Break No Bones

Serpentine shadows writhed in ghoulish light cast upon the opposing walls, transforming the dank corridors of the hab into the bowls of the underworld, the infernal snarls of the raptors reinforced the bleak imagery and sent a cold shock jarring down my spine. The Lampyridae were restless though they seemed to move in a coordinated manner, their tiny feet caused my skin to creep with pins and needles as they rearranged themselves, though into what, I hadn't the faintest clue. The cloaking field had failed and presumably couldn't reform while the host was a sodden mess. But I had the Blackstar, and the head of a cranky android with a wicked tongue, so you know, I had that going for me.

Sliding Greer's knapsack under my arm, I flattened myself to the wall, willing myself to become one with its inconspicuous mental ward white surface as I cautiously peeked around the corner. There were two raptors from what I could tell, although that wasn't saying much, and there seemed to be a strange phenomenon occurring with these two. Normally their adept skin deception rendered them nigh undetectable to the naked eye, yet I caught sight of these two almost instantly, there was an odd rippling; a continuous fluctuation in an attempt to reorganize with the hard shadows and the sickly yellow of diffuse lighting.

"You're going to have to work hard for your meal!"

A proud smile broke over me in surprise and I had to stiffly a laugh. Angel's tongue had lost none of its potency, unfortunately, the wet rasp to his voice conveyed about as much menace as a kitten's hiss.

Thatta boy, Angel.

Nevertheless, Angel's venom would not hold up the wrecked state of the door. The entrance to the Control room had an emergency set of steel bars that locked in place behind the outer door in an emergency. And the outer door now hung in long serrated strips peeled back and curling away from the framework like a flower in bloom, exposing the barricade. Or at least, what was left of it. Several of the bars had already been chewed through and hung in twisted ruin. I swallowed thickly, both impressed and unsettled by the raptors bite force. Animals would need a bite force of 1100 pounds per square inch (psi) to crush and eat bone, but these raptors had to be exerting three times that power. Moreover, it hadn't slowed them down, if anything, the bars only seemed to encourage their single-minded persistence...

... which explains the fluctuations in their camouflage. There animated enthusiasm to get at Angel is causing a disturbance in their ability to conceal themselves which means there's a time delay in the rearrangement of the chromatophores. A short one, maybe not even three-tenths of a second, but their furious movement makes the subtle change more obvious.

After taking a precious moment to mull this discovery over, I slid back around the corner and out of sight. Then, for no reason I could name, I took another look, and the more I observed their behavior, the more conscious I grew of the strangeness of it. A common tactic that predatory species utilized was scattering the herd, seeking out the weak or sickly. Unfortunately for the raptors, the habitat was an unfamiliar environment, its impediments were nothing like those in the rainforest. So even though Angel was wounded, it seemed unlikely they would go through this much trouble for him.

Intelligent animals grow bored easily- Chewing my lower lip, I followed the niggling suspicion. -which is why they tend to love games and even learn to bait their prey.

And then, a bolt of clarity struck.

Son of a bitch. They're playing with him. By mock charging the barricade and jumping around, they're trying to get him to call out for help.

Bracing a foot on the wall behind me, I balanced Greer's head on my knee, so I could keep the Blackstar at the ready. The Sergeant raised his brows, silently asking for the sit-rep.

"Two raptors," I mouthed.

Lines of tension threaded at the corners of his eyes. "That's gotta be like 90 teeth!" he whispered grimly.

"More like several hundred." Which summoned to mind my close encounter with the raptor in the mess hall and the other at the T-junction... yeah, several hundred at least.

"Fine. What's the plan?"

I opened my mouth, only to gape at him blankly. Now that we were here to rescue Angel, I realized I hadn't thought so far ahead as to how exactly to save Angel and the lack of forethought shown on my face.

"Oh, this was a bold strategy. Run up on the raptors and then form a plan!" he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, I'm not willing to acknowledge criticism from the head being ferried around in a cheesecloth sling. Besides we've survived this long without a strategy."

Greer sucked his teeth, hissing like a kettle about to blow its top. But circumstances being what they were with two raptors right around the corner, he sucked in a breath and visible choked down the argument. "Fine. Any bright ideas?"

"Control is less than three meters away. From here, I could just shoot the raptors, but-" I licked my lips, trusting my instincts. "-but there's a warning in my heart that makes me suspect there's another unseen. They've already proven to be quite clever, and I'm wondering if the reason they're making such a raucous is to draw our attention. Why work so hard to get at Angel? Wounded prey or not, they're putting in more energy than the average carnivore is willing to exhaust."

"You think they've set a trap."

I nodded, solemnly. More confident in the feeling once said out loud.

Greer looked at me, looked at the shadows of the raptors dancing in an anticipatory manner across the walls. His mouth worked oddly as if his words were stuck to the roof of his mouth. A nameless emotion tightening his features. "Toss me," he said abruptly, his tone sharp with obvious embarrassment.

Surprise lifted my brows, not at his surliness, but at what he was proposing.

He huffed in irritation, "Well, I can't exactly run, so you're gonna have to toss me!"

I lowered my head a bit, bringing him close. "They could kill you."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, you'll need a distraction."

A diversion. Gambling on their innate desire to chase, Greer could possibly draw any hidden raptors out of hiding. I smiled, it was just my brand of crazy. Cradling Greer's head in the crook of one arm, I pulled out the slim cartridge of darts and opened it. Coolant vapor frosted the sides and nipped at my fingers as I ejected a single dart into my palm. The toxin would have no effect on an android, but Greer's cranium could be used as a delivery system. Phagusdryad while being one of the most powerful cytotoxins known to exist, it also had an intensely disturbing odor like moist decaying bark and blood. Not only would it be a lethal defense but the odor may simultaneously provide a powerful incentive not to eat Greer. If it smells bad, don't eat it. A universal rule of survival for all creatures and organic bions alike.

Greer's eyes slightly widened in alarm, though he made no move to stop me as I injected the amethyst liquid beneath his skin. I caught a whiff of wood rot and hoped the raptors wouldn't scent it yet.

"Was this the way you dreamed I would palm your head?" Salacious mockery curled the left corner of my lips into a smirk.

A twinkle entered Greer's eyes and he rewarded my crude humor with a dimple popping grin.

"Ready?" I asked.

He grunted in acceptance of his fate, his expression serious, but still, the grin remained. I crouched, leaned out from around the corner, and bowled his head between the animals' legs. All the while, Greer belted out the most absurd tune I'd ever heard.

"Lost an arm, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo

Lost a leg, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo

Let's go hunt, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo

Let's go hunt!"

That got their attention all right, both animals startled, shrieked and jumped out of the path of the weird screaming object rolling past their feet. Unable to resist, they pursued, and only the two. I could only hear the pursuit snarls of the two animals. And I could only detect the subtle variations in the camouflage of the two. No other raptors joined the fray.

"Hey! Hey! No teeth!" shouted Greer. "Alice! Now would be the time for violence!"

I tactical rolled out into the open corridor, balanced upon one knee, my sights already locked onto the weird distorting pattern of one and fired.

Pith.

Even as I registered the whisper-quiet report of the Blackstar, there was an almost instantaneous backlash. Shocked and enraged, the raptor wailed, a bleating so loud and so utterly alien, it drove knives of pain through my eyes and into my skull. I clapped my hands over my ears and tried to drown it out with my own scream. Everything went to hell in that instant. In the throes of death, the nerves controlling the color chromatophores ceased to receive signals to contract and expand leaving the animal completely exposed. Rubbery smooth translucent skin, amorous masses of organs, like looking at the belly of a frog, and somehow even in a heightened state of serious danger, trained logic identified an explanation. Papillae, although without micro slides of tissue I would never be able to discern their structure. Muscle fibers with radical spokes and concentric circles, and when contracted it hardened the skin, thickened the texture, though, in turn, they expanded upon death, revealing the raptor to be an extraordinarily complex mix of tough and fragile. Then, yellow foam burst from the raptor's mouth, and the rational side of my brain reasserted itself. The animal wobbled as if drunk, slipped in the putrid foam and keeled over, its jaw clacked so hard on the floor it bit clean through its own tongue. A flash of something near the dead raptor's head caught my eye. A blur of motion or color. The foot of the other raptor stepping over its fallen pack mate though the swift concealment had me second-guessing. But then, the other animal hissed and I knew this one had grown smarter, more cautious, and calm. A fatal combination for me when I relied on the inconstancies in its camouflage to track it. I raised the gun again but this time there was no telling where-

Ting. Ting.

-what was that?! My eyes searched for the source of the sound.

Ting.

Rain on a tin roof. Lovely yet at the same time deeply troubling. Where the hell was it coming from? And why-

Ting. Ting. "A-a-alice," Brynn whispered. Blue rings of light flickered into existence and Brynn smiled in that conspiratorial way of hers. "A-a-alice..." Ting. Ting.

I stood up. I don't know why I stood up, but my feet were ignoring me. In the farthest reaches of my mind, another voice shouted, "Something is very very wrong here, Alice! Brynn's dead! And you're about to be!" Strange. That had sounded like Brynn too. A panic sweat broke out over my skin. Brynn was dead, she'd died in my arms, and that brutal memory firmly tethered me to reality which meant what I was seeing couldn't be real. Numbly, I took a step forward. Stop! I inwardly wailed to my legs but they wouldn't listen. Suddenly, viscerally I became acutely aware of why Scott had simply walked out into the night. And I remembered vividly his story of Jenny. Had he seen her? Heard her?

Ting. Ting.

Unwittingly, I took another step. The raptor! That sound! I knew where the sound emanated from now. The quills. Hatred blurred my vision, the phantom of Brynn distorted into a blue blur. My grip on the gun violently shook as I tried my damnedest to will it to raise. But it wouldn't. And I wasn't stopping; couldn't stop heading further into darkness, towards my doom.

"Alice what are you doing?! There's another raptor!" Greer shouted in protest. From the rim of my vision, I saw Greer, watched his eyes widen with real fear at what he must've perceived to be suicide. "Alice...? Alice!"

My right boot splashed down in a pool of bloody foam that reeked of decaying vegetation, it made my eyes water. Or at least, that's what I told myself to reconcile with the angry tears of self-condemnation streaking down my cheeks. The thought of not seeing death, of not being able to face it head-on, that scared me.

Jonesy...

The unfairness of it all weld up in my heart and-

-and something skittered over my arms, my legs, my face. Bright and alive, the Lampyridae whirred with intent, and though, I wasn't sure how, I sensed it was in response to my distress. Several of the insect drones were suddenly airborne, my wild eyes dazzled by the furious collum of brilliance they formed around me. Without warning the animal's influence over my body ceased, the effect staggering. The startling display must've interrupted the raptor's concentration and in turn its ability to conceal itself, skin flickering in patches- Fuck! It was right on top of me! Copper eyes fixed on me, it opened its jaws bleated in rage and sprang straight up into the air with a speed I couldn't match. My gun hand raised to meet it- too slow! Fuck it, I'd drag the bitch to hell with me. The collective, deafening beat of the Lampyridae wings droned ever louder, a honeycomb of fine beams wove between the insects, connecting them, the latticework stretching out as if to catch the raptor-

-viscera and blood and a hot stew of other organic matter splattered my legs and torso as a jigsaw of meat that no pathologist would ever be able to reassemble hit the floor with a thudding splat at my feet. I stood in the midst of the rain of carnage in numb shock on legs I barely felt. Every breath -in and out- a conscious endeavor not to blackout. A copper eye stared up at me from the pulpy purple organic slush at my feet, the cat-like pupil dilating one final time. Unable to hold myself up anymore, my shoulder connected with the wall, the jolt of pain in my left side a fresh reminder we weren't out of the pits yet. I hadn't even had time to process the last two minutes when a closing chorus of snarls came from behind, the wailing grind of thick claws on plastic tiles. Heart jittering and hands shaking from adrenaline shock, I stumbled around in time to see an undulating shadow changing form and thickness, darting through the deeper darkness like a shark-

-and then Jonesy broadsided the charging animal with a shoulder, smashing the raptor into the wall, stunning the animal so badly it became visible. An expulsion of air vacated my lungs in such a rush that I partially sank to the ground, head lulling, I pressed my back into the wall to stop my descent, eyes transfixed by the Predator. There was something very awe-inspiring and at the same time very frightening in the way Jonesy fought. He had the deadly competence of a veteran and the ferociousness of a feral wolf. One hand seized the raptor's head and crushed it into the wall, serrated blades sprang soundlessly from his other gauntleted wrist and he drove them without mercy into the raptor's gut. A high pitched braying filled the corridor, echoing in violent waves, the raptor kicked and missed, its foot sliding in the blood fountaining from its belly. With a growl of pure menace, the Predator twisted his wrist, altering the angle of the blades upwards and sought out the heart. Viscera spilled onto the floor, the animal kicked weakly, its eyes rolled back and it collapsed on its legs in a wet swish of gore.

In a blur of indiscernible action, Jonsey had me pinned to the wall, emotions strafing the icy tundra of his irises. Accustomed to his overall stolid nature, the Predator's intense reaction took me aback. Wired to the teeth with adrenaline, I fought the fingers of iron branding my wrists for ten pounding heartbeats before animal awareness forewarned me of the possible danger a struggle might unintentionally trigger. Willing myself calm, I took a breath and met his gaze without flinching away. The Predator stared back, his enormous muscles strained harder, huge sinews jutting out like cables beneath his skin. I licked blood crusted lips, shocked and fascinated as his eyes tracked the movement, and understood. Caught in the grip of something urgent and most primal, the Predator battled his own impulses, although whether that impulse was to maim or to claim remained unclear. But considering the hunter's inordinately predatory nature, the two likely went hand in hand. So I remained quiet and didn't shy away from his penetrative stare.

A growl reverberated in Jonesy's chest, so intensely quiet and deep I would've confused it for far off thunder if not for the way his powerful chest inadvertently teased my nipples. Desperately, I wished I'd grabbed something more substantial than a threadbare, dirty work tank which was now damp with sweat and other things I didn't want to think about. Each inhalation he took was more controlled than the last, each one making it increasingly harder and harder to stem my body's not so subtle reaction to what that sound was doing to me.

I must be mad.

But if I was mad, then the dangerous glint that entered Jonesy's orbs was positively certifiable. And I closed my eyes against the fevered torrent of shivers that one look induced. Jonesy audibly took a lungful of air, a familiar chuffing noise I associated with-

-taste... My god, he can detect the chemical changes in my body. He can taste my arousal.

A growl of dark, pleasurable promises tightened my nipples. Fuck. Jonesy wasn't even inside of me yet and already I felt myself coming undone. So not the time! Reason somehow clamored through the haze of desire. Then, distantly, I heard a groan of pain from the Control room. Angel! Regrettable as it was to press a hand to that proud male chest in an effort to once again forestall our frenzied passion, I discovered something valuable; a keen insight into what might have prompted Jonesy to react so strongly. Animals are instinctively driven to protect their mates, even humans are not exempt from it. Unfortunately, my mistake had been to assume his instincts would fall within the same perimeters as us mere mortals. Predators were a sentient race but one I suspected to be much closer to their animal ancestry. As a paleontologist, I've seen the tiniest of creatures evolve into the mightiest beasts and vice versa, dinosaurs evolving into birds being one of the most prominent examples. Humanities humble beginnings traced back to primates. But a Predator, huh, whatever they evolved from was surely a being so fearsome, so powerful, so unfathomable it a maybe nigh incomprehensible to the human mind. Of course, without the bones, I could only file my observations away and postulate at the truth. Moreover, being mated to someone outside your species, and undeniably more fragile than your species has likely challenged Jonesy in ways he's never dreamed of, or thought possible. Maybe if I'd been a female Predator, he wouldn't've reacted so passionately. But who was I to speculate on that? Without having even the slightest inkling on the gender associated roles of his species, I may never know if Jonesy's reactions were normal or if my humanity simply drove him crazy.

Though none of that matters- Boldly, I leaned in and alighted the heavy cable of his carotid with my lips. -because you're mine. A sonorous rumble of pleasure and possibly warning thundered cavernously in the depths of his broad chest. I smiled into his skin, drinking in and savoring the quickening of his pulse and knowing I'd caused it. His skin was dry but smooth with a lovely pebbled texture, and because I simply couldn't help myself, I opened my mouth to taste-

"He-e-e-ll-o-o-o, I'd like to fucking escape now! No legs, remember?!"

Jonesy's growl took on a feral edge, a clear threat. Ignoring Greer, I feathered a few more kisses across the underside of Jonesy's jaw to keep his attention on me. "As much as it pains me to say it, the talking head is right."

"Hey! This talking head shouldn't be subjected to whatever XXX creature feature you two were about to inflict upon him!" And in a quieter tone, I don't think I was meant to hear, he added, "For fuck sakes he's a Predator, Alice!"

I found that assertion to be rather hypocritical, and ironic considering he was an android and had shown an interest in courting me, but I recognized it likely came from a position of jealousy, so I allowed his indignation to go unchallenged.

Jonesy chuffed in blatant disdain of the android, the oculars in the helmet bleeding red. Slowly Jonesy lowered me, and I jolted, unaware that I'd been hoisted to eye level or that I'd hooked a leg behind his left buttock. And it was a nice buttock; firm with a healthy curve that demanded further exploration with my nails. Later, I inwardly heaved a sigh as my bare feet touched chilled plastic tile.

"Come on." Idly, I traced the dense bricks of his impressive abdomen with my fingertips. "Let's go meet your biggest fan."

Jonesy cocked his head and the bird-like jerk of confusion tickled me for some odd reason and a snort of laughter escaped before I could control the reaction. But then a thought occurred to me, one I should've considered much earlier. Something Angel had said about Predators being so protective of their secrets it bordered on paranoia. How would Jonesy respond to the rest of my team? My very, very human team.

They kill to protect their secrets...

I doubted Jonesy would kill my team. We shared a furious desire of equal intensity. He wouldn't jeopardize that. Not when he'd traveled light-years and come so damn far just to find me. No. So perhaps there was a moral grey area in the code that Predators lived and died by. After all, Angel had been spared...

... but he'd been a kid at the time.

Then a much darker, more disturbing thought skulked into my awareness.

And what will you do if that grey area turns out to be only black and white...