Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Honor stared at the lockbox. It was made of a shiny silver metal and completely covered in a cracked web of ice.
She knelt and scraped the ice off with her gloved hand.
“There’s something written here.” She scraped more ice away, revealing faint letters that were engraved into the metal.
Property of the Valhalla.
“It’s from the ship.” Excitement zinged through her bloodstream. She looked up, and Colm pressed a hand to her shoulder. Damn, it felt pretty darn good to have him with her, sharing this moment. “Colm, it’s from your ancestors, and we just proved the wreck of their ship is here on Ansar.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure treasure hunting would be this interesting.” He smiled from under his fur hood. “I was wrong.”
“Let’s get it back to the marlin. We’ll have to find a way to open it back on the Drake.” She tried to move the box, but it was heavy and the base of it was stuck into the ice. She sat back with a huff. “Looks like I’m going to need a dynolifter, and probably a laser cutter?—”
Colm reached down, gripped the box on either side, then heaved. Ice cracked with a loud snap, and the box was free.
“You’re handy to have around, warrior.”
“Of course.”
She rolled her eyes at the unabashed arrogance, and stood. They made their way back through the snow to load the box in the back of the marlin.
While Colm maneuvered the lockbox into the storage compartment, Honor touched her visor. “Derek, we found an artifact. We have it loaded. Did you find anything else?” She waited for the agent to respond.
“Copy that, Agent Brandall. We have nothing else to report.”
“All right, let’s head back to the Drake. If we’re lucky, there might be something in this artifact we found that will narrow down where the rest of the ship is.”
“Acknowledged.”
Moments later, Derek’s form appeared out of the fog. He tipped up his visor, his face creased in concern. “Is Dr. Behati with you?”
She froze. “No, I thought he was with you.” She looked around. The fog had an eerie feel to it now and it was getting thicker by the second. “Dr. Behati, do you copy?”
Nothing.
“Dr. Behati, please respond.”
Having finished stowing the box, Colm appeared. “What’s wrong?”
“Dr. Behati is missing and not answering his comms.”
Colm’s face turned grim. “Let’s find him.”
“Alpha, this is the Drake.”
At the new voice in her ear, she held up her hand for the others to wait. “I’m here, Drake.”
“We’ve picked up a snowstorm moving in on your location.” Ning sounded out of breath. “Honor, it’s huge and it’s coming in fast.”
Honor cursed. “Behati is missing.”
“You have ten minutes until the storm hits…no, wait a second… Stars, make that four minutes. It’s speeding up!”
Honor looked at Colm and Derek. “We’re about to get hit by a huge snowstorm. We have four minutes to find Behati and get out of here. Let’s move. Now.”
Colm nodded and swiftly moved to look around the area. Derek moved to the left and Honor went right. Together, they moved in larger and larger circles around the marlins. Honor called out and kept trying the comms. Where the hell was the archeologist?
Ahead, she saw Colm crouch and touch something in the snow.
She hurried over. “What is it?”
He looked up, and his face was as hard as she’d ever seen it. He moved his body slightly…and she saw what he was looking at.
The snow was stained with a splatter of bright-red blood.
Honor felt her stomach turn over.
Colm shot to his feet, his eyes flashing gold. “Something’s here.”
The fog had thickened more, and the wind was picking up. With her heart pounding, she turned around, trying to see anything through the thick, white mist.
“Agent Brandall!” Derek yelled across the comm. “I saw something in the fog. Something big.”
“We need to leave,” Colm said.
“I can’t abandon Behati. He’s an archeologist, Colm, not a soldier.” To leave the man here would be a death sentence.
“Then we’ll all die.” Colm reached under his furs and drew his sword.
Feeling desperate, Honor contacted the Drake. “Drake, any life signs? Can you pick up Dr. Behati anywhere?”
“I can’t detect Dr. Behati’s signature, Honor,” Ning said. “I see your three signatures…wait—” A sharp intake of breath. “Oh, my God. There are faint signatures appearing around you! Three, no, four, no…ten. I can’t tell what they are, but they have you surrounded!”
It set Honor’s nerves alive and she pulled out her laser pistols. “We’re surrounded. Ten intruders. Get to the ships…now!”
“Go!” Colm jerked Honor toward the marlin.
They started running. She stumbled through the thick snow. A lone howl echoed in the fog, and it sent a shiver down her spine. She gritted her teeth.
“Keep moving,” Colm growled.
It couldn’t be much farther to the marlins. She saw a shadow move in the fog and she tensed. Then the black shadow was gone.
She tripped over something and landed on her knees in the snow. What the hell? She looked down.
“Oh, God, Dr. Behati.” The archeologist was lying face-up in the snow. His face and chest were covered in splatters of blood. He’d been…mauled by something.
Then Colm was there. He saw the archeologist, cursed, and then leaned down and lifted Behati. He tossed the man’s body over his shoulder. “Keep moving, Honor.”
She pushed off, and tried to keep pace with Colm’s long strides. They reached the first marlin, where Derek was scrambling into the pilot seat. The man’s chest was heaving.
Colm dumped Behati’s body in the other seat.
“Jesus.” Derek blanched white. “Is he alive?”
“Barely,” Colm answered. “Now go.”
Honor kept up her stumbling run toward the second marlin. She cursed. The snow was too damned deep. Suddenly, Colm swept her off her feet with strong arms and pressed her against his fur-covered chest.
He charged ahead, and she heard Derek’s marlin take off. Its lights shone across the snow in front of them…
Illuminating the huge creature emerging from the fog.
Every muscle in her body froze, and her breath lodged in her throat. “Colm.”
He set her down and pushed her behind him. He raised his sword.
The beast was larger than Colm, with shaggy, white fur covering its muscular body. It had huge jaws.
“It looks like a winter wolf,” Colm said. “But larger.”
Honor pulled her laser pistols and aimed them at the beast. “Best way to kill them?”
“Before they kill you.”
The wolf leaped.
Colm moved fast. He swung his sword into the air, his fur coat spreading out around his large body.
But the wolf was wily, leaping out of the way.
“Honor, back to the marlin. Now.”
“I’m not leaving you.” She clutched her pistols harder, when something made her look behind her.
Another wolf was slinking toward them.
“Now,” he roared.
God. She ignored him and aimed at the wolf. She pulled the trigger. Her lasers hit the beast in the side and only made the thing shake its hideous head. She shot again, aiming at different parts of the creature’s body. Legs, side, back. Behind her, she heard Colm battling with the first wolf.
She shot her wolf again, but she realized the fur was too thick. She jammed her laser pistols back in their holsters and grabbed her staff instead. She shook it, and it extended.
She backed up until she was back-to-back with Colm. As her wolf watched her with burning blue eyes, she was horribly aware that there were eight more of these creatures out there in the fog. She could see dark shadows shifting and moving in the whiteness.
Focus, Honor. She breathed in, searched for her battle calm. All her life, the middle of combat—whether in real life or in training—had been the one place where she felt calm. Where she could just be herself and nothing else mattered. She took another deep breath, then she ran at the wolf.
It leaped forward and snapped out at her with those jaws full of teeth. She ducked and swung her staff. She hit the creature’s side with a solid thwack.
It was like the animal was made of steel. She moved backward, assessing her options. Debilitate. She couldn’t see a way to kill the beast, but if she could break a leg and slow it down, it wouldn’t be able to move as easily.
It would make it harder for the creature to kill them.
The beast came forward, its belly low to the ground. She twirled and swung her staff, aiming this time for its hind leg. Her staff connected.
There was a sharp snap of breaking bone. The wolf yelped and pulled back. Honor’s chest heaved as she gulped in frigid air. Then, behind her, she heard a horrible sound. She spun.
Colm’s animal was dead. It was lying in the snow, bleeding out.
“Honor, run!” He charged at her. His face was twisted, almost enraged.
It was then she saw two more wolves appear from the fog.
Colm grabbed her arm, hauling her toward the marlin. The snow was deep here and she stumbled, unable to find her balance.
He swung her up into his arms and he pounded through the snow toward the ship. When they reached it, he dropped her into the pilot’s seat. As Honor palmed the controls, she saw Colm standing beside the marlin with his sword up.
“Colm, get in. Now!” The engines flared to life.
She stared at the screen in front of her, dread filling her. She could see more wolf signatures on the screen. “Colm, get in.”
A wolf leaped at them, its giant body flying through the air. Colm swung his sword and the wolf fell, slamming against the marlin before skidding off into the snow.
He leaped over the side of the marlin and landed hard in his seat. Honor closed the canopy, and before Colm was even strapped in, she took off.
They shot fast into the air.
“What the hell are they?” she said.
His face was grim and his chest was heaving. “A larger, deadlier version of Markarian winter wolves.”
It wasn’t until they cleared the moon, and the Drake was in view, that Honor let herself relax. The muscles across her shoulders were tight and her pulse was still racing.
She looked at Colm and saw the stress still radiating from his tense frame, obvious in the way he clenched his hands repeatedly into fists.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I will be.”