by Anna Carven
“Wh-what is she to you?”
Good question. Kail leaned in, baring his fangs. “She is the Human I’ve been assigned to protect.” He left the obvious unspoken; if anything had happened to her, he would be very, very upset.
The Human turned an even paler shade of white. “Why would she be under your protection? Your kind have no alliances with us.”
Kail inclined his head, raising an eyebrow. Stupid questions didn’t deserve answers. He raised his arm and the man flinched. Fear was etched onto his face.
“She’s in there,” he said quietly, nodding towards a doorway. “If you let me go, I’ll order the guards to stand down. You can take her. We won’t stop you…” A wily look came into his eyes, overriding the fear. “Just let me go and I’ll make sure you get out of here.”
The cunning ones always tried to resort to bargaining.
Survival by any means necessary.
That was the general rule of the Universe, and it obviously applied on Earth as much as it did in the other sectors.
Kail silently contemplated the man’s death as he weighed up his options. After a long pause, he unsheathed a knife he’d stolen from one of the guards and pressed it against the Human’s neck. “Come,” he said, pushing the man in front of him. At first there was a hint of resistance, but the Human quickly caved as Kail applied a little more pressure, drawing a sliver of blood.
They started to walk.
“Let me go,” the Human insisted. “I promise you, I’ll-”
“You are irritating,” Kail grated. “Move.”
The Human wisely shut his mouth as they made their way across to the doorway. A communication piece in his ear buzzed, and Kail’s sensitive hearing picked up snatches of indecipherable Earth language.
“Ignore them. Open it.”
The distant sound of many footsteps and desperate shouts filtered through to him. They were still far away, but they were coming.
The man put his hand to the door-panel and the doors slid open.
As they entered the room; no, it was more like a cell, the smell of sickness hit Kail in the face. A low groan caught his attention.
He turned and saw Riana curled up on a makeshift bed. Her eyes were closed, and her wild hair covered her eyes. Her mouth was clenched in a tight line, betraying her pain.
Sudden rage flared in Kail, as hot and chaotic and frantic as the dust storm he’d encountered in the way in.
“What have you done to her?” he demanded, barely recognizing the sound of his own voice. It was thick with anger.
He never got like this, ever. Kail was always in control. He always saw things clearly; he was always able to detach himself from the situation and analyze things in a logical manner.
But now a monster consumed him, stripping him of all rational thought.
“Sh-she’s sick,” the Human Enforcer blurted, trying to buy time. “We tried to save her, but-”
He was lying. Kail knew it without a doubt, and he was sick to death of this creature’s feeble attempts to appease him.
He spun around, grabbing the Human by the shoulder and throwing him back against the wall. “Don’t lie to me,” he snarled, thoughts of death running through his mind. “You did this to her, didn’t you?”
The look in the man’s eyes was all Kail needed. There was no remorse there, only fear and acknowledgement. It whipped Kail’s towering anger into a wild, frenzied inferno. He raised the knife…
And felt a gentle touch on his back.
The wind stoking his rage was sucked back into a vortex, and for a moment, everything slowed down and became calm.
“Kail, don’t…”
It was her. Her plea was weak and her breathing was labored, but the sound of her voice was unmistakable. Kail turned and found Riana behind him, barely able to stand. She swayed on her feet, her legs threatening to give way beneath her.
“Don’t kill him,” she whispered. “Not over this. Not over me. Just take me out of here, please.” Her eyes were a compelling mixture of desperation and trust. He got the sense she was using all of her willpower to stay on her feet, to stay conscious just a little bit longer. “Get me out of here, Kail.”
And with that, she closed her eyes and slumped forward. Kail caught her as she collapsed against him.
Shit. Kail grabbed her by the shoulders, curling one arm around her waist. She collapsed into him, her body soft and pliant. He could hear her heartbeat; it was thin and rapid. Her face glistened with a faint sheen of moisture, and she radiated heat.
She was so light and frail and Human, and he didn’t quite know what to do with her.
He, the quintessential lone warrior, was now charged with protecting this vulnerable creature. He held her around her waist, studying her face. Her eyelids fluttered and her breath came in short, shallow gasps.
Something wasn’t right. She didn’t look right. Her body was failing. He pressed a hand to her forehead. She was hot and cold at the same time.
A puddle of foul smelling liquid stained the floor; he assumed this was her gastric contents, expelled from her body in response to her illness.
He, who didn’t know the meaning of sickness, who was invulnerable to almost everything, held Riana’s fate in his hands.
Well, this was different.
There was a skitter of movement behind him. The Enforcer was scrambling to his feet. Kail turned, raising his knife with his free hand. “Don’t even think about it,” he said darkly as his anger returned, hot and swift and dangerous. “The only thing keeping this blade from entering your thick skull is her request, and I might yet change my mind. Do not tempt me.”
“I wasn’t going to do anyth—”
With one side of his body, Kail gently cradled Riana, not liking the way she felt so limp and lifeless against him. The other half of him was moving, threatening, preparing for a fight. With a sharp flick of his wrist, Kail threw the useless metal dagger at the Human. It hit the hard wall point-first beside the man’s head and clattered to the ground. Unlike Callidum, the inferior metal blade couldn’t even penetrate stone walls.
A small indent was left merely a finger’s breadth from the man’s face. If Kail really wanted to, he could have skewered the man’s eyeball.
The Human swore, yelling loudly in some strange Earth tongue. He was shaking.
“What is wrong with her?” Kail demanded. “Why is she like this?”
“She’s sick. MREP. Multi-Resistant Enteropathogenic Poisoning.”
“Speak clearly, Human.” Kail didn’t quite understand Human biology, but he had witnessed illness amongst many alien species, and even his own kind. If there was a cause, there was usually a remedy. “How can she be cured?”
“There’s no cure for what she has. It’s a resistant pathogen.”
This time, the man wasn’t lying.
“You intended for her to die?”
The look in the Enforcer’s eyes told him as much. Kail’s innate sense of truth and falsehood had never failed him, and now he clearly saw the man’s intent. A familiar electric ripple ran across the scars on his face and neck and back.
Kail’s anger surged. His usual icy control had been shattered, and his thoughts swirled chaotically. He couldn’t plan a logical course of action, because the situation had surpassed all logic.
There had to be something he could do. Kail wasn’t about to let her life slip through his grasp by doing nothing. That possibility infuriated him; he could not accept it.
For all his strength, he suddenly felt powerless, and he hated it.
Was this what it was like to be Human? To constantly live with the knowledge that one’s fragile existence could be extinguished at any moment?
Kail had never thought much about concepts such as mortality, and right now he was determined to stop death from claiming his precious charge. “How do I help her? Give me an answer I can work with.”
The Human shook his head, a mixture of fear and disbelief crossing his face. “She’s got no c
hoice but to ride the illness out. She might survive with enough fluids and supportive care. Some do, but it’s rare.”
Kail’s hand tightened around the grip of his gun. “You weren’t planning on treating her, were you?” The lack of obvious medical equipment in the room told him as much. “You intended for her to die.” This time, it wasn’t a question but a pronouncement, a sentence.
“I didn’t—”
Kail didn’t waste any more time. He detested liars and cheats. He raised his hand in a smooth, swift motion and shot the man in the head. The Human crumpled to the ground, dead.
Riana twitched in his arms but didn’t stir. A sliver of unfamiliar emotion rose within him as he studied her face. What was this feeling? She’d asked him not to kill the Human, but he’d given in to his anger and his instincts and shot the asshole anyway.
Caught in a rare moment of self-doubt, Kail stiffened. Was he actually feeling a trace of guilt because of this strange and fragile creature?
A sigh escaped his lips. What else was he, a highly trained killer, supposed to do? The bastard had tried to kill Riana, and to Kail, that was unforgivable.
As if she’d heard his innermost thoughts, Riana stirred, a painful moan escaping her. Her dark lips, usually lush and moist, were now dry and cracked. Kail holstered his gun and gently lifted her into his arms. The footsteps he’d heard from afar were definitely closer now; he’d have to be swift to evade the oncoming attackers.
It wasn’t in Kail’s nature to run, but this time he would make an exception, because he couldn’t let any more harm come to her.
Chapter Sixteen
They couldn’t outrun him. He’d already decimated their ranks, and Kail could hear them well before they reached him. He could hear everything in those cursed corridors; the noise echoed loudly off the strangely shaped walls. Clearly, Humans didn’t know how to design their structures to limit noise and light. Kail was in sensory overload.
Together with the incessant wail of the warning siren, the echoing noises created a head-splitting cacophony.
He turned, and turned, and turned again, avoiding corridors that had been walled off by emergency doors. He backtracked, passing cells and interrogation rooms.
This was proving to be more difficult than he’d anticipated. He was nearly invincible, but a single shot could end Riana.
Gods, what a curse it was to be Human.
After running around in circles like a fucking headless gaggari beast for what seemed like an eternity, his frustration was spilling over.
Patience, fool. He couldn’t afford to lose control now. He never lost control.
Kail rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a crew of Human enforcers.
“Surrender, alien!” One of them had a voice-amplifying device. It made his shouts unbearably loud; pain lanced through his ears. “Give up the prisoner and surrender, or we’ll be forced to shoot!” The Human’s voice grew more shrill with every word. Although they were the ones holding the guns, Kail sensed a shred of uncertainty in those words.
They raised their weapons. Two of the enforcers dropped to their knees. The remaining three stood, their bolt-guns aimed directly at Riana and Kail.
They were about to unleash a barrage of energy on both of them. Kail’s anger rose. They obviously didn’t care about preserving her life.
And if he didn’t do something right now, she was going to die.
Think.
He wanted to run headlong into their little group and tear their puny weapons from their hands before tearing their heads from their necks, but that wasn’t an option right now. So instead, Kail gritted his teeth and turned.
Once again, he ran away, his broad back shielding Riana from any potential bolt-blasts. He took the hits, each shot pounding him in the back and tearing through to the front of his chest. His ribcage felt as if it were about to shatter into a thousand pieces. The breath was stolen from his lungs. He hadn’t felt this kind of pain in a long, long time.
Kail didn’t usually allow himself to get hit, but he could take it. His training had equipped him to handle much worse. He separated the pain from the now and stored it away in a walled-off part of his mind.
“Stop!” They fired, and a series of blasts hit his armored back. Kail pulled Riana into him, making sure no part of her body was exposed.
Each shot slammed into him like a brutal punch, threatening to send him to his knees. But Kail had endured worse at the hands of his sparring partners, so he pumped his legs, moving faster, pushing onwards.
Just move. As long as he ran, she was safe.
The distance between them widened as Kail’s long strides ate up the distance. He turned another corner and saw a room bordered by a large pane of darkened glass. Without hesitating, Kail ran towards the glass, suspending Riana in one arm. With his other arm outstretched, he smashed into the glass, his fist hitting the dark surface with great force. The window splintered, but didn’t shatter.
Sparks flew and slivers of electricity crawled along the cracked surface. Then, whatever was darkening the glass blinked out. The panel turned clear, revealing a dark cell on the other side. There was someone inside; a Human female dressed in flowing dark blue garments. Her hair was intricately braided in a style that reminded Kail of the Aikun people of his homeland, and like most of the desert people he’d encountered, her skin was a deep shade of brown.
She whispered something unintelligible in her Human tongue. Her black-rimmed eyes were wide with fear.
Boom, boom. Kail punched again and again, tearing a hole through the reinforced glass. The Human scrambled into one corner, shielding her face with her arms as shards of glass went everywhere. He grabbed one edge of the hole and pulled. The cursed thing came apart, bits of glass and meshwork and fine silver wires falling to the floor.
Kail pulled Riana tightly against him, shielding her. Then he turned and slammed his back into the partly shattered glass. The sheer force of his action caused the hole to widen, and he fell through to the other side with Riana safely cocooned in his arms.
He lay her gently on the floor as he righted himself. She barely stirred; her golden-brown skin, which usually glowed, had turned wan and clammy. Her breathing was rapid and shallow.
Kail looked up. The cell’s occupant was staring at him with naked terror and disbelief written across her face.
Perhaps she hadn’t seen one of his kind before.
“I need to leave her here for a while. If you do anything to her, I’ll kill you.” He didn’t know whether she could understand him, but his tone voice conveyed his intent.
The woman showed him her bare palms and shook her head slowly, muttering something in Human-speak. Kail knew that look. She understood. She wouldn’t do anything to Riana, because she was too spooked to try anything stupid.
He turned and jumped back through the broken window. Riana was now hidden from sight, shielded by a low section of wall.
I’ll make this quick.
His pursuers were right behind him.
Kail ducked as a hail of gunfire greeted him. Searing blasts of energy flew over his head, destroying the remains of the shattered window.
Divert their attention. He had to get them away from Riana.
He ran around a corner and into a corridor that was sealed at one end by large metal doors. It was a dead end.
Snippets of conversation filtered through to him, a combination of Earth-speak and Universal.
“He’s gone down there. Quick, get after him! The emergency firelock’s in place. He’s not going anywhere.”
“I’ve called for backup. Zero Squad’s on the way. They’ve got explosives.”
“Finally. I was starting to wonder what it would take to kill this fucking monster. Please don’t tell me all Kordolians are this hard to kill.”
“Hey, the bomb-kitty’s here. Out of the way.”
A small, primitive-looking robot appeared in his line of sight, gliding on rotating tracks. It raised a spindly metal arm, using so
me sort of sensor-device to track Kail. He stared back at the blinking green light for a fraction of a heartbeat.
What is it? Doesn’t matter. Destroy it.
He started to run forward.
A long tubular device rose from the machine’s dull metal body. It looked like a projectile launcher of some sort.
Destroy it.
The green light changed to red. A metallic whirring sound escaped from the machine. Kail ran towards it, zeroing in on the launcher. He faced a dilemma. If he tried to kick, smash, or impale the robot, it would probably explode in his face.
It wouldn’t kill him, but it might temporarily incapacitate him long enough for them to get to Riana.
That wouldn’t do.
Unless…
Think.
His enemies were close. His ears told him they were just around the corner now, well past the cell where Riana was hidden. But instead of ambushing him, they’d taken cover behind the wall.
They thought they had him cornered.
Kail grit his teeth. Everything seemed to slow down and come into sharp relief as he accelerated, grabbing the machine by its rotating metal arm. He yanked the machine backwards, dragging it down the corridor. A metallic shriek of protest escaped it. Gathering momentum, Kail pulled, swinging the robot through the air. The red light was blinking like crazy now. The launcher tracked across and locked on his face. It had engaged. It was about to fire its load.
Kail let go, releasing the robot into mid-air. His actions looked crude, but he’d timed this very precisely. The machine completed its arc and flew around the corner. The explosive shot out of its launcher, zig-zagging through the air and careening off in the opposite direction.
“What the fu—”
Kail turned and ducked as the bomb-robot landed amongst the Humans. A deafening explosion rocked the walls, followed by screams of agony.
Smoke filled the narrow space. Kail rose to his feet and stalked through the haze, unsheathing his claws.
Kordolian claws weren’t hard enough to penetrate metal on their own, but when they were coated with a thin skin of Callidum-infused black nanites, they could be surprisingly effective.
