Page 5 of Badari Medic

Open mouthed, Raeblin stared at his back.We didn’t have to stop talking.Even though Brent was right there, loneliness hit her like a cold wave. Pulling her rifle into her lap, she let her Badari senses expand, tasting the wind, sampling the sounds and finding a certain amount of peace in the night. Her innerbeast prowled, intrigued by the forest around them and even more interested in the man sleeping close at hand.

Brent was an enigma to her. The Badari Daughters had virtually no experience with the opposite sex at all prior to coming to Sanctuary Valley. There had been a few Khagrish men at the lab where she was raised but Raeblin didn’t think any of them were a good template for what a man should be. Even a year in the company of the Badari Warriors hadn’t enlightened her much. They were fierce soldiers, much more in touch with their inner predator than she or any of her sisters were, but considerate and polite to the humans and their small pack of Badari women. Even though she’d trained with human men and Badari, and worked alongside the doctors and nurses in the valley’s hospital, she hadn’t grown close to any of them.

She and Brent certainly weren’t close. She’d managed to pull a bit of conversation from him as they marched. In answer to her questions he’d shared a few stories from his youth on a colony world, a few anecdotes from the time he and Gabe, her Alpha’s mate, had been in Special Forces together and then as mercenaries. She’d offered up a bit about her life before Gabe rescued them all but she was ashamed of her past. All the Daughters were. They’d believed the lies the Khagrish fed them and went willingly to the slaughter when the time came. It had even been hard for them to believe Gabe when he told them the truth of what the Khagrish were doing at the lab and showed them.

“You didn’t have any way to know,”: Brent had said when she haltingly confessed her embarrassment. “The Khagrish are good at lies. And Gabe said there was a Badari woman you all trusted who was in on the lies too. The important thing was you stepped up when the time came and helped to get yourself and your sisters free.”

His praise warmed her. Of course then the next minute he reverted to being coldly efficient about their trek through the forest and the conversation time was over. He was an odd mix of the hard, deadly soldier, man of few words, and a kind, sensitive person underneath. Well, kind to her anyway. She smiled as she remembered how he’d insisted she eat the majority of the berries they’d found earlier in the day.

She’d spent quite a bit of time with Gabe, since he was mated to her friend and Alpha, Keshara and the two men shared the aura of being deadly when called upon to fight or to protect, but otherwise Gabe was much more approachable, always teasing, openly affectionate with Keshara…Brent intrigued her because he seemed to be so closed off, except for those tiny flashes of a caring man underneath. Like holding her all night the first night because she’d had nightmares.

He didn’t like her insisting on standing watch, not because he didn’t trust her, she was sure, but because he wanted her to rest.Not going to happen. I have to do my share to get us home safely.With that thought she rose to her feet and did a patrol of the nearby area, weapon hot. Since she was a predator, she hoped none of the various large threats in these forests would venture close, but she wasn’t willing to ber her life or Brent’s on the belief. Now a Badari male, at seven feet tall and weighing in excess of 300 pounds of sheer muscle, with fangs and talons to match would undoubtedly send any hunter running. Flicking out her talons, Raeblin chuckled at the contrast between herself and any of the men in the packs. Better weaponry than a human was born with but nothing compared to a warrior’s.

“Well the human proverb says the female of the species is actually deadlier,” she said under her breath as she finished the patrol and settled in again next to Brent’s sleeping form.I’m not quite sure how the concept works but I guess we’ll see if we get in a combat situation again.Actually she hoped they had anuncomplicated hike home to the valley or better yet got picked up by their own people in the next day or so. She wondered if she’d ever see Brent again once she was home safe. He and Gabe were tight but he didn’t spend any time with her pack. Maybe she and Brent would get assigned to another mission—they were functioning well as a team, or so she thought. The prospect of not seeing Brent made her sad and she debated going on another patrol to work off her unusual emotions.

Raeblin decided it was better to stay at their campsite where at least she had Brent’s company, even if he was sleeping.

When he finally roused himself, right before she would have called him, she got to her feet, gave him a snappy salute and grinned. “Nothing to report. No action. I did one patrol of the area but it’s all quiet.”

“Good job,” he said with a nod. “Now turn in and get some sleep. We need to hit it hard tomorrow and see if we can’t lose the damn bird dog on our tail.”

She wanted more interaction with him but Brent dug into the sentry position she’d vacated and was staring out at the dark forest, weapon ready for trouble so Raeblin picked up the blanket, enjoying the faint scent of the man which her Badari senses made plain as day. The idea of wrapping up in his blanket pleased her and rather defiantly she did so, reclining so she was facing him, although he paid her no mind.

Drifting off to sleep because it had been a long hard day, capped off with standing watch for hours, she heard him say softly, “Have good dreams.”

CHAPTER THREE

All too soon Brent was shaking her shoulder. Raeblin sat up, blinking at the early morning sunlight penetrating the thick canopy of leaves overhead. Immediately she tensed, hearing the sound of the Khagrish flyer in the distance. Sitting up and clutching her pulse rifle, she said, “Damn, they started early today, didn’t they?”

“They must know one of us is a Badari,” Brent said, taking the blanket and folding it efficiently. “No way the Khagrish would make this much effort for a pair of humans.” He grinned with little humor. “We’re lab rats to them, no value. A Badari on the other hand…” Allowing his voice to trail off, he policed their campsite while Raeblin gathered her medkit. “We’ll have to eat on the run today.” She took the survival ration he handed her, surprised they had any left. “Did you eat?”

“Yeah,” he said.

Being a Badari and able to scent lies, she debated arguing with him but what good would it do? She compromised by breaking the bar in half and handing him the bigger piece.

There was a glint of humor in his eyes as he stared at her and then accepted the offering. “Damn, forgot you can smell lies.”

“It was gallant,” she said, “And I’m truly appreciative but I’m not eating by myself, soldier.”

Brent knocked her to the ground and covered her as the enemy flyer buzzed by. “Too close for comfort,” he said as he helped her up. “You okay? I didn’t hurt you?”

“I’m fine.” She brushed leaves and dirt off her front. “We’d better go.”

“Follow me,” he said and took off through the forest in the general direction they’d been traveling. Soon enough Brent doubled back and then took them on another tangent to the southeast. For a while she thought his maneuvers had enabled them to elude the flyer but then it came descending from the clouds like a large bird of prey.

With a curse, Brent redirected her and they sprinted west. “The bastards know we’re here all right,” he said, glancing up. “I think we’re in for it today.”

“Can we shoot them out of the sky?” she asked, holding her pulse rifle tight. She knew the answer but this feeling of being prey and being hunted made her stressed and angry and her inner predator was on a rampage.

“I wish we had the weapons for it,” he agreed as they crouched beside a tumble of big boulders, hiding in the brush while the flyer made a search grid in the sky overhead. “Be satisfying.” He squeezed her upper arm. “When he’s at his farthest point in the pattern he’s established, we’ll make a break for it, try to make the river. Might be able to hide under the banks or find a cave.”

Swallowing hard, Raeblin gave him a nod. The situation was getting pretty serious. This was the closest their pursuers had come in the three days since the attack at the destroyed lab and she wondered how she and Brent could escape.

“They land to take us, we shoot to kill,” Brent said, answering her unspoken question. “You can’t be captured.”

You’re important too, she thought with irritation but kept the sentiment to herself. He was right—these Khagrish didn’t even know her kind existed and her fate if they managed to take her prisoner would be grim indeed. Or the enemy would try to use her as bait or leverage. Raeblin couldn’t imagine how Aydarr would react to a Badari Daughter being in the hands of the Khagrish. “I shouldn’t have insisted on coming on this damn mission,” she said. “I didn’t think it all through.”

Surprisingly Brent was immediately supportive. “No, don’t beat yourself up. You’ve done a great job, sweetheart. And no one expected the situation to get so fucked, even if Gabe did send me along to be your bodyguard. You were surrounded by Badari.”

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