Page 98 of Rebirth

I know she’s talking to me, letting me know she’s fine. But the last time she said that, she was infested with the same scourge that eats away at the hyu’mans before us. Her words give me no peace.

“You’re all ill. You feel like something’s taking over your body, but you can’t exactly tell what it is, right? Something that’s heightening your senses and even though that’s great, you can’t get rid of the pit of fear swelling in your gut.” She meets their gazes. “I know what it is. We can help you.”

She takes a step forward. The leader tenses, blackened hands flexing.

“You can fight it,” Soh’fee says. “These aliens are here to help us. We’ll find a way to get rid of this new threat. Come with us. Help us build. It doesn’t have to be this way. The Vullan are not the enemy.”

A hiss erupts from the Corrupted—a sound of hunger and recognition—and I wonder if they realize how inhyu’man the sound is. That they are changing. That they are changed.

“I have something inside me too, and it wants the same as what’s inside you. But we don’t have to listen. We can be more than what it makes us.” Soh’fee holds their gazes, giving them an out. Blaming their bloodlust, their urge to destroy the last hope of their world, on the parasite taking over their bodies.

They can take it. Dissolve the blame on something else. But I know the moment they won’t. The same moment the leader snarls, shaking his head as if to dispel her words. But another, a female, blinks rapidly. Her hands clench and unclench on her weapon, warring thoughts hitting her mind.

Soh’fee takes another step, her hands still raised. Pleading. “You know me. Maybe not by name, but you know my face. I’m like you—hyu’man. We don’t have to be enemies. We can all do this together. We can co-exist.”

The female Corrupted whimpers. Her legs tremble, head shaking back and forth as if trying to dispel some inner battle and I can tell Soh’fee’s life organ clenches at the sight; at the pain etched on her too-pale face.

Another Corrupted, a male, stumbles closer to her. He grasps her arms to steady her, meeting Soh’fee’s gaze for a brief moment. There is a flicker there, a glimmer of the man he is underneath.

Not all of them want to fight us. Some have come simply because, for them, being part of a group is better than being left alone.

But there is still one problem. They are all Corrupted. And until I find that cure, they are all a risk. A risk to Unity.

A risk to Soh’fee.

The leader snarls, shoving the male Corrupted aside. He storms toward Soh’fee, weapon raised. “I won’t listen to a traitorous bitch like you!”

Tension releases from my shoulders, the call of violence easing some of the strain. I can purge them now.

I surge forward to intercept him, a roar tearing from my chest. He whirls to face me, his weapon firing into my chest and I jerk as the projectile enters my frame. I have no ba’clan to stop his bullet and the pain makes my tentacles spike around me.

I roar again, my claws and fangs seeking blood, and it is only Soh’fee’s shout that stops me from slicing him in two.

“Stop!”

Behind him, the others charge forward to join the attack and that familiar bloodlust rises, urging me to abandon restraint and tear into living flesh until there is nothing left.

I shake my head, clinging to purpose, Soh’fee’s command, her scent still lingering in my nostrils, on my tongue. I cling to that as I knock the leader’s legs out from under him. He crashes to the ground, limbs jerking as he struggles to rise once more. The glint of madness remains in his eyes; the hyu’manity Soh’fee glimpsed fading once more behind the sinister purpose that drives these hyu’mans.

There will be no reasoning with them.

The others close in. I cannot hold them back and protect Soh’fee both. As my tentacles spike and jab, keeping the Corrupted at bay, I know I will have to rip them all apart, one by one.

At the center of the fray, in a circle of empty space, stand five corrupted facing off against Adee’ra, Mee’na, and Sa’am. Fer’ro, Ga’Var, and San’ten are on the other side, wounding but not fatally harming the Corrupted as they come in waves, advancing without fatigue, without pain, focused only on their singular purpose.

Destroy. Consume. Spread.

“Stop!” Soh’fee screams again.

A snarl leaves my lips as I wrap my arms around her, my tentacles spiking around us as I prepare to tear into the Corrupted’s ranks. To protect Soh’fee. To stop this madness.

But Soh’fee releases a cry of pain. My gaze snaps to her, and I go still at the sight of the vein spreading up her neck, tendrils of inky black corruption racing across her skin.

“No.” This is far too soon. Advancing faster than it should.

Soh’fee whimpers as the vein pulses, and I forget all else.

There is a shout behind us and I’m aware of a Corrupted charging toward us with a scream. My tentacle hardens, slicing through the air like a blade. But before I can reach my mark, the Corrupted stumbles as if shoved from behind. He rises again, trying to right himself, only to stumble and fall to his knees with an agonized groan moments later.

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