by Lily Thomas
Each one of the Daen’su was armed with a sword, and Skyler wasn’t exactly positive in her ability to defeat one, let alone three of them, so she hoped Kyux was quick on his feet or they would have no hope.
Kyux tapped the back of her foot with his heel, a communication that none of the Daen’su around them were able to see. She had no idea what it meant so she was going to take a guess that he was warning her. It wasn’t like him to back down from a challenge.
She braced herself.
In a split second, Kyux launched himself at the first Daen’su who’d jumped into their path. Skyler shot out towards the Daen’su in front of her.
He was caught off guard, but threw his sword up in enough time to knock her spear out of the way.
Skyler pulled back and scanned the area around her. Kyux was fighting the other two Daen’su, which meant she had it easier.
She set her eyes back on the Daen’su in front of her. His silver eyes watched her intently, as they circled each other. She wasn’t about to let Kyux down. She had this one.
Skyler feigned to the right, and then bolted left, launching her spear as hard and fast as she could. Her breath caught in her chest, as the Daen’su tried to dodge the spear. It struck him in the side, instead of in the abdomen.
An immense amount of blood came spurting out, and Skyler wanted to look away, but he wasn’t down yet, just majorly wounded.
Looking around she tried to find another weapon she could use. Seeing a nice sized rock, she picked it up, looked up and found the Daen’su charging straight for her, his sword already coming straight for her head.
Kyux couldn’t help Skyler unless he wanted to get impaled on one of the Daen’sus’ swords. The two men came at him from opposite ends, and he rolled out of the way, but threw out a leg to knock one of the Daen’su off his feet.
It allowed him a second to glance over at Skyler. His heart froze in his chest, as he watched the sword fall straight towards her head. At the very last moment, Skyler rolled out of the way and launched a rock at the Daen’su’s head. The man crashed to the ground in a heap.
A sword flew past his face, and Kyux returned his attention to his own opponents. Skyler was skilled, and he believed in her ability to keep herself alive. But if he didn’t pay better attention he might not make it out of this fight himself.
“You have no hope of making it out of this alive, Krocosian. Give up and let us have the woman.” One of the Daen’su panted.
“Never.” Kyux growled at him.
The two Daen’su launched themselves at him at the same time again. He was starting to get sick of getting teamed up on.
Kyux ran towards them, and then at the last moment he ducked down and rolled between one of the Daen’su’s legs. When he got to the other side, he rose and plunged his sword into one of their backs. The blade went right between a couple ribs, and then Kyux yanked it back out.
The first Daen’su hit the ground in a heap.
The other Daen’su’s eyes widened, and he held up his hands, allowing the sword to fall from his grasp.
Kyux was about to launch himself at the last Daen’su, when a hand fell on his forearm.
“He’s not worth it. Let him leave.”
“We can’t let him live.” Kyux wanted to make sure all these Daen’su were dead. They’d put his mate in harm’s way, and he couldn’t have that.
“He’s defenseless. Let’s take their weapons and go. We have a time table to meet.” Skyler pressed.
Kyux felt his upper lip lift in a growl. He stomped towards the remaining Daen’su. “She saved your life. The woman who you would have done god-knows-what to. She saved your life.”
Before the Daen’su could react, Kyux conked him on the head with the hilt of his sword, and the man fell to the ground unconscious.
“Let’s gather the weapons and get out of here before he wakes up.” He turned to look over at Skyler. “Come here.”
She stepped forward. “What is it?”
He ran his hands over her. “You haven’t been injured, have you?”
“No, I’m good.” She smacked his hands away. “I managed to take my Daen’su out without any harm to myself.”
“Good. Gather the weapons off the Daen’su and let’s get out of here.”
Skyler peered over the rocks. There were a few small ships sitting in the field below. Her heart gave a skip. They were so close, and she could taste freedom. Soon, very soon, they would be off this planet, and she wouldn’t have to worry about being killed in her sleep, and she’d finally be able to sleep in her soft bed again.
If there was one thing she missed from her life, it had to be her bed.
“We’ll get closer.” Kyux slid down the hill, and Skyler followed suit.
“Will the ships be guarded?” Would she have to fight some more people?
“I have no idea about that, but I’m hoping not. The easier this is, the better.”
Skyler couldn’t agree more. Something had to be easier, right? It was her due.
They made their way to the bottom of the hill, and Kyux took another look at the ships.
“Maybe you should stay here.”
“So you can leave without me?”
Kyux turned his wide eyes towards her. “I… I would never leave you behind.” He sputtered in disbelief.
“I was pulling your leg. I want to be a part of this though. Besides, if I come with you we can board the ship easier and faster. You can’t argue with that.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. And you’ve proven several times you can handle yourself in a fight. I just don’t want to lose you.”
“Trust me, I’m not going anywhere without a fight. You’ll be stuck with me for life.”
“I hope so.”
Kyux sent her a smile before leading the way out of the boulders. She stuck close behind him, braced for him to give the signal for her to run back to the boulders. For all they knew, any Hennians near the ship could be armed with plasma weapons, and they were only armed with a sword and a spear. Not exactly fair fighting.
They made it to the first ship, and they both plastered themselves against the ship’s hull.
“What now?” She whispered.
“Now we make our way around the ship, see if there is a guard and if there’s a way in. Once in, we make sure we have the ship to ourselves, and then figure out how to take off.”
Skyler gave him a nod when he looked over at her.
They made their way under the ship, and Kyux tested the hatch. It popped open with barely a sound. Kyux made his way into the hatch first, and Skyler wasn’t going to complain. If there was someone in there, she didn’t want to be the first one inside the ship. Kyux knew how to be ruthless, unlike her.
She followed him in, and the room they entered was small, with no one else inside. So far, so good.
Skyler followed him out of the room and into the cockpit area, where she saw a Hennian sitting in the pilot’s chair, facing away from them.
Kyux held up his hand, and she froze. Was he going to kill the Hennian?
Slowly, Kyux crept up behind the Hennian pilot. In the blink of an eye, Kyux wrapped an arm around the Hennian and brought his sword blade to the man’s throat.
“Up. Slowly or I slit your throat.” Kyux warned.
Skyler stood out of the way as Kyux guided the pilot past her by sword point and into the other room. She heard something bang close, and then Kyux walked back out of the room.
“We need to get going before he wakes and lets his buddies know what’s happened.”
“Sounds good. Hope you know how to fly this, because I sure don’t know how.” She made enough money to have others pilot ships for her.
“Come and take a seat by me.”
Skyler dashed over to take a seat in the co-pilot’s chair and watched as he proceeded to push certain buttons. The engine rumbled as it started up.
“Let’s just hope they don’t have any larger ships above this planet.” Skyler was afr
aid they’d leave the planet just to get themselves blown to bits and pieces.
Chapter 9
Unfortunately, their luck didn’t hold out. The moment they left the planet’s atmosphere a ship descended on them.
A rattle shook their shuttle. Skyler bolted up in her seat. “What… what’s going on?”
The ship shook again.
“We’re being fired at.” Kyux cursed, as he checked the consoles in front of him.
“What can I do to help?” Skyler looked at the console in front of her. Surely there was something she could do.
“Your side of the console has the weapons. Try to target their weapons or their engines.”
“Right.” Skyler stared at the buttons in front of her. She hadn’t been trained to do this.
The screen in front of her had a targeting lock, and she held her breath as she pushed a lit-up button. She watched on the screen as she struck the other ship with plasma shots.
A smile formed on her lips. Looking up on the view screen, she saw Kyux guiding their ship towards a system with a thick asteroid belt.
“Trying to lose them in the asteroid belt?”
“Yes. Keep firing at them. You might be able to get them to crash into one of the asteroids.”
Skyler gave a nod and turned her attention back to firing at the ship behind them, which they returned in kind.
Their ship shook, as they took a direct hit.
“Dammit.” Skyler fired another barrage of plasma shots at them. She got a couple lucky direct hits and watched as their ship lost control. She must have hit one of their engines. The ship went tumbling straight towards an asteroid and an explosion filled the view screen.
“Whoops.” She hadn’t meant to destroy the ship.
“Good shot.” Kyux congratulated her.
She looked over to where Kyux was seated. “Pure luck.”
“I’ll take it. Now we can continue on. We’re almost out of Hennian space, and then we should be safe.”
Skyler was so close to being home!
Kyux’s hand slid up her thigh, and Skyler smacked it away.
“Don’t you have to fly this ship?”
Kyux smiled over at her. “I can set a course.”
“I can’t believe we made it free and clear of that damn planet.”
“Don’t celebrate too soon. We need to find a reference point and get ourselves back to friendly space. The Hennians are sure to be onto us if we don’t get out of their space.” Kyux tossed over to her.
“Can you find Jirian? I live there. It’s a desert planet.”
“Jirian? I’ve never heard of it before. Could you find it, if I pulled up a star chart?”
“Maybe. Depends how far away we are from things that I know. I don’t travel a whole lot.”
Kyux pulled up a star chart. “We’re… here, according to the ship.”
Skyler leaned over to take a look at the screen. “Well.” She took a look around. “It would be easier if there was a search function on this ship.” She looked up at him hopefully, but he just shook his head at her. “Too bad.”
She glanced back at the star chart, and after a couple minutes found a star she knew. That meant Jirian would be… “Found it!” She pointed to a planet listed on the star chart.
“I’ll enter it in, then.”
“No fight over where we go?” Skyler looked over at him. “After a few months of being on that planet, you won’t protest going back to the planet I live on?”
“Once we go to Jirian you can pack your things and come with me.”
Her arms folded in front of her chest. “Excuse me? I have a life on Jirian. I’m not about to leave.”
His onyx eyes scanned over her. “Then I’ll have to move. Either way, we will first go to Jirian.”
“You’ll move?”
“If you won’t, I don’t have a choice.”
“Because I’m your mate?”
“Yes.” He supplied, as if there was no other option for him.
She could get used to this mate thing, but she’d have to be sure not to take it too far. Just because she had power over him, didn’t mean she had to abuse the power.
“Good thing my apartment is large enough for two, huh?” Her eyes scanned over him, taking in his grey horns and blonde hair. He was perfect, like something out of a dream.
A smile spread over her lips, as she sat back and prepared for the long journey ahead of them.
“We have plenty of time to pass now that the Hennian ship isn’t chasing us.” His hand worked its way back onto her thigh.
Skyler smiled. He was right of course, there was plenty of time for them make use of. She leaned in, so he could capture her lips.
Right as their lips met, an explosion went off.
Kyux was flung across the ship. He watched helplessly as Skyler was also flung to the other side of the ship.
The ship they’d destroyed must have gotten a mine on their hull without him knowing.
Dots flowed across his vision, as he got up and rushed over to Skyler. The console in front of her had exploded with an overcharge of energy, and she’d taken the brunt of the blow. Kyux wanted to scream at the universe.
They’d escaped the hunting planet only to have her brought down by an exploding console? Really?
Bending down next to her, he took her into his arms. There was a pulse, that was a good sign.
“Skyler?” Kyux asked gently, as he stroked a hand over the part of her face that hadn’t been burned by the discharge of energy.
She said nothing, but she was alive. He had to get her back to her people and to someone who would be able to assist her.
He placed her back on the ground. The only thing he could do was get them to Jirian and see if there were any medical supplies on the Hennian ship.
After double checking the ship was still able to make it to Jirian, he rushed around the cabin, but there was nothing. Did the Hennians not care about saving their injured? What a strange race.
Kyux watched over Skyler, but with nothing to do, he felt like he would surely go mad.
“We are approaching Jirian space.” Kyux looked over at her, his black eyes gleaming with joy.
She said nothing, still laying on the ground in a heap. His heart lurched in his chest.
Kyux guided the ship over the boundary.
“Turn off your engines and prepare for inspection.” An automatic mechanical voice came over the ship’s speakers.
Kyux disengaged the engines. “Hope you’re right about this.” He said to them both, as he eyed a plasma gun left on the ship by the Hennians.
He knew what she would say, if she wasn’t unconscious. “Don’t do it. They’ll kill you.” And she was right. Greeting the border officials with a plasma gun in hand would be a stupid idea.
A human man appeared on the view screen. “Please identify yourself.”
“I am Kyux, and I need medical assistance for my mate. She is a human who comes from Jirian. Her name is Skyler Boggs.”
The man’s eyebrows rose. The screen went dark as the man ended the transmission.
“This doesn’t feel right.” Kyux eyed the plasma gun again.
Again, he knew what she would say. “Grabbing that will only make things worse. We aren’t on that hunting planet anymore. These aren’t our enemies. I think you’re just seeing things, since you were surrounded by enemies for so long on that planet.”
“Prepare to be boarded.”
Kyux got up from his seat and came to stand beside her. “Hope you’re right about this,” he repeated, still feeling a bit on edge.
He glanced down at her. She looked so fragile. If she died, heaven help the Hennians.
He faced towards their airlock and braced himself for the Jirian border patrol.
The ship jolted as the other vessel joined up with theirs. A light above the airlock blinked a couple times and then went off.
The doors opened, and a whole mass of armed soldiers came striding in. The men spre
ad out in the room, weapons trained on Kyux.
“You can put your weapons down.” He called over to them.
A couple men came forward, and their hands latched onto his arms, as they tried to drag him out of the ship.
“You will not separate me from my mate!” Kyux hollered at the top of his lungs.
“Put him down! Just don’t kill him until we get some answers.” One of the men yelled over Kyux’s enraged shouts.
They tased Kyux, until he fell to the ground in a heap of twitching limbs. He watched from the ground, as the men carefully carried Skyler off the ship.
“What did he do to her?” One of the men whispered, as they passed by.
Rage flooded him, but none of his muscles would work properly, and he wasn’t able to say a single word in his defense.
Skyler woke slowly. First, she noticed the cold of the room, and then her eyes opened to see blinding white lights overhead.
Where was she?
Propping herself up on an elbow, she glanced around, but her vision was having trouble seeing everything around her properly. Black dots danced around her vision, but she thought she saw a figure nearby, maybe with another person?
“Hello?” she croaked.
“Skyler?” Her coach’s voice rang out.
“Michaela?”
Arms wrapped around her and took her into a bear hug. “I thought you were dead when they brought me over here.”
“Dead?”
“You should’ve seen yourself. Thankfully, the doctors were able to heal you fully, and you wouldn’t even know what that Krocosian did to you.”
“Wait… what?” Skyler blinked her eyes, and a little more of her vision became clearer. “Are you talking about Kyux?”
“Kyux? I have no idea who that is. The Jirian patrol found you on a ship with a Krocosian.”
“That’s Kyux, and he didn’t do this to me, Michaela. An explosion happened on the bridge and I was caught in it.”
“Are you sure that’s what happened?” A male voice asked from across the room.