Hostile Genus: An Epic Military Sci-Fi Series (Invasive Species Book 2) Ben Stevens (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

Lucy nodded at first, and then, apparently having a second thought, added, “No, you aren’t strong enough. You stay with Maya. I’ll take the front. Jon, you cover our rear.”

“Ten-four,” Jon and Carbine said in unison.

“On my count, three, two—”

“No, wait.”

It took Jon more than an instant to realize that the speaker wasn’t Lucy, or Carbine, or even Maya, and snapped his head around in bewilderment to find Ratt alert and attempting to climb down from Lucy’s shoulder.

Jon kept his attention away from the line of savages longer than he intended, as Ratt’s visage stunned him. The kid’s eyes had two sets of irises and pupils.

“They’re vampires. I know what to do.”

The vampires hovered just outside the perimeter of the camp. They stood shoulder to shoulder and stared longingly with their red eyes at the potential meals before them, yet they twitched and behaved as if afraid. Pacing, shifting their weight from one foot to another, taking a step forward, only to hesitate, and return to where they started.

“They look like they’re holding it,” Carbine said.

“I doubt having to use the bathroom is their issue, bud,” Jon said dryly, reminding himself to knock some battlefield sense into his friend later if they ever made it out of this.

“I hope this plan works, Ratt,” Jon said.

“It will,” Ratt answered with calm concentration in his voice. “Just remember. After the beam is established, we need to stand inside of it. We will be safe there until morning.”

“I still don’t get why they aren’t attacking,” Carbine said. “They clearly had the upper hand.”

“That I don’t know. But they will. They will. We want them to, for this to work best,” Ratt explained. “But we don’t need them to.”

“Well, let’s get this party started!” Lucy cried as she finished reloading her BFG and took aim at one of the vampire savages’ heads.

One squeeze of the trigger later and the head of her target disintegrated and scattered to the wind like a fistful of thrown confetti. This brought a chorus of shrieks and growls from the vampiric host. She took another carefully aimed shot, sending another head to the wind, and with its departure, she brought about the charge they’d hoped for.

Crazed with an insatiable thirst for blood and overcome with a rush of a pack-mentality lynching, the three dozen or so savage vampires charged the party from all directions, screaming, claws outstretched, some galloping like apes on all fours, only adding to their feral, dog-like appearance.

“Hold,” Ratt said calmly, but loud enough for everyone to hear over the demons’ shrieks and Maya’s soft singing. Memories of his dream and of the Tarantino and Rodriguez magicians’ work were fresh in his mind and coming alive before his very eyes. He paced and gauged the mob’s distance.

“Hold,” Ratt repeated himself, this time with more intensity and urgency in his young voice.

The sea of glowing red eyes grew closer and closer like a crimson meteor storm until they were bearing down on the party. Ratt could see their faded human features glow in the light of Jon’s hammer and their own fevered eyes, their mouths yawning open, saliva dripping from their fanged teeth.

“Now!” he barked, setting Jon, Carbine, and Lucy into action.

The makeshift poles that held up the lean-to had broken, and Carbine, Jon, and Lucy pushed the roof backward so as to fall away from the party rather than on top of them. The sudden flinging off of the roof caused the mob to pause for a heartbeat, and that was all Maya needed.

She shot her hands up to the sky and spread her palms open wide, her previously silent song ending in a high, beautiful note. A ball of twinkling light shot forth from the little diamond-shaped space between her hands and launched high into the dark and starless night sky.

Like a pyrotechnic effect from a Lily Sapphire show, the twinkling ball exploded into a bright ball of brilliant sunlight. The ball was not like sunlight; it was sunlight. A small portal had been opened to a place far away, a place near and dear to her, a place where it was already day.

Maya’s eyes closed, and her face was bathed in the warmth and glow of a miniature Sol, no more than twenty meters above. The rays of light shot out from the sphere like a spotlight, hitting the savages facing the party like a tsunami and reducing them to falling piles of ash. One could even hear the whoomp as if a lit match had just touched down into a large puddle of gasoline.

Taking advantage of the lull in the stunned beast-men’s attack, the companions bolted forward, stepping into the beam of sunlight and occupying the space filled by savages just a moment before.

Jon looked here and there, scanning and listening, his mouth slack. He looked over to Carbine, who was doing the same thing, and they exchanged looks of amused relief. Carbine let out a sigh, which tripped, stumbled, then fell into full-out laughter. Even Lucy cracked a grin.

Ratt wore a look of proud satisfaction and gave Maya a thumbs-up.

“That’s our little lady.”

She shyly returned his smile.

“And now we wait,” Ratt added. “Sunrise isn’t too far off.”

To their sides, the remaining beast-men stood, dumbfounded and impotent, unable to press their attack. A few, either daring or stupid, tried to test the beam, only to pull back with flaming and smoking limbs.

For a short while, none of them, neither Jon nor Maya, nor Carbine or Lucy or Ratt did anything at all. They just stood in amusement and mild awe and admired their handiwork, relieved that it seemed to be over.

They watched as the dark sky slowly but surely grew lighter and lighter until eventually soft blues could be seen on the eastern horizon. One by one, the savages reluctantly slunk away into the desert hills, until at last the wayward companions were alone.

When they felt it was safe, Maya canceled the portal with another wave of her