by Anna Argent
Talan wasn’t convinced. He pressed his boot against the man’s chest to hold him in place on the floor. “It doesn’t matter if he’s telling the truth. The danger to you is still the same. I was sent here to keep you safe, not let you dive headfirst into danger by going after a Raide.”
“My dad said they’re frail. There’s a gun right there. I’m not planning to negotiate with him. I’m just going to shoot him in painful places until he lets the boy go.”
“They might be frail, but they wear armor. And all it takes is one look at Krotian and you’ll be completely incapacitated. You won’t have time to get off a single shot.”
“You don’t know that.”
Talan couldn’t look at Zoe. He knew if he did, his control would snap and he’d whisk her away to the nearest window to Loriah, sphere or no sphere. “I do know. I also know that if you go to Krotian, you’ll be dead within the hour.”
“Oh God,” moaned the man lying on the floor. “Davy.”
Zoe’s tone chilled. “I’m not leaving some innocent child to suffer when I’m the whole reason he was kidnapped to begin with. I’m going after him.”
Talan grabbed the man’s unbroken arm and hauled him to his feet. “Is he watching you?”
“What?” Tears were streaming down his face, his eyes wild and darting around.
Talan gave him a shake. “Can Krotian see you right now? Is he nearby?”
The man shook his head. “I don’t think so. I drove twenty minutes to get here. Unless he followed me.”
“I doubt it. A Raide won’t get close to danger if he can avoid it.” And it was a Raide. The glimmer of terror in the man’s face when he talked about pain and eyes was enough to tell Talan that much. There was nothing quite like the agony the Raid could inflict with their gaze alone. It stripped away a person’s defenses, leaving them willing to do anything to make it stop.
And now one of them had a child.
Talan went through the options, sorting through them between one breath and the next. The Raide knew who Zoe was. They knew where she worked. Chances were they knew where she lived too. Anywhere she went, she’d be in danger.
“I’m going after the boy,” Zoe said. She was moving around behind the counter, collecting things, preparing to leave.
No way was he letting her go on some rescue mission. She wasn’t equipped to fight, no matter how many guns she carried. “No. You’re not. But we’re also not leaving that child to suffer.”
The man’s knees gave out, and he would have crumpled to the ground had Talan not held him up.
He didn’t dare leave Zoe’s side now, not even for the life of a child who may or may not still be alive. There was too much of a risk she would be taken captive and have her mind searched for the location of the sphere. He had no idea what was on it—he didn’t need to know—but whatever it was had to be important. And that meant he couldn’t allow it to fall in the hands of the Raide. And that meant Zoe couldn’t either.
He had to keep her away from Krotian. Period. But there was one thing he could do—the only chance the human boy had for survival.
Talan pulled out his cell phone and dialed Radek.
Chapter Four
Radek held off a pair of fuming Dregorgs while the Sorican man he was trying to send home scrambled for the window to Loriah.
The intermittent, shimmering light of the portal bounced off a new layer of snow, making the battlefield sparkle. Across Radek’s bare chest, he could feel the subtle heat of the hulking Dregorgs radiating against him, like twin ovens. The pair was working together, trying to angle themselves so that one of them could slip past and reach the Sorican before the window had time to open completely.
“Not until the light is solid,” warned Radek as he whirled his maulst in a lazy circle. The weapon’s glowing blue tip made an arc of light and a slight buzzing sound as it passed.
On his left, he felt a splash of heat move across his ribs, signaling the Dregorg’s approach. Behind him, body heat from the Sorican was still hitting Radek’s back, signaling that he hadn’t jumped into the window too soon.
Covered in heavy folds of grayish skin, the Dregorgs were easily twice Radek’s size. They were armed with curved red blades and a stench that could knock a man back on his ass at ten paces. But their true weapon was their incredible strength. Even Radek, who was no slouch in the strength department, would be meat if he let one of these giants get their hands on him.
His shadow solidified in front of him, indicating the window was completely open.
“Now!” he shouted. “Go now!”
There was no chance to turn and see if the Sorican obeyed. He’d been cooperative so far, so Radek had to hope the trend continued.
The Dregorg on the right charged, leaving deep gouges in the frozen ground. Radek shifted to intercept him, giving the man a few more seconds to get through the window.
His maulst vibrated in his grip, the solid weight of it reassuring and familiar. He swung low, ordering the weapon’s glowing tip to lengthen and thin as he moved. The blue light reshaped itself into a slender blade as he powered it through the thick legs of the Dregorg.
The searing energy slashed through skin and scraped bone. A clean slash opened up along the Dregorg’s ankles, slicing through tendons and instantly incapacitating him. The creature howled in pain as it toppled to the ground with a heavy thud.
Radek hadn’t killed it. The wounds hardly bled, thanks to the cauterizing effect the weapon had. But there was no way that Dregorg was following him anywhere on foot.
Heat pooled across Radek’s naked back, interrupted by the tiny bite of melting snowflakes along his skin.
The second Dregorg was almost upon him.
Radek turned and faced the charge, planting the haft of his maulst against his boot and commanding the glowing blue tip to lengthen into a spear. The Dregorg saw the danger at the last second and veered to the side. He sliced at Radek with one of his blood-red blades.
Radek didn’t feel the cut along his arm. The only way he knew he’d been hit was from the heat of his blood leaking down across his bare skin.
Without looking at the damage, he tested his arm. It still worked, which was all he needed to know.
The Dregorg skidded to a stop, gouging deep furrows in the snow-covered ground.
Light from the window stuttered, then winked out, casting the whole area into blackness. They were miles from the nearest city. The sky was heavy with clouds, blocking out all light from the heavens. Only the glowing tip of Radek’s weapon lit the space.
Now that the Taken from House Soric was safely through the window, Radek had the luxury of taking chances.
He lowered his weapon and spoke to the uninjured Dregorg. “Your prey is gone,” he said. “You can keep fighting me until I disable you, or you can pick up your wounded buddy and leave. Your choice.”
The Dregorg jolted as if shocked that Radek had bothered to talk to him. Fleshy folds of skin flapped around the beast’s hulking body, giving off a musty animal stench.
“This isn’t your war,” Radek said. “You don’t want to die for those fuckheads.”
“Mine can leave without death?” the Dregorg asked, confusion clear in his thick, halting words.
“Yep,” said Radek. “I know you don’t choose to fight, that the Raide hold your family hostage as a lever for your good behavior.”
The Dregorg eyed him with suspicion, shuffling slowly toward his groaning companion. “Trick,” he said. “Mine are not stupid.”
“I know. I also know you guys all talk to each other over great distances. Ask Oc if I’m lying. We go way back.”
Way back was actually only a couple of weeks ago, but Radek had saved Oc’s life, helping him escape from a burning building. That had to count for something.
The two giants spoke in a language Radek didn’t understand. A moment later, the wounded Dregorg closed his huge orange eyes in concentration. The healthy Dregorg pointed his blades at Radek in warning.
The phone at his hip rang. Talan’s scowling face appeared on the phone’s screen. He didn’t call unless it was important.
“I need to take this,” he told the Dregorg. “Hang on.”
Radek didn’t turn his back on the pair, and he would kill them if they forced him to do so, but he was fairly sure what Oc would tell them. Assuming he was still alive for them to communicate.
He answered the call. “What’s up?”
“Are you busy?”
“Just finished a project. What do you need?”
“I’ve found someone. She’s Imonite. A Raide named Krotian is on her trail. He’s kidnapped a human boy. Can you help?”
Anger flared like a blast furnace in Radek’s chest. Hunting and enslaving adults was one thing, and more than enough to make him want to kill every Raide he found. But fucking around with kids was a whole new level of evil—the kind of thing that made him want to play with the Raide before he let them die. “I’m on it. Give me the details.”
As Talan told him what he knew, Radek committed the information to memory. By the time Talan was done, the wounded Dregorg opened his bright orange eyes.
Without a word, the second Dregorg picked up his fellow warrior, and lumbered away out of reach of the maulst’s light.
Okay then. Guess Oc had given Radek a glowing review.
“My schedule just cleared. I’m on my way,” he said into the phone. “Don’t start the fun without me.”
*****
Zoe had no idea who this Radek fellow was, but she wasn’t trusting any strangers with the boy’s life. It was her fault Davy was in trouble—if Krotian hadn’t wanted her so badly, he wouldn’t have taken a child as a hostage. It was her responsibility to see to it that Davy came out of this situation safe and sound.
She wasn’t a fool. She knew better than to think she could charge in with a loaded gun and force this Krotian asshole to give her the boy. Her father had taught her all about the Raide—about how they loved traps and explosives, and could torture and kill a person simply by looking at them. He’d taught her the history of her home world, and made sure that she knew exactly who the enemy was.
The Raide were like locusts, swarming in and taking over. Only worse. They didn’t do the dirty work themselves. They used the inhabitants of the planets they’d conquered as slaves, forcing them to fight and defeat new worlds. They kept the children and loved ones of these war slaves hostage, threatening to hurt or kill them if the slaves dared to disobey.
The Raide were physically weak, but they were cunning, and had a way of using everything they touched to their advantage. People, technology, resources… they controlled and consumed it all, using it to make them strong enough that their physical weakness hardly mattered.
An enemy like that couldn’t be fought with brawn alone. But Zoe was smart. Her father had taught her well. If anyone had a chance at surviving an encounter with one of the Raide and saving that boy, it was her.
She waited until Talan was busy talking on the phone before she caught the man’s eye. “What’s your name?”
“Reece.”
She kept her voice low. “I’m Zoe. Where is Davy?”
As desperate as Reece was to save his son, he didn’t even hesitate to tell her what she wanted to know. “Eighteenth and Maple. The big foreclosed house on the hill. In the basement.”
Talan shifted his big body, blocking her line of sight. He turned and scowled at her while he spoke, telling Radek what the man had just told her.
Damn it. Talan wasn’t supposed to be paying that much attention to her. Now he was going to know what she intended to do.
He’d already made it clear that he didn’t want her to go after Davy. As soon as he was off the phone, all of his attention would be focused back on her. The only chance she had was to go now. Before he had a free hand to stab her.
She grabbed her purse from the cabinet under the counter, along with a small box of weapons her father had built. He’d made her practice with them, and while she wasn’t great, she was good enough to hit a man—or a Raide—in the head from thirty feet away.
Never look them in the eye. Her father’s warning rang in her head as she grabbed her coat. She didn’t dare slip it on and signal her intent to run. Talan’s call seemed to be wrapping up fast, in the manner of men everywhere.
Zoe gave Davy’s father what she hoped was a meaningful stare. He nodded once, as if he understood.
She darted for the front door. Reece shoved Talan hard enough that Reece’s feet slipped on the floor. Talan didn’t even sway. Instead, she saw in the reflection coating her big front window that he lifted the man up by one arm and tossed him away. At the same time, he spun around, swept her legs out from under her with one of his big feet, and caught her before she could hit the floor.
One thick arm was around her back, holding her up halfway to the floor. The other held both of her hands pinned against her chest. Anger radiated through his expression, but his hold on her was careful.
“Really?” he asked. “This is how it’s going to be between us?”
“You said you wouldn’t let me save the boy.”
“Because you can’t. All you can do is get yourself killed.”
“You don’t know me well enough to say that. For all you know I’m a fierce and mighty warrior goddess.”
“You’re a Builder,” he said, as if that somehow refuted her completely. “Builders don’t fight.”
“They do when a little boy’s life is on the line.”
He lifted her back to her feet and turned her so he could see Reece. “Radek will save the boy.”
“Who is Radek? And where is he? Because if he’s not closer than us, we need to go. Now.”
“He’s close enough. And your life is too valuable to risk for one human child. You will see that once you’re back on Loriah.”
In that moment, she realized that Talan actually believed what he said. She stared up at him for a long time, struggling to overcome her shock. “No, I’m not. Nothing is more important than the life of a human child, and if you can’t see that, then we’re done here. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
His eyes narrowed until all she could see was a thin line of pale, silvery green. “And if we save the boy? Will you come with me willingly? Do what I ask, when I ask? Cooperate completely?”
Zoe didn’t have to stop and think about it. There was nothing else to say but an unconditional, “Yes.”
Within a heartbeat, his demeanor changed. His anger disappeared, and in its place was steely determination. “We have a deal, then.”
Something about the way he said it gave her pause. He was acting like he’d just won some big prize. Maybe she’d just agreed to something she didn’t understand.
Either way, it didn’t matter. They were going after the boy, and that was worth any price she had to pay.
Talan reached inside his vest and pulled out a little blue vial. He ripped the tiny stopper out with his teeth and handed it to her. “Drink this.”
“What is it?”
“You promised to cooperate. Are you going back on your word?”
It was a test. She could see the challenge lighting his eyes as he stared at her.
If she failed, he’d stop her from going after Davy. Worse yet, he wouldn’t come with her and focus all his obvious power on getting the boy back safely.
As much as she wanted to pretend she was a fierce warrior goddess, she knew better. At best she was a pissed off woman with a few toys and questionable aim under stress. Davy deserved better than that.
Zoe took the vial and tipped it back, swallowing the cloyingly sweet liquid.
“There,” she said, thrusting her chin at him. “Satisfied?”
He stared at her for a moment, studying her. “Not even close.”
*****
Talan hated the idea of taking Zoe toward danger almost as much as he hated the idea of leaving her alone. At least if she was by his side, he had a fighting cha
nce at keeping her alive.
And now that she’d swallowed the liquid tracking element—one not naturally occurring on this world—he would be able to find her anywhere. At least for the next day or two.
The knowledge eased some of the tension growing behind his eyes. She couldn’t escape him, even if she tried.
And she probably would. She didn’t trust him. He could see it in her eyes whenever she looked at him. She’d only swallowed the liquid to save the boy. It had nothing to do with trusting him not to poison her.
That she would risk her life to save the child spoke loudly of just how much danger she was in. He was going to have to watch her carefully and find some way to gain her trust or she was never going to give him what he needed to complete his mission.
Rescuing the boy was the first step toward that end.
“If we do this, you’re going to do exactly what I say when I say,” he said. “Do you agree?”
She gave an earnest nod, and a glossy dark lock of hair fell out from behind her ear. Talan’s fingers twitched with the urge to put it back in place, but he kept his hands to himself, right where they belonged.
“I promise. Whatever you say.”
He eyed the man cowering in the corner. “You will come with us and do what I say. In exchange, I will bring you your son. Do we have a deal?”
The older man nodded silently as he lurched forward. “Anything you want.”
“All right, Reece. Roll up your sleeve over the break in your arm.”
The man hesitated for only a second before he obeyed.
Talan pulled another vial from inside his vest, checking to make sure it was the right one. Pale green liquid glowed under the bright lights overhead.
He would have preferred to give Reece something to dull the pain before he acted, but needed the man to be fit to drive. So, rather than warning him what he was going to do, Talan simply grabbed Reece’s arm on either side of the break and set the bone.
He let out a grunt of pain and tried to pull his arm away. Talan held it in place. “Don’t move.”
He poured the green liquid over the man’s skin and spread it around until a thin layer completely coated the damaged area. Before it could dry, he wiped it his finger on his jeans. “This will harden in a minute and support the bone.”
