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“Oh, fuck me,” Donna said, her eyes wide at seeing their owner first.
I looked over my shoulder, to find Snout trundling for us, then thought out to Ceph. “Why is he here?”
“So you admit it’s a he?” Ceph thought back, before adding sharp concern. “I told him to stay behind! He did not listen!”
“How did he get past you?” I said—and realized Ceph was too pained to answer. “I’ll keep him safe.”
That didn’t stop him from hurting. “There was chaos. I blame myself.”
“Don’t, Ceph. It’s okay—we’ll toss him out to you with the battery.”
Donna bit her lip and then looked at me. “Can we pet him?”
I didn’t think it was a good idea, remembering what touching the alien had done to me and Cepharius, but we needed to pick him up to get out of the way and go faster. I heaved the battery away from her. “Just grab him. We’re almost there—but don’t freak out if he changes.”
She boosted him up off the ground, making cooing sounds—but Snout stayed an alien for her. “Come on, buster,” she said, trotting forward faster than I could with the battery.
And Snout was the only thing that saved her—because Hargrave and the last five of his men rounded the corner, and I could see all of them focusing in on him.
“Run!” I shouted, turning around at breakneck speed.
chapter 61
ELLE
“Left! And left again!” Donna shouted behind me—and behind her, I heard the echoing shouts of Hargrave telling his men not to shoot—not because they didn’t want to kill us, but because they might accidentally shoot the baby.
I found the last strength in my body to make around the next bend, running through the engine room where we’d just pried this battery off the wall, to the airlock at the back of it, with the pressurized lifeboat attached to the far side. I set the battery down and started spinning open the thick circular door.
“Hurry!” Donna said, putting Snout down to help.
We hauled the door open—the space inside the lifeboat was only as big as an extra-long couch. Together we heaved the battery inside, she got in, and I gave her Snout much more carefully. I crawled in beside them, and was redoubling to spin the door closed behind us, when a steel-toed boot blocked me, and the circular door was yanked back open, revealing Hargrave, and his men.
“I can’t let you leave with that,” he said, before calmly shooting Donna in the face.
Snout squealed, I screamed—and I realized I didn’t hear Ceph.
I knew he was all right, I felt him on our ’qa—but whatever it was he was doing right now, he’d blocked off from me entirely.
“No!” I shouted, as hands reached into the lifeboat to pull me out of it. “Don’t!”
I heard my cries echo out—and then heard an answering cry from somewhere behind me, only it was much more masculine.
chapter 62
CEPHARIUS
My mate and a child were trapped somewhere in a metal tube at the bottom of the sea and I would die before I would let anything happen to them.
I sensed and saw the chaos when they changed direction, realizing they were in danger. I girded myself with all the magic I had currently, took a deep inhale of water, and pushed my entire body through the magical barrier at the dock, until all of me was on the horrible, dry, and less pressured far side. I could taste the chemicals from the explosion and the two-legged blood beneath my tentacles, but I didn’t have time to explore—I needed to save my family.
I surged through the dock room’s open door, following the path I’d just seen Elle take, while swinging one of the amphibious rifles off of my shoulders. I’d seen them in Elle’s memories, and knew they didn’t use bullets, but flechettes—strange little darts that shouldn’t hurt the habitat’s integrity, but would do enough distant damage for me, until I could get there personally. I pulled myself through the engine room, then down the next hall, spotted the soldiers, took aim, and fired.
The first projectile hit the man in his flank, and so I re-aimed the next, going for the more important spine. I hit it, and watched him drop, starting up with another. They tried to hide from me, hiding in the nooks and crannies of the crenulated walls, shooting back—but I was built to withstand the deep. Their bullets were nuisances to me, and nothing more. I pulled out another rifle, operating this one with my tentacles, alternating my attacks between the two guns, pressing them back using both weapons simultaneously, until there was only one left, the one who’d started everything with the accent—and he grabbed Elle, to hold her in front of himself, across her shoulders, with a gun to her temple.
“I’m going to get into this lifeboat with your woman now, and if you try to interfere, I’ll kill her,” he announced, while pulling her back with him.
Elle’s eyes were wide with panic, but her mind was clear. “Shoot him, Cepharius! I trust you!” she thought out at me.
