by Anna Carven
Fucking idiot! To her horror, the damn thing fell to the ground and she lunged forward to catch it. Before she could comprehend anything, Kail was moving, his arm shooting out in a swirl of crimson as he somehow managed to catch the flask, ripping it out of thin air.
Damn… He moved so fast, and she was freaked. Thrown off balance, she stumbled backwards, and her stupid ankle—slightly tender and still unstable—buckled underneath her.
And then he was beside her, steadying her, his strong arm anchoring her as he stopped her from falling backwards onto the sand.
“Clumsy Human,” he growled irritably, steadying her. He shifted, removing his arm from behind her shoulders. Riana shuddered, unable to process the fact that this terrifying alien had just saved her from falling on her ass. He was as hard and immovable as stone, and his closeness was overwhelming.
She looked up, trying to read him, but he was completely covered from head to toe, and as inscrutable as ever.
Once Riana was able to stand, Kail stepped aside, pulling his face covering down. He cautiously sniffed the contents of the cold flask before lifting it to his lips. Riana caught a glimpse of his lower face. Unable to rein in her fascination, she couldn’t help but stare.
His dark lips, which she’d only ever seen pressed into a grim line, parted to reveal gleaming white fangs. He drank the water down in one long, smooth gulp, his lips curving around the neck of the flask. It was strangely sensual.
His jaw was lean and strong, tapering to a sharp chin. In the deepening shadows, his silver-hued skin was luminous, and the strange markings on his face seemed to glow. They were intricate and beautiful, comprised of thousands of tiny dots—scars—which coalesced to form a complex pattern of symmetrical swirls and lines.
What did they mean?
None of the other warriors had such markings.
He was an otherworldly mystery, a creature you would only expect to hear of in the embellished, fanciful FrontierMedia reports of the Central Galaxies.
And he was standing right next to her.
Riana resisted the urge to pinch herself. She had to remind herself that he wasn’t Human, and that she didn’t really know anything about him or his people.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, unexpectedly, his voice a low rumble. He handed the empty flask back to Riana, his gloved fingers grazing hers ever so briefly. His hands were covered by obsidian nano-armor; presumably the rest of his body was too. It wouldn’t surprise her if he wore his full battle gear underneath the elaborate disguise.
Wordlessly, she took the flask, slipping it into her pack. Her heart was still fluttering wildly, but the awkward feeling was gone.
Kail was not the sort of person one made small talk with. There was a stillness about him, a sense of immovable resolve. It was intimidating, yet at the same time strangely reassuring.
Arin’s words rang so true. With Kail around, nobody would touch her if he chose to protect her.
But would he protect her?
And what would she have to do for him in return?
Chapter Seven
They journeyed back into Tamanrasset town with the setting sun at their backs. It went down in a spectacular blaze of glorious red and orange, painting the dunes with fire and darkness as their long shadows were cast along the sand.
To Riana’s relief, the temperature began to drop as soon as the sun was gone, and they spent the remainder of their trip in merciful darkness with the pure night sky glittering above.
Kail sat behind her, as still as stone and perfectly balanced. Despite the hover-bike’s impressive thrust and speed, he didn’t need to wrap his arms around her waist to stay onboard. They barely touched, although Riana was acutely aware of his silent presence.
For the entire trip, her neck and back had tingled, an electric sensation running up and down her spine. It was the same feeling she got whenever she strapped herself into a spatial chair and immersed herself in the datastreams of the Darkweb.
But this time, the sensation was more potent, more visceral.
It was because of him, and there was nothing she could do about it right now. She stared ahead, keeping her eyes on the horizon, which was now a dark shadow against the grey-green night sky. At least that’s how it appeared through the night-vision mode of her helmet’s visor.
“Turn.”
“What?”
“Turn.” It was a softly spoken command, filled with just enough urgency to make Riana pause.
Before she could react, Kail’s arms were around her, and she swore she heard an exasperated sigh as he grabbed the navigation bar and used his body’s weight to tilt the hover-bike.
Its thrusters groaned as it swung around in a vicious curve, and Riana caught a glimpse of what Kail had seen long before she’d noticed it.
They whizzed past a lone boulder, barely clearing it. It rose up out of the shifting sands, a bleak island in the center of a desolate sea. If they hadn’t swerved at the last second…
A chill ran through her. If they’d crashed into the boulder, she would have been toast. Arin was a speck on the horizon now, having sped on ahead. The sharp maneuver had happened so fast, and she obviously hadn’t noticed.
The hover-bike corrected, and Riana realized she was still cocooned between Kail’s powerful arms. His torso was pressed up against her back, and his warmth radiated through the thin fabric of her blouse.
“Do you have a death-wish?” His deep voice filtered through the light outer shell of her neo-fiber helmet, slicing through the incessant rush of the wind. Although they were riding smoothly now, he didn’t change position, staying close to her.
“I didn’t see it until it was almost too late.” Riana shuddered. “Thank you.”
Kail let out a soft grunt of displeasure. “Concentrate, Human. I don’t want to be responsible for carrying your dead body back to the civilized zones.”
“The auto-nav should have picked that up.” To her surprise, the hover-bike’s inbuilt crash sensors had failed. “It should have evaded the obstacle automatically.”
“You should not place such blind trust in a machine.”
“Automated obstacle detection is almost infallible these days.”
“Nothing is infallible.”
As if to prove Kail right, the nav-screen started to flicker and distort. Then it went blank.
Their speed dropped.
The thrusters choked and went dead.
“Oh, shi—” Riana’s cry of alarm was drowned out as the bike plummeted.
She wasn’t quite sure what happened next. Kail’s arms closed around her, and she was thrown off the hover-bike. There was a loud crash as the bike plummeted into the sand ahead of them. They were falling, rolling, skidding in the sand. His hands were curved around her helmet, and she was wrapped in swathes of crimson cloth and shielded by his hard, muscular body.
Kail pulled her head close, tucking it into his chest, but even he was unable to stop her helmet from hitting the compacted sand.
A painful jolt ran through her skull and down her spine, and then everything went black.
Chapter Eight
Kail used his body to shield the woman from the brunt of the impact, holding her close. The fall hadn’t hurt him in the slightest, but he didn’t know what kind of damage her body had sustained.
Humans were so fragile, and even though she’d tried to hide it, he knew she was nursing some sort of injury. She’d favored her right leg ever so slightly. It might have been subtle to others, but it was obvious to him.
He was trained to observe, to understand an opponent’s weakness even before they knew it themselves.
That was why he was such an effective killer.
Their fall was an abrupt tumble into the sand, and he had to roll to absorb the sudden momentum. The primitive vehicle crashed into a sand-bank in the distance, hitting the ground with a loud thud.
When they came to a complete stop, their bodies were entwined amidst the dust and the ridiculous crimson robes K
ail had been made to wear.
She wasn’t moving. He gently separated himself from her, not quite sure why he felt the need to be so careful.
To his relief, her chest rose and fell. She was breathing. Sprawled on her back with her legs spread wide and her arms resting by her side, she was utterly vulnerable. He reached out and brushed fine red sand from the hollow at the base of her neck before removing her protective helmet.
Her dark hair was a mass of curls, and as he slid the helmet off, it cascaded around her face, framing her smooth, rounded features. Her dark brown lips were slightly parted, and they glistened with moisture.
Kail growled. Why should such minuscule details be of interest to him? This Human was supposed to assist him, nothing more.
“Hey!” The roar of engines drew his attention as Arin doubled back, whipping up a vortex of wind and sand. “What the fuck just happened?”
Rykal’s mate was not known for her subtlety.
“Malfunction,” he grunted, eyeing the crashed hover-bike with disdain. Humans really placed a lot of trust in their machines.
Arin landed her bike and tore off her helmet. She ran towards her fallen friend, dropping to her knees beside her. She pressed a button on her wrist-band, bathing them in a small cone of light. “Riana!” She squeezed her arm, trying to elicit some kind of response.
Riana’s eyes fluttered. She moaned. Arin swore. Kail could do nothing but stare as she regained consciousness. Suddenly, her dark eyes were wide open and unfocused; twin, shimmering pools of liquid brown that darted back and forth. They finally snapped back into focus as they fixed on him.
For a brief moment, he saw pure, naked fear.
For the first time in his life, it bothered him.
It shouldn’t have. It was a look he was used to, one he’d seen many times before. Throughout the Nine Galaxies, fear was a universal emotion, and all species expressed fear in a similar way.
As a hunter, as a subjugator, as a pariah, he’d learned to use it to his advantage.
“Kaiin’s Hells.” Kail swore under his breath as a distant sound alerted him to imminent danger.
Move.
It was a sharp crack, quickly becoming a roar, splitting the whispering wind and the infinite silence beneath it.
At least, that’s what his ears perceived. It happened blindingly fast, and he was already moving, becoming a blur of wild red robes and impenetrable nano-armor as he rose to his feet, putting himself between the source of the sound and the Humans.
Because that crack was the unmistakable sound of a shot being fired.
It caught him in the back. His nano-armor absorbed most of the impact, but it still hurt like a bitch. Kail grunted and looked down at the women, who both stared up at him in shock. “Get her out of here,” he ordered, pointing at Arin’s hover-bike.
Another shot roared across the dunes, and this time he caught a flash of yellow before the sand beside Riana’s head exploded. Arin pulled a gun from some concealed place on her body and fired several shots in the direction of their attacker.
“Go!” Kail roared, wasting no time. They were too exposed out here, and he couldn’t protect both of them against a barrage of sniper fire.
If something happened to Arin, Rykal would fucking murder him. Of that he had no doubt. He would be the same way if their places were reversed. The only reason Rykal had let Arin go in the first place was because Kail would be there, and because Human females could be strangely convincing when they wanted.
Did they possess some sort of mystical power, some terrifying ability to bend males to their will?
And if something happened to Riana? Would it bother him?
Kail shook his head as he turned, sprinting across the sand. This was not the time to dwell on the possibility that he might actually regret the death of a Human.
The only way to end this was to find the shooter.
His infernal disguise was slowing him down, so he tore it off as he ran. The wind whipped around him as another yellow blast streaked past him. Kail ran from side to side, avoiding a series of blasts. An erratically moving target was so much harder to hit.
The shooter had already given away their position. All he had to do was reach them.
Another blast was fired. It slammed into his chest like a fierce punch, sudden and painful.
Kail didn’t slow down, ignoring the agony that spread through his body. He had momentum now. He couldn’t stop. Not until the enemy was dead.
They thought they could take him out with inferior bolt weapons? Ridiculous.
The faster he moved, the deeper his feet sank into the shifting sands. He ran up a steeply sloped dune, braving a hail of sniper-fire. Another shot hit him in the chest. He fell backwards and got up again. Each shot slowed him down, but they couldn’t stop him. They couldn’t kill him with their primitive weapons. Hadn’t they figured that out already?
Kail had the sniper’s location pinned. The attacker was just beyond the ridge of the dune. He drew his plasma gun.
As he crested the dune, he caught sight of the Humans. There were two of them, both male, both dressed in dappled combat gear designed to camouflage them against the sand. They looked up at him in disbelief. The shooter angled his long-barreled weapon at Kail and continued to fire.
One, two, three, four, five. Kail was hit in the chest and stomach and head, but his armor had never failed him and it protected him now as he was thrown flat on his back. He squeezed off a few plasma shots, but his aim was off.
The last blast had amplified his pain. The Human fired again, and powerful bolt-energy hit Kail in his legs, arms, shoulders, and stomach.
Kail went still, his grip loosening as the plasma gun slipped from his hand.
The Humans stood and made their way over to where Kail lay. Kail suspended his breathing, going perfectly still.
“Crazy bastard.” The Human laughed, a dry, harsh sound. “Nobody can survive a full clip of supercharged bolt-power. What the fuck did he think he was going to do?”
“What the hell is he doing out here, anyway? I thought this was supposed to be a routine kill. Locate the girl, make it look like an accident, and get the fuck out of here. They didn’t say anything about aliens. What are we supposed to do with this one now?”
They switched to their native language, their voices low and guttural as they continued to speak.
They didn’t know Kail was watching them through his visor.
The Human raised his long, ungainly weapon and fired another shot at Kail’s head.
At such close range, the power of the blast reverberated through Kail’s skull-armor. His vision went black, and the last thought that he had as he faded away was that it didn’t fucking matter.
He’d diverted fire from Riana and Arin, and when he came to, he would make sure these Human assassins understood perfectly well what he intended to do.
Chapter Nine
Kail was being dragged through the sand, his body bouncing roughly. His plasma gun was gone. His head hurt like a bitch. His long sword and daggers had been taken.
Swearing under his breath, he opened his eyes and took a quick inventory of his position. His feet were bound together and attached to a restraint of some kind, which in turn was attached to a Human vehicle. His enemies were speeding across the sandy terrain, dragging him along like a fucking skinned szkazajik carcass.
Kail snarled. These Humans did not understand their place in the Universe.
They were about to learn.
He sat up, ignoring the pain that shot through his chest and abdomen. Grunting with exertion, he pulled himself forward, grabbing onto his restraint—a thick synthetic cord of some sort—that was attached to the speeding vehicle.
His ankles were tightly bound together by what appeared to be metal shackles. Without his blades, he’d have a hard time breaking them.
No matter. He flipped onto his front and began to haul himself up the line, pulling his large frame hand-over-hand until he reached the back
of the speeding vehicle.
It was a strange land-based machine that ran on tracks rather than wheels. At its rear was a transparent panel; a window. Kail extended his claws and smashed through it. The vehicle swerved violently, but he had a good grip on the edge of the broken window, and he pulled himself through the opening head first.
His Human captors swiveled in their seats, swearing. The long bolt-gun lay in the rear of the vehicle, partly dismantled. One of the Humans—a male with a bush of black hair on his face and a smooth, bald dome of a head—raised a gun.
It was Kail’s plasma gun. The Human must have taken it from him when he was out.
Under his helm, Kail laughed mirthlessly.
Just fucking try it, Human.
As the Human fired, Kail dropped to the floor, flattening his body. There was a deafening boom as the plasma blast missed Kail by a hair and shot through the rear window. The force of the blast threw the Human back, and if not for the restraints securing him to his seat, he would have been hurled through the front window.
The Human slumped back in his seat, momentarily dazed.
Kail seized the opportunity. With his feet still bound together, he pushed himself up from the floor with a powerful thrust of his arms and in the same motion grabbed the thick restraint cord—there was now a good length of it coiled up around him—between both hands.
The Human was still trying to recover from the force of the plasma blast.
Idiot. Don’t play with toys you can’t handle.
Kail balanced on his bound feet and whipped the cord around the Human’s neck, pulling tight. The other Human, who was supposed to be operating the vehicle, lunged at him, firing blast after blast with his bolt-gun.
The handgun wasn’t as powerful as the long range rifle, and Kail simply turned his back, sustaining shot after shot as he pulled the cord tighter. The man struggled and gasped, his face turning red and then purple. Finally, he went limp and Kail kicked him away. He turned towards his other attacker.
“What the fuck do you want?” the man screamed. He tried to shoot Kail again, but his charge was empty. He searched around for a weapon and came up with one of Kail’s Callidum daggers. It was the sharp, serrated one Kail preferred for close-quarters combat.
