Erin’s heart pounded in her chest. The furs she’d been clutching fell away. The rain picked up, a solid haze in her vision, and she struggled to make out Jaxor as he approached the main tunnel.
Something flashed after Jaxor crouched. It was the knife she’d had last night, when she’d been waiting by the fire pit for him to return. It was a small relief that he’d managed to find a weapon in the flooded base, but the knife was small. More of a paring knife for food than an actual weapon.
Jaxor approached thekekevirwithout hesitation, attempting to block its way into the base.
But he didn’t get there fast enough.
Erin’s heart leapt in her throat when she heard the creature roar. In the blink of an eye, the creature lunged from the shadows.
Jaxor dodged easily, though narrowly. The water around his ankles slowed his movements, but thekekevirseemed unaffected. The beast pivoted, its six legs proving to be an advantage, bouncing through the water with ease. It lunged before Jaxor fully swung around to face it.
A cry escaped Erin’s lips when thekekevirslammed into Jaxor, attaching the front of its clawed legs into the side of his chest and raking down.
“Jaxor!”
Through the heavy curtain of rain, she saw blood bloom across Jaxor’s skin.
Thekekevir’shead snapped to her after it detached from Jaxor. Erin didn’t even have time to process those eerie white eyes until it was racing towards her.
Erin gasped, stumbling back, going down hard when the furs she’d dropped tangled around her feet. Thekekevirwas fast. It was already at the fire pit. Another long leap and it would be at the base of the cave’s entrance—
The creature shrieked and jerked back with the undeniable sound of cracking bone. Erin heard it even over the roar of the storm.
Jaxor had lunged for the creature. He had a grip around one of its hind legs, had broken it with his strength as he pulled it back from the cave, away from her.
Thekekevirhissed, lashing out at Jaxor with its claws, struggling as the Luxirian male brought it down, pinning its front to the ground. It thrashed in the flood, water spraying up in chaotic, frenzied arcs.
With a rough bellow, Jaxor jammed the knife into the back of thekekevir’shead. It went deep. In a single moment, the creature slumped, quiet.
It had all happened so fast that Erin was still frozen on the floor of the cave, her hand still stretched out towards the furs around her ankles.
There was a ringing sound in her ears as she stared down at Jaxor and the deadkekevir. A swirl of dark blood moved in the water beneath the both of them. She didn’t know whose blood it was.
Thatthought jolted her into motion and she tore the furs away from her ankles quickly, climbing to her feet, ignoring the dull ache in her backside from falling hard on her ass.
The moment she stepped from the protection of the cave, she was soaked to the bone. The rain wasthatthick and heavy.
“Jaxor!” she called out, carefully navigating her way down the staircase that led up to the cave’s entrance. Erin ignored the way her foot throbbed, putting her full weight on it. She needed to reach him andfast. “Are you okay?”
The Luxirian male was still hunched over thekekevir, his hand still on the handle of the knife wedged into the creature’s skull. When he heard her, he finally pushed to his feet. At first glance, Erin thought she’d been mistaken that thekekevirhad slashed him at all. His skin was clean. But she’d seen the blood, hadn’t she?
Then she realized the rain was washing everything away. When she jumped down to the base floor, she trudged through the heavy water until she reached him. His hair was inky black, tendrils plastered to his features.
Erin’s eyes scanned the front of his bare chest, trying to swallow the panic that was rising. Up close, she saw the two deep gashes, raking from the middle of his left pectoral all the way down to his hip bone.
“Vrax,” he cursed.
“Jaxor,” she breathed, blinking away the rain in her eyes. It was deep. Too deep. She watched dark blue blood push up between the gashes before it disappeared into the rising water at their feet. “That needs stitches. I—I can do that.”
Erin knew it was bad when Jaxor nodded his head without a single argument. He jerked his head up to the cave’s entrance and Erin remembered that he had medical supplies in one of the chests.
He staggered forward, seemingly dizzy, and Erin, acting on instinct, wrapped her arm around his hips, minding the deep wound. She wondered how much blood he’d lost already…and how much it would take until he passed out from the loss. If he’d been human, he would have already, surely.
Leaving thekekevir, Erin helped lead him up to the cave, though it wasn’t easy. The stone was slick and she had a seven-foot-tall alien male leaning on her.
Jaxor groaned when they made the final push up the last stone and then they both stumbled inside.
He dropped on the furs towards the back of the cave—where Erin had slept last night—leaning against the wall.
