Page 44

Jaz

From space, Givnia shone gold.

“Is it mostly desert?” I asked.

“Desert and ocean,” Rhodes said. “Some claim that the Nirzks are so vicious because they evolved on a world where life fights for every breath.”

“It is not even a nice place to visit,” Xandros stated from behind us. “It is hotter than hell itself. I would be bad tempered, too, if I had to live there.”

Rhodes was tapping at the navcube, calling up a city named Xalcim. He had more to add. “The Nirzks may have fur, but they are as cold-blooded as they come.”

“There is no mercy in a manticore,” Xandros agreed. “Even their children must fight each other to survive.”

I rubbed my temple—I’d developed a headache that would not quit despite popping pills.

At the Drakes’ urging, I’d tried to get some sleep.

However, even with them providing me with privacy in my room—otherwise sleep would not have been on the agenda at all—it was not something that was possible, not until we got Zyair out of there .

Was this still the serum causing my discomfort? Shouldn’t mating the Drakes have snapped me out of it?

“When does the serum stop doing its thing?” I asked them.

They glanced to each other. Then Rhodes said, “Not sure. It is likely still altering you, that would take a while to complete.”

Altering me. Great. Not unsettling at all.

The ache made it hard to concentrate as I adjusted the Stardrifter’s course. She was only one of many ships moving into Givnia’s atmosphere, and they were a varied bunch—I noticed others very similar to our ship’s age and model.

“Our power core emissions allow us to integrate with this lot,” Xandros said as I slipped the ship into the queue for the Xalcim spaceport.

Over the radio, a rather bored voice asked something I did not understand. Rhodes answered in a language with far too many hissing s’s to be Drakonian. The bored voice gave us coordinates and a docking assignation.

Rhodes acknowledged before shutting off the receiver. “I told him we were visiting the market,” he said in Primal. “It caters to a wide variety of merchandise—everyone in the sector shops here.”

“Are you sure that Xalcim is where Brentoq will take him?” I asked. “What if she just keeps him on the ship?”

“Xalcim is the place Brentoq calls home, and where she took Zyair last time.” Rage radiated from Xandros. “She’ll have other members of her hive waiting to enjoy him too.”

Rhodes continued in a calmer tone, but his eyes burned with repressed emotion. “Her family’s stronghold is along the northern edge of the city.” He poked at the navcube holograph, zeroing in on Xalcim. It was a sizeable city, and now it showed a walled compound with its own landing pad.

“We must stop Brentoq from bringing Zyair within those walls.” Xandros sounded unusually tense, and I glanced back to him. His eyes flashed sapphire at me. “We barely rescued him from there last time.”

“Our plan is viable.” Rhodes’s voice was dead calm, but I sensed how keyed up he was.

Xandros grunted agreement, before glancing at me. “Anything more from Zyair?”

I shook my head. It had been over three hours since we’d last managed to gather images from him. “He’s still shutting me out.”

Rhodes exchanged a look with Xandros.

My worry had formed a hard lump within me. “He will not try anything dumb, will he?” I pressed.

After a moment, Xandros shrugged, “He might.”

“Zyair—he has a disturbing tendency for self-sacrifice,” Rhodes growled. “At its best speed, the battlecruiser will not reach here for another two hours. Zyair must acknowledge that we will rescue him. He cannot stop us from doing so. Send images that show him we are already here.”

“How do I do that?” I asked.

Rhode’s lips pulled straight. “Picture his dead body, and us reclaiming it.”

I gaped at him, my heart constricting. Yes, that is what I’d been most afraid of. The self-sacrifice thing.

Big hands closed on my shoulders. “It is alright, my little drifter,” Xandros soothed. “Be your normal bossy self. Do not let him block you out.”

Now I was determined to make contact, to reassure myself that he was okay. Well, not okay, but alive, at least.

I drew strength from Xandros’s presence as I closed my eyes, and formed Zyair in my mind. The height of him, the way the muscles rippled over his bones, his scent…

It was the last that proved the most powerful, and for an instant, I felt him. Relief flooded through me, right before he shoved me away.

That was a peculiar sensation. But I wasn’t about to take no for an answer. I imagined myself as a spear piercing the barrier he’d erected. Focused, and pushed hard …

There was the briefest of struggles as he attempted to escape my determined thrust. But then I caught a glimpse through his eyes.

Senaik was gone. Zyair appeared to be alone in the room—but things were different now. I sensed a burning that nearly consumed him—an ache that seemed focused in a way that I recognized.

The venom was working on him. I shoved images toward him—of Stardrifter in orbit over Givnia.

A pulse of panic, then rapid-fire images of what must be the compound at Xalcim. Followed by snapshots of manticores all over him—my gut twisted at what they were doing. But I didn’t think this had happened yet—it was his future, as he saw it.

Zyair then pushed on me an impression of us leaving orbit, and speeding away.

He actually tried to shove me aside, again .

Now, I was splendidly, gloriously angry. He wanted us to leave him to his fate. But we were mates, and he was asking the impossible.

I fed my anger into my reply. Showed us reclaiming his lifeless body. That we weren’t leaving without him, so he’d better be prepared to fight for his life.

For a moment, there was only blank silence.

Then I fed him one more image—of the four of us, lying in bed. As one.

A sign of what could be. No. What would be.

He hesitated. Ultimately, he grabbed it, holding it to him. I offered a last image of me kissing him, and then, slowly withdrew.

Rhodes was staring at me.

“That was amazing,” he stated, his voice husky. “You are formidable.”

“She is awesome,” Xandros said in Primal, his hands squeezing my shoulders.

Pain shot through me. I gasped and pulled away.

“What is it?” he asked, concerned and contrite. “I should not have pressed so hard?—”

It was gone, almost as fast as it had appeared, but my head was throbbing even worse, now. “I’m not sure,” I said, rubbing my temple. “It was weird.”

“He must have pressed on a nerve,” Rhodes shot Xandros a glare.

I shivered. Was I getting sick? I tried a smile on Xandros.

He didn’t smile back. Instead, his nostrils flared. “Your scent is—different.”

I arched a brow. “Different? How? Are you saying I smell bad?”

“What! No!” He leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine. “If anything, you smell even more delicious.”

“You are not eating her,” Rhodes ground out.

Xandros waggled a brow.

“Forget I said that,” his brother complained. “I walk into that every fucking time.”

Before Xandros could reply, Yani appeared in the entrance. “How close to the market is the dockyard?”

“Right near it,” Rhodes said. “You two can get the new shield actuator while we get Zyair.”

We’d already had this argument. But it clearly hadn’t been resolved. “I’m going with you,” I stated through gritted teeth.

“You cannot go with us,” Rhodes repeated patiently. “We will be in our dragon forms.”

Xandros slid his hand into my hair. “No way you will be able to hold on, little drifter, while we do what we need to do.”

I lifted my chin, but Rhodes locked gazes with me. “Yani and you need to get the actuator and return to install it. The ship must be ready for a fast depart.”

Dammit. We were at an impasse, again. The thought of them heading off alone to rescue Zyair filled me with angst.

“My precog ability could save you all,” I choked out.

Although it was warm on the bridge, Yani pulled her hat lower over her ears. “Can’t you keep the link between you going without being there? That would mean they can tap into it while they work to free Zyair.”

Rhodes’s eyes gleamed. “That—that could work. ”

It wasn’t enough for me. But I understood that having me clinging to their dragon while they did this would seriously hamper the effort.

“We have two hours until the battlecruiser arrives,” Rhodes said. “Xandros and I will get into position. Yani and you will have time to acquire and install the actuator.”

I shivered again. I really did feel like I’d contracted some exotic flu—the ache was moving from my head to become a general kind of muscle thing, and my skin itched.

It was a further sign, perhaps, that I would just be a liability if I accompanied them.

What could I do, if I was with them, that I couldn’t do just as well through the link?

Image communication could be even faster than verbal…

So, I simply nodded to him, and banked Stardrifter toward the shipyard.

The gale force wind blasted sand straight up the ramp and into the Stardrifter as we struggled with what could be a last goodbye.

Every fiber of me trembled. I was pretty sure now, that it wasn’t just the stress—I was sick, dammit. But contracting some weird alien flu faded to the background as Xandros pulled me in close.

“We will be back, little drifter,” he whispered, but his voice broke on the last word.

I clung to him, only releasing him when Rhodes moved in to take his turn.

They were mine. And I had to let them go.

Both were dressed in lightweight cloaks with scarves wrapped around their faces and another set of taped boots on their feet.

Apparently, this was appropriate desert-city wear.

With the perpetual storms whipping up the sand, it was the only way to not breathe it in.

Yani had procured the silky scarves from her personal stash, which explained the polka dots on Xandros’s.

Rhodes had refused to wear it, although his featured some rather vivid stripes .