Page 25 of Wrath

Myriam gave me a grateful smile then headed out of the Infirmary. I heaved a sigh, my gaze roaming over Nathalie’s pretty face. I caressed her forehead, my hand resting on her dreadlocks, wishing her a speedy recovery. Turning around, I rewound the recordings of the Nomad’s surveillance cameras to get a better understanding of what had gone down during their escape. The team would expect some answers, and so did I.

A few minutes in, Varnog and Linette entered the Infirmary. My gaze immediately locked with hers. Even though I knew she had captured his soul, my breath hitched with relief at seeing her eyes completely black, including her sclera, confirming she was carrying the soul of a Warrior inside her.

“How is she doing?” Linette asked.

“Myriam gave her a nanobot treatment with some other medicines,” I said sheepishly. “It seems to be bringing down the swelling.”

Linette walked up to the monitor and gave it a cursory glance. Her shoulders slouched, not with discouragement but with relief, and she smiled.

“Yeah, this is looking good. But I’m afraid she’ll be out of commission for a while,” Linette said pensively. “That will give us time to sort out this mess and investigate how to nuke that shit inside that base. Wrath will want answers when he comes around.”

I nodded. A strange look crossed Linette’s semi-alien features. She softened and circled around the medical analysis chamber Nathalie was still lying on to come stand next to me. She studied my face as if she was seeing me for the first time.

“You totally kicked ass, out there,” Linette said, her eyes locked with mine. “I knew you’d get us out, and I knew you would spank those freaky things for us. I’m so grateful you were here.”

She hugged me. Tears pricked my eyes, and I gladly returned her embrace, slightly bending to bury my face in her hair. I hadn’t realized how much I had needed that sister hug from her. It took all my willpower not to let the tears come out. I wasn’t a weakling. I didn’t want to seem like I would fall apart at the first challenge.

“You’re among family here,”Linette mind-spoke to me with that same eerie empathic sense she’s been displaying since my arrival on Khepri.“No one will judge you for being emotional about what went down. The only thing that matters is that when we needed you, you kicked ass and saved your team.”

“Thank you,”I mentally replied.

She released me and caressed my cheek in an almost motherly fashion.

“All right, I’m off to help Myriam and Dread sort out this mess with the Coalition and with that wretched base,” Linette said. “You guys keep checking the medical files and those recordings from the Nomad. Let me know if she stirs.”

Varnog and I nodded. She turned to her mate and gently brushed her lips against his before leaving the Infirmary. The Scelk leader turned to look at me, a strange look on his face.

“Let’s get his Shell out so that it’s ready for him to be reborn once she awakens,” Varnog said in that haunting voice of his.

It was soft and breathy. It struck me as odd to think how sexy it sounded whenever he addressed his mate, how soothing it felt when he spoke gently to me like this, and how terrifying it became when he spoke dangerously softly as he did with Marcelle.

Although he had not really needed my help to get the Shell out of its stasis chamber, considering his incredible strength, it felt good doing something concrete about getting Wrath closer to being reborn. We laid him out on the rebirth table, keeping him hooked to the life support system. We couldn’t revive his Shell yet. As long as it remained in this stasis state, the Shell would live indefinitely. But once its hearts were activated, this replacement body would only last for an hour without a soul inhabiting it before it began sustaining a chain reaction of organ failures.

Unable to resist, as soon as we finished laying him down, my fingers slipped through the soft locks of his black hair and then traveled down to the golden scales on his forehead and cheek. The weight of Varnog’s stare on me had me look up at him. My face heated, and I yanked my hand away feeling irrationally guilty.

The Scelk gave me a knowing smile, but not taunting or provoking as I had come to expect from him, but something almost paternal.

“We better get to work,” I said to hide my embarrassment.

He nodded but didn’t move, continuing to stare at me.

“What?” I asked, feeling uneasy.

“My mate told me of the tragedy that befell you,” Varnog said softly.

I recoiled, my back stiffening at the unexpected change of topic. “I had given her permission to do so,” I said in a voice I hoped to be neutral.

I didn’t believe in spouses keeping secrets from each other and didn’t want her feeling like she had to keep it from him.

“Do you know how I was created?” Varnog asked.

I recoiled again, the second complete change of topic giving me whiplash. “Yes, kind of,” I responded hesitantly. “You started off as a genetically modified insect that was merged with a host.”

Varnog snorted. “That’s a nice way to put it,” he said before gesturing at the seats by the working stations where we were to study the files Myriam had downloaded for us.

I followed his invite and took a seat in front of the station where I had been watching the recordings of the security cameras. He sat next to me in Nathalie’s usual chair.

“You are correct in that we started off as mindless insects enhanced through experimentation,” Varnog said as one would speak of the weather. “They made us bloodthirsty, with one goal: assimilating or destroying anything that wasn’t Kryptid, and especially anything that was part of the Vanguard. My first conscious memory was of being with a whole lot of my brothers dropped inside this big building where a bunch of children had been locked up.”

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