The super smooth metal flooring beneath foot meant my movements were utterly silent. I edged farther and farther back, my breath caught in my chest, my heart pounding. I was sure the thumping of my pulse was loud enough to hear, the blood surging through my ears. I was surrounded by the enemy, and I was certain I wouldn’t go unnoticed.
But I was clearly not even worth them keeping a close eye on, as I made it off the bridge. Dizzy with adrenaline, I grabbed my moment. Leaping to my feet, I turned and ran, taking the exit beside the one I’d been dragged through by the two other Trads.
I ran hard, my arms pumping at my sides, not pausing to look back. My breath whistled in and out of my lungs—the air thinner inside the craft than I was used to at home—and that, combined with my pounding feet, meant I couldn’t hear if anyone was coming after me.
I twisted my head from side to side, trying to spot a doorway I might be able to take and hopefully find some kind of weapon beyond. But the corridor was identical to the one I’d first been brought down—silver panels in a pentagonal shape, with that same blue light running between the seams. I remembered how Denik had opened the door of the room I’d been kept in. He’d placed his palm—
A body slammed into mine from behind, throwing me to the floor. I landed heavily, my chin cracking onto the smooth, hard surface, the air whooshing out of my lungs. A heavy, solid body landed on top of me, pinning me down.
His breath gusted hot against my ear. “I told you there was nowhere to run.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, already knowing who was on top of me by the reaction my body was having to his presence. I swallowed hard, willing away the pulse of desire that coiled low and heavy in my belly.
He pulled his weight off me enough to flip me around, so I was facing him, my back pressed to the floor. Behind him stood two other Trads who must have joined him in chasing me.
“Leave us,” Denik snapped at them. “The time has come, and I don’t appreciate having an audience when I take my mate.”
I struggled beneath him, lifting both my hands to pummel my fists against his chest and shoulders. “I’m not your mate!”
From behind his body, his tail whipped out, the thinner end wrapped around both of my wrists, securing them. Still using his tail, he yanked my hands behind my head, pinning them to the floor. I writhed beneath him, trying not to inhale, knowing my body would betray me. He jammed his knee between my thighs, so every time I squirmed, I felt him there, and that was enough to force me to fall still. But I couldn’t stop myself from breathing—not if I wanted to live—and I inhaled a steady rush of his pheromones. My nipples were already hard, pointing through my shirt to press against his broad chest, and involuntarily, I ground down on his thigh.
I let out a groan—partly from dismay and partly arousal. So, this was going to be it. I was going to end up as a Trad incubator. I’d never get to see the guys again, or Molly, or little Elodie. My heart broke for each of them, and I prayed they all knew how much I loved them.
“That’s right, my little pet,” Denik said, lowering his face to me. “I know you’re getting wet. You need to be taken.”
“No...” I groaned, but as he ducked his head to my breast and sucked my nipple in over the top of my shirt, I could feel the ‘no’ on my tongue wanting to morph to a ‘yes’. This wasn’t the first time I’d gotten up close and heavy with the man I’d then known as Dean, and memories of how I’d sucked his cock in the closet back at the Observatory flooded into my head.
“Finally,” he growled, “you’re going to be mine... Just say yes, Camille. One little word. That’s all it’ll take.”
Beneath us, the ship shuddered.
On top of me, Denik froze, lifting his head to look around, a frown on his face. Something had happened, but I had no idea what.
“Captain!” a Trad voice shouted from the direction of the bridge. “The pathetic humans and Athions are trying to attack again.”
My heart lifted in hope but also tightened in fear. It was fear for those who were attempting to take the Trads down for the second time, and also fear for myself that I would go down with them if they were to succeed.
“Velos!” Denik spat as he climbed off me.
I took it to be a swear word, though I didn’t know what it meant.
He pointed at me. “Stay right where you are. It won’t take me long to deal with this irritation. I’ll be back for you shortly. And remember, there’s nowhere you can run to. I’ll always find you.”
I could barely believe I’d been given a reprieve. Who was on the attacking ships? I prayed it wouldn’t be any of the guys—assuming they were still alive. I didn’t want their fate to be the same as the crew I’d been with.
Watching Denik’s retreating back, I shakily got to my feet. He was right when he said there was nowhere, I could hide, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to find somewhere. I turned to run back up the corridor, wanting to put as much space as possible between me and the Trads, who’d all run back to the bridge to deal with the attacking ship.
The air shimmered in front of me, and I staggered back. Forms began to take shape in front of me—a man’s shoulders, a second man’s head, the glimpse of blue skin, and another of dark hair and tattooed arms.
My mouth dropped open.
Mike and Irus both materialized in the middle of the corridor. A quick observation showed me that they were both armed.
“Camille!” Irus exclaimed, almost as surprised to see me as I was him.
“Well, that was fortunate,” Mike said. “We thought you’d take a bit more searching for.”
“How... What... What are you doing here?”
“Getting you to safety,” Mike said, putting his hand out to me. “Come on.”
I wanted to throw my arms around him—around them both—and hug and kiss them, but I knew we didn’t have time. If we made it out of this alive, there would be plenty of time for all of that later.
I took a step forward but then stopped.
“Camille,” Irus said. “What are you doing?”
“I think I know a way to take the ship down.”
“What are you talking about? We need to go.”
“No, we can’t let them win. Give me your gun, Mike. There’s what appears to be an energy source on the bridge of the ship. If we can take it out, I think we might bring down the ship.”
He stared at me for a moment, and I felt sure he was going to fight me about it, but to my surprise, he handed it over.
“For fuck’s sake,” he said. “Don’t go getting yourself killed.”
I offered him a smile. “I’ll do my best. Follow me.”
Together we ran back toward the bridge. Movement came in front of me as a Trad stepped out of one of the hidden doorways, his head down. I hated shooting someone who was unarmed, but I knew what these beings were capable of, and I’d hardened my heart. I squeezed the trigger, and a pulse of white light shot from the end of the barrel and hit the Trad, instantly dropping him to the floor.
We kept going, stepping around the fallen Trad.
“None of them are armed,” I told Mike and Irus over my shoulder. It felt like an important detail to mention. “But they’re fast and strong, so be careful.”
We reached the bridge but paused, pressing our backs against the walls and staying out of sight so we could observe what was happening.
The Trads were all distracted, and I could see why. Through the huge windows across the front of the ship, I was able to make out several of the Athion fighter rockets. So, they hadn’t all gone down in the first attack. They were trying again, and that was because of me. I owed it to them to make sure we won this time.
I nodded toward the huge column of blue light and lifted my weapon. I exchanged a glance with Irus, who did the same.
Three, two, one... I mouthed at him.
And I stepped out and pulled the trigger.
A pulse of light from both my weapon and Irus’s struck the column.
The effect
was instantaneous.
A massive throb of energy boomed from the column, pulsing outward. It lifted me off my feet and threw me back. I hit the floor and skidded to a halt, my bones jarring with the impact.
And then the column exploded.
Chapter Fourteen
Mike
DAZED AND DISORIENTED, I shoved myself to sitting. What the fuck had happened to Camille and Irus? Smoke filled the bridge of the Trad ship, and I squinted against it, holding the back of my hand to my mouth to stifle a cough. Through the smoke, the column of blue light had grown brighter, the glass—or whatever the material was that had surrounded it—shattered into pieces. A loud humming filled the air. It was coming from the light. The blasts from the guns had done something to it, though I didn’t know if the change was due to the energy from the guns or because it was no longer contained.
Angry shouts in a language I didn’t understand met my ears. We were still surrounded by Trads, and while they were also dealing with an attack from our ships, they also now knew they had been infiltrated as well. I took a small amount of satisfaction from having turned the tables on those Trad fuckers, but that satisfaction wouldn’t last long if I wasn’t able to get Camille off the ship and back to safety.
I staggered to my feet, desperately looking for Camille. We needed to all be together to activate the transporter belts and get back onto our ship. There was only enough energy to do it once, and if we didn’t, we’d be leaving someone behind.
I spotted Irus picking Camille up off the floor. They were both armed, and Irus was holding off the Trads who’d spotted them and realized they were being attacked from inside their ship.
In the center of the bridge, the blue light grew even brighter, so bright now it was almost white and blinding, and the humming was deafening. This wasn’t good.
“The ship’s gonna blow!” I shouted to them. “We need to get out of here! Now!”
The column of blue light had absorbed the power from the weapons, stepping it up to a level it was unable to contain.
A fist suddenly connected with my jaw, throwing me back to the floor again. Pain shot through my face, but I didn’t have time to think about it as one of the Trads landed on top of me. Through the smoke, I was able to make out his red glowing eyes and the horns protruding from the top of his head. He threw another punch, and I managed to twist to the side, so his fist cracked against the floor rather than my face.
“Go!” I yelled at Irus, while ducking another flying fist. “Take Camille to safety.”
They could go now, just the two of them. I’d rather that happened than none of us make it.
I landed a punch of my own, connecting with the Trad’s ear and throwing him sideways. I rolled, trying to escape him, but a tail whipped through the air and wound around my throat, yanking me back again. The tail tightened, cutting off my airways.
“Camille is mine,” the Trad snarled, his nose an inch from mine.
A white laser cut through the smoke, striking the Trad in the side of the head. He stiffened momentarily, the tail now so tight I worried it would cut straight through my neck, but then it fell loose, and the Trad toppled sideways, either dead or unconscious. I couldn’t be sure which, and we didn’t have time to check.
I sucked in a smoke-filled breath, setting me off coughing, and looked up to see Irus standing there. Camille was holding off any of the Trads who decided that dealing with us was more important than dealing with the attacking Athion ship, or figuring out how to fix the power source, which was going to blow at any minute.
He put out a hand to help me to my feet. I took it, allowing him to haul me up. “You saved my life.”
“You’d have done the same,” the Athion said.
I liked to think I would, but Irus had shown me something. He was a far better person than I was. I’d been holding him at arm’s length all this time, worried he’d steal Camille away, but he had more integrity in his little finger than I had in my whole body.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Camille stopped firing long enough to turn and run over to us.
I unhooked the extra transporter belt that I’d brought with me for Camille and looped it around her waist. “Just hit those two buttons there,” I told her. “It’ll take us back to the Athion rocket ship where the others are waiting.”
With Camille standing between us, and more Trads lunging through the smoke toward us, we got the hell out of there.
Chapter Fifteen
One moment, I’d been in the Trad ship, deafened by the hum of the column of energy, and blinded by its light while I was trying to hold off the Trads, and the next I was opening my eyes with Aleandro and Casey staring back at me.
My stomach was churning from the transporter, but that didn’t stop me stumbling into their arms. They both held me tight, squishing me between their bodies, and I finally felt safe again.
I suddenly remembered Mike and Irus. I unpeeled myself from Aleandro and Casey’s embrace to turn to the others. They’d both saved my life.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging Mike first and then going to Irus. “Thank you so much.”
“We need to increase our distance,” the captain of the ship called out. “Hang on.”
We gripped hold of whatever we could—the backs of seats, and each other—as we pulled away from the Trad ship, putting ourselves a safe distance from it. It was clearly listing to one side now. Suddenly, the middle of the Trad ship erupted in flames and then cracked in two. We all watched in muted disbelief as the arms of the ship broke off, spinning out into space.
Dean—Denik—would be dead. Unless he’d found some way of escaping that got him off the ship before it exploded, of course, but I prayed that was the last I’d ever have to see of him.
“Get strapped in, everyone,” the captain called out. “We’re heading home.”
My legs were shaky, my head still spinning from everything that had happened, and I gratefully sank into one of the spare seats and clicked the four-way seat belt into place between my breasts. I kept catching glances from the guys, as though they couldn’t quite believe I was there either. I’d been saved, and we’d managed to take down one of the Trad ships as well. It was only one out of God only knew how many, but it had taught us that there was a way to defeat them. It had also sent a message back to the Trads that we wouldn’t go easily. Combined with the Athion technology, we were still a force to be reckoned with.
We landed to a volley of applause from those on the ground. I climbed from the ship, helped by the guys. They each pressed close to me, as though they were all worried I’d vanish again. I noted how Irus was as close to me as the others, and no one said or did anything to question it.
From out of the crowd, Molly and Elodie rushed up to me, both body-slamming into me. I hugged them both, tears filling my eyes. There had been a moment back there when I’d thought I’d never get to see them again.
“I can’t believe you’re back,” Molly said, echoing my thoughts. “I was so frightened I’d lost you and that I was going to have to live through this on my own.”
I noted Leif standing not far behind her. She wouldn’t have been on her own, not really, but I knew how she felt. We were family, and that meant something.
“It’s okay, I’m back now.”
“Don’t ever do anything like that again, okay?”
I laughed. “You know I can’t make any promises.”
We were going to need to do a debrief, and then I intended on sleeping for about a hundred hours.
I said so to the guys.
“I know what you mean,” Casey said, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. “I feel like shit.”
Aleandro nudged him in the side. “Yeah, ’cause you look like shit, too.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Hey, do you want to hug it out?”
He held his arms open to Casey, and for a minute I thought Casey was going to refuse, but then he copied Aleandro’s movements, and then the two
of them hugged, doing that guy back-clapping thing to make it appear more macho. I hid a smile. I knew the two of them were close. We all were. I couldn’t explain how good it felt for us all to be back together again, just as it should be.
We went back inside the Observatory to do the debrief. When that was done, I’d fully intended on doing what I’d promised to myself and sleeping, but instead I ended up answering the multiple frantic emails inquiring about my whereabouts and the likelihood that Project Exodus was being put on hold for the moment.
It seemed the project was on a lot of people’s mind.
“It’s good to have you back, Camille,” Sergeant Byrd said from behind me.
I twisted in my seat to find him regarding me with a newfound respect.
“Thank you. It’s good to be back.”
“Do you think what’s happened will affect the launch of Exodus One now?” he asked.
“No, I don’t think so. We lost some time because of the Trads, but we can make it back up. We’re still on track for the original launch date.”
The sergeant gave me a smile, but even that appeared strained. “Exciting times.”
“Nerve-racking times, more like, especially since we don’t even know who’s going to be on the ship yet.”
“They’re calling the lottery tomorrow,” he said. “Almost all of the single women who are staying here are hoping to go.”
My stomach flipped with nerves, and I just nodded as a reply.
“What about you?” he asked me. “Did you apply for a ticket?”
I refocused on the screen in front of me. “Oh, I have work to do here.”
I hadn’t answered him straight and I wasn’t going to either. It was a touchy subject, and one I knew could cause a huge divide between me and the guys. But things were still dangerous on Earth for single, fertile women, and while I wanted to tell myself that I would never be stupid enough to fall for a Trad male, I’d experienced firsthand what it was like to be around them. The truth was that I was scared. As much as we’d been trying to hold things together here, to create some kind of viable future for the thousands of women left on Earth who wanted to try to carve out a different kind of life for themselves, we still had the threat of the Trads hanging over us.
The Exodus (Darkest Skies, #4) Page 9
