I nod and slide to the floor beside him. His skin’s clammy, I’m guessing from the poison, so I swipe the sweat from his brow and press a kiss to his forehead. The vein in his neck still pulses, and his breathing is relaxed. “Yes. Both of us. Not only is he framing me for stealing money, Elgin installed a secret camera in Henrietta and has been watching me for months. He saw the whole thing. He wants Saxon as payment for destroying her.”
“Shadowy bastards. Not on my watch. Don’t worry about the video. I can take care of that. As for the frame job, we can figure that out, too. Help me get him up.” Anya squats, grabbing Saxon’s arm and trying to hoist him over her shoulder. “Good gods, what does this guy eat? He weighs at least two-eighty,” she says, struggling.
Well, I can name one thing, but it wasn’t exactly nutritious…
Binky howls as I grab my bag and shove her inside, leaving only a small gap in the zipper at the top for her to breathe. Flipping it around so it hangs against my chest, I slide underneath Saxon’s other arm, and together we start off through the trees.
“You going to tell me where we’re going or what?” I manage through gritted teeth. She’s right, Saxon’s heavy as hell, and carrying him requires me to tense every single muscle I have, and some I didn’t even know existed. But if it keeps him safe…
“I’ve got a place near here, but if I’m going to take you there, we need to do this right. Stop here. I’m going to go back and hide our tracks. They’re always watching, Leigh. Always waiting for me to screw up. The second I do, they’ll find me.”
Right. Again with the paranoid delusions and shadow men. Usually, this is the part where I start to tune out, but this time, I’m actually paying attention. I love Anya, and she’s special in her own way, but she gets to be a little much. I mean, she poisoned my man with a blow dart for fuck’s sake. Who even uses those anymore?
Let me answer that. No one. Because it’s insane. But then again, I thought people who believed in little green men hiding on Earth were too.
Every twenty minutes, we stop, and I sag to the ground, taking a completely limp Saxon with me while Anya dashes off looking like a hillbilly Christmas tree to hide our footsteps and whatever else she thinks we need to do to keep someone from following.
He’s been in and out like he’s sweating off a fever, and he keeps mumbling in a language I’ve never heard. He’s going to be so pissed when he wakes up and realizes what’s happened.
The muscles in my neck are on fire, my mouth’s dry, and just before my legs give out, Anya gives me the signal to stop.
“All right,” she says, tightening her long-sleeved camo coat. “We’re close, this should be the last time.” With silent steps, she follows our footprints back without missing a beat, using only the moon’s silvery light to guide her.
It’s hot as hell out here. Humid too. I have no idea how she hasn’t passed out by now. I’m in nothing but the tank and shorts I managed to throw on and I swear I’m about to pass out. Saxon’s long locks are splayed out across my legs as I cradle his head. He’s growling in his sleep, like he’s fighting to wake. Every once in a while he manages to throw out an arm or leg, and I have to fight to keep hold of him.
After dousing one of the shirts I packed with water from my canteen, I dab his forehead. The hard lines of his face relax under my touch, and I stare at him. The second I heard him hit the ground, my heart sped into overdrive and I haven’t been able to calm it since. It feels like if I look away, he’ll stop breathing and I’ll lose him forever.
If I was confused at all before about my feelings, I’m not now. I don’t care if it makes sense or not, Saxon belongs with me. Everything else, I’ll figure out later. All I’ve done my entire life is try to prove to other people who I am and who I’m not. With him, I just want to be.
Using the dim light on my watch, I time his breathing again. Then his heart rate. I don’t understand why he won’t wake up. He’s been asleep now for over an hour, and the longer he stays unconscious, the darker my thoughts turn. What if he never wakes up? What if I finally found someone who makes me feel, but lose him without ever really knowing him?
Chapter Ten
Saxon
My fucking arms won’t work, nor my legs. Left to flop helplessly while my female and her strange friend bear my weight angers me more by the second. I’m created to protect her, yet this tiny human in a ridiculous forest suit dropped me on my ass in half a second.
How’d she do it? And why has my female not challenged her?
On my planet, if another female had done the same, there would be blood. And justly so. The mate bond is volatile and does not take kindly to those who seek to break it. We are raised to protect life, but even the most patient of us would seek to avenge this.
Laughter echoes in the recesses of my mind. “Perhaps, your female knew of your need for a good thrashing.”
Pavil! He wakes! Joy and relief thrum through me at the sound of my brother’s voice inside my mind, but I will not reveal it. If I speak truthfully he will never stop reminding me. Near death or not, my stubborn need to triumph over him will not yield.
“Mind your tongue, you nosey bastard, and tell me how you have awakened. I thought I would have to come down and pull you out myself.”
“Come now, brother. You cannot be that dense. I was forced awake by your instinctive cry for help. Our blood connection demanded I respond.”
“I did no such thing,” I reply. He laughs again, this time slightly louder than the last. I can feel the distance between us changing. “You are in motion…and closer to me than before.”
“Well, you cannot wake me in such a dreary place and expect me not to thoroughly explore it. My travel pod was unable to calculate the time we have been on this planet, and the exterior shows immense wear. Not to mention my inability to reach Cyfer and Ajax.
“Why would the ancients bother to send us here? The pressure in this spirit-forsaken place is nearly unbearable. You cannot even maintain a stiff cock long enough to mate. Not to mention, it’s dark and the creatures here…they are tiny. There’s no way I would fit—”
“Pavil…”
The gentle caress of my mate’s hand on my face stops, and I’m once again hoisted into her arms. As the sting of the poison lessens, I feel my strength returning, and the pull to wake grows stronger. I fight against it, letting the poison continue to ravage my veins for a few minutes more. My mate’s heart races, and the scent of her fear thickens the air, but I cannot maintain this connection with Pavil while awake.
“What? No offense to your female, Saxon. But this planet sucks. Put me back to sleep. At least there I wouldn’t feel like my brain is going to squeeze through my ears.”
“You haven’t even made it to the surface, you idiot! You have yet to see an Earth female.”
“Earth? Is that where we are? What a disappointing name for a planet.” The insufferable hint of laughter that always resides in his voice dies. “Brother, I can feel your panic. All joking aside, are you harmed?”
“Not yet. But I am being hunted.”
Pavil laughs. “Who would be dense enough to hunt a Revari male? Do these Earth beings not know of our abilities? Our brute strength?”
“They know nothing, brother. They do not travel the stars. This is not the same universe we set off in. The great blackhole threw us into a different time. An older, more primitive one.”
“You’re serious?” he asks, caution stiffening his tone. For once in his life, he’s managed to grasp the gravity of our situation without me having to hold him down and beat it into him.
“I am. Several human males have already tried and failed to capture us. Their shredded remains stain the ground, but there are others and we have little time.”
Something cool slides across my forehead, and warm, salt-filled droplets slide down my face. Tears…but they are not my own. My female…she mourns, and I cannot ignore the pull to comfort her.
“Stay alive, asshole. I am coming…” Pavil
calls out as our connection weakens. He tugs hard on the bond that connects us, that my body activated while unconscious, and it recoils, fighting against his will.
“Do not come for me. Find our travel pods first and wake the others. We will need them at full strength if we are to get the fuck out of this place without burning it to the ground.”
Leigh
Once we make it to the edge of the trees, Anya leaves me to shoulder Saxon’s weight and then scans the area with night vision goggles. “We’re clear,” she says, scurrying over to a pile of brush. Where are we?
A tiny illuminated keypad appears once she’s displaced a large branch and after entering an impossibly long code, it opens up to reveal a set of stairs.
What the…? Seriously?
As she passes through the steel entrance, a red laser scans her face.
“All right, let’s go. The drones fly overhead every four hours. By my count, that gives us less than five minutes to get him inside before they make their rounds. Hurry up. That door’s closing whether you’re inside or not.”
“Holy shit. You really are a spy,” I manage while trying to hoist Saxon off the ground. Anya watches me struggle for a second before sighing loudly. I don’t know why I’m so surprised. I guess after all the crazy stuff I’ve heard her say, I never actually considered that she could be telling the truth.
“I swear you’re single handedly going to deliver me to the United States government,” she mutters as she hurries back and curls an arm around his. “And for the record, I tried to tell you.”
My muscles tremble under the strain of Saxon’s weight, but I clench my teeth until we’ve cleared the stairs. I collapse on the floor with him as soon as the door slams shut. The sounds of heavy bolts sliding into place echo through the metal-lined walls, and Anya drops down alongside me.
“No, you didn’t! You just said a bunch of nonsense that made me think you were a crazy ole coot who’d spent too much time sniffing dirty air in the restricted zone.”
She unzips the top of her camouflage suit and slides it off her sweat drenched arms. A laugh bubbles up at the sight of her Breakfast Club t-shirt. Her thick salt and pepper eyebrows draw in. “How flattering. Here I was thinking we were friends who were mutually interested in maintaining the others’ survival.”
Ah, hell. I hurt her feelings. Good job, Leigh. Way to pay your friend back for risking her life. I pull Saxon’s sweaty palm into my lap and mindlessly rub his fingers. “I didn’t mean it like that. I appreciate your help. And I do…you know, care about your survival. After you spend all day talking to machine parts, you forget how to talk to real people. I just suck at being a friend.” I shrug, not knowing what else to say.
She stands, then pulls out a semi-automatic machine gun from the side of her camo onesie. Where the hell was she hiding that? “Yeah, so do I. Come on. We need to see how much shit we’ve stirred up.”
My legs give out when I try to lift Saxon again, and no matter how many times I try, my muscles refuse to cooperate. I’m totally prepared to curl up next to him on the floor, but Anya shakes her head and stalks away. After rolling Saxon onto one of her tarps, we slide him down a narrow hall into what she calls her command room.
Turns out her “place” is really a two-level underground shelter abandoned after the tsunami flattened that part of the island. You’d think after being left to sink back into the earth, its internal structure would be a little worse for the wear, but no. She’s got so much tech in here it’s making my head spin. I still can’t get over the fact she’s really an ex-spook.
Making sure to cover Saxon’s bare chest, I prop his head on a blanket after checking his vitals again. It’s been a little over an hour and a half, and he’s still in and out.
“Stop messing with him. He’ll be fine,” Anya mutters while pouring some water from a bottle into a bowl. Binky glares at me, still pissed about the whole shoving her inside a backpack thing, then trots over to drink.
She’s lucky I didn’t leave her furry little ass in the trees.
“I can’t help it. It’s really freaking me out. Are we good? Any more of those pricks closing in?”
A side sweeping camera view of the area surrounding the shelter pops up on the twenty screens lining her wall, and she grabs one of fifty spiral notebooks on her desk and starts to take notes. “Everything’s stable for now. Activity patterns haven’t changed. Elgin’s likely still waiting for a report of tonight’s failure. But they won’t stop coming. Men like him never do.”
Anya’s chair squeaks when she swivels toward where I’m sitting. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Stop looking like an abused puppy. If he was going to die, he’d have done it by now. If the bastard’s as smart as I think he is, he’s probably already awake, waiting for the perfect moment to hop up and slit my throat.”
My mouth drops open in shock. “You’re serious…”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” she says, shrugging her shoulders and looking strangely comfortable with the notion of someone trying to murder her.
She has a point…
I give his dick a little nudge, hopeful it’s all a façade, but I get nothing. No way he’s pretending. The last time I got anywhere near that massive thing he nearly split me in two with it.
“Nah, he’s still out and he looks terrible. Isn’t there anything you can give him? You did poison him after all…”
“It just has to run its course. You both look like hell, and you, especially, need to sleep. You sure you feel safe with him?” she asks, searching my eyes for even the slightest hint of deceit. After tucking the blanket around him once more, I meet her gaze.
“I do.” Anya narrows her eyes. “Look, I know it doesn’t make sense and I can’t explain it, but I know he won’t hurt me.”
“All right, then. I’ll set you up in the safe room…” She hesitates a moment, then clears her throat. “It’s the only place without cameras. Plus, if those assholes make it in here, I’m dead anyway. At least this way you’ll have enough rations for a few weeks and you can die on your own terms. No way anyone’s getting through those doors once they’re locked tight unless you or I want them too.”
She pads over to a metal cabinet and wrenches its rusted doors open to grab a thick black clip. “Here. You can hook this up to his finger and it will monitor his oxygen and his heart. Hit the comm button on the wall and call for me if either change significantly. Make sure not to hit anything else. That room can double as a cell, and I’d hate for you to lock yourself in.”
After placing a blanket around my shoulders, she gives them a squeeze. “It’s not like we have an alien health manual. But I’m guessing if he stays the same, he’ll wake up just fine.”
“Yeah. He has to. He will.” Now, if I could only convince my head to shut the hell up, I might actually believe it.
Chapter Eleven
Leigh
As soon as the lights turn off, I’m left with nothing but an unconscious alien lover and my thoughts and, holy shit, there are a lot of them. Let’s be real, self-reflection hasn’t ever really been my thing. I’m more of a take action and think about the consequences later kind of girl, but now with Saxon…
I worry about him. He hasn’t woken up. I’m exhausted and dirty but I can’t bring myself to sleep until I hear his voice. The thin pallet Anya rolled out for us barely blunts the hardness of the concrete floor. My hip burns, but I’m too tired to care. The last thirty-six hours have been the most intense of my life and I don’t know what to do.
Under any other circumstances, I’d run. I have a little cash put up, enough for me to pay someone under the table to leave the island, but there’s no way I could hide Saxon.
I don’t really know what passed between us the moment we met, but whatever it was changed me forever. I can’t leave him.
If you’d have asked me five years ago what was most important in my life, it would have been me. It’s a shitty thing to say, but it’s reality. My entire life I’ve felt the need to prov
e that I’m more than what everyone expected me to be. I created Henrietta. I made it to the deepest part of the ocean. And now?
The most important thing to me is him opening those fucking sunshine eyes, and the fact that he hasn’t makes my heart bleed.
Another tear falls, wetting his clammy cheek, and I rest my forehead against his. “Hey, I need you to wake up. I really suck at all this emotional shit and I need you.”
The absolute silence inside Anya’s saferoom is deafening. I want to give in and expel all the emotions twisting me into knots, but I can’t afford to fall apart. Not until he’s better. Not until he’s really with me.
The air conditioner kicks on, and a cool burst of air snakes its way through the room. A chill spreads across Saxon’s skin, so I wrap my arms around him and rest my head on his shoulder.
He’s been shirtless since Anya darted him, and I don’t want him to be cold. My breath is hot against his neck, and no matter how close I snuggle, it’s not enough.
With heavy lids, I start to drift—my mind seeking a less tempestuous reality but right as my thoughts finally fade, two words have me hurtling back to the present.
“Mu Xitall.” His voice is raw, like the mention of my name brings forth such emotion he can hardly form the sounds.
“Saxon—” Warm lips swallow my reply, and then he’s on me. I tear my mouth from his to caress his face. “Are you okay? I thought you were—oh!” I moan, writhing against the warm fingers he’s slid inside me. Crashing back against his lips, I fumble with the seamless waist of his pants, and he withdraws his fingers to pull down my shorts.
“Mine,” he mutters between harsh breaths as he bares himself.
Intertwining our fingers, Saxon slides into me with one rough thrust, and fuck, it hurts and feels so good at the same time. The twinge of soreness from our first time warms, climbing its way up my spine and hitting me hard in the chest. Tears once again burn my eyes, and with each slow stroke of Saxon’s cock, I’m held captive by an overwhelming mixture of ecstasy and gratitude that he’s safe and alive.
Saxon (Shared Survival Book 1) Page 8
