Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) (21 page)

A pained noise came from the back of the room and Nast had to look away as Vilpon yelled, “I said, gear up!”

Nast looked out the large windows on the upper part of the room, examining the sky for any signs of rain. As he did so the building vibrated slightly and he exchanged a glance with Vilpon. “We getting a delivery today?”

Vilpon frowned and opened the communicator on his armor. “Lieutenant Vilpon to Receiving.”

“How can I help you, Lieutenant?”

“That ship that just came in, what’s it doing here?”

“Merchant ship named
Cantoilo’s Pride
, Lieutenant. It’s on the approved list and is one of our regular suppliers, but it came in early.”

Pursing his lips, Vilpon nodded. “What’s it doing landing at the Recruit quarters?”

“What? Lieutenant it shouldn’t be landing there.”

Nast and Vilpon exchanged a glance before Nast turned and yelled, “Battle ready! This is not a drill!”

Dreda sprinted for the doors closest to the landing pad and opened them. A moment later her short scream filled the air a moment before her head exploded in a burst of blood, bone, and brains. Rage filled Nast and he sprinted over to a weapon’s locker while shouting, “Everyone out! Far door, go!”

From outside came the sounds of battle, the blast of guns and loud roars. Then came a bone-chilling snarl that made Nast’s gut clench. Fuck. He knew that sound, knew the creature that made it, and knew what that meant. That roar belonged to a Chintar mercenary, the murderous race that were the personal bodyguards to the Hive.

Vilpon reached his side and they exchanged a look while Vilpon grabbed a blaster cannon. No words needed to be said, but Nast reached out and gave Vilpon’s shoulder a squeeze. They both knew that the chances were pretty high that neither of them would make it out of this alive. There were too many recruits with bonds so weak they might as well have no mental shielding at all. While Nast doubted a full contingent of the Hive could make it this far into protected space, even one Hive member would slice through the recruits like a reaping blade at harvest time.

A low, rich hum began to fill the air and they both looked to the door where Dreda’s corpse still lay propped up against the side, then to the other end of the room where the recruits were still streaming out of the building.

Opening his com link, Nast processed the information pouring into his mind and took a few precious moments to try and figure out what was going on outside. So far, only one Hive member had been spotted, but she was astride a Chintar mercenary and had managed to enslave over a dozen recruits, using them to kill their fellow Kadothians. The guns on base weren’t responding, which meant someone had sabotaged them. Help was on the way, but the six fully bonded males on base had either been grievously wounded or killed.

For a moment, desolation filled Nast at the thought that he’d survived this long, only to die before he could meet his bondmate. An image of Casey flashed through his mind, one of many that Lorn had sent him earlier this morning, and his soul cried out for her. The only consolation he could take was that Lorn wouldn’t be alone, but oh, how his heart ached for his blood brother. Even as Nast ran for the door leading out to the landing pad he sent up a silent prayer to the Lord of Life that Lorn managed to bond his
alyah
before he would learn of Nast’s death.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Vilpon yelled out from behind him while Nast began to climb the rungs of the ladder leading to the row of bunks at the end of the room.

A hole had been blasted into the wall about six racks up, and through it Nast could see the battle going on outside. The animal side of his nature was snarling to be set loose, to let the madness overtake him and surge out into battle, to go berserk and slaughter anything that stood in his path; Nast barely managed to hold onto his sanity. The ground shook slightly and he had to raise his arm to shield his face from a spray of dirt as a sonic bomb exploded outside the recruit barracks.

As he’d guessed, the Chintar was making its way to the barracks with a Hive member sitting astride its massive shoulders. Easily five times the size of a Kadothian male, the Chintar had a massive body covered in heavy armor, turning the mercenary into a machine of destruction. Even though the mercenary was bleeding, it continued to lay waste to anything and anyone in its path, but Nast didn’t pay the beast any attention. The true threat sat astride the mercenary, and she was one of the most powerful Hive members he’d ever encountered. Her flat-black armor, a mockery of the black armor of the Kadothian Warrior class, seemed to absorb the light around her. Like all Hive members there was nothing about her armor to distinguish her, but her psychic signature was terrible. Cold, calculating, and homicidally gleeful as she wallowed in the misery around her.

The waves of psychic pain radiating from her made Nast’s whole body ache, but he tried to block it out as he hooked his foot through a rung in the ladder and carefully balanced his gun on his shoulder. Gathering himself, Nast carefully focused his sights on the harness securing the Hive member onto her mercenary. There was no way he could blast her off. A visible energy shield extended around her that would repel the plasma gun he held, but if he could get her off her mount then he had a better chance of slitting her throat. While a plasma gun couldn’t penetrate her energy shield, his hand could if he moved slow enough to press through the shield.

Two quick shots severed the straps holding her harness in place.

He didn’t wait around to see her fall, instead, he leapt from his position, gritting his teeth against the jarring pain of his landing. The armor he wore was necessary, but fuck, it was heavy. As he sprinted to the exit, he found himself slipping closer to the madness. He struggled to remain objective, to view the battle before him in a rational manner rather than seeing it as a potential slaughter. Deep inside his mind a raging animal clawed at his self-control, urging him to leap into the fray and begin to slaughter the enemy.

A recruit lay nearby, groaning in agony as he lay dying. Half of his face was gone and death was imminent. Saying a quick prayer, Nast ended his suffering, costing himself precious seconds before he began to fight his way through the horde to where he’d last seen the Hive member. He knew she’d managed to survive the initial fall because recruits froze in place all around him. Some began to scream and shake, while others slowly raised their weapons and began to shoot their fellow Kadothians. A searing blast of energy caught him in his thigh and he struggled to keep moving forward, to reach the Hive member he could now clearly see.

Here and there partially bonded Kadothian men continued to fight and his heart ached as he had to watch his men shoot the recruits that had been compromised. The only mercy was that the Hive member was overtaxing herself by controlling so many recruits at once. For her this suffering had to be a constant, orgiastic feast to her senses, a massive dose of her narcotic of choice. The Chintar was preoccupied by a small group of Obuloun warriors, but they were struggling to avoid the compromised recruits and still take the hulking man-beast down.

A recruit slowly turned to Nast and raised his weapon, but before he could shoot, Nast snapped his neck. Just the night before, Nast had talked with that recruit about his family back home, helped him deal with his homesickness and talked about the glory of being a Warrior. Now, with the physical pain in his leg beginning to cripple him and the emotional pain of having to kill the recruit tearing at his sanity, Nast reached the Hive member.

Her back was turned to him, but he crouched down and slowed his movements. It took everything he had to drag his damaged leg along behind him and strengthen his mental shields enough for her not to notice him. If he had not been surrounded by so much agony she would have felt his presence instantly, but his suffering was nothing compared to the devastation she was causing all around her. He tried to not see what she was doing, to ignore the recruits clawing their eyes out, or torturing each other, but his sanity snapped.

With a low snarl the primitive animal within rose to the surface and nothing mattered except killing her. He leapt, landing on her shield hard enough to knock her down while he drew his knife from his boot. Slowly, ever so slowly, the hand holding the knife began to penetrate her shield, aiming for the base of her skull where it joined her neck. Another plasma discharge caught his shoulder, snapping the bone in the arm not holding his knife. He was almost there, almost close enough to cut, when she turned her terrible thoughts directly on him.

Malevolent, terrifying pain ricocheted through his mind as every terror he’d ever experienced, every fear he’d ever hidden away came crashing into his mind. He cried out in agony and tried to jerk his hand back, but the shield wouldn’t let him move quickly. The madness screamed within him, meeting the cold evil of the Hive member with the heat of insanity. Roaring he jerked forward and the knife managed to penetrate the armor at the base of her skull.

His mind was released abruptly and he sagged, the blade pressing deeper and deeper as his weight fell onto it. A high pitched scream echoed through his mind and just as the blade severed her brainstem another plasma blast, this one from right next to him, caught him in the side, blowing him off of her, but it didn’t matter. She was dead.

He struggled to stand, to roar out his victory, but his body was crippled. All he could do was writhe and gnash his teeth, the madness almost totally in control now. Red insanity veiled his vision and he snapped at the hand of a man reaching for him, mindless with the need to destroy. To kill.

Voices rang out around him and he howled in misery as someone pressed something cool to his neck before darkness overtook him.

Nast hunted through an unfamiliar forest with trees and vegetation that he’d never seen before. He sniffed at the air, pungent scents hitting his nose and growled softly. The madness had taken almost full control of his mind and the need to kill overwhelmed everything else, but he couldn’t scent any prey. Lowering his nose to the ground, he inhaled deeply but could only smell dirt.

A small part of his mind wanted to dig his hands into the soil and pray, but that essential hint of humanity was growing weaker by the moment.

Off in the distance a sound reached him, a splashing noise.

Instantly, he was on his feet, dimly aware that he was naked, but that was fine. He didn’t need weapons to kill. He was a weapon.

Sprinting through the forest he followed the faint noises until he reached the edge of a gently curving creek that flowed down the sheer face of a cliff into a pool of water below. At first he didn’t see anything, then movement at the edge of the pool caught his hunter’s eye. A low snarl worked from him as he prepared to leap into the pool and destroy his prey, but when the shapely form of a woman came up from beneath the water, slicking her hair back as she took a deep breath of air, he froze.

She was exquisite, both man and beast agreed on that.

Her long, dark hair floated on the water around her as she turned her face up to the sky and wiped at her eyes. The tips of her breasts broke the surface and hunger slammed into him at the sight of her pink nipples hardening in the cool air. He’d never seen skin as perfect as hers, a creamy color that contrasted nicely with her hair. The need to touch her, to smell her, overwhelmed the urge to kill and he dove into the water without thought.

It only took him a few strokes to reach her, and when he did he found her trying to scramble away from him, her fear scenting the air around her.

With a low growl he easily captured her around her waist and pulled her closer. At the sight of her beautiful
benali
eyes, a rich brown flecked with gold, something in his heart rejoiced. Then she screamed and tried to push him away, making the predator rise to the surface again, but instead of wanting to harm her, he wanted to soothe her. The animal didn’t know how to do that, so it receded a bit and let more of his human side rise to the surface of his thoughts.

“Let me go!” she screamed and her voice brushed over him.

Instead of doing that, he pulled her closer until her breasts pressed against his chest even as she tried to shove away. He lowered his head to the side of her neck and bit her gently, growling out his warning. She shuddered against him and whimpered.

“Please don’t hurt me.”

Not releasing his hold on her, he ran his hands over the silk of her wet skin, stroking her and learning her body. Slowly her shivers ceased and when he licked at the flesh between his teeth she moaned softly. His mind turned from curious exploration to desire and he made a pleased noise as she tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck to him. The submissive gesture pleased his inner beast and he licked along the column of her throat, feeling the heat of her life against his tongue.

She turned her head and whispered against his lips, “Who are you?”

It took him a long time to remember, but finally a word came to him. “Nast.”

“Your name is Nast?”

He nodded, brushing his mouth against her small one. She was tiny all over, yet incredibly lush and her scent was driving him crazy with lust, but her words made him think. “Your name?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “My name is Casey, and this is one of the best wet dreams I’ve ever had.”

Her words confused him, but her actions didn’t. She began to kiss him and he groaned into her mouth, enjoying the delicate stroke of her tongue against his. He sucked her tongue into his mouth and she groaned against his lips, putting her legs around his waist beneath the water. The tickle of her floating hair felt delicious against his skin, as did her hot core rubbing against his stomach. He shifted her slightly so the head of his cock pressed between the lips of her sex and they both gasped.

Something about this situation began to bother him, but before he could dwell on it, or even wonder about how he got here, Casey began to lick along his neck and place gentle, erotic bites along the column of his throat, teasing his animal.