known there'd been something familiar about Tecumseh, but he'd never put it together with her being the same Si female on the sabotaged transport. All that just to end him? Suddenly it all became clear.
"You are Taini’s mate."
"I wasss her mate!" Nalo hissed. "Until you entisssed her into betraying her vowsss, then when you left Sssion, you callousssly left her behind."
Jamis wanted to defend himself of the lies Taini had told her mate but knew it would do no good, not with the madness in Nalo's eyes.
"I'd planned on dessstroying you ssslowly. By causssing chaosss and ruining your command."
"You were behind all the accidents and the changed flight paths."
"Yesss," Nalo hissed gleefully. "But thisss will be ssso much better. You will lossse not one but two matesss and have to live the ressst of your life ssspan knowing it wasss all your fault."
"You'll never get away with this, Nalo."
"But I will becaussse you will be asss alone asss you made me." With that, Nalo pressed a weapon beneath his chin and, as his elbow slammed into the outer door release ejecting Cali into space, pulled the trigger.
"No!" Jamis screamed, but he knew he had no chance of saving Cali. The moment the exterior door began to open, Cali's life span had ended, her body sucked out into space along with Jamis’s future.
Ignoring the rest of the Si's body, he turned to the bond mate he still had. Touching his link, he dropped to his knees beside Taarig and pressed his hands to Taarig’s chest, trying to stem the flow of blood from the through-and-through blast.
"Hold on, Taarig," Jamis ordered hoarsely, and Taarig's eyes flickered open.
"What did you need, Commander?" came a voice in Jamis’s ear.
"Get to ML105, Lead Meddyg Ra, Sub Commander Ynn is injured."
"On our way, Commander."
"Let me see her, J," Taarig gurgled, his eyes pleading, "one last time."
Jamis’s chest couldn't have felt more constricted if that Sion Viper had him in her coils. How could he tell his bond mate and life-long friend that he'd failed to save their Lalla, especially when he, too, was so close to following her?
"Don't talk like that, T," Jamis ordered, trying to force his will into him as he pressed down harder. "Just hold on, the Meddygs are on their way."
"J," blood bubbled out of the corner of Taarig's mouth, "please!"
Tears flowed down Jamis’s cheeks because he couldn't give Taarig his last request. He'd been in enough battles, had seen enough injuries to know that the Meddygs wouldn’t get here in time. "I'm sorry, T," he choked out, "she's gone."
The gurgling breath Taarig sucked in told Jamis how near Taarig was to the end. So, he was shocked when Taarig lifted a trembling hand and pointed behind him.
Swinging around, Jamis was stunned by what he saw. While he'd been trying to save the bond mate he still had, the inner airlock door had opened. Exiting it was a four-legged creature that only existed in ancient space lore.
Its snout crossed the threshold first. The flaps over its nostrils were opening and closing as it scented the room. A massive, scale-covered head followed. It had two black orbs centered on either side of the snout. Those orbs zeroed in on Nalo's decapitated body, and the scales that concealed its mouth made a clicking sound as they curled back in a snarl, revealing razor-sharp shards of obsidian.
As it crept toward Nalo's body across the metal floor, the long, curved talons on each paw screeched as they dug in. The rest of its body was covered in the same dark scales and seemed to absorb the light instead of reflecting it. A long, barbed tail followed, swishing angrily back and forth.
The thump of Taarig's hand on the floor pulled Jamis’s gaze from the beast to witness the life fade from Taarig's eyes. As it did, the creature released a guttural howl as dark, cold, and primal as the universe itself. It pierced Jamis’s soul.
From the corner of his eye, Jamis saw the beast launch itself toward him but couldn't find a reason to care. Not with his bond mate and Lalla gone. Baring his throat to the beast, he closed his eyes and waited. He wanted the next thing he saw to be his loved ones on the other side.
But the strike never came.
Instead, hands covered his. Small, soft hands that felt exactly like…
"Move, Jamis," Cali ordered, shouldering him aside. "I can still save him!"
Jamis’s eyes flew open when he found himself at Taarig's feet and