Captive

by Tana Stone

  “You didn’t think we’d leave you all so you could one day come after us, did you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes along the sight of the blaster.

  NoNoNoNoNo! The word seemed trapped in Max’s mouth as she watched helplessly. The blaster went off, Vrax diving in front of Tori the second before, and taking the brunt of the force across his back. Both of them slumped onto the ground, the gold sand billowing up around them in a soft cloud.

  Agony washed over her as she looked over the motionless bodies. She’d failed. After all this, they’d died for her anyway, and now she would be Mourad’s prisoner.

  Max collapsed onto the ground as grief threatened to swallow her, her gaze resting on Kush’s still body. She couldn’t feel him anymore. He was gone. Numbness washed over her, and she barely cared when the big bounty hunter threw her over his shoulder and started trudging away.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The sounds came in and out of focus, growing louder and then softer as he blinked.

  “He’s coming to!” The voice was female, but Kush realized with a sharp stab of disappointment that it wasn’t Max.

  Caro’s face swam into focus, her dark eyes slanting slightly as she smiled down at him. Behind her, he saw K’alvek, the tortured look on his face relaxing when Kush attempted to sit up. Bile rose in his throat as he pushed himself up onto one elbow, and he sank back down.

  “Do not exert yourself,” K’alvek said, kneeling down after Caro patted his shoulder and stood. “You were dead.”

  He put a hand to the spot on his chest that burned. The skin was hot to the touch, and he looked down at black, starburst pattern marring his tribal marks.

  Memories bubbled to the surface. Max giving herself up to save them. The alien hurting her and making her fall. Him feeling an uncontrollable burst of protectiveness and attacking. Pain exploding across his chest. The world going black.

  “I was shot,” he said, covering his eyes as the suns blazed down on him. Even now his heartbeat felt sluggish and his breath shallow.

  “You weren’t the only one.” Tori’s voice made him swing his eyes to the woman as she stepped in front of him and blocked the sun with her hands planted on her hips.

  “Max?” he asked, forcing himself up. His eyes scanned the sands, but he knew before he’d registered everyone gathered around him that she was gone. He couldn’t feel her anymore. Wherever she was, she was too far away. He gazed at the craggy rocks between them and the Crestek city, and knew she was behind them somewhere. Unless the ship had already taken her.

  She’d left him. He knew it was to save him—to save all of them—but the loss still ached in his chest. Maybe she’d been right. They never should have taken each other as mates. She might not even have given herself up if he’d been able to keep her at arm’s length. And now she was, what? A prisoner? Dead?

  He groaned. Had it been worth it? A small voice in his head screamed out yes, that claiming her as his mate had been worth everything.

  “Is she…?” he asked, not knowing if he could bear the answer.

  “No, Max was fine when they dragged her off. At least, as far as I know. I kind of got the wind knocking out of me.” Tori shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She jerked a thumb behind her. “That idiot Dothvek is the one who got shot.”

  Kush peered around her and saw Vrax sitting cross-legged, with the bounty hunter captain kneeling in front of him. He looked as weak as Kush felt.

  “He only got it in the shoulder,” Tori said with a roll of her eyes. “Not as much damage. Not for lack of trying, though.”

  “He did save your ass,” Danica said, shooting Tori a look.

  Tori threw her arms up. “Did I ask him to save me? No, I did not.”

  Caro hid a laugh behind her hand. “I guess no good deed goes unpunished.”

  Kush swiveled his head to look at K’alvek. “How are we alive?”

  His cousin cast a warm glance at the pale-haired captain. “My mate took medicine from her ship before it was destroyed. She gave you both injections that restarted your hearts.”

  Danica looked over her shoulder at them. “But I don’t have an endless supply, so it would be great if you could try not to get shot again.”

  Kush rubbed a hand over his wound. “We are sure these females are not goddesses?” He dropped his voice. “Or sorcerers?”

  K’alvek shrugged and grinned. It was clear he did not care if they were. Kush understood.

  “Where is she?” he asked, holding out an arm for his kinsman to hoist him up.

  K’alvek did not need to ask whom he meant. The two cousins had always had a connection even stronger than the usual empathic one of their clan. Since they’d been boys they’d seemed to know what the other was thinking before they said it.

  Kush brushed sand off his pants after K’alvek helped him up. “And why are you here with me and not already halfway across the sands?”

  “I sensed your anguish, so we changed course to help you,” his cousin said. “She was gone when we arrived. I sent Dev and Trek to track her.”

  Kush nodded, his stomach roiling, although he knew the twin warriors were excellent trackers. Not as fast as him, though. “They took her.” He took an unsteady step forward. “I need to go after her.”

  Tori let out a snort of laughter. “Yeah, that would work out well. You can barely stand. I’ll go. The doctor came back so I wouldn’t get shot.”

  “She did?” Caro put her fingers to her lips. “She gave herself up to Mourad to save you?”

  Tori’s eyes lowered. “Yeah, she did. Don’t ask me why. It wasn’t like I was ever all that great to her.”

  “After everything that happened, she considered herself part of your team,” Kush said, hoping the little female wouldn’t mind him sharing what she’d felt about the other females. “She’d been alone for a long time, but she liked the feeling of being one of you.”

  The females stared at him, and Caro’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Well, shit,” Tori said, clearing her throat.

  Danica straightened. “She is one of us.”

  “She’s got more nerve than I expected,” Tori said, and Kush suspected this was high praise from the tough female. “For a human.”

  “That’s right,” Caro said. “She’s just as smart and brave as any of the bounty hunter babes. I think she proved that today.”

  Danica muttered something about hating that name, but she nodded. “No way are we going to let her sacrifice herself. We all know what kind of lowlife Mourad is.”

  Tori growled, the corner of her upper lip twitching. “We never leave a member of our crew behind. Ship rules.”

  “Even if we don’t have a ship,” Caro added.

  Tori dug around in the sand, retrieved a blaster, and hooked it onto her belt. “I saw where Mourad landed his ship. If I can get there before he takes off, I’ve got a chance to save her.”

  “Go,” Danica said. “We’ll be behind you.”

  “Hey,” Caro said, spinning around. “Has anyone seen Bexli? I thought they were right behind us.”

  Danica lifted the round, green puff of fluff that was sinking into the powdery sand. “That’s weird. Pog’s right here.”

  “Just fucking great,” Tori grumbled before she started sprinting away from them toward the Crestek city. “Bexli’s missing, and we’re stuck with her weird-ass space dog. I really need to kill someone.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Max was despondent as the bounty hunter set her down on the ground. She didn’t even care that he was far from gentle and her ass landed on a slab of rock. Not even the physical pain could take away the agony she felt.

  Kush was gone. She’d seen him take a blaster to the chest and fall motionless to the sand. She’d felt the explosion of pain as if it had been her chest that had been blasted, although that had faded. She couldn’t feel the comforting hum of his emotions anymore, and it made her feel lonelier than ever before.

  She had no one to bl
ame but herself. She was the reason Kush was dead. If he hadn’t volunteered to come after her, snuck into the Crestek city to protect her, and vowed not to let Mourad take her away, he’d still be alive and well. She didn’t know what the Dothvek village looked like, but that’s where he would be if he’d never met her. Somewhere out on the desert. Alive.

  This was why she didn’t get attached to people, she thought. This was why she’d been better off as a loner, with her droid for company. You couldn’t fall in love with a droid. She put her head in her hands, wishing she’d never landed on the planet and brought so much death with her.

  At least if she left with Mourad and his assholes, everyone else would be safe. Letting them take her was the least she could do. Of course, it was too late for Kush. Tears trickled through her fingers.

  What’s done is done, Maxine. Wasn’t what her mother always said? She wished her mother’s voice wasn’t the one she heard echoing in her head, especially the sad, resigned tone she’d always seemed to have when talking to her daughter. At least her mother would have been happy that Max had found a man. If you could call the huge Dothvek a man.

  “Not that it mattered,” Max whispered to herself. Finding a guy hadn’t made everything better. Then, again, she’d never thought it would. Caring about someone only made it hurt more when you lost them.

  Max had been better off without anyone. That is, until she’d been taken captive by the female bounty hunters and met Kush. That had ruined everything.

  She swiped furiously at her wet cheeks. She would not let these assholes get the satisfaction of her sorrow.

  “We should be there by now,” the bounty hunter with the tattooed neck said, shooting her a dark look, as if getting lost was somehow her fault.

  “You’re the one who wanted to go through the mountains,” his crew mate snapped back. “If we’d gone around, we’d be at the ship.”

  “I can’t get any reading through all this rock.” He held out a device that whirred and flashed red. “Stupid fucking primitive planet. I can’t wait to get off this sand pit. We’ve already spent too much time chasing one pathetic female.”

  “She’s more trouble than she’s worth.” The alien with the gashed arm took a menacing step closer to her.

  “Not to the captain,” Tattoo Neck said, stepping in front of him and blocking his way. “She’s worth more alive than you are.”

  The other one grunted in reply. “I’ll be glad to get my share of her bounty.” He sneered at her. “I think she liked that barbarian. The one you killed.”

  Max fisted her hands by her sides, willing herself not to fly at the two brutes. She thought they probably wouldn’t kill her, but she couldn’t be sure. She almost laughed. Maybe she should get herself killed. What did it matter now? Kush was dead, Holly was trapped behind the Crestek city gates, and all of it was because of her.

  If she was dead, there was no more bounty and no more reason for Mourad to be on the planet. He’d leave the Dothveks and her friends alone. The added bonus was that he’d never get to cash in on her. She liked the idea of pissing off Mourad and his crew. And, boy would they be pissed if they came all this way and didn’t even end up with a bounty to show for it. A grim laugh gurgled up in her throat.

  “What are you all happy about?” one of the men asked.

  “Nothing,” she said, as her body began to shake with laughter. She wished she could be there to see the look on Mourad’s ugly face when he found out she was dead, and the bounty was lost.

  “Maybe she’s crazy,” the one with the buzz cut said, while both stared at her.

  “She might have gotten too much sun.” The other swept the back of one thick hand across his forehead. “The heat down here is enough to make anyone mad.”

  “Speaking of mad,” Max said. “Your boss is going to be pissed.”

  “What do you know about him?” Tattoo Neck asked, cocking his head at her.

  She shrugged. “All I know is that you two meatheads were supposed to find me and bring me back to his ship so he could cash in on the big bounty on my head and, instead, you killed me.”

  They exchanged a glance and one swallowed hard. “No one’s gonna kill you, girly-girl.”

  She stood and eyed the side of the path that they’d been taking through the mountains. Without peering over the edge, she knew the drop was far enough down to kill her. It wasn’t how she’d have chosen to go, but she guessed there were worse ways.

  The bounty hunter with the bum arm saw where she was looking and stepped in front of her, his arms wide. “Oh, no, you don’t. You don’t want to do that.”

  She danced to one side. “Why not? You really think I want to be taken prisoner by someone as disgusting as you? You’ll probably throw me in a cell and feed me crap food until you take me to whatever total asshole has decided the best way to get my knowledge is to set a bounty on my head. I’m guessing I’ll never get away from him. The rest of my life will be spent as some sort of scientific slave. So, explain to me again why I don’t want to jump over the side?”

  Tattoo Neck mumbled something under his breath that contained a lot of curse words. “’Cause no one wants to crack their head open on a rock and have their brains splattered everywhere.”

  “I do,” Max said, darting around them and teetering on the edge. She pinwheeled her arms to regain her balance, looking down and finally seeing the drop. Her stomach fell, and she was hit with a sudden wave of vertigo. Yep, that was far. A few small rocks skittered over the edge, and she barely heard them hit the bottom.

  “Shit,” one of the guys said, his splotchy skin losing a few shades as he watched her hover at the edge.

  Max looked down again, steeling herself to step off. She wished she’d gotten to see Holly again and explain everything. She hoped her friend would understand somehow. She wished she’d gotten to explain it to all of them. But what she wished for most of all was one more kiss from Kush. Even the thought of his soft lips made hers tingle. She touched her fingers to her mouth and smiled.

  “It was so not a pleasure knowing you dickheads,” she said to the two men, her gaze snagging on a sand-colored lizard that was scampering along the rock behind them. One moment, she was thinking how unusual it was that the lizard had a lavender tail, and the next second, the lizard had morphed into Bexli.

  The shapeshifter snatched the blaster from one guy’s belt and blasted them both in the head before they could do more than spin and open their mouths in shock. They fell on the spot, their heads cracking against the rock floor, and blood pooling underneath them.

  Max jumped in alarm and felt herself start to tip over the edge. Bexli lunged for her, grabbing her hand and yanking her back.

  “How did you? What are you…?” Max asked, leaning against the rock face and trying to process what had just happened.

  Bexli flipped her fingers through her bob and grinned. “I’ve been tracking you almost the whole time. I didn’t plan to show myself until later, when I could be sure of getting a better drop on them, but then you decided to throw yourself off the cliff, so I had to speed up the plan.”

  Heat rushed to Max’s cheeks and she looked down. “I figured if I was gone, Mourad wouldn’t have any reason to harass you all anymore.”

  Bexli crossed her arms. “You know, I’d really love it if everyone would stop sacrificing themselves for each other. I mean, it’s sweet and all, but it makes a lot more work for me.”

  “I promise not to try to throw myself off a cliff again.”

  “Good.” Bexli grinned at her. “Now, I know a pretty built barbarian who’s going to be happy to see you.”

  Max’s stomach fluttered. “Kush?”

  “That’s the name of the guy you were clinging to when you came out of the alien city, right?” Bexli said, waving a slender hand in the air. “Honestly, I have a hard time keeping their names straight.”

  Max grabbed her by the arms. “He’s alive? Kush is alive?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said, didn�
�t I?” She wiggled out of Max’s grasp. “You know, I’m starting to wonder if maybe the sun did get to you.”

  “I thought he was dead. I saw him get shot. I saw him fall and not get up.”

  “Well, Danica arrived in time to shoot him up with some of the drugs we had on the ship, and he’s breathing just fine.”

  “Where is he? I need to see him.”

  Bexli folded her arms across her chest and gave her a mischievous grin. “All in good time. First, you need to help me with something.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “Which way did they take her?” Kush asked, heaving in a hard breath and feeling his energy returning. Whatever Danica had given him had worked fast. His muscles tingled, and his heart thumped steadily.

  Glancing around, he saw that Tori had run ahead, and even Vrax was missing. He was starting to wonder if the Dothvek was truly as annoyed by the bounty hunter as he claimed.

  K’alvek handed him one of the blades he’d dropped when he’d been shot. “Through the rocks.”

  Kush hooked the blade on his waist. “They will be moving slower. That’s good.”

  K’alvek didn’t respond. Both Dothveks also knew it meant their pursuit would be slower. They could not run as fast through the narrow mountain passes as they could on open ground.

  Kush cut his eyes to the sky. The suns were dropping. That meant they needed to hurry, or they’d be caught in the rocks when night fell—a dangerous time to be hurrying alongside cliff drops.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Caro asked.

  “Find Max and take out Mourad,” Danica said, flexing her arms. “No way that asshole going to terrorize us or this planet anymore.”

  K’alvek gazed at his mate with an obvious mixture of admiration and desire, growling low in his throat as he nodded his agreement. Kush felt like he was intruding on a private moment, even though the fiery tangle of his kinsman’s emotions was so obvious it was like he was shouting them out loud.

  “Are you strong enough to take the lead?” K’alvek asked him, when he’d torn his gaze from his mate.