novelraw Chapter 423: The Rest Got In The Way
Chapter 423: The Rest Got In The Way
Alexei’s jaw locked.
He wasn’t afraid of new predators. He, himself, was a predator. But predators were not neutral to each other the way humans were. They met in a hierarchy... with men who held their leashes, or they met in blood.
There was no other option.
Sera was not a prize to be claimed by whatever else had crawled out of a cage. She was his because she chose him. In the cabin, in the snow, the very first moment she shared a meal.
The alarms shifted pitch.
The facility voice began to chant a new loop through the speakers, half-stuttering between static bursts. AIRBORNE HAZARD. SEAL COMPARTMENTS. NEGATIVE PRESSURE. DO NOT REMOVE FILTRATION. BIOLOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS.
The words barely mattered... but the panic behind them did.
Alexei heard the quick click of a bulkhead door farther up the hall.
A seal.
He heard it melt a second later, the sound soft, almost like wet paper tearing. He’d never heard composite doors soften like that.
His creature’s snarl became a physical pressure in his throat. He’s here. He’s here. Let me out so I can rip him apart before he touches her again.
Alexei breathed in slowly through his nose, refusing to give in to Psycho’s tempting offer. But this was not the time to get lost in his creature. Not if Sera was in trouble.
The word again lodged in his mind. The creature didn’t make assumptions without reason. If it said again, it meant it had already felt that presence close to her, already tasted the way another predator wanted her.
Alexei didn’t have to like the creature to know when it was right.
The corridor came into view through the narrow angle.
First he saw Sera.
She walked as if the CDC facility was a market aisle, not a battlefield.
She was barefoot, her Victorian style gown changed out for an ugly hospital gown. Her hair was loose and her face was clean except for a streak of blood at the jaw where she hadn’t bothered to wipe it away.
She moved with that calm curiosity that was more dangerous than fear because it meant she wasn’t looking for a way out. She was looking for things to put her teeth into.
Alexei’s chest eased half an inch at the sight of her.
Then he saw what walked beside her.
The man—creature—thing—was not Elias, no matter how much it gave off the same feeling.
He was taller by a head, built leaner and sharper, with skin that carried a faint blue sheen under the emergency lights. His hair was long and black, falling loose around shoulders that didn’t belong to any human Alexei had known.
His ears tapered subtly, not enough for a human to call it monstrous, but enough for Alexei to know it wasn’t a human trick.
And his eyes were fully black.
Not dark brown. Not shadowed. Black like oil.
Black like Sera’s were black.
Alexei felt his creature slam against his ribs so hard it made his teeth ache. Too close. He is too close to her. Let me out. Let me out right now.
The...man... leaned toward Sera as they walked, close enough that his breath moved her hair. He didn’t touch her. He didn’t need to. The closeness itself was a claim in predator language.
"Stay with me, Trouble," he murmured, calm and pleased, as if he’d been saying it all his life.
Sera’s mouth quirked. She didn’t step away.
Alexei’s knuckles whitened on the bars.
His creature screamed inside his head. He is not one of ours. She is ours. He is trying to take what is ours. Break the glass. Break the door. Break him.
Alexei didn’t move.
Not yet.
He watched instead, cold and precise, because if he lunged blind he gave Mercer’s place a victory even in its death. He tracked the man’s posture, his pace, his eyes, the way the air around him moved.
Thos in uniform behind Sera and the other man were dying without a fight.
Alexei caught glimpses through the corridor as they approached: a soldier slumped against the wall, face blackened, boils bursting in wet green spurts that hit the floor and steamed.
A CDC tech trying to crawl away on elbows because his legs had turned to slurry. Another body already half-dissolved, armor empty above a puddle of tissue.
But the strange man didn’t look at any of it.
He was focused on Sera like she was the only living thing worth tracking.
That was the problem.
Zubair’s cage was two cells down. Alexei heard the fire man shift before he saw him. Zubair pressed to his own glass, eyes locked on Sera, then sliding to the other man with a quiet, assessing stillness that meant he was already deciding what to do if this went wrong.
Lachlan’s voice hit the hall next.
"Oi!" he barked, and the word came out half snarl, half warning. His broad body was already braced against his bars, lightning riding his skin in small blue arcs that flickered across his knuckles. His eyes were bright, feral, fixed on stranger in a way that wasn’t at all subtle.
The man’s gaze flicked to the cages, an amused smile on his lips.
"Ah," he said lightly, strolling closer as if the wing was his backyard. "There you are. Trouble here has been looking for you. I’m Aerenyx, in case you wanted to know."
He stopped in front of Alexei first, and not by accident.
Alexei could feel it.
Predators chose where they stopped. Aerenyx’s smile was small and sharp, a thin line of pleasure that said he knew who the real threat in this row was.
"You’re ice," Aerenyx observed. His tone held no fear. It held interest. "I felt you through the vents."
Alexei’s creature hit the inside of his skull. He felt us. He knows us. He thinks he can talk. Rip his throat out.
Alexei met Aerenyx’s eyes through the glass.
He didn’t bow. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t speak yet. Staring first was part of the conversation.
Aerenyx’s black gaze shifted to Sera again, and the way he did it was easy, natural, proprietary. "Do you want them out, Trouble?" he asked. "Because now that I see them, I can assure you... I can keep you more than happy all by myself."
The question and statement was meant for her, but it was also meant for Alexei. It was a reminder of hierarchy: he wasn’t asking Alexei, he was asking the apex predator behind him.
Sera answered without hesitation. "Let them out," she said simply, ignoring the second half of his statement.
Aerenyx nodded like he’d never doubted it. "Then I’ll open the cages."
Lachlan surged hard against his bars. "Touch hers again and I’ll tear your face off," he spat.
Aerenyx looked at him like he was enjoying the bark.
"Lightning," he said with mild appreciation. "You must be loud in bed."
Lachlan’s snarl split into a full-bodied growl that rattled the glass.
Zubair’s voice came next, calm and dangerous. "We’re not here for jokes. What are you?"
Aerenyx glanced at him, then back to Sera. "I’m the part of your doctor that was useful," he replied. "The rest got in the way."