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The winged Javorian whipped around with his arms outspread. Renegades and soldiers alike went flying as he launched them into the air like a child’s wooden toy blocks.
Wind stirred from the prisoner’s wings and batted against me. I had to plant my feet in the damp ground to keep from falling back. In the space of a breath, I lost track of my surroundings as I viewed his face.
It was him. He stood in the worn, ragged marsh field, intimidating and magnificent at the same time. How...? How was this the male with the fierce eyes who lived in my dreams and haunted my waking moments?
His face was the color of dark grey stone. His expression was just as hard as his gaze that panned the area. A thick metal band with flashing green light was clamped around his neck. He seized the chain and pulled the band off as though it were a cheap dollar store necklace. I couldn’t move as he opened his mouth to reveal white fangs.
Goosebumps broke all over my arms as his war cry thundered through the camp. He curled his fists and lowered his heavy, muscled form into a fighting stance. His skin changed from grey to red.
"Sergeant Jordan," Major Zucu shouted from somewhere behind me. "The serum."
The ground around Varus erupted into flames. I covered my face against the heat. I couldn’t fail my squad. All the research Major Zucu and I put into the experimental serum came to this moment. I lifted the syringe injection device.
Varus saw the flash of gleaming silver in my hands. I froze in the moment his eyes met mine.
I pressed the release button. The injection device jumped in my hands from the force of the firing mechanism.
Varus growled and clutched the side of his neck. The syringe stuck out right between his fingers.
Success.
He yanked the syringe out and flung it to the ground. His large foot came down on it, shattering glass and smearing residual blue liquid serum into the dirt.
"No." I shouted above the fighting as I watched the mud absorb precious medicine.
A Quarek renegade he fought before dove to the ground and seized the metal collar. Tusks exposed, he sprang onto Varus and gored him in the shoulder. With his teeth implanted in skin and muscle, he slammed the collar on Varus’s neck. I heard the metal pieces come together in a magnetic clank. The light went from red to green.
The winged Javorian peeled the Quarek off him and flung him into the flames. I started running while the Quarek’s agonizing shrieks filled the space of the camp.
Varus leapt into the air. His shadow passed over me, blanketing the ground with the span of his wings. I tried to get out from beneath him, but he flew faster than I could run. He landed inches in front of me.
I dug my heel into the ground in order to pivot away. His big hand closed over my forearm before I could go anywhere.
A thin trail of deep red blood trickled from beneath his metal collar where I hit my mark with the injection. "You’ll answer for this."
His deep-voiced, gravelly promise chilled my blood while heat from his hand penetrated the sleeve of my uniform. I reached for my laser rifle with my other hand. Varus’s eyes held fire as he lifted the weapon from its harness and tossed it into the flames.
The laser cartridge from the rifle exploded in a flash of light. I ducked, dangling from Varus’s hand while he kept hold of me.
"Let go." I kicked and struggled against his solid grip. The soles of my boots scraped against his legs. He was too big to be taken off balance with a foot sweep. His skin may as well have been Kevlar. My steel-toe boots tore his pants but didn’t so much as produce a scratch on his shins.
I turned my hand in a downward slashing motion to wrench it free of his hold. It worked. However, the force of my momentum made my mask strap snap. It fell loose around my head and dropped to the ground. I gasped as the caustic planetary atmosphere irritated my nose and throat.
"Enough." Varus clamped his arm around my waist before I could grab my mask. His massive wings unfolded to form a barrier between me and my fellow soldiers fighting for their lives behind us.
My feet left the ground. With my lungs burning, I called out for help but no one had time to do anything as he flew off with me into the sky.
