Page 55 of Rebirth

“Bert?” The other two hyu’mans that had been inside the tent step out. One female, one male. The male calls out to his friend, eyes widening when Bert turns and snarls his way.

“Fuck,” he curses.

“Stay back!” Soh’fee says. She pulls her weapon from where she’d had it hidden.

No need. I am here. I will take care of this for her.

“Bert?” she calls.

And this is why she is special.

Despite the odds before her, the male slowly morphing into a nightmare, Sophie stands and calls in hope.

Surely, everything within her being is telling her she should run. Abandon him. Save herself.

“Bert, can you hear me?”

“What the fuck have you done to him? He was fine just a second ago!” The male by the tent releases the female he was holding. But his gaze isn’t on Soh’fee, even though his words are directed at her. His gaze is on his counterpart.

There is no hope in his eyes. Only fear.

Fear for himself.

And that makes him…despicable.

“Nathan, tell me the truth.” Soh’fee’s voice is steady as she lifts her weapon and levels it at Bert. “What’s really going on here?”

The brute takes a step back, thrusting away the female who reaches for him. For a moment, pain shoots through her gaze before she stiffens. And all around the camp, one by one, the remaining humans stand, all focused on the man backing away. He reaches back, trying to scratch some itch he cannot reach as he continues to retreat.

My senses twinge, but I can’t take my gaze from the more pressing threat. The male before us, who is now snarling so much, he froths at the lips.

“Nathan!” Soh’fee calls. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” Fire shoots in those pale eyes and pride fills me. This is the female my ba’clan have chosen. And they chose well. “What the fuck is happening here?!”

But her attention too is pulled from the events unfolding in the background as the male before us lunges for her.

He slams into me again, confusion spreading across his face for but a second. Because he has gone mindless. Only one thing on his focus. Capture Soh’fee. Submit her.

He will die before he does.

I have seen something like this before. In my experiments. Way back on Edooria. Though, they did not produce the same results. There are different variables here. Possibly a similar outcome.

This male’s mind has been altered. His physiology too.

The darkened veins have overtaken his own, pumping the corrosion deep into his tissues. His skin no longer has that rosy color of human blood, but is now pale and dead. Before our eyes, he completed the change.

He slams into my barrier again, claws emerging from his fingernails. “Give her to me!”

Soh’fee cocks her weapon. “Fat chance.” Her brow furrows. “He’rox, move. I don’t want to shoot you.”

Something rumbles in my chest.

She cares for me.

The male screeches, throwing himself at me again and again, mad in his quest to get to her. To taste her untainted blood. His hunger will never be sated. There is only one way to end this.

I drop my camouflage.

For a moment, some of his humanity returns. Black eyes widen at the sight of me. But it is only a moment.

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