Alien Brute's Captive - Aya Morningstar Page 0,51
there is no need to read subtle cues. We’re pressing as hard as we can, I can see that from his bulging muscles.
He should go soft. He should have done so a long time ago. Especially with my reactions shot, if he just went soft under my press, my spear would slide forward, and he’d be able to control it. He’d be able to parry it away and counter thrust in ten different ways.
He doesn’t do that, though. He meets strength with strength, and before I can let my ruined reactions get me killed, I commit and attack. Since my reaction time is so delayed, I have to force him to react.
This is a classic “double kill” set-up. We both are forced to attack each other at full strength. As I thrust, I turn my shoulder inward, twisting my entire upper torso with it. I reach out to max strike distance, and with the drugs pumping through me, everything I do feels like it happens a half second later than it should.
The spear hits his neck. It punctures right through, but his spear hits my upper shoulder at the same instant. I can’t react to the moment, I’m a half-second behind. I’ve already committed to my movements. I just have to hope they were right.
The spear cuts through my skin, and just when it feels like it’s going to skewer through my shoulder and into my heart, my torso twists even further and contorts. The spear tip does cut deep through my shoulder, but as I twist, it cuts back out of muscle, and soon it’s just scraping and flaying off the skin of my upper back. It finally tears out just short of my spinal cord, which is also when the pain comes in.
I growl as blood gushes down my body, but Mi Treton is twitching on the end of my spear. I give it one last shove for good measure, and the spearhead bursts out the back of his neck. He’s as dead as they get, and I’m bleeding out, but still very much alive.
I let the spear go, and the pain in my shoulder explodes like a supernova. Muscle is torn to shreds, and my decision to push the spear deeper into Mi Treton costs me dearly, as I feel the muscle ripping even more under the strain of exertion.
There’s stunned silence all around, and I manage to stumble around and catch a glimpse of Maya and Gethros’ stunned expressions. Guess no one is taking your wine to Epsilon Eridani now, and say goodbye to your spear and your painting, too.
The last thing I see is Catherine. She’s standing up, hands covering her mouth, and her face is nothing but pain. As much as I’m hurting, in that last moment before I black out, I realize she’s hurting more than me, and I did it to her.
I wake up in a cryo chamber. Thraxa and THESIUS are there.
“Shit…” I say. “Did we pull it off?”
Thraxa’s smile answers my question.
I can’t make myself smile. I touch my shoulder. It’s completely healed.
“Shit. How long was I out for?”
“Three months,” Thraxa says. “The neuro agent was going to kill you. We had to freeze you until the ship could synthesize an antidote. It couldn’t. So we had to dock on Cygnus and pay a hefty sum to get one engineered. I took that out of your pay, by the way.”
So I’m rich. I’m renowned. I can do whatever I want.
Catherine’s gone.
THESIUS comes back in with a steaming cup of tea. He smiles and hands it to Thraxa. From the way she touches his arm, I know they’re together now. So she found the way to make her line strong, and THESIUS found a way to reintegrate. Good for them.
I can’t believe I was on ice for months. In my mind, I just broke up with Catherine a few hours ago.
“Where’s Catherine?” I ask. My voice is rasping and dry. I need water.
They look at each other, but Thraxa speaks.
“She stayed with us for a while,” Thraxa says. “She said…”
THESIUS gives her a look, but Thraxa glares at him.
“I’m not going to bullshit you, Krakon. She hated your guts. She stayed with us for a while only because you were on ice. She told me--several times--that if you were awake, she’d be gone. I gave her a chunk of your split. She played her role well until the end, and I gave her what I felt was fair for that.”
“It’s fine,”