Page 77 of May the Stars Have Mercy
“Feeeeeeeeed.” It lurched toward her at first then toward Xexis. The entire blob was sizzling from the lights inside the lab, but it wasn’t enough to kill it.
“No!” She choked on her own scratched throat. Blinding, white hot pain surged through her as she grabbed the wrench in her lap and launched for the blob. She swung wildly, ignoring the pain. Stabbing at it, breaking it up into pieces, she smashed it like the wrench was doing anything.Clang, clang, clang. She scooped it up by the front of the wrench and tossed it across the room. “You. Don’t. Get. Him!”
“Feeeeeeed!” it shrieked in its hurt rabbit voice, slumping forward.
Buddy wobbled in her hand as Aphrodite scrambled backward, putting herself between Xexis and the infected thing.
“Mprhonatch!”
A blaster went off and the tiny creature sizzled away to ash.
Aphrodite sat, back to Xexis’ massive chest, Buddy’s glob held above her head, panting for air.
Rexna leapt down into the area as Jruc, her drone scanned the room. Red lights went off near the wall and the two dove in, stabbing and blasting off more of the infected Brexzkit that seemed to seep in through the walls.
“Are we out of the void yet?” She scrambled to grab her data pad. With one hand held high, she clawed her data pad open andstuffed the blob inside. It sank in like cream melts into skin, and disappeared among the wires and chips. Rexna stepped over to her as she crammed the device back together and begged it back on.
It chirped, text fluttering across the screen.
Hello, Aphrodite Kerso.
Aphrodite gasped, clutching the data pad to her chest and flopping back against Xexis.
“We should be leaving it now.” Rexna dropped to the floor next to her, sighing heavily.
Aphrodite grinned wildly, plucking her data pad up and staring at it.
I am very tired…I think I should sleep.
“Sleep, Buddy,” She laughed hysterically, slumping down further till her head was propped up against Xexis. “You’ve earned it. We won, Buddy…we won. We’re going home.”
She’d never been so happy to go home.
Chapter Forty-Four:
Twoweeks,theylumberedthrough the stars back toward home. Aphrodite kept watch over both Xexis and Buddy. When she wasn’t holding onto her mate, whom she had to practically peel out of his armor like it was superglued to him, she was checking in on her data pad. She pulled out her ancient charging ports and plugged that bad boy in to give Buddy extra juice.
After a week, the crown prince called. When Xnasis appeared on the screen, it was Aphrodite he spoke with. She sat beside his mattress; the whole room lit up as bright as she could get it. As the crown prince came over the screen, his face visibly fell. “Mphronatch?”
“He’s okay,” she blurted out. It was a weak croak, as her throat was still recovering.
“And…the hunt?” Xnasis visibly swallowed. The video feed showed him in some sort of office. The walls were metal and bare of any personality. However, there was something in Vroz hung as a tapestry behind him. Aphrodite smiled softly as she realized it was the pillars. The same pillars Xexis wore in his crystal arm bands were written like a graffiti tag along a silk tapestry.
Aphrodite waited for the crown prince to look up from his other data pads and devices. His eyes were wide, hovering betweenhorrified and elated at the same time. She gave him a weak smile, “It went well.”
“Well?” he gasped.
“We destroyed the nest.”
Reevar, after a full day of rest, regaled her with the hunt of the pest nest. They’d fought tooth and nail and, in the end, blasted the hollowed-out moon to bits. They’d found Xexis floating on the other side, clutching Buddy’s pieces to his chest.
“And, what of the pack?” Xnasis reigned in his face, taking a deep breath in through his soft, humming breathers.
“All alive and accounted for; we didn’t lose a single hunter.” She warmed in the chest as Xnasis’ eyes rolled back in his head and he sank back in his chair. He ran his hands over his face and let out a hearty groan.
He said something into his meaty palms that was too muddled for her to understand, but she could parse he said something along the lines of ‘thank the fucking stars’ in a mixture of English and Vrozian.Or maybe I’m paraphrasing.
Aphrodite chuckled softly, “We’re headed home now. Xexis’ scans show he’s healing broken bones that we can better heal at home. Reevar’s left shoulder was knock out of its socket, Grooug has bruises like no one else, and Kiefgr has a torn muscle on his abdomen from using the cannon, but…they’re alive, and we’re going to be home soon.”
