Page 46 of Bound (Gladiators of the Gryn #3)

RYCH

I look at the scattered bodies of the guards. Defeating them was easier than I expected, the one problem being Felia has managed to escape in the mêlée. Given she’s the one who knows about my Chrissie, and potentially knows more about me than I do, she is the one I want.

Unfortunately I don’t have any live Drahon to ask. Perhaps not inevitably, given I hate the creatures with a force inside me which seems to be entirely ingrained. They didn’t even need to capture me or threaten my mate for me to hate them.

I have to find my Chrissie. The Drahon can wait until I do. And when she is in my arms, I will bring her here and force them to make her well again.

I will not lose her. Not after all the time I’ve spent fighting for nothing. Chrissie, my mate, my eregri is what I fight for now.

Stumbling over the bodies, my legs still suffering from the narcotics, even if my claws were not, I find myself in a wide passage lined with metal. The tang in the air over the stench of the Drahon suggests we are underground, and I need to make it up into the light.

Lifting my head, I do my best to work out the best way to take, although the pulsar bolt which flies over my head ends up dictating I turn left in any event. Returning fire with a pulsar I took from the guards who attempted to subdue me, the thing fires twice before jamming.

“Vrexing Drahon.” I fling it away and move as fast as I can through the maze-like corridors until I reach a hover-lifter similar to the ones used in the dome to transport beasts from their cages under the arena to where they will do the most damage.

The doors spiral open, and I grab hold of the first Drahon to exit, swinging him around to hit the one behind him as I take charge of his pulsar and spray the rest of the interior with pulsar bolts.

Turns out there are only the two and they’re both out cold. So much for reinforcements. I shrug as I get into the lifter, the door closing as I order an ascent to ground level. When the doors open again, I step out into a large clear atrium, through which I can see the tattered amphitheater walls. This place is also littered with bodies.

I’m confused for a nova-second or two. I haven’t been in this atrium…I’m sure…so this has to be something which is not of my doing. I stare at it for a short time, trying to work out what has happened and if I’ve done something I didn’t remember when there’s movement which has me raising my stolen pulsar.

“!” The movement resolves into a running Chrissie, her hair flowing behind her as the vision leaps into my arms and I drop my weapon.

“ Eregri ?” I’m wondering if a hallucination can feel real, smell real, be as real as this one. “How are you here?”

“We’ve been tracking you since you were taken from the dome.” She laughs, pressing a long kiss to my lips and proving she is very, very real. “We saw some Drahon and…Maxym and Klynn did the rest,” she adds shyly.

“They’re here?” I growl, not wanting to lift my head from her hair which holds so much of her delicious scent.

“Like we’d let you have all the fun, vrexer,” Klynn says stepping out from behind some potted vegetation, which he cuts down in a single blade sweep.

“You do realize you’re naked, don’t you?” Maxym adds, looming out from behind a pile of storage cases.

“Yes,” I respond. “The Drahon did it in order to marvel at my magnificent form.”

“More like they wanted to experiment on you.” Klynn grins mirthlessly. “After all, you did let them catch you.”

“Like you’ve never been caught in the dome,” I snarl. “These vrexers knew what they were up against. They had help from the procurator and others.” I bristle my wings at him.

“I have a virus.” Chrissie looks up at me, her eyes moist. “We found Fenek. He’s not a Drahon but a species called a Kijg. The Drahon have been after him, they got to him back at his dwelling, nearly killing him but he’s alive, just, with the help of a medi-bot.” I shake my feathers at her words, mirrored by the other two Gryn. “The Drahon and the Kijg have been at war for as long as his ancestors can remember. He says the virus in me is designed to affect tech, which is why I’m so sick. It doesn’t agree with me.”

I brush at her hair. “That’s not all, my sweet mate. The Drahon told me if the virus is not removed from you…” I don’t want to say any of the words out loud. I don’t want to make the possibility real.

“What is it?” she asks me.

I give my fellow Gryn a helpless look.

“Felia told me the virus would kill you.”

“I know,” Chrissie says, cupping my cheek. “Fenek said it too, but all they have to do is take it out.”

My heart beats out of my chest, wanting to give her my life, my blood, my health.

“It might already be too late, my eregri ,” I breathe. “Once it has bonded to your DNA, the Drahon say it cannot be removed.”

“But I feel fine,” Chrissie says, staring up at me, her beautiful eyes shining. “I feel better than I ever have.”

“It’s the virus. I have to find Felia and get her to remove it.”

“Felia?” she queries.

“The chief scientist of the Drahon. Vrexer slipped out of my grip while I was fighting off the others.” I scan the fallen, but she’s not among them. “She has to be somewhere in Tatatunga. She still wants you, and she still wants a Gryn.”

“She can’t have us,” Maxym growls. “Or your mate, unless she is making her well.”

Both Gryn rattle their primaries. Klynn bares his teeth.

And then there is the most almighty explosion. It slams Chrissie into me and nearly pushes us off our feet.

“What the vrex?”

“I think the procurator has found us,” Maxym rumbles. “We were out of the dome without a pass after all.”

He watches as multiple black clad Zarvu enter through the hole they’ve blown in the side of the atrium. There’s more than enough to pose a significant problem if any of us want to get away. The Xnosson captain, all horns and bluster, pushes through the throng.

“Gladiators, you are to come with me,” he bellows. “Return to the dome without incident and the procurator guarantees no punishment will be meted out.”

“He said that last time,” Klynn mutters, “and we were on vegetable rations for a week.”

“You should go,” I say to Maxym. “You’ve helped us enough and you shouldn’t risk a punishment or worse.”

“You are my brother in arms,” Maxym says, eyeing Klynn who is growling and drooling at the Zarvu, “as much as Klynn is. I will always protect you and your mate.”

“And this is me protecting you,” I say, calling out to the captain. “Come and get them. They were just visiting an old friend. They’ll go quietly,” I add with a glare at Klynn.

“If you need us…” Maxym says, stepping towards the guards.

“Well, there is one thing I could do with.” I look at his pants pointedly. Maxym shakes his head and strips off his pants and boots, tossing them over the planter Klynn destroyed.

I pick them up and pull them on.

“You owe me,” he says.

“I’ll add it to the list,” I reply as he and Klynn troop over to the captain and are duly bound at the wrists.

I clutch my Chrissie tightly as they leave.

“What do we do now?” she whispers.