Constance
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Constance
The blaster felt heavy in her hand as Hedgeruds poured through the doorway. Everything happened at once—the thundering of clawed toes, shouts echoing off cold walls, the sickening whine of energy weapons charging.
Her body jolted as she dove behind a slab just before blaster shots seared the air where she’d stood. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she gripped the weapon, trying to remember how she’d used it the last time. The sound of metal meeting flesh made her peek around the edge of the slab.
Akur moved like liquid death.
His blades caught the harsh lighting as he spun, ducked, and slashed through the first wave of guards. He was poetry in motion, each movement precise and deadly. Two Hedgeruds fell before they could even raise their weapons, dark blood spraying across pristine white floors.
But more were coming.
Forcing down her fear, she squeezed the trigger. The blaster kicked harder than she remembered, but her shot caught a guard in the ch est just as he was aiming at Akur’s back. The Hedgerud went down with a gurgling cry.
“Nice shot!” Akur called out, his voice tight with battle fury as he engaged three more guards at once.
She didn’t have time to feel proud. More blaster shots scorched past her position, forcing her to scramble to another slab. The acrid smell of burnt flesh filled her nostrils as shots impacted around her, hitting the bodies of women she had no name for. Women that could have been her, or her mother, her sisters, her friends…
Their sacrifice only made it more important that she survived. Her gaze shot to the Arois in the background. He was silent now. His face an unreadable mask as if he was completely unconscious again.
She made a silent promise that he would be saved, too. One way or the other, this would end.
“We need to get to the door!” she shouted, firing again. This shot went wide, but it made two Hedgeruds dive for cover.
Akur’s response was a primal roar as he picked up one guard and threw him into two others. The tangle of bodies crashed into a medical console, sparks flying. But even as they fell, more rushed in to take their place.
The room was too exposed. They needed to move.
Constance’s hands were steadier now as she fired again. Fuck this. Fuck the Tasqals. Fuck these gator-guards. Fuck everything. She fired again, trying to keep the guards from completely surrounding them. But her shots were growing more desperate as the enemy pressed closer. There were just too many.
A plasma bolt grazed her arm and she bit back a cry of pain. Before she could even process the injury, a massive hand grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.
“Stay behind me!” Akur growled, his massive frame shielding her as he parried a guard’s blade thrust. The clash of metal on metal rang out as he knocked the weapon aside and drove his own blade up under the Hedgerud’s chin.
They were being pushed back toward the corner where the Arois hung s uspended. Panic clawed at her throat. They needed an exit. Now.
Her eyes darted around wildly until they landed on a grate on the floor, but it was past a group of those fucking Hedgehogs. Hope flared in her chest, anyway.
“Akur! The vent!” She pointed with her blaster even as she fired again, dropping another guard.
He saw it immediately. Without warning, his arm wrapped around her waist and he practically threw her behind him as he charged the line of guards blocking their path. His blades became silver arcs of death, cutting through armor and flesh with terrifying efficiency.
She provided what cover she could, but her hands were shaking again. Not from fear this time—from awe. Blood sprayed across his chest. Blood hit her too, but he never slowed.
When the path was momentarily clear, she ran for the vent, digging her fingers in as she tugged on it. “Fuck! Come on!” she screamed, just as blaster fire exploded against the wall above her head. At the same moment, the panel came loose, and she looked back to see Akur engaging what had to be six guards at once.
“Now!” he roared.
She dove into the vent shaft headfirst, the metal cool against her palms as she scrambled forward. Behind her, she heard more fighting, more screams.
“Come on,” she whispered. He had to make it. He had to make it, too. “Come on!”
A flash of teal made her heart leap. The shaft shuddered as Akur forced his massive frame through the opening.
“Go go go!”
Blaster fire followed them into the shaft, the heat intense enough to make the air so hot it was uncomfortable to breathe. Crawling as fast as she could, she tried to ignore the sounds of pursuit echoing through the metal tunnel. “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.”
“Your sense of humor evades me, bright eyes. ”
She choked on a laugh, pushing forward even though her injured arm trembled with each movement. She was bleeding badly. She could even smell it.
“Left at the junction,” Akur called from behind her, his voice tight. “We need to get above this level.”
How did he even know?
Didn’t matter. She trusted him with her life.
She took the turn, grateful for the slope that led upward. The shaft was narrowing though, and she could hear Akur grunting, just to push through.
“Are you okay?” she called back.
“Forget about me. Just keep moving!”
Rich words coming from a male that kissed her breath away in protest of her saying the same thing. But the urgency in his voice made her push harder, ignoring the burning in her muscles. They couldn’t get trapped in here. The sound of pursuit was only growing louder.
Blaster fire erupted again. Akur grunted. Pretty sure he’d been hit. The air heated once more, enough to make the metal shaft hot to the touch. She bit back a cry and kept crawling.
“Almost there,” Akur growled. “I can smell fresher air ahead.”
She wanted to ask how he could smell anything over the scent of blood and burns, but another shot forced her to focus on movement. Up ahead, she could see light filtering through another vent cover.
When she reached it, she paused, breaths coming hard. “Sorry, big guy.” There wasn’t time to explain. Pressing down, her feet found his shoulders as she braced on him for support. Two hard pushes and the metallic cover gave way with a shriek.
It felt like a truck was pushing her from behind as she tumbled out into a wider corridor. Akur exploded from the shaft behind her, spinning to face the opening with blades ready.
The first guard to emerge got a blade through his throat for his trouble. The second fired his weapon, but Akur was already moving. His other blade found the guard’s neck as plasma scorched the wall .
More were coming. They could hear them in the shaft and down the other side of the corridor.
“Run!” Akur grabbed her hand, his touch scorching almost as bad as the blaster fire. Her shoulder ached and her arms felt like she’d put her skin over a flame. But pain could wait.
Turning a bend, her heart stuttered in her chest as they nearly collided with a group of Tasqals gliding down the corridor. Six of them, their robes pristine and faces serene—until they registered what they were seeing.
One opened its mouth, hand rising in indignation. “Halt, you degenerate!”
Akur didn’t even pause. His blade flashed out in an arc, nearly taking the Tasqal’s head clean off as they charged through. The Tasqal’s body hit the floor with a wet thud, but they kept running.
Risking a glance back, she saw the remaining Tasqals pressed against the walls. Their previous composure shattered as they stared at their dead companion.
As they sprinted down the corridor, shouts and heavy footfalls echoed off the walls as guards poured from other passages to come after them.
Her lungs burned as they ran, but she forced herself to keep pace with Akur’s longer stride. The corridor seemed endless, branching off in multiple directions. Some had Tasqals down them. Some had gator-guards searching for them. Others were empty. They took turns at random, trying to lose their pursuers, but the sounds of pursuit never faded completely.
“We have to find it,” she gasped out between breaths. “We have to find that ship the Tasqal told us about.”
Akur’s response was cut off by blaster fire from ahead. They’d run right into another patrol.
Without breaking stride, he yanked her behind him and charged. His blades flashed once, twice, and two guards fell. But more were coming from behind.
Constance spun and fired, her shot catching a guard in the leg. As he fell, she saw something that made her blood run cold—a Tasqal glidin g down the corridor behind the guards, its white robes billowing.
This one was bigger than any other Tasqal she’d come in close contact with so far. And the look on its face, even with the distance, was clear. Fury. Pure, cold fury. “Get them, you useless fools!” it screamed. “Do not let them leave the citadel!”
“Akur!” The panic in her voice made him turn. His eyes narrowed at the sight of their real enemy approaching.
“This way!” He kicked open a door and pulled her through into what looked like…oh fuck. Her stomach churned. Bile actually rose, and she threw up on the door.
The chamber was stacked with bodies all in various stages of decay, and all covered with the same large pustules that fill the Tasqals’ skin. Their abdomens distended where the Tasqal’s parasitic offspring incubated. Some victims still had expressions of agony frozen on their faces, a testament to their final moments.
They had barely made it halfway across the room when the door on the far side burst open. More guards poured in, weapons raised.
“Surrender,” one of them growled. “You cannot escape.”
Akur’s only response was a savage laugh that would have sent chills down her spine had she not known him. His blades twirled once, catching the light. “Come then. Let me show you how a Shum’ai warrior dies.”
The air crackled as Constance raised her blaster, back-to-back with Akur as they turned in a slow circle. Her hands were steady now, despite the horror surrounding them.
“You got me, warrior?”
“I’ve always got you, bright eyes.”
She grunted a harsh laugh that felt like it scraped against her dry throat. Because they were trapped. There was no getting out of this. And this moment, unlike all the others, this moment might well be their last.
“I won’t let them take me alive,” she whispered, just loud enough for Akur to hear. “I won’t end up like…” Her eyes flicked to the bodies around them .
“You won’t,” Akur’s voice was steel and silk. “Not while I draw breath.”
She only knew the first guard lunged because Akur’s muscles flexed at her back. He met them with a brutal efficiency that would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so deadly. In the corner of her eye, another moved and her finger depressed the trigger, firing into the group at her side. Everything slowed down. The movement of Akur’s blades, the blaster fire as she gritted her teeth and pumped out shot after shot.
Blaster fire filled the air as more guards poured in through both doors. They had no choice but to break apart. Losing Akur’s warmth feeling like it took a piece of her heart along with it. Time still moved in milliseconds as she spun and rolled out of the way of a lunging gator-guard. Her injured arm screamed in protest as she pumped the trigger till the blaster began burning.
There were too many of them.
For a moment, in all the chaos, she looked up and saw Akur fighting in a sea of enemies. Fighting for them all. Fighting for her .
“Constance!” His wild eyes darted to where he’d seen her last, and she saw the moment he realized she wasn’t there.
In that fleeting moment, she saw something in his eyes that made her breath catch in her throat. It wasn’t just concern. Not just protectiveness. It was…fear. Raw, unadulterated fear. Fear for her .
He’d been so careful, so guarded. But now, she could see it as clear as day. The thought of her lost, of her taken, had shattered his mask, revealing the depth of his…caring. The male she saw now was the male that had jumped out of a ship in space and come after her. This wasn’t just a job or some mission he had to complete.
It went past that.
Akur cared.
He cared more than he’d ever let on.
The moment passed, his gaze shifting as his head lowered.
And then he changed.
The controlled, efficient warrior vanished, replaced by something wild, something…feral. His movements became a blur of motion, his blades flashing like lightning, a whirlwind of death and destruction.
He roared, a guttural sound that echoed through the chamber, a challenge to any who dared to stand in his way. He was a force of nature, a whirlwind of Shum’ai fury unleashed. A beast, driven by instinct, by a primal need to protect what was his. And in that moment, she knew, with a certainty that defied logic, that she was…she was his.
When three guards rushed him at once, he caught the first one’s blade on his own, kicked the second in the chest with enough force to collapse his ribs, but the third sliced across his chest. Dark blood spattered the floor.
Constance’s heart nearly stopped.
“No!” The word tore from her throat as she broke cover, firing rapidly. Her shots caught the third guard in the back of the head just as he was raising his blade for another strike.
“Constance.” The way Akur uttered her name, almost like a whisper, was so soft she didn’t know how she heard it. Her eyes filled with tears as their gazes locked.
Akur’s roar of rage echoed off the walls as he fought his way toward her. But there were too many. The gator-guards kept pouring in like an infestation. Blood ran freely down his chest now, like someone had opened a spigot and refused to shut it off.
“Akur,” her throat felt choked, even though she refused to let the tears fall. But she couldn’t even say it. Couldn’t even tell him to forget about her, because she didn’t want him to. Didn’t want to die here. Was that selfish? Maybe. But when Akur’s golden gaze found her, it was clear all those other times he’d told her he wasn’t leaving her in this place, he’d spoken the truth.
He fought despite the blood, despite the unending stream of gator-guards coming their way.
Pressing the trigger now was useless. No more shots rang out from the weapon and it burned in her hand. When a guard snarled next to her, she didn’t even look his way. Slamming the butt of the weapon into his snout as he stretched for her, she couldn’t take her eyes off the rebel heading her way.
Reaching out, she screamed Akur’s name and watched as he did the same, his arm stretching in her direction. Their fingers touched and her heart did a big walloping thing, moments before the door behind them burst open again. This time, a Tasqal glided through, its white robes pristine despite the carnage around it. Its lipless mouth curved into what might have been a sneer.
“Enough of this,” it said, its voice calm. Too calm. “Take them.”
Something hit Constance’s neck. A needle—no, a dart maybe. The world immediately began to spin. She tried to grab hold of Akur, but her arm suddenly went dead. Through blurring vision, she saw Akur stagger as multiple darts struck him, too.
“No…” The word came out slurred. She tried to reach for him again, but her legs gave out.
The last thing she saw before darkness took her was Akur fighting even as he fell to his knees, still trying to reach her.