Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,90

they did to her once they were safely away. Would they feast on her, like vultures on carrion? Alive, not carrion. She’d be alive when they tore at her flesh.

‘Stop thinking about it!’ Charsus demanded. ‘Focus only on the battle. If you falter and fall you will take your podmates with you.’

That gave me a renewed adrenalin hit. I wasn’t going to be the weak link. I would fight until my arms fell off.

Sometime later, when dizziness threatened to fell me, Charsus again spoke.

‘We are moving again. Once we have established a new space from which to fight, you need to rest. The other women have more stamina than you do. You are getting sloppy and inattentive from exhaustion.’

I fought to deny his words, but I couldn’t. My brain wouldn’t even focus well enough to argue.

When we once more clambered over the dead, slipping and sliding every step of the way, I hung in for just a little while longer. Once we had more space again, I dropped down to rest, my body finally giving out on me.

I quickly silenced the worries coming at me from my pod by assuring them I was just tired. There answer was to tighten their circle around me. I could feel their fatigue like a heavy weight on my shoulders. Rian wouldn’t be much longer before he was forced to rest as well. But the remainder were fierce in their strength and stamina. If you had to fight, then having Danan warriors at your side was the way to go. They were like Energizer Bunnies. They just kept going and going.

I felt the change when it came. Maybe it was the fact that the space felt less claustrophobic and the air smelled sweeter. Maybe the cacophony from their screeches had lessened. When I passed on my feeling to Charsus and Rian, who were resting at my side, they looked skyward.

‘You’re right. There aren’t as many of them now. Look, I can even see some stars up there,’ Rian said, hope in his tired voice.

Over the next however long, my initial feeling became a certainty. Finally, the last dive bombers came and fell, and we were left in the silence that followed.

“Back to the ship. We don’t know if another wave is on its way or not. Better to be out of here before that happens,” Thaid yelled, his voice as strong as ever.

Lain helped me to my feet, while Meida did the same with Rian/Charsus. Together, we staggered towards the spaceship that waited quietly for us.

I tried not to look at the hundreds of bodies scattered across the empty plain. Even though they’d been the enemy, determined to kill us, I felt no pleasure in the sight of their still forms. The sheer numbers made me sick with regret.

But we’d done it. We’d survived. Unfortunately, I was too exhausted to care.

28

CHARSUS

I left Rian to recover and took to Fourth Density, needing to clear my mind. The battle had been grueling, the emotions almost too much to handle. For the first time since allowing Rian in, I regretted my decision. I was not equipped for the intensity of the life the Danans lived. Though I’d come to love Jenna as much as Rian did, I couldn’t imagine having to permanently live with the exhausting emotional responses the pod experienced on a regular basis. At first, it had been new and oddly exhilarating. That was no longer the case.

So, I took my time away from them to try to come to terms with the way my life had changed in a short period of time. I’d lived a thousand years in relative peace and serenity, enjoying my role as a Soul Shepherd, until the last few weeks when I began to experience firsthand the rigors of love, violence, and fear.

‘Brother,’ a voice said, drawing me from my storm of thoughts and feelings that I hadn’t left behind in Third Density.

‘Danheez?’

I knew her voice as well as I knew my own, so it really wasn’t a question. The question was more to do with her presence here. She had moved on to higher levels of being not long after she’d died.

‘Yes. It is I. It is so good to see you again. I have missed you.’

‘As I have missed you. What are you doing here?’ I asked, worried for the first time.

Worry was something of a habit, I was discovering. Once I’d started to worry about Jenna and the baby I didn’t seem able to stop. Now,