Chapter Twenty-Two
Vanek
He fell back before the Outsider.
It was over now. He wasn’t going to be able to last. For a brief moment his heart had soared as he’d thought Harlow was going to tell him something about how she felt. But in the end she’d not spoken, staying quiet as the Outsider used its advantage against him.
Vanek was peeved that it was using his own strength against him after sapping it from him the night before, but there was little he could do about it. Despite eating far more ration bars than he ever wanted to see again in his life, he had been unable to recover fully. There just wasn’t enough time.
“It’s okay,” he said as he bumped up against her, urging her to keep moving. “I understand.”
Harlow got to her feet and started backing away with him. Vanek could barely hold his sword arm upright now, wobbling somewhat unsteadily as they retreated together. At some point her fingers found his free hand, squeezing them tight.
“You need to run,” he said.
“What?”
“Run. Away. Get out of here. Corde and Kallore are on their way. They’ll be here soon. You need to survive until they do. They’ll kill this thing. But I can’t, Harlow.”
“What? Vanek, you need to! Fight it!”
“Can’t,” he said, the word garbled and barely understandable through his fatigue. “Too tired. Go now. I’ll use what I have. I’ll hold it off. You need to run. Save yourself. Please.”
“I thought you were going to kick this thing’s ass.”
He smiled at her condescending tone. Normally it would have given him a boost as she played to his ego, but now he was just too exhausted, too far gone. There was nothing left. No energy left for him to spend.
“Looks like this is it for me,” he said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be strong enough.”
He sagged to the floor, pushing back as he went. The Outsider came after him but he used some of the last of his strength to hit it with a fireball, the unexpected blow flipping it over and back across the warehouse. No damage marred its black chitinous exterior as it rose, his attack catching it off-stride more than anything.
“You have to be strong enough, Vanek. You need to survive this.”
“Can’t.”
She snarled and rushed back to his side. “Now you listen to me,” she snapped, looking him straight in the eyes. “There is no way the man that I love is going to lose to some emo-alien motherfucker. You got that?”
Vanek’s gaze fixed on her with sudden vigor. “What did you say?”
“I said I love you,” she said, surprise echoing in the whites of her blue eyes, as if she hadn’t believed herself capable of saying it. “Dammit, I love you.”
And she kissed him. Vanek’s ears perked up at a sound and he pulled her out of the way, lunging to his feet as the Outsider’s sword plunged down where her back had been.
His sword flamed to life, and he easily swatted the blow aside as energy poured into him. Every muscle of his body swelled with power and his sword grew brighter with each hammering beat of his heart.
Vanek faced the Outsider, gripping his sword in both hands as he stared it down. “Now you’re in big, big trouble,” he growled into the deafening silence of the warehouse.
The creature shrieked, the first noise it had made and lunged at him, moving faster than he’d ever seen. Vanek blocked the blows as best he could, but it was simply faster than he was. He backed away, astounded by the ferocity of the creature.
It batted his sword out of the way and a bladed arm came to rest against his chest. Vanek roared as he realized despite it all that he’d lost. Harlow’s admission of her love was simply too little too late. It was going to suck the rest of his lifeforce from him, leaving nothing but an empty husk of a corpse.
He closed his eyes, preparing to accept his defeat. The red-orange glow of his fire disappeared as he let it flicker out, and for a brief second the back of his eyelids were black. That didn’t last however, as a blue glow, brilliant in its brightness, burst into being. Vanek’s eyes popped open and he witnessed something remarkable.
Tendrils of blue energy emerged from his chest, but this time they didn’t surge into his opponent, empowering it. Instead they latched onto the sword-arm, holding it fast. The Outsider struggled, but it was held firm.
Vanek howled as his body arced with energy, pouring more and more of it into the sword arm. The Outsider began to panic, pulling fiercely, but it didn’t matter. The tendrils of energy plunged deep into the black armor-like substance, and it began to shake. The entire warehouse was bathed in blue light now, and he grinned evilly as the sword arm simply disintegrated, starting from the tip where it was pressed against him and moving up its length. Black ash burst outward and the blue energy exploded, blasting the Outsider across the warehouse.
“KICK HIS ASS, VANEK!” Harlow shouted from behind him. “Then get over here so I can show you just how much I love you!”
He turned to grin at her, lifting one hand to point at her. Red-tinged eyes went wide as he saw his skin begin to glow.
“I’ll be right there,” he said, his voice deeper than he’d ever heard, louder and more powerful than even when he spoke in his dragon form, filling the warehouse to bursting. “There’s something I need to do first.”
Vanek stalked across the distance as the Outsider rose to its feet, the entire front of its armor riddled with cracks. It shrieked again and came at him, its arm even now sprouting a new sword as liquid-like tendrils of its armor leapt upward from what would be its fist in a nauseating lifelike healing manner.
But that was nothing compared to the transformation happening in Vanek. His heart swelled with the love of his mate, and as he walked across the warehouse that power manifested itself in flame. Black hair that fell to his shoulders bounced lively as it grew brighter and brighter until each strand was a living flame itself. His skin crackled and came to life, turning red-orange as flames erupted all across his body.
A living avatar of flame, he greeted the Outsider with a booming laugh. A blue nimbus of energy at his core, he went on the offensive, and for the first time in history the Outsiders learned just how powerful a mated dragon could be.
One fiery hand rose up and grasped a black-bladed sword, holding it firm. Vanek snapped the blade in half, tossing it at the creature. Its other arm rose to block it, and as it did he casually sliced off its other arm with a backhand blow.
It tried to get away, but he stepped forward and without a second thought plunged his fist into its chest. The flames effortlessly parted the matte-black armor and his arm sunk in nearly to his elbow.
“Goodbye,” he snarled, and poured energy into the other creature.
It shrieked over and over again, but imbued with the power of his mate and her love, he held it firm. Nothing was going to escape his righteous wrath now. The black armor swelled and began to crack as its body filled with an energy that wasn’t its own. Light began to be visible through the cracks, and as they grew wider the flames eating it from the inside revealed themselves.
“It’s time for you to die,” he said, and with a howl sent even more fire into the Outsider.
It shrieked louder than before, the sound assaulting his ears, but it was too late.
Without warning the armor burst as the flames literally blew it apart from the inside, showering the warehouse in fragments of its armor and a rain of purple goop.
Vanek sagged backward, his eyes wide.
He’d done it. He’d actually done it. He’d killed an Outsider!
The flames surrounding his body died away, and with a shake of his arm his sword vanished into thin air as well. It was over.
“Harlow?” he asked, turning around.
“I hope you have a good explanation for this one as well,” she said, spitting out purple goo and wiping it from her face.
“I love you,” he said, saying the words again.
“I love you too,” she echoed. “But what the hell, man? I’m covered in purple goo!”
Vanek couldn’t help it. He roared with laughter. The look of stunned disbelief on Harlow’s face only made him howl harder. A moment later, despite everything, Harlow joined him. They fell into each other’s arms, lying on the ground, screaming with laughter as relief over everything filled them.
Corde and Kallore found them like that ten minutes later, staring bizarrely at the two purple-goo covered figures in a mixture of confusion and happiness.