Chapter Sixteen
Roan
In the early morning, when the strange condensation of the planet clung to the screen of our glassless windows, I yawned and stretched.
A low-pitched droning sound unsettled me as Liru and Zurok rose aside me, Wallace snoozing away, tail curled around our egg as if the entire world was fine.
I yawned and studied the alerted twitch of their tails. “What the fuck is that?”
“Subsonic sound. Omegas are more susceptible to it.” Zurok lifted little Risel and slid him into Liru’s arms. “It’s a high alert. Something’s happening.”
Zurok stepped from the room, his own AI system responding to a tail gesture as he spoke, calling the watch team for an update.
A feral snarl in the distance made all the scales on my arms ripple and tail shiver. A roar and shriek followed, waking Wallace from a dead sleep to turn and brace his sturdy forebody over our egg with a domineering posture, teeth bared and wings flitting out to make himself appear bigger.
“Something’s going on.” I gestured toward Liru who stroked Risel’s shell anxiously.
“I assume we’re being invaded.” Liru didn’t move to the window, but Wallace did, relenting as I took our egg into my arms. He peered down, and his tail curled offensively, entire body twisted tight in readiness to attack.
“Get in the safe room!” Zurok’s shout came just a moment before clawed pincers scraped our bedroom window. Liru nodded once and tugged at my arm, and we made our way to the cellar, a small space that was mainly reserved for storage of emergency provisions.
Something in my body kept twitching and pulsing as my wings forced their way free, my every muscle tight and ready to fight in a way I hadn’t felt since I was in my formative years, gun wielding and tearing Synofians to shreds as the church pitched war over territory.
Liru knew something I didn’t when he reached out to take my nameless egg with a gentle sweep, nudging me with his tail. “You’re a warrior. I am not. Go fight.”
“What?” I froze in place, my arms shaking with adrenaline as old training came back to me. Things I’d trained myself to evolve beyond, curled in the back of my mind and reached inky tendrils through me.
“Not all of us are pacifists. If you have teeth that wish to tear and rend, go.” Liru took my egg into his arms with its brother, and I hesitated only a moment before stepping back while he bolted the metallic door with a damning clang.
I turned on my heel and bolted, chasing after the direction Wallace and Zurok had left.
I had no idea where I was expected to go, but the ruckus of snarls and ululating clicks drove me out.
The translator chip in my head scattered half words and chopped-up tones with a piercing ache.
Revulons had to use communication devices to mimic Terran speech, because even if they did come up with the correct vocalizations, their inherent clicking and screeching caused pain to species with delicate hearing. On Paradise, they did no such thing.
A streak of pale blue whizzed by me on the tips of their toes, eyes narrowed and teeth bared.
Sharp claws swiped and screeched through armor plate that had been bolted onto the exoskeleton of a Revulon that appeared to have recently scaled a nearby building; the mortar of the building pocked with claw-marks and missing chunks at the sill.
“Noel?” A whisper escaped my lips, unheard in the din and chaos of the street where a rainbow of lizard men leaped and clawed, their utopia lacking in weapons to fight something so unexpected.
Noel studied his prey as he climbed over their hulking frame, seven and a half feet of tanklike brute strength.
With blinding speed, his tail whipped, slapping at the creature, clanging against the metal tacked to its frame.
I thought the gesture to be haphazard and crazed at first, but realized as soon as he straightened his fingers, pinned them, clawed down, and stabbed into a joint between abdominal plates, that he was gauging weak points.
Once his hand sank into the flesh, he latched on to the screeching beast, angled his arm upward and clenched, jerking out a string of blue and black innards with a revolting scent that slapped me in the face and a sound that made my stomach clench and mouth water.
I’d always been taught to make my kills clean, but as bubbling bile and yellow, frothing fluid escaped the gap in the creature’s shell, it stumbled.
Noel pulled his arm back as his tail whipped about, hoisting him up to grab onto the creature’s flailing head that he jerked with a sickening crunch.
“Progenitors…” I flinched as Noel leaped off the body, slicked his filthy hand back through his untamed locks, and snarled with what could only be described as joy.
He glanced over, locking eyes with me for a blink before tilting his head in the direction of another approaching beast. I pointed at myself. “Me?”
“Either take it or bring me some butter and a really fucking big space crab cracker.” He licked his lips, dark viscera staining his chin.
“What the fuck do you need that for?” I cried out as the beast approached me, and I found instinct taking over, but my new form was weak from birth, sore, and new.
Still, I pried at its head, earning sharp grazes of stiffened chitin that nearly tore through my scales.
My clawed feet raked along its side as I climbed over it, fist instinctively whipping out to crush into the complex mechanism that constituted the creature’s mouth.
I thought… They vomited up waste, too, so it could have equally been its asshole.
Either way, it wouldn’t be using it again as I hooked clawed fingers into its jaw and ripped, tearing away cracking bits.
“Look, at least in the military, we got lobster before we got sent out.” Noel shrugged before attracting the attention of another beast while I struggled to get my half-jawed monster under control. He swung pincered claws at me, colliding into my sides, stealing my breath one swing at a time.
“What the fuck is lobster?” I hammered my fist into the creature’s head, where I really hoped it had a brain. Judging by its continued, albeit less coordinated, flailing, it did not. At least it couldn’t see.
“Earth sea bug, like a tiny delicious Kanoik without acid.” Vil ran by, his explanation making my stomach wrench.
“They’re sentient beings!” I choked as a massive pincer slammed me to the ground, and I bucked my feet up against it, clawing against its chest before hooking a talon into a weak joint and tearing it open with a wet splatter.
“And?” Noel turned around, an enormous claw slung over his shoulder, tail twitching with excitement.
From nowhere, another Revulon charged, its ululating call cracking in my ears as bits of words squelched through. “Life—seed.”
Echoing calls reiterating the creature’s words came from all around as beleaguered Revulon fought their way closer. “Give—life—seed. Eggs.”
One Revulon tore its shell open, ripping his chest plate off as a gushing mass of undulating eggs spilled free, popping with steaming curls as nearly translucent larvae unfurled.
Uli, an omega that worked repairing the computers and systems in homes, came jogging by. The words bio maintenance had been emblazoned on a backpack I recognized from the omegas that took care of landscaping—a fancy flamethrower meant to burn vines and moss away. “Say hello to my little friends!”
“Scarface, really?” Vil glared at Noel as they moved on to another target, and the world around us darkened in the face of violent, billowing flames. The curling larvae squeaked as they burned, the light of it somewhat pinkened from the atmosphere and presence of lithium in the fuel.
“Stop showing the locals B movies! Hell, that movie was even before your time!” Sarge raced by, gardening towels poised in his arms as he lodged a serrated trowel into the gap of one shell and twisted before moving on to another.
“I’m serious about the butter!” Noel’s voice echoed out as Uli continued maniacally laughing and spraying pink flames over the brooded Revulon.
My heart fluttered as Wallace’s voice rang out. “I can find a butter substitute. Nothing on this planet makes milk!”
“I make milk!” Gorm’s euro-trash accent rang out over the din, and several males spat back insults.
“Gross, dude!”
“I want to unhear that.”
“Nice.”
I wasn’t going to lie, that third one gave me pause before I ran back into the fray, claws drawn in hopes of finding my mate.
Above the scent of fetid blood, innards, and the sweet underlying scent of onions and saccharine Colthraxian, I leaped and mimed Noel in going for that sweet spot they couldn’t protect without sacrificing their mobility.
A pincer latched onto my arm and squeezed, lightning shooting down my spine as I screamed and tore myself away, my arm snapping before I got away with meaty threads dripping magenta blood from the Revulon’s grip.
Another pincer swung and collided with the side of my head, sending my hearing into a loud, ringing whine that far outweighed the distance I flew back before crashing into a building.
Not too long ago, that much would have put me on a stretcher for days, but the ringing sucked in with a crackle in my ears, and I screamed as I bolted back and tore into the creature’s side, letting it stagger as I moved on to another, caught by my waist by a strong arm on my way to ricochet from one beast to the next.
Warm spices, foreign floral notes, and the sweetness of baked goods flooded me as Wallace locked me into a deep kiss. “We’re not eating Revulon later.”
“Thank you,” I hummed before pecking him once more on the lips and bolting again.
As I made it a few strides away, Zurok crashed down, wings crumpled, screaming as he clawed at his neck, an open gash leaking profusely.
Wild eyes pinned me to the spot as he choked, and the clawing fingers at his neck highlighted the wriggling mass doing its best to chew its way into his body.
Without a second thought, I dove forward, my grinding arm not yet healed as magenta blood coated me from elbow to fingertip.
What my blood lacked that Zurok’s didn’t was potent enough to protect my mate and egg beyond a shadow of a doubt. Venom.
Without thinking, I grappled Zurok to the ground, bloody fingers singeing the creature as I leaned down to bite and tear a chunk of flesh, pinching the wriggling creature between my teeth as it shrieked and curled, my venom like acid on its milky flesh.
I spat the creature onto the ground as it bubbled, deflating into a soggy mess while Zurok choked and held his neck at the open gash. “Someone get him some help. I stopped it.” I stared at the phleghmy creature sputtering on the ground before turning Zurok on his side for blood to drain.
Nobody came after a few seconds, and I glanced around.
One of the other part-time medics lived near the area, Tilmik, one not in the fray, and I hoisted Zurok up with as much ease as I could and jogged toward the building, stumbling awkwardly over slain Revulon while his breath rattled out of him slowly.
I could only hope he had the tolerance against venom that he touted.
As I beat on the door, frantic scrabbles on the other side sounded out before they let me in with the heavy male and slid him onto the nearest flat surface I could find.
Cloth I was mostly sure had been clothes at one point made it my way as we pressed the wadded material to his neck to stem the flow, the glut of it already slowed.
“What has happened, Roan?” Tilmik, glanced up at me with bright-green eyes like acid glimmering in the sea of inky sclera. His trembling hands, as violet as Noel’s pater had ever been, pressed over mine.
“Colthraxian tried to…” I couldn’t think of the right word. Parasitize? Infect? Whatever it was, Tilmik understood me as he brushed white hair behind his ears and wrapped his tail around Zurok’s chest with a hearty squeeze so tight, it cracked ribs.
Bilious blood spilled from the hole and Zurok’s lips, but Tilmik didn’t relent.
“My blood…I bit the creature out.” I trembled as Tilmik glanced from Zurok to myself a few times before nodding sagely.
“There might be a type of bond there for some time, Roan. It won’t require copulation, but your venom now courses in his body.” Tilmik abandoned his tail squeezes to run off and returned with a first aid kit.
Before I could stop him, he reached for my arm, jerking and twisting as bones set into place with a harsh snap that made me heave dryly.
From within the kit, he pushed an injector into my flesh, and a sharp hiss and prick sent adrenaline—or its lizardy equivalent—coursing through my body.
Flesh and bone knit with a burning sensation, reseating itself before he urged me to leave.
“Thank you, Roan. For this, I call you my friend.”
And for a Naleucian, that meant much.
I nodded once and staggered to my feet before he followed me to the door and let me out, bolting it behind me, sending me into the mostly defeated fray.
Crunches, heavy hits, violence, screams, and somewhere Gorm yodeled out a war cry—all of it was too much for a damning second, but I had energy to burn with that medicine in my system, so I ran and leaped onto the back of another then another Revulon, aiding my Terran-born brethren in defeating the last of our enemies.
A volley of horns sounded from above as the shrill keen of their ships inundated my senses.
Speakers lit up with Naleucian speech as the last of our foes lay defeated.
“The Revulon base has been destroyed! Everyone remain in place while biometric scans and spectrographs are run to see if any remain. All those in bunkers stay put until the alarm.” I stared up at the calling voice, wind whipping my short hair about, tossing the fluttering ends of my clothing.
I breathed a long sigh of relief and bliss, the adrenaline pumping its last through me before the comforting arms of my mate surrounded me with harsh breaths. “I’ve never seen you fight before. You’re fierce.”
“I have my mate and family to protect.” I would have said child, children, egg or eggs, but none of that seemed right. Zurok and Liru meant everything to me, the paters of my firstborn.
A sharp nose ran the length of my ear; brown flesh and coppery chromatic scales engulfed me as three words I never knew I needed tickled my mind. Roan’s smile permeated every breath. “I love you.”
If anything I ever needed to hear, it was that. “Love you, too.”
I hoped it sounded as genuine as I meant it to be, but I was prone to sarcasm and snark.
Because I meant it.
I didn’t even know if I could stand to leave the planet, to separate myself from him for more than a workday. All I knew was that I had some massive warrior wood going on and not a whisper of energy to show the stupid battlecook how much I wanted him.