by Tana Stone
“Reinforcements from the home world are on their way,” Captain Varden said, “and I’ve taken the liberty of putting Inferno Force on the highest alert. They’re our first line of defense. We don’t know how or when the enemy will attack, but my gut tells me it’s coming sooner than we thought.”
“We need to know their plan,” Kax said, more to himself than to the two men. The only way to keep Bridget truly safe was to stop the Kronock invasion and cut their technological research off at the knees. He straightened his shoulders. “I need to go now.”
Dorn shook his head. “The intelligence team isn’t fully assembled, and we haven’t determined targets.”
“We don’t have time to wait,” Kax said. “Not with an invasion imminent. You know I’m right, brother.”
Dorn raked a hand through his hair and it flopped back in his face. “You can’t mean to go solo?”
Kax nodded. “It’s the best way for me to get into enemy space undetected. I did it once. I’ll do it again.”
Captain Varden frowned. “We don’t know where a Kronock centralized command might be, if they even have one. It could take more time than we have to determine the most high priority targets.”
Kax took a step back, thinking of the black armored Kronock on the colony as he’d stalked onto his ship and fired off orders. “I know exactly where to hit them.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bridget gasped when she and Trista joined Mandy on the balcony and the cold air hit them. “Girl, it’s freezing out here.”
“You’re the one who picked a ski chalet suite,” Mandy said, not turning around.
“Technically I didn’t pick it. Reina picked it for me,” Bridget said, stepping over to the wooden railing and rubbing her arms. “But I probably would have picked it anyway. I may have lived in Miami, but I’ve always loved the snow.” She jerked a thumb behind her. “The key is watching it from the inside.”
“If you came out here to make me feel better, it won’t work,” Mandy said. “Everything up here was going so great, and then I get reminded of my old life and told I’m the reason someone else’s life may be ruined. What am I supposed to do with that?”
Bridget rubbed a hand over Mandy’s back. “It’s not your fault. None of us planned to be taken by aliens, right? Who knows what’s really going on back on Earth without us? For all I know, there could be search parties looking for me.” She seriously doubted it, since everyone probably suspected she’d skipped town as soon as she’d been cut from the ballet.
Trista shivered and moved her hands briskly up and down her arms. “It doesn’t matter. They’ll never find you.”
“Exactly,” Bridget said. “We’re out of reach now, which also means we can’t go around feeling guilty about what we may have left behind.”
Mandy grumbled and shook her head. “You’d think the Drexians have been doing this long enough to know how not to set off a chain of horrible events.”
“We don’t know it’s horrible,” Trista said. “I’m sure everything will turn out for the best.”
Mandy eyed the woman. “Are you always this positive?”
Trista looked down. “Not always.”
“I’m sorry.” Mandy slipped her arm through Trista’s. “I like it. It’s good for me to remember not everyone is cynical like they are in LA.”
“Or as mercenary as they are in the dance world,” Bridget said.
Trista shuffled her feet in an obvious attempt to keep warm. “At least one part of your life is great. You and Dorn seem happy.”
“True.” Mandy cast her a sideways glance. “I guess I’m being a bit of a drama queen, aren’t I?”
Bridget held up two fingers to indicate a small amount.
Mandy’s shoulder drooped. “I’m sorry. Old habits die hard, I guess. I have nothing to complain about, when neither of you have even met your guys, or know if you’re going to like them.”
“I’m terrified mine will think I’m not glamorous enough,” Trista said, her words choked.
“What?” Mandy spun on her. “What are you talking about? Men love blondes.”
Trista gave a shake of her head. “I feel way out of my league up here. Before this, I’d never even flown on a plane.”
“Your first flight was an alien abduction?” Mandy gave a low whistle. “That’s harsh.”
Bridget put her arm around the woman. “None of that matters anymore. None of us are sophisticated compared to the aliens up here. I’m sure your Drexian will be thrilled with you.”
“What about you?” Trista asked, clearly trying to change the subject. “Do you think you’ll fall for your guy like Mandy fell for hers?”
Bridget smiled, the words stuck in her throat. How could she tell them she’d already fallen for a Drexian but he hadn’t fallen for her?
“Bridget doesn’t believe in true love or soul mates,” Mandy nudged her. “Right?”
Bridget tried to laugh it off, but her laugh became a sob.
“What’s wrong?” Mandy wrapped her arms around her. “I was only joking.”
Bridget waved her off. “I’m being silly. I don’t know why I’m crying. You’re right. I never believed in love or soul mates or any of that.”
Mandy held her at arm’s length and studied her. “But now you do?”
Bridget shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel like I’m all mixed up. My stomach is in knots. I feel like throwing up. I can’t focus on anything.”
“You’re in love!” Mandy threw her arms around Bridget. “This is so exciting!”
“What? No,” Bridget gave a brusque shake of her head. “I can’t be in love. It feels like torture.”
Trista nodded. “Sounds like love to me.” She cocked her head to one side. “But I thought you hadn’t met the Drexian warrior they matched you with yet.”
Mandy’s mouth opened in a perfect O as her eyes widened. “It’s not Karsh. It can’t be. Trista’s right. You haven’t even laid eyes on him.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You’re in love with Kax, aren’t you?”
Bridget’s cheeks burned and tears threatened the backs of her eyes. “Neither of us meant for anything to happen.”
Mandy clapped her hands. “This is so exciting. If you marry Dorn’s brother, we’ll officially be sisters.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Bridget said. “You know how the Drexians are about their matches.”
Mandy frowned. “Don’t be ridiculous. If you and Kax are in love, they can’t make you marry someone else. It’s not like Kax is some sort of untouchable. He’s Dorn’s brother, and he was a member of their High Command. I’m sure a big shot like him can pull a few strings.”
Bridget gnawed on her bottom lip, but didn’t reply.
“Does he know how you feel?” Trista asked, her eyes not leaving Bridget’s face.
“I might not have told him I’m in love with him, but he knows I want him.”
“Do you know if he feels the same way about you?” Trista continued.
Bridget looked up at the artificial night sky to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. “I don’t know. I thought he did, but he didn’t fight for me when he found out about Karsh. Maybe it was just sex for him.”
Mandy’s face fell. “You told him you want him and he’s still leaving? I can’t believe that.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would any sensible man want to leave you? Are you sure he heard you?”
Bridget couldn’t help smiling through her tears at her friend’s loyalty. “He knows I want him. The truth is, he doesn’t want me as much as I want him, and I need to learn to deal with it and move on, even if it feels like I’m being ripped in two.”
“Oh, Bridge.” Mandy wiped at her own tears. “I’m so sorry. Do you want me to have Dorn talk to him? Or knock some sense into him?”
“No,” Bridget laughed. “But I appreciate the offer. I don’t want anyone who has to be talked into being with me.” She squared her shoulders. “I just need to go back to
my old mindset. I didn’t believe in love before. Marrying someone I don’t love will be much easier if I remember that.”
She knew that was easier said than done. Since she’d experienced the rush of falling in love, she didn’t know if it was possible to go back. Or if she even wanted to.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kax focused his eyes on the familiar planet as his ship came out of the jump. When he’d escaped with Bridget a few days earlier, he never would have imagined he’d be returning to Choor Dar so soon. If he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure if he was ready for this mission. He’d barely recovered from the last one.
He put a hand to his chest where he’d been wounded, and his mind went to Bridget. He dropped his hand and tried to push those thoughts away. No use thinking about a woman who was mated to another. He needed to have his head in the game, if he was going to succeed on his mission. And he had to succeed, unless he wanted Earth and the Boat to be invaded and harvested by the Kronock.
As he’d done last time, he entered the hazy brown atmosphere quickly, dropping through the radiation before he could be detected. He held his breath, waiting for incoming fire, but none came. His stealth mode had held. Instead of landing where he had before, he chose a spot on the other side of his target building. It would be a longer walk, but a high rock overhang would hide him from view if he lost stealth coverage. He touched down and disengaged the engines, casting a glance at the unforgiving terrain out the front before donning his environmental suit.
Once he’d pulled on the snug-fitting outfit, Kax flipped up the hood, tapping his wrist control and starting the oxygen flow while he also double-checked his directional guidance system. He would be approaching the building from the north this time, and if he remembered correctly from his last visit, the room outfitted with computers—the one he counted on to contain their records—was located on the north side.
Kax left the shuttle, closing the ramp behind him, and allowing himself a moment to adapt to the rough wind and swirling dirt. He glanced at his wrist again and began running, keeping low as he rounded an outcropping of boulders, grateful his suit’s color adapted to the surroundings and made him harder to detect. Instead of cutting through a door’s bolt, this time he hoped to find a more inconspicuous way to gain entrance. Since he wasn’t doing a snatch-and-grab, he did not want to announce his presence so soon.
As he closed in on the building, he noticed a stream of soldiers loading crates onto shuttles at the opposite end. Looked like someone was leaving in a hurry, he thought. Well, not before he got what he needed.
Kax spotted a blacked-out window midway up one wall. Taking a running leap, he clasped the bottom ledge and pulled himself up until he lay flat on the ledge, using his hands and feet to keep him wedged onto the narrow space. He pressed one hand against the glass and jerked it back, snapping the locking mechanism and sliding it back enough for him to drop inside.
The room was dark, and Kax slid the window closed, hearing no alarms. He flipped back his hood and face mask, breathing in the antiseptic air. If he hadn’t already known this was a research facility, the scent would have been a dead giveaway. As before, he was struck by the lack of security measures. Either the Kronock were extremely confident in their ability to mask their presence, they believed in their ability to defeat any attackers, or they were setting a trap. He swallowed hard and hoped it was not the latter.
After getting his bearings and listening at the door, he crept out of the room and down the hall. The lights were dim and the place seemed deserted. Maybe he’d been wrong, and this was not the place the Kronock commander had ordered his men to return to. It had been loud as all the ships blasted off from the abandoned mining colony, after all. He continued to the room he’d remembered as having computers, feeling a jolt of satisfaction when he saw a wall of whirring machines and a standing console.
“Please be here,” he whispered as he activated the console and began typing on the keyboard. He’d learned enough of the Kronock language to recognize the room was indeed where they housed records from their experiments. As he scanned the documents, his stomach churned. Hundreds of species were listed, and Kax realized how many planets their enemy had invaded and how much DNA they’d assimilated. He saw diagrams of grafts they’d made to their people and to splices they’d made to their own genome. Without being an expert in either the Kronock language or genetics, he didn’t know the full implication, but he suspected it wasn’t great.
His eyes caught on the Kronock word for Drexian, and his mouth went dry as he realized the Kronock had harvested DNA from his people. Then he saw the word for Earth, and his mouth went dry. Had they harvested DNA from Bridget without her knowing? He wanted to scan further, but knew he needed to hurry.
Kax took a small metal disc from the pocket of his suit and pressed it to the console. If it worked properly, it should download all the files so he could get them back and have them officially translated. The disc flashed green, and Kax let out a breath. It was working. After a few minutes, the disc glowed yellow and then red. Kax removed it from the console and zipped it into his pocket.
A sound from the doorway made him look up. A Kronock had entered the room, one of the less mechanized versions with only small flashing lights at the base of his scaly neck. Kax pulled a blaster off his belt and shot before the enemy could raise the alarm. Luckily, the creature had not been a soldier wearing armor, so the shot to the chest leveled him. As he eyed the Kronock bleeding out on the floor, Kax suspected he was a scientist or paper pusher of some kind, since he’d had no weapon, and seemed genuinely shocked to see an intruder.
Kax knew he should get out as quickly as possible, but he needed to do one more thing. He managed to pull up a schematic of the building on the console, tapping his finger on the room in the corner. It wasn’t far, although he didn’t see an easy escape from that side of the building. He steeled himself. He had to do this to keep Bridget safe.
Running out of the room and down the hall, Kax kept his blaster held high, hoping he’d run into more scientists and none of the enhanced fighters he’d met during the incursion. He found the lab, although his heart sank when he saw it had already been partially packed up. He eyed a clear box filled with test tubes. There was no time to locate Bridget’s sample, if there was one and if it was even there. He took a small device from his pack and attached it to the underside of one of the metal tables. He activated it and rushed out.
Running faster now, he ducked into stairwell as the doors of an inclinator opened, hurrying down the darkened stairs until he reached the level below. So far, so good.
Kax emerged onto the floor, sweeping his blaster one way and then the next but seeing no movement. A niggling voice in the back of his head told him if the place was really as deserted as it felt, he wouldn’t find who he was after. Would the General stay around as his facility was dismantled?
Glancing at his wrist, he noted how much time he had remaining and determined which way to go, racing down the hall on the balls of his feet. The door on the end stood open, and voices came from within. It was the harsh guttural sounds of Kronock, and one voice he recognized.
Kax pulled the photon grenade off his belt, and his pulse quickened. He’d only have a few seconds after throwing it to get clear of the blast zone. Even at his fastest run, he might not make it without injury. He clenched his fist around the black orb. If it guaranteed Bridget’s safety, it would be worth it.
He stepped out into the open doorway, taking in the scene inside the room in a second. Krav stood with his hands resting on a wide console, as he spoke to another Kronock, this one with his back to Kax. The commander stopped when he saw Kax, his lip curling into a sneer.
Kax pressed the detonation sequence on the three buttons on the grenade. “Catch.” He tossed it inside the room as the other Kronock turned toward him. Kax faltered as he spun to leave. The other creature wasn’t Kronock. At least, not completely. Scars crossed his humanoid face, but the eye
s were a shocking shade of blue, and the gray scales on his bare arms looked patchy.
Run, he told himself, as he pushed the confusing thoughts from his mind and sprinted down the hall. The precious seconds he’d lost because of his hesitation meant he felt the heat of the blast as the grenade blew. Kax’s body was propelled forward, and he slammed into a wall, debris raining down over him as he shielded his head with his arms. Bellowing and screaming echoed through the air as the acrid smell of burning flesh hit his nose. Staggering to his feet, Kax stumbled away.
He had to get to his ship. He’d just killed one of the Kronock leaders, and they would be coming after him. And someone else. He’d also killed someone else. He ran up the stairs and located the window he’d used to enter the building. He flipped up his protective hood and face mask then slid back the glass and dropped down to the ground, swallowing the tang of blood as he landed hard. Another blast from inside the building rocked him, and he struggled to stand.
His feet pounded on the dry dirt as he ran to his ship and tried to convince himself he hadn’t seen what he thought he had. It must have been his mind playing tricks on him. No way the bumps he’d seen through the back of the thin, white shirt of the other creature in the room had been nodes.
Kax opened the ramp of his ship and didn’t slow as he ran aboard. He sank into the pilot’s chair, his hands shaking. Grek. Did I just murder a Drexian-Kronock hybrid?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bridget looked down at the pile of satin and tulle, and groaned inwardly. She stood in the well-lit dressing room, with a standing mirror on one side and a cream-colored, tufted chair next to it. Muzak played overhead, and Bridget could have sworn it was the instrumental version of the The Beauty and The Beast soundtrack.
How had she let them talk her into wedding planning, when she hadn’t even laid eyes on her intended mate? She knew Kax had left the ship on a mission he might not return from, and even if he did return, he’d made it clear he didn’t want her. Bridget had learned early on in life to be pragmatic. She couldn’t think of a good reason not to accept her new Drexian match and get on with it. So why did she hate even thinking about a wedding that didn’t include Kax standing at the other end of the aisle? And since when had she started having fantasies about her wedding?