"Perfect." He slung his pack over his shoulder, then led her down to the ground level.
They crept out of the shed and back toward the woods where they had cover from any stray glance. Moving quickly and gracefully, Caillen skimmed the yards, heading toward a more densely populated area.
Desideria was surprised at the difference between this town and her native Qilla. The houses here were narrow and long, their roof lines cut at sharp angles. Qillaqs used mostly untinted glass and windows with a lot of circular designs. The Andarion homes had small windows that were kept covered up.
"Do they have an aversion to daylight?" she asked, wondering about the custom.
"Their eyes are more sensitive to it than ours."
Even their transports were radically different. Her people traveled in grou but the Andarion vehicles seemed designed for speed and few occupants. Yet what struck her most was the lack of toys and children on the street.
"Where are all the kids?"
Caillen stepped over a fallen limb. "Probably in training."
"You mean school?"
"No, training. School is attended at night and usually online. They spend the daylight hours in physical and martial training. I cannot emphasize the point that they make your people look like wimps enough. While you're a warrior culture, you're female dominated. Andarions are male dominated and vicious to an unfathomable level."
"They subjugate their women?"
"No. The only thing more dangerous than an Andarion male is an Andarion female. Their women, as a rule, aren't very feminine in anything they do. There are exceptions to this, but very rare ones. All of them are tough sons of bitches."
She didn't know what he meant until they left their cover and started walking down the street, toward an intersection.
Caillen cleared his throat before he spoke. "Don't meet anyone's gaze. Keep your head down at all times."
He, however, didn't follow that advice. In fact, he stared down every person they passed as if daring them to speak. It was like every passerby was sizing him up for an opponent and he was begging them to try something.
At the biggest intersection they found, Caillen paused next to a red-marked pole and hailed an autotran for them. He allowed her to enter the small egg-shaped vehicle first, then he got in and closed the door. She started to lower her cowl, but the fierce look he gave her made her pause. He cut a sharp glare to the corner. She followed his line of sight to see a camera there.
So she pretended she was only adjusting it while he swiped his card and entered their destination on the electronic keypad. When he didn't explain the language or his actions, she took that to mean that they also had a mic in the car that was monitoring them.
True to her suspicion, a deep voice spoke to them in what must be the Andarion language. Caillen responded, his tone calm and even. They talked back and forth for several seconds until Caillen, his tone never showing any stress, jerked his blaster out and shot the camera in the car and the one on the street.
He moved so fast and unexpectedly that she gaped. "What's going on?"
"We've been made."
14
Caillen growled in the back of his throat. "I seriously underestimated their tech. Bastards have a face and retinal scanner that notified them that I wasn't who I claimed."
Terror filled her. "What do we do?"
He answered by kicking the electronics panel in front of them so hard that it broke open and exposed the wires. Desideria was dying to know what he was doing, but didn't want to distract him while they were in a crisis situation. The most important thing was for them to get out of here as quickly as possible.
Caillen cursed in a language she couldn't identify as if everything was hopeless.
She started to open the door to run for it, but he caught her arm and held her inside.
"On foot, we're dead. If you want to escape, stay with me."
But did she trust him enough for that? He hated her mother and he didn't seem to think all that much of her.
What if he was lying?
For all she knew, he might be. All of this fiasco and drama could be caused by his fear of them killing him. Maybe the Andarions wouldn't do anything more than set her free and let her go home. They might honor her diplomatic immunity.
But what if he wasn't lying? What if they did imprison her like her mother had done her father? Then she'd be trapped here forever. Or eaten alive.
That would be bad and her mother would be dead.
At the end of the day, she didn't know Caillen at all. Didn't know his moral code or really much of anything about him other than he'd been raised as a commoner who had some impressive thief-like skills...
And he was a wanted felon to the Andarion government.
None of that gave her a reason to trust him even the slightest bit.
But if she had to choose between devils, she'd rather choose the one known than the one not. She was too ignorant of other races and cultures to even begin to argue against Caillen about the Andarions and their customs. They could have fat flying spiders who lived on cake trained to capture her for all she knew.
Hoping she wasn't being stupid or fooled, she grabbed his blaster and readied herself for the fight.
Sirens blared and drew nearer as he rifled through the wires and tore out connections only to make new ones. He glanced at the blaster in her hand. "FYI, don't shoot the Andarions with that. It'll only piss them off."
Great. What were they supposed to do if they couldn't fire on them? "Then what..."
The transport shot forward at three times its normal cruising speed. The unexpected lurch sent her flying back into the seat and caused her to drop her weapon as Caillen took control of their vehicle and sent it careening through traffic at a pace that was horrifying and disorienting.
That being said, he was good at controlling it as he narrowly missed hitting bystanders, obstacles and other vehicles. He might lack all manners and social graces, but when it came to communicating with electronics, she doubted if ayone could be better.
Two Enforcer transports stopped in front of them, cutting off their escape route.
Without slowing down the least bit, Caillen skidded their transport sideways and somehow managed to wedge it through the Enforcers who opened fire on them. He righted their transport and kept moving forward. The back window shattered under the heavy shots, spraying glass fragments all over them.
He started to push her toward the floor out of harm's way, but she stopped him.
"I know how to fight."
She saw the respect in his dark eyes before he nodded. He went back to driving while she shot out the remaining pieces of the back window, then laid down cover fire for them. The transport skidded as he narrowly avoided slamming into a large fuel hauler, then straightened and lurched forward again.
"Air support's coming in," he warned as he did something with the wires that made the transport speed up even more. Now they were flying.
Desideria crawled out of the back window before she fired up at the hovercraft that was tailing them. Her shots glanced off the craft and did nothing more than burn their paint. It didn't even cause them to swerve to miss her blasts. Cursing her weapon, she slid back into the transport. "You got anything with more kick?"
He pulled a smaller blaster out of his boot and handed it to her.
Was he serious? It looked like a child's weapon.
He grinned at her. "It has a plasma recoil. Be careful."
Yeah, it'd hurt her to fire it, but with the right hit, it should bring the craft down. She leaned out the side window only to have Caillen jerk her back in before she could shoot. She started to yell at him for his actions, until she realized that he'd kept her from being flattened by a cargo transport that roared past them.
Had he delayed even a nanosecond, she'd have been cut in half. The thought made her stomach shrink.
"Thanks."
He inclined his head as the air support opened fire on them again. She ducked d
own as blasts narrowly missed her and cut through their transport. Now her anger was forefront and the taste of bloodlust was heavy in her mouth. Determined to pay them back for the assault, she leaned out the window and braced herself. Then she opened fire. The shots sizzled up, shattering the hovercraft's glass and taking out their upper rotor blade. But instead of falling back, they fell toward them, heading at them so fast all she could see was her death.
"Heads up!" she shouted as she returned to the transport's seat and ducked for cover.
But it was too late. The hovercraft hit the ground right beside them, slinging sideways and catching the transport with its tail section. It sent them careening down the street before they rolled over and over again. Her stomach pitched as dizziness consumed her. Pain slammed into every part of her while she tumbled around the transport, banging into Caillen and everything else in the vehicle.
I'm going to die. She knew it. There was no way they could survive a wreck so vicious. She waited for the darkness to take her, but to her amazement she remained conscious.
When they finally stopped rolling and skidded to an abrupt halt, she was completely disoriented. Her stomach was contracting with such ferocity that she waited for the indignity of spilling its contents. Somehow she managed to keep it in as Caillen tried to open the door that had been crushed by their wreck. The transport was so damaged that there was no escape that she could see. It had them cocooned in a twisted metal pod.
"Get down."
She didn't question his order. The moment she ducked, Caillen pulled out a tachyon charge. He set it on the door, then covered her body with his as it blasted a hole in the side of the transport.
He got out first, then pulled her with him.
As she ran away from the transport, she noticed that she was covered in blood. It was on her clothes, her skin and in her hair. Her heart stopped as panic consumed her. Where was she injured? Every part of her body ached so there was no telling.
It took her a full minute to realize she wasn't the one hurt.
Caillen was.
Still he didn't slow down. He led her into an abandoned warehouse and slammed the door shut behind them and locked it, then fried the lock so that no one could enter easily. His hands shaking, he shrugged the pack off and gave it to her. "Keep running. Darling knows where we are. He'll send help as soon as he can. Just stay hidden until they find you."
She frowned at his calm tone and the fatal determination she'd heard in his voice. "What about you?"
He grimaced. "I'm not going to make it." He opened his jacket to show her that the hovercraft's shots hadn't missed him. His entire left side was riddled with blast wounds.
For the first time, she saw fear in his eyes that overrode his pain. His cheeks were smeared with dirt and blood that was streaked by sweat. There was a tic in his jaw and blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
He pulled out his reserve blaster and held it tight in a bloodied grip. "I'll cover you while you run."
She watched the blood flowing from his hand to make small splatters against the dirty concrete floor. "Caillen--"
"Don't argue. You're wasting valuable time you need to get clear of this place."
Even though she hated it, she nodded. He was right, she had to get out of here. Her mother's life depended on it. Kissing him on his bruised cheek, she turned and ran to find a back way out.
Caillen listened to the sound of her retreating footsteps as he limped away from the door and made sure to cover his bloody tracks to find some place where he could hole up and take out a few of their pursuers before they killed him. For some reason he couldn't name, it saddened him that she'd left him to die.
She's a stranger, what do you care?
Yet he couldn't shake the image of his father dying alone in the filthy gutter like he was nothing but trash.
Like he was about to do.
So be it. Unlike his father, he wasn't lying down to be executed. He would die fighting with everything he had, taking as many of the Andarions with him as he could.
Your father died protecting you...
The guilt and pain of that ripped through him as it always did when he thought about it. Which was something he tried to avoid. He knew the truth. His father was a fighter and he'd only surrendered to their pursuers to give Caillen enough time to escape and live.
Again like he was doing for Desideria.
I'm such an effing idiot.
He didn't know her and yet here he was laying down his life to keep her safe. Not wanting to think about that either, he turned his attention to the street, where he saw through a dirty window that the Enforcers were gathering their numbers before they came in to search for him.
"Come on, you bastards. Don't be bashful." He crouched low and braced his arm so that he could fire on them the moment they entered.
A hand touched his shoulder.
He whirled, expecting it to be one of the Enforcers.
It wasn't. Instead, he saw a beautiful angel who had blood and dirt smeared across her dark skin. Her hair was a tangled mess and there was a determination in her eyes that said she wasn't about to be argued with.
"I can't leave you here, Caillen. We got into this together. Together we'll get out of it or die."
He was stunned by Desideria's heartfelt words. "What about your mom?"
"Your friend knows about her and I'd be dead if not for you. Now move it before I shoot you."
He scoffed at her order. "You're an idiot."
"Apparently so." She pulled his arm around her shoulders and helped him move through the dark, vacant building. "Any bright ideas for an escape?"
"Not really. Every time I try to think of something, the pain asserts itself to the forefront of my attention. Kind of blows everything else out of the way."
She growled low in her throat. "Oh this is irritating. I hate it when someone gets the better of me. I can't stand to lose."
Desideria paused as she saw an opened trapdoor in the floor. It offered very little chance of nondiscovery, but it was the only one they had. "I have an idea."
Caillen hesitated as he saw it too. "It'll never work."
"Do I crap all over your plans even when they're stupid? No. Now unless you have a better idea, get in there."
He mumbled something under his breath that sounded like death to bossy women as he snapped a small light stick and tossed it into the small room so that they could see. Ignoring him, she helped him down, then went to make sure there was no blood trail leading to their hiding place.
The Enforcers were just outside, working on breaking into the rusted-out door he'd locked. Their electronic torch made a loud hiss as they shouted to each other. Any second they'd be inside and shooting...
Please let this work.
Following Caillen into the hole, Desideria closed the trapdoor barely one heartbeat before the Enforcers stormed inside to search for them. The empty room was bathed in a dull blue light from his stick--a much more somber and dim light than the one he'd used in the cave. He must have chosen it for that reason.
She went to Caillen who'd passed out on the dirty floor that was encrusted with spiderwebs and rodent droppings. Probably for the best--not the nasty spiderwebs and other things, but being unconscious given their situation. If they were taken, he'd have no idea.
Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky.
She heard the Andarions above opening up their equipment and talking to each other in angry tones as they tried to locate them. Damn it, why didn't she have a translator? It was so frustrating to not be able to understand a single word they spoke.
Biting her lip, she glanced at Caillen's backpack and remembered his mirror devices from the cave. Would that work to jam their scanners?
Better than nothing. She searched out the devices until she had them in her hand. Her heart pounding, she carried them to the small trapdoor and placed one piece on each side of it before she turned them on.
Please let that be the right way to position and operate t
hem.
If not...
She didn't want to think about that as she went back to try and stop Caillen's bleeding. In his pack, he had bandages and all kinds of things she couldn't even guess the function of--gadgets, medicines, weapons. They were all marked, but she couldn't read even one character of the highly stylized writing.
Why didn't I learn Universal?
Because her mother had thought it a waste of time. Yet another reason she shouldn't have listened to the woman.
She clenched one of the bottles in her hand and hesitated as she debated whether or not to give a dose to Caillen. Bter not guess on what it was or the dose since that might very well kill him.
Fine. She'd stop the bleeding with pressure.
The voices above her head grew louder and angrier. Had they found the door? Were they summoning troops to enter?
She held her breath in nervous fear, waiting for discovery.
Her gaze went to Caillen. His handsome face was so pale and his skin was covered in sweat. Don't bleed out. If he died, she had no idea how she'd get out of here.
But it wasn't just that. She owed him and if not for her, he wouldn't be here wounded right now. This was all her fault. He could have been like other nobles and ignored her attack. Or he could have called security.
Instead, he'd risked his life and saved hers without a second thought. Something very few would do. A foreign tenderness filled her until a sound jerked her attention back to their pursuers.
Someone knocked on the trapdoor.
They're coming in.
She grabbed the blaster, ready to fight it out. They weren't going to take Caillen. Not if she could help it.
Above her head, it sounded like two people were arguing. After a few minutes, the voices drifted away out of her hearing range.
Were they gone?
Or was it the same trick they'd used at the cave with the probers?
She looked back at Caillen who would have probably known the answer.
Either way, she needed to tend him before he lost any more blood. Setting the blaster aside, she peeled his coat back, then raised his shirt. Her lip curled involuntarily at the sight of his mutilated chest. She'd never seen anything more gruesome and it amazed her that he was still alive.
How could anyone survive something so brutal? It said a lot about his will to live and his ability to handle pain. What had he been through that he was able to remain so calm in a fight? The skills he had weren't innate. They were the kind that had to be honed by years of experience and she should know since she'd studied her whole life and hers were nowhere near as sharp.
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