Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1)

by Bradford Bates

  There was nothing left to do but dig in for a fight. The second man joined his partner inside of the garden, and they separated to circle around me. If I was going to run it had to be now, soon they would cut off any chance for me to get out of here without a fight. A little spark bubbled up from my gut, something I hadn’t felt in a long time. It took me a moment to figure out what it was, then the realization washed over me. The feeling was excitement. I was fucking excited to see what I could do against these men in real combat.

  Everything in my life since I had been captured had been a test or a training exercise. Except for my little excursions, but none of those men had really stood a chance. Sometimes it almost felt too easy to destroy them, they were only human after all. The only time I had ever contemplated my mortality was when I was forced to go up against my own kind. Even facing a beast seemed easy, while a large pack of them would have made it interesting. These two would be my first chance to test my mettle against an unknown threat, a threat that had already demonstrated considerable strength.

  I dropped into a fighting crouch covering each man with one of my blades. They continued to circle until they had me sandwiched between them. Then the men started to move forward, swords lifted over their heads to attack. “Seriously guys, you’re not even going to tell me why you’re following me?”

  “You’ve outlived your usefulness.”

  As if I hadn’t heard that line before. I’m not sure what I had been expecting, but a little originality would have been nice.

  Meathead number two chimed in. “Shut up and kill the bitch already. I’ve got somewhere to be.”

  “Hot date,” the man said lunging forward swinging his sword in a deadly arc.

  “You know it,” his partner said swiping his blade at my knees.

  Both strikes hit my blades with force I hadn’t been expecting. I managed to spin away following the higher strike as I moved it to the side. Still moving, I angled around them trying to keep both of the men in front of me. With both of them in front of me, they would be forced to attack one at a time, or waste time fanning out to try and surround me again.

  The air shifted and I got my first scent of both of the men. They were definitely beasts. I almost couldn’t stop myself from laughing as I started to speak. “Not to speak out of turn fellas, but what kind of woman would date someone that smells like a wet dog?”

  The man in question paused to give himself a quick sniff. “I’m not sure what she’s talking about Jon, I smell fucking delicious.”

  The other man laughed as he readied his sword for another attack. “That you do, my friend.” He lunged forward, striking out with speed that belittled his bulk.

  It was easy enough to block the flurry of attacks once I knew they were coming. Our swords clashed together, and I pivoted around him keeping his partner pinned behind him. He tried to muscle through one of my attacks, and I dodged to the side letting his blade smash into the ground. My katana slipped past his guard before he could yank his blade free and back into place. It sliced through his side, drawing blood. It had been almost half a day since I had fed, and the scent of the beast’s blood had me feeling jittery.

  I still needed to find out who these two worked for. Had we been double-crossed by the man that hired us, or was it just me on the receiving end of an unhappy employer? My only hope was to try and keep them talking. “I didn’t know wet dog was considered a delicious smell. Personally, if I never had to smell it again I‘d be plenty happy.”

  “You hear that, Jon, she isn’t that into you.”

  “Whatever, Brian. Like I said I’ve already got plans.”

  Well, that hadn’t worked to steer the conversation towards anything I could use. Maybe I just had to be more direct. The men changed places the one with the injured side moving behind his partner. If they were anything like the beasts that came out of our labs, that wound would already be healing. The only way to bring one down with blades was to inflict massive trauma quickly. If I could keep them separated long enough or knock them off their game, I could make it easier on myself.

  “Now that we’ve established your girl doesn’t mind that you smell like running shoes left out in the rain, you mind telling me who sent you?”

  The man in front of me snarled as he lunged forward. I blocked the strike easily slashing out at his leg with my second blade. He fell forward, and I slashed him across the back. Before I could slam my blade through his spine, his partner was on me again. I blocked his attack easily enough, but he surprised me by flipping over me to put himself between Jon and me. His blade darted forward as he landed, and I was just able to push it to the side. Pain flared across my arm as he pulled the sword back and it nicked my arm. My skin must have hardened more than I thought, because what should have been a devastating blow only left a small scratch.

  I kicked out catching him in the chest, sending him toppling over a park bench. While he recovered, I moved back towards Jon. “So is that a no on telling me who you work for?” He rushed forward, piercing himself on my blade but slamming into me. I flew backward the blade slipping from my hands. “A simple no would have sufficed,” I said as I climbed back to my feet. He pulled my blade from his chest and threw it to the ground. The gaping hole in his chest didn’t seem to bother him at all. His massive blade shimmered in the early evening moonlight as he lifted it above his head, and braced himself to charge me again.

  I blocked the first three strikes, but he had me on the run. I deflected two more strikes before I managed to get my feet under me. Brian climbed back to his feet behind us, so I had to act quickly or risk getting overwhelmed. I ducked under the next swing, slashing out at his ankle. I must have cut the tendon because he fell to the ground. He tried to stand, and I slammed the hilt of my katana into the side of his head. The blow was strong enough to send him all the way to the ground. Looking up. I was just in time to see Brian swinging his blade at me.

  Rolling under his strike, I ran forward until my other blade was close enough to snatch off the ground. Brian pressed his attack. He was good, and now that he knew I wasn’t a pushover he was pulling out all the stops. He kept pressing me, knowing he only needed to buy time for his partner to heal enough to rejoin the fight.

  Then the bastard just stopped attacking. He seemed content just to block my strikes, knowing that his backup would be joining us again soon. That wasn’t going to work for me. I had a job to do, and these assholes weren’t going to tell me anything, they were just wasting my time.

  Brian moved just a little too slow when he blocked my next attack, giving me a chance to land my first real strike of the night. I slammed both katanas into his chest and dropped the hilts. Pulling a knife from inside of my jacket I stabbed it into his eye. The beast fell to the ground and started seizing. I ripped my swords free from his chest and cut off the fucker’s head. He wouldn’t be able to heal from that. Jon was just starting to climb back to his feet as I reclaimed my knife. I wiped the blade off on Brian’s shirt and slipped it back into the sheath inside of my jacket.

  Jon was standing now. It was a good thing because if he had fallen back to his knees, my throw would have missed. Instead, he looked down as Brian’s head bounced off his chest and rolled away. He let out a scream of rage, but by the time he looked up from his friend’s head I had already circled around behind him.

  Jon turned trying to find me, and I sank my teeth into his throat. Maybe I could rip his memories out of him while I fed. I’d been meaning to find out if I could control that particular ability better, and this was the perfect time to put it to work. My legs tightened around the beast's waist as he fell to the ground. He dropped his sword and started clawing over his back trying to rip me away. I just tried to bat his arms away as I focused on what needed to be done.

  The memories came, but I couldn’t sort through them right now. The beast jumped into the air trying to slam me into the ground. I managed to turn us so that we landed on our sides. Jon tried to roll over, but his movements were g
etting weaker. The bastard managed to bite down on my forearm as we continued to struggle. I felt the bone snap under the strength of his bite. It wasn’t enough to force me to let go. He tried to roll away and climb to his feet, but he made it to one knee before his body failed him. He went limp in my arms, and his heartbeat slowed to almost a stop.

  He hadn’t lost enough blood to kill him, just enough to make him pass out. His body would already be regenerating. I didn’t have more than a few minutes before he was back up and ready to fight. As I stood up, my vision swam for a second. Too much of his enhanced blood had me feeling kind of shaky. I liked to call it a blood high, but now wasn’t the time for such indulgences. I snapped the bone in my arm back into place. It was just enough pain to take the edge off of my giddiness. The bones healed almost instantly, and my skin started to knit itself back together. Now that I was feeling like myself again, I walked over and picked up both of my blades.

  Jon was already starting to groan. Damn, he must be a newer model or something because he was recovering too damn fast. I waited for him to start struggling before I planted one of my blades through his chest. He screamed, and I started to laugh. He should have just told me what I wanted to know. Instead, I had been forced to take it from him, and now he served no further purpose.

  I took a two-handed grip on my remaining katana. The blade seemed to rise into the perfect position on its own. It came down in a deadly arc, clipping the beast’s head from his shoulders in a single strike. It was a warrior’s death, and more than he deserved.

  Alarm bells started to ring outside of the garden, signaling the authorities to head in our direction. Wasn’t that quaint, the entrance to the garden had a biometric scanner, but they still rung bells to summon law enforcement. I could already feel the beast’s memories pushing against my own. It wouldn’t be long now until I was worthless. I had to get out of here. Sheathing my blades, I ran for the edge of the garden and leaped to the top of the fence. His blood was adding strength to all of my movements. Damn that felt good. I started sprinting along the top of the fence. One more jump brought me into the darkened alley across the street. From there I started to climb the side of the building. Once I made it to the roof, my body collapsed, and I lost myself searching through Jon’s memories.

  It was worse if you didn’t let the memories flood over you right away. If you pushed them back when they finally hit, they slammed into your mind with a vengeance. It was almost too much to bear but less than a minute a later, I was climbing to my feet again. It seemed like everything wasn’t all peaches and cream with the scientists after all. A second faction had splintered from the main collective, and they were trying to take control. Eliminating the other company’s assets was their top priority.

  A small sigh of relief escaped as I centered myself. At least it wasn’t my own people trying to kill me. I hadn’t been sure, maybe the little ball of death inside of my head didn’t have that kind of range, so they'd sent assassins after me.

  What was I going to do now? The one man that could have set me free was dead, and now there was another group of scientists making beasts, and I was their number one target. So much for having a near infinite lifespan. All I could do for now was try and complete the mission. Maybe I’d have time to figure all of this out when I was back on the ship or even better back at home. If I was lucky that would involve a hot bath and a pretentious little b positive?

  I scanned the city loving the view of the gas lamps that lit the streets. All in all there had to be something said about mixing the technology of today with the beauty of the past. I could see why people would want to live here. It was different. Everything back home was all virtual reality and in your face, this was peaceful. The lack of most modern transportation left the city almost silent. It seemed a shame to ruin the tranquility of this place with what I was about to do.

  I’d already wasted more time than was prudent and hadn’t gotten any closer to the palace. The time for waiting was over, I needed to get this done and get back to the ship. With any luck, we would be off this planet before they locked it down. Then I could see about that hot bath.

  Chapter 23

  Samantha Ripley

  The palace was simply amazing. It towered over the northern part of the city. It was the only building on the planet that was more than fifty stories tall. The palace itself looked to be about double that in height. The bottom levels represented the traditional Japanese architecture, while the top thirty levels or so was a golden colored pyramid.

  Patrols lined the walkways between the fence and the palace. It was going to take me awhile to figure out the timing before I could move in. There didn’t have to be large gaps for me to fit through but there did have to be gaps. I watched the guards move, and thought about the next part of the problem. Moving inside of the palace was going to be an issue, but scaling the outside would leave me weakened when I reached the top.

  The thought of camera’s and guards inside of the building made the choice easier to make, but only because there wasn’t really a choice at all. If I wanted any chance of making it to the top alive, then I had to go up and over. There was no way I could risk getting pinned down inside of the palace. If I wanted to catch my flight off planet, then I was going to have to move my ass.

  The guards continued to move around the open gardens, and the pattern finally presented itself to me. I watched one more full rotation to be sure and then sprung from the wall. I landed in a roll, using the momentum of the jump to keep me moving forward. Being a vampire came with certain benefits. I moved about four times as fast as a normal human, and I needed all of that speed now.

  Despite my enhanced speed, it still took me nearly twenty minutes to reach the bottom of the palace. I’d been damn close to getting spotted once or twice but managed to avoid detection. Now I was perched on the top of a small archway, trying to determine the best way up the massive structure. Guards lined the outside of the palace and towers on all four corners of the property rose up along the palace for the first thirty stories.

  The outside was well lit, and I didn’t like my chances of not getting spotted if I just decided to scale the building. Fuck, I mean throw a girl a few shadows to crawl around in already. My eyes settled on a path, but it would leave me exposed between floors. There wasn’t any other way up unless I reconsidered going inside, and I wasn’t going to do that. I told myself this was penance for being so sloppy when I killed Kim Sanchez. This mission had to be some kind of payback for that screw-up, right?

  Jumping from beam to beam as I moved up the outside of the palace was easy enough. It was the four seconds I spent in the light before being hidden by the shadows again that bothered me. I tried to time my progression with the guards in the towers, but it was really a crap shoot if I would make it to the top before someone spotted me.

  One of the guards must have seen something because he was staring intently at the last section of the palace that I cleared. He called over another guard, and a bright light shone on the side of the palace. I pressed myself as tight as I could to the beam and waited. The light turned off, and I looked at the tower. The guard slapped his friend on the back laughing and moved on. The other man continued to look at the palace for a moment before finally shaking his head and moving out of sight.

  That had been close, probably too close. I wondered if the second guard thought his friend was out of his mind. I mean who would risk climbing forty stories on the outside of the palace? I kind of felt sorry for the guy that spotted me. He wasn’t going to have a fun time when the guards switched shifts. I could hear the conversation now. Hey look at Frank, he thought he saw someone climbing the palace. What a dumbass. Probably followed by lots of laughter. Guess the joke was on all of them if I succeeded.

  The rest of my trip up the structure went smoothly. When I reached the pyramid, I breathed a small sigh of relief. The lights were staggered around the outside of the pyramid leaving overlapping pockets of shadow for me to hide in. All I had to do was j
ump up and to the side, and my chances of being seen were almost zero. As far as I could tell there weren’t any guards this high up. I doubted the security officer thought that anyone would make it past all of the other defenses to reach this point.

  So I took my first leap and then the next. I was going to need to find some blood after this, maybe even before I attempted the kill. What if she was surrounded by more of those beasts? If that was the case, I was going to need to be full strength, and that meant tracking down a not so willing donor at the first opportunity.

  Three more floors and I was at the top. I made two leaps and then paused in the shadows. There were people moving around on the landing above me. Two sets of feet moving together. Maybe a pair of guards patrolling the entrance to the palace. Whoever it was, they weren’t talking. I didn’t have a lot of options, it wasn’t like I could go back down and try again. I cast out my senses as far as I could, and nothing else popped up on my radar.

  Two human guards shouldn’t be a problem. My ears tracked their movements, and as they drew closer, I started sending out waves of calming energy. By the time the two men passed me, they were very relaxed. I commanded them to stop and turn away from me. They both did as instructed. This was going to be easier than I thought. Not only had I reached the top as I landed behind the two men, but there was a snack waiting for me.

  Both men were frozen in place. I stepped up behind the first man and slowly turned him around with a thought. As he finished turning, he tilted his neck to the side giving me a clear path to his throat. As I sank my teeth in, his partner made a little noise and the smell of fresh urine tickled at my nostrils. My body took over feeding, and I focused all of my power onto the man standing frozen beside us. He didn’t make another sound.