Chapter Four
Zawala
We came out of the cave, covered in the Kilari’s slime, struggling for breath. A heavy rain had washed over the land by the time we came back up, thunder still crashing in the distance, loud and cracking.
I collapsed onto the wet, muddy ground and stared up at the sky, shielding my eyes from the rain.
Then I heard it: a mech. I lay on my back, heaving air and gags from the taste of the Kilari’s blood. Axen stood in shock—immovable.
The grass felt cool against my back. It was a welcomed temperature after being in the heat basin of the Kilari’s temple.
I watched the mech fly over us. I hadn’t seen one fly before, not like this. I was about to let it go, but then I noticed it was hovering right over us. Watching us.
“I don’t think so,” I said weakly and reached for my laser weapon, still charged at my side.
“Don’t bother with it,” Axen warned, numb and not even looking.
But he knew I would anyway. I cocked the laser and took five ill-guided shots into the air, not even looking through the sights. It was only the last pink beam that clipped the mech.
We watched as the ship began circling, smoke billowing up from it almost immediately. The thrusters chugged, sending the mech into a slow descent, just barely crashing into the ground.
Axen looked at me, just as shocked as I was, and we both ran toward the scene of the crash. I dug through the rubble and pulled a metal sheet out of the way to see the pilot.
It was a… a girl.
My eyes narrowed, and I felt Axen’s hand on my arm.
I’d never seen one this close before. In fact… I’d only ever seen one before, from afar. She looked… beautiful.
My nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought. What she looked like was the enemy. That was what we’d had drilled into our minds nearly my whole time on Earth. They were the ones who should have died. Who we should have annihilated. But we failed.
So, if you see one, kill it.
Yet, as I looked down at the girl, a strange sensation washed over me. I peered down into the wreckage and pulled her limp body out of it, laying her down on the grass below and cradling her in my hands.
She was wearing a thin jacket and jeans, raven hair cascading down to her stomach in waves that seemed unending. Her face was long and square, with a pointed nose and something feral about her. Something cat-like about her lips and features. Like her eyes might pop open, and she would attack like a wild animal.
“Be careful,” Axen warned, taking a step back from the creature.
“Of what?” I snorted. “You think she’s going to come alive and kill me?”
Just then, her eyes did shoot open, brown with deep red ridges in them like a mountain spike.
I dropped her in surprise and Axen began to laugh.
“I told you to be careful!” he goaded.
“Oh, shit,” the girl said, uttering groggy words while trying in vain to find her head.
I stepped back, again in surprise, and watched her rubbing the front of her head. She didn’t look broken. Just strange.
“Be cautious,” Axen warned again like he was afraid he would lose me at any moment. “She’s going to trigger something in you, something like the Kilari do.”
“Yeah, but I’m used to that,” I snorted.
“Don’t get cocky. Don’t be an idiot,” he said.
I frowned deeply at the comment and looked down at the ridiculous human, intrigued by grounded. “I’m fine,” I said.
The girl looked up at us, back and forth from myself and Axen, before she sat up. “You shot my ship down?” she asked, bleary, before looking back up at me in anger.
“Uh…” I looked at Axen, and he stifled a laugh, shrugging. I suppose we
The Voth would appreciate it if we could get it from her, but I wasn’t sure how to go about doing that. I wasn’t their tech guy. I was surveillance.
Or, at least I liked to think so.
“Hey,” the girl said, bright eyes beaming suddenly as she looked over at me. “You’re… it’s you.”
I looked her over: ample breasts and a curved frame.
I saw Axen mouthing something to her but didn’t catch what. If she thought I knew her, she was sorely mistaken.
“What were you doing here?” I demanded.
The girl stood and looked me over, suddenly seeming smitten. She looked at Axen with trepidation, but myself with an eager lust. Something about the look sent a fire through me, something uncontrollable, just as Axen had warned about the humans.
“You should run,” Axen said to her with as much emphasis as if he were asking what the weather was like.
“Who brought you here?” I said, suddenly unable to control myself.
“Run,” Axen repeated, more playful this time and the girl looked at him with wide, scared eyes.
“Just wait,” she said, putting her hands up toward me.
I don’t know how it happened or if she said anything more, but the next thing I knew she had bolted into the woods.
She took off running, and I felt something inside me buzz, like my limbs weren’t mine to control anymore. I took off after her, following her deep into the forest. I could feel the branches of the trees scraping against my bare arms, could feel a pulsing in my body. That wild aggression I only felt when the Kilari were calling the Vithohn. Calling us to fight.
That hostility rose up again, my feet almost trampling hers as I finally caught up with her.
“Don’t grab my hair, you shithead!” she yelled, and for whatever reason, I listened, grabbing for her arm and pulling her toward me instead.
She came tumbling down at my touch, and I pushed myself on top of her, running my hand up her body. I didn’t want to do anything to her, but my hands kept moving, roving around her deep curves and stopping at the mounds on her chest.
“Why did you look at me that way?” I said, pushing her body into the ground.
“What way?” she asked, playing dumb.
“What did you do to me?” I demanded, wrapping a hand around her neck and giving it a light squeeze. “Undo it.”
“It’s the…” she wheezed, grabbing my hands with hers. “Pull!”
I let go of her throat but didn’t get off her. “What pull?” I said, struggling to calm down, my hands a shaking mess.
“Vithohn are pulled towards humans until—”
My eyes went wide at the thought, and I fought off disgust. Vithohn were pulled toward humans? Why would a warrior race be drawn to something so weak? Beings that couldn’t even defend their own planet?
Yet, as I looked down at her, heaving chest and bright brown eyes, I believed her. I struggled with myself as though it were my physical opponent, wrestling me.
Suddenly, I wanted to possess her. I wanted to have her. I ripped at her jacket until part of it tore off. She wore a black shirt underneath, but I was able to get a breast out. I feasted my eyes on it, round and pooling to the side.
“Don’t,” she bristled against my touch, jerking her head to the side. But I couldn’t stop myself.
I was so hard, I thought I was about to explode. I kicked her pants down just enough, incredibly drawn to her. There was something in her that at that moment felt like it was mine. Like she already belonged to me.
“Wait, wait,” she said with an eerie calm as she grabbed both sides of my face. “Please, tell me your name,” she asked.
But I couldn’t bring myself to speak any longer. My eyes were awash with lust, and I pushed inside her, eliciting a low groan from her mouth as I thrusted back and forth against her body, holding it close to mine.
I wanted to be as close to her as possible, to get rid of this horrible feeling inside me… or to be enveloped in it—I couldn’t decide wish.
I never felt so scattered in all my life.
Looking down at her, I began to feel sick, satisfied, but guilty somehow. Even though we were clearly connected, she and I. Destined to meet.
She reached up again, and our eyes met, hers looking so determined and golden brown I almost got lost in them. She kissed me then, and my heart raced with excitement. She felt it too.
I slipped my tongue into her mouth and she ground hers against mine, moaning as she did so.
We moved together perfectly, our bodies in sync in a way I had never experienced, my body racking against hers until I felt the quick but sudden jolt of… awake.
“Shit…” I breathed, barely audible.
I was… awakened now. I pressed my eyes shut and withdrew from her, heaving my breaths before my grip on her body went lax.
“I’m…” I reached down to touch the back of her head, check if she was bleeding.
What was I doing?
The look in her eyes was… pure terror. It made me feel sick, and suddenly I realized, she wasn’t in sync with me. It was only me, alone, who was drawn to her.
“I’m so sorry,” I finished, running my thumb over her muddy cheek.
Then I looked down and realized we’d been in a mud pit this whole time.
This wasn’t some connecting of souls, some destiny. We weren’t joining ourselves. I had attacked her in a mud pit. Like some animal.
“I’m an idiot,” I swore, pressing my eyes shut in fury. When I opened them again, I looked over at her with deep regret. “Are you alright?” I said and remembered that I’d thrown her jacket off. I looked over at her and shook my head before turning to grab the item and return it to her.
But when I turned back, she had already taken off running.