by Dena Christy
"I am not going home alone. My mate is coming with me." While he hadn't gone through the mating ritual with Cheria, he could think of her in no other way than as his mate. She wanted a future with him, and for his part he knew he was in love with her.
"That is good news. I look forward to meeting her."
"You will if we are placed on your ship."
The line moved forward a little and Rone and Uron moved up with it. “No other ship is scheduled to come until next month. So unless you intend to wait, you will be on my ship."
He and Cheria had no intention of waiting on this planet any longer than absolutely necessary.
"When are you leaving?"
"Three days hence. I must go, but I will speak to you again when you are on the ship. Again, I am sorry to hear about your brother."
Uron turned and strode away. Three days. That's all he and Cheria had to wait. They only needed to stay hidden from their enemies for three days and then they would be free.
After what felt like an eternity, Rone was finally before the ticket agent. Fortunately it did not take long to book passage for two from the disinterested agent. She looked at both his and Cheria's ID without question.
He turned away, tucking the paperwork in his pocket. He strode out of the building and retraced his steps back to his woman, feeling lighter than he had in days. They were so close to freedom now that it seemed like it was within their grasp.
Once he and Cheria were on their way to his home, he would pledge himself to her as her mate, and he would do what his brother wanted him to do. He would spend the rest of his life with the woman Thonax had chosen for him, and raise any children that Thonax chose to bless them with.
He turned down the main thoroughfare, past the line of street vendors selling their wares. He came abreast of the food stall run by Cheria's friend, and he decided to stop and buy them something to eat. It would be a celebratory treat.
When it was Rone's turn to be served he stepped up to the counter, and Cheria's friend's face lit up in recognition.
"You are Cher's protector, aren't you?"
"Yes." Rone knew that he was more than that, but refrained from saying to this man that he was also Cheria's mate. She had yet to except his life pledge, and until she did, he would not broadcast his intention to her friend.
"What can I do for you?"
"I would like to purchase the same dishes that you provided Cheria and I with the other night."
"Of course." Wes turned away and as he did, a young boy came running up to the food stall and into the door at the side. "I'm busy with a customer, boy. This had better be important."
The boy tugged on the hem of Wes's shirt, and Wes leaned down as the boy said something to him quietly. Wes straightened and turned toward Rone with his face draining of color. Rone's good mood evaporated in an instant and his body tensed.
"I've had the boy watching Cheria's house. He said that a strange blonde man has gone in."
Rone didn't bother to respond. He simply turned on his heel and raced down the street. A man with blond hair could be anyone, but it did fit the description of the android. His heart pounded as he raced in the direction of Cheria's home.
As he ran, he sent up a prayer to Thonax that he would keep his woman safe until he could get there. And also that he provide strength to his blade so that he could destroy his enemy once and for all.
Chapter 22
Cheria hummed happily to herself as she tidied up her home. For the first time in her life she felt truly happy and it was all down to Rone. The hole that had been inside her was now filled with her love for him, and as soon as they were off this planet and on their way to starting their new life she was going to tell him.
She wanted to pinch herself, to test if it was really true. How had she gotten so lucky to find him? Actually, he had found her but the result was the same.
She looked around her small home, and knew that she would not miss this place or this planet when she left. Her time here had been one marred by the struggle to survive. In recent years, her time had been spent trying to accumulate the wealth that she thought would make her happy. Being with Rone made her realize that no amount of money was going to do that. It had taken her being in a situation where her very life was in danger, and where she'd met someone willing to protect her for no other reason then because he thought she was worthy of it, to show her just how shallow her existence had been.
A soft smile crossed her face as she thought about what the future would hold for them. She was willing to admit to herself that she was nervous about going to Rone's home planet and meeting his family.
They hadn't talked about whether or not he thought they would like her, and she hoped that they did. He was the man she wanted to spend her life with and it would be easier to do that if his family accepted her.
Her smile got brighter when she heard a noise at the front door as the lock disengaged. Finally he was home, and she moved out of the living room and into the hall just as the door opened.
"How did it go? When does our ship leave?"
Her eagerness turned to terror when she saw that it was not Rone stepping into the house but the android. His face was cold and expressionless as he stepped toward her.
"We finally meet."
"No," Cheria screamed as she turned on her heel and ran down the hall toward the kitchen. The stunner was in there on the counter where she'd left it. All she had to do was get to it and hope that it would do some sort of damage to him. Enough at least to buy her time to get out of the house and away from him.
She reached the kitchen, and as her hand curled around the butt of the stunner the intruder had caught up with her.
He put one arm that was as unyielding as steel around her waist while his other hand closed around her wrist. She could not turn her weapon against him, and she cried out in frustration as she struggled against his hold.
"Let go of the weapon." There was no inflection in his voice. It made him seem that much scarier because it confirmed to her that she was not dealing with a creature subject to emotion.
"Go screw yourself." She kicked back against his shins, but of course her efforts yielded no results, not even a grunt.
"Your command makes no sense." He squeezed his hand tighter around her wrist, and she cried out in pain as her fingers sprang open and the stunner fell out of her hand and clattered to the floor.
"There is no need to struggle. I have not been ordered to kill you. I am to retrieve the chip only."
Retrieve the chip? What the hell was going on? How was he supposed to retrieve the chip when it was inside her body?
Unless perhaps whoever had sent him did not know that her chip was embedded. If so, there was possibly a way out of this. She could lie, could tell him that she would cooperate and retrieve the chip for him. That could buy her enough time to get away, to find Rone. Surely he was on his way back by now.
"If that's true let go of me." Its hold loosened and she stepped away and turned to face him. She raised her hands in mock surrender. "I'll cooperate. I just need a few minutes to get the chip for you."
She moved to step around him and he grabbed hold of her again.
"I am not a fool to be tricked. I know that the chip is embedded in your body."
Cold, hard terror went through her and she yanked her arm but he held her fast. She lashed out at him with her fisted hand, and she got same results that she had when she kicked at him. Nothing phased him, and he hooked his leg around her calves and pulled. She lost her balance, and he quickly had her pinned to the floor.
She bucked and struggled against him as he straddled her. He had her hands pinned to the floor with one of his and he pulled a set of handcuffs from his pocket. He manacled one of her wrist with one cuff, hooked the chain around the leg of the table and despite her attempts to evade him, he managed to trap her other wrist in the other cuff.
There was still a way she could get out of this. There had to be. The table wasn't that heavy, pe
rhaps she could move it somehow, shift it so that it least her arms weren't trapped. They would still be cuffed, but at least she would be more mobile.
She wrapped her hands around the leg of the table just as he shifted so he was sitting on her thighs. She would be able to move her upper body into a sitting position if she could get her arms free. She pushed up on the table leg and it shifted a little.
Her feeling of triumph was short lived when he reached around behind his back and pulled a knife out.
"I will do my best not to cause you any undo injury. My master has been very clear that you are not to be killed, but I cannot guarantee that you will survive this if you struggle. My number one imperative is to retrieve the chip and according to my calculation I can do so without fatal harm to you as long as you don't struggle."
Cheria forgot about moving the table as she started to tremble. He was going to cut out the chip. A wave of hysteria went through her.
"Please don't do this. There isn't anything on the chip. Cutting it out will accomplish nothing."
He didn't reply as he put the knife under the hem of her shirt, and her stomach muscles contracted when she felt the cold steel of the blade against her skin. Terror clawed at her brain as she clenched her hands around the leg of the table. She could get it to move a little. What she needed to do was tip it over but how was she going to do that when even now he was sliding the blade up her top toward the opening of the neck, cutting it open as he went.
His eyes scanned over her bare flesh, and she knew that he was not seeing her flesh for what it was in his search for her chip, but she felt the burn of shame anyway as she lay there helpless and exposed. His eyes zeroed in the bump on her flesh, and tears burned in her eyes as he moved the blade toward it.
"Please, listen to me. There isn't anything on it. You have to believe me."
"There is no use lying to me. I know that your client transferred the information. I found the empty storage device in the hotel room. I know you have the information. If you lay still, I will make this as quick as possible."
"No, please." Her voice grew higher in pitch as the blade came to rest on her skin just beneath the chip. She sobbed in terror but could not struggle away from him. The blade was too close, and he was right. There was a risk that he could grievously injure her if she struggled and he missed the chip. And it was clear that no amount of begging or trying to get him to see the truth was going to get him to stop. He was a machine. He could not be bargained with. Could not be dissuaded.
She could tell him that the information had been transferred again, but there was no guarantee that he would believe her and if he did it would only make Landis a target. Her only hope now was that the fact that he was a machine might make him accurate and swift when he cut the chip from her body.
She squeezed her hands around the table and she clamped her eyes shut with her breath locked in her chest.
A scream of agony was torn from her as he made the first slice. Pain like nothing she'd ever known went through her and she prayed for a moment that she would pass out so she would not be able to feel it when he pried the chip from her body.
Her wish was not granted, and she screamed again, longer, louder and more agonized as he put the tip of the blade under her chip’s housing and started the job of prying it off her ribs.
* * *
He heard the first scream when he was across the street from the house. It was faint, but it was her. His woman was in agony, he could tell by the sound and rage took hold of him that went deep into his bones. He raced to the house and up the stairs, determined to annihilate the one hurting her
Why hadn't he let her come along? Why had he left her home and vulnerable?
He pulled the blade out of its sheath. The creature responsible for the harm visited upon his woman would not survive.
Just as he reached the door, another scream came to him, this one more agonized than the one before it and he threw his body against the door, putting all the his weight, strength and rage against the barrier between him and his woman.
The door was no match for him, and it flew open. He took in the scene at a glance as he charged down the hall. The machine was straddling his woman, and it turned its head in surprise when it registered that there was a disturbance behind it. By that time, Rone had reached it, and when he saw Cheria laying on the floor, her shirt ripped open, her skin exposed and blood pouring from a wound in her side, a red haze descended upon Rone's vision.
He gripped the android by the back of his jacket with his free hand, and with a strength fueled by his need to protect her, to save her from further harm, he pulled the android to its feet and hurled it away from her. The android hit the wall hard enough to put a dent in the wall, and Rone didn't fool himself into thinking that it would stop the creature. But he needed to get Cheria out of the way of the fight, so he quickly lifted the edge of the table so that her cuffed hands were no longer trapped.
He could do no more for her because the android sprang at him, and his knife slashed across Rone's arm. Pain seared through his flesh, but he ignored it. He used it. Pain would keep him aware, would keep him sharp as he turned toward his enemy.
The android slashed again and there was a clang of steel against steel as Rone moved his blade to block his attacker's knife. He twisted his blade so that it caught the androids knife and in one smooth move he made a sharp circle that forced the knife to fall out of his opponents hand.
"I do not need a weapon to kill you. You cannot harm me."
"Any machine can be destroyed." Rone swung his blade, and the android caught it with his hand.
The blade cut deep into his synthetic flesh, and Rone pulled it down sharply. The blade sliced through to the android's metal skeletal structure, but did not sever it. Rone had hoped that his blade would be strong enough to cut through it, and it still might prove to be, but he would have to hack at it to do any damage.
Rone pulled the blade away and circled his opponent so that his attention was directed away from Cheria. She was slowly moving across the kitchen floor, toward the stunner that lay on the floor a short distance away from her. He did not know how affective a weapon it would be against the machine, but any advantage that they could get was welcomed.
The android lashed out with its foot, and Rone dodged away, narrowly missing getting hit. He needed to focus his attention on his opponent, because this was a fight for his and his woman's life. His opponent would not stop until he was dead, so he had to kill it first, somehow.
He slashed at the android with his blade as it swung its fist at him. The machine must not have been programed to feel pain, because other than cutting his hand half off at the wrist, the blow didn't seem to phase him. He kept coming.
Rone saw Cheria's hand wrap around the stunner. She would not fire until she had a clear target, and Rone threw himself at the android, using his free hand to grab him by the neck and hold him at enough of a distance with his much longer reach so the machine couldn't hit him. Every muscle in his body strained as held the android so the machine's back was to her. Cheria rolled over onto her back, with the stunner held between her cuffed hands and pointed at the android.
"Do it now," Rone yelled as he strained against the machine. "I can only hold him for another moment or two."
The high pitched zipping sound of the stunner being fired echoed in the kitchen, and the android went stiff. He did not collapse as he would have had he been a living creature, but he spasmed and appeared to be unable to function properly.
Rone took his opportunity to kill the machine. He gripped his blade with both hands, reeled back and swung it as hard as he could. His aim was true and his blade went through the synthetic flesh at the side of the android's neck. He dragged the blade against the metal underneath, and managed to slice through half of it. One more strike and the android's head was severed from its body.
It fell to the floor with a thunk, and the body remained standing. Rone shoved it. The body fell sideways and hit the fl
oor. He sheathed his blade and went to Cheria, who lay on the kitchen floor with the stunner still in her hands.
With gentle hands he took the stunner from her and put it aside. He wanted to hold her, needed to assure himself that she was now safe from harm, but there was so much blood on her side that he was not certain if touching her would cause her more pain.
She solved the problem for him by reaching for him with a sob. He pulled her to him with her cuffed hands folded between them.
"It is done? Is it dead?" Her voice was weak and muffled against his chest. He held her like she was made of the most fragile glass.
"I believe so. The stunner must have caused a disruption in its circuits, at least long enough for me to cut off its head. It cannot hurt you any more."
He eased back so he could assess the damage done to her. Before he could do that, there was the sound of scrambling feet behind him, and he quickly turned his head with a snarl.
Wes and two other men came racing into the house.
"We thought you might need help." Wes' face was pale as he took in the sight of a body with a severed head. There was no blood apparent on the body, and Rone didn't want to waste time getting into a long discussion about it.
"Someone needs to fetch medical assistance, discreet assistance if possible. Cheria has been hurt." One of the men with Wes turned on his heel and ran for the door. Rone turned his attention back to Wes. "There must be a key to the cuffs somewhere on his body. Find them and bring them to me so I can free her."
Neither man moved as they eyed the android warily. Rone lost his patience and snapped at them as he put his hand on Cheria's wound and applied pressure.
"It is a machine. It will not hurt you. Move."
His words were what both men needed to move them into action. Wes went to the android while the other man that was with him came into the kitchen and pulled opened a few drawers. He pulled some clean towels that were in the second drawer that he opened and he handed the towels to Rone, being sure to look at Rone's face and not at Cheria's exposed torso.