Ovation (Galaxy Circus #9)

Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Lila

W hen Ghosie and I catch up with the rest of the team, the scene we come across is a little more gruesome. They must have run out of robot sex warriors and sent in the live ones. Blood is splashed all over the walls, and the floor is littered with bodies. Throats are torn out, bodies are clawed up and burnt, and the smell is gag worthy.

“Wow, just wow…” I try not to focus on any one thing, but it’s kind of hard. My gaze keeps dropping to the ground. You know that whole traffic accident mentality where you can’t just drive by, and you have to slow down to get a good look at what happened?

“They started shooting first!” Tirrian exclaims before blowing fire on one of the bodies. I watch in pure amazement as it crumbles to ashes.

“That’s pretty handy,” Ghosie says, and I can hear the admiration in his voice.

“Thanks,” Tirrian replies, moving onto the next body.

What has my life become? All of them are completely unfazed by death. I fear the day when death doesn’t bother me.

A groan has me turning my attention to Zeydan who is holding up Saxon.

“Saxon?” I ask, stepping forward, fearful of what I’m going to see. Zeydan’s hand glows green above a wound in Saxon’s stomach. I watch in awe as he pulls the bullet out with his magic. When it drops into his palm, he examines it closely.

“This is made of fleitine,” he muses quietly.

Tirrian turns his attention away from his cremation for a moment. “Isn’t that the metal that contains that mineral from Grichi 517E? Brannock just talked about it earlier. He said they were instructed to attack the planet because the orb was supposed to be there, but he thought it was because the council wanted to get their hands on the mineral.”

Zeydan purses his lips. “I am not really surprised. When this mineral is combined with a mixture of the correct elements, it is the one thing in the whole galaxy that can kill any species. Our family created the combination as a fail-safe just in case.”

“Is Saxon dying?” I ask, feeling numb as I move over and support my Vilaxian, who is an alarming shade of white.

Zeydan shakes his head before crushing the bullet in his hand and sniffing the dust. “No, the mixture is off. It did some damage, but removing it and giving him some blood should heal him right up.”

“The plot grows thicker,” Xavier says, standing up from where he was rifling through the pockets of the dead. “Someone gave Smith the recipe, and he created those bullets especially for his guards.” He uses a key card he took off one of them to point at the dust in Zeydan’s hand. “Thank fuck they got the proportions wrong, otherwise this could have had a whole different outcome.”

“Where’s Brannock?” I ask, looking around, and Xavier points down the tunnel.

“A couple ran back in that direction. He was going to take care of them.”

“On his own?” I ask, horrified.

“Yes. It was only two, he will be fine.” As soon as the words are out of Xavier’s mouth, I see movement coming toward us through the darkness. When they become more visible, I see it’s Brannock, and he’s towing two guards behind him by their arms.

“These ones are alive. I thought maybe you might want to make use of their necks.” He dumps them at Saxon’s feet, and I blink in surprise.

“Aww, look at that, he’s offering you a meal. Many species do that to prove they are good providers for their families. How romantic,” Xavier teases, and Brannock flips him off.

Zeydan bends down and hauls one of the humans to his feet. He’s dazed and confused but very alive. He freaks out at the sight of Zeydan in his god form, though, and starts screaming. Zeydan ignores him and heaves him into place for Saxon, who can barely hold himself up, let alone support a blood donor.

I put a hand on him to aid him, but the wall he’s leaning against does most of the work as he bites into the neck of the screaming human. The human’s screams die down quickly as Saxon drains him of all the blood in his body. I look down, and the wound closes a little bit, but not much.

“Next victim,” Ghosie says cheerfully, lifting the other human who is still unconscious.

Saxon rinses and repeats, but when Ghosie drags the dead human away, the hole in his stomach is still dribbling blood and not fully closed.

“Stupid, weak-ass human blood,” Xavier spits out and turns to our dragon. “Shift! Saxon needs more powerful blood.”

Tirrian blinks at him, and just when I think he’s going to tell Xavier to get fucked, he nods.

“Okay, that will make cleanup easier. Can you move all the bodies into a pile? My dragon can torch them in one go.”

I hold Saxon upright, and the two of us watch as the rest do as Tirrian asked. Ghosie, Brannock, Zeydan, and Xavier gather all the bodies into a large pile, casually comparing kill counts as they move. They tease Ghosie about the fact that he doesn’t like to get his fur bloody, and he grouses about blood being so hard to remove, he needs a special shampoo to do it.

I’m literally speechless. How has this become my life? Before I can scold them for their callous regard for human life, I remember that they aren’t human, so I shouldn’t hold them to the same standards I grew up with. I keep my mouth shut and turn my attention to Saxon.

“Would my blood help?” I ask him, and he nods.

“Yes, but I don’t want to weaken you before we see what we are up against. We are going to need your powers before long, and you need to be at full capacity. I will drink from you later if I need to,” he promises, and I accept his reasoning.

Tirrian shifts, and his body just about fills the tunnel. There is definitely no way he can stretch his wings out without doing damage, but instead of freaking out, he settles down and looks at us, his dark eyes glowing.

“Come on,” I tell Saxon, slinging his arm around my shoulders. “You know he’s super tasty, and don’t tell anyone, but I think his blood is almost as powerful as Xavier’s,” I say quietly, but the dragon’s eyes gleam, and I don’t think I said it quiet enough. “You will feel better in no time.”

The others step away, and I hear them discussing the bullet while I remind Saxon exactly where he can sink his fangs into Tirrian without snapping them off. I stroke my hand over Tirrian and whisper words of gratitude and encouragement to Saxon while he drinks. The color returns to his face, and the hole in his stomach closes up, leaving just a jagged rip in his armor.

“Why didn’t this protect him?” I ask, pointing at the armor.

“We were just discussing that.” Xavier appears next to me and helps Saxon to his feet. He’s slightly blood drunk and is going to take a moment to get his bearings. He forgot to seal the wound on the dragon, so I lean in and swipe my own tongue over it, using the healing enzymes in my saliva before placing a kiss on the spot. Sure, I could have used my Celestian powers, but where’s the fun in that?

“It seems like this projectile can also penetrate previously impenetrable protection. As I said, this formulation is slightly different from the one my brothers and sisters created as a fail-safe. I wonder if it was deliberately changed so it would penetrate weapon-proofed armor.” Zeydan sounds perplexed.

“That would take someone who has a good knowledge in chemical compounds and experimentation, wouldn’t it?” Ghosie points out.

“Yes, or someone who is really smart and has a whole lab of scientists and programmers at their fingertips,” Xavier says, frowning, but it sounds like he has suspicions.

“What are you thinking?” Saxon slurs, struggling to stand upright as he comes out of his blood stupor.

“I think I know where you’re going with this,” Tirrian says as he wraps an arm around my body and pulls me against him. “You’re a tease,” he whispers in my ear and rubs his dick against my backside. I snicker quietly.

“What are you thinking?” Zeydan asks, and Xavier sighs.

“Link’s mother has all of those things we just talked about and is very capable of reformulating something to fit another purpose.”

“And what purpose is that though? It didn’t kill him,” Brannock says as the smell of ash reaches my nose. Tirrian’s dragon torched the rest of the bodies before he changed back.

“No, it didn’t, but it cut through his armor like butter. Maybe that is the purpose. If you can badly wound most of the forces you are fighting against, then it doesn’t matter if they die or not if you can go around and finish them while they are writhing around on the ground in pain.”

We all fall silent at Xavier’s words.

“Shit, now it’s even more important that we shut down the Syndicate, especially if Deinara Digicon has been recruited to their ranks,” Tirrian mutters. “We need to warn our families. If she is providing the Syndicate with unlimited warrior sex robots, as Lila calls them, who don’t bleed or cause pain and have armor piercing rounds, then anyone who goes up against them is going to suffer major casualties.”

“Pfft, even with their technological capabilities, they are no match for warlock magic,” Xavier scoffs, and Zeydan frowns.

“I wouldn’t be too sure. I have a feeling that round contained a compound that would nullify your magic. That’s why Saxon wasn’t healing. His Vilaxian magic, so to speak, wasn’t working. It basically rendered him benign.”

“Human,” I murmur. “No one would be spared.”

“Fuck, come on then, let’s get this raid over with, rescue the damsel in distress, and go take care of the big bosses,” Ghosie says, jolting everyone out of their panicked musings.

“Sounds like a video game to me,” I tease as we head in the direction Brannock came from with his two donors.

“I grabbed a swipe card so we can get into the facility, but I should probably go first to see if there is another team of guards waiting for us,” Xavier suggests, and the rest of us agree. He can do his floaty misty thing and give us exact numbers.

When we get to the door, it doesn’t take him long, and when he returns, he’s smiling. “It looks like there is only a small crew left inside, and they are all mostly panicked about the lack of power. It was guard changeover, and most of their forces were on this side of that door when the power was cut. That’s why there were so many for us to battle. There are maybe twenty remaining inside the facility, including a few admin staff as well.”

I wonder if that bitchy assistant to Smith is in there. I wouldn’t mind showing her the pointy end of my fangs.

“Excellent.” Zeydan grins foxily, his tails flowing back into his body to go through the door. He probably figures we won’t need the backup.

“Yeah, but the bad news is with the power out, that door is locked down tight. No one goes in or out,” Xavier continues, ignoring the god.

“Well, that sucks, but it’s hardly a problem since we have our trusty bear here to get us through.” Tirrian slaps Ghosie on the shoulder, touching him without having to worry about the properties of his fur. Maybe we need him to wear clothes more often so we can all give him some affection. I’d never even thought to suggest it because he doesn’t usually wear any. Unlike my cats, he isn’t flashing his goods around willy-nilly, literally in their case.

“Yeah, but I can only take one person at a time, and we will be vulnerable as we step through the door. You won’t be able to use your weapons or powers” —he looks at Zeydan— “while we are phasing.”

“That’s not a problem. I can mist like Xavier,” Zeydan announces casually, crouching down and putting his hands on the ground, absorbing more energy from the dirt. “So that leaves only three people who need to be phased.”

Xavier nods thoughtfully. “The three of us can mist through the cracks and reform on the other side and cover you while Ghosie goes back and forth. What do you think?”

We agree to the plan, and the three of us that can mist go through. We rematerialize in a dark room that looks like it might be a staff room. There are lockers, a kitchen area, some couches, and a bookcase.

“Cozy,” I mutter, pulling my weapon and looking around.

“This area is clear,” Xavier whispers. “Most of them are standing around with their weapons aimed at the sealed door that leads to the area that needs special clearance. I heard them muttering about not letting the animals escape. That’s their focus for now, but some of the admin are spooked and were talking about trying to get this door open so they could get out.”

There’s a sound behind us, and it’s the same kind of electric buzzing sound that I heard when Ghosie phased with me from the space station onto the carevasta ship. I don’t turn around, but eventually I hear Tirrian groan, and when I look, he’s bent over with his hands on his knees and his eyes closed.

“That was fucking awful.” He gags as Ghosie phases right back through like it doesn’t affect him.

I rub his back, pushing some healing into him. We don’t need the three of them incapacitated if anyone comes this way. Xavier and Zeydan keep watch. Zeydan lets his tails free again, and the nine of them disappear. I guess they are going to keep watch since he can see through their eyes.

Ghosie goes back and forth two more times, bringing Brannock and then Saxon. I push healing into both of them too, but my worry for Saxon increases. He isn’t back to full strength since his wound, and the phasing hasn’t helped.

“You need to take some of my blood,” I insist, holding up my wrist.

“We don’t have time for you to orgasm, Lila,” Brannock hisses. I forgive him for being an asshole because he is super close to being reunited with his daughter. Any other time, I would have said a cutting comment and given him a withering stare—not to mention he is also right.

“Make it hurt,” I instruct my Vilaxian, and he must feel pretty fucking awful because he doesn’t argue, just takes my wrist and bites down.

“Holy fuck,” I whisper-scream as the pain pierces my nerves and shoots through my limbs. Each mouthful is agonizing as he seems to rip the blood from my veins. Tirrian reaches for me, but Xavier stops him.

Xavier puts his hands on my head, and I’m instantly projected somewhere else. The two of us are standing in the grotto of the place where we sealed our intimate bond.

“What are we doing here?” I ask him, and he shakes his head and smiles.

“We’re not really. I just took hold of your mind to distract you. You wouldn’t have lasted without screaming, and then everyone would know we are here.” He leans in and kisses me, or I guess he manipulates my mind to think we are kissing, but it feels so real, so I just go with it.

“Lila,” Saxon calls, and Xavier releases my mind, and I return to reality. Saxon’s skin is back to its normal color, and his eyes are clear and bright. “Thank you.” He kisses me, and I cup his cheek.

“Anything for you, my love.” It’s the truth. I would carve out my heart for any of these men.

“Okay, what do you say we bust some heads and rescue us some aliens?” Xavier slaps Brannock on the back, and the two of them take the lead.

Zeydan studies me closely, making sure I’m okay, before he follows. Saxon, Ghosie, and Tirrian hang back with me, and we bring up the rear, our weapons at the ready.