Page 110 of Stealing Mercury
“Incredible.” Drake shook his head and laughed.
Samantha slipped her hand in her pocket and pulled out the cutter. She flicked on the control and swung out toward the hand holding the blaster.
“Fuck!” The blaster hit the floor with a metallic clink. “Fucking bitch.”
Mercury and Lo flew toward them in a flash of grace and power.
“Fucking hell,” Drake swore as he scrambled back, his arm tightening around her throat. As she struggled for air, the pain in her head swelled as if her skull had been filled with the expanding foam she used to plug holes in engine chambers. She slammed her fist into his groin and the pressure eased. She yanked free and fell on her ass.
Drake screamed. Mercury snarled. He pinned the whip-master to the floor a meter away. She tried to blink them into focus. Mercury’s hands held Drake’s head. He twisted the man’s neck with a vicious snap, silencing the screams.
Samantha stared at the body of the man who’d hurt her and the men she loved over and over. His relentless drive for vengeance against them had virtually guaranteed his death. Maybe she should have let them kill him back on G-45987.
Mercury stroked hair out of her face with gentle hands. “Samantha?”
She tried to speak. Coughed. Swallowed.
His hand tightened in her hair. “I want to kill him again.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
He chuckled, a choked, desperate sound.
She heard Lo yip and she reached out a hand. He was there pressing her hand to his bare chest. “What do you say we go look for our ride back to the port?”
“Our ride?” Mercury wrapped an arm around her and helped her stand but the world spun.
Samantha swayed. “I think I may have overdone it a bit.”
Mercury pulled her into his arms. “I’ll carry you,courra.” He urged her to wrap herself around him and she did. Even standing had begun to feel like a chore.
Mercury and Lo surged through the corridors until they found an exterior stairwell. They slipped inside and slipped in and out of the shadows.
“Samantha?”
Mercury urged her to look over the edge of the protective barrier. She searched for the med-transport. There were several.
“Courra, we must know where to go.”
“I’m looking,” she stalled. Three of the transports had the doors open, loading people. “That one.” She pointed to a transport with no signs of activity.
“Look,” said Lo. “There are more stairs like these, over there.”
“We have to do this fast,” said Mercury. “It looks as if more guards are moving up the ramp.”
“Let’s go,” said Lo.
Mercury kept Samantha wrapped around him as they worked their way to the transport. They climbed along ledges and jumped from level to level on exterior features of the Arena building. Silently, she willed the idiot guards to continue to fail to look up and for the acid in her stomach to stay down.
The moment Mercury and Lo touched ground in a soft patch of grass, Samantha pushed at Mercury. “Put me down,” she whispered in panic.
Mercury set her on the ground just in time for her to drop to her knees and heave. There was nothing in her stomach to come up, but she heaved until the cramping in her belly stopped.
“How bad are your injuries,courra?” Mercury spoke as he pulled her deeper into the shadow of a bush.
“I do have a head injury, but the medic treated it. I should be fine.”
“You don’t seem fine,” accused Lo.
