Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 9

Nix and I sprinted. I heard commotion and heavy footfall behind us, but didn’t take time to worry about the others. They had warning. They could get their own asses out. We bolted through the front doors and dove to the ground at the first loud rumble behind us. I heard it first, diving on top of Nix, covering his body with mine. I didn’t think. Just dove, taking him down, my small frame wrapped around his upper body, protecting his torso and head the best I could. Any NFL linebacker would have been proud of my take down.

The boom blasted through me like I’d been hit full speed by a semi-truck. My eardrums ruptured and I screamed, covering my ears as heat scorched my back through my uniform and hot blood filled my ears.

It was all over in less than a second because Nix kept rolling, his big frame covering mine completely as he cradled my face to his chest.

Another blast rocked the air and moved through the ground beneath us like an earthquake. I clung to Nix, in so much pain I could do nothing else, every sound like a cannon blast inside my skull.

The rumbling stopped. Fire blazed into the sky behind Nix’s outline where he hovered above me. His large, warm hands were gentle on my face and he turned me so that I looked up at him. His lips were moving, but my ears hurt. I couldn’t hear a word he was saying, but could read his lips. “Destiny, what have you done?”

My back burned, the uniform sticking to my flesh where the explosion had seared my skin. Contact with the ground under me added to my misery, but I felt the welcoming cold numbness of shock setting in, and I didn’t even try to hold it off. Numb meant bliss at the moment.

Nothing mattered. Morson didn’t matter. He had been in front of us, far enough away to survive. And if he didn’t, well, we’d tried. I looked Nix over the best I could from my position. Satisfied that he would survive relatively unharmed and with just a ReGen wand pass or two, I smiled with relief. Mission accomplished. I loved him. And I protected the people I loved. The list wasn’t all that long, and Nix had somehow clawed his way to the top. “I love you, Nix.”

“Goddess damn it, Destiny.”

That one I knew. I read his lips easily, he’d said it often enough.

I was still smiling when I lost consciousness.

2

Nix

Six hours. Destiny had been beneath the glass of the ReGen pod for six fucking hours. I knew she’d be fine; the initial scans had proven her injuries to be extensive but, thanks to the ReGen pod technology, not life threatening, but still.

Fuck!

I’d missed the explosion cleanup, skipped Morson’s debriefing, the fear and upset of Destiny’s sisters sounded like the chattering of angry birds in the background when we’d arrived at the medical center.

None of it mattered to me. Someone else could deal with a bunch of dead bodies. Someone else could question the traitors who’d survived, arrest and interrogate them. Make them bleed.

As upset as Trinity and Faith were over Destiny’s injuries, I had no doubt Leo and Thor could oversee the process just fine without me. They were well motivated, their mates’ pain affecting them in ways they’d never before imagined.

As seeing Destiny unconscious beneath the glass affected me.

I couldn’t breathe. I’d never felt terror before. Not facing down a Hive Soldier. Not sneaking through enemy territory or organizing a strike deep in Hive space. Death had seemed like a distant friend, and if he had come calling, so be it.

There was no escape from this. From her. From the dagger-like strike inside my chest with each beat of my heart.

She’d sacrificed herself to protect me. Suffered. Burned. Her eardrums blown out. Blood dripping from her gorgeous body to cover me.

And then? She’d smiled. She’d fucking smiled and looked at me like I was a god. Told me she loved me as she lay dying in my arms. I’d seen that love in her eyes. Pure. Raw. Free of desire or lust or laughter. Deep and true.

I’d never seen anything like it. Never felt a punch to my gut so powerful.

Everyone had become a blur around me, the only thing I saw was Destiny. All I heard was the blood pounding through my body as the doctors treated her. I listened to her ragged struggle for each breath. Winced as they peeled the burned pieces of clothing from her open wounds, explaining to me that they would be enclosed by the new skin if they were not removed.

I died a hundred deaths before they tucked her into a pod and began the healing process.

And so I sat. Touched the glass. Willed her to breathe. Willed her skin to heal. I would have peeled the flesh from my own bones to provide for her, but the doctors assured me that was unnecessary. She was young. Strong. Her body resilient. She would heal.

They promised me and I had to believe them. The alternative was not acceptable.

I hovered near her, a ghost of a male, and realized this is what I would become without her. Nothing more than a shell. Empty. Lost.

So I willed her to open her eyes and smile at me again. Waited as the seconds ticked down, just like the bomb that put her here. Three, two, one. A beep sounded, the blue glow that filled the unit went out and the seal broke on the lid, the hiss of air like an electric jolt to my body as the lid slowly lifted.

I stood. Stared at my sleeping mate. Waited. They’d cut the clothes from Destiny’s body, careful to remove the fibers that had been caught in her burned skin. She was naked beneath a thin sheet that covered her.