Page 22 of Reaper

At the same time that my cheeks heated with pleasure at the praise, my eyes widened in shock that he had known it was me.

“You started emitting a lot of psychic energy,” Reaper explained. “And the Creckels all immediately started moving out of the spikes’ path.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Stran mind-speaking to me drew my attention. I unconsciously nodded while also telepathically agreeing to his request. Darting away from the safety of the rocks he was standing on, the Creckel rolled back onto the ground. Immediately, the light dots reappeared, and I barely had time to send him the warning before the spikes shot up. I guided him back to safety. As soon as he had returned to the rock formation, Reaper flew down near the entrance of the base where Madeline was fiddling with the damaged control panel by the doorway.

Reaper settled me down in a safe spot by the door and walked up to Madeline. They spoke quickly in technical terms I didn’t understand. He then hooked up his armband to the cables Madeline had exposed, and they both went to work, no doubt to find a way to disable the trap.

“Don’t worry, little human,”Reklig’s voice said in my mind, startling me.“Our mates will figure it out. They have dealt with far worse during prior missions.”

I recoiled at that comment, my head jerking towards the strange male. Although Reklig didn’t scare me, there was something quite intimidating and dangerous about him. And yet, I knew in my heart that he was a good man… well, male.

“Reaper is not my mate,”I countered feebly, heat creeping up on my cheeks while an unusual flame lit in the pit of my stomach.

I knew what it was. You didn’t live thirty-one years with a bunch of mature, hot-blooded mammals without learning a thing or two about the realities of life. I understood well the physical reactions I’d been experiencing. It was thrilling to finally go through that awakening. But I needed to properly plan my actions if I were to pursue Reaper.

A taunting smile stretched Reklig’s lips.“Semantics. He will be soon enough.”

My heart leapt at that comment. Reaper had told me that Reklig’s species could read minds. Had he read Reaper’s thoughts about me? Did they hint at him being interested in me as more than just a protector despite my poor current state? Had Reaper told him something?

When courting, both male and female Creckels flaunted their physical attributes to the other to show why they would make a good life partner, and why it would be beneficial to merge their genes to create strong offspring. Reaper’s physical attributes were beyond amazing. From resurrection, to phenomenal strength, and powerful wings that not only led me to freedom but also saved me from getting impaled just now, I would be hard-pressed to find a better sire for my children.

I, however, was mostly blind and a bag of bones, barely able to stand on my own. I hadn’t had my monthly blood in years due to severe food rationing. As a late bloomer, I would have been terrified when I had my first period at the age of fourteen had my mother not explained it to me before her passing. In theory, all would go back to normal once I put on a bit of fat. I needed to regain my strength to show him I could make a good mate, despite what little I had to offer.

Creckels also displayed their high intellect and personalities to their love interest through a psychic visual symphony conveying their past, greatest accomplishments, their goals, and their view of the world. The more poetic or clever the imagery, the greater your chances of seducing your would-be partner. But Reaper barely understood the Creckel language, which had somewhat understandably become my mother tongue over the past two decades. And my mastery of Universal was beyond crippled from severe lack of use.

Still, the tender, caring, thoughtful, and attentive way he had behaved with me had me weak in the knees. I wasn’t so naïve as to not realize that my response to him was exacerbated by the fact that he had rescued me. But, technically, so had the others on the team. And yet, despite Doom’s striking beauty and Reklig’s undeniably handsome features—unusual though they were—those other males didn’t draw me like Reaper did.

Even now, as I stared at him working in an almost symbiotic fashion with Madeline, I couldn’t help the pang of jealousy at the visible bond between them. Madeline had no interest in Reaper. The way she looked at Reklig spoke volumes about the depth of her feelings for him. But she was beautiful, smart, her technical skill highly respected by her team, and now on full display before me. I had nothing but the ability to fluently speak the Creckel language. Then again, that language might have evolved over the years of our imprisonment here.

However, my somber thoughts were quickly silenced. Just as the pair had finally managed to gain access to the Kryptid interface and to project it on a large, holographic screen, an alarm sound went off. At first, I thought Madeline and Reaper had triggered it by hacking into the control panel, but the sound was actually coming from the armbands of every member of the Vanguard.

“Madeline, Reaper, disable that damn thing ASAP. We’ve got incoming,” Doom said in a tensed voice. “Thanh says the spikes from the trap damaged the ship’s broadcast system.”

Reaper uttered a series of swear words that took me by surprise. I’d heard my father say similar things when upset, and my mother chastising him for it. But a thundering sound in the distance, quickly approaching, drew my attention. Blurry at first, I finally started seeing the hulking silhouettes of at least a dozen, large creatures running our way.

A cold shiver ran down my spine. I knew these creatures. They’d killed Laam and scarred Grol the one time I’d helped them sneak outside of the base. We’d used one of the Kryptid access codes Grol had spied when one of the Soldiers had come for a delivery. The Creckel had still been small at the time. Using his camouflaging ability, he’d hidden in the lift and memorized the code the Soldier had used before sharing it with me.

It had been my first and last time out in the sun. We’d been so drunk with freedom we didn’t notice the Zebier lurking nearby, eating from the poisoned berry bush. We tried to run back to the lift when we finally saw it, but the beast was too fast. Brees saved my life by throwing herself at it, knocking the Zebier off course. I’d rushed inside the lift as the rest of my companions—three in all—darted towards me. Grol and Brees made it, but just as Laam was stepping in, the Zebier projected a two-meter-long tongue with some sort of hooking spear at the tip. It had been a horribly lucky shot from the creature that stabbed the vulnerable underside of Laam’s back leg.

Grol darted back out to help his little brother, but the Zebier’s large paw swatted at the Creckel, its vicious claws almost blinding Grol and leaving a nasty cut on the side of his snout. Laam tried to fight back but became limp and sluggish, the Zebier’s venom paralyzing the poor Creckel before it eviscerated him. Anyone with eyes could see Laam was beyond help. I remembered crying to Grol to come back. But it was Brees that got him to relent, growling at him in that typical manner that ordered a Creckel to come at once, immediately followed by her firing the bladed darts under her scales at the Zebier.

The creature had screeched in agony as many of the darts found their mark despite the Zebier’s protective scales. Fired at such close range, very little could survive a Creckel’s dart attacks. My parents lost it on us when they heard what happened. The Soldiers were even more furious we’d dare to exit the base the next time they came to bring us supplies. Brees’s venom had killed the Zebier, and its rotting corpse had remained at the entrance along with Laam’s, giving us away. At the time, I hadn’t realized what they’d meant when they’d said if we went out again, it wouldn’t be Zebiers only taking us out. They had likely added the spike trap then.

“I might know the code to stop it!” I exclaimed. “Assuming they didn’t change it…”

Reaper’s head jerked towards me. I loved that he didn’t question or challenge my statement, but simply extended a hand towards me so that I could come forward. It made me feel respected and like I belonged to their team as an equal.

“I can’t read Kryptid,” I said apologetically. “But if you can bring up the right screen, I can try the code we used before.”

I psychically projected an image to Reaper and Madeline of the screen I had so often stared at back in my youth. At the time, we’d had free use of the lift to go from the basement to the entrance. But the reinforced exit doors had been locked until Grol had gotten that code for us.

“You rock!” Madeline exclaimed with an excited voice. “I think I know where to find that.”

Her fingers flew over the interface of her armband and a couple of screens flashed on the holographic display before stopping on the one I had shown them.

“That’s it! That’s the one!” I said.

Reaper extended his forearm towards me, giving me access to the interface of his armband. I couldn’t say if the code of eight characters were letters, numbers, or simply symbols. But just as I was entering them, an angry roar startled the living daylights out of me. It was far too close. Shaking, I resumed entering the code. But just as I hit the submit function, I realized the code had more than eight characters. My stupid, clumsy fingers had probably accidentally plugged in more symbols when I jumped.

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