Nemesis: Book Six (20 page)

* * *

W
ill let
his hand drop to his side, his gun with it.

He wanted to close his eyes, to turn away from what lay in front of him, but he couldn’t. He didn’t even look up to see the horde of aliens standing beyond the doorway. His eyes only focused on Rigley.

Her body was broken. Blood oozed out of her mouth, ears, and eyes. Her bones poked out of different parts of her flesh, broken and jagged.

Will had stepped out of the hallway just as the thing from outside reached in and grabbed Rigley, almost like a cowboy lassoing a horse. Except this lasso didn’t only wrap around her neck, but her entire body. The blue color covered Rigley, and then as if she wasn’t even real, it simply squeezed. Will watched it flex like a fist; everything inside Rigley broke, almost at once.

What did he think would happen? Turmoil? Disturbance? She was an insect to these creatures, they all were. Something annoying at worst, and like any buzzing fly, they swatted Rigley.

Her eyes remained open, staring straight ahead without focusing on anything. Blood still dripped out of her, but that would stop soon, too.

Will looked up to Morena, who hadn’t even turned around. Rigley gave everything to her, perhaps her very soul, and the creature didn’t care in the slightest about Rigley's death. Will realized that he might be the only person in the entire world that did care.

And you’re the one who sent her to die.

Will had fought this thing in front of him every losing inch. He hadn't stopped, did everything asked of him, regardless of what it meant to his own life. Rigley had loved that thing, and what was the difference between the two of them? She was dead and he soon would be.

It didn’t matter if you loved her, hated her, or feared her; in the end, she killed you.

Will looked down at his gun. What did it matter? It wouldn't stop her, hadn't even when she inhabited a human body. So why was he holding it? Why the hell was he even here? He brought his eyes back up and looked across the room at Knox, still standing in the corner. Knox wasn't looking at Rigley; no, he stared out the door at whatever the hell was happening.

There’d always been a difference between men like that and men like Will. Men like Knox called him a mercenary, because he had no allegiance to any single country. Men like Knox looked down on him, even if Knox didn’t.

The general wouldn’t leave, would follow this right to the end. Will had thought he would too.

* * *

J
unior looked
behind the false Var to his mother. Her eyes were fixed on the white Bynum, not looking at him at all. He needed her approval to do this; Junior thought he understood the relationship between the two, this false Var—Morena's mother, and he wouldn't move without Morena's approval.

She had to approve this, though. If not, this creature would end everything. She would tacitly permit the murder of their entire species.

Junior heard the false Var's words, but didn't look away from Morena, waiting for something, anything, that said he had the right to do this.

Everyone else's eyes and auras focused on him, waiting on his command.

The white aura from the porch moved down, so close that it nearly touched him. She was ready, this false Var. She didn't wait on Morena's approval because she was in revolt.

And finally, Morena's eyes moved to Junior's.

* * *

E
verything
wrong in this universe surrounded Morena.

Her husband was dying and held at gunpoint by a species doing everything within their power to survive. Her dead mother, resurrected, stood before her, ready to kill her children and stop the last chance Bynimian had to survive. Her children all staring up at her mother, ready to go to war with perhaps one of the greatest Vars to ever live.

And now Junior looked up at her, wanting permission to kill her mother. To kill Helos.

Morena ran no calculations in her mind; she saw nothing of the past, for that was gone and would never return. She looked at her mother's white aura, spreading out like the goddess she was, preparing for a war that she knew she couldn't win. No Var, regardless how powerful, could withstand the force in front of the house. Even if Morena stepped up next to her mother and fought the horde, they both would die. Yet there Helos stood, saying she would do what Morena should have, prepared to die.

Not even the present mattered, only the future.

If Morena told her people to stand down, it all ended. Her one job as Var failed as her kind died.

If she gave Junior permission, she would watch her mother fall and die for the last time.

The Makers sent Helos; The Makers stepped in because Morena's goals now clashed with their own, and yet here she was, balancing her wishes with those of that which created existence.

Still, she couldn't find it in herself to let Bynimian die. The Makers may have sent her mother, indeed, they may want Morena dead, but they would need do more to kill off Bynimian. They would need come themselves and face her.

She was Var. She was born to protect Bynimian. Nothing else.

* * *

M
orena nodded
and Junior didn't hesitate.

His aura surged forward and just milliseconds later the force of everyone around him followed. The very fabric of reality bent outward, flexing like a bending ruler, pushing against whatever lay on the other side.

The auras slammed into the white, colors of such beauty that those inside the house closed their eyes at the brilliance. The sound of a hundred hurricanes ripped upward from the clashing auras, echoing off the house and shaking the very foundation.

Junior felt this false Var's strength. The white aura pushed back, creating a forcefield and doing its very best to push into the semi-circle he created. She should have been smothered already, falling back while the auras ripped her limbs apart, but they hadn't broken through. Junior closed his eyes, pushing harder, forcing everything in him to find a breach, to make a hole.

One hole.

And when they moved through it, she would die.

He allowed his aura to spread, moving along the battle line and taking in the auras he came in contact with—each one of them pressuring with crippling intensity. Looking, looking, wanting to find some semblance of weakness, but the Var seemed to have none; the two forces faced complete stalemate.

Over,
he thought.
Go over her defenses
.

Her aura would move as it saw him trying to climb over the top, but that would spread her thinner.

Junior pushed up and he immediately felt a bit of freedom, only for a second, as his aura moved over hers, passed hers and actually moved a few feet closer before she caught up and slammed into him.

Too late
, he thought.

Because everyone saw what he did, they saw his aura move over the top and push forward—if only a few inches, and now they came too. Hundreds of colors moving up, down, and to the side, trying to find a way around this false Var's defenses as opposed to moving
through
them.

Her white aura moved with almost unbelievable speed, meeting each one of the attacking auras as soon as they tried moving around her. Junior saw what was happening though, the force of her aura weakening as it spread higher and lower than it originally wanted.

His aura went to the center of her defenses and he focused it to a pinpoint: a tiny, sharp knife. He pulled it back a few feet, closer to himself, and then with all the power inside him, plunged it forward. It moved through like rocks falling through water, slowing slightly, but Junior sensed that she couldn't stop him.

And then he entered the other side, and still pushing forward, completely passed through her aura.

With eyes closed, Junior threw his aura's pointed knife onto the false Var. He felt it cut against her skin, moving inside her slightly, slicing her just before her own aura retreated and started wrapping her body in a tight cocoon. Junior knew why she did it, trying to protect herself, though she couldn't have made a worse decision.

Instead of only his aura attacking her body, his army flowed forward, all of them slamming into her at nearly the same time. The force lifted her into the air, flying backward and crashing into the house's siding. She didn't fall, though; the auras held her up as even more smashed into her, beating her flailing body.

Junior opened his eyes.

The Bynums' arms were pressed to the sides, against the house, her legs forced back, bent in an abnormal shape as the auras continued ripping into her, not letting her move at all.

Junior wrapped his own aura around her, grabbing hold of each limb and her trunk. He felt the others grabbing pieces, doing their best to pull at her body. And still more backed up and slammed into her again, repeating the ferocious attack. Junior flexed his aura, now completely wrapped around her, pushing. He was going to crush her, causing her to implode, all her internal organs splitting open and filling her body with blood.

Junior stared into the false Var's eyes, pain as large as suns inside them. She stared forward, not focusing on anything, but Junior knew she saw the end now. He felt her body breaking underneath him, and though she didn't cry out, her eyes would dim in just a few seconds.

* * *

T
he house shook
underneath Morena's feet, shook as if it would collapse at any moment. Dishes in the kitchen cabinets crashed to the floor, breaking with what would have been loud echoes, but were little more than rain falling onto grass because of the furious cacophony on the porch.

Morena heard none of the noises, neither in nor outside the house. She didn't even know the house shook, despite her aura feeding every bit of information it could, prepared to wrap around and protect her if necessary.

Morena only knew that her mother was dying. Pinned against the house, her white aura struggling to free her, fighting back against the onslaught of soldiers killing her. Helos' aura could do nothing, though. It had been pushed too far back, and now was pressed against the house.