The Monster's Caress - S.E. Smith Page 0,82

could only inject an infinitesimal amount of my energy into this body, I am sorry, but I can give you information.”

“What are you?” Ross asked in a guarded tone.

“What I am is no longer important. The creature’s composition used to consist of a bacterium that lives and grows within the DNA of its host, but a portion of it mixed with me and the remains of a genetically mutated symbiot. It feeds off our energy. I am too weak to stop the mutation,” she explained.

“How do we destroy it?” Ashure demanded.

Aminta glanced up at the stars. “Someone is coming. She can destroy this abomination once and for all. Make no mistake, you will all be needed to battle this enemy. Kill its various forms, make it condense into a single body with a fraction of its power left—that is vitally important. You must hold it off until the visitor from Valdier arrives to deal the final blow. It cannot be allowed to reach the Gateway. If it were to access the River of Life, I fear it would be unstoppable. Every spark of life in this universe would eventually be consumed.”

“What about Asahi? If we defeat the creature, what will happen to him?” Nali quietly asked.

Aminta looked at her, and Nali saw the answer reflected in Asahi’s possessed eyes. Tears filled her eyes, and she silently shook her head.

“No—I won’t lose him,” she said in a raw voice.

“This has never been done before: dual essences within a human like this. I have claimed him for the side he wishes to fight for, but the creature still sees him as one of its own resources in this war. What happens next, it will hurt him. I wish I could give you hope, but I simply don’t know if he can survive this.”

Nali leaned heavily on Ashure when her knees threatened to collapse, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. She regarded Asahi's calm face, past the thin veneer of Aminta’s control. The gold faded until she was staring into Asahi’s brown eyes.

“Nali,” Asahi hoarsely said.

She pulled away from Ashure and wrapped her arms around Asahi’s waist. Closing her eyes, she held him. All around her, she could hear explosions, Drago’s roar, and Koorgan’s booming curses.

“Empress, our forces have retreated to the second level,” Pai said.

Nali opened her eyes, pulled back, and stared into Asahi’s eyes. She slid her hand up his chest and caressed his face. He wrapped his hand around hers and held it against his cheek.

“Go. Aminta and I will connect with the alien,” he said.

She nodded and reluctantly turned toward Pai. “I will assess the situation,” she replied.

“We’ll help Asahi,” Ashure said, waving his hand at Ross.

“Thank you,” Nali murmured. She nodded to Pai. “Let’s kill these things.”

Chapter 27

Before reaching out to the alien, Asahi linked to the Goddess inside him, bringing to the fore a strong desire to join forces—and knowledge flooded his entire being. The scene they had witnessed in the mirror made much more sense now.

The entity that had shattered Aminta’s original form was a tainted symbiot. Symbiots, Asahi learned, were the living gold companions of the Valdier, a dragon-shifting species. These golden companions were healers and shapeshifters, and they were born in the River of Life that contained the essence of the species many believed to be Goddesses. The symbiot that had attacked Aminta, however, had been perversely altered by the power-hungry Valdier outcast, Raffvin Reykill. Together they had waged war on the Goddesses in the sacred cavern.

To survive the tainted symbiot’s attack, Aminta had mixed her essence with that of the mutated symbiot. Luckily, she was able to section off enough of her mind to force her new self through the Gateway, away from the river of symbiots and inadvertently back in time—any centuries back in time.

That version of their enemy had the potential to be powerful and destructive, but when it encountered a meteor that contained the alien bacteria, it became something even worse. Weakened by the battle, they could not fend off the bacteria that seeped into their merged remains.

The bacteria had quickly spread, evolving and engulfing what remained of them to become something new—a dangerous and dark liquid parasite. The joining of the bacteria and Raffvin’s tortured symbiot had produced a need to destroy and consume any and every living being they encountered. Aminta had unwillingly supplied the tainted symbiot with her species’ immense power and the knowledge of the worlds she had encountered.

Thankfully, she was again able to