by Mina Carter
“Close in!” Seren bellowed, pitching his voice to carry over the howl of the storm.
Instantly, the group tightened, the bigger Vorr on the outside to protect the smaller among them. Cade shouldered his way to Seren’s side, his frame broader and more solid than it had been on the training ground.
The storm responded, the sky above them splitting as it unleashed lightning to rain down on them. Scarlet bolts slammed into the ground around them, exploding anything they touched. A scream behind them told him at least one of the group had been hit. If they were touching when that happened…
“Split and run!” he roared. They needed to put distance between each other and get to safety before this storm killed them all. They’d have to risk being hit by the debris kicked up by the gale force winds that roared around them. It was safer than electrocuting each other through touch.
Turning, he grabbed Gracie’s arm as she slipped in the muddy quagmire the village streets had become. She gasped, her expression twisted in pain, but she kept going and regained her feet as they ran. Tarveth remained safely in her arms. He tried to reach for the boy, but she shook her head, strands of wet red hair whipping across her face.
“No time,” she yelled, her voice only just audible above the storm. “Go!”
He nodded and they thundered toward the open door of the hall, where Pentar struggled to hold it open. Cade made it there first, relieving the old-timer and hustling him inside as he used his Vorrtan strength to hold the door against the storm.
Seren hit the steps at a run, hustling Gracie and Tarveth up ahead of him as he tried to use his bigger body to shield them against the lightning. Another scream behind them tore the air, and his jaw tightened.
His people were dying out here and he had no clue why. He’d grown up here and he’d never seen a storm this bad. Pausing for breath just by the door, he looked out at the sky as the rest of the clan streamed in. The sky was evil and unnatural, roiling with malevolent intention. He felt its attention, his gaze latching on to Tecc, one of the stragglers at the back of the group. He’d sustained an injury in a harvesting accident a few years ago, and his limp was more pronounced at a run.
“Tecc, run!” he bellowed, surging forward to try and help his clansman. A hard arm snaked around his neck and chest, and he struggled against it, every instinct he had telling him he needed to help.
“You can’t do anything for him,” Cade yelled in his ear over the storm, effort in his voice as he struggled to hold on to Seren and the door at the same time.
“Oh gods,” Seren gasped, horror rolling through him as the sky split and a bolt of red death streaked toward Tecc. It was like time slowed down. Tecc looked up, his expression clearing to a terrible calm.
Seren forced himself to keep his eyes open as the bolt hit, bearing witness to his kinsman’s death. Tecc stopped mid-stride, his back arched and arms splayed widely as he lit up for a split second. Seren’s jaw tightened as Tecc burned up, a bright blaze in the middle of the square before the long hall.
“Tecc! Noooooooo!”
Vaix appeared behind him. Cade let go to grab the grieving male as he surged forward, trying to get to his brother. Vaix howled in anguish, and it took both Seren and his brother to hold him back, shoving him backward into the hall as he fought to get past them and into Iaanto’s hold, the third in their little family pack. He looked past them in horror as Vaix collapsed into his arms.
“Close the doors,” Seren said, his voice calm as the last of the stragglers made it through. They could do nothing for the fallen at the moment. They had to help the living.
“Take him through to my quarters,” he said to Iaanto, his hand on the big Vorr’s shoulder. For a moment Iaanto looked at him blankly with tears on his cheeks, but then he nodded, turning to half carry Vaix out of the hall.
15
Gracie shivered as she hurried nearer to the firepit to tuck Tarveth into a large blanket Pentar held out to her with concern on his lined face. She made sure the little boy was wrapped up and placed to get the warmth from the fire before looking around.
The large room was filled with soaked, shivering people in various states of shock. Some were injured, some were helping the injured, and others… she winced as one guy stood up, shaking his head as his comrade on the floor stared up at the wooden rafters of the hall with unseeing eyes.
“What in the ever-loving fuck was that?” Gracie hissed in demand as Seren strode across the wooden floor of the long hall toward her. His handsome face was drawn in lines of worry as he shook his head.
“I have no idea,” he said as he took a seat on the end of the bench near the fire. She perched next to him as others filled the benches nearby. Cade, Iaanto… others whose names escaped her right at the moment. Like her and Seren, they were all soaked to the skin but their expressions were hard and determined. In that moment, she saw the strength and discipline that marked the Lathar as a species.
“Okay, what the draanth is going on?” he asked, looking around the small group.
Cade pulled out a small tablet computer, one of the few signs of advanced tech she’d seen here. His swift efficient movements as he scrolled down the screen betrayed his ease with it.
“Weather arrays reported normal levels in pressure and precipitation over the last twelve hours,” he reported, the joking manner of youth stripped away to reveal a focused and professional young man. “Nothing here would trip an alarm.”
She looked at Seren. “You have early warning weather systems?”
He nodded, deep lines bracketing his mouth. “Yeah. We’re not into storm season yet, though. This is… wrong. Not like a normal storm.”
“No shit…” she breathed. “I’ve never seen lightning like that. It almost looked alive.”
“Cade?” Seren asked, sliding an arm around her as she shivered violently. They all needed dry clothing and to get warm, but they needed information more.
All eyes turned to the young Vorr, his lips pursed as he studied his screen. “Nothing up to thirty minutes ago. Then everything went off the charts. It didn’t build up or anything. It was like the storm just exploded out of nowhere. Almost like—” he cut himself off and shook his head. “No, that can’t be right. Ignore me.”
“No.” Seren shifted forward slightly on the bench. “What were you going to say?”
“Well, look here…” Cade scooted forward, showing them all the screen. “Look at the energy buildup here and here.”
She frowned as Seren answered. “That looks like an energy weapon discharge.”
“Some kind of planetary defense?” she asked. “But why would it target the surface?”
“That’s the million-scrip question. Isn’t it?” Seren’s expression tightened with anger and he shot a sharp look at Cade. “Any contact off world?”
“Nothing. It’s like the storm is blocking all communications,” the younger Vorr said, his expression as tight as Seren’s. “But that’s not what worries me.”
Silence filled the hall. She looked around. All the Vorr wore the same expression. Resigned. Tense. Angry. Something else was going on here. Something she wasn’t privy to…
“Go on,” Seren said, his deep, gruff voice the only sound in the silent hall as the wind howled outside as if furious it was denied entry.
Cade leaned forward, holding out a hand as big as a shovel flat so the tablet sat on it. The screen showed the weather systems in the planet’s atmosphere. She was no weather expert but she easily picked out the benign clouds and what looked like a rainstorm over the lower continent. But then the swirls of white got darker and quicker until the screen became a roiling mass of black and red.
“This is how quickly the first storm kicked up,” Cade said, switching the view on the screen to run the time clip again. This time green lines followed the weather patterns until they started to change and then flicked to red, the screen popping warnings up all over the place.
“This is what’s happening now…” He swept his h
and over the screen. Gracie sucked a breath in. The storm front moving in was a hundred times bigger than the storm currently outside.
“Planet killer,” Seren murmured. “They’ve finally grown some balls and are trying to wipe us out.”
“Who?” she demanded, a hand on his arm. “And why?”
He didn’t answer her, looking at the small group around them. “Will the Skev fit us all?”
“It should, yes. We’ll have to cram everyone in, but we should make orbit if we can find a gap in the storm. It looks like this one will only just start dying down before the big one hits,” Cade said grimly, his eyes flashing in the semi darkness as the lights overhead flickered and went out.
She caught her breath, looking up. They must be energy rather than the torches she’d assumed, which meant this whole place was a lot more technological than it appeared. Was everyone here lying?
“Okay. We need to pack up whatever we can, whatever we can get to and be ready to move when we have a window. Once we break orbit, we’ll make for…” he paused for a half-second as though he’d just remembered she was there. “We’ll decide on our off-world destination when we get up there.”
Her lips compressed as anger washed over her skin in hot and cold waves. So that’s how it was going to be. Was it? She folded her arms.
She and her “mate” were about to have words. And he wasn’t going to like them.
* * *
There was so much to do and not enough time to do it. Seren frowned as he looked around the bustling activity in the hall.
It was the only structure in the village that was rated for storms above level seven, so most of them kept at least an emergency pack in here. Nothing more than some food rations and spare clothing, all stored under the seats of the benches built in along the walls.
He wasn’t worried about his people getting things together and ready to move out. Because of the frequent storms that battled the settlement during the latter part of the year, they were used to operating as a team under pressure.
This, though… this was different. He’d known since he was a child that the Lathar didn’t like him or his clan. They all knew. The Vorr were a reminder of the Lathar’s violent past, and what the empire had done to become the empire. What his ancestor Kayan Vorr had been prepared to do to forge them into one people and save them from a threat that would have wiped them out.
What had he gotten for his troubles? Kayan’s name was little more than a footnote in the archives and his reign as the first emperor had been all but wiped from their history. The only thing that remained, the only clue to his contribution to the empire was the fact that even to this day, the imperial family was marked with the K’ designation. K’Daar, K’Saan… before them had been K’Vorr. Now they were just Vorr. Or worse… Vorrtan. A threat to be wiped out, lest they became a threat to the empire itself.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Gracie stormed up to him, planting herself in front of him with a mutinous glare on her face. “What aren’t you telling me?”
His temper was frayed, his control on a knife’s edge. He’d watched a good male die today, one who had given him his first s’tovik as a child and had trained him to track when he was a youngling. And he’d died in pain, murdered because of secrets.
Like the ones she was keeping.
“I don’t know, sweetheart.” He growled, deliberately dropping into Terran as he loomed over her. “I mean… I could ask the same of you. Couldn’t I?”
She didn’t move. Her pissed off glare didn’t waver a fraction as she frowned. But he knew her, so he felt the change, the subtle shift in the air around her. She was going to lie to him. And she was going to do it so subtly and well that if he wasn’t aware and looking for it, he would believe any trallshit she saw fit to feed him.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” she snapped, shaking her head.
A low snarl escaped his clenched teeth. He was facing a planet-killer weapon designed to wipe out everyone on the planet and a short window to get everyone to the drop ship hidden in the nearby forest. He didn’t want to think about after that, when it was entirely possible the rest of the empire could be out to kill them.
The last thing he needed was a faithless mate who lied to him. As his human friend Jay was so fond of saying, he was so done with this shit.
“Who are you?” he demanded bluntly, his metal hand snapping out to grip her lower jaw.
She didn’t fight his hold, maintaining his gaze with a hard one as he tilted her head up. She was so tiny and delicate he could snap her neck with a flick of his wrist. The thought of hurting her made him feel sick, that nausea joining the tightness in his gut that she was lying to him.
“Seren, you know who I am.” Her voice was low and calming. “My name is Gracie Shardlow, your mate.” She frowned in concern. “Did something hit you on the head when we were out there?”
One side of his lip curled back from his teeth. He knew what she was doing with the low and calming voice and the soft pats of her hands on his arms.
She was trying to connect with him, “humanize” herself to the possible threat. He’d gone through the Terran literature in the imperial database, reading through everything he could get his hands on that had been pulled from the various human ships and installations the empire had encountered.
“Try again, sweetheart.” He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Up to ten years ago, Gracie Shardlow didn’t exist. So… I’ll ask again. Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?”
She tore herself away.
“What the fuck, Seren?” she hissed in outrage. “Don’t dick about. I’m Gracie. You know I am. You lot contacted the Colony Commission when you picked us up from that planet. They confirmed who I was!”
“Oh, I’m sure they did. I’m just not sure you told them the truth. You’ve been with them for seven years. They only checked back three. Before that, you didn’t exist.”
He didn’t move as he watched her. She was a good female. He knew she was. Only a good female would protect a child the way she had, a Vorr child most would walk away from and watch die.
Her expression twisted. “What the fuck? You’ve been double checking my records? Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Anger surged and the growl exploded from him as he grabbed her around the back of the neck. “I’m your mate, little female, and don’t you forget it.”
“Back off, asshole!” she hissed, shoving at his chest hard enough to break his hold, and stumbled back. Her chest heaved, tears bright in her eyes. “And if you don’t believe I’m who I say I am, we’re fucking done. Divorced or whatever the fuck you aliens do. Can’t get married with a false name. Now can we?”
His body tensed as white-hot fury rolled through him. She didn’t want to be mated to him anymore? No. Everything within him rejected the idea.
“No can do, sweetheart,” he drawled, nodding toward her neck. “Once my mark is on your skin, that’s it. You’re mine. For life. Now, go and get your things together. As soon as the winds drop, we’re moving out.”
16
He was… the most irritating man in existence.
And he was onto her.
Gracie didn’t know which was worse as she slammed around in their quarters at the back of the long hall, stripping quickly to haul on clean, dry clothing before she froze to death. The clothes she’d arrived in had disappeared, but the ones Seren had given her—Vorr standard—were just as good, if not better. She was infinitely more comfortable in what amounted to a hoodie and a pair of fatigue cargo pants than she was in the leather combats of the Lathar.
What did he know? How did he know it?
The questions whirled about in her head as she stuffed a change of clothes into the bag. After a moment’s pause, she threw in a change for Seren as well. With looking after everyone else, she was sure he wouldn’t have time to do it himself.
Bloody man needed looking after, she grumbled to herself, shoving the dress Seren had given her into the p
ack. It served no purpose if they were in a survival situation, but she couldn’t bear to leave it behind. It was the first thing he’d given her, and she was keeping it. She could use it as a blanket or something if she needed to, so it could be considered practical if she squinted just right and looked at it sideways.
A cold chill washed over her, a breeze sneaking under the thick top to whisper along her chilled skin beneath. She paused mid-movement, looking around.
The room was less a room and more a large space split up with room dividers, but she couldn’t see where the draft was coming from. The heavy shutters were all locked down tightly against the storm. Now that they were, she could see the mechanism that lowered them. Again, they were back to the puzzle that the Vorr wanted to appear far less technologically capable than they actually were.
But the draft wasn’t coming from them. She doubted even something as small as a damn virus could get through them. They were sealed up that tightly. Frowning, she left the bag where it was on the bed and followed the draft. The storm was still howling with fury outside, so they weren’t going to be leaving in the next five minutes. She had time to find where that damn draft was coming from and plug it. Stop the wind and rain getting in here and causing any more damage.
She skirted past the “room” where Vaix was, the big form motionless on the bed. Despite what she currently thought of Seren, her heart went out to the big Vorr. Seeing someone you loved killed like that, right in front of you was rough. She’d seen soldiers crumble when their colleagues and team mates died, but to have it happen to your loved ones… that was so much worse.