Eventually, it got it.
“What’s it like? I mean, does it communicate? Does it think?” Luca turned up the hot water. Steam clouded the air.
“It’s not a separate thing.”
“You talk about it like it is.”
“I know, but it’s not. It might have been at some point, but once they put it inside you, it becomes a part of you. Just a different part. It doesn’t belong here, Luca. It’s not…” Nox cut off the water and stood there with his hand on the spigot. “It’s not from here.”
“Not from here? You mean like outer space?” Luca turned off his shower.
“Yes, no… I don’t know. It’s impossible to explain, or maybe I just don’t have the knowledge.”
“What makes you think it isn’t from here?”
“Because I can feel it.” Something alive, yet not. Something cognizant, yet it comprehended the world through a distorted lens.
Luca left the stall. Nox stayed until Luca had wrapped a towel around his waist. He brought the other one to Nox.
“Thanks.” He reached for it.
Acrid smoke from the remnants of buildings burning around himchoked the air. Melted flesh dripped from his arms even as the muscle knitted, covering exposed bone. He dragged himself forward. The jagged piece of steel sticking from his chest scraped the ground.
Men shouted as they climbed the collapsed pieces of wall that had once framed a brightly colored market.
The Anubis flowed through Nox, forcing the foreign object from his body. Pain vanished along with fear and conscience. He pushed to his feet, carried by the threads until his bones knitted.
The hostile emerged from a yellowed cloud. He barely had time to look surprised before Nox shoved his fist through the man’s chest.
A barrage of gunfire joined panicked screams. His teammates winked in and out of the gaps between the smoke surging forward. There were only three of them, but the hundreds of lives broke apart so easily in their claws.
The Anubis wanted more, it always wanted more. And there was a bounty of life in the freshly bombed city.
Koda’s hold tightened.
Thousands of miles away, and he might as well have been right beside Nox. His Alpha forbade him from harming anyone other than the soldiers they’d been sent to destroy.
And the Anubis obeyed, not because they would be rewarded for their compliance, because it’s what their Alpha wanted.
His heartbeat. Their heartbeat. His breaths. Their breaths.
From one second to the next, Nox slipped into Phase, carried by a storm of dark energy.
Nox’s adrenalin spiked. Even knowing it was nothing more than a memory bubbling to the present couldn’t prevent the Anubis from reacting to the possibility of a threat. He fell forward, slamming his palms against the wet tile. The air thinned, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t fill his lungs. His blood ignited and fire coursed through his veins.
He had to get away before it went after Luca.
He crawled.
“Nox!” Luca got in his way. “Look at me.”
His eyes watered, his tongue clogged his throat, and he tried to shove Luca aside. He pushed back.
“Damn it, breathe.” Luca glanced over his shoulder like he might leave.
Nox grabbed Luca’s arm. The contact sizzled, sending a shudder of pleasure through the Anubis. If there was nothing to kill, at least it could have this.
The muscles in Nox’s back seized, his spine popped. Black threads rushed over his ribs. His sternum shifted and his knees dislocated with an echoing crack.