Page 118 of Shielded Heart 1
“I had to help Drakkal,” Sam replied.
“Is he…”
“I’m not dead,” Drakkal growled from behind Samantha.
She looked back to see him moving down the stairs, supporting himself with his uninjured arm against the wall. Arc was just in front of him, keeping close. As soon as Drakkal was low enough, Arcanthus closed the hatch overhead.
“You lost an arm,” Koroq said.
“Kraasz ka’val,do you think I didn’t notice that?” Drakkal replied through his bared teeth.
“To be fair, you didn’t,” Arcanthus said. “But we can talk about all that later. We need to move. We’ll get a clean-up crew in as soon as possible once we’re out.”
The tunnel shook with an explosion from overhead, the force of which resonated through the walls andfloor.
“What’s happening now?” Kiloq asked.
“Just destroying some evidence,” Arcanthus replied. “Now, if you’d all be so kind as tomove, it would be greatly appreciated.”
“This was a bucketload of skrudge piss,” Thargen grumbled. “Why’d you make me wait in a damned tunnel when I could’ve been out there fighting?”
“If you want a fight, I will gladly beat you into unconsciousness,” Arcanthus replied, “afterwe get out of this place. I thought I was keeping the best of the best on my security team. What the hell am I paying you for if you can’t follow a simple order? Go!”
The group moved forward, with Thargen muttering curses to himself as he turned to follow.
Samantha lagged to step closer to Arcanthus. “Where are we going to go?”
He brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “I have a safehouse on standby. It might be a bit dusty, as I’ve never used it, but it’s something. From there”—his mouth tilted up at one corner into a roguish grin—“we’ll have to find a new home together.”
She leaned her face into his touch and smiled.
Together.
EPILOGUE
“Close your eyes,” Samantha said.
“I’ve been wagging around a stump for two months,” Drakkal replied, raising his left arm, which had been cut off four or five centimeters above his elbow. The lower half of his bicep was covered in a sleek, surgically implanted metal sleeve. “I shouldn’t have to wait any longer.”
“It’s only another minute or two. Now close your eyes, Drak. It’s supposed to be a surprise!”
Drakkal growled, took a moment to glare at her, and squeezed his eyes shut. His long tail flicked in annoyance, but Samantha knew he was excited.
“No peeking.” She took a step away from the table Drakkal was sitting beside and turned toward the open doorway. “He’s ready now.”
Arcanthus walked into the room with a long, cloth-wrapped bundle in his arms. “Wouldn’t it be more fun if we told him they botched the order and he had to wait a few more weeks?”
“I’m sitting right here, sedhi,” Drakkal grumbled. “My eyes are closed, not my ears.”
“He’s agitated today, isn’t he?” Arc asked with a smirk.
Samantha poked Arc in his chest. “You’d think as someone who lost a few limbs of his own, you’d be a little more sympathetic.”
Arcanthus snickered. “You should’ve heard him calling me a whiner while I was in recovery. This is payback on the smallest possible scale—far less than he deserves.”
He knelt in front of the azhera and peeled back one end of the cloth, revealing the cybernetic prosthesis’s connector. He inserted it into the slot on Drakkal’s metal sleeve; it locked into place with a heavy click.
“You can open your eyes now,” Arcanthus said.
