Disguised in his Anton suit, Rondarr was just another overprotective boyfriend gripping his date's shoulder, one of many human couples fleeing the confusion at the carnival grounds. Cries about a 'wild animal' or a 'bomb' flitted through the air. No one knew what was going on, but a communal 'panic' button had been hit and the instinct to flee became contagious. Between the dragon claws gripping her skin and the earlier electric shock, Nikki was swimming in pain, and she struggled to keep pace.
Rondarr marched her into the parking lot and singled out a black pickup truck. The driver was an older man speaking hurriedly into a cell phone while he fumbled with the ignition. Rondarr ripped open the cab door, threw the man against the concrete and shoved Nikki in front of the steering wheel. "Drive," he commanded after lurching into the passenger seat.
Nikki stared at the wheel and the displays like they belonged to an alien cockpit. Yes, she had a driver's license but she'd only ever used it as a personal ID! Brake, shift into drive, then apply the gas, right? Under her timid press, the truck jerked forward in a sudden start that made both their necks whip about.
"No games!" Anton's voice barked.
"I'm trying!" she spat back, earning her another full-body shock from the slave bracer.
"Shut your filthy, mammal maw! Now go! Take me to her ship!" While Nikki merged with the fleeing lanes of traffic, Rondarr laid down his laws.
"That bracer is set to trigger at a five cha radius. You move even an arm's length from me, you burn. You attempt to remove the restraints, you burn. Slow down or detour..." He tapped the console strapped to his scaly forearm. Pain was just a button's push away. "You burn."
Seeing no other options, Nikki took them south on the freeway out of town. As she drove, Rondarr picked at his Anton skin, pinching his fingers through the holographic flesh and unclipping little metal nodes attached to his limbs. Piece by piece, Anton's flesh dematerialized into scaly lizard limbs: sickle-clawed arms, a crested iguana head, and a dinosaur torso with a broken breastplate filled the passenger seat.
Nikki glanced at Rondarr's left arm, the one she swore Celeste had blown off at the demolition site. Shorter, thinner, and made of slimy, pink flesh that made her think of raw fish, it looked like he'd grafted the limb of a fetus onto his full-grown lizard body. So he's a regenerator…
The newly-grown arm seemed to pain Rondarr. His lizard lips kept wincing and his strong arm kept clutching at the newborn muscles. More than once she thought she saw the regenerated arm bulge, its fingers twitch. Even now, his body continued adding layers of tissue to the half-formed limb, and the accelerated healing was painful.
Rondarr caught her staring. "Don't conceive for an instant that I'm weakened." Something cold and metal tapped the back of her skull. In the rear-view mirror, Rondarr's tail held a small, fold-out blaster and he waved it at her in show. Nikki glued her eyes to the road and didn't look back. She could feel the pistol tracing little circles behind her head, as though he were looking for an excuse to shoot her, the human collaborator.
Rondarr snarled suddenly. "Open the window." Like a carsick dog, he stuck his snout through the glass, coughing and retching. When his face returned, he breathed angrily through his mouth, nostril pinched shut. "You stink like that filthy Tendricite," he gagged.
"She's a Norai." Nikki wasn't sure why she said it, but she needed this little rebellion. "She's not a slave for you to trade around like a piece of furniture. She's a person!"
The warning zap from the bracer made her scream and swerve lanes. Thank God they were out on the empty highway! Rondarr leaned close so that his putrid breath hissed into her ear.
"On my planet, we follow this simple truth: the strong take dominion over the weak. I ate the flesh of my mother, of my brood-mates and I grew strong. I will not be challenged by some backwater cha-worm, or a wretched plant-eater who dares to play-act like a predator! Now shut your mouth and drive! You'll find there's a premium for slaves without tongues."
They took the exit into the nature preserve. Rondarr made her smash through the security toll booth and demanded that she drive beyond the parking lot and into the connecting trails. Nikki pushed the vehicle as far as it would go until it tripped in a ravine and stalled. Her captor ordered her out and they marched onward.
Nikki obeyed, silently reminding herself that every step towards Celeste's ship took Rondarr one step closer to a dead end. What was he planning to do? The Wraith's Wings would have advanced alien security: retina scans, bio-energy signature detectors. Cogni wouldn't lower the ramp or fly the ship for anyone but -
"Kosoko kangai na Shikai-to Subasa, Nikkeeee-da."
Oh God damn it.
Rondarr flashed his tail blaster, and the instant Cogni poked her camera eye through the entry ramp, he shot her dead. The electronic shriek made Nikki flinch. When she opened her eyes, the camera bot dangled limply from its wiring like a body from a noose, sparks flicking into the air. Cogni…
Rondarr forced her up the ramp, glancing around the interior as if checking for booby traps. The control consoles remained in lockdown so he marched her back down, planting her in front of his body like a shield. At the base of the ramp, they waited.
It wasn't long before the warning shot kicked up the dirt at their ankles.
"RONDARR!"
Celeste. Towering at the treeline entrance to the lake bed, her purple wraith armor hastily and half done up, her face and skin sprayed with the green blood of the garduk like she'd smeared herself in war paint. With her rifle at the ready she was a murderous sight, a mother bear ready to kill the fool that dared plant himself between her and her own.
"Cel-!" Rondarr's claws choked off Nikki's cry, so she just tried to breathe and keep steady. I'm okay, she mouthed, all the while wondering how Celeste had caught up to them so quickly. Those cloven feet were fast, but she'd detoured at the apartment to grab bits of armor and her signature rifle, while they'd driven to the ship at highway speeds. Had she stolen a vehicle too?
In the bushes next to Celeste, something – someone? – rustled, but kept out of sight.
"Plant eater," Rondarr hissed, hatred emanating in every rasping syllable. He crouched low, ensuring he was shielded with the ship at his back and his hostage in front.
"You are still wanted alive, Rondarr. Release her and I will not deliver you as a corpse."
"Don't presume to order me, your herbivorous filth!" Rondarr barked back. "You've stolen everything from me: my cargo, my ship, my limb! I will leave on your vessel but not under your command, and not without this parting gift." Nikki winced as he hugged her tight. "Meet the first of the galaxy's new slave labour: dear, little Nikkeeee."
Celeste gave a single, dark laugh as she stepped into the grove. "You are as ignorant as you are hideous if you believe you can sell her, you Slovarian s'kaba! Do you even comprehend how much research and testing went into my people before we were 'fit for market'? Years were spent kidnapping and dissecting Norai, studying our physiology and developing antibodies so we would not collapse and die off-world!"
Celeste's rifle gestured at her disparagingly. "Do you believe that any slaver in his right mind would pay for that girl? Can you conceive that anyone will look at those small, weak limbs and find her fit for labor? That they will scan her shapeless body and enjoy her as an amusement?"
Rondarr snorted back. "Her hair is -"
"Pa na isho, it's blue colouring! Examine her scalp, you ignorant s'kaba! It's already growing out!"
Rondarr steamed, but she felt his nostrils sniff over her hair; heard him sneer at the line of brown roots growing back from her dye job. Celeste gave him no time to sulk.
"She is a pitiful, unremarkable, worthless little creature! She's not worth a datari to anyone!"
Nikki swallowed a heavy lump. She's just reasoning with him. Just trying to make him lose interest, she told herself, but she couldn't help but avert her eyes, listening to her lover sneer at her like a piece of spoiled meat. I really am nothing...
"Worthless," Rondarr agreed, and yet the speech hadn't encouraged the reptile to ease his grip in the slightest. His forked tongue lapped at Nikki's cheek. "Worthless to all except one."
Celeste's battle stance softened. "Except one," she agreed.
She dropped her rifle. Spread her palms wide. Raised her hands in surrender. "Take me in her place."
Nikki fought her restraints. "Celeste, no!"
"Be silent, Chiletto!" Celeste's order hit her like a slap across the face. "This is the only way."
Rondarr's grin grew tenfold as she kicked the rifle out of reach. For good measure, Celeste unclipped the summoning bracelet from her wrist, let it fall into the dirt.
"You will have complete security clearance to my ship. Take me and leave this world."
Rondarr gave a deep belly laugh – "You mammals and your sentiment!" – but Nikki didn't feel his claws or the bracer budge an inch. Celeste's discarded rifle… Rondarr cast an eye over it carefully, tensing as though it might explode. All his setbacks and humiliating defeats had made him paranoid; he wouldn't leave anything to a gamble.
"Remain exactly where you are," he commanded, and prodded Nikki forward so they could eliminate this variable. Celeste stood stock-still as they approached the rifle. Rondarr made her kneel, reached his deformed arm around her -
Celeste's hand whipped behind her back for the concealed pistol. Rondarr's tail had already curled like a scorpion stinger, blaster aimed and ready.
A shot rang out. An explosion burst next to Celeste's head. Her body spun off in one direction.
Her horn flew off in another.
"CELESTE!"
The metal talons around her chest uncoupled, and Nikki collapsed to her knees. Rondarr's gravely chuckle rang through the grove. He bent into her face and shoved the slave bracer into her hands.
"Put it on her."
Celeste. She wasn't dead, but she lay sprawled in the dirt like a discarded rag doll, the stench of ozone sizzling off her blackened hair. Spasms wracked her body but she made no sound. Her mouth hung open but the pain was beyond what she could release in a scream.
"Put it on her," Rondarr repeated, tapping his gun against her forehead. The barrel was still hot from firing.
Nikki's feet took her forward automatically. Up close, Celeste's face ran slick with blood. The once-lustrous hair down her left side was scorched and shredded and … her horn! Nikki remembered running her hand down those beautiful sickles, marvelling at the cool, smooth surface. A blackened stump was all that remained. I can't see her ear...
Sensing her presence, Celeste's golden eyes flickered dimly with something like happiness. "He released you. He released -"
Her eyes fell to the slave bracer and the payment owed. She bit her teeth and forced herself to sit up, to roll over and present her back.
"Do it," she pleaded.
The instant Nikki touched the bracer to her spine, its metal claws latched onto Celeste like a parasite sensing fresh meat. Before the restraints could even click shut, Rondarr was already jabbing at his remote control. Electric current poured into Celeste's flesh and screams poured from her throat.
"Now crawl!" Rondarr commanded.
The machine had pinned her arms against her ribs, robbing her of the leverage to even sit up. Celeste could only shuffle through the dirt like a wounded, blue worm, and still the Slovarian ordered her forward – gleefully mashing his 'shock' button if she slowed or stopped for air.
"Stop it!" Nikki sobbed. "Stop it, you're killing her!" But she was already forgotten, left to collapse in a wreck and watch helplessly as this monster maimed and tortured the woman she loved.
Growing impatient with her feeble slithering, Rondarr stomped over to meet his prisoner halfway, crushing Celeste's compact blaster underfoot as he moved. The rifle, he picked up, twirling the weapon in his good hand as he circled and inspected his prize.
"The great and terrible Koru-Shikai - the monstrous night wraith who stalks her victims to the grave." He kicked her under the ribs. "How right it is to see you in your place." Nikki hid her face in her hands, flinching with shared pain every time Celeste cried out.
"You were correct," Rondarr continued. "Why settle for this hyoo-mun worm when I have far more desirable cattle right here? I can't begin to tally how many enemies you've made – families and organizations who would pay an emperor's ransom to exact their revenge on the bounty hunter that vexed them and ruined their operations."
He dragged his index claw across Celeste's cheek in a mock caress. Fight back, Nikki sobbed. Celeste just clenched her teeth and accepted the pain.
"I will auction you off to the highest bidder. Better yet, I'll offer you up in pieces: fifty thousand datari for your hands; a hundred thousand for your tongue. But your skull…" Rondarr chuckled. "Oh, I intend to keep your skull for myself. You will make a fine drinking mug." He yanked at her remaining horn. "Ha! You even come with a handle!"
No. A single thought, a match struck into flame. No. A fury building, seething through Nikki's insides. No. You won't hurt her anymore! Anger pumping through her gut like gasoline, Nikki dragged her body through the dirt, target-locked onto a discarded, glimmering hope. I'm not the only one you forgot about!
Lost in dreams of riches and revenge, Rondarr didn't notice her stalking towards him like a hunting cat. His claws stretched to the stars as he continued his ranting. What trouble could she cause him, a lowly human worm?
Nikki stood, and the crunch of gravel beneath her flats made Rondarr turn and release a mocking laugh. "Are you still here?" He poked at Celeste with the barrel of her own rifle. "Plant eater, I think your pet wishes to join you!"
"Stay the fuck away from her!" Arm extended, fingers curled into claws, the crystal bangle over Nikki's wrist glowed with a fierce, white fire.
Rondarr's eyes flew wide. The weapon in his claws quivered at the call. He tried to grip the rifle tight, seize it with both hands, as though he could fight the magnetized summons. Nikki knew better.
Mjolnir always comes to its master.
A powerful yank wrenched Rondarr off his scaly feet, face-planting him into the dirt. He was still holding on, and the rifle dragged him through the mud on its invisible tow cable, crunching snout-first into the rocks and reeling through the dirt until it brought him grovelling at Nikki's feet. She stamped his snout once and ran.
Across the clearing, sprinting like it came naturally, then raising her arm again. The rifle flipped Rondarr onto his back and yanked, tearing his joints and clanging his head against the rocks. This time, the weapon slipped from his grip and continued towards Nikki, scraping to a halt at her feet.
She snatched up the rifle, positioned her arms and legs the way Celeste had shown her, lining the winded reptile in her sights. Breathe, steady and-
"GAAH!" Her shot flew wild. In a blind fury she'd aimed at Rondarr's chest, but the plasma bolt only lanced through the tip of his tail, shaving it down several inches. The poacher howled at the stars.
Not enough. Nikki aimed again, but Rondarr could pounce as well as any garduk. The rifle butt slammed into her ribs. Winded, she collapsed in the gravel with the Slovarian hunched over her like a hungry animal. "Insolent pest!"
"Nicole!" Celeste was struggling to her feet. Rondarr mashed his wrist-top console, pumping her full of voltage. His claws continued to her human throat.
A new voice joined the fray. "Hey! Over here, fuck-face!" A rock whipped against Rondarr's head; both he and Nikki spun at the thrower.
Audrey?
Springing from the bushes with a rock and a long branch, the raven-haired girl charged in with a scream, whipping her rock and swinging her wooden sword like a psycho samurai. "Don't fuck with my friend, you –"
Rondarr caught her stick in mid-swing and reversed its momentum, flinging Audrey across the field. She was down in one blow.
Nuisance dispatched, Nikki found his black claws around her throat. She opened her mouth, but couldn't even croak. His claws were squeezing, her vision was blurring, going black with shadows...
And from the shadows, something dark and terrible forced itself to stand.
"Not her," the voice snarled, bloody and scarred. Electricity twitched uselessly across its body, only serving to intensify the yellow glow of the monstrous eyes, the sheen of the sickled horn.
"Not her," it repeated gravely. "Not ever."
The Night Wraith roared. Her voice was raw and ragged and furious as she pried against her electrified bonds. Sparks leapt, flesh sizzled and metal claws groaned in a futile resistance. A primal rip tore the slave bracer from her chest. Restrained no more, the beast of shadow surged forward like a bolt of silver lightning, slowing only to crouch and seize something off the ground.
Rondarr turned too slow, too late. The Night Wraith raised her arms, cried out in fury, and buried her weapon in his chest.
Rondarr blinked. His claws slackened and Nikki collapsed, wheezing in air. They both looked to his exposed chest, to the piece of dismembered bone shoved down to the hilt. The curved horn he'd shot off Celeste's head - now lodged straight through his heart.
He staggered. Coughed up blood. Tried to reach and pull the shard from his chest. Tried to comprehend. "Not ... by a ... slave ..."
Then he collapsed at Celeste's cloven feet, eyes and mouth trapped in horrified disbelief.
"I am a Norai," Celeste hissed at the corpse. "And I am free."
Her eyes staggered over the field, confirming that Audrey was rising to her feet, bruised but no worse for wear. Nikki watched them drift over to her, saw their fury melt and relax now that her beloved was free of harm. "Chiletto…"
Celeste crumpled to the ground.