Page 85 of Rebirth

Maybe I’m dreaming.

But something crawls over me, slick and cold. I wish I could, but I’m unable to even react. Whatever that child put inside me is leeching every energy reserve I have.

It was physical contact after all. That’s how the virus spread. Or maybe I’m still getting it wrong. Maybe it’s more complicated than that.

I might not be able to finish this fight. I might turn into a mindless husk. A shadow of myself. But I hope He’rox can take what we learned. Defeat this new threat. Save us.

That cold wave spreading across my frame runs under my clothing, reaching every inch of my skin and a flash of consciousness shoots through me as it slips under the bandage on my shoulder, covering the wound, what feels like tendrils of ice burrowing into my flesh. I scream at the violation, tears slipping free as a flash of heat erupts from the contact point. The world spins and the only thing that keeps me tethered to reality is He’rox’s voice as it echoes oddly in my ears.

I drift in and out of consciousness as we race through the darkening forest. At every point when I awaken, I mutter to him that he needs to find the child, and he answers with a comforting deep vibration in his chest.

Time ceases to exist. Minutes, seconds, hours mean nothing as my world fades in and out. When my eyes flutter open next, the pain in my shoulder has dulled to a throb, and a cool wave moves over my skin. But with every heartbeat that thunders in my ears, it’s almost as if I can feel the darkness. Feel it encroaching. Feel it ready to take me away. Forever.

“He’rox,” I whisper.

That comforting vibration beats against my ears as he responds.

“I have done as you wish, my mate. Rest now. It will be over soon.”

Done what I wish?

My consciousness wanes then comes back.

His mate?

I open my eyes to focus on pure white ridges with an underside of gray. Smooth. So smooth. He’rox’s skin.

I blink at the sight before me.

He’s no longer wearing his ba’clan.

“Your ba’clan…” I whisper. I didn’t know he could remove them. But instead of awe, panic rises within me and that wave that I imagined over my skin shivers like a thousand small beads at my sudden response.

He said he would die if he lost his ba’clan.

But when I lift my gaze, the dark night suddenly no hindrance to my eyes, the male that holds me close looks far from near death.

He’rox is big. Imposing. Magnificent. He walks like an otherworldly being, keeping us above the forest floor and the obstacles on the ground as he moves over the space with ease. And there, in the corner of my vision, something catches my attention.

My head feels heavy as I turn it and I wonder if I’m dreaming.

There, in one of his tentacles, hangs the little girl. Asha.

The monster, she says. The icky bug is gonna eat me!

I blink at her, trying to focus. Icky bug?

He’rox.

No dear, he’s not a monster, baby. He won’t ever hurt you.

Even from the distance between us, I see the tear slide down her cheek and I hate it. I hate that a child as young as she is has had to go through all this. Has had to face this alone.

He killed Sonny and Bertha. Greggy too.

Sonny, Bertha, and Gregory. I can only guess those were the people she’d been walking with.

They were my friends. Another tear runs down her cheek. And now the icky bug is killing you. And you’re my friend too.

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