Page 20 of The Naga Warlord’s Virgin Mate

Since we’d had sex, he also no longer needed to be touching me for us to understand each other. His markings only glowed when he was feeling amorous, which was the moment we crawled into the tent in the evening and at least a dozen times during the day. I only had to draw his attention down to me for them to start glowing. I was pretty sure he was having some self-control issues now that he knew what things could be like between us. Which I found extremely empowering, I was definitely no longer Naomi the virgin, the untouched. I was thoroughly his.

“Cold,” he said gruffly, his eyes still on the far distance. My hackles rose at his tone, since we’d left his Clan and the caves behind, he’d been more relaxed, friendlier even. Something was wrong if he sounded this snippy. I turned my head in his arms, trying to locate what he was seeing but to me, the tundra just looked exactly the same in every direction.

“What is it? Are you seeing anything?” I asked him in a near whisper. I had good eyes and ears but I wasn’t picking up anything, but Krashe was trained to notice even the smallest of details. I was certain that if he sensed something, he’d be right about it.

“We are being followed,” he said just as quietly. “I noticed them this morning when we broke camp. They seem to be getting closer so I suspect they will attempt to ambush us shortly. Probably over there, where those boulders give them cover.” His chin jutted forward just slightly, aiming it at a pile of boulders a couple of hundred feet away.

We didn’t have long to decide if we were going to change course or fight them at their chosen battleground or something else. If I knew Krashe at all, I was willing to bet that he was going to try to hide me somewhere safe and then take care of the problem on his own. I had no idea how many opponents he might be facing, and I was pretty sure he didn’t know either.

Searching the Tundra and the boulders, I tried to locate a good place where he could leave me while I still had a view of the likely battleground. What point was forcing me to practice with those throwing knives if he wasn’t going to let me help him out? My aim was improving, two out of three wasn’t bad. Maybe if he put me on top of that biggest rock, that could work.

I had just started explaining that to him, whispering under my breath as quietly as possible when things went to hell in a handbasket. From my right a shape darted out of the low underbrush, shocking me with how low to the ground a Naga could move; and how fast. While I froze in complete shock and fear, Krashe moved without hesitation, curling us into a twist away from the attacker.

Then another darted at us from the left, suddenly rearing up with a raised spear that came sailing directly at us. I felt the wind blow through my hair, saw strands flutter down in front of my eyes from the narrow miss. Everything was completely silent too, no shouting, no screams. Nobody said anything at all, which made it all the more eerie. There was nothing but the whistling of the wind as spears were slashed at us and Krashe ducked out of their way.

The big pile of boulders was suddenly right there and Krashe threw me on top of the biggest one without warning. I rolled, my legs flopping limply while I grasped for purchase with my hands to arrest my tumble across the rough surface. It was round so it was like I was rolling down a slide on the other side, but my fingers caught a ledge and I managed to pull myself back up.

By the time I’d completed my acrobatics and found a safe perch on the giant, rounded, slate-colored rock, everything around me had changed. Still completely silent, a battle had raged, Krashe against at least a dozen warriors. My heart was in my throat, racing madly with fear and worry. This many against one seemed like impossible odds. How were we going to make it out of this?

Krashe was holding his own, magnificent as he swung his giant sword and met strike for strike from his opponents. I could hear the thuds and cracks as blade met spear but not a sound was uttered when blade met flesh. Already, I could see that several Naga males were nursing wounds and keeping their distance, and several were sprawled on the icy tundra ground; not moving.

When I spotted a particularly pale red male sneaking up on Krashe from behind, I finally unstuck myself from just being an observer. My fingers went for the belt around my waist with the handful of black stone blades that Krashe had given me specifically to throw with.

Bile rose in my throat just thinking of what I was about to do but there wasn’t any time for second thoughts. I barely had time to aim but I forced myself not to panic, to watch carefully before I threw. When the knife spun from my fingers through the air, it wasn’t perfect, but a wide back was an easier target than the small targets Krashe made me practice on each morning.

It hit the pale red one left of his spine, just below his shoulder blade and he groaned, the first sound that broke the silence. It made everyone present freeze in place, heads swiveling left and right to scan the empty landscape around us. It was then that it clicked that there was another danger they were aware of, the reason their battle was so quiet.

That groan had been low-pitched, surprised out of the male. Surely, that hadn’t carried far? Krashe and I had talked, laughed, and made all kinds of noises at night. He hadn’t seemed concerned before about making a ruckus, so why now? My eyes darted to the blood dripping from the wound in pale-dude’s back, was that why?

Nobody was fighting now, everyone just stood there, waiting. Uneasily, I pulled my legs in with my hands, tucking them against my body. I craned my head around, up high on my boulder, I had the best vantage point. On my third frantic search all around me, I finally saw something. Movement against the horizon, a light flashing red and blue against the dark purple and brown shrubs and low bushes.

I raised my hand and pointed and all Naga swiveled to look into the direction I’d indicated. Krashe lowered his sword, his arms going out at his sides. “You have a choice, leave and take your wounded. Rejoin the Clan that you deprived of some of its best warriors in the midst of a war! Or you can stay here and fight the revenant with me so we can settle this score once and for all should any of you survive.”

There was so much meaning in those words. From the implication that Krashe would survive fighting a revenant—which was probably that approaching thing with lights—but they might not. Down to the derision he felt at what he considered forsaking their duty to their people. Not something any of these warriors seemed happy about when it was Krashe who had run off with me, the horrible and dangerous abomination.

One of our attackers seemed to be the leader, facing off in front of Krashe but with his spear resting on the permanently frozen ground. His eyes had an orange hue to them, as did the deep red of his scales. His face was drawn into a sneer that revealed more than just sharp fangs, as if his front teeth had been filed down to sharp points. They were black too, shining like the obsidian tip of his spear and the obsidian stones that had been sewn to his leather harness.

“You think you can escape the monstrosity when it tracks our blood scents, do you?” the male hissed. I was startled at how well I could understand each word he said, as though he was speaking plain English to me. I should have gotten used to it by now, but it still baffled me that touching Krashe, and then having freaking sex with him, was as good as getting their language updated to my translator implant.

Krashe scoffed and pointed the tip of his tail at the sight of the approaching lights, they were already much closer. I was shocked by how much closer they’d gotten when I’d only looked away for all of three seconds. What was that thing? It seemed to be getting bigger too, the lights splitting off into several rows of them on further inspection.

“You think you can escape that unless I end it? You know as well as I do, that a revenant won’t give up the chase until either it is dead, or you are. So what’s it going to be, Joxra?” Krashe turned his back on the male he was talking to as if he wasn’t in the least worried that he might end up with his knife in his back.

He ducked to wipe his sword along the dense, low brushes that covered the ground here. Not far away lay his giant backpack, filled up with the leather skins for the tent and furs to sleep in. Emptier than before because I’d taken to wearing most of our furs just to keep warm in this freezing climate. He was acting casual but I could see how he was moving his body, coiling his tail gently, moving it through some morning stretches I’d watched him do each day. He was preparing himself, just how bad was that thing heading for us?

I ran my hands over the blades strapped to my middle, counting the four that were left and wondering how much help I was going to be. “No, Nomy, you sit this one out. You must not draw the attention of the revenant to you. Besides, its skin is as tough as stone unless you know where to strike it.” Krashe’s warning was uttered in a dark, ominous tone and I instantly pictured a light-giving monster covered in plate-like armor like a rhinoceros but as big as a house.

Ignoring the shocked and confused looks the Bitter Storm warriors gave us, I kept my eyes on the approaching danger when I responded. “No way, I know I can’t walk, but I’m not just gonna sit there and do nothing!” Of course, those words came back to bite me in the ass a moment later when I could finally make out enough detail on the revenant to realize just what I was dealing with.

It wasn’t an animal and it wasn’t some kind of dinosaur or rhino like I’d imagined. I’d seen lights and hadn’t once thought it was from anything other than a natural source; that seemed monumentally stupid now. It was some kind of robot, a giant, shimmering silver thing on a thousand legs like a centipede, red light lines streaking along its sides and two blue headlights beaming like eyes from the front. “Oh, shit…” I said, and Krashe huffed out a laugh of all things.

“Yeah, shit. The revenant is a formidable foe, you can have another shot at one when you’ve had more practice.” Uh no thanks, but I appreciated his confidence in my future skills. I wasn’t even sure we’d survive this encounter, that thing really was as big as a house. While we’d stood there yapping, it had raced toward us at speeds approaching those of most hover vehicles I was used to seeing race through the skies back on Earth.

“You can talk to it?” the lead warrior demanded, not looking at the fast-approaching centipede robot but at me. His orange-red eyes were wide, a mixture of surprise and horror. Like it had not even crossed his mind that I might be able to communicate in some way.

Full of defiance, Krashe’s eyes seemed to dare the male to say anything more. Then I spotted the tip of his tail slide up the rock toward me and I reached out to meet my mate halfway, clenching the tip in my fist. Instantly the markings that Krashe called sigils, lit up along his upper chest and shoulders, glowing from beneath his leather pauldrons and the hard cuirass he wore.

There were shocked hisses, some growling, and even an outright groan at the sight, but the one in the lead said nothing. “She is my true mate, a gift from the stars themselves. A gift our Clan has lost but I remember, we remember. Bitter Storm memory is long.” Krashe’s voice carried, a deep, dramatic rumble he’d pitched to make sure every single one of the warriors present would hear it.