My attention snapped back to the arena and the monsters. He was right. The creatures advanced cautiously, flanking Penny, who stood her ground in the center of the arena. The crystal spearpoint flashed in the light as she lifted her spear high in both hands, turning it to point at one, then the other. Despite how scared she had to be, her grip was steady, and her stance solid. Pride leaked into the swirling maelstrom of my emotions. Penny might be doomed, but she didn’t intend to go quietly.
“No.” I didn’t intend to speak aloud, but the word slipped out. Driin looked at me with a curious expression, and a desperate plan flashed through my mind.
Well. Not aplan, more a Step One with nothing to follow it. Exactly the kind of thing Penny would hate. My lips twitched into a smile at the thought of her shouting at me for saving her, and I grabbed Driin by the collar.
He is only a Candidate-Collector, but the forcefield didn’t stop his hand. So maybe he’s close enough…
Ignoring his squawk of protest, I swung the Bauran general at the forcefield, leaping with him and hoping his immunity would carry over to me.
25
PENNY
My heart broke for Varok knowing how hard it would be for him to watch me die. But he’d live, and in time his pain would fade. Meanwhile, I planned to make him proud of me. Taking a deep breath, I focused my attention on the approaching creatures, lowering myself into my best approximation of a fighter’s stance and hoping I looked the part.
Admittedly, my idea of what a spear fighter looked like rested entirely on old Earth art and the occasional action holoshow. Both cared more about the girls looking sexy, confident, and dangerous than actually fighting. It would have to do.
The ground-bound monster came at me first, like a nightmare hybrid of scorpion, crocodile, and lion. It moved faster than I’d given it credit for, a blur of death, and I turned the spear too late to catch it head-on. The thing’s scales parted under the crystal blade, opening a long, shallow gash in its side. Its pincers snapped at me, but it misjudged the timing, too. Instead of grabbing me, it knocked me aside to land heavily on the scorching sands. Another pounce brought a giant paw down, missing my head by inches as I rolled out of the way. A handful of sand thrown into its face made it back off, and I scrambled to my feet.
Almost dead three times in as many seconds. This won’t be a fight to remember.I tried to come up with a plan, but everything I thought of ended the same way: me, dead on the sands.
The second creature drifted closer, a giant flying jellyfish-squid with barbed tentacles and a wicked, snapping beak waiting for me to be drawn up to it. I shuddered at the thought, realizing something horrible. The only choice left was which of the monsters would eat me?
The crowd roared in shock and horror, and I realized I’d tuned them out to focus on my monstrous foes. This outcry was different, not a cheer for my doom but the gasp of something horrifying and unexpected. I risked a glance and saw the impossible.
Varok. That beautiful silver-skinned idiot had gotten through the forcefield somehow, holding Driin Attrobi in a death grip as they fell to the sand. Driin took the worst of the impact, Varok landing on him with a sickening crunch, and my mate bounced to his feet, leaving the Bauran general in a shuddering heap.
“You, you—” I paused, trying to think of a word that summed up my feelings. “Youunbelievable fucking dickhead.What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You were safe.”
“I am not safe unless you are with me,” he said, which made me want to explode.
“How are you so infuriating and romantic at the same time?” I asked. If he intended to answer, the circumstances robbed me of the explanation. Faster than I could follow, he leaped toward me, tackling me out of the path of a vicious barbed tentacle. The blue-glowing limb missed by inches, and I saw the venom tipping the barbs with far too much clarity as time seemed to freeze around me.
We hit the sand side by side, but Varok recovered faster, bouncing to his feet with my spear in hand. The terriblejellysquid followed us at a steady, ambling pace, like it had all the time in the world. Maybe it did. Where were we going to go?
Varok tore his robe off and wrapped it around his arm. I wanted to tell him to run, but it was pointless—he’d picked this fight and wasn’t about to flee. He stood cool and calm, spear steady and poised to strike. He looked like a silver statue of a warrior, gleaming and naked and glorious. Tendrils reached out for him, grasping with venomous, glistening points.
And my alien warrior took that moment to strike. His muscles tightened, and he moved in a smooth, precise line. Every part of the movement wasperfectas he stepped forward and brought his arm around to throw the heavy spear up and into the jellysquid’s single, staring eye.
The tip punched through, all the way into the creature’s gas bag, and with a shuddering moan, it sank to the sands. Silence filled the arena. Even the scorpiolion stood frozen in place as Varok lifted me to my feet and held me tight.
“I am Varok Amzar,” he said, voice booming to fill the silence. “And this human ismine.No one will harm her. If you insist on trying, then send better fighters than this to challenge me.”
Mine. The word echoed in my soul, and I clung tight to him, his heartbeat slow and steady, his muscles moving like corded steel under his skin. It was absurd—we were still trapped, still going to die in the arena—but somehow, I felt safe. Loved. Claimed.
All my fear and anger faded as he challenged an entire world for me. Bravado or not, he sounded serious, and the arena was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
“You don’t have a plan, do you?” I whispered, and he smiled.
“Of course I do. Pick a fight, save you, carry you to safety.”
“Not a plan,” I told him, though I couldn’t help grinning. “At best, three statements of intent wearing a trench coat.”
“Let’s see you do better,” he said, drawing the sword from my hip and turning to keep his eye on the scorpiolion as it circled us.
In his hands, the short sword looked more like a large knife, but it was enough to deter the prowling monster. I stepped back, trying to think, and that’s when the Collectors upped their game.
More hatches swung open, and nightmares climbed out of the shadows. No two monsters were the same, each looking like a mad biologist had sewn together things that shouldn’t share a planet, let alone a nervous system.
