Page 6 of Written in the Stars

Nebula screeched as she flew into his face, clawing at his crimson skin. The gangster stumbled back, hands flailing at the flying cat, trying in vain to dislodge her.

“Kill. Nebula Kill.” The monotone of Nebula’s decoded voice made her shouts weirdly menacing, and it would have been funny if it hadn’t been so scary. Nebula didn’t stand a chance, and as soon as Demon Face recovered from the shock of her attack, he’d kill her.

I wouldn’t allow that. Which meant doing something stupid. Grabbing the heavy wrench I kept under the counter for emergencies, I rushed to Nebula’s rescue.

Thug Droid stepped into my way, raising their red-hot blade. Lizardman stalked forward, looking at Nebula as though she’d make a nice snack. And Demon Face had an arm between his face and Nebula’s claws.

I tried to duck around Droid as Demon Face got a hold of Nebula and smashed her into a shelf. The robot gangster blocked my path and my vision blurred with tears as Demon Face pulled a knife from his belt and raised it high, ready to plunge it into Nebula’s soft belly.

“Stop.” It wasn’t a shout, and it didn’t need to be. The rough voice had a quality that made it impossible to ignore. “Let them go.”

Drask stood in the doorway, eyes narrow and lips pulled back in a snarl. Taken aback by the interruption, the three gangsters turned to face him and hesitated. The alien mercenary wasn’t an easy target like me, and the gangsters looked less sure of themselves.

“The beast attacked me,” Demon Face growled, tightening his grip on the squirming cat. “You can still walk away, friend.”

My thoughts of attacking vanished like a snowball in a blast furnace. I didn’t want to get hit in the crossfire.

Drask moved with a deceptively slow grace, prowling forward like a tiger. “Leave the human and her animal unharmed and go. I will not tell you a third time.”

The Droid stepped into his path, speaker crackling with insults and glowing blade raised. From that point, everything happened too quickly for me to follow.

Drask slipped past the droid’s thermal blade, snatched a knife from their belt, and threw. Demon Face screamed as the knife buried itself in his upper arm. Freed from his grip, Nebula scrambled up his body, hissing and flapping all the way. Her claws bit deep, leaving a trail of bloody scratches behind as she launched herself into the air. I turned my attention back to the confrontation between Drask and the droid, just in time to see the mechanical gangster clatter to the deck, their limbs flailing. Lizardman leaped over them to the attack.

He ran into Drask’s punch and staggered, tail lashing for balance. The mercenary didn’t give him a chance to disengage, following him and keeping up a punishing series of attacks. But the alien mobster knew his way around a brawl. He might not outfight my mercenary savior, but he could certainly keep him busy.

Demon Face held a blade in his left hand, his right hanging uselessly at his side. Moving silently, he crept around Drask, looking for a chance to strike. His moment never came.

Without seeming to take his attention off his foe, Drask kicked backward into Demon Face’s stomach, sending the gangster reeling backward. His red face darkened as he struggled for breath, and Drask didn’t miss a beat in his battle with the lizard gangster. Knocking aside Lizardman’s blocks with brutal force, he slammed his opponent into the popular romance shelves, sending books flying in all directions.

“Stop.” The static-filled, emotionless voice spoke right next to my ear, and I yelped. A cold, metallic hand closed on my left arm, holding me in place as I tried to twist away. I stopped struggling the moment I felt the heat radiating from the thermal blade held near my neck. The droid had recovered while my attention was on the fight, and rather than risk attacking Drask directly, they’d come for me instead.

I couldn’t fault his reasoning, though I wished he’d run away rather than grab a hostage. Freezing in place, not daring to risk my skin touching the red-hot knife if I struggled, I watched Drask turn and glare past me.

“Let her go,” Drask said, his tone brooking no argument. A tingle ran across my skin, and I bit my lip—if he’d taken that tone with me, I’d have melted. Even being near its target took my mind off the danger I was in.

“Funny.” The robot’s flat tone didn’t show any emotion, and his grip didn’t shift. “You care enough to want to save her. Do so by surrendering.”

Which means dying. Come on, he’s not that stupid.I braced myself for the inevitable—it would be ridiculous to expect Drask to get himself killed for my sake.

But to my shock, he straightened up from his fighting stance. I nearly protested, squirming in the robot’s grip until I felt the threatening heat of his blade move closer.

Drask caught my eye, bowed, andwinked.For a moment, I froze, appalled by his casual attitude.Isn’t he taking this at all seriously?

Before I worked out what to do with that feeling, Drask blurred into action. Straightening up from his bow, one hand caught a massive book and threw it with blinding speed. The metal-bound collector’s edition ofBiological Lifeforms: A Study in Obsolescenceflew past my head and struck with a ringingclang.

I tried to twist free of the robot’s grip as they toppled backward, but their hand had clamped shut and I was trapped. Staring at the red-hot blade swinging toward my face in slow motion, I knew with deadly certainty that I wouldn’t get out of the way in time.

A large blue hand clamped down on the robot’s wrist and held the blade away from me. Drask pulled me free of the crumpling droid and pushed me behind the counter.

“Go. Now. I will not give you another warning.” Drask didn’t raise his voice, which only made him scarier. Battered and beaten, the three thugs scrambled for the door. Droid staggered as he went, crashing into the doorframe before tumbling into the corridor. Probably because of the dentBiological Lifeformshad left in his head, I thought.

But the look Demon Face threw my way was clear. I hadn’t seen the last of them.

5

DRASK

If you want to see a human’s fury, do one a favor unasked.

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