Chapter 21
The Sineater
“This way,” I said to Jaxin. We had been down on Xio for three days straight, and every day this continued was too much.
I was so certain something was about to go terribly wrong that Val was constantly forced to remind me that she was up there, too, watching over my mate.
I knew things were rocky between us when I left, that it wasn’t settled, because Val’s feeding needs meant…
well, what did they mean? That we couldn’t be happy, because that would kill her.
The Weaponmaster had been part of the Varakartoom’s crew almost as long as the twins had.
He was a seasoned veteran of hundreds of missions and known for both his level head and his bold stunts when it came to saving the hides of his men or his beloved laser cannon.
He was, like Asmoded, a male I respected, even if he’d never been a male I could feed from.
There was good reason why I avoided Rummicaron space if I could help it: too many suppressed, emotionally stumped individuals.
Our particular Rummicaron in charge was different, though—not in a good way, at least not to me.
No, he was far too cheerful, grinning widely with his way-too-many fangs, and clearly enjoying my situation with Frederique.
Far too gleeful about reminding me at every turn that I had fallen for a lady, like the rest of the crew, one by one.
The mighty Sin, down on his knees for a female.
“This way?” I snarled at him, pointing in the direction he had indicated.
That was back the way we’d come, and it wouldn’t help us find the Shade Stalkers terrorizing this building site.
The smart bastards had left sign after sign that they were there: broken trees, tracks in soft dirt, and half-eaten corpses of some of the local bovine-like creatures.
That last—a threat so clear it was chilling—reminded us that they were not stalking us because they were hungry; they were stalking us because they could.
“Yeah, we should report back to Asmoded that this grid is clear tonight. The last section of fence should have gone up by now.” The fence wasn’t going to keep these Shade Stalkers out, for that, the Xionians needed more powerful measures, ones they couldn’t power until after the power plant had been built over this steam vent.
It was a conundrum, one that could only be solved by killing the Shade Stalkers inside this territory.
“Call him,” I said. “I’m searching the next grid.
” Val, at my side, nodded her large Gracka head.
She’d fed well over the past few days on the nerves and tension that came with facing this dangerous threat.
It was very good at terrorizing even our most seasoned crew.
Even Aramon was not his usual loud and cheerful self, and Mitnick was staying awake far too many hours to use his drones for the search.
Then I froze. Something was happening, something big. I sensed it through Val, who was picking up something major. “What is it?” I asked. “What’s happening on the Varakartoom?” I was asking her, but she couldn’t vocalize much, just share her fear with me.
I slapped my hand to my comm and hailed the Varakartoom instead, ignoring Jaxin as he came back to my side and demanded to know what was happening.
Mandy answered, her voice a little breathless and definitely fearful.
“Sin, something’s on the ship. It’s after Freddie.
” Jaxin was the one to respond, leaping into action while I froze in horror.
On the ship? Frederique was in danger on the ship.
There was nothing I could do, and that feeling of helplessness was utterly paralyzing.
“Asmoded,” Jaxin barked, “Rally the troops. Something’s going down in the sky.
Sin’s lady is in trouble.” More was said but it was just rushing in my ears, my blood racing, pulse pounding.
I didn’t know what to do, how to deal with this.
If Val was bigger and stronger, perhaps we could leap into the sky and race to her rescue.
My symbiont tossed her head back into the air and howled, an angry, resentful, mournful howl.
Time seemed to freeze as I stood there, knowing I could do nothing.
And then… abruptly, everything changed. Val, my ever-loyal but always painful companion, screeched in such agony that she convulsed and fell to the ground.
I’d never seen that happen before, and I threw myself onto my knees at her side and scrambled to gather her in my arms. “No, Val, what’s happening?
What struck you?” Nothing could do this, not as far as I knew.
There was no threat a symbiont could not rise above, no weapon that could truly harm her for long.
This, though… this looked like she was about to die.
Her body lay limp after the initial shock, trembling from effort.
She whimpered pitifully, and now I was the one who wanted to toss back their head and howl at the sky.
“What’s happening?” Jaxin asked, not unkindly.
I shrugged helplessly, but Mandy had no answers for us, and Val was out cold.
All I knew was that whatever had happened on the ship was bad enough to have taken out Val’s presence there.
It was the only explanation for her reaction here; which meant Frederique was in deadly peril.
Then the word came that Ysa had put Frederique aboard a shuttle and sent her down here to us.
Hope surged in my chest, did that mean she was safe from the threat on the ship?
But no, Ysa was certain whatever deadly thing had attacked had followed the shuttle down—perhaps even hitched a ride.
I knew then—knew exactly what it was we were dealing with.
“Their containment was flawed,” I snarled at Ysa through Jaxin’s comm channel.
The Rummicaron yanked his wrist away from me so I couldn’t hurl more of the furious vitriol spilling from my mouth in her direction.
I snapped my mouth shut—this wasn’t helping anyone, least of all Frederique or Val.
“It’s from that damn water world,” I added more calmly.
“A freak mutant thing. It must have been on the shuttle I returned with, which means it can survive outer space…” Which meant that if it was on the ship bringing Frederique here, it would survive that trip too. Where was she?
“Mitnick, you have the ship on sensors?” I demanded, hailing him on my own comm device.
Val was rousing, shaking herself out and rising to unsteady feet.
She shifted through several forms before settling back into a Gracka.
She was pointing her snout in one direction and my body was turning the same way.
“Three clicks due west,” Mitnick responded immediately.
“It’s coming down hard, Sin.” I was running before he’d finished the statement, throwing all caution to the wind and racing through dark underbrush, past trees overgrown with heavy sheets of vines.
Jaxin was keeping pace with me—barely—while Val’s sleek hound body streaked ahead.
“Coming down hard” could only mean one thing: it was about to crash.
We heard the ship streaking through the sky, then crashing into the jungle’s massive overhead canopy, but we could not see it through the dense foliage.
With Val’s aid, I shaped blades for my hands and cut a path through the worst of it, cursing at every delay.
And then it struck the ground, the deep blow to the earth reverberating up my legs and settling with dread deep in my gut.
Too late. I was too late, again. Just like on the planet where I’d found her, I was too late to protect her.
Jaxin was still behind me and swore loudly. Then, with a roar—“Duck!”—he fired his laser cannon as I dove aside on reflex, carving a path through the dense growth. I took off like a shot next, careening through the smoking, partially burning tunnel toward where we’d heard the ship go down.
I saw the smoke before I saw the ship, and then I saw the shadows that weren’t natural—weren’t just the tree branches overhead.
It was that thing again, the creature from the deep, mutated from the traitor who had brought Frederique’s ship down.
He was responsible for bringing this ship down, and the bastard had now pulled her from the wreck.
He was holding her in his writhing tentacles, peering down at her with his eerie, human face.
I saw no sign of Val’s other half, not even in glints of silver on Frederique’s neck and wrists.
It was as if she was not there. Had that part of my symbiont truly vanished?
I did not linger on the possibility. There was no way I was going to fail my mate a third time.
I would rescue her, and then I’d tell her everything.
No doors locked, no holding back. She could ask me anything, as long as I knew she was safe.
Leaping over a broken tree onto the wrecked nose of the small flyer, I flew at the creature with a roar of fury. Val flowed over me as protective armor and pooled around my hands into razor-sharp blades. Her Gracka form leapt with me, crashing into tentacles and shadow made flesh.
Frederique was unconscious, her head lying back at an awkward angle as he held her sideways in his arms. Her body lay across the bastard’s chest, protecting him; he was cowardly using her as a shield.
I was so furious, I acted on instinct rather than finesse as I attacked.
My only focus was to get my mate from him, to get her back in my arms where she was safe.
I should have killed this guy when I had the chance, back on that damn Earth ship.
I was forever going to regret that I hadn’t.