by Kate Rudolph
She snagged another dumpling and had just taken a bite when Zac came up to her and bumped her hip. “So...” he said. “Is that going to be a thing?”
“Wha...” it came out garbled around the food.
Zac nodded to where Oz had wandered off. “Are you going to be distracted by a certain smoldering warrior?”
“Smoldering?” She took the last bites and wiped her mouth. “Sounds like I’m not the one who’s distracted.”
“I’ve got eyes,” he laughed. “But you’re the one who was practically cuddling against him. Do you really think we can trust them?” It wasn’t a warning. She knew that. Zac was asking a genuine question.
“I don’t know,” she responded. “But I think I want to.”
CRU TRIED TO CALL THEM again. Solan and Oz ignored it. If their captain got a hold of them, he could end their scheme before it began, and neither of them wanted that. But it meant they had to act fast. It was one thing to dodge a call for a few hours, and another entirely to dodge for days when they were on the cusp of an important mission.
Solan was the better pilot, so it made the most sense for him to take the humans. And Lena had to go with them since she was in need of the most medical attention. Then came Luci. The girl was holding together, but Oz knew Emily would want her on the first flight out, so she got a spot. Only one of the humans had to stay behind.
It would be selfish to ask Emily just so he could spend more time with her. And he wouldn’t put her in more danger.
But the thought of two days alone, just the two of them, held a certain sort of appeal that Oz would never admit to out loud.
They’d gathered the humans in the kitchen after they’d had time to eat and get clean. They already looked better than they had the night before with a bit of rest. Oz hoped they could make a life in Osais or one of the other Synnr strongholds on Aorsa. It wouldn’t be the same as Earth, but they’d have an opportunity to live. It was better than whatever they’d put up with over the last few months.
Emily met his gaze when he and Solan stood in front of them and he could see a question in her eyes. It would be answered soon enough.
“We want to get you out of here,” he said.
Something caught between relief and fear pulsed through the group.
“Get us out of here how?” asked Emily, ever the doubter. He couldn’t exactly blame her.
“We have friends on a ship orbiting the planet. They have medical equipment that will allow them to see to your friend and can eventually take you to our home city of Osais. There’s a small human population there and a growing community. You should be welcome.” He could see they didn’t like that and he kept talking before they had time to object any more. “One problem, though, is that our shuttle can only hold four passengers. At least one of you needs to stay behind until we can make a second trip.”
They all started talking at once. Oz couldn’t make sense of any of it, but he made no effort to interrupt. Not yet.
After a moment they quieted. “Lena and Luci are guaranteed spots on the transports. Solan and I thought it would be best if you decided how it will work out for the rest of you.”
“Can’t we just squeeze an extra person in?” Joel asked. “You should have seen how many people we could get in my minivan when I started driving.”
“You drove a minivan?” Zac laughed. “Okay, soccer mom.”
Joel rolled his eyes. “It worked.”
“There’s no way to secure an extra person,” Solan answered. “We tried to think of the logistics, but because we’ll have to transport your friend in stasis, she’ll already be taking up more room than normal. Maybe we could fit an extra under other circumstances. But not these.”
“I’ll stay.” Emily offered before anyone else could.
It was what he wanted to hear, and yet Oz wanted to argue as Emily’s voice cut through. He wanted her safe, punt it all, wanted her on that ship and far away from grasping Apsyn hands.
“No,” Zac jumped in. “I should be the one to stay. I’m a man.”
“And what does that make me?” Joel demanded, arms crossed and face dangerous.
“I mean, you’re... um,” Zac stuttered, “short?”
Luci remained quiet, huddling between Zac and Joel.
Emily crossed her arms and glared at the other humans. “You need to go and keep Luci and Lena safe. I’ll be okay by myself.”
“We’re not leaving you alone,” Oz rushed to assure her. “Solan will be taking you all to the ship. I’ll stay behind.”
Emily blinked. She opened her mouth. Then she closed it. After a quick sigh she nodded once. “I’m staying, guys. The longer we argue, the more danger we put ourselves in.” Both men still looked ready to fight, but Emily held firm, and before long it was settled. Lena, Luci, Joel, and Zac would head out with Solan while Emily and Oz would stay behind.
Then it was time to get the humans ready to go. Luckily their shuttle was located on top of their building so getting the humans to it wouldn’t be too risky. But to be safe they waited until darkness fell and then moved quickly. It took all hands to get Lena safely strapped in, but almost before Oz knew it, Solan and the humans were taking off, leaving him and Emily alone on the roof.
It was a beautiful night, a slight breeze moving the fragrant air around them, stars dotting the sky, with the rest of civilization hidden off in the distance. It seemed like he and Emily were the only two people in this sector of the city, and Oz wished he could keep it that way.
They stood close enough to touch. All he’d have to do was move his hand the tiniest bit and he’d be holding hers. Did humans do that? Most of the humans he’d met had either been raised away from Earth or gone for so long that they’d adopted Synnr customs. But Emily still acted like she was on Earth.
He wanted to hold her hand. He wanted to put his arm around her. He ached to kiss her. And more.
But he’d wounded her once, and even if he could find a way to recover from that mistake, he doubted that she’d want more from him. How could she when she wanted to go home?
“When will he be back?” she asked.
“A little less than two days. There are patrols and security measures he’ll need to circumvent which makes the trip take longer. And...” No, she didn’t need to know about Cru. He didn’t want to worry her.
But he’d already said too much. “And?”
He turned completely toward her and let his hand brush against hers, but pulled back before she could think he was trying to take advantage. “Our captain may not be happy with this. He won’t harm your friends, I’m sure of that. But he can be... loud.”
Emily was silent. She looked out into the night. “What’s going to happen to us?” The question was so quiet it was almost swallowed up by the darkness around them. “Do you think we’ll be able to go home?”
Oz’s heart hurt and he didn’t know how to answer her, at least not the second question. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you safe,” he promised. Whatever orders he had to ignore, however many captains he had to scoff at. He’d make sure Emily and her friends had a chance. It might have not been the life they expected, but they’d have freedom and safety.
A few minutes later they headed back inside. Oz would have offered Emily a book or something to entertain herself with, but the translator she’d been outfitted with only worked for spoken language, not written. But she seemed content to sit and look out the window for a long time.
He thought it would be a peaceful night, that they could wait for Solan to return and get Emily to the ship without issue.
Then the warning siren went off and all braz broke loose.
Chapter Eight
THE SIREN GAVE EMILY an immediate headache and she could barely make out what Oz was saying. Braznon’s bowels? Sounded messy. She would have asked what he meant by that, but he’d morphed from her polite host to an alien warrior between one blink and the next.
Was there a fire? A tornado? Were they under atta
ck?
She kept her questions to herself and sprung to her feet, ready to do what Oz told her to. She wasn’t sure she fully trusted the man, but he was the one with the electric wings and fangs who was supposed to keep her safe. For right now that was enough.
“Away from the windows,” Oz barked, and Emily jumped back. He didn’t take his own advice, but he crouched down and peeked out, not making himself much of a target. “Punting braz,” he spat. And yeah, those were definitely alien curses. Why didn’t her translator handle them? That was a question for later.
He stumbled back from the window and looked at her from head to toe. There’d been heat in his gaze before, but now there was no lust. Just assessment. He nodded once. “Shoes on. Good. We need to go.”
“What’s going on?” Emily would do what she needed to do to survive, but she couldn’t do it silently.
“Sweep coming through,” Oz said, moving quickly and picking up things that didn’t seem too important. He shoved them into a bag and pulled it on. “Come on, we can make it to the—punt. Solan’s got the shuttle.”
Yes, he did.
“Did that give us away?” Maybe it wasn’t the time to ask.
But Oz just shrugged. “Can’t worry about that now.” He grabbed something else off the counter and shoved it into his pockets. “There’s a vehicle downstairs we can use. No flight, and they might see us leave, but we can’t stay here.”
Emily was regretting volunteering to stay. It hadn’t occurred to her that something like this might happen. Maybe it should have. They were fugitives from the research facility and apparently these aliens didn’t like humans all that much. Back home she’d never even gotten a parking ticket and now she was on the run from alien soldiers. What had her life become? “What are we waiting for?” The need to move flowed in her veins. She didn’t want the Apsyns getting their hands on her. She wasn’t going back to that terrible place where they treated her like a lab rat. She didn’t want to die as someone’s science experiment.
Oz took a final look around the room and they headed towards the door. The night seemed peaceful. The alarm had stopped ringing, and though Emily could hear the sounds of vehicles, she could pretend it wasn’t evil aliens racing through the night to come and get her. But pretending for too long would get her killed. And she wasn’t going to die today.
She didn’t know where downstairs was. The apartment opened right to the street and there was no obvious entrance to a lower level. She hadn’t even realized they had roof access until they had to carry Lena up there, but it seemed the building held secrets of its own. Oz moved swiftly to a recessed door that Emily would have never noticed. He opened it with a wave of his hand and a narrow staircase led down into darkness.
“A light?” she asked. She couldn’t see a thing, but could imagine all kinds of monsters lurking in the basement on this alien planet.
“They might see it,” Oz whispered. “Here.” Energy crackled and she looked back to see those magnificent wings of his stretching out over head, dimly illuminating a path out.
Emily wanted to reach out and touch them so bad that her hands hurt. But she’d seen the destruction wings like those could cause and she wasn’t going to let curiosity hurt her even more. The metal staircase banged and clanged as they moved downstairs to the garage. There were a few vehicles, but Oz passed them all by until he came to what basically looked like a motorcycle. The wheels looked different, solid in a way rubber wasn’t, and it gleamed with an inner glow. But there was room enough for two people sitting astride. Emily was ready to climb on behind Oz when he motioned for her to get on first.
“Do you expect me to drive this thing?” she asked. She’d never been on a motorcycle back home.
“I can handle the controls, but I need to be behind you to use my wings.” He gave her an encouraging smile.
Emily closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said a little prayer. When she opened them, a giant armored truck hadn’t magically appeared, so she climbed on the alien motorcycle and decided to trust that Oz would do what he could to keep her safe.
He waved his hands in front of the controls and it all appeared in front of her like a hologram. “Hold on to this bar,” he told her, breath rushing by her ear.
Shivers raced through her body, goosebumps breaking out on her arms. Thankfully they were covered by her jacket. She didn’t want Oz to know the effect he had on her. She couldn’t let herself get hung up on an alien. She had to keep her focus on getting home.
But she still leaned into the heat of his body.
For safety.
And warmth.
Yeah, right.
She tried to understand what he was doing with the controls, but it was all in symbols she didn’t recognize. “Shouldn’t there be handlebars or something? How do you steer?” She knew that much about bikes, and the bar she was holding on was fixed in place.
His breath brushed against her again. “The steering controls are along the side of the bike. Our bodies tell it where to go.”
That sounded complicated, but Emily wasn’t going to argue. He seemed to know what he was doing.
She hoped.
Something crashed overhead and she could hear pounding footsteps. “They’re here,” she breathed out.
Oz started the bike and they were off.
PUNTING patrols. How had they found them so quickly? Solan was a better pilot than that; he knew how to get them the braz off the planet without alerting security.
He could curse Solan out later. Right now he had his arms wrapped around Emily and needed to get through the city without anyone noticing. At the last moment he handed her a helmet and made her put it on. His wings could protect him from most injuries, but it was difficult to protect someone else, and she’d be less likely to be identified as a human if she were wearing the helmet. Sure, she didn’t have wings, but it wasn’t like every Zulir had theirs out all the time.
Oz wanted his own wrapped around the bike to deflect anything the patrol shot at them, but he retracted them. The bright, swirling electric colors would be a beacon, and they needed stealth for as long as they could manage.
There was only one way out of the garage on a vehicle, and the patrol was sure to have someone near the door. Oz held on tight to Emily and pushed the bike forward. If they were fast enough, they’d lose the patrol quickly.
And he loved to ride.
They burst through the garage entrance and he barely had time to see the first patrolman signal for him to stop. Oz ignored it and tore down the street, leaning his body and guiding the bike down the narrow lane. The vehicle became an extension of himself and Emily. He’d been worried for a moment that she would resist the controls, but she leaned into him and let him lead. But it was more than that. She didn’t surrender to him, she moved with him, like she knew what he was doing even before he decided.
It couldn’t be that she knew where he was going. He hadn’t decided on a path, and she didn’t know the city. But one turn after another she was flowing with him, letting the bike become a part of her, and they danced together as they drove.
It would have been perfect, maybe even romantic, if not for the sound of vehicles in hot pursuit, sirens blaring. Soon it would be more than sirens. Blasters, bullets, lightning from their wings. It all depended on why the patrol was after them. Did they suspect he was a Synnr? Did they know Emily was human? Or was this just a random patrol that had gotten lucky?
No time to stop and ask, and Oz couldn’t really care anyway. If they got a hold of them, it would be over for Emily and maybe for him. He wasn’t going to let that happen.
A sharp turn had him and Emily almost scraping the ground as they sped down an alley almost too small to accommodate them. He thought they were lucky, that they’d managed to shake the patrol, but when he popped back out onto another street one of the patrol cars was there.
Punt.
More driving. More evading. More flowing perfectly with the human in his arms.
A
nd then the patrol got serious.
The first blaster shot went wide, taking out the window of a nearby building. It was a warning. They wouldn’t rely on blasters for long. The weapons could hurt if they got hit, but they weren’t usually fatal. That was saved for the projectiles and the lightning.
The second blaster shot would have hit them if Emily hadn’t jerked the bike to the side. The patrol was determined to stop them.
Oz let his wings out.
Energy crackled in his veins as he could feel the lightning within him flow. There was a sudden freedom to it, one he couldn’t quite explain. The wings didn’t weigh anything, and yet he could feel them simmering in the air, ready to strike out, ready to shield, ready to fly.
He absorbed the next blaster shots and turned the bike towards one of the roads that would take them out of the city. The land around Vanen was unforgiving, but there were places to shelter if needed, and if they could lose the patrol they’d be able to hide. He didn’t want to get stuck in the city where the patrol would have almost unlimited resources.
They just needed a bit of space. A bit of speed. They could do this.
He had to keep Emily safe.
More blasts shot after them and Oz spread his wings wide, but Emily froze up in his arms, her body stiff as a board. She quickly relaxed back and he didn’t have time to check to see what had happened. Had she been hit? Was it something else?
They had to get out of this.
Now.
He turned his whole self to it, and Emily followed. They got the space he needed, and when an exit onto the local highway came up Oz passed it by, letting the patrol vehicles speed along before slamming his bike to a stop, rearing backward, and climbing the ramp.
No one in the patrol was on a bike like his, so they didn’t have the same maneuverability, and that bought him almost a minute. Just enough time to put distance between them and speed down the road to safety.
Well, relative safety.
They ditched the bike as quickly as possible and he stole a different vehicle, this one with two seats and doors. He took the time to pull out the vehicle tracking system.