“Creed,” she cried. “Oh, goddess, you’re bleeding. You’re hurt. Let me—”
He pulled her hand away from his face. “No time.” He was already in motion, pulling her after him across the floor, covered in rubble.
She stumbled, then yanked at his grip. “I can walk.”
“All right. Keep up.” He took off at a jog through the house, ignoring his throbbing head, on his comlink. IGSF first.
“Attack at LodeStone compound,” he yelled as a uniformed officer appeared, his image flickering through the dust in the air. “Compound compromised. Suspect pirates again. Need your closest ships now.”
“Copy, Mr. Forth,” the officer said calmly. He looked up, at some readout only he could see. “We have two ships in the area, ETA ten minutes. You have one unknown craft overhead, three more approaching.”
“Great God beyond,” Creed muttered, breaking the link. “Don’t have ten minutes.”
They’d reached the passageway outside the office, and Nikk was in the doorway, face set, laser in hand. “Sir,” he called. “We’ve been breached again.”
“I noticed,” Creed roared, as another explosion sounded, this one outside the wall. “What the quark happened?”
Although he was sure he already knew. Someone had betrayed him, betrayed them all. The only way the system could be down again was if someone had done it manually.
He looked over his shoulder to make sure Taara was right behind him. Seeing she was, he grasped her arm and pulled her into the office. Her eyes were huge in her dirty, pale face.
Nikk jerked his head to one side, indicating the control room. “Someone’s been in here.”
The old soldier’s gaze zeroed in on Taara, who was paying no attention, staring blankly at him as if waiting to be told what to do. She was shaking, Creed saw. Shocky.
Part of him, a big part, wanted to hold her close and reassure her, tell her he’d keep her safe no matter what, that he’d kill anyone who tried to touch her. But he had bigger responsibilities than just one small woman.
Also, while the idea of her colluding with pirates was ludicrous—she was a clothing clerk, for God’s sake—there weren’t many beings here and no stranger could have breached the compound. And what did he really know about her after all? Just that she was a liar, and a good one.
“Keep an eye on her,” he told Nikk. “Who else is on site?”
Nikk scowled at Taara as he spoke. “Just Lani and her girl. Nels and the boys are guarding the mine, the techs are inside.”
“Good. I’m going up. Nels will hold the mine.” He and the boys would be in the heavily reinforced mouth of the mine, heavy lasers ready to fire on anyone who tried to breach.
“You’re going up there alone?” Taara reached out for him, her eyes wide.
Nikk shoved her back. “You sit,” he growled. “And don’t touch anything.”
Creed heard this, but not her response. He was already dashing out to the hangar, to his cruiser.
* * *
Creed was taking his cruiser up to face four pirate ships? Taara watched him race out of the room. A bright spot of color on the pale floor caught her eye. Blood, bright red.
“He’s bleeding,” she said. She turned her accusing gaze on the older man at the console, eyeing the holo-displays. “You shouldn’t let him go—not alone.”
The ex-soldier glared at her. “Wouldn’t be, if I could still fly. Now shut it. And you move a muscle, I’ll take you down.”
Taara pushed her hair back, comprehension beginning to penetrate.
“You think ... I did this?” Hurt stabbed her, a solid blow to her chest, and she pressed her fist over it. “I would never do anything to hurt Creed. Or his people.”
Nikk snorted, manipulating controls. “He don’t seem to believe that, so why should I?”
Taara barely had time to absorb this blow when a door opened in the back of the room. Lani burst in, followed by her niece, both wide-eyed. “Oh, my God,” Lani cried. “We’re under attack. Nikk, where is Creed? Is he safe?”
The whine of a powerful craft taking off close by silenced them all. “He is now,” Nikk said grimly. “Pray he stays up, and safe. Now if you women would sit down, I can help out.”
Another explosion rocked the building, this one overhead. Everyone’s gaze flew to the ceiling, except Nikk’s. He gave a growl of triumph. “Got you, y’quarking bastard.”
He pointed to one of the holovid screens, and Taara realized with a jolt that the sleek silver ship against the backdrop of afternoon thunder clouds was Creed. And the explosion in midair before his ship was the fiery remains of one of the pirate ships.
“He got one,” Lani cried. “Yes.”
Beside her, Noni clapped her hand over her mouth, looking terrified.
Taara heard her strangled cry, but her own gaze was locked on the holovid, as Creed’s ship swung in midair and dove, narrowly dodging a laser blast from an ugly, squat ship flying after him. She gave a sob of relief as Creed fired again, red streaking out. He was all right, so far. The charge hit the other ship and she cried out with Lani this time.
Creed was already firing again, at two more of the ugly ships. Another burst into flames. The third lurched to one side, black smoke curling from one of the rear vents.
“He got them all,” Lani exulted.
“No.” Taara searched the holovid sky. “He said there were four. Where’s the other one?”
“Quark it, she’s right,” Nikk said. “Boss, you got a sneaker. One ship left and I don’t have it on monitor.”
Then he stiffened. “Skrog shit. There they are—landing. Right behind the compound.”
“I’ll get the laser weapons,” Lani was already on her feet, headed for a long cabinet in the wall.
“I’m armed,” Nikk rapped out. “And you. None for her.”
He glowered at Taara again, and she wrapped her arms around her middle. “I can help,” she insisted. “I’m not the one who let them through.”
He ignored her, pulling a laser weapon from his belt.
Creed’s face filled one of the holovid screens. Pale, with blood streaking one side of his face, the cockpit of his cruiser around him. But he was alive. Taara stared at him, drinking him in.
His gaze flicked over her impersonally. “Nikk. I’m coming overhead, to try to get a shot at them. Stay inside, keep the women with you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Creed jerked his chin, and disappeared. On the other holovid, his ship went into a long dive. With dull surprise, Taara saw the compound below him. Craters marked the roof of one end—over his bedroom, and the balcony in front of the sitting room was gone, splintered off, as was part of the stone wall.
She stood, heart in her throat, when she saw the strange ship squatting behind the wall of the garden patio. “There they are,” she called.
Lani stood beside Nikk, two sleek laser weapons in her hands. “Why not arm her?” she asked, her uncertain gaze on Taara.
“Because she’s the one let them through,” he said. “You stay beside me. If they get in, we fall back, go down into the tunnels.”
Noni made a strange sound, and Taara’s gaze flicked to her. She hadn’t heard a word out of the girl for several moments. She expected to see her too frightened to speak. But instead, she stared. Noni’s pretty face was set in an expression that was strange, because it did not fit the situation. Behind her aunt and Nikk, she was staring at the holovid of the pirate ship. Smiling to herself. Her gaze cut slyly to Taara, and her smirk deepened.
Comprehension struck Taara with sickening certainty.
“It was you,” she called, rising from her chair. She took a step forward. “You let them in, Noni. You sneaked in here and disabled the alarms—this time and last time. The alarms don’t go off when you go in and out of the compound.”
Nikk’s head went back, his brows flew up. Lani blinked and then her face went pale and slack. She turned slowly, like an old woman, to look back at her niece.
/> “That’s why you were down by the river,” Taara went on, adding it up. “You were meeting with them. Or at least one of them. You were with a man, that’s why you were so pleased with yourself.”
“No,” Lani cried softly.
Noni ignored her. With virulent glare at Taara, she spun and dashed across the room, arms outstretched to the door leading out back to the garden patio.
“Stop,” Nikk roared.
“Noni,” Lani wailed at the same instant.
The girl smacked into the door. It flew outward, releasing her into the garden area, then closed behind her with a hollow thud.
“You should have locked the door,” Lani murmured, her voice a thread. “She’s going to them.”
“Locked to keep them out, not us in,” Nikk answered, sounding equally as off kilter. “That little girl did this?”
Lani gave a low, agonized moan, and Taara hurried to her side, taking her arm. The larger woman hardly noticed.
“Sit down here,” Taara urged. “Give me the laser. I’ll help Nikk.”
Lani’s dark gaze cut to her. She took a shaky breath, and then shook her head. “I will help. Those pirates may have my stupid little niece, but they’re not going to get the rest of us.”
Her eyes lifted to the holovid, and in silence the three of them watched Noni running through the garden, to greet several rough beings emerging through a gap blasted in the garden wall, some human, some Mau, and a few that Taara didn’t even recognize, with narrow heads and skulking shambles.
“Ingoes,” Nikk spat. “Filth, all of them, but they’re the worst.”
He looked at Lani and her. “Something happens, they get in here, you die before you let them take you, understand?”
Taara nodded. So did Lani.
One of the men, a tall human, reached out and grabbed Noni as she ran to him. He grinned at her, yanked her head back by her hair and gave her a swift, hard kiss. Then he shoved her away, and motioned to the others. Noni didn’t seem to mind the rough treatment, merely touching her mouth as she smiled after him. Lani hissed with disgust.
“They’re coming.” Taara took the laser Nikk handed her and cocked it.
“They’re splitting up,” Nikk noted. “Headed for the side that’s compromised. I’m going there, to hold them off. You stay here.”
Taara looked after the old soldier as he limped from the room. “I’m going after him,” she decided. “Lani, are you all right here?”
Lani nodded, her face set. “Yes, go. I can use a laser. I won’t let them in here. Nikk is brave, but he’s not young.”
An explosion rocked the ground outside. With a cacophony of yells, the pirates scattered, leaving three on the ground motionless. Another explosion and two more fell. Creed was firing on them. His cruiser streaked overhead.
Taara hurried after Nikk. As she jogged along the passageway, dodging piles of rubble, she mourned the beautiful, serene house. Creed’s sanctuary, which he was now being forced to fire upon.
As she hurried past the galley, she looked to her left, and stared straight into the narrowed eyes of a pirate, standing in the middle of Creed’s kitchen. The large refrigeration unit stood open at his side, and he held a chunk of roast terra-goose in his hands.
She froze. The pirates were here, inside the house. For a sec, she was back in the dark alley behind Daanel’s shop, helpless in the grasp of the huge Mau while the other man groped her and told her what would happen to her and Daanel if he didn’t pay up.
Her breath stuttered in her throat, while her heart skipped a beat. Adrenaline flooded her bloodstream, her arms and legs shaking, heart racing unevenly.
“Hey, pretty,” the rough looking human rasped, smiling at her with meat stuck in his yellowed teeth. “C’mere.”
For an instant, she saw herself thru his eyes—a small woman, dressed for seduction in a tiny dress, apparently defenseless, at his mercy. Fear weakened her knees, shivered through her limbs. Then she felt the laser in her grasp, and her hand tightened on it.
No! She would not be a victim again. She was half-human, half-Serpentian. Ancestors of both races had explored and settled the galaxy.
Stupid bastard, she was more than a match for him.
Taara smiled back at the pirate, a grimace that showed all her teeth. Then she swung the laser up and squeezed the trigger mechanism. Red laser charge shot across the room toward him. As if in slow motion, his eyes widened, mouth gaped as he rocked back, trying to dodge.
The first laser charge missed, but the next hit him in the near side of his chest. Eyes still wide, but already glazing over in death, he fell backward, disappearing behind the counter to hit the floor with a heavy thud. The door of the refrigerator swung slowly shut.
Oh, goddess, she’d killed a being. Taara groaned with disgust, but hurried forward to peer over the counter.
And found herself nose to nose with another pirate. The wiry, dirty human rose up in front of her from where he’d been crouched behind the counter, hands full of food pacs. For half a sec, they stared each other in the eye.
“You killed my partner,” he accused. Then his gaze flicked down to her breasts, back up again, and narrowed in triumph.
“Oops,” she muttered.
“Oops,” he mimicked. “Does that mean fuck in your language? ‘Cause that’s what I’m gonna do with you, pretty. Then my other mates will want a turn.”
He grabbed her arm. His grip was strong, his fingers rough, nails too long, biting into her skin with vicious force. And in his other hand he held a wicked blade.
Flooded with terror, Taara moved with blind instinct. She grabbed his arm with her other hand. Then she used the leverage to swing her legs up and across the counter toward him. His eyes widened in pleased surprise, and that’s when she struck. Flipping over in midair, she scissored one bare leg over his head, dropping the other in place on the near side, and squeezed—with all her might.
His face was buried between her legs, which was not pleasant at all, as she could feel his hot breath, and the sweat as he struggled to break free of her grip. “Mmmph. Lemme go, bitch.”
Pain stabbed the outside of her thigh, white hot—the knife. She screamed. Then, gritting her teeth, Taara channeled all her pain and fear into one powerful move, and twisted.
She felt his neck snap.
When he went limp, she let go before gravity could drag her to the floor with him. She struggled away from him to fall back on the counter, clutching her leg, which was streaming blood from a deep cut around the black handle of the knife, still stuck in her thigh. She grasped the hilt and yanked it out, letting out a scream of pain as it tore loose.
She sobbed for breath, her entire body shuddering with pain and the adrenaline cocktail in her blood. She’d done it—she’d saved herself from not just one, but two pirates.
But now she was in real trouble.
Another pirate stalked into the galley through the open door. This one was huge, with odd orange skin, a bald head, and so many tattoos she could hardly distinguish his features. She could see his savage grin, though. His teeth were sharp and yellowed. A Gorglon, one of the few galactic races more reviled than the Mauritanians.
“Ha-aah,” he rumbled. “Slaaneez galah, a hasmaata. Mm-mm ba hasmaat.”
“Translator on,” said a sweet voice in Taara’s ear. “Quote; ‘You’re a tasty one, and a fighter. I like it when they fight.’“
Taara shuddered. His intent was clear enough, without hearing the words.
The pirate lumbered toward her. Terror filling her, she looked around wildly. Her laser lay on the floor where she’d dropped it when the pirate grabbed her arm. His bloody cutter lay a few feet away. She’d never reach either in time.
“Taara!” Creed’s yell was the most welcome sound she’d ever heard. Scrambling backward, she threw herself off the counter. She hit the floor with a painful jolt, but gritted her teeth and scrambled to crouch behind the island.
“Be careful,” she yelled back. “There
’s still one left.”
Creed’s footsteps thudded into the room.
“Slonaah maah,” roared the pirate.
“No, she’s mine,” Creed said, in an eerily calm voice. “And you’re dead.”
Gritting her teeth against the pain in her leg, Taara pulled herself up to peer over the edge of the counter.
Creed stood in the galley, balanced lightly on both feet. He was dirty, with dried blood on his face and shirt and sweat gleaming on his skin. But his blue eyes glowed with icy fire, brilliant as his irridium.
She whimpered with terror. He held no weapon! He was going to die before her eyes, unless she did something.
She had to get to her laser. She moved, sliding around behind the pirate. Reached the weapon and bent, hissing in pain at the move. When she had the laser, she waved it at Creed to get out of range, so she could shoot. If she shot now, shaking this badly, she might hit him.
“Not yet,” Creed said, moving forward into a crouch. “He’s mine—unless he pulls a weapon. Then you can shoot.”
The pirate chuckled. It was an ugly sound, like rocks grating over glass. He crouched as well, and beckoned to Creed. “C’maah, tuaah. Aht raadah a ba baal.”
“‘Come on. I don’t need a weapon to kill you,’“ Taara’s translator echoed happily.
The huge pirate rushed Creed, and Taara clapped her hands over her mouth to keep her heart from leaping from her chest with terror.
But then she saw something extraordinary, something she would never have believed if she had not seen it with her own eyes, even knowing about his Zhen training. Creed moved with lightning swiftness and ease, flowing like a wraith through the air. Vaulting into mid-air he whipped around, first one long, powerful leg and then the other, striking the pirate directly on the side of his head—thud! Thud! It was the most advanced fighting kick she’d ever seen, worthy of an elite Serpentian guard.
Creed landed, twisting instantly to face the pirate, and this time struck the huge being with his fists.
The pirate went down like a skyscraper Taara had once seen demolished with set charges in New Seattle, wavering and then toppling to the floor. He struck with a mighty thud that shook the house, and lay still, ugly face down.
Creed of Pleasure; the Space Miner's Concubine (The LodeStar Series) Page 17
