“Go!” I push her.
She hesitates with a last glance at the trio before she scurries back down the hallway and through the interior door. After she’s gone, I turn back to the others and find the Boa on top of Zaku.
Taking aim, I shoot three rounds into the side of the Boa’s back, creating fractures through the ballistic glass with my first two bullets. The third lands just as Krellix grabs him by the tail and twists.
The Boa rises in a roar, arching his back upward as he launches off of Zaku. Flinging Krellix away with his arm, the Copperhead goes flying into the glass door, creating more fractures throughout it.
I watch the Boa flee into the forest. Dropping my weapon, I rush to the door and open it, running out to Krellix’s side.
FIVE
BROKEN GLASS
Krellix
Zakuand I make our way through the woods and back to his home. After returning the orb he had sent to find me, we have been searching for the nagas who I had seen outside yesterday evening. He was not surprised that there had been so many, only that a particular one was missing.
The Boa.
None of them were the naga he actually wanted. In fact, dismissing the Blue Racers and mixed breeds we had come upon with a hiss. He is searching for one that has only begun to turn up recently and one I had not spotted amongst the others showing off to Julia. My jaw ticks and I shake my head.
She failed to mention the Boa. If she had, I may not have acted so disapprovingly. I do not trust her, and this is just another reason why I am sound in that decision. Julia is trying to return to the same people who have hurt us so much. I want to trust her but I am unsure if I can do so.
Zaku slaps a branch that is in his way aside. “I want the Boa’s spine. I want his head rotting with the others so she maylook upon it and know that all who frighten her end up part of my collection, residing among all of the bones I have gathered. The others are mere nuisances, more likely to wait forever for a female rather than outright fight for her and take her. I need his spine to go with his brother’s.”
We are searching for Sada, the Boa. A naga who especially terrifies Daisy. Boas, in their entirety, scare her. She was attacked, dragged, caught, and nearly raped by one participating in the hunt.
I had not known until now.
Daisy has fought off death twice if what Zaku has said to me is true. I have no reason to distrust him. Zaku has never been one to lie, even to his own detriment. He is as bull-headed as he is zealous, rather acting first then asking questions later. Yet, I understand what makes him that way.
When I discovered Daisy crumpled in the seat of a flaming ship shot down from the sky, I was confused by the blood and rent body lying in the small spaceship before me. It was her long yellow hair that identified her as one of the females being hunted. After my confusion waned, I was then surprised to find she was still alive. Burned, bloodied, brutalized. But alive, if barely.
So, I understand why Zaku does not take any chances with her safety. He should have lost her to death several times over, and yet, he has not. If I were him, I would do the same, ensuring her safety at all costs, even to the detriment of my own and the others around me. Having become Zaku’s friend since that time… his paranoia has infected me. I have lost those closest to me, and do not want to lose those who are close to me now.
I squint at the tangled brush in the woods outside his home, searching for tracks we might have missed. Though we have not found Sada, I am eager to get back inside. I did not tell Zaku all of what Julia shared with me last night. He needs to know so hecan put a stop to it but there has not been a good time to do so. He has been focused on the nagas since my arrival, and only the nagas.
It does not matter that I did not see the Boa among those with Julia.
“If I could, I would hunt down his nesssst and destroy it. I will rip out the throat of any Boa who tried stopping me. A warning for any who dared trespass into my territory or come near my bride or young again. If Sada is here for Daisy, he will never have her.”
“You would not survive,” I scoff. “The Boas have numbers, and you are just one.”
Julia’s words come back to me, and why she thinks it is important, now more than ever, that she leave. I frown, wondering if I was too harsh with her last night.
“Their clan’s territory is too far away and there are too many of them,” I continue, giving Zaku another reason not to just up and leave his mate and nest. “It would take you days to get there. Days to come up with a sound plan, and, if you happened to survive, dayssss to make the trip home. Your boys will all be fully grown by then.”
His head snaps in my direction. “You know where the Boa’s nests are? How many there are?”
“I do,” I say slowly, sourly. The Boa’s territory spans the few mountains north and east of what used to be my clan’s land. We both bordered old Death Adder territory and were once aligned in destroying them. “And if you ask, I will not tell you their exact location. You are needed here.”
My jaw clamps when Zaku turns and growls at me, flaring his nostrils and baring his fangs like he thinks they would sway my decision.
Ignoring him instead, I keep my eyes on the trees ahead, searching for Sada while thoughts of Julia from the night beforenettle me. She does not realize that no naga male will ever live up to his end of the bargain or let her go. Once one of them has her, he will want to keep her forever. There may be more females on Earth now but that does not make them any less rare. Those that have them, still have to fight to protect them.
And as for Julia, disappearing is out of the question. Any male would be able to track her scent once caught. Not only that… humans are slower, noisier, easier to subdue. She may try to vanish like the naga females of old but she will fail. She is human.
She does not know the land like a naga does. She does not have a tail or scales to protect herself with.
