Sawyer wrenched at his restraints. “Beth. Now.”
Beth retreated, walking backward the last few steps. “It’s too late for the right thing, Sawyer. It was too late when you sold me out.” She turned on her heel, jogging out of sight behind the stacked crates without a backward glance.
Fuck.
Skin peeled from his abraded wrists as he wrestled with his bindings. Blood welled in thick blobs, making the metal slippery, but it was pointless. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was blind and bound, unable to respond to the sounds of battle escalating around him.
20
Julia froze next to Hardy as the pulse of laser fire blasted the air. Leven released her arm to unholster his weapon, and she was free. Her hands were still pinned to the base of her spine, but she sprinted for the walkway stairs, as Hardy head-butted Leven in a smashing, bloody blow.
Mayhem broke loose.
A bullet hit the wooden doorpost next to her head, showering her with wood splinters.
“Jesus.” The nearness stopped her heart for a split second then she ducked for cover, Hardy tailing her, careening toward the stairs at the far wall. The women and children scattered, taking refuge behind pillars and stacked storage boxes. Their cries tugged at her heart and instinctively she wanted to help them, but she was useless with her hands tied behind her back.
Beth and her men were nowhere to be seen, but the lethal noses of weapons poked out from safe corners, hammering pulses of energy toward the upper levels.
Julia approached the stairs and stumbled under the shelter of the ornate metalwork as Violet clattered downwards from above, cursing as she joined the melee. Violet swooped under the stairs, joining them. She cut Hardy’s hands free with a knife, and he bolted up the steps, thick arms pumping as he zeroed in on a sniper positioned high along the wall.
“What’s wrong with these people?” Violet bellowed over the barrage of fire. She sliced through the plastic tie, freeing Julia’s hands. Blood surged into Julia’s fingertips in a prickly rush. Violet pulled another pulse rifle from her back. She tossed it at Julia, then rearmed her own weapon.
“There!” Violet pointed, and Julia joined her, firing a barrage of protective cover for Garrick and Foster who were dodging through rubble and broken bricks at the north entrance of the station.
The two men hurtled across the concrete and approached the makeshift wooden bridge. Without hesitation they bolted onto the floating walkway, which sank dangerously under their feet, only their speed preventing them from plunging into the mossy water. They hit dry land on the other side, their pace undiminished. Foster turned and lobbed a black stun grenade towards two shooters firing from behind a high pile of storage crates.
Julia dropped flat, squeezing her eyes shut to protect them from the flash. Her arms shot across the back of her neck and ears as the grenade detonated in an ear-splitting thunderclap bang. The sound wave boomed against her skin, drawing the hairs to painful attention and her breathing stuttered as she inhaled hot seething air.
Training took over and she lay still and counted to ten in her head before relaxing her arms, painful with tension. A dusty haze created by the detonation surrounded her. She crawled up on to her knees, her ears ringing, everything around her swimming in a nauseating swirl. She coughed and spat, waiting for the disorientation to ease, vaguely aware of Violet crouching next to her.
Julia raised her head slowly, still dizzy and her heart faltered.
Behind the crates was a man, propped against the wall, his hands pinned behind him. His head hung low, a shorn blur of hair down the middle of his skull. Realization punched through her confusion.
Sawyer was behind the shooters Foster had taken out. He slumped in a crumpled heap, blood trickling from his unprotected ears.
“Sawyer!” she screamed.
Violet staggered to her feet, “Go!”
Julia stumbled up to standing, terror fueling her unsteady pace across the shattered wood that littered the ground. Debris snagged her boots, as she half-fell, half-ran, Violet covering her steps every move of the way in a litany of swearing and laser fire.
She was only a few paces from him, when a bullet connected with the back of her body armor and propelled her violently forward. Rough concrete tore at her knees. Her pulse rifle skittered out of reach as her hands slammed onto the ground, ripping open the heels of her palms. Violet was on her in seconds, one arm wrapping around her shoulder.
“Okay?”
“Yes.” Julia hauled herself back up on to her feet, ignoring the searing pain in her shins. They covered the remaining distance lurching together, Violet, still providing lethal cover.
Almost sobbing with relief, Julia collapsed beside Sawyer, ignoring the pain from her ruined legs. She cradled his head, running her fingers over the bloody mess to find the source of the damage. She touched into a deep laceration above his forehead, and he jerked back from her, protesting in slurred words. Thick, dark blood pulsed from the gash matching the bloody trails from his ears to his collar. She glanced back, assessing how far he was from the point of detonation. She was sure he was far enough to have escaped permanent damage.
“He’ll live but his hearing will be trashed for a while.” Julia nodded to Violet, who cut the cable ties restraining him then released the handcuffs with a controlled blast from her pulse rifle. His groaned as his arms dropped. Julia took his face in her hands and pulled him close. Hot tears of relief stung her eyes as his breath brushed her throat.
“Can’t hear,” he mumbled.
She grabbed him by the shoulders, relief and anger overwhelming her. Breathless, she turned to speak to Violet, but her words were lost in the piercing Chittrix shrieks that suddenly filled the air.
Julia spun, searching for the source of the terrible noise. Behind her, the humans from both sides had stopped fighting, paralyzed with blind panic. Only seconds before, they’d been trying to kill each other. Now the water surged, barbaric spines carving through the surface.
The real fight hadn’t even begun.
21
Sawyer shook his hands furiously, willing blood and sensation back into his throbbing arms. Beside him Julia was kneeling, talking to him, but his ears only throbbed with hissing grey noise.
His vision was fine though and he watched horrified as two Chittrix emerged from the water, powerful heads raised to strike. Their bodies sliced with effortless precision toward the surrounding walkways, foam and scum curling in their wake. His stomach lurched. The Chittrix were heaving with Scutters. The small, scorpion-like aliens swarmed across the black, shiny Chittrix carapaces, thick front claws snapping at the air.
The first Chittrix hit the walkway on the far side, elegantly powering onto dry land, its clawed front limbs gouging wood into splinters. Scutters screeched and streamed from its neck and body, swamping the boardwalk in seconds.
Sawyer flexed his fist. His hands were working again. He grabbed Julia’s arm, hauling her upwards.
“Move!” Vibration from his voice rumbled in his throat as he spoke. He gripped her upper arm, dragging her away from the dark blur of vicious insectoid bodies.
Violet retreated in tandem, pressing the transmission button on her armored helmet. She shook her head at Sawyer. No reply.
His head buzzed. They were on their own.
The second Chittrix had exited the water to their right. Its tail lashed against the narrow boardwalk, smashing the wood and brickwork in a violent cacophony that vibrated through the thick soles of Sawyer’s boots. It bared the irregular, jagged needles of its teeth, its elongated tongue scenting human fear on the air.
Julia was grinding the bones of his hand, her other raised to her breastbone which rose in giant, hitching breaths. The Chittrix towered in front of them on thick haunches, talons carving concrete and wood like butter.
Sawyer frantically pulled Julia, following Violet, tripping over scattered boxes, desperate to put distance between them and the alien attackers.
Julia stumbled and
fell, crashing into the debris that littered the floor. Violet swung in front of Julia’s prostrate form and fired at an approaching clutch of Scutters, blackening the concrete with the energy blast. Sawyer dropped behind Julia, thrusting his hands over hers and taking control of her pulse rifle. He raised the weapon and unleashed a torrent toward the advancing Chittrix. The motion unlocked Julia’s brain and her hands tightened on the trigger as she resumed control and joined Violet’s assault.
Darr appeared to Sawyer’s right, running doubled-over, his head dipped low. He skidded to a halt behind Sawyer and tossed him a pulse rifle. Sawyer grabbed it mid-air, then he checked the charge and flicked the safety off.
Sawyer moved with Violet, Darr and Julia covering from the sides. They paced forward, weapons raised, discharging lethal pulses of energy.
The Chittrix widened its brutal mouth in a silent howl that Sawyer still couldn’t hear. Hatred glinting in the faceted eyes it spun away from Sawyer and the others. In several bounding leaps, it launched itself across the vaulted space to join the other Chittrix advancing on the two girls Sawyer had seen earlier. They huddled in the makeshift kitchen, pressed into a tiny space under a rough-hewn worktop, their small, dirty faces streaked with tears.
Sawyer aimed his weapon fire at the barbed spine of the nearest Chittrix, his nostrils burning with the nauseating stench of charred alien protein. Doubt circled his mind as he continued to fire. The Chittrix appeared unstoppable, their advance on the girls relentless. Where the hell were Garrick and Foster? He allowed himself a sweeping glance, catching a blur of motion from the corner of his eye.
Foster ducked from behind a low brick wall on the far side of the building under a protective rain of laser fire from Garrick, his hands glittering with spiked silver stars. He ran across a wrecked flotation bridge, dodging neatly as it keeled under his weight and expertly pitched the five-pointed devices into the closest Chittrix.
It turned from its advance on the children as two stars embedded in the meat of its tail. Two more slid on its defensive exoskeleton and clattered to the ground. The Chittrix swiveled and lunged, but the stars were embedded where the root of its tail joined its body, too high for it to reach.
Foster’s mouth widened in warning as he dove from the last wooden float, slicing into the bottle-green water. Violet ducked and Julia started to drop, but Sawyer was quicker, slamming into her from behind, his body covering hers as they hit the floor. He curled protectively around her as the world ignited, obliterating the Chittrix.
Sawyer waited, blood and grit tainting his mouth, until chunks of meat and chitin had stopped falling on his back. Then he raised his head and wiped dust from his eyes. On the edge of the main lagoon, Foster pulled himself clear, water streaming from his body. One Chittrix was gone, the center of the explosion scoured clean by the force of Foster’s stars. The remaining Chittrix shrieked and charged once more toward the girls, deadly head lowered and intent on slaughter.
Sawyer rolled off Julia and fired, Darr joining him seconds later. Scutters darted toward the men, their fighting claws frantic, creating a living shield for the remaining Chittrix. The two girls desperately rammed their small bodies further under the worktop as bullets and laser fire cut the air above their heads.
A woman rose up from behind a broken wall and ran half-crouching toward the unexploded devices on the ground. She scooped them up and without breaking her stride, ran directly at the tail of the Chittrix, stabbing the two remaining stars into the base of the tail in two deft throws.
Beth. Sawyer yelled, deaf to his own voice.
She glanced in his direction and swerved, dodging Scutters as she sprinted, head tucked, her legs driving for safety. The Chittrix convulsed as it stretched for the embedded blades.
Sawyer pushed past Julia as Beth bolted toward them. He fired directly at the Chittrix’s head, rushing to position himself between the woman and the alien.
But he was never going to get to her in time. The Chittrix was faster. Taking two leaping bounds, it caught Beth with the side of its barbed tail, tossing her like a doll clear across the floor and into a brick wall. She smashed against the solid stone, her blood spattering on the dusty brick before she dropped bonelessly to the ground. The Chittrix loomed over her and opened its mouth in a defiant scream that was cut off as the explosive charges detonated.
Sawyer hit the ground as the world fractured for the final time in a blaze of blinding light.
22
Julia showered, oblivious to the rapidly cooling water. After drying herself, she applied clean dressings to her savaged knees and shins. Ten minutes of staring into space in front of her laptop under the pretense she was working was a miserable failure.
The events of the day were still a bloody, unstoppable scream in her memory. Green, suffocating water invaded her mind, casting her back to the sewer and being dragged under by Darr’s iron grip while the water stormed her throbbing lungs. And finally Beth, trapped between the maelstrom of Chittrix and detonation.
Sawyer’s reaction to Beth dying had stirred something within Julia. Something she’d not known was there, hidden even from herself. She told herself it was plain over-protectiveness stirring in her belly. She could handle that. It was a simple, two-dimensional emotion she could track and label. Although, how she was going to fit the multi-dimensional emotional rollercoaster taking over her heart and head into such an uncomplicated category, she had no idea.
Julia held her hands out. They were trembling. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to return to the present. Sawyer was alive and uninjured. That was all that mattered. She should be relieved and get on with things. After all, they were just friends. Sawyer was not part of her life plan beyond the fun and sex they shared. No man was.
It was easy to repeat the words and tell herself that, but her heart was confused.
The way he’d avoided her when they arrived back at the Command base. The way he’d roared in the aftermath of the explosion, his legs propelling him toward Beth’s body and the broken way he’d sagged against the side of the Jackal when they emerged from the sewers. These events shouldn’t have hurt her, shouldn’t have made her feel like her heart was being torn apart. But they did. They cut to the quick of her. Everything in her head was a crappy mess.
She stood up, snapping her laptop shut. Five minutes later, she was outside the door of his room. Reason told her to walk away and work. Work had always been her solution, the salve to her problems and now refining the Sweeper was more important than ever.
Shut up, Julia.
She had no idea what the hell she was doing anymore, but she knew she wanted Sawyer.
Sawyer froze as the door of his quarters opened, and Julia stopped short in the doorway. She blushed, snatching guilty fingers away from the access pad she’d just hacked. His hands remained suspended in midair, the disassembled rifle forgotten as his pulse rocketed and his throat constricted.
“Julia?” His hearing was still muted but his voice scraped painfully against his throat.
“I …” Her voice was strained.
The door closed behind her, triggering an inferno of sexual heat through every atom of his body.
Time stretched out between them in a long, hushed second. He stood, his legs unsteady as Julia crossed the room, her eyes never leaving him. Her lips parted, and the tip of her tongue licked the bow of her top lip in a tiny, darting motion. She kissed her fingertips and pressed a kiss to the steri-strips taped to his head.
He absorbed the glorious, soft curves of her body. She’d showered, her damp hair dark and curling in loose waves on her shoulder. The thin fabric of her grey tank outlined her nipples. Unusually, she wore a skirt, the light fabric skimming above her dressed knees. Blood had soaked through in spots from the wounds underneath.
His attention drew back up to her face. God. Heat blazed in her eyes hardening his body in an instant and desire flashed through him like a match to gasoline. His heart raced, and his mouth was parched as he greedily ab
sorbed every inch of her. The scent of her shampoo, sharp and citrusy invaded his brain, undoing his last lingering shreds of control.
Her fingers traced the back of his hand in a direct line to his aching cock. Raw lust shot through him as he cupped the softness of her breasts rising in short, panting swells.
Suddenly she was in his arms, raised on her tiptoes, as her mouth crashed against his. She reached for him with unhindered need, her tongue hot and searching as she fought to be close to him.
She bit his bottom lip, sucking on the soft flesh. Molten heat surged into his groin as he kissed her back, his tongue touching hers as he teased and tasted. He thrust his hands into the thick, damp waves of her hair, clasping her to him, never wanting to let go.
Finally, he broke from the kiss breathless, still hungry for the sweet taste of her. His mouth kissed lower, across the edge of her jaw, his hands stroking the small of her back. His stubble grazed her neck, rustling against the delicate skin in a soft whisper. Small, breathy cries of delight tumbled from her lips, driving him insane. He tugged her closer to his body, forcing her to arch her back and give him access to her throat.
A voice in the back of his head screamed this was different; this wasn’t friends with benefits anymore. This smart, beautiful woman had lodged herself in his heart. Sawyer ignored the voice, letting it drown under the demands of Julia’s body. As his hands slid down the curve of her hip, the white-hot hardness of his erection was almost painful against his fly.
Her fingers tightened against his side, urging him on. He traced the edge of her bottom lip with his finger. Hungry for him, she took his finger into her mouth, running her teeth and tongue along the calloused edge. He growled against her throat, pushing her shoulder straps aside, as she licked then kissed the palm of his hand.
She tucked her fingers under his belt, running her nails in a delicious frisson across the skin of his abdomen before she unclasped his belt. She tugged the thick leather hard, yanking his pelvis against her.
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