Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(32)

"I might as well do it?" the Host teased cruelly. "You are very keen to die."

"I am not," Aria shot back, taking courage from the fact those might have been her last words.

"But you are," the Host said, dropping its already deep voice even lower. "Anyone who knowingly betrays me has a death wish."

She supposed it was true, but she refused to give the Host the satisfaction of acknowledging it.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked instead.

"Everyone keeps asking me that," answered the Host, waving its hand as if to drive the irrelevant topic away. "Why? I ask, why not? If I can, I will."

There was something in that last phrase that struck a note within Aria. Despite her better judgment, a smile kept pulling the corners of her lips upward. The Host saw and its big eyes were instantly furious.

"You mock me," it hissed.

"I am not, I'm really not," Aria said quickly, raising her hands in an effort to calm the enemy. "I just realized something."

"And what is that?"

"You're losing."

As soon as Aria had said that, she knew it was true. The look on the Host's face told her as much. So that's what it was all about. The news, the reports, they'd all been true. The Clayors were being beaten all across the galaxy by the Brion generals. And the Host hadn't even been able to gain a foothold on Ilotra, because he hadn't expected one of them to defend it.

She knew it was dangerous to laugh in the enemy's face, but Aria couldn't help but smile. It would all survive. Ilotra, the union  . No matter what happened to her, even if she died, it would all go on. It was a comfort, if nothing else. Ryden would win, she was certain of it now, as he'd assured her he would.

No, Aria didn't really want to die, but suddenly she didn't want the general to come for her either. She'd seen the Host in action, knew what it was capable of. With her there, Ryden would be caught between fighting and protecting her and...

"That's your plan," she said through gritted teeth. "You want to use me against him. Make me your shield. Make him fight to protect me. You want to distract him. You're afraid."

Aria realized a moment later it wasn't the smartest thing to say, but she no longer cared. With a guttural cry, the Host moved forward instantly and slapped her, but a slap from a creature like that sent her falling backward. She hit the floor hard.

"I do not fear," the Host hissed at Aria, looming over her. "Not this general, nor any of the others. All of them are just men, but me... I am many."

"You do fear," Aria said, unable to believe she was still talking. "You haven't dared to meet the general head-on once. There has always been something in his way, a distraction or a trick. You fear him. That is why you need me to be here. You're luring him here."

The anger rose inside her despite Aria already knowing that nothing good ever came from provoking the hive mind. The Host was snarling at her, its big eyes filled to the brink with loathing, but it didn't touch her. Yet.

Aria had no doubt the Host would immensely enjoy killing her before Ryden's eyes.

No. I will not let that happen. I will not be the reason he dies. I will not be used like this.

Aria had no idea where those reserves of courage came from. She had been a timid child, barely daring to go to space even when she had been offered the chance of a lifetime. Yet there she was, desperately scanning her surroundings for a weapon. Any weapon. It was ironic and frustrating that she'd designed so many, but never one for personal use. All of her hard work wouldn't help her there, against the Host.

She would have to do it the old-fashioned way, then.

There was a gun a few feet away from where she'd fallen. A few others were closer, but melee weapons were useless in her hands. She probably couldn't even lift the Brion battle spears. The gun, however—that she could use.

It was risky, though. Not even risky; it was practically suicide. Aria knew that at best, she could get one incredibly lucky shot in before her head was torn off. Even that was unlikely. The Host was much quicker than she was, much more perceptive. It probably knew what she was thinking already.#p#分页标题#e#

But she couldn't give up and wait for Ryden to come and rescue her, could she? Aria had thought it was bad enough to not be the one for him, but to be a weakness felt even worse. The sense of helplessness was quickly taking over her. The Host wanted to use her, had tried to use her in its plans all along. Aria hated it for that.



She dashed across the floor, grabbing the gun and turning around. Her mind was cheering her on wildly, impressed at how easily she pulled it off. She took aim in a hurry, knowing there was only one chance to shoot at all, and fired. It was an old gun, with actual bullets, although of course the stuff they used for bullets was far beyond anything known on Terra. The gun barked in her hands, the kickback nearly throwing if out of her grip.

The Host caught the bullet.

It hadn't even moved, hadn't done anything to stop her. It didn't really need to, with reflexes like that. And to top it all off, to put the final nail in the coffin of her humiliation, the Host did all that with nauseating ease. It didn't snatch the bullet out of the air in the last moment, with fear in its big alien eyes. No, it looked like it simply picked the bullet out of the air as if it was standing still.

The gun was shaking in Aria's hands. She thought she might have had more bullets, but for some reason she wasn't motivated to shoot. If she threw the gun at him, it would have resulted in about as much damage.

She really was dead, her and Ryden both. Aria didn't doubt that the general would come for her; it would be unthinkable for him to back down from a challenge like that. And he wouldn't give up an opportunity to the end the war once and for all.

When Ryden strode into the room, not even looking at the Host, Aria's heart stopped beating. She wanted to cry out a warning, to say anything, but nothing came out but a choked gasp. Behind its veil, the Host approached, victorious, merciless. The knives in its hands were raised high above its head.

Finally, Aria screamed.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Ryden



Ryden turned so suddenly he startled Aria more than the Host.

His spear was already in his hand as he arose, catching the death blow of both of the knives. He felt Aria scramble out of the way, the only real, true lifeline in the whirlwind of visions the Host was throwing his way.

It was truly desperate now, to do this to him. Ryden felt his eyes strain to comprehend all that it was shown, conflicting images upon each other, every next one as farther from the truth as it was possible to be. Beneath all of those, however, he did see the Host as well. The enemy was furious, which was good, because it made his efforts clumsier. But even an enraged hive mind was still all that it was.

Throwing off mind control and similar effects were one of the first things young Brion warriors learned in the academy. It was vital that they learned to protect themselves against the most treacherous of assaults. It was also one of the lessons their instructors never eased up on. Time and time again they returned to it, until it was sure that a warrior would recognize when it was seeing something that wasn't real.

Usually there were little signs that gave it away. Colors were wrong or the angles of light were slightly off. The Host wasn't trying to be that subtle. Ryden had already made it clear he knew it was there, clearly surprising the creature. It should have been impossible to see him and if Ryden was very honest, it nearly was.

Only with intuition bordering on the supernatural—all of his senses sharpened beyond their normal capacity because Aria was in danger—did he sense the Host before it was too late. Now he had to find a way to battle the hive mind without seeing it.

It was possible, but damn hard. What the Host hadn't accounted for was that a Brion warrior sensed the world so vividly it was often painful for them. Their hearing was extraordinary. They could even hear their own heartbeat. Their sense of smell, the sense of touch, all of it was beyond the abilities of other species.

The Host was powerful, but it was only able to distract one of his senses. His sight was the most important one, but Ryden found he managed without being able to trust his eyes completely.

Looking down and around in the room in the moments the Host allowed him, the general saw not all of his brothers and sisters had been that lucky, or that skilled. They lay dead, but the way their corpses lay, he could tell they had obeyed his commands to protect Aria until the very end.

Righteous fury made his blood boil as he focused all of his thoughts on the Host, trying to discern the real one from the plethora of images it was throwing at him. None of them stuck; his mind was too resistant for that, but every other image he saw was a fake.#p#分页标题#e#

One of the knives slashed across his chest, cutting a deep gash in his armor. He'd known the knives the Host carried were special, but they were sharp beyond belief. Brion armor shouldn't have broken for anything less than a point-blank blast from a plasma gun. To celebrate that, the Host let him see its true image, and the wide, grinning smile it wore. It was good that it only urged Ryden on to wipe that grin off the enemy's face.

He was losing track of Aria. Without the moment to catch his breath between the deadly blades and the ever-present mind games of the Host, Ryden had no way of making sure she was safely out of their way.