Page 58 of Keeping His Mate
Then Axe Hand and Gummy decide they’ve had enough of my confusing insults, and both start kicking me. Hard. Gummy kicks my back as Axe Hand kicks my front. When Axe Hand kicks the spot where Nanay bit me and my entire body goes numb. When that subsides, the pain comes in a wave, crashing down on me to the point where I can’t breathe.
“What is the hold up here!” Bzzsil Chi shouts as he waddles over to me. “Get her up! We’ve got to move!”
Gummy and Axe Hand lift me by the arms just high enough to keep my feet from dragging, and race to catch up with Spiky Hair and the rest of the guards. I can’t feel my legs anymore, and I can barely keep my head up. The fight has left me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into the gag as we reach the tree line. I taste the blood running from my nose, mixed with snot and tears I didn’t realize had started to fall again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” I say to the clan, knowing they can’t hear me, but also knowing it might be my last opportunity to say anything at all to them.
Spiky Hair steps out onto the main path with Gummy and Axe Hand following closely behind as they lift me over a fallen tree. Bzzsil is behind us, surrounded by his army, demonstrating the opposite of how a fearless leader should act.
My vision has turned blurry, but immediately, I notice that the main path is empty. There’s no one here.
Did...did they get away?Please, I silently beg.Please have gotten away.
“Where are they?” Spiky Hair asks as he turns to face me. He now has two heads, and I can’t decide which one is uglier, the left or the right. As I stare at him, he gets in my face, yelling, “Well! Where are they?”
In the next second, a loud bang sounds from somewhere off to the left, and when I look down, Spiky Hair’s head is separated from his now lifeless body.
Then all hell breaks loose.
CHAPTER 26
BRUVIX
When the male with the black, oddly pointed mane falls in a bloody heap with his head rolling into a puddle, I feel at ease. There are still many guards that remain with Bzzsil Chi, but we can defeat them. We can get Elle-noor safely away from these monsters and kill them. Slowly.
There is nothing I have ever wanted more.
I suppose I wish for Elle-noor’s safety slightly more than I long to torture Bzzsil Chi and his henchmen, but it is a very close second. They have hurt my mate. I see the blood dripping from her nose and cheek and the bruises covering all exposed parts of her skin from where I stand on the second level of Nalba’s home.
My claws extend at the sight of her head lolling to the side, and it is clear she is on the verge of losing consciousness. A growl starts low in my throat, and Ahlvo elbows me in the side instantly.
“Do not lose your focus!” he whispers. “Your mate needs you.”
I nod, slowing my breaths, and willing the panicked, rapid beat of my heart to follow. Elle-noor needs me, and I will not let her down.
“You have the boot silencers Nalba made?” Ahlvo asks me.
“I do,” I reply, lifting my foot to show him the thin layer of scratchy fabric that covers the bottom of my boot.
“Good,” he says, showing me his as well. “Where do you need me?”
Right. I am leading this fight. I find it difficult to remember as my battle instincts are so conditioned to look to him or Varrek for guidance. But I have developed this carefully choreographed strategy, and I must remind my crew of what comes next. “Give Kaiva the signal to unleash the douku storm. Then leap down from the back and take her and Aye-vah through the trees back to her house. Do not leave until you see them safely reach the second floor. Then meet Jobaki and the Hexrins by the meal hall and have them begin the sound and memory enchantments.”
“Got it,” Ahlvo replies with a sinister grin.
I narrow my gaze at him. “What?”
He fiddles with one of his braids, twirling it around his claws. “I have missed this.”
I grunt in response. “Let us not celebrate this bloodshed until our body count has risen significantly, yes?”
“Certainly. Certainly,” he replies in an apologetic tone. He lifts the maroon poncho Kay-teh made for me and waves it back and forth over his head. Within two heartbeats, hundreds of douku orbs, from the size of a pebble to the size of the moon fall from the trees above. Bzzsil Chi fires off a few shots of his laser pistol at the soft orbs of light, zapping them into dust before realizing they are not meant to harm.
It gives Ahlvo just enough time to jump off the balcony of Nalba’s second floor, landing silently onto the ground below. I do not understand the science of these boot silencers Nalba created, I just know that the fabric muffles and absorbs any sound made into it. And when placed on the bottom of boots, each step taken is as quiet as a leaf hitting soil.
The douku orbs continue to fall around Bzzsil and his men, bouncing once as they hit the ground, causing them to shout in anger when all they can do is stand there and wait for this distraction to cease. Mietrik and Rahsku take this opportunity to let their arrows fly from the trees, quickly taking out four of Bzzsil Chi’s guards.
The distant flap of wings catches my ear and I smile. Nee-roh has arrived just in time. His draxilio form is too big to fight with us inside the village, but that is fine, because soon, he will destroy Bzzsil Chi’s ship, leaving them with no means of escape.