Fingers scraping against the walls, tears sprung to her eyes. It had to be there somewhere. He wasn’t getting in without some kind of entrance. Soft wisps brushed her hands and she shuddered, willing herself not to think of the spiders that made dark basements and garages their homes. She gasped involuntarily as he bellowed from the top of the steps. Her fingernails broke low beneath the quick as she dug them between boards until she found one that was loose enough when nudging it that it shifted, spilling sunlight into the room. That was it. On the other side, Terri could hear a loud snarling as something dug and scratched at it.
“No!”
“Fuck you!” she screamed as she wrenched open the board.
Sunlight spilled in, illuminating the waxen face of her pursuer. He threw his arms up to shield his eyes, but not before she saw the terrible grin pulling unnaturally at his face and the pustules rupturing on his skin. The moment she got the board open, Krono surged in, his massive jaws snapping violently. The whips on his head vibrated and wrapped around his prey, latching tight as his jaws dug in and brought the man to the ground with an inhuman scream.
Unwilling to look back, Terri bolted out into the sunlight, colliding with a huge, muscular form. Black body armor creaked as Veral bent to look down at her, his eyes scanning her with hints of metallic silver in their arctic blue depths. His mandibles expanding fully, he inhaled as he flexed them, and his lips peeled back from his sharp teeth. Spinning around, he plunged into the darkness after Krono. The dorashnal’s snarls fell silent and Veral’s growl echoed with raw ferocity out to where she stood shivering despite the heat of the afternoon sun.
When the man began to scream, Terri shuddered. When he stopped, she sagged against a wall with relief. Veral came out moments later, Krono by his side. Both of them were heavily splashed with blood, but she welcomed the sight. As he stood over her, chest heaving, covered in the blood of her attacker, Terri stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. The alien froze in her embrace, but she pressed her face against his upper abs and whispered into his armor.
“Thank you.”
His body vibrated, a shudder easing down its length, before two solid arms descended around her and he held her until she stopped shaking.
9
Veral held the trembling female in his arms, his teeth bared and his mandibles flaring in a warning to any male who might be watching in the vicinity. He did not pick up on any heat signatures, but he was determined that there be no mistake. He had not picked up the male inside the building until he had moved out of the lower level of the domicile to seek out Terri. The dense stone had blocked his heat signature. Veral had been furious when the male had suddenly turned up on his scan of the building. When the human had dared to threaten her, Veral’s anger turned terrible with his inability to find a way to her.
If it hadn’t been for Krono discovering the opening…
He shook with rage, a low, threatening hiss escaping between his double tongues. Terri started to wiggle with a muttered protest. Veral pulled back just enough to look down at her curiously.
“What is that?” she muttered. “Something wet is pressing against my arm… oh fuck!”
He watched as her face went pale, her gaze fixed on the trophy hanging from his belt. She scooted back as far as his reach would allow, her face contorting into a grimace. Veral’s vibrissae puffed out with pride as he reached down to unfasten the metal trophy catcher from his belt. The hook impaled the severed head of her foe through the base of the skull, erupting through the eye-socket. He gave it a jiggle to make sure it wasn’t coming loose.
He frowned. It was secure. That wasn’t the source of the problem. His nose wrinkled in disgust at the pustules covering the pale skin and irregular skull formations. “Do not be concerned,” he assured her. “I will be certain to have this cleaned and sanitized for you to be a proper trophy in your honor.”
“Trophy?” The words left her mouth in a squeak and her throat worked as she continued to stare at it. Veral narrowed his eyes, attempting to work out the problem. He could see none and imagined that she was overwhelmed at the honor done for her.
“It is a privilege to honor you with the head of your enemy,” he offered. “You showed admirable skill in evading the male.”
“Right.” Her lips trembled into an uncertain smile. “Thank you for the honor. You can just hold onto it for right now, if that’s all right?”
He nodded and reattached the trophy catcher. His eyes tracked her movements as she continued to shake and glance around nervously. She was not going to be able to function like that. Veral was also now aware that the residents of Phoenix were far more dangerous than he gave them credit for if lone males were attacking outside of the threat that the Reapers posed. He disliked the thought. Males running together he could easily detect from a safe distance away, but the fact that a single male could potentially get through without alerting him pricked at him. It was a slim chance, but enough that his focus narrowed on an insistent, pressing need to prowl the perimeter, looking for signs of males coming too close.
“Enough for today,” he said abruptly, nearly surprising himself as much as her with his quick decision. Still, it was a sound idea. “I need to tend to the trophy while it is still fresh, and you are of no use to me while you are on edge.”
He paused and huffed as he took a look around the quiet street, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. He had not anticipated any threat coming from that quarter and had been lax and dismissive.
He would not make the same mistake.
“We will resume tomorrow.”
Terri peered up at him curiously but slowly nodded her head without questioning him. A hot flash of approval shot through him at her submission to his authority. Although Terri was undeniably spirited and possessed a hard will, she surrendered to him in a way that he demanded… and even craved. With a command to Krono, he trailed after her down the street. Though he kept her within his sight, much of his attention was also trained on their surroundings as they made their way down the empty street.
A frustrated growl rattled in his chest as his eyes rested on her once again for longer and more frequently than necessary. He tilted his head in confusion as he watched the delicate female sway in front of him with every step she took. He considered that perhaps he was malfunctioning. He had never concerned himself much with the females of his own kind, much less been inclined to protect a female of another species. Though he honored her as was right, he shouldn’t be so fascinated with the human. He ran his diagnostics check as he continued to follow behind at a reasonable pace. He frowned as all his systems checked back fully operational.
Was he developing an attachment? The idea filled him with a certain amount of horror and an undeniable curiosity. He fisted his hands, his retractable claws sliding out into his palm with a sharp sting of pain. A welcome distraction. He pulled his gaze off her and returned it to their surroundings as they traveled for some distance. As it happened, he had been a little too effective in forcing his attention away from her, and hadn’t noticed that she stopped until he nearly ran into her after a rapid flash of light he caught on the edges of his vision.
Her soft body collided with his and Veral held back a snarl when a strange need whipped through him, far too quickly for him to identify before it was gone. All he knew was that it left him achy and bewildered. His nanos flooded his system in confusion, trying to correct whatever undeterminable error he experienced as he tried to make sense of what had happened.
His awareness shifted to the female in front of him and he became immediately aware of her reason for stopping. He stiffened as thunder rumbled in the distance, accompanied by another flash of lightning. His vibrissae lifted out away from him warily. Storms on Argurumal were treacherous. If Terri’s expression was anything to go by, they weren’t to be treated lightly here either. Krono stood on a pile of rock from a crumpled wall a short distance ahead of him, his vibrissae whipping around him in the air seconds before the dorashnal howled.
Terri shivered and crouched, pulling her pack off her shoulder as another crash of thunder sounded in the distance. The sound was followed by yet another. Her face scrunched up as she peered back at him, digging into her bag. A sharp wind blew through, stinging them with sand, and in the near distance, a wall of sand began to shift into the air at a concerning rate.
“Storm coming,” she stated loudly over the noise as she pulled a cloth hanging loose at her neck over her face. “Good thing we decided to go in. The sandstorms around here are no joke! I don’t think we have much farther to travel.”