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She was used to the pain of shifting shape. The only problem was that when she forced the process and hurried it along, the pain was far sharper and intense. It would be all too easy to pass out from the trauma and suffering.
If only everyrarehad Nero’s ability to shift with barely a grimace.
There was no time to gradually ease into it. Her muscles didn’t stretch and reform back into shape, they snapped into place. Her bones didn’t break one after the other, they all but shattered simultaneously. She withheld a howl, thankful that Gray at least kept her upright. Her fin retracted sharply, her scales disappearing as her skin emerged. Her talk-stone became no more, her hair reverting back to its dark coloring and her webbing fading away to reveal her human fingers and toes.
“Satisfied?” she asked hoarsely, so close to giving into the urge to sink into oblivion it took everything she had just to stay conscious.
“Nothing about this is satisfying,” he grated. “But let’s not argue about it now. Let’s just focus on surviving the next few hours.”
“You took those odds away from me the moment you caught me in the river and forced me back out of it.”
“No.Youtook those odds away when you escaped from the house I’d set up to be safe and secure.”
Her heart thumped in her chest. The Dronian mothership was already close enough to reveal its shadowy undercarriage. And yet still she felt compelled to make him see reason. “Why can’t you just admit this is your fault?”
“Maybe I am at fault,” he conceded softly. “But you can’t blame me for doing anything possible to keep my world safe.”
That he’d finally admitted his part in this mess didn’t make her feel any better. Not with the underside of the mothership flashing briefly in a multitude of lights before it darkened suddenly and a hatch slid open, revealing some of the illuminated pink-colored interior of the ship.
She swallowed hard. She’d bet there was a multitude of Dronians standing around the opening, ready to jump and land on their powerful hind legs, her enemy now salivating to kill both her and Gray. Even if he hadn’t defeated any of their former comrades, he would be considered guilty by association.
Though she didn’t take her eyes away from the mothership, she was suddenly glad she couldn’t see the sadistic motherfuckers inside it. She could almost believe the mothership really was empty, almost believe they were safe even while one question filled her head. “Why have they brought the mothership back into Earth’s atmosphere?”
Gray’s breath hitched, his attention on her absolute with his eerie yellow eyes glowing and his wings tightening around her. “What do you mean?”
“Never mind,” she said tightly. He wasn’t going to get anything else from her. That she’d slipped up at all and given him even a skerrick of information shamed her deeply.
He released his wings from around her, her naked human form then exposed to the elements. She shivered. Though she might despise him and his wings, there had been security having them encase her. That the leathery appendages had as much caressed and stimulated her as they’d kept her prisoner was something she’d have to examine later.
For now they had Dronians to fight and to kill.
He nodded for her to climb the riverbank. “After you.”
“This is a mistake,” she said, even as she began the muddy ascent, tufts of grass her handholds. Even if she couldn’t see the Dronians, at least her residual sight meant she’d see better in the darkness, at least for a little while. “I mean, do you even have any weapons?”
“Guess I was too busy trying to come after you through the window of the bedroom you locked me inside.”
She glanced back at him. “How did you manage to undo the screws?”
He pushed the tip of one of his wings forward. “See these prongs on the ends of my wings?” She nodded, and he added, “They’re the one and only thing on my body that I can adapt to almost any shape.”
“So, what? You turned your prongs into a star screwdriver?” she asked faintly, impressed despite the fact she could shift her whole body into a secondary human shape. What he probably didn’t know was that her kind was only able to shift into a shape that was similar to their primary form. She’d never be able to become a cat or a dog or bird. It was yet another reason why Earth had been the perfect place to hide out and become human.
Evenrareswere unlikely to shift into another species. Only Epello had been able to access that unique power, though she had no idea whether he was still able to do that little trick on Earth. Everyone’s powers were unstable here, some growing stronger, some weaker and more unpredictable.
Gray swiped up his pants and pulled them on, covering his overly generous cock. She released a pent up breath.Phew.Out of sight, out of mind. That was one motto she could learn to appreciate. No matter how sex-deprived she might be she’d never be with Gray. She hated the man.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
She whirled around, her whole body tensing as Dronians landed on the ground close by. Too close. Morethumpssounded then, her enemy’s strong, decaying scent filling the air.
Was it possible the Earth’s atmosphere had made them smell more rotten because they were slowly dying?
The mothership’s hatch slid closed, its undercarriage lighting up briefly before the craft took off into the heavens, disappearing from sight within seconds. It was clear the soldiers that had been left here on Earth were willing to die for their cause, while the rest of the occupants onboard had escaped.
Bongo came running from out of the shadows, his coat bristling as he stood in front of her and growled viciously. She blinked. Could he see the Dronians?
Before she could mull it over, Gray leaped forward at least ten feet, his wings spreading out before he spun. The prongs on his wingtips hit wetly against invisible flesh, the Dronian stench suddenly a whole lot more rotten. She shivered. He must have done a lot of killing in the past if his own body parts killed a Dronian so easily.
