Page 13 of Fractured Souls

Got you.

And found himself thrown flat on his back, wondering what the fuck had just happened.

Bastard. I’m going to get you for that. Savage glee coursed through him as his claws came out. His heart thundered. His blood sang. This was what he was. A warrior. A fighter. A fucking monster.

Just like his brothers.

Could he ever convince Alexis that he was different to the monstrous image of Kordolians she held in her mind? Was she even sane enough to believe him?

“Never know until you try,” he muttered as he launched into a blistering new combination attack he’d been practicing recently.

But the wily General—the tactician, the mind-reader, the unorthodox fighter—somehow, he was able to read Nythian’s intent. He dodged and blocked, ignoring Nythian’s claws even as they pierced the armor covering his torso, drawing obsidian blood.

First blood.

Nythian smiled. It definitely wouldn’t be the last. Yeah, he was a nice guy sometimes, just not all the time.

But then she would never have to see this side of him… would she?

Four

It was way too cold in here. Alexis rubbed her arms, trembling slightly. She didn’t know whether it was the ship’s internal climate, or if there was something wrong with her.

Ever since that long-haired alien—scientist, medic, whatever—had taken her out of the stasis tank, Alexis had felt as if her brain and heart were somehow disconnected from her limbs.

What a fucking nightmare.

The Kordolians had locked her in this dark, windowless cell. They’d sedated her and restrained her and forced her to have injections that sent her into a deep, dreamless sleep.

She didn’t fight the injections anymore, because sometimes the oblivion of sleep was better than being awake.

The only bright spots in her existence were the visits from the two human women, Abbey and Layla. She knew Layla from Earth and from the Malachi—Layla Rose the actress had been a superstar back on Earth, and Layla the human had been a fellow passenger on that doomed spaceflight—but Abbey was a total enigma.

A generous, bubbly, opinionated, down-to-Earth enigma. She seemed so out of place in this dark, alien place.

What the hell were Abbey and Layla doing here?

Both of them constantly tried to reassure her, telling her everything was okay now, but she found it hard to believe.

They were on a Kordolian ship.

What if the human women were captives, acting under duress?

What if they were replicants, and this was all just some cruel, sick game the Kordolians were playing?

She didn’t trust anybody in this place, not even the voice that whispered in her mind.

A creature that called itself Anuk.

It came during the quiet times, when everyone was gone except the silent, terrifying guard who sat just outside her door. It was seductive, speaking of revenge and power and the things she could be capable of… if only Alexis would yield.

The first few days out of stasis, she’d almost done just that. It was only her own innate stubbornness that had stopped her from succumbing.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Her fingers flew to her carotid artery. She’d developed a habit of checking it. Yep, her heart was definitely beating. It reminded her that she was still human and not some undead monster.

She slipped her hand beneath her shirt and ran her fingers over the right side of her belly, where she’d been stabbed by that vicious Kordolian criminal. It was over a year ago, but it seemed like yesterday. The memories came in a torrent; painful, raw, and sickening. After all this time, she still couldn’t get the smell of him out of her mind.

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