by Anna Argent
“People are dying, Ava. Your people. Do you really think the mess here matters in the greater scheme of things?”
“Whoa. Way to go all grim. Listen, Mr. Mopey Pants, whatever is going on back on your planet is not my fault or my concern. My mother brought me here for a reason, and I’m pretty sure she’d be upset knowing she went to all that trouble just so I’d jump back into the frying pan one day.”
He looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “How old were you when you real mother died?”
“Three or four. We aren’t exactly sure what my birthday is. Mom never said.”
“Did she tell you why she brought you here?”
“To keep me safe.”
Radek’s grip on her wrist eased. “You were just a baby. She probably kept it secret to protect you in case the Raide invasion spread here.”
“Kept what secret?”
He shook his head and glanced toward the kitchen were Rudy was cleaning to his music. “Not here. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but not where humans can overhear.”
“You’re just trying to create intrigue so you can ensnare me.”
“And if I am?” he asked.
“It’s totally working. Let me finish up here, and I’ll—”
Something was wrong. Horribly, terribly wrong. That sense of danger she’d been born with—that instinct that went off only when things were about to go sideways—it was screaming at her now like a siren.
“What’s wrong?” Radek asked.
“I don’t know. Something bad. Very bad.”
“Stay here,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back.”
He sprinted for the door and disappeared outside. She didn’t know if he was going to call for help, scout the area for intruders, or simply run away and leave her to deal with the danger alone.
Every second that passed made her feel worse. Something terrible was headed toward them, and she had no idea what to do about it.
Her first instinct was to arm herself. Her second was to find Rudy and get him out of harm’s way. The only problem was she had way to know what to do. If it was a flash flood, she’d want him on the roof. If it was a fire, she’d want him to rush outside. If it was some kind of freak lightning storm about to hit, then they were safest if they just hunkered down and hoped for it to pass fast.
By the time she reached the kitchen where the knives lived, she realized that it was none of those things.
As she watched, the back wall of the Billy Hill Grill was sliced off by a bright green beam of light no thicker than her finger. Sparks flew and water began spewing out of severed pipes. A second later, thin, black claws shoved their way into the gap cut by the laser and ripped the back wall clean off of the foundation.
Shock rattled around in her skull, which was now empty of all coherent thought beyond What the hell?
It was dark outside, but the lights still flickering inside of the building spilled over a group of things Ava could only call monsters.
They had spiderlike limbs, but stood seven feet tall. Their heads and bodies were compact and powerful, covered in a silky black fur. Huge black eyes stared at her and Rudy, and there was no doubt in her mind that this was how she was going to die.
The need to fight welled up, leaving no room for fear. They were bigger than she was, likely stronger than her too. There were more of them, and they had the element of surprise on their side. She had no idea what they wanted, why they were here or how to fight them. But none of that mattered. All Ava cared about was killing as many of them as she could before they took her out.
“Get behind me,” she told Rudy. A gleaming knife was in her fist, and her blood was pumping hot, urging her to make use of it to fuel her attack.
“What the fuck?” Rudy said as he backed away from both the monsters and her.
She couldn’t protect him if he was across the room. She needed him closer. “Get behind me!”
One of the monsters skittered forward. She didn’t know how many of them there were—their spindly legs kept moving in a mass, obscuring their numbers—but there were a lot. Too many.
She shifted to her right to get between the approaching monster and Rudy. The rest seemed to hang back as if uncertain how to proceed. They made this odd clicking noise that clashed horrendously with the gush of water and the spark of cut electrical wires.
“What the hell is that?” Rudy yelled as he scrambled backward.
She didn’t even have time to open her mouth to tell him she didn’t know before the thing charged.
Ava’s instincts took over. Her head filled with an instantaneous rush of options, which she filtered and discarded in a fraction of a second. Before she had consciously made her choice, her body was already flying into motion, knife held tight as she met the charge.
A strange kind of peace settled over her as she closed the distance with the monster. She’d never been in combat before, but she knew what to do. She knew how to search for a weak spot and exploit it. She knew to use the added force of momentum to give her blow the strength it would naturally lack. She knew that if she showed even the slightest hint of fear that the rest of the pack would swarm into the restaurant and kill both her and Rudy within seconds.
In the time it took to close the few feet between them, even as fast as they were running toward each other, Ava saw her target.
The thing had long, thick legs that gleamed with the hardness of metal. But under its body was a paler, duller spot—one she guessed was also much softer. That was where she needed to strike.
The monster swiped at her with both of its forelegs. She felt the sting of her skin giving way and splitting open where one of its sharp claws had struck home. But the second leg—the one raised to slice across her face—it was the bigger threat. Somehow she’d known that and held her attack for that offending limb.
With one hard strike, she shoved the chef’s knife through the bulbous joint, severing the bottom half of the monster’s leg.
Watery gray fluid spilled out. A loud, furious clicking sound erupted from it in what she guessed was a scream of pain.
The other creatures saw this, and rather than being terrified that she was able to wound one of their own, they became agitated.
More clicking noises filled the space, and as the monster she fought shifted positions for another attack, the rest of the horde charged.
Rudy screamed in fear behind her, and she had only one knife to use against an entire army of monsters.
Once again Ava became certain that no matter how hard she fought or how fast or smart she was, this was how she was going to die.
Chapter Nine
Radek grabbed his maulst out of the back of his truck. The tip glowed a furious blue, shining as bright as his rage and fear.
Cyturs didn’t attack openly like this. At least, not on this planet.
Before he had time to spend any more thought on that sweeping change, he rushed into combat, charging in from behind.
The tip of his weapon reshaped itself into a curved, serrated blade—perfect for catching and severing the hard limbs of a Cytur. With the long pole to add to his reach and the force of his blows, he cut his way through the mass, injuring enough of the creatures to slice a pathway to Ava’s side.
She was toe-to-claws with one of the black, chitinous beasts. Two of its legs were severed, and she was positioning herself for another hit.
Behind her, Rudy grabbed a heavy wooden chair to use as a weapon.
There was no way a human could survive a fight like this. He wasn’t bred to fight. He didn’t have the strength or genetic knowledge he needed to survive in this situation. He wasn’t trained to go against anything stronger or faster than one of his own kind. If Radek didn’t do something, the innocent cook was going to be dinner himself.
Ava took another swipe at the Cytur in front of her. She missed, giving it an opening to slice at her throat. Between the time it lashed out and the time the blow would have struck home, she ducked low and
slid under the creature, shoving her knife up straight into its soft underbelly.
Gray blood oozed out of it, but her reflexes were so fast that she was even able to dodge most of that mess before it doused her.
A deep sense of pride lit up in Radek’s chest. She was exactly who he’d hoped. Exactly who’d he’d been searching for since coming to this alien world.
Ava was a Soricalia. A warrior queen. It was her kind who would save their people from total destruction.
No matter what it took, what it cost, or what he had to sacrifice, Radek had to get Ava home where she could do as she was bred to do. It was the only way House Soric would survive the war against the Raide.
With the thought of protecting her in mind, he charged into battle. His hungry maulst sucked power from his cells. Heat from its tip spread across his bare skin. The click of Cyturs’ language, mixed with the clatter of their exoskeletons rattling against one another was nearly deafening.
Time stretched out, and his senses heightened, giving him a wide, sweeping view of the battlefield. By the time his weapon struck its first victim, he was already plotting his course to the next one—following Ava’s progress through the combat.
She was beautiful in her rage. Her movements were not as fluid and graceful as they would be once she’d practiced her art, but the potential was there. He could see it in her lines, in her choice of targets.
Radek took down two foes before she’d felled her next, but she was definitely holding her own. As her body became used to the genetic knowledge given to her at the time of her conception, she would become more powerful. More deadly.
Until then, Radek would keep her safe and give her time to develop into the warrior she was born to be.
A small Cytur had circled around to flank her. It was too far away for Radek to reach on foot. “Watch out!” he shouted, pointing to the creature that was nearly upon her.
Ava spun, picking up a heavy skillet lid as she moved. She threw the cast iron lid like a Frisbee, knocking the Cytur’s legs out from under it.
Before it had time to right itself, she shoved the Cytur in front of her backward, and made a strategic retreat to protect her flank with a large gas range.
A hulking beast of a Cytur threw itself at her, slamming into the appliance hard enough to shove it half a foot.
Something started hissing. A sharp, pungent smell filled the area, burning his eyes. He knew it was something bad, but couldn’t quite remember what.
Radek loved combat as much as any Sorican, but this was far too risky. Ava was here, and until she came into her own power, it was his job to keep her safe.
He positioned his weapon, setting it to charge. Before he could take even one step, Ava spun out of the fray and grabbed his arm.
“Gas leak. Sparks. We have to go. Now!”
The pieces he’d been missing appeared in his head, and he put them all together.
There was about to be an explosion. A big one.
He shoved her forward, hanging back just far enough to keep the Cyturs at bay while she and the human cook escaped.
His maulst worked overtime, holding back the crush of Cytur bodies shoving at him. His feet skidded across the floor, and he took more than one cut as a claw ripped past his defenses. He knew the explosion was coming and he wanted to give Ava every second possible to escape the building.
Because of his combat-heightened senses, he saw the explosion start. A spark hit a pocket of gas, and fire billowed out to consume it. An instant later, that pocket hit another and another. The whole mass of air expanded in a brilliant yellow-blue flash of light and heat. It swept through the Cyturs, consuming them. Before he had time to move, the hungry cloud of fire reached him too.
The last thought he had before his body was flung back and crushed by the explosion was that he hadn’t left Ava with any way to get home.
She would be trapped here, forever, on a world not her own. Alone.
Chapter Ten
The force of the blast flung Ava and Rudy into the trees surrounding the parking lot.
She felt his hand being ripped from hers as they were both hurtled fifty feet through the air. She hit the lower branches of an evergreen hard enough to rip off its limbs and send splinters flying. By the time she came to a complete stop, she was stunned, winded and hurting everywhere she had nerve endings.
With a groan of pain, she shoved herself upright in order to get her bearings. When the spinning in her head had slowed enough to focus, she looked around.
Rudy was alive, but unconscious and bleeding from a hundred small cuts. But where was Radek?
Then she remembered, and a sickening sense of dread settled over her like an icy blanket. He had been inside with the creatures, holding them back from advancing so that she and Rudy could make their escape. He’d stayed inside to ensure their safety.
She stumbled up the shallow hill she’d been thrown down until she was up high enough to see the building. Fear and denial battled in her chest, both causing her heart to race.
It was engulfed in flames. Completely consumed by fire. There was no way anyone could have survived that blast.
Denial died a swift, fiery death and grief rose from its ashes. Radek was dead.
A deep, aching sense of loss engulfed her. She fell to her knees with tears streaming down her cheeks.
She hadn’t known Radek. Not really. But he hadn’t deserved to die. The fact that he’d done it to save her sorry skin only made his loss that much harder to face.
Sirens wailed in the distance. She knew there was something she should have been doing, but her head was too jumbled to figure out what the proper thing was. All she could do was stare into the fire and wish for a different outcome. Hope she’d wake up and realize this was all some bizarre nightmare.
A movement in the flames caught her eye. She blinked away the tears and squinted to clear her vision.
Someone was walking out of the fire. She could just make out the silhouette, black against the flames.
Tall, mile-wide shoulders, long-legged stride limping slightly.
Radek.
He was alive, relatively unscathed, and completely naked.
Ava rushed forward, falling three times before she gathered her balance. She met him halfway across the parking lot, and pulled him into her arms. She didn’t even care that he was wearing only soot. He was alive.
Alive!
Relief swelled inside her until it filled her ears with a faint buzz.
The sirens grew louder, closer.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“And Rudy? Where is he?”
That’s when Ava realized what she was supposed to do. “He got knocked out, but is still alive. We need an ambulance.”
“They’re already on their way. I hear the sirens.”
“Oh. Right.” That’s what that noise meant. It was all starting to come back to her, settling into something that made sense in her pureed brain.
“I can’t be here when the authorities arrive,” he told her. “And you can’t let them take you to the emergency room. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I know the drill. No doctors.”
“Once you can slip away, go home. I’ll wait for you there.”
Home. It sounded so good right now, she couldn’t even think about anything else. “I’m going there now.”
He grabbed her arms and gave her a little shake. “No, Ava. Not yet. You tell them that you smelled gas and left. The building exploded on your way out. You hit your head. That’s all you know. Do you understand?”
“What about the monsters?”
“They’ll burn in the fire. I made sure they were all in the hot spot.”
“How?”
His grip on her arms tightened. “There’s no time for that now. Tell me what you’re going to say.”
“We smelled gas, then left.”
“Good girl. Can you drive?”
She nodded. “I think so.
”
“My keys are in my truck. Drive it home. I’ll wait for you there.”
He pressed a brief kiss to her forehead, and then he turned away. All she saw was a fleeting glimpse of the finest ass ever created, and then he was gone.
Seconds later, a fire truck pulled in, followed closely by an ambulance and several police cars.
Ava stumbled toward Rudy, refusing to cooperate until someone had taken care of him. In the next few minutes, she held tight to what Radek had ordered her to do. No doctors, and the lie.
She repeated it over and over again, doing her best to shed the heavy pull of confusion weighing on her. At one point, she sat down on the ground and fell asleep. She woke up as two men were working to load her onto a stretcher.
With as much force as she could muster, she swatted them away, made clear her final refusal for any kind of care, and went home in Radek’s truck.
She had to sit way forward on the seat so her legs would reach the pedals, and it didn’t occur to her until she was halfway home that she could have adjusted it.
Her brain was definitely a scrambled mess right now.
Still, she made it home without crashing into anything.
Mom’s room was already dark. It was past her usual bedtime. Emily was home, but behind her closed bedroom door, likely studying.
There was no sign of Radek. She’d called his name quietly outside a couple of times, but he never popped out from behind a bush or from the depths of a shadow as she expected.
She was starting to worry that something bad had found him on the way here. He was naked, with no weapons or ID. Anything could have happened to him, from being arrested to being eaten alive by monsters.
Her concern bloomed into full panic. She had no idea what to do, but she knew she couldn’t sit around all night wondering.
Her bedazzled bat was ashes, but she kept a golf club in her room for emergencies. Armed with that and a flashlight, she would head back out and find him.
The second she opened her door, she saw him huddled in a dark corner of her room. The fuzzy Sherpa throw that usually hung out on the foot of her bed was wrapped around him like a cloak, barely stretching over his broad body. The ivory fabric was covered in soot and more than a few spots of blood.
