Chapter 10
Killian
Callum was cursing in my ear, but he was also feeding me information from the scanners of the ship.
“Three hostiles ducked into the restaurant after you. The rest are circling. Hurry or you’ll be trapped.
” I flung myself to the side as fire erupted from a pan on the stove I was passing, then I snatched Daria around her waist and tossed her over my shoulder.
Her indignant scream would have made me laugh in any other situation, but I was more focused on the exit and survival.
Putting on more speed, I dodged the kitchen staff and managed to burst outside without stopping.
Daria went silent when she felt the cold air hit her, her body growing stiff, but I knew she’d seen them just like I had. Nearly a dozen guards.
We’d escaped the restaurant before they could box us in, but they were so close I could feel them breathing down my back.
Well, I would have if not for the icy winter weather.
Without a crowd to provide cover and rein in their murderous intent, we were easy targets.
Fuck that, to use a favorite Earth swearword of mine, survival trumped not giving away what I was.
A Terafin could outrun a human, anytime.
It was a simple fact: we were physically superior to the Earth race.
Bigger, stronger, faster, and more long-lived too.
I left them in the dust as I stopped holding back, but even I could not outrun a bullet.
The projectile weapons were crude, but they were still effective.
I shifted Daria as I ducked and weaved to avoid getting hit, cradling her against my chest so my body protected her.
Of course, the spitfire did not do anything halfway, and she did not play damsel.
Her fingers slid into my jacket, unerringly locating the butt of the laser pistol I carried.
She couldn’t possibly be familiar with the weapon, but she held it expertly as she squeezed the trigger for a warning shot.
Everyone behind us ducked for cover, creating a lull in the rain of fire. I turned a corner, running as fast as I could, then ducked around several more under the advice of my handler. Callum had the maps to the city, he’d guide us back to the ship, eventually. When it was safe.
“No, not that way. Go left,” Daria said suddenly.
She’d been quiet after that one burst of laser fire had created the opening I needed to put our hunters behind us.
She had not protested that I was carrying her, and I had started to grow worried about how cold she felt.
I paused at her words, cocking my head in the direction she wanted to go and contemplating my options.
She wanted to go left for a reason. It would delay my safe return to the ship, but Callum did not need me to be safe to pass on the data to our superiors.
That data was already winging its way through space to inform the High Command on Afir.
That part was done… I turned left as my woman had demanded; and let my curiosity, and my desire to please her, win out.
“Where are we going, Daria?” I asked while thumbing the hidden sub-dermal switch along my finger so Callum could listen in.
She didn’t reply immediately, still tensely scanning behind us for any sign of danger.
My handler had informed me that they had closed a search grid several blocks wide around the area, and they were going door to door to find us.
They didn’t know where we were right now, but we couldn’t exit their perimeter without getting caught.
“We could either circle back to my car, but I suspect that’s a lost cause.
Or we could duck into the nearby safe house and hide out for a while.
My toes are getting a bit too crispy to keep up with this much longer.
” I did not know what she meant with crispy toes, but I was pretty certain it was bad news.
Safe house it was, even if Callum was warning me not to trust the CIA spy, and ordering me to return to the ship.
“Lead the way, Tally,” I said, allowing Callum to hear that all-important word.
It instantly shut him up, a deep silence filling the communication channel at last. I took that moment to sever the connection entirely.
Callum wouldn’t like that I’d gone dark, but he wouldn’t interfere, and he wouldn’t report my behavior to High Command either.
We all knew how important a Tally was, a true mate.
She muttered her instructions quietly, and with each obedient step I took, I could tell she started to relax a little more.
Then she started trembling, and I clutched her tighter to me, worried that the cool night air was getting to her.
I knew enough about humans to know that they were very easily too cold or too hot.
When she bade me duck into a small alley tucked between two storefronts, I was relieved we were off the street. The city was bright and alive tonight, celebrating the new year with much noise and laughter. Still, we stood out, dressed as we were, and with my mate shoeless.
The safe house was not what I expected, but that was probably a very good thing.
If Callum was right, Earth’s military and police forces were out amass to knock on every door and search every room for us.
They were causing a media storm while they were at it, but that seemed a price they were willing to pay. The data we stole was that important.
Daria had me duck down near a grate set low in a wall.
It stank of urine, of dead things, and garbage.
Many of the walls had been covered with stains or paint marks; symbols I could not decipher.
I made sure to hold her tightly so that no part of her had to touch the dirty ground, scattered with broken glass and other unrecognizable filth.
The grate popped open with a click and revealed beyond it a narrow passage.
It was a straight drop with rusted metal handholds set into the brick wall.
I didn’t know where it led, but Daria was willing to crawl into that dark space, which meant I’d follow.
It would certainly not be a space the hunters would search, it didn’t look like there was a space.
I didn’t like letting her go in first, but I liked leaving her unprotected in that nasty alley even less. She was biting her lip and trying to contain the trembling in her limbs as she swung herself out of my arms and through the small opening. “Close the grate after yourself. Hurry.”
That was all the prompting I needed. As her crown of pretty, dark brown curls descended into the dark, I followed after her.
Contorting myself awkwardly to fit through the grate’s small opening, it was such a tight fit that my jacket tore on the sharp metal edge.
I had to spend a precious moment freeing the fabric to hide my tracks before I could close the grate.
It felt final, ominous as it shut us into this hole, but I couldn’t worry about it. I had to follow my Tally into the dark and trust that she felt the bond between us as I did. But she was a spy, just like me… I couldn’t know what she was thinking, not yet.