Page 41 of Guardian’s Destiny (Space Guardian’s Mate #3)

VRAAX

One moment, I was standing in the center of my village, holding Solaana in my arms; the next, Sloane shook me awake. It was hard to get my bearings, but I had seen that look on Sloane's face before; she was on a mission. Whoever she was upset with, I didn't want to be in their position, and I had a pretty good idea who it was.

As my head slowly returned to the present, I followed Sloane to the breakroom, and when there was no trace of him, she turned back the way we had come and hammered her fist against Zapharos’s door.

"What is the—" The door opened, and Zapharos stood there, staring straight at the end of a blaster pressed against his forehead. I hadn't known the Arkhevari for very long, and I most certainly wasn't a fan of his, but his expression of utter astonishment made it all worthwhile.

Sloane pushed him backward into his quarters.

Ella screamed. "No!"

"Stay back, Ella," Zapharos said, holding up his hand in her direction. His form shimmered golden, indicating he had just used one of his neat little mind tricks on her.

"Spill!" Sloane demanded, pressing the barrel of the blaster so hard between his eyes that I wouldn't be surprised if it left an imprint.

I wasn't happy about her killing Zapharos, but a voice inside me told me that A) she wouldn't and B) he could have stopped her anytime he wanted to, just as he had Ella. So I leaned against the wall, crossed my feet to be able to push myself off faster in case she needed me, but otherwise leaned back to enjoy the show.

"You're not going to shoot me, Sloane," Zapharos said.

"Try me," she responded, and by the look on her face, I wasn't so sure about theory A any longer. She might have done it.

Zapharos seemed to come to the same conclusion. His facial expression softened. "You're not going to shoot me." He repeated.

Quick as a dart, Sloane moved the blaster from his head and shot him in the foot before she aimed at his head again. Zapharos stumbled but kept his composure, standing by the bed. Ella whimpered, trying to break through the mind spell Zapharos had put her under.

"Not so sure any longer, are you, Zaph ?"

Pride swelled my chest. My little human was absolutely frygging incredible. Had I not already been in love with her, I would have been right then. She was amazing. Deadly. Unpredictable. Perfect.

"Let me get the healing wand, and I’ll tell you what you want to know, within reason." Zapharos offered.

"See, that's just where we disagree," Sloane shook her head, "whatever you consider reason , might not meet my criteria."

He laughed. Zapharos actually laughed at her right to the point she shot him in the other foot. Ouch, that had to hurt. With a thud, the Arkhevari fell back. He was lucky; Sloane had backed him up to a chair, and he didn't land on the ground.

"Fine!" Zapharos yelled. "Stop, or I will make you—Sloane!"

He shimmered golden again as Sloane turned the blaster to his arm, where it remained. I pushed off the wall, but Zapharos raised his hand, "Stay!" and I felt paralyzed.

He wasn't laughing any longer; as a matter of fact, his face distorted into an angry mask, and his aura changed from mildly amused to a murderous rage. This situation was getting out of hand. Fear for Sloane moved through me, but try as I might, I couldn't move. It was as if I was rooted to the ground. Zapharos , I cursed him in my mind. If Sloane didn't kill him, I would .

Zapharos’s aura turned darker, nearly black. Murder was written all over his features, his before amber eyes turned a deep, dark red. I could physically feel the war inside him, and cold dread rushed through my veins. Fear for Sloane gripped my heart and squeezed it.

"No!" I yelled as I took a step forward.

Surprise crossed Zapharos’s features as I moved one laboring step at a time as if boulders were attached to my ankles. But I was moving. Now, if I could force my hand to obey, I could pull my blaster, I could?—

"Stop," Zapharos raised his hand again, glowing a deeper golden, pushing out the black that had started surrounding him. As black as any criminal's aura I had ever seen. With it came emotions of hate, rage, and murderous intent, just like the males I hunted down for a living. He wasn't the enigmatic Zapharos any longer; he was a demon having come from the depths of the Black Abyss. I took another struggling step. The gold around him was spreading, pushing against the blackness that threatened to take him over. Whatever I was doing was distracting the darkness in him enough to be pushed out.

Sweat ran down my spine as I lifted my left foot and moved it forward, ever so slowly, as if fighting against gravity. Zapharos’s red eyes slowly lit back to amber. They looked stunned, growing larger as I took another step. I was so close.

My heart was racing as I forced my feet forward another step, and Zapharos turned back to his old self.

"Well, well, well," he said just as my entire body returned to normal.

"What the fuck," Sloane yelled.

"Zapharos," Ella rushed forward, throwing herself at the Arkhevari, kissing him, before glaring at Sloane, "What have you done?"

"You were going to kill me." Sloane stared at Zapharos incredulously.

"I warned you not to go too far, Sloane," Zapharos responded, with some residue of anger left around him. But it wasn't like the Black Abyss I had seen before any longer.

" You warned me ?" Sloane laughed bitterly. "You have some nerve?—"

"Alright, let's get his feet taken care of," I suggested, trying to diffuse the situation.

"You shot me." Zapharos tilted his head, amusement spread through him once again. "Twice."

I located the healing wand in one of the built-in-the-wall shelves and turned it on while I walked over to Zapharos on wobbly legs. They felt worse than after a hard workout.

"Hurt her and I will kill you," I told him, while I moved the wand over his left foot first.

"You're both bloodthirsty," Zapharos grinned. "Actually, it kind of makes me glad that you have more of us in you than I thought."

"Alright, answers, now!" Sloane crossed her arms over her chest after depositing the blaster back into its holster.

"No, you need to leave, both of you," Ella demanded.

"Easy, lumiya," Zapharos soothed the human female. "I might have aggravated our friend too much."

"She had no right to shoot you," Ella insisted.

I shot a warning glare at Sloane as a low growl emanated from her throat. She stopped but huffed exasperatedly.

"She did," Zapharos admitted. "Trust me, let it be." He nuzzled her neck while I moved the healing wand to his right foot.

Sloane tapped her foot on the ground.

"What do you want to know?" Zapharos adjusted himself and Ella on the chair, and I returned to my post on the wall, placing the healing wand on a table. I wasn't going to clean everything up for him.

"Let's assume for one second I believed in reincarnation," Sloane started.

"You don't?" Zapharos provoked but then must have thought better of it because he waved his hand magnanimously to invite Sloane to keep talking.

Sloane was too worked up still to even take offense to Zapharos’s little gesture. "So given reincarnation as an option, how would it be even remotely possible for one soul to be reborn in a lab and another on Earth?"

"Why would it not?" Zapharos replied, and when Sloane took a deep breath to allow her temper through one more time, he raised his hand. "I'm being serious. If you were to believe in reincarnation, you would have to believe in a higher power, true?"

I shook my head. "Not necessarily."

"Can we just stop all this mumbo jumbo and you just tell us straight if Vraax is the reincarnation of the same Vraax on Darlam and I of Solaana?"

"Yes."

Dumbfounded, we both stared at him. This was the first straightforward answer he had ever given.

"Yes, as in we can stop the mumbo jumbo, or yes, we are the reincarnations?"

"Yes to both."