The other female had fared better. She was bent over, clutching her contracting belly, breathing through her labor. “You okay?” Jess asked. The woman nodded. She seemed older, maybe late thirties or early forties. “Is this your first child?”
The woman’s face was filled with more than just labor pain as she shook her head. “They’ve all been taken,” she panted. “They were going to kill me after this one is born.” Grimacing from the pain, she kept talking. “They said I was too old to have more.”
Jess’s heart went out to this woman. “Well, they won’t get this one, ever. The SOSC will try to unite you with your other children.” That brought a small light to the woman’s eyes. “How many children have you had?”
“Eight.” The woman panted as another contraction hit her. “You’re Marja’s daughter, aren’t you?” Jess nodded. “My name is Laura. Laura Weedle.” Bending at the middle in pain, she forced out, “Tell your mother, I never forgot her.” Weedle? And she knew Jess's mother? Was she related?
Another waiting Elven took Laura’s hand from Jess’s shoulder before she could respond to the comment. Supported by the powerful Elven, Laura began to walk slowly toward the chortal before stopping and looking back at Jess. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Tears streamed down her face, and Laura and her escort stepped into the chortal and were gone.
“This chortal goes to a hospes. Do you want to have Moira taken there?” Enlil asked then.
Looking down into her aunt’s destroyed face, she could hear her strong heartbeat. Jess shook her head. “Napoleon and Jorie are waiting for her. I want to use the residual energy to take her home.” Focusing, Jess stepped through the spinning tunnel and emerged in Moira’s living room, arriving at the same spot she had appeared her entire life. Jess handed Moira’s limp body back into Napoleon’s waiting arms, hearing Jorie’s pained cry. She glanced at Sara, who she could see crying over the loss of her sister in the kitchen through the doorway. Then she and Enlil heeded the tug to the next location.
Once again, Tellus and Aquaties encircled them while her family collected the subdued, disabled, and hypothermic soldiers. There were five Heredity females awaiting them this time. Another twenty-five Hulven females stood at the edge of the compound. High Ones and Oracles amongst them helped the Hulven port themselves away, administering bagged blood to those that were too weak. It was heart wrenching to see.
She was glad the battle had already been won at this site. A strong cramp doubled her over, forcing Enlil to crouch down with her while she panted through the pain until the cramp eased and she could stand.
“Where are Teya, Ninlil, and Irsu?” Jess asked swaying with exhaustion. They needed to hurry before another one of those cramps hit.
Sargon looked up from the task of flinging soldiers into the rising pile. “One of the Hulven females is in estrus. She is very young, so it’s probably her first. She is also newly Become. Teya, Nin, and Irsu are restraining her. Innanna went to get a healer to alleviate the child’s suffering with medication.” Jess was surprised to hear the sorrow in Sargon’s voice. The sight of these females’ condition was hard on the gentle giant.
Jess gasped as Nin and Irsu tried to hold the struggling, naked female while Teya attempted to cover her with a blanket. The girl appeared very near Jess’s age. She was a tall, strong female, dentes fully extended, fighting to get away from Nin and Irsu. Her exposed sex was red and swollen, and her tortured cries begged the males to come to her.
That is what I am about to go through.
Jess could smell the musky scent rolling off the female, and she noted that every male’s dentes were fully erupted, not the polite dente that showed during the battle-planning meeting, but full mouthfuls of dentes, every one of them. The SOSC males refused to look over to the struggling females, and the enemy soldiers couldn’t seem to look away. Jess realized that these soldiers were likely young and inexperienced.
How am I going to get through this without Shane?
She found his gaze across the compound. He too had fully extended dentes, and the look of lust in his eyes generated a responsive shiver in Jess. He was double-raptured between the female’s estrus pheromones and their new bloodmating.
“We’re still connected,” Enlil reminded her. Blushing, Jess looked away from the passion of her mate with regret, muttering her apologizes to Enlil.
“No need to be sorry. You should have seen Etana and I.” The pain in Enlil’s voice struck a nerve in Jess. “Trust me, I understand. You and Shane have nothing to apologize for. You are sacrificing much here today.”
Jess felt the energy ripple of Innanna and another female’s arrival beside her. They ran out of the circle of Tellus and Aquaties to join Nin and Irsu with the struggling young woman. Jess saw the flash of a needle and the female in estrus relaxed. Teya finally covered her nudity, and Ninlil and Irsu carried the girl into the circle with the five Heredity females. She heard Enlil catch his breath, holding it as a low growl escaped him. He was trying desperately not to draw the female’s scent into his body.
“Let’s get this done,” Jess suggested. Enlil was quick to nod. The now-drugged Hulven would need to be ported with the other non-psychics.
Enlil drew the energies. The same fearful looks appeared on the soldier’s faces as they realized that there were more powerful beings than themselves in the world. She wondered if they all were born here and knew nothing of the outside world. That would make them in a way even less aware of what they were about to learn then she had been only a few days earlier.
Nin leaned the weight of the drugged female between two of the bigger Heredity women, instructing them to retain contact between them and Jess. Enlil still kept his hands on Jess’s shoulders.
Jess worked the energy into a cocoon around them. This time, even after the group was enfolded and ready to port, Enlil kept pulling in more and more energy. Jess thought her head would explode. She was seconds away from passing out and possibly going into a seizure herself when the energy shifted to the spinning sensation of the port, giving her a small amount of psychic release. They stepped through to yet another chortal entrance, where Elven waited to escort the females to the hospes.
Several Elven stepped forward to catch the two females who fainted. One had vomited on the ground at Jess’s feet. The moment the pheromones of the estrus female hit the awaiting males, they all stepped back and looked down, their dentes exploding into view. Jess figured in better times, when she didn’t feel like her brain was going to implode and her body wasn’t being torn to shreds, she could probably find humor in the universal reactions of all these big, strong guys.
“Are there any female escorts here?” Jess gritted out through her pain.. One smaller female Elven stepped forward. Even with the help of the Heredity, the tiny female struggled with the load of the larger female in estrus. Jess wasn’t sure how to help. She was about to break her connection with Enlil when Innanna and the healer appeared. The three worked together to get the female through the chortal entrance. A general wave of relief rolled over the remaining males when the female and her pheromones were gone. Even Enlil gave a sigh of relief.
Jess and Enlil waited at the mouth of the chortal for the tug that would take them to the next location. The excess energy Enlil had collected pounded against Jess’s brain like a ball-pein hammer. She wiped the blood from her nose, ears, and mouth. The pain in her back was excruciating.. “How bad does my back look?” Jess asked the silent statue that Enlil had become behind her.
“Your wing fingers are tearing through.”
She panted through the sensation of her back being flayed open. “I take it you have never been this close to a Becoming either,” She grated out, desperate for distraction.
“I have seen strong warriors collapse under less torture that what I am seeing you endure,” Enlil said in a low voice. “I am awed by your strength, proud to have my blood in your veins.” The heartfelt compliment brought tears to her eyes. “Since Etana passed, I have wanted nothing more than to join her. I have often wondered why I felt compelled to remain. I thought it was the twin bond to Ninlil. No one knows what happens to one twin when the other dies. Until Moira and your mother, Nin and I were the only ones. Now that I know Moira survived the loss of Marja, I think perhaps you and this battle might be the reason I have lingered in this life, to help you through it.” Enlil squeezed her shoulders. “Maybe when this is over, I will finally feel like it is time to go. Time to join my Etana.”
Jess peered over her shoulder at him, hoping her response wasn’t ill-timed. Maybe she was just selfish. “You are to be my mentor. Innanna told me.”
Giving her a sad smile, Enlil sighed. “It would be my honor to do so,” he conceded. “I am well aware how futile it is to argue with the Fates.”
They felt the tug together in that instant, and Jess was bent nearly in two from the pain of her right wing breaking free.
Motherfucker!
A scream tore from her throat as she and Enlil emerged on yet another high point of yet another compound. The sad faces of yet more terrorized women peered at her from within another circle of surrounding Tellus and Aquaties. The startled faces of Shane and her family members turned as one to look at her. Enlil struggled to keep his contact with her as her new wing, covered in her blood, beat against him.
“Fucking let me go, damn it!” Shane’s shouts penetrated Jess’s pain-filled mind and body.
Jess met the agonized eyes of her mate as he fought against the combined efforts of his brothers and Gil to reach her. For his sake and sanity, Jess pulled herself together and breathed through the pain, engaging the techniques she’d used so often until just a few days earlier. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. In through the nose. Out through the mouth.
Slowly Jess regained control of her body, raising her tolerance for pain and focusing to control the unfamiliar wing. In. Out. In. Out. She never took her gaze from her cursing, struggling mate. When she was sure she could speak clearly and concisely, she snapped, “Knock it the fuck off, Shane.”
Shane immediately quit fighting his brother’s hold, narrowing his eyes at her. He could feel her pain through their bond. She knew he could also feel her struggle to overcome it. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Shane began to mimic her breathing, watching her closely. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Cautiously his brothers and Gil released him. In through the nose. Out through the mouth.
Shane mouthed, “I love you too,” before turning back to the compound and the true fight for the day. The others stood a moment more, stunned into silence at the exchange between the newly mated pair, before returning to their tasks.
There were only twelve females at this location. Ten of them were Heredity. This time it was agreed that since this would be the last site where Jess would be needed, Teya and Nin would follow behind them to help ease the women once they arrived at the chortal. It would be the same one since it had been centrally located between the first and second Australian nests. Jess was grateful for the added energy that Enlil had collected from the last site. There were surprisingly several human men among the soldiers here, leaving even fewer enemies to draw energy psychically from.
Once the women were safely handed off with the help of more escorts and Nin and Teya, Enlil asked her, “Where do you want to go, Jess?”
Jess’s vision blurred she cried out as another cramp overtook he. The sound of popping in her ears accompanied the wrenching sensation of the cartilage separating from her skull. She couldn’t breath. Every muscle in her body seized, and she felt Enlil swoop her into his arms as darkness swallowed her.
****
Enlil cradled Jess against his chest, holding her tightly as she convulsed. He thanked the Fates she was unconscious as he tried to figure out the best place to take her.
She couldn’t go home; her human family would never understand or know how to care for her. She couldn’t go to Shane’s, since he would need his own place to go through all of this. He didn’t feel right taking her to Gil’s knowing what her estrus would do to males that called it their home while training there. Part of him wanted to take her to his home, call Shane to her and pump her full of drugs and whiskey, to hell with the sacrifice.
But that wasn’t what Jess would want. Enlil telepathically reached for Ninlil.
Nin, Jess has lost consciousness. Where should I take her?”
“
Napoleon told me earlier that Moira had a room prepared for Jess several years ago. I think it would be best if you took her there. She should be with family. I will go there as soon as I’m able to check on her and Moira.”
En agreed and created a quick spinning tunnel and planted his feet in the exact spot Jess had directed them to earlier. Since her convulsions had ceased, he laid her gently on the chaise lounge, uncaring when her blood immediately soaked into the fabric. Jorie bounded into the room, Sara right behind her.
Sara took one look as Jess and began issuing orders. “Jorie, send Nathan out to the barracks. Tell him I will call him when it is safe for his return. Then get two sets of IV setups and some clean towels down to your mother’s safe room. Make sure the bed is made up.” Jorie stood a moment, transfixed by Jess’s state. It had been a rough couple of days for the previously sheltered child.