Chapter 17

Chapter 16

A scream tore from Beth's throat as the lab doors shuddered under a barrage of blows, the reinforced metal buckling and warping like aluminum foil. Terror clawed at her, her heart slamming against the inside of her ribs as she froze in place. Before panic overwhelmed her, though, Banic was there.

He pulled her closer to him again, closer to his large, reassuring presence and she clung like a barnacle, even as he walked her backward toward the cage.

"Boys, into the cage. Now!" he barked, his voice cutting through the chaos like a blade.

Tor's mismatched eyes flashed with defiance, his fists hard balls at his sides.

"No. I can fight!" he protested, his expression set in stubborn lines. "I can help?—"

Banic pushed her gently toward the cage door and then was across the space between him and Tor before she could blink. His hand whipped out to grab the young Izaean by the scruff of his neck. He hauled Tor up and shoved his face into the teen's, his lips peeled back from his fangs in a snarl.

"Listen to me, pup," he growled, his voice low and deadly. "If those bastardss get through me and the otherss, you're the last line of defenssse. The doctor'sss life will be in your hands. Do you undersssstand?"

She caught her breath, watching as something… a moment of silent communication passed between them. The air crackled, and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

She saw Tor's eyes widen, and realization dawned on his face like the cold, hard light of a winter morning.

He nodded, his spine straightening and his shoulders squaring like a weight had settled there, a mantle of responsibility far beyond his years.

"Yes, boss."

Banic grunted in approval and then shoved the boy toward the cage with a gentleness that belied his ferocious demeanor. "Get in there. Protect her with your life, or I'll take it myself."

She stumbled into the cage, the boys behind her, her mind reeling as Banic slammed the door shut and locked it with a resounding clang. He reached through the bars, his big hand catching her around the nape of her neck like he had Tor, but he was infinitely more gentle as he pulled her toward him. His expression was fierce and unflinching.

"It's going to be okay, kelarris," he said, his voice rough. "I won't let anything happen to you. I swear it."

She opened her mouth to respond, to tell him... what? That she believed him? That she trusted him with her life, her heart, her very soul?

But before she could find the words, the lab doors exploded inward in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. She screamed again, the sound cut off as Banic let her go, and the boys pulled her back. With horror she saw in slow motion as the guard who'd been standing sentry went down in a spray of blood, his body torn apart by the hail of weapons fire.

Before she could process that, they were here. The invaders poured through the gap they'd made, already firing into the lab. Equipment exploded, half the lights shattered, and the other half flickered as she got her first look at aliens who weren't related to humanity.

They were like nothing she'd ever seen before, nothing she could even have imagined. Nearly seven feet tall and built like tanks, they looked like the bastard love children of a komodo dragon and a rhino, with a side of who-the-fuck-knew-what. Their grey skin was covered in swirling, tattoo-like markings that seemed to writhe and dance in the flickering light. Vicious, serrated tusks jutted out from their lower jaws, yellowed and sharp, and their eyes... God, their eyes were a dull, lifeless yellow that made her stomach heave with revulsion.

But the worst part, the thing that made her mind stutter and her sanity fray at the edges...was that they were all identical. Every last one of them, from the pattern of their markings to the blank, pitiless expression on their faces. Like clones, or drones, or some nightmarish fusion of the two.

Banic, Zeke, and Sy met them head-on, their bellows of rage and challenge echoing off the walls like thunder. The three men moved with a speed and ferocity that defied belief, their bodies blurring as they launched themselves at the tusked aliens with a savagery that stole her breath.

Even as she watched them fight, though, marveling at their strength, skill, and sheer, unrelenting fury... She could see it wasn't going to be enough. The invaders were too many, too fast, too utterly inhuman in their single-minded purpose. They fought with ruthless, soulless efficiency, moving like the parts of a machine. Or creatures in a hive mind. No sooner did Banic attack one, and another rounded on him from the other side while even more poured through the gap in the doors.

The three Izaeans formed a wall, but it was easy to see Sy and Zeke were struggling. They were fast and brutal fighters, doling out as much, more, punishment than they were taking, and each of them were accumulating a pile of bodies around them, but they couldn't match Banic's sheer feral fury. She caught her breath as one of the tusked aliens slammed a blade up and over, down onto Sy. He caught the edge of it with the huge machete he'd pulled from the sheath along his spine, but he slipped… and went down.

A second later, the alien threw his body across the room with a bellow. Sy slammed into the bars of the cage with a sickening crunch and slid down to the floor like a rag doll.

"Sy! Oh my god, Sy!" she screamed, scrambling forward on her hands and knees to reach him, to try and help him.

"No, Doc! Stay back!" Tor and Kal grabbed her, their hands clamping down on her arms like vises as they dragged her back from the front of the cell.

"No!" she screamed as she fought them, tears streaming down her face. "He's hurt! We have to help him!"

But they didn't let her go, holding her fast as her heart tore in her chest at the sight of Sy's broken, twisted body. His spine was broken, the sickening angles under his tank top evidence of that. She wasn't even sure if he was breathing, and the idea that he'd died without someone with him, without a soft hand on his, tore her up inside.

But then, impossibly… he moved. His foot twitched, and then he groaned. She watched in mute, fascinated horror as he rolled onto his front, up to his knees, and finally to his feet. His body didn't move correctly, like a broken mannequin pulled up by its strings. He rolled his neck, and then his spine straightened with a pop and a crack, the bones realigning themselves as if by magic. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head and roared, his hands splaying out at his sides...

As the sound of fury echoed around the lab's metal walls, his fingers lengthened and sharpened, turning into claws as black as midnight. He looked over his shoulder at them. His eyes, once different colors, were now an eerie, glowing red, and his lips peeled back from fangs that hadn't been there a moment before.

"He's feral," Tor breathed in awe and fear. "His Rage saved his life."

She could only stare in silence, her mind struggling to process everything. She'd seen an Izaean turn feral right before her eyes. She should be making notes, but all she could do was stare.

Sy roared again and threw himself back into the fight, positioning himself at Banic's side where the two of them could take on the bulk of the invaders. They fought like demons, their bodies little more than blurs of motion as they tore into the other aliens with a savagery that made bile rise in her throat.

Laser fire tore up the lab, debris raining against the bars at the front of the cage. Chunks of ruined equipment and shattered glass pinged off them like hail. Huge, deadly sharp, metallic hail. She huddled at the back of the cage, trying to avoid the worst of it. But she whimpered as shards hit her, slicing into the soft skin of her arms.

Tor snarled something, and reached up to tear the bunk from the wall as if it weighed no more than a feather. The metal shrieked in protest as he wrenched it free, and he dragged it over to the back of the cage, creating a small shelter behind it.

"In," he ordered, his expression hard as he pushed her into the gap between the bunk and the wall.

"You too," she said, reaching out to tug them down beside her, desperate to keep them safe, to protect them. Kal shook his head, his eyes hard and flinty in the flickering light.

"No, Doc, we're good here."

"But I'm the adult; I'm supposed to protect you!" she tried to argue with them, suddenly realizing how much bigger they both were, despite their youth. It was easy to forget when they weren't as big or as muscled yet as the adult berserkers, but they were easily taller and more bulked up than most human men she'd seen.

"We're young, but we aren't human, Doc," Kal said, his voice hard with the warrior he would become. "Remember that."

Beth opened her mouth to argue...but the words died in her throat as Banic ripped one of the invaders apart with his bare hands, his claws shredding flesh and bone like paper. He flung the ruined corpse behind him with a roar of triumph, the body hitting the floor with a wet, meaty thud.

Tor edged toward it, his eyes wide with fascination.

"Hey, Kal, look at this," he called over his shoulder, his voice tight with excitement. "Now it's dead, it looks more krynassis. Wouldn't you say?"

She frowned, the word tugging at her memory. Krynassis... That had been one of the other aliens mentioned in Isan's research, but right now she couldn't bring the description to mind. Something about them was important, though. Something about their genetic setup and social structure. What was it?—

Before she could complete the thought, though, the lights went out, plunging the lab into darkness.

?

Beth squeaked in terror, clapping her hands over her ears as the sounds of fighting and the deep grunts of the tusked aliens filled the darkness around her. The cacophony of roars, grunts, and clashing of weapons assaulted her ears, making her head throb. She couldn't see a thing, blind in the darkness, and the lack of visibility only intensified her fear, every noise louder and more menacing.

Hunkering down behind the bunk Tor had torn from the wall, she curled up into a ball, trying to make herself as small as possible. She pressed her hands harder over her ears to try and block out the chaos. Her breath came in short, sharp rasps, and her whole body shook with adrenaline and panic. The cold metal of the bunk bit into her skin where she was pressed against it, but she couldn't move. Didn't dare move. The conviction that, if she moved, everything would come crashing down around them all filled her mind, holding her prisoner.

The loud screech of metal on metal made her eyes snap open. Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes wide. Was that the cage door being ripped off its hinges? The sound was deafening, metal screaming as it was twisted and torn. The sound reverberated through the room and made her teeth rattle.

Her heart leaped into her throat. Had one of those monstrous aliens torn through it? She tried to listen out for footsteps as they approached in the darkness, already reaching for Kal and Tor to pull them down into safety with her. Although… she didn't know how much use the bunk would be if the thing had already torn through the bars of the cage to get to them…

Silence fell, an eerie calm more unnerving than the previous ear-splitting racket. She hardly dared to breathe, straining her eyes to see something… anything in the pitch black.

"I didn't realize humans can't see in the dark." Kal chuckled from somewhere to her left, his voice making her jump as it cut through the silence like a knife.

"That draanthing door," Banic snarled. "Who threw that alien at it? It twisted all the metal and jammed it."

Strong arms wrapped around her, hauling her up and out of her hidey hole with effortless strength. She closed her eyes, weak with relief as she was pulled against a hard, muscular chest. Banic's familiar scent wrapped around her—a heady mix of male skin, leather, and something uniquely him.

He rumbled in the back of his throat and ran his nose along the side of her neck, his cool breath ghosting over her skin as he inhaled deeply as if reassuring himself that she was okay. That she was alive. It was such a visceral and primal reaction, the need to touch and scent after danger. It soothed something deep in her soul.

"Banic," she whispered, her voice shaking. A shudder ran through her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him like a lifeline as she buried her face in his chest, savoring his solid warmth.

"They're adapted differently to us, Kal. Well, to the Lathar," Zeke's voice cut through the darkness, his tone matter-of-fact but tinged with a hint of amusement. "The expedition who became their ancestors were adapted for a planet with constant light, so they didn't need night vision."

She bit back her snort, the flicker of humor breaking through her fear. It explained so much about the differences between humans and the other species in the galaxy. Why couldn't the expedition have been made up of amazons or something instead? Warriors with strength and speed and perfect hair? Instead, humans were smaller and weaker than any other species out there. Her only superpowers were the ability to eat her body weight in chocolate and go through a pack of pink razors quicker than a werewolf getting ready for a hot date.

A sudden flare of light made her blink and squint at the brightness as she lifted her head from Banic's chest. Zeke held up an emergency light, shining it over the lab to reveal the full extent of the destruction. It was trashed, utterly destroyed. Not a single work counter left undented, and every piece of equipment was in pieces on the floor, shards of glass and twisted metal glinting in the light.

Her heart sank as she saw the destroyed console, its screen shattered and sparking. Hours of work, countless experiments and analyses, all gone in the blink of an eye, reduced to nothing more than smoke and ruin.

"My research…" she whispered, feeling ill, but then her gaze fell on the body of the guard by the door.

He lay on his back, lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling. Guilt twisted in her gut like a knife. Here she was worried about her work, which could all be replicated, and someone had died. She didn't even know his name, and now he was dead, protecting her and the lab. She should have at least found out his name.

"All input is stored on a central server," Zeke told her in a low voice, as if he could sense her distress. "And there's an automated backup offsite every four hours. And goddess help these draanthic if they try and storm the northern garrison with Kraath and Raalt there."

Banic set her down on her feet, his hands lingering on her waist as she leaned against him. He didn't let her go, instead snaking an arm around her middle to hold her in place.

"Don't worry about Kraath or Raalt," he said, his voice hard and determined, a steely glint in his crimson eyes. "Worry about us. We need to find out what the hell's going on and who these draanthic are. What they want."

She nodded, taking a deep breath to steady herself. Then she coughed, the acrid smell of smoke and burnt metal scouring her lungs. Banic held her close as she regained her composure.

"Tor said they look like krynassis," she managed finally, looking toward the younger Izaeans. They both looked harder and more focused, older than they had even an hour ago.

Zeke frowned, shaking his head. "No way in hell are they krynassis. I've fought those scaly-ass draanthic too many times not to spot one immediately."

Tor just shrugged. "They don't look it until they're dead. Look at the bodies."

The group turned to focus on the bodies of the aliens all around them, and Zeke whistled a breath out through his teeth. "Well, damn. They do. Like bigger, meaner scale-heads on regoids."

"They smell different," Banic grunted. "So not krynassis, who know better than to attack Parac'Norr anyway. We need to find out who they are and why they've been stupid enough to attack us here."

"Agreed," Zeke said, his yellow eyes glinting in the half light. "We need to secure the area and assess the damage. See if any survived or if any of command are still on site."

Banic took the lead as they prepared to leave the lab, his broad shoulders squared. He tucked Beth firmly in behind him as the group formed up.

"Sy, bring up the rear," he ordered, a note of command in his tone that sent a shiver down her spine. It was easy to see how he'd risen to lead the ferals. Somehow she knew he would have been a command officer anywhere he'd found himself in the galaxy, in whatever culture or organization he found himself in.

She turned and looked at Sy, trying not to wince at the way his eyes glowed red like Banic's… like embers in the darkness. "I'm glad you're alive," she said in a low voice.

His gaze latched on to hers, and a shiver ran down her spine, tapping on every vertebra on the way. He was different, and the way he looked at her was unsettling. The predatory gleam in his eyes hadn't been there before. But it was more than that. Like Banic, it was like he wasn't alone in there… as if something else was looking out through his eyes. Something ancient and hungry.

She swallowed hard and turned toward the front as they stepped out into the corridor. She bit her lip. The air out here felt colder and more oppressive than before, like the walls themselves were closing in on them. She made sure to keep close to Banic as they started down the corridor.

The emergency lights flickered, casting eerie shadows on the walls that seemed to move and writhe with a life of their own. The smell of smoke and blood hung heavily in the air, a cloying, metallic scent that coated the back of her throat and made her stomach churn.

"Stay close," Banic murmured, reaching his hand back to find hers and squeezing in reassurance. His callused palm was warm and rough against her softer skin. "And keep your eyes open. We don't know what else might be out there."

She nodded, feeling like her nerves were stretched like bowstrings as they moved down the corridor, their footsteps echoing in the stillness. Every sound made her jump, and every flicker of movement in the shadows sent a jolt of adrenaline through her veins.

"I don't like this," Zeke muttered, his eyes darting from side to side as they walked, his hand clenched tightly around the handle of the brutal-looking machete most Izaeans seemed to carry. "It's too quiet. Where is everyone?"

"Maybe they're holed up somewhere," Tor suggested, his expression hard and focused. "Waiting for reinforcements or something."

"Or maybe they're dead," Sy said, his voice flat and emotionless.

"We don't know that," Banic growled, shooting Sy a warning look over his shoulder. "And speculating isn't going to do us any good. We need to focus on what we can control, on finding a way out of here and getting help."

Sy locked gazes with him for a long moment, and she felt the tension from Banic's hand in hers. But then the other Izaean looked away with a nod.

They set off again, and Banic pulled her next to him, leaning down until his mouth was right by her ear.

"Sy has a voice like mine," he murmured, his voice low and urgent, a note of concern threading through his words. "It's in control of him at the moment. And I'm not sure if it's friend or foe."