Page 73 of Guardian's Destiny

The golden glow returned to his body, and he charged around the corner. Damn him. Before I made my way around it, two Space Guardians lay on the ground.

"Why the hell did I have to come? You obviously can take charge of this?—"

The doors to the room the Space Guardians had guarded opened. I raised my blaster and shot at the first two Ohrurs I saw, taking in the room we entered with abject horror.

"There," Zapharos pointed at another Ohrur, and I took him out without blinking or second-guessing Zapharos. "Oh, and over there," nonchalantly he pointed again.

While I checked for more hostiles, a woman cried out, "Zaph!"

Zaph?

"You came."

I found another Ohrur hiding underneath one of the tables with an unfortunate victim strapped to it. I took him out before I looked at the man on the table. His silvery skin gave him away as a Space Guardian, but his pallor indicated he was dead.

I whirled around to confront Zapharos but was rendered speechless when I saw a slip of a woman clinging to him for dear life. Tears ran down her cheeks, and Zapharos was kissing them away.

"What the hell,Zaph?" I yelled, turning in a slow circle, taking in a lab that looked like it came straight from one ofDante'snightmares.

Large, cylindrical containers stood against one wall. Inside floated terribly malformed bodies, all with silvery skin. Bile rose in my throat. Was this where the Ohrurs were breeding—bioengineering, lab-growing—Darlams? Was this where Vraax had been… engineered?

"Let's get out of here." Zapharos picked the woman up, who snuggled into his arms.

"Hold on," I yelled as they were almost at the door.

"What about the others?" the woman asked. "Zaph, you have to free them."

Others? And again,Zaph?

With all the horrors around me, I hadn't noticed the wall where Zapharos had picked the woman up from. It was filled with cages, with… more women inside. Mostly human, but I also saw two Pandraxians and three others whose origins I didn't know.

"Shit," I hastened to the cages, trying to open the first door, but it wouldn't budge. "Seriously Zapharos, get your ass over here and open them. Now!"

His sigh was loud and drawn out. "Oh Zaph," the woman nearly giggled, slapping his arm as if he was joking, which I was sure he wasn't. He would have walked out of here without a carein the world. Probably would have left me behind too… no, he still needed me for a ride. Bastard.

Whatever the woman saw in him, I had no clue. Either that or she was blind and deaf and feeble in the mind. Or a saint.

Zapharos began glowing golden again and barely touched the cage doors before they opened.

"Okay. Alright. Are you okay? Can you walk?" I asked the women as they emerged from their cramped quarters. The cages were so small I wouldn't have allowed a large dog to get into them.

I paled when I noticed that at least two of them were pregnant. An ungodly amount of fury rose up from deep inside me. I kicked one of the unconscious Ohrurs, contemplating shooting him, but he was out and wouldn't know what had happened to him. No, he needed a slow death.

"Do it," Zapharos whispered next to my ear. My head shot around, and I met his amber eyes. "You want to shoot him. Do it."

"Zaph," the woman's voice was reprimanding. "Don't."

The other women stared at me as if I were an aberration.

"You're safe. I'll take you to a safe place. I promise." My voice shook. "Can you walk?"

Hesitantly, all nine of them took a step forward and then another, leaning on each other, quietly sobbing.

"Are we really safe?" one of them asked.

"We just need to get to the ship," I assured her. "I'm Sloane."

"Edith," the woman introduced herself, then telling me the names of all the others, which became a blur. I only caught Claudia and Nadine. Oh, and Ella. The name of the woman in Zapharos’s arms.

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