Moon Mark

by Scarlett Dawn

  Geo had his claws out, beating the hell out of two men’s necks.

  I rushed another man coming through the door.

  “Argh!” I slammed the weapon directly into his crotch and then rammed it upward into his face as he hunched over. When he landed on his back, my left foot did the rest. I stomped down onto his neck. “Goddamn-hunter-shit.”

  When I twisted around to the door again, I stopped solid.

  The tiniest prick on my right ankle had me looking down.

  The bastard had stabbed me with a green dart right before he passed out.

  “Shit,” I mumbled on a slur. The scene tilted, the horizon slanting to a new and horrid angle. Pictures on the walls hedged into a whole new frightening landscape, and the jagged stone fireplace belonged in a horror movie. My head turned to Geo just as I fell onto my left side, my weapon tumbling silently to the carpet. A grunt shoved from deep in my throat as I landed on two dead Kireg bodies, the side of my head smacking one of their helmets.

  I watched in horror as five, and then ten...

  Twenty hunters piled inside the room, all aiming their weapons at Geo where he stood with dead bodies littered around his feet. All were shouting at him to stand down. Just for the hell of it, because we were fucked, I used the remaining energy I had to lift one of the dead assailant’s guns. The gun wobbled in my grasp, but I fired a pulse wave right at one man’s throat.

  It actually hit the man’s throat standing next to him. My aim was a little off.

  Either way, I watched as he instantly fell to his knees and vomited on the carpeting. Or, more like foamed white crap from his mouth. Until he couldn’t breathe anymore. Then he fell face first into his own puke, a stunning thump silencing the entire room.

  Dead.

  I snorted as my eyelids became heavy and closed. “That makes me feel better.”

  Even as I began to pass out, the shout of fury from Geo made me flinch.

  Then it was as if the heavens had opened up and released chunky rain.

  I went under into a deep sleep, my body coated in wet warmth.

  “Geo,” I whispered. I lifted my head from a warm shoulder and peered up into his face. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t kidnapped. He was holding me in his strong arms. I blinked repeatedly, but it didn’t clear my blurry vision. “We’re okay?”

  “Yes,” he murmured, staring down into my face. “I protected you.”

  My white brows puckered as I evaluated his appearance. “What is all over you?” I glanced at my arms wrapped around his shoulders. “What’s all over me?”

  Corza cleared her throat, capturing my attention on my left. “It’s brains.” She tipped her head at her brother. “He nuked all their minds when you went down.” Her hands waved above her head in frantic action. “Their heads burst all over the place right before the backup arrived.”

  “Oh.” I blinked a few more times. “I’m happy they drugged me. Otherwise, I’d be screaming right now.” I swung my head back to the rebellion leader. “They did just drug me, right? It’s not a poison that will kill me?”

  He shook his head, his voice rough. “It’s just a sleeping agent.”

  I nodded and then let my head fall back to his shoulder. “I’m tired.”

  “I know, but I need to get you away from here. It’s no longer safe for you.”

  Not a care in the world, I hummed, “Where are we going?”

  “That’s a secret.” His attention turned to his sister, his voice quieting. “Make sure no one follows me. And I mean absolutely no one, Corza. Do you understand?”

  Her head nodded gradually, her purple eyes searching his gaze. “Yes. When will you be back?”

  “By the end of the day. Tell the council members to keep the preparations going. We’ll be moving along as planned. It’s time to end this shit.”

  Without another word, he turned and walked away from her, out of his room. He kept me steady in his arms as he walked past all the Kireg peeking out from their doors and silently watching us.

  “I bet we look disgusting,” I mumbled on a slur.

  “That would be an accurate statement.”

  “Can’t we take a shower first?”

  “No, I won’t chance it.”

  I hummed and stared up at the stars when he stepped outside of the stronghold. It was quiet out here. There was no one around. I asked candidly, “It was the traitor again, wasn’t it?”

  He grunted. “I thought you had forgotten about that.”

  “I wouldn’t forget that detail. I just haven’t thought about it with all your people around. I do listen to you sometimes. I’m attempting to adapt, to make myself safe.” I squinted at the treed area he was striding toward.

  “Why are you still stringing this person along? Why don’t you just throw them in a cell and be done with it?”

  His lips twitched. “Because that person is playing both sides. Mine and the Imperial family.”

  “Explain further, please.”

  “It means, I can use the intel I’m giving that person against the Imperial family. And I can take the money that person continues to receive from the Imperial family when this is all over with. You need to understand that the banking community will acquire the Imperial funds after I take over.”

  “You mean when you kill them.”

  “How else would you have it? They are powerful individuals, and their reach is still there. That wouldn’t change, even if they were inside a prison. Plus, they have tortured countless Kireg. They’ve killed even more. It’s time for them to pay for their crimes.” He glanced down at me. “Just as I killed the scientists who had kept us prisoner. I don’t go back on my word. What I say, I do.”

  I tapped my fingers on the back of his neck as we entered the silver-treed woods. “Power wise, are you more powerful than the King?”

  His lips curved. It was sexy and smooth. I didn’t look away as he answered, “I am the most powerful Kireg in existence, Madeline. And I think it’s adorable that you didn’t know that.”

  “How do you know you are?”

  An easy, non-arrogant answer. “Because I can hear everyone, if I want to.”

  I blinked. “Oh.” Another blink. “No wonder you think I’m so weak.”

  “It’s not that I think you’re weak. Your intelligence is actually remarkable.”

  I crunched my body with his when he dipped underneath a low hanging limb. “What is it then?”

  His shoulders shrugged against my arms. “It’s that you have no protection against my kind.”

  I chuckled quietly. “I am half Kireg.”

  “And still, you have none of our powers.”

  “True enough,” I murmured, and rested my head back on his shoulder. “Where are you taking me?”

  “To my hidden hov-craft.” He paused. “If I can remember where the door to the hangar is.”

  I snickered and stayed quiet. The landscape wasn’t awful in the pre-dawn light.

  Geo continued walking south. There was an access road to follow—of sorts. The blue grass had been driven over so many times through the heavily wooded area that he followed the path. But when he stopped walking, there sure as hell wasn’t a building nearby. The sky was hardly seen under all the foliage, the light trying to peek through the leaves but finding it difficult with each breeze.

  My eyesight finally sharpened and scanned high and low. Trees and more trees, all ancient and massive in girth. “I think I can walk now. You can put me down, I’ll help you look.”

  When he lowered me to my feet, he held onto my elbow until I was steady on my feet.

  “What are we looking for?” I bent and brushed away fallen leaves, trying to find the previous path.

  “A red marker on a door.” He glanced left and right, squinting through the dusky light. “This is the right place, but it’s been too many years since I’ve been here.”

  I leaned back and evaluated the hill before us. I could hear traffic a few miles further to the south, motors revving and a co
nstant whirling of tires on concrete. I stepped back and began searching anew for the red marker, shoving tree limbs and hanging vines aside.

  A small entrance door finally revealed itself when the rising wind whipped. A replica of a small boulder, pressed against the hill, bowed on its hinges. The wood creaked loud enough that I followed the eerie noise to the hidden location.

  “Finally,” I muttered. I glanced over my shoulder. “You could have told me it was hidden.”

  “I thought that much was obvious.” He moved in front of the fake boulder and shoved it to the left. It rolled on wheels and bumped over the dirt that had formed on top of the rusted railing. A door painted with a huge red X lay before me. He thrust with a shoulder when the handle didn’t immediate give way, the sticking door swinging open on a whine.

  Bright yellow light attacked my eyes.

  I threw up a hand to shield my gaze from the sudden onslaught.

  “There’s my baby.” The rebellion leader grinned.

  I lowered my hand and squinted into the light. The vision before me was comical at best.

  The area was enormous, a hangar for an eye-catching hov-craft and plenty of space for extra vehicles. A darker area at the far end of the hangar appeared to be a tunnel, leading who knew where the hell to. The black hov-craft sat on my left with the stairs down, just waiting for its owner.

  I cleared my throat, eyeing the machine. My voice was dry. “It still runs, right?”

  “It may not look the best, but it's damn fast,” he stated, pride filling his tone.

  A weak groan escaped past my parted lips when he lifted me into his muscled arms. My eyes narrowed on him, but he didn’t back down. He planned to support me, and that was that.

  He carried my tired body into the hangar and walked straight to the hov-craft. My frame didn’t even bounce as he ascended the stairs into the contraption. He glanced down at me, his expression innocent. “Have you gained weight?”

  “What?” I sputtered, my eyes widening. I wasn’t fat. Not by a long shot.

  He smirked. “Just kidding.”

  I bared my teeth at him, while he placed me in the passenger’s chair and strapped me in.

  His gaze flicked up to mine. “I was just distracting you.”

  My brows instantly puckered. “Distracting me from what?”

  “From your reflection in the glass we passed.”

  I glanced at the glass near the opening of the hov-craft. “I already know we look gross.”

  The rebellion leader shook his head and took his own seat in the operator’s chair. “It wasn’t the brains I didn’t want you to be upset about.” He buckled himself in and pressed on the halo-screen.

  The stairs folded up, and the door closed.

  “Then what’s wrong with my reflection?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with it.” He tapped on a few more buttons, the hov-craft lifting silently into the air a few feet.

  I groused, “Explain, please.” I said that too much to him.

  “First, don’t fret. I imagine the change occurred because we finally kissed.”

  I blinked. “Tell. Me.”

  The hov-craft rotated a hundred and eighty degrees, now facing the small tunnel inside the hill.

  He cleared his throat and peered directly at me. He didn’t look away. “Your eyes are no longer Human blue.” He grinned, showing me all of his white teeth. There was actually humor lighting his gaze, too—so unlike his normal cold glare. “They are now a Kireg purple. Just like mine.”

  I didn’t blink. “I have purple eyes.”

  “Yes.”

  “Just like yours.”

  “Yes.”

  I did blink then. “One day, I will get you back for this.”

  He winked and then turned his attention to the tunnel. “As long as you’re by my side, I won’t mind.”

  My head slowly tilted to the tunnel, too. “Damn.” I bit my bottom lip. “That was actually kind of sweet.”

  “Just wait. I’m not always an asshole.”

  “Only ninety-nine percent of the time?”

  “Ninety-nine point nine.”

  I nodded. “Sounds about right.”

  He chuckled softly and tapped on the halo-screen. “Are you ready?”

  I mumbled, “Only if you’re going to tell me how we take off from inside a hill.”

  The bastard shrugged, still typing code into the controls. “It’s magic.”

  “Geo…”

  “All right. The hov-craft will taxi down the tunnel. There’s a small runway at the end of it right before the thoroughfare.”

  I closed my eyes and kept them shut. “Magic sounded so much better.” Little tunnel, medium sized hov-craft. The pilot would need to be an escape artist to make that work. “We better not crash or your sister will kill me.”

  His right hand, covered in gore, landed on top of mine. It stayed there until we were airborne.

  The sandwich I munched on—the fourth one—was delicious. The meat wasn’t fish. We had arrived at the new safe house—and showered. The location was an actual ranch with real animals. The house was a mansion sitting on over two hundred acres of land, and the closest rural area was only ten miles away. Civilization didn’t even know who their neighbors were. I thought it was pretty genius really as I took another bite of my sandwich and glanced at the servants who were preparing enough food for us—both Geo and me. The morning light pouring in through the bay windows, next to our kitchen table, underscored their efforts.

  Geo raised white brows. “I knew you hated fish, but I didn’t realize you were starving yourself.”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s the drug.” I gulped down my third glass of water, licking the small droplets off the corner of my mouth. “I’m hoping if I eat and drink enough, it’ll leave my system sooner.”

  He nodded. “Let me know if that works.” His lips twitched. “While you’re peeing every hour.”

  I nudged his left shoulder with my right one. “Be quiet. This is an experiment.”

  Geo draped an arm over my shoulders and kissed my right temple. “Are you done now?”

  “Almost.” I finished off my sandwich and wiped my mouth with a napkin, stifling a yawn. “Is this your private house?”

  He nodded his head. “I purchased it recently. I thought you might like it.”

  I stared. “You bought it for me?”

  “Not exactly.” His eyes narrowed, an expression of disgust on his features. “I bought it for the animals they keep here and produce. Every time you bite into fish, you grimace. So I decided to indulge your Human side.” His stare was pointed. “But fish is better for brain power.”

  My lips twitched. “Point taken.” And now I understood why the Kireg ate the foul-smelling dish at every meal. “But I do appreciate you thinking of me.” Another kind gesture. He surprised me left and right. “Perhaps you’re not quite as high on the asshole scale.”

  “Oh, I am,” he muttered. He took my hand and pulled me from my chair. “But I can’t have my mate hating the planet she lives on.”

  I laughed as I followed him outside. “So this is all a bribe?”

  “Maybe a little one.” Scowling purple eyes glanced at me, and then quickly peered away. “Is it working?”

  “A little,” I answered honestly.

  “I hope so because these animals are revolting,” Geo muttered.

  His head turned left and right, his eyes taking in the many animals penned in their cages. He wrinkled his nose at the smell lingering in the air, a mixture of cut grass and fresh manure. In some areas, it was sour enough to make my eyes sting. The gravel under our feet crunched deeper into the earth with each step we took.

  He glanced down at his shiny black shoes, dust now coating the tops, and then to my black, scuffed boots. “At least, you have the correct footwear for this.”

  I snickered, my lips curving up at the edges. We continued on our trek down the small path, eyeing each new animal that we passed. They weren’t at all the
typical critters for a farm. I didn’t even know what they were called—yet. But whatever meat had been on my sandwich had tasted like sliced chicken.

  I eyed the old red barn fifty feet in front of us. “Is that where we are heading?”

  Geo peered down at me, his purple eyes accessing. “It isn’t as it seems, so prepare yourself. The Dynasty family who lived here before were active members. They also hunted, so there is a secret passage at the back. The schematics are perfect for the job you’ll be doing.”

  I nodded and wiped a bit of sweat off my forehead. “Making a bomb.”

  “Yes.” He glanced at my right cheek where my hair was hanging and glared.

  I punched his left shoulder. “Don’t say it. I was still woozy when I got out of the shower. It’s only a small bruise.”

  “The line on your cheek matches the color of your eyes.” He bent and brushed my hair back, examining the bruise—for the third time. “You need to be more careful.”

  “I’m fine,” I groused. I pointed at the lock on the door. “Do you have a key?”

  “It’s a fake lock. If you try to tamper with that, you’ll be electrocuted.”

  I blinked. “A little more warning next time.”

  “I wouldn’t have let you touch it.” Geo snickered and opened the door.

  I followed Geo inside, lifting my feet over the small barrier of the entrance. I eyed the rotting silver timber, my brows puckered. Little wooden pieces flaked off on my right boot when he shut the door behind us. This barn was certain to be ancient. “Is that to keep the rain out?”

  “That is correct. This area may have stunning mountains, but this barn sits on a flat and low area of the ranch. Water rushes straight down that path right at the barn.” He gestured behind him with his right arm. “I’ll take you to the secret passage now. Unless you have more lingering questions about the very fine construction of this building?”

  I snorted. “Lead the way, smartass.”

  He winked. “Of course.” There was a thin layer of hay covering the entirety of the dark floor, the only light inside shining in through the slats of the wood siding. He veered to the right side of the barn, quickly glancing over his shoulder. “Don’t walk on the left. Trust me.”