Page 26

NATALIE

I felt bad about biting him in such a delicate and sensitive location, but I didn’t think my grazing chompers—Axxol’s oh so eloquent description—would penetrate Lohr’s hide on his legs or neck. Hopefully he’d understand what I was trying to do.

His fangs pierced my left arm like twin swords. Fire burned up into my shoulder and my hand went numb. I could only hope he wasn’t pumping me with venom. Though surely Snryx would have the necessary antivenom in one of his implements.

I bit Lohr until I tasted his blood. Hopefully the mark would activate even if we weren’t having sexy times. My arm burned like I’d dipped up to my shoulder in a fire ant hill, but I didn’t imagine having a bloody bite on Lohr’s dick-tongue felt any better.

Though pearly green cum splattered my legs, so it must not have been too horrible for him.

Snryx gave a mental tug, pulling my gaze up to his. He silently asked for permission to kill all three humans. Urgency stiffened the rest of his implements into sharpened spines, spread out like a pincushion to block as much of the doorway as possible.

The thuds and crashes were getting closer. Rather than wasting time running down hallways or searching in rooms, the T-rex was simply tearing his way through walls and floors to get to us.

I shook my head slightly, loosening my jaws on Lohr’s tongue. Not yet. They might still have information we needed. Something we could use to stop DSC.

Snryx didn’t release the humans or relax his spines, but I heard their desperate gulps of air. So he must have loosened his implements enough to let them draw a few raspy breaths.

Deep violet flared just out of the corners of my eyes, though when I turned my head, I couldn’t see anything unusual.

Closing my eyes, I stretched my awareness toward the pod.

Swimming through thin, cold air, diving through clouds.

Miles of night sky and midnight oceans, sparkling with stars and their reflections, blurred into one infinite darkness.

They were almost transparent, passing like a slightly darker crowd of shadows.

Ultraviolet energy sparked through them. Connecting them. One mind.

The Balaenoptera weren’t just space whales now. The surviving mrions were fully integrated into their systems, bridging gaps in intelligence and ability to create something entirely new. Always evolving. Always changing. Simply to survive long enough to reach home.

To reach me.

Why hadn’t DSC stopped them already? They could wipe out this entire planet in countless different ways. Explode Earth with some kind of beam like out of StarWars. Trigger the Sun to explode. Send an asteroid to fill the atmosphere with toxins until all life died. They’d done it before.

Myrm were so close now. Joy sparked through the pod, sizzling through me in fizzy bursts. Though it couldn’t push aside their heavy, somber sense of finality. :They will not allow us to reach the Mother.:

The T-rex roared, sending shivers of dread down my spine. I could almost smell his foul breath. Feel his teeth closing in on me. He wouldn’t swallow me whole like Axxol. No. He’d tear me apart, limb from limb.

Though as soon as I thought it, I knew that wasn’t true. They didn’t want me dead. Not yet.

My knees trembled, weakening enough I sagged against Lohr, my numb arm useless. I got my good arm around his neck, trying to stay on my feet.

Jump. We needed to jump out of here. I tried to recreate the blue ozone fire. Imagined us away. Not far. Out into the jungle. Find Kroktl. Axxol. Akylla. My baby girl. A sob tore out of my throat. It’d been so easy to jump before. Why couldn’t I do it now?

Shorts sparked and burned inside me. The Myrm—Sirian—cells were scrambled. Their connections misfired. Sparks tried to bridge the gaps. Energy surged in painful flares, making me gasp out loud. I couldn’t jump. Not yet. Which meant Axxol couldn’t either.

Debris pattered on the tile floor. Chunks of ceiling falling around us.

Rizan had shrieked out the second and third times after the EMP. Which meant DSC must have waited to send the squad to attack us after the pulse. They’d known the humans’ plans and didn’t want their attack squad to be disabled in any way.

This BGR would be able to jump.

Now I knew what the rest of his squad was doing.

Pain filled me. Shrieks tore through the night like Rizan’s warning, but these were gleeful as they shredded into the Balaenoptera, easily destroying the transparent shadows swimming toward me through the midnight sky.

Flames shot out of a long-necked dinosaur, roasting the larger chunks. Incinerating the torn flesh into ash.

Black beetle-like wings swept out of the belly of the whale, the last remaining Myrm drones.

Winds and rain buffeted their wings but they fought toward me, using the hardened armor plating to protect against the fire.

They reached the edge of the grassy yard.

They could see the house, shattered timbers and jagged plaster from the T-rex’s passing.

So close, hope welled in my chest. I wasn’t sure what kind of weapons they might have to fight off the T-rex. Maybe they could just carry us out to Kroktl? Before the jump ring could close?

I smelled ozone. The T-rex let out a roar of victory. Snryx’s implements wrapped around me, clutching me between him and Lohr. Trying to shield me. Or go with me, wherever DSC might take us…

Something cut through the drones in midair. Invisible sheets sliced through their wings and bodies like a hot knife through butter. Cutting them up, dicing them into bloody chunks that dropped to the lawn only ten or twenty feet away from the destroyed front door.

A huge bug-like dinosaur whipped a scorpion tail back and forth, shooting out more invisible razor nets.

The last drone dropped onto the welcome mat. Body cut in half. It still reached over the threshold with its front legs. Crawling. Trying to reach me.

:This is not the end, Mother.:

Sobs shook me. I tried again, desperately willing the blue fire to leap us away. Help them. I opened my mouth, screaming—but it was a human sound. Not Rizan’s echolocation. So much senseless death. And for what?

What am I supposed to do? How can I possibly beat DSC? Escape?

:Remnants remain,: the Myrm whispered. Crackling in the flames. :Use us.:

Blue fire closed around us and Earth disappeared.