The Ilia's Lovers - Chapter Thirty-Eight

“It would be really nice to have the back up of the Amarans right now,” Kerrok growled, and it was a growl. Many species thought they growled when they just spoke deeply and with a little gravel. Kerrok activated the deepest part of his vocal chords, vibrating them and forming the resulting growl into words.

Radiin barely moved. Kerrok had to admit, he was impressed by the male. He didn’t want to be. He wanted to hate him, but he didn’t.

“I won’t say you’re wrong, but I agree with Elaine. The Devori will be better distracted having her here and the Ilan would never have allowed them to see her, let along for her to get close enough to place the tags.”

“I hate seeing her this close to them,” Kerrok said.

“I agree.”

Those three syllables were choked with emotion. Radiin swallowed but Kerrok knew it was still, in his throat, along with his heart. Because that’s how Kerrok was feeling.

Elaine was so small. She looked so vulnerable, even flanked as she was by Zinif and Thalvuten, she looked as though at any moment she could be carried away by a Turos, or a winged Idiel, two creatures from Kerrok’s world that would never be found on this planet.

But it was Kerrok’s instinct. Almost every plant and animal on Kerrok’s homeworld was trying to kill everything else. Most of the plants were carnivorous, though some were trying to protect themselves from predators in the most poisonous and toxic fashion possible. There were plants that even mimicked the plants Sehn ate, so they could infect bipeds and quadrupeds with their spawn. The iterol plant looked almost identical to a sanna plant, but if someone ate the fruit, the spawn released a chemical that shut down their upper brain and made them walk until they dropped, sometimes for days, and then the spawn would use the body as fertiliser to grow, that way it didn’t grow too close to it’s parent plant and threaten their territory. It was the one plant the Sehn had no antidote for. All they could do was deliver a killing dose of venom to put the poor victim out of their misery before sanitising their body of the spawn to prepare them for burial. Only the Sehn on the colony world of Tormis were immune to it, thanks to their human heritage.

Elaine walked through the long grasses towards the Devori ship. Kerrok would have a hard time seeing her through the grasses, that grew much taller than her, if it wasn’t for Zinif and Thalvuten. Their steps cleared some of the obstruction, giving Kerrok a clear line of sight which was the only reason he was able to breath right now.

Outside, Zharr Araq and his twin brothers, Menon and Velon, watched her approach. Next to Araq stood his wife, and the sister of Castus.

Sinish Araq scowled at Elaine with every step she took. She was saying something to Zharr which seemed to anger him. He barely put any effort into the strike he delivered to his wife’s face, but it was enough to throw her to the ground. He spat something at her, then turned away as she picked herself up.

Kerrok felt his stomach twist with hatred for the Devori male and beside him, Radiin hissed.

“We’ll kill him extra hard,” Kerrok assured him. “I have a venom just for him. It’ll take hours and there are no antidotes.”

“I’ll hold him still for you. Just don’t get me when you get him.”

“Done.”

“It says a lot about the calibre of males and how they would treat Elaine, if that was how they treat one of their mates,” Radiin said, his voice imitating a growl.

“Devori don’t have mates. They have bloodless, cold marriage contracts.”

They would never understand how it felt to be a bonded male and watch their female walk bravely into the hands of their enemies. They would never understand just how much Kerrok wanted to kill them, except the female. The female they would imprison for the rest of her life for her part in this. But they would kill the males. every last one of them, including the ten mercenaries they had hiding in the trees.

Kerrok scanned them again. To his eyes, every single one of them stood out as though they had neon signs of a giant arrow and the words “Mercenary Hiding Here!” pointing right at them.

“Have they moved?” Radiin asked, his eyes were not as good as Kerrok’s.

“No. They fidget constantly,” he said. “But they have not moved position.”

A true hunter knew to remain still if they were waiting for prey to come by. Their fidgeting was so bad Kerrok had heard every one of them as he crept through the trees earlier, tagging them by using a blow dark. To the mercenaries, they’d felt like an insect bit them, but now each one of them had ordinance that would target them. All they needed, was for Elaine to place the tags she had on her hands on some of the males waiting for her. Zharr, or his brothers, or the guards. Any of them would do. Kerrok would fire the weapon he’d bought from the arms dealer on Ket’Kitara before they left and those males would die, followed by the mercenaries hiding in the trees. But he couldn’t fire them until he’d gotten the signal from Elaine that they were placed.

Zinif and Thalvuten stopped around ten feet from the Devori who had cleared some of the grasses to allow for the exchange. They started talking. Selling the lie that the Ilan was too valuable to risk for a couple of lovers.

“Now, let us see Lord Efari,” Radiin murmured.

On cue, the twins disappeared into the ship and reappeared a few moments later with Lord Efari.

Kerrok felt the growl explode from his throat, though he’d given no instruction. They’d beaten the adalan. No doubt, because they could. A sign of power to challenge the Ilan. The fools should be happy he wasn’t here. The Ilan would kill them all.

Now the negotiations begin.

They wanted to ensure Zinif and Thalvuten had Hadith at the same time as Elaine walked over to the Devori. Elaine insisted on it. Hadith had to be safe. That was not negotiable for her.

“What the vrok?”

Kerrok looked at Radiin and then followed the line of his eyes. Back in the tree line surrounding the grasses, Dahnus was surrounded by guards. The Prince Eternal was standing by his side.

“They’re too visible,” Radiin said. “Can they see him?”

Kerrok looked into the trees and saw the moment the Mercenaries realised they were there.

“Zinif, get Elaine out of there,” Kerrok managed to get out, but it was already too late.

The Devori got the message a moment later. Weapons were raised, shots exchanged. Zinif tried to get Elaine out, grabbing her arm, but he and Thalvuten took a shot each to the chest, knocking them down. Elaine screamed, dropping to her knees to Zinif’s side, but one of the twins ran out, and dragged her back to the ship.

“NO!”

Kerrok didn’t know if he or Radiin or both of them had shouted, but they both ran, their steps eating the forest and into the clearing. At the same time, the Ilan and his people started firing.

Everything had just gone horribly wrong and all Kerrok could think about was getting his hands on his mates and killing everyone who touched her.

“Hadith! No!”

Kerrok watched the adalan go down, a shot to his stomach throwing him up against the ship, before he slid down it again.

*****

“Hadith! No!”

Dahnus turned and saw the moment Hadith was hit in the chest by fire from Zharr Araq. His stomach turned and bile rose, threating to empty all over the alien forest floor. Dahnus’s mind blanked. Every plan, every thought erased as his heart, covered in teal blood, hit the ship and slid to the ground. Elaine ripped her arm from the Devori holding him and threw herself at Hadith, covering him with her body to stop the Zharr from firing a killing shot.

“FIRE!”

The order seemed to be screamed from the very depths of his soul. For a moment, Dahnus wondered what kind of Ilia Danari would make, because if he lost them both, he’d follow them as soon as he’d gotten revenge on every Devori alive.

The clearing filled with weapons fire, the acrid smell of charge weapons and shouted orders as Dahnus led the charge across the long grass meadow surrounded by trees towards his adalan and female.

Where are Kerrok and Radiin? Were they dead? What about the Adosian pack Talis told him about? Why was she out there with just Zinif and Thalvuten? Were they dead?

Shots were being returned, but not just by the Devori, several more of who had appeared out the ships, but from the trees. The shots surrounded them, boxing them in.

Dahnus’s guards surrounded him and began firing into the treeline.

“It seems we could do with some of the people firing at us to be taken out,” Ardirion said, grinning at Dahnus. With that he rose. The robes he wore continued rising, long after Ardirion was standing and as they did, Dahnus could see Ardirion’s amot legs, built to look like humanoid legs, like Surilan legs, compartmentalise, separate with some of it pushing up the lines of segmentation until Ardirion stood several feet taller. With that, he took off into the trees followed by his own guards.

A few moments later, Dahnus heard a scream echo through the trees. Some of the shots stopped, giving them relief from the constant bombardment.

“PUSH FORWARD!”

Elithan repeated Dahnus’s command and together they stood and began running again.

Ahead, Dahnus saw Kerrok and Radiin burst from the forest and into the clearing, immediately they both took a knee and steadying the weapons they were carrying, they and the Devori exchanged shots.

“FIRE.”

Around him, his guards took position and began firing.

One of the twins was hit in the shoulder and dropped.

“Good shot!”

“That shot didn’t come from us, my Ilan. It came from the trees.”

Elithan pointed back towards the way they’d come from as another shot was fired. Dhanus turned in time to see Zharr Araq drop to the ground, half of his head missing.

“The Adosians?”

“I don’t know, my Ilan. But with that talent as a sharpshooter, I’m glad they’re on our side.”

Dahnus nodded.

They pushed the line ahead.

One of the twins was trying to drag Elaine from Hadith, but she holding onto something. A moment later, her clothes and hair were sullied with the male’s brains.

Half of the Devori guards went down a moment later, several shots fired from different directions, including from his guards. Only Sinish Araq and a couple of the guards were left now.

The shots that had been fired at Dahnus and his people were gone. Ardirion and his people on one side and doubtless the Adosians on the other.

Meanwhile, Kerrok and Radiin were rounding on the Devori guards, who dropped their weapons in a panic.

“Don’t do it!” Dahnus yelled, when he saw Sinish pick up a weapon and round on Elaine.

His heart dropped into his stomach, his vision becoming sharper as he aimed his weapon at her as she fired.