Lord of Capra (7 page)

“Evana, will your
blood make me exactly like you?”

She stirred in his
arms, snuggling closer before she answered. “Not exactly. Only Nemesis made me
the way I am. Or another like her could have. My blood will stop you from
aging. It’ll give you even greater strength and speed than you have right now.
It’ll also heighten your senses—sight, sound, touch, smell and even taste.”

“Then how did
Nemesis change you?”

She sighed. “The
answers you want are best discovered within Nemesis.”

“I’d like to know,
Evana,” he insisted.

“I’m working on
that.”

Chapter Ten

Evana languished in
his embrace, unwilling to disturb the peacefulness she enjoyed. The sound of
the waves crashing on the rocks mingled with the steady beating of his heart
soothed her, and she wanted to linger forever in the feeling of security she
found in this one moment with him. He was her mate. She was in love with him,
impossibly, deeply in love with him.

She cursed inwardly
as she remembered who began this journey she was now taking. Nemesis. Nemesis
had chosen him for her. And she’d never hear the end of it, ever. Gods.

Abomination. Rocks.
Nemesis
broke into her thoughts.

Evana reacted in an
instant. She summoned all her power and whipped around to place herself between
Drake and her enemy. She spotted “it” standing on the most distant rock from
shore. The abomination leered back in defiance while salt spray obscured its
form with every wave that washed over.

“Do you see it?”

“Barely.”

Just as Drake
spoke, the figure appeared at the juncture where the rocks joined the sand,
closing the distance between it and its prey by half.

“Yes!” Apparently
startled, he staggered back.

Evana didn’t
indicate she noticed as she was already prepared with both swords activated.
She held a hilt in her right hand while she held the other in her left, keeping
it at dagger length. Not daring to take her gaze off her enemy, she sent a
silent command to Nemesis. Then she shouted to Drake, “Forgive me, my love!”

“What—” His
question was left unfinished.

“So, pilot. You’ve
made your own creature. A weak pet!”

The figure sneered
at Evana. She knew it was only trying to distract her. She focused her
attention on the enemy as it stalked toward her. All its features were as
expected. Porcelain white skin, red eyes that stared back at her unwaveringly
and red lips that lifted to reveal white fangs. It was naked, except for a
hooded cloak. The abomination was female, Evana noted, definitely not the
expected gender.

“And you’ve lost
yours, but you already know that, don’t you?” she taunted.

The abomination hissed
its frustration at Evana.

“Who is your maker,
ugly dead one?” she taunted her now irate foe.

“I’ll never tell
you that, pilot bitch!” It spat the insult back at her.

“Too bad,” Evana said
with a growl. “I was prepared to offer you mercy for that information.”

As expected, the abomination
lunged toward her at near invisible speed while Evana slipped behind the raging
female with equal swiftness. Unable to capture its victim on the first assault,
the abomination turned around and once again came face-to-face with empty
space. She screamed in pain as Evana’s sword sliced through her cold dead heart
from behind. Evana moved in to capture the undead monster. She released her
grasp on the sword and pressed her body against the hilt to hold it firmly in
place while she used her free arm to encircle the shrieking head and pulled it
back to expose its throat. The dagger in her left hand sliced into the abomination’s
skin, spilling streams of black blood down its neck.

Arms flailing
helplessly, it screamed. “You will suffer for this, pilot—”

“Who’ll make me
suffer?” Evana sawed the dagger in deeper. She was rewarded by more screams
from her captive. “Say the name of your maker. I can still give you mercy.”

Between shrieks of
pain the abomination at long last howled out a name. “Bayal! It was Bayal!”

“You lie!” Evana
growled back at her.

“The Horde…they won’t
stop…him.” It stammered, then continued to spew threats.

Stunned beyond
belief, Evana silenced its maniacal screams with a quick merciful slice of the
dagger. She flung the severed head over her shoulder toward the water.

The next warning
from Nemesis
came a second too late for Evana to evade him.
Abomination
emerging from the water…

Fangs sank deep
into her shoulder as it grabbed her from behind. Apparently ravenous for her
blood, it attempted to drain her. She used all her strength to break its hold
and twist away. Still gripping the dagger, she called on what was left of her
energy to put some distance between them. It followed close behind. She evaded
capture several times before they stopped only yards apart.

She struggled to
catch her breath as the wound on her shoulder continued to bleed out. The
venomous fangs of an abomination had never pierced her so deeply. Her strength
wouldn’t stay with her for long. One way or another, this had to be a short
battle.

I have a plan when
you are ready.

Evana sent back a
silent okay while watching the abomination’s every move. This one was male.

“I wondered how
your blood would taste.” He sneered while licking a drop off his lower lip.

There was more of
her blood smeared down his chin. The blatant hunger he displayed for her made
Evana shiver in disgust.

“I’ll drink more
from you, slowly,” he continued to threaten. “Until you’re near dead, then I’ll
feed you. You’ll be mine.”

The male slid his
red gaze up and down her body. Evana had no doubts about what else he wanted
from her.

Defiant, she
snarled, “I think not.” To Nemesis she thought,
Now.

Even if she’d been
mentally prepared to feel her blood turn to liquid fire, she couldn’t stop the
scream of pain ripping from her when it happened. Every molecule in her body
burned with excruciating intensity. Her enemy’s shriek of pain mingled with her
own. To her relief, the pain faded as quickly as it came, and just before she
blacked out, she saw Drake’s blade slice through the overcome abomination’s
neck.

* * * *

Moments earlier,
Drake found himself in a dimly lit room. It was the only reference he could
apply to the space. The walls, if you could call them that, looked smooth
grayish blue at times. Random streams of color rippled across them, much like
an aurora borealis event. It took him a few seconds to survey the contents—an
empty alcove on one wall and a smooth oval-shaped black container resting on a
raised platform. His mind insisted on referencing it as a coffin.
Ridiculous.

He glanced about,
searching for anything that might indicate an opening or doorway. No luck
finding one, he called, “Evana?” Silence was the only answer he heard. Then,
suddenly realizing how stupid he was being, he tried again. “Nemesis?” After no
response, he shouted, “Nemesis! Where is Evana? Answer me!”

“Be calm, Harrison
Drake. I am watching over her.”

The authoritative
voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It was definitely
feminine, but sounded emotionless and cold, almost computer-like.

“Where is she?” He
tried his best to keep from sounding too harsh.

“On Earth.”

Drake fumed,
letting anger overcome good manners. “Nemesis, I want to see her. Now! Is she
all right? Can you tell me—”

“You are a
demanding mate,”
Nemesis
observed, matter-of-fact.

The wall beyond the
oval container coalesced into a view screen of sorts. He was able to see Evana
facing what he assumed was an abomination. It wasn’t as grotesque a figure as
the creatures they’d fought earlier. In fact, it looked more like the movie
vampires he’d watched as a child.

“Can you hear what
they’re saying?”

“I can.”
No further offer of
information was forthcoming.

“Of course you can,”
he grumbled to the empty room.

Drake watched the
silent movie unfold. He couldn’t breathe until Evana held a dagger to the
throat of what he decided was a vampire. When Evana tossed its head toward the
water, Drake sensed a change come over Nemesis. Just for an instant, she seemed
to pause. No colors moved along the walls. The low thrumming sound that he was
only vaguely aware of ceased. The very next instant turned everything to utter
chaos. He saw another vampire emerge from the water, grab Evana and bite her.
After she broke from his grasp, the screen became a wild blur of activity. She
eluded him and raced away with the vampire close behind.

Intent on watching
the screen, Drake scarcely noticed the sword hilt forming in his right hand.

“Slice through its
neck the instant you arrive,”
Nemesis instructed. “Or she will die.”

Drake activated the
weapon before the room vanished around him.

Chapter Eleven

He was at Evana’s
side before the abomination’s body hit the ground. She was alive, breathing but
still bleeding. No longer in her vampire form, she seemed so very vulnerable.
He scooped her into his arms, and not knowing what else to do, he decided to
call out to Nemesis. Before he could utter the words, he vanished once again,
this time with Evana cradled against him.

After appearing in
the same room as before, Drake carried Evana toward the container, thinking he
might lay her on top. At his approach it slid open, revealing a cushioned bed
upon which he placed her limp body. He ignored his mind’s coffin association.
She moaned in pain and gradually came back to consciousness. Anxious, he
watched her take in her surroundings before her pain-filled gaze fixed on him.
She gave him a weak smile and tried to sit.

“My shoulder.” She
gasped and fell back onto the bed.

“Pilot, you must
drink,” Nemesis said.

“Yes.” Evana looked
toward him.

“You can have all
my blood if that’s what you need,” Drake offered without a single hesitation.

“No, not your
blood,” she assured him, shaking her head. “In the alcove, there’s a goblet. I
need to drink the elixir.”

Drake looked at the
alcove, and sure enough, there was the goblet. He nodded and rushed to retrieve
it.

“Don’t ever drink
the elixir,” Evana warned. “It’ll kill you.”

He carried the
goblet to her, taking care not to spill any. To him, the elixir looked like
liquid gold, thick and shimmery. She’d managed to sit, and he placed it in her
waiting hands.

“Understood.”

She gulped down
several large swallows of the thick liquid. Immediately after, she seemed more
at ease and without pain.

“This is how the abominations
are created. If you were to drink this, you’d die and then awaken as one of
them,” she explained.

Drake nodded, then
frowned. “How is it you can drink this stuff and not turn into one of those
things?”

She downed the last
few swallows before answering. “I’m pilot. Nemesis changed me. You’ve seen how
I appear when I use the power she’s given me. That’s the change that allows me
to drink the elixir and not die.”

“And I guess you
also need this elixir now to live,” he surmised.

“Yes. I do.”

“He does have much
potential.”
Nemesis’
observation intruded into the conversation.

“That he does.”

Evana gazed at him
fondly. All of a sudden, her expression changed from pride to an angry scowl as
she jumped out of the pod.

Drake stepped back
a few paces. Judging from the look on her face, she didn’t seem very pleased
about something, and since she’d changed her mood so abruptly, he thought it
best to retreat.

“Fire? Boiling my
blood was your plan?” She shouted the questions at the ghost ship. “Did you not
think of taking me away? I know you can do that!” Evana ranted.

Unruffled, Nemesis
responded in a calm manner. “Pilot, he would have escaped to the water before
you could return and continue the fight. It would be days before he would come
searching for you again since he had your blood to sustain him. He could have
killed many more humans and spawned dozens of creatures—”

“Enough!”

Nemesis paused in
her detailed explanation.

 Evana turned in a
slow circle in the center of the control room and shook her finger at the
ceiling in several directions before she spoke again. When she did, the tone of
her voice was a bit calmer. “No more blood burning, Nemesis. Promise me.”

“Technically, I did
not burn your blood. It was simply the excitation
—”

“Nem!” Evana
growled. “No ‘tech’ talk, please. Just promise me no more blood burning or fire
torture plans in the future.”

“I promise, pilot.”
The
female voice sounded sincere.

Still defiant and
standing with her hands on her hips, Evana gave the ceiling a suspicious glare.
She glanced toward him, then back at the ceiling for another cursory look
before she settled down.

Drake decided it
was now safe and approached and took her into his arms. He shot a quick glance
up at the ceiling before giving her a comforting squeeze.

“You know, we did
save your ass back there.”

Evana hugged him
before she shook with laughter. She buried her face in his chest and they both
burst out laughing. The tension in the room melted away along with their
laughter.

“Then I owe you my
thanks.” She lifted her face, revealing a coy smile.

Drake grinned. “It’s
not your thanks I want in payment.”

It suddenly dawned
on him that getting paid the way he desired might be problematic without a
larger bed.

“Two abominations
on Earth, and one knew the name of Bayal?”
The observation by
Nemesis ended their teasing.

*

Even though she was
reluctant to leave his embrace Evana took a few steps back and turned her
attention to Nemesis. “They almost seemed to be working together. And one was
female.” It was puzzling.

“I find it
difficult to believe Bayal would leave the Horde to return to this galaxy.
Unless he lost his pilot, but it would take eons to return without one.”

Nemesis continued
to speak aloud. Probably in deference to Drake, Evana realized. It was as it
should be with them, no more secrets.

“I called it a
liar, but I didn’t sense any deception. Could it have been tricked into
thinking it was created by Bayal? Another pilot could have lied in order to
protect his ship.”

Evana made the
suggestion, knowing only a ghost ship could create the abominations they fought
on so many planets. She and Nemesis hadn’t been to Earth in two thousand years,
give or take a century. As soon as they arrived, their enemies were practically
waiting for them. It made no sense.

“It has been ages
since we have visited Earth. Some contamination is not unusual, and I did find
myths and legends. However, I found no history of actual battles against these
creatures as we have found on other planets. Earth seems to have had only
benign contact. Finding our enemy here so soon after our arrival is not
coincidence.”
Nemesis’
spoken thoughts paralleled Evana’s silent ones.

*

“Who is Bayal?” Drake
took advantage of the pause.

His question
extended the silence of their discussion. Evana simply sighed and gazed at the
floor, obviously waiting for Nemesis to answer.

“Another ghost ship,
much like me, except Bayal’s life force is male,”
she said. “Long ago,
before reaching this galaxy, we were members of Tribe. At that time, Tribe and
Horde were together and we traveled with another ghost ship, Lilitu, a member
of Horde. I believe you might think of us as ‘friends.’ The Time of Separation
came and Lilitu chose to leave with Horde toward a super-cluster of galaxies a
great distance from this one. Unfortunately, Bayal and Lilitu had taken pilots
from a world where all couples mated for life. Bayal had great empathy for his pilot
and could not keep him from his mate. He decided to join Horde and left with
Lilitu. I remained with Tribe, and we traveled to a different super-cluster.
Your Milky Way is part of this group.”

Drake swallowed
hard.
Good job, dumbass
. He’d managed to bring up something he guessed
wasn’t a favorite subject for Nemesis. He caught Evana casting him a warning
glance. Undeterred, he ignored her.

“Is Bayal stronger
than you?”

“Not stronger.
Perhaps equal,”
Nemesis
admitted.

“Then it’s not him.”
Getting no response he looked at Evana. “Don’t you see?”

Evana didn’t
respond.

“Explain!” Nemesis
challenged his observation.

Puny human.
Drake added the
silent comment to her command. Undaunted, he continued to explain his train of
thought.

“If it was Bayal,
then he could have destroyed you both by now, don’t you think?” He stopped
Evana’s protest with a hand motion. “Whoever is doing this has to be weaker.”
He waved the same hand at the ceiling. “Much weaker than Nemesis, and he or she
is tracking you somehow, trying to maneuver you into a trap. I believe it
thinks the only chance it has to defeat you is to separate you,” he explained. “You’ve
never heard of divide and conquer?”

Evana stared at
him, her expression uncertain.

“A possibility,”
Nemesis stated.

“Another ship
following us, Nem, how is that possible?”

“A very weak trace
might appear as a slight gravitational anomaly, nothing of concern. A weaker
wraith and its pilot could follow without us ever being aware of them. If this
is true, they have been tracking us for what amounts to only a century in your
Earth time. “

Drake’s knees
turned to mush along with his mind. He’d been about to ask what the hell a
wraith was, but when Nemesis had said only a century, he gave up trying to say
anything. All he wanted to do was sit down. He glanced around the room and gave
up on finding a chair.

“That’s when we
first found our enemies on different planets accompanied by so few creatures.
They never had time to create an army, because we destroyed them so quickly.”
Evana paced as she spoke. “This…wraith…” she paused. “Nem, was it trying to
lead us to Earth?”

“Unknown. Perhaps,
but we chose to visit Earth.”

“You chose.”

“I accept your
gratitude.”

“And now it begins,”
Evana complained.

“Pilot, you must
focus.”

“I am focused.” She
stopped pacing to stare at the ceiling, eyes narrowed.

“On why the wraith
might want to lead us here?”

“That too.”

“I believe its plan
failed.”

“Yes. I’m still
alive.” She paced again. “I’ve fought two abominations before and destroyed
them easily. To have one waiting in the water to attack by surprise, that was
unexpected. They aren’t usually so clever.”

 Drake had been
trying to follow the conversation as much as he could. Evana suddenly stopped
and stared at him, almost as if she suspected he’d done something wrong.

“No!” He spread his
hands in an innocent gesture. “I took you to the beach, but I didn’t have
anything to do with those things!”

Evana’s expression
changed within an instant and she gave him a reassuring smile. “No, that’s not
what I was thinking. You did nothing wrong. In fact, you did everything right.
If you hadn’t taken me to the seashore, I would have found my own way there
eventually. It’s the best place to draw them out. Nemesis can’t track them
underwater, so that’s where they usually hide. The smell of my blood is what
draws them out. They’re able to move very fast under water so I wait for them.
You couldn’t have known. Their plan failed because they didn’t know I had you
fighting with me.”

“That’s a relief,”
he told her and thought to himself, one more reason to be afraid to go into the
water now.

“The presence of
the wraith creates a problem with our next destination.”

“Why?” Evana asked.

“The Kuiper Belt is
how the humans of this time refer to it. I planned to send one of the small
planetoids toward Earth. Chiron, perhaps.”

 
“What?” They both
shouted in unison.

“Why would you do
that?” Drake asked.

“I am disappointed
in Earth’s progress.”

“So you’d send us back
to the Dark Ages?” Drake shouted the question angrily. It made no sense to him.
How could Nemesis think that hitting Earth with a huge rock would help the
planet be more progressive?

“Drake, Chiron
would destroy all life on your planet. I would never kill the Earth. I am its
protector. “

“Oh.” Now he felt
like a complete idiot.

Drake heard Evana
trying to swallow a laugh. He vowed not to look in her direction, stared at the
ceiling and hoped Nemesis wasn’t done explaining. He still didn’t like the idea
of his home planet being in the ghost ship’s sights.

“I wanted to send a
large asteroid or planetoid in Earth’s direction, so close that all observers
would think it was on a direct course. The imminent danger of annihilation
might unite your planet and make your species forget about their petty
differences.”

“We’re advanced in
many ways, Nemesis, especially in technology, don’t you think?” Drake tried to
reason with her.

“Yes, I did make
use of your Internet to research many things while Evana was on Earth. However,
technology is not what elevates a planet to contact status. Many worlds are
behind Earth in technology, but are already members of the Alliance. Earth must
be united in its government, military and economy. It is not required that
religious philosophy be singular, but the factions must work together for
peace. Only then can Earth join the other planets of the Alliance. At this
time, don’t you believe your planet is very unbalanced in these areas?”