by Anna Carven
He emerged amidst the dust and rubble, ignoring the screams. Two of the Humans were incapacitated; they lay unmoving on the ground, and he wasn’t sure whether they were dead or alive.
A whisper of fresh air found its way into the confined space, tantalizing Kail with the promise of escape. A wide fissure had appeared in the wall, making him wonder what was on the other side of it.
One of the attackers raised a gun at him and fired. Kail took the blast in his chest. The sheer force of it threw him back on his haunches.
Emboldened, the shooter fired again. Kail moved, uncoiling like a spring as he rolled to the side, evading the blast. He sprang to his feet and adopted a swordfighter’s stance.
The next part came to him naturally; the moves were as natural to him as breathing.
Step. Thrust. Dodge. Feint. Slash.
He compartmentalized his pain and moved like water. He ignored the screams and the smoke and the burning pain in his chest. His claws were an extension of him, and they tore through Human flesh as easily as a finely honed Callidum blade.
The sharp, metallic tang of Human blood cut through the smoke as Kail danced past his enemies, and one-by-one, they died at his hands.
Their blood was all over him, coating his armor, his wrists, his hands.
The abhorrent nanites on his skin sucked the warm wetness into their framework. Kail ignored the strange sensation, breaking into a run as he left a trail of dead enemies in his wake. He ran back to the shattered cell, emerging from the chaos to find Riana exactly where he’d left her.
Relief washed over him.
“Kail?” Riana was awake again. She looked straight at him, but her eyes were distant and unfocused. “Where did you go?”
“Just had to sort something out.”
“Oh.” She laughed softly, closing her eyes. “I’ve never met anyone as terrifyingly capable as you.” She took a deep breath. “You smell like… you have blood on your hands…”
As her voice drifted off, she smiled. It was so incongruous. Her expression was benevolent and serene, like the face of the Goddess herself.
Ah. Now Kail understood. She was in delirium’s clutches. She probably wouldn’t remember any of this.
The woman with the intricate braids sat cross-legged at Riana’s side. Her eyes were downcast, and she was speaking softly.
“Get out of the way, Human.”
She looked at him warily before placing a hand on Riana’s forehead. Kail tensed, but the woman just continued to murmur, closing her eyes briefly.
Was this prayer, or sorcery?
Whatever it was, it seemed to ground her, because when she looked up again, her fear had been burned away. She said something to Kail in another language, her words heavy with conviction.
He stared at her, trying to comprehend her intentions. It was impossible. Distant shouts filtered through him and Kail moved forward, breaking the trance-like moment. The Human seemed to realize it too, because her composure shattered, and once again she was just a frightened prisoner. She scurried backwards into the corner as Kail bent down and lifted Riana into his arms.
She moaned in pain but didn’t open her eyes. Kail tried his best to be gentle, but he feared he would accidentally crush some part of her.
“Get out while you can,” he said to the prisoner, even though he was certain she couldn’t understand him. He nodded towards the smashed window. “You probably won’t get another chance.”
If she was a survivor, she would figure it out.
Kail turned and stepped across the threshold, not bothering to look back. He headed for the crack in the wall, running through the smoke and debris until he was standing amidst a pile of bodies.
He didn’t want to put Riana down here of all places, but he had no choice. So he propped her up against a relatively clean section of wall and set to work.
In this case, that involved smashing his armored fist against the fissure in the wall until it widened and eventually split open. Chunks of rock fell away to reveal a dark, cavernous space. A tunnel. Water was dripping from somewhere. The smell of decay mingled with the fresh desert air.
Kail grabbed Riana and ran, leaving death and destruction in his wake.
Chapter Seventeen
Riana was in a strange room. It was daytime; morning perhaps, judging by the distant birdsong and the faint chill in the air. She was lying on a soft bed, her body covered only by a thin sheet. Sheer white curtains billowed around an open window, floating on the gentle breeze.
The walls were pale pastel green. The unusual color lent a sublime air of tranquility to the room; it was oddly charming and quaint, even though the aging paint was chipped and flaking in places. Ornately patterned tiles decorated the lower border of the walls.
This was the kind of place one only saw in ancient video-footage. It was completely devoid of any modern decor or appliances. Riana was stuck in a surreal time warp.
Where the hell am I? What happened?
Was this a dream, or had she somehow died and gone to the afterlife?
Fragments of memories swirled through her mind like pieces of driftwood caught in an ocean current.
Last night had been chaos.
She remembered the feel of Kail’s armored body against hers, his arms curled protectively around her. He’d been solid and unwavering and he’d carried her as if she’d weighed nothing. The faint, coppery tang of blood clung to him, a sinister reminder that he was no noble savior.
He’d probably killed a bunch of people to get her out of there.
Strangely, the scent of blood had cut right through her fever and nausea, providing her with a moment of respite amidst the confusion and chaos.
They’d moved fast underneath blinding white lights. Despite his size, Kail could run like the wind, and his footsteps had been swift and light, almost as if he were hovering above the ground.
The rhythm of his footsteps had lulled her to sleep again, even as sickness raged through her body.
He’d put her down at one point; she remembered the welcome coolness of hard concrete at her back and the sounds of vicious fighting drifting to her from down the corridor.
The screams of men had risen to a horrifying crescendo.
Her body had been on fire. She’d dreamed of being embraced by the icy winter. Her fever had raged like an inferno; it had burned her up from inside, threatening to consume her.
At some point, Kail returned. He lifted her into his arms with impossible ease. She tried to open her eyes, but fatigue held her in its viscous, tar-like clutches. She tried to speak, but her throat was a parched wasteland.
They started to move again. The rocking motion and Kail’s unwavering warmth lulled her into oblivion.
Then, darkness. Nothingness.
Her next memory had been of the cold night air hitting her in the face. Kail had whispered something to her, but his mysterious Kordolian words had been stolen by the wind.
They’d moved swiftly amongst the outskirts of civilization. She’d opened her eyes briefly and seen the faint glow of streetlights. They’d cut a winding path, avoiding the occasional bot-car and pausing now and then as Kail decided where to run.
Riana had no idea how the hell he knew where he was going. At one point, she thought he’d been speaking to someone in Kordolian, his voice low and controlled.
On another occasion, he’d stopped in a narrow alley and Riana had regained consciousness long enough to open her eyes and stare into his enigmatic face. Then her stomach had violently protested and she’d vomited, wrenching forward as she retched all over the ground.
To her utter surprise, Kail had reached down and used the corner of her shirt to gently wipe her face. “Stay with me,” he said, his deep voice cutting through her delirium.
Ah, such unexpected softness wrapped up in such a hard, uncompromising exterior.
What the hell?
Had that really happened, or had it all been some crazy dream?
She blinked and sat up, wrin
kling her nose at the smell of her own sweat and sickness. A strange sensation in her hand alerted her to the fact that a line had been inserted beneath her skin. A half-empty bag of intravenous fluid hung at her bedside, infusing clear liquid into her body.
As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, her world spun and her vision dimmed.
Then everything snapped back into focus, and she gasped.
One side of the room was shrouded in shadow. It was as if night and day were suddenly allowed to co-exist in a tiny space. Beyond the shadows, a pair of piercing golden eyes stared back at her.
Kail. You’re not a dream. You’re very, very real, and all that stuff really happened, didn’t it?
His hard, chiseled features were half-hidden in darkness. The raised markings on his face seemed to come to life, giving him a second visage. If she stared long enough, she might see a demonic creature looking back at her.
There was a stillness about him that reminded her of an icy lake in winter. How long had he been sitting there? And why was her heart hammering so fiercely, as if it were about to explode out of her chest?
Riana opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her throat was sore and dry, and she couldn’t think of what to say to this otherworldly being, who sat so still he could have been carved from shimmering silver stone.
She was alone and half-naked in a room with a rather scary Kordolian warrior who had just broken her out of a Federation detainment facility.
Forget about the assassins. She was in deep, deep shit. She would never be allowed to walk freely in the Federation again.
Riana shifted uncomfortably and the thin fabric covering her torso fell away, revealing one of her taut breasts.
“Fuck,” Riana swore, realizing she was stark naked underneath the sheet. Even her underwear was gone. Panicking, she scrambled to cover her assets as heat rose in her cheeks. “Please tell me you did not just see that.”
Kail’s gaze intensified, slivers of deep brown appearing in his golden irises. “And if I did?”
The sound of his voice sent a tiny shiver down her back. “Well, that would be a bit awkward now, wouldn’t it?”
“Would it?” He raised one eyebrow ever so slightly, regarding her with a cryptic expression.
“Are you…” messing with me right now? She swallowed the second half of her sentence, settling on a breathless little sigh. She couldn’t read this alien. He was ice-cold, and yet she suspected something deep inside him ran hot.
But maybe that was just her overloaded mind playing tricks on her.
“Kail,” she said slowly, summoning the last of her frayed composure, “where the hell am I, and what are we doing here?”
“You are alive,” the Kordolian replied, his face as impassive as ever. “That is all that matters, is it not?”
Chapter Eighteen
You have no idea what you have done, Human, Kail thought as he studied Riana. At long last, she had woken up. You have no idea what I have done on your behalf, and I intend to keep it that way.
He’d given his blood for her. She would never understand the true significance of that gesture.
Her deep brown eyes were wide with confusion, accentuating her elegant high cheekbones and heart-shaped face. Her cheeks were a little more gaunt than he remembered, but despite the fact that she’d spent days at death’s door, she looked remarkably bright.
“You are in a safe house,” he explained. It was safe because he’d made it that way—with Arin’s help. Rykal’s mate had discreetly followed them to the containment facility, and she’d caught up with Kail after he broke out.
The owners had been quick to understand that his threats weren’t to be taken lightly. They were simple, uneducated Earth people who hadn’t even known what a Kordolian was, but they’d learned fast enough, accommodating him without protest after he’d made his intentions very clear. “You were extremely ill. The substance they infected you with was toxic to your kind.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He was very careful not to let the sunlight touch his face.
His silver skin was vulnerable to bright rays of the cursed sun.
In contrast, Riana glowed. The morning sunlight wrapped her in a glowing halo, burnishing her golden brown skin.
She was a true light-dweller, and he had no reason to study her in such great detail, but he did so anyway, just because he could.
“Ho-how long was I out?” She was still adjusting to her new reality.
“Three of your Earth revolutions.”
“You mean three days?”
Kail nodded. “As I said, you were unwell.”
She muttered something under her breath. Kail stared at her lips and traced the delicate curve of her chin and jaw with his eyes, momentarily transfixed. She didn’t know it, but for the past three days, he’d watched her intensely as she drifted in and out of consciousness, hovering close to death.
He’d become intimately acquainted with her, memorizing every expression, every feature, every Human quirk. Where Kordolians were all lean muscle and sharp angles, she was rounded, shapely perfection, soft and lush and inviting. Perhaps Humans were designed to have a certain softness about them. Perhaps it was part of their allure. Unbeknownst to Riana, she’d become a secret, irrational obsession of his. He, who had denied himself every pleasure in the Universe, had finally succumbed to visual temptation.
Now she self-consciously clutched the flimsy sheet to her chest, trying to cover what he’d already seen, what he’d already appreciated.
The fabric did little to conceal the swell of her generous breasts. Her dark nipples were taut and prominent underneath the gauzy sheet. His gaze traveled downwards, seeking her body, but it was hidden beneath swathes of white linen.
Somehow, she demanded his attention with her eyes, drawing his gaze to hers. A flush of deep color spread across her cheeks, and her eyes narrowed as her irritation sparked. She opened her mouth to speak, but Kail got there first.
“Riana,” he said slowly, purposely removing any inflection from his voice. She couldn’t know what he was thinking. “Someone wants you dead. Why?” Kail wasn’t stupid. The Humans had gone to remarkable lengths to try and make her death look natural.
“I-I don’t—” Her automatic reaction was to try and evade the truth, but Kail was having none of it.
“Don’t ever lie to me, Riana. I can always tell a lie from truth.”
A trace of fear flitted across her face but it was quickly concealed. She regarded him quietly for what seemed like an eternity, reminding Kail of a wild creature that was trying to decide whether she should trust him or flee.
“Do you think I would have gone to such lengths to save you if I intended to harm you?” A hint of annoyance crept into his voice. “At the very least, you owe me an explanation.”
She shifted uncomfortably, looking over his shoulder. “I’ll tell you everything,” she said, placing a hand over her stomach. Moments later, a loud rumble emanated from her belly. Her features twisted into an expression of wry embarrassment. “But first, is there any chance there might be food in this place? I’m fucking starving.”
“Ah.” He should have thought of that, but he wasn’t used to looking after others. “I will attend to that, and then you will explain everything.”
“I don’t suppose I have much of a choice, do I?”
“No,” he said softly. “You don’t.”
“You had a choice, though. You could have left me to die back there. I still don’t understand what compelled you to save me, but thank you.” A hint of a smile danced across her face, threatening to break. “You’re… impossible. The fact that I’m still alive is impossible.” She looked straight at him, her brows raised, her dark brown eyes wide. Her gaze was clear and open, and the fear he’d detected earlier was gone, replaced with a quiet kind of triumph.
Something in Kail melted a little bit then, like an ancient glacier succumbing to the inevitable march of time and nature.
Ch
apter Nineteen
After Kail left to rustle up something for her to eat—a miracle in itself considering this was Kail, the hard-ass of all hard-asses—Riana spied a bathroom through a half-open doorway. Tempted by the promise of cleanliness, she made her way across the room, ignoring the lingering pain in her ankle.
Right now, she felt like something dead had crawled all over her. She was coated in the filth of sickness and captivity, and she wanted nothing more than to wash it all away.
As she stood in the doorway, a warm, sentimental feeling came over her, buffeted by intense relief. Somehow, she was here, and she was safe.
This house, wherever the hell it was, was quaint and old-fashioned. The bathroom was a small but magnificently tiled affair. Even though the tiles were chipped and missing in places, she could still appreciate the detail that had gone into its design, from the intricately patterned blue tiles to the tarnished brass tapware.
It was as if she’d stepped hundreds of years back in time.
How the hell had he found this place?
Riana ran the bath. There was no hot water, but there was a bar of rose scented soap and a neat pile of clean but threadbare towels. After days of being sick and after being trapped in those horrible Federation cells, just having clean water and soap seemed like pure luxury.
She was in a strange house with a strange alien who was probably hiding more secrets than her behind his stoic facade, and she felt safer than ever.
Riana dropped the sheet, revealing her naked body.
Damn. She’d been naked under the sheets this entire time. How long had Kail been with her? Who had undressed her in the first place?
For the past few days, she’d been utterly helpless, and at the complete mercy of a ruthless killer.
Riana shuddered. What the hell had she gotten herself into?
She dipped her toe into the water and found it refreshingly cool. Slowly, she lowered herself into the bath, taking a moment to dip her head beneath the water.
Then she used the fragrant bar of soap, working up a heady rose-scented lather.
