Driok
Igo to flame again, but a hand covers my mouth, and it stops me.
I wrench myself free and turn to face Dalox.
“What the nev…” I grab the warlord’s arm. “Dalox?”
“What, you didn’t think I left Vorostor, did you?” He gives me a lopsided grin.
“How?” I’m still stunned, almost too stunned.
“Not here,” Dalox growls. “Too many.”
“My mate.” I turn towards the booth.
“You brought your female?”
“I wasn’t going to leave her,” I growl at him, before retracing my steps to where I left Maggie.
The booth is empty.
“Nev,” Dalox says, joining me.
My heart pounds blood through my veins, my shift so close to the surface, I could easily lose it completely, regardless of the devastation it will wreak in this place.
Maggie is gone.
“I shouldn’t have brought her,” I growl under my breath. “I had everything set up so she could stay safe in orbit.”
“But she told you to get some intel first,” Dalox rumbles next to me. “At least one of you has some sense.”
I have my hand around his throat before I can even think what I’m doing.
“It was an error which could get her killed, and don’t think I won’t do the same to you.”
“I’d like to see you try, Lord Driok.” Dalox gazes at me evenly, but behind his eyes is a fire which burns and which I know will easily see my demise.
My fellow warlords might have thought Dante was the unhinged one. They are wrong. Of all the Sarkarnii warlords I share a planet with, Dalox is the one I would never cross.
And I still don’t know why he’s here or where my mate is.
“I have to find her.” I release him and slam my way out of the building into the street.
It’s busier than ever. More bodies means the chances of seeing a small human, covered in clothing which looks like everyone else’s and is the color of the dust of this planetoid is vanishingly small.
“Nev,” I roar.
No one even looks.
“Do you really want the Ulep to come for you too?” Dalox slams a hand on my shoulder.
I try to shake him off, but he is immovable on this occasion.
“I need my mate.”
“I doubt she is in any danger,” Dalox says.
I want to slam him back into orbit, but somehow I hold back my anger.
“What do you mean?”
“If she’s been taken, then they’ll want her intact. Most likely to get to you.”
“That isn’t helping, Dalox,” I snarl.
“Come with me,” he says imperiously. “And we’ll get your mate back, along with your crew.”
“Why the nev would I go with you? I have my mate to find.”
“Because I’ve been here three nevving nova-weeks waiting for you, nev-head. If anyone is going to find your mate, it will be me,” Dalox responds.
I want to explode. I want to shift into my Sarkarnii form and burn this place to ash because it dared to take Maggie from me. I want to do anything but go with Dalox, to leave this place, the place I last saw her.
But my guilt gets the better of me. The last thing I should have done was leave her on her own.
As Dalox disappears into the crowd, I follow him. My heart is heavy, my feet heavier. Without my Maggie, it’s harder to breathe, to even see an end to everything.
I thought I had it all. I thought the Ulep threat was to be neutralized. I thought I could return to rut for her, and that it would be perfect.
I was wrong on all counts. Everything I have achieved is naught if I cannot protect her.
“In here.” Dalox darts down a side alley which seems barely wide enough for a Sarkarnii.
I follow, my feet like molten metal, and there is a rush of wind I think will pull me off my feet.
Then I am not on the nevving planetoid. Instead I am on the bridge of Dalox’s ship.
“Nev!” I take two paces towards him, already considering violence, but Dalox, for all he’s older than me, is faster, and I find myself pinned against a bulkhead.
“It’s a portal, Driok, courtesy of Darax,” he snarls in my face. “And it’s the only way to get on and off the nevving planetoid without detection by the nevving Ulep.” He squeezes my neck tighter, baring his fangs. “You think you were the only one pursuing the end game with them?”
“It was my duty, Lord Dalox.” I force the words out past his hand.
“A duty you were undertaking well until now,” he rasps. “But I know you want to rescue your crew, and it’s the last thing you should be doing.”
I stare at him. Dalox is no longer a Sarkarnii; he is a traitor. Because of him, I have lost my mate as well as my ship and my warriors.
And I have nowhere left to turn.