by Maia Starr
“Reena,” he said.
“When do you leave?” I asked.
“Tomorrow morning,” he said.
“Well, if you are planning to have your way with me tonight and then just say goodbye in the morning, you can think again. I would like to be alone please,” I said trying to hold in my anger.
“That’s what you want?” he asked with this look on his face as though he thought I couldn’t live one night without his cock. His damn dashing grin! I narrowed my eyes at him feeling really angry.
“Yes, it is what I want. Get out,” I said turning my back to him.
Then a whoosh of wind hit me. I turned to see him flying fast out the window. I ran to it and watched as he flew gracefully among the trees. He was a sight to behold in the night. His long wings stretched out from his toned long body. He was flawless, and I had just kicked him out of my bed. I felt stupid. But it was better this way; at least I wouldn’t have to hold in being nervous all night. When he was finally out of sight, I closed the shutters and locked the door. I was going to spend my first night alone in a very long time. I laid down and stared at the thatched roof ceiling.
It was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LEUITENANT DEKARIO DUNDRA
“As for Commander Triq, if you feel that something is not right because he has not returned yet, then I trust you, Dekario, and your instincts. You’ve always had a way of knowing what Draqua are up to. I give my permission to find Commander Triq. You and Kavik take a small ship and go quietly spy on Commander Triq on Pacu without him knowing of your presence. Check on the Aeriwana Draqua hybrid situation and see if there is any news on it. I still have a feeling that something is happening on that front. Perhaps it is linked and you will suss it out this time.”
“I will leave right away, if you wish it,” I said to the King.
“Yes. Leave as soon as you can,” he responded.
As soon as he said it, my mind jumped to Reena. I didn’t want to leave her, not now. I didn’t trust that she would be safe in the village without me.
“Leave in the morning and tell no one where you are going. I will take care of your cover and send a false mission to the port to grant you a small, fast ship,” the king said.
“Yes, sir,” I said as I moved to the veranda and shifted. I ran fast and swan dived off the edge, my favorite thing to do, and flew straight to the tree huts to find Reena. I didn’t feel good about leaving her. I still did not trust that she was safe, but a mission is a mission. I had orders from the king himself, and if anyone was going to find out what Commander Triq was up to, it was damn well going to be me.
But I was not expecting Reena to be acting so odd when I visited her hut. She was nervous about something, but I did not know what. When she asked me to leave, I was very disappointed. Since I was going away, I wanted to spend the night with her. Who knew how long this mission would take? It could be a week or a month, and now I had to leave without being inside of her again. It was excruciating.
So the next morning I was in a grumpy mood.
“Make sure you check the fuel gages,” I said to Kavik.
“Yeah I already did it. I just told you I did a few seconds ago,” Kavik responded.
“Well, do it again,” I said angrily.
“What the hell is going on with you, Dekario? You are acting like an ass,” he said as he stopped working.
I stopped what I was doing and realized he was right. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” I said.
“Or maybe you didn’t get any Reena last night and now I have to deal with your sourness,” Kavik said moving to the back of the ship.
“Damn it,” I mumbled to myself. He was right, and I hated to admit that this human female was having this affect on me. I did enjoy her company and I wanted her as my life-long mate, but simply to mate. I was not supposed to be letting her have an affect on my work as a warrior. She was there to create my offspring and please me in bed, and now she was doing so much more than that.
“Ready for take off. Count it down,” Kavik said as he returned to the front of the ship and strapped in.
“Readying for launch,” I said as I focused on launching and not on Reena. It was hard but necessary.
We launched from Kelon and made our way to Tiok. We did not approach the village of Pacu. Instead, we entered the planet far from it and then when we reached a distance above the surface, we traveled along it, speeding toward the village of Pacu.
“I think we should park our ship outside the village, hide it. Then we will fly to the east end where Commander Triq normally lands as a base. We will see if he is there as he should be,” I said to Kavik
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Kavik said.
A couple of hours later, we landed in a small rocky ravine and hid the ship in the deep water of the ravine creek. Then we were off to the village of Pacu where we landed over the port.
“Do you see it? Do you see the ship?” I asked Kavik.
“No. I don’t see it at all. There are only twenty or so ships in there. It’s not crowded, and there is plenty of room to land that Kiva that he’s in. He’s not here,” Kavik said.
“Shit. Then where?” I asked.
“Looks like we’re going to have to ask around and dig a little,” Kavik said. “I’ll be right back.” He flew off. I stared at the port searching for any sign of Draqua and didn’t see any.
“Here, you can put this on. Let’s get down on the ground,” Kavik said as he reappeared and handed me a long black cloth. Then he flew down the side of the wall and into the empty alley. I followed him down.
“Should we stay with wings?” he asked.
“Yes, in case we need to get away quickly. These cloths are long enough,” I said as I draped the cloth on my head and then wrapped the entire black cloth over my body and tied it at the waist. The long cloth went all the way down to the ground. Kavik wore a dark blue one. We were now unrecognizable, and even the hump on our backs from our folded wings did not give us away as the various races you found on Tiok came in all different shapes.
“I say we talk to the port guard in case he has been here this trip,” Kavik said.
“Great idea. After you,” he said. A few minutes later we were talking to the port guard.
“You know Commander Triq. You have seen him here many times before. Now tell us, was he here these last few days and where did he go to?” I said to him sternly. The guard gave us a disinterested look and then ignored us.
“We are speaking to you,” Kavik said.
“I hear you, but I do not care to engage with you. I do not need to tell you anything,” the guard said. I looked at his blue skin and small stature. He carried a blaster gun at his side, and as soon as I eyed it, I thought of a way to encourage him to talk to us.
“I think you do care to engage,” I said as I used my mind power to lift his own blaster gun out of his holster and aim it at him. He stared with wide eyes at the floating gun aimed at him. I laughed.
“So what was it that you were saying?” Kavik asked him.
“How? Give me back my gun,” he said.
“Quiet now,” I said as I pushed the gun closer to him but not close enough for him to reach. He jerked back. “Just answer the question, and you will have your gun back.”
“Commander Triq was here,” he sighed annoyed. “He left three days ago and mentioned that he needed coordinates for Riqov,” the guard said.
“Riqov?” Kavik said.
“I know it. Let’s get out of here,” I said as I made the blaster gun fly far from the guard and then set it down on the ground.
“Shit,” he mumbled as he went after it. We walked back to the alley and disappeared into the crowd, making our way to the outskirts of the village toward the ship.
“What is Riqov? Where is it? We have never had orders to go there,” Kavik said.
“No, we have not. But the king had suspicions about it. He pointed it out to me on the map of Ti
ok and told me it was a possible headquarters for the opposition,” I said as we took off our cloaks along the side of the creek.
“The opposition? What is Commander Triq doing there then? You think he’s hunting down the opposition?” Kavik asked.
“No, I don’t. Let’s go find out what he’s up to,” I said as I dove into the water toward the ship. Kavik dove in after me.
A few minutes later we were flying low over the orange dirt of Tiok out in the outlands as we made our way to Riqov.
“What am I getting into, Dekario?” Kavik asked. “Tell me of this place.”
“It is worse that Pacu. It is more dangerous. There are few inhabitants, and it is complete lawlessness. I have not seen it with my own eyes. I only go on what the King has told me.”
“So how do we approach it?”
“There is an outcropping of rocks a mile outside the western side of the small village. That is where we will park and then we will fly the rest of the way ourselves. It is easier not to be seen that way. Anyone would recognize our ship as belonging to the king’s fleet so it cannot be seen. It will give us away, and Commander Triq would be warned of our arrival. We shall stay unseen as much as we can and just gather the information to see what he is up to.”
“I like this plan. I will follow your lead,” Kavik said.
When we arrived outside the small village, we took up positions on the roof of a building along the fence line. It was high enough to hide us.
“What do you see?” I asked Kavik as we both scanned the area with scopes.
“I see the ship. It is all the way on the north side of the village. See it?” he said.
“Yes, I see it. The courtyard next to it seems to have a lot of activity. I’m putting eyes on it. I see Nalox,” I said.
“I see him. I see him,” Kavik said.
“I don’t see Commander Triq or the new warriors Borvon and Yatew,” Kavik said.
“Neither do I. But… are those. Holy shit. It can’t be,” I whispered.
“What, what is it?” Kavik asked.
“The king was right. They do exist,” I said.
“What?”
“The hybrids. The Aeriwana and Draqua hybrids exist. Do you see? There are two of them standing outside that building at the entrance. I bet you Commander Triq is in there,” I said as I started to feel very, very angry. It was boiling inside of me.
“Aeriwana, what? How can you tell?” Kavik sai, moving closer to me, looking through his scope.
“Look at the forearms, shoulders, what do you see?” I asked.
“Scale patterns…” Kavik said.
“Yes, and what’s missing?”
“Wings. Shit.” Kavik said.
“Exactly. The king said that the Aeriwana Draqua look exactly like us, but when they shift, they do not have wings, only scales and the strength of the dragon,” I said staring through the scope.
“What the hell is going on here?” Kavik said.
Then I saw Commander Triq emerge from the building. “That traitor,” I growled. I put down my scope and jumped off the roof.
“Dekario don’t,” Kavik said. But it was too late. I was heated, and there was no stopping me. The ass was not going to get away with this. I did not put any thought into it. I was in a rage, and I was going for him. First, this poor excuse for a Draqua attacked the human female that I love and then he turned out to be a traitor. It all drove me to the edge. I flew over the courtyard. “Triq!” I shouted, and as I did so, I used my mind to make every single Draqua near him float in the air. It took a lot of energy to do this, but being in such a rage helped.
“Dekario,” Commander Triq sneered at me.
“Traitor!” I shouted as I landed in front of him. He stepped toward me.
“Dekario, why have you come here? You know that now since you have seen too much, I cannot let you leave here alive,” Commander Triq grinned.
“I will be leaving alive, and I will be leaving with you in a cell aboard a ship. I will take you back to the king where you will be tried. The king already suspected that something was going on. He had his suspicions, and now you have confirmed them. You will pay for this!” I shouted at him.
Commander Triq growled in anger. He did not like this news that the king knew about him, and that meant he could not go back to Kelon, ever. He was now a homeless Draqua.
Whoosh. I turned to see Kavik flying fast past every single Draqua that I had suspended in the air. As he touched them, they went limp. This allowed me to let go of my mind control and the Draqua fell to the ground, paralyzed.
“I see you did not come alone,” Commander Triq said as he lunged for me. Bam! He knocked me back off my feet. We rolled across the courtyard, fighting. He punched me in the torso, but I was happy he came at me.
“Is that the best you can do, Commander?” I said arrogantly as I punched him across the face. He growled in response. He was heated, and I knew that at any second he was going to shift into dragon form. I punched him again in the ribs as hard as I could to try to stop him from doing this.
Blast! The sound of the blaster gun drew our attention from our wrestling match. I saw Kavik lying on the ground as blood oozed from his arm. I looked over at the source of the blast. An Aeriwana Draqua was holding a blaster gun, and now it was aimed at me.
“Good, Temuk,” Commander Triq said as he moved from on top of me and stood up. “Keep that aimed at this one.”
I sneered at this Aeriwana Draqua named Temuk. He grinned at me. I could see the mean that he harbored inside of him. The Aeriwana were a mean race of beings. They used torture and were more brute and primitive than any race we had ever come across. Crossing them with Draqua was a dangerous thing. They would have no compassion whatsoever. I looked at Kavik. His arm looked like a flesh wound, and that was all. He would be fine. But now Commander Triq had the upper hand.
“You think that you are going to get away with—” I began to say but then I was suddenly knocked out. I didn’t even see it coming.
When I regained consciousness, I felt tightness around my body. I opened my eyes and only saw complete blackness. Where the hell was I? What was going on? What happened?
“Kavik?” I said.
“I’m here,” I heard him say. He was very close to me. It was then as I turned my head that light hit my eyes and I could clearly see that I had a black cloth over my eyes. It was tight. I moved my hands, but I couldn’t. I struggled against rope realizing that it was tied around my entire body and a hard chair that I was sitting in.
“Shit,” I said.
“Yes, shit is right,” Kavik said. I groaned as I used my mind power to pull the black cloth from my face. It was tight, and it took longer than it should, but I finally got it off. I looked around the room. It was small and dark with one small window that was too small for us to squeeze out of, but it did let in a bit of daylight. Good, I had not been out long.
“What happened, Kavik?” I asked him.
“Commander Triq got the upper hand on us. They took us prisoner. We’re tied up in a small room below the building we saw Commander Triq come out of,” he said.
“And your arm?” I said looking over at him.
“Surprisingly, they tied a bandage around it,” he said.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“The Aeriwana are known for getting their prisoners in the best shape possible before torturing them,” I said, turning around the room as much as I could toward the door.
“Shit. That’s good news,” Kavik said. “First a laser blast to the arm and now I’m going to be tortured. Perfect. Thank you, by the way,” he said.
“Why are you thanking me?” I said.
“If it wasn’t for you being so hot headed and rushing into this I wouldn’t be here right now. I would still be on that roof gathering intel as the King commanded. But no, you can’t control your temper, and you had to rush in. Now we’re tied up and ready to be tortur
ed,” he said.
“Noted,” I said. “I did rush in a little prematurly, but you are right. You know me well. My temper got the best of me,” I said.
“Well now your temper needs to get us out of here,” he said.
“Yeah, what are we working with out there?” I asked.
“It is not good. After you went cold, the Draqua he called Temuk was joined by ten more Draqua of the Aeriwana kind. We are outnumbered for sure. I think two are posted in the hall outside the door and the rest are in that courtyard,” Kavik said.