Epilogue
Sasha paced a small circle in her cell, raking both hands through her long hair. The Drexian who occupied the cell next to hers—the one who claimed to be there to save her—was lying on the hard bench attached to the wall with one arm draped across his forehead.
She stopped pacing, straining to hear if a guard was coming. For fuck’s sake, was Deklyn snoring?
This was insane. How were they supposed to break out of the Kronock prison when they were both locked inside separate cells? And how was she supposed to believe his claims to know how to get them out when he’d done little but get himself tossed in a cell and proceed to sweet-talk her?
As if she could be sweet-talked by someone as overtly brash and cocky as him. She snorted a laugh, almost grateful that he’d given her something to laugh about. She’d been around enough alpha military types to be immune to their attempts, even if Deklyn was bigger and inarguably hotter than any human who’d tried to charm her.
“Not hot enough to make up for the arrogance,” she whispered to herself, her soft voice the only sound in the dank prison, aside from the steady dripping of water and the occasional scuttle of tiny feet she didn’t want to think about too hard.
“Pity.” Deklyn lifted his arm and sat up languidly, like a cat waking from a leisurely afternoon nap.
Sasha huffed out a breath. “Nice of you to join the party. Have a nice rest?”
He twisted his torso, the muscles rippling beneath the torn fabric of his snug shirt. “I have had better.”
A laugh escaped from Sasha’s lips. “How can you be so calm about this?”
“Would it help if I panicked?”
“It might make you seem more human.”
His gold eyes flashed through the shadows that surrounded them. “But I’m not human.”
As he stood, unfolding himself and stretching his massive arms overhead to stretch, Sasha’s mouth went dry. “No shit.”
As soon as he shot her a wicked smile, she hated herself for her momentary lapse of judgment.
Get a hold of yourself, Sash. He’s here to do a job, not do you. As if she wanted that anyway. Her goal was to get out alive and get back to Earth. Nothing in her plan involved ending up underneath a hot Drexian.
“Now that you’ve had your nap, would you mind telling me your plan to get us out?”
He cocked his head at her. “Plan? I did tell you that I am Inferno Force, didn’t I?”
“Is that supposed to mean something?”
“It means that I devise my plans according to the evolving situation.”
She groaned. “You mean, you wing it?”
“That sounds like a pilot thing? Is that what you do? ‘Wing it?’”
“Hardly.” She stiffened and folded her arms over her chest. “We file flight plans and chart courses.”
“But if you find yourself off course?”
Sasha narrowed her eyes at him. “I get your point, but I really don’t think this is a ‘wing it’ situ—”
Her argument was cut short by a boom at the end of the cell block. The steel door scraped open, and heavy footsteps thudded toward them followed by the familiar drag of a thick tail along the floor.
A shudder went through Sasha as she instinctively backed away from the bars, fear slithering down her spine at the thought of being touched by one of the enormous, scaly creatures. It took every ounce of self-control for her not to retch each time the cold-blooded aliens touched her, each time they curled icy, scaled hands and brutally sharp claws around her arm.
“Ready?” Deklyn’s voice was so low she barely heard him over the ominous approach of the Kronock guard.
She swung her head to the Drexian, but he wasn’t looking at her. Had he spoken or had she imagined it?
Her pulse raced as the Kronock stepped from the shadows, the faintest light hitting his elongated, reptilian jaw crowded with sharp teeth. An implant was bolted over his eye, making him a mix of both machine and monster, and the red light of his implant flashed as he scanned her.
Sasha steeled her spine, hating herself for flinching. If the guard’s intent was to intimidate her, she didn’t want to give the beast even a hint of satisfaction.
From the edge of her peripheral vision, she could have sworn that Deklyn shifted his weight, but when she cut her gaze to him, he looked so relaxed she wanted whatever he was on.
“Time for the Drexian to visit the…doctor,” the Kronock growled, his voice like gravel being gargled. Then he laughed as he rattled a ring of keys and finally jammed one into the cell’s lock.
When he swung the door into the cell, his blaster was aimed at Deklyn. “Out. Now.”
Deklyn didn’t move but his smile widened. Oh, shit. The guy really was crazy.
The Kronock emitted a menacing sound that made Sasha tense. “Do not make me fetch you, Drexian scum.”
“You think you could?”
Sasha shot Deklyn a look. Was taunting the Kronock truly his strategy? She’d seen too many soldiers beaten senseless by the hulking beasts to think that provoking them was a good idea. And there was little reason not to shoot him if he made too much trouble.
With a roar, the Kronock thundered into the cell, rearing his arm back to strike Deklyn. But before the blow fell, the Drexian dodged to one side, planted his feet on the wall and used the momentum to flip himself onto the Kronock’s back.
Okay, that was impressive.
Then the Kronock swung his blaster arm wide, trying to shoot Deklyn as the Drexian coiled an arm around his thick neck. Sasha dropped to the floor to keep from being caught in whatever crossfire might come.
Blaster fire zipped overhead, but Deklyn managed to kick the ring of keys from the Kronock’s waist into Sasha’s cell.
Sasha stared at the tangle of steel keys for a beat before scampering to them on her hands and knees and snatching them. As Deklyn and the guard battled, the blaster firing at the ceiling as the Kronock attempted to shoot the Drexian off his back, Sasha ran to the door of her cell.
Her hands shook as she tried to remember what her key looked like, what any of the cell keys looked like. Finally, she started trying the ones that seemed closest to the knobby key she’d seen shoved into her cell door. She cursed when the first one didn’t work and then the second. When the lock clicked open on the third, she wanted to cheer.
Pushing open the bars and rushing into the corridor, she eyed the exit at the end and then the fight raging in the Drexian’s cell. As much as the guy had aggravated her, she couldn’t leave him.
But what could she do? Any moment now, more Kronock were going to hear the commotion and come rushing into the cell block.
“Fuck me,” she said, the moment before Deklyn rammed his elbow hard into the fleshy part of the Kronock’s forearm.
With a shriek, the guard dropped the blaster, his tail slashing out and knocking it out of Deklyn’s reach—and right to her.
Sasha grabbed it, holding it with two outstretched arms as she watched the Drexian continue to grapple. Then she thought of all the prisoners the guard had dragged away and never returned. She thought of all the time she’d been languishing in captivity.
Anger stiffened her spine, and when Deklyn jerked the Kronock around so he was fully facing Sasha, she fired. Black blood erupted from the hole she’d shot in the guard’s chest, and he stopped flailing.
Deklyn slipped off his back, landing in a crouch. He was breathing heavily as he hurried around the staggering Kronock, gently taking the blaster from Sasha’s shaking hands.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice surprisingly tender.
She nodded, unable to speak. The her breath caught in her throat as the Kronock lurched forward and knocked into Deklyn as he went down. The massive alien crashed to the floor as the Drexian stumbled forward and out of the enemy’s reach, but ended up taking Sasha down with him.
He fisted a hand in her shirt before she hit the floor, pulling her flush to him and catching himself with the other hand as it slammed to the hard surface. He hovered over her as they both gasped for breath, the Kronock guard emitting a final death rattle before expiring only feet from them.
So much for not ending up underneath a hot Drexian.
Thank you for reading OBSESSION!