Falinset shook his head. “Run for it, but surrender if you have to. Stay alive. We’ll find some way to get you two back.”
“I’ll do what I have to, to keep her safe. In the names of all my ancestors, except Pwaldur who had no fucking decency. For honor and Empire.”
“For honor and Empire. Good luck, Narpok.”
Falinset turned to his pale Imdiko. “Come on, Nur. Next phase of the plan. They’ll be trying to take down the doors in a few seconds.”
They started for the back of the house, where they would guard the rear entrance. Before they went, however, Dramok and Imdiko paused to kiss Tasha on the cheek. Then they were gone, leaving her with the ghostly feeling of their lips pressed to her face.
Swallowing a lump in her throat because she knew that had been their goodbyes to her, Tasha moved into position near the front door. She stood on one side, while Wekniz stood on the other. They looked at each other for a moment before moving their attention to the window vids. They watched the soldiers approach and waited for the fighting to start.
Please get Noelle home, Narpok. Please.
All she could do now was fight to survive and hope their plans had not been in vain.
* * * *
Wekniz saw the grim look on Tasha’s face as she watched Maf’s men approach. The situation was bad. He had real fears that none of them would survive the coming fight. He knew his death was almost certain. He also hated that just as the perfect woman for his clan had come along, he wouldn’t be around to enjoy her.
And yet his blood was pumping, adrenaline surged, and he’d never felt more alive than this moment. How could it be he enjoyed the prospect of fighting even though it’s outcome couldn’t be good?
Tasha glanced at him. A short laugh burst from her lips and she shook her head at him. “Screw what Ket says. Only a true Nobek would have that look of anticipation in the face of impossible odds.”
He winked at her. At least he’d help her ease up a little. “Let there be no doubt of my breed.” He sobered as the soldiers outside drew close to the home. “It’s time to show these gurlucks they’ve messed with the wrong clan.”
With that, he barked a command. The front door slid open just far enough for him take aim with his blaster and fire on the group outside. He downed two of the enemy before the rest dove out of range.
“Nice shooting,” Tasha complimented him.
“Not really. Having it on wide burst at close range makes me look like I know what I’m doing.” He felt pleased she was impressed nonetheless.
Blasts sounded from the back of the house. The enemy was converging on that door too. When the firing stopped, Wekniz called, “Are you still there, my clan?”
Falinset’s voice rang with pride. “We’re here. I managed to tag one.”
“Good work, Falinset.”
He had no time to encourage his Dramok any more than that. The window vid showed five men rushing for the front door with egg grenades. Before they could get close enough to toss them, Wekniz opened fire again. Three fell under his barrage, and the grenades they dropped took out the other two, along with leaving a huge crater in the front lawn.
Tasha looked a little pale as she viewed the carnage, but she kept her tone light. “You are having too much of the glory, you hog. Let a lady have her turn.”
“Do you really want to?” Despite what she’d been through in the past and the things she’d had to do, Wekniz was sure Tasha wouldn’t kill without experiencing some doubt.
She nodded. “I need to see if I can. If I’m going to freeze, it’s better to know now than when our backs are really up against it.”
She was so damned perfect in every way. Wekniz couldn’t stop himself from saying, “You know, I love you.”
Her eyes widened for an instant before she gave him an exasperated look. “Trust a man to declare himself when there’s little chance he’ll have to prove it later.”
Wekniz chuckled. “I’ll be glad to tell you again if we survive this. I think my Dramok and Imdiko would as well. You know, I thought for a moment earlier that Falinset was going to ask you to join our clan. I was hoping he would. And that you’d be insane enough to accept.”
A host of emotions rolled across Tasha’s face: fear, hope, and a tentative tenderness. She muttered, “Damn it. I keep asking myself how the hell did you three sneak into this iron heart of mine?”
Wekniz detected movement. Another attack was coming their way. He stepped aside, letting Tasha have the chance to take her shot. “Hopefully we have had more success then you’ll let these assholes achieve.”
Tasha stepped up. Three men this time came at them, firing as they ran for the house. She kept herself covered and aimed. A moment later, her percussion blaster boomed its killing cry. One of the men fell and the other two peeled off and ran back for cover.
“I guess I’m good to fight,” she said. Her voice quavered slightly, but the blaster held steady in her hands and her jaw was set.
“I guess you are.” He looked at her, this amazing woman who felt so right at his side, even in a blaster battle. He loved her, all right. A few weeks had been all it took for her to claim his heart.
The next half hour was more of the same: Maf’s soldiers approaching, Wekniz and Tasha taking turns shooting at them, the enemy retreating, and Wekniz gazing at Tasha so he could enjoy what time he had left with her. The only real change during that time was Maf’s men getting better at making them miss their shots. Tasha checked her blaster’s power charge and cursed colorfully.
Then more men showed up to fire at, fresh faces that hadn’t dared them before. “Reinforcements,” Wekniz scowled.
Tasha snarled at the window vid showing the extra troops. “Damn, I recognize those assholes from the prison camp. Come on, you guys in particular deserve to have your faces shot off.”
She got her opportunity as they continued to try the house’s defenses. Now neither side scored a hit. They had reached an impasse.
“They haven’t been able to shoot us,” Tasha said after listening to a few seconds of sustained firing from the back of the house where Falinset and Nur kept guard. “Why do they keep showing up? Some sort of honorable Nobek death wish thing?”
Wekniz snorted, but he didn’t feel a lot of humor at the moment. “They’re goading us into wasting our blaster power.”
As if he’d realized the same thing while Wekniz spoke, Falinset yelled, “Keep coming! I’ve got a stockpile and I can do this all day!”
Wekniz smiled bitterly at the bluff. They each had one blaster apiece. His was down to a quarter of its power, and he doubted the rest were faring any better.
The Basma’s men didn’t know that, however. They might decide to try and wait Clan Falinset out … except they knew as well as Wekniz did that if Narpok got away with Noelle, the Empire would be alerted to the fleet of enemy ships gathering on the blind side of Lobam.
No, he was sure the soldiers outside would rush the house in the end, putting their lives on the line to destroy Clan Falinset and the empress’s cousin. If their loyalty to Maf was blind enough that they’d defy the Empire and honor, then they were loyal enough to die for the cause.
Wekniz discovered his error minutes later. A familiar scent wafted to him, putting him on alert. He inhaled deeply to be sure.
Smoke.
“Shit. All vids, scan exterior of home!”
The vids switched to a view aimed at the house. As Wekniz had feared, they showed multiple fires had been set around the smooth-walled structure.
Like most homes, Clan Falinset’s man-made exterior was fire-resistant. However, no residential walls were entirely fireproof. The roof was even more susceptible, its light material sprayed with an anti-flammable coating that was good up to 1500 degrees. However, the flames around the house were shooting up high and blue-white was at the center of them … a sure sign accelerant had been used and burning far hotter than what the home could withstand.
Wekniz’s fangs unhinged and he bared them at t
he window vids as if he could frighten the flames into putting themselves out. The initial reaction was over in less than a second. He yelled, “Falinset, they’re trying to burn us out! You and Nur, get your masks on!”
He started towards his private room, grabbing his discarded mask as he called to Tasha, “Keep an eye on those assholes outside for me. And put on your oxygen mask.”
She was already tugging it over her face. “I got it.”
Wekniz had faith she could handle anyone who tried to rush the house … though it was pretty obvious the Nobeks only had to wait for them to run out as the house went up. He raced down the corridor to grab more equipment, wondering what the hell they were going to do when they had to run from the coming inferno.
* * * *
Tasha watched the door’s opening grimly. No one tried their luck against her. Why should they? The fire would flush her out soon enough, if she didn’t elect to die in it.
Smoke drifted her way, and she scowled. What a pathetic pack of Nobeks. What kind of warriors avoided a stand-up fight anyway? She’d thought it was beneath the breed.
“Cowards!” she screamed at the Nobeks she couldn’t see.
She got no response. The smoke thickened. Suddenly, she started laughing. Was this long-awaited karma coming to kick her ass for her neighbor’s killing years ago? Cissy had started the fire at his home, but Tasha had used the opportunity to murder the man. Now it was her turn to be trapped in a burning house. It was funny in a twisted way.
She could hear Wekniz yelling behind her, deep in the back of the house. It sounded like he gave directions. A moment later, Nur’s voice shouted back. “My private office!”
“Concentrate the spray on the doorway!” came Wekniz’s reply.
They were fighting the multiple fires that had moved within the home. Tasha guessed Falinset was guarding the back door since he wasn’t yelling too.
Wekniz’s bald declaration of love spoke in her head again. She thought of his expression when he’d said it: burning devotion, a fierce look that had nothing to do with the way his scars pulled at his face. That look and his statement had set off a profound burst of joy that had rocked Tasha as hard as the unexpected declaration.
“Not now, damn it!” she swore at herself as a thick gray billow of smoke swept over her. Why was her stupid brain dwelling on the matter when they were in mortal danger?
Yet her mind wouldn’t stop touching on the issue as she watched the door for an assault that didn’t come. She couldn’t not think of Clan Falinset when she heard the men’s voices yelling in the background.
The men she trusted and cared about enough that she was now set to die with them. She didn’t want to feel the way she did. She’d never trusted people outside her family, especially not men. Not after her neighbor. Lust was fine, she did lust wonderfully. With gusto. But to have actual faith in the opposite gender? It hadn’t seemed possible for such a thing to happen.
Yet these three men; Falinset, Nur, and Wekniz; they had broken through her defenses. They were ready to lay their lives down right now because of all that had been done to them over the years … but most especially because of what had been done to her by the Basma. Falinset in particular had been as distrustful as her, and yet he’d come around at last, ready to defend her and Noelle from his own family members.
If she couldn’t trust a man like that, who would she ever trust? The question was purely academic, however. Falinset and the other two had already won her faith. They had won a lot more in the bargain, the poor bastards.
The sound of hoarse coughing pulled Tasha from her thoughts. Who wasn’t wearing his mask? She’d kick his ass for it. Then she remembered Ket, lying tied up in the common room. Oh hell, they’d all forgotten the big asshole.
Tasha made a face. She’d love for him to drop dead, but there was the matter of him knowing a few things about Maf’s operation. If they could somehow survive this assault and get Ket to Kalquor, he’d be a valuable source of information. The likelihood of that happening was slim, but it was reason enough to not shoot him in cold blood.
Besides, cutting his dicks off would be much more satisfying than letting him suffocate. Tasha decided she’d better check on him, maybe drag him close to the door where he could get a little fresh air. No one had tried to approach the door since the fires had been started, and the common room wasn’t that far away.
“Door close and lock.”
It obeyed. Thick smoke began to build up immediately. Tasha thought it would obscure her vision in a matter of minutes, so she started backing down the hall, keeping an eye on the window vids keeping surveillance on the grounds.
The smoke was even thicker inside the common room. It was downright gloomy, as if twilight had fallen. Tasha could hear the roar of fire coming from the back of the house and Wekniz and Nur still shouting back and forth to each other as they fought the blaze. They spoke fast in Kalquorian, so she couldn’t make out what was being said. The urgency in their voices told her the situation was bad and getting worse.
The first flames danced over the far wall. The smoke was the real enemy right now, however. She hunched low, trying to find a clear sightline. She saw Ket’s big body still lying on the floor where he’d been bound. His arms remained pulled behind his back, and as Tasha drew near, she saw his eyes were still closed. Unsure she could drag his big muscular ass to the front door, she reached for him with one hand.
There was a flurry of sudden movement. Ket’s arms came out from behind his back, the strap Wekniz had used to tie him lashing out as he jumped to his untied feet. Tasha had no time to notice anything else. She was flat on her facemask all at once, the Nobek’s weight on her back, the blaster torn from her hand. She barely had a moment to register this before her oxygen mask was ripped from her head.
She drew in a breath to scream for help. She inhaled smoke instead of air and choked on it. She hacked as her lungs filled with the oily-tasting smoke.
Ket coughed too, but he was able to laugh and speak as well. “Got you, you smart little bitch. I’ve got you and I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill all you stupid Earther cunts. And if that cunt Narpok dares to show her face again, I’ll kill her too.”
Tasha took little notice of his threats. She was too busy trying to make her searing lungs extract oxygen from the heavy air. Every instinct had her battling for breath. There was no room to think of anything else.
She didn’t resist when Ket picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Only when the front door of the house opened, carrying her into clean air did she realize she’d been taken prisoner. Even then she couldn’t spare the sense to fight. She was too busy hauling in oxygen, her head buzzing, her sight dim. She hovered on the edge of unconsciousness.
Ket’s gleeful voice came distantly through the roar in her ears. “It’s me! I’ve got the woman. Go on in and finish off those stupid fuckers.”
As Tasha fought to return to her senses, to not give in to the gray mists of nothing that beckoned, she thought she heard the sound of howling. The chilling sound of Nobeks ready to kill rose in animal triumph as Ket broke into a run, carrying her away from the blazing house.
Chapter 27
Falinset backed away from the door. The Nobek soldiers had been playing with him, darting in close to the back of the house to make him fire at them, racing back to cover to keep from getting hit. His blaster’s power pack was empty now. He ordered the back door closed and turned to look up the corridor of his home.
He’d heard the fire raging for so long that he felt deaf from the roar. Nur’s and Wekniz’s yells had told him the house was lost. Yet his jaw still dropped in shock to see flames licking out of doorways in the swirling black smoke that filled his vision.
Nur jerked into the corridor, almost falling out of Falinset’s personal meditation room. Hungry flames leapt out after him, as if seeking to devour flesh. Falinset shot to his Imdiko, yanking him into the middle of the hallway. He shouted, “Door closed!”
The mechanism did not obey. The wiring had melted. Before the blaze could advance and engulf the two men, Falinset shoved Nur down the hall.
Wekniz stumbled out of another room, driven before more flames. He shouted, “To the front of the house!”
They sped forward. As they went, Nur let his extinguisher rifle hang off his shoulder by its strap. Their bodies parting the swirling mist that grew lighter as they went. After a moment, Falinset realized why it was brighter: the front door was wide open.
Just as they reached the doorway of the common room, the distinctive hiss and boom of blasters firing sent them jerking backwards, towards the worst of the blaze. Bits of the wall blew apart over their heads.
Wekniz seized Falinset and Nur by their collars and pushed them into the common room. The far end of the space was on fire; the wall a sheet of flames. Somehow it made little impression on Falinset as a new horror claimed his attention.
“Tasha! Tasha, where are you?” he screamed.
“I left her by the front door!” Wekniz roared. He peered in the orange-glowing smoke of the room lit by the fire’s hectic light. She was nowhere to be seen.
Nur screamed, “She must have run outside! They must have grabbed her!”
Falinset rushed back into the corridor, desperate to find her. Blaster fire boomed like doom.
At first he thought he’d been shot. A shock of pain reverberated along the back of his skull and body. A mighty weight bore him down, sending him crashing to the floor. There was the almost musical sound of broken glass tinkling all around him. A second later he realized he’d not been hit by a percussion blast after all. The fine mirror hanging on the wall had been knocked loose and fallen on him. He lay beneath its heavy frame.
He shoved it off far enough in time to see Nur jump out and fire his blaster wildly at the shadowy figures standing outside the front door. The Imdiko screamed, “Help him, Wekniz!”
The snarling Nobek was already pulling the frame and larger shards of glass off his clan leader. Falinset struggled to get loose, desperation for the woman he loved uppermost despite his near miss. “Tasha! Let her go, you bastards!”
Alien Hostage Page 35