The vishwa's screech was cut-off abruptly, its throat bursting outward. White, oily blood spurted out into Rowan's mouth. She flinched back, gagging. When she looked up again it was to see the vishwa drop to the ground, a gaping hole in its neck. Thrax was standing behind the boney carcass, her mirok dagger in his hand.
Nearby, the queen's rapid clicks volleyed like cannon fire ricocheting from the cavern walls.
Thrax looked Rowan over, his gaze swift and deadly. Then he leaped out of sight, leaving her gaping at the empty space where he'd been. Another vishwa scuttled into view almost instantly and took one look at its fallen comrade. Before it could blast another alarm, however, its eye exploded with white muck as Thrax dropped down onto its head. Stab! Stab! Stab! With violent speed and wet ripping, the head was severed. The vishwa's pincers clenched and unclenched like a gasping fish as Thrax flung it beside the twitching body.
Rowan was covered in another layer of smelly ichor. It clung to the roof of her mouth. Once again, Thrax vanished before she had a chance to speak. This time, when a third vishwa appeared, she had the forethought to cover her mouth when Thrax dispatched it just as fast as the two before. There seemed nothing more lethal than a mirok fang in a warg's hand. A warg armored in nixrath, besides.
The queen's excitement had diminished. Her clicking sounded angry now.
"Are you using me as a fucking decoy?" Rowan hissed, speaking low so that the turbulence of the water drowned her out.
He grinned, looking her over. "Yes, you're doing great!" Then he pulled her up for a brisk kiss.
She shoved him back. "I'm covered in grot!"
"Camouflage," he whispered, swiping pus off her brow.
She made a face, but he shushed her with a glare. "You have to get out of here now. It's my turn to be the decoy."
"What!? No, Thrax!" She tried to jerk back as he removed Merritt's nixrath from around his neck and forced it over her head. It settled in place with a soft silvery sound—the weight of dread around her shoulders.
His claws bit her shoulders as she struggled. "Rowan, for the love of Brek, we don't have time for this! Just shut up and listen!" He gave her a little shake for good measure. "She'll kill you on sight. Me she'll want to fuck first and savor. Once the pack arrives, I'll be able to draw on their power and—"
"Don't...don't lie to me!" she gasped, choking on tears. Tears so hot they stung. She could barely speak, her throat was so raw, her chest pinching. "You told me yourself once they get you in the hive you're dead!" She'd never wanted this bond! Now she had it, the thought of death cutting it short was...it was piercing. She gripped her elbows, letting her nails carve her skin.
"I'm not lying!" He dragged her against his chest. "I told you, I have something to live for now. Please don't give up." He glanced up, their time running out.
She scrubbed her eyes, trying to calm her breathing. "I never give up."
"Then get to the water! That river joins the Jorg." His ears pricked around towards the sound of furious clicking. "Turn around and go find another way out! Trust the water. The vishwa can't swim."
"Neither can I!"
"You'll think of something!" Then he was shoving her behind a rock, directly in a beam of light. Two more vishwa popped into view like cockroaches. She watched, her jaw in a tremor, as he pressed the dagger into her hand. Then he sprinted out, drawing the vishwa after him and leaving her hidden in the light they so abhorred. Leaving her just like Thresh had! This couldn't be happening!
The hand with the mirok dagger was shaking fatally. She leaned out to watch as Thrax grappled with the two vishwa. But two against one was terrible odds even for a warg. Wait, three against one. No, four! He was being overrun by drones!
She wanted to sprint out and stab every last one of them, but she knew that wouldn't help him. She didn't have the power he could wield behind each blow.
Think! Think! She tried to stifle the crippling fear swooping into her belly. Bile filled her mouth.
Thrax roared in frustration. For a moment she was bloodless, watching as they dragged her mate away. Four to subdue a thrashing berserker. One vishwa got his pincer ripped off for his trouble. Milky ooze streamed from the wound. Seeing it, watching the vishwa jerk in pain, chased some of the terror away finally. She breathed deep, letting even the light fill her lungs, warm her chest.
A silent rage swarmed in her eyes as she watched them. Despite that Thrax was caught, he looked anything but scared. It emboldened her to see him thus. If he could be gritty and fierce, so would she be.
She crept after them, knowing that with the queen and her drones distracted. If Thrax had his way, she'd take her chance to slip over that drop-off, grab Meera, wherever she was, and take to the water. But he wouldn't get his way. Even if she could swim, she'd not leave him.
You're the wargrix! she told herself. It became a chant as she slipped ever closer.
The queen was riveted on Thrax as her drones deposited him before her. They began unspooling yards of white webbing from their bizarre rear end cocks. The queen cackled, unaware there was a wargrix edging closer, mirok dagger in hand.
"Who is this?" The queen smacked her pincers together like gleeful applause. "No, let me guess," she purred, looking him over. "Not just any warg, of that I'm sure. No, indeed."
Thrax stood like granite as she prodded him, as though unwilling to give her the satisfaction of struggling and snapping. He kept himself still and his face blank as the vile queen unsheathed her stinger.
Rowan froze. Panic ripped through her as the stinger advanced.
The queen stabbed his thigh and yanked the barb out lightning fast. The vishwa queen seemed almost impressed when he made no sound save a grunt of irritation. "Well, well, my dears," she said, grinning at her drones, "I do believe we're standing in the midst of a mighty wargrex." She leaned in, breathing his scent in deep. "Oh, yes..." She gave a shudder, dragging the last syllable out, snakelike. She strained with pleasure, an obscene sound gurgling in the back of her throat as though she was in the grips of climax. She shuddered as another of those moonstone eggs plopped out from her red slit.
It rolled towards Thrax before stalling in the mucky birthing goo. She sighed, admiring her egg with a blissful smile. She was still smiling when Thrax slammed his foot down on it. Hard and fast. No warning. Just a godsawful splat! too quick to be stopped!
The queen dropped to her knees, eyes billowing wide. Both wargs clenched their jaws against the shrieks that followed. Her wailing curses threatened to bring the hive down around them. With a venomous roar, she reared up. Viper-fast, she slashed him across the cheek, scoring his beautiful face with vicious red claw marks. "You cur!"
His answering glare was slaughterous. He rucked his lips back in a menacing growl, his long fangs bloody from the blow she'd dealt him.
"I'll make you suffer!" she shrieked. When he still didn't speak, she pounced on Thresh and poised her long stinger at his neck. "Better yet, I'll kill what you love! How about that? A kill for a kill."
"Do it!" Thresh growled.
"You won't kill him," said Thrax, his words thick with all the fangs in the way. "Not yet." In his half wolf form he was very large, his glare level with hers. "You need him, and that need makes you predictable, Hessa. What's one egg when Thresh and I are worth hundreds more?"
Hessa? So the creature had a name. And of course, Thrax knew it. He knew everything there was to know about his world and the monsters that dwelt so near to his pack.
Hessa's pincers splayed with fury. After a heartbeat, she lowered her stinger, venom dripping from the tip, and closed her hideous mouth. She drummed her long fingers against Thresh's bicep, turning thoughtful. Her eyes darted to Merritt. "What about this one?" She ignored Merritt's screams and grasped him by his scrawny neck. All the while, her gaze burned into Thrax's. "Shall I punish you by eating this one? Will that allay my grief, I wonder?" She watched the wargrex closely, eyes scrabbling for any sign of weakness in him.
He gave her none. "Go ahead," Thrax snarled. His eyes flared with murderous yellow. "I'd eat him myself if my hands weren't bound."
"Oh-ho?" This seemed to intrigue the queen. Her hatred dimmed and she glanced curiously between Merritt and Thrax. "Do let's discuss why?" When Thrax remained staunchly mute, she gave Merritt a shake and switched to Wraisian. "Speak, little prince! Why does the wargrex wish to eat you?"
"What?! Eat me?!" Merritt cowered, his breaths huffing out in little whimpers. "I...I...no!"
Hessa clicked impatiently and brought her stinger up to his neck. "Speak, fly!"
When Merritt still couldn't seem to snap out of his terror, Hessa sidled up to Thresh and slapped his cock. "Tell me what I want to know, there's a good boy."
"Don't!" Thrax commanded.
Rowan felt the command boom through the bond. She shuddered with the power of it. It snapped in her mind like a leash pulled taut. It stilled her instantly. No, not their private bond but a different one—one she'd not...recognized until now. The pack link.
She sucked a breath in, feeling answering sparks tugging at the link. No, not tugging. Those links were always alive, moving and tugging, so much so she'd just accepted it as strange warg magic in her blood. And it was, in a fashion. When Thrax'd yanked on that link, all the other sparks in the link had stilled to listen. Finally, she could feel them there. The pack. In her blood. They'd always been there. She swallowed, the realization heady.
Thresh grunted in pain.
Rowan's flinched as Hessa slapped his cock again. Harder this time. "Answer!" she hissed.
It was bruised and blue and impossibly turgid with straining veins. He gritted his long teeth. "He...he stole from the wargrex."
"Thresh, don't!" Thrax growled again.
"It's no use," said Hessa, cupping the hefty sack between Thresh's thighs. "My venom is more potent than your pull as wargrex. He answers to me now. Soon he will love me. As will you, too. Soon enough." She turned to pet Thresh. "Go on, Threshie, Mummy's listening."
"He..." Thresh ground his jaws together, glaring at Merritt. His thick, jarring Wraisian was barely more than growling. "The little fucker stole...we saved him and he stole..." He groaned and clamped his tongue between his teeth, drawing blood.
Rowan hunkered low, abandoning her prowling advance to study Thresh. Was that what would soon become of Thrax? An ugly rage filled her, blotting out even the pity she felt for Thresh. She would kill the queen, no matter what it took.
"Hmm, yes," Hessa was saying, "and what exactly did he steal?"
But this time Thresh shook his head. "Fuck you!" Then he locked his tongue tight behind his bleeding jaws.
The queen tsk-tsked, looking around at the stump on his backside. "Careful, you're like to lose that tongue as you did your tail."
But Merritt spoke up instead, choosing that moment to find some nerve. "I stole the wargrix! Only I didn't steal her. She was my wife first, and he—" pointing a stiff finger at Thrax "—made her his whore! I took her back! It's why we're here! I...I lead them all here. To you!"
Hessa's eyes flared with interest. "Then I should be thanking you, my prince."
"Yes," he said between cracked lips. "Yes, I brought them here for you, Your Majesty!"
"Majesty! Oh, marvelous!" She stroked his head, cradling him to her bare bosom. Her soldier drones were stationed in a sort of dormant state all around the chamber—on the walls and ceiling of the cavern. Like waiting spiders. Their humanoid faces and black glinting eyes stalked their queen as she wandered about, stroking her little pet.
But the queen froze in her tracks and looked up with a sudden scowl. Above her, the silky chandelier trembled. Like something was disturbing the web. Dew floated down through the shafts of light, glinting like diamond motes before landing on her upturned face. "It seems we have more guests..."