Rosalie
This is a terrible plan. But it is also a brilliant plan and one I should have expected from Dante.
He’s filled with fire as he works his way through the glowing cables, his claws far more dexterous than I would have thought.
His eyes are lit up, concentrated on his task, his scales glittering with fire.
I want to be as confident as he is about his plan. But holding ourselves out as bait for the Gonoz—for one I don’t know why they would want me, but also, Dante is putting himself at significant risk.
My heart is consumed with silly jealousy about his sacrifice. Why should anyone else have him when he belongs to me?
Except there is Della, who deserves to have a life free of fear and all the other sarkarnlings who didn’t ask to be where they are, and who need to be able to grow up among the warriors who care for them, warriors without a mutation which renders them incapacitated on occasion.
We have to see this plan through. I have to see it through.
“Ah, the human female.”
I’ve been so concentrated on Dante and his task, when the metal hand winds around my neck, I almost freeze.
“Oh no!” I duck, wrenching myself away from the robot which is all spindly limbs, almost hollow body save for wires, and no head. It glints silver in the strong lights of this place.
Dante looks up and growls at it. I take a step back, fumbling with my ray gun before releasing a bolt, which shoots the arm off the thing.
“Well done, my mate,” Dante croons. “You’ll need to shoot a few more times before it cannot come after us again.”
He is entirely correct, as the robot, its missing limb sparking, stumbles towards me, pincer outstretched.
I fire again and again and again, and parts of it go flying off down the passage, but it’s still coming.
I need to be more strategic where I’m aiming, so taking a deep breath as the thing lurches at me, I lower the ray gun and shoot at what I suppose are the legs.
One of them crumbles and the robot falls to one side. I swiftly shoot the second off, and finally I take several shots at the densest part of the robot, figuring that is probably where its CPU or the Gonoz equivalent is situated.
“Absolute perfection,” Dante calls out. “Couldn’t have done better myself.”
He grins over at me.
“Is this part of the plan?”
“They know we’re here now,” Dante says. “And they know we’re armed and dangerous. I expect we’ll be inundated soon.”
“So, how are we going to stop them?”
“Containment.” Dante holds up his bundle of wires which still look like a bird’s nest.
I doubt they could even contain some eggs.
From all around, there is a noise I really don’t like. It’s a screeching, thumping, and it’s getting closer.
“Are you ready, my little flame?” Dante says, holding out his hand as he lifts the bundle over his head.
I let him pull me against him, against his hard, warm body as he releases a cloud of smoke.
“Is this your plan?” I query. “A smoke screen?”
“I need them to know where we are.”
“They certainly know it.”
“You did such a good job, my sweet mate,” Dante rasps. “Seeing you with a pulsar in your hand makes me want to mate you right here and right now.”
“I can’t believe you’re even thinking about mating!” I shout over the noise.
“I am always thinking about mating,” Dante says. “Why wouldn’t I, when I have a mate who can take me to the ancestors and bring me back.”
It would appear I have created a sex monster, and he’s all which stands between me and what sounds like annihilation by whatever is coming for us.
On either side, the noise continues to press in on us. I cover my ears, and Dante wraps his arm over my chest, holding me to him. I can’t see anything but the haze of smoke he has released, until finally, horribly, shapes appear, like ghosts.
“So, let’s see if this works,” Dante says.
“Dante, you brought your mate and your crew.” The voice of the Gonoz pierces the veil of smoke. “We could not have asked for more. A way to continue and a way to breed.”
My blood runs cold, sending a shiver down my spine. This is what they want. Sarkarnii to inhabit. I believe in Dante, but I can’t help wondering if this was the best of ideas.
“No matter what,” Dante murmurs in my ear, “I will protect you, my little flame. I have you, I hold you, I will be with you. Don’t forget it.”
Above us, the bundle of wires glows brighter and brighter until I can’t look at it anymore. I have to close my eyes. It has to be burning Dante so badly. I spin around, shoving my face into his broad chest, wrapping myself as tightly as I can to him.
“Dante!” My call of his name is lost in the noise, the light, the heat, everything.
I cannot lose him a second time. In everything which has happened to me, losing my identity and home on Earth, to being abducted, to falling into space onto a strange planet and being adopted by the Sarkarnii, it all is nothing if I don’t have Dante.
The feral creature who bit me because he knew I was his. Who was unafraid to admit it, to face the consequences of his actions, and who, after everything, was prepared to give me the space to find out who he was…and how much my chaos warlord could mean to me.
“I love you, Dante,” I hear myself say, my heart pounding as somehow the noise and the light get stronger. “I will always love you.”
And everything stops.
Everything.
All there is is white and silence.