PYTHEN: An Alien War Romance (Galactic Order Book 1)

by Erin Raegan

“Who’s they? Who decides this?” Bryan asked the room.

  “Everyone that’s left,” Rodriguez sighed and ordered his men to leave.

  “Wait,” Hector called as he turned to the door. “How long?” Vivian and I exchanged a grief filled stare. “How long until they do it?”

  “Two days.”

  I bent over and clutched my knees at his answer. Two days. Two days until they commit mass genocide. We had no chance. We never did.

  “Zero six hundred hours, Saturday.”

  With that devastating announcement, Hector followed them out a few blocks before handing over their weapons and returning. Rodriguez would send the message over some kind of radio wave, and then we would wait.

  I didn’t have any hope we would get the answer we so desperately needed.

  Chapter 27

  Peyton

  Tahk was silent as we waited. He guided me back to the ship. Ford and Yeti stayed downstairs with Tohn and Ryt for Hector’s uncle’s return. Tahk said it would be too dangerous and told me we would go back to the ship. Sitting inside now, I gazed at the ruined city around me. In two days, it would all be gone. Not one bit of it would be left.

  My body shook from fear, and rage, and grief. My mother was out there. Along with Lauren and Hallie, everyone I’ve ever known. Were they alive? Would they be after Saturday? It was unlikely. I didn’t know how I would ever accept that. Where would we go? Viv and Hector, Bryan and Colt, the others? What would happen to us?

  “Come away from there, my yula,” Tahk murmured in my ear. When I didn’t move, he gently guided me away. “Come outside with me.”

  Tahk lifted me and carried me from the ship when it was clear my feet would not listen to my brain. I knew I was in shock, but I almost welcomed it. I dreaded the flood of feelings if it wore off. I already felt too much. I didn’t know how to handle anymore.

  Tahk carried me to the edge of the roof, placing me on my feet he pulled my back to his chest, so we were facing the barren city. There were two Vitat ships in the distance, but Tahk ignored them and wrapped his arms around me.

  “You must think we’re a horrible species,” I told him numbly. I certainly thought so. We murdered our own people.

  “Not all are of one mind. I know you do not wish this on the humans. Neither do your companions. You are not horrible, my mate.” He nipped lightly down my throat.

  “They’re going to kill everyone,” I choked, raw fear coating my throat.

  “I will not let that happen,” he growled lowly.

  “How?” He was bound by some ridiculous rule, given by aliens millions of light years away from us.

  “Have faith in me,” he implored. “I will not let my precious mate’s home perish.”

  “I’m scared, Tahk,” I confessed on a whisper. I was so damn scared.

  “Ah, my sweet mate, fear is not a weakness. Allowing it to control you is what makes one weak. My mate is fierce and determined. She will not let this stop her. She will use this fear to drive her, yes?”

  “I don’t know how.” I shook, desperate to release the desolate feelings.

  “Lean on me, and I will guide the way.”

  It sounded so easy to just hand over the reins to him. But I couldn’t. I needed control now more than ever. It’s not that I didn’t trust him, it’s just that if I gave in now, what would be left of me?

  “See, you stand on your own,” he whispered in my ear. “You do not need me, but I wish only to be your ear when you need to release your fears and doubts, your hand when you need strengthening, your guard when you cannot hold on your own, and your heart when you are too far gone to pull yourself free.” Tahk turned me to face him. “I will always be here, lovely. When you feel all is lost, and you are alone, I will be right here. Let me stand for you in your time of need. It is a gift, not a weakness.”

  I looked up at my devoted Commander and let him stand for me this one time. My eyes flooded, and I gave him every drop of my grief and fear. He stood tall and took it, and when it was over I felt stronger than I had before. I felt like I had an ally, a friend. Someone who would always be on my side, fighting for me and everything I needed.

  Tahk stood for me, and I knew he wouldn’t ever waver.

  Hours later, Yilt and the others came upstairs. There was a letter.

  I stood with everyone else as Hector read it. His face reddened, and his eyes blazed with fury.

  “They deny us,” Tahk said, his voice distorted with rage.

  Hector nodded and looked to Vivian. She sobbed and rushed to him.

  I couldn’t breathe. I knew it was coming, but it was still so very overwhelming to hear. I wanted to scream and cry, rage at them for their idiocy. But I stood numb.

  They were going to do it. They were actually going to do it. I couldn’t believe it. How was this their decision? How could they not at least meet with Tahk? How could they not even be willing to try?

  “Tahk!” Fihk bellowed from the other side of the rooftop. He shouted something else, but I couldn’t hear over the sudden explosion that shook the building. Tahk threw me over his shoulder and ran for the ship. Another explosion went off and the building wobbled beneath Tahk’s feet. Tossing me through the door, Tahk ran back out, returning a second later with Colt and Bryan as Vivian ran through with Hector. Several others came through the doors, but I couldn’t see them over the smoke that filled the ship. I coughed and hacked on my knees as Tahk bellowed something from the door. The ship whirred and shifted as it lifted in the air. I started to slide on the floor and had to grip the legs of a seat to keep from slamming into the wall.

  Another explosion deafened my ears, and I whined when something heavy slammed into my side, pinning me. Tahk threw himself over me, prying the heavy thing away, and pulled me into his arms. He rushed me up into the seat and strapped me in. Then he knelt on the floor and curled his body around me tightly. His arms bracketing the arm rests. His wings cocooning my sides. His claws bit into the head rest, and his chin dropped, forcing me to tuck my chin into my chest.

  The ship vibrated and swirled, random loose items whacking against us as it spun out of control. I was screaming, my throat was aching, but I could barely hear a thing. Tahk’s roars drowned out explosions and shouts. He was bellowing something, but I was too dazed to understand him. The world spun so fast I felt my stomach plummet and then shoot up through my throat.

  We were falling. We were going to crash.

  Seconds that felt like hours, passed. And then with a great heave the ship slammed down.

  Something sharp smacked into my head, and then I was out.

  ***

  When I came to, my ears were ringing, and my body throbbed in new pain. Smoke filled my lungs, and an unbearable heat singed my face. I blinked bleary eyes open and came face to face with a roaring fire. The ship was in pieces around me. Its insides were mangled and torn, hanging from the ceiling and walls. Small fires blazed from the front of the ship and the floor near my face. I was still in the chair, but it had come loose from the floor and was lying on its side. Tahk was crouched down, clawing at my restraints. His desperate eyes scanned my face. Frantic hands pawed at my body. His lips moved but I couldn’t hear him over the ringing.

  He clasped my face and lightly shook it. The movement caused bile to rise in my throat. And then the ringing cleared. Screams and shouts filtered in.

  “Wh-what happened?” I asked him. He heaved a relieved breath and pressed desperate kisses over my face.

  Vivian was screaming. She sounded anguished.

  “Viv?” I coughed. My lungs were on fire.

  Tahk lifted me from the chair and cradled me to his chest. Then we were moving. Fresh air rushed filled my lungs, causing me to cough more earnestly. Blinking the bright light of fire from my eyes, I looked around dazedly. Bodies were on the ground. Yeti was covered in blood, lying in the grass. His chest wasn’t moving. Why wasn’t he moving?

  Vivian was hunched over another body, wailing. Oh, god was that Hector?
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  I squirmed in Tahk’s arms. He growled furiously before relaxing his arms, so I could drop down, though he didn’t let me go. He helped me hobble over to her. Something was wrong with my leg.

  “Viv?”

  “Oh, god, help him! Somebody help him!” She cried.

  I dropped down beside her. Hector was mangled. His face covered in deep gashes, blood leaking from lacerations all over his body. A thick piece of metal was imbedded into his chest.

  I looked up to Tahk, but he was looking behind me. When I turned I saw another body lying on the ground.

  A heart wrenching cry tore from me. Bryan was lying on his side. Yilt hovered over him. I refused to accept the defeat on his face. I ignored every ache and pain and ran for him. Skidding to a stop I flailed my hands around his body uselessly. There was so much blood.

  “I am sorry, Pehytohn.” Yilt bowed over Bryan’s body and stood.

  “No!” I screamed at him. “No! He’s not dead!” I rolled Bryan over. His eyes were wide open. He had that stare, that horrible empty stare.

  “Santa?” My voice was raw with grief and smoke. “You can’t go. You’re supposed to beat Tahk up if he steps out of line. You’re supposed to yell at me for being careless and call me all night to make sure I have enough heating oil. You have to watch over me now that dad’s gone. I need you.”

  Tahk’s arms came around me and tried to pull me from Bryan. I kicked and screamed, holding onto him with all my strength. I would not leave him. Bryan was everything to me. I wouldn’t leave him, just like I knew he would never leave me.

  “Hush, Pehytohn, we must go. The Vitat have spotted us.”

  “I don’t care!” I wailed as he pried me from the man I loved like a father.

  “He would not wish you to die, my yula. We must go.”

  When it was clear I wouldn’t listen, Tahk forced me to go anyway. I screamed and fought him the whole way. Vivian was just as wild, Fihk having to drag her away as Olynth lifted Hector and carried him. Colt was over Yilt’s shoulder as we left the burning ship.

  Ryt carried another body and Dao followed Gryo as the healer carried an unconscious Bobo. Tohn guarded our back’s, his sword drawn.

  Tahk ran for the trees as Vitat screams filled the darkening sky.

  “We must get to the far side of the wood,” Tahk shouted at the others. “Uthyf would have gotten our distress beacon.”

  “What the huktbores happened?” Olynth growled.

  “The human’s fired on us,” Fihk snarled, glaring at the destruction behind us as Viv screamed and reached back for Hector.

  “Why?” I gasped over my tears, slowly merging from my hysteria. It was like moving though thick sludge. I wanted to drown in despair. I wanted Bryan back.

  None of the Dahk answered me. They exchanged grim stares.

  Tahk stopped in the trees and dropped me carefully on the ground. My legs gave out and I crawled to Vivian as Fihk let her go. I held her as she cried over Hector again. Tahk and the others fanned out in a protective circle around us. Their wings flaring wide, making a barrier.

  The Vitat were coming. Fast. I could almost feel their feet hit the ground in time to the beat of my frantic heart. Tahk drew his sword. “Not one of them passes,” he bellowed. “Protect the humans!”

  When the first Vitat flew at the Dahk shield, I flinched from the high shrieks. Tahk and the other’s tensed and strained against the barrage of the attack. Flesh met flesh, and swords sung as they whipped through the air.

  Colt coughed as he came awake, shouting in pain. His arm was broken, the bone sticking through the skin. I pulled Bobo closer when he started to whine. Ford was lying beside Hector. He was the only other one to make it. Though I didn’t know for how long. His leg was bent at an odd angle, blood coated the ground beneath him.

  Yeti was dead, he was the body I first saw outside the ship. Hap was missing. I knew Tahk wouldn’t have left him if he were still alive. Though Tahk and the others had a few cuts, they seemed untouched from the crash.

  But that might not be the case for long, I thought, as they fought a horde of Vitat. There must have been dozens fighting to get through the Dahk.

  Roars of rage and fury filled the air. Splatters of white fluid soaked the ground around the circle of Dahk. There were so many. There was no way Tahk and the others could hold them off for long.

  A long white arm clawed through a gap between Gryo’s feet and clasped Ford’s leg. The man moaned but didn’t wake. I frantically looked around for a weapon but only found a short stick. Breaking it off, I stabbed the pointy end into the clawed hand and a screech shattered my ears.

  Two more grasping Vitat broke through and dragged Bobo’s hind leg. The dog howled and snarled, but he was too weak to fight them off. I jumped on his body and stabbed the other stick through one hand. It let go, but the other hung on. With nothing else to use, I bent over and bit the hand. I gagged at the awful gamy taste but held on. Its cold bony fingers wiggled and strained to claw at my face. It eventually shook me off and scratched my shoulder. Its bulbous head poked through and it started to crawl through the gap. Pulling Bobo beneath me, I kicked at its head. Sharp teeth snapped at me, but with one last forceful kick, it screeched and backed off.

  My weak legs weren’t going to hold them off though. I needed a weapon. Spotting Olynth’s thigh, I gasped in relief and pulled a dagger free of his sheath. The Dahk paused in stabbing a Vitat, but he didn’t look back.

  The blade was long and sharp, and I didn’t hesitate in stabbing another Vitat through its skull as it crawled through by Vivian. Claws scraped down my calf muscle, and I spun just as another Vitat snuck beneath Yilt’s wing. It sprang and landed on my legs. With one foot I kicked it in the shoulder and lunged with the knife. It impaled itself through the chest in its frantic movements to get to me.

  Colt shouted as I was pushing the dead alien from my legs and I turned to see him trying to hold off another. We were going to die. There were so many.

  Bright light blinded me, and blasts of heat singed my skin. Tahk shouted and spun throwing me to the ground.

  High squeals of pain blast through my sensitive ears and the smell of singed flesh burned my nose. The Dahk had come.

  Tahk lifted me and ran. I gasped and looked over his shoulder to see the others grab my friends. Several ships filled the sky. Bright lights, shooting from large cannons, blasted the Vitat into nothing but dust. They were scampering to chase us one second and flitting away into thousands of insignificant particles the next. Jesus, if the Dahk could do that, they really could save us. They would annihilate the Vitat. But if a Dahk ship had those capabilities, what did the Vitat’s have? I had yet to witness the Vitat ship attack, but the smoke and destruction of city’s we passed was proof the could. We didn’t just need the Dahk on our side, we would die without them.

  Tahk’s heavy feet thumped along metal as he ran up a lowered ramp to another ship. I flopped against him in relief. It was short lived though once we all made it onto the ship. Hector was still gravely injured, along with Ford. Bryan and the others were still dead. Tahk held me in the open bay as the ramp slowly rose cutting off all light.

  We might have made it, but they hadn’t. And in two days everyone else would die.

  Chapter 28

  Peyton

  We huddled in the open bay, Gryo and several other healers moved between each of us, checking for wounds. Tahk cursed and seethed over every one of my injuries, carefully cleaning them himself. I had a knot of my head, and a bruise down my side from the crash. My arms were raw and had reopened in some areas. Blood stained my calf and shin from the skirmish, and I had several other small lacerations all over my body. But I made it out. I made it when so many others didn’t. When Bryan didn’t.

  Uthyf had hounded Tahk for the details. Listening to him, I had a hard time believing the words. Hector’s uncle had gone back to whoever he needed to, and they sent their answer in a letter. But it was a trap. The messenger had been sent to see if we
were still in the same location, as Tahk’s ship was cloaked. After confirming, they hit the building with several missiles. The explosions allowed them to see the ship, or it’s outline. Then they fired on us as we were taking off. Tahk said that if the humans could have seen us more clearly the entire ship would have been lost, as it were they were just firing in our general location and made a few lucky shots.

  Tahk was furious they managed to hit us at all. Apparently, a Dahk ship had shields for that kind of warfare, but seeing as we weren’t on the ship, they weren’t engaged. Uthyf said it wasn’t a mistake they would make again. He said human bombs were primitive, but when you weren’t prepared for them I guess a bomb was a bomb the universe over.

  Fihk had seen the first missile heading our way when he shouted on the rooftop. He said the human military would have engaged our fallen ship if the Vitat hadn’t been so close, and there weren’t so many of them. In a way the Vitat saved us from that confrontation. But I didn’t feel lucky or grateful. My own people had turned on us and killed my family.

  “Why?” I asked them. Why had they done it? We would have left. Tahk wouldn’t invade without their approval. He would have left us to our own downfall. Why bomb us? We hadn’t been a threat. Only help.

  “They felt threatened.” Uthyf scoffed. “Now, they should. A direct attack on the Commander is a direct attack on the throne. The humans may have bought themselves another war,” he growled, but Tahk glowered at him until he looked away.

  “Is that true?” I wheezed. They couldn’t help us without following their law, but they could attack?

  “No.” Tahk rushed to me. “I will not retaliate,” he swore and nuzzled my neck. “The humans were foolish, but I sensed their fear and doubt. I should have anticipated this.”

  “No one could have,” Colt sighed from the ground. He held Bobo close as a healer worked on his arm. “In war, you don’t take any chances. But firin’ at a man’s back is just plain unsportsmanlike. Damn cowards.”