by Kate Rudolph
She placed her hand on his arm and he stilled. Laurel silently pointed at herself and then down the hall before pointing at him and indicating a small recess in the wall that would keep him out of sight of the door. Dru didn’t want to let her go alone, but of the two of them, she was the only one who could be seen in this hallway and not immediately put down. He reluctantly nodded and moved into position.
Laurel took a deep breath and made her way towards the entrance to the bridge. A soft whoosh was his only warning that the door had opened. Whispering voices echoed towards him, but Dru couldn’t make out what they were saying. It was torture to sit there and wait; his every instinct yelled at him to go out and defend his mate, to save her from any danger, but his instincts were wrong in this moment. She had freedom to walk around. The people who worked on the ship had weeks to get used to Laurel’s presence. They might be puzzled as to why she was outside the bridge, but they wouldn’t hurt her for being here.
The door whooshed shut again and the whispers ceased. The footsteps coming his way could have belonged to anyone, and Dru let his claws slide out, ready for any threat. But his mate was no threat, and she wedged herself beside him in the alcove, frustration written plainly across her features.
Dru didn’t bother to ask whether or not she’d been successful. The answer was obvious. But he wasn’t giving up yet, not when they were this close. He leaned in close, until his breath ruffled her hair when he spoke, the position intimate and giving him ideas of what he wanted to do once they were safe. “You know, I think there’s another way we can get that ship to work.”
“How?” Her breath whispered across his neck, making his flesh pebble at the sensation.
Dru grinned. “Sabotage.”
Chapter Six
GETTING AWAY FROM THE bridge was even harder than getting there, and Laurel practically vibrated with tension every minute they were out in the open, at risk of being seen by the guards or the scientific crew. At first glance Dru might be confused for an Oscavian, but none of the Oscavians on this ship were walking around shirtless with fire in their eyes.
It was more than a little distracting, and it might have been wise to take a moment to steal some clothes for the giant warrior walking beside her. But Laurel had given in to a moment of selfish temptation. She really liked looking at him, even if the bruises that made his purple skin almost black sent her into a rage the likes of which she’d never before imagined. She wanted to tear the ship apart and destroy the people who had hurt her companion. And then she wanted to take a long time tending to his wounds, letting her hands roam over him with regen gel, massaging the healing cream into his tired muscles.
And if she kept doing that after he was healed, she didn’t think he would mind. If someone had told Laurel that she would meet a giant alien warrior who awakened a desire within her greater that anything she’d ever experienced before, she simply wouldn’t have believed them. If they had added that she would only meet him after suffering countless indignities at the hands of space pirates she would have asked them why they had such a cruel imagination. And then she would have questioned why she’d be so willing to accept a warrior like they described when all she should be focusing on was healing.
But healing took all kinds of forms, and Laurel was looking forward to seeing how that would turn out with Dru. Not that she thought she was ready for anything more than healing. She couldn’t fool herself. She was sitting on a big heaping mountain of denial that she was sure was going to erupt the second she reached any semblance of safety. She only hoped that Dru didn’t regret teaming up with her when that happened.
They’d retreated back to her room. It wasn’t safe, no place was, but at least the territory was familiar. Laurel wished for the hundredth time that she had a lock of some kind on her door, but any privacy she’d been granted had always merely been an illusion, and that had never been more obvious that it was right now.
Dru didn’t seem to be worried about that. He stood up tall, the confidence of his training taking over as he took charge of their plan. “We need to convince the ship to trip the evac system,” he explained. “It’s not like we have to fully disable the thing,” he waved his hand around, indicating their surroundings. “But we’ll need to be near the evac station. We don’t have much room for error.”
“I trust you.” She shouldn’t have been so sure of it, she should’ve had doubt. Dru was more of a stranger to her than Brakley Varrow, but the certainty of her trust lived in her bones and her heart and she wasn’t about to question it. Not when everything else was so uncertain.
Dru’s eyes flared red and he sucked in a deep breath, staring at her with an intensity that would have terrified her if it came from anyone else, especially Varrow. This was just another example of how he and Dru were nothing alike.
They didn’t have time for distraction, so Laurel did her best to get them back on track. “So... what are we doing... starting a fire?” That should be easy enough.
“No,” Dru said, immediately dashing hopes of an easy escape. “Any ship can handle a small fire. We need a bomb.”
A bomb. Laurel wasn’t sure exactly what kind of sound she made, something between an ‘oh’ and a quivering gasp. A bomb? Really? “You know how to make a bomb?” Who knew how to do that stuff? Why? Then again, he had been a soldier, a warrior, he probably had all sorts of training that Laurel wouldn’t expect.
“It’s simpler than you think,” Dru said, as if that would make her feel better.
Laurel really didn’t want to think about how easy it was to create something that could kill dozens of people in an instant. “We’re not... I mean... How many people will it...” She couldn’t figure out how to get the question out, couldn’t figure out what she was trying to ask. Even if the people on board had done terrible things, she didn’t want their blood on her hands.
Dru took pity on her. “We’re not trying to hurt anyone with this thing. We just need to trip the life support system.” He didn’t point out that Varrow had already made his intentions to hurt Dru’s people clear. He didn’t mention how the scientists aboard the ship had spent the last several weeks torturing Dru.
But those memories still crashed down on Laurel and she felt terrible about her hesitance. How could she care about the people who had done such horrible things to them? Who planned to do even worse? Did that make her a monster? Did it make her any better than them? “It shouldn’t matter,” she muttered. She and Dru were escaping to warn his people about an incoming army, it wasn’t like this journey would end in anything but bloodshed.
“Your compassion makes you strong.” Dru’s voice soothed her. He was too far away to reach out, but his words were almost like a hug.
“Compassion or cowardice?” Some people didn’t deserve to be spared, Laurel knew that. And a tiny part of her was terrified that she was one of them. She still didn’t remember what she had done to her fellow survivors, but with a control chip in her head, it could not have been good. Was she any better than the people on this ship performing their tortures in the name of science? Had she even tried to resist whatever she’d been forced to do?
Dru must’ve seen the turmoil on her face. He crossed the room and gathered her up in his arms, his body a warm and comforting presence against hers. His scent surrounded her, masculine and spicy, a bit sweaty, but that only made him seem more real. Laurel lay her head against his chest, and she couldn’t resist puckering her lips and laying a chaste kiss against the muscle there.
Her warrior sucked in a breath and hissed it out between his teeth. Whatever attraction she felt for him, with that sound she was sure it was reciprocated. And strangely, that was enough to put Laurel back on solid ground. She trusted Dru, trusted that he wouldn’t place his faith in someone unworthy of it.
They might have stood there like that all day if the ever present threat of discovery hadn’t occurred to them at roughly the same instant. They broke apart and shared a sweet smile before getting back down to business
.
“What do we need?” she asked.
Dru rattled off a list of ingredients that probably made sense to him, but after ‘accelerant’ Laurel was lost. “I think everything we need is back in the room they were holding me in,” Dru admitted, his jaw set in distaste.
“Tell me what I’m looking for, and you can stay here while I go get it,” Laurel offered.
She wasn’t surprised when he shook his head. “I can do this. And we’re better together. Stronger.”
That she believed. They exited her room with caution, Laurel going first to make sure no one was waiting out in the hall. The trip back to Dru’s cell was nerve-racking as hell, and it had to be even worse for her companion. She had only imagined all of the terrors that he had endured, while he’d had to live through it.
Once they were inside, Dru didn’t hesitate to move. His eyes stuttered over the bed where he’d been tied down for so long, but if Laurel hadn’t been looking right at him, she never would have seen the flash of pain in his eyes that was gone between one blink and the next.
While he gathered his bomb making supplies, Laurel opened a small closet and pulled out a dark wraparound top that looked like it might fit him. She offered it silently, her hand stretched out holding the garment and Dru took it with a nod of thanks, slipping into it with practiced efficiency. Laurel did her best not to imagine what he would look like while removing his clothes, if he would do it just as quickly as he could put them on. They were on the brink of escape, she couldn’t get distracted now.
Tell that to her newly awakened libido.
“Is something wrong?” Dru peered at her, his stare strong enough to make her heart beat a little faster.
Laurel managed to shake her head, but she didn’t trust herself to speak. She knew whatever she said would come out all breathy, and now was not the time to start talking like they’d just gone a round in the sack and she was ready for an encore.
He waited a moment to see if she would say anything, but Dru finally held up his haul and dumped everything he’d collected on the empty table beside the monitoring station.
The door opposite them was closed, but it was an ever present threat, a reminder that someone could come through at any moment and ruin everything. Laurel didn’t want to think about what would happen if they were caught here, but the nightmare scenarios were already starting to play through her mind.
“Maybe I should stand guard outside while you do this,” she suggested. “That way we’ll know if someone’s coming.”
Dru didn’t look up from his work, steadily connecting a clump of wires between a clock and a lump of something that looked like clay. “That will only draw more attention to us. You’re not supposed to be here. Give me two more minutes and this will be done.”
Two minutes had never felt so long, and Laurel stared at Dru’s hands, willing him to work quickly, but steadily. Her brain was ready to go crazy and every few seconds she was certain that she could hear people moving outside, coming towards them. But no one showed up. By the time Dru carefully scooped up his improvised bomb her hands were shaking and her steps unsteady.
They moved towards the evac station, with Dru in the lead. Laurel wouldn’t have the first idea of where to set a bomb to do the right amount of damage, but she trusted her companion to know just what to do. They passed the evac station and Dru spared her a quick glance, as if he were about to suggest that she climb on their escape shuttle and wait for him to get back, but if that was what he had planned to say he kept it to himself. He was a smart man.
Dru finally came to a stop in front of a porthole that looked out into the expanse of space. He set his device on the ground and fiddled with the clock. “I’m only setting a timer for a minute, we don’t want them to have a chance to find it and disable it.”
Laurel looked over her shoulder, judging the distance to the evac station. One minute didn’t seem like a lot of time, but Dru was right. They couldn’t risk the discovery.
“Ready in three, two, one. Go!” Dru sprang up from his crouch and grabbed Laurel’s wrist, dragging her behind him. They sprinted down the hall, no longer worried about stealth. Laurel’s hand fumbled as she tried to open the door to the evac station, but it slid open with a quiet whoosh and then slid shut behind them as if there was no danger on the ship. She and Dru scrambled up into the shuttle and closed the door behind them, hustling to the cockpit and strapping themselves in while waiting for their moment.
A minute had sounded like the blink of an eye when Dru told her, but now it was an eternity, and as Laurel tried to count down the final seconds, one stretched into the next and she couldn’t hold her focus long enough to get past ten. Dru reached out and clutched her hand, anchoring her for the moment. She shot him a grateful smile and just as she took a deep breath to say something, she wasn’t sure what, the ship rocked around them and lights began to flash.
The system in front of them came online, the dashboard brightening as the emergency systems booted up.
“Let’s get out of here.” Dru grinned at her, eyes flashing red.
Despite the danger, despite everything they’d just gone through, Laurel laughed, her soul bright and light for the first time in longer than she could remember. Dru punched something on the control console and the wall in front of them opened into empty space. A few more button presses and the ship shot forward, hurtling them towards freedom.
Laurel held her breath, waiting to see if anyone followed them, or if the ship had anything offensive to shoot them with. Ten seconds became a minute, and a minute became three, then five, then fifteen, and as the Oscavian scientific vessel became smaller and smaller in their view screen, Laurel let herself hope. Maybe this time they really had escaped. Maybe this time they would be safe.
“How long until we make it to your people?” The question might have been premature; it wasn’t like Dru knew any better than her where they sat in space.
He punched information into the console and waited several moments before replying. A grin split his face and he looked towards her. For a crazy second Laurel was sure he would kiss her, but he stayed in his own seat and she couldn’t decide whether or not she was disappointed. “Three days, denya. Three days until we’re home.”
THE ESCAPE SHUTTLE was just about as barren as Dru would have expected. There were no separate quarters, only a series of bunks that folded down from the walls of the central corridor. Their food was mostly made up of premade meal bars, but there was plenty of water, and a cleaning station in the bathroom that would see to their basic needs. Dru had survived worse, and that wasn’t even counting his stay with the Oscavians. Laurel didn’t look happy with the very basic amenities, but she hadn’t said a word of complaint.
They’d been in the shuttle for hours and after the sixth Dru was willing to believe that the Oscavians hadn’t sent anyone after them. He wasn’t so confident that they wouldn’t send anyone later, but the bomb he planted must have done some damage, and he Laurel were a low priority. He’d set the auto nav with the location of Detyen Headquarters and now all they had to do was wait while their shuttle took them to their destination. It would be a cramped three days with disgusting food and nothing to entertain them, but there was no risk of torture on the horizon, and they weren’t being held captive by a mad scientist. So all in all, things had improved.
While Laurel spent her time washing up, Dru parked himself in the kitchen and did his best to make something edible out of the meal bars and protein powder that he found. He did a little dance of victory when he found a spice packet lodged in the back of one of the shuttle’s stores. Why it was there, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to question their luck. A little bit of flavoring could make their food almost edible. He was tempted to use the entire thing on their first meal, but he doubted that he’d find more spices even if he tore the ship apart, so Dru used a gentle hand in preparing the food, and rationed the seasoning for later use. He wanted only the best for his denya, but at the moment this wa
s all he could offer.
Laurel came out of the bathroom, her cheeks bright pink and her skin looking exceptionally soft. Dru wanted to touch, wanted to claim; the need had pounded within him since he first recognized her as his mate, but the initial frenzy had subsided to some degree. If he hadn’t been chained down that first day when he saw her, he didn’t know what would have happened, and though the desire within him was greater than anything he before encountered, Dru knew he had to control himself. Knew he had to prove himself to Laurel before she would even consider accepting him. She’d been through too much, had suffered at the hands of strange men, and he would not be another one to assume he could take something that she had not given to him. He wanted her to offer herself, to show that she felt something for him more than thanks for the rescue. They had time. Three days on the ship where anything could happen and then even more days at Detyen HQ. It would be sometime before he could even think of making arrangements to get her back to Earth, and if that was where she wanted to go, Dru already knew that he would follow. No matter what his people needed, she had to come first.
“Is everything alright?” Laurel asked, narrowing her eyes before flicking them up and down while checking him out.
Dru resisted the urge to preen. But one thing was certain, she was not immune to his form. She liked to look at him. And he liked that she looked. “I made us dinner.” He waved at the plates on the small counter that made up the galley area of the shuttle.
Laurel eyed the gelatinous mass skeptically. “I’m not sure that I’m really hungry.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Dru promised. “I mean, it’s not good, but it looks way worse than it is.”
That startled a laugh out of his mate. “If this makes me throw up, you have to clean it up.”
“Your faith in me is appreciated.” The teasing was a balm to his soul and it let him dream of what might come of their relationship if Laurel were to open herself to it. Everything felt right between the two of them, natural, everything he had ever hoped for. There weren’t very many mated Detyens within the Legion, not any that Dru associated with anyway. His own parents had disappeared on a scouting mission decades ago and he had never really understood what he was missing in this kind of relationship until now. That he could laugh in the wake of tragedy showed the power of the denya bond.