“Raja!”
Aimee back-stepped to throw her arm across Raja’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Will he be alright?” she asked with a hitch in her voice.
Blue eyes rounded. “Sure!” Her tone deceived her. “He is a professional. This is his job. He will be fine.”
“Where are we going to go? There are men still in your house. The red barn is not safe.” Panic began to inch into her throat. “Where can we go?”
“Shhh,” Aimee soothed. She looked up, scanning the tree line across the field. “When I was young,” she said, “there was one place that I always felt safe.”
“Where?” Raja asked, breathless at the thought of such a shelter.
Zak joined them. “Yes, where?”
Aimee’s glance volleyed between them. “My pond.”
“But your pond doesn’t exist anymore.” He looked puzzled. “You said it’s that lake now.”
Frowning, Aimee added, “Alright, let’s just consider my pond a euphemism for a place of sanctuary.”
Their baffled expressions made her nose twist. “Look, let’s just get through those trees up there.” She swallowed. “—If we make it through there, we’ll be on the shore of the lake—far enough away from the King farm—and far enough away from our house—”
“But close enough that I can hear the activity at either,” Zak encouraged with a nod. “It sounds like a safe place for now. The dense forest at our backs—water at our fronts. Both will deter anyone trying to reach us.”
“Sanctuary,” Raja quoted.
“Sanctuary.” Aimee beamed.
Aimee held her hand straight out. Zak and Raja stared at it, puzzled.
“You’re supposed to put your hands on top of mine—just like that,” she sighed.
“Why?” Raja asked.
“I don’t know,” Aimee cried. “It’s just what they do here for camaraderie—when they’re about to take on a team effort. Don’t you have any team sports on the Horus?”
Zak hefted an eyebrow. “Well, the warriors engage in mock battles, but they are individual combats.”
“I once competed in the fledgling scientist tournament. It was a group of young ones in a challenge to cultivate an intestinal tract from remnants in the organ tank,” Raja offered. “But we did not hold our hands out before it commenced.”
“Ugg,” Exasperated but smiling, Aimee began to trudge through the waist-high reeds. After a few steps she did an about-face. “Did you win? The fledgling scientist tournament?”
“Yes,” Raja nodded with a mischievous grin. “I beat Salvan.”
Zak’s lips quirked and he shook his head. For a moment, Raja was able to ignore the fact that they were running away—with no place to go.
Entering the realm of the forest was like marching into a land of ruin—a land filled with the erect columns of crumbled primeval temples. This was a city where all life had ceased and only the darkness of extinction remained. No wonder Aimee had claimed to never like the woods. Not being able to see the sky unnerved Raja. Above was a shadowed canopy of flora so dense that it blocked off the atmosphere. She drew in a deep breath, satisfied that oxygen still seeped in.
But there was life here. A scratch of a claw. A brush of fur against wood. A flutter of wings. It could not be seen, but it was here.
“How much further?” Her voice wavered.
“I actually never walked completely through the woods,” Aimee whispered, equally intimidated by the stillness. “I only made it a few hundred feet when the Horus snatched me.”
Zak reached for Aimee’s hand, eyeing the ceiling of leaves. “The Horus won’t be back for at least half a ren, so you are not getting snatched today.”
His levity fell flat, and again the only sound was their tread across a carpet of pine needles. A rustle in the vegetation prompted Zak to extract the star laser. A moment later a squirrel scampered out from the underbrush. It stopped in the middle of their path, clutching a hickory nut and eyeing them with disdain.
“Sheesh!” Aimee expelled. “Don’t zap the wildlife.” She placed her hand on Zak’s arm, restricting it.
“No,” he raised it again, his expression steely. “There is something else.”
Raja nodded in agreement. She heard it too. This time it could not be written off as stray wildlife—a hungry sumpum or something like that. No, the gait was too even.
The intensity of Zak’s stare put her on alert. The tread they heard was symmetrical—produced by two legs. Could it be Craig? Had he turned Diego over to the authorities and was now searching for them? Was he here to let them know that it was safe to come out?
Parting her lips to shout out his name, a quick jerk of Zak’s head discouraged her.
“You guys are scaring me.” Anxiety muffled Aimee’s voice.
Zak held a finger to his lip, cautioning for silence. Motioning them towards a dense patch of trees, he used hand gestures to urge them to crouch down within the refuge. Raja slipped behind a pine, but Aimee was not about to leave Zak out in the open by himself despite all his exaggerated eyebrow threats.
Again, the tread advanced. This time from the left. In that direction, all that could be seen was a shadowed channel carved out of bark and ferns. At any moment Craig’s tall form might emerge from that lair…but that dream was dwindling.
Aimee pumped her arms to simulate running, but Zak negated it.
Snap.
Now the sound was close enough to make Aimee recoil.
Although it attempted discretion, whatever or whoever the intruder was—it was close enough to soon reveal itself.
Snap.
Raja’s neck cracked as she spun around. No! Both sides! Panic escalated her heart rate. Her breathing became ragged to the point that she was certain they could hear her. They! Two treads—opposite sides. Cornered. Her skin felt tight as if she was trying to shrink into the trees.
A hasty glimpse revealed Aimee’s eyes widened with fear. Zak crowded them backwards, deeper into the underbrush. His back was to them as he prepared to challenge the assailant.
A low chuckle sounded from the uncharted gloom. It made Raja’s skin break out with frigid hives.
“How admirable,” a raspy voice chided. “A man protecting his women. I knew I should have shot the blonde before dumping her off the bridge.”
Diego emerged from the black heart of the forest—a wraith summoned to life.
It was jarring to see the refined man so mussed. This flawed veneer exposed the inner animal. The sheen of the slicked hair was now doused and even the lavish attire was snagged with spurs and pine needles giving him a desperate appearance. Most daunting though was the weapon in his hand. With her serum sitting uselessly back in the house, this gun proved deadly.
Not intimidated, Zak leveled the star laser on the demon’s chest, but a strangled cry broke Zak’s concentration. One of Diego’s soldiers had circled them and now clasped Aimee’s arm, hauling her back into the fortress of dead pillars.
“Aimee!” Zak spun about.
Panic and anger lanced his face. The warrior was now vulnerable. In such a state he resorted to his native tongue.
Having picked up some Ziratakian from him when he first boarded the Horus, Raja recognized the use of some vile curses.
His arm swung, aiming at Diego’s face as he tickled the bottom of the laser, preparing it for discharge.
“I don’t know what that thing is,” Diego mocked, “but you better put it down before someone gets hurt.” He purposefully glared past Zak’s shoulder at Aimee struggling in the grasp of the baldheaded man.
Raja attempted to retreat, but Diego raised his weapon at her.
“I also don’t know what language you are speaking, but here, and even in Colombia, we would call this a stalemate. No—” Diego’s head tipped back as his hollow laugh set the birds aflutter. “A stalemate would indicate an equal draw. This is not equal. Two armed men to one. Plus you have the disadvantage that your woman has been captured.”
Diego’s free hand fingered his pointed beard. “So we will call this—your loss.”
“What is it that you want?” Zak reverted to English, but his tone was aggressive.
“Oh, that’s simple,” Diego snorted. “I want you all to die so that I can go get my brother and leave this wretched state.”
Raja concealed a tremor. A disturbance in the ground forced her to concentrate, though. Another approached from afar—from behind Diego—no—from behind Aimee. She closed her eyes for clarity, but the encroaching steps came from both angles. When she opened her eyes, they connected with Zak’s. He looked equally perplexed.
Unaware, Diego continued his verbal torment while Raja struggled to relate the coordinates of the encroaching tread. Crestfallen, she conceded that they had to be Diego’s men. Even if one was miraculously Craig, he would just be entering into this no-win showdown with more men than he could handle. He would be walking into an ambush.
Aimee cried out as the baldheaded man dragged her backwards, her sneakers leaving scuffs in the dirt.
“Have your man let her go,” Zak threatened with his laser still aimed at Diego’s sweaty face.
“Or what? You’ll shoot me with your little stun gun? That’s what it is, isn’t it? Some sort of Taser? Well, it didn’t work on the blockhead who has your woman, and it didn’t work on my brother, so I’m not really threatened.”
“It may not work,” a deep voice warned from behind, “but this will kill you.”
Raja gasped, overwhelmed by the sight of Craig emerging from the trees. She fought the impulse to run to him. Briefly his eyes connected with hers, but they quickly reverted to Diego with a knifelike focus. The black-haired man did not turn around to face this new intrusion, although Raja could see a sardonic grin when he recognized the voice. He lifted his hands slightly in submission, but generally seemed unaffected by the threat.
“Agent Buchanan. I was wondering where you were.”
As relieved as she was to see Craig, he was not the source of the steps that charged like a pulse beat in her ears.
Thump. Thump. Thump. The tread grew closer. With each depression in the musty earth, Raja realized that it was all about to end. Diego’s missing guards would resurface—the effects of the star laser having worn off. Soon she and her friends would be surrounded and executed in this dark temple.
In an attempt to warn Craig of this impending disaster, she tried to capture his gaze.
“As I was telling this gentleman with the water gun, you are not in a position to threaten me. The bottom line is that an innocent woman’s life is at stake.” He jerked his head. “And I imagine you’re too admirable to risk her.”
On command, the soldier pivoted Aimee, grabbing her arm as she stumbled, and shoving her face-first up against a tree. With his precision weapon held to the back of her head, Aimee cried out as that alloy tip sank into her hair.
“No,” Zak yelled, torn with the desire to fire at the baldheaded man. “If you shoot her, you know that you will be dead one second later.”
“I’m walking, ain’t I?” The man taunted and swiped his perspired forehead, while his other hand pressured Aimee’s skull, driving her cheek flat against the wood. “Apparently that thing you have doesn’t work very well.”
Another burst of Ziratakian curses fell from Zak’s lips. Raja could see his arm quake with anger and fear.
Step. Step. Halt.
“It looks like you can’t survive without me.”
Everyone turned towards the bantam voice that emerged from the woods.
Chapter Fourteen
With one eye, Aimee watched the phantom advance. Her gasp of disbelief was severed by the muzzle at the back of her head. It pressed her cheek tight against the abrasive wood.
But, still—it couldn’t be. It could not possibly be.
“Gordy?” she croaked.
Somewhere behind her, Craig Buchanan boomed. “Who the hell is that?”
Diego’s roar echoed the question, but with less composure.
Shock briefly robbed the bald man’s power as Aimee felt a slight release in pressure. He regrouped, and her face was splayed against the bark again.
“Gayat, Gordeelum,” Zak cried. “What the hell?”
If this were any other situation, Aimee would have found humor in Zak’s Ziratak/English summation.
Even with one eye, Aimee could see that Gordy had changed. He was a man now. Hell, he looked like goddamn Thor standing there. Thor, with short blond hair. He was tall, with impossibly broad shoulders and a lean muscular body beneath his gleaming uniform. Once, his face had been plump and cherubic. Now it was angular, with sharp lines and a blunt jaw that looked like it could take a punch without even a flinch.
“Hi guys,” he smiled.
Well, the voice was considerably deeper, but that smile and flash of blue eyes distinctly belonged to Gordeelum.
His smile faded and his inner-warrior—yes—warrior, emerged. Had he done it? Had Gordy become a warrior? Of course he did.
But how the hell had he made it to Earth?
“How the hell did you make it to Earth?” she managed with her lip stuck on a gnarled protrusion.
“Probably not the best time for that conversation,” he offered. “I’ll tell you later. You might want to go ahead and duck a little.” He raised a large-scaled version of the star laser.
“Gordy,” she cried. “Your aim is horrible.”
“I’ve improved.” He winked.
“Basta!” Diego hollered. “Enough. I—”
“You what?” Aimee could hear Craig insert. “It’s simple math now. You have a trigger behind your head. You have three armed men to two. Just throw down your guns and you’ll make it out of these woods alive.”
“And straight into custody, right? No I don’t think so. I’ll concede that you have me at a disadvantage—”
From the corner of her eye, Aimee caught the motion of the baldheaded man nodding in testimony that there was a gun behind Diego.
“—but these toy weapons, and that guy in his Cirque de Soleil suit don’t pose a threat. Shoot her!” Diego barked.
Aimee felt the gun jerk against the back of her head and squeezed her eyes shut, whispering, I love you, Zak.
Nothing.
Slipping her free eye open, she strained and located the bald man with a stamp of ambivalence on his pudgy face. “I’m not so sure—”
“Kill her! Diego commanded.
“Aimee,” Gordy called. “Trust us.” He nodded tellingly.
She dragged in a deep breath of musty cedar and hefted her knee, slamming her sneaker down on the bald man’s boot. It was probably the equivalent of hitting a block of cement with a leaf. Simultaneously, she crouched as low as her tight fit against the tree permitted. Flashes ignited around her—so bright that even her drawn eyelids could not shield her from near blindness.
A thud at her feet suggested that someone had fallen. Afraid to open her eyes, Aimee felt a hand on her back, slipping around her waist. Zak’s hand. Zak’s chest, which she curled into. Zak’s soft voice whispering assurances in her ear. As she opened her eyes, his finger curled under her chin, tipping it slightly to the right, his amber gaze washing over her face.
“That damn Koron scratched your face.” Looking over his shoulder, he raised the star laser, aiming it at the inert man on the pine needles.
“He’s not a Koron, Zak.” Aimee reached for his arm, lowering it.
“He’s sure built like one,” Zak murmured.
“Probably the same intellect,” Raja offered.
Gordy climbed over a tree root. “Anyone want to fill me in on what’s happening here?”
“As soon as you explain what you are doing here,” Zak countered. “Your ship must have been the sound that split mine and Raja’s eardrums open.”
Aimee saw Raja’s lips form an ‘o’ as she nodded in agreement.
Behind Raja, Diego braced with a dark expression that ranged from incredulity to disgust. To h
is side, Craig locked a semi-automatic on Diego’s neck. Speculation hardened the sharp lines of Craig’s chin. Pensive eyes skimmed from one person to the next, lingering for a moment on the bold silver hue of Gordy’s suit. In the end, Craig’s glance settled on Raja with resignation.
* * *
A buzzing began in Craig’s head. It was a familiar sound. It could pass for a swarm of bees, or the trickle of water across a stony brook, or the rush of wind through the sunroof of a car. Craig knew it to be his self-defense mechanism kicking in. Anytime something spiraled out of control this confounded buzzing would flood his head. And, this situation definitely qualified as out of control. Diego’s profile suggested that he was not resigned to his fate despite the fact that he was in the crosshairs of Craig’s gun—not to mention being in the trajectory of two seriously freaky weapons held in the hands of men who quite possibly were not from this planet.
Yeah, this qualified for buzzing.
One glimpse of Raja’s calm demeanor helped to settle him. There was anxiety in eyes now darkened by the ceiling of trees, and there was tension in the slim shoulders—but she still carried herself with tact. Out here, in the woods, she looked beautiful—like catching a rare glimpse of a mythological being. Each time she spoke to the tall, attractive blond in the neon suit, Craig felt a stab of jealousy. But when she connected with Craig’s eyes, the smile she produced was solely for him. It made the buzzing recede.
“Are you alright?” he asked Aimee.
She nodded, her hand planted on Zak’s chest.
“I need something to tie him up.” Craig voiced the thought as he reached for his belt to unfasten it and haul it from the loop of his gray suit pants.
Beyond : Series Bundle (9781311505637) Page 59
