Page 49 of Touch the Stars
He took an evasive step back as she swung.A burning sting seared through the muscles in his left biceps, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his clenched teeth.Damn.If he had been just a little faster…
The traitorous attendant shrieked again, lunged forward with her talons outstretched, then froze mid-step.A breath later, she crumpled to the floor.
Daarga lowered the disrupter and nodded once.“Finish it now, Warrior.We are out of time.”
He meant the other sentry, of course.As valiant as Nak was, his size prevented him from reaching the Ragatian sentry’s weakest point—its heart.He closed his hand around the hilt of the fire-knife, the only weapon available to him, and gave it a vicious yank.The barbs on the blade tore through his muscles and wet warmth flowed down his arm, but he could not stop now.Not with Kaitlyn’s life at stake.
He spun around, an Undetan battle cry on his lips as he rushed toward the sentry.Nak ducked and rolled away, and the Ragatian raised all three of its fists, victory glowing in his red-black eyes.How foolish of the male to believe he would not be the one dying in this carnage-filled corridor today.He swung his arm in an upward arc and slammed the blade home.
The sentry opened his mouth and a sound like an avalanche decimating a mountainside forest in the dead of winter shook the air.A Ragatian death scream—and, in this case, the sound of success.
A blip of movement caught his attention, then the Ragatian’s secondary left fist connected with his temple.Stars exploded as his head snapped to the side.Darkness closed in from the edges of his vision.
Must stay conscious.Kaitlyn...
He blinked to clear his vision and stared up at the marble ceiling.Alive, but dazed.
A female appeared, her dark anxiety-filled eyes gazing down at him.Beautiful and familiar.Human.Name?
“Kaitlyn?”She must have escaped and found him.But… “Your hair?”
What had she done with all her long, beautiful, golden hair?It was gone.Or, mostly gone.
Her mouth was moving as if she were speaking, yet he could not process her words.
She lives, though!
And that was enough.A sigh of contentment drifted from him.
Crack!
The sting of her palm connecting with the bare skin of his injured arm jerked him to awareness.“Ow!Why did you strike me?”
“…sister?”Kaitlyn ground out the word through her clenched teeth.“Where.Is.My.Sister?”
Did she not see how busy he had been in the last few minutes?How was he to know where Kristyn was?
“Kristyn is with whoev—"
“Argh!No.Notme… Where isKaitlyn?Mysister?”
Kaitlyn?What… He let his gaze fall to her neck.No birthmark.And her translator stone was clear, not pink like Kaitlyn’s.The pieces in his brain fell into place.
“You are not my Kaitlyn.”
“No shit, Sherlock.I’m her sister, Kris.”
As Kaitlyn would say, what the fuck?
He pushed himself to sit upright, then grasped Kristyn by her shoulders.“Explain how you came to be here.”
A point of cold metal pressed against his throat.The end of a blaster.He froze in place.
“Release her, Warrior.”Daarga’s low growl next to his ear backed up the blaster’s threat.
He uncurled his fingers from Kristyn’s shoulders, then lowered his hands to his thighs.“I would not harm her, Warrior Daarga.”
“I know.”Daarga withdrew the weapon.“But as her guardian, I would not take that chance anymore than you would for Kaitlyn.”
