CHAPTER 8
Lena stood to the side, her eyes wide as she watched Rafa argue with Aaliyah.
Her Uncle Seraphym wasn’t having any better luck with his mate, Samantha, or Sam, as she preferred to be called.
Back at Lena’s own home with the Cliff Dwellers, female serpents always deferred to their males.
Apparently, that wasn’t the case with these alien females.
Samantha glared up at Seraphym, her hands on her hips, her multi-colored scales glistening under the bright sunlight.
“If you think I’m going to sit back and let you leave without me, you’ve got another think coming, buster.
Ain’t happening.” She looped her arm through Aaliyah’s.
“Right, Liyah? Us girls gotta stick together.”
“That’s right. You’re not invincible, Rafa, or you, Seraphym. And frankly, I don’t know this vampire who’s supposed to meet us at the Sabula palace. What if he’s working with Caelium? You could be walking into a trap.”
“I’m glad to hear you have such faith in your mate,” Rafa said sarcastically.
“Oh, knock it off,” Aaliyah said. “You’re not Superman, you know.” She shifted her gaze to Seraphym. “Or you, even if you can fly and breathe fire.”
Lena looked between Seraphym and Rafa, their expressions as confused as her own. Who was this Superman person? Should they be alarmed?
“Be reasonable, my mate,” Seraphym said, trying to reach out for Sam. She snarled and stepped back. “Caelium may be using this as a ruse to get to you. I refuse to place you in danger.”
“I’m already claimed, Seraphym. He can’t take me from you.”
Smoke curled out of Seraphym’s nostrils. “Yes, he can! A Raiden warrior’s shaprata will override the claim of a serpent. We risk war if he tries to take you from me.”
“If he tries, Liyah will freeze their asses again, right?” She glanced toward her friend.
“That’s right,” Aaliyah replied. “You guys might as well quit. You aren’t leaving us behind. If you try to take off without us, we’ll only follow. Better for everyone if you let us come with you.”
Rafa sighed, rubbing his chin. “I don’t think we have a choice, Seraphym. I know Aaliyah. She will follow.” He chuckled as he glanced at Samantha. “And Sam has always had a mind of her own. It’s well known at the Nekbet palace that she was considered a thorn in the king’s side.”
“Thanks, Rafa,” Sam said, smirking. “Someone needed to put that pompous ass in his place. I have a feeling Caelium is even worse than Babatondé.”
“We should leave,” Sam said. “I can carry Aaliyah back to the ship. Seraphym, you carry Lena. We’ll have one of the other serpents carry Rafa.”
“I’ll walk,” Rafa replied stiffly.
“Aaliyah laughed. “Oh, come on, sweetie, don’t be like that. It’ll take you a whole day to walk back to the ship. It’ll only take a few minutes by air, then we can all go together in the ship. If we time it right, Gauge will already be there by the time we arrive at the palace.”
Lena shivered at the thought of seeing Gauge in person.
She barely remembered anything about when he’d stripped her of Ngozi’s essence.
She reached up to touch her neck, vaguely recalling a sense of pleasure when he bit her.
Serpents would exchange blood to establish a connection that would allow them to understand a foreign language, but what Gauge had done went beyond that.
What would happen if the Hunter offered his potent blood to her?
Would it strengthen their bond? Did she want the male to hold even more power over her?
Not really. But what if a stronger bond gave her some control over that incredible power?
She could protect herself, like Liyah and Sam did, instead of putting people she cared about in danger.
She frowned, a memory trying to break through, but every time she reached for it, it flittered away, remaining just out of reach.
“Are you ready, Lena?” Samantha said, her expression worried. Had they been trying to speak with her while she daydreamed about the Hunter?
Startled, Lena said, “I am.”
“Okay, good. We should go before Rafa chickens out.”
Lena frowned, not sure she understood this saying, though by the Raiden warrior’s expression, it wasn’t too hard to guess. He did not want to be carried in the claws of a serpent.
After stripping out of their clothes and bundling them in a bag one of the serpents would carry, Samantha, Seraphym, and several other Catalan males stepped back, giving themselves room to shift to their serpent forms.
In Lena’s eyes, the Leviathan, like her Uncle Seraphym, would always be the more majestic of the two types of serpents.
Leviathan were larger than the Catalan and they had two legs rather than four.
The Leviathan could also breathe fire, a weapon even the Raiden warriors feared.
The Catalan were less bulky, more streamlined, and their scales were multicolored.
They couldn’t breathe fire, but their scales carried the same colors associated with fire: orange, yellow, red, and blue.
The tail of the Catalan ended in a single spiked tip that they could wield with deadly accuracy.
Another difference between Catalan and Leviathan was that their females could also shift forms. Lena had been carried more times than she could count through the air by one of their males, but she could not shift herself.
As Samantha and the other serpents took to the air, Lena raised her arms, allowing Sam to close her front claws around her body. She could have chosen to ride on her back, but this was safer, not to mention easier, on the serpents.
And then they were in the air, and for a moment, Lena could just relax and enjoy the freedom that it gave her. Aaliyah laughed, holding her arms out in the air, joy on her expressive face. Rafa snarled as he glanced over at his mate, obviously not enjoying the ride.
It took about an hour to reach the spot where Rafa had parked his ship.
They’d all been a little worried Caelium’s fighters might have damaged it, but it appeared to be in the same condition as when they’d left it.
As soon as everyone had shifted back to their human forms and dressed, they squeezed into the small ship and lifted off, heading for Sabula territory.
Lena tried to remain relaxed, though she hated not knowing what would happen once they reached the palace.
What if Gauge couldn’t talk the prince into accepting an unknown human female?
She didn’t want to be claimed by the prince, but it would be safest for everyone involved if she accepted the inevitable.
Aaliyah reached out to take her hand, squeezing softly. “It’ll be okay, Lena. Gauge will talk sense into them. I’ve never met him myself, but Abby’s told me a lot about him. She said he could be one scary sonofabitch, him and his partner both. He won’t be intimidated by the Sabula king.
Lena tried to smile, aware her future remained uncertain at this point. She vowed to do everything she could to make sure all the people who tried to help her wouldn’t pay a heavy price for it.