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I watched his reaction to invisible stimuli and got on alert, too. I tamped down on my rising anxiety. “Varus, what is it?”
A loud snap occurred in the woods. I saw movement through the trees some fifty or sixty yards away. The meager daylight remaining only allowed me a glimpse of the sheen on green and yellow scales.
Varus took off running in the reptile’s direction. I called out for him to come back, but he slipped through the trees and disappeared.
I heard him shout once before he fell silent. My blood turned to ice water and slugged through my veins at the sound of the lizard’s screech in response.
What if the lizard got him? He was far from weak compared to human standards, but his strength and capabilities were lowered from blood starvation.
"Varus?" I called out. I slowed down and collected myself. My military training warned me to keep my mouth shut and not draw attention to myself in a crisis. If the lizard were skulking around, I would lead it right to me by making all the noise.
I reached into my belt for the only remaining weapon I had at my disposal, a utility knife. Little good a corkscrew and blade the size of a nail file was going to do against a twenty-foot lizard, but at least I wasn’t going in empty-handed. I had to help Varus in any way I could. Pushing hesitation to the back of my mind, I sprinted in the direction he chased after the lizard.
The woods gave little sound. The lizard frightened the birds and all the wildlife into submission. Hair on the back of my arms stood on end as I ran, following the trail of split limbs and trampled grass. The lizard’s big claw prints left gashes in the damp soil.
I followed the tracks until the air was tinged with the metallic tang of blood. I saw the stains dotting the tree bark and ground. A sick feeling crawled in my gut while thoughts of the worst-case scenario pierced my mind.
Please not Varus.My mind repeated the words in vain.
Sadness bubbled in my chest and choked my airway. Varus survived so much already. It was cruel for this to be it for him.
We, the soldiers of the Wanderstar Fleet, failed him. I failed him.
The stains got bigger as I neared the end of the trampled trail. I raised the knife to my side in preparation to defend myself. What I saw next stole what little breath I had away.
Varus stood atop the fallen carcass of the lizard, wings outstretched to keep him balanced. Dark blood coated his forearms. My fear turned to shock as I saw the jagged gash running from the lizard’s neck to its shoulder. Blood trickled from the jugular to pool on the ground.
"Now do you see what kind of monster I am, Harper?" Varus’s voice was thick with ferocity, like a lion fresh and energized from the hunt.
I lowered the knife, in no danger from the lizard. My heart still pounded at the sight of the blood on Varus. It coated half his face, too. "Are you hurt?"
He didn’t answer my question. His fangs were exposed as he licked the blood from his lips. "Leave. You see how wild I am, how far gone."
I kept looking at the fatal gash on the lizard and then at Varus, imagining the strength and speed he had to use to put power behind that killing blow. "You’re not far gone. You needed blood."
His shoulders rose and fell, glistening with sweat. "I could’ve gone after you."
"But you didn’t." I slid the knife in my pocket and reached, slowly, for the second syringe stored in my utility belt. "You did what you had to do to keep from starving to death."
He swung his gaze toward me. His eyes were wild, drunk with bloodlust from the hunt. For the first time, I saw the feral part of him, the part all Javorians possessed that they strove to keep at bay. "Run, woman."
My fingers found the syringe. I released it from its niche in the container. "I thought I told you I decide what I do."
I lunged forward and jabbed the needle deep into his arm. Varus snarled from the pain. I refused to shrink back. I ignored the slick, warm blood of the lizard that now coated my uniform as I depressed the syringe, driving the serum deep into Varus’s veins. No way was he going to waste a drop this time.
His eyes widened as though he took in my proximity for the first time. Already the serum went to work. His rapid breathing slowed, his fangs began to retract.
I left the needle in his arm as I stepped away. "You’re not so wild yet that I can’t reach you. Get over yourself and let the damn serum do its work."
I felt his eyes on me as I climbed down from the lizard’s carcass. My stomach turned as I navigated around the viscera, but it would take more than nasty reptile guts for me to give up now that I got this far.
"And while you’re at it, cut off a piece of its tail before you return to camp. I’m hungry, too."
***
Iretraced my stepsto our spot where we intended to camp for the night. I searched the immediate area for things to build a fire and create a shelter. Unless I was good at making a thatch mud roof in twenty minutes with my extra set of bootlaces, there was no way I could have it completed before sundown. Still, I did my best and constructed a lean-to large enough for two people or one winged alien. Guess he and I would be taking shifts tonight.
I rubbed my arms as a damp chill set in the air. If it wasn’t foul yellow mist from toxic plants or carnivorous giant lizards roaming the woods, it was the cold hanging over me like a wet blanket. Now I could see why the Quarek renegades chose this dwarf planet for their hideout. No one in their right mind would come here.
