Danika
The blue creature we had come here to find landed on top of Thomar and shoved him to the ground. I screamed as Varin went down under a huge Hive something—not blue, but Atlan big. Another dropped onto Helion.
Three tackled the Atlan Warlord who bellowed with rage and seemed to transform before my eyes. He got bigger and bigger, his face changing into a giant’s, his hands huge.
A beast. He was turning into his beast.
Holy shit.
I shook, adrenaline making me frantic. I was the only one standing. Alone. Untouched.
“Scary and mean. Scary and mean.” I chanted the words to myself as I lifted the small blaster Varin had made for me and pointed it at one of the three enemies stacked on top of the beast. They were thick and if I missed one, I’d most likely hit another.
I fired. One of the assailants went flying, blasted backward through the air to hit the wall.
The beast wasted no time flinging off a second. The third he grabbed in two huge hands and pulled.
The sound. Of squishing, tearing flesh made me gag and I turned away to find a new target.
Varin and Thomar were both frozen. Unmoving. Their gazes locked with their attackers.
Helion struggled, but he was not high on my list. And he was still moving.
Careful not to risk hitting Varin, I aimed at his attacker and fired.
The Hive shuddered. Blinked. His hold on Varin broken, my mate struck hard, sending the Hive to the floor. Varin pounced and I turned to Thomar.
It was not Thomar’s gaze I found trained on me, waiting for me. It was the Nexus unit’s black eyes. They were deep, an abyss that I tumbled into. I could not move. Could not think. I could only feel his need to connect. His barren, isolated existence. The endless acceptance and connection I would feel as part of him. One with him.
I wanted to belong. To be part of something. To be one.
No. That wasn’t right. I wanted to be with Thomar and Varin. My mates. Not this thing. I didn’t care how lonely he thought he was.
“Stop it. Get out of my head.”
The Nexus unit smiled at me, his teeth a pale shade of icy blue. “At last, sister. You have come.”
“I am not your sister.” I raised the blaster and he raised his hands, palms out, as if he were surrendering and meant no harm. His fighters stopped moving as well. The Atlan had no mercy, ripping his remaining enemies into pieces. Helion blasted the one he’d been fighting with his weapon. Thomar and Varin seemed locked in place, frozen.
Helion shot and killed the enemy Varin had on the floor beneath him. One shot to the head.
Varin didn’t move, his hands locked around the Hive Soldier’s throat.
Why wasn’t he moving?
“You are one of us. Do you not feel them? All of them are yours now.” The Nexus lowered his jaw in a weird, inhuman manner and turned his attention to the infants in small cradle-like containers behind him. Not one was crying. They were quiet. Calm.
I could feel them. Their curious minds. Their hunger or thirst. If one was cool or too warm. Content or sleepy. There were five babies, all girls. Their tiny spirits seemed to latch on to me. As one, their small hands lifted into the air as if reaching for me. Calling to me.
What. The. Hell?
“What have you done to them?”
“Given them life.”
“That’s not what I mean.” I sensed Helion and the beast moving behind me, but the Nexus seemed completely unconcerned, his focus remained on me. “Why can I feel them?”
“You are their mother. Their center. Their Nexus.”