“What’s that?” Kara shouted and pointed before she stumbled again.
His mouth set in grim determination, Adan jerked her up. “Salvation.”
Even as Dominik guided the windcraft toward them, the buzzing sound of the snowflyer eased as it neared. The ice-ghosts were preparing to snatch up Adan and Kara before the windcraft could reach them.
The Clans’ craft crested a snowdrift, a large octagonal-shaped ship. Adan didn’t stop to look back as he pulled Kara closer to the windcraft.
Hair at Adan’s nape prickled in warning.
He dropped and pushed Kara down into the snow just as a beam of white light shot over their heads and slammed into the windcraft.
“Keep going,” Adan ordered as Kara emerged from the snow, sputtering and taking deep gulps of chill air. “Crawl.”
A second and third streak of white shot over their heads as they pressed forward on their hands and knees. The bolts missed the windcraft as the lithe black ship veered out of its way. Dominik returned fire, arrows of green light snapping and crackling through the air, one after another.
Adan threw a look over his shoulder in time to see the lasers punch holes through the lesser craft’s outer walls. The screeching sound of torn metal rent the air. The acrid smell of burning electronics filled his nostrils and singed his throat. Through the clear face-shield, he saw fear in the pale eyes of the ice-ghosts piloting the craft, and he felt a moment’s regret.
The snowflyer exploded.
Green fire boiled in the air. Shrapnel soared over their heads and drove into the snow.
Adan threw himself over Kara, pushing her deep within a huge drift. Heat rushed over his body and the cape burned against his skin. Pain stabbed his backside like a thousand knives and then darkness slammed his mind shut.
Kara couldn’t breathe. Adan’s body crushed hers into the snowbank. She was pinned too tightly to move.
Somewhere in the distance she heard voices, but she was suffocating. Stars sparked in her head and her lungs burned. Gradually her body began to warm and go numb. The cozy warmth made her feel like snuggling into a ball.
Sleep. Yes, sleep.
Just as she began to slip toward a black abyss, Adan’s weight was suddenly lifted from her back. A pair of hands grabbed her under the arms, yanked her out of the drift, and laid her carefully on the snow-covered ground.
“The woman is turning blue,” a man’s voice said, and dimly she saw his face hovering above her. The man fastened his mouth to hers and warm breath entered her lungs. When he raised his head, Kara coughed and sucked in a lungful of the acrid air, immediately coughing again. Her body seized from the cold and she struggled to breathe despite all the smoke billowing around them. She began trembling uncontrollably as the illusion of warmth fled her, replaced by biting pain in every one of her fingers and toes.
Through muted hearing, the sound of voices grew farther away. She thought she heard “get Valnez to Ana and fast.”
Her eyelids fluttered, the crystallized snow flaking into her eyes as she tried to remember what had just happened.
“Whoever the hell you are, you’re certainly not an ice-ghost,” the man muttered as he scooped her into his arms and started carrying her as she coughed against his chest. He strode toward the large black thing that had flown over the snow, straight toward her and Adan.
A spaceship. It must be a spaceship, her hazy mind told her.
Her fog-filled brain vaguely took in the wreckage surrounding them. Smoke curled in the air and steam hissed. Blood spattered the snow and scraps of metal were scattered as far as she could see.
Even as she continued to cough from the smoke, she moved her gaze to the man carrying her. His long blond hair swung past his shoulders and his gray eyes were as cold as the surrounding snow. He had an angry set to his jaw and his brows were a fierce line above his hooded eyes.
Panic seized her as she began slowly coming back to awareness—she hadn’t seen Adan since he shoved her into the snow.
“Adan,” she tried to say, but it came out in an unintelligible croak.
The man treated her to a scowl, but then his features softened. “Valnez has a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
She shook her head and tried again. “Where—where’s Adan?” The words came out as a scratchy whisper, but at least she didn’t sound like a frog.
Instead of answering her, the man stepped beneath the black ship that hovered above the ground. “Now,” he growled.
Orange light rose up from the ground and encased them. Kara felt a strange vibration throughout every part of her body, and then a tingling sensation, like a million spiders crawling over her skin.
They were outside in the snow, and then they weren’t, as fast as that.
Kara’s head spun and she thought she was going to puke. When she could focus, and her stomach wasn’t about to heave its contents, she saw she was in a cramped room. A woman bent over a figure on a table nearby. Strange electrical equipment and three long table-like beds took up most of the room.
Kara’s throat worked when saw that Adan was on one of them. Face down, his cape melted against his skin and metal sticking out from his backside.
“Adan!” Kara fought to get away from the blond man’s hold, but he wouldn’t release her. “Damn it, let me go!” she shrieked. Tears stung her eyes when she saw that Adan wasn’t moving, and terror gripped her heart.
“Take us out of here, Dominik,” the man holding her said as Kara fought to get away from him.
“We’ll be home in no time.” A disembodied voice responded. “Hold tight.”
The ship lurched forward, but the man holding Kara didn’t even stumble. “Where do you want the woman, Ana?”
“Set her on that table.” The uniformed woman pointed to the bed beside Adan. “And then you can give me a hand, Dane.”
“You’re not just going to set me aside!” Kara started beating on the man called Dane, tears streaming down her face. “You bastard! Let me down!”
With a sigh of irritation, he let her slowly slide to her feet. “You are going to regret this.”
The moment Kara’s feet touched the floor, her knees gave out and her entire body went limp. She started to drop but the man caught her beneath her arms.
“Adan will live.” Dane swept her up and deposited her on one of the other beds where she collapsed like a rag doll. “He is going to have a hell of a sore ass, but he will live.”
“He is a tough bastard.” Ana gave Kara a grim look as she brought a pair of large forceps out from a cabinet. She proceeded to remove the chunk of metal that had pierced the cape and was buried in Adan’s muscular ass. Blood flowed over the cape and onto the table.
Kara’s stomach churned. She leaned over the side of the bed and hurled all over Dane’s boots.
Chapter Nine
Adan slid his legs over the side of the bed as he pushed himself to a sitting position. He clenched his teeth as the incredible pain in his ass burned like fire. His feet hit the med-wing floor with a thump as he hurried to relieve the pressure. His legs nearly gave out on him and he had to grip the bed’s mattress to keep from falling. Cool air brushed his naked skin and the wounds at his back burned from the slight contact.
Despite the pain, Adan could only think of finding Kara, ensuring she was safe and well. Why hadn’t she come to see him in the medical wing? He intended to find out.
Ana, the Clans’ Chief Medical Officer, strode into the med-room. The commanding brunette wore the knight’s jumpsuit, which sported a med patch just below the Blackstar sword and star insignia.
“What in the stars’ names do you think you are doing?” She glared when she spotted Adan on his feet. “I instructed you to remain in bed until I gave you official clearance.”
He gritted his teeth against the pain. “I am ready to be released now.”
Ana stared at him for one long moment, as if sizing up his determination. “Stubborn bastard.” She reached into the cabinet and brought
out a hypo. In moments she had filled the clear syringe with a yellow liquid and approached Adan with it. “Turn around, brace your hands on the bed.”
His frown deepened as he glanced at the hypo. “I do not need anything.”
She met his gaze head on, never flinching. “You do and you will.”
It was Adan’s turn to glare, but he knew better than to argue with Ana when she was in her domain. Here she was in command and his knights would follow her instructions, even if it meant pinning him to the floor so that she could administer the hypo or any other form of medical torture she wished to inflict upon him.
Grudgingly, Adan turned and braced his hands on the bed. He nearly shouted when she applied the hypo to his sore ass and fire rushed his body like a solar flare.
“There.” The Chief Medical Officer backed up as he turned around. She had a satisfied expression on her face, as if pleased to have caused him some measure of pain since he was ignoring her directions. “That ought to relieve some of the soreness, but you are certainly going to wish you had listened to me.”
“Not likely.” As long as he was with Kara, he would be more than all right.
Ana “humphed” and strode across the room where she retrieved his pants and boots and dropped them onto the med-bed. “You may want to leave the shirt off, at least for today, because it is going to hurt like the devil to wear clothing,” she tossed over her shoulder as she turned and walked out of the room.
Adan did not intend to have his clothing on for long. Not once he found Kara.
Just as he finished pulling on his breeches and boots, Dane strode into the med-room. The knight wore a fierce expression on his carved features. “You should be in bed. We cannot afford for you to not be at your optimal performance.”
With a scowl Adan flexed his muscles and ignored the pain the movement caused in his back. His ass burned like hell where the breeches fit snugly, but the pain was lessening from the hypo Ana had administered.
“As I have told you before,” Adan replied, forcing himself to rein in his anger, “You would do well to mind your own concerns and not mine.”
The blond man looked like a furious Viking of long, long ago. “Your ability to lead the Clans is my concern.”
Adan gave Dane a glare that would have flattened a lesser man. “If you have nothing further to say, you’d best get out of my way.”
For a moment the knight studied Adan. “You endangered the mission, endangered our very world by your dalliance with the Earth woman.”
Clenching his fists, Adan said, “That is also none of your concern.”
“It is, friend.” Dane stepped close enough that Adan caught the scent of the knight’s anger, saw it flash in his gray eyes. “You fucked her. You did not simply take the crystal and be done with it, you fucked her.”
It was all Adan could do to hold back from punching his fellow Clan Leader. “You tread on dangerous ground, friend.”
But Dane was not finished. “You endangered not only your life, but all of our lives by not taking the crystal to begin with, and by being captured by that ice-bitch. We nearly lost a good craft, not to mention you. And all over a good fuck.”
This time Adan did not hold back. He slammed his fist into Dane’s jaw. The man came back with a punch that landed on Adan’s cheekbone, and stars burst behind his eyes. Just as he hauled back to hit Dane again, two knights took hold of each of Dane’s arms and dragged him back.
Dominik appeared between them, a fierce look in his green eyes. “Dane may not have approached the situation in the most diplomatic manner. However, as we are your fellow Clan Leaders, you do owe us an explanation for your actions.”
Of all of them, Dominik was the most level-headed, the one to restrain his emotions and to choose words instead of fists to solve a fight. But at the moment he looked ready to lay into Adan like Dane had.
The knights released Dane, who folded his arms and stood behind Dominik. He stepped forward, still glaring at Adan. “Answer,” Dane demanded.
Adan looked from one Clan Leader to the other, and some of his anger lessened. In their place, he would be looking for answers as well. He considered telling them that he believed Kara to be the treasure to be sought along with the crystal. But he decided to wait until he consulted with the Cwen.
“I make no excuses for my actions,” he finally said. “What Kara and I shared—that is not up for discussion. But I will tell you that I did not know she had the crystal until it was too late. Echna’s ice-ghosts had Kara before I could get to her. I had no choice but to allow myself to be taken as well. Otherwise I would not have retrieved the crystal and her life would have been lost.”
Both men remained silent as if absorbing Adan’s words. “Very well,” Dominik said after a moment. “What is done is done. Now we must take the crystal from the woman and implement the plan.”
“You will not take anything from her.” Adan’s words were sharp and his anger rose again. “When the time is right I will discuss it with her and we will proceed from there.”
Dominik gave a reluctant nod of acceptance, and Dane scowled and turned on his heel.
Kara paced the length of her room—the room she’d been confined to for her stay on this snowbound planet. For two days she’d been cooped up, a prisoner, and not allowed to see Adan.
It was really pissing her off.
At least it was Adan’s chambers that she was stuck in. She could tell by his masculine scent that lingered in the air, not to mention his clothing stored in closets and chests. She had explored every inch of the room in her boredom, had studied Adan’s holo-vids as Lilli called them. Lilli was the one person Kara had been able to talk to whenever the woman brought meals to her. She was a beautiful and kind woman, but Kara had the feeling that she knew Adan better than Kara would have liked. Not that it mattered what he had done before he met her.
Hell, why should it matter at all? she thought as she continued to pace the room.
The holo-vids were few, but in those he kept, Kara had seen a pretty brunette with a dimple in one cheek, a dark-haired boy with a matching dimple, and Adan standing proudly with them. Her heart ached for him when Lilli told her that his wife and child had died in a battle at the end of the Age of Sorcery. Here was a man who had lost two people he had loved, his family. It seemed far worse than Kara never having had a family to lose.
Kara remembered a quote by Tennyson: “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” She wasn’t so sure that was true, but she had never known it for herself.
Yesterday she had been visited by the hulking man, Dane, who had questioned her about who she was, what she had been doing at the ice palace, how Adan got there, and how she came by the crystal. She had thought about refusing to answer, but the man was so large and his scowl so intimidating that she had grudgingly given him the answers, the best she could. By the time Dane asked her how she knew Adan, she’d been so angry that she said she’d fucked him once or twice and to leave her the hell alone.
And that’s exactly what Dane had done. She hadn’t seen the bastard since, and the door had been kept locked so that she couldn’t leave this stupid room.
Adan’s room was all right for a room, not much different from what you’d find on Earth, only in more space age-y pewter-colored materials. A nice sized bed crouched in the center, and various pieces of furniture were scattered around. It was such a contrast from the ice palace. Here, instead of sterile white, the walls were in warm shades of taupe. Murals of a countryside in the springtime flowed from one wall to the next. With all the snow outside, she imagined the planet’s residents must surely get spring fever big time.
Yet what she’d seen of the landscape from the bedroom window was stunning. She especially liked the Mirror Mountains and the way they reflected the valley upon their glittering surfaces.
She wasn’t sure she could get used to the spaceships flying around, though, or all these futuristic knights. Not that she’d have to. As soon as
Adan was up and about, she intended to make him take her back home. She didn’t belong here.
Kara paused in the middle of the room and ran her finger along the crystal star sculpture perched on the table. Her knees still ached from the battering they had taken at that Ice-Witch’s palace, but not too badly. Her pendant seemed to heal her faster than normal. At least that’s what it felt like when the heat from it surged through her body. The problem was that it still made her horny as hell, and nothing she did relieved the ache like Adan could.
Their kidnapping by the ice-ghosts—that all seemed like a dream now. She could hardly believe she’d been held prisoner, had watched three people have sex, melted a hole in the wall, fought her way through the snow with Adan, and then had been rescued. But not before he had been seriously injured.
At least Dane had told her Adan would be all right.
She brought her hand to the crystal that lay between her breasts and fingered it. “What’s so important about it?” she murmured aloud. “Is it really magic?”
How had that wall melted like it did? If only she could melt the wall before her and escape out into the snow, rather than stay here inside. She had always loved the snow, but she wasn’t sure she’d always want to live in it. Kind of like living in Antarctica or something.
The pendant continually sent a warm tingling sensation throughout her body and caused her to be in a constant state of arousal. Her breasts ached for Adan’s touch, her nipples were taut, dying for his hot mouth, and her pussy was so wet, needing his cock deep inside her. It was driving her nuts.
The sarong she was wearing didn’t help. It was fastened to one shoulder with a gold clasp. Her other shoulder was bare, as was the side of one breast, the curve of her waist and one hip. The filmy emerald green material clung to her curves, caressing her skin with every movement she made, like Adan’s fingertips skimming across her body. It whirled around her ankles and bare feet in a whisper-soft movement.
Blackstar: Future Knight Page 9