Page 7 of Reaper

The voice terrified me. With a burst of energy I had no idea I still possessed, I ran towards the great hall. I felt the stranger’s mind disconnecting from mine a few meters down the corridor. A single thought played in a loop in my head: the male who had come in was named Reaper, and they knew we had killed him.

Chapter 4

Reaper

The warmth of my new Shell closed all around me. For the next couple of minutes, my limbs would feel heavy and my body uncomfortable while my soul adjusted to this new corporeal vessel. My consciousness had found its own way back to this Shell. Unlike Xian Warriors, we Dragons didn’t need a Soulcatcher to be reborn if the distance between our corpse and the new body we would resurrect into was short enough.

The memory of the pain of the modified Creckels’ darts impaling me still lingered. But it was the image of the wisp of a woman, clearly at death’s door, that occupied my every thought. I swallowed, half-stunned by the ease with which I did. As I’d begun my descent down the shaft, my mating glands had finally awakened, swelling to an almost painful level. But the intense joy that had filled my hearts had evaporated in the few seconds that my eyes had caught her frail silhouette in the dark corridor. Even now, panic and a fierce need to protect my soulmate spurred me into sitting up from the rebirth table trying to dash back out to her.

“Slow down, brother,” Doom said, his hand on my shoulder holding me back.

I brushed it off and jumped to my feet. A small wave of dizziness indeed forced me to slow down. “I need to get back down immediately,” I said in a frantic voice.

“You just got killed down there,” Doom argued. “We need to reason with—”

“I need to rescue my mate before she dies,” I snapped, interrupting him.

Doom slightly recoiled, his eyes widening in shock before his jaw dropped in understanding. His eyes flicked to my throat, which naturally wasn’t swollen on this new body.

“They awakened?” he whispered.

“Yes. But she is dying. They are starving down there,” I said while quickly putting on the clothes my Soulcatcher Martha had prepared for me. “Her lips were terribly parched, so she’s likely also severely dehydrated.”

“I will prepare some oral rehydration therapy for her,” Jessica said, moving towards the counters of the Infirmary.

Doom nodded gratefully at his Soulcatcher before turning back to me. “I rejoice for you finding your mate, my brother, but she’s terrified. We need to calm her first before you can help her.”

My brain heard and understood the logic of his words, but my every instinct yelled for me to rush back to her, caution be damned.

“I have touched her mind,” Reklig said in a soft voice. My head jerked towards the Scelk, and I stared at him, eager to hear what his mind-reading ability had allowed him to gather from my female. “Doom is right. She is indeed terrified. However, she did not want your death. Her companions thought you were a Kryptid and reacted violently to protect her. She thinks we want to harm them to avenge your death.”

“We don’t!” I stupidly exclaimed, as if he was the one that needed convincing.

“Butshedoesn’t know that,” Doom countered in a gentle but firm tone. “That is why we need to reassure her first while we prepare a care package for them.”

“We can send her a holographic message,” Madeline suggested. “We can stick a holocard on one of the probes and ask for her consent to us coming down there.”

“That’s a great idea,” I replied, feeling restless. “Let’s do it quickly.”

I tried to mentally reach out to my woman, needing to know she was fine. But I met a murky wall of confusion. I couldn’t tell if psychic disruptors were making it difficult, or if my female either didn’t possess psychic abilities, or if hers were too weak to establish a connection from such a relatively short distance.

Madeline made a beeline for the drawer near the cooling unit that contained the blank holocards. Despite being of a good size, the medical bay looked almost cramped with the entire crew present to check in on me. The two large rebirth tables next to the examination one ate up a good part of the space as well. But it was Stran, standing next to my rebirth table and staring at me with needy eyes that finally snapped me out of my semi state of panic.

I crouched before the Creckel, my hands framing his dragon face. “There were a lot of your people down there, my friend,” I said in a soft voice. “They were modified, but they were not mindless. They protected my female. We’re going to get them, too, alive and well.”

Stran once more emitted that heartbreaking keening sound, but this time with gratitude. He bumped his snout against my shoulder before carefully rubbing his scaly cheek against mine. I wrapped an arm around his thick, muscular neck and gave him an affectionate hug. I had never seen the formidable war machine so emotional and vulnerable in the three years I had known him. Savage and bloodthirsty on the battlefield but mischievous with our unit, Stran was otherwise mostly introverted and introspective.

When I released him, he gave me another friendly bump. As I rose to my feet, I was startled to see Madeline raise the camera of the holocard in front of Doom. I opened my mouth to argue, but Reklig placing a hand on my shoulder silenced me.

“She saw you die,” Reklig said. “Dragons will look like Kryptids to them,” he added in an apologetic tone. “It might be best that a Xian Warrior addresses her. Humans were already very well aware of them being allies before her abduction.”

“She’s not one of the original scientists,” I countered, drawing surprised looks from my companions. “She’s much too young.”

“She would be their child then,” Doom speculated.

I nodded. “I believe so.”

“Good to know,” Doom said before turning back to the camera. With a gesture from his head, he indicated for Madeline—Reklig’s mate—to start recording.

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