Chapter 200
Tempest woke slowly.
It felt like she was coming out of a deep medicated sleep. She didn’t know what happened. One second Dron was lying there next to her under the rocks, and then he was gone. Things got progressively dark after that, almost as if he took the light with him when he left.
It got to the point that she couldn’t tell the difference between outside and inside her eyelids. Soon she was pulled back to reality, but it wasn’t a smooth transition as it had been before.
Tempest slowly opened her eyes fully, expecting to see the nearly barren hut that she and Dron had been in before. She was a little embarrassed that they had broken the bed but she was sure that they would be able to replace it.
Tempest tried to stretch, but two thick bands of muscle kept her steady. She smirked slightly. Dron must be holding her. She forced her eyes to focus and sure enough she found Dron.
Several things struck her as odd from the very moment she was able to focus.
One, she was upright. She wasn’t lying down as she had been when she fell asleep.
Two, there was a ruckus going on outside. Loud screaming and clanging metal.
Three, Dron looked as if he were ready to rip someone’s head off.
She decided to focus on the most pressing issue. "What happened? Put me down."
"We were attacked." Dron spoke through gritted teeth.
Attacked.
Tempest’s heart dropped. She sent up a short prayer that it was none of the alpha’s in the settlement. She’d assure Minnie and Hen that they would be safe from the alphas that had just been trying to break down the walls.
"Who... who was it?" Tempest stuttered.
"I don’t know." Dron looked away from her. There was a disappointment wrapped around his body. She could almost feel it seeping out of his pores.
"What? Why not?" She struggled again but Dron just kept his arms tight around her back. "Let me down."
"I can’t do that either." Dron answered. He flexed his hips and it was only then that she realized that they were still connected.
Tempest gasped and tried to pull upward. A sharp pain zipped through her.
"Oh my god! What the fuck! Are we still connected. How? When is it going to be over. We have to get out there!" She kept trying to pull herself off. Hissing in pain everytime the sharp pain wracked her body.
"Tempest stop!" Dron barked at her.
"No! I can’t stop we have to separate. This is ridiculous. Get out of me!" She tried to push herself away but Dron refused to let go of her. The panic was truly starting to take over as the sounds of people fighting and losing filtered into the air around her.
"For the love of all the moon spirits and your god, stop!" Dron roared at her.
Tempest flinched back.
It had been way too long since he had yelled at her. Not because he was concerned but in real anger.
"Look, I don’t know what is going on. All I know is it seems like us being connected isn’t a very strong strategy. Either way, you don’t need to yell at me. I don’t deserve that. This isn’t my fault." She was trembling in anger and the last thing she wanted at that moment was to be connected to him.
He dropped his head, pressing his forehead to hers. "I’m sorry, my temptation. You’re right. I’m taking my anger out on you and I shouldn’t. I feel useless."
She sighed and gently rubbed her hand along his upper back. She could understand that. She wasn’t feeling particularly useful in the moment herself.
"So how do we fix this?"
"We can’t seperate. You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep trying. In fact I’m sure you already have." He inhaled through his nose.
"What are you talking about?" Tempest questioned.
Dron pushed his hand down between them making sure to keep his other arm banded around her back. He gently swiped against her core and then lifted his hand back up to show her.
There was blood.
It wasn’t much but Tempest knew if she continued trying to force herself off of him she would do more damage.
She groaned and tossed her head back, "So tell me what the solution is. We can’t be stuck like this forever."
"The only way for my knot to go down is complete relaxation, from both of us."
Tempest quieted herself for a second but the moment she did she heard someone scream from outside. She cringed and inadvertently clenched her core.
"Relaxation is impossible. Not in a situation like this." She sighed again.
"I know."
Dron sounded defeated.
That alone was enough to make Tempest look at him differently. Dron was never defeated. Angry, frustrated, confused, even scared for her at times, but never defeated. Right then, though, he looked like a man being forced to listen to the world fall apart while there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.
Tempest hated it.
She hated all of this.
They stayed like that for what felt like forever. Tempest tried to block out the noises coming from outside and concentrate solely on Dron. His breathing. His warmth. The steady beat of his heart beneath her palm. Every time a scream broke through her concentration, her body tightened again, and they had to start all over.
Eventually the sounds outside began to die down.
Tempest wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
The silence somehow felt worse.
"Don’t think about it," Dron whispered.
"Easy for you to say."
"I am trying not to think about it too."
That was strangely comforting.
Tempest closed her eyes again.
Minutes passed before she finally felt the pressure between them begin to lessen. Neither of them moved immediately. Tempest was too terrified of causing herself more pain, and judging by how still Dron remained, he was just as worried.
"Slowly," he whispered.
Tempest nodded.
This time there was no sharp pain.
Just discomfort.
Then finally, blessedly, they were separated.
Tempest nearly cried from relief.
Dron barely gave himself a second.
He lowered her carefully before immediately searching the small cave they had been brought into. There were clothes and supplies shoved into crates along the walls, obviously emergency items the humans had prepared in case something like this ever happened.
Dron found a pair of pants that were slightly too small and dragged them on.
"I’m going outside."
"I’m coming."
"No."
Tempest stared at him.
"You need to stay here until I know it’s safe."
"Dron."
"Tempest, please."
Something in his expression stopped her from arguing immediately.
He needed this.
He had been trapped in here listening to people die while unable to help them. Tempest understood what that kind of helplessness could do to a person.
"Fine."
Dron turned and rushed toward the entrance.
Tempest waited approximately ten seconds.
"Yeah, no."
She found something to cover herself and followed him.
The moment she stepped outside, Tempest stopped breathing.
The settlement was gone.
Not completely.
But enough.
Buildings she had walked through only hours earlier were burning. Others had collapsed entirely. Smoke filled the air so thickly that it turned the sky into a dirty haze. Bodies were scattered across the ground while the survivors moved between them.
Tempest saw a woman lying near one of the buildings.
Dead.
A few feet away, a little girl sat in the dirt screaming for her mother.
Someone tried to pull the child away, but she fought them, reaching toward one of the bodies on the ground.
Tempest covered her mouth.
"No."
It was the Poor class all over again.
Different buildings.
Different people.
Same fucking destruction.
Dron stood several feet ahead of her, completely still.
Tempest could see the devastation in the way he held himself.
His shoulders had dropped. His hands hung at his sides.
He looked around as if he were counting every person who had died.
Every building destroyed.
Every person who had trusted him.
"I failed them."
Tempest heard him despite the distance between them.
She walked toward him.
"You didn’t do this."
"I brought everyone here."
"That doesn’t mean you did this."
Dron shook his head.
His gaze moved from body to body.
Tempest knew what he was doing because she had done the same thing after Aixen’s home was attacked. He was looking for the exact moment where he could have made a different decision. The one choice that would have prevented everything.
Sometimes there wasn’t one.
Dron suddenly frowned.
"What?"
He stepped toward one of the bodies.
Tempest followed.
The dead male wasn’t human. He was Ustean, but there was something about his clothing that immediately felt familiar.
Dron crouched.
"I don’t know him."
"What?"
Dron looked toward another body.
Then another.
"I don’t recognize any of them."
Tempest’s stomach twisted.
Dron stood again.
"These are not the alphas who came with me."
"I know."
Dron turned toward her.
Tempest stared at the dead male.
She knew those clothes.
She knew those weapons.
More importantly, she knew the strange markings painted across portions of his exposed skin.
Her blood went cold.
"Tempest?"
She walked closer.
The memories came rushing back so quickly that she almost stumbled.
The cliffs.
The attack.
Men appearing from places that had looked completely empty only seconds before.
Her staff in her hands.
Fear.
Blood.
The spear.
The man falling.
Tempest backed away.
"No."
Dron was beside her immediately.
"What is it?"
"I know them."
Dron grabbed her arms.
"What?"
"These are the same aliens."
His expression hardened.
"The ones that attacked us before we found Crilium."
Dron stared at her.
Tempest looked around the destroyed settlement again, but she wasn’t seeing the bodies anymore.
She was seeing him.
The male coming toward her.
The weapon.
The moment she realized she was either going to kill him or he was going to kill her.
Her hands started shaking.
Dron noticed immediately.
"Tempest."
She looked into his eyes.
"It was their leader."
"What? What are you talking about?"
Her throat tightened.
Tempest swallowed hard.
"I killed their leader."