I steal glances at other human females as I avoid collisions with them, other males, and the dense trees. None of the other females come close to stirring the heat in my Vybrance nodes the way this one does.
But I can’t lash out at the Listhaetis even if I could easily end him before he reaches her. We’re all on the live ABR show, and I have no doubt some Amphirans are watching. It’s an intergalactic stage, one I didn’t really think about. I was more concerned with finding a mate who actually wanted me back.
I didn’t think this through, but I’m all in now.
The Listhaetis circles a cluster of boulders as the female runs into a small clearing in the forest. He coils for an attack as she looks around like she doesn’t know which way to run. I know it as much as I see the behavior pattern. I remember it from the Mantis mission. I saw what his kind does to humans.
I push myself harder. “You will not take another human on my watch!”
He notices me as he launches for the female. But he’s left the ground too late to change course. I’ve got him right where I want him. A loose arc from my supercharged state punches into the ground, spraying dirt into the air. Then another. And another.
We collide hard and land many paces off course. Our momentum carries us through the rustling grass, away from the female, as the whirring hum of a cameradrone closes in.
As soon as we stop rolling, I launch him off of me with my feet. Once a Listhaetis gets its hands on someone, it becomes nearly impossible to break free without a weapon.
Lucky me, I am a weapon.
As he flails away, one of his many arms pries the backup disc from my body. The Listhaetis smashes into the cameradrone, knocking it into the mountainside. His tail curls around my ankle and lugs me after him. We tumble until he has me in his death grip—all four hands around my throat.
I writhe as he squeezes and blinks his double lids and rasp, “You really shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why?” he challenges with gritted teeth.
The female I want watches from beyond a distant tree.
“Because that device was keeping you safe.” My Storm swells with chaotic bolts and lashes out from my body, zapping bushes and dirt and the flesh of my alien enemy.
He seizes as my charge courses through him, trying to find all possible ways to ground. But Storms do not always behave. Sometimes, they have a mind of their own.
The monstrous alien arches and writhes like he’s dying, but I can’t let go. I have too many memories burned into me from his planet, what he did to the females and their offspring. I don’ttryto push it. I try to hold it back. But I have long-buried hatred of his species for their senseless killing of one of the pioneering species of peace in this universe. And Storms never forget.
“Humans are animals,” he growls as he fights my Storm’s energy.
“They’re far more intelligent than you.” I wrench myself free of his trembling grip so I can break our connection and stop my Storm from hurting him further.
His body smokes, and he shakes, but he will live. Most would not be so lucky.
He slinks back toward ABR’s main complex with a limp as another cameradrone approaches, a red beacon flashing atop it. It tracks the Listhaetis toward the race grounds.
I pick up my disc from the field, unsure it’s still useable, and slap it onto my back again. At least wearing it will make ABR guards happy.
When I look up, the female is gone.
Damn.
The energy in me pulls me deeper into the trees.
She can’t have gone far, right?
Grass swishes in a distant opening. A brown braid swings as a female darts through a sliver of space between trunks. I follow her.
“Hey!” I call out.
I hear a soft gasp to the right, pause, and continue that way. My Storm tugs at me with desperate need. But when I reach her last location, she has vanished.
I think she’s playing with me. The notion stirs a joy I never thought I could feel and a hunger that’s growing nearly feral.
Does this mean she wants me?
