I surge through the air towards them, barely aware of my feet making contact with the ground as my surroundings blur by. I reach Aidon’s side just as Deius pulls the spike free and it sinks back into his arm. Inky, acrid-smelling steam rises from his wings as they shrivel away and disappear, a half-smile of smug satisfaction on his face.

I catch Aidon before he can fall—easing him down to the ground as slowly as I can, given his stature. Vines studded in tiny black flower buds burst through the skin between my shoulder blades, some curling forward to cradle my husband, the others pointing defensively backward.

Deius takes a step towards us, and I snarl, twisting to glare over my shoulder at him. “What have you—“

But then there’s a wheezing, sputtering cough—and I look back down to see blood bubbling up from Aidon’s lips. He brings up a hand to wipe it away, but more immediately spurts up. At first, I think he’s choking on it, but then his lips curl upward and I recognize the sound for what it really is. Laughter.

My teeth grit together, trying to be gentle in spite of everything as I move the bloody shreds of Aidon’s clothes to look at his wound. A powerful swell of relief crashes over me as his wound heals closed before my eyes. The relief washes away my surprise, confusion and terror—leaving room for something else to take over.

“You grazed my heart that time,” he says, voice still weak and wet. Then his chest expands and he takes a deep breath as what must have been a punctured lung seals itself once more. “You win.”

“Obviously,” laughs Deius. Brushing past me, he offers his brother a hand and helps him up, clapping him on his bloody back. “Good fight.”

Aidon coughs, hacking up a bit more blood. “Good fight,” he agrees.

I shake my head, hands curled into tight fists, adrenaline still pumping into my veins. I stare at my husband—noticing things now that I was too distressed, too distracted to see before. Things like the light in his eyes, the radiance to his skin, the vigor and sheer sense of life that practically pulses into the air around him. I can smell the human blood in him, smell the changes it’s made in his chemistry. I’ve never seen him looking so healthy, so vital.

It suits him.

And I have no idea what to think or how to feel about that.

All I know is that I’m furious.

“I want a duel,” I say.

Deius and Aidon look over at me, the former cocking his head sideways like a curious animal.

“What?”

I fix my gaze on him, my eyes drilling into his. “I said I want a duel. With you.”

He chuckles, then pauses, his expression changing. “Oh, you’re serious?”

I nod. Just accept, you asshole.

He scoffs, then sucks air back in through his teeth. “Look, even if I weren’t saturated with human blood right now—you haven’t even started your first day at University yet. I can’t accept a challenge from you, it would be like...like drop-kicking a baby. My name would be dragged through the dirt”

My vision swims red.

“A baby—?”

A warm hand comes down on my shoulder, and I whirl to find Syntrofos standing behind me, expression pleading.

“Kore, we need to get you out of here. You can take all of your anger out on me, but please—“ he flashes his eyes outward to Aidon and Deius, to everyone around us. My gaze follows, catching on a face in the crowd I hadn’t noticed before. Minthe’s. At the look of satisfied amusement in her eyes, my blood boils. “Let me take care of you,” he pleads. “Come on.”

In the next moment I fight a silent war with myself. Fortunately, the rational side wins, and I contain my fury enough to turn away from the others and follow Syntrofos. Aidon moves as if to join us, but at a look from my Companion, he stops.

We only make it as far as the hangar before my rage explodes out of me and I launch myself at Syntrofos, slamming him against a broad concrete pillar, nails tearing into the soft parts of his body before I fling him away to skid across the ground. I’m on him in the next instant, legs gripping his hips, hands and vines restraining his arms as my fangs sink into his artificial jugular vein.

He pushes back as I draw his ichor into me—knowing it’s what I need. The struggle, the fight. To expend the energy and my overblown, overwhelming newborn fury. Finally he manages to push me off, wrenching my fangs from his body as he skids back from me, then launches forward—our bodies coming together forcefully as we tangle together, tumbling across the cold concrete in our struggle for dominance. My Guardian swoops in, but I screech at it not to interfere.

Finally I manage to get him pinned up against a pillar again. This time, I press my whole body to his to keep him in place while I feed, the vines on my back coming forward to wrap around both our bodies, binding us together. His Ichor tastes of sour cherries and spices tonight, and something else I can’t define.

It’s delicious. Amazing. I lose myself in it.

By the time I come back to myself, he’s gone almost rigid—though his chest still rises and falls in the gentle semblance of breathing. His hands come lightly to rest on my shoulders as I pull away. His yellow-green eyes fix steadily on mine.

“Better?” He asks.

I gnaw my lip, and nod.

The little black flower buds on my vines have opened to reveal violet interiors and puffs of fuchsia pollen. They smell of cherries.

~*~

Not long after, I’m back on the bed in the Corvus—calmer now, but still embarrassed. Still confused. Still upset.

But when Aidon comes in, we don’t talk much. He just wraps me in his arms and we lay there for a while in silence, until I begun to drift off a bit and he calls for the autopilot to take us home. Syntrofos returns to sit beside me, depositing PomPom in my arms for cuddles. I’d almost forgotten the little plant-bird was here—but that at least explains why I’d stepped on a pomegranate seed earlier.

Aidon’s hands venture through my hair, and after a while he begins talking to me in a whisper, as though he’s not sure whether I’m asleep or not. “It wasn’t easy for me at first either, adjusting to life here. As a Variant. It wasn’t easy for any of us. Well, except Deius, maybe. He’s always made everything look easy. Everything except behaving like a normal human being, that is,” he pauses, chuckling, then goes on—murmuring stories to me of his time as a brand-new Variant.

I keep my eyes closed throughout, saying nothing. Just resting and listening as the vines on my back begin to loosen. But he probably notices one corner of my lip curling upward after a while. When we land and I finally open my eyes, I catch hold of his hand.

“I’m sorry for how I handled what...what happened earlier. But I really, really wish you or Syntrofos or any of you could have prepared me better. If there’s anything else like that coming up in my future, I need you to keep that in mind.”

His gaze is steady, expression serious as he listens.

“I will.” He brings his other hand forward to squeeze it around our already clasped ones. “I promise you.”

~*~

Our honeymoon feels like it’s over before it even began. Sure, we got to bathe in the beautiful caldera hot springs and explore the snowy mountain ridges and ice caves. And sure, we got to have a lot more sex. Still, I could’ve stood for more. Much, much more.

But I have a semester to start, a dorm to get settled into, and a new Guardian to meet.

A custom model designed specifically for me, they’d manage to complete the Synthe just in time for me to leave with it.

I’ve been expecting something that at least vaguely resembles what I’m used to in a Guardian—an unassuming silvery sphere, with all appendages, attachments, and capabilities hidden away until needed.

I’ve been wrong.

The bedroom door slides open, everything I’m taking with me packed and ready to go to the side, and Aidon steps past it all into the room. The new Guardian follows, a hulking form of dark, matte gray. He’s so tall I have to crane my neck to look up at his face. So broad he fills the entire door as he enters. Though his body is mostly humanoid, I notice seams just beneath his arms where it looks as though more arms might fold out of him. And his head is more bull-like than human, complete with pointed horns.

I balk. “This is my new Guardian? But...”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Aidon cuts in. “But he’s got a smaller component.” He waves at the hulking Synthe, and he kneels obligingly—a piece of his back detaching to hover like a huge dart in the air above them.

“This is the part that’ll accompany you in lower-risk situations. All the capabilities of an ordinary Guardian, and then some. And of course, it can summon the main body to your location if needed.”

I quirk my lip, bringing a hand up to my chin as I consider my new bodyguard. “What’s his name? Overkill?”

Aidon laughs. “It’s whatever you want it to be. The designers didn’t give him one.”

I smirk. “Overkill it is.”