Page 79 of Tanin's Treasure
In his place was something darker. Something unfamiliar. A creature she’d only heard of. This was the male that had survived the most dangerous station in the universe. A grim shadow. A simple threat. Still so calm, but in the way a gun was calm right before it was fired. Cold and tense and poised.
The male who held her took a step back, unfortunately tugging her along with him. She grabbed his hand, trying to scratch at his wrist, for all the good it did her.
Tanin’s blood red eyes tightened.
That was the only warning before he pulled on his ribbon, tugging the other guy right back, keeping him from escaping. Tanin rushed forward, twisting the ribbon up his arm as he did so with impressively quick movements of his fingers and wrist, keeping the tension high. The only way the guy could get away was if he let go of Garnet.
He had to let go now, right?
He used Garnet’s hair like a leash, yanking her to the side, keeping her back, as he brought up his arm, defending himself against the first strike. Tanin’s fist struck his forearm, completely blocked-
But the guy roared in pain. Blood gushed forth. Tanin’s knuckle claws dug into the meat of his arm and down, gouging out four, deep gashes.
When the guy tried to pull away, Tanin used the ribbon to yank him right back. The guy dodged the second punch completely, but the third was aimed at the shoulder being used to hold Garnet.
He dropped back, refusing to release her still. The pain made her eyes water as she stumbled, falling to her knees. He brought his bloody arm up, clearly intending to strike Tanin in the face. But Tanin still had that ribbon and, with a tug, his fist was pulled off course.
Tanin pulled far, arm swinging all the way back, forcing the guy to fall into the elbow he slammed right into his nose with a sickening crunch.
That,finally, was what loosened the hold on her hair.
Before Garnet could even grasp that she was free, Tanin was there, grabbing her by the wrist. He turned, throwing her back with a surprising amount of force. Garnet cried out, sure she was about to hit the wall or the ground or-
-something warm and firm swept her up. Cradling her like a baby. She blinked, suddenly finding herself looking at Goldie and Rok. The big guy had her bundled in his left arms, Goldie in his right. And with her secured in place, he wasted no time in turning and bounding away, his footsteps loud like thunder as he ran.
Garnet turned back, looking over his huge shoulder. Just in time to see the dark shadow that was Tanin tangling with the unknown shinuk. Now that the guy wasn’t holding Garnet with one hand, he was holding his own. He managed to escape the ribbon, but his injured arm was mostly useless.
As she watched, the twins were just suddenly there, seeming to drop out of the shadows like they appeared out of thin air.
Then, Rok was too far away, and they were gone. She clung to him, heart pounding, adrenaline rushing so fast she couldn’t even think.
What was that? What just happened? Andwhy!?
Chapter 23
Tanin
“Captain, are you okay?” Sorbet and Tebros intoned at the same time as they approached him, their short blades drawn.
“Fine,” he answered, turning, his ribbon twisted around his arm and hanging from his hand. “The females?”
“Rok took them back to the ship,” they said together again. The twins often spoke in sync, or Sorbet would speak for both of them. Avanava males were all born as twins, and they spent their life together, even mating a single female. They felt what the other did and rarely outlived the other. To the Coalition, one set of twins was considered a singular person. To the avanava, it was more of a spectrum. Some twins considered themselves fully separated from their brother and knew themselves to be two separate people.
But then some, like Sorbet and Tebros, considered themselves a single person in two bodies. They spoke and moved as one. Tanin was sure some of it was a survival mechanism, needing to rely on each other in Rik-Vane, but it was also probably part of who they were. Some avanava twins were just like that, and these two were.
“Thanks for the backup,” he told them, winding his ribbon up so he could tie it back around his wrist.
“Sorry we lost him.”
“Don’t be. He’s the coward who ran.”
“He was trained. He was a professional.”
“Yeah, he was.” Tanin looked at the black blood on his claws. He’d hurt him badly, but a good mediring would heal that right up without a problem.
He was a shinuk male. Tanin didn’t recognize him, but there was a very rich shinuk king that he’d crossed recently. And now this one tried to take Garnet. That was either just a coincidence and a passing shinuk was trying his luck at stealing a human, or Gissrn was trying to get his treasures back.
When the smoke bomb went off and Tanin was blinded, he reached for his ribbon first, preparing for an attack. It was reflex at this point. It wasn’t the most popular method of attack on Rik-Vane, but if you blinded your opponent, your odds of winning went up.
