“Hold on!” I growl back at Rosalie. “We’re going up.”
I fold my wings and slam my claws into the stone, clambering as quickly as I can up and up the rough sides.
The bot has not yet given up on us, and if we are to deal with all the Gonoz, then we are to deal with them all.
I can hear it behind me, thumping as it climbs too. I increase my speed as we approach the capping at the top, firing a blast of flame at it in the hope it isn’t any particularly strong metal.
As I burst through into dense forest, I hear my sweet mate on my back. She squeals. It sounds like she’s hurt.
In less than a nova instant, I have shifted back, and I catch her in my arms.
“Heartsfire?” I swiftly check her all over, but she is uninjured.
Instead she throws herself around my neck, her head buried in my scales, her breath hot and uneven.
“Dante…that was…amazing!” she huffs into me.
But of course she liked it. She is my mate after all.
“Where did the robot go?” Rosalie lifts her head.
Nev. I forgot about the bot.
A metal pincer folds over the molten edge, and then another, then a third, and this one has a pulsar cannon attached.
Rosalie swings round, pointing her pistol at the thing before I grab hold of her arm and throw us both to the ground.
The cannon bolt impacts in a tree directly behind where we are lying. It explodes into a shower of vegetation and water, covering us completely in debris.
“Let me shoot back!” Rosalie roars.
“Not against a cannon,” I reply over the sound of yet more pulsar bolt impacts.
Vast trees are falling as if they are mere spines on a Sarkarnii tail. My Rosalie is too close to the destruction for me to flame at the bot. I cover her with my body as best I can to keep her sweet form from being injured as I look for a way out, any way out which will allow us to be free of this nevving place.
There is one final cannon bolt, and save for the soft fall of tree branches, there is silence. At least until I see a pair of boots I sort of recognize.
“I know you didn’t want me to come to your battle, Dante,” Dexx growls from above me. “But I came anyway.”
I release Rosalie from under me, helping her to her feet and again, in such a short time, checking her for injury. There is no scent of blood from her, and I send a silent thanks to the ancestors.
“Someone let a bot go rogue,” Dexx drawls. “And I might have damaged it.”
I look over at the steaming pile of metal, glinting among the greens of the jungle.
“Good.” Rosalie brushes herself off. “The warranty just expired.”
She puts her hand into her pocket and pulls out the ball of glowing conduits.
“Do you think you can add one more to your cage?” she asks, handing it to me.
“It would be my pleasure, little flame.”
“And then, can we go home? I’ve had more than enough excitement to last me a lifetime.”
I capture her, pulling her to my chest, pressing a kizz to her lips, and tasting everything I hold in my heart.
“No more excitement.” I grin. “Only mating and breeding.”
