by Mary Wine
“Unfortunately, not yet.”
The night air smelled amazing! Zeva felt it slap her cheeks and smiled. The miles fell behind them as Cole punched the accelerator on their jeep. They couldn’t keep the motorized transportation very long but it would give them distance.
Cole shot her a heavy look as he controlled his need to go faster. “I’m sorry about Cassandra. It was the only way.”
“I understand.” Zeva did too. Cole had fished the sergeant’s base identification card out of her shirt pocket and used it to get Zeva off the base. In the dark and wearing a winter skull cap, the guards hadn’t looked too closely, only noted that she had it.
Zeva consoled her conscience with the knowledge that Cassandra would have done the same thing if she had been the prisoner. Their time together had formed a fragile relationship that Zeva would consider her only fond memory of Earth. The human might not be her friend because of her orders to be her warden, yet Cassandra had not been unkind in the execution of her orders.
“Time to trade the jeep in.” Cole pulled off the road and pressed a button on his belt. Two doors on an old barn opened and he drove right into the dark interior. A slight motion at her side and the doors closed behind them sealing them in darkness.
“Sorry, no lights. I don’t want the neighbors to notice.”
A small yellow glow surrounded them and Zeva saw it was a small flashlight. Cole handed it to her as he jumped from the jeep. There was a car of some kind next to them.
“There’re clothes on the front seat, Earth female civilian clothing. Put it on and get in.”
Zeva reached for the door handle and heard Cole do the same on the driver’s side. He yanked his splotch-colored shirt over his head and reached into the car for a blue shirt.
“Thank you, Cole. You are a man of honor.”
He grinned over the roof of the car. “We make a good team. I had no idea how we were going to get that location beacon off you.”
And she had not known about the security gate. Zeva pulled the odd clothing from the seat and began to change. She was delighted to get rid of the splotch-painted clothing because it represented her captivity. If she never saw it again she would be grateful!
Cole moved around the back of the car and opened the trunk of it. “Toss me your clothes.” Zeva did it and watched him take his changed clothing and hers and lay it in the trunk bed. He frowned before aiming his eyes around the dimly lit garage. He moved on determined steps and stripped a cover off some kind of large farming machine. He shook the bulky piece of fabric and dust flew off it. He grunted before returning to the open trunk and stuffing the fabric into it. Understanding dawned as Zeva watched the careful attention Cole gave to the task.
“We are taking her with us?”
“Have too.” Cole finished his work and stood up. “I bought this car with cash. The registration hasn’t been changed yet and the owner is on a cruise ship somewhere in the Caribbean. There is nothing to link us to it except Cassandra. If they find this barn and her, she’ll tell them we changed cars and what to look for. It would be her duty.” Cole moved towards the back of the jeep. Actually he could kill her but that wasn’t an option in his mind. The sergeant was a complication that he hadn’t planned on but he needed her to get Zeva off the base. Now, he just had to keep her under wraps long enough to get Zeva to the mouth of that portal.
Cassandra blinked as the dim light hit her eyes. Cole pulled free the heavy cover he’d hidden her under as she glared at him. Silver duct tape sealed her mouth closed and three pairs of handcuffs secured the sergeant in the footwell in the back of the jeep.
“Sorry, honey, but I couldn’t have you sounding off at that checkpoint.” Cole lifted her right out of the jeep as she squealed behind the tape. His long legs carried him back to the open trunk as he laid her in it. There was a metallic click of handcuffs as he unhooked her feet from her wrists and laid her out straight.
Zeva turned back around. She couldn’t feel sorry for the other woman. Cole handled her with care and that would have to be enough. Cassandra was bound by her duty to raise the alarm and Zeva wouldn’t go back to her imprisonment.
The car rocked as the trunk was closed and Cole opened the driver’s door. Zeva slipped in beside him and watched him press the door opener.
“Here.” A slim Alcandian tracking device was tossed into her lap. Tears pricked her eyes as Zeva held the item from her homeworld. The smooth case made it seem almost more real. Memories had kept her sane for an entire year of solitude. The only pleasant part of that year was locked in the trunk and hating her at the moment, but Zeva looked at the screen and let her hungry eyes soak up her own language.
“You didn’t give this to your superiors.” It wasn’t a question. Zeva looked at Cole and grasped the knowledge that he had really planned to come for her all along. He had just been waiting for the right time.
Cole drove their newest transportation out of the garage and pushed the button on his waist again. He stopped the car and looked at her. “I would have smuggled my own sister off Alcandar if that was what she wanted, Zeva. No woman should be a captive.”
He left the car and grabbed a large tree branch lying beside the road. Using his superior size he began to sweep the ground they had driven over, erasing the fresh tire marks. Finished, Cole picked up two large basket containers of dried leaves and dumped them over the driveway. He tossed the two containers behind some shrubs and headed back to the car.
Cole Somerton was a rare human. Zeva felt her lungs fill for the first time in months with a truly deep breath as her shoulders lifted. Lifting the beacon in her hand she read the information being fed to it.
Alcandar.
Home.
She would never belong to anyone again. Ever.
Mind over matter. One slow breath in and one slow release of it. The car tire hit a bump and Cassandra cussed behind her tape gag. Her body bounced and she squeezed her eyes shut before her stomach twisted with nausea again. Thank God she hadn’t eaten dinner!
One slow breath…
Oh hell, she was going to kill him! Temper flared across her brain and she didn’t even try to control the string of profanity that filled her thoughts. In this case she figured her mother would forgive her.
Cole Somerton, she knew his name all right! That name was whispered in the mess hall and most of the corners of the base. He was the man who wouldn’t jump on the alien-hate bandwagon. Every other member of the now disbanded team had loudly denounced the planet and proclaimed how much they had done for Earth…
Everyone except Cole Somerton.
Cassandra might not know anything about the Alcandar project but she did know that Zeva was a person, not some evil force come to destroy Earth.
The car bounced her again and she moaned. Tomorrow she would be covered with bruises, but at least whatever Cole had stuffed around her kept her from splitting her skin open as her bound body was jostled.
Cassandra growled and shut her eyes again. One breath in and slowly release it…
“We walk from here.”
Zeva looked up from her beacon and at the parking lot Cole turned into. There were a few cars parked and most of them had fabric wrapped around them.
“What is this place?”
Cole turned the car off and pushed his door open. “It’s a trailhead. These mountains are covered with backpacking trails. If you say the map leads north then we have to cover the rest of the distance on foot. Stealing a helicopter would have sort of blown my idea for slipping out under their noses.”
Zeva stepped into the morning sunshine and smiled. It was silent and so serene you could hear the breeze as it moved through the trees. No walls. Zeva smiled as she turned around in a circle and saw the trees and the clouds and not one damn wall! She would crawl up a mountainside if it meant seeing her home again.
“What about Cassandra?” The need to run towards her own people tore at her but Zeva couldn’t leave the Earth girl in danger either. They couldn
’t turn Cassandra loose if they needed to hike. When she sounded the alarm, the men looking for them could gain access to a helicopter.
“She walks with us.” Cole opened the trunk and carefully lifted Cassandra from it. Zeva watched the way he handled the woman but couldn’t find any fault with it. Anger blazed through her at the dilemma the humans had put her in. All Zeva craved was to leave but she would have to pull this woman with her or risk losing her freedom.
“A little walk, Sergeant, and you’ll be free to go.” Cole pulled the tape off Cassandra’s face and winced at the sound it made. She didn’t yell. Instead her eyes bulged with fury making his lips twitch with the urge to smile. Her blonde hair was tangled around her face and she stood there shooting daggers at him.
Spunk. In a woman it was his fatal weakness. Cole looked at the sprinkle of freckles dusting her nose and frowned. Reality sucked sometimes.
Pressing a bottle of water into her hands, Cole bent to unlock the handcuffs around her ankles. “Relax, Sergeant, we just want to leave. Behave yourself and you can be on your way back down this trail tonight.”
Cassandra tipped the water bottle up to hide her expression. She drank slowly from the bottle as she tried to bring her thoughts into line. Fear was trying to plant crazy images of her body lying on the side of a backpacker’s trail but Cole’s face didn’t look like a cold-blooded killer’s to her.
Oh great! Now she was trusting her captor! That was a common survival instinct that kidnapping victims succumbed to during hostage ordeals. Cole moved away and she stared at the raw strength of his body. He was huge and packed with thick muscle. It was the sort of thing you saw in barbarian movies but never actually expected to meet face-to-face.
Cassandra shook her head and opened her eyes to find Zeva in front of her. The Alcandian looked at her with large dark eyes and a face that looked different. Cassandra couldn’t stop the little giggle that shook her chest. She trapped it in her mouth but Zeva’s eyes sparkled slightly.
Cassandra shrugged. “I guess I’d be mighty glad to go home too.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you, Cassandra. But I cannot stay here.”
Cassandra tossed her head and twisted the cap back onto the water bottle. “You didn’t hurt me.”
Zeva grinned and angled her head to look at the side of Cassandra’s face. “That bruise says otherwise.”
“Barely notice it.” Which was true. Cassandra’s dad would have been proud of the offhand comment. She hadn’t seen her face, so truly, she really hadn’t investigated what she looked like. The way she felt said she’d be a black and blue mess tomorrow but she could just save that unveiling for a time when she was all done with the current business of being abducted.
“Let’s go.” Cole rounded the car and tossed a bottle of water to Zeva. His blue eyes targeted her and Cassandra began walking. She was already trusting the brute, there was no reason to give him an excuse to touch her again. Her soft brain had noticed just how tender his hands could be on her and she really, really, really did not need to go there!
* * * * *
Ravid listened to the night and growled. He could smell human on the night breeze. His senses caught each little sound because he was immersed in them. Hunting brought out the basic instincts in a male and he enjoyed the harsh rush of tension. He was balanced on the edge with his companion helping to counterbalance him. Keenan was close by watching the night just as he was.
Mission goals floated through his head but Ravid was enjoying the surge of victory. It had been too long since he and Keenan had bested the odds.
Zeva.
Need rose from her name as he looked at the face in his memory. He had touched her so briefly but the moment was burned into his soul. Learning facts about mind-bridging didn’t prepare a warrior to recognize it when it happened. All Ravid knew was that something drew him to Zeva and their separation was eating him alive.
A female willing to stand in the path of Judgment officials was rare. It spoke of a level of confidence that frankly astonished Ravid. He wanted to search her eyes for the spark of defiance he remembered her flinging at him before duty pulled him away from her. He had just barely brushed her mind and that half moment of contact burned incessantly for him to renew the contact.
Caution tried to banish that craving but it was losing its hold on the need flowing from the slight touch of mind to mind. Ravid could feel Zeva, she was getting closer and that information shut his logic down. Instinct refused to let him consider the consequences.
Moving forward, Ravid felt Keenan on his heels. Their minds were fused together as they surged forward on their hunt.
* * * * *
Zeva froze in her tracks. Her heart suddenly accelerated and her lungs frantically increased their pace to keep up. Her body shivered as fear strangled her. Her eyes went large as she frantically looked around her.
Coming.
They were coming. Her skull felt like it was being ripped open and exposed. Solid walls pressed in on her from the force bearing down on her. Control slipped through her fingers like sand, leaving her body falling as it poured down and took her with the stream.
Ravid materialized from the night like a demon from her worst nightmare. Zeva could smell his skin as his eyes targeted hers and he burst inside her head. She spun in a crazy circle to find Keenan. She knew he would be there too. Instinct demanded she keep them both in sight as her heart beat at a frantic pace, propelling her blood through her veins too fast for her lungs to keep oxygenated.
“Get out!” Her voice was an agonized demand as her vision blurred. Everything pressed in on her as Keenan’s eyes cut into hers. He surfaced inside her head with Ravid and the tension exploded. Her lungs froze as her heart pounded faster and Keenan’s eyes were the only thing she saw as the weight of both warriors crashed in on her. Her head was too full of them to endure and she launched her body away from the suffocating weight of the two warriors.
But she couldn’t escape herself. Her blood surged forward as she actually caught their scent. She was cruelly stretched between elation at seeing her own race and despair that the two warriors were ones who could reach into her thoughts.
Ravid’s eye’s glowed with primal instinct and there was a part of her that smiled in response. Confusion hit her in a wave. It tore at her with fear and need all mixing together to taunt her with imperfect solutions.
Leaving Earth meant dealing with Ravid and Keenan. Staying condemned her to an existence of being an outcast.
Ravid spat out a curse under his breath. The sign of his temper made him more real in that moment. Zeva shifted on her feet and raised an open hand at him. “Stay out of my mind.”
Her rejection cut him deeply. Ravid wanted to jerk her back next to his body and teach her to enjoy his touch. Her heart fluttered at an alarming rate as she battled to overcome her own attraction.
“I think we have tried.” Keenan’s voice was low and soft but Ravid felt the burn of the other warrior’s rage. He considered Zeva with a dark frown before he leaned forward and sniffed the air. “Yet it is proven.”
Zeva clamped her control in place as she closed her arms around her body to hide the little tremors still shaking her limbs. It was just shock from so many days yearning for this moment. Once she was home her body would stop acting so foolishly. She forced herself to believe that. She looked away because her body wanted to bask in the glow of what she witnessed in the two warriors’ eyes. Temptation taunted her with the idea that they found her attractive. “I would like to go home.”
“Then we agree.” Keenan watched the flare of rejection cross Zeva’s face. Caution broke through his flaring senses long enough for him to remember that they were not alone. “Yet we will discuss this later.”
Zeva’s eyes flew back to his and the contact was undeniable. It burned from his mind into Ravid’s mind as Zeva filled both their thoughts. She was drawn to them just as strongly as they sought her.
“Aye, we shall.” And she would end it
…somehow. Zeva felt the emotion seep into her body even as she tried to get it to just flow away. Her flesh turned traitor as it hummed with sensation.
Ravid turned towards the scent of human with a snarl. The lack of a battle left him longing for an outlet for a year of pent-up frustration. The warrior he found facing him brought him up short.
“Hello Ravid.” Cole pushed Cassandra towards a large granite boulder and watched her out of the corner of one eye. She leaned against the rock and crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes were glued to Ravid as the Alcandian flexed his fingers.
Cole enjoyed the brush of psychic sense against his mind. He was more at home with the contact than among humans who shunned the ability. The night yielded other men who came closer as they inspected his thoughts for any excuse to label him a threat.
They were Ravid’s fellow Judgment officials, Cole was certain of that fact. Seven men in all. They each looked over Zeva before granting him a harsh nod of their heads.
A year of planning and waiting and this would see the completion of his last mission. Cole didn’t regret his choice…only that York had forced him into making one. “Good bye, Zeva, I hope your luck is better on Alcandar.”
“That won’t take much of an improvement.” But she really couldn’t keep the remorse out of her head. She would miss Cole and the man had destroyed what remained of his own life by helping her. There were too many cameras on that base and although the humans that manned them had not discovered Cole’s deception in time to stop them, they no doubt would be waiting for Cole with their idea of justice for traitors.
Cole turned to see to the last detail of his plan but Ravid stepped into his path. “How did you find us?”
Cole grinned at the warrior and pointed at Zeva. “Zeva’s got a little tracking device that doesn’t belong on Earth, my friends. Take it home with you before someone shows up to ruin our little happy ending.”
One of Ravid’s fellow officials reached into Zeva’s pocket and withdrew the tracking unit. He raised an eyebrow at Ravid before dropping the unit to the ground and smashing it with a boot heel. He scooped up the destroyed device and tucked it into his pocket. “You have honor, human. I am surprised.” He pointed at Cassandra and moved closer. He stared at her wide eyes intently before shaking his head. “I cannot bridge with her but we should take her with us.”
