Chapter 7

Chapter 6

The piercing shriek of alarms violently shattered the calm of the lab, the discordant sound slicing through the air like a buzzsaw. The thunder of booted feet in the hallway outside created a chaotic symphony that raised all the hairs on the back of his neck.

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

Banic shot to his feet and was at the bars of the cage in a heartbeat. His enhanced senses strained, pushing out beyond the lab and searching for any hint of danger to Beth. His gaze latched on to her on the other side of the room, her face frozen in fear at the alarms.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking around as Zeke exited one of the smaller labs. "Is this some kind of fire drill?"

Zeke shook his head, his expression tight. "No, we have automated systems for that."

Banic growled and yanked on the cage bars again. Something was going on, and he had to protect her.

Isan stormed into the lab, his face thunderous. Zeke was at his side in a heartbeat, his large body tight and ready to fight.

"What's going on, boss?"

Isan shook his head, his jaw clenched tightly. "We just received word that a transport ship carrying a dozen new Izaeans was attacked."

Zeke's eyes widened. "Attacked? By who?"

"Unknown at this point," Isan said grimly. "But whoever they are, they knew exactly what they were doing. The ship was disabled and boarded. The crew..." He gritted his teeth, obviously fighting back Rage. "The crew was slaughtered. Every last one of them."

"Draanth," Zeke breathed. "And the young?"

Isan's lips thinned. "Taken. All of them."

"Taken?" Banic growled. "By who? Why?"

No one targeted Izaean vessels unless they had a death wish. And that was the warships. It went double for transports bringing newly turned Izaeans to Parac'Norr. The younglings on board would be feral, blood-mad, and uncontrolled.

Isan shrugged. "My father is mobilizing the strike teams to go after them, see if we can pick up the trail."

Zeke nodded, his expression grim. "What do you need me to do?"

Isan hesitated, his eyes flicking to Banic for a moment. "I need you to operate as the medic for the other team. They'll need your skills in case things go south."

Zeke nodded but then turned toward Beth. "But what about..."

Isan shook his head. "He can't get out of the cage. She'll be perfectly safe here with him."

Determination filled Banic. Beth would be perfectly safe here with him. Isan didn't know just how right he was about that.

Beth was watching him, her eyes dark with worry and fear. Not of him, for once, but for the situation unfolding around them. She turned to Isan, her voice tight with concern.

"Is this anything to do with the missing transport from a few days ago? The one that disappeared without a trace?"

Isan's jaw tightened, a muscle jumping in the corner. "It's possible. The timing is too much of a coincidence for us to ignore."

"Why would anyone target your ships, though?" Beth asked, her brow furrowed. "I thought you Izaean were like… the baddest of the bad? It doesn't make sense."

"No, it doesn't," Isan agreed. "Which means something else is going on here—something we're not seeing."

Zeke shifted restlessly. "We need to move fast. Every second we waste, those draanthic get further away with the younglings."

Isan's eyes were hard and determined as he gave a curt nod. "Agreed. The strike teams will be ready to go within the hour, so grab your kit."

He turned to Beth, his expression softening slightly. "Dr. Godwin. I need you to stay here where it's safe."

Beth opened her mouth to protest, but Isan held up a hand, cutting her off. "Please, Doctor. We don't know what we're dealing with, and I won't risk you getting caught in the crossfire. My father has already secured his mate and the other human women in the garrison on the northern continent. I'm going to leave a shuttle keyed to your biosignature ready on the landing pads. If you have any trouble, the course for the northern garrison is preset. All you need to do is tell it to take you there."

She paused and looked at Banic. He stared back, trying to tell her with his eyes what he couldn't say out loud. That he'd give his life to protect her. That he'd kill anyone who tried to hurt her. That if anything happened, he'd get her to the northern garrison.

Something in his expression must have gotten through because she swallowed hard and nodded, her shoulders slumping slightly. "Okay. I'll stay here. But promise me you'll be careful. Both of you."

Zeke reached out and squeezed her shoulder, which dragged a warning snarl from the back of Banic's throat. How dare he touch Beth like he had a right to?

"We'll be back before you know it," Zeke told her. "Just keep working on those samples. We need to know what we're dealing with here as well."

Beth nodded, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "I will. I'll figure it out. Just... just come back safely. Okay?"

Isan and Zeke both agreed, their faces set in hard lines. Then they were gone, striding out of the lab. Banic watched Beth watch them go, studying every micro-expression on her face and the set of her body. Did she find Zeke attractive? Did she prefer that soft yellow-eyed piece of trall to him?

"Kill him and claim the feeeeeeemale," the dark voice whispered sibilantly in the back of his mind. He ignored it, his chin lifting as Beth turned back to her workbench and then hissed in irritation.

"What's wrong?" he asked, watching as she distractedly shoved her hand through her hair.

She looked tired, and everything in him needed to soothe that, to ease her, and protect her. It was odd how quickly she'd become the center of his focus.

She turned to him, worrying at her lower lip with her little blunt teeth. "I have to get another sample," she admitted. "I wasn't paying attention and managed to corrupt the last one."

He nodded, but he couldn't trust himself to speak. Her scent was all fear and nerves. She was scared to be alone with him. After Jaldon, he could understand that. Even his reasons didn't negate the fact that he had ripped the male apart with his bare hands.

"I won't hurt you," he rumbled in a low voice. "I promise, Beth."

She hesitated, searching his face. He let her look, hoping she saw the sincerity and his soul-deep need to keep her safe.

"Okay," she said at last, squaring her slender shoulders. "But you have to wear the cuffs."

"Of course." He nodded as she approached the cage again. "You need to be safe."

More than that, she needed to feel safe. With him. He moved to the back of the cage and sat on the bunk again, sliding his wrists into the cuffs on the wall.

"Just hit the button, kelarris," he said. "You'll be fine. Promise."

She nodded, her breathing short as she did as he ordered. A second later the cuffs snapped around his wrists. He pulled on them to show her they were secure.

"Okay… you can come in now."

Her eyes were wide on his as the door swung open, and she stepped through. He took a deep breath, the scent of her filling his lungs until there was nothing else. Nothing but her.

"I just need to retake… this one… here." She indicated the black marks on his chest and ribs before leaning in close to take the sample, her lips pursed in concentration.

He couldn't stop himself. Surging forward, he captured her lips in a desperate, searing kiss that branded him to his very soul. She started in surprise, and then for one perfect moment, her lips softened beneath his.

But then she gasped, jerking away from him. Sample bowl in her hand, she fled the cage like the hordes of hell were on her heels.

He groaned, slamming his head back against the metal of the wall as the door clanked shut behind her and the cuffs released.

Draanth it all to hell.

He'd pushed too far, too fast. He'd scared her. He knew that. But he couldn't bring himself to regret it, not when he could still taste her on his lips, still feel the heat of her against his body. Branded into his skin.

She wanted him too. He'd felt it in the way she'd gasped and the racing of her heart. Under the fear and the wariness, something was there. A tiny flicker of interest… of need that he could work on. He just had to be careful, be patient and show her that he could be worthy of her.

He leaned against the wall and watched her work. Watched the fierce intelligence that lit her eyes as she lost herself in her research. On him. On what he was, and what the mutations had done to him.

Watching her was the closest thing to contentment he'd felt in many years.

And when she turned to him, her face glowing with wonder, with a hope so fragile and impossible, something inside him cracked open. Something he'd locked away and buried deep beneath the pain, the anger, and the soul-destroying loneliness of the years. Hope.

"You're a chimera," she said, her eyes wide with wonder. You have two sets of DNA fused together in a way I've never seen before—the Izaean and something else. Something… new."

?

Beth tossed and turned, the thin sheets tangling around her legs as she fought for sleep that wouldn't come. Every time she closed her eyes, the memory of Banic's kiss seared across her mind, branding her with its heat and intensity.

She still felt his kiss, his rough cheek against her skin, and the scent of him—wild and untamed like the forests of Parac'Norr's northern continent. She'd never been, but the view as they'd descended from the ship had spoken to her on a level she didn't understand.

She shouldn't have allowed it. Shouldn't even have been in the cage alone with him. The kiss had been nothing more than a moment of madness… a split second of insanity that had shattered the careful boundaries she'd erected between them. Between scientist and subject, human and alien, woman and?—

With a groan of frustration, she threw off the covers and stumbled to her feet. She wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight. Not with her brain going like a hamster on a wheel and her heart pounding like a jackhammer. She might as well head to the lab early and get a jump on the day's work. Anything to keep her mind off Banic and the way he made her feel.

She was just stepping out of the tiny bathroom, still toweling her hair dry, when a knock sounded at the door. She frowned. Who would be knocking at her door in the middle of the night?

When she opened the door Zeke stood on the other side, filling the doorway with his big body. He looked done in. His yellow eyes were bloodshot and his skin was paler than normal.

"Zeke." She blinked in surprise. "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?"

He nodded, his jaw tight. "We just returned. I wanted to let you know we made it back safely."

Relief washed through her, quickly followed by a stab of guilt. She'd been so wrapped up in her own drama she'd almost forgotten about the mission to rescue the missing Izaean kids.

"Did you find them?" she asked, hope warring with dread at the look on his face. That was not a look that said good things. Not at all.

The big Izaean shook his head, his expression grim. "Not yet. We have some leads, but..." He trailed off and scrubbed at his shaven head with one big hand. When he looked back at her, his eyes were haunted. "The youngest is only four years old, Doc. Four draanthing years old."

"Four?" She gasped, her heart aching for the unknown child as a wave of sorrow and anger crashed over her. Tor and Kal came to mind—the two teenagers, so young and full of life, who'd come up to her in the mess hall. The idea of a child of four… so young and innocent, being taken from their home and family to be brought here.

"Is that normal?" she asked in a tight voice that masked her anger. Almost. "For the mutation to express in a child so young?"

Zeke sighed, leaning against the doorframe. "Sometimes, yeah. And those are usually the ones who go feral. The ones we can't save."

The words were a punch to the gut, stealing the air from her lungs. Had Banic been one of those lost children, twisted by a genetic quirk into something primal and dangerous? Something feared and reviled by his own people?

"You should get some rest, Zeke," she said, focusing on him again. "You look dead on your feet."

He just shook his head, a wry smile tugging at his lips. "No rest for the wicked, Doc. Didn't you know that? We've got work to do in the lab."

She chuckled. "Well, since we're both up then, we may as well."

She fell into step beside him as they made their way down the corridor.

"I made a breakthrough while you were gone," she said, excitement thrumming through her veins. "With Banic's DNA. He's showing evidence of chimerism. He has two distinct genetic profiles fused together in a way I've never seen before."

Zeke's brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing. "Chimerism? What does that mean?"

She blinked. She hadn't even considered that the Izaean wouldn't know what a chimera was.

"Err… it's a being or an organism with more than one genotype," she explained quickly. "On Earth it happens in the animal and plant world a lot, but it's less common in humans. Not unknown though. You don't have chimerism?"

Zeke shook his head.

"Not that I know of, but I was educated here, and the educational programs the empire allows us to have…" He shrugged. "It might be a known thing at the healer's hall. You'd have to ask Isan. Why? Is it important?"

"I'm not entirely sure yet," she admitted. "It could be. It might well be the key to understanding the feral mutations, maybe even to finding a way to control or even reverse the process."

As they rounded a corner, a group of young Izaeans scuttled out of their path, the youngsters' eyes wide with fear. She frowned.

"What was that about?" she asked, glancing up at Zeke.

He sighed, his expression tight. "There's a rumor going around. That you're Banic's female. The little ones... they're terrified he'll kill them if they get too close to you."

"Wait… what?" She stumbled, her heart slamming against her ribcage. Banic's female? The thought sent a hot, shivery feeling sliding down her spine. She wasn't anyone's, least of all a man she hardly knew. A man whose kisses set her body on fire…

She shook her head, pushing the thought away. She couldn't afford to dwell on her own tangled emotions, not when she had so much work to do.

"I am most definitely not Banic's," she announced as they reached the lab, the sleek metal doors sliding open with a hiss.

The first thing she saw when she walked into the lab was Banic, standing in the center of the cage at the back of the room like a dark sentinel. He watched the door, his red eyes burning with a fire that sucked the air from her lungs. She knew without asking that he'd been standing there for hours…

Waiting for her.

The thought made her shiver, and a rush of heat pooled low in her belly. But she pushed it away and turned to Zeke.

"What do you know about the feral voices?" she asked, not mentioning anything about the telepathy for now. "The ones they hear in their heads?"

Zeke's expression darkened.

"It's a sign of the blood madness taking over," he said, his voice low and grim. "When we start hearing voices, it means we're about to lose control completely and turn feral."

"Hmmmm, I'm not so sure," she said, moving to the chiller cabinet where Jaldon's remains were stored.

Rather than accessing the drawer, she used the console panel on the front to run scans on the contents inside, this time using an expanded range.

Her breath caught in her throat as the results flashed across the screen. There, in the twisted strands of Jaldon's DNA, was the same genetic marker she'd found in Banic. The same anomaly, the same strange fusion of two distinct profiles.

"It's in both of them," she breathed, excitement rushing through her veins. "The same genetic code, the same evidence of chimerism. It's not just Banic, Zeke. What if it's in all the ferals?"

Zeke's eyes widened as he looked over the results, his expression stunned. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know yet," she admitted. "But it's a start to understanding what's happening to them."

She turned to him, her mind racing. "Okay, I'm going to need any reports you have on interactions with ferals. Anything that might shed light on this. And more samples of feral DNA. Oh, and I'll need Izaean DNA for comparison…"

She frowned. "Do you have any intake results? So like when an Izaean gets here, do you test them? If we could get samples from an Izaean before and after they go feral, we could see if there are any differences…"

Zeke was already moving, logging onto a nearby console. "I have the reports from Kraath, the northern garrison commander. He's had the most contact with ferals outside of Isan."

She leaned over his shoulder, scanning the files with eager eyes. But one in particular caught her attention, the human name leaping out at her.

"What's this?" she asked, tapping the file name on the screen. "Maeve's report?"

"That's Raalt's mate," Zeke said. "She said she spoke to his ‘darkness'. After he attacked Banic and nearly killed him, and she was trying to bring him back from the Blood Rage."

A chill raced down Beth's spine. Raalt's darkness...

If Maeve had spoken to it, had communicated with it directly... "Oh my god," she breathed. "I need to talk to her. I need to know what she learned, what she experienced."

Because if there was even a chance that the darkness was something more than just madness, more than a twisted manifestation of the feral mutations… It had to be the same presence she'd sensed lurking within Banic—the one he said spoke to him, and the one she'd seen looking out at her from behind his eyes. If so, it could change everything. It could be the key to unlocking the secrets of the mutation and curing Blood Rage.

And maybe, just maybe...

It could be the key to saving Banic as well.