2. Chapter 2 #2
I’m losing it, my grip on the darkness as it begs, pleads with me to act. Unease ripples toward me like waves pounding against a shore. The spirits that linger near feel it; their whispers find me.
“Let me have her. It is done,” I warn, my voice strained.
Toxin buds on my fingertips, like the teardrops in her eyes.
I urge it back, but it no longer responds to my commands.
I’ve been hijacked. I am nothing more than a petal on the wind, the whisper of a spirit in passing.
I am woefully and devoutly hers, at her whim, her mercy.
Ask it of me, human, ask it of me to send them all to their deaths. I am a sullied male, unbalanced, disgraced, but it would be an honor to damn myself for you.
“No, I don’t consent. You can’t just hand me over. This is human-safe space. There are laws! We are a sentient species—”
“Intergalactic Law 7.3.1: The Sentient Bond Recognition Act,” the female Oozarian breathes out, dread clear in her voice.
It does nothing to calm my Draya’la. “Where a sentient species possesses a biologically or neurologically verifiable mate-bonding instinct, and such a bond is recognized and confirmed, said bond shall supersede all contractual, commercial, or custodial claims upon the bonded individual.” She glances at me, keeping her voice hushed.
“It applies to species that have a Critical Bonding Reflex.”
My mate just shakes her head as if not understanding.
The other female huffs. “It’s a biological imperative that, if denied, results in psychological collapse, death, or mass harm.”
My mate sucks in a calming breath that chokes into a half-panicked grunt.
“Okay, but we can do something. Wait for a second, just give a minute,” she rushes out, her hand snapping to her chest, rubbing something underneath the garment she wears, smearing it with the color of her blood. “I need to get down.”
Both Oozarians seem to school themselves at that.
My eyes track every movement, every shift in their simmers as they usher her off the platform.
The male's hands fist and waver at his sides, as if he could stop what he no doubt believes to be a horrible fate. Perhaps one worse than death. My pulse spikes, my eyes frantically chasing the air above her where her death shimmer should be, unease battering in a new, horrifying way. I cannot see it. I can’t know.
What if it’s dim? What if my mate is near death? What if she’s in danger—
A pair of green eyes peek over her hunched shoulder at my sulking, trembling form. Halting my thoughts, softening them. As she’s led away by the Oozarians, my female spares me a glance.
She catches herself quickly, looking forward again as we draw farther from the spectating crowd, who, at this point, thank the twin goddesses, have remained mostly oblivious.
Sans the very dim female who was beside her, she saw everything.
I pause, wondering if I should kill her, rattle her mind.
It’s something about the hopeful look in her eyes as I step back toward her that stills my hand.
It’s the crushing disappointment in her hollow crystal eyes that assures me she won’t raise the alarm.
She will pass soon, should the gods not spare her.
Although I doubt she wishes to be spared.
In an instant, I am back with the group, making them collectively flinch as I appear.
I follow closely to my mate, gritting my teeth as she shies away from me.
Making sure I am closer to her than she is to them.
So close at one point as we navigate the twisting halls that the heat from her warm flesh makes another pleaded shudder rip down my forked spine.
Her hair is long and wild, a deep red that will look lovely in our home.
Such a different shade to anything I’ve seen before.
Once we’re in a back room behind the hall, the male Oozarian speaks, but only to my mate, everyone ignoring her question about the validity of my claim.
The female Oozarian has confirmed it already; there is no doubt.
She is by law required to hand her over, and with every passing, dragging domtic, I grow more impatient.
Some distant part of me is glad, comforted by the care they are showing her.
That distant part is faltering. Do they realize it?
Can they feel how close they are to death?
Perhaps I should do worse; perhaps they deserve no less for keeping her from me.
My heart jolts in my chest at the thought.
It would bring me… joy, I realize, to kill them.
To make them experience something far more horrific than death before I release them to the veil.
A monster indeed.
Suddenly, their hushed conversation finds me, making me curse myself inwardly. Then curse the benevolent gods for our species' underdeveloped hearing. Everyone too worried about their damn balance and keeping in the goddess's eye to use aids.
“He will not harm you, but there’s nothing we can do. Being a mate is sacred, I’m sure you understand—”
“No, no, I don’t fucking understand!” she hisses under her breath. “I… look, I just needed the dowry so I can get off Vortara!”
“Human, you must calm yourself. We cannot risk upsetting him,” the male adds smartly. “He has bonded to you. If he goes without you now—”
“So he says! Maybe he just wants a free breeder! You cannot seriously be about to just hand me over with no proof!”
The Oozarians share a loaded look.
Their shimmers dim, darkening ominously.
I slip my other glove off as the muscles in her small body tense.
I’m going to do it. They’re stalling, whispering to her.
What if they try to take her? Hide her? Darkness ripples, blotting out anything other than a pair of green eyes as they turn to me.
Immediately, I stand taller, I yield to her attention, my heart moving to liquify in my chest cavity before everything within me halts.
Their shimmers lighten again. Spared by my delicate, scared mate.
I see it in her eyes the moment she decides to run from me; the effect is nothing less than shattering.
My own mate, scared enough of me to run, while she’s injured, and I can do nothing to help.
The moment she bolts, both of the beings next to me make no move to stop her, likely hoping just as much as her that she’ll get away.
Their bodies tense as I lift both of my hands, settling them a mere fraction away from their slimy flesh.
My fingers twitch as they bud anew with toxin.
“Nobody notifies the Port Authority. I was never here, and neither was she. You will wipe her file, data, everything. She never existed. You will do it now. If someone asks, you will say nothing. If the Alliance asks, questions anything, pray to your gods that they kill you before I do.”
They don’t nod, too afraid to move until I remove my hands, tucking them back under my cloak.
I’m barely aware of the way he grabs her, tucking her in close to him so much so that their bodies meld.
True soul-chosen mates, no doubt. I wonder if he can sense that her shimmer is darker than his, that he will, at some point, endure her death.
I shudder at the thought, finding an ounce of pity for the male.
With my heart wild in my chest, malevolence unlike I have ever felt dripping from the threads of my soul, I slip down the dark corridor hunting my female. The other half of my segmented soul.