Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📕

believe many things drive Humans. Honor, the gods, loyalty to clan.” Her tail waved softly behind her. “What drives you, Rex?” She cocked her head, letting her tongue loll as she steered them away from getting too serious. It was not for her to teach a Hosh the ways of the Zuul.

But unlike what A’kef had told her back on the Paku, he was not so far out of her reach as a Hosh would be. No, she thought with delight, inspecting him again, all the other Zuul, anyone who might object, were far away. But Rex…Rex was entirely near at hand.

“Drives me?” He barked something like a laugh, eyes locking on hers. “I wouldn’t have said honor before all this. But seeing how the Zuparti operate…” He shook his great head, dismissing them with a flick of an ear as he caught on to the signals she was sending.

Raised by Humans or no, he couldn’t miss the rising pull of her interest threaded through her scent. Zuul didn’t bother to hide such things—a simple acknowledgement or rejection directed the next actions appropriately—but after his confusion on the ship, when they’d been interrupted, she’d resolved to go a bit more slowly.

“The Zuparti often pay well, but have no honor.” She stretched on the stool and gestured behind her. “The message is sent. We have nothing to do but wait. If you wouldn’t have said honor before this, what would you have said?”

He blinked before answering, and she dropped her jaw in a grin. He was such a well-made Zuul. Larger than she was, well-proportioned, fierce when he needed to be, creative in a fight, strong and clever at Eshtoo…Her tail swung behind her again, but she held to her seat.

“Protecting my family. Competition. I used to play Hóngsè Niu as often as I could.” She gave a quizzical look, and he told her about the suborbital drop game. “So, being the best at that was…”

“But you were looking for something more.” She reached out a hand, and he took it with an answering grin.

“Was I looking for you?” he asked, the teasing thrum in his voice wrapping her spine in delicious heat.

“Mates are not forever,” she said, flicking an ear dismissively. “But we are grateful when our path brings us to an impressive one.”

“Am I so impressive?” He stepped closer to her, his legs touching hers.

“Foolish pup,” she said, dropping her voice and tilting her head back in invitation. “I was speaking of myself.”

He laughed and pulled her from her seat, wrapping his arms around her. “Is that what this is, Veska?” The rough growl under his words caught her breath. “I’m impressed by you?”

“If you have any sense.” She nuzzled under his jaw, then nipped him for good measure. “I may not have single-handedly taken down a tank, but I did break your arm and end a battle for you.”

“Hey!” His protest carried no weight, undercut by another chuckle. “That was my first time playing.” Before she could pull away, he settled her more firmly against him. “I’d have to judge you if you hadn’t kicked my ass.”

“And now?” She hooked her leg behind his and gave a warning tug. “If I kicked your ass now?”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Veska.” He leaned in and opened his jaws around her shoulder, the faintest touch of teeth on her fur.

She shivered under the promise of it and pressed her nose into his neck again, breathing his scent deeply into her, reveling in the levels of it. “But I am so very, very good at following through with my threats, Rex,” she said, and knocked him off his feet.

* * *

Shadow had meant to go to the rec room after the successful meeting with Ifka. He replayed his conversations with Niss as he walked, amazed at how much the Aku as a whole, and Niss in particular, knew. For them to have so much knowledge, and still be essentially slaves…

Something was fundamentally wrong in the galaxy for a race as potentially limitless as the Aku to be so deeply undervalued, and…

His steps slowed, and he blinked repeatedly. He had been walking to the rec room. He’d meant to go to the rec room. Hadn’t he? Each blink made his eyelids heavier, which made no sense at all.

Where had he turned wrong? What steps had led him to this unfamiliar corridor?

The walls around him looked more like the Aku’s burrows in the mines than the Zuparti’s base, but he hadn’t been walking that long. Had he? Or in that direction, not at all.

A tingling weight spiraled from the crown of his head toward the ground, dragging at him more than the dwarf planet’s gravity ever managed. He probably should have rested after his first proper battle, adrenaline crash was no joke, and…

He blinked again, but the lights around him dimmed, and he had a single moment to tell himself he should pull out his slate and report the electrical issue before his eyes sealed closed entirely, and he fell…

A tide of rancid meat ebbed and flowed against a slice of deep black beach. The strips of purple-red sinew dragged furrows in the smooth sand as each wave pulled back to the sea of rotten wrongness.

A moon rode high in an otherwise blank sky, its light a sickly yellow.

Shadow tried to turn away, but it was only the sea in all directions. He knew if he took a step, the sand would collapse, and he’d plummet into the unending blood and rot and gore.

Panic fluttered in his throat, but when he tried to swallow it, he realized he couldn’t smell anything.

All that discolored decay, he should have been drowning in the stench…but there was nothing. The air was as empty as the sky around the moon.

No stars, no smells…

He