Chapter 9
NINE
Taron
“Get dressed,” he said, grabbing his own clothes. “We’ve got to move.”
This was not good. He yanked on his pants and clipped his belt around his waist. His knife went in his belt, but he doubted it would stay there for long.
All those skills he learned as a Sifter would come into use this night.
The landing pad was in a flat space in the center of the camp, directly next to their hut.
Taron watched with added interest as the ship docked and the lower hatch opened.
Four individuals stepped out. All were tall, slender, and bore resemblance to Uroti, a species well known to be effective assassins. They were astronomically expensive to hire. It was the fifth figure to emerge that made Taron’s stomach drop to his feet.
“Sulot…” he murmured to himself. He knew this male.
He thought they were friends. Or, well, as close to “friends” as two ex-Sifters could be.
He hadn’t expected to be so dramatically betrayed by one he once called a brother.
Sulot had recommended him for this job. Taron had made many trips to Earth and earned good credits shuttling human females to and from their matches. And now, he had become expendable.
“Wait.” Amelia craned her neck to see out the window. “That’s the facilitator. The guy who supervised the women matches and brought you undershirts.”
“Yes, it is,” said Taron through his teeth.
“I thought he was your friend.”
“So did I.” Taron made a fist.
“But they scanned the wreckage,” she said, yanking her flight suit back on. “I thought they were satisfied that we were dead.”
“Not satisfied enough. Maybe they circled back and found the pod.” He cursed himself for not hiding it. Amelia had a way of scattering his thoughts. Here, it made him complacent.
Nitto emerged from his stone building, looking angry. His thick arms waved and his voice rose. Taron didn’t have time to remove the chip and deal with the transition from English. He knew this argument was about him and Amelia.
Sulot flicked his fingers, and the four assassins melted into the darkness. “Shit,” Taron muttered again. The Uroti had been sent out to search the camp for him and the human. Suddenly, Sulot pulled a weapon on Nitto and fired. The raider leader fell to the ground in a heap.
Now Taron was really worried. Sulot sent the Uroti to search not only for them, but to kill everyone in the camp.
Anyone who had seen him and Amelia would die.
Already, he could hear the sounds of struggle and alarm as the camp came to realize they were being ambushed. They needed to get out of there—now.
He turned. Amelia was behind him with the bag he’d brought slung over her shoulder. “What’s the plan?”
His heart pounded, but he tried to not let Amelia see the fear he felt. “See those trees over there? Run straight to them, avoiding the low vegetation. Don’t make any noise.”
Before he could even open the door for them to slip out, a black-clad Uroti burst it open with a blaster drawn.
It wasn’t just any blaster. This was one of those new, silent ones that sent out a thin laser-like energy burst that burned a hole right through a body.
They were monstrously expensive. Whoever was funding this operation had more credits than they knew what to do with.
The assassin clearly thought he would take them by surprise and was blindsided when Taron allowed his fighting instincts to take over.
Virilians were vicious fighters when they needed to be, with strength and power to make up for speed.
At one time, many had fought as mercenaries.
Taron knew Uroti were stealth fighters, better as snipers and sneaking up on their victims than in hand-to-hand combat.
With a quick dodge to the side and a well-placed, lightning-fast punch, the assassin staggered backwards.
The weapon clattered to the floor. Taron knew he could not let the Uroti reset and get balanced.
He punched again at the assassin’s throat, then used the barb on his tail to snag his attacker’s leg and yank his legs out from under him.
He heard a grunt, and the Uroti slammed down hard on his back.
Teeth bared, Taron pulled his knife from his belt and leapt to the head of the assassin to finish him, but the Uroti leapt to his feet and sank into a low, deadly attack position.
Cold sweat trickled down Taron’s back. Even with a blade to his advantage, Taron had to be careful because these beings were fast. What they lacked in bulk, they made up for in speed and skill.
Suddenly, the Uroti sank to his knees, then fell to the floor facedown. The smell of burning flesh and the acidic afterburn of a discharged blaster filled the air. A small, round hole sizzled in the metal wall behind where the assassin had stood.
He turned and saw Amelia slowly lowering the Uroti’s weapon.
Her face was a cool, determined mask, except for her eyes, which glinted like shards of firelit glass.
She wore the face of a warrior and a survivor, and he had never seen a more magnificent and beautiful female in his entire life.
“Can we go now?” she asked in a low, calm voice.
He’d also never been so turned on. If they weren’t in a literal life-and-death situation, he would have a raging hard-on. “Let’s go.”
He didn’t try taking the blaster from her.
She could clearly use it. Perhaps more capable than him.
They bolted through the open door, towards the edge of the clearing, where the trees grew thick.
But as they approached, he heard noises.
The assassins were in the woods, perhaps dealing with raiders, scouts who were out patrolling the camp.
She heard it too, and they turned, veering on the edge of the clearing.
Taron spied a structure through the trees.
It was simple, some posts with a domed roof, but beneath it were the unmistakable shapes of ground vehicles.
His heart leapt a bit. If they could get to a transport, they could get out of here.
The noises of a fully awake and panicked camp surrounded them.
The smell of discharged weapons and burning vegetation wafted through the air.
They broke through the tree line and yes, there was an enclosure that housed a mishmash of different vehicles, in various states of repair.
He saw one sitting a little aside, not parked nearby like the rest. It had been abandoned, probably by a scout that just arrived after being notified of the commotion.
With any luck, the activation code was still inputted.
He pointed to it, and they started towards it. But just before they could get to the enclosure, another assassin ran from the trees and grabbed Amelia from behind. He heard her yelp as she was yanked off her feet. A blaster was being raised towards her head.
A red film covered Taron’s vision. He didn’t think. The knife was still in his hand. He raised his arm and threw it, flicking his wrist, as he had done so many times.
As a boy, Taron had agonized over the loss of their mother to the virus that decimated the female population of Virilia and ached for the return of his kidnapped brother.
The city itself had reeked of death and despair.
To escape, Taron had spent countless cycles deep in the tunnels.
He’d channeled his anger and pain by throwing knives, rocks, at targets. His aim became flawless.
The blade whisked through the air and sank into the Uroti’s head as though it were a soft fruit. The assassin dropped. Amelia staggered free. She looked down briefly at the fallen Uroti, then back at Taron. The quiet desperation in her eyes made his chest burn.
He slung a leg over the nearby vehicle. Sure enough, it was still warm beneath his legs.
It was not a large vehicle. These were called ground skimmers.
They were designed for one person, not two, and definitely not if one of them was a large Virilian male.
Nevertheless, he swiped his palm over the screen to activate it.
It had not been shut off long enough for the code to reset.
“Let’s go.” His voice sounded low and deadly. It was a powerful vehicle, designed for speed. Four round hover lifts kept it off the ground and made it maneuverable over the uneven surface. These raiders were well connected, and well funded.
Amelia climbed in behind him, wrapping herself around his back. She tucked his tail over one of her thighs and looped her arms around his waist. A smooth, curving shield came up in a half dome over the front and clear panels rose from the sidewalls.
“Do you know how to operate one of these?” she asked.
“Nope.” He dug his heel into the accelerator, gripped the sleek handlebars, and they shot off into the forest. He wasn’t lying.
He’d never operated one of these, and it was incredibly nerve-wracking.
The small vehicle was fast, and the steering was responsive.
It needed full focus to navigate the trees and vegetation.
Sulot was still back there, hunting them, and would not rest until he saw them dead and rotting. But who was Sulot working for? He didn’t possess the wealth or motivation to run such an expensive operation. It was a question for later, maybe, if they survived this part.
Not dying was key, here. He was just as likely to wrap them around a tree trunk, as they were to be killed by Sulot and his assassins.
Amelia’s arms tightened around his waist. He could feel her inner thighs against his outer ones and vowed to not be distracted by this female whose very presence could make him forget his own name.
He navigated through the dense forest, blocking out everything else trying to crowd his mind.
Eventually, the forest thinned. The trees became even larger, wider, and taller.
And there were fewer of them. The spaces between them widened, making it easier to dodge the towering trunks.
Amelia’s chest rested against his back. He could feel her cheek between his shoulder blades and her arms loosened around his waist. The gentle weight of her filled him with a fierce satisfaction.
He wanted to protect her, learn everything there was to know about her, and yes, fuck her in every way physically possible.
He wished he could pinpoint when he began feeling this way.
It felt a little like an infection of the brain that caused madness.
Maybe it was that incredible sex. Maybe it was seeing her standing over the assassin, having just saved his life.
No, it was before those things. He didn’t know how it happened, but it was there and he knew that no matter what happened—if they survived—he would find a way to make Amelia his. Permanently.
Convincing her to stay might not be a straightforward task. She was a very stubborn female. That was, perversely, one of the things he liked about her. He’d need to find out how she felt about him, but that was for later. Everything was for later.
The sky was darkening. They’d ridden through the early dawn and well into the following day.
Fatigue weighed heavily on him. So did hunger.
The vehicle was running low on charge. When the screen put up an unfamiliar warning light, he barely noticed, until the trees ended suddenly, and the transport came to an abrupt stop.
It knocked the breath out of him as his belly pressed into the steering console.
“Oof.” Amelia tumbled against his back from the force of the stop. The vehicle balanced on a cliff. Below them lay a sloping wall of rocks and dirt. He carefully backed the ground skimmer up and settled it on solid ground.
“Oh my,” Amelia breathed when she looked around. “We found water.”
An ocean stretched before them. A seemingly endless, rolling black sea rolled with frothy white-tipped waves. In the distance, massive creatures breached the surface, baring glinting teeth and pointed fins. The smell of salt and vegetation filled his nostrils.
“We did.” But it was also a graveyard. The hulls of massive ships stuck out of the water, having been battered and beaten by waves for untold cycles. Some were rusted hunks, others appeared nearly intact, likely made of materials that did not break down so easily.
Below them, a gravelly beach with light purple sand met the sea.
A wide smile curved her lips. “It’s amazing,” she said. “I can’t believe we got away from those guys.”
Taron glanced back the way they came. He didn’t know how to tell her they hadn’t gotten away. They were still being pursued. And until they found a way off of this planet, they had no chance of finding safety.
As he gazed out over all that dark rolling water, all he felt was a sense of icy dread.
This was the end of the line. Nowhere else to run.
The only other place to go was back into the woods, along the coastline.
It didn’t matter, though. This may be a large planet, but with the right equipment, two humanoid life-forms would be easy to detect and easier to kill. Eventually, they’d be caught.
He tried to keep his expression mild as he swung his leg off the vehicle and held out a hand to her. “Shall we?”
She disembarked, but eyed the vehicle. “Is this going to start again if we leave it overnight?”
“No,” he said. “The access code will change after time elapses, and it’s nearly out of charge, anyway. It will take nearly a full cycle for it to recharge itself.”
“Is it possible to hack the code?”
He thought about that. “It would take some time, but I suppose so.”
Amelia sighed. He could almost see her busy mind working hard to find a solution. “I guess we’re camping here tonight.”