Chapter 23 #2
He swung his head around, trying to make sense of his surroundings.
His bleary gaze located me in the dark, locking onto my face.
I saw the rage descend over him like a veil, as if his brain had only one way to be: angry.
He lunged for me, an easy, unmoving target.
This was it. I’d die, and then he’d kill Felicia after she came back from disabling the ship.
I’d die knowing we’d saved the planet. See, I knew there was a reason I’d soaked up every moment of her presence.
She’d known it too; she’d kissed me like it was our last. I realized that now.
He abruptly jerked to a stop and screamed with rage when he discovered that he was pinned after all.
Ice had fallen on him too, but only on the very tip of his tail, which was not quite as long as mine but thicker, probably to aid in keeping him warm.
His body was also covered in that thick, strange pelt—shaggy fur that covered his chest and arms and smoothed all the way down his tail in white and blue ripples.
I wondered if he even had sigils that could glow, a strange, useless thought in the moments before death.
“Yeah, that’s no fun, is it?” I husked, the compression of the ice on my chest starting to get to me.
It was getting hard to breathe. Felicia wasn’t back yet, which was a good sign, I hoped.
Now I hoped she’d stay away, because this bastard was going to hurt her the moment he saw her.
I couldn’t protect her, not like this. “Auby,” I hissed.
“Sneak around him and warn Felicia. Go.”
Auby’s lights winked out, and he vanished, disappearing into a snowdrift.
He was very good at that, and he was a very protective little Revenant.
Perhaps Felicia would be all right with him as her shield.
That was good. That made it easier to accept my fate, and harder for the rage that still simmered in my veins to get hold of me.
I watched the ice Naga struggle with the block pinning his tail down, saw him sway as if he was dizzy.
The rage in his eyes dimmed, and when he looked at me this time, I saw something else: confusion, fear.
On impulse, I brought the handheld healing device out of its pouch.
It was on my other side from the communicator, unharmed and easier to reach.
I slipped it over my hand and then held it up very carefully, so I knew he could see it.
It was very unlikely he knew what it was, and I couldn’t demonstrate on myself.
“To heal,” I said, and made a pass with the device over my own chest before touching the side of my head where his wound was located.
He wasn’t so wild and savage by choice; the rage in my veins—a fight to subdue even now—was proof of that.
Something on the North Pole, and probably Felicia’s ship, was driving him—driving us—to be that way.
Meddling with our minds. It was our responsibility as Shamans to care for every Naga on this planet, and that included him.
He cocked his head and stared, but stopped the low-pitched growl.
Then the ground rumbled and rocked beneath him, and it got the better of him.
He lunged forward, claws outstretched, and he would have gouged furrows into my arm if not for the purely incidental reflex.
I’d thrown up my arm to protect myself, but the high tension in my body caused the healing device to engage.
I usually had good control of the machine, but this time the healing light blasted out of it at full power.
The Naga male reared back, the blow halted in its tracks, and reached for his head.
The healing light had bathed his face, probably blinding him, but I realized immediately that wasn’t what stopped him.
No, it was the instant halting of the blood dripping from his head wound.
“Healing,” I said, and I lowered the device but did not dim its light entirely.
He stared at me; I stared back, and it felt like I was staring into the eyes of a predator.
Keen intelligence, all bent to one purpose: to kill and eat his prey.
Fear of the unknown predator he was facing, and a powerful sense of survival, ran under it all.
This male was not like me, but he also was not bad, and did not deserve to die.
Unless he laid his claws on my mate. Then no amount of bloodshed would be enough.
Like my thoughts had summoned her, Felicia appeared with her light and the laser-knife in hand, behind the savage.
Her face was still painfully pale, her eyes wide and scared.
She stared at the savage, who turned slowly to watch her approach, then shook her head.
“I tried, Levant. God knows I tried, but I still can’t manage to get through.
” Then her eyes settled on the savage again, and I saw the wheels turn in her head.
He snapped his teeth at her, hand raised as if the light hanging from her belt blinded him. When he twitched forward as if he meant to attack her, I roared, and the fury I’d managed to keep banked lit in my veins. No, he wasn’t touching my mate.