“Where are we going?” she asked.
“How far is New York City?”
Her eyes widened, and she gaped at me. “It’s across the country,” she said. “I don’t know exactly how many miles, but—”
“If it is in the same kingdom, we will be there in a matter of minutes.” I brandished my hand at her again. “Come.”
“Why are we going to New York?”
My temper was beginning to rise as her hesitation cost us valuable time, but I tried to remain calm. “My warriors have been captured there. We must go now,” I explained.
She shook her head and took a step back as she cried, “We can’t! You’ll kill everyone! I can’t let that happen! I mean, look at you! You’re already covered in blood!”
I looked down at myself and saw that the thick crimson coat of the soldiers’ blood still painted my body. It had dried into a sticky brown glaze, but the place on my side where I’d been shot was still shiny and fresh. When I glanced back up, I saw Emily’s eyes focusing in on the small, wet wound.
“And you’re hurt,” she said softly, creeping forward to study the opening more closely. “You should have told me.”
“It is of little concern to me,” I replied dismissively. Honestly, I’d forgotten about the gunshot. My adrenaline had been pumping since I’d slaughtered all the human men and went to find Emily after she’d disappeared. Then, passion had taken over and occupied my mind further. Now, in the face of my loyal and capable warriors’ compromised safety, my injury was the last thing I wanted to worry about. Having it brought to my attention, though, also brought back the searing pain, and I grimaced.
“You can’t travel like this,” Emily said as she observed my wince. “I don’t even know how you managed to make love with that kind of injury.”
“I do,” I said in a low voice, gazing at her with more adoration than I’d ever felt.
Her features softened, and she let out a small, almost inaudible sigh. Then, she twisted on her heels and looked around the room until she spotted her blankets still spread out on the ground. She plucked the top one from the floor and brought it to my chest, wiping in a downward motion while studiously avoiding the wound. The blood smeared reluctantly, but she persisted and started cleaning my skin bit by bit.
When I was mostly rid of the blood, and all that was left was my gunshot, she let the blanket fall to the floor. “There,” she said quietly. “Now we need to take care of that injury.”
“We do not have time,” I murmured. Having her so close to me made my breath catch in my chest, and it took a great amount of self-control to keep my hands at my sides rather than wrapping them around her waist and taking her right there again. “I must go to my warriors.”
“Duke, you can’t—”
“Emily,” I interrupted fiercely. “Elders were not meant to come on this mission. I insisted I join my men because they serve me loyally and unquestioningly, and I could not ask them to put themselves at risk without offering myself up to the same cause. I will not abandon them now.”
She frowned, but I could finally see understanding dawning on her face. Biting her lower lip, she tentatively asked, “But can you travel in your condition?”
“I traveled to find you,” I pointed out.
“I don’t want you to be hurt further,” she insisted.
Reaching forward, I brushed my knuckles over her jawline and nodded. “I know. I have a duty to my warriors that cannot be forgotten, though, and you must come with me. I will not leave you here alone.”
“Okay,” she finally agreed. She held out her hand to me, and I took it.
We exited the ship together, hand-in-hand, and I lifted my face to the sky. I could feel her eyes on me as I did, and the fascination radiating from her was palpable.
“Why do you do that?” she asked, breaking my concentration.
I dropped my head and looked to her. “What do you mean?”
“Why do you look at the sky before you fly?”
If I hadn’t been so worried about the captured A’li-uud, I would have smiled in mild amusement at the question. Instead, I said matter-of-factly, “It is how an Elder seeks the wind. We allow the wind’s freedom and power to fill us, and then we release our being and become one with the breeze.”
“But there’s no wind.” She extended her free hand out in front of her as if to catch a wisp of non-existent wind in her palm.
“There is always wind,” I corrected. “Humans and most A’li-uud are simply unable to seek it.”
Her eyes lit up. “Can I learn to seek it too?” she asked hopefully.
At this inquiry, I actually felt the corners of my lips tugging upward. “No,” I told her. “It is a gift granted only to A’li-uud Elders.”
Her face fell with disappointment. “Well, how are you going to know where to find your warriors?”
“I can feel them,” I explained. “It is another gift bestowed upon Elders. Upon accepting the responsibility of Elderhood, we become connected with those in our kingdoms who entrust us with their well-being.”
“You feel millions of people all the time?” she asked in awe, her eyes widening.
I shook my head. “There are not millions of A’li-uud, Emily. We are a race of about one hundred thousand. And I do not feel the eight thousand in my kingdom at all times. It is an ability that requires great concentration. I must focus on my target to infiltrate his soul.”
“That sounds kind of evil,” she remarked.
“In malevolent hands, it would be,” I agreed. Emily opened her mouth to ask another question, or perhaps to comment further on the one I’d just answered, but I stopped her by holding up my free hand. “I am happy to tell you all about that peaks your curiosity, but we have no more time to waste. We must go now.”
She closed her mouth again with an expression of anxious fear, and then she nodded once with steely determination and stepped closer to me until her arm pressed flush against mine. I tilted my face up to the sky again and closed my eyes. The wind brushed my cheeks with gentle allure, and I jumped.
When my feet hit the ground, I felt the unyielding surface of rock that humans called pavement rather than the hot sand and cracked dirt I’d become accustomed to in the desert. Buildings of ugly gray and brown hues surrounded me on all sides, some towering so high that they looked as if they were trying to touch the clouds overhead. Trash littered the ground like weeds dotted a meadow, and there was a sour, acrid stench in the air that made me wrinkle my nose in disgust.
I didn’t see anyone around except Emily, who was still clutching my hand and looked so terrified that her face had turned alarmingly white. Vehicles were in the middle of the road with their doors thrown open and no drivers inside. All of the vendor carts lining the walkways on either side of me were abandoned, and every store I was able to see into appeared to be unattended as well. Despite the lack of movement or signs of life, there was not complete silence. Discarded bags swished as they were blown by the slight breeze, and I was certain I could hear the very faint squeaking of vermin in the distance. Somehow, though it seemed that Emily and I were the only two beings left in the world, the very air I breathed felt thick with tension.
“Where is everyone?” she whispered.
“My warriors did their job well,” I murmured back.
Emily’s head whipped to face me, and, out of my peripheral vision, I could see she wore a look of horror. I didn’t acknowledge her, though. Instead, I delved deep into my own mind and focused on my brother, Dane. Within seconds, his rage filled me, and I knew where to go.
“This way,” I said, motioning forward with my free hand, tugging her onward with my other.
We jogged up the street and took a left. Emily panted behind me, unable to move as quickly as I could, but I didn’t slow. Dane’s anger was pulsating throughout me as though it was my very own. The new surge of adrenaline was enough to offset the throbbing pain in my side from the gunshot wound. I needed to get to him and the others as qui
ckly as I could—the connection I’d manifested to locate them was powerful and would soon take me over completely if I didn’t find them.
Suddenly, I heard voices. They were so quiet they were practically inaudible, and I was certain Emily couldn’t hear them, but my ears pricked. We continued jogging, and they became louder and louder until I was sure even Emily’s human ears were able to pick up on their tones. Her fingers squeezed mine nervously, and I returned the squeeze with one of my own just as several humans appeared before us.
There was a large group of them in similar attire as those who had attacked my ship, and they were all armed. I did a quick count of them in my head, reaching nineteen just as one spotted us. He made a loud, barking sound which captured the attention of his comrades, and they rounded on us.
“Stop!” the first shouted. The large, black firearm in his hands came up to his shoulder, and he pointed it directly at me.
Emily made a strangled noise of fear in her throat, and her feet rooted to the spot. Our hands were still linked, and her sudden halting brought me to a stop with an unceremonious lurch. I kept my eyes fixed on the soldiers, but I could feel Emily’s gaze flicking between them and me in terror.
“Let her go!” another bellowed, jerking his head to indicate he was referring to Emily.
She squeaked, but, to my surprise, she released my hand and stepped forward until her body was blocking mine. All of the soldiers had their weapons raised now, and they looked at each other uncertainly as she placed herself in front of me.
“Don’t shoot!” she called to them. Her voice was trembling violently, almost as if she was extremely emotional, but her chin was tilted upward, and her shoulders were squared with bold courage. “He won’t hurt you. Just don’t shoot.”
“Are you crazy?” a third soldier yelled in disbelief. “It’s thanks to these blue-skinned freaks that this city’s a ghost town!”
“We just came to get the others. He doesn’t want to cause any harm,” she persisted.
I narrowed my eyes over her head at the humans, some of whom were staring at me with obvious hatred on their faces while the others were gaping at her. The man in front who had first noticed us kept his weapon fixed on me, as Emily’s petite figure didn’t provide much of a guard for my upper chest, much less my head. Others, however, wavered, lowering their guns slightly to point at the road between us.
“We’re not letting them go,” the first spat. “And you’re nuts if you think otherwise.”
“Don’t make this into something it doesn’t need to be!” Emily pleaded. I could feel her growing desperation billowing from her in waves as she rightly assumed I was losing my patience and would soon strike.
Then, stepping forward until he was level with the first soldier, a bland-faced human snarled, “She’s no hostage, Jenks. Can’t you see that? She’s a race traitor. She’s defending him.”
“Yeah,” the man called Jenks replied sourly. “And if she’s not with us, she’s against us.”
He moved his gun, then, until it was aimed directly at Emily’s face. The other eighteen around him mirrored the action. Emily let out a choked cry of fear, her hand rocketing backward to grab mine. The moment her skin touched mine, and I realized what they were preparing to do, something inside of me broke. All of the rage I’d felt when the soldiers had attacked my ship was nothing to what I felt now. It was as if an enormous, hellish beast reared up from a tiny seed in my belly and burst from my body. I felt nothing, heard nothing, and saw nothing except hot, scarlet fury at the prospect of seeing Emily shot dead right in front of me, and I roared.
My feet had left the ground before I knew it. I didn’t even bother to jump into the wind again as I had the last time I’d gone into combat against humans. I sprang out from behind Emily in one great leap, whipped my sword from my side in mid-air, and soared toward the soldiers. Their guns immediately swung to me, but I was unaware if they were shooting or not. The only thing I knew was the power surging through me and the hatred that fueled it.
Before my feet even hit the ground, I sank the blade of my fuchsia sword into the skull of Jenks and watched him drop to his knees in slow motion. His gun clattered away, and he turned his wide, shock-riddled eyes up to me before he went limp. Then, I rounded on the others and lunged again.
14
Emily
Duke’s warriors were being kept inside what appeared to be an enormous high-rise office building. The soldiers we encountered were gathered outside, though I was certain there were more indoors standing guard over the alien prisoners. Aside from the men with whom we were at odds, there wasn’t another soul to be seen. I was grateful for that, though, when the fighting started.
I watched the first soldier who’d spoken to us, a man who’d been referred to as Jenks, sink to the ground with Duke’s glowing blade in his head. My stomach rolled violently, not because it was too gruesome a sight for me to see but because it harshly reminded me of the day’s earlier events when I’d witnessed Duke fighting for his life. Fear ripped through me like a knife through paper as I realized yet again just how outnumbered he was. I’d been frightened for his safety before, but it was nothing to the terror I felt now.
On the other hand, watching him in hand-to-hand combat was perhaps the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was like a choreographed ballet. Duke swooped and swirled and dipped and dove, never hesitating or flinching, and his fuchsia sword acted as his graceful partner. If I hadn’t been so concerned for his well-being, I would have been staring in awe. Actually, my fingers were curled against my cheeks, and I was gritting my teeth so hard that my jaw hurt with tense horror.
My inclinations about the outcome of going after his warriors had clearly been correct. Duke slaughtered all of the soldiers one by one. He had no mercy. When he’d said he would kill everyone holding his warriors hostage, he’d meant it, and now he was proving it. Limp body after limp body fell to the pavement, gradually increasing Duke’s chances of survival and decreasing the soldiers’.
Then, I heard something that made my heart jump into my throat.
A loud, ear-splitting bang cracked through the air, echoing off the abandoned buildings around me. There had been gunfire when the brawl had begun, but it had rapidly diminished when Duke started simply massacring the men. Now, the shot was alone, which made it so loud that my ears seemed to immediately fill with high-pitched, incessant ringing. The very moment I heard the bang, Duke grunted, stumbled backward, and dropped his shoulders.
He had been hit.
His hand came up to his ribcage, only a few inches above his other gunshot wound, and I saw him flinch so violently it was as if he was having a seizure. There was no sign of calmness or relaxation in his posture; on the contrary, he appeared to be unable to straighten up properly. Time seemed to stand still as I waited with bated breath to see what had happened. His pale, white eyes swung to me, and then he let out the most gut-wrenching groan of pain I’d ever heard in my life.
The soldier who had shot him was standing nearly twenty feet from him with his gun still raised. He was watching Duke with a mixture of satisfaction and nervous anticipation on his face. I could tell he was waiting to see if Duke fell to the ground like the slaughtered men had or if Duke would attack him once more. An idea sprang into my mind and, with fear pumping adrenaline through my veins, I acted.
One of the soldiers’ guns had skittered across the blacktop when he’d been killed, and it lay just three or so feet from me. I eased myself down into a crouch as slowly as I could to avoid capturing the gunman’s attention, as well as the attention of his cohorts. Then, I lunged for the weapon.
Immediately, there was an outcry from the men, and I could see Duke swing his head toward me in my peripheral vision. Knowing I had just seconds for my plan to succeed, I didn’t hesitate. From my clumsy half-kneeling, half-laying position on the ground, I pulled the trigger.
The soldier who had shot Duke let out a pained, helpless cry as the bullet tore through his nec
k. Guns turned from my handsome alien to me, but I didn’t blink. I didn’t have time to reconsider or panic. I simply targeted the next man and shot again, and, this time, he fired back. Both bullets missed their target, but Duke seemed to fly into a rage the moment my opponent pulled his trigger. He roared again and jumped into the wind, and suddenly the only thing I could see of him was an arc of fuchsia light.
In an instant, the man who had shot at me dropped, and his head rolled away from his body. It took me a split second to realize he’d been decapitated, but, before I could scream, a second soldier lost his head, and then a third. Within merely a breath’s time, every single remaining soldier became nothing but a headless corpse on the now-bloodied New York City street.
Duke appeared again only a foot away from me. He landed hunched over with his palm pressed against his newest wound and a twisted expression of pain on his face. I closed the gap between us and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull his hand away from the gunshot to look at it.
“No,” he said hoarsely. “We have to get my warriors.”
“Duke, this might be really bad. I have to look at it,” I told him earnestly in a shaking voice.
He pulled his hand away, and I gasped sharply. The entry point was much larger than the one lower near his hip, and it was only an inch or so below his heart. Thick, mahogany-colored blood flowed from the hole and left a streak down his chiseled torso. I could actually see his pulse as, each time his heart beat, a small burst of blood pumped out of the injury. Duke’s breath came in short, whistling wheezes as I examined it, and my mouth went as dry as cotton.
“We have to get you help,” I said, trying to remain calm.
“I need to get my warriors,” he replied stubbornly.
Turning my eyes up to him, I saw defiant purpose on his face. “But—”
“My warriors are the help I need,” he insisted. He didn’t sound irritated or short-tempered I was resisting, but it was clear he was immovable in his stance. “They can do things for me humans cannot.”
Duke: A Paranormal Scifi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 2 Page 9