Sylas

SYLAS

W ith a fight raging in the center of the training arena, I edge carefully around it with Alex by my side. When I check on her, I see she has a pulsar pistol in her hand, the weapon looking vast against her tiny frame.

"You've not lost your memories again," she says, noticing my gaze. "I brought these with me."

"You have more?" My mind boggles. "Where?"

Alex grins. "I'd love to tell you, but I need you to concentrate."

She fires the pulsar over my shoulder and a guard drops to the arena floor.

"I want to mate you right here, right now," I rasp, pulling her against me.

"And I want you too," she gasps against me. "But maybe not here?"

My limited disappointment is tempered by a guard leaping for us. However a flash of my sword deals with him.

"Perhaps leave them to do what they do best," Alex says, gazing at the mayhem my fellow gladiators are causing.

"I need to get to Medius." I put my hand against my head. It's as if a bubble has burst and my memory is clear for the first time ever. "I remember…"

All the memories, all crowding in at once, all vying for my attention. An entire past forgotten, lost and then recovered. It hurts like a vrexer as every single one of the implants gives way, and I am in the past and the present.

I know everything.

"I know everything!"

"Great, but we need to get out of here!"

Alex gives me a shove, and we race across the arena, slamming our way into a side corridor and then following the winding route which takes us up to the dome.

"What do you remember?" Alex's breath is coming short and fast as we pause on the level below the stands, the muted roars of the crowd muffled into echoes.

"I was alone. Taken from my parents when I was a youngling. Kept with others until I came of age, then taken by a species called the Drahon to a facility where we were forcibly altered, given instructional downloads with a view to sell as any number of things, assassins, spies, hired armies." My past comes into sharp relief. "There were other Gryn, but over time our number diminished until, I believe, there was only me. And one nova-day, I awoke and there was no one left. I took a ship and left the small moon on which we were kept. I was looking for anything which could tell me what the truth was."

"Did you find it?" Alex's eyes are wide and filled with water.

"I found whispers. I found work. I got credits to keep my ship going. I'd heard there was a planet of Gryn out there, and I wanted to find them, to tell them about us, about all of the Gryn who were lost like me, and that was when the Zavaro attacked, because..."

"Medius?"

"Yes, Medius." I shake my head as if it will dislodge the final block. "Something he really doesn't want anyone to know. Which is why he wiped my memory and implanted false ones, ones which would mean I caged myself because I didn't want to face the truth."

"So, where is he?"

"The viewing boxes are considered to be the most secure places in the dome. They have to be, for the customer's safety. He'll be in one of them," I growl.

"So, how do we find out which one?" she asks.

I give her my best smile, all fangs.

Alex folds her arms, and I feel a chill running down my spine. I want to mate her a lot. My cocks are uncomfortable in my pants. Knowing who I am again is one thing, but having a mate appraise me with a cool gaze, the same one she uses when she's inspecting my nest, is another.

My eregri is pure perfection, wrapped up in a dress which I'm dying to remove.

"Easy," I say. "Leave it to me."