Chapter 21

Chapter 20

Banic stalked to the huge double doors of the training call, Rage filling every cell in his body. The acrid stench of smoke and death from the alien attack hung heavily in the air, cloying his lungs, but he ignored it. He was completely and utterly focused on a single objective.

Finding Beth.

He didn't make it to the door before a sudden shout came from beyond it. The sentry. "Enemy forces in the corridors!"

He cursed under his breath, claws punching to full length at the ends of his fingers as he headed for the door at a run. How dare they show their faces here?

"I've got an open channel to the northern garrison!" a voice called behind him.

Banic didn't stop, didn't even slow his stride. Instead, he snarled back over his shoulder. "Tell Kraath to get every feral warrior he can find down here, now!"

He didn't wait for a response, slamming into the double doors of the training hall and bursting through them into the space beyond. He didn't slow down, vaulting over the makeshift barriers that had been erected just outside the entrance to the hall.

He landed in a crouch, head up and eyes already scanning the darkness of the corridors ahead. He didn't have to wait long. Tusk-faced aliens marched into view, their features hard and their pasty gray skin adorned with dark tattoo-like marks.

"The ancient enemy…" his Rage voice hissed within, but something else tugged at the back of his memory. Something about those marks…

He had to let it go. He couldn't afford distractions right now. He needed to keep his attention on the enemy in front of him. A hulking figure separated itself from the rest of the group to stand before them. Three red lines were painted across the skin of his shoulder, and he looked at Banic with undisguised arrogance in his deep-set, dark eyes. They were all black, no pupil and no iris, but still glittered with malevolence as the creature looked at Banic.

He shoved to his feet, shoulders squared, and fixed the alien leader with a hard glare. His claws fully extended, he curled his lips back from his teeth in a deliberate threat display.

"Who the draanth are you?" His voice was a low, menacing growl that reverberated through the air of the corridors like the distant threat of ward drums. He let his lips part in a nasty smile. "Do you have any idea what you've done, attacking us here? You just signed your species' death warrant, you bastards."

The alien leader snarled in response, the sound grating and unnatural to Banic's ears. He barked something in a harsh, guttural language that Banic didn't understand. Whatever language they were speaking, neither his translation matrix nor the creature that shared his blood had ever heard it.

"Wanna try that again… in actual words this time rather than grunts?" he taunted, unwilling to admit that he couldn't understand the language. First rule of any altercation—never admit weakness.

"The general knows exactly what he's doing," the creature in front of him snarled. Something seemed odd about the way his throat worked, like different sets of muscles were fighting each other just for the sound. "The general has, in fact, signed your death warrants."

"Who is this general?" Banic demanded, his gaze never wavering from the alien's black eyes. "Doesn't matter. He's a dead male walking. Just like you are."

At an unspoken signal, the alien ranks parted. He tensed, ready for anything, but whatever he had expected, it wasn't for two of the identical aliens to push through the crowd, dragging a small, struggling figure between them.

"Beth!" Her name was torn from his throat, and he took a step forward.

She looked up at the sound of his voice, her dark eyes wide with terror above the dirty rag they'd stuffed in her mouth as a gag. Blood marked the corner of her lips. They'd hurt her. Rage seared through his gut, hotter than a solar flare, and his gaze snapped to the leader.

"Let her go." His voice was deadly soft. It was a warning, if this creature was intelligent enough to take it: "Do it now, and I might grant you a quick death instead of ripping you apart piece by piece slowly."

He grinned, showing more teeth than he'd had his morning. Even the feel of his Rage rearranging his body, pushing more fangs into his mouth, didn't faze him. Not when all he wanted to do was tear into his adversaries and destroy them all for daring to lay a hand on his precious mate. To go back and destroy their species before they'd even evolved for the insult of touching what was his.

The alien leader threw back his head and laughed, the scratchy, unpleasant sound filling the air of the corridor. "You want your female back, you pathetic creature? If you want her, you'll have to earn her. If you win, we'll give her back in exchange for the younglings."

Its lipless, reptilian mouth stretched wide in a parody of a smile to reveal sharp, translucent teeth. Banic frowned, Kal's words from the lab coming back to him. Those teeth and the creature's mouth looked awfully krynassis, but the rest of the body didn't. "If I win, we take her, your younglings, and as many of you as we want as slaves for the new horde."

He snorted. Amused. As if there was any reality where this creature could best him…

"And if I win but refuse to hand over the children?" He bit out through gritted teeth. "What then?"

The alien gave that rasping laugh again, his eyes glinting with cruel amusement. "You still don't understand. Do you? There is no scenario where you keep the younglings, Izaean. There is no scenario where you win more than your female and your pathetic life. Your species ends today, crushed beneath the boots of the new horde."

It made a sharp gesture, and Beth cried out as her captors tightened their grip.

"Now. Fight me… if you dare."

Banic met Beth's terrified gaze for a searing moment. Even though rage—pure, unadulterated fury that had nothing to do with the Rage voice in his head—surged through him, filling every fiber of his being, he let his expression soften in reassurance.

He was going to win this, and he was going to save her.

His expression settled back into hard lines as he looked at the alien leader. The heat of his anger turned ice-cold, and a deadly calm settled over him.

Lifting a hand, he beckoned to his adversary. "Bring it. If you can."

The tusked alien charged him with a roar, claws of his own slashing through the air in a deadly arc. They met… slamming into each other in a whirlwind of lethal claws and pounding fists. His adversary was quicker than Banic expected as they circled each other, their deadly dance moving almost too fast for the eye to follow.

"Let me take control," the Rage whispered in his mind. "Thessse creaturesss are not like the othersss. You do not know what they are capable of."

He shook his head, his teeth bared in a snarl as he dodged a swipe of claws that would have removed his face from his skull.

"I can handle this," he told it. "I don't need your help."

The other Izaeans watched him from the doorway. He saw Sy and Tor tense out of the corner of his eye, ready to spring to his aid. Growling, he motioned them back. This was his battle and he would fight it alone. It was his chance to prove himself worthy of being Beth's protector once and for all.

Risking a glance at her, he saw the fear in her eyes. Not fear of him, but fear for him. That look pierced him to his soul, and determination filled him like fire and steel. He would not fail. He would never fail to protect her.

Lifting his head, he lashed out and hammered a fist directly between the tusked alien's eyes, driving him backward. The creature staggered a few steps but recovered quickly. Too quickly. With a bellow loud enough to crack the stone walls around them, he launched himself forward again.

But Banic was faster as he stepped to the side, his claws raking across the alien's chest. He hissed in pain, black blood welling from the wounds, but it didn't stop. If anything, the injury only seemed to enrage him further, and he whipped around, claws cutting through the air where Banic's neck had been seconds before.

"You'll have to do better than that, Izaean filth," he spat, his black eyes burning with malice.

Banic bared his teeth in a manic grin, a low growl building in his throat. "Oh, believe me… I'm just getting started."

"Fool," the Rage snarled in his head. "Your arrogance will get usss both killed. I told you… thisss isss no ordinary foe."

"If you're not going to help me, shut the draanth up," he snapped back as he dodged a vicious swipe from the alien's claws. Rather than tiring, it seemed to be getting quicker. "I told you. I've got this under control."

They traded blows in a dizzying flurry, claws clanging against armor, fists thudding into flesh. The air rang with the sounds of their battle—grunts of exertion and snarls of pain. But he was slowly being driven back.

The alien was fast, far faster than any enemy he'd faced before. Somehow, he was able to anticipate every move he made and counter them with brutal, ruthless efficiency. And he was strong, each blow landing like a hammer against Banic's rapidly bruising body.

"You're weakening," the Rage hissed, its tone irritated. "Sssoon you will fall, and the female will be lossst. The youngling she carriesss will be lossst."

"Never," Banic growled aloud. "I won't let that happen."

Ducking under another brutal slash, he lunged inside the alien's guard, claws sinking deep into the pasty grey skin of his side. He threw back his head and roared in agony, lashing out with a backhand that sent Banic flying. Hitting the ground hard, he rolled to absorb the impact even as he struggled to suck air back into his lungs.

"Helplesss," the Rage snapped. "Ssspeed, ssstrength... I can give you them. Jussst let me in."

For a moment, Banic wavered. The temptation was so strong, the need to protect Beth overwhelming. But he gritted his teeth, shoving the thing's whispers aside.

"No," he snarled silently. "I need to do this. Alone. Me."

But the tusked alien was on him before he could get his breath back properly. He staggered backward, blocking as best he could, but talons raked across his chest, his arms, his face. Pain exploded through him, hot and blinding, his skin painted with his own blood and Beth's screams echoing in his ears.

With a desperate heave, he surged back to his feet, slashing about himself wildly. His claws found flesh, drawing another howl from his opponent, but it was only a glancing blow. And he didn't have anything in him for another one.

He stepped backward, his limbs heavy, and tilted his head to look out of the eye that wasn't filled with blood. Draanth. He staggered, a wave of dizziness washing over him. His strength was fading, his body battered beyond even a feral's enhanced capacity.

The alien bellowed a war cry and pressed the advantage, hammering at him with relentless blows until he was backed up against the wall of the corridor. His vision blurred, narrowing down to a red-tinged tunnel with four of the attacking aliens dancing in front of him.

Fight, he had to fight. But his left knee buckled and he went down, sliding against the wall.

He wasn't going to win this. The realization tore at his soul. He was losing, and his mate would be lost.

"You cannot win thisss battle alone," the Rage whispered. "But together... together we can crussshhh thisss ssserpent and sssave our mate."

He shook his head, clinging to the last shreds of his self-control, and his enemy attacked again, striking with blinding speed. Pain exploded through him as his ribs cracked under the blow, and he was thrown backward, slamming into one of the makeshift barricades with a sickening crunch.

Blackness swam at the edges of his vision as he struggled to rise, his body screaming in protest. Dimly, he registered the taste of blood on his tongue, the wet rattle in his lungs as he tried to draw breath.

"Pathetic," the alien sneered, stalking forward to loom over him. "To think we wasted so much effort on your miserable species."

The alien raised a taloned foot, preparing to bring it down on Banic's skull.

He was about to die. Despair rose up to choke him as he turned his head, his bloodied vision seeking out the angel who had saved his life. If he fell here, she would be at the mercy of these monsters with no one left to protect her...

"Let me out," the whisper was soft and seductive. "Give yourssself to me, and I will desssstroy them all. I will sssave her."

He shook his head, clinging to the last shreds of control. Already he could feel the Rage filling his muscles, his limbs, the black armoring covering him. But he couldn't give in, couldn't let the Rage take him. If he gave in to it... Gave it control... He'd seen what it did to the others, the mindless savagery, the loss of all reason and restraint. If he surrendered to it, it could save Beth, but he would be gone forever, consumed by the feral beast within.

"Accept me! Accept what you are! Accept we are one! Or ssshe will die, and it will be your fault."

A shudder ran through him as the brutal truth sank in.

He was battered and broken, no match for this alien warrior. Beth's only chance was the power that lurked inside him, the mutation that could reshape his body into a living weapon...

He closed his eyes, tears leaking from beneath the lids to paint lines of fire down the skin of his face. Every instinct screamed at him to resist, to fight until his last breath before succumbing to the monster he'd spent so long holding at bay.

But this was Beth. His mate. His child... Which meant that, in the end, it was no choice at all.

"Save her," he ordered. "Keep her safe, no matter the cost."

The darkness dragged him down, and his last words were a prayer.

"Forgive me."

And then he let go, surrendering to the beast inside as it exploded out of him.