Page 39 of Alien Warlord's Fury
"Is that what you think?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't. Too complicated, too frightening with everything else looming.
Nirako sighed. "After we save the children, we talk."
"If we survive."
"When we survive." His certainty was oddly comforting. "The bond grows stronger. You felt it."
"Felt something," I admitted. "But right now, those kids are priority."
He nodded, accepting the deflection for now. "Markings? Stable enough?"
I looked down. The silver lines had settled into a steady, pulsing glow. "As stable as they get. The vision took a lot out of me, but I'll manage."
"Let me see."
Reluctantly, I pushed up my sleeve. Nirako took my wrist, his touch gentle. Where his fingers met my skin, gold and silver light mingled.
"Pattern changed," he observed. "More defined. Less chaotic."
"Good?"
"Suggests Nexus connection stabilizing." His thumb traced a bright line from my wrist to my elbow. "The bond may be helping."
The intimacy threatened to reignite what we'd started earlier. I pulled my arm away. "We need to move now. Night falls soon, and that's our best chance."
Nirako didn't push. He shouldered his pack and moved toward the entrance of our shelter. "Stay close. The terrain between here and the compound is unstable."
"I can handle myself."
"I know you can." His expression was unreadable. "But I would prefer not to lose you before we even reach the enemy."
The simple honesty in his voice caught me off guard. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
As we stepped out into the fading daylight, I glanced back at the wall where we'd almost lost ourselves in each other. The memory of his hands on my skin, his mouth against mine, sent a tremor ran through me, born not of the cooling air but of the lingering heat from his touch.
Later, I promised myself. When we survive.
NIRAKO
Imoved silently through the corrupted terrain, every sense alert to danger. Claire followed three paces behind, her steps matching mine with surprising precision despite the vision that had struck her earlier. The land around us had deteriorated further—plants withered and blackened, energy fields flickering erratically across the landscape.
Small creatures scurried away as we approached, their forms twisted, movements jerky and unnatural.
"Look at that," Claire whispered, pointing to a small rodent-like creature with an extra limb protruding from its back.
"Hammond's work extends beyond the compound," I answered, keeping my voice low. "The Nexus corruption spreads like poison through the land."
We crested a ridge, and I dropped to a crouch, gesturing for Claire to do the same. Below us stretched a section of ancient ruins—crumbling stone structures intertwined with dormant technology, pulsing with faint energy signatures. Closer to Hammond's compound than we'd ventured before, but necessary given Claire's vision of the younglings' location.
"There." I pointed to a glowing conduit running beneath a partially collapsed archway. "That's our target. It feeds directly into Hammond's experimental chambers."
Claire's eyes narrowed as she studied it. "How do you know?"
"The energy signature. It matches what we've seen at his other installations, but stronger. More... concentrated." I traced the path of the conduit with my finger.
"Disrupt this, and we buy those younglings time."
