by Stacy Jones
“No!” Kix yelled.
Jerking her head towards him, she saw his hand outstretched as though he could stop the star mid-air from twenty feet away. Not understanding the dismay she felt from him, she looked back just in time to see it fly between the doors a split second before they sealed shut.
She felt the vibration of the explosion through the floor from ten feet away, but the doors didn’t blow outward or reopen as she’d hoped.
And that was when she realized…
“The code.”
The five remaining guards trapped in the cave with them seemed to realize what just happened the same moment she did. Two of the three fighting Tirox tried to break off and run away, but he shot them before they’d gone five feet. The last, stunned to stillness for a split second that his comrades tried to abandon him, died quickly under Tirox’s ax.
A sonic boom followed by a pained grunt knocked her out of her stupor. She spun around in time to see Kix fly backward.
“NO!”
Denial speared through her as she watched him hit the ground and go horribly, heart-stoppingly still.
Aria whirled around and ran for the gun she’d dropped. In one movement, she snatched it up, spun around, and fired at the guard who’d just shot her mate. A hole big enough to fit her fist appeared in the middle of his chest, but she didn’t wait for him to realize he was dead. Her gaze locked on Kix’s still form.
Everything else faded away, and Aria ran.
The moment she reached him, her knees gave out. Dropping to his side, she scanned his body, her hands hovering over him. There was a mottled black and blue bruise spreading across his side. Bending, she pressed her ear to his chest, trying to listen for a heartbeat past the rushing sound in her head.
There. Da-dum dum, da-dum dum.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she choked on a sob. Relief flooded her, making her feel dizzy. His heartbeat sounded strange, like it was doubled or had an echo, but it was there. He was alive.
“Kix, baby, wake up. Talk to me,” she demanded, reaching out to cup his cheeks and shake him lightly.
Thudding footsteps and heavy breathing had her looking up sharply and reaching for the gun she’d dropped, only to relax when she saw Tirox come to a stop beside them, next to the body of the last guard. He bent to wrench his ax from the back of its head then turned to her, worry tightening his features as his gaze dropped to Kix lying unconscious.
“He lives?”
“He’s alive, but he isn’t waking up,” she rasped, her throat tight with the tears she refused to shed. Now wasn’t the time. She could break down later, but for now, they were still in danger. “We can’t get the doors open without him. We’re trapped down here.”
Tirox nodded in understanding then cocked his head to the side like he was listening to something and stiffened.
“They’re still coming, aren’t they?” she asked.
She already knew the answer, but he nodded grimly anyway. The octofly had stopped its warble at the detonation of her first throwing star, but that obviously hadn’t been enough to stop the prisoners Zhrovni had lured to them.
Forcing herself to get to her feet, Aria ran to the body of the nearest guard, stripped him of anything that might prove useful, then moved to the next and the next.
Finished, she turned back to Tirox, but he answered before she could do more than open her mouth.
“I have him, my heart.”
Glancing quickly at Kix’s body slung over his broad shoulder, she nodded jerkily then spun on her heel and ran deeper into the cavern, gun up and ready to shoot anyone who stood in their way.
Her only plan was to get somewhere safe. Thoughts of rescue and rebellion were pushed back, forgotten for the moment. Being trapped down there, with no idea if or when they’d manage to escape, didn’t matter. Even not knowing if Zhrovni had lived or died seemed insignificant.
She’d worry about all that once she knew her mate would live.
Until then, everything else could cheerfully go fuck itself.
Chapter 17
Aria spotted a large tunnel opening off the main cavern, one headed away from the running footsteps rapidly approaching from the back of the cave, and veered that way.
Twenty feet in, she slowed to a stop. The light from the main cave had dwindled until they were in almost total darkness.
“Tirox,” she breathed.
He was already laying a hand on her shoulder and guiding her behind him. She curled the fingers of one hand into the harness on his back so she wouldn’t lose him in the dark and found Kix’s neck with the other to reassure herself he was still alive.
Tirox started off again, moving at a steady clip, but one she could keep up with even blind, and occasionally called out “jump,” “turn,” or “duck” as they traveled ever deeper down the tunnel.
After what felt like damn near an hour, Aria was starting to worry. Had she picked the wrong opening? Were they being followed? Was there anywhere down here even remotely safe where they could stop?
As though he could hear her thoughts, Tirox declared lowly, “Nearly there.”
“Where?”
“I smell water. Water means an underground spring or river. Oftentimes they are in a cave of their own, having eaten at the stone around them. Defensible, so long as there are no secondary shafts.”
Aria blinked into the darkness, impressed, and thankful other her had chosen an alien caveman as one of her boyfriends.
A few thankfully short minutes later, Tirox pivoted sharply to the left and slowed as he led her down a rough decline. After having gone maybe thirty feet, the temperature dropped at least ten degrees, and the sound of their footsteps changed, telling her they were in an open space. The trickle of water reached her ears and humidity thickened the air she breathed.
Tirox led them deeper inside then stopped. She lost her grip when he leaned forward. A grunt and a soft scuff told her he’d laid Kix on the ground.
“Stay with him. I will find light.”
Aria nodded wordlessly, knowing he could see her, and cautiously lowered herself to her knees. Dropping the gun, she stretched out her arms, groping for Kix’s body. Finding him, she scooted up until she was kneeling next to his chest.
After checking his pulse again and finding it still beating steadily, she felt down to his side. Gently probing over his ribs, she checked for broken bones. His skeletal structure was different than hers, but she couldn’t feel anything to suggest a fracture or crack.
Moving up to his head, she ran her fingers over his skull. Maybe he’d cracked it when he was thrown backward and that was why he hadn’t woken up? But, no. Other than a knot on the back of his head, nothing felt broken there, either. She had no way of knowing what kind of internal damage he’d suffered, and neither did she know how to check for internal bleeding.
Squeezing her eyes shut, her shoulders slumped and her head fell forward. Anger at herself and worry for him hit her like a physical blow. Her chin wobbled threateningly and her throat tightened, but she grit her teeth.
Tenderly laying his head back on the ground, she stroked her fingers over his forehead, down the straight bridge of his nose, then traced the shape of his lips.
“Please, wake up,” she whispered, her voice rough with unshed tears.
His breathing stayed even, and he didn’t so much as twitch. Shaking her head sharply, she released a shuddering sigh.
“This is my fault. I should’ve gotten us out of here when I had the chance.”
Soft pinkish-purple light emanated from behind her, startling her out of her pity party, but it also served to remind her she had more than one mate to worry about. She felt even worse when she realized she hadn’t thought to check Tirox for wounds.
Glancing over her shoulder for him, she spotted the source of the illumination first. A troop of strange-looking mushrooms was growing on either side of a fifteen-foot-wide river running through the center of the cave. The river itself appeared from under the far back
wall, about forty feet away, and disappeared under an arched opening in the wall ahead of and to the right of her.
Almost the entire floor on the other side of the gently flowing, crystal clear, turquoise water was covered in more of the glowing, pink mushrooms, providing enough light for her to see most of the surprisingly large cave. Tipping her head back, she tried to judge how tall it was.
She couldn’t make out the ceiling, but the mushrooms illuminated the stalactites suspended above. They covered the entirety of the roof and hung down ominously, like the crooked teeth of some massive beast just waiting to snap shut on some unlucky bastard foolish enough to stand beneath them.
The rest of the cave was more of what she’d expected: uneven floor made of stone worn mostly smooth by water, rough, craggy walls rising sharply into the darkness above, and patches of fluffy, dark orange moss here and there.
She didn’t see any of the secondary shafts Tirox had been worried about, and other than some alien aquatic life that occasionally splashed to the surface of the river, they were the only living things there.
While she greatly appreciated the apparent lack of bugs and creepy crawlies, it did make her wonder what about this place made them keep their distance. Maybe the mushrooms here were of the carnivorous persuasion like the treeshrooms above.
The air smelled earthy, heavy with minerals and humidity from the river, but fresh, so hopefully whatever kept the skitters away wasn’t fumes or pollutants of some kind. Hell, for all she knew, there was an amphibious animal that preyed on anything occupying this cave until the bugs learned their lesson and stayed away.
Eyeing the river suspiciously, she resolved to keep her weapons close at hand until she was convinced that nothing was going to crawl out of the water and try to nibble on them while they slept.
This was their home for who knew how long until they either found a way out, Skaa found a way in, or, if he’d lived, Zhrovni came down to wipe their memories or kill them as he’d threatened.
Chapter 18
Having deemed the cave reasonably safe, Aria focused on Tirox who’d just finished his own inspection and was making his way back to her.
Scanning him from horns to flat feet, she searched for any wounds. There was an abundance of blood caked to his thick arms, chest, and even some dried splatters on his legs and face, but she couldn’t see that any of it was actually his.
Raising her gaze back to his face, she smiled a little to see he was doing the same and checking her over for injuries. His jaw clenched as he lingered on the blood she could feel coating the side of her face, but the skin over her brow had already knit back together and the feeling had come back to her arm.
After apparently assuring himself she was okay, his eyes dropped to Kix. She followed his gaze and the smile curling her lips died. Coming to a stop at her side, he lowered himself to a sitting position.
“Do you think he’ll wake up?”
She stared at Kix instead of Tirox as she asked the question. She needed reassurance, and she wouldn’t be able to lie to herself if she saw the truth on his face if he answered ‘yes’ but thought ‘no’.
“Hmm. There is an animal on Ru’akna, the vi’itus,” he began, his voice soft and deep, soothing. “One of the valley clans keeps herds of them for food and beasts of burden. I have only hunted them during times of great hunger as they are not challenging prey and, therefore, offer no honor upon my victory. They are not clever or dangerous, but they prove their superiority in a different way.”
Aria wanted to interrupt and ask what the hell any of that had to do with whether or not he thought Kix would wake up, but he kept going before she could.
“They can survive almost any wound. When injured, their bodies absorb the scent of the land around them, making them nearly undetectable, and they hide so cunningly even the most skilled predator or hunter cannot find them. There, they fall into a deep, healing sleep. Even a perfect shot to the heart will not fell them so long as they can limp away and hole up.”
“That’s… awesome, but I don’t under—”
He turned to stare down at her, his eyes swirling slowly and a small smile tipping his lips. “He has no scent.”
Aria stared at him agape for a long second as hope loosened the vice around her chest, but doubts filtered in before she could draw in a relieved breath.
“But, how? What are the chances Kix has that ability? And not just the insane healing, but the scent thing, too?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps Zhrovni knows of the vi’itus, or perhaps there is an animal with similar cleverness on this world… ” He trailed off, and his gaze went distant before the skin over his brows rose sharply. “I remember, about ten seasons ago, I was on a trade quest to the valley clan. They were in disarray, panicked and preparing for war because they believed a neighboring clan stole some of their herd. They asked me to help track them. I looked for two sun risings, but there was no trail. Because of that, we believed the gods had taken them as offering. But, what if it was not the gods? What if Zhrovni stole them as he stole us?”
As much as Aria wanted to believe that, the odds that the same person who’d stolen them had also stolen some random herd animals ten years ago and proceeded to transplant that animal’s very unique ability into her mate seemed beyond far-fetched. And, yet, the odds that two separate species, from two separate worlds, would have the same apparent gift were even more so.
“But why give that ability to only Kix?”
“How do you know Zhrovni did not give it to all his warriors? If he thinks of us as a herd, like the valley clan with the vi’itus, would he not do what he could to keep us alive? I imagine it takes great resources to… grow another body for us. Better that he takes measures to try and prevent that.”
He made a good point, but worry and fear were making it hard to believe they were that lucky.
He must have seen the skepticism on her face because he murmured, “The world looks unconquerably vast until you walk it and find it was not so huge as you feared.”
“Yeah, small world. Small universe, too, apparently.”
“Mmm, just so.”
Reaching for her shoulders, he gently pulled her harness off, sliding it down her arms and letting all the bits and bobs she taken off the guards’ bodies fall to the moss-covered ground. Next, he guided her to sit back so he could pull her thigh harnesses off. When she was stripped of weapons, he removed his own.
“Come, rwyn’ la, let us bathe away the battle. Your tiny mate will live. My stones say it is so. Lingering by his side and neglecting your needs will not help him to heal faster,” he coaxed gently as he stood.
Before she could decline, not wanting to leave Kix lying alone, and also not quite ready to find out what new horrors were living in the water, he plucked her up off the ground with no warning then started for the riverside.
“You and the snatching!” she chastised on a gasp.
Tirox snorted and swung her up so he was carrying her like a princess. “You like my snatching, or you would have broken my snout by now.”
Aria opened her mouth to refute that. Not that part about her liking it, because she did. But that she’d punch him in the nose if she didn’t.
After a pause, she closed it again and pursed her lips. He wasn’t actually wrong, as much as she’d like to argue otherwise.
Mate or not, she would’ve definitely made her feelings known if he did something she didn’t like. And he was right, it would likely have been in the form of violence, if only because that was her first instinct, here even more so than back on Earth. She just didn’t much care for what that said about her as a person.
More than one relationship had ended because of her temper or her unwillingness to put up with her boyfriends’ ‘macho men’ bullshit. No matter how promisingly it started, they inevitably began to feel threatened by her career or how independent she was or that she could kick most of their asses. It was like they all hit a point where they needed to show how much stronger a
nd bigger than her they were.
Was that going to happen with Tirox and Kix? If it did, could she find a way to deal with it?
She didn’t want to lose them. Some time in the last however long since she’d awoken, she reached the point where she couldn’t imagine life without them. She couldn’t imagine not seeing Tirox’s beautiful, golden eyes swirl so hypnotically, his half-mischievous, half-seductive smile on a face that looked entirely too harsh and dangerous to hold such happiness. She couldn’t imagine not being there to see Kix let go of his carefully constructed veneer of control, to see him open up and trust that she wouldn’t run if he let her experience some of the darkness he was hiding. As strange as it had been at first, she couldn’t imagine not feeling the waves of emotion she got from him.
Aria frowned. Was that what had sparked this feeling of anxiety, the absence of Kix’s emotions? Was she really that far gone that she spiraled into fretfulness and self-doubt after five minutes of not having him in her head like background music?
She never understood when women in movies made dramatic proclamations that they’d die without their lover. Had, in fact, rolled her eyes and changed the channel as soon as that happened. Sure, she wanted love as much as the next person, but not the ‘I’ll die without you’ kind. She’d always thought herself too smart, too rational for that kind of idiocy and thought women who attached their self-worth to men as pitiable. Weak. And, yet, there she was, knowing with gut-wrenching surety that it would break her to lose them.
Tirox reclaimed her attention when he hitched her higher and rubbed his cheek across her hair. He’d come to a stop by the river but hadn’t set her down and didn’t appear to be in any rush to do so. Straightening, he caught her eyes, a questioning frown creasing the skin between his horns.
“You are distressed. About the glowing one? I would tell you honestly if there was cause to worry, but I feel his spirit firmly attached to his body—”