Chapter 40
DALOX
Some of my strength has returned, and I am able to sit up. However, my shift is not working, and my head thumps as if I’ve fallen into an entire vat of ale-wine and had to drink my way out.
There are chains on my wrists and ankles. Whilst I have attempted to free myself, I have not been successful, and until this venom has left my system, I doubt I will be.
By which point, I expect the females will have come up with another way of holding me.
It had better be a good one, or they will be regretting their actions swiftly thereafter.
With my head a little clearer, I’m contemplating the fact there are female Sarkarnii here on Vorostor, after we thought they had all died. Did Deus know? Was it the reason he lost his senses?
I shake my head, although it’s something I regret given the way my brain seems to slosh around inside it. I’m sure Darax said something about a lost mate being the reason for his brother’s insanity.
Even so, you’d have thought he might have mentioned female Sarkarnii who survived the great virus which decimated the rest.
“Nev you, Deus,” I grumble to myself.
“I doubt I’ve done anything to deserve your ire,” a voice rasps in my ear. “Especially as I’m here to help you escape.”
The two chains on my wrists have gone.
“Escape?”
“I presume you were going to attempt it at some point,” the voice growls. “I got bored waiting.”
“You aren’t poisoned by nevving female venom,” I respond.
“Poor excuse, Dalox,” the voice says. “I’d have thought by now your hide would have been impenetrable, given how ancient you are.”
“Deus?” I turn my head, although it sends my vision spinning.
“Were you expecting anyone else when you came looking for my ship?” Deus growls. “I tried to warn you…and all you did was go into shadow mode.”
The great warrior is darker than ever, his long hair unkempt, his scales covered in something which dulls their shine.
“I wasn’t expecting you, given the last time you were seen, it was escaping your brother’s captivity.”
“Darax,” he snarls. “You are all as guilty as each other.”
“And yet, here you are, freeing me.” I rub at my wrists, which feel slightly numb, although so does the rest of me, as there is a snap at my feet and those around my ankles are gone too. “Guilty or no.”
“Can you stand?” Deus growls, towering over me.
I attempt to push myself to my feet but fall back onto my ass and laugh at the effort.
“I guess not,” Deus says, reaching down, grabbing me by the scruff of my neck, and hauling me to my feet.
I fall against him. He stinks of smoke and accelerant.
“Time to get out of here before the females come back.” He pulls my arm around his shoulder as I attempt, and fail, to put one foot in front of the other.
“We can’t leave.” I push past fangs which are randomly lengthening. “My mate.”
Somehow I’m on the ground again, lying on my back, looking up at the canopy.
Deus’s scarred face is in mine.
“Mate,” he says, his voice gravel being dragged over metal. “You have a mate?”
“Is that such a strange concept?” I chuckle as I stare up at him.
“The nevving venom has addled your brain,” he growls. “Get up.”
“I’m not going anywhere without my mate.” I flop my arms out to the side because it feels good.
“You don’t get to mate,” Deus snaps. “Not after…”
“That’s not how it works, Deus.” I raise myself up on my elbows, noting more of my strength is returning. “I am mated, after all this time, and the females have my mate. I’m going to get her back.”
I roll over onto my stomach and push myself on all fours.
A foot slams into my back, sending me down again and pushing the breath from my lungs.
“You don’t get to take a mate,” Deus snarls.
This time, I flip myself over and release the very short burst of flame I’m able to emit. He dodges me easily.
“Everyone gets to mate, Deus,” I retort. “Regardless of whom you believe is worthy.”
“I lost my mate.” He drops down over me, pinning my wrists to the ground, his face close, his breath hot on my scales.
“So, no one gets to mate ever again, is that it?” I glare at him, more angry at myself because I can’t break out of his hold.
“You don’t get to mate. Not when it was your fault.”
“Make your mind up.” I sigh. “My fault, Darax’s fault. Anyone else’s fault save for the ancestors’ and fate’s.”
“Fate doesn’t do this to a Sarkarnii.” Deus pushes himself off me and sits back against a tree trunk.
“Fate does what fate does, Deus.” I manage to sit as well, finding my tail has decided to shift out too.
“You have a mate. It’s easy for you to say.”
“And you have an entire clan of Sarkarnii females here on the second continent you didn’t tell anyone about,” I growl.
Deus flicks his gaze to me then studies the ground between his feet.
“I did not think they survived, not when my mate perished. I came looking for Darax, and he imprisoned me.”
“I suspect that was due to the fact you wanted to kill him. Kill us.”
“And why shouldn’t I?” Deus growls. “When you took from me the thing which meant most in the universe.”
“It wasn’t us. It wasn’t anything to do with Darax or me or any of the other warlords,” I respond. “It was the Ulep.”
Deus starts as if he’s had a pulsar bolt up his ass.
“Ulep?”
“Was it too much to believe we might not have been responsible? That it could have been an outside force rather than your fellow Sarkarnii?”
“The Ulep,” Deus says again. “It was the Ulep.”
“They were manipulating the wormholes, including the ones to this region,” I snarl. “They were looking to trap species here and use them for their own ends, as well as continuing to experiment with their wormhole tech.”
Deus stares at me. “I didn’t know.”
“Neither did we until recently when Driok discovered what they were doing and was able to use their tech against them to drive them from this galaxy.” I huff out a smoke ring, enjoying the burn of the accelerant in my chest and the increasing feeling of power returning to my limbs.
Deus is staring at the ground again.
“Perhaps if you had stayed with us, you would have known all of this,” I say with more force than necessary. “Rather than fighting against us.”
“It was me.” Deus raises his eyes to mine. One burns like it should do, the other has a blue tinge to it which is disconcerting.
“What was you?”
“I brought the Ulep,” he rasps. “I took something which belonged to them. They were chasing us. I did this.” He stares up into the square of sky above us. “I killed them all.”