37 Azrim
Radar doesn’t like being left behind in Tessi’s ship and sneaks out at the last second.
Tessi silently swears. We’re low on ammo and didn’t find anything useful inside her ship. We sneak through the ship littered with bodies of Denaroans and Novarks. She looks them over but doesn’t seem bothered as we hunt for the rest of my brother’s crew.
I catch a sign of Carnas in an adjacent hallway. He stops and lifts his hands, like he’s asking where the hell I’ve been.
I point to Tessi. He tilts and slaps a hand to his forehead. He directs to her, to the back of his neck, and then toward the forward section of the ship.
Zorin is alone against the royals. I should be fighting alongside him. I hope we aren’t too late.
Davarok walks up, one hand on the rifle across his chest, sees me and Tessi, and rocks backward with a head shake. I can practically hear him in my mind. Are you kidding me? What is she doing here?
Carnas motions that the other crew is clearing the rest of the ship and freeing the prisoners. He and Davarok are on clean up duty, evacuating bodies.
Gunfire behind me makes me whip around.
Tessi enters the royals’ chamber, igniter bright from recent discharge.
I hustle after her just as she steps over the slumped body of a Neb commander.
He grabs her leg, wheezing as blood drains from his chest. She gasps, swivels, and shoots him in the chest. Tessi frees her boot from his grip and keeps going.
Carnas jerks his head back in shock. Davarok playfully backhands me in the chest and suggestively waggles his brows.
I growl. Shut up.
Several Myndrous are down in a corner of the chamber. But there’s no sign of Zorin. We look around while Radar puts his nose to the ground and sniffs a milky white streak that looks like blood.
When Tessi sees it, she commands Radar after it. “Radar, track: Zorin. Find Zorin.”
Radar leads us out of the room and down a set of steps.
I’m concerned even though it isn’t blood.
“Someone used a capture net on him,” she quietly says.
“How do you know?”
“Carielle always used them to steal my shit. She’s the one that betrayed me and kept updating the Myndrous. She was working with Geist.”
Carnas swears. “Not that fucking guy.”
“Yeah. But she got captured by a big, horny Neb who just needed a little shove to realize she secretly wanted him.” Tessi opens a hand and motions with her palm.
“That’s maniacal,” Davarok remarks. “But I like it.”
We move deeper into the ship when Tessi suddenly jerks Radar back by the handle on the back of his vest. We sneek out into a narrow hallway. A nearby door with a window drenches the hallway in blue light.
“Shit, they have one of those machines here.” Tessi eases Radar alongside her until she can peer in through the window. “They’ve got Zorin.”
She draws me in and motions for me to look. Then she leans back against the metal wall beside the door. “Three control stations. The last ship didn’t have those. I’m not sure I can figure out how to get him out. Can you do that?”
“What are you going to do?”
She grins. “Handle them like greedy scavengers. Snagged a few goodies from downed Myns.”
I catch her before she enters. “Be careful.”
She crouches low, speaks quietly into Radar’s ear, then eases the door open and slips inside. I step out of view and wait. I don’t know how long I’m supposed to wait, only that the Myndrous that appears at the end of the hallway becomes a concern.
He snarls, charges us, running faster, muscles bulging with bubbles of red light.
What the fuck did they do to you?
I open my claws and leap toward him. But I aim low, and gut him fast. Blood soaks my armor.
Another soldier bashes through a doorway and into me.
We scuffle and smash into a metal table covered in tools.
He grabs something long and slender and stabs me in the chest with it, rips it out, and tries again. But this time I’m ready.
I launch him off of me with a boot, sending him knocking another Myndrous back in the corridor. I shoot the first. My rifle clicks when I fire again.
I’m out of ammo. I’m bleeding from the puncture. And Carnas and Davarok are in their own battle, protecting the room Tessi’s in.
Snatching up a blade from the tools on the table, I throw it at a third Myndrous. He staggers back. I stalk up to him and give him a permanent nap with one punch to his throat. His neck snaps.
I charge back to the room where Tessi has entered and look inside. It is in utter mayhem.
She’s managed to tie one Neb to a machine that’s slowly reeling him toward a vertical gear system.
He’s pulled in and turned to meat in seconds.
Another is frantically trying to tear his shirt off and fidgeting with something that’s crawling in it.
Radar leaps onto her back like a stepping stone, launches off, and attacks a Myndrous in the face with his teeth.
Tessi fires at another soldier, who’s just entered in the far back corner, stabs someone with a pen that makes them seize like they’re being electrocuted.
Then, she rips out one more item from her boot and slashes open the arm of a Myndrous who reaches for her.
When he curls forward, she brings up a knee hard and fast into his face.
She’s sweating, bleeding in a few places, and yet lets out a war roar like no female I’ve ever seen.
Tessi is fighting for Zorin the way I should be.
Then I see the Denarso creeping up behind her, illuminating his portal generator.
I fling myself inside the room, jump onto the first console, leap to the next, and crash into him.
I dig my claws in as I land with crushing force just to be sure he dies.
When I get up, Davarok bursts into the room, Carnas not far behind.
Zorin is in the chamber, completely motionless.
I rush to the consoles and frantically scan over the programs but can’t comprehend what I’m seeing. I break com silence. “Ignus, I need your help.”
“Ignus isn’t going to be helping anyone any time soon,” a dark voice replies.
Someone has taken or killed him.
Everyone on our team hears it.
Kren runs in with Corzin not far behind.
“Kren, can you take this ship?” I ask.
He scans the group. “I think so. If we all go.”
“Azrim.” Tessi braces herself on Zorin’s chamber.
“Are we evacuated?” I ask.
“All survivors are in pods,” Corzin replies. “Viriden will collect them later.”
“Then get us to the third ship. I want us docked, and I want to destroy what’s left of this faction.”
Kren pounds his chest as he leaves with the others. “Good to have you back, sir.”
I look over the screens but can’t find anything I recognize enough to understand what will turn it off.
Tessi beats on the glass. “Zorin.”
I walk up to them and place my hands on the chamber. “Tessi, take Radar and get back.”
She leaves, and I hear her command Radar off of someone who groans in the back. I claw the latch off and lift the hatch. I slash his belts and peel my brother out of the body bracket.
“Zorin? Can you hear me?”
He groans. That’s all I need to know he’s going to make it.
Tessi runs to him as I fold him over my shoulder. She speaks with him as I carry him up the stairs, to the main deck where the team will be working to take control of the ship.
Kren has us on an intercept course with the other Neb ship. I lay Zorin down on the floor and pull out my medical pouch.
“Stop.” Tessi straddles him and slips her hands up under his shirt and closes her eyes. “They were mapping him, his skill. Oh, no.”
Tessi pushes up his shirt exposing bruises and shock baton burns.
He wheezes, rolls onto his side, and spits blood. “I’m…fine.” Zorin looks up at me. “Thank you brother, for going after her.”
I squat beside him. “A calm in the storm, brother. We must get you on your feet.” I show him the syringe.
Zorin hates Isonian medicine, but it will heal him. “Not that stuff.”
“Yes, this stuff.” I pop the cap and jab it into his neck before he has a chance to pull away.
Zorin cries out in agony as the medicine lights up his veins with pale white light.
“What is that?” Tessi asks.
“It only heals us, not the others, though not completely.”
Davarok, Kren, Carnas, and Corzin watch us with concern.
Zorin’s punctures seal, and he stops bleeding. He hums in misery as he writhes on the floor. “Why does it have to burn?”
“Are you good, brother?” I ask, offering him my hand.
Zorin reluctantly lets me haul him upright and then wraps his arms around Tessi. She kisses him and hugs him close.
It pains me to watch. Not that I’m not happy for them. I am. But it is still a reminder of an emptiness I will always carry.
Jezza deserved better. And I don’t ever want Zorin to know this wretched feeling.
Radar limps up beside Zorin with a bloodied paw, and Tessi turns her attention to him.
“Kren. Are we within suit range?” I ask.
Zorin looks over at me. “What? No.”
“Yes, sir.”
I point to Zorin. “Get her on her ship. She knows where it’s docked. Kren and Davarok, use some of these damned guns on the Nebs when my brother is safely off of this vessel.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Azrim…” Zorin calls after me.
“We’re coming with,” Carnas says as he and Corzin start to follow me.
I glare back at them, and they stop. “Please, keep my brother and his mate safe. Let me go. It’s my turn to clean house.”
I take the closest airlock, seal up my armored suit, lean out into the cold emptiness of space, and rocket across the void.
Landing on the hull of the other ship, I’m greeted by blasts that dice up the void.
But I have been here many times before. I stay low, hide among the smoke clouds of their shield, slink to the nearest maintenance hatch of the propulsion system, and drop inside.
Many bodies are scattered through the passages. Lights blink. Blood smears the walls.
I clear the port and starboard sides, the central command deck, take out a few half-dead Nebs. And then I find Esrynne. She’s slumped against a wall, holding a hand to her stomach. She’s pale, barely breathing, and has lost a lot of blood.
I squat beside her, pull out an emergency clotting deep wound repair device and lift her shirt.
She shakes her head violently. “Please…don’t.”
“I have to, Esrynne. We cannot lose you.”
Her eyes shine with pain and hopelessness.
“I don’t want to lose you. Carnas might break my neck.”
She smiles weakly in disbelief. “That oaf?”
I nod slowly and ready the repair. “Deep breath.”
She pants in preparation, holds her breath, and nods.
I press the clot device into her wound.
Esrynne lets out a wretched cry of pain as veins rise in her neck. The bleeding immediately stops. Esrynne blacks out and falls limply against me.
I lay her down, give her a booster, curl up her body, and memorize her location for later. I keep hunting.
Every Neb I encounter must die.
It does not matter if they attack from a room I pass, fire at me from down the hall, or try to sneak up on me from behind. I am tired of them hurting the ones I love, of making our lives so short.
I am the alpha of the Aegeris pack. I forgot my place when I was in pain. Now my kind and our allied packs have suffered.
I wasn’t sure I belonged with them any more. If I couldn’t protect one Shifter, the one that mattered most to me, how could I protect my entire team, let alone our world?
But now, I am rage and vengeance and claws and teeth. It’s long past time I make up for my selfishness.
Marne slumps sideways in a doorway down the hall. “Azrim.”
I hustle to his position and find Rorsar out cold on the floor, a massive contusion to the side of his head.
“His breathing is shallow.” Marne has a bloodied arm and a scorch mark on his leg from a tactical flare gun.
“What happened?”
“They knew we were coming. I don’t know how.”
“Someone let Rhysan go from our old pack. And one of Tessi’s scavenger rivals ratted her out. Where is Ignus?”
“They took him.”
I have an idea of where.
I hand Marne a booster for Rorsar and a chemical cold pack. “I’ll be back.”
I snatch up a rifle and fresh ammo from a downed Neb soldier and make my way below, to the same area where we found Zorin.
The room glows blue just like his and Tessi’s did, and the Nebs inside work around a familiar clear chamber inside.
Through a hull window in the corridor, I notice Isonian ships pulling back from Mindoran space. They’re losing the battle with the Neb fighters. There are just too many of them. Then I see Kren firing at them from the other warship. He is quickly evening the score.
I don’t have time to think things through with Ignus’ life on the line. I step inside and fire on every hulking Myndrous and Neb soldier I see. I clear the room faster than I anticipate.
They weren’t expecting me.
I rush to Ignus, not understanding why they took him. Clawing off the latch, I fling the hatch open.
“Ignus, brother.” I pat his cheek. He’s severely bruised like Zorin. I give him my last booster and slash him free of the belts. Then I lug him over my shoulder, lift my rifle with one hand and clear the hallway and stairs.
Reaching Marne, I crouch to lay Ignus down when a bullet lances through my shoulder. I topple, my rifle falling from my injured arm. Ignus crumples beside Rorsar. I twist, pick up the gun with my less damaged arm, and fire back at the soldier.
The Myndrous gnashes his teeth at me from behind a bodyshield that deflects my shots. He jabs me with a voltspear. The electric shocks surge through me, hot and mind-numbing until I’m a shuddering pile of flesh and bone.
He drags me by a boot away from my team.
Marne picks up the gun I’ve dropped and empties the magazine. But it’s pointless. I pry a piece of trim off of the wall as I’m dragged through the hallway and slash at my captor, but the strip just bounces off of his shield with infuriating ease.
He snarls back at me and stuns me again. My whole body tingles, and muscles give out.
If ever there was a time, goddess… Show me how to get out of this. Everyone else is down or on other ships, fighting elsewhere in our system.
I feel like nothing I ever give is enough. And maybe it won’t be until I take my last breath.