Page 8 of Chased By the Alien Mercenary
In the bright lights, I saw people moving, saw the shadow of something, someone, large, leaping, and then… red sprayed,screams turned high-pitched and shocked. Somehow, my protector had wrenched the bars beside the door apart and leaped out before they could so much as raise their weapons. He was on them, and, like before with the Krektar guards, he was wreaking havoc upon their numbers. I had to look away; I couldn’t look at the carnage, at the snarling beast that my alien had turned into. This… this was something else, something nothing in my admittedly adventurous life had ever prepared me for.
I couldn’t help him fight; I couldn’t stomach the sight of what was going on. I’d just get in the way, and it was dangerous to boot. So, I did the only thing I could think to do: dive toward the overturned metal cot and hide. Though part of me wanted to help and do something, the bigger part of me knew the safest thing to do was huddle and wait it out. I mean, what could I even do? Those guys were armed to the teeth, and all of them were bigger than me. I was also not sure if my protector would know friend from foe in the heat of things.
When laser fire suddenly erupted, a scream rushed from my throat. I felt the heat of the beam above my head, so close, I was certain I’d lost a few hairs. I could smell the stench of them melting and burning, even over the scent of blood that hung heavily in the air.
My scream had barely tapered off when hands suddenly reached for me from above, claw-tipped fingers carving through the air and snatching me up. I definitely screamed again, utterly terrified and equally confused. All this fighting was happening too fast to keep up with; I wasn’t used to this kind of action. I felt paralyzed without my camera to hide behind. Brightness clashed with darkness as those claws pulled me from my hiding place.And then I was suddenly thrown over a shoulder, my legs pinned to a chest, and my nose filled with a scent I was by now familiar with—him. The feral alien. Had he come for me the moment I screamed? Maybe he knew friend from foe after all.
The hallway blurred as he began running through it, my body jostling in his fireman’s grip. I was glad I couldn’t see everything clearly, because I’d surely throw up from the horror of it, if I did. There were moans and sighs, though, so not everyone was dead.
At the foot of the stairs, my protector leaped up them two at a time, and I took a final glance at the lit hallway and what we’d left behind. Dead bodies, yes, but most of them had lived—if badly wounded. The red and gold male was closest to the stairs, and briefly, his golden eyes clashed with mine, fury and hatred in them that made my skin crawl. We hadn’t seen the last of him. If he survived his injuries, he’d come after us with nothing but vengeance in his heart.
Then we were turning the corner, my alien’s black boots slapping against the stone, gold veins rushing by at a rapid pace. I lifted my head just enough to see a pair of blue faces peering at us from around a corner, then they were gone, and we were bursting through a door and outside. Shouts went up—guards of the property—and laser fire flew again, gravel flying left and right at the impact. A stone struck my cheek, cutting the skin, and more landed in my hair.
“Supplies!” I shouted when I realized he wasn’t pausing, but barreling straight for the hills. The laser fire had stopped as he’d ducked around the corner of one of the outbuildings, but he wasn’t stopping for anything. Those hills looked pretty and lovely, but they’d be freezing cold, especially at night. I waswearing a slinky nighty, a thong, and a pilfered shirt. I’d lose my toes out there. I was lucky I’d managed to hold onto my thin blanket in all this chaos, but that wasn’t going to be enough.
Briefly, my mind flashed with images of what it would be like to cuddle with him to stay warm: lying against that big, lean chest and curled inside his arms, wrapped in his scent. It was a heady picture I was definitely not opposed to. After our cuddling back in that cell, I didn’t think he’d be opposed either. But I would still like a few extra blankets, and food. Food would be good too. When was the last time I’d eaten?
Chapter 8
Lyra
By the time we’d left the mansion far behind us—a dot of glittering lights and cold stone—I felt frozen to the bone. My toes had gone numb despite excessive wriggling, and I was beginning to lose feeling in my hands, even though I’d tucked them beneath my armpits. I was also nauseated from my swaying, half-upside-down position over his shoulder. In short, I was very done with the situation and ready for it to be over.
Wasn’t he a mercenary? That’s what Keya had said. Did he wear high-tech armor? So why hadn’t he called for help yet? Was he stranded the way I was? So many questions, and there were not going to be any answers because he didn’t talk. Not one word. All he did was growl and snarl. At least it was starting to seem as though he liked me, and I supposed even this cold and the risk of losing a few toes was better than what would have been in store for me if we hadn’t escaped. I shivered, and it wasn’t from the stiff breeze.
“Now what, buddy?” I said, not for the first time. Darkness was beginning to fall, and some of the wildflowers were starting to glow with a strange, eerie kind of bioluminescence. Definitely alien, and not at all like the rolling hills from The Sound of Music I’d compared them to before. I’d been close enough to the pretty petals to know that these were plants with fangs, too—carnivorous, bug-eating. I guessed we were lucky that it was so cold the bugs weren’t actually out right now. I was scared to find out what they looked like.
My caveman growled in response to my question, just like he had the last time. I was starting to expect an actual cave at some point, and beginning to worry whether he had more in mind than just cuddling for warmth. What would I do if he tried anything? The man had ripped guys limb from limb in front of me, that didn’t exactly inspire the confidence to say no.
I sighed, curling myself more tightly into a ball against his shoulder. If only my feet were warm, maybe I could think. I’d never wished for shoes more than I did at that moment, but I had a feeling that gaudy mansion was the only sign of civilization in this pristine landscape. Pulling my legs more tightly against his chest, I slid my toes against his armor. He had felt warm in the cell, but out here, the cold seemed to cling to the tough surface.
Then, finally, it seemed my abductor got a clue. Maybe he thought my wriggling was annoying because he suddenly grabbed hold of my foot and pinned it in place. It was then he realized how cold my poor toes were. He hissed and then growled furiously, the sound echoing between the mountains. His hands abruptly shifted along my body, yanking me down into his arms in front of his chest. He was no longer hauling me around like a caveman; now he was holding me bridal style.
His eyes seemed a little wild and frantic as he patted me down one-handed and tucked the blanket more tightly around me. He was attempting to bundle me up in it so that no skin remained exposed, and, to his clear horror, discovered that the thin blanket simply wasn’t enough. I took pity on him when I saw that, and felt at least a little warmth unfurl in my chest. Okay—good. He wanted to take care of me, at least; he hadn’t let me be so cold on purpose.
I patted his face with a hand. “Yeah, I’m really cold. I’m sorry, humans appear a bit more flimsy than whatever the hell you are… Can we try to find shelter and make a fire? Can you make a fire for me?” This was foolhardy. He couldn’t understand me; he didn’t speak. There had been glimmers—hints—that he might understand some of what I wanted, but I probably had to play charades to get what I wanted. That would involve exposing more of myself to the cold air again, and I couldn’t bear the thought.
He bared his sharp teeth, all of them pointed like fangs, none of them blunt the way mine were. He didn’t growl; the snarl was silent, and I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or himself. But then he lifted his chin and sniffed at the air. He changed directions, striding with purpose toward a rocky, barren outcrop in the distance. In the rapidly falling darkness, I could not make out much of it, but the glowing flowers were conspicuously absent around it.
Yup, it was a cave. I was actually relieved to see it, even though it made the comparison to being hauled off by a caveman more apt. It was a narrow opening, but when he ducked through with me, the ceiling rose beyond the narrow entrance and he could actually straighten to his full—and impressive—height. The cave wasn’t very deep: a round bowl with a curved ceiling and a narrow opening. One side projected further than the other, and it blocked the cutting wind. I instantly felt less cold, but I knew that was deceptive. I’d stopped shivering a while ago, so I was already edging toward hypothermia.
He put me down on a smooth rock, and I huddled there, clutching the blanket to me. Okay, shelter down, now I just needed fire to survive. I leaned forward, watching how hecrouched and locked his scarlet eyes onto my moving hand. Drawing a circle in the dirt floor, I mimed piling wood there and lighting it on fire. “Fire, please. I’m so cold. I need heat.” His eyes grew larger, the red glow of them wavering like dancing flames, but he didn’t move, just kept watching me.
“Damn it,” I growled under my breath. That made him twitch, and when I looked up from my circle in the dirt to his face, I was almost certain the ghost of a smile lingered at the corner of his mouth. Marked like a jawbone with teeth, that mouth didn’t have any right to look pretty and lush, but that bottom lip was full and soft-looking, anyway. I folded my arms over my chest and hunkered down again, my stomach rumbling to remind me that, yes, I had not eaten in possibly a day. Not much water to drink, either, and it and the cold were making it hard to think. I felt tired, lethargic, sluggish. None of those were good signs.
“Help?” I tried again. He stared, unmoving, crouched near me and watching. He had big, muscular thighs and wide shoulders. The sun had gone down just enough to stroke one beam of light through the cave entrance, and it outlined every dip and valley of his impressive muscles. Whoever had designed the armor he wore deserved a medal. Honestly. That suit made him look divine. He was the hottest, sexiest alien beast I’d ever met. I might have mumbled something along those lines to him as I curled onto my side against the rock and surrendered to the exhaustion that tugged at me.
I was only barely aware of his feet as he abruptly rushed from the cave and abandoned me in the dark. Great. Now he’d left me too. Was he going to get wood for a fire, or had he decided I was more trouble than I was worth. Weak little human that I was?
Struggling with my heavy limbs, I suddenly felt too warm, and I wanted to toss the blanket away. That was bad—I knew it—so I didn’t, but damn if that wasn’t a struggle. I was slipping, and there was nothing I could do to help myself. Nothing at all but wait. Would he come back? Would he be in time?
***
Solear
“Aramon, I need help,” I snarled along our telepathic pathway. My heart was pounding in my chest with fury, and with worry. I was an idiot who’d harmed his mate. I should have known better than to assume she could handle the cool temperatures outside. Llykhe was beautiful, but it could get very cold at night, and we were on the autumn side of the planet. Considering the number of blankets Aramon had had to purchase for his mate, and the way he complained about her cold feet at night, I should have realized my Lyra couldn’t handle the cold the way I could.
At least the mansion was nearby. I could raid it for supplies, they probably wouldn’t expect that right after we’d escaped. It would take me an hour at most to get there unburdened by her slight weight. If I ran as fast as I could, I could cut that time in half. Was that too long, given her state? Since Aramon wasn’t answering right away, I decided I had to take the risk. There was no wood for a fire on this empty hillside, I had to get other supplies to warm her. Every minute I wasted could be too much.
