“Kyra’s right, you need to get back there and hunker down. This is going to get ugly.” I motioned for her to leave and pulled my own gun from my hip. I hated the damn thing, but I wasn’t going to get taken away without a fight, I’d rather be dead than in a company prison on this planet.
For the first time, Sally actually looked frightened. “This wasn’t exactly how I used to dream about your homecoming,” Sally said before fleeing from the room.
“Just stay down,” I shouted after her.
Kyra was standing facing the door at an angle. It would give her a good clean shot at anyone that entered the house that way but left her just enough cover not to be an easy target. It was a good thing these houses didn’t have windows. They cost too much to put in and maintain so the company hadn’t bothered with the expense. So they wouldn’t be able to pick us off as easily as they could have on a core world, but these houses weren’t exactly made out of bulletproof material.
“So any thoughts on how we get out of this?” Kyra asked, dropping a cocky little wink.
At least one of us was feeling confident about the eventual outcome. I was more in the mindset that I’d be filled with holes sooner rather than later. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was actually enjoying this.
I knew that Kyra had this life ingrained deep into her being. She was always looking for ways to get out of the engine room and on the missions. Despite all of that, I never thought she’d be smiling ear to ear and dropping me sly winks when we were on the verge of being in the middle of a giant shit storm.
Who knew my little flower was turning into a warrior. I’d have to talk with Drake about getting her some serious training. If she was going to be out in the field, then I wanted her to be as prepared as possible. Personally, I’d prefer it if she wanted to stay on the ship like me, but I wasn’t about to stand in her way if she wanted more.
The door shook again as something slammed into it with a thud. I had no idea how it hadn’t broken yet. I was kind of surprised they hadn’t just blown it off its hinges, but the guards obviously wanted me alive. It wasn’t any fun if they couldn’t parade you around in front of the planet to let them know justice had been served. Justice had been served to the men that murdered the crew of that ship, just not by the company.
All noise from outside of the house stopped, and a voice rang out augmented by some kind of speaker. “Barbara Rosenbloom, come out with your hands up.”
“Not going to happen. I am here lawfully and under the protection of the mercenary’s guild.”
“You will be detained for your involvement in the murder of the crew of the Star Gazer, and the ship’s subsequent loss.”
That explains it. The company could give two shits about the men and women that were killed that day but take a ship worth a few million credits, and they would hunt you towards the ends of the verse.
“I had nothing to do with those deaths, and you know it.” Not that it mattered to the Solaris Corporation. They needed a scapegoat, and I was first on that list of possibilities.
There was a slight pause, and then the voice spoke again. “You have ten seconds to comply, or we are coming in by any means necessary.”
“Like you haven’t already tried that,” Kyra shouted back in defiance. She motioned for me to get down and then fired a couple of shots towards the door before ducking down herself.
The room exploded into a cloud of dust as bullets tore through the exterior of the house. “Hey, babe!” I yelled, getting Kyra’s attention over the exploding plaster.
Kyra smiled as she looked up at me from where she was crouching. She was covered in dust with her hands over her head. “Yeah.”
“Next time I might suggest trying something a little more diplomatic while we wait for the captain to save our asses.”
“Well, they won’t have any problems finding us now.” Kyra fired another shot towards the front of the house and then rolled out of the way as the company goons returned fire.
There wasn’t much we could do about it now. If Drake got here in time, we might make it out of this. If he didn’t, they were going to take us somewhere where nobody would ever find us. I hoped if that happened Drake would still try and save my brother. There was no reason both of us had to die.
“Stand down, we are coming in!” The voice on the loudspeaker boomed.
Kyra responded by firing three more shots, and then we held onto each other as gunfire ripped through the home. The men weren’t using blasters, probably too worried about starting a fire. The houses in this city were so close together that any kind of fire would be catastrophic. I pulled Kyra tightly against me and felt her warm breath against my neck. Something about it comforted me like nothing else in the verse.
“I love you, Kyra.” If we were about to die, I needed her to know how I felt.
“I love you too, babe,” she said before kissing me deeply.
At least if we didn’t make it out of this, the last thing I would remember was that kiss and how she tasted like rain on a warm summer’s night.
Chapter 21
Drake
The sound of gunfire slowed as we got closer to Sally’s house. Three little pops sounded in the still night, and then it felt as if we were swallowed by thunder. I swore to God that if those bastards hurt either of my girls I would kill every man there. This was pure bullshit, the company should know better, but like all people with more power than they deserve, the company was more than happy to push the limits. That was about to blow up in their faces.
We came around a corner, and there was one house surrounded by the company’s men. Smoke hung in the air from automatic weapons’ fire, and the home they had been shooting into was riddled with holes. When I saw how much damage had been done, I completely lost my shit. I reached into my coat and pulled out a flashbang. Before anyone could stop me, I pulled the pin and tossed it into the center of the men. All of them were too busy watching the house to notice.
“Samantha, subdue as many as you can. Kill whoever puts up a fight.”
The flashbang exploded. The light and sound it let out was enough to completely disorient all of the company’s men. Some of them fell to their knees clutching at their ears while others turned around looking for a target. I was pretty confident none of them could see, so as long as we didn’t start shooting they would probably be content to wait out the effects of the flashbang. Of course, that was counting on the fact they had some actual training on what to do in these kinds of situations. With how easy it was for us to sneak up on them, that kind of training was not a given.
Samantha blurred forward again into the men. She had a small baton out and was smashing it into their helmets with reckless abandon. It kind of reminded me of the arcade. It almost looked as if she was playing a game of whack-a-mutant. Gabe and Maze waded into the fray using their rifles to accomplish the same outcome. I moved in behind them and started snapping flex-cuffs on all the men they had knocked out. The last thing we needed was for these assholes to wake up and start shooting again before we got the fuck out of here.
“Clear,” Maze called out as she approached the door. She tried to push it open, but the damn thing just fell off the hinges and then broke into pieces as it hit the ground. She looked back over at me and shrugged.
That was what happened when you turned a door into Swiss cheese with twenty automatic weapons. Now we just had to hope that Ice and Kyra weren’t suffering from the same effects. The Doc was a brilliant surgeon, but even he couldn’t save them if they suffered that kind of damage.
Maybe Samantha could save them where the doc might not be able to, but I could barely handle having one vamp on my ship. Three vampires were two too many if you asked me. The last thing I needed was four women on my boat that could kick my ass without even trying. Something like that was bad for my ego.
I snapped the last of my flex-cuffs in place and ran for the door. Now that we were safe for the moment my emotions were starting to spin out of control. I coul
dn’t imagine my life without any of my crew. Well, maybe I could live without Gabe, at least until he got rid of that ridiculous hat.
I came skidding to a halt just inside the door. Maze already had her arms wrapped around my girls. Samantha gave them a brief hug before moving deeper into the house to check on Sally at Ice’s insistence. I just stood there staring at them, mouth hanging open like a dying fish. The room was so damaged that it was hard to process. Everything in their home was destroyed, and standing there in the middle of it were my two favorite people. They were covered in white dust from head to toe, but their smiles were a thing of beauty.
“Captain.” Ice held her arms open for a hug.
I looked down at her covered in filth and put both of my hands out in front of me in the universal sign of back the fuck off. “How about we shelf the hug until you get back to the ship and change into some clean clothes.”
She rushed at me throwing herself into my arms. “You’re not getting out of this that easily.” Kyra slammed into me a second later sending all of us tumbling back towards the ground.
“Try not to break me. We still have to get your brother back.”
Ice peeled herself off of me just enough so that she could look into my eyes. “You found him?”
“Maybe?” She glared at me. “We were about to go and search for him when all of this happened.” I pointed around us at the house full of bullet holes while I climbed back to my feet.
“Sally’s husband called the company on us,” Kyra stated.
My eyes must have turned murderous as I glanced towards the back of the house where Samantha was leading out a stunned Sally Kim, followed closely by her husband and three daughters. Ice patted me on the arm to get my attention and to bring me down from DEFCON Two.
“It’s ok, Captain, he already knows it was wrong.”
Knowing it was wrong and needing to get punched in the face for almost getting two of my team killed didn’t have to be mutually exclusive, did they? Looking at Ice’s pleading face made it hard for me to stay mad at the man that almost got her killed. I probably still would have hit him if there weren’t children in the room. Ice’s face told me that she believed in me, that I was a better man than the one thinking about smashing his face in. With her giving me a look like that I couldn’t shoot the bastard, so all that was left was helping them out of this mess.
“Get whatever you can carry, and we will get you back to the Talon. There is nothing left for you here.” I said gruffly. There wasn’t time to argue about what this disaster meant for their lives here.
Sally looked around her home and the devastation the company had wrought on it. Her face wasn’t registering any emotion but shock. Her husband leaned in and pulled her closer to one of the girls resting on his hip. “I think we are ready to go now.”
“Good.” I turned back towards Ice. “These people are your responsibility. Get them back to the Talon. Now!”
“But, Captain…” she started to plead.
“I don’t want to hear another word.” It came out as a growl, I couldn’t help it. “We’ll do what we can to save your brother, but we can’t do that with you tagging along.”
Ice looked like she wanted to fight, but Kyra pulled her away from me and started whispering something in her ear. Ice tried to pull away, but Kyra kept her pulled tightly against her, and after a few moments I saw all the tension run out of her body. That was all I needed to see. I knew that despite how she felt, Ice wouldn’t disobey my orders.
“Gabe, you go with them and make sure they’re safe.”
He gave me a solemn nod and started ushering everyone out of the house. The faster they got back to the Talon, the better. The company couldn’t search our vessel without permission from the mercenary’s guild. They wouldn’t be able to get that without a substantial payoff, one that far exceeded the worth of a miner and his family. Not to mention after they had opened fire on my crew in basic disregard for the treaties in place, the last people they would want reviewing this case was the guild. The guild might even set up an outpost on this planet just to spite them. I had a feeling we would be fine.
Still, it felt good knowing Sally and her family would be safe back on the Talon with forty thousand tons of steel between them and the company. It would be good for the doc as well. He always handled stress better when he had someone to fuss over.
As Gabe led the rest of our party away, I motioned for Samantha and Maze to join me. Maze was going over her weapons and changing out energy packs and ammo. I started to do the same. Samantha took notice and started to follow the lead Maze had set for all of us. As we were getting everything ready I looked over my rifle at Samantha. “I’m counting on you to get us into the tombs.”
“That won’t be an issue.”
The look on her face told me that getting there wasn’t the problem, but there was definitely a problem. “Spit it out, already.”
“They have more than Ice’s brother down there. The sacrifices he mentioned, there are a lot of them, and most of them are kids. I don’t know how we could possibly leave them there.”
“That’s easy,” Maze said stunning both of us for a moment. “We don’t.”
“Damn straight we don’t,” I said getting growly again. “We might not be able to save everyone, but we can damn well try.” I put a hand on each of their shoulders and kept my gaze moving between them. “You ready for this?”
Both of them nodded with looks of grim determination on their faces. “Good, then let’s go bring them hell.”
Samantha’s fangs descended, and her eyes blazed red. “I can’t wait.”
Maze smiled over at her. “Then lead the way.”
Before I could think of anything witty to add we were running again. These priests weren’t going to have any idea what hit them.
Chapter 22
Drake
None of this was going as planned. Shooting up the temple wasn’t going to win the locals to our side, and now we had just pissed off the company as well. The only way out of this now was to get to Ice’s brother and the other missing miners and get the fuck off of this planet. That wasn’t going to be easy with cameras tracking our every movement. Not to mention now that we had made a splash with the locals word had spread, and the looks we received while running through the streets weren’t of the friendly variety.
Maze and I were trailing just behind Samantha. I knew that Samantha wanted to run faster, but if she did neither of us would be able to keep up. Since we were in hostile territory, and Samantha was the only one that could find the entrance, her scouting ahead wasn’t going to work.
Samantha rounded the corner to the street that led towards the temple and abruptly came to a halt. She turned back towards us as we reached the same corner, fear etched across her face. What could make a vampire that scared? I found out a second later when I couldn’t stop before slipping around the edge of the building.
Thousands of people had gathered around the temple. All of them facing outwards in a protective circle. Most of them were unarmed, but those in the front were carrying various weapons, a wrench here or a pipe there. I saw more than a few knives and maybe even one or two ancient blasters.
“Please tell me we don’t have to get inside,” I pleaded, between ragged gasps for air.
“We don’t, but we do need to find a way to get around them.” Samantha looked back around the corner shaking her head.
“Where are we going exactly?” Maze asked, getting right down to business.
Samantha closed her eyes, and I could tell she was searching through the priest’s memories. “The entrance to the catacombs is behind the temple. The priest has only gone there by exiting via the back of the temple first, but I’m pretty sure I could find the entrance he goes to if we could just get there.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say something awful like that.” I looked at the two women. “What? Trying to sneak past an angry mob isn’t exactly in my skill set.”
“Well,
you better think of something fast.” Maze pointed in the direction we had come from. There was a swarm of heavily armed company men heading in our direction.
My first thought was to lead the company men into the group of civilians and then fire at them. When their return fire cut down the people around us they would have no choice but to retaliate against the company. Why was it that the easy ideas were never the ones you could use? The last thing I wanted was that kind of bloodbath on my hands, so that left us with one other option. “Run.”
Samantha started to move forward, looking for a gap in the houses leading toward the temple. We had to find something that would get us off the main streets, but that could still get us to our destination.
The people milling outside of the temple hadn’t seen us, but they sure noticed the contingent of company men that ran past in pursuit of us. An aggressive cheer went up from the miners, and I wondered if they were jeering the company or cheering at the fact they were chasing someone.
Something gave me the feeling that several hundred people had broken away from the main group guarding the temple and started to pursue us. I wondered if that was something I was picking up from Samantha. It wasn’t going to work out well for anyone if the company caught us before the miners caught all of us. A fight like that wouldn’t have any winners.
Samantha ducked down a small alley to the right. Calling it an alley might have been generous. The space between the houses was barely wide enough for me to run without tilting my shoulders sideways. Still, the good news was that it looked like we had a straight shot in the right direction. The bad would be if the men following us reached the alley before we got out of it. Even the sorriest shot wouldn’t have a problem hitting us here. There was nowhere to go and nothing to hide behind. We were literally fish in a barrel.
My heart sank when a fifteen-foot wall came into view. There was no way I could climb that. I might be able to boost the ladies up, but then I’d get left behind. Maybe if I played it cool the company would be happy to take me prisoner instead of killing me outright.
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