Damaged (Planet Alpha) (10 page)

It doesn’t matter, Cori. Just get moving,
she told herself. She hurriedly braided her hair, then rolled it up and used the plastic stick to hold it in a bun and out of the way. Cracking open the door, she peered into the hall beyond.

The floor was made of the same metal as in her cell, but the walls were of stone.
They must have sheathed the cell’s walls with metal to prevent escape,
she thought, though the thought of how long it would take to bore through stone still made her shudder. Only someone with a great deal of time would try to escape that way. Small torches flickered in sconces at regular intervals along the walls, also made of stone. The place looked like a medieval castle.
I wonder if it has dungeons, too
, she mused, then shook her head at herself.
Way to be depressing, Cori-girl.

She took a deep breath, centering herself
as another deep rumble rolled through the floor. She felt tired, as if her bones were heavier than normal, but she had to keep going if she wanted to survive. She hated this place. The last time she’d experienced this terrible weight she’d been a girl, stuck in one of the agri-camps near the Xyran equator. She’d been assigned to sort beans because she’d been too young to breed. She’d hated it. The work was difficult, boring, and had the added delight of visits from various Xyran lordlings, looking over the female stock for future sex slaves. The moment she’d had her first menstrual cycle, a tribal leader had snapped her up and put her on a ship for transport to one of his colonies for breeding. That was when Sky had rescued her.

“But Sky isn’t here to free you this time,” she told herself quietly. “You’ve got to do it yourself.” She had no idea how she was going to get off the planet, but she could pilot a ship, and the first step was
finding somewhere to hide.

Maybe Reiyn and Kyuk will be looking for you,
she mused, but squashed the thought immediately. They’d declared her their bondmate, sure, but what did that really mean? She’d only known them for a short time. When she thought of her friend, Sky, and her two warriors, she knew that their connection was deep and lasting. And she knew that it had taken Sky a while to warm up to Jaxt, because she’d told Cori about how she’d found him wounded and nearly dead.

How could she compare what she’d experienced so far with what Sky had? Cori shook her head and dismissed those thoughts. She couldn’t count on two male Xyrans anyway, no matter what kind of metaphysical sex they’d had. No matter what they said. She
wouldn’t
let herself count on them. That kind of hope was dangerous.

Swallowing hard, she crept out of the cell, hoping there were no sensors in the corridor. No alarm sounded. She hugged the wall, inching forward slowly. At the far end, another door led
… where? She had no idea, but she couldn’t stay here. When she reached it, she pressed the handle, and it opened easily. When she saw what lay beyond, she gasped. Stretching out over the landscape were jagged mountains with peaks that stabbed into the clouds high above.

The door opened onto an indoor balcony that curved in either direction, probably built to follow the natural structure of the mountain. Glass held out the winds, and probably kept in air. From what she could tell, the height of the mountain out of which this place had been carved meant there wouldn’t be much to breathe just beyond that clear barrier. She was in a medieval castle with space-age technology.

“Shit,” she muttered, thinking hard. She might need to find a breather of some sort, as well as a ship. She had no idea where to start looking. Mesmerized, she stared out at the craggy peaks. She must be in the northern part of the larger continent, where the spine of the world jutted out like bones. The sky was turbulent grey, and clouds and wind howled just beyond the glass. Sometimes fog covered the view, but just as quickly the wind snatched it away. The mountains stretched as far as she could see. There was no way she would be able to survive out there without some serious technology. Human bodies were fragile compared to Xyran.

A sudden
, louder rumble rocked the floor, breaking her increasingly dark reverie. She pressed herself back against the stone, heart pounding. That was no mere power outage. What was happening? The explosion shuddered through the mountain, making the flames in the torches jump and spit. Fear crawled up her throat.
Nothing good will come of this,
she thought, wondering where the hell she could go to survive. Was someone attacking? Where was the Xyran who’d taunted her? She didn’t know the answer to those questions, but she knew warriors would probably be coming this way. The corridor looked like a main thoroughfare along the length of the fortress. She had to get away from the cell. As far away as she could manage, if she wanted to survive.

She headed to the right, keeping as close to the wall as possible. When she heard warriors shouting, she broke out into a cold sweat. She didn’t even have a weapon!

Shit, I’m really vulnerable like this
, she thought, controlling her alarm. She kept moving, hoping she could find somewhere to hide. When her fingers touched a door latch, she eased it open slowly, fear crawling through her gut. She looked in and caught her breath, shocked by her luck. The door opened into a vast hangar. It looked like this entrance led onto an observation deck over the ships, but she wasn’t about to complain. She squeezed inside just as a group of young warriors ran past where she’d been standing.

“Damn,” she breathed, hand on her throat. “That was close.”

“Not as close as you think, slave,” a harsh voice declared.

Cori whirled around. A young Xyran stood before her, skin shaded toward crimson. He wore black armor with a purple sash attached at the shoulder. He looked like a younger version of her captor.

Fuck. I have the worst luck
, she thought, her stomach knotting. The alien held a nano-blade in his hands, pointed directly at her gut. The edge glittered in the low light, and she stared at it, mesmerized.
He must be related to the other one. Shit.

“There is nowhere for you to go,” he said, walking toward her.
He sheathed his weapon contemptuously, as if she were not even worth the trouble of his blade.

She held her hands up,
pretending to surrender, then put them on her head. When her palm landed on her plastic shank, she gripped it with her fingers. She would only have one chance at this. Humans were no match for Xyrans, especially not a woman as small as she was against a warrior in his prime. She would have to be cunning and fast if she hoped to survive.

“Who are you?” she asked him, trying to distract him from what she was doing.

He narrowed his eyes at her as he moved even closer. “That is no concern of yours, slave.” He lunged, grabbing her by the throat.

Cori struggled to breathe as he lifted her up and slammed her against the back wall. Stars danced across her vision
as her skull hit the stones, but she didn’t lose her grip on her plastic shank. He picked her up again, this time using her clothes, and tossed her across the platform. She rolled, choking as her abused throat spasmed in the thin air. One more hit like that to her head and she was dead. She had to get away from him if she wanted to survive. She quickly tucked her weapon inside her bra, hoping he couldn’t see it, then used her hands to push up, but she wasn’t fast enough. When she saw his foot coming towards her face, she rolled again. He growled at her, his skin red with anger as he crouched down and grabbed her arms.

I’ll never be able to run from him
, she thought, despair rushing through her.
He’s too strong. And this wretched planet will kill me if he doesn’t.
She felt lightheaded, as if she wasn’t getting enough air.

“Struggle is pointless,” he hissed, drawing his blade.

Cori
spat at him. He slapped her, then picked her up again as if she weighed nothing. Just as he twisted to throw her over the railing, she snapped her hand down, grabbing the shank. Even as he sensed her movement and lifted her higher, she yanked her arm back and then forward, desperately shoving the plastic towards his eye. She almost missed, but another rumble rattled the platform, and the movement pushed him directly into her weapon. The shank sank into his skull, angled just right to hit his brain. He froze, staring at her in shock from his remaining eye. For a moment, she wasn’t sure she’d killed him, but then his face went grey and he slumped to the side, armor scraping the metal railing. Cori struggled away as his weight pressed onto her. She shoved at him with all her strength, and he crashed to the floor, blood spattering the metal grating. Panting with relief, she crouched down and grabbed his blade, holding it in sticky fingers. Her head hurt, and she thought he’d cut her, but she hoped not too badly. When the sting came a second later, she put a hand to her side. It came away drenched in blood.

“Aw, hell,” she muttered
, ignoring her sore throat. She had to stop the bleeding. She ripped the sash off the dead Xyran’s body and wrapped it tightly around her waist, as hard as she could manage. When she could barely breathe, she stood up, using the metal railing to steady herself.

Just a little lightheaded,
she thought. It could be blood loss, or it could be from when she’d been unconscious earlier, or from the thin air. She had no way to know, and couldn’t worry about it, anyway. It was sheer luck that she’d been able to kill the Xyran. If the explosion hadn’t screwed with his balance, she’d be dead. If the power hadn’t failed, she’d still be stuck in that cell. She owed the attackers her life. She chuckled. In a sense, whatever Xyran hated her captor enough to bomb his fortress was her rescuer. She smiled grimly.

That’s irony, for sure
, she mused, swallowing gingerly.
Xyrans to the rescue.
She grinned briefly, then sighed as she contemplated her situation. Hiding wasn’t going to help her anymore, not once the others found the body. She had to get out of here. She looked down over the hangar. The rows of ships dizzied her.

There, that one,
she thought staring intently at a small ship set off to the side, near the hangar bay doors. It looked slightly larger than her courier ship, but it was sleeker, and had weapon ports.
I want that one. It would be nice to be able to shoot at things for a change,
she thought, grinning fiercely. She’d blow her way out of here if she had to. Judging from the ship’s shape, it was fast, too.
Probably some warrior’s private vessel.

“Kyuk and Reiyn would like it,” she murmured, spying the ladder down to the lower deck. She pulled the sheath for the knife off the Xyran and belted it around her waist, and then she began to climb down, wincing when the movement pulled at her wound. “Not that I’ll ever see them again,” she panted, dropping the last few rungs. “They’re probably long gone. Or dead.” It was that last thought that had her blinking back tears. The image of their bodies drifting in the black of space made her want to throw up. “But you can’t give up, Corazon,” she told herself, wiping the tears away and continuing her climb down.

She couldn’t give up because she’d lied to her captor. She wasn’t sterile, and she’d just had a lot of unprotected sex with two of the strongest males she’d ever met. She had to live, just in case.

And the last thing she would ever do was give up her child to the Xyrans.

Chapter Ten

“The next explosion is due in ten minutes,” Reiyn said as they ran down the hall.

Kyuk grunted in response. Neither had much air for talking. They’d managed to climb up the nearly impassable trail to the base of the fortress, and then they’d had to break in through the waste system. Fortunately, it had been dry or they would’ve had to wade through raw sewage. When they’d reached the lower levels, they’d had to blast their way through a stone wall. Kyuk had gutted Cori’s ship for explosive elements. At the time, Reiyn thought he was sabotaging their only way off the planet, but now he was glad. They never would’ve been able to force their way in otherwise.

“Is the fuel cell still intact?” he asked as they skidded around yet another sharp corner. They’d barely managed to avoid a cluster of young warriors
, and he was still feeling the effects of their hard sprint. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath. He hadn’t been on Xyran in longer than a decade, and his body was no longer acclimated to the gravity or the atmosphere.

Kyuk checked the package slung over his shoulders. “It is unscathed.”

“Good,” Reiyn panted. “We cannot linger here.” The corridor was clear, but it wouldn’t be for long, and he felt exposed with the glass wall highlighting the mountains along one side. Anyone in a ship or hovercraft could look in and see that they did not belong here. “Do you feel her?”

“Yes. She is not far.” Kyuk looked the direction they were running, eyes determined. “That way.”

Reiyn nodded, tearing his gaze away from his blood-kin. Now was not the time to stare at his bondmate’s physique. He took several deep breaths, centering himself.

“I feel the same, Reiyn,” Kyuk said quiet.

Reiyn looked at him. He didn’t have to ask what Kyuk meant. “Now is not the time.”

Kyuk inclined his head. “It is not, but we will not be here forever.” With that comment, he pushed off from the wall and loped down the corridor.

Reiyn smiled to himself and followed, trusting his blood-kin and instincts to lead him in the right direction.

****

“Power, power, power, ah ha!” Cori flicked a switch and activated the ship’s systems. She was hoping the fuel cells were charged and ready to go. She deserved some good luck, after all that had happened. She checked the display and grinned, happy to see that they looked completely full. She ran down the list of pre-flight tests, controlling her excitement when she saw that everything checked out perfectly.
Keep calm, Cori-girl. You can’t go blasting out of here half-cocked.

“If you think to escape me so easily, you are truly not as intelligent as I had thought.”

She sucked in a breath, heart in her throat, then slowly pivoted in the pilot’s chair until she faced the shadows at the other side of the bridge. The Xyran who’d captured her obligingly moved out of the darkness.

Fuck,
she thought, clenching her fists on the chair arms.
Really? Can’t I ever get a damn break?

“You are rather precocious,” he said condescendingly.

She narrowed her eyes at him, not in the mood for banter. “Don’t come any closer.”

He ignored her, walking over until he loomed over her. “We will wait here for your lovers and then we shall see who lives and who dies.”

“You sound like a bad vid villain,” she said insultingly, trying not to lose her calm. Maybe she could still get out of this, if she stayed cool and didn’t panic.

He didn’t frown. He didn’t smile, either. He looked entirely at ease—not the response she’d hoped for. He leaned against the astrogator’s seat. “It will not be long.”

“Who are you?” she asked before she could stop herself.

He stared at her for a long moment, then ran his eyes down her body, insultingly slowly. When he focused on the knife at her waist, he frowned. “That is not your blade.”

The look in his eyes… Cori suppressed a shiver of fear. She wished she could run away, right the hell now. This Xyran was more frightening than any of the others she’d dealt with, and they’d been pretty horrifying. He was too controlled. Too calm. As if at any moment his control would snap and he’d turn into a monster. “The blade is mine now,” she said evenly, only a little breathless as fear rushed through her.

He surged toward her and grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the chair. His skin turned red.

Cori struggled, but he was so much stronger than she was, it was like she was a small mouse struggling in the mouth of a cat.
No contest
, she thought, kicking at him.

“That is my son’s blade,” he hissed, reaching down.

She shrank away from him. He snapped his teeth at her as he ripped the blade from her body, then threw her onto the floor. Her side felt like someone had plunged a lightning bolt into it, and she moaned, fighting not to vomit.

“Where is he?” the Xyran asked her.

Cori shook her head. No way was she telling him she’d killed his son.

He put his foot on her arm, at an angle that would crush her bones. “Where. Is. Ktor?” He pushed down, leaning his weight on her gradually, so the bones would slowly fragment instead of snapping quickly.

She groaned. Just as she sensed the bone about to give way, the door to the bridge whooshed open.

The Xyran looked up, eyes going bright. “Ah.” He stepped back. “You are just in time.”

Cori rolled over and cradled her arm, still fighting against the nausea roiling her stomach. Her elbows slid in the blood on the deck, and dimly, she realized it was hers. She was going to bleed out and die here. When little sparks of energy shot down her arms and legs, she closed her eyes.
Nerve damage,
she thought, the anger churning in her mind making her feel even worse.
That cut must have been deeper than I realized. Dammit to fucking hell. This is not how I wanted to go.

“Step away from her.”

Cori’s eyes flew open. She knew that voice.
No, it’s impossible. How could they have found me?
Her eyes blurred, but she forced her head to turn. What she saw made her eyes water even more, as hope bloomed in her spirit. Her bondmates had come for her.

****

Kyuk stepped onto the bridge, his restraint stretched to the limit. The moment he’d seen Cori bleeding on the floor, rage had nearly taken him. He’d never experienced the berserker instinct, but he fully understood now why some warriors let it use them in battle. He wanted to rip Friktor’s limbs from his body—slowly. He wanted to skin him alive. He wanted the other Xyran’s death with an intensity that shocked him.

“Step away from her,” he said, controlling his voice with effort. He moved away from the door so that Reiyn could follow him inside.

Friktor’s eyes flicked to Reiyn. “Ah, the prodigal returns.” He returned his gaze to Kyuk. “I always knew you smelled of weakness.”

Reiyn let out a harsh breath
, and Kyuk put a hand on his bondmate’s arm, offering strength. He felt Reiyn’s churning emotions along his skin like sparks of fire. “And I always knew you reeked of dishonor,” he said to Friktor.

The Xyran’s eyes flashed as his skin shaded an even darker crimson. The yellow gems in his chest looked like fungus against the lurid color of his body.

I will enjoy carving those out of his hide,
Kyuk mused, hand going to his nano-blade.

“I am pleased you followed your little slave here. For years, I have regretted sparing your life when we were children.” Friktor flipped the knife in his hand. It had blood on the handle, but that didn’t seem to bother him.

“We are no longer children. And clearly, your memory is faulty,” Reiyn growled, edging toward the side of the room. “You did not spare Kyuk; I bested you. You failed yourself, as all weaklings do.”

Kyuk grinned internally as his blood-kin’s taunting pushed Friktor over the edge into rage. He glanced at Reiyn
, who nodded. When the Xyran charged, he was ready. He whipped his blade up, clashing with Friktor before the Xyran could shove the gleaming length of metal into his chest. Reiyn hurried to Cori’s side, freeing Kyuk to concentrate on the filth trying to kill them. He parried every thrust, gratified to see Friktor grow more and more tired and infuriated. His rage did not give him an advantage.

“You are a weak, old, pathetic functionary,” he jeered, slicing Friktor’s arm deep enough to bleed him. “You have let others fight your battles for far too long.” He slashed again, gratified to see more blood spatter the decking.

“You will not survive my death,” Friktor said, slashing wildly.

Kyuk stepped back, avoiding the unpredictable thrusts. Friktor wasn’t rational. There was something more happening here. He glanced over at Reiyn and Cori
, and his blood-kin didn’t look happy. In fact, his face was grim as he bent over their woman. That decided him. He had no more time to play with his old nemesis. Friktor needed to die fast, not slowly, as he’d hoped. Kyuk needed to see to his bondmates.

“This is the end of your life, worm,” he said, ducking and lunging forward. Friktor snarled and slashed again, but Kyuk allowed the knife to glance off his armor. He shoved his blade up under Friktor’s arm and then angled it down, into his heart. Friktor glared at him, his black eyes glittering, but though he didn’t know it, he was already dead. His pupils faded to a lifeless slate within moments
, and his skin’s crimson hue shifted sickeningly fast to grey. Kyuk gave a strong heave, and the body slid from his knife to the deck with a muffled clatter.

“Kyuk,” Reiyn said, his voice tense.

Kyuk tossed his blade aside and strode over to his bondmates. “Is she alive?”

“Barely.” Reiyn grabbed a pressure bandage and pushed it over her side. “She should not be dying. Her wound is deep, yes, but not enough to threaten her life.”

Kyuk put a hand to her forehead. Her skin was clammy. “Poison.”

Reiyn froze, hands still on her abdomen. “Did his knife cut you?”

“No. I am unharmed.” He checked the time on the ship’s display. “We have little time before the fuel cell pulverizes this side of the mountain.”

Reiyn cursed. “We do not know what poison he used.”

“Our choices are limited. Death will come if we stay here. If we leave, we might have a chance to save her,” Kyuk said.

Reiyn stared at him, then nodded. “Truth. Get us gone from here. I will secure our mate.”

Kyuk didn’t wait. He hurried to the pilot’s seat and initiated the takeoff sequence. When the ship’s engines rumbled, he smiled grimly and tapped a key. At the far end of the hangar, the giant doors slid up into the rock, opening out into the mountain air.

“Three minutes,” Reiyn said, sliding into the co-pilot’s station. “I secured her onto a pallet at the rear of the bridge.”

“Then it is time for us to go,” Kyuk murmured, taking the throttle in his hands. He eased the ship forward.

“Two minutes.” Reiyn adjusted the display to show the air traffic on this side of the planet. “Escaping will not be easy.” He tapped a few more commands
, and more displays appeared. He cursed. “Friktor’s warriors have found us.”

“Dump his body,” Kyuk ordered. “Perhaps it will delay them.”

Reiyn didn’t hesitate. He rushed to the back of the bridge and dragged the body to the rear, near the emergency egress. “Open the hatch.”

Kyuk pushed a few buttons. “Directly beneath you,” he said, hovering the ship. On the display to his right, he could see the rear of the hangar bay. A cluster of warriors rushed into the vast cavern, weapons out. “Hurry. They have pulse guns.”

“Dumping now,” Reiyn responded with a grunt. “He is gone. Close the hatch.”

Kyuk tapped the command. “Clear?”

Reiyn dove for his seat and strapped in. “Yes. Go!”

Kyuk steered the ship forward and out, leaning on the throttle to expedite their escape. They cleared the hanger bay doors just as a shudder reverberated through the mountain. He eyed the screens, even as he pointed the ship up. A huge explosion bloomed behind them, the lurid orange color shocking against the grey-purple mountains. When the shock wave hit the ship, he had to fight to control it. The sound of the explosion rushed over them a moment later, deep and ominous.

“This will be rough,” he warned Reiyn. He flipped through a half-dozen controls until he was able to adjust the internal gravity to compensate for external conditions.

“‘Rough’ will not kill us, but our own species will if we do not escape,” Reiyn said harshly. “Let us be gone from this cursed planet.”

“Lord Friktor, your ship is not cleared for exo-planet maneuvers. Please return to the surface. Lord Friktor, your flight path—”

Kyuk cut the feed to the air traffic controllers, silencing the increasingly strident voice. “We will not be able to outrun the warships,” he said, engaging the second set of thrusters they’d need to escape Xyran’s gravity.

“We will not need to worry about the military. It seems this delightful little ship has a cloak.” Reiyn’s voice was smug.

Kyuk grinned, baring his teeth as relief rushed through him. “Then let us fly,” he said, aiming for the stars.

“Let us be free,” Reiyn murmured, black eyes bright.