Page 21 of The Naga Scavenger’s Precious Mate

Buzz and I raced deeper into the lab, eager to leave the robot as far behind us as we possibly could. It was huge in there, and I was starting to get a little turned around. My focus was on any sign of doors or tunnel exits, anything that could get me out of this macabre warehouse-sized room. I also searched the cluttered surfaces of dusty workbenches for anything that I could use as a weapon.

My eyes lit on a door after what felt like at least ten minutes of searching. I had actually started to relax a little, since there was no sign of the robot chasing after me. This lab was really creepy, especially darkened as it was right now, but nothing was alive, nothing moved except the bubbles in the multi-hued vats. The door I found was in the wall all the way at the back of the lab, definitely another exit. I was just about to raise my hand to the doorbell thingy to see if it would open when a sound reached my ears.

The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, my breathing hitched, and my heart pounded as adrenaline surged through me. It was the robot, I was sure of it. I spun around on my heels and cast my eyes about for one last shot at finding a weapon. The nearest workbench had several bundles of cables draped over them, and beneath that, a forgotten knife.

I leaped for that thing, my fingers curling around the hilt. It felt a little sticky and dusty, like that greasy dust muck that gathered on the hood above my cooking unit when I got lazy about cleaning. I didn’t care how it felt to the touch, as long as that knife was sharp enough to cut.

My hands trembled when I raised the blade in front of me, it was black, some kind of carbon alloy, and definitely sharp. Lights flared to life all around me, they briefly blinded me with their brightness. I heard something like the sloshing of water and I knew it was the robot getting out of its vat.

The door wasn’t far, I rushed it and took a gamble, stabbing the sharp blade into the panel next to it. Sparks flew, stinging my fingers, but the handle insulated me from any shock. Buzz hissed furiously from my shoulder, raising on his paws and curling his spine like an angry kitten. I held my breath, ignoring the sharp pinch of his claws and the scary sound of something slithering across the floor behind me. “Open, damn it!”

The sound was getting louder and I turned to look behind me, searching for him, that freaky robot. His red eye gave him away, gleaming malevolently as it curled around a vat of purple goo. Half his face was still all metal, but some of the gaping scratches along the scale-covered side had vanished. It didn’t make him look any less terrifying. “Oh fudge… This is going to suck…”

With a whoosh, the door behind me slid open and a cool draft of air pulled on my clothing. Like it was a chimney, air funneled into the dark tunnel that the open door had revealed. It might be my imagination, but it felt like cool fingers pulled on my clothing, my hair, and tickled along my bare skin. My first instinct was to dart into that dark tunnel and just start booking it, I wanted to get as far away from that robot as possible. Those cool fingers along my skin made me hesitate.

The robot was hissing and growling, waving with his arms. I did not know what he wanted or what he was saying, and I didn’t care. I just wanted to get away. His tail whipped toward me so fast it was a blur, that moment of hesitation giving him just enough time to catch me around my ankle. I threw myself out of the way, his tail tightening like a noose around my shin.

I landed on my hip, sending a wave of pain through my body. Buzz launched into the air with a screech, but he’d learned his lesson and didn’t attack the robot. He fluttered around me, circling and screeching, but uncertain. “Go, get help!” I told him, waving my arm toward the tunnel. I ducked and stabbed the tail curled around my leg with the knife. It cut through the fake white scales that covered it, then bit into the metal vertebrae beneath with no effect.

He did not let go of me, but he did not pull on me either. He was still talking, looking at me full of expectation. Stumbling to my feet, I leaped for the thick bundle of cables that curled down along that nearby workbench. It was a gamble, but the knife had protected me from a shock when I stabbed the door panel. Doing something, even if it was risky, was better than just sitting there.

My hands touched the cables and I gripped them and pulled. The robot either did not seem to notice or failed to comprehend my plan. The knife cut through the insulation that covered the cables like it was nothing, then bit into the wire it exposed with only a little more resistance. Sparks flew and the robot raised its voice, shouting something at me that almost made me think he was giving a warning.

With a yank, I freed the side of the thick bundle of cables I was holding and I spun, aiming the sparking, hissing end at the robot. He approached, rather than avoiding it, and I feared that meant it wouldn’t harm him. Only one way to find out. With a furious yell, I twisted the end of cable around and slammed it into his tail. Electricity sparked and hissed, something burned. And then pain burned up my leg, my muscles seized as the current arced through me. Everything went black to the sound of roaring and a furious screech.

Chapter 15

Zeidon

Flicking out my tongue, I tried to catch the elusive scent of my mate again. I knew I was not crazy, and that I had not imagined it. My mate’s scent was here, which meant she was nearby, but how that could be? I did not know for certain, but I had the faintest idea, a theory. My den was on the other side of Ahoshaga, a narrow tunnel that led into the mountain from a lower elevation. Ahoshaga’s famously haunted caves had a grander entrance here, higher up the flank of the peak. That is where the outcasts had decided to create their Haven, but the caves were already there, and they must be connected.

The revenant stole my female and took her deeper inside the mountain. They must have crossed to this side, so now all I needed to do was find the right passageway to track her. Her scent was my only clue and it was slowly getting stronger. I was close to her, so close that my scales tingled with excitement. If only I could find the right tunnel, I could be with her soon.

Next to me, Srazz muttered grumpily. He had just settled for a nap when I had made my escape, and he didn’t appreciate the interruption. Once we found Farah, he’d sing a different tune; I was certain of that much. Inside Ahoshaga, a long walkway spiraled down into a pit, and crystal lights lit the way. The walkway was flanked on one side with a drop towards a gathering place. It surrounded a tinkling fountain, while the other side had intermittent doorways.

The scents that clung to each doorway told me which ones were inhabited rooms and which were empty, but I was only looking for one scent in particular, one doorway. There, Farah’s scent grew thicker and then thinned when I continued down. I backtracked to the nearest door and inhaled deeply, tongue flicking as I worked to decipher as much information as I possibly could. Was it her blood? Or just her floral scent, the musk that belonged to her skin and hers alone?

This door did not want to budge for me, unlike most of the other doors inside this place. It was locked. That did not stop me, I was very experienced in opening doors that did not want to open. It took only a little fussing with the door’s access panel, my claws, and a knife. It slid open and the air that rushed toward me was filled with my mate’s scent. A scent that was turning sour from fear.

Though pain still plagued my body, weakening it from the severe loss of blood, I threw myself into that passage and started following it down as fast as I could. That fear scent meant she lived, she lived. That fear scent meant she was in danger, and I urged myself to go faster, to gain more speed. She had been with that monster for hours, nearly an entire day. I had to reach her, now!

Almost too late, I recognized the shape racing toward me and pulled back, just barely refraining from stabbing it with the sharp tips of my trident. Buzz landed on my shoulder with a screech, he flapped his wings and raised his spines anxiously. The sight of the small Sleara filled my heart with hope; if the little male lived, my mate’s survival chances would go up too.

Light reached me from somewhere up ahead, but I did not slow my rapid pace. I did not slow down until I burst through the door and into a huge, cavernous room filled with all kinds of strange, ancient technology and machines. There she was, my mate. I found her.

Farah was lying still as death on top of a metal table that gleamed silver in the bright light of hundreds of crystals embedded in the ceiling. She was breathing, but her face was pale, very pale. A robotic arm was hovering over her chest, the exact same kind of machine that had worked on my injuries not that long ago.

Behind the table rose the revenant. A silver and white wraith, a ghost from the past, with one gleaming golden eye, and one a red light that locked onto me. “Get away from her!” I growled, crossing into the room to approach the table. She was breathing, her chest rising and falling with a steady rhythm. After last time’s attack, I was more cautious in my approach, I could not let him get me like that a second time.

“Request denied,” the revenant intoned stiffly. “The female is gravely injured and needs immediate medical attention.” His words made my heart ache, and I desperately scanned her prone form to search for any sign of injury. She seemed whole, just so still and unmoving beside the rise and fall of her chest. Injured how?

“What did you do to her?” I demanded, the robot seemed less hostile but maybe that was simply because it was focused on controlling the healing machine, not kidnapping my mate. Srazz was right next to me, keeping pace with his hackles raised, his spines bristling, and a snarl rumbling deep in his chest. Buzz was posturing in the same way from the safety of my shoulder, his tiny maw open, and a hint of smoke curling from his nostrils.

“The female requires immediate medical attention,” the revenant responded in the same strange, monotone voice. It made my scales crawl with unease; they fluttered along my back with a soft susurrating noise. This was wrong; this being was wrong, and there was something extremely off about the way it spoke.

Then its red eye dulled a little, and the one remaining, normal-looking eye rolled my way. The golden orb seemed so real, and the fact that half of its face could pass for a true Naga was even more unsettling to watch. I had to move carefully, I could not trigger another attack until I was certain I could take it out. I needed to be certain that it could not harm my beautiful Farah when we fought.

“Don’t you see? Her beautiful tail needs fixing! We need good, strong females if we want to breed new, strong warriors to conquer the world!” The words the revenant spoke hissed from his throat in a furious, intense tone. It was not quite a snarl, not quite a shout, but rather something I imagined a madman might spew. Her tail? She had no tail, she never had one, so it didn’t need to be fixed.