Adored by the Alien Assassin (Warriors of the Lathar Book 5)

by Mina Carter

  Triumph and despair wrapped around themselves in his heart. She found him attractive but thought he was a liar. And from her expression, that was not a good thing. But he was. He was a liar of the highest order. He wasn’t even human…

  Movement in the mirror opposite the window caught his attention. It was just a flicker, but it sent all his warrior’s instincts into overdrive.

  “Does the family have a…” he searched for the right word. “A male responsible for the upkeep of the grounds?”

  Jac frowned. “You mean a gardener? No, not that I’m aware of. Lizzie used to take care of it.” She flicked a sad smile at the woman on the bed. “She was doing something like that at college. Plant studies or something.”

  No gardener. He’d done his reconnaissance when he’d arrived, mapping the location of the house and its surroundings, so he knew the layout. With the older Kallson woman out, there should be no one passing by that window.

  “Does anyone else visit on a regular basis?” he checked, moving to the side slightly. He didn’t raise his voice or inject any note of urgency into it, just in case. The flicker came again in the mirror. Okay, he hadn’t imagined it the first time. That was a deliberate movement. Just to the left in the window but low down. Like someone had scooted past the window trying to remain unseen.

  “Not that I know of. Why?”

  “Commander,” Keris broke in over his internal comms. “Non-Terran life signs detected in your vicinity. Recommend immediate return to the ship.”

  “Got it. Give me numbers and locations,” he replied, ignoring Jac’s startled look.

  “Who are you talking to?” she asked, gasping as he pulled her away from the window.

  “Four Lathar,” Keris announced. “Something’s blocking me. I can’t get a read on their locations.”

  “Stay down and out of the way,” he ordered, moving swiftly to the bed Elizabeth Kallson lay on. Sliding pod activators out of his pocket, he attached them to her wrists, ankles and temples with swift movements.

  “Wh… what the hell are you doin—” she screamed as the window exploded inward, two huge figures in leather crashing through and spraying shattered glass everywhere.

  Rynn hit the activators on the unconscious girl and reached for the pulse pistol hidden beneath his ridiculous doctor’s outfit. Turning, he dropped the one on the left without blinking, but the other was on him before he could fire again. With a roar of battle-rage, he charged Rynn, eyes wild and hair flying. Rynn’s pistol went sailing, knocked out of his hand by a wild blow, and he found himself slammed into the wall behind.

  The air flickered with blue from the stasis pod as he fought back. Blocking lightning fast blows that would have broken bones on any other species, he traded them with heavy punches from his own fists. The warrior was well trained and fast, but Rynn was better.

  He was the emperor’s shadow. He’d been born better.

  “Two in the room with you,” Keris said over comms. “Two more at the front of the house.”

  His jaw set, he blocked a punch that should have left him dazed and slid up under his opponent’s guard. Moving faster than his enemy could process, he snaked an arm around the warrior’s throat and twisted, coming up behind him. A sound of panic escaped the other male’s throat as he realized the situation he was in.

  Rynn didn’t think. He gave a vicious twist, snapping the warrior’s neck in one brutal move, and dropped the body to the floor. Immediately, he lunged for his pistol on the floor by Jac’s foot.

  “Keris, get your metal-coated ass here now!” he bellowed, as the door to the bedroom exploded inward, peppered with energy-fire. “We need immediate extraction at my location!”

  He yanked Jac down with him, using the bed and the stasis field for cover. Contained within it, Elizabeth Kallson was perfectly safe. It would take more than these measly handheld weapons to even put a scratch on a stasis field, perhaps something along the lines of a planet killer. But he wasn’t worried about her.

  Elizabeth might be perfectly safe in her energy cocoon, but they weren’t. If either he or, lady forbid, Jac were hit, then… yeah, he wasn’t going to think about that. Pressing his lips together, he ducked out of cover and returned fire through the ruined doorway.

  A second after he’d ducked back into cover, energy bolts slammed into the bedside table less than a foot away from them. Jac squealed, trying to tuck herself into an even tighter ball as shards of wood peppered the air.

  “KERIS! NOW would be a good time!” he yelled, leaning out to fire again. A strangled scream and a dull thud told him he’d taken at least one of them out of commission. Grim satisfaction filled him. Three down, one to go… teach them to try and fuck up his mission.

  “…ohmygodohmygod…” Jac muttered behind him. He couldn’t reach out to reassure her. First they had to stay alive. Then he would comfort her.

  “Incoming on your location,” Keris announced. “Weapons hot.”

  “Rear of the dwelling,” he ordered, still exchanging fire with the warrior in the hallway. The walls and furniture around them both were taking heavy damage now. Human houses were not designed for this kind of combat. “Drop the ramp and be prepared for boarding. Bring the rear weaponry online to cover our retreat.”

  “Yes, Commander. Arrival in three… two… one.”

  Rynn felt more than saw the flyer arrive, the whoosh of air filling the room from outside and battering his back as the violet laser sights of the ship’s rear weapons arrays were hunting-seeking a target on the inside of the building.

  “Gogogogogo!” he ordered.

  Grabbing the stasis pod and its passenger, he pushed Jac toward the demolished window. When she faltered, he boosted her up and over with more brute strength than finesse, making sure to keep the bulk of his body between her and the warrior behind them. Plaster exploded on the walls around them as they were fired upon. Keris’ rear weapons array replied, the air cut with violet as the ship fired back.

  Then they were through the window, running toward the ship and its lowered ramp. Jac stumbled. Rynn grabbed her under the arm, half dragging and half carrying her toward the ship. When they reached the ramp, he practically threw both women up it ahead of him into the main body of the shuttle.

  “Keris, get us out of here!” he yelled, hitting the ramp on his back and turning to fire at the warrior leaping through the window in pursuit. He was a big bastard, a scar running down one side of his face and fury in his eyes as he fired back, trying to take out the flyer’s shields.

  But with a roar of her engines, Keris took flight. The Kallson house and those around it dwindled to nothing more than specks. Rynn closed his eyes, allowing his head to clunk down to the metal of the ramp for a moment as the ramp retracted into the body of the flyer.

  Draanth. That had been close. Too close.

  Her world had become a nightmare and Lizzie was a popsicle.

  Jac curled up in a ball at the back of the airplane, huddled up next to the blue tube around her charge, trying to stay as small as possible as bolts of light zipped through the air. They snuck their way through the ever-closing gap of the ramp, slamming into the metal wall by her head.

  She squeaked and tried to make herself even smaller. She’d seen what damage those things could do. They might look pretty, but they put normal bullets to shame, ripping through furniture and walls like they weren’t even there. She didn’t want to think what they’d do to the human body.

  Instead, she focused on Rynn. He lay on his back on the ramp as it was closing, firing the biggest gun she’d ever seen. He looked nothing like the doctor he’d claimed to be. His hair was loose, whipping around his face and shoulders, and his expression was grim. Jac’s eyes widened. His sweater and shirt were torn and loose over his ribcage, a smear of blood against the metal of the ramp saying he’d been hit. It didn’t seem to bother him, though. In fact, the loose clothing seemed to irritate him more. As soon as the ramp closed, he rolled to his feet with predatory grace and, with a
snarl, ripped the shirt and sweater clean off.

  Jac swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry at the display of prime male flesh right there in front of her. She’d known he was well built, but… fucking hell, he was utterly ripped. Each muscle in his torso was carved in high relief, his abs solid enough she was sure a frontier woman could have done her washing on them. Looking down, he huffed in irritation at the bloody furrows across his stomach and side.

  “Draanthic got a lucky shot,” he growled, using the ruins of his shirt to swipe at the blood.

  Jac couldn’t do anything but watch him, riveted to the spot. Then a bright violet orb appeared in front of her. It looked for all the world like an eye on a metallic stalk.

  It blinked. Jac screamed, but no sound came out.

  It was an eye. On a stalk. Right there in front of her.

  Then it talked.

  “Two females? Why do we have two females? Our mission was to recover one female.”

  The eye “turned,” rotating on its stalk to look at Rynn as he stalked through the cabin toward what looked like a front screen. As she watched, a chair rose up from the floor, unfolding and assembling itself.

  “Change of plans. Secure them both.” Rynn looked over his shoulder as he dropped into the chair. “And stop scaring her, Keris. That’s an order!”

  Jac squeaked again as the eye turned around. At the same time, metal arms shot out of the walls to wrap around the tube Lizzie was in. They tried to wrap around her as well, but she batted them away, her heart pounding fit to burst as she wriggled free.

  “Hey! This female won’t stay still,” the Keris-eye-thing shouted as Jac scuttled toward him on her hands and knees. Before the eye could send more of its demon-possessed arms after her, she jammed herself in the gap between Rynn’s chair and the wall.

  “Pleasedon’tletithurtme,” she gabbled, casting about for something she could use to defend herself. Rynn’s gun was in reach, so she grabbed for it. Barely able to hold it in both hands, she leveled it at the eye as it surged across the floor toward her.

  “Hey, calm down.” She looked up as Rynn reached a hand down and plucked the gun right out of her hands. “Keris is the ship. You shoot her and she’ll be pissed, not to mention, holes in the hull? Not good in high orbit.”

  “She? Ship? Orbit?”

  Things were moving too quickly for Jac to process. She twisted to look at the front screen, her mouth dropping open as Rynn did something, and a view of the ground filled the screen.

  “That’s Stanton,” she gasped, watching as the town rapidly got smaller, all details blurring into one as they raced higher and higher. Rynn reached out an arm, and she stood shakily, snatching her hands back as soon as she could. “That’s… Earth. Orbit… You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

  “Keris, set a course for Lathar Prime,” Rynn ordered and turned to look at Jac directly.

  Now that she knew, it seemed so obvious. Why hadn’t she seen it before? He had the same tall, well-built physique all the aliens she’d seen on the vids had, and the hair. They all seemed to have long hair. Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t have braids. And your eyes are round, like ours.”

  The corner of his lips quirked.

  “Braids can be removed. And my eyes?” He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Jac gasped.

  They were the same blue as before, but instead of round pupils like hers, his were now slitted like a cat. “Our eyes used to be the same as yours, but they were altered many generations ago to allow us to see in different planetary spectrums.”

  “Oh.” She felt dumb now. How easily she’d been fooled. Just two things and she’d assumed he was as human as she was.

  “Don’t feel bad,” he said quietly. “I’m an a… I’m an infiltration expert. This is literally what I do.”

  Chapter Seven

  Jac was scared. Any idiot could see that, and Rynn was definitely not an idiot.

  Letting Keris take care of their ascent vector, he was free to turn his attention to the human woman standing next to him. She’d been shot at and then practically thrown over his shoulder and dragged aboard an alien vessel. Anyone in their right mind would be scared to death.

  He made sure to keep still, not making any sudden movements as he tried to get a read on her mental and emotional state. From the sideways glances, though, she was far more worried about the ship’s optical extension. It was still watching them from the middle of the main cabin, its violet eye unblinking. Technically, Keris didn’t need it. It was part of the older, original ship’s systems before he’d had her refitted and internal sensors installed. When he’d asked why she still used it, she’d said she preferred it. That it felt more “natural.”

  Natural was all well and good, but not when it was scaring their guest half to death. With a firm look and a jerk of his head, he ordered her to switch to the internal sensor array. He could practically hear the sigh as the eye turned and trundled away along one of the floor tracks to disappear into its wall compartment.

  “Infiltration expert?” Jac returned her attention to him. “So you sneak onto other worlds and steal women?”

  O…kay, the sharp tongue was back. He rubbed a hand over his jaw, feeling the prickle of stubble there for a moment before answering.

  “Well, not exactly. Usually I…” he trailed off again. How the draanth did he tell her he killed people? It wasn’t an admission likely to inspire confidence, now was it? And the last thing he wanted was for her to freak out on him. Especially in an enclosed space like the Keris.

  He cleared his throat as she gave him a pointed look, obviously waiting for his response. “Usually I’m only sent if the continued existence of the target is less than desirable.”

  She frowned, her brows snapping together. “Continued existence… what does—” Her expression cleared and she folded her arms, a hard look on her face. The temperature in the cabin felt like it dropped at least ten degrees. “You kill people? So you’re an assassin?”

  “Incoming contact from the Veral’vias,” Keris announced, saving him from answering for the moment.

  “A Vias ship?” Rynn frowned as he turned to the command console. “That’s a K’Vass clan designation. Who commands it?”

  At a press of his boot against the bottom of the pilot’s chair, it automatically moved back and aside, allowing a second chair, intended for the copilot, to rise out of the floor. At the same time the command consoles reconfigured themselves, just in case.

  “Fenriis K’Vass,” the AI replied calmly, lights blinking in time on its housing in the center of the main console. “He’s hailing us. Should I reply?”

  “Who is Fenriis K’Vass?” Jac wanted to know, sliding into place in the copilot’s seat.

  She jumped a little as the harness dropped onto her shoulders, but then she reached up and grabbed the ends to strap herself in as she looked at him with interest. Rynn cut an approving glance to Keris’ housing. The AI could have strapped Jac in automatically, wrapping the harness around her body, but it hadn’t. Obviously, it had realized such an action would have scared the human woman.

  “He’s a cousin to the emperor’s sister-sons… errr, the princes,” he decoded Latharian social structure into Terran as best he could. “Tarrick K’Vass was the war commander who captured the first of your kind from your base.” Lifting his voice, he addressed Keris. “Answer his hail but voice only on our side, please. Put him on screen, though, I want to see how he reacts.”

  Keris didn’t reply, but the view on the screen in front of them changed from that of a rapidly dwindling Earth to the bridge of a Latharian war-ship. A large warrior sat, one hand rested lightly on the arm of the command chair, the other raised with his chin resting on his fingers. It was a calculated “relaxed” pose and one Rynn recognized easily. With his hand where it was, Fenriis could launch missiles in a heartbeat.

  “Latharian vessel. Identify yourself,” the big warrior ordered, his gaze implacable as he looked at the screen. Even though he couldn’t
see either Rynn or Jac, the direct look made it appear that he could.

  A hand on the console, Rynn kept their side of the feed muted to explain to Jac. “Fenriis K’Vass. The leathers say he’s an experienced warrior and the short hair without braids means that he’s a war commander. He’s past the need to count personal victories. Instead he dedicates those acts to the empire.”

  She nodded, her eyes wide. Rynn let go of the mute and spoke.

  “Xaandrynn, son of Xaandril, of the Keris’tial,” he introduced himself. “What business is it of the K’Vass?”

  There was no response on the view screen, but Rynn practically felt the intake of breath from all the warriors on the other bridge. It wasn’t often a war commander was spoken to that way, but Rynn was no ordinary warrior.

  Fenriis frowned, but Rynn easily spotted the look of surprise before he covered it. “What does the emperor’s shadow want on Earth? And why can’t I see you?”

  “That’s the emperor’s business, not yours,” Rynn replied, his tone brusque.

  “Of course.” Fenriis inclined his head, exactly as Rynn expected him to. No one argued with the emperor, not unless they wanted to explain themselves to the man himself. “Then I hope your mission was a success. However, we are receiving reports from the Terrans about Latharian ships in their airspace.” He lifted an eyebrow in query. “I am assuming that is something to do with you?”

  Shit. They’d been made. Rynn sighed. “Unfortunately, my mission met with some… resistance. There was a combat team waiting for me. Shots were fired and there was some property damage.”

  Fenriis’ expression became grim. “To interfere with a mission from the emperor is treason.”

  “Indeed.” Rynn’s hands moved easily over the console in front of him, collecting all the sensor readings and visuals Keris had recorded. “I’m sending you over a data-burst. We could have a purist incursion here already. I took care of most of the team sent after me, but you might want to offer aid to the Terrans to rout out the rest. I’d stay and sort it myself, but I have my orders direct from Daaynal himself.”