Chilled: Elemental Warriors (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Paranormal Romance)

by Ashley West

  On the third day since everyone had found out everything, they went out to fight.

  Gilots had been spotted near the ship, near enough that they all had to wonder if they were being searched for. Obviously K'varot would have worked out who was responsible for freeing Sadie and killing his men by now, so he knew they were there.

  They filed out of the ship, spread into a battle formation, and they took them down.

  It was easy enough, and they waited to see if any others were going to come. When it was quiet for long minutes, they dropped their guard.

  "What was the point of that?" Caelum wanted to know. "Is he just sending his minions to die now? He has to know that we can defeat twelve Gilots without even working at it."

  "Perhaps they weren't sent here," someone suggested. "Perhaps they just wandered here."

  "That's too coincidental," Cullen opined.

  "So what's your idea, then?" Overon asked, and his voice was downright frosty.

  Cullen ignored the tone. "Well," he said. "Assuming that K'varot knows we're here, and assuming that the Gilots didn't just find the ship by accident, I'd say that they were looking for us. He couldn't afford to send half of his army down here if he wasn't sure of the location. That would split his forces too much and for no real reason. But now that he knows where we are..."

  "You think they confirmed it to him?" Tiama asked, ever to the point.

  "Possibly. They'd have had time to do it."

  Overon looked grudging, but Cullen could tell that he thought Cullen was right. "So what do we do, then? He could show up tomorrow with his whole force, ready for battle."

  The 'we probably can't handle that' went unspoken, but they all knew that was what he meant.

  "We could go to him," someone said. "Take the battle to his ship on our terms."

  "No guarantee we wouldn't just be walking into a trap," Overon said, and Cullen agreed. "I wonder if he wants his human back."

  "Overon," Cullen snapped. "This isn't the time."

  "It's strategy," Overon insisted. "We could use her as leverage. Tell K'varot that if he wants her back, he has to come get her himself, and then we kill him. You know most creatures can't survive without their heads. The rest of his army would crumble."

  "Yes, of course. Because K'varot is the very definition of honor, and he definitely wouldn't bring his army and then just kill us all and take Sadie anyway." Just saying it made his stomach twist with discomfort and unease.

  "Cullen is right," Tiama said, and Overon huffed.

  "Then we still need a plan," he said. "Preferably before we've got a hundred thousand Gilots after us."

  No one could argue with that, of course. The problem was that no matter what they did, they were going to be severely outnumbered. They had killed plenty of Gilots and other creatures since they'd come to Earth, but it was just the tip of iceberg. They had no idea how many soldiers K'varot had with him. Even if they started a battle on their terms, it could still turn in K'varot's favor very, very quickly.

  They’d captured and interrogated that one Gilot, but it had come to nothing. Aside from the most basic knowledge, it didn’t seem like K’varot’s army even knew anything of use about what he was planning.

  They had been on Earth for weeks now, and they were no closer to stopping K’varot. They needed a plan. They needed to do something, before something was done to them.

  Chapter Nine: Into the Black

  Sadie stepped off the ship with a sigh, looking back over her shoulder as the hatch closed behind her. Huh. She should have made sure that there was a way to get back on to the ship before she got off of it, but at the time thinking things through hadn’t been high on her list of priorities. She’d just needed some air.

  If the Ithilir had been cold to her before they’d discovered that she and Cullen were sleeping together, now they were downright arctic.

  No one looked her in the eye, whenever she crossed paths with Overon, he looked like he was two seconds away from tossing her off the ship himself. Sadie didn’t really understand what she had done that was so bad, considering Cullen wanted her just as much as she wanted him, and it wasn’t like she’d been the one to initiate things, but it was clear that she was the one they all hated.

  Cullen was taking his fair share of flack, too, of course, but they couldn’t outright shun him. They had no such problems when it came to her, apparently.

  So she’d just needed some air. She’d needed a chance to breathe. Cullen had been wrapped up in a strategy planning session for literal hours, and Sadie was tired of staring at the walls. It wasn’t safe for her to be off the ship, not when things were so unstable, and she realized that she didn’t even really know what was happening in the world anymore. It wasn’t like she had access to the news on an alien ship. It wasn’t like she’d been checking social media. When she and Cullen had gone on their walk, it was apparent that things were different, quieter, more deserted, but she didn’t know if that was because of people evacuating or something terrible happening.

  “What am I doing?” she murmured to herself, head tipped back to stare at the sky.

  “Something very foolish.”

  The voice was familiar, and Sadie jumped and whirled to see K’varot standing there. He was no less horrifying than he’d been the last time she’d seen him, gnarled and wide and ugly.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to sound braver than she felt. Her heart was in her throat, and her blood ran cold, memories of being locked in a cage assaulting her.

  “I’ve come for you, of course,” K’varot said, holding out his hand to her, single eye gleaming. “You didn’t think I was going to let you get away, did you? Surely not.”

  “I already got away,” Sadie snapped. “I can do it again.”

  K’varot smiled, and it was a twisted look for him. “Oh, pretty little vermin, you think I don’t know you had help escaping? The Ithilir are meddlesome thorns, but not for much longer. You don’t know, do you? What I’ve been doing to your people while you’ve been hiding away here?”

  Sadie swallowed hard. She didn’t know, but judging from his sickly pleased tone, it was nothing good.

  He just laughed, not even needing her to answer.

  “Come with me, vermin,” he said.

  “Die in a hole,” Sadie replied, backing up towards the hatch of the ship. Maybe if she made enough noise, then…

  “Oh no, little one,” K’varot said. “You’re not going to get them to save you this time. This time you’re going to be on your own.” He snapped his fingers, and almost like magic two dark, shadow like creatures slipped into view. She’d never seen their kind before, and they were very different from the usual goons K’varot had with him.

  “I’d like to introduce you to the Yndri,” K’varot said. “Nasty things, but they work for me now. Mostly because they want to be able to feast on all the living essence they can, and I’ve promised them they can have this planet when I’m done with it. Yndri, this is the little vermin. Bring her along, won’t you? You can have a taste, but not too much.”

  The creatures seemed to be made of darkness, cloaked in it as well, with dark, bald heads and no visible facial features. They glided forward silently on either side of her, and when one reached out to touch her, everything went dark.

  Chapter Ten: Into the Fray

  "We're getting nowhere like this," Tiama said, getting to her feet. "Arguing isn't the same as strategy."

  "Could be, if it was a good argument," Overon said, and she shot him a flat look.

  "We need to take a break," she continued. "Come up with ideas separately and then come back together."

  "Is that going to work?" Caelum wanted to know. "It seems like we all have plenty of ideas, but no idea of what will work. We're flying blind here, and I don't like it." He seemed like there was something else he wanted to say, but he pressed his lips together, holding it back.

  Overon picked up on it at the same time as Cullen, and he grinned. "Com
e on, then Cae. Tell us what's on your mind."

  Caelum cut a glance at Cullen and then shook his head. "It's not important. It won't help."

  "Out with it. There are no bad ideas right now. We've got nothing otherwise."

  Caelum sighed, rubbing at his forehead. "This is...unpredictable. We're outnumbered. We know where K'varot is, but he's killing humans by the bushel, and there's not all that much we can do to stop him. Whatever he gains from killing the humans, he has plenty of now, and he's going to come for our people next. It feels like...like we're wasting time here."

  Cullen's stomach dropped as he figured out what Caelum was saying. "So you think we should leave," he said, voice hard. "You think we should just go back to Fora in defeat."

  "Not in defeat," Caelum insisted. "To protect our people. The whole point of coming here was to stop K'varot from getting any stronger, before he got to Fora. And we're failing at that, Cullen. We're failing. I know you think Earth is wonderful, and you have this new appreciation for humans, but even you have to admit that this isn't going according to plan."

  He didn't want to admit it. That felt like betraying Earth and Sadie and all the beautiful things he'd experienced here. But...but the practical side of him, the side that had led him to being one of Fora's greatest warriors, had to admit that Caelum had a point, as much as he didn't want to.

  There was so much they still didn't know. So much they were missing, and every day they were in the dark was a day that K'varot got to grow stronger.

  All eyes in the room were on him. Tiama looked blank, Overon looked smug, Caelum looked worried, but everyone else just looked expectant.

  It was too much, and suddenly it was like there wasn't enough air in the room. "I can't think like this," he said, pushing up from his seat. "I need a break."

  Before anyone could call him back, he was striding out of the room they'd been meeting in and heading immediately for Sadie's room. He just wanted to bury his face in her hair and take comfort in her arms or between her legs or...

  Stars.

  What was he going to do when he didn't have her to rely on like that? When he had to go back to the way things were before?

  It didn't bear thinking about.

  He knocked on her door and received no answer, which made him frown and move to look for her elsewhere. Something caught his eye before he turned, though, and the sight of the message sphere bobbing just in the corner made his stomach twist with dread.

  Nothing good could be in there.

  It was short for K'varot, who hadn't struck Cullen as a 'to the point' kind of person in the last message sphere he'd seen from the lunatic. There had been all manner of taunting in that one, close enough to monologuing, meant to get the Prince riled up and worried about what the maniac might do.

  This one was a single sentence, five words, delivered in an utterly calm voice.

  "I have something of yours."

  It was enough to send Cullen's heart rate into a tizzy, and he didn't realize he was clenching his hands into fists hard enough to make the knuckles groan until he registered that it hurt.

  Cullen didn't need to even think about it to know what K'varot was bragging about taking. Or rather, who. Sadie wasn't in her room, and he was willing to bet that she wasn't anywhere else on the ship either. How K'varot had gotten his hands on her, Cullen didn't know and didn't have time to think about. All he could focus on was the fact that Sadie was in his clutches again. He'd promised her that he wouldn't let this happen, and it had happened right under his nose.

  Anger welled up in him, hotter than he was used to, and he knew what he had to do.

  Chapter Eleven: (In)To the Rescue

  Overon had seen a lot of things in his time. He'd been a fighter basically since he was old enough to make a sword out of ice, and he'd fought all manner of creatures.

  Humans were a new thing for him, though, and he'd never thought that he'd see one of his kind with a human. It made him angry. It made him wary of things changing and there being nothing he could do to stop it. First they had left Fora and now Cullen was with a human and then what? How far would things warp from the ways he was used to before it was all said and done?

  Coming to Earth was supposed to be about the good of their people. About stopping K'varot before he made things worse than they already were.

  "Has anyone seen Cullen?"

  Overon hadn't. Not since he'd stormed out of the strategy meeting. Before now he would have said that he'd trust his back to Cullen in a fight against anyone. Now, it was almost like he didn't even know him anymore.

  "Sadie's gone as well."

  "Who?"

  "The human. Her name is Sadie. They're both gone."

  "Do you think..."

  Overon frowned. The human could have just run away. That was logical and likely, but even though he'd changed so much, Overon couldn't believe that Cullen would abandon them. Maybe they'd stepped out. Maybe they went to find more humans to rescue.

  "I have something of yours."

  Oh. K'varot.

  They should have known.

  "He rushed in by himself?" Caelum demanded. "Why would he do that?"

  Overon shrugged. "Why is he doing any of the things he's doing lately?" he fired back. "We don't know. K'varot's probably talking about the human, which means Cullen went to get her back. Alone."

  "At least it's physically impossible for him to be unarmed," Caelum murmured, and Overon sighed.

  "He's by himself. Don't think that's gonna matter."

  They were rushing, a team of ten of them. That might not have been enough to take K'varot down, and it definitely wouldn't be anywhere close to enough if he had his army with him, but they had to try. Luring Cullen out could have just been a ploy to get the rest of them to leave so K'varot could destroy their ship or plant something inside of it, so they had to leave some of their number behind. That was just good sense.

  They weren’t going to be able to end this now, but at least they’d figure some stuff out.

  “What am I looking at?” Overon asked. “I mean. Just. What am I looking at?”

  “Hush,” Tiama said, and her voice was sharper than usual, proving that she was upset. Overon couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

  The human woman was bound to a chair in the center of the open space on the ship, head lolling. She was completely still, so either unconscious or dead.

  K'varot was near her, looking triumphant, and at his feet was Cullen, crumpled and bloody and twitching slightly.

  Overon had seen a lot of things in his time, but he'd never seen Cullen down like that. He got hurt plenty, but usually just froze the injury and kept going. From the looks of it, Cullen had been getting beat down for quite a while.

  As they watched, he pushed himself to his feet. He moved with jerky motions, and Overon didn't need to be that close to know that his comrade was in considerable pain.

  Tiama cursed under her breath, and they all turned to look at her. "We have to do something."

  They had already incapacitated the guards at the front of the ship, leaving them in a heap on the ground as they let themselves in. K'varot really did need to invest in some new security because this was just too easy.

  "All this for a human?" Overon asked, confused. He didn't get it. Humans were plentiful, couldn't Cullen just get a new one if they meant that much to him?

  Tiama's glance was cold, and Overon shut his mouth. This wasn't the time or the place, and if they didn't get to Cullen soon, he would probably die. Even if Overon was upset with him, he didn't want that to happen.

  They moved quietly, slipping in two by two until they were all clustered around the upper ring of the center of the ship. As they watched, things that appeared to be living shadows came out of the dark corners to surround Cullen.

  "What in the Void are those?" Caelum whispered.

  "Yndri," Overon whispered back. He'd never seen one up close before, only heard of them and the terrible plague they were. They f
ed on emotions, usually the darker ones, draining people of their energy until they no longer had the will to live. They could harvest energy from the dead as well, or so the rumors went, and suddenly it made sense why K'varot had come here. "He's powering them up," Overon said. "The Yndri." He explained quickly for those who didn't know what they were. "The humans are just food for them. Just an energy source. Once they've wiped this planet clean, they'll move on to Fora. And that's how they got through the walls!"

  "What?" someone hissed.

  They all watched as Cullen ran forward and then was knocked back when two Gilots shocked him with their staves.

  "The Yndri. They can go incorporeal. They just slipped through the wall and then back out again. How in the world did he get the Yndri on his side?"

  "We can speculate later," Tiama said. "Right now we need to act." The Yndri were closing in on Cullen, and if they sucked out more of his energy, then there wouldn't be anything left of him.

  "Right. Let's go."

  One by one, they formed their weapons of choice out of the ice that they commanded. Swords and other blades, wickedly sharp and ready to fight.

  Overon held up his hand and then leapt into the fray with a yell.

  K'varot looked surprised. "Get them!" he cried after a moment. He narrowed his eyes at them, seemingly unsure of how to proceed. "This isn't over," he sneered, and then melted into the shadows himself.

  "Never mind him!" Overon shouted when it looked like two of their number were going to go after him. "Get Cullen and the girl and get them out of here."

  "The girl?" one of them asked.

  Overon rolled his eyes. "You think he'll ever forgive us if we leave the human he was apparently willing to die for behind? Get the girl!"

  They moved to do as they were told and the fighting escalated. The Yndri withdrew with K'varot and the Gilots continued to pour in.

  Overon laughed with the joy of it, and they took their enemies down.

  Chapter Twelve: Things Fall Apart