38 Tessi
Zorin is adamant, even as he groans and barely gets himself upright. “We need to get you out of here.”
I help him stagger toward my ship, up the ramp, and into the co-pilot’s seat. Radar, whose cut paw I’ve wrapped, wedges himself between Zorin’s boots, like he knows my chosen is injured.
“No.”
Zorin looks over at me with surprise.
“I am tired of running and starting over.” I can help. I want to help. Hunting is how I survived when I didn’t have enough credits for city food.
Carnas and Corzin join us. Corzin closes the ramp.
“Kren and Davarok are targeting returning Neb fighters. Better make the move quickly. It’s getting messy out there.” Corzin climbs his way to the front while Carnas takes a seat in the back at a defensive weapons array. “I can get you into an actual hangar.”
He pulls out a device from his armor and types on the screen as I race us across space toward the last Neb ship. Corzin motions toward a hangar, sets the device over my dash, and taps it. The hangar door scrolls open for us.
I ease the ship inside, wondering if we’re going to get shot at. The moment we’re through the sealscreen, I catch sight of Myndrous and Neb bodies lying on the floor.
Carnas checks his rifle and his ammo and is the first to the ramp. Corzin is next. The moment we’ve landed and the feet have secured us to the ship, I get up. Zorin tries to join me.
I rest a hand on his shoulder and ease him back into his seat. “They didn’t beat me up before they threw me in the chamber. You stay here. Guard Radar and the ship.”
“Tessi…” He snatches up my wrist. “Please don’t do this.”
“You can barely move. Your other team is down. Azrim hasn’t called back.”
“Because whoever is on this ship is much more brutal, more dangerous, Tessi.”
“Then if I don’t make it back, if none of us do, you find Sky and Rhysan, and build your own family again.”
He tries to protest, but grimaces and holds his stomach.
I kiss him, linger in the heat of his mouth and the sharp points of his teeth when they accidentally graze my lips, and then rest my forehead to his. I love you, Zorin.
He looks up at me like I’ve shot him.
I count the bullets I have left in my magazine and follow Carnas and Corzin to the ramp.
“You sure about this, chica?” Carnas asks.
I glance back at Zorin. “I am. He isn’t. But he saved me before he even knew me. And I like to play fair because I didn’t get that in my old life.”
“Alright. Just stay between us,” Corzin says.
Carnas lowers the ramp, and we creep into the hangar. It’s quiet except for the hum of the sealscreen. He closes the ramp behind us as Corzin leads the way through the ship.
There are bodies everywhere. I steady my gun in my sweating palms. I’ve seen it before, just not in such mass numbers.
A Neb soldier eases out, aiming for Corzin. I grab him by the back of the vest and tug as the shot blazes in front of us. Carnas shoots down our attacker, who crumples in the doorway.
Kren’s voice comes over the com. “We’re taking out a lot of Neb fighters, but there are too many. Looks like part of the squadron is returning to your ship. Keep your eyes open for fresh meat in the lower hangars.”
Corzin clicks back twice, then looks down at me. “Thanks.”
Carnas charges around us, slings his rifle over his shoulder and drops to his knees on the floor.
A pained grunt leaves him as he scoops up a body. When he turns around, exposing Esrynne’s flaccid face and her bloodied stomach, my heart sinks.
“Corzin…” Carnas sniffs her and staggers.
We rush in to stabilize him.
I glance around us as Corzin looks her over.
“Someone’s already packed her wound,” Corzin checks her pulse. “She’s alive, but barely.”
Carnas, funny, sarcastic Carnas, is a wreck.
I can’t make sense of his upset. Holstering my weapon, I covertly set a hand over Carnas’ exposed hand and one to Esrynne’s. It’s a heart-shattering feeling, something deeper than friends.
“Do you know her?” I ask Carnas.
“No. Not really. Not like I want to.”
“It’s a scent-bond.” Corzin steadies his rifle and encourages him back through the ship. “We must get her medical care. There is a bay down the hallway on the left.”
We make our way to the room, get Esrynne on a table, and connect her to an IV.
“Are you sure you’re compatible with Neb meds?” I ask.
Corzin nods as he works. “I’ve used a few myself.”
Carnas doesn’t want to leave but reluctantly closes the door then punches the control panel with enough fury that it startles me. The door auto-locks.
We keep moving through the ship, looking for Azrim, Ignus, Rorsar, Spike, and Marne, and finally find them clustered in a hallway, all except Azrim.
Rorsar is barely conscious. Ignus is, but he’s been severely beaten like Zorin.
Marne is burned and bleeding, but on guard with Spike, who, at some point, has taken a Neb commander’s hand off.
He scans it on the tablet to access data.
“Ignus can help me decipher all of this,” Spike says to Marne, dried blood covering one side of his head.
He has a bloodshot eye and several holes in his armor.
He frees a silvery needle from the Neb hand he holds and uses it to tap through the screen.
“This is going to help track their fleets, find out why they need certain materials, everything.”
“Did you throw some darts, brother?” Corzin asks.
“A few,” Spike replies.
“That’s…” Gross. “Great. We, uh, found Esrynne. She’s in a med bay down the hall. Door won’t open. Have you seen Azrim?”
“They took him toward the forward command deck.” Marne pats Rorsar’s cheek as Rorsar starts to nod off. “Stay with me buddy.” He sighs. “I need to move them toward a more secure location.”
“What do they want with Azrim?” Corzin asks. “Other than the obvious power like Zorin?”
Marne studies Ignus as he props him upright. “I’m not sure. Ignus isn’t descended of the goddess.”
Ignus tilts his head back against the wall and rolls it to look up at us. “I’m not Mindoran.”
We all turn to look at him.
“What are you talking about?” Marne asks.
Ignus takes a deep breath and releases it.
His body shifts to blue scales with vibrant Nytheralian blue eyes.
With another breath, he takes on deep red skin with bright red eyes.
Black wings sprout from his back. Another breath turns him iridescent white like Leosantians.
“I’m a shifter, just not your kind of shifter.
“I was abandoned on your world as a child because, believe it or not, Mindor is safer than our world. I just wore the Mindoran suit to survive. But your kind protected me. So I fight for you.”
“Then you are Mindoran in your heart,” Spike remarks. “And that’s what matters.”
Ignus forces himself to his feet with a groan.
“They are looking for any power they can use against the federation. Seeing through shields, siphoning light, fracture pulses that they can send across space to shatter anything around their ships, anything that will make taking what they need easier. Even mimicking other species’ cloaks. ” Ignus motions to himself.
“We need to get Azrim back. Can we start there?” I ask.
Marne motions in the direction Azrim was taken.
Ignus shifts to a Myndrous pattern then back to Mindoran again. “I will find Esrynne and get the crew loaded on our BloodMoon.”
“I will help,” Spike adds.
Marne joins me, and we form up with Carnas and Corzin in the front. I’ve never hunted with a team before, but the way they move together like one mind makes me want to be a part of such a well-oiled machine like this more often.
We find the forward chamber, but there’s no one alive around the conference tables.
“Must be on the bridge,” Corzin replies.
Carnas tenses as we stop outside the bridge access.
“Easy, brother,” Corzin warns.
“There is nothing easy about how it feels to have a bond threatened before it has a chance to become something.” Carnas is already worked up over Esrynne, and he barely knows her, just like Zorin was with me, and I realize just how powerful a scent-bond can be.
“Carnas…” Marne calls to him.
Carnas pants. “I’m good. I’m good.”
Marne directs them around one side of the bridge, then motions that he and I will take the other. The Nebulous commander has Azrim on his knees, before him, under guard. He wears the same gray uniform and cloak as the male who put me in the chamber on the first ship.
“Avoid the light,” Marne warns. “They can see you in the glass reflections.”
“Won’t they smell you?” I ask.
“Scent masking.”
I tilt my head and wrinkle my nose at the damp fur scent I’m picking up. “But I can still smell you.”
Marne rolls his eyes skyward. “Sorry.”
We creep into the shadows of the control stations where only a few Nebs still work.
“I’m surprised it took you this long to get to my ship, dark one.
” The commander gets up from his seat and walks to where Azrim sits.
I catch just enough of a glimpse around the edge of a desk that I notice the blood draining from Azrim’s chest and shoulder.
A Myndrous guard jabs him again with the voltspear, puncturing his flesh and shocking him at the same time.
I know that life-draining feeling, the way it makes a heart pound lethargically as it tries to find its rhythm again. It’s terrifying, yet Azim takes the misery and nods like he deserves it.
Azrim’s whole body tenses, every muscle bulges, veins rise in his neck and face. But he grits his teeth and doesn’t make more than a restrained grunt.
The commander walks down his steps to Azrim and folds his hands behind his back.
“You have wrecked many crews on many ships.” The Neb commander paces a circle around him.
Marne glances back at Carnas and Corzin. Then he directs me to one of the flight crew. That’s my target.
I nod. I can take him out. I’m a good enough shot.