Page 83 of Fractured Souls

He did this to her.

The realization pleased him immensely.

Twenty-Two

“Again.” Nythian’s voice was a sharp whipcrack above the howling wind. The sound of the wind on this planet was like nothing Alexis had ever heard before; it was melodic and haunting. If she hadn’t seen the landscape for herself, she would have sworn it came from some ancient beast.

Still tingling all over with the afterglow of their quick, delicious fucking, Alexis forced herself to concentrate.

She raised her plasma gun and fired, her Kordolian-made eyeshield protecting her from the desert’s harsh glare.

Boom!

The recoil was vicious, reverberating through her entire body, but this time she knew what to expect. She tensed her right arm—the changed arm—and stared off into the distance.

The rocky outcrop was completely obliterated, leaving nothing behind but ephemeral strands of grey smoke that drifted lazily into the shimmering air.

“Hot damn,” she murmured, astonished at the sheer power of this tiny little gun, which seemed to fit so perfectly in the palm of her hand—as if it had been made just for her.

“Better,” Nythian rumbled. “Three more shots like that and I will be satisfied that you can handle plasma.”

God, his voice sounded so good when he praised her like that. It made her want to do all sorts of things just to win his approval.

That was just… crazy talk. She’d never sought a man’s approval in her life.

“I told you, I’m not a fucking rookie.” She grinned as she turned to him, feeling proud of herself. The Tharian sun shone fiercely on her face, and she soaked up every little drop of its glorious rays, because being out here sure as hell beat skulking around on a cold dark alien warship.

“Clearly,” he said dryly, giving her a long hard stare.

His look made her squirm inside, made her get all hot and bothered underneath her fancy Kordolian tech-suit, even though she couldn’t see an inch of him right now.

He was completely hidden behind his black armor.

Of course, it was because of the ultraviolet. How could she forget? Kordolians were insanely susceptible to it, and Nythian was no exception.

Just before they’d stepped off the ship, he’d donned his full exo-armor suit, and she’d gotten a glimpse of how truly formidable a Kordolian warrior could be.

But really, donned wasn’t the right word for it, because the tiny black nanoparticles had come out of his skin just like that, coalescing to form an impenetrable helm that turned him into a huge menacing faceless killing machine.

Then there were the weapons. Guns and small blades everywhere. A pair of crossed swords at his back. Of course there had to be freaking swords, as if he were some sort of cybernetically enhanced alien samurai.

And suddenly she understood that the Kordolians she’d encountered in the forest that night didn’t have a patch on Nythian.

He was the real deal.

Like, scarily so.

She hadn’t seen him in action yet, but she just knew.

Part of her didn’t ever want to see him in action. Another part of her couldn’t wait, because she was utterly entranced by this beautiful silver-skinned monster.

“Next shot,” he said, pointing to a dark speck in the distance.

For a moment, she was distracted by the sight of his raised arm, by a solid line of perfectly sculpted, obsidian-encased muscle, by the sheer power and precision of him.

Pull yourself together, girl.

But then her mind and body froze as he became a black blur.

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