Ivy had suspected that she was pregnant for a few weeks, but hadn’t allowed herself to really think about it. With everything that was happening around them, the thought was just too much for her to process. Now she couldn’t deny it any longer. Her hand drifted briefly to her belly again. She knew that it was still tiny, but she felt like the just-beginning swell was visible to anyone who looked at her. Ivy hadn’t told anyone else, especially Maxim. As excited as she was that she was carrying Maxim’s baby, she also feared what might happen when the others found out.
The war that they were facing was something that none of them was truly prepared for. They didn’t know what waited for them or how long Ryan had been putting these plans into place, ensuring that they were intricate enough to keep the Uoria group constantly guessing. It would be enough to have to think about herself, what she could do to help, and how she could protect her own safety. The thought of needing to protect the new life within her was overwhelming. She wanted to do everything that she could to help Maxim and ensure that they were victorious, but the baby had to be her most important priority. She knew that it wouldn’t be long before she would have to tell Maxim. She worried about how he was going to react.
A sudden sound in the stillness of the abandoned prison compound broke Ivy from her thoughts. Maxim reached a hand out to stop her, lifting a finger to his lips to tell her to stay quiet. Ivy nodded. Her hand tingled as it moved back and forth between her belly and the weapon that Maxim had given her before they left the shuttle. They heard the sound again and both crouched slightly, preparing themselves for whatever action they were going to need to take. It was low and grating, like something dragging along the sand. Ivy focused in on it, trying to identify the origin of the sound. Maxim turned in the same direction she did as they both seemed to focus in on a small building several yards away.
They met eyes and Ivy gave a small nod. Maxim shifted the bag on his shoulder and drew the sword from his sheath. Ivy remembered his reaction when he realized that his father’s sword was not found on the battlefield after his apparent death. It simply didn’t make any sense. While the creatures that they were fighting were powerful, he knew that they didn’t have the capability of making Aegeus and his weapon vaporize without a single trace. That weapon was the most important possession that Aegeus had and was with him every time that he went into battle. It was when he realized that Athan had not found any part of that treasured weapon when he watched Aegeus disappear on the battlefield and went to find him that Ivy had seen the first real glimmer of doubt in Maxim’s eyes. Though he hadn’t said it, he had begun to wonder if what he had been told about his father since he was a child was really true.
Maxim held his sword tightly, lifting it to his side so that he could manipulate it in any way that was necessary when they found the source of the sound. They walked toward the building, listening for the sound again. They heard it as they got to the side of the building and pressed their backs to it. Ivy closed her eyes tightly for a moment, seeking the strength that she needed. She could hear Maxim breathing beside her and a sense of peaceful calm washed over her. Ivy opened her eyes, feeling steady and prepared. Maxim turned toward the door and reached behind him, touching his fingertips to her thigh as if to communicate to her what he was thinking. Not for the first time, she wished that they could communicate in the way that the Denynso could with their mates. Even without the ability to speak to each other through their minds, though, it was as though she could feel his energy flowing through his fingertips into her and she knew exactly what he intended. Maxim slowly lowered his bag to the sand at his feet, moving carefully as to not make any noise that might alert whatever was waiting inside for them. Ivy followed suit, placing her satchel on the ground beside Maxim’s.
A moment later Maxim surged forward. Ivy followed close behind him, her eyes focused over his shoulder so that she could see what was ahead of him at the same moment that he did. The wooden door at the front of the building hung from time-weakened hinges and Maxim planted his foot in the middle of it. The wood splintered beneath his kick and what remained of the door swung out of place. Immediately a towering dark figure burst out of the building toward them.
The creature only got a few steps before Maxim swung his sword around and thrust it forward so that it plunged into the figure’s belly. Letting out a scream that seemed to tear through Ivy’s head and ricochet off of the walls around them, the creature arched and stumbled backwards until Maxim’s sword pulled out of its body. As soon as the blade fell loose, the figure surged forward again. Maxim forced his sword into its belly again and Ivy rushed around him, bringing her own blade down into the creature’s throat. It let out another of the blood-curdling screams and crumbled to the ground. It thrashed, trying to force Maxim off of him as he knelt with his knee in the center of the creature’s chest.
Ivy withdrew the blade and evaluated the creature, trying to identify any features that would tell her what type of hybrid this was, but the two men were grappling with such intensity that she wasn’t able to discern anything that told her what it was, and therefore what type of capabilities it might have. It was her greatest fear materializing in front of her. They were up against just one of the army of hybrids that was waiting for them on the planet, and they weren’t able to determine the true risk that they were facing. If only she was able to determine which of the species had gone in to creating this hybrid, she would know their capabilities and how they should be fighting.
Suddenly she thought of the men who she had met during her time on Uoria. When she first encountered the Denynso she was stunned by how similar they were to the human men on Earth. They were much larger and their white hair and shifting eyes set them apart, but they were incredibly close to human. When she discovered that two of the men, Ty and Ero, had descended from pairings between Denynso and other species, she had been amazed that no one recognized their differences. Ty had the blood of the Valdicians, the very creatures who had established this brutal prison compound, and yet the only thing that any of the clan knew was different about him was his mysterious ability to control things with his mind. Ero, the youngest and smallest of the warriors, was unbelievably fast and agile, a gift from the Mikana ancestor from many generations before, yet none had ever considered he was anything but Denynso. She realized then that it didn’t matter what they looked like. It might be impossible for them to determine what went in to creating them. They would have to fight with everything in them, not evaluating them or relying on their differentiations to guide them.
The creature gasped and fell still. Maxim lifted her eyes to Ivy, the emotion in them telling her that it had begun.
Chapter Four
Emerie stood after tying her shoe and Kyven swept her forward to kiss her again. Now that he had finally gotten a taste of her, he couldn’t get enough. He didn’t want to stop touching her or kissing her. It was almost as though he was making up for all of the kisses that he wasn’t able to give her through all of the long days and tortuous nights when she refused to accept the feelings that were growing between them. He wanted to cradle her in his arms and whisper everything that he had been thinking, all of the ways that he had adored and admired her since the moment that he met her. Kyven thought that if his passion for her was ever realized, if the anticipation that had been building unchecked for so long was finally broken, that some of the need for her would lessen and he would be better able to handle her draw. This wasn’t the case. Instead, it was as if the moment that he was able to rest his lips to hers and finally feel her body envelop him, any control, any distance that he might have from her dissolved away and he was completely at the mercy of his desperate love and devotion to Emerie. He knew more than ever before that he couldn’t bear to spend a minute of his life without her.
“I guess we should go back now,” Emerie said.
“We didn’t find out very much about this area of the planet,” Kyven said.
“Do you think that we should g
o further?”
“Let’s go back out there and make sure that whatever was up there isn’t there anymore. We can go from there.”
They gathered their belongings and headed back into the chamber. Emerie started up the steep incline to the gap in the hill and Kyven saw her feet slip beneath her. He reached up and grabbed her by the hips, supporting her so that she could get her feet back under her and then make her way up the incline. Just before she stepped out of the opening, he pulled her back slightly. Just in case whatever had blocked the light and forced them into the tunnel was still there, he didn’t want her to be the first one to step out into the vulnerable openness of the planet.
Kyven slipped past her and cautiously looked out of the chamber. He looked to either side, saw nothing, and stepped out. He turned toward the opening in the hill and reached his hand toward Emerie. She rested her fingers in his palm and he guided her out.
“Kyven?”
He turned toward the sudden sound of the voice coming at them through the quiet around them and saw Athan, Rain, and Lynx. Athan had his hand rested on the weapon at his hip and a stern look on his face as he stalked toward them.
“Is everything alright?” the older man asked.
“Yes,” Kyven said. “We’re fine. Have you seen any of the hybrids?”
“No,” Athan said. “The area that we explored was empty. Did you hear the screaming a few minutes ago?”
Kyven remembered the horrific sound that he and Emerie heard from inside the compound before going into the hill. He nodded.
“Yes. We went into the hill. Something walked in front of the opening, but we haven’t seen anything since then.”
Rain glanced around them. He could see the intensity in her stance and the painful memories in her eyes as she seemed lost in the recollection of the last time that she was on that planet. They each had reasons for confronting the war awaiting them that burned within them, going beyond the camaraderie among them and their current circumstances, and he knew that hers ran deeper than most.
“We need to keep going,” Rain said. “There’re here. We saw them. We heard them. We know that they are coming for us. Let’s not give them the chance.”
They all exchanged glances, coming to silent agreement before turning back toward the hills and continuing further into the planet.
“How far did you explore when you came here?” Kyven asked Rain several minutes later as they moved beyond the hardened hills.
“Not this far,” Rain admitted. “We landed closer to the compound and we didn’t have much opportunity to see the planet beyond it. The furthest I saw was the hills. I don’t know what’s beyond them.”
Kyven saw Lynx reach down and take his mate’s hand comfortingly in his own, as if offering her his own strength to bolster hers. She squared her shoulders and stared ahead of them, her eyes locked on the horizon. He saw no fear in her gaze. There was only determination and the distant, hazy memories that pushed her forward, compelling her to take the steps that she hadn’t and avenge what had been taken from her so many years before.
They sun traveled along the sky with them as they walked and Kyven knew that they had been walking for hours when they heard the sound of trickling water in the distance. His canteen was nearly dry and he was thankful for the possibility of filling it. They hurried toward the sound and soon found themselves at the edge of a large quarry.
“This is where they must have gotten the stone to build the compound,” Rain said.
Kyven remembered the enslavement of his kind by the Covra many generations ago as they were forced to build another prison on Uoria. His back straightened.
“Or someone did,” he said.
The others nodded. They looked around for a moment, scanning their surroundings to find the easiest way of entry down into the quarry. When none was readily evident, they started climbing carefully down, the men going first so that they could guard the women as they followed in case the rocky ground slipped out from beneath them as they walked. They reached the bottom and Kyven immediately rushed to the edge of the creek wandering its way through the jagged bottom of the quarry. The water in his canteen had become warm in the time that they had been walking, and filling his palm with the cool, fresh water and bringing it to his lips was invigorating. He took several long sips and then filled his canteen. The others followed his lead and soon they each had full canteens tucked into their bags and their cooled bodies felt energized.
Athan had just stood from the edge of the creek when Kyven saw his head turn sharply toward the other end of the quarry. The older man’s hand twitched.
“What is it, Athan?” Kyven asked.
“I hear something behind those rocks,” he said quietly. “There’s something here with us.”
“Then we confront it,” Lynx said.
They started toward the end of the quarry, each turned slightly to ensure that they were able to view their entire surroundings as they went. Out of the corner of his eye Kyven saw something dark rise above one of the rocks just as Emerie grabbed his arm beside him. He turned and saw a Valdician like the ones in the shuttle standing above them, his dark robes concealing his face and hands and hanging heavily around his body in the still air. There was a long moment of quiet before Rain suddenly burst forward, rushing toward the creature with her weapon drawn.
The Valdician’s hand lifted and Rain gasped as her body lifted from the ground and soared backwards, crashing to the ground several feet behind them. Lynx shouted her name and ran to her as Athan surged toward the cloaked figure. Kyven started around the rock to get behind the Valdician. He heard Athan grunt and the low thud of his body hitting the sand. Emerie was close behind him and together they started up the back of the rock. The Valdician was starting to turn when Kvyen reached forward with his blade, slashing across the back of its legs. The creature let out a growl, but the wounds stopped him from turning. It fell to its knees on the rock and Emerie planted a kick into its belly so that it tumbled down the side of the rock.
Kyven joined her on top of the rock and they looked down toward the others. Athan and Rain were standing again, and she caught Kyven’s eyes.
“Kyven!” she screamed.
Kyven looked down and saw a pale hand coming toward him from beneath the rock. It grabbed onto his ankle and Emerie took his hand, trying to pull him out of the grip. She gave a hard yank and her hand slipped off of him. She screamed as she fell and slid down the other side of the rock. Kyven stomped on the Validician’s hand to loosen the grip, distracting the creature long enough to allow Athan to run up behind him and plunge his blade into the back of its neck. Kyven turned and dropped to the edge of the rock. He looked down and saw Emerie clinging to the edge of the rock. He reached for her, but she had tumbled too far beneath him. Kyven scrambled down toward her. Just as he got to her side and grasped her around the waist, they both slipped.
Kyven wrapped his body around hers, cradling her tightly against him to protect her as they rolled down the face of the rock into a deeper section of the quarry. They hit the hard bottom but an instant later he heard a sickening cracking sound and the ground beneath them collapsed. Just as they had when they dove into the gap of the hills, they landed hard and waited a breathless moment to determine if they were injured.
“Are you alright?” he asked Emerie.
“Yes,” she replied. He watched as she stood carefully and looked around them in the hazy light filtering from above them. “Where are we?”
Kyven shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It could be a section of the quarry that they tried to fill in or it might be an underground cavern.”
Kyven looked at the opening of the pit high above them and then the wall. It was nearly smooth, no hand or footholds available to help them climb out. A moment later Athan’s face appeared in the opening.
“Kyven? Emerie?” he called down.
“We’re fine, Athan,” Kyven yelled up to him,
“but we have no way of getting out. Can you help us?”
Athan evaluated the depth of the pit.
“You’re too far down,” he called. “We’re going to have to go back to the shuttle and get help. Don’t go any further into the cavern. Stay where you are. It will be dark soon. Do you have a light stick?”
Kyven reached into his bag.
“I have one, but it is partially activated.”
“It will have to do,” Athan said. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. Be prepared. The others might come for the body of the Valdician in the quarry. Be ready to fight if we haven’t returned.”
Athan’s face disappeared from the edge of the gap and Kyven felt the words fall heavily into his gut. He turned toward Emerie and cupped her face in his palm, stroking her cheek softly with his thumb.
“We’ll be alright,” he said. “They’ll get back to the shuttle, get Maxim and some of the others, and they’ll be back for us.
“It will be hours,” Emerie said. “It took us at least two hours to walk here. They have to get all the way there and back.”
“It will be fine,” Kyven said.
Even as he spoke he could see that the light coming from above them was fading.
“The sun sets quickly here,” Emerie said. “It will be dark in minutes.”
“It’s alright,” Kyven said. “I will protect you.”
They walked to the edge of the cavern and sat, leaning back against the wall so that they could rest while they waited. Kyven took Emerie’s hand in his and ran the pads of his fingers along hers.
Another Uoria Holiday: A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Holiday Romance Page 3
