Edge of Eon: Eon Warriors #1

by Hacket, Anna

  She glanced at the war commander again. He was still out. She took a second to study his rugged face. He looked younger than she’d expected. Oh, there were a few intriguing lines on his face that said he was used to command and responsibility, but she’d expected someone with his reputation to be far older.

  She glanced out of the shuttle’s viewscreen. A small, rocky moon had appeared in the distance. They circled around it, and she spotted a green planet straight ahead.

  Hunter7.

  Okay, soon she was going to need to take over control of the shuttle and change their course. The Polaris was waiting for her to bring back the abducted war commander.

  But she had to be sure the Desteron wouldn’t detect her course change. For now, she was going to bask in the fact that she’d succeeded on her mission and was still alive.

  She smiled again, then felt a wave of something in the air. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She glanced at the war commander and her stomach dropped away.

  She found herself staring into a pair of molten, blue-black eyes.

  Chapter Four

  Davion woke, instantly aware of his surroundings. He was in his shuttle. His body was sluggish and his hands were tied with restraints. There was also the sweet scent of female in the air.

  He glared at his abductor. She was piloting the shuttle.

  His shuttle.

  As though she heard his thoughts, she looked his way, smiling, but when her gaze collided with his, her smile dissolved.

  Yes, you should be afraid, little thief. “You’ve made a terrible mistake.”

  “Oh, I know. But it wasn’t my choice.” She waved a hand through the air. “Man, I can practically feel the anger radiating off you.”

  It was his helian. The symbiont amplified emotion, and warriors were taught from a young age how to control it. But right now, control was beyond Davion.

  Her tone was unrepentant. A part of him admired her courage, but he was also furious with her.

  “This is an outrage,” Davion said. “You sneak onto my warship—”

  The woman held up a finger. “Unnoticed, I might add.”

  His anger surged. “And attacked me. You abducted an Eon war commander—”

  The finger came up again. “And got away with it.”

  Davion sucked in a breath. He was used to respect, awe, even fear. He was not used to a female who looked at him with none of those things.

  Especially considering she was a Terran female.

  “Why?” he growled.

  She looked up from the controls and raised her eyebrows. “Not for shits and giggles, that’s for sure.”

  He frowned at the strange words. “What?”

  She waved a hand at him. “Just an Earth saying. My people want to talk to you.”

  “This is not the way to go about it.”

  She snorted. “You don’t say. Your people wouldn’t answer any of Earth’s attempts at communication.”

  “The Eon have no interest in Earth.”

  “Yes, yes, I know, we’re small and technologically inferior. Well, because of your stubborn, elitist refusal to talk, here I am, blackmailed into this debacle.”

  Davion eyed her. “Blackmailed?”

  Something skidded over her face and she looked away.

  “This is why my people have no interest in Earth,” he said. “You fight amongst yourselves, you’re chaotic, you have no focus—”

  “Oh, so you’re so perfect?” The woman’s bright-blue gaze ran over his bare chest. She didn’t look impressed.

  Davion straightened. “You have no right to—”

  She spun. “My planet is facing annihilation.”

  His gaze went to her body, settling on the full curves of her breasts, perfectly outlined by her skintight suit. Cren. He jerked his gaze up.

  “My entire species is facing destruction.” Her eyes were hot and glowing. “With all your fancy technology and military might, you must know that. Yet, you refuse to help.”

  They stared at each other in the humming silence.

  Agitated, she made an angry sound and turned back to the console, banging at the controls.

  “Stop,” he growled. “You’ll wreck my ship.”

  “I’m trying to turn the damn autopilot off.”

  “Look, woman—”

  She skewered him with a look. “My name is Eve. Sub-Captain Eve Traynor. Although since I’m a lowly Terran, you probably won’t bother using it.”

  “Take me back to my ship.”

  “Negative.”

  “Woman.” It ended with a growl.

  “Just be quiet, War Commander. That will make this easier for both of us.” She shot him a fake smile. “Or I’ll gag you.”

  Fresh fury surged. This insolent female ignited his anger like nothing ever had before. Davion yanked on his hands and the restraints snapped. He unclipped his harness and rose.

  Eve sprang to her feet. “Fuck.”

  He got a better look at her now. He could see every curve of her body, since it was covered in that slick fabric. She was strong and curvy. Eon females were larger, almost as tall and muscular as males. They also had limited curves and small breasts. He was distracted studying the Terran, so the kick she planted in his gut was deserved.

  He staggered back and hit the chair.

  She leaped at him, her knees hitting his chest. The momentum carried them over the chair to smack into the floor between the seats.

  A wrestling match ensued, but Davion had the size advantage. An elbow connected with his jaw, but he managed to pin her beneath him. Her chest heaved, her eyes shooting lasers at him.

  “What now, little Earth warrior?”

  She bucked. Almost hard enough to dislodge him. He pressed down harder, giving her more of his weight. His hips settled between her thighs and Davion felt his own body responding.

  By Alqin’s axe. He was known for his absolute control in all things. And right now, it was missing.

  She was warm and strong, and she smelled so damn good.

  Blue eyes hit his and widened. Yes, it would be impossible for her to miss the fact that his erection was pressing against her belly.

  Suddenly, alarms blared through the small cabin.

  “What the hell?” she muttered.

  Davion turned his head.

  The shuttle’s viewscreen was filled with the image of a Kantos ship.

  Cren. He leaped to his feet, just as the Kantos ship opened fire.

  * * *

  The shuttle jolted. Eve jumped up beside the war commander. The ship jolted again, and it rocked so hard that she staggered and slammed into the warrior.

  He grabbed her, righting her, then he dived for the controls.

  Eve slid into the copilot’s chair beside him. Damn, it was a large Kantos assault ship.

  “I’m stabilizing the shuttle now.” His tone was commanding, definitely “man in charge.” “Check the shields.”

  Yes, sir. Her hands danced over the controls. “Already on it.” Thankfully, the shuttle’s systems seemed fairly straightforward. “Weapons?”

  “Limited. We have a bank of lasers.”

  She worked through the controls. “Shields are damaged. Won’t hold much longer.” She swiped through, trying to find the weapons system.

  Another barrage of Kantos fire hit them. The shuttle jerked and tilted. Sparks showered them from overhead.

  Hell. Eve gripped the arm of her chair and gritted her teeth. Thann-Eon was cursing, but his hands were steady on the controls.

  Eve found the weapons and fired up the lasers. He was right. They didn’t have much fire power. Not against a fully-equipped Kantos cruiser. She took aim and let the lasers loose. Blue laser hit the Kantos ship.

  The warrior turned, face set in hard lines. “I need my symbiont.”

  Eve’s head jerked and she looked at his wrist. Access to his symbiont meant armor, weapons, increased strength.

  “Eve.”

  They sustained another hit
, and the ship tilted to the left. She got a glimpse of the planet looming ahead of them. They were racing toward it.

  Another alarm sounded.

  “Missiles have been locked on the shuttle,” the computer said calmly. “Please take appropriate action.”

  “Missiles,” Davion muttered.

  Shit. “We—”

  Boom.

  The ship rattled so hard Eve’s head was whipped from side to side. Then, she started floating up from her seat.

  Dammit. The artificial gravity was gone.

  She grabbed the armrest.

  “Missile sheared off the back part of the engines,” Thann-Eon barked.

  Shit, shit. Eve snatched the antidote off her belt. She reached over, grabbed the warrior’s thick wrist, and squeezed the injector. The orange fluid hit the black ooze and it dissolved instantly. “There you go, War Commander.”

  “At this juncture, I think you should call me Davion.”

  Oh, yeah, like they were best buds out for a little space adventure. She pulled herself back into her seat and strapped in. Davion yanked a harness across his chest and pressed a palm to the controls.

  “Let’s see what systems are still functioning,” he said.

  She heard him, but she was too busy watching as black scales flowed from the black wristband on his arm. The black flowed up, covering his forearm, his bicep. Then they flowed downward, covering his chest and legs. His face was impassive.

  Holy hell. She watched, amazed. He was now almost fully encased in a black, scale-like armor. A few blue glints shone through in places.

  The Kantos ship fired again.

  “We’ve lost engines,” Davion said. “I’ve only got docking thrusters.”

  Uh-oh. She touched her side of the console, but it was dead. “Can you send a mayday to your warship?”

  “The comm system’s been completely destroyed.”

  Great. Just great.

  Davion pressed his palms to the controls and closed his eyes. Eve could see he was concentrating on something. The shuttle turned and she saw that he was using the thrusters to aim them directly at the planet below.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “If we have any chance of survival, we need to land on the planet.”

  “You mean crash.”

  Black eyes, with those amazing, glowing, blue filaments met hers. “Yes. We need to crash land.”

  “Great, fucking great.”

  “Keep the Kantos off us.”

  “I’ll pull out my full armament and do that.”

  He raised a brow. “Less sarcasm, more action, little warrior.”

  She shot him the finger. Then she leaned in close to him, tapping on his part of the console to get to the laser controls. She felt the heat radiating off him and ignored it. She took aim at the Kantos ship and fired. It was like using a slingshot against a lion.

  “This Kantos ship have a weak spot?” she asked.

  “What?” His face was strained. The planet was getting larger and larger.

  “Does the Kantos ship have a weak spot?” she repeated.

  “Small exhaust port directly under the back of the hull.”

  Okay. She could work with that. She swiveled the lasers, shifting to manual targeting. Then she bit off a curse. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  “That target area is too small,” he said.

  “Thanks for the pep talk. I feel better now.”

  “You are an infuriating woman.”

  “I get that a lot.”

  “You’ll never hit it,” he said.

  “Watch me.” She aimed and fired.

  And missed.

  Eve gritted her teeth, loosened her shoulders, took aim again, and fired.

  “Are you always this stubborn?” Davion asked in a curious tone.

  “Yes.”

  Gaze narrowed, she ignored him and fired again. This time she scored a direct hit—right on the exhaust port.

  “Yes!” She threw her arms up.

  The Kantos ship veered away. They’d sustained damage, and didn’t want to risk another hit.

  Davion blinked, staring at her.

  Then, they hit the planet’s atmosphere.

  Oh, God.

  The shuttle shuddered and rocked. It was like a roller-coaster—but not a fun one. More like one that made you throw up. They didn’t have engines, so maneuvering was next to impossible. There was no way Davion could bring them in at the right angle. The shuttle vibrated. Hard. Something broke free behind her, and as it flew over her head, she ducked. It smacked against the viewscreen.

  “Warrior—”

  “All the systems are compromised.” His voice was strained.

  “Spell it out for me.”

  “It’s going to be rough.”

  “So we’re fucked. In the totally un-fun way.”

  “Quit talking and help me.”

  “Quit tossing orders around.”

  But both of them touched the controls, fighting to get what they could from the ailing shuttle’s systems. Eve glanced at him. It was clear just how much the Eon warrior was doing to keep them from spiraling out of control. That hard jaw was clenched tight, and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. It was purely him and his interaction with the computer that was keeping them relatively stable.

  They rushed through huge, white fluffy clouds.

  Below, dense jungle spread out before them in an ocean of green. The ship tilted wildly.

  “We’re coming in too fast!” she cried.

  Davion gritted his teeth. “I’m trying to slow us down.”

  “Oh, fuck.” Eve braced her hands on the console.

  The trees rushed up at them. They were going to crash. Really badly.

  She heard a click. He’d unclipped his harness. “What are you—?”

  His heavy weight landed on her. He curled around her, pinning her to her seat.

  Impact.

  Crunching, smashing, breaking. Noise, a swirl of black and gray, pain.

  Eve’s last thought was that Davion was shielding her. Protecting her.

  Then there was nothing.

  Chapter Five

  With a groan, Davion lifted his head. His vision was blurry, and it took a few seconds until it resolved.

  He was in his shuttle. Or what was left of it. Eve was slumped beneath him, unconscious.

  He pressed a finger to her neck and felt the tick of a strong pulse. He released a breath.

  Her face was turned away from him, and with her out, he could finally take a chance to study her in better detail. She had a smattering of darker spots on her nose which he found intriguing, and long, inky black lashes.

  She was also the most infuriating woman he’d ever met. He couldn’t believe that she’d succeeded in abducting him off his warship.

  Moving cautiously, Davion rose. He had a few bumps and bruises, but nothing was broken. He felt a pulse from his helian. It was unharmed and already working to heal his injuries.

  The same could not be said about his shuttle.

  It was destroyed.

  He leaned over the console and checked the shuttle’s systems. Nothing. No comms. No power. No way to contact the Desteron.

  He shifted, opening some panels in the side wall of the shuttle. First things, first. He grabbed some strong, flexible, metal ties, swiveled, and crouched beside his abductor. He quickly tied her wrists and divested her of her weapons.

  Then he found his already stocked backpack. There was no civilization on Hunter7. It was solely a warrior against the elements, so they’d need supplies. He found a second backpack for Eve and added some essential gear.

  “What the hell?” Eve sat up. She glared at her bound wrists, then she transferred her heated look to Davion.

  “It seemed fair,” he said.

  Her gaze narrowed.

  “Now…” He crouched in front of her. “You answer my questions.”

  “Screw you, War Commander.”

  He shook his hea
d. “I want your full name and occupation. I assume you’re Space Corps.”

  Her glare was hot enough to sear to the bone.

  “Eve,” he prompted.

  “Sub-Captain Eve Traynor. Former Space Corps.”

  There was enough acid on the word for him to deduce there was a story. “Current occupation?”

  She smiled, humorlessly. “Criminal. I’ve been in prison the last five months.”

  Davion was pretty good at reading people, and this woman was no criminal. “Why?”

  “Clearly, I broke the law.” Her jaw worked.

  He saw shadows shift in her eyes. His helian stirred. The symbiont could detect emotion. He touched her arm. “Eve.”

  She blew out a breath. “I was framed. I was forced to take the fall for a Kantos confrontation to save an incompetent idiot who’d messed up. He also happened to be my captain.”

  Davion shook his head. “Why was someone lacking in skills and experience captaining a ship?”

  “Because humans aren’t perfect warriors. We let emotions affect us, and sometimes, we make bad decisions.”

  “And now your people want me?”

  “Apparently.”

  Davion read between the lines. “They offered you your freedom.”

  “Yes and no. They also threatened my sisters. And you know, dangled the destruction of billions of Terrans over my head.”

  He stared at her. Her sisters? He shook his head. “And you wonder why the Eon wanted nothing to do with Earth after first contact.”

  “Look, I don’t—”

  There was a rush of sound overhead. A ship.

  Davion rushed to the cracked forward viewscreen and looked out. He couldn’t see much, just dense jungle canopy.

  “Untie me!” Eve barked.

  Davion kept searching the wall of green above them. There. He caught a glimpse of the ship circling above the trees. “It’s the Kantos.”

  His thoughts churned. Why were the Kantos after him? They were inside Eon territory and had to know they were declaring war by attacking him.

  “War Commander, fucking untie me.”

  He spun. “My name is Davion.”

  “There is no time for—”