Sex, Love, and Aliens 2 (16 page)

Angela glanced to her side, and pain exploded in her right arm. She dropped her gun, crying out. She clutched at the wound with her left hand, and blood seeped between her fingertips from where the bullet had just grazed her.

“Get the bitch! Leave her alive.” The remaining three clones advanced on her.

Angela fumbled for the gun with her left hand. She finally caught hold of it, but when she raised the weapon it was kicked out of her hand. She looked up into the malicious smile of the clone before her just as his throat was slit from behind.

Angela gasped when the clone dropped to the ground and revealed the man they’d left behind. “Damon.”

Without the darkness of the cave she could see him clearly. His icy blue eyes surveyed her form with lethal disapproval. He grabbed the gun from her hand and fired two shots, one into the clone’s chest, another into the other’s ankle. Angela watched him have words with the one he’d left alive, but she couldn’t hear from so far away. When he was done, he stabbed the clone in the heart.

Angela clutched at her wound, still searing in pain. But her mind was occupied with Damon’s form. He was just as tall as he’d seemed in the cave, a massive tower of a man with enough muscle carved into him that he appeared to be born of granite. His skin wasn’t as tanned as the clones he’d just dispatched, which meant he’d been hiding in the cave for some time.

He stalked toward her, tearing the shirt over his head. Her mouth went dry when his long abdomen was revealed, a picture of masculine strength. He dropped to his knees before her and tied the white fabric over her wound.

“You came,” she uttered.

A strange feeling passed through Angela. Her whole life had been dedicated to her work, and after what happened during her last mission, she’d not wanted the company of men. But now, instead of feeling vulnerable, she felt safe. Even if she had just seen such an outburst of violence from him, it had been spent punishing the clones that sought to harm her.

“I followed you at a distance.” He finished tying a knot. “I knew you would be able to dispatch the six. When the others showed up, I came running.” He cursed. “But I was too late.”

He helped her stand, but she never took her eyes off his. “I would have taken care of them.”

“They only grazed you on purpose.” Damon gazed down at her, his jaw set as if he craved to punish the clones all over again.

“I know,” she stated. “They want me intact…” She sucked in a breath, the truth still too vivid. “They’re desperate to put hands on the only females they’ve ever seen.”

He didn’t say anything, just searched her eyes for the answers she refused to divulge. She’d not speak of the horror she’d experienced, it only left her feeling weak.

Rogue and Elara loped over a small hill, coming back into view. Elara wiped the sweat from her forehead, her brows furrowing when she reached Angela. “You’re hurt.” She dropped her backpack and rummaged through it for medical supplies.

“This bandaging will hold until we find cover. There will be another patrol,” Damon advised.

“How do you know?” Rogue questioned. Angela watched the two stare each other down.

“I don’t know, but I’m not willing to take the chance.”

“Let’s move then.” Elara grabbed for Angela’s backpack, but she shrugged away.

“I’ve got it.”

“I’ll carry it.” Damon’s deep voice left little to be questioned. Angela cast him a long glance before she let him slide the bag over her shoulder.

“Does this mean you’re going to join us?” Elara wiped some sweat off her forehead. “Rogue and Angela have an intricate understanding of this world, but we wouldn’t turn away more insight.”

“We would,” Rogue growled.

“I know a route that will allow us to remain undetected by the clones. There will be other beasts, but I’ve already seen you dispatch them easily enough.”

Together they made for the nearest dip in the landscape to be out of sight.

Rogue and Elara walked in front, hand in hand. Angela had meant to quicken pace, but instead, she hung back in the hope of getting to know their new guide.

“Thank you for coming. Our mission is to find as many refugees as possible left over from the revolution. I’m sorry to ask you to follow us into more danger. I know you’ve experienced your share of it.” Angela watched him look away.
Strange.
Ever since he’d removed her night-vision goggles, he’d not taken his eyes off her. But now he seemed riveted on the landscape.

When he didn’t answer, her concern and curiosity reached a new level.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “It’s clear you’ve been through much. We shouldn’t have asked you to come with us.”

“I said no, if you don’t recall. And yet I was urged to follow of my own volition.”

“Why?”

Before he could answer, they arrived at the sinkhole leading down into a cavern. Rogue halted Damon short of the entry. “Elara will tend to Angela’s wound. You and I will stand watch.”

“Better for us to remain out of sight,” Damon disagreed.

Angela watched the two as Elara helped her down into the hole and began pulling supplies out of the backpack. The men stared each other down, both of them daring one another to take the position as the alpha, neither of them backing down.

When Damon disappeared from view, she pondered the man. He was so opposed to fighting and violence, choosing to live as a recluse, hiding out in caves, and yet, he stood side by side with Rogue, a warrior, and didn’t back down.

It was wrong for Angela to want Damon to accompany them and possibly find more of the danger he had spent so much time avoiding. She was being selfish indeed, but she had to discover more about the intriguing man.

Chapter 3

By the time Angela’s wound was tended, Rogue had given Damon a final warning. “I know you to be a coward. If you do anything to endanger my woman, or Angela, you’ll not have to worry about violence anymore. I’ll put you out of your misery.”

Damon wasn’t worried about endangering them. As a matter of fact, he had plans to lead them in the opposite direction they desired to travel. It would be tricky with Rogue watching his every move, but Damon couldn’t ignore his yearning to spend more time with Angela. There was much to her that still lay beneath her beautiful surface.

Angela climbed up the steep ledge as if it were nothing. Her tiny form was so graceful, she seemed otherworldly. Hell, she
was
otherworldly. She was from a place that thought it okay to borne a race only to enslave them. And she carried a hatred for clones that seem rooted in something very deep.

They walked in silence across the barren landscape. Angela’s alabaster complexion and bright blonde hair made her a stark contrast against the deep crimson landscape. Damon had always thought that the various shades of red etched into the rocky topography was all he’d ever see. Elara and Angela spoke of taking refugees back to Earth, could he possibly go with them? Surely upon arrival, his identity would be revealed and perhaps he would be executed.

As they traversed through the merciless heat, he wondered if it would be worth it.
Hell no.
Any planet so wrapped up in war that they needed to grow an army of clones could not be beautiful. His gaze landed on Angela’s backside, and as she hiked, the sway of her hips made his mouth water. Now
that
was beautiful.

Angela glanced behind and caught him mid-stare. His cheeks heated under the already intense sun. She held out her canteen. “I was, um, going to offer you a drink of water.”

“Thank you, I’m all right.”

Elara glanced over her shoulder and raised a brow as she strode beside Rogue. “Are you sure, soldier? It looks like your mouth is watering.”

Angela’s cheeks flushed pink as she hurriedly faced forward.

Damon cleared his throat. “We need to head east from here.”

Rogue ignored him, continuing on straight. “I don’t think so.”

Elara whacked the tall male.

Angela surveyed the surroundings. “Are you sure?”

A tiny prick of unease needled into his heart. The lie didn’t come easy. “Yes. We need to turn here and go around that hill.”

Elara and Angela turned in his proposed direction. Rogue, however, gnashed his teeth. “He’s full of shit.” The warrior followed Elara closely, seemingly ready for danger at any moment. Damon didn’t blame him. If he had a woman of his own, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight.

Which was why he stayed behind Angela, his gaze rapt on her as a million questions passed through his mind. Why would she visit such a merciless planet? Did all women look for danger?

After an hour of following behind her, Damon could take it no longer, he needed to speak to the woman. Damon arrived at her side, wondering how best to broach the situation. He glanced at her, counting the dots of sweat on her smooth, ivory skin.

She wiped a hand over her skin and called out to Elara. “I think I need to reapply. I can feel my skin beginning to cook.”

Rogue shrugged off the pack and tossed a bottle of liquid in Damon’s direction. “Maybe you should put some on too.”

Damon caught it.
Sunblock.
He handed it to Angela. “Here, you need this more than I do.”

Rogue continued his long strides ahead of them with Elara at his side. Damon didn’t miss his snicker.
Perhaps the human should appreciate the conservation of resources.
After all, as a clone, Damon was built to be immune to skin cancer and other damage caused by the close proximity of the sun.

Angela squeezed a quarter-sized amount into her palm and began rubbing it over her face and neck. Damon’s mouth went dry as he watched her slender fingers push the cream over her gracefully curved neck. He fantasized about kissing her there, wondered what her skin would smell like.

Angela halted. “You’re staring,” she whispered.

“Allow me to get the back of your shoulders. You’re getting a bit pink.” He hoped she couldn’t detect the desire in his low rasp.

She handed him the bottle. “You should put some on too.”

“I’ll be fine.”

He rubbed the lotion between his palms and placed his hands on the back of her shoulders. Her skin seared with heat to his touch. His hands slid across her silky skin, smoothing the cream beneath her tank top so every inch of her delicate skin would be protected.

When he found the muscles in her shoulders were tense, he squeezed gently. Angela moaned at the contact, the sound igniting a very carnal reaction in Damon. He breathed deep with lust, craving to touch more of her.

The ground rumbled. “Sand snake!”

Elara and Rogue pulled their guns just as the sand snake exploded out of the landscape, splitting the group in half. Damon wrapped his arms around Angela, shielding her from the boulders flying through the air.

Gunfire exploded from the other side of the sand snake where Elara sent a stream of bullets into the massive beast. It hissed as it fully arrived topside. The giant beast was thirty feet long, its girth wide enough to swallow a man whole. Angela shoved out of Damon’s grasp, gun in hand.

“No,” Damon seethed, grabbing her. “There’ll be more.”

She struggled in his grip, trying to get a clean shot at the snake as it lurched down toward her friends. “What the hell are you doing?”

“That’s the mother.” Just in time to prove his point, twenty babies slithered out of the giant hole in the landscape that the mother had created. “We have to get out of here.”

“The hell we are.” She aimed her gun over his shoulder and fired, making contact with one of the babies. The mom hissed and turned her giant, scaly head in their direction.

“Your friends will probably use this distraction to escape. Let’s do the same.” He hauled her over his shoulder, darting out of the way when the sand snake lurched toward them. Angela squirmed, all the while trying to fire at the beast nipping at their heels. “Almost there, hold on!”

Damon ran at full speed, grateful for the cover at his back. He eyed the landscape, searching for the red arch that was just before a tiny hole that dropped down into a cave.

One of the baby snakes eluded Angela’s gunfire and latched onto his heel. He cursed, going down. Angela rolled across the ground. The beast came loose, so Damon righted himself and leapt for the baby snake before it could strike Angela. His knife sank deep and Damon dragged it through the beast’s gullet, disemboweling it.

“Mom’s not going to be happy about that.” Damon scooped Angela into his arms and ran. The pain in his calf burned, but he only had a tiny bit farther to go.

“I think the baby snake carcass has discouraged the others, but Momma is right behind us.” Tension hung in Angela’s words. “I’m almost out of ammo.”

“Hold on.” Damon gripped her tight and leapt down just as the snake passed over them.

They dropped twenty feet through the darkness. His wound caused him to stumble through the landing, but he held onto Angela and righted himself. Despite the pitch black of the cavern he knew exactly where to turn to navigate through the maze of dark tunnels.

“I think between the two of us, I’m the best to walk. You don’t need to carry me.” Her concern for him was something he wasn’t used to.

“It’s nothing. They’re not venomous, they just constrict and swallow. Lucky for us, they never got that far.” He set Angela down. Since he could barely see her through the dark, his hands roamed over her, searching for wounds. “Are you all right?”

Her breath hitched. “I’m fine. I just hope Elara and Rogue are okay.”

“I don’t think Rogue would let anything happen to Elara. He’s a tough son of a bitch.”

“You have no idea. He saved my life once.”

He’d have to thank the bastard. Damon took a deep breath and realized how his heart had raged when Angela had been in danger. All he could think about had been getting her to safety. She was so tiny and fragile.

His hands moved over her skin and found something slick. “Is that blood?”

“I don’t think it’s mine,” she whispered.

She gazed up at him, her form becoming more clear as his eyes adjusted to the dark. Angela’s blonde hair was mussed from the fall, so he smoothed it back. Before he could react, Angela was on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his.