Page 11 of Alien Knight Steals the Bride

Greig nodded. “She has light fingers. I didn’t even feel it when she lifted the dagger. Seth is following her to make sure she gets back to her ship without incident. She’s got skills, for a human, but we weren’t the only ones who noticed her walking around.”

“I trust Seth will protect her without anyone the wiser to our presence, or hers. He’s spooky quiet, even for one of us,” he said, his voice full of tension. “Did you see the infant Targos wrapped just above her ridiculous footwear?”

Greig grinned. “She wears flowers on her feet to distract us from the vicious man-eating targos wrapped around her ankles. A practical, womanly approach, eh?”

“I’ve never heard of a Targo attaching offspring to a human. Must have been fakes to scare off other predators,” Marcano remarked.

“Perhaps. Did you see anyone else leave the ship?” Taeger asked Greig.

Greig shook his head, raising his brows in question.

Taegar’s hazel eyes burned with inner fire and tension as he looked toward the door. “It’s now even more important we find out who she is and why she’s piloting a Vilitos ship. That was no mere message she handed me. It was a symbol, written in Lumerian code. Either someone has broken that code, or we just received our first contact in two thousand years.” The room grew thicker with tension. “Grab your ‘go bags’. Full gear. Teams four, seven, and nine. Liftoff in twenty. We’re not going to let that ship out of our sight without knowing who she is and what she really wants. The elders of Lumeria could be on board or the dead fucking king; I don’t give a rat’s ass. That was a Vilitos ship. Until we know exactly what we’re dealing with, we stay silent. Understood?”

“Full gear. Teams four, seven, nine. Understood.” Marcano and Greig removed the traditional garments worn on Mora 5, revealing black camouflage material that flickered in patches in and out of sight. No one said another word as Taeger looked from one warrior to another. They were tense with excitement. Wariness. Anticipation. Hope.

Strapped to their backs were ancient looking swords in rune covered scabbards. First Greig disappeared, then Marcano flickered out of sight, his deep voice the only evidence that he was still in the room. “Was it wise, then, to give her the maju water? Did we just tip our hand?”

Taeger’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he opened the back door, scanning the alley. “She came here looking for us. Someone already tipped it.”

“When will they stop hunting us?” Marcano growled.

Taeger turned toward Marcano’s voice, his own cold and flat. “Never. But we have nothing to lose this time. They have no leverage against us. We’re on our own out here. Our planet was destroyed. Our children dead. Let them draw us out. This time.. this time we show no mercy,” Taegar reminded his second in command as he, too, removed the outer garments he’d worn to blend in with the crowds, tapped his cloaking armor, and flickered out of sight.

A small bag of coins flew toward the counter, landing with a dull thud in an otherwise empty room.

Chapter Five

“Find me….” Sevron’s voice echoed as Torrin woke with a start, his heart racing painfully.

He was in a bed. Not with his brother back on Caldor. Not in the cage his Vilitos captors had kept him in for months, too feverish and in too much pain to reach out to his twin.

Torrin reached up and ran a hand through his hair. Still shaggy. An intravenous line was taped into his arm.

“You shouldn’t be awake yet,” Juliette admonished, placing her small hand on his shoulder in comfort. “On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”

He frowned. “My physical pain is zero. What are you putting into my veins? Where are we?”

“We’re still on the ship we stole. And we’re on Mora Five,” she soothed. “I’m giving you maju water through an intravenous line. Doctor Jorvin and I discussed your condition. He instructed me to infuse you this way for damage control since you were unable to drink the water. We’re almost at the four-hour window. I’ll remove the IV.” She smiled, quickly removing it with deft fingers. “Can you tell me your name and what day it is?”

“My name is Torrin Llahsab. I am uncertain of the number of days I was held by the Vilitos. I believe approximately one hundred have passed. How did you come to be on that ship? You are a human from Earth, yes?”

“Of course. I wasn’t thinking, just force of habit to ask. You were injured quite severely. You should rest, even if you think you’re fine, there is still the possibility that your internal injuries are not fully healed. Try not to move around too much until..”

“I’m fine,” he murmured, sitting up. “I can take care of myself. What happened on Earth? How did you get here?”

Juliette stiffened her spine and pasted on her most professional smile. The really fake one. “All right, we can talk about Earth first, if you insist,” she agreed, taking a deep breath as she mentally counted to ten, “but try to rest while we talk. You’re so tall, you’ll give me a crick in my neck looking up at you.”

Juliette was more than a little relieved when Torrin grinned weakly, lying back once more. She had a way of bringing out the funny side in any situation and relied on that ability to keep herself, and others, from going crazy. Not much to laugh about in this hell hole, though. Torrin should be in a hospital, not chatting about Earth. She knew how close he’d come to death, it was a miracle that he could function at all, let alone sit up and talk.

“Perhaps you would care to sit down for the telling of your tale,” Torrin scooted to the side and patted the space next to him.

Blushing as heat infused her cheeks, she sat awkwardly next to him and wrapped her arms around her legs, only to scoot a little closer as the minutes ticked by. She ignored the tiny voice in the back of her mind that said she needed comfort as much as he needed rest.

The professional façade, the plastic smile, faded as she recounted the details of the attack. “I’m not really sure what happened. I was with a new team of human medical personnel hired to work with the Caldorians. We had just passed through security at the Welcome Center on the Caldorian base when the building was hit. Fires exploded all around us. The smoke was choking me. I could hardly breathe. Everything happened so fast after that, I don’t know how to describe it.”

She raised a hand, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear before continuing, surprised by the shaking. She was usually as cool as a cucumber under pressure. She must be experiencing delayed shock. “People were screaming and running. We didn’t know where to go. Commander Bashall came down the stairs and shouted at us to follow them.”

“Them?”

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