Chapter 22 #2
He was fighting his own people again, but this time because of me. The thought made me sick with guilt, but I wasn’t going to hand myself over to the assholes down below, either. Carn had survived horrible, horrible things as a slave and he’d never once tried to force me.
These males had no excuse.
Hell, Gigi was the actual enemy and had been nothing but respectful.
My first shot went wide and I growled as I readjusted my aim. The turoch in my sights turned to face me just as I pulled the trigger and I slammed my eyes shut as the blast hit him. Not fast enough though, the image of his ribcage collapsing under the force lingered behind my eyelids.
Suddenly free, Carn stumbled forward. He recovered quickly, turning to face the male who’d gored him and sent a crushing blow into his jaw. I could hear the bones breaking from here, but all I could focus on was the blood still gushing from his side.
He was bleeding too much, even with Gigi and I helping, he’d fought most of these males alone.
The last few turochs were visibly less confident as they took in the bodies of their fallen companions.
A few backed up, casting nervous glances at each other.
Taking my chance at a clear shot, I fired twice at the nearest one.
I missed both times but the male retreated, taking off down the hall and abandoning the rest of his group.
“He’s injured,” one of the remaining turochs goaded his friends. “We can take him.”
Carn took a menacing step towards them and their courage broke. The entire pack bolted after their friend, leaving Carn and Gigi alone in the bloody hall.
“Carn,” I called to him. His head whipped toward the sound of my voice and I could see the blank rage in his eyes.
He was firmly switched into hulk mode again.
Gigi was down there with him, essentially defenseless compared to Carn’s size and skill.
I knew from experience that the gun in Gigi’s hand wouldn’t save him, and even if it did, it would be at the cost of Carn’s life.
I had to do something, but I was way up here, too far away to soothe the savage beast.
“Hey, big guy,” I cooed like a desperate idiot. As long as he kept his eyes on me, then Gigi was safe. More or less. “It’s okay, you killed or scared everyone away.”
Boy did he kill ‘em good, too. There was so much blood in the hallway I could smell it, and more than one corpse looked like it’d been hit by a truck.
Not for the first time I wondered why Carn didn’t scare me, horrify me, gross me out when he was covered in the evidence of his ability to butcher. I didn’t have an answer, other than the simple fact that I wasn’t scared of Carn, and I didn’t think I ever would be.
He was my big red guy, my mate, the male who was as sweet as pie to me and made me feel safe in a place where safety was an illusion.
“Gigi don’t move,” I called in the same sing-song voice. “He’ll rip your head off if he notices you.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see Gigi go so still he looked like an alien army man toy.
“Come here, Carn.” I held out a hand and beckoned him closer. My head was starting to pound from hanging upside down so long and I could feel my legs burning as I strained to keep myself from falling straight out of the vent.
Carn’s ears swiveled forward, all his simmering intensity fixed on me. I couldn’t help but shiver at the force of his attention. It didn’t matter that he looked like a deranged ax murderer right now, my mate was sexy and I was ruined for all other males forever.
He stalked forward, still bleeding, still seeming oblivious to the massive wound on his side.
“There you go,” I murmured as he came to a stop right below me. “Help me down?”
I reached for him, a strange reverse of a toddler asking for upsies. He was so tall I didn’t fall an inch, he just grabbed me and pulled me out of the ceiling, cradling me to his chest and smothering himself in my hair.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his thick neck and squeezing like my life depended on it. “We’re okay, but we need to keep moving.”
In an act of stunning bravery and stupidity, Gigi sidled closer.
“I will lead us to the pods, if you can keep him under control,” he said.
“I’m in control,” Carn growled.
The tension in his body argued that claim but we couldn’t stand around waiting for his heart rate to reach calm levels. We needed to escape before we ran out of air or got attacked again.
“Should we stop your bleeding...” I trailed off at his huff.
“I’m fine, I’ve been hurt worse during my training. It’ll heal in a few hours whether or not it’s tended.”
I scowled at that. I knew Carn’s life had been hard, but that didn’t mean I liked thinking about the gruesome details.
“I’m still looking at it once we’re in the pod,” I muttered.
I felt him smile against my neck and I swore Gigi rolled his eyes at us. For a mindless worker drone, he was developing quite an attitude.
***
THE REST OF OUR ESCAPE went better than I expected.
We ran into two small groups of sytos. It seemed we weren’t the only ones gunning for the last escape pods.
Gigi dealt with them easily, they didn’t expect friendly fire, a fact that was clear when they failed to defend themselves before he shot them.
He was surprisingly efficient about turning on his people.
Carn refused to put me down and I occupied myself with watching our backs over his shoulder as he ran. By the time we reached the last pod, Carn had stopped leaving a stressful trail of blood in our wake.
He set me down and bullied me into the small door after Gigi, barely managing to squeeze himself in after us.
There were only two chairs, Gigi took one as our default pilot and Carn forcibly strapped me into the other.
I put up a token protest, but it was painfully obvious the safety harness wouldn’t fit over his chest anyway and I hoped we didn’t crash land because Carn’s bulk being thrown forcibly around the tiny pod would probably kill all three of us.
I clutched the straps criss-crossing my chest as Gigi punched buttons and a low hum started vibrating the pod.
It was like being inside a fish bowl, the low ceiling was steeply curved and the entire front half of the pod was just a clear glass dome.
It was terrifying to stare out at the vast expanse of space, the familiar swirl of blue and green of the planet below made Earth look like a giant marble.
Carn stationed himself behind my chair, his thick arms wrapped around my shoulders felt miles more secure than the harness and I let out a slow breath. No matter how scary the view, this was good, we’d escaped.
“I’ve input the coordinates,” Gigi said. He pushed a final sequence of buttons and with a loud thunk, we were free of the cruiser and headed towards home.
No one spoke for a long time. Aside from the hum of the pod, it was dead silent and despite the once in a lifetime view, despite the fear we’d spin out into space and die, I fell asleep.