Page 75 of Guardian's Destiny

Their steps slowed.

"I've got it," I repeated in my most arrogant voice, waiving them off. From the corners of my eyes, I tried to take in the rest of the airfield, to see if any more Space Guardians were approaching. It seemed like the entire airfield had frozen in the middle of what they were doing. Probably not used to any kind of incidents.

"This was the ship bringing the Arkhevari," one of the Space Guardians said.

I willed Sloane wherever she was to stay there until I could get rid of these nosey bastards.

"That's none of your business," I informed him like I would have any other person during any other mission I had been assigned to. We didn't stick our noses in the others’ business. Ever.

One of them held up his comm, showing something on it to the Space Guardian I had been talking to. Frygg, I wondered if they had already put my picture out there. They would know who had flown my ship.

My hand reached for the blaster by my hip when a group approaching caught my attention. Frygg! I glared at Sloane, who was supporting two women, one human and one Pandraxian. The cursed Arkhevari was carrying another, while several morefollowed them, holding on to each other. The Arkhevari was glowing in a golden light.

Don't reach for the blaster, a strange voice in my head announced. Instinctively, I knew it was the Arkhevari, and I glared at him, willing him to get out of my head.

"Are you Vraax Zeljed?" the Space Guardian asked me, not even acknowledging the strange group walking straight up the ramp now.

"He is not," Zapharos said, staring from one Space Guardian to the other.

"He's got it under control." The same Space Guardian informed the others. "We are not needed here."

I stared at their backs when they turned and retreated.

"What in the Black Abyss's name was that?" I demanded when I followed the group into the cargo bay.

"What the hell, Zapharos. You have fucking mind control?" Sloane looked about ready to plant her fist into his face, and I cheered her on to do so.

"You should get us out of here," Zapharos advised.

"Stay out of my head," I demanded as I walked to bridge, of my own free will. I was sure of it. No strange voices had entered my head. It was the sensible thing to do, given our circumstances.

"I'm not done with you," I heard Sloane yell as she followed me to the bridge.

"What can I do?" she asked stepping over the bodies of the Space Guardians I had killed.

I wanted to pull her into my arms, kiss her, assure myself that she was alright, unharmed and in one piece, but the damn Arkhevari was right, we needed to get out of here.

"Sit. Just knowing you're safe is help enough," I told her while I took my seat. I checked to make sure the cargo bay door was closed and my passengers seated. I didn't care about theOhrurs; I actually relished the thought of them getting a little tumbled around in their room.

Normally, that wasn't a problem; take-offs were usually smooth, and the ships were designed to keep the passengers comfortable, but I wasn't planning on a regular takeoff. We were getting out of here like an unstoppable asteroid.

"Hold on," I advised Sloane as I overrode the automatic take-off procedure to manual. Nose up, I brought the ship to full speed before we even breached the atmosphere, not giving the Ohrurs a chance to shoot at or intercept us. I counted fully on any other ships having been set to auto and their computers picking us up in time to get out of our way. Otherwise, we would end in a big boom.

"Several ships approaching," Zapharos’s voice startled me. I hadn't heard the bastard come in or the doors open. He was giving me some serious goosebumps, and not in a good way.

"I don't see… you're right." Several Space Guardian fighters appeared on my spectral grid. How had he known that?

I ordered the ship to go into hyperspeed as soon as possible, activated the forcefield and deployed several decoys. Then I closed the viewing shield and flew our ship straight for the sun.

"You're going to get us cooked," Sloane warned.

"Excellent avoidance maneuver," Zapharos praised, sending more shivers down my spine. I really didn't like that male. Despite that, his compliment felt good. As much as I didn't want it to, it stroked my ego.

The Space Guardians would still see us on their spectral grid, but it took a lot of training to fly these ships only using the grid and not the viewing screen. I counted on their inexperience to avoid them for as long as it took before the ship made it into hyperspeed. Once there, I stopped us one more time to rid ourselves of the bodies of the Space Guardians I had killed. I should have felt a tremendous amount of guilt over this,but there had been something very strange about them that occupied my mind more than any guilt.

SLOANE

I releaseda breath of relief when Vraax announced that we had entered hyperspeed. My eyes had been glued to the radar, on which more and more fighters had appeared, following us. Strangely, none of them fired at us.

---