Immortal Becoming (33 page)

“They will be replaced.”

“Enlil, this may be bad timing, but what exactly is estrus?” Glancing over her shoulder she could see his crimson face. Enlil was blushing?

“It’s like an animal in heat. The scent of a female in estrus will call to any male to, er, alleviate her. Females protect females during these times, from us and from themselves,” Enlil explained. “Before Volaticus enlightened, the pheromones of a female in estrus would send males into a rutting. We call it ‘rapture.’ We would fight to the death for the chance to mate with a female during their breeding times. Before we tapped into our psychic energies, we were a brutal, violent species; in some ways we still are. Estrus causes a male’s body to react on a primal level. Most of us are mentally strong enough to fight the compulsions of that side of our natures, but young males have a much harder time.”

He paused a moment before continuing. “The call of bloodmates is also a form of rapture. It is one of the ways to tell if a mating is just a mating or a true bloodmating. Yet not even bloodmated males are immune to the pheromones of a female in estrus. Of course, his mate will be the only one he will take his rapture to. I am sure there is much more information that a female needs to be aware of, but I am afraid I don’t know it.”

During Enlil’s explanation, Jess began to realize that this was probably not a conversation usually shared between males and females. It was more like a mother-daughter type of talk. She appreciated Enlil all the more for giving her what information he had.

“Do you see energy?” Enlil asked, quickly changing the subject. Jess nodded. She had always thought it was auras she saw around people and objects. Now she knew it was energy. “When we get to these females, let me focus on drawing the energy to us. You visualize creating a circle with the energy around the females that will be connecting to us for porting.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jess said through gritted teeth as a wave of pain washed over her.

Suddenly she felt a tug in her mind and glanced sharply at Enlil. “That would be your patient Aunt Nin, yanking us around.” Enlil took position directly behind Jess, placing his hands on her shoulders, careful to avoid the angry red welts across her shoulders. Even the slight pressure of his hands was agony. “Ready, my girl?”

Reaching up, Jess covered her great-grandfather’s hands with her own and nodded. “Ready.” She felt the spinning tunnel, and then she heard the sounds of battle.

The sun had just set in Italy, but Africa was an hour ahead, making it full dark. It took Jess’s eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness before she could make out what was happening around her. She and Enlil were standing on a grassy hill overlooking a small compound. They were encircled by Tellus and Aquaties, all faced away from them. Outside that grouping were their family members. Elven warriors were fighting rouge soldiers below the hill. The warriors would engage the soldiers, disarm them and disable them. Then the Tellus would hold a hand up, and the enemy would grasp their heads and fall twitching to the ground. The Aquaties would touch them, and they would breathe out a breath of cold air. The Elven would carry the fallen enemy soldiers to the hill where Jess and Enlil awaited, handing them to Shane and the rest of her family to contain.

Jess felt guilty as she looked at the group of now-defenseless solders shivering with hypothermia. They had no idea Jess was about to take their psychic energy from them. They seemed so helpless, though the hatred and anger pouring out of them toward her and her family negated that feeling of pity somewhat.

Then she looked over to the two Heredity women. One of them was obviously going into labor, and the other was just as pregnant. Even with Teya, Irsu, and Ninlil protecting them and Ninlil using her soothing voice to console them, the women stared at the group of soldiers with terror in their eyes. Jess could feel the fear roll off these women, smell the stink of it. That alone killed whatever sympathy she had felt for the group of glaring soldiers. These women deserved to have a chance. A few weeks without these animals hunting them would be more than they had ever known.

“Where’s Moira?” Jess asked Gil, who had landed within the circle of Tellus and Aquaties to stand in front of her. She was quickly growing accustomed to seeing flying people.

Gil pointed to a corner of the compound where the fighting was particularly thick. Behind the line of enemy soldiers, a male was barking out orders. Obviously the Elven was in charge and insane. At his feet Jess could just make out what looked like a figure lying on the ground. She saw the male glance up, meeting her gaze and narrowing his eyes.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?”
she heard from him telepathically

Her shields down per Enlil’s instructions, she was vulnerable, slamming them up against the oily sludge feel of the male’s mental touch. She saw his lips rise in a smirk. Lifting her palm, Jess visualized taking the son of a bitch’s energy. Grasping the energy aura surrounding him, she began to pull it toward her, stripping it from him layer by layer. Her grin increased while his fell as he realized what she was doing.

The male focused on Jess, as a tiny female resembling Sam and Sara began dragging the unconscious form of Moira back away from the line of soldiers. When the man realized what Jess was doing, he reached behind him to grab her by her hair, pulling her to stand in front of him. Jess was forced to stop the siphon or risk the female. Jess was sure she was looking at Sofia, the informant, the one who’d been instrumental in helping to get them this far. The male sneered at her, giving her a look of disgust. Then to Jess’s horror, the man sunk his fangs into the throat of the struggling female.

“NO!” Jess screamed.

First to react, Shane and Napoleon took to the air and landed directly behind the male and his line of soldiers. Sargon, Gilgamesh, Gregor, Conlon, and Ediku launched in support a moment later and were immediately swamped by Fualth’s soldiers. They fought desperately against the greater number of soldiers, their warrior training the only thing that kept them from being overwhelmed. Napoleon used the distraction to lift the limp figure of Moira from the ground and fly off, while Shane grabbed the madman from behind. Two of Fualth’s soldiers raced to the defense of their leader, raising their swords at Shane’s unprotected back. A shout from Gregor made Shane turn, throwing his scythe up just in time to lock with one soldier’s sword. Fualth clutched the female struggling in his arms and backed away shoving a hood of what looked like chain mail into his back pocket and A dagger dropped into Shane’s other hand from a stack of blades he had anchored to the inside of his forearm, and he threw it at the other soldier almost without looking. End over end it flew, sinking into the center of the soldier’s chest.

Moving quicker than Jess could track, Shane pulled the other scythe out of the holsters crossed over his chest. He smiled coldly, a deadly curved blade in each hand as he faced off against the second soldier. Jess heard the strike of metal on metal as Shane blocked the soldier’s sword with one blade and parried toward his belly with the other, forcing the soldier to step back, giving Shane a chance to get a better stance.

The sound of the two combatants gave the soldiers still standing a renewed revelry, and additional soldiers broke from the line and raced toward the fight between Shane and the enemy.

“Why don’t they shoot? Every one of them has a gun,” Jess asked Enlil terrified by the threat the guns posed to Shane.

“When they were in a line, they could simultaneously fire their weapons and create a deterrent to us rushing against them. But unless a bullet fully destroys our heart, it will not kill us. There are only a few ways to kill us: take our hearts, or destroy an artery to the point were we bleed out fully. Only if we are already weakened does it become easier to bleed us out, since our natural healing ability slows down. Our usual way is to fight hand to hand, overpower, disarm, disable, and in this case capture. In a normal battle we would decapitate. There are also certain chemicals that can kill us, though usually a transfusion can counter those. The only guaranteed way to destroy us is beheading or draining, though we can choose to release our life force at any time.” Enlil answered. As usual, every answer she got created more questions.

“So just decide to die?” she asked. “I wish that bastard would decide to die.” She indicated the leader still feeding on Sofia.

“Chances are good he will die at the hands of your mate.”

Jess chest swelled with awe, pride, and fear as she watched Shane, some of her worry draining away. He was graceful and ferocious, like a predator. Shane blocked, parried, and struck. His deadly dance steadily pushed the enemy soldier back, beating him down. The soldier Shane faced was experienced, lethal, and cunning. Definitely more than a victim of circumstance, he had a malicious glint in his eyes. This was someone who enjoyed killing and raping.

Jess raised her hand. Focusing on Shane’s opponent, she reached into her inner power and pulled the soldier’s energy to her. His eyes widened as he turned his deadly gaze on her. Shane took advantage of the distraction, crossing his blades in front of him and scissoring them at his opponents neck. The soldier’s head rolled away while his body crumbled to the ground. His expression fierce Shane gave her a nod and joined in the fight with the other members of their families.

Jess had to ask, “Is Ediku a warrior?” Though a competent fighter, Ediku was not nearly as proficient.

Enlil squeezed her shoulder. “My son is a good fighter. I insisted on that. He does lean more to his mother’s love of farming. That is part of why you are seeing such an easy camaraderie between him and young Jorie.”

A break in the battle opened up a clear path to Fualth. Shane sheathed his scythes and surged to where the male still held the female’s throat in his mouth. The female, nearly drained, had ceased her struggles several minutes earlier. Pulling a chain mail hood from his back pocket, Shane stepped in behind the madman and slung the hood over the male’s head. He pulled the hood tight against the upper half of the leader’s face, crushing the male’s nose and cheekbones with the pressure of the hood.

Shane held the chain mail tightly against Fualth’s face, dropping another blade from the forearm strap into his free hand. “Release the female.” Shane’s tone promised death, though killing Fualth would go against Innanna’s instructions in the war-room. The madman viciously shook his head, tearing the delicate flesh of Sofia’s throat. Shane placed the tip of the blade to the males back, just below his ribcage. Only a handful of soldiers remained standing. Conlon and Gilgamesh placed their swords to Fualth’s neck from opposite sides.

Stubbornly Fualth shook his head again. Jess’s stomach churned at the tearing and growling sounds. Shane sunk the blade into the male’s kidney. “Release her, now.” He began turning the blade inside the organ. The male hesitated for another moment, and then to the horror of those watching, he snapped his jaw closed. The female fell to the ground. The entire side of her neck still hung from the madman’s teeth.

“Sofia!” Jess heard Sam’s distant cry as he raced to his sister’s side and slid to the ground, cradling her head, his hand over the seeping wound at her neck. Her pulse had already ceased. Fualth spat the flesh from Sofia’s neck to the ground, his insane laughter filling the stunned silence. Shane secured the hood fully over the monster’s face while others converged to take over Fualth’s immobilization.

Jess watched Shane step back from the hooded enemy, using every ounce of restraint he possessed. He was shaking with his desire to kill the madman. His face was tormented when he looked up to meet her gaze, breaking her heart. He felt responsible for Sofia. Jess glanced down again at Sam. He held his sister’s lifeless body in his arms, rocking back and forth, shoulders shaking with tears. She knew in her heart there was nothing Shane or anyone could have done to keep the madman from killing her.

It would be weeks before she would be able to console Shane. She wasn’t even allowed to connect telepathically to him. Looking at his tortured expression, she gave him what she could, mouthing, “I love you,” across the distance. He nodded, lifted his chin, and flew back to join her and her family, being careful to not get close enough to her to tempt either of them.

Jess looked over to the still terrified females. Napoleon leaned over the limp form of Moira. He had flown her into the circle while Shane had been fighting. With Enlil following, Jess stepped over to them, peering over Napoleon’s shoulder to the nearly unrecognizable, battered face of her aunt. No way could Moira have planned for this type of torture. Jess’s knees went weak and threatened to give out under her. Hearing her gasp, Napoleon looked up at her, his eyes shining with tears of devastation. “We need to get her out of here,” he whispered.

“Give her to me, Napoleon. I’ll take her home.” Jess took a deep breath. The sight of her aunt renewed her determination. Napoleon stood with Moira in his arms. He placed a gentle kiss to her forehead before transferring her limp form into Jess’s arms. Ninlil and Irsu led the two shaking females to join them, Nin’s calm voice guiding the females. Teya helped to place their shaking hands upon Jess’s shoulders.

“Drop your shield, Jess,” Enlil whispered, pulling energy from the group of soldiers who were staring wide-eyed at them. Finally there was fear from them for a change. Jess moved the energy coming in through Enlil, stacking it in a weaving pattern from the ground up until the five of them were completely surrounded. Her head pounded from the pressure. Her newly formed dentes punched into her upper gum with a stab of intense pain, filling her mouth with blood. She felt the spinning tunnel and then the cool night air again chilling her sweat covered body. One of the women had fainted upon reentry, but the strong arms of a waiting Elven male gently caught her collapsing body. His expression was compassionate as he swung the pregnant girl into his arms and disappeared into the chortal.