Page 35 of Fractured Souls

“Tch.” Beside him, Zharek shook his head. “The transformation’s absolute, right down to the genetic level. I don’t know how she’s done it, but Anuk’s managed to change Alexis’s DNA. The arterial blood flow stops at the transformation line. From then on, it’s full Tharian diffusion.”

“Can you stop it? Reverse it?” Nythian wanted her whole and strong—for himself.

“I can’t reverse it,” Zharek admitted, cursing under his breath. For an educated noble, Zharek cursed a lot. “I don’t have the technology—yet. Maybe another six cycles and I could devise a solution, but right now, I just don’t have time.” He bared his fangs in frustration.

“I don’t care about time, Zharek. We all know what you’re capable of. Make it happen.”

Zharek hissed. “I’m going to have to figure a workaround. Mareth!” He hollered for his assistant. Alexis swayed in the tank, drawing Nythian’s attention.

Various monitoring lines and devices swayed with her; thin, elegant black tendrils extending from her limbs, making her appear strange and otherworldly.

She was a drug to him—he couldn’t tear his eyes away. It wasn’t just her appearance, although Goddess knew the sublime curves and lines of her body were doing funny things to his head, his heart, his cock.

It was the way she held herself, staring straight at him through the clear lens of her visor, fearless…

And yet there was a certain sadness about her. That too, was tantalizing, because he wanted to be the one to extinguish it.

“Give me an update, Nythian.” The boss came on the comm, cutting through his thoughts. “Where are we with the revenant?”

“Alexis,” he corrected, knowing Tarak didn’t mean any disrespect, but he had a tendency to fall into that old military way of speaking sometimes. They all did. “She’s fine. Currently in stasis. Zharek’s checking her out, trying to unpick the biology of the transformation. The Tharian seems to be silent for now.”

“The human must remain in stasis until we are absolutely certain the Tharian threat has been neutralized. I will not tolerate any more threats. She seems to have recovered from her earlier emotional instability, therefore she can survive without human contact for now. She is not to have any further contact with Abbey or Layla until this matter is resolved.”

“It’s gonna get resolved,” Nythian growled, lapsing into the guttural street-Kordolian that sometimes infiltrated his speech. “Even if we have to go to fucking Tharos.” Something had been bugging Nythian for a while. “Why didn’t we clean up the mess on Tharos when Enki was infected? Wouldn’t it have been better to get the answers back then?”

“Had he returned to Tharos at that time, Enki’s madness would have been complete. I am certain of it. No, a planet of angry spirits would not have welcomed the First Division of the Kordolian Imperial Military. Even if we threatened the remaining living Tharian population to get the answers, it wouldn’t have helped.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Just like you and me, I suspect Enki is utterly incompatible with other lifeforms.”

“Except for virulent black nanites,” Nythian quipped.

“I had a choice to make, Nythian. As the cracks started to appear in the Empire’s stranglehold, was I going to waste time searching for a way to heal a shattered mind—something we weren’t certain was even possible—or was I going to draw on all our training and discipline to teach Enki to build a fortress in his mind? Back then, containment was the only option. I kept my soldier sane by giving him a purpose. There was no point in dragging him back through the past.”

“I get it now. The solution was imperfect, but it worked, huh?”

“He survived.”

“Yeah.” Nythian watched as Alexis closed her eyes. Her hands—both human and Tharian—clenched into fists. Zharek was doing something… she was in a little bit of pain right now.

He growled. He didn’t like to see her in pain.

But then her face relaxed, tension bleeding out of her body. She opened her eyes and gave him a reassuring nod, as if to say: calm down, I’m okay.

He wanted to jump in the tank right now and wrap his arms around her, to hold her tightly and slow the frantic beating of her heart.

But he needed to clear something up with the boss.

“So what makes you think my charge will be able to endure a mission to Tharos when even Enki couldn’t?”

“Nothing is certain in this life,” Tarak said softly, “but she isn’t as stubborn as Enki, and she is human. Humans always change the balance. Besides, this impossible feat—reviving a human body after the soul has gone—it has serious implications…”

“For us? For them?”

“Perhaps both. We shall see.” Tarak was back to his usual cryptic self. “You will notify me once the procedure is complete.”

“Got it.” Nythian frowned as Tarak cut the comm.

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