Page 46 of Alien Barbarian's Little Human

“I don’t need your half-solutions! I need the IHC to change their damn minds. If they don’t, I’ll…I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” I ask softly.

He fairly trembles with rage.

“I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them all! No one is taking you from me, Chloe. Ever!”

“Would you calm down? You’re acting like a Vakutan more than an Ishani.”

That gets through to him, at least a little. He closes his eyes and blows air out through his nostrils.

“I am no Vakutan.”

“No, but you’re acting a whole lot like one right now.”

His eyes widen in surprise, and then he jabs a finger at me. His nail is jagged and pointy. Did he injure himself in his rage?

“You, a human, are going to lecture me on what it means to be Ishani?”

“No, of course not. Damn it, Varona, I am not your enemy! Stop treating me like one.”

A look of tenderness fights for supremacy in his gaze. Varona reaches his hand out, gently, as if to draw me into his embrace.

Just as I step into his arms a blinding flash of light burns through the window. We both turn as the low rumble hits our ears and a thick cloud of debris rolls skyward.

“What just happened?”

His voice is tinged with panic. I know the sight of an Alliance KX Demolisher drone’s handiwork when I see it.

“That was the Ataxian consulate,” I say breathlessly. “Oh no. Tell me the Alliance didn’t…”

“More than the consulate!” Varona bellows. “They took out most of the surrounding structures as well! The people! There were people in those places.”

It gets worse the longer we watch. The Ataxians prove they aren’t going to turn the other cheek, and in an amazingly short time an entire brigade of Odex shock troopers form up in the street, preparing to march on the Alliance Embassy.

“Where did they come from?” I shake my head in disbelief. “It can’t be possible.”

“A hidden bunker beneath the Ataxian consulate,” Varona hisses through clenched teeth. “We knew of it, but we did nothing because we never thought it would come to this.”

The Odex begin their march, nearly a hundred eight foot tall blue-furred warriors. I once saw an Odex take a full round clip from a slugthrower assault rifle, shrug it off and keep fighting. There will be blood if they reach the Alliance consulate.

“Ah, see, Belar will restore order,” Varona says, his voice more tight than reassured. A winged Ishani flaps down from the sky and lands directly in the path of the Odex. The Odex commander calls for a halt, and the lot of furred soldiers comes to a disciplined halt.

The commander strides up to Belar, towering over him. The two exchange words we can't hope to hear because of the distance. At length, the Odex hangs his head, and Belar nods and turns away.

Then, the Odex grabs the hilt of his power blade and slashes right through Belar’s midsection, cutting him in half.

“No!” Varona screams.

I watch in horror as the Isahani falls in two pieces. He screams, and that we can hear even at this distance. The blood curdling sound makes me whimper as Belar’s wings flap crazily. He tries to drag his upper torso back to his lower half when the Odex commander severs his head from his body.

Varona’s scream grows guttural, an ugly noise. I clap my hands over my ears. It’s like being stabbed in the eardrums.

His rough nails tear at his body, leaving bloody streaks and leaving his flesh hanging in loose tatters. White bone from his sternum and ribcage reveal themselves.

“Varona, stop!” I cry. I can’t even hear my voice over the din he’s making. I only know I spoke at all because I could feel it in my throat.

Varona stops keening, but still seethes with rage. When he turns to look at me, his expression is terrible, an expression of the blackest kind of anger.

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