“Emil?” Hallie hissed fiercely. “Emil!”
He heard her voice, subdued as it was, turning his head to stare at her as if he couldn’t quite focus on her face. And then he dropped. Remembering his disorder, Hallie hurried back to him. “Is it a seizure?” she asked him, bending close to his face.
“No. I…I can’t go on though. I’m sorry. Leave me here.”
Leave him? Emil, asking to be left alone out here? Not likely. At least not under any circumstances Hallie could imagine. Hallie looked at Calypso.
“I stay with him. Not much far now. Hallie be safe.”
Hallie nodded, not certain if the woman’s final statement was an assurance or a wish. Hallie turned the weapon in Calypso’s tiny hand so the woman was holding it in the most effective position for defense, then clasped her shoulder briefly. Her heartbeat quickened. Without further speech, walked away from Calypso and Emil toward whatever was causing the blood to shred through the intricate web of her veins like frozen fire.
* * *
Burke kept his limbs and his eyelids motionless, his breathing steady and deep. Even so, he knew it wouldn’t matter. He could feel them probing his thoughts, prodding and pricking and latching onto the electrical surges of his brain. He knew their particular cognition would discern immediately that he was conscious, trying to gather his wits, formulate a plan of action. They would never permit him the time needed.
Even now he sensed the creeping lack of cohesive thought, the subtle leaching of logic that would give way to confusion. Mentally he swore and lashed out and felt the grasping tendrils pull back, but only for a moment. In all his years and in all that he’d seen, he’d never experienced something like this. He could only hope Hallie and the others were far away and stayed there.
He had no idea where he’d been taken or how long he’d lain unconscious on the damp ground. All he knew now was that he’d wakened and was still alive, neither of which he had expected to be again. And where was Shane?
Oh. Right. With that shuddering memory he became fully alert and leaped to his feet. No use trying to wait them out. If he could fight them, he would. If not, he would die in the process. It was that simple.
Humanoid shapes filled the clearing, moving in a random pattern to encircle him, dark shadowed figures with upright mobility but lacking the features that would make them recognizably human. They made no sound—at least not any that could be perceived aurally, although they communicated in some other fashion and mimicked words and thoughts and vision telepathically. The facial features they did possess were ill-formed and gruesome, like the fabrication of nightmare.
He’d seen what they’d done to Shane. If he’d held any expectation a man could survive such an attack, he would have continued in his battle to aid him, despite the fact he saw no good reason for Shane to live. Witnessing what had happened, he didn’t really believe any man would wish to survive. His stomach churned in recollection and he raised his fists, useless as he knew they would prove to be, spinning on his heels to face the creatures surrounding him.
They held off. He glared at them in defiance, felt his thoughts shift, waver, drift, and forcefully called them back. Were they attempting to keep him under control in this fashion, until ready for their next meal? Docile, until the slaughter? Damned if he would go that easily.
He had no weapon, no hope he could long sustain himself against them. His muscles tensed and pain began to flower in the front of his skull. He shook it off.
Hallie. If Hallie came looking for him, or remained in the open, she and the others would be subject to the assault of these creatures. He swore again, aloud this time, not caring what his voice might incite.
Could there be more than just this single nightmarish pack? Quite likely. Yet, if so, why hadn’t they encountered the creatures sooner? Perhaps they had. When they had all heard Hallie’s name being called, had it been with their ears or in their heads? He couldn’t remember the sensation, only what he had believed.
“Shit,” he muttered.
His jaw ached with tension and with something else. His memory became increasingly sporadic, but the scent of blood in his nostrils abruptly brought back that bit of recall. He didn’t dare take the time to examine the wound. It would keep. Considering his prospects, even a raging infection from the jagged injury wouldn’t make much difference to the outcome if he didn’t manage to free himself from this physical and telepathic captivity. He was a meal waiting to happen.
Somehow, the grim humor of that mental picture struck him with such intensity that he laughed. The tendrils wrapping around his brain’s electrons withdrew. He staggered back, breathing hard.
“So, it’s fear you prey on, is it?” he demanded, staring about him at the shadowy figures. Maybe, just maybe, if he managed to drain his mind of all fear, all concern, he could walk away from this situation alive.
Any hope he had of doing so vanished as a figure came through the gloom at a swift pace into their midst. Hallie. No.
She spun in a circle holding before her the weapon she had fashioned. Her eyes held his for a fraction of a moment and moved on. The crystals at the end of the lathesa glowed ice-blue as she faced the creatures with a fearless expression. The creatures made no move to come near her.
Burke held back any warning, afraid any words he might utter would distract her from the fierce concentration with which she was meeting the unknown head on. Fearless, yes. She was that. And beautiful and grim. He felt the hair stand up along his forearms at the sight of her. And then he thought of Shane and what these humanoid beasts had done to him. Sucking in his breath, he pushed the thought away. There could be no fear.
“Hallie,” he finally whispered.
She drew breath, once, twice, a third time. “I love you, Burke.”
Ah, damn it. That could only mean one thing. She didn’t think they were going to make it either. “Sweetheart, don’t be afraid. They react to it.”
“I’m not afraid. I’m angry now.”
You’re full of it, but I love you, too.
“Are you all right?” she asked without looking at him. “You’re bleeding.”
“I know. I think I’m okay. Not going to check just yet.”
He watched as she moved slowly in a half circle, not threatening and not being threatened, checking the lay of the land. The beasts in the clearing stood still, their obsidian eyes reflecting the crystal’s radiance. He wished she’d come closer to him, where he could protect her, but he understood why she didn’t. It was a tactical decision. She would need the room to maneuver her weapon. That and it wouldn’t be of any psychological benefit to be close right now. He looked away from her, steadying his respiration.
“Where’s Skelly?” she asked.
Not a good question, Hallie. “Gone.”
“No longer a consideration?”
He smiled at her in admiration of her calm grasp and felt his mind clear a little bit more. “No. Not anymore.”
“That leaves four. All right.”
Emil and Calypso must be somewhere nearby, then. “You sound pretty cocksure, my dear. Have you a plan?”
“Not sure. No plan. Just determined. We’re getting out of here. Did you find a ship?”
He made a mental note to kiss her soundly later and not stop until they were both soaked in sweat and sated. Later. If later came.
“We have a chance at one, if it’s still there.”
She nodded, a small movement. The blue family mark in her hair glimmered in the green twilight. She blinked, long and slow, as if her thoughts had moved elsewhere. The creatures closed in.
“Hallie!”
Hallie, Hallie, Hallie, Hallie, Hallie!
An enormous weight landed on his back and Burke went down, rolling. He’d gone blind, nearly blind, the world black except for vivid streaks of blue-white light slicing through the darkness. He smelled blood and felt blood and tasted blood in his mouth, in his pores. He gagged on it, spit it out, every muscle in his body screaming, s
kin on fire, battling to free himself of the darkness, the gnawing, slavering darkness attempting to devour his flesh living from his bones.
He rolled and rolled again, expecting more pain than this, losing concentration, losing will, thinking in glimpses of Hallie, of his daughter, of his life, of his death, of nothing. The blackness was absolute.
“Get up!”
A narrow hand slid down inside his collar, gripping the fabric and tugging. “Get up, Burke!”
A roaring filled his ears like the desert wind. Scarcely recognizable, Hallie stood above him, streaked and splattered with dark liquid, her uniform soaked with it, eyes wide, the whites showing all around. Her tawny skin was pale in the gloom, the color in her cheeks feverishly high. The hand in his collar shook as the fingers released his garment. She straightened, her respiration ragged.
“That’s twice,” she whispered, voice harsh and trembling. “Not that I’m keeping a record or anything.”
Twice. He’d never had anyone save his ass even once, let alone twice. He sat up, grimacing, turning his gaze to the creature lying in a massive heap at his side. Every inch of him hurt, but he was alive and lucid. He looked back up at Hallie.
“What happened?”
Hallie shook her head. “Some, like that one, are dead. I don’t expect the rest to be gone for very long. Please, Burke, get up.”
Only then did he realize he hadn’t done so. Hallie looked near to fainting from exhaustion and pain. Burke scrambled to his feet, taking her into his arms. She smelled…horrible. He laughed aloud at the sheer joy of knowing himself alive enough to recognize that fact. Pulling her close, he pressed his mouth to her grimy forehead.
“Thank you. Again.”
He heard the smile in her voice, despite her weariness. “You’re welcome.”
“Where are the other two?”
“Not far. Let’s head for the ship and hope it’s still there. Because if it isn’t…”
He released a long breath at her unspoken conclusion. “I know.”
IV.
LEAP OF FAITH
Hallie hurried at her fastest pace, every step a stumbling effort, not caring what attention they drew. She would battle anything, as they all would, in order to be free of the horror of this planet. While they remained in the open their destruction remained a constant and viable threat. She felt sick at what she’d done. Taking the life of any living being went against all she believed in. Despite their alien aspect, there had been something strangely human about these creatures. Although it had been a matter of preservation, importantly not just her own, the violence with which she had reacted to the attack of those creatures made her nauseous.
That, she supposed, and the lack of sustenance, water, sleep and the pain of her injuries.
Lips twisting in black humor, she glanced aside at Burke. He looked in little better shape, skin raw and bleeding. The wounds appeared superficial rather than penetrating. His tanned skin had a pale, almost blue, undertone and the dark smudges under his eyes were stark, but he possessed a determined look. When he felt her gaze on him he turned his head in her direction, sending her a comically reassuring wink.
She hadn’t really believed they would walk away from that clearing alive. As soon as she had the opportunity—and perhaps a round in the hygienic chamber, although maybe not even that—she would wrap her arms around him and make him the beneficiary of her need for release. After that, she would take care of his wounds and hers. Perhaps she should consider addressing medical matters beforehand, but she figured life was too chancy to risk waiting. She wanted not only release, comfort, assurance, revitalization, she wanted him. Burke Conlan, Drifter, a man who would perform the most odious of tasks for credit, but who was nevertheless principled, compassionate, honorable, strong, and capable of love.
“Burke.” With an arch of a single brow he came nearer. She slipped her free hand into his and he tightened his fingers wordlessly around her own.
“You’ve kept your promise so far. You haven’t died on me. And you haven’t let me die, either. If I haven’t totally lost my sense of direction, there should be a wall soon. We’ll have to climb it. I think I’m going to have a bit more difficulty doing that now than I did the first time. Are you up for it?”
“I don’t have much choice, unless you plan on carrying me. I’ll do it. Don’t worry.”
“Calypso? Emil?”
“Calyspo’s strong. She shouldn’t have a problem. I don’t know about Emil, although I suspect he has sufficient motivation not to fail.”
Beside her, Burke grunted without comment. Within a short period Hallie could saw the massive bulk of a wall jutting out before them and extending back into the gloom toward the main facility. They paused to reconnoiter in the black shadows directly beneath. Hallie glanced at the lathesa in her fist, relieved to see the crystals only bore the sheen of a tiny reflection of the twilight. Emil leaned against the wall beside her, breathing hard.
“You all right?” Burke asked him. “We have to climb up from here.”
Emil nodded. Calypso lifted her head to look up, studying, no doubt, the distance. Her pale hair moved like mist over her shoulders. Hallie touched her back in reassurance and turned to face Burke as he spoke.
“I tried to save Shane. No matter what you might think, I tried to help him. Even though the bastard wasn’t worth the effort, I did it because you would have done it.”
Tears pricked Hallie’s eyelids. She closed her eyes and pressed her head against his collarbone. Burke’s fingers slid into the tangled hair of her loosened braid.
“It happened up there,” he said.
Hallie nodded against him.
“Those creatures set on us as soon as we exited the ship. No matter what we find up there, we need to keep moving right by it, understand?”
She nodded again.
“Hallie, look. I don’t know what he did to you, but I have a damned good idea. You have a forgiving nature. Too forgiving. You forgive to your detriment, and yet I marvel at your ability to do so. I thought you were privileged, one of the elite, and you are, but you’ve had a hard time of it, I know. And you’re not soft, not by a star’s fire, Hallie. You’re like hard metal beneath that beautifully feminine exterior of yours. Even so, you need someone to care about you, to care for you, to take care of you.”
Hallie lifted her hands to clutch the filthy fabric of Burke’s uniform. She sank her teeth into her lower lip, trembling beneath her own soiled garb.
“I’ve been a Drifter since I was in my teens. I don’t know what I can offer you.”
She shook her head against his chest, scrubbing her forehead back and forth across the loosely fastened front of his garment. She could have stayed there like that, eyes closed, his arms around her, and drifted off to sleep with the unformed promise of his words circling around her head.
“Oh, no.” Eyes open now and focused on the dimly glowing point of her lathesa against the wall. “Oh, no,” she said again, jerking herself free of Burke’s embrace. “They’re coming. They’re not here yet, but they’re coming.”
Even without the crystals’ warning, the fading light of Calypso’s eyes when Hallie turned to face their two companions told her she wasn’t wrong.
“Climb,” growled Burke, “now!”
And don’t be afraid, Hallie reminded herself. Yet, it wasn’t possible not to be afraid. In the heat of anger and dire need it had been, but now she knew what she faced and was both exhausted and plagued by the memory of the attack. Fear sheathed her skin like sweat. Clamping her weapon between her teeth, Hallie boosted Calypso up onto the wall and held her there until the dancer had firmly placed fingers and toes into available crevices. Burke performed the same assistance for Emil. Both of their weapons lay on the ground, abandoned, tips glowing feebly in the humus of the forest floor. With a monumental effort Hallie leaped for the highest handhold she could find and dragged herself up until she found a purchase for her booted toes. A grunting expulsion from Burke’s
lungs indicated he had begun his own ascent. Due to the lathesa still gripped in her jaws she couldn’t turn her head to view his position and kept her gaze focused upward to the shadows of Emil and Calypso making slow progress.
“Hurry,” Burke said, not loudly. Apparently, he didn’t want Calypso or Emil to abandon secure footage for haste. If either of them fell she and Burke would likely be knocked off the wall as they dropped. With this in mind, Hallie made a lateral move before resuming her upward climb. In her peripheral vision she noted the glow of the crystals steady in the gloom. At least the radiance hadn’t increased.
When she reached the top, sweat-drenched limbs shaking, Emil and Calypso pulled her over and onto her feet. She dropped immediately to her rump on the surface of the landing strip, the lathesa across her lap. The glittering shards burned in the air like ice-blue fire. Burke tumbled over the wall bearing one of the two abandoned, now vividly glowing spears a moment later. He looked at the weapon and then at her.
“Ah, shit.”
Hallie struggled to her feet. “Is that the ship?”
Barely visible through the duskiness she saw the dull gleam of what appeared a large metal body. Not a great distance, but the creatures closing in on them could easily prevent them ever reaching the ship’s portal. However, the success of only one of them was essential. Burke, alone capable of piloting the ship, and his daughter needed him. She had no idea what awaited the other two upon a return to their homes, but when it came down to it she, at least, was expendable. Still, while she continued to have a choice about the matter she wasn’t volunteering to stay behind to ward those creatures off alone.
“That’s it,” Burke said, grasping her elbow and shepherding the other two with his extended arm. “A privateer cargo transport and not government owned, fortunately. Outfitted originally for human crew, although for this trip she’s computer operated. If we can make it to the ship, I can fly her.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Hallie responded quietly, and then forced her legs to run.
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