Page 46 of Guardian's Destiny

"They might think Moddekdum got killed in his mansion." I voiced my hopes, but even as I said it, I knew neither the Ohrurs nor the Space Guardians would leave this to chance. They would investigate, and they would keep searching.

Just then, the forest around us exploded.

"Shit, they must have heat sensors," Sloane cursed.

"We need to get out of here," the Ohrur female cried.

"Ugh, ah," Moddekdum groaned, about to wake up from his naptime.

I spied a triangular piece of metal and shrugged Moddekdum off my shoulders, hoping I was right. I pulled on the metal and exposed a long, dark tunnel leading down into the bowels of what once must have been the city's sewer system.

Without fanfare, I pulled Moddekdum toward me by his ankles, shouldered him, and moved to climb the rungs attached to the wall of the triangular shaft.

"What are you doing?" Sloane demanded.

"If it can hold Moddekdum and me, it'll hold you and her." I filled her in on my half-assed plan. Another explosion, a lot closer this time, made Sloane huff before she put the hardly protesting Ohrur female on her back.

"Hold tight." She advised her.

I told my comm to light up and grabbed one rung after another as we descended into the dead city's bowels.

SLOANE

A dank,musty smell engulfed me as I climbed rung by rung deeper into the bowels of Ohrur. Every fiber of my being protested against being here, but another explosion, this one so close the rung I was gripping vibrated under my fingers told me that this was our best option—our only option. More explosions followed, sounding like the Ohrurs and Space Guardians were hell bent on decimating whatever was left of these ruins.

My shoulder blades, arms, and thighs were burning from the endless descent. Especially with the added weight of the Ohrur woman, who clung to my back for dear life. I had no idea how much deeper we had to go; I estimated we were already a good mile down when I heard Vraax's feet land on hard ground.

Just a little farther, I encouraged myself,you can do it.

The Ohrur woman fell silent after about forty rungs. Before, she kept begging me to return to the mansion, but she had finally given up. I had run out of energy to assure her that I would keep her safe, that no harm would come to her.

Vraax waited for me at the bottom. Turning in a slow circle, he lit up the oval area we had entered with a light glow from his comm. Several triangular openings led into different parts of whatever kind of underground system we found ourselves in.

We were so deep down that I could barely make out the sound of detonations still rocking the above grounds. The thought of these tunnels collapsing and burying us underground should have frightened me, but strangely, they were the furthest from my mind.

"Uh," Moddekdum moaned, and the Ohrur woman—I really needed to find out her name—rushed to him.

"Moddekdum, master, are you alright?" She fell to her knees by his side, placing her hands on his arm, chest, and face, fluttering about him like a concerned wife.

"Paddekah?" Moddekdum stretched on the hard ground. "Where are we?" He looked around, and it would have been comical to watch his facial expression turn to terror when he laid eyes on Vraax.

"Vraax? What are you… What are we doing here? What is this place?" He asked, rising to his feet with the help of, I guess her name was Paddekah, the one he had left to burn to death. My fists balled. What a pathetic excuse for a being he was.

Vraax glared at him, and I noticed his biceps tighten, bringing my eyes down to his hands, which also balled into fists. Fury was edged over his features, and I remembered the others telling me how the Space Guardians could read evilness and their need to extinguish it. Even I could feel the evil vibes coming off Moddekdum in waves. It had to be a hundred times worth for Vraax. Instinctively, I moved in between the two while Paddekah limped to help him move around.

I put a placating hand on Vraax's chest to keep him calm. "We need him."

He nodded stiffly. "I know." He took a deep breath. "Who is she?"

"One of my nuvalas," Moddekdum said indignantly as if it was a major inconvenience for him to have to introduce her. I was put off with the translation as much as I was with thewives.It meant wife, butnualso meant servant andvalalesser being. Possedion's response to me as a female came back to my mind, and it aligned with Moddekdum's attitude.

"The question is, what are you doing here? Why are we here? What happened?" Moddekdum added.

"You are my hostage," Vraax filled the Ohrur in. Tremors moved through his chest; his black eyes blazed with hate.

"Hostage?" Moddekdum's stared at him uncomprehendingly, then his gaze moved to me, assessing, dismissing. I raised a brow, not used to being dismissed like this.

"Do you have the mating marks, too?" Moddekdum snarled.

---