She was back there.
“Be still. I promise you, I’ll return you when the battle is over. She’ll be safe. You’re needed.”
In a situation like this, his duty was to his soldier brothers. The call of a pet to her Master was considered far less important. Then why did he feel like he was still attached to her? Like leaving her there was about to tear him in two? He was so very warped. He should trust Dassenze. An Ascend’s word was sacrosanct, surely? But he’d always wondered if they could lie. Would a god lie if he saw a greater good in it?
There was still nothing he could do. To his surprise, they headed skywards, higher. The last he’d seen of it, their ship had submerged and burrowed beneath the lake beside their accommodation. Had it moved?
A blue monolith appeared above, fading in and out like mist until they approached closer. A few last clods of mud and weeds broke away from the edge of a turret and tumbled toward the distant city.
They landed on the topward hull and the Ascend deposited him on his feet while still running. At the sudden stop, he staggered and recovered.
The Doomslagger, transport, Midget-class attack ship, and general all-round dogs-body of the Preyfinders had indeed moved.
“Why am I needed here?” he asked as they advanced into the hiss and hum of an entrance hatch. The hatch sealed behind them and Dassenze turned.
“You’re one of only three men on this planet trained and capable of wearing full mech ceram armor. We have a Bak-lal down there somewhere. The ship will deal with that, if it reveals itself. If it spits out an army, we need you.
He bit back his first response. Why the kak don’t you kill them yourself? Blasphemy. No one knew the reasons of the gods. He bowed deeply. “I am yours, Ascend.”
“Of course you are. Come.” The inner door slid open.
Yours unless Brittany gets hurt.
He snorted. Now that really was blasphemy.
Why did he want her so much? It was excruciating. He put his hand over his stomach. He was going to vomit if this kept up.
Chapter 8
Brittany managed to rise to her knees. She wiped her mouth, struggling to adjust to this whole disgusting feeling of throbbing headache, burning skin, especially her face, and yeah, she was going to be sick in a minute.
The rug was hurting her knees too.
“Oh.” She looked down at herself. Naked. Then she looked around at the three alien guys with guns and shit surrounding her. Not that they were bothering her. One was peering out through the curtains. One was listening to nothing and staring at nothing too. One, a really ginormous one, was heading back to her front entrance.
“Clothes?” she asked softly, and covered her breasts with one arm. “Damn.” They weren’t paying attention, at all. She almost felt neglected.
“Acknowledged,” the staring at nothing one said. Brask. Jadd had called him Brask. “Keyner!”
The one at the curtain nodded in recognition.
“Stay here. Guard her with your life. Gribb, come with me. We’ve got three of the killer clones coming up the stairs.” Brask was running to the front door as he spoke. “We knock them down until they stay down. Don’t worry about locals. Mindblanks and media cleansing will come after.”
“Got it, Brask.” Gribb, the big one, smirked nastily. He looked like he could knock down enemies by just stomping on them. If he nodded, he’d take out her ceiling fan. “They’re going to be kak. Sir.”
At a thump on her door, Gribb, shot down her hallway with his stubby, bristly black weapon. The boom rattled her windows and flame flared back into the room for a second. Dammit. There went her door. Then he and Brask ran off and, from the sound of it, kicked open whatever was left of her door then shot at something or someone else.
“Crap. I needed that door.” Unexpected tears prickled her eyes.
Where was Jadd? The yearning jerked at her. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand then clambered to her feet, feeling dizzy, and headed for her bedroom.
“Where you going?” Keyner held out a hand to her. “Stay. I can’t guard you if you –”
Above the crack and shakalakka of firearms in the corridors outside, some small sound caught her attention. She swiveled. A blood-smeared hand appeared on the curtain behind Keyner. Then, like magic, a knife appeared thrusting out of his neck. The man opened his mouth, gasping, face contorted in agony. He flipped his weapon as if to fire backward but before he could do it, the knife crunched sideways and half severed his head from his body.
His last action – he flung his gun toward her. The metal spun and skidded crazily across the floor to stop just before her toe. As he crumpled, Brittany kneeled to grab the gun but overbalanced and fell backward onto her heels.
She had no idea how to fire it.
The man with the knife was the one Jadd had thrown over the railing. He leaped into the room. He should be dead but he crouched before her, eyes scintillating with menace, clothes torn, hands bloody. Head bloody. Strands of clotted red strung across his face. Yet he seemed whole…except for the branch projecting through one eye.
“Fuck,” she whispered. It looked like the branch had grown there.
As he dragged himself across the floor toward her, he twirled his slender knife.
Popstar burst into the room, growling, and headed for the man’s leg.
“No!” She threw out her arm, gesturing wildly as she tried to right herself and bring the heavy gun to bear. Frantic, she stared at its length. Which way up? Which fucking way did she point it?
Hell if she knew. She aimed, prayed she wasn’t shooting herself, and pressed…things.
The hand with the knife, chopped down at Popstar. Snarling like a demented Rottweiler twice his size, the fluffy ball of dog sank his teeth into ankle flesh.
Chapter 9
Nude, Jadd waited for the armorer, Rikk, to equip him with the ceram mech suit. Applying it took several stages and they had no armor bots here. Earth was a backwater planet and as such had few defenses prepared against the Bak-lal. While he waited, he watched the huge overhead display that showed the core command deck.
How had the enemy snuck in? Dassenze stepped into the room. The door purred shut behind him.
“How’d they find Earth, Lord?”
Rikk slapped on the last of the sensor pads. “Don’t move unless you want to lose a nipple.”
He grunted at the man then eyed the Ascend who’d halted below the flashing display.
“We don’t know. It happened centuries ago from the developmental stage of the Bak-lal clones. A queen or two may have been trapped here for some time. Damaged or they’d have escaped by now.”
“Lord.” He swallowed. “Why must my pet remain down there?”
For once he received full attention. Dassenze cranked a scaled eyebrow higher. “There was an event recorded that centered on her building. Something unusual that I cannot decipher. Nevertheless I believe the Bak-lal desire her. They want her for something.”
“She’s your bait?” His voice shook with suppressed fury. “Your bait?” Calm it down. Calm.
Dassenze looked away. “Be serene, Jadd. I promised she would be protected but I need her there to draw out the factory queen. I am sure she is here somewhere.”
A map appeared in one corner of the screen. It expanded to show the streets near Brittany’s apartment. The four-, five-, and ten-story buildings looked like toy blocks when looked down upon. A puff of smoke crept up the side of one building then a metal leg, as long as the building was wide, surged from the concrete foundations, appearing and disappearing in the drifting smoke.
The roads were disrupted, holes torn in the surface. Vehicles vanished into chasms.
“We have it,” rumbled Dassenze. “Prepare the two armored brothers for launch. Target minor beasts. Destroy that Bak-lal factory, please.”
On the screen, an inserted image of a man on the command deck popped out. He raised a hand and nodded.
Ceram sections whined and clicked as th
e armorer fitted them to him. Each piece then automatically clutched the next piece and locked it down. He was being constructed. The process was rapid from here on.
But he couldn’t stop watching what played out below them. The screen fuzzed for a second then cleared.
More of the metal being crawled up from the mounding earth. Concrete slabs slid from its rumpled, grey and red, spiny back. Smaller things ran over the back like baby spiders clinging to momma. They climbed and jumped to the ground, skittering away.
He’d seen many battle recordings of these things but knowing it was a kilometer below him, and almost on top of where Brittany lived, chilled him to the bone.
Under his boots, the ship shuddered. From the lower left of the screen, blue-white gouts of energy tore earthward then smaller gouts peeled off and headed sideways in spinning blue arcs.
Jadd held his breath as the main energy pulses detonated on the Bak-lal factory queen. Mirror-brightness swamped the display before definition returned. Fragments of the destroyed factory queen hurtled into the air and ricocheted off neighboring buildings. A chunk of the side of a secondary building crumpled and toppled. More energy bursts struck at the fleeing beast-enemies.
Pinpoint flares told of their obliteration. The fire show continued as more were targeted and hit.
“How do we explain this away, Lord? To the humans?” Where was she in all this? His gloved fists tightened and armor whirred.
“I have it in hand. Nothing will get out past our communication black zone. The locals will be individually mindblanked. Evidence cleaned up. Substitutional memories will be inserted. It’s an earthquake to them. I have given major permissions to allow this.”
His heart had surely stopped. Jadd couldn’t tear his eyes away despite a part of him praying that none of this havoc reached Brittany.
He’d figured out, he believed, what had happened earlier. Brittany had some strange ability for healing. There was no science to it. What she’d done made no real sense. But it had happened. He’d been healed. The dog had been. The bird…he wasn’t sure what that had been, wasn’t even sure it was a real living bird. Stories of magic from his world often revolved around creatures that helped the magic user. Familiars. Fantasy stories they were, though.
Yet it had seemed real, perhaps even dangerous to Brittany, if it became known.
He should tell Dassenze but they might take her away from him. If she’d healed a Bak-lal factory queen…she was dangerous. Was she the reason it had revealed itself?
He braced himself then asked the terrible question. “Was the factory queen damaged as you suspected?”
“Yes, Jadd, she was.”
He nodded, relieved. I don’t need to give her up. There was no urgency anymore. So, keep her ability a secret? He needed to think on this.
The ship ceased to shudder. The energy weapons had shut down.
“Done. We have won, essentially.” Dassenze sounded smug, for an Ascend. “How many beast rovers escaped to the streets, Jejoon?”
The man on the command deck said something and waved a hand showing two fingers.
“Good. The two armored brothers can take care of it along with our preyfinders and…you.” He turned to Jadd.
“It will be done, Lord. However, I was hoping I could see Brittany’s building –” He felt foolish she dominated his thoughts so much.
“Your pet,” Dassenze stated then he waited before replying, as if aware and pleased at how this tortured Jadd. “Of course. Show me the epicenter of the Bak-lal clone operations, Jejoon.”
The screen zoomed out and refocused, clarifying, showing her building
Tension drained from Jadd, only to peak again. Wisps of smoke shrouded where Brittany’s corner apartment should be. There was a great hole in the walls.
“Lord,” he choked out. “Permission to investigate. You don’t need me in the battle.”
“Perhaps not.” Dassenze then murmured instructions to someone while staring up at the screen. “Brask is going to check out what happened. Satisfied?” He swung and tilted his head, his gold eyes sharp.
“No. I need to find out if she is safe.” The need was solid, raw, and was eating its way up through his chest like swarm of acid worms.
“Follow me.”
Where were they going? To Brittany? Despairing, he followed. Dassenze hurried through the ship. Not until they’d launched into their head-down, earthward path did the Ascend synch with his comm. They hurtled, side by side. Their target verified on his retinal screen. Her building.
“Thank you, Lord.” A bug splatted onto his goggles. He squinted into the wind. He’d not bothered with the helmet for this tiny descent but now regretted it.
“You’re welcome, Ja-a-add.”
The wind was messing with the sound in the goggle’s speaker. He rustled up his professional soldier mode and made a note to inform Rikk.
A forty-second flight at most, but he’d get some answers.
“Has Brask found her?” Another bug smacked into his cheek. Earth seemed infested.
“I cannot reach him. There are more attacks occurring and I cannot order the ship’s weapons be used that close to your Igrakk brothers.”
Maybe she was dead. He wanted to scream at Dassenze to use his godly powers. Anxiety pumped in, gorging his every cell with nausea.
Fuck and kak. Her building grew in his vision. Smoke tendrils strayed into the sky from the spot of destruction. An entire section of wall was missing where her apartment should be. He didn’t dare contemplate what had happened. He had to see. He tilted his body into a steeper angle, shooting for the hole. Gusts of air tore at his body, whined in his ear.
Two spiderlike things clambered up the side. He blinked rapidly. Not spiders. They were killer clones.
For the last few seconds, words repeated in his head, like some automated message gone wild.
Was she alive? Alive? Dead?
An alarm beeped. Bullets climbed up at him. His armour’s AI noted them and dismissed their trajectory as non-threatening. Only one slug bounced off his leg.
He unclipped the rifle from his back, reversed direction by flipping, and while aiming down, he picked off both the clones. The second one saved itself from plummeting to the ground and resumed climbing. His flight path took him into her apartment, and straight through the gap of missing wall.
As he slowed, his boots made a white-hot trail on the rug and cinders flicked into the air. No great worries. Her apartment was already in pieces.
He turned, rifle already aiming, and stalked back toward the edge of the hole. A hand appeared, clutching for a hold. Then the thing’s head rose into view. The red-rimmed eyes and chaotic hair, the half-chewed bleeding tongue – all this spoke of madness.
One shot blew it away along with another portion of floor. The clone barely screamed.
Gribb jogged out of Brittany’s bedroom, alert and weapon up.
He swallowed the chunk of fear in his throat and stomped inward. Eyes streaming, Jadd unclicked the snap on his goggles and ripped them off.
The bled-out body of a soldier brother lay on the floor. Next to it was half a body of some human. The upper half was gone. Shreds of flesh and blood painted the room. Rubble and glass were strewn everywhere. The place smelled charred, fried, and done over with, no doubt, a Berskald rifle set on full power.
“Where is she?” His voice croaked and cracked the sentence in two. “Brittany! Where are you!”
“Go to her.” Gribb gestured at the bedroom door. “I’ll check for more enemies. Kak. You took out more of the floor. I liked this rug.”
He ran, glass crushing underfoot. “Is she okay?”
A squeak from the bedroom called him. Her voice.
In the center of her bedroom, she stood being toweled down by Brask. Water dribbled down her legs, her hair was a tousled mess. An Igrakk male held her and she was naked.
He snarled and strode forward.
Brask stepped back barely in time, almost tripping over a pie
ce of fractured furniture. He smiled grimly at Jadd. “All yours. She razed half the room but saved herself. And the dog thing.”
“Jadd!” Brittany sobbed. “You’re here.” Her cheeks were marked with his color. His color.
He enfolded her and tucked her into his body at the same time as she wrapped her arms around his armor. No skin on skin. He needed that. “You’re good? Okay? Not hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Her reply came out muffled with her face against his armor. She sniffed.
“Good. I have to… Please wait. I need to touch you.” Desperate, he picked her up, tucked the towel about her, and put her away a foot. “Wait.” He turned to the Ascend and Brask. “Get this armor off me. Now.” He didn’t give a fucking kak about protocol to gods. She was his. If he didn’t get to touch her within moments someone would suffer.
The fire of attraction burned searing hot.
Brask glanced at Dassenze, cleared his throat. “Is this acceptable to you, Lord? Is my soldier brother excused his crimes?”
He barely restrained himself from doing something so appalling he’d never ever earn forgiveness. Luckily a bleak glare and almost sub-vocal rumble from Dassenze halted him.
“Have patience, Jadd. She is yours. You’re excused, as you know. It was lucky your earlier killing turned out to be a Bak-lal clone. Lucky, or perhaps you sensed the wrongness?”
Within the armor, all his muscles tensed, but he grasped at the chance. “Yes. Lord.”
“Hmm. Your career from henceforth must be kept clean of errors. I can see the drive of the newly bonded possesses you. Help me remove his armor, Brask.”
“Sir!” Brask stepped up.
The towel had slipped. Naked, and with her skin still shining with trails of wetness that had escaped Brask’s toweling, Brittany smiled shyly at him.
He was free to concentrate on her again. Jadd strived not to grin like a predator about to pounce on something small and defenseless. His gaze roamed over her breasts, where her nipples shrank and rose like buttons – how he wanted to maul and suck on those – and the lushness of her trembling body. Desire gave him an instant erection. He bit back a groan.
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