Page 44 of Shattered Silence

They needed to get out of here soon. He hated to admit it, but the sheer effort of trying to divide his attention between his enemies and Layla while trying to suppress the Tharian… it was becoming taxing.

Sooner or later, he feared he would slip up and make a mistake that might prove fatal—for Layla.

He could not lose her now. Not after she’d survived so much. Not after he’d discovered her grace, her bravery, her subtle humor.

She was the reason Enki and his brothers had a purpose in this post-Imperial Universe. Humans were life, and without them, the Kordolian race was doomed.

Do not fuck this up, he told himself, summoning his exo-armor beneath the Imperial uniform. This time, he embraced the pain, drawing strength from it. He kept his face exposed, knowing he could draw out his helm in an instant.

“That way,” he snapped, pointing down the corridor. “Run.”

Layla didn’t hesitate. She ran. Enki loped after her, matching her pace. At least there was a small amount of light down here, and she didn’t seem to have any trouble finding her way.

Enki glanced sharply over his shoulder to see a lone soldier dropping through the hole after them, landing on his feet with a thud. The soldier raised his plasma gun…

“Layla, get down.”

She didn’t question, didn’t hesitate, just dropped to the floor as Enki spun and fired before the warrior had a chance to shoot, squeezing off three simultaneous plasma blasts.

The soldier was thrown back along the floor, wisps of smoke rising off his exo-armor. Was he incapacitated? Dead? Enki didn’t really give a shit.

“Take this,” he said, giving his second gun to Layla. “Can you see the opening from here?”

“Only just.”

As if to illustrate Enki’s point, a blast of blue plasma flared through the opening, hitting the spot where they’d been standing only moments ago.

Hitting the fallen soldier.

Idiots.

“Don’t worry. They can’t hit us from here. The angle is too tight. Layla, I’m going to cut through the floor again.” He reached out and placed her finger on the gun’s trigger, removing the safety and raising her arm. “If any of those fools try to come through that hole, I want you to shoot them. Can you do that?”

“Y-yeah.”

Enki wanted to explain the rest to her—the recoil, the correct stance, the fact that firing a powerful plasma weapon would probably cause her pain in her injured state—but there was no time.

He hated the idea of seeing her in pain, but he knew she could handle it.

Pain wouldn’t kill her, and she was strong; a survivor.

Enki dropped to his knees again and started to saw through the floor, knowing he could spin around and catch her if she was thrown back.

Thank the Goddess the floor was not made of pure Callidum, but a weaker composite.

As he was just about to finish the cut, Layla pulled the trigger.

Chapter Sixteen

Boom! The noise was deafening. Layla didn’t even know if she’d hit the guy, because her eyes were momentarily blinded by the blue plasma flare.

A terrible force rocked her body; it felt as if she were being thrown back by a hurricane-level gust of wind. The pain from her broken rib had been reduced to an almost bearable ache, but now it flared back to life, making her scream in agony.

She didn’t really understand what happened next. All she knew was that Enki’s low growl of frustration reverberated right through her bones. Then his powerful arm was curling around her waist and she was pulled tightly against his hard body. Immovable. That’s what he felt like.

Then they were falling again, falling, falling, falling…

Thud!

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