Suddenly, I heard a thump from behind and above me. I spun, gun locked and loaded, and saw a female breeder had pounced on top of the cave, and was looking down on me, and our little plasma dome covering theentrance.
“Kit Steele,” she said with a grin. Her mouth was much more humanlike, smaller with only a few rows of teeth, but I knew she could tear into me if she wantedtoo.
What the hell?Females didn’t leave their eggs. Like ever. Now she was off on some solomission?
I froze. I couldn’t shoot or it would hit the plasma dome and probably ricochet into my face. We were safe… for now, but this bitch was crazy, and I didn’t like her just standing up there staring at me. Not after I’d learned what they were capableof.
I decided to flip her off. I didn’t know what I was thinking or why that came to me—it wasn’t like she would know what it meant—but it made me feelbetter.
I was wrong. She did know what it meant, because the second my middle finger came up, she hissed and made a fist with her hand, causing an ear-splitting headache to rip through myskull.
“Kit!” Damien moved closer to myside.
Suddenly, Jeremy was there, hovering over me, and pressing down on the sensors under my hat. “Talk to her. Make her hurt,” Jeremy whispered in my ear.Well he sure is Mr. Talkative all of asudden.
His words barely made it through the pain in my head, but when they did, I stilled for a second. Master Aki was always saying that my mental gift was my best asset, yet I never wanted to use it. The only time I’d tried to use it on the ghouls, it had nearly taken me over. But could I use it on onefemale?
Pushing a communication was one thing. But if I wanted her to hurt like she was hurting me, I was going to have to push a feeling, to try to control her mind like she was controlling mine. Which might have been my only defense at thatpoint.
I sent out my awareness, brushing past Damien and even Jeremy until I felt her. She had one of the most powerful signatures I’d ever encountered. It was like she was… connected to the Dream Wars. This planet, parallel reality, or whatever, was being controlled by her and the other females. I didn’t know how I knew that but I did, just as sure as I knew anything else at thatpoint.
‘Pain,’I thought and pushed that at her, imagining transferring all the agony I was feeling right then into her energysignature.
She hissed and leapt off the cave roof, landing at the mouth, just in front of our plasma shield. She wore no armor, though I doubted that she needed it, and she was more limber than the males. She had ropelike hair, like the giants, but with a swollenbelly.
Hereggs.
I wanted to turn off the shield and pump her full of bullets, but I didn’t want to risk her getting to Jeremy or anyoneelse.
She held her hand in the air and waved it around, grinning ear to ear, showcasing her gnarlyteeth.
“Oh shit,” Damien said besideme.
“What?” Was she hurting him? My headache had gone away, but had she managed to transfer it to him somehow? Something evenworse?
“I’m waking up,” Damien replied, eyeswide.
“Me too!” Ronnie criedout.
“Kit!” Nox yelled as his hands started todisappear.
My chest started to heave as I started at the bitch. She was waking us up? That was her evilplan?
Everyone threw their guns in the middle of the cave as they disappeared. I waited for that familiar nauseous feeling… but it nevercame.
“Kit Steele is mine.” The womangrinned.
Oh no. She’s waking everyone but me. How is thatpossible?
I looked around the cave and started grabbing all of the weapons my friends had left behind, piling them on top of me. She wanted to kill me. I could see it in her eyes as she just stood there,strategizing.
I reached forward and flipped on the data dump from the plasma brick, and the female shot backward five feet, crouching down andhissing.
‘Dawn. Kit needs help. Female sentry trying to kill me,’I sent to my only Dream Warsally.
I waited a minute and then heard her reply.‘Kit, Roger isnearby.’
The female slammed against the plasma shield and it wavered a little.Could she take down the shield?My heart rate elevated as adrenaline rushed throughme.
