I opened by mouth to argue, but Wrath intervened.
“There is no arguing allowed, Varnog,” the Warrior said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Whatever happened to you is partially happening to our girl. It’s also happening to your brothers back home. If anything wonky is going on with you, it is not when Tremak and the other mated Scelks are back in their dwellings with their mates and offspring that we should find out. So, you are going to submit to a thorough examination right this instant.”
That shut me up on every single point. Despite my instinctive anger flaring to be so sternly spoken to, I felt no urge to attack or destroy the person dishing it out. It was odd considering how much I’d reverted upon awakening, but it was also greatly refreshing to not systematically be fighting to control my sanity. Instead, my skin heated with shame that I had not thought of it myself. What a pathetic leader I made for my people.
“Apologies. You are right,” I said, rising to my feet.
Wrath’s face softened with a sympathetic expression. He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You never need to apologize to me for wanting to watch over Linette. If I had a mate, there is no question that, in your shoes, I wouldn’t want to part from her. We’ll just light a fire under Rogue’s ass for him to be quick but thorough.”
“I promise, I will,” Rogue said with an encouraging smile while gesturing at the door for me to go first.
I cast a glance at myself, covered only with the blanket Tyonna had given me. “Shouldn’t I dress first?”
“No,” Rogue responded, shaking his head. “I’m going to make you strip again in a minute.”
I pursed my lips and nodded before glaring at Tyonna. The pesky female was chuckling, mumbling something about my newfound flashing habits. I caressed my woman’s cocoon one last time, and made my way to the Infirmary, mumbling in turn about voyeurs.
The poking and prodding did not end quickly. Not an inch of me had been spared. I was growing increasingly aggravated when some of the more interesting results started pouring in. Aside from the fact that I seemed to be healthy and stronger than before, it turned out that my venom sacks actually contained the most virulent acid the Dragon’s Chief Medical Officer had ever encountered. I could either spray it at a target at up to a six-meter distance or inject it into a victim through my fangs. However, that demanded a bit more focus on my part as my fangs naturally attempted to inject a fast-acting paralytic. The poison that I could coat my claws and tail blade with proved to be the same one that had nearly killed Sabra when Khutu had thrown his dagger at her. But the best part was that my scales—which had further thickened and spread over a larger surface of my shoulders and arms—were completely immune to that acid.
By the time he finally released me, I was so starved, I gorged nonstop for a solid thirty minutes straight. The wretched doctor had wanted to take samples with me still fasting.
I spent the night next to my mate’s cocoon, just like she had kept watch over me. The next morning, I was by Reklig’s side when his own cocoon hatched. Like me, he was disoriented, believing himself to still be the primitive creature we had been while trying to wrest control of our vessel from our hosts. Projecting images of Madeline to him had my brother snap back to reality in no time.
Our brothers back on Khepri had an easier time, thanks to the large presence of their mates and children, not to mention being in a familiar setting. As expected, Liena carried out a series of tests, and Sabra expressed great interest in our scales, requesting permission to use them for research in defense systems. As we regularly shed them, we were happy to consent. I already had a pretty good idea what she had in mind.
Later that same day, I finally gave the rebel leader what she had been dying for since I began my metamorphosis. For the first time, Lekla and Toksi displayed the closest thing to excitement I had ever witnessed from them. They had been eager to do some poking and prodding of their own. But I had no intention of complying.
“Welcome back among the living, young Scelk,” Lekla said with that insufferable smirk she loved giving me. “You continue to pleasantly surprise us.”
“Do I?” I asked, casually walking around their laboratory.
It was very basic and not devoted to research but focusing on mass producing bombs and medicine—how ironic.
“Of course,” Lekla said as if it were self-evident. “First, your appearance on Zekuro blew us away as we had thought you a failed experiment. And now, more than three years after we had given up on your species, you allow us to see the final evolution of our creation. It is all the more fascinating to see how you have evolved in the wild, and not under strict scientific control.”
I bit back the urge to give the female a proper tongue lashing. My gaze lowered to the disrupter necklaces both she and her companion were wearing. I smiled in an evil way, prompting the reaction I had specifically hoped for. Lekla squirmed, feeling uneasy that I might do something violent, while clinging to the illusionary safety of her necklace. I could hear her thoughts, loud and clear. Whatever this mutation had done, it had rendered me immune to such devices—or at least to this specific one.
“Enjoy then,” I said in a cold tone, “because that is the last you will get of using me as a lab rat.”
Despite her more timid nature, Toksi took a step forward, her multifaceted eyes gleaming with a greed I had never witnessed before. “Do you not wish to know more about yourself? All that you can do? Your lifespan? What procreating with your mate might do? We made you. I made the splices that resulted in you. We can help you, and you can help us answer the questions that still baffle us.
My eyes narrowed at the two females. Lekla’s smugness cranked up a notch, the foolish elder thinking they had me by the balls.
I took a couple of steps before them and clasped my hands behind my back. “Anything you know about me, I already know,” I said casually. “All that I can do, Rogue and I sorted out. But thank you for pointing out that my paralytic venom also has healing properties that I can inject to my female in case she’s in pain or injured.”
The Kryptid females recoiled, and their jaw dropped upon hearing those words. Lekla looked down at herself, and her hand flew to her neck to double check that her necklace was still there. It was my turn to smirk as she looked back at me, first with suspicion and then with horror.
“Anything else you haven’t sorted out yet, Liena, Victoria, and Rogue will have no problem figuring out,” I continued. “My lifespan, according to your calculations, should be anywhere between 190 and 220 years. That’s more than good enough for me. Like the Warriors and the Dragons, I should pass on that expanded lifespan to my mate once she completes her metamorphosis. You know nothing about what procreating with a human will do. But as my Linette says, whenever the women of the Vanguard bond with their soulmates, their males always enhance them in a beneficial way. We were meant to be. Nothing that happens between us can be wrong.”
I took a few more menacing steps towards them. Toksi whimpered and, for the very first time, Lekla expressed true fear. She tried to move away from me, but I took over her mind as well as Toksi’s. The females reeked with fear and panic as they landed, seconds later, in the mind trap I had dragged them into.
We were standing in an impressive round room, bright and covered with a dome. It contained hundreds of refrigerated shelving units positioned sideways in order to create a circle. There was nothing organic here; only pristine metallic walls and tiled floors. Each unit had a dozen shelves with countless tiny vials of clear liquid: a conkrel. In the center of the room stood a small water fountain sitting atop a pedestal. At its base, a small recessed shelf contained a number of the same tiny vials, but these were empty. A couple of other contraptions next to them served to extract the data that would be stored in the small quantity of water—the equivalent of a tablespoon—that would fill the conkrel.