by L. A. MARIE
As soon as we were high enough that the guns on the ground couldn’t affect the ship anymore, I stopped rising and moved away from the city. I wanted to get away from all the buildings, away from the people who might want to hand me in. It would already be on the news that a prisoner had escaped, there would already be a warrant out for my arrest.
Not that it would matter – I was going to leave the planet entirely and then they could search as much as their little hearts desired; they wouldn’t find me.
Now, to take care of the human. I hated that she had made her way on board. The humans were irritating little pests. It was unfortunate that a planet as resourceful as this one was infested with so many of them. And it was even worse that she was aboard my ship, now, making demands as if she had any sort of say.
I didn’t want to kill them if I didn’t have to do. Oh, fuck, who was I kidding? I loved killing them. It made me feel better, got rid of some of my anger. And she would have to go.
Even if she was pretty – one of the prettier humans I had seen. Even if she seemed determined, feisty. There was something to be said about someone who was as confident as she was. No, arrogant. It would be a pity to snuff that light out. I couldn’t think that far. I wasn’t going to have her along for the ride. I had things to do, planets to visit. I needed to get away from Earth as quickly as possible, before my dad started a personal head hunt because he realized I had taken his tech.
So, I was going to snap her neck and be done with it. Dump her body over a barren piece of land, give the humans something to scratch their heads about. I switched the ship to autopilot and left my seat for the second time. This time, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would just get it over with, one quick motion and be done with that. She was so small, and would probably be easy enough to get rid of.
“What are you doing?” she asked when I walked toward her. She held her hand to her throat, scrambling back, fear in her eyes. Pathetic.
“Getting rid of you,” I said with a growl.
Panic flickered across her face and I would be lying if I said that it didn’t give me a thrill. There was something predatory about the whole thing, something that made me feel good when I killed. The brief regret that followed was easy enough to push away, usually.
I lunged toward her, grabbing for her neck again, but she was fast. She moved away from me and I grabbed empty air. The yelp that accompanied her momentary escape only fueled me. I did love the chase.
I grabbed for her again and managed to get a handful of hair. I yanked her head back and she cried out, her head twisted to the side. That pretty neck was exposed, red and already showing faint hints of bruises from my near-kill a moment again.
She aimed a kick and planted her foot in my ribs. The kick surprised me. Not only because of how quickly she had managed it, but because it hurt.
Hurting me wasn’t easy – I had a relatively high pain threshold and humans were weak. Besides, I had the Noether in my chest, now. It shouldn’t have bothered me at all.
“So, you want to do this the hard way?” I asked with a grin.
It didn’t have to be a quick death. We could draw this out long and slow.
“If it’s all the same to you,” she said, her voice sounding a lot more confident than the scared expression on her face suggested it would, “I would prefer we didn’t do this at all.” Banter. Cute.
I chuckled, the sound surprising both of us. Who would have thought that it would be amusing? This one was different.
She twisted out of my grasp – dammit, I hadn’t been paying attention. She scrambled away from me, her hair hanging in her face, covering her features a little. Her eyes were sharp, tracking my movement. The fear that had paralyzed her a moment ago was gone. She was sharp.
Fuck me if it wasn’t attractive.
This was turning into a game of cat and mouse. If I had a tail, I would flick it.
I had to plan my attack a little better this time, I couldn’t just grab her. I lunged forward with a well-aimed hit. She was small, it would floor her. Somehow, she seemed to anticipate my movement and she blocked me, throwing her arm up and hitting mine out of the way. She winced – my arm was pure muscle and twice the size of hers. That parry had to have hurt. But she didn’t whine and complain, she sank into a battle stance. She was really going to try to fight me, wasn’t she? She had to know she was outweighed.
Impressive.
Where had she learned these skills? I couldn’t quite make out what training she might have had. She hadn’t learned on the streets the way Agai had, her advances were a little more calculated than that. But definitely not military – she was female, albeit the right age. Had she had a private tutor?
I had been distracted by her skills, and it allowed her to get a punch in. Right on my face, busting my lip. Pain burst into my chin and she backed away as quickly as she’d advanced, looking victorious that she’d landed a punch at all.
I pressed my fingers to my lip and when they came away, they were bright green with my blood.
The sight of my own blood awakened the beast inside me. I let out a roar that made her jump back and anger took over. That was it, this human was going to meet a terrible end. I attacked her, ready to kill her without further adieu, but she fought back. Her face was twisted into a primal snarl, her hands were curled into claws of some kind, and her body was tense, ready. Even though I could overpower her – I was so much bigger than her and she was just a slight little thing – our fight lasted a lot longer than I had expected it would.
She landed a punch in my ribs again, right where she had kicked me, and the same pain exploded into my chest. Had it been planned? Was she exploiting a weakness I somehow had, or had it been accidental? I grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her to the floor, but she rolled away almost before she hit the ground and the punch that I aimed for her face hit the floor.
“For a murderer, you’re not doing a great job,” she said. She was out of breath, her voice was hoarse, but her eyes were bright and her face set in determination.
I didn’t have a comeback. I didn’t know what pissed me off more – the fact that she’d called me a murderer, or told me I wasn’t doing it right.
I lunged for her, and she tried to get away, but I caught her arm and yanked back. It twisted in the wrong angle and she cried out in pain. I twisted her arm around more, forcing her body back and against mine, and wrapped a thick arm around her throat.
She squirmed to get out of my hold, whimpering with pain but not stopping, despite it.
“You’re going to die,” I growled in her ear.
She threw up her left hand and grabbed my ear. She pulled hard and the pain was sudden and unexpected. When I didn’t let up on my grip, she moved her hand and her thumb dug into my eye.
I growled and shoved her away from me, holding onto my eye, cursing.
When I looked at her again, my vision was blurry on the one side.
Thank fuck for the Noether in my chest that ramped up my healing immediately, or I would have had permanent damage.
I took a beat to let my eye adjust.
I was downright pissed off now. She was matching my effort. And she was a slight thing. She had speed on her side, countering my weight advantage. And she knew how to use it. At the back of my mind, I wondered why a woman like her knew how to fight like that, what she must have endured to be able to do it at all. It wasn’t just a theory, either. Her body was conditioned to respond.
Her fighting skill was a reflex. It showed that she had done it before.
I was going to end it here and now. Enough of this waste of time. I ran for her, covering the large hull of the ship with long strides. She could run, but she couldn’t fucking hide, and there was only so far she could go. Even in a ship this big. Still, she made it difficult for me.
Finally, I managed to get a hold of her. I grabbed her hair and yanked her back. She let out a squeal, grabbing my wrist with both her hands so that the pain would be less on her scalp. I closed my fis
t, increasing it instead.
She glared at me, swung her leg up in a kick I hadn’t expected, and caught me between the legs. I anticipated it at the last moment, though, and managed to twist my body just enough that she didn’t hit me full on. The burst of pain that shot into my stomach was nauseating, but it didn’t take me out of the game completely.
She tried to get away from me, wriggling free from my grasp, but I grabbed her and locked her in.
Death, I thought.
She squirmed against me, and her skin was hot against mine. I was aware of how much life was bottled up in this tiny body, how much fight she had left. The victory after such a hard fight would come paired with regret. She was good at what she did.
She’d put up a good fight.
I crossed my arm over her face, my right hand on her left cheek from behind, and got ready to snap her neck. She scrambled, nearly got out, and I had to pull her tighter against me. She twisted around, tits mashed up against my chest, face twisted in anger.
Suddenly, everything changed. We were locked together, both of us breathing hard, our bodies pressed against each other. Her face was so close to mine, I could feel her hot breath on my skin as she panted after our fight.
And, unexpectedly, it wasn’t killing that I yearned for when I looked into her eyes. I wanted to fuck her.
Confusion flickered across her features. Her eyes were sharp when they darted over my face, settling on my lips for just a moment before locking eyes with me again.
It was such a quick glance, I might have imagined it. But the look that crossed her face, riddled with lust, told me that it had been real.
I shoved her away from me. We stood a couple of feet apart now. We were still breathing hard, both of us. What the hell had that been? Since when did I have sexual chemistry with a human?
For that matter, when had I felt anything like this at all?
“I thought you were going to kill me,” she said.
“Don’t make me change my mind.”
I glared at her. She glared at me. We faced off against each other. It would be easy to fall back into the fight. But if I did, I was going to have to touch her again. And right now, with my dick as rock hard in my pants as it suddenly was, I didn’t trust myself.
I hated the humans and the Malakus alike. And this one was human. Worse than a cockroach, they deserved to be squashed. Every single one of them.
But I couldn’t help but notice her dark hair hanging in curls over her shoulders, a little disheveled from our fighting. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed. And she was a picture. Dammit, she was incredibly beautiful. And I was attracted to her in a way I couldn’t explain.
And didn’t that just piss me off?
I snarled and turned away from her, showing her my back. Never show your enemy your back, I reminded myself. One of the first things we had learned. But I needed to break eye contact with her or I wasn’t going to have to worry about a fight. Something else was growing between us.
When I glanced out the front window of the ship, I realized that we were surrounded. Spaceships circled us.
“Shit,” I said and jumped behind the wheel.
If I wanted to kill her, I would have to do it another time. Right now, I had to get as out of here. Besides, I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to kill her anymore. Something about her…
One of the spaceships shot at us and I yanked our ship to the side to dodge the ray. The human yelped and fell to the side.
“Strap yourself in, woman!” I shouted.
“It’s Emori,” she bit out. Like it fucking mattered what her name was?
“If we die, it won’t matter what you want me to call you. Sits down, strap in!”
Emori. It was a hot name; I couldn’t deny that.
But I had to focus on getting away, now. I threw the ship into high gear and shot forward. Emori just managed to strap herself in. She had fiddled with the straps as if she didn’t know how to use them. She let out a yelp when the ship shot forward and I glanced at her. Her eyes were wide, but she didn’t look scared. She looked thrilled.
Crazy, that was what she was. And yet, I could completely relate.
When I checked the monitors, I noticed that we weren’t shaking them – the spaceships they were using to follow us were military grade. They were fast enough to keep up, not like the passenger ships and civilian vehicles.
Well, if they wanted to play this game, I could play right along.
I pushed a couple of buttons, heard the guns engage. I turned around to face the ships that were after us.
“What are you doing?” Emori asked.
“Getting us out of here,” I said and launched one of the blasters, watching the bright white rays shoot toward the ships.
They scattered, trying to escape, but I hit one of them. It spiraled down to Earth in a black haze of smoke.
I shot again, and again, but I missed them. And I couldn’t keep shooting, at some point I would need to recharge the blasters.
I swung the ship around again and floored it. We shot through the air, easily reaching a couple of G’s. Laughter ripped out of me. We were going so fucking fast, I loved it. This was the edge of death, but we were still alive and this was the epitome of a thrill.
“You’re a crazy alien!” Emori shouted above the rumble of the ship.
“Thane,” I said.
She glanced at me and pursed her lips together.
“If we die, it won’t matter what you want me to call you.”
She was throwing my words back at me. Fuck, this woman was going to drive me insane long before any of the ships got to us.
I checked the monitors. Two ships still followed us. I wasn’t sure what ships they were, but I was willing to bet they weren’t long distance space travelers. They had been brought to Earth in the hulls of the cargo ships. All I had to do was go where they couldn’t.
“Hold on,” I said.
“Why?”
I rolled my eyes. If she was going to question everything I told her, I was going to rethink killing her. The ship started shuddering, jerking us around in our seats, testing the limits of the straps. Emori groaned next to me, squeezing her eyes shut.
A moment later, the atmosphere became so thin there was no more resistance, and the ship quietened down.
Emori’s face was pale as she looked at the darkness we were headed toward, littered with a thousand pinpricks of light.
A moment later, we broke free from the Earth’s atmosphere entirely.
Chapter Ten
Emori
“Did we lose them?” I asked, looking around. The windows that looked ahead were large, almost full length so that I felt like I sat directly in space. And it was beautiful – it was impossible to imagine what it would be like to be here from what I had seen in movies. This was so different. I felt so small.
I couldn’t see any of the ships that had shot at us in front of us. I glanced at Thane’s monitors, where he had been steering the whole time. It looked like they pointed in all directions of the rest of the ship, showing what was next to us and behind us. The monitors seemed clear, too.
The ships weren’t coming after us. We were safe. We had to leave the Earth’s atmosphere to be safe, but somehow, we had managed.
Or at least, Thane had managed.
“We did,” he said with a nod. He fired up the engines he had cut – we had hung in space just for a moment to catch our breath – and started moving forward.
“When will it be safe to go back?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“So… How will we know when we can return?”
Thane pulled up his shoulders. “I don’t care.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean, you don’t care? We’re going back, right?”
“I’ve had it with that shitty planet,” Thane said simply. “I’m going home.”
I gasped, blinking at Thane. “Are you being serious? You can’t just leave Earth like that!”
“Can’t I?” Thane asked and his tone sounded bored.
“I have to get back,” I said. “I can’t go to whatever planet you come from. I can’t stay in space.”
“Nolmilea.”
“What?”
“My planet. It’s called Nolmilea.”
I groaned. “I don’t care what it’s called! I’m not going there with you!”
He glanced at me. “It doesn’t look like you have much of a choice.”
I shook my head, panic starting to grab a hold of me.
“You don’t understand, I have to get back to my sister. She’s sick. She needs me. I have to heal her.”
Thane didn’t even respond. How could he not care? How could he pretend this wasn’t a big deal?
“This is kidnapping, you know,” I said. “That’s punishable by law. You’ll get prison time.”
Thane snorted. “Yeah, add it to the list, sweetheart.”
I was taken aback by the sarcastic pet name. But there were bigger things at hand. I could worry about how he spoke to me, later. Right now, I had to get back to Naira. God, my sister didn’t even know that I had left. The only consolation was that I knew for a fact Lena was with her and wouldn’t abandon her. Not after everything my family had been through, not after Lena blamed herself for my parents’ deaths, since she couldn’t heal them.
I didn’t blame her, but I knew that her regret would keep her with my sister, and that Naira would be safe. As long as she was alive, that was. And how long would that still be if I was stuck in space with the only device that could heal her?
“Look,” I said, getting up and fetching my bag that I’d dropped when Thane had attacked me. “This is why they were after me.” I pulled out the device.
Thane glanced at it, his expression bored. But I didn’t miss the curiosity in his eyes.
“A Noether?” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s a Noether. Or rather…” he smirked. “The sad attempt to replicate this one.” He tapped his chest and I realized he had one just like it. No, it wasn’t like it at all, I realized. His looked like it was well put together. And would work. Mine looked like a cheap replica from a junk yard.