Page 24 of Reaper
“See you soon,” Reaper said to me, before taking flight as well.
As I watched him fly away towards the pack of Zebiers, terrible in his battle form, I realized that from the depths of my gentle Reaper, the bringer of death had come out to destroy the fools who would threaten those he cared about. And that was both scary and thrilling. While I stared at him with a possessive pride, it dawned on me that I hadn’t told him how badass he indeed looked. I’d rectify that later.
“Let’s go inside,” Martha said softly, gesturing up the ramp. “It will be safer, and you will see better from the bridge’s display screen.”
I nodded and sent a telepathic message to the Creckels to come to the ship.
Chapter 9
Reaper
As I flew towards the imminent battle, my thoughts remained locked on my woman. I had feared showing myself to her in my battle form so early after meeting her, especially since it enhanced my Kryptid features. Despite her very natural shock at our monstrous appearance, she hadn’t been repulsed. Even when the trap had set off and the Zebiers had returned, my Janelle had kept a cool head, led the Creckels to safety and helped us disable the trap. My hearts swelled with pride at such strength. She was exceeding everything I had hoped for in a mate. And undeniable signs of her attraction for me made me hot and cold all at once.
But, right now, I needed to keep Janelle and her newly freed companions safe. Just as I was about to ask Doom to send the modified Creckels to the ship, they started running towards it. Seeing my mate staring at them coming her way told me she’d actually called them, further deepening my pride in Janelle. However, my initial relief was short-lived as two-thirds of the Creckels started running towards the Zebiers instead.
“Doom. What the fuck are the Creckels doing?”I mind-spoke to him.
“They want to fight,”he replied, his worry almost palpable through our link.“They refuse to sit idle. Stran is talking to them.”
As soon as he finished speaking those words, Doom disconnected from my mind. He lifted his energy shield to block the harpoon tongue of the Zebier leading the pack. At the same time the tip struck his shield, Doom turned sideways and swiped down his scythed blade, chopping off the tongue before the creature could retract it. Its roar of pain abruptly died in its throat as Doom spit a mouth dart into the Zebier’s gaping maw. Choking, the giant beast reared onto its hind legs and batted at its own throat to push out the foreign object. Without missing a beat, our team leader charged his target, slamming his shoulder into its exposed underbelly, knocking the beast onto its back. With a swipe of his forearm’s scythed-blade, Doom all but split the Zebier’s belly open before crunching its windpipe by savagely stomping on its throat.
For a split second, I wondered why he hadn’t used his scorpion tails on the open wound. It then dawned on me that as we wanted to harvest Zebier meat to feed the Creckels, poisoning our prey would defeat that purpose. While not using our venoms would make the battle a little more challenging, I enjoyed a good fight.
Four more Zebiers were closing in on Doom. My neck slightly swelled as I summoned a mouth dart from the sac located at the back of my throat, making sure not to coat it with venom. Diving down towards one of them, I carefully aimed for its left eye, perfectly hitting the mark. The Zebier’s head jerked to the right, and it lost its footing. Carried by its momentum, the beast crashed into a second one, both of them falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
I landed between them, stabbing each of my forearm lances in quick succession in the exposed underbelly of the beast I had blinded as it thrashed on the ground. Halfway through getting back up, its companion shot its harpoon tongue at me. I speared it with my right lance, stopping its grappling tip just inches from my face. Even as the beast attempted to pull me to it, I quickly wrapped its tongue around my lance to prevent it from retracting it. I then flew up a couple of meters, forcing the Zebier to lift its head, exposing its throat. Spinning myself, with my wings spread wide, I angled them so their viciously sharp edges could slice right through flesh and bones, nearly beheading the beast.
At the same time, doing a fly by over the third Zebier, Reklig fired his blaster at his prey’s face—the most sensitive part of the beast aside from its underbelly—to distract and blind it. As soon as he came within range, my Scelk companion used the grappling hook attachment of his second armband. He shot it with deadly precision at the very small, vulnerable spot behind the nearly impenetrable, hardened scales covering the head of the Zebier, right at the base of the skull.
Using it to reel himself in, and aided by the flapping of his wings, Reklig landed directly onto the back of the roaring creature. It reared, attempting to buck him off while simultaneously trying to wrap its tail around my companion. But Reklig leveraged the long, razor-sharp blade of his own tail to stab the upper part of the Zebier’s tail to keep it away from his body. With the sword Jessica had brought him, the Scelk stabbed twice at the weak spot at the base of the creature’s skull. On the second blow, the blade sank in deeply. The beast stiffened, its face taking on a surprised look. It shuddered, then collapsed to the ground.
While Doom was attacking the fourth Zebier, I turned around to look for more prey. My jaw dropped at the sight of Stran, leading the pack of mature modified Creckels. They had fanned around him, over a wide radius. Running on all fours, Stran weaved around the Zebiers. Avoiding their harpoon tongues and the savage swipes of their talon-like claws, he herded them into a tight area. The other Creckels circled around them, trapping them.
Stran suddenly stopped, folding into a ball. The beasts pushed and shoved at each other to get to him. Their attacks failed miserably against his impenetrable shell. Simultaneously, no doubt in response to a command from Stran, the other Creckels fired the bladed darts from their tails at the herd of Zebiers. So many darts were launched that, for a second, it looked as if a swarm of locusts had spawned from beneath the Creckels’ scales before burrowing into the flesh of the wild beasts.
The collective screeches of the creatures were deafening. They turned to face their aggressors only to be met by another barrage of darts. My hand unconsciously rubbed my chest as I remembered the atrocious pain of being thus impaled when I’d first entered the underground base. I almost felt sorry for the Zebiers as they collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. The Creckels closed in on them for the kill, using their claws and snapping necks with their powerful jaws.
“Okay. They’re impressive for rookies,” Doom said in a grumpy tone as he came to stand next to me, his eyes locked on the grisly spectacle. “But damn, they could share a little.”
Reklig and I burst out laughing.
“Now you know howwefeel when you hog all the action,” I said mockingly before slapping the back of his shoulder.
He made a face at me before leading the way to the Creckels.
As soon as we confirmed all the Zebiers were dead, we dragged their carcasses closer to the ship and the entrance of the base. Janelle came rushing out of the vessel and threw herself into my arms, barely giving me enough time to morph back out of my battle form. The silly female could have seriously hurt herself on my defenses. Still, I welcomed the feel of her slender body against mine, and the clear expression of her concern and care for me. I had always envied the displays of affection my mated brothers of the Vanguard received from their women. But, until now, I hadn’t realized just how badly.
“I’m all bloody and gory,” I mumbled, even though my arms possessively closed around my mate.
“I don’t care. You’re safe,” she said, tightening her hold around me.
While pleased that she cared so much, I didn’t quite know how to feel about that specific comment. Granted, the modified Creckels had slaughtered me in a blink the first time we’d met, but I was hardly squishy. In fact, I took pride in being one of the best Warriors of the Vanguard.
Janelle slightly pulled away to look up at me. “You were amazing!” she said with undisguised awe as if she’d heard the thoughts crossing my mind. “You truly are bad ass.”
I chuckled, both from amusement and to hide my embarrassment to be thus complimented. I had not heard Janelle use a single swear or slang word so far. And the way she repeatedbad assas if it were two separate words instead of one only hinted at all the ways life in the Vanguard would ‘corrupt’ her innocence.
“Glad you approve,” I said, puffing out my chest.