Page 6 of Guardian's Destiny

"I don't care about the details. I want the Arkhevari, and I want him alive," the other, who seemed to be the boss, replied.

Shit! I slapped my forehead. I wasn't looking forward to another confrontation with the Arkhevari, but I had to warn him. It wasn't like I felt responsible for the bastard, okay, maybe a little bit, but I had learned enough that having an Arkhevari under the Moggadesh’s control was similar to a human nation having captured a unicorn or dragon. Yeah, dragon was probably more fitting—a dangerous dragon at that.

Sitting in the room spying, so many questions flitted through my brain. Like where the Arkhevari had been all this time, what they had been doing, and why Zapharos had come forward now.

I had heard enough. I gathered my comm, turned the security cameras in the other room back off, and erased all tracesthat I had been in their system at all. It was time to get back to Pandrax and face a very enraged emperor when the door opened and six GTU soldiers charged in. Weapons trained on me.

Grateful to have my MARSOC background, I jumped behind the large conference table, turned it over, and pushed it against the soldiers while they were firing at it. That move gave me enough time to pull my blaster and take down two of them. Another was on the ground because he hadn't been able to avoid the table. The other three were storming around it from both sides. I took the one to the left down and bolted over his body. The one who had been hit with the table grabbed my ankle, nearly tripping me. A blast close to my head seared off some of my hair, and I cursed as I managed to get out and around the corner.

"Get her! She killed GTU soldiers," Gar'Ny L'ym Tack yelled from down the hall. How he had figured out I had hacked into the system would remain a mystery, but the fact of the matter was he did, and now I was enemy number one. Worse yet, I had killed GTU soldiers, and I was pretty sure they would come after me just like any police force on Earth would have after I took one of their own down. It was at that precise moment that I realized I was on my own.

They would know which Pandraxian ship had brought me here and never allow me to reach it. Or force a shootout with the Imperial Forces, something I would have liked to avoid at all costs. Emperor Daryus didn't need this added scandal when he took on the GTU. It would actually work in the GTU's favor and make the Pandraxians the bad guys.

All that went through my head as I ran down the corridors, trying to figure out my next move. I had a rudimentary understanding of how to fly a spacecraft, a Pandraxian one at least. But there were so many of them out there…

Easy, Sloane, it can't be that much more difficult than driving a car. If you can drive one, you can drive them all, I tried to encourage myself.Yeah, unless it has a clutch, then you're fucked, came my reply, and I groaned, slowing. I needed to blend in with the crowd, which wasn't easy. This space station wasn't a spot where many humans hung out. Security cameras were most likely already trained on me.

The only way out for me was to hijack a ship. I knew where they were, too; the problem was which one to pick. Unless I found time to hack into the docking log, I would have no idea what kind of ship lay behind each locked hatch.

First, though, I needed to get down to one of the docking stations. I pulled the hood of my shirt over my head, but a new group of GTU soldiers was already approaching. Hastily, I made a beeline for one of the chutes to take me to the docking levels. Keeping my blaster ready, I left the chute and turned right on a whim. It didn't matter; I was operating on a prayer and luck.

"Stop!" A voice behind me yelled, and I ran. I zigzagged to avoid being hit by the blaster fire that followed me.

Turning right had been the wrong move, as it turned out. Construction drones were busy working on an open shaft just as the group of GTU soldiers rounded the corner, and another team came straight at me. I didn't have any options left. Once the GTU soldiers got a hold of me, Gar'Ny L'ym Tack would have me executed before the emperor even knew I was a prisoner. I jumped into the open shaft, praying it wasn't a hundred miles deep or would lead straight into the void of space. Impossible, I know, but those were my thoughts as my body descended with increasing speed, and I still didn't land anywhere.

My hands tried to hold on to anything protruding from the ends of the shaft. I managed to hold on to a line, but my hands were too slippery from sweat, and there was nothing I could doto stop my slide down the line until my fingers only grabbed air once again.

But it helped slow my fall enough so that I didn't break my back or neck when I landed—only my ankle.

VRAAX

I would have beatenZaarek too, if it hadn't been for Raasla showing up that fateful day. They took me prisoner and aboard another ship where I met more traitors and their mates.

Noodar and his mate Luph, Zaarek and Raasla's mates, Nova and Zoe, respectively as well as Tharaax and his mate Hannah. Oh, and a holostreamer, Nock. They tried to convince me that the Ohrurs were betraying us that some sinister force was at work that had given them mating marks. I wouldn't have believed a word that came out of their traitorous mouths, if it hadn't been for the dreams.

It was impossible for them to have known about my dreams, and that they claimed to have too. The similarities of those dreams were enough to give me pause.

As time passed by, the dreams came more frequently. That coupled with what the others were discovering made me reconsider my position on the Ohrurs. The longer I listened to my newfriends, the more I became convinced that they were right and that we were about to discover something evil.

Despite what Moddekdum had tried to convince me of, I no longer believed they were traitors. That much was certain. But whether the Ohrurs were truly as sinister as the others claimed…I wasn’t sure. Yet. The cracks in my belief were widening, and every conversation, every memory—or lack thereof—pushed me farther toward uncertainty.

The common room was filled with tense energy as we gathered. This was becoming a habit, though I wasn’t sure I liked it yet. My instincts still told me to be cautious, but something about their relentless questioning, their refusal to back down, was beginning to wear at the certainty I had once held. So did their easy camaraderie, something I had never experienced before or had even known I missed.

Zaarek leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, watching me like he was waiting for me to trip over my own words. Tharaax and Raasla were standing near the table where Nova and Nock were seated, with Luph and Zoe exchanging glances nearby. Hannah sat off to the side, quietly observing.

“So let’s go over this again,” Raasla said sharply. “The Ohrurs claim we are the traitors, that we betrayed them, but every mission we ever ran was for their benefit. What do they gain by turning on us?”

"The mating marks," Zoe said quietly.

"They're afraid others will get them." Zaarek agreed.

“The better question,” Tharaax added, “is why do we remember so little about our pasts? Have you never wondered about that, Vraax?”

I hesitated. “I have,” I admitted, but didn't like it.

Zaarek snorted. “Tell me, what’s your earliest memory before training with the Ohrurs?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. A flash of sterile walls, endless drills, competition. But before that? I searched my mind, and an ache flared behind my eyes.

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