Karun was right, it was a bad time to feel out this tension between us. His ability to just ignore it, though, to block it out like he hadn’t felt what I was feeling, made me think that maybe this was one-sided. Had I projected my own thoughts and feelings onto him?

I heard the sound of voices spreading out from the central point of the thermogenerator and knew they were heading to bed. I had volunteered for first watch, and I wasn’t one to shirk responsibilities.

I came out of my tent and saw Ragal still seated on one of the gear boxes. He looked at me, surprised.

“Sergeant Titania, I hadn’t expected you to come out.”

“Please just call me Andie, and why didn’t you expect me?” I asked, a little offended at the implication.

“Of course, my apologies . . . Andie,” he said awkwardly. “I just assumed you were not feeling well.” That didn’t sound genuine but I didn’t want to press it.

Karun and I both knew he’d turned me down, and that was more than enough people to bear witness to my shame and rejection.

“Well, I’m fine and dandy, as you can see. I have this, so you can go catch some shuteye.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind taking watch,” he persisted, and I could sense the sympathy in his words.

I was so not one of those girls who cried into her pillow over a guy. I was a soldier and I could still do my job.

“If I say I have this, I mean it. Maybe on Dragselia, chicks need down time in battle, but on Vaxivia, if you’re not on your toes, you die, and I haven’t died yet.” I knew I sounded cantankerous, but I couldn’t help it.

He still looked unconvinced but gave in. “I am sorry. It was wrong of me to question your fortitude. I will return to relieve you in two hours.”

“Okie dokie.”

He started away to his tent, then turned back. “And just so you know, there were great female warriors on Dragselia too. I have no doubt you could hold your own with any woman of our realm.”

Damn, now I felt bad for being so terse with him. Well, one more thing to feel shitty about today. My mind wandered back to Karun. It seemed to somehow find its way back there no matter how hard I tried.

I started taking apart my rifle, finding comfort in the familiar, mundane task.

I knew what he said was true—we were likely being hunted by murderous demon aliens, two of our party were significantly injured, and we had fallen far behind where we hoped to be because of the attack from the storm raiders. I knew all that, but my gut also told me that this chemistry between us was something special.

The moment we locked eyes after the battle with the Infernians, something sparked and it hadn’t extinguished. The ride on our first day, I knew we had connected, and then came that kiss. That had to be the hottest experience of my life. Just thinking about it made my stomach do funny little things.

It was like he was trying to ignore something that was smacking us in the face. I felt like we were two celestial bodies in orbit, circling and pulling toward one another. What had started wasn’t going to just go away.

Still, I knew he had a point. Orbiting bodies don’t merge nicely. They collide and obliterate each other and everything around them.

Distracted by thoughts of just what that bodily merging might be like, I didn’t hear the first electric sizzle of the stun charger. What roused me from my thoughts was Jennifer’s scream.

“Demons!” she shrieked, and I leapt to my feet only to be knocked to the ground hard by the golden-horned demon.

He landed on my back, claws biting at me through the thick body armor I had luckily thrown on for my watch.

Leaning forward, he licked at my ear with a long, thin tongue that felt almost serpentine. His tongue slithered across my face as I tried hard to push up from the ground. It felt like my fugecraft was sitting on top of me.

“Lovely human, you taste so sweet, not like the dragon-loving whore you are. I wonder what other parts of you might taste like. Pity we won’t have time for that.” Something sharp and hot grazed my arm, scalding it.

I couldn’t see what he was about to do, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good. In a flash, I heard a low, guttural growl, and the demon was off me. I rolled and scrambled back up against a gear box, grabbing for my rifle.

Karun was rolling with the demon. They both moved with speed. It was hard to really tell what was happening. The demon managed to kick Karun back with both feet.

“I knew you’d come running to protect your human whores,” he hissed.

“Hey, I’m not a whore, asshole,” I chimed in defiantly.

He threw back his head, golden hair shaking as he let out the most sinister sounding laugh I could imagine.

“You have aided a Dragselian. You’re a mindless whore, and it will be a pleasure to rip the flesh off your bones, bit by bit,” he said, and I didn’t doubt that he really would.

“You’ll never touch her, you piece of Infernian filth,” Karun said just before he shimmered and shifted.

Heaving, the great silver dragon shook the ground as he stepped forward and roared inches from the demon’s face. He was easily the size of a small aircraft. That the demon remained unflinching was disconcerting.

The demon launched himself in the air and Karun followed. Gold and silver collided and spun. I saw Karun breathe a torrent of fire at him and the demon only laughed.

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Zaruv came running out to the center. Behind them, I saw Ragal’s obsidian dragon form rising. He was battling the demon I had shot with my hadron pulsor in the last battle. His distinctive orange-red horns and mane were hard to forget.

Ragal seemed to be doing well. The squat demon was awkward and clumsy in flight. Suddenly, another demon came shrieking to the air. It was the sickly, malnourished looking one. He hit Ragal with stun charges, wearing him down while the other demon landed on his back and tore at him with dark red claws.

I aimed at the demon on his back and fired my rifle as Hardin helped Pavar out. Passing out rifles and pulsors, we all tried to fire on the demons from the ground, even Pavar, who had just regained his ability to stand straight.

“The heads! Aim for their heads!” Zaruv shouted to us, his eyes lit with savage intensity.

Our targets were small and constantly moving, made worse by their proximity to Karun and Ragal. We fired volley after volley, but they seemed to absorb the hits and keep going.

“Baluwama!” shouted the golden-horned demon.

I saw the spiny dragon change course and go for Karun just as Karun had gotten the golden-horned demon in his claws. Over and over, like lightening striking, he was hit with stun after stun in unrelenting succession.

Karun dropped the demon, who fell nearly to the ground before catching himself and recovering to the air.

He was just low enough that I could get a clear shot without hitting either of the dragons.

“Hardin!” I shouted since he was the only other with a rifle.

He saw the shot too, and we both took aim, firing nearly in unison.

Unfortunately, the demon spun at exactly that moment, and instead of blowing off the bastard’s head, we took an arm.

While not the intended hit, it was not a total loss. The demon fell to the ground, letting out an ear shattering screech. Zaruv ran toward him but was knocked back by the spiny little creep of a demon.

Crashing into Jennifer, they both fell hard against the thermogenerator. Zaruv took the brunt of the impact and didn’t fry like a fish in oil, probably thanks to that dragon blood.

I jumped around them to take on the pervy gold demon myself, but the orange and black demon had dived down and scooped him up. Cowards that they were, they retreated into the dark.

Karun, who had a stun charge stuck in him and was shimmering back and forth between dragon and man, fell to the ground and ripped the charge out of his back, standing again as a man.

I looked around to find Ragal but couldn’t spot him. Even if he’d been close, he was hard to see if he was in dragon form.

I ran toward Karun, and our eyes met right as I felt the claws sink into my shoulders, ripping me off the ground.

Before the searing pain took my consciousness, I saw Karun roar like some kind of magnificent otherworldly being. Then everything went black.