Chapter 31
Radar doesn’t come back when I call. I run after him with everything I can muster until I’m utterly turned around in the woods. He’s far too fast for me when he’s in sprint mode.
I stop in an opening around a creek and try to catch my breath. “Shit. How did this go sideways so fast?”
A shudder runs through the ground. I look back up at the mountain and realize just how far I’ve run, trying to catch him. But I keep going. I have to. He is my closest family.
“Radar!”
There is no sign of him anywhere. No flash of black fur or rapid panting. And just when I think I’ve lost him completely, I catch a soft rustle in the bushes. I stop.
A puppy tumbles out into the open. He’s a beautiful silver white, and maybe eight weeks old at most.
I guess I don’t know for sure what Mindoran growth rates are. Are they like wolves or more like humans?
“Hello?”
The pup squirms and rolls itself over. It has leaves and bits of briars stuck in its fur, making me think he’s been wandering alone for a while. When he splashes down at the river’s edge, I expect to see a wolf come hunting for him. But when no one does, I walk over and pick him up.
Cradling his damp, fluffy body against my chest, I survey the terrain for any sign of a parent. “Hello? Is anyone missing a pup?”
I climb the riverbank and look through the trees, listening for movement. But there’s literally no one anywhere.
“Who is your mama, anyway?” I ask him.
He leans his head back and howls a high-pitched note.
I pick the briars and leaves from his woolly coat as I continue my search for Radar. He’s got to be out here somewhere, but I’m starting to think about heading back.
When the pup is cleaned up, I loosen my armor and tuck him inside my vest, carrying him the way I carried Radar after I found him.
At least he’ll stay warmer in there.
Worry grows in me that Radar’s been caught or attacked. He’s smart, but I don’t truly know this world. I’ve only read about it. There are any number of threats that could take him from me, including anyone with Eian’s sneaky antics to poisonous spiders, and badgers with prehistoric looking teeth.
“Radar!”
Blue light flashes behind me. A huge portal scrolls open, and a Denarsoan soldier steps out. He’s a beastly creature, larger than most I’ve encountered on Earth. His black and orange eyes target me, then fall to the ears sticking out of my vest.
“Hand over the young one, and I’ll let you live.”
I clutch my vest, turn and run. It’s the only instinct that seems right. I’m not going to try fighting a monster that big.
More portals open around us. Denarso and Myndrous step out. I slosh to a stop in the river. We’re not getting out of this without a fight.
I wish Radar was here. Or Zorin. But they aren’t. I’m on my own. I flick open my voltspear with one hand, and draw my gun with the other.
I don’t wait. I fire at the soldiers closest to me.
One gets a hand on my shoulder and bats me down.
I tumble into the shallow edge of the water.
Adrenaline floods my muscles like hot metal.
I feel heavy and afire with desperation as I jab my voltspear into the one who threw me down.
He goes rigid and falls back into the water.
Another snatches the spear from my hand and lugs me up by the shoulder of my vest.
A Myndrous tries to unbuckle my armor. I swat his arm away, draw a knife and jab it into his forearm as he reaches in again.
Something moves toward my head. I duck, grab a pulse disc from my vest and fling it at the other Denarsoan. When it hits, it throws him back with a small blue wave.
Damn, I wish I had more of those.
A dark gray hand clasps around my throat and lifts my feet from the ground. The weight of my body and the pup in my vest tugs painfully on my spine. I grab my attacher’s arm and try to pull myself up. The red eye that peers down at me makes my heart stutter.
“You again?” I rasp. “Fuck!”
“You have become such a problem. I do not know why they want you.”
Snarls echo out of the woods, summoning his attention away from me. A Denarso cries out as a black flash carries him away from the river.
“What the heck is that?” the Myndrous roars.
The others, who’ve arrived with him, look around.
“Well, take care of it!”
They hurry off into the forest.
“As for you, human.” His hand squeezes harder. “The only reason I am not going to kill you is because they want you, too.”
“How did you escape Earth?” I wheeze.
His gray cheek twitches as his red eye dissects me. “I had help.”
The trees rustle. A lone Myndrous limps back to us and falls to the edge of the river, motionless.
The monster that holds me squints into the shadows. I strain to look.
“Put her down,” a voice growls.
Zorin?
My vision is blurring from the lack of oxygen.
The Myndrous throws me back. I splash into the water. A painful wave smashes through me as the heartless river rocks greet my body.
All I see are gold eyes and a smoky haze bash into the Myndrous, sending him back through a portal. The Shifter snatches an item off a downed soldier, twists it, and casually flings it inside the portal. Then he turns to me and kneels to me in the water.
“Tessi…”
His face is dirty and covered in splits from taking hits. But his eyes are not silver blue, they are pale gold. His hair is black, not brindle blue-gray like Zorin’s.
My vest squirms as he picks me up.
“Someone’s pup…” I wheeze. “Lost.”
Azrim draws me close, so close. His hot breath passes over my face as my body rises into the air. His swaying steps rock me into a state of slipping consciousness.
“I’ve got you.”