Chapter 7 The Eternal Abyss of the Starless Reach #2
He emitted a dry, humorless laugh and leaned into her personal space. ‘This entire planet breathes because men like me permit its lungs to function; you’ll do well to anchor that fact in your mind.’
Sheba retreated, taking a single, cautious step, her eyes drifting toward the desk emergency call button while her pulse quickened into a frantic staccato.
Ty followed her retreat, his voice dropping into a thick rasp as his gaze slid over her with a proprietary hunger.
‘You know, Munene, you’d be astonished to discover which doors swing open the moment you cease pretending you are superior and give in to me.’
The lust in his eyes turned her stomach.
‘Fokk off, get the hell out of my hospital and don’t return.’
He flipped, his face flushing and going red.
Snarling, he lunged, hands flung out, coming in contact with her shoulders.
The sudden shove sent her crashing back onto a hover bed, the frame rattling beneath her.
Ty loomed over her, breath hot, face flushed, one hand crushing her shoulder while the other fumbled at his waistband.
His words devolved into slurred threats and promises, between his slobbering, relentless kisses that pressed so firmly over her lips, her skin tore.
Sheba drove a knee upward and hit his balls.
He pulled away, roaring in agony.
She scrambled from him, but he lunged at her, bruising her arm.
She struck his wrist, shoving hard at his chest, fighting with everything she had.
With no warning, Ty got ripped away from her and hurled across the room.
His body slammed into the opposite wall and rebounded, falling to the floor with a sick thud.
An unseen force lifted him and blasted his sagging frame straight through the front doors of the clinic, where he landed in a poof of dust.
Sheba scrambled upright in time to see him being dragged over the ground outside, hoisted, and smashed down again.
Whoever was beating the living daylight out of him was a blur of energy and light.
Sheba took an inhale, her chest heaving as Ty received a colossal beating.
By now, her colleagues were onto the fray, and Matteo, followed by Kaelin, rushed to the veranda beside her.
‘The hell?’ Matteo muttered.
‘It’s Ty Si’Rhix, he paid us an unwelcome visit, and now he’s getting his ass handed to him.’
‘By whom?’ Kaelin whispered as Ty tried to fight back.
‘Not sure yet, but I have a clue,’ Sheba murmured.
Ty’s fists flailed at thin air as the entity kicking his living daylights moved so fast he couldn’t get a handle on him.
Blood sprayed and spurted from his mouth. A tooth scattered across the dirt as an unseen force broke him with ruthless precision.
A figure resolved out of the ether above him.
Idan.
He stood over Ty, glowing, energy pulsing in waves around him, long hair loose about his shoulders, eyes narrowed to molten slits, his face lit with a terrible radiance.
‘Kill him!’ Ty screamed, crawling toward his flyer and presumably his guards within, his face bloody and clothes torn. ‘He attacked me!’
More medics and nurses poured out of the clinic, drawn by the violence.
Ty’s guard and pilot spilled from the craft with firearms half-raised, then froze.
Fear locked them in place as they took in the tall, imposing being before them.
He was the epitome of menace; his eyes were glowing, his wild hair flowed behind him, and a golden energy rippled around him.
He lifted a hand, and all five troops dropped their weapons, which clattered to the ground.
His terrible glowing eyes turned to Ty.
‘You’re the fokkin’ monster!’ the mining magnate croaked, pointing a shaking finger at Idan. ‘The one who killed Tiberius.’
Idan’s gaze flicked from the stricken soldiers and returned to Ty, brow arched with unmistakable meaning.
Lay another finger on her, and by the fractured eye of Kaelos, I will unmake the very breath in your lungs and fling your essence into the eternal Abyss of the Starless Reach.
The harsh subvocal snarl stormed into the ears of everyone in the near vicinity as Sheba gasped.
Ty’s bravado collapsed, and he blubbered, flinching under Idan’s unyielding glare.
‘I’m sure none of us want to see any more violence, Ty,’ Sheba called out.
She wiped blood from her lip and, stepping forward, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. ‘So get the hell out of here before you cause any more damage.’
Ty staggered upright, swaying.
‘You’ll pay for this,’ he spat. ‘All of you.’
He stabbed a finger toward the staff gathered in the light, then at Sheba, then at Idan. ‘I’ll flay you all.’
Idan advanced on him, crowding his space and pushing him backward without touching him. Step by step, Ty retreated, stumbling, until he fell into the open flyer.
His soldiers raced to crowd into the cabin, and the hatch slammed shut.
Idan retreated to safety as the craft’s engines roared.
It shook and trembled as it rose, then tore into the night.
Relief hit Sheba first, followed by a wave of nausea and shock that left her limbs unsteady.
She bent over, palms on her knees, drawing in intense inhales, eyes on Idan as he turned back to her.
For the first time, his lips parted, and a rumble emerged that carried through her chest.
‘Ko’sawa?’
The sound struck her harder than the recent violence.
His timbre was deep and lush, resonant enough to send shivers through her.
His accent was resonant with a timbred refinement and sonorous potency, with a cadence that hinted at courts, bloodlines, ancient wars, and histories long buried.
She straightened, shaking.
‘You speak?’ she whispered.
‘When I choose to,’ he rasped, his timbre rough and raw from disuse. ‘I asked if you’re okay.’
She nodded, still struggling to steady her breathing.
‘I am,’ she said.
‘Did he hurt you?’
‘He tried, but nothing worth noting went down. Not before you arrived.’
Idan’s eyes darkened.
Thunder cracked overhead. Lightning tore the sky open.
In the distance, the Rhixon Corporation’s flyer wobbled, spiraled, then lurched back under control as it fled into the clouds.
Sheba stared at the phenomenon, then back at Idan.
‘Did you just -?’
‘I protect those who cannot defend themselves,’ Idan growled. ‘Now go. Let your people care for you, and rest, or I’ll return and insist upon it.’
‘I have night duty.’
He shook his head. ‘Not any more, you don’t.’
She tilted her head, affronted. ‘Who are you to tell me what to do?’
Idan’s jaw clenched, and he crossed his massive arms.
She tilted her chin.
He narrowed his glowing eyes.
She glared.
‘I don’t care if you’re a literal storm-bringer who’s ended civilizations. Your brooding energy doesn’t work with me.’
His eyes flared with a wild power, and she jolted.
‘Rest, Sheba.’
She jolted at how sensual her appellation sounded when he growled it. ‘You know my name.’
He jerked his chin at her, eyes smoldering, scorching her, with such intensity it got her heart rate kicking. ‘I discerned it.’
‘Are you even human?’ she murmured, lost in consternation. ‘You’re not Tansinian. So what are you?’
He gave nada away, arching his brow.
His gaze held hers, fierce and intent, then with no warning, he turned and vanished into the darkness between two of the demountable clinic buildings.
She swallowed and whispered after him. ‘Sante, once again.’
Linh sprinted across the gravel, catching Sheba by the shoulders and steering her away from the chaos and toward the privacy of her tent.
‘You’re done for the night,’ Linh commanded, repeating Idan’s demand.
She rummaged in Sheba’s tiny kitchenette and produced a tin cup containing a generous measure of rum.
Linh pressed it into Sheba’s shaking hands. ‘Drink. That’s a medical directive, not a suggestion.’
As Sheba obeyed, chugging the alcohol, and then slumped onto the edge of her cot, Linh knelt before her.
She briskly passed a diagnostic med-kit scanner over the angry purple bruising and bleeding on Sheba’s lip and arm.
‘The skin is a mess, but the bone is intact. I’m sealing the laceration now.’
‘I should be in the ward, I’m still on duty,’ Sheba muttered, the alcohol hitting her system with a sudden, dulling heat.
‘Out there, you’re a liability until you sleep,’ Linh countered, her tone firm as she finished the dermal knit.
The medic helped Sheba into bed and pulled the heavy thermal blanket up to her patient’s chin. ‘Bed, now, doctor’s orders. If I see you in the triage bay before sunrise, I’m freakin’ sedating you myself.’
Much later, when peace fell once more over the compound, and the night pressed in, Sheba still lay awake, unable to shut down, her thoughts circling one impossible truth.
Idan was nothing she’d imagined before.
He was even more terrifying, yet so compelling and freakin’ sensuous, a fact that frightened her far more than Ty Si’Rhix ever would.