Mai was aghast. “Life-force? Since when has human spirit-energy become a commodity? Are you sure she’s okay? That’s half-an-hour we don’t fucking have. Do we need to get one of the twins on guard duty out here?”

  “Monroe and Raf are both tied up in critical posts. Maybe we should give S a gun instead.”

  “You think she can shoot?”

  “I’m sure she will, if the situation gets hairy.” Anyone who had the guts to charter a mercenary ship to Torandor would be able to shoot if the situation got critical. Something had driven S to this point. Something had made her desperate enough to leave the security of the Serakhine with her entire retinue.

  What exactly had she done to necessitate such a dramatic escape? Was someone after her?

  It was probably best if they never found out.

  “Incoming Vradhu.” Mai climbed the ramp and grabbed her Irradium cannon from inside the airlock. “This all part of your plan?”

  “Yep.”

  “Crazy Cal. You know, I trust your judgement because you don’t take shit from overly arrogant males, but you seem to have a developed a soft spot for the dragon-man.” Mai’s voice cracked as a disbelieving laugh escaped her lips. “I still can’t believe this. Part of me feels like we’re all going to wake up any minute now and find out we’ve overdosed on some bad kuka.”

  “We’re not tripping, Mai.” Calexa looked across the hold. Several Vradhu ran toward the Medusa as Ares swept across the battlefield, the floor rippling outwards beneath his feet. Dark power radiated from him, and Calexa got the feeling he was about to unleash hell.

  A pleasant chill ran over her body.

  With his shimmering velvet-scaled skin, otherworldly black wings, and sinuous tail—which was now fully uncoiled—he truly looked like a demon.

  An attractive, totally mesmerizing demon.

  Hers and only hers.

  Stars, when had she become so possessive of him?

  As S strode up the ramp, a Vradhu appeared out of nowhere, holding his war-spear aloft. His flexible armor sported deep gashes and he walked with a slight limp, but his dark eyes were fierce.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going, Vradhu?” Mai crossed her arms, guarding the entrance like a small, obstinate bridge-troll.

  “He isn’t hostile. He saved us.” S strode through the airlock, her lips twisting in worry as she glanced at Zahra’s unconscious form. “Do you have a warming device? She’s freezing.”

  Zahra looked terrible, but Calexa wasn’t worried. Her friend was plenty tough. She’d survive. Still, being drained of vir was an unpleasant experience, and Calexa didn’t want Zahra to freak out when she woke up. With her hair-trigger reflexes, a freaking out Zahra could be dangerous. “Follow me.” She crossed the threshold, placing a hand on Mai’s shoulder. “You’re in charge of boarding. Make sure the Vradhu stay in the cargo hold. I don’t want them going near S’s girls.”

  A loud boom filled her ears, followed by a familiar metallic scraping sound. The Vradhu shouted at each other in their strange, melodic language. Primal whoops and ululations filled the air. The floor started to shake.

  “Your, uh, friend is something else,” Mai muttered, staring in Ares’s direction with look of mild horror on her face.

  “He sure is.” Calexa crushed the terrible emptiness that was growing inside her. She couldn’t allow herself to think the unthinkable.

  He was coming, or she was staying.

  That was all.

  “Where did Zahra stash his other body?” Her legs quivered as she thought about Ares and his Vradhu clone, and it wasn’t just because she was weak from all that vir-draining.

  “His other…” Mai gave her a strange little look and dropped her face into her hand with a sigh. “Oh. Of course. It all makes sense now. That naked purple one is his clone.” Sarcasm sharpened her voice as she shook her head. “He’s in your quarters, of course. Where else would you put an unconscious, naked Vradhu clone?” She eyed the newcomer with suspicion.

  The Vradhu stared at Mai as if she were the strangest thing he’d ever seen, his obsidian-painted features conveying his mistrust.

  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that it’s rude to stare?”

  The alien growled.

  Calexa held up her hand. “Now’s not the time to antagonize them. Just get them into the cargo hold and settle them down.” She turned to the Vradhu and spoke in Naaga. “Don’t growl at my merc like that, Vradhu. We’re your only way off this hell-pit, so get in line and tell your clan-brothers to behave themselves. If I hear of any crap going on in the hold, I’ll kick you out into space myself.”

  The surly Vradhu nodded, muttering something under his breath in his native tongue.

  “Grumpy bastard, isn’t he?” Knowing the Vradhu couldn’t understand, Mai spoke in Earthian, injecting a generous amount of snark into her voice.

  “I think it’s a cultural thing,” Calexa whispered. “I don’t think they’ve encountered many aliens before, and their, uh, diplomatic skills are lacking.”

  The Hythra shook. Calexa glanced over her shoulder and saw Ares laying waste to a trio of Corrupted. Ruthless, savage, and utterly alien, he spun ilverium into an extension of his will. How fucking terrifying. His glowing yellow eyes grabbed her, and the pit of Calexa’s stomach dropped out.

  He looked like a man who’d crossed the point of no return.

  A man who was prepared to die.

  Stubborn Vradhu. She had to do something. “Hey, Mai, have we got any of those disgusting ultra-dense energy bars left?”

  “This is a strange time to suddenly feel hungry, Cal.”

  If Ares’s theory was right, she needed to eat something to regain her energy. What she’d really like right now was a hot shower and a long, dreamless sleep…

  Keep dreaming.

  Energy bars it was. She’d let Zahra sleep it off, but Calexa didn’t have that luxury.

  More and more Vradhu arrived, staggering toward the Medusa. Some were badly wounded, leaving trails of crimson blood behind them.

  “We need to call the medi-bot,” Mai gasped. “Look at these guys. I’m surprised they’re still standing.”

  Calexa thought hard and fast. She was too weak to take over from S and carry Zahra to safety. Raphael was stuck in the bridge, getting the ship’s systems ready for departure. The faulty powerbanks demanded Monroe’s full attention.

  They were thin on the ground out here.

  She turned to S. “Any of your girls know their way around a medi-kit?”

  “Possibly.” S wouldn’t commit to anything.

  “Get a couple of them down here, preferably girls who won’t freak out at the sight of a bleeding Vradhu. Don’t worry. Mai will keep the males in line.”

  S nodded. “I’ll put Zahra in a safe place and get a couple of the girls to help, but if any of the aliens lay a hand on them…”

  Was that a threat in S’s green eyes?

  “Listen up, Vradhu,” Calexa yelled in Naaga, becoming the target of several hostile glares. “Some humans are coming down to help treat your injuries. They want to help you, and I expect you to treat them with respect. Anyone who even looks at my girls in the wrong way will deal with Mai.”

  To illustrate Calexa’s point, Mai smacked Beauty’s hollow body.

  The Vradhu growled. Calexa shot Mai a meaningful look. “You got this?”

  “Grumpy assholes, language barrier, wounded warriors, outnumbered. Yep, I got this.”

  The noise from outside died, leaving an eerie silence in its wake, like the calm before a storm. She couldn’t see Ares anymore.

  Her knees turned to jelly and dread stole her breath away. A feeling of impending doom crashed down upon her.

  Hurry.

  Once again, life was slipping through her grasp, and if she hesitated, she could lose it all in the blink of an eye.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ares ran toward the human ship, catching up with Maki, who brought up the rear. “You are slow, brother,” he said by way of greeting.

  “It is but a scratch,” Maki wheezed, pressing his hand against his chest. It came away bloodied. “Their claws can cut through kratok-hide, you know, not that I’m even wearing any.” His venom-tipped tail sliced the air behind him. Maki obviously no longer had the energy to keep it in its resting position.

  “Need help?” Ares, on the other hand, felt better than he had since he’d set foot on this cursed destroyer. It was Calexa’s vir. It sustained him, made him powerful. It occurred to him that if he were to remain Drakhin, he would be dependent on her for the rest of his life.

  “Save your energy,” Maki snapped. “I’ve suffered worse. There’s plenty of distance left in these legs, Drakhin.”

  “Yes.” Ares didn’t bristle at the name. He’d moved beyond that. The longer he remained in this new scaly skin, the more comfortable he grew. As Vradhu, he’d learned to abhor anything associated with the Drakhin, but now that he was one of them, it was pointless to wallow in self-loathing, especially when he felt this good.

  With Calexa’s intoxicating vir coursing through his veins, he was invincible. He’d just taken out an entire horde of Corrupted with nothing but his will, bending the ilverium into a deadly weapon.

  More of the cursed things were heading in their direction, but at least Ares had bought them some time. He felt everything now; it was as if the entire ship had become an extension of his body.

  Naaga were moving around. Corrupted were being purged from the walls and the floors. I don’t need them anymore. I have you now. The Hythra’s endless hunger for a suitable commander had been sated, but the sheer amount of information being fed into Ares’s mind threatened to smash his self-control into a million shards of madness.

  I need to escape.

  I need…

  Where was Calexa? The small, angry human with the big weapon guarded the entrance to their craft, but his makivari was nowhere to be seen.

  He wanted to go to her, to take her into his arms and consume her, starting with a deep, passionate kiss, but that was forbidden.

  “This is where we part,” he told Maki as the Lord of the Two Clans stepped onto the boarding ramp.

  “Aren’t you coming with us?”

  “You know the Hythra won’t let me go. Even before, when my feet left the floor; when I boarded their ship, I instantly became weak, and she pulled me back.”

  “And what of your copy?”

  “In theory, if I die, my consciousness will enter the temundra-made body—if I am close enough.”

  “And how exactly does one kill an ilverium-bonded Drakhin?”

  “Don’t know,” Ares shrugged. “Perhaps, just like with the Corrupted, decapitation is necessary.”

  Maki paused, leaning against the entrance-frame. The small human with the big weapon babbled in her odd language, pointing inside the ship.

  Go inside, is what she seemed to be trying to say.

  “Calexa?” Ares asked hopefully.

  “Calexa blahblahblahblah,” the fierce one said. Most of what came out of her mouth was nothing more than an incomprehensible jumble of sounds.

  Moments later, Calexa appeared in the doorway. A low rumble of appreciation escaped from deep within his throat as he caught sight of her lithe form. The color had returned to her cheeks, and an intoxicating golden glow surrounded her.

  Although they weren’t touching, he could feel it; he swore he absorbed some of it just by being in her vicinity.

  Dangerous.

  He’d just returned from killing Naaga, and now he was aroused.

  “What are we going to do now, Ares?” A determined look entered her eyes. “I have your other body in my quarters. He’s safe in my bed.”

  His cock twitched. “Did you say that just to torture me?”

  “I…” She glanced down at her feet. Her face turned the most delicious shade of pink.

  There it was again, that hesitation. For some reason, the idea of intimacy made his makivari unsure of herself.

  Was it his Drakhin form? Perhaps his appearance, so different to her own, made her hesitate?

  No, it wasn’t that.

  She proudly wore the scars of her survival and locked away her pain, but she couldn’t hide it from him.

  Cursed Aethra, how he wanted to be there for her.

  “You’re the one who’s torturing me,” she said quietly.

  Maki glanced at Ares, raising his eyebrows in surprise, but he wisely kept silent. Ares shot him an irritated glare. “Go inside,” he mouthed in Vradhu.

  Leaning heavily on his war spear, Maki shrugged a bloody shoulder. As he turned, he encountered the small human with the big gun. He raised one hand, palm outwards, to show that he meant no harm.

  “Blahblahblah,” she said, and ushered him into the ship.

  That left only Ares and Calexa standing face-to-face, with him going half-mad at the sight and feel of her vir.

  Was this what it would always be like if he remained as Drakhin? Would he always tread a fine line between reckless temptation and rigid self-control?

  He was ruined, utterly ruined. All he could think of was taking her into his arms and claiming her.

  She was his fantasy made flesh. A warrior. A leader. A woman. Unlike the discerning females of his tribe, he did not need to worry about hurting her; she was unrelentingly tough.

  “Calexa.” His voice cracked as he rolled her exotic name along his tongue. “I am going to go now. I will open the way to the outside, and you will leave this place and never look back. Fly to Khira. Maki and his men will take care of you. He is honorable, and he wields influence within the Two Clans. Besides, they will owe you a blood-debt.”

  “What about you? What are you going to do?”

  He pointed toward the center of the hold, where he’d turned the metal floor into a deadly sea. Now it was silent and cold, its metallic surface glistening under the bright lights.

  Bodies of Naaga, both Corrupted and living, were scattered across the floor, along with Vradhu blood. Although all was still, he felt the beating, pulsating heart of the ship. He felt the footsteps of hundreds, no, thousands of Naaga as they approached.

  “I can’t leave you, Ares.” Something appeared in her hands—a magrel weapon, one of those blast-shooters.

  “This isn’t an enemy we can just shoot or cut down. I am the enemy, Calexa.”

  Boom. Boom. Boom.

  They were coming.

  Tear them apart, Hunter. You must return us to our original state. The presence of these slaveborn creatures within my walls is an insult.

  He was beginning to suspect that the Hythra was insane.

  Shut up. He pushed her incessant ramblings to the back of his mind and savored the delicious appearance of his human, perhaps for the very last time. “I’m going to go now, Calexa. I am going to walk across to the center of the hold, where you conveniently left my krivera inside the body of a foolish Naaga. I am going to close my eyes and communicate with the ship. I will command her to open the entrance, and then you will go.”

  “And then…?”

  “If I wake up beside you inside my new body, all will be well. If I don’t, it means I will be stuck here, still bonded to the Hythra.”

  “I’ll come back for you.”

  “No. You will not.” There was no way he was going to doom her to a cursed existence on this floating death-trap, and he couldn’t risk keeping her close when this terrible hunger gnawed at his insides and drove him to near-madness.

  He was magrel. Infiltrated with Drakhin technology and transformed from the inside out, he’d become the embodiment of everything the Vradhu despised.

  But worst of all, he could kill Calexa.

  No; if he couldn’t have her, he was taking down this entire fucking ship and everyone on it.

  She opened her mouth to argue, but he silenced her with his eyes.

  “Stubborn Vradhu,” she whispered. Before he could react, she stepped forward, surrounding him with her heady essence. The golden energy seemed to leap out of her body and flow into him.

  “Wha—”

  Calexa darted forward, grabbed his face with both hands and planted a searing kiss on his lips.

  No!

  Yes!

  Her brilliant vir flooded him with ecstasy, rendering him helpless. He couldn’t break away. Primal lust shot through him and he slid his tail around her waist, drawing her close so that his erection pressed against her.

  Her kiss became frantic, urgent, and all-consuming, as if it were the last kiss she would ever enjoy in her life. Her hand raked along his braided hair. Her supple body molded to his, her curves fitting perfectly against his torso.

  She was made for him, and he existed for her. He knew it now, without a shadow of a doubt.

  Gasping, she broke away, dropping to her knees.

  Weakened. Because of him.

  “Calexa,” he rasped, his hoarse voice filled with desire as her power surged through his veins. The chasm of his need gaped wide, and he lifted her toward him with his powerful tail, reaching for her neck…

  To take every last drop of her vir until he was sated. To fuck her until he was utterly spent.

  She didn’t resist. She was weak, his for the taking. A golden haze clouded his vision. His pulse thundered in his ears. He saw nothing but her aura, and knew nothing but his desire for her.

  You’re mine.

  He inhaled her scent. It drove him wild. Nothing could come between them now. Nothing. She didn’t resist. She was soft and pliant and willing…

  And cold.

  Growing colder with each and every breath. If he was the inferno, then she was a slow-moving glacier.

  “No!” He let go, and she slid out of his grasp.

  “My choice.” She smiled as she dropped to the floor, putting out a hand to break her fall. Her chest heaved up-and-down, and she trembled slightly. “Don’t beat yourself up about the vir thing. I wanted you. I took.”

  Fuck. He couldn’t even go to her; couldn’t wrap his arms around her and cradle her and nurture her the way she deserved to be cared for.

  All he could do was hurt her, again and again.

  “You are a magnificent woman. I only wish we could have met under different circumstances.”