Primal Heat

by Crystal Jordan

  “Natheem!” Dhalesh choked, utter shock on his face.

  Johar grabbed the man, hauling him away from the body. “He’s gone, Dhalesh. We have to leave him or we all die. Run!”

  They did, Johar dragging Dhalesh behind him. The humans were in hot pursuit, firing into the night. Kyber latched his free hand around Jana’s wrist, needing to keep her near, to reassure himself as much as he could that she was unharmed. Sweat slid down his face, burning his eyes as he turned every few steps to fire.

  Johar ran backward beside them. He pulled a small explosive from his belt and flicked his finger over the charge. Drawing back his arm, he released a leonine roar that could chill the blood and launched it at the humans. Kyber drew Jana against his chest to shield her as the device detonated. The ground beneath them shook with the explosion; dirt, rocks, and the sticky, sickening remains of bodies showered down on them.

  She looked dazed when they stood but shook herself and pointed toward a tall wooden pole with a metal cone mounted near the top. “They’re pumping the white noise through the town’s tornado warning system. It’s controlled down at city hall, which is about as far from where we need to go as possible, so I don’t think we can stop it.” Her finger redirected their attention to a corridor between two buildings. “But we can cut through that alleyway to my parents’ place. Do you still smell Arthur that way?”

  Lifting his nose to the air, he tried to filter through the stink of smoke and blood for the general’s scent. He was near, but the wind made it difficult to pinpoint now. “I’m not sure. We’ll go to the house and see if anyone is there. We have to check.”

  “Just go straight.” He could feel the fine trembling in her muscles, the fear that shook through her, but also the courage that kept her chin up, that worked to conquer the trepidation. “It’ll leave us vulnerable if we get caged in, but it’s the fastest way. The alley ends a half a block from their house.”

  Dhalesh knelt beside them, and he glanced up. “We’ll have to risk it. We’re outnumbered, if not outgunned. Let’s not lose anyone else to the general’s men.”

  The Kin’s face was hard with rage, both hands gripping the ends of large razers. Kyber nodded in return, in complete agreement. His Guardians were, by definition, the best at what they did and the hardest to kill. Another person who’d given up their life for him. He gritted his teeth and vowed Natheem’s sacrifice would not be in vain.

  “Let’s go.” Kyber jerked his chin at Johar, who moved out without a word. Kyber could feel the other man’s silent fury, which was even more dangerous than when Johar yelled.

  The strong emotions emanating from the people around him made Kyber’s hackles rise, and he gave up trying to check the feline within, allowing himself to embrace this side without the guilt at his loss in control. He was both man and beast, he always would be, and he’d finally learned to accept it.

  He was not a monster.

  He was here to kill the monster who’d hurt so many, including him.

  They ghosted across the narrow Earthan street and down the cracked, uneven cement path that was the alley. His nostrils flared, trying to catch familiar scents. They hadn’t heard from the second shuttle yet, the comm. device quiet in his ear. They could simply be in a place where it was unsafe to speak aloud, the static hum that squealed through the town making it impossible to mentally speak with his cousin or the other Guardians. He tried not to let it make him uneasy, but the stillness of the night sent disquiet skittering down his spine.

  Nothing moved as they crept down the long, endless alley, fenced in by the high walls. The four of them kept their weapons and gazes moving before them, behind them, above them to the rooftops. It went against his feral nature to be thus caged, and his claws and fangs elongated to their full, deadly length. The white noise reverberated through his mind, reminding him too much of his time as Arthur’s prisoner. Cold sweat streaked down his temples, his heartbeat accelerating to a full gallop.

  “We’re here,” Jana’s voice breathed in his comm.

  He could see the house, surrounded as it was by distinctive military vehicles. Smoke swirled up from a tank in the middle of the road, burnt out by the razer cannons on the Sueni fighter wings. A fierce, predatory smile stretched his mouth, his fangs scoring his lower lip.

  Dhalesh spoke in a near-soundless whisper, “Soldiers.”

  Tension ripped through the group as a small coterie of Earthan warriors slipped onto the street between them and the house. Kyber hissed a string of Sueni curses that made the Kin grin back at him. Dhalesh lead them from building to building, moving along their side of the street as the soldiers began moving toward the Townsend house. A blue flash of light came from one of the windows, a razer being fired, and Kyber smiled. Someone had made it from the second shuttle. Whoever was in the house had wicked aim, and Kyber smelled both Bren and Farid nearby.

  Thanks to Anun, they had survived.

  “Let’s give them a hand, shall we?” Johar’s grin matched his and the Kith shot forward, superhuman speed making him barely discernable in the dark.

  Jana sprinted after him, the Kin Guardian and Kyber just behind her. Gunfire lit the sky, and Johar disappeared behind the house with an inhuman battle scream. Dhalesh darted after his captain, passing Jana.

  Then Kyber had no time to think of anything else except keeping Jana and himself alive. Four soldiers came at them, one hitting Kyber in the chest with a bullet. He stumbled, groaning as the metal hit his armor. He choked as he watched another soldier knock Jana’s razer from her hand. She slammed her foot into the man’s groin, and Kyber fought a reflexive wince. Righting himself, he turned on the soldier who’d shot him and fired his razer to hit him in the face, and the flesh and bone crumpled. Kyber was already on the other two before their comrade tumbled to the grass, slamming his razer into one’s nose.

  He hissed, slashing the other across the face, the feline reveling in the scent of an enemy’s blood spilled. Both humans staggered before diving on him, and he went down with a roar. One drove his fist into Kyber’s ribs, and the breath wheezed out of his lungs again, but he retaliated by stabbing his claws into the man’s neck. He gurgled, drowning in his own blood. The other soldier struck Kyber’s mouth, making his vision swim. Coppery blood coated his tongue, both his and the soldier’s, when his fang caught on the man’s fist and tore the flesh.

  A high shriek of terror and pain split the air before the soldier slumped on top of Kyber. Dead. He shoved the body off him to see Jana with both her razer and his clutched in her hands. A bruise already darkened her jaw, but she looked unharmed otherwise. He grinned. “Nice shot.”

  “Thanks for taking three of the four.” She gave him a small smile and tossed his weapon to him.

  His hand shot out to catch it, the feline reflexes unerring. Pushing himself to his feet, he flipped his tangled hair over his shoulder. “It seems to have worked out well for us. Let’s see who’s in the house.”

  “Someone from the second shuttle, if they survived this little run-in with Arthur’s soldiers.” She mounted the steps, checked the door, found it locked, and jogged back down to flip over an odd little sculpture of a tiny, fat man with a pointed hat. Jana flicked him a grin, showing him a small metal object. “Mom always keeps the spare key under the garden gnome.”

  He shook his head and said nothing. There were no words to express how strange that practice was to him. Instead, he held his aching ribs and followed his One up the steps and through the front door. His muscles shook from the adrenaline humming through him and from the fight with the human soldiers. He kept his gun up and his senses focused on any movement in the house. There were people here. More than one. None of them Arthur. A few bodies scattered around the living room, no doubt courtesy of Bren and Farid. Whisper-soft footsteps landed on the ceiling overhead, others came from the room next to them. He touched Jana’s shoulder, pressed his finger to his lips to indicate silence, and moved toward the doorway.

  His heart rate spe
d, rushing in his ears, and he smelled Jana’s fear on the air. She settled next to him on the wall, her gun at the ready. Her species were not natural predators like his, and yet she’d never faltered. He’d never been prouder of her.

  Whipping around the corner of the door, his razer trained on three human soldiers standing at a kitchen counter before they’d even lifted their weapons. Two dove for their guns, and Kyber’s razer cut them down where they stood. The third soldier lifted his hands and began to speak, but a feline scream from outside had him spinning for an open door. Johar came leaping into the room, landing on a table in the middle of the room. His fangs were bared, crimson splattering his skin and clothing, his blue eyes feral and his braids swinging loose around his shoulders. He snarled, shoving his face into the human soldier’s.

  The boy looked like he was going to wet himself, but he squeaked out. “I’m working with Sargeant Major Preston.”

  “He’s not lying. He’s one of mine.” Bren’s voice sounded from the room behind them. She stepped into the light, and Kyber saw how her face was streaked with dirt and blood. The skin beneath the grime was deathly pale, and one of her ears was caked with dried blood.

  “I have another one here, or so he claims.” Dhalesh had his twin razers pressed to an Earthan’s back, propelling him through the same door as Johar.

  Bren nodded to them. “Yeah, he’s with us, too.”

  Dhalesh pointed his weapon away from the human, who relaxed a bit and let a breath ease from his lungs. “Good to see you, Bren.”

  “You, too, Zielinski.” She jerked her chin at the younger human. “The two of you should get out of here before anyone sees you with us.”

  “Yep. Good luck to you all. We’re gone.” Zielinski grabbed the kid and suited action to words.

  Jana looked around at the remaining people in the kitchen. “Everybody hanging in there?”

  The Kin Guardian grinned. “It was mostly just cleaning up behind the wild man.”

  Johar purred, his tongue sliding down a long fang as he climbed down off the table.

  After staring down at the two dead bodies in the room, Bren glanced over at Jana. “Farid has your parents hiding out in the detached garage. He’s keeping them calm the way only Farid can.”

  Jana’s breath whooshed out, her relief a palpable force in the room. Johar stepped forward. “My Guardians?”

  A tiny headshake was Bren’s response. “The shuttle landed just fine, but we didn’t even get the doors open before we were under attack. The pilot’s dead, the shuttle’s blown. We sent two of the wounded to your shuttle, and Farid and I came here with another Kin Guardian. We got caught in a firefight; the Kin didn’t make it. Farid lost his ear comm. somewhere along the way, but is okay otherwise. Or he was a few minutes ago. I-I can’t sense him through our bond with the white noise going.” Her voice was flat, desolate. She shook herself and touched her bloodied ear. “We found the Townsends, but a bullet destroyed my comm. so we couldn’t call for help. Talk about a serious goatfuck.”

  Johar barked out a laugh, the Kin behind him coughing into his fist. Kyber clapped his hand over the Earthan woman’s shoulder, knowing how each death—Earthan and Sueni—tore at her, despite any jokes. “You did well. Thank you.”

  Her eyes went remote the way only a warrior’s could. “We’ll get through this. Let’s finish the mission.”

  Jana hurried to the door Johar had come through, stepping past the Kin Guardian. “The garage is this way.”

  Dhalesh held her back, planting a hand on her stomach. “Allow me to go first, Empress.”

  Nodding, she moved aside to let him by. Everyone else fell into line behind them, Kyber bringing up the rear. Bren walked smoothly, and he sensed no injury besides the one to her ear. The comm. seemed to have taken the brunt of the bullet’s damage, which was a good thing.

  The side door to the garage stood ajar and Bren broke into a run, the scent of her fear leaving a rancid trail behind her.

  Something was wrong.

  His heart slammed against his ribs. He could smell his cousin drawing closer with each step, but that meant his body was near, not that life still flowed through that body. He loped behind Bren, easily keeping stride with the smaller human.

  “Mom? Dad?” Jana called at the same time Bren yelled, “Farid?”

  “I put them in the storm cellar under the garage.” Farid staggered around the side of the building, one sleeve ripped off his shirt, his fangs bloodied as if he’d bitten someone. He slid his razer back into the holster at his hip.

  Bren raced forward and he caught her against his chest. She bunched her hands in his tunic, searching his face. “Are you all right?”

  Kyber could see how his cousin’s fingers shook when they brushed back a loose lock of Bren’s dark hair. “I am unharmed, my One.”

  She nodded, took a deep breath, and released his shirt as she let the air sigh out of her lungs. “Show us where you stowed the Townsends.”

  “In here. Don’t stand out in the open.” Jana disappeared into the building, and Kyber heard things thumping and crashing around. Subtle. Very subtle. His lips twitched.

  The comm. in his ear buzzed with life. “Captain Sajan, we have two injured Guardians from the second shuttle here.”

  “We have the Arjuns. No other survivors.” Johar’s voice rang clearly in Kyber’s ear as the other man walked into the garage. The rest of their team followed, and Dhalesh stood guard by the door.

  There was a long pause over the comm. before the Guardian at the shuttle responded. “Understood, sir.”

  Johar sneezed in the musty gloom of the garage, and it took a moment for Kyber’s eyes to adjust. A heavy door stood open, with stairs leading downward, and Jana drew an older couple up the steps and out toward them. Her gaze sought him out in the darkness, so he moved to her side and cupped her jaw in his palm, brushing a smudge of dirt from her cheek.

  She glanced back at the older couple. “Mom, Dad, this is Kyber. Kyber, my parents.”

  The man held out his hand, and Kyber took it. Regrets swam in Mr. Townsend’s eyes. “General Arthur came with men. We heard them talking about…how he’d hurt our daughter. How he was going to make you watch this time.”

  “There won’t be a ‘this time.’ I swear it.” He shook the man’s hand hard and let go. “Arthur will be dealt with, but we need to get you and your wife back to my ship.”

  “We may have a problem with that.” Dhalesh spoke quietly from the door. Kyber’s sensitive ears heard the hum of engines over the squeal of white noise.

  They moved to the windows. Bren groaned. “Okay, this just went from goatfuck to total clusterfuck.”

  “They know we’re here or at least that we were not long ago,” Kyber said.

  Vehicles bearing far more soldiers than they could deal with pulled to a stop in front of the house. It was only a matter of time before they came to check the outer buildings. He watched Jana’s hand lift to press her ear comm. “This is the empress. I need air support. I’d like you to blow as many of the houses on my parents’ street as you can. They should be empty, so it won’t kill anyone who might be working for us, but we need to give them something to think about besides finding us. So rain as much fire down on them as possible.”

  Her mother gasped in horror, and her father held her tight. He nodded to Kyber, his jaw set in the same stubborn line Jana so often wore. Kyber almost smiled.

  Then it came to him. Arthur’s scent. He was close. He did smile, then. Anticipation of what was to come made him purr. “I’ve scented Arthur. Bren, Johar, and I will hunt him.”

  Jana’s head bobbed in a quick nod. “Mom, Dad, come with me. Now.”

  Farid checked the charge on his weapon, glanced up at Bren, and reeled her in with one hand for a hard, hungry kiss. Their bond almost shimmered in the air with the devotion pulsing between them. Kyber felt a stab of ugly jealousy, wishing that he and Jana shared such an open bond. He wanted that so badly he could taste it. The only way
it would happen was if they both got through this, if he defeated Arthur, if he protected them all.

  No more of his people should die for this expedition he’d brought them to the back end of space for. He would not, could not, fail them.

  It ended tonight.

  The image of her childhood home—her whole neighborhood—exploding into flames would be burned into Jana’s mind forever. The remains of dead bodies that they’d left inside the house littering the once-pristine yard, helping her mother step over a severed, charred limb. The scent of roasting meat that she knew was human flesh.

  Her stomach turned, but she pushed on.

  It reminded her far too much of the day Kyber was taken. The smoke, the blood, the sizzle of razer fire. It was worse that the battle had taken place in a field not far from here. This little Midwestern town had been a warzone before because of their quarrel with Arthur.

  Dhalesh moved out in front of them, Farid guarding the rear. Jana held her razer steady, watchful of any approaching soldiers. Her mother clung to her other hand. “Jana, I want to tell you how sorry I am that I—that we—didn’t believe in you.”

  Jana nodded, though she doubted her mother could see it in the dark, and kept moving. “It’s okay, Mom. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I’m so sorry I thought you’d been brainwashed and sucked into some kind of alien sex cult.” Dhalesh shot an incredulous glance back at that, and Jana fought the wild urge to giggle. Her mother stumbled a bit, and Jana turned to catch her as her father reached forward to do the same. Her mother continued in a furtive whisper, “We were so worried that we’d lose you, too, we pushed you away. I’m sorry we didn’t believe in you. That’s our fault, not yours. I’m sorry we ever made you feel you couldn’t tell us the truth when things went wrong. Thank you for coming to get us, for giving us a second chance. We’re glad to be a part of your life, and we’ll apologize to your Kyber, too. We’ll do better, we promise. You don’t have to pretend to be happy and perfect all the time. We can handle the truth.”