Barbarian King’s Mate by Ivy Sparks
Chapter Two
Garath
I randown the hill and plunged into the jungle, crossing several miles before I stopped to sniff the air. A strange smell hovered under the trees. I couldn’t identify it, but it seemed to come from the glade at the bottom of the valley.
A piercing scream echoed from beyond the foliage, sending a tendril of fire through me. It didn’t belong to any species I recognized, but it worked on my senses in ways I didn’t understand.
I leaped forward and broke into a run. I barreled into the ravine toward the sound. It grew louder as I got closer, and didn’t abate in the slightest. It sounded somewhere between fear and rage. The sound set my nerves on end, and my hand clamped instinctively around my dagger.
My eyes picked up the unmistakable tracks of Vorlax getting thicker the farther I went. Their scent mixed with that unknown fragrance as I rocketed into the glade. The fragrance I detected on the hill flooded my nostrils and almost overpowered me the closer I got.
As I pushed aside a thick bush, I spotted five Vorlax surrounding a makeshift cage constructed of cane and logs. They surrounded a fair female creature bound inside, and they were trying to pull her legs apart as they explored her body with their limbs. The little female, so small compared to the ones of my tribe, fought with all her might as the beasts pulled on her short limbs and auburn hair.
If I had to guess, she seemed to be a human, though it had been ages since I saw one with my own eyes. But I knew one thing for certain: the intoxicating fragrance was coming directly from her. It filled the entire glade and exploded through my mind like nothing I had ever experienced before. I lost all awareness, and in that moment I wasn’t concerned at all that a single Kavian against five Vorlax was suicide.
She was mine.
I yanked the dagger from my belt and sprang for the nearest Vorlax. They didn’t see me coming until I landed on top of the closest one. Taking one down wouldn’t be that easy, though. Vorlax could only be killed by peeling away their armored exoskeletons to expose the vital organs underneath. The brain was the easiest way to kill them, but the heart made a good second option.
I landed in a straddle across the creature’s back. I had to whip around and seize the tail with one hand to stop it from stinging me. I locked my elbow to keep the stinger at a safe distance, then slammed my dagger into the joint between the head and neck.
A satisfying crunch greeted me when I twisted the blade into place, but now I had to deal with the other four who whirled around at the noise. They pulled away from the cage and shrieked in murderous rage when they saw their comrade crash down underneath me.
The Vorlax lashed their limbs out to catch me, but the female’s scent still clung to their pincers. It swirled around my head and ignited a primal instinct I couldn’t resist. I didn’t want to resist it. I wanted more and more, without end.
I seized the first pincer that came near me and jerked hard. The Vorlax it belonged to skittered across the platform and slid closer to me than it intended. I stabbed my arm forward, and my spikes erupted from my knuckles.
The Vorlax came at me, baring its mandibles and clacking its pincers to cut me in half, but I shot out my other hand and caught it under the chin. With a powerful thrust, I shoved back its head and stabbed my spikes into the jaw from underneath. My spikes found its target and pierced the creature’s brain, but not before the other three attacked me with a vengeance.
Two pounced from one side, while the third one rushed in from behind. I had nowhere to run to escape them, so I didn’t even try. That smell did something to me that obliterated all fear. I saw myself acting in a fluid stream of motion.
I sprang onto the first Vorlax, planted my foot on its shoulder, and vaulted onto its back. I landed across its thorax and seized the armor plate protecting its heart and lungs. I wedged my fingertips under the rim, but it was clamped down too tight.
The other two Vorlax closed in on either side. Their pincers darted at me, snapping and slicing. I had to duck to stop them from taking my head clean off, but when I did, I landed flat on my victim’s back.
I slipped my knife under the plate. I twisted with all my strength and the plate came loose. I stabbed my arm into the opening and swiped the blade sideways.
A geyser of blood erupted on my face. The creature gave a spine-chilling screech that sent the other two Vorlax into convulsions. They lunged for me again and again. The one beneath me crashed onto the dirt and brought me within range of the other two.
They charged from both sides, towering over me while I crouched on the ground. Just when I thought my end had come, the female gave another scream. A fresh blast of her scent hit me, and I knew without a shred of doubt that I would triumph.
The two Vorlax blocked me from standing up, but that was all the better for me. In this position, their undersides were exposed, and with them standing so close to each other, they couldn’t stop me from maneuvering underneath their flailing limbs.
I scuttled between the legs of the one on my right. It saw what I was trying to do and stamped down one of its feet to pulverize me. I wheeled out of the way just in time and flipped over onto my back. Now I laid underneath it with the smooth expanse of armor right in front of my face.
I grabbed one plate, but I couldn’t pull the same trick as before. The seams were many times tighter than on the back. I knew I couldn’t get my fingers into them, so instead I stabbed my blade between the plates and pried. The Vorlax pivoted in a circle trying to catch me. If I was going to kill it, I would have to do it quickly.
My dagger wedged between the plates and almost flipped out of my grasp when the creature wheeled. I grabbed the handle and the Vorlax’s movements slid me around underneath it. The second Vorlax tried to charge in and snuff me out, but its friend got in the way.
They danced and pivoted in all directions to unseat me. I held onto my knife with everything I had, but I wasn’t getting any closer to killing either of them.
All at once, the second one thrust one of its pincers between its comrade’s legs. It almost snapped my arm off before I caught it. In an act of pure instinct, I crammed the pincer between the first Vorlax’s abdominal plates and pried them open. I darted in with my knife and felt the blade strike home.
The creature crashed to the ground and nearly crushed me. I rolled out of the way and sprang to my feet. The last Vorlax launched at me, but fury and surprise made it clumsy. It rushed in headfirst and met the same fate as its friend. I shoved its head up and stabbed it under the jaw to cut through the brain.
The Vorlax hit the ground with a mighty thud. Silence fell over the glade, except for a faint sobbing sound coming from the female. Her lips trembled, and she clutched both arms over her chest to hide her bare breasts.
She staggered to her feet. Her pants hung in tatters from a scrap of fabric around her hips. I studied her for a moment. I had never come this close to a human before. I had only seen them from afar, as my people traded with other species for generations back in my homeworld. But I had never seen a human female this supple.
Her hips formed two wide, graceful curves that ended at a more narrow waist at the top and her dainty ankles at the bottom. Her full breasts fell out from under her arms and she hugged them tighter when she saw me looking at them.
Why she should want to hide them, I couldn’t understand, but her body and that unaccountable smell aroused forgotten urges in me. No other human I’d ever seen produced this effect on me. No woman of my clan had either.
What was with this little female?
Her rich brown gaze skimmed over me and her pupils dilated, but she didn’t speak. I took a step closer and bumped into the cage. It blocked me from getting near her. Without thinking, I sliced the cords holding the cage together. The canes fell apart, and she wriggled out.
With a hesitating look my way, she turned and rushed to another human female lying on the ground. She bent over the body and burst into loud sobs. She squeezed the dead woman’s hand as tears streamed down her cheeks. From her reaction, I could only assume the dead female was a fallen comrade.
I turned my back to her to give her some privacy, involuntarily growling when I came face to face with a dead Vorlax. I never would have dared to fight five of these bastards before, but her scent gave me the strength and courage to defeat them. How that worked, I wasn’t so sure yet.
While I studied them, I noticed something odd about them. I bowed over one body after another. I’d seen enough Vorlax close up to know how their bodies worked. But these Vorlax had an unmistakable seam at the base of their head plates. It looked as though something cut into the carapace and then resealed it, but that was impossible.
I shook those thoughts out of my head. I turned to study the female who was still squatted next to her friend. I had to do something with her. I certainly couldn’t leave her here.
She was beautiful in ways I never knew a human could be. As I pondered what to do with her, she looked up. Her distracted gaze skipped around the glade once. She was searching for more Vorlax. I was almost certain. She was scared, and who wouldn’t be after an encounter like that?
I eased over to her and put out my hand to help her up, but I managed to stop myself from touching her. I knew I should talk to her. I knew I should ease her fear and confusion. The question was how. Comfort wasn’t my area of expertise. And would she understand me anyhow?
Perhaps. These settlers always had translation devices installed in their ears to help them understand alien languages. They were so common that I had one myself.
“Can you understand me?” I began. Not the most diplomatic start, but I had to say something.
Her eyes darted sideways, but she stopped short of looking over her shoulder at me. She nodded.
I continued, “We can’t stay here. This area is crawling with Vorlax. They will smell the blood and come to investigate. Once they find their comrades dead, they’ll search for whoever did it.”
She whipped around, and her eyes flashed. “Vorlax?”
I waved at the fallen creatures. “These. They’re Vorlax.” I frowned. “You didn’t know?”
She bowed over the body of her friend and choked. “No.”
“Come. I know a place we can hide for the night.”
She twisted around again. This time, she scrutinized me without looking away. She clenched her jaw in a grimace and scowled.
I waved toward the trees. “Come. Do you think I would have risked my life to kill those Vorlax if I planned to harm you myself?”
Her expression didn’t soften, but with one last glance toward her dead friend, she got to her feet. She closed both arms over her chest and looked around again at nothing.
She took extra pains to ensure she kept her chest covered, but I never learned these humans’ customs or behavior. She must have had some reason for hiding her body from me, even though I could see enough with her pants half-gone.
I had a feeling we wouldn’t make much progress if she stayed bare, so I unwound a strip of Kevrili skin from my waist. I usually used it as a belt, but it could be hers to use as cover if it’d help her move along with me. I had almost sacrificed my life for her, so giving up my belt was nothing special.
Not to mention I felt an odd devotion to this female…
I held the skin out to her. She eyed it, then eyed me with suspicion before she finally accepted it. She turned her back to me while she wound it around her chest like a garment.
I tilted my head at the odd display. “Shall we go now?”
She didn’t reply, but she followed when I left the glade and soon took refuge in the dense undergrowth.
