Dagger's Hope

by S. E. Smith

  Jordan’s slight whimper told him that he was holding her too tight. She was real, not an illusion of his fractured mind, but a solid, warm, breathing and living Jordan.

  Dagger reluctantly pulled back. He gazed down at her in confusion. His splintered mind tried to comprehend the reality of her presence in the cell, in his arms, when he had finally accepted that she had been nothing more than a figment of his imagination. Lifting one trembling hand, he buried it in her hair.

  “How did you…? Kelman,” he started to say in a rough, disjointed voice. “You shouldn’t be here. It is too dangerous.”

  Jordan shook her head and glanced behind him with a worried look in her eyes. “We have to get out of here. Sword is releasing the others that were captured. We have to get out of here before the Dreluthan and Kelman know what is happening.”

  A primitive rage rose up at the same time as a renewed determination settled over him. This time, though, instead of the desire to find and kill Kelman and Talja, he was focused on getting Jordan as far away from here and the two men as possible. He looked down at where Jordan was unlocking the wristbands from his around his wrists. He let them fall to the floor. She quickly sank down and undid the ones around his ankles.

  Dagger kicked the chains away from him and stepped back, energized at the release of the manacles. He silently wrapped his hand around Jordan’s right wrist and pulled her back to her feet. Still holding her arm, he turned and strode over to where he had kicked the pistol.

  Dagger scooped the small weapon up and checked the charge. It registered full. Twisting, he pulled Jordan behind him as he strode out of the cell. A fragmented part of his mind registered that he needed to be gentle with her, that in the state of mind he was currently in, he could easily hurt her without meaning to.

  “Others?” Dagger asked in a harsh voice, moving toward the stairs leading up to the next level. “Who are they?”

  “I came here with your brother, Trig,” Jordan said in a hushed voice. “He was captured two days ago. The Drethulan has been sending men through the Spaceport looking for fighters. Another group of Trivator warriors arrived earlier this morning when two of their men disappeared. Sword, one of the Trivator warriors who arrived, has gone to free Trig, a man named Razor, and another man. I… I can’t remember his name, Kali told me, but I forgot.”

  “Trig… Razor?” Dagger growled with a frown, trying to comprehend what was going on. He shook his head, which felt like it was in a fog. His thoughts were disorganized, scattered, making it difficult to understand what Jordan was telling him. “What about the guards?”

  Jordan shook her head and bit her lip. “Kali and several others were creating a diversion. There weren’t any other guards down here when Sword and I came down, just the one…” Her voice faded as she remembered the dead guard. Clearing her sore throat, she pushed everything but the need to escape from her mind. “I have a badge to get us through the building. We are to meet up with a warrior named Race. He is supposed to have a ship ready.”

  Dagger paused at the foot of the stairs. “Others come,” he growled, sniffing the air.

  *.*.*

  Panic gripped Jordan. She pulled loose from the hold Dagger had on her wrist and reached for the tablet with the blueprint of the building on it. Swiping her finger across, she pulled up the diagram. Her eyes swept the area. She turned away from the stairs leading up.

  “This way,” she said in a low voice. “There is another exit near the cell where you were at. This level was not originally equipped to handle the cells, but was designed for storage and access to the underground utility tunnels, probably for smuggling.”

  Dagger’s gaze moved to the holographic image, then back to Jordan’s face. He finally glanced over his shoulder before he nodded. While he wanted to fight and kill the ones that had caged him, it would have to wait. Jordan’s safety was paramount to everything else.

  “Can you unlock the door?” He asked, pulling her back the way they had come.

  “Yes, the badge I have should work. I gave it full access,” she replied.

  “Go,” he said, turning with a low growl as four guards pushed through the door. “Go!”

  Jordan’s eyes widened in terror, but she did as he told her. Pulling the badge out of her pocket, she almost dropped it when a blast of laser fire burned into the metal next to her head. Swiping the door, she groaned when she realized it also needed a key.

  Her hand froze and her eyes darted back to the cell. She had left it in the manacle when she unlocked the last leg restraint. She slid the tablet into her pocket and darted out from behind Dagger. A low cry escaped her when one of the guards opened fire.

  Jordan tripped over the tray of untouched food and fell hard on the cold, metal floor. Crawling on her hands and knees, she struggled for a moment to get the key out of the lock. Her head swiveled to look back at where Dagger was still firing on the guards, well, guard. There were three bodies lying about the man standing at the far end.

  She watched as the man fell back, a dark patch spreading across the front of his chest. He slid down the wall as if in slow motion, his arms falling to his side. Rising up, Jordan stumbled out of the cell to where Dagger was kneeling. She fell to her knees beside him, hurriedly searching him for wounds.

  “You’re bleeding,” she whispered, touching his bare shoulder before her hands fluttered to his side. “You’ve been hit in several places.”

  “Minor wounds,” he growl, jerking his head toward the door. “Can you open it?”

  “Yes,” she said, standing up and helping him to his feet. “It… I needed the keys to open it.”

  “Hurry,” Dagger ordered through gritted teeth. “More are coming.”

  Jordan nodded. Swiping her badge again, she inserted the key and pulled the door open. Her head jerked when she heard a deep voice calling out Dagger’s name. Turning, she stared in horror at the glittering cold eyes of Cordus Kelman. Instinctively, she took a step closer to Dagger’s stiff form.

  “Trivator!” Kelman yelled from the end of the corridor. “You’ll never escape.”

  Dagger’s eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened into a straight line. Jordan felt his arm pull her behind him and toward the open door. With a cold, calmness that amazed her, Dagger raised the pistol in his hand.

  “Kelman,” Dagger snarled. “You are a dead man.”

  Jordan noticed Kelman’s eyes flickered briefly from Dagger to her before returning to Dagger. She stepped closer to the open door, not wanting to hinder Dagger in any way. She noticed that Dagger’s eyes were glowing with a fierce, yellow-gold color. She had never seen them like this before.

  “You have a female,” Kelman remarked, glancing at Jordan’s delicate pale coloring. “She is… unusual.”

  Dagger’s enraged snarl echoed through the long corridor. Instead of replying, he pressed the trigger on the pistol. Jordan’s gasp of dismay was lost in the mocking laughter that echoed when nothing happened. The pistol’s charge was depleted.

  Jordan watched in horror as Kelman motioned for the guards standing slightly in front of him to move forward. She could feel the tension in Dagger’s body building as he prepared to fight them. Something inside her snapped at the idea of losing him again. She couldn’t do it.

  Grabbing Dagger’s arm, she pulled him toward her and through the open doorway. Laser fire erupted, lighting up the area around them. She cried out in pain when one of the blasts sliced across her arm as she pulled the door shut behind them.

  “Destroy the panel,” she cried out, shoving the key into the lock on the inside of the door.

  Jordan ignored Dagger’s low, guttural curse. She heard the sound of shattering glass as he used the butt of the empty pistol against the panel. Soon, the familiar smell of burning wires touched her nose again, making her want to sneeze. Shaking her head and wiggling her nose, she worked at breaking the key in the lock.

  “Let me,” Dagger grunted, pushing her to the side.

  Jordan nodded and
stepped back. Her arm was stinging and she could feel the sticky dampness of blood against her skin. She started when she heard the slight sound of metal on metal as Dagger threw the broken piece of the key to the side.

  “This tunnel has multiple exits,” Jordan whispered, staring at Dagger with wide, worried eyes. “We need to get to the far end. It will split into two different directions from there. If we take the one to the left, it should lead us back into the Spaceport.”

  “Where does the right one go?” He asked, looking down the corridor lined with coolant, electrical, and environmental piping.

  Jordan jumped when she heard the sound of banging on the other side of the door and moved closer to Dagger. “It is an emergency release. It leads outside of the Spaceport.”

  “Let’s go,” Dagger said, reaching out to grab her arm.

  Jordan cried out when his fingers wrapped around where she had been shot. The protest died on her lips when she saw the look of worry and rage in Dagger’s eyes. Biting her lip, she tried to stop him from pulling back the sleeve of her cloak.

  “It’s just a scratch,” she insisted. “We need to leave before they find a way to open the door. There are almost a dozen corridors leading off the branch of tunnels to the upper levels of the Spaceport. It will be difficult for them to find which one we use. We need to get to the Spaceship that Kali said would be waiting for us.”

  Jordan touched Dagger’s chin with her free hand, turning it toward her when he snarled under his breath at the long, blistering wound on her right forearm. She rubbed her thumb along his smooth jaw.

  Dagger’s eyes darkened with frustration and concern as he stared down at her. She could still see the confusion and suspicion in his eyes, as if he wasn’t sure that any of this was real. Her eyes touched on the long scar running from the corner of his right eye down to just before his upper lip. It was another testament to what he had gone through.

  She pulled in a startled breath when he leaned forward and pressed a brief, hard kiss against her lips before stepping back and turning away. Her hand rose to touch her tingling lips and her expression softened when he diverted his gaze from her as he pulled back. There was a lot more in that kiss than Dagger realized. She could almost taste his confusion, vulnerability, and fear in it. Slipping the tablet back into her pocket, she silently followed him.

  Chapter 8

  Dagger’s eyes swept back and forth as they moved down the narrow corridor. His mind was reeling at the knowledge that Jordan was here, on Bruttus. Instinctively, his hand reached out behind him. He didn’t turn his head to look at her. A small part of him was afraid if he did, he would discover this was all a dream and she wasn’t real. An explosion of emotion swept through him when he felt her slender fingers wrap around his.

  He curled his around them and was rewarded with a slight squeeze. He slowed as they neared the end of the corridor. She had been right, it did fork.

  “The right will take us to the Spaceport,” she murmured.

  His eyes scanned the brightly lit corridor that curved around before he turned his head to look down the left one. It was dark. His head whipped around and a low snarl escaped him when he heard the faint sound of footsteps moving down the right tunnel toward them.

  “Go left,” he ordered, glancing behind him and over her head. “They are coming.”

  “We’re trapped,” she whispered, feeling sick to her stomach. “Maybe Sword and the others will come.”

  “Go,” Dagger replied, gripping her hand firmly in his, and pulling her toward the left. “We cannot wait for them.”

  He knew his brother and Razor well enough to know that they could take care of themselves, especially if other warriors were helping. Besides, right now, he would probably kill them all for allowing Jordan to be here. He would start with his brother, Trig, and work his way through them. Until that time, his only concern was to keep Jordan safe.

  He slowed his pace slightly when Jordan stumbled. The darkness of the tunnel wasn’t an issue for him, but it was for her. He needed to remember that humans could not see as well in the dim light.

  “There is a door up ahead,” he whispered. “Stay against the side. I will see what is beyond it.”

  Jordan nodded and slipped to the side, trying to make herself as small and motionless as possible. Already, Dagger missed the warmth of her touch. Forcing himself to step away, he strode on silent feet toward the door. A small narrow window in the center allowed him to see what was behind it.

  Surprise and satisfaction burned through him when he saw a Lexamus IV Class Starship. They were top of the line, fast and very maneuverable ships favored by the elite pirates and smugglers. Something told him that this one had belonged to Arindoss.

  His hand moved to the panel. He glanced back at where Jordan stood pressed against the wall. Her head was bowed and she was holding her wounded arm close to her body.

  “Jordan,” he called softly.

  Her head jerked up and she pushed away from the wall. He didn’t miss the slight movement of her hand as it brushed against her cheek. When she stepped up to him, he could see the faint traces of moisture from her tears.

  “I am going to kill Trig when I see him again,” he murmured, gently touching her pale cheek. “He should have known better than to bring you here.”

  A shy, tired smile curved Jordan’s lips as she looked up at him. “I didn’t exactly give him much of a choice,” she admitted before turning to look at the panel. Pulling the badge she had made out of her pocket, she swiped it over the access panel. The faint red light continued to blink. “It’s not working.”

  Dagger looked down at her before glancing over his shoulder. They were about to have company. He needed to give her time to get through the door. He turned back as she pulled the tablet she had earlier out and swiped her finger across it. Her fingers flew over the screen.

  “Get the door open, Jordan. The moment it is, get inside and seal it again,” Dagger ordered, turning away from her.

  Jordan’s head jerked up and her eyes widened. “Where are you going?” She asked.

  “To give you time,” Dagger whispered, turning back and touching her cheek with the tip of his fingers. “Get inside.”

  Jordan turned her head and pressed her lips to his fingers as they slid across her skin. “I’ll open it, but you’d better come with me, Dagger. I swear I’ll come after you again. I’ll always come after you.”

  Dagger’s eyes burned with emotion. He turned away, letting the cold rage and deadly skills he had perfected over the last two years guide him. Disappearing back the way they came, he sniffed the air. There were three different scents. His eyes glowed before his eyelids lowered to conceal them.

  Scanning the darkness, he picked out a space in the upper conduits. He jumped up and grabbed the cold metal lines and pulled himself up. He twisted around, planting his feet at the support bracket holding the lines in place. His left shoulder burned from the still healing wound and the new ones he had received earlier, but he ignored them. The pain had become his friend over the last two years. He used it to help him focus on those that had inflicted it.

  He watched as the three men paused at the intersection between the junction. One glanced toward the darker area where he was while the other two looked back down the long corridor leading back to the cells.

  “This way,” one of the men said, jerking his head toward the corridor leading to the cell. “They must not have got this far.”

  “What about that area?” The man next to him said, nodding toward the darkened tunnel. “They could have gone that way.”

  “It’s a dead end,” the third man grumbled. “The map I got says it leads outside. Unless they got suits, they can’t get out. Besides, if they had opened the door, we would’ve known.”

  “How?” The second man asked, frowning at the dark corridor.

  The third man shook his head and moved away from the opening toward the long, lit corridor. “Cause it would have sucked us out into space,”
the man snapped.

  “I think they made it to the first exit,” the first man grumbled under his breath. “I don’t want to deal with that Trivator. I’ve seen him fight.”

  “So have I,” the third man retorted, holding his laser rifle tightly against his shoulder. “Why do you think I’m not going down any dark corridors? If you want to check it out, you go.”

  “Kelman says we have to check every section,” the second man defended. “He said if we let him get away, he’ll put us in the cage next.”

  “Yeah, well, being dead here or being dead there isn’t much of a choice, is it?” The third man pointed out. “I say we go down this passage. If it is clear, we will meet up with the other group. They should have blasted the door by now. If not, then the Trivator will be trapped between us and we have a better chance of making it out of this alive. If not, we did what we were ordered to do, we checked it out. He must have made it to the first exit before we got down here.”

  The second man looked back at the dark section again with indecision. He had seen the Trivator fight too. In fact, he had lost money on the last bet two nights ago. He thought for sure the Serpentian would have defeated the fighter. Still, if he had to go up against one or the other, he would almost rather face the Trivator, at least he would die quickly instead of slow like he had seen Kelman or the Drethulan kill those that defied them.

  “I’ll check it out,” he grumbled unhappily. “It isn’t that far and I don’t want Kelman finding out.”

  The first man shrugged. “Fine,” he said. “I’m with him. Make it quick and catch up. We’re going to head toward the door.”

  Dagger’s eyes narrowed on the overweight guard. The male should have listened to his comrades. He waited until the guard had walked under him before he dropped down silently behind him. He needed the weapons the male was carrying.

  The guard must have sensed the danger or had second thoughts about checking the corridor because he turned just as Dagger landed. His eyes widened in surprise and his hand holding the laser pistol rose to fire.