38. A Little Bite of Pain
THIRTY-EIGHT
A LITTLE BITE OF PAIN
Vivian
Asera disappears from my side, and I brace against the wall in surprise. Hearing a thunk and an enraged roar, I flinch, and shy away. Staggering forward and away from the noise, I look over my shoulder and squint to see what caused it.
“Asera?” I shout, worried he’s been hurt.
With a furious hiss, a large form appears within the smoke, and a massive tail flies through the air. Startling at the sight, I gape. Could it be?
“Syassssku,” Asera howls, his voice garbled, coming from the same direction.
My lips part and a cry escapes me.
Tears brim my eyes, quickly joining the ones caused by the smoke. Until my father’s last announcement, I thought I’d never see him again. I wasn’t sure if he was dead. I choke on my words, watching his form move in the hazy darkness.
Nobody seemed to notice or care about Asera while we were fleeing, so it had to be him father warned about . I hoped it was him.
“Syasku,” I breathe out his name, wanting nothing more than to push off the wall and run into his arms. To kiss him until my lips bleed. To pound his chest with my fists for making me grieve. But as he comes into focus, and I take a step back, I see Asera’s smaller form being pulverized under him.
Syasku’s hands are clasped around his head, and he’s smashing it against the floor. My lips part, seeing the blood pool into a dark shadow.
I jerk. “Syasku, stop,” I gasp, my body tightening painfully, keeping my feet rooted in place. “We don’t have time—” Another cry escapes me, and I drop to my knees. Gasping, I twist to peer at the security station. We’re so close to the port that we could still make it. I might just make it before the baby comes. “Syasku! The baby!” I shout, trying to get his attention. “It’s coming!”
It works. His head pops up and he faces me. I hitch, stunned by the way he looks, even in the darkness and the wild lights beaming from people’s devices. Blood and dirt cover every inch of his face. Animalistic eyes pin me, drowning in rage.
The next moment he’s directly in front of me, trapping me against the wall. I gasp as his tail pulls up either of my sides, blocking any chance of escape.
“Female,” he breathes the word like he’s been fighting to get to me for months. My chest tightens and I try to relax as I take in his appearance.
He’s not the same naga I knew in the cell. He’s been unleashed.
He’s… I lick my lips, unsure of the word.
Lifted off the ground and into his arms, I push away from his chest, crying out as my stomach is pressed against him and the next contraction takes hold.
His arms loosen. “Are you hurt?” His voice is filled with confusion. “Female? Vivian?”
“I’m in the middle of having a baby!” I scream, suddenly angry. “Your baby!” I throw out my arm and point to the port’s entrance. “Get us out of here. Now! We don’t have—” I’m cut off as his arms capture me against him once more and I’m pulled into a cradle. A sob tears from my throat as my body tenses painfully and I go rigid all over.
But he listens and we’re flying through the room at breakneck speed, and as the air clears the closer we get to the security checkpoint, I focus on keeping the baby from ripping out of me. A few soldiers try to stop us, and Syasku barrels through them without stopping. Pushing through the remaining people trying to get through the checkpoint, I hear an explosion behind us.
I wince, wondering if this is all happening because of him. If Syasku is the cause of the ship’s blackout.
“Follow the people,” I choke out when he pauses at the entrance to the quarantine zone. Bypassing the designated rooms, he joins the growing flood of humans escaping into the docking zone.
As we enter the port, lights banish the darkness, blasting out from the few private ships that have already begun to take off. Thousands of them span out in front of us, and on either side, with grated metal walkways between them.
Syasku slows and I lower from his embrace. On the main terminal track right outside the quarantine station, I drop to my knees and—damn it, I don’t have any more time—I rip off my wet sweatpants and underwear. “Help me!”
Syasku’s tail coils around me, bleeding out from countless wounds. His tailtip tugs my underwear the rest of the way off.
“Tell me what to do,” he begs, his voice urgent, his eyes streaking across my bloated form, alarm etched over his bloody features.
Looking around, I point to the underside of the closest spaceship. “There.” It’s all I have to say for him to hook his arm around me and take me where I want to go. Leaving a trail of amniotic fluid, I lose the rest of my water as I stagger half-naked to a spot under the wing.
Getting on my hands and knees, I rock back and forth. I scream when my next contraction hits. Overwhelming pressure hits my pelvic region, and I inhale sharply and strain, pushing for the first time. When the contraction ends and I exhale, Syasku’s hands cup my cheeks. With his gaze leveled with mine, he’s in front of me. Tears stream down my cheeks at his anguished expression.
More and more people enter the port, running past us. The floor beneath hums as a ship nearby powers on.
Staring into Syasku’s eyes, I try not to focus on it. I try to focus on him and my body.
“I did not know,” he whispers, his voice raw with regret.
“How could you?” I press my brow to his bloody one. “We were separated. We didn’t have a choice.”
“I should have never left that cell.”
“I shouldn’t have either.”
His eyes skirt my face. “You are bruised.” Fury flashes over his face. “Who hurt you?”
“It doesn’t matter, getting this baby out of me alive is what matters. It’s the only thing that matters.”
His fingers drift gently over my skin, circling my eyes. Unable to help it, I lean into his caress. “I missed you.”
“I missssssed you too, sweet female.”
I release a shaky breath. My face wrenches at the next contraction, and Syasku’s hands fall away as I push with all my might. His tail slides around me and along my sides, circling me once more.
Gasping, my body loosens as the contraction fades.
“Syasku,” Asera hisses, appearing to my left. Next to him is Ursula. Gasping again, I close my eyes.
Syasku snaps upright and scowls, shielding me.
“Wait!” I beg. “Don’t hurt them.”
“I plan to kill them, not hurt them,” he growls.
“Kill me? I can help her, but you’re going to have to let me through.” Ursula enters my line of sight, and I shift my eyes to her. “She’s not having a normal baby. You need me right now more than ever.”
“Any closer,” Syasku warns her, his voice dark and menacing, “and lose your head.”
Asera shoots forward, shielding Ursula. Both nagas stare each other down, tension radiating from their forms. Asera’s face is swollen and red, his nose twisted at an odd angle, and when he hisses, both of his fangs are missing.
I grit my teeth and look away. “Syasku, please. We need her. I need her. I need—” A painful whimper leaves my mouth as I lose my next breath and push. “LET HER THROUGH!” I scream at my next inhale, angry all over again, annoyed at the ruckus and pandemonium happening all around me. “NOW!” Don’t they know I’m in labor?
I hear a hiss, and Syasku’s tail slips away from me. Ursula ducks under the ship and positions herself behind me. “I don’t have gloves. I’m going to check if the baby is in the right position.”
Nodding weakly, I brace as she probes me with her fingers then slips them back out. “Good,” she mumbles. “You’re fully dilated. On your next contraction, I want you to push with all you got.” She shifts her attention to Syasku. “Help me get her upright. It’ll be easier if she’s in a squatting position.” My body clamps as they help me up, and Ursula moves to kneel in front of me, taking Syasku’s spot. “Hold her from behind. She’ll need your support.”
He wraps his arms around me and I lean into him. Dirty and wounded, his body trembles as he rests his chin on my shoulder, and I feel his fear and anxiety. Soaking it up, it does something strange…
It alleviates my worries and makes me numb.
I’m ready for the next push when my body contracts, and leaning into Syasku’s strong form, I press my heels into the floor and scream.
Ursula urges. “More! Harder!”
Engine exhaust and gasoline flood my nose as I do as she says and puuuush .
“I said harder!”
My teeth grind, and my muscles strain.
“Keep going!”
My insides hurt so badly they feel like they’re tearing, and when an excruciating burning sensation erupts between my legs, I sob, the agony causing my legs to buckle.
I want to stop but I can’t.
Ursula reaches under me. “Almost there!”
I release another sob in the hope it’ll be over soon, straining with all my might. Inflamed with pain, the pressure in my belly releases with a rush. There’s a woosh and a soft squeal and some of the pressure in my belly fades. Ursula grabs the baby and cradles them in her arms at my final sob. Falling back into Syasku’s arms, the pinching, stabbing tension between my legs eases into a throbbing, godawful ache.
The baby’s first cry pierces the chamber.
“Holy fuck,” someone says, and I crack my eyes open to see a vaguely familiar man holding a gun standing a short distance from Asera.
“You did it,” Ursula murmurs, wiping the baby clean with her shirt. “You’re almost done now, Vivian.”
Syasku’s grip hardens as I reach for the baby. Ursula hands the mewling, wiggling form over to me as she dives between my legs once more. “We’re going to need to get you out of here and fast. You’re badly torn,” she says from between my legs. “You’re going to need stitches.”
I barely have a moment to look at the scrunched, delicate features of my baby and that curious little coiled tail coming out of its behind before reality comes crashing back down.
“I need a blade,” Ursula announces, eyeing the others expectantly.
The male with the gun pulls a switchblade from his belt and hands it to Ursula. Lowering to me once more, she cuts the umbilical cord and tosses it aside.
My gaze briefly goes to the cord on the grated walkway next to me. Tossed there like trash. Gunfire returns to my ears, and everyone startles to search for its source. It eclipses my baby’s soft cries.
Syasku holds me even tighter as my ears ring. The blasts are coming from the quarantine stations. The reinforcements have arrived.
“We need to move,” the stranger mutters, checking the bullets in his magazine.
Holding the baby to my chest, I look around at the hundreds of people surrounding me as even more filter in and flee. Realizing most of them are heading in the same direction, I turn to see a giant commercial freight ship down the main track. Along other walkways, and up and down the lines, other smaller spacecraft are being loaded and readied by their crews.
The baby starts to cry in earnest, and Syasku tugs me up and into his arms, pulling me completely off the floor. He’s quiet, but his grip is firm.
“Follow me,” Ursula orders, wiping her hands on her pants as she scrutinizes me and the baby after looking around herself. “I have a place I can take you where you will be safe and I can stitch you up.” Asera slithers to her side, and when he presses his broken face into her slicked-back hair, she shoos him away.
“We are going nowhere with you,” Syasku rumbles, speaking at last.
“Unless you want to risk Vivian getting an infection and the health of your newborn, I recommend that you do.” She eyes the chaotic port with annoyance, her lips twisting further at the people running toward the large ship at the end of the port. Most of them appear poor, disheveled, dirty like us.
The man with the switchblade turns to Syasku who continues to seethe at Ursula. “We should join Omari and the others on the freighter. If we go now, there may still be enough seats open.” He pulls off his jacket and hands it to me, and with Syasku’s help, I tie it around my middle, hiding my nudity. I hold back a pained groan as I’m then tugged back into his arms, able to keep the baby safely tucked against me.
“That freighter?” Ursula indicates the ship where the people are fleeing. “It’ll never make it to one of the other colony ships. If that ship even manages to fly beyond the Dreadnaut’s barriers, you would be lucky if there’s anything aboard that could help your situation.”
“We are not headed to another colony. We’re headed for Earth,” the stranger says. “The freighter doesn’t have to go far.” He glances behind him and at the quarantine stations where most of the gunfire is coming from like he’s searching for someone. “We need to make a decision now. Omari and her men may hold off the militia for a time, but if Volp releases the drones… it’s every man and woman for themselves. Either way, we need to decide now.”
Ursula glowers at him. “I agree. If we leave now, we might not be spotted and could get to my laboratory without being stopped. There you can all wash and we can come up with a plan?—”
“Over my dead body,” Syasku straightens, towering over Ursula.
Feeling faint, I close my eyes. “The freighter. Let’s go to the freighter,” I whisper. I may have gone to Ursula for help, but I have no intention of staying with her longer than necessary. I don’t trust her selfish ambition.
The baby makes a whimpering sound, and I clutch them closer to my chest, desperate to snuggle them and rest. “We’ll take our chances with the freighter.”
“You’re making a mistake.” Ursula’s eyes narrow on me. “You and your baby need medical care immediately and that freighter isn’t going to have a stocked medbay if it has a medbay at all. And even if it does, there will be others who are wounded and in need of help.” She looks at the blood pooled on the ground from my labor. “You’ll catch an infection in the state you’re?—”
“As Vivian said, we’ll take our chances,” the vaguely familiar stranger snaps.
The stranger knows my name?
“Let’s go,” he says, cocking his thumb at the ship before readying his gun and nodding at Syasku. “You take the lead, and I’ll cover your back.”
“I can’t let you do this.” Ursula scowls her cold facade cracking. “Syasku and Vivian are wanted, and leaving puts the newborn’s life in danger.”
The male steps in front of her. “You, ma’am, do not have a choice.”
“I think I do. Asera, stop them,” she orders. “I just have to keep you here long enough for reinforcements to arrive.”
Syasku pauses just as we turn for the freighter. He pivots back and releases a hiss the likes of which I have never heard before. Rough, threatening, and deep, it’s the sound a predator would make right before the attack. His slitted eyes flick from Ursula to Asera. The smaller naga doesn’t move.
“Syasku,” I whisper with urgency, needing more than anything to take our child someplace safe. “Don’t let her goad you. It’s not worth it.”
“Kyle,” he snaps, ignoring me and handing me and the baby over to the other male.
The male, Kyle, pauses before putting away his gun and taking me from Syasku’s arms.
“Asera, stop them!” Ursula demands louder when he hesitates. “They can’t leave. We can’t let them leave.”
“Syasku please ,” I beg, scared we might miss our one chance to get off the Dreadnaut once and for all. I don’t want to linger, I don’t want to fight. I just want to leave.
Syasku shifts towards Ursula, and Asera, tensing, slides forward to stop him.
“Are you going to kill me now, naga?” Ursula threatens him. “After I saved Vivian and your baby?”
Somewhere in the distance, deeper in the ship, screaming and shouting erupts behind the port’s barricade. Abruptly, people stop appearing through the side gates.
“Yessss, Ursusssula, I am.”
“Syasku,” Asera warns. He tilts his head forward and bares his fangs.
“Why are you hesitating?” Ursula shouts at Asera. “Stop him! Attack him!”
Syasku launches at Asera and takes him down, wrapping his tail around the naga until he can no longer be seen. Hearing a gut-curdling roar, Syasku squeezes the other naga, his body thrashing back and forth wildly as Asera tries to free himself. Blood oozing from his wounds, Syasku digs his fingers into Asera’s mouth and grips his jaw, yanking it out.
I turn away and press my face into my baby when Asera starts garbling and screaming, and his bones snap.
“Fucking hell,” the stranger holding me breathes, taking several steps away.
When Asera goes quiet, I open my eyes just in time to see Syasku advance on Ursula, who’s fleeing towards the quarantine zone, shouting for help from the few soldiers who have appeared.
He lunges, taking her to the ground.
Her shriek cuts off as he easily lifts her over his head and slams her body down. This happens again, and again until everyone nearby freezes to watch, stunned by Syasku’s vehemence and brutality. Even the few soldiers who have arrived pause, lowering their weapons, their mouths open in shock.
When Ursula’s body is nothing more than a flesh bag of broken bones, Syasku yanks open her mouth and shoves his hand down her throat. It bulges as his fist ruptures her neck. Her body shakes like a ragdoll and his eyes sharpen with intensity. Slowly pulling his hand back out, something is gripped in his fingers.
Ursula’s body bends inward as he tears out her spine through her mouth.
Releasing her and the appendage, they drop to the floor and he lifts his head back and roars.
Wincing, the sound echoes.
When it’s over, he looks down at Ursula’s corpse. Scowling down at her, he turns to look at me.
I shake my head, pleading. “Let’s go,” I mouth the words to him.
His lips close over his fangs, and heads for me.
Those frozen watching him return to what they were doing, and with the pulverizing now over, people start screaming, soldiers readjust their weapons.
The barricade explodes behind Syasku, and shrapnel flies through the air. The baby shrieks, bursting into tears as Syasku speeds up and rushes us. Ringing fills my ears as smoke floods the port.
With Ursula’s and Asera’s blood on his hands, he takes me back from Kyle. His wet hands are warm where they grasp me.
“Go!” the male screams at us as hundreds of soldiers emerge from the wreckage.
Syasku tenses and launches forward in the direction of the freighter. Civilians and ships pass us by as he rushes us through at breakneck speed. Gunfire zips past us, and people scream while others dodge for cover as they try to get out of Syasku’s way. There are more shouts behind us as the soldiers span out to retake control of the port.
I pray, shielding my baby as much as I can.
“They’re coming! Hurry!” someone yells.
Syasku pushes through a throng of people trying desperately to enter the freighter’s open back hatch. Several of the ship’s guards are shouting for people to either back away or hurry on as they try closing the doors.
Syasku forces his way on, uncaring who he shoves aside. I squeeze my eyes tight.
The last thing I hear as the hatch is closed is my father’s voice.
“Denizens of The Dreadnaut , this is your Supreme Commander once more. We are under attack by alien lifeforms from Earth. All civilians who are found outside their units or are trying to flee will be prosecuted for obstruction. If you have not already, return to your homes in an orderly fashion and await further instruction.”