried fighting back against him, her claws raking against his head and arms, but he was designed from an evolutionary standpoint to cling and not let go until his meal was done. He didn’t think he could unlatch his arms or legs if he wanted.
Slowly, her blows began to weaken and miss as the blood loss made her uncoordinated.
Then, her entire body began to shake and seize as was typical for a ratchi suffering from exsanguination.
She hit her knees before falling face first to the ground.
Still, Romival didn’t release her. He drank and drank until he felt for sure that he was going to regurgitate.
With a gasp of relief and joy, he ripped his fangs free. He felt the warm blood trickling messily down his chin. Embarrassing, but it was his first live kill, and he didn’t have the skill to do it neatly. Not yet anyway.
Licking his lips, he focused back on Holly. She was staring at him, wide eyed, her face still white and his belly sank.
“Oh.” He looked down at Sizuka’s graying body. “That was quite violent. I’m sorry.”
She blinked and some of her color came back. “You’re… sorry?”
He stood, stepping over the dead female. He approached Holly slowly, now concerned that she might be afraid of him. He had spent so long making her comfortable with him. It hurt that he might have just inadvertently undone all that work.
But even as he was slowly reaching out a hand in an effort not to startle her, she was scrambling to her feet and running. Not away, but towards him. He grunted as she threw herself directly at his chest, clinging to him with a soft sob.
“You’re okay!” She yelled, burying her face in his chest. “You’re bleeding.”
He looked down at his arms as he wrapped them around her. He was indeed bleeding where Sizuka had cut into him, but he didn’t even really feel it.
“I’m fine, vi Vakara,” he promised, kissing her head, leaving a streak of blue blood on her golden hair that made him frown. “Are you all right?”
“My head and back hurt a bit. Hattie?”
“She’ll be fine.”
It wasn’t Romival who answered. Both of them turned to see Atem walking towards them from around the curve of the hall.
He had been waiting just out of sight in case Sizuka decided to try to run away.
He wouldn’t let her leave, but he also wanted Romival to have the opportunity to fight for his female.
A consideration that Romival appreciated.
“Tuvo is taking her down in the shuttle,” Atem explained as he approached, looking Holly over with a concerned frown. “We’ll have to bring this ship down to the surface.”