Ah. Not getting fresh, just conserving the battery. Got it.
His rich smell and the warmth radiating from his big body cocooned her. All at once, her brain became too aware of his muscled stomach and chest plastered against her torso. And farther down, where his hips pushed into her low belly, she thought she even felt—
From just below them, the sefa let out another shriek. The sound didn’t pound inside her head like before, but it was still incredibly loud. Before she could guard her ears against the attack, the man had flattened his palms on either side of her face. She glanced up at him and saw the shadow of a wince. She lifted her own hands to cover his ears. His eyes widened briefly, the flecks of gold in his irises seeming to gleam. They stood like that until the shriek ended, awkwardly clutching each other’s faces instead of their own.
The sefa must’ve realized they were close by because it was prowling in small circles below.
When it finally quieted, the man let his hands drop and whispered, “The suit won’t hold for much longer. I need to kill it.”
“Kill it?” Alex balked. Sure, he was a big guy, but that thing didn’t even need to be close to do harm, and from what she could tell, he only had a knife. Before, he’d managed to injure it with a surprise attack, but how the fuck was he expecting to kill it? “How?”
One side of his mouth dipped, and his lids narrowed a hair as though he were insulted, but then his focus returned to the sefa. The flicker along the sides of their shimmery confines started flashing once more. He peered down toward the animal now pawing at the base of a small grouping of tall grass. “I’m not sure, but…” His determined gaze met hers again. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
Alex let out a nervous laugh. He started to pull away, drawing his deadly knife from its sheath, but she stopped him with a hand on his wrist. This guy was, in all likelihood, going to die, after refusing to abandon her.
He peered at her hand, then at her eyes, his dark-blond brows raised in confusion. Not knowing what the hell had come over her, she rose to her toes and kissed him. It was quick, and she didn’t wait for him to kiss her back before moving away.
He stared down at her, his head still tilted slightly to one side. If anything, he looked more confused.
“What’s your name?” she asked as the flashing around them picked up speed.
Taking a few steps back without tearing his gaze from her, he answered, “Auzed.”
“Try not to die, Auzed.”
His brows relaxed, and his features grew determined once more. With a silent nod, he turned, scanned the ground for the animal, and jumped.
Chapter 3
Zed hit the ground just behind the creature. His bhadsit suit used the last of its charge to silence his landing but then retracted until it lay clasped to his shoulder, an innocuous piece of black material. The sefa spun toward him all the same, likely picking up on the thundering rhythm of his heart. Could it hear his blood rushing in his veins? Could it smell the female’s scent on his lips?
He’d found her. She was covered in dirt, injured, smelly, and much too thin, but he’d found her alive. He still had trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that she and the other human they called Lily had survived out here for so long on their own, but there she was. Alejandra. And upon their first meeting, she’d pressed her mouth to his.
Why in the name of the Goddess had she done that right before he’d jumped into a fray? Had she been trying to get them both killed by distracting him so?
The sefa charged in his direction, its yellow frill flopping uselessly around the base of its skull. Zed dodged it, slashing into its side until the metal tang of blood hit his nose and warm liquid coated his hands.
She’d kissed him. Had performed that odd mouth play that humans seemed to enjoy with their partners. As he skidded past the sefa, mind focused on the kiss, its tail shot out, wrapping around his ankle and pulling his legs out from under him. Zed’s knife went flying just as the sefa used its strong tail to throw him bodily against a large trunk.
Zed got to his feet and wondered if anything was broken or if it just felt that way. She’s going to get us both killed! This was exactly why he’d had so much trouble controlling the males under his command these days. Human females were a confounding lot.
Although he’d never faced a sefa before, he’d certainly fought worse. It shouldn’t be taking him this long to dispatch the creature. And he needed to kill it quickly so they could flee. Now that they were within Sauven territory, the murder of a sefa was illegal, the creatures held sacred by the people of the forest city.
He curled his fists, squaring off with the sefa while searching the ground for his weapon. He spotted it feet away beneath a pale white flower. The sefa thundered toward him, letting out its terrible pulsating roar that stopped most prey in its tracks. Covering his ears, he feinted right, but the beast knew better this time. It followed him, scraping its rows of teeth along his back and side just as he hurdled out of the way, landing in a clumsy roll. A long scrap of fabric fell from his shoulder, and he realized the sefa had torn his pack away.
A faint gasp sounded from the treetops. Did she really think he couldn’t best this animal? Is that why she’d kissed him? As a parting gift meant to be of comfort in his last moments of life? It was an affront.
He jumped up and whirled around, ignoring the sharp pain in his side and stooping to snatch up his knife. Its pounding footfalls were just behind him. The sefa’s foul breath wafted over his neck. Bending at the knees, Zed sprung into a backflip and landed, straddling the beast. Without giving it time to react, he angled forward and buried the knife deep into its middle eye. The other two eyes blinked out of sync as its brain slowly died.
Zed slid off the side of the crumpling sefa and took a quick swipe for his pack but was too late. The massive creature collapsed atop it. With a groan, he wiped his blade across his pants, then sheathed it. He straightened and watched the sefa’s body struggle against death. The haunting final song which the creatures were famous for should be coming any moment now.
Just as he’d predicted, the sefa’s great lungs filled with air and it released its final exhale along with a transcendent melody. Soft and calm, the song rode on its last breath, the gentle percussion sweeping over his skin and seeping into his bones until the melody stuttered out altogether. Zed found his chest tightening despite himself.
He dipped his head to the sefa and slid his eyes closed in a moment of respect. The creatures had been some of the few transported to this planet from their old world and were the last of their kind. Gently, he placed a hand over the sefa’s torso and, in a hushed voice, recited something he’d heard his father say once to a dying mojak soldier far from home. “You have traveled so far, and yet your journey has only begun.”
After another breath, Zed turned away. He glanced to where he’d left Alejandra and found her on her knees. Her dark brows were drawn, and silent tears carved tracks down her grime-covered cheeks.
With a deep, controlled breath, he moved to stand below her. Sticky blood oozed from his throbbing wounds and coated the inside of his arm. She was too high up for him to jump to without his suit and with the injuries he’d sustained. The sleek speeder he’d driven to travel here, now trapped in his pack under the heavy creature, was of no use either. It’d take at least three uninjured males to lift the sefa. “Jump down. I’ll catch you.” He lifted his arms, but rather than doing as he asked, she appeared shocked.
“I…jump?” She gave a pointed look to the red liquid dripping off his bicep and enunciated her words as she said, “You’re bleeding.”
He dropped his arms and tried to keep the annoyance off his face. He wasn’t so injured that he couldn’t catch her slight body. He placed his hands on his hips while continuing to stare up at her. So, she had thought he was going to die. The idea rankled for some reason.
“I can’t jump up there right now, but I can catch you. If you don’t want to jump, you could try to climb, I
suppose.” He kept his voice even, though he wanted to command her to follow his orders the same way he did every day to the guards he oversaw. Auzed, or Zed to his friends—well, maybe more like his family, seeing as he didn’t have many friends—was the head guard at the Pearl Temple. The title was prestigious, something every Tremantian soldier aspired to. He, and the guards under his supervision, protected the small number of females who still existed in their city and lived at the Pearl Temple. As such, Alejandra was now under his care as well.
“Climb? Are you crazy? There’s nothing to hold on to. This is, like, the only branch,” she argued unhelpfully.
Zed felt his ire rising and fought it back. He was tired, injured, and ashamed he hadn’t just broken one law today by entering Sauven territory uninvited, but two, by killing the sefa.
For the last two weeks, various groups of soldiers and/or Temple guards had combed the forests searching for the two females who’d escaped an Insurgent facility and disappeared. First, they’d searched the Manta Forest and then lower into the dense Sauven Forest. The Queen had agreed that when they reached the ocean to the west, the Black Mountains to the north, and the city limits of Sauven to the northwest, their search would be over.
Auzed had believed the females to be dead, but he’d followed the Queen’s orders to continue the search anyway. Then, a few hours ago, the Queen had contacted his small search party scouring the southwestern border of the forest and alerted him to the fact that one of the missing humans had been found alive and well and was with Verakko. The Queen had described the last known location of the other female, and he, along with two other guards, had sped to the Chisnop River immediately.
He’d sent his two guards to search the east bank of the river and the forest beyond, while he’d traveled into the heart of the Sauven forest. He’d failed to mention to his guards the Queen’s additional private request to illegally search within Sauven territory for the lost human. He abhorred the idea of breaking any law, and he wasn’t too happy the Queen had asked it of him, though he understood why she had.
After the Queen had revealed the humans’ existence to Clecanian leaders worldwide, Sauven had been one of the cities to report they’d be forcing any discovered humans to participate in their marriage ceremonies, just as they did all their other citizens. Alejandra would be forced to do the same unless he could get her back to Tremanta, where there were already laws being put into place to offer the humans rights in concurrence with their culture.
Now look at him, begging the female he’d illegally rescued to allow him to help her further. If she only understood the state of his mood at present and how tenuously he was holding on to his temper, she’d obey without a second thought.
“Just jump, Alejandra,” he pushed through gritted teeth, holding his arms out again.
“Okay, okay.” She swept the matted mess of dark hair out of her face and sat on the edge of the branch. He could see her mumbling to herself as she rotated a golden ring around her finger but couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. Even through the dirt covering her face, he noticed her warm, brown skin pale a shade as she scooted forward and glanced toward the ground. She slid her eyes shut and was about to let herself fall when her lids sprung open again, “Wait, how did you know my name?”
“Jump!” he barked, his patience snapping.
A voice from somewhere overhead called down, “Now, now. There will be no need for you to jump. But you’ll both need to come with us.”
Zed winced. They’d been caught. He spun and saw a small contingent of Sauvenian rangers mounted on floating transport platforms. They hovered above, their angry gazes drifting toward the dead sefa.
A small tuey crawled into view over one of the ranger’s shoulders and leapt, gliding toward Alejandra.
“Wilson!” she exclaimed, catching the tuey in a tight hug as it neared.
Vitriol boiled in his gut. He didn’t know precisely how it’d happened, but the human had gotten them caught.
The rangers descended. He allowed two of them to haul him toward an apathetic male, who produced an extra-large transport platform from underneath his own. The plethora of achievement bands circling his thick tail identified him as the highest-ranking ranger among the group.
As they flattened Zed into a seated position on the transport platform and cuffed his hands to a ring in the center, he wondered what his Queen would do upon hearing he’d been caught. His communicator, still strapped to his bicep, was plucked away by a ranger. Would she deny she’d given him the order and abandon him to his fate? Or would she confess and incur the wrath of the territorial Sauvenians?
He could hear Alejandra arguing in the background, but he tried to tune it out. The little tuey she’d befriended had brought these rangers to them. The human was the reason they were in this mess. If she’d only jumped sooner, they could’ve sprinted to the border half a mile away.
“I’m sorry for this, but it’s procedure when a sefa has died,” one of the rangers said to Alejandra as he gently guided her into position across from Auzed and cuffed her wrists next to his. The ranger handled her cuffs with care, making sure they weren’t too tight before moving away. Zed’s cuffs, on the other hand, had been tightened so much that he was sure he’d have lingering bruises.
She peered at him; the whites of her large brown eyes were marred by angry, burst blood vessels. That, along with her bleeding eardrums, were a product of the sefa’s deadly roar. If he’d gotten there even a few minutes later, she would’ve been dead.
“Why—” she began, but he cut her off with a shake of his head.
He didn’t want their guards to overhear anything before he figured out what his next moves were, and he also needed time to cool his temper. The logical part of his mind knew this wasn’t her fault. He was just angry with the situation he’d been put in and that she hadn’t helped their situation one bit. She’d actually stopped running at one point and asked him to leave her. What kind of male did she think he was?
The informant tuey glided down and settled in her lap, happy as could be. Then it opened its large yellow eyes and shot him a glare. He frowned back. The feeling is mutual.
Chapter 4
Alex took her cues from Auzed and kept quiet as the newcomers loaded them both onto a large floating platform and bound their hands with some kind of high-tech cuffs. These men were the most alien-like aliens she’d seen yet. They had graceful bodies and long, flexible tails. Their ears were pointed at both the top and bottom, and their wide, radiant eyes were just a bit too large to pass for human eyes. Their anime-esque size must help them see in this dark forest.
They began to glide away, but three tall, forest-green aliens with glowing geometric markings all over their bodies stayed behind, studying the sefa and glaring angrily in Auzed’s direction. The other two remained with them.
The leader, a tall man with the same coloring and markings as the rest, rode ahead. Alex figured he was the leader because he’d been the one giving orders to his men. His long tail split into three near the end. Each tip expanded into a glowing orb. He gripped the edge of the floating board with his tail for the most part but occasionally used the bright light of its tip to guide their way through the darker stretches of their journey. The other guard rode ahead of them as well; their floating platform remained close to his.
While their two jailors rode their platforms standing upright, Alex and Auzed sat on theirs with their bound hands attached to a ring at the center of their platform. She didn’t love being tied up, but she was grateful the connection at least ensured she wouldn’t fall off the smooth floating board. She concentrated her energy on staring at her hands and not at the ground passing far beneath them.
Wilson migrated to her shoulders and squeezed its body around her neck in a comforting gesture. He hadn’t abandoned her or been killed after all. He’d left to get help. Using his Sonic the Hedgehog super speed, he’d found these new aliens. At present, she couldn’t decide if that was a good thing
or a bad thing.
She chanced a glance up toward Auzed and found him glaring into space, fuming about something. The image of him skillfully dodging and slashing at the sefa played through her mind. She didn’t like that the sefa had had to die, but watching Auzed fight had been mesmerizing.
“Dedeth, come here,” the leader called to the ranger nearest them while peering at her. Their escort sped away on his board and joined his boss. They spoke in hushed tones while shooting glances in her direction.
She leaned toward Auzed and whispered, “What’s going on? Who are you anyway, and how do you know who I am?”
Auzed’s distracted gaze settled on her. “I’m from the city of Tremanta. A female named Lily was found and reported your last known location to my Queen. I was sent to find you before the Sauvenians. We’re being detained for invading the territory of Sauven and killing one of their protected species in self-defense.”
“She did it? She actually found some nice aliens?” Alex blinked. It was a lot to take in, and her head still hadn’t fully healed. The pounding ache had only increased during their escape from the sefa. “So, Lily’s safe? She’s okay? Can I talk to her? Is she back in that place underground?” Alex asked the last with trepidation, hoping beyond hope this guy wasn’t affiliated with the group who’d kept her, along with a handful of other women, locked in a bunker underground.
To her relief, Auzed appeared offended. “My Queen would never allow that to happen.”
Alex let out a low breath and nodded. She had so many questions, but she needed to ask the right ones before the alien policeman returned. “What will they do with us?”
“I don’t know. To you? Likely nothing.” He barely contained a sneer as he glanced at Wilson. “We could’ve made it out of Sauven territory if your tuey hadn’t led them to us. Did you send it to find them?” His words rang with accusation, but Alex couldn’t bring herself to feel offended.
Tempting Auzed: The Clecanian Series Book 4 Page 3
