Whoever it was, their absence now took on a more sinister significance.
She scrambled to her feet, Dray helping her up. They stood together, hands bound, while the Tecran ripped the tarpaulin down to take up position with their shockguns against the barrier of the hovers.
Rua took a shot, and she heard the high-pitched squeal of an animal in pain.
“Got it.” Rua glanced at the others. “Didn't take it down, though.”
“Put it on a higher setting,” Virn ordered.
“It already is on the highest setting. Their coats are thick. I've heard you have to hit them somewhere like the eyes or into the mouth to get a kill shot.”
At Rua's words, the tension seemed to escalate.
“Where's Graven?” Krian's soft question fell like lead into the silence.
“As he was on guard, I'm assuming he's dead.” Virn's voice was a little unsteady.
“This is not what I signed up for.” Bly's voice was just audible.
“It's not what any of us signed up for. Are you going to whine about it, or are you going to help get us out of here alive?” The sharp words weren't from Virn, they were from Clin.
They seemed to settle everyone, focus them.
“I want my weapon returned.” Dray spoke up into the silence. “I want Lucy and my hands untied, and I want my weapon.”
“No.” Virn didn't even glance back at them.
Krian shot, and a bark of pain sounded. Suddenly Bly and Clin, on either side of him, shot at well.
There were some howls and then silence.
Bly squinted into the darkness. “It's run away. But was it just one, or are there more of them?”
“The young males are usually on their own. If that's what that was, we're all right.” Rua didn't move from his shooting stance.
“I'm not trusting that. We need to find Graven and then go.” Krian lifted his shockgun a little higher.
“Agreed.” Virn looked back at Lucy and Dray. “Pack up everything as fast as you can. We're leaving.”
Dray gave a nod, and Virn swung back to guarding the circle.
“Look for anything useful to pocket,” Dray whispered quietly in Lucy's ear.
She nodded. That's where her mind had gone, as well.
She rolled mats and stored them, and found Clin had been being an asshole when he'd given her and Dray one to share. There were at least two spares in the storage holds.
Never mind. He would experience karma. She would make sure of it.
She would be karma's handmaiden.
Chapter 25
Dray kept an eye on the Tecran while he gathered blankets and used his remaining focus to scan the contents of each storage hold as he stuffed them inside.
There was nothing obvious to take that would help Lucy and himself, or if there was, he didn't have the time to look thoroughly enough.
He accepted it, accepted speed was the more important thing now, and hoped he'd get another chance to pry and see what he could find.
Lucy started to hum, and he flicked her a quick look, stunned that she could create that kind of music in the situation they were in.
Suddenly, one of the Tecran shot their weapon again, and the sound of a kol's answering rage had Dray scooping up the last few items and throwing them into the nearest storage hold and slamming it closed.
A howl went up, and it felt as if a kol's jaws closed around the back of his neck.
He rubbed the spot, his eyes on Rua, who'd been the one to shoot.
“You done?” Virn's tone was pitched higher than usual.
“Yes.” Dray's fingers itched for his shockgun.
One of the Tecran must have it with them as a spare, because he hadn't seen it in any of the storage holds.
“Time to go before that howl brings his friends.” Rua said what they were all thinking.
They climbed on quickly and rose up, the Tecran taking the hovers to their highest elevation, and as they began moving forward, the front and side lights flickered over the scrubby ground and illuminated four sets of eyes.
Dray felt Bly shudder in front of him as one of the kol leaped up at them.
It couldn't reach, but Dray could see its thick ruff, its massive teeth bared as it jumped.
When Krian turned his hover back, Bly went stiff.
“Form a line, Graven has to be here somewhere.”
Dray wondered if Bly had forgotten about his teammate, but if so, he didn't balk at the order, he turned his hover as well, and shone his light at the ground.
The kol followed them, howling, leaping and snapping at them from below.
Dray didn't think there was a chance Graven had survived.
“He's here.” Virn shouted. The hover didn't descend, which Dray assumed it would if there had been any chance the soldier was alive.
Graven was far enough from the camp that Dray guessed he'd been dragged away.
Bly caught up with Virn and Dray peered down. Graven lay on his back, eyes open and unseeing, his body savaged.
The hovers congregated above the body. No one said a word over the snarls of the kol below.
Then Virn revved his hover's engine and roared off, and one by one, the others followed him.
Dray saw Krian was the last to leave, and he looked over his shoulder to watch him, but when the kol that had followed them began savaging Graven's body again, Krian, too, turned and followed Virn.
It was at least a few hours before dawn, so they flew high. No one wanted to be low enough to be pulled off their hover by a kol.
The landscape beneath them got rockier as they moved closer to the coast.
As the sun slowly lit the sky, Dray could see hardy plants with tiny leaves huddled in narrow fissures, and lichen and moss that covered the rocks in vibrant reds, greens and blues.
Up ahead, Virn lowered the hover and landed.
They alighted around him and Lucy slid off Virn's hover, bending over to stretch.
“We'll take a break, get something to eat and drink. See which way we need to go from here.” Virn took out a handheld, began tapping at it while the others unpacked supplies.
“You're not going to say anything about Graven?” Krian's voice cut through every other sound.
Virn looked up. “What is there to say? I am sorry he was killed--”
“Sorry? You led us there. You put us in the flatlands.”
“Under orders.” Virn lowered the handheld and took a step forward, the move overtly aggressive.
Dray shifted until he was behind Bly, and then started moving toward Lucy.
She turned, as if attuned to him, catching his eye and then turning back to look at the confrontation happening directly in front of her.
She stepped to the side as if to give the Tecran more room.
In small increments they edged closer to each other.
She was careful to keep just behind the Tecran, and he let her cover more ground, so she came to him, putting more distance between her and what was looking increasingly like a violent confrontation.
Rua had entered the argument, trying to calm both Krian and Virn down, and was shoved by Virn for his efforts.
“You want to make a break for it?” Lucy finally reached him, resting her bound hands on his bicep for balance and going up on her toes to whisper in his ear.
It felt intimate, like last night when they'd slept close together, sharing warmth.
He closed his eyes, his mind frozen for a moment.
“They'd run us down,” he forced himself to whisper back. “Even if we stole a hover, they've got three others, and there is nowhere to hide out here.”
“I know.” She sighed as she said it. “It was a nice fantasy.”
Her hands were still pressed against him and he could feel how cold they were, even through his cloak. He lifted his own bound arms over her head and lowered them to rest on her hip, pulling her closer like he'd done the night before.
He sensed her surprise, and then, with another sigh, she l
aid her head on his chest. His hands clenched in her cloak at the sharp jump of his heart.
“Maybe they'll kill each other.” He bent his head down, his voice rough. “And solve our problems for us.”
He saw the twitch of her lips. “What are they doing now? I'm too tired to open my eyes.”
He looked up and saw Virn punch Krian, and the soldier spun around. Dray knew the moment Krian's gaze fixed on him and Lucy.
Instead of turning back and hitting Virn in retaliation, he staggered a few steps, then straightened up, his gaze locked on them.
Dray felt every warning siren in him start to wail.
“Nice and cozy, are you?” There was a smudge of blood around the right corner of Krian's mouth.
“What do you care?” Dray drew himself up. He was at least a head taller than all the Tecran. “What business is it of yours?”
“She's not like us,” Krian said, and Dray saw he believed it, absolutely. “She's not as advanced. It's . . . wrong.”
And by 'wrong', Dray could see, he meant 'disgusting'.
“I should stick to torturing her and taking her from her home planet instead?” he asked. “Like you?”
All five of the soldiers were staring at them now, and Lucy made a noise of annoyance and slid her hands a little lower down his chest and turned slightly in his arms to look at them.
“Seriously? Your friend got eaten by a kol, your leaders betrayed you and the rest of the planet by breaking UC law, they kidnapped me and spent months studying me like some lab rat, and your people are on the verge of war because you don't seem to like taking responsibilities for your actions, but you're having a little moment at the sight of me and Dray in each others arms?” She laughed, and made a gesture Dray had a shocked, sudden inkling of its meaning, even though he'd never seen it before. “Fuck you, Krian. Fuck the lot of you. I mean that quite sincerely.”
She turned completely in his arms, so her back was against his chest, and leaned back, staring Krian, and then the others, down. “Or is this just a little distraction because you can't win a fight against Virn, and you're looking for any out you can find?”
Krian reared back at that, outrage and fury on his face.
Dray fought the grin that wanted to break out. They thought she was less than them. And here she was, manipulating them in plain sight and not a single one seemed to realize it.
Krian turned to face Virn. “I'm done,” he said. “Your response to the death of one of my best friends, in one of the most horrible ways I can think of, is to shrug?” He turned to the others. “That's what he thinks of you. That's what you are. Nothing but expendable tools. Maybe you think it's worth it. I don't.”
He strode to his hover.
“You're going to go back?” Clin asked. “Like you and Graven said? Just going back to your unit and act like they never asked you to do this?”
“Yes.” Krian swung his leg over the hover.
“Will you let me know how that works out?” Clin asked.
Virn turned on him, face frightening in its fury. “He so much as thinks about opening comms to anyone on this mission after he leaves, and he had better get ready to stand up against that wall you talked about.”
“Right, because finding out you can go back without consequences would be a really bad thing.” Bly's sarcasm wasn't lost on anyone.
“You're either in for the duration, or you're out. Choose right now.” Virn's fists were clenched. “I'm not fighting you over and over. It's a waste of my time and energy.”
“I'm gone.” Clin turned to his hover.
“You go with Krian, you're not taking a hover.” Virn's shockgun was already out and pointed at Clin.
“Then I'll get my things--”
“No. You don't get to take military supplies when you're deserting. Rua, take whatever is in the storage hold of Krian's hover out.”
Rua hesitated, and Dray felt Lucy go still in his arms, waiting, like him, for the first shot to be fired.
With a sudden huff of breath, Rua moved, opening up the storage box and pulling out whatever was in there and dumping it on the ground.
“Now, don't let me ever see you again.” Virn widened his stance.
“Same goes.” Krian revved the hover's engine as Clin swung up behind him. He pointed at Virn. “When I make general, I hope you're still in the military so I can mess with your career.”
They drove away, in what Dray guessed was the direction of Fa'allen.
Virn gave a snort. “When he's a general? As if that fool will live through the rest of the week.”
Rua sent him a sidelong look. “You think?”
“Yes.”
But Dray wouldn't bet on it. And Virn's body language said he wasn't as confident as he made out, either.
He was three men down, and cut loose from headquarters.
If this was support, it was the poorest excuse for it Dray had ever seen.
Chapter 26
They traveled for another three hours until Lucy started to hear the far-off crash of massive waves against the cliffs.
After the first hour she hunched low and used Virn's body as a shield against the cold wind, ignoring the scenery around her, but when at last she looked up, she had to blink a few times until she understood what she was looking at.
A wall of white cloud lined the edge of the cliffs, four or five stories high, stark against the gray blue of the sky above.
It was like approaching a castle battlement.
One that was as ethereal as it was dangerous.
They stopped just before they disappeared into its swirling depths.
The sound of the waves was so clear, Lucy guessed the cliffs ended only meters away.
She waited for Virn to dismount and then slid down on the opposite side to stretch her legs.
“Where to now?” Rua dismounted and walked forward, disappearing into the fog.
A moment later, he was back, and Lucy could see he was energized, his demeanor going from weary to focused.
The Tecran really did love the cliffs.
“It's right here.” Bly was looking at the handheld. He slid off the hover, and Dray swung off, as well.
She exchanged a look with him, and Lucy thought he was more grim-faced than usual. Their chance for escape hadn't come yet, and they would soon be holed up in a cave.
“Let's go.” Virn gestured to the rear of the hover, and Lucy worked out he meant for her to open the storage unit.
“We're going to use the hovers to get down to the caves?” she asked as she lifted the lid. She remembered the drop down the cliff face she'd taken when she'd escaped the facility. She didn't want a repeat. Especially if she was on the back, with no safety belt.
“No. The cliffs are too jagged. We'll be climbing down.” Bly was sorting through ropes and other climbing equipment, including crossbow grapples like the ones Lucy'd found in the storage shed she'd hidden in on her first night of freedom.
She swallowed, and looked over at Dray again.
He seemed calm.
It looked like she was the only one freaked out by climbing down a sheer cliff face.
Virn was pulling out ropes as well, all neatly rolled up and new looking. He swung a grapple onto his shoulder.
“Carry the rope,” he told her, and disappeared into the fog.
She stared after him, and bent slowly to pick up the rope he'd left on the ground.
“We taking supplies?” Rua asked.
“Let's find the caves first. We can come back for the rest once that's done.” Bly gestured to Dray to take the ropes from his hover as well.
Dray joined her, looking down at her with concern.
“You all right?”
She shook her head. “I don't want to climb down the cliff.”
Rua was standing behind them, obviously not prepared to go ahead of them and leave them behind with the hovers. “Scared, Earth girl?”
“Terrified,” she said, and felt the weight of her fear press down on her
chest.
She heard the stutter in her breath.
“You don't climb on your planet?” Dray asked.
“Some people do. I'm not one of them.” She didn't feel even slightly inclined to take another step forward.
“What's the hold up?” Virn appeared out of the fog.
“She's afraid to climb the cliff.” Rua's voice contained a sneer.
Dray seemed to be closer to her now, his shoulder brushing hers. “I'll help you down.”
“I appreciate the offer. Still doesn't make me any more eager to give it a try.” She tried to insert some humor into her words, but failed miserably.
“I don't care how you feel about it. You're doing it.” Virn lunged forward and gripped her arm.
Dray stepped in front of her, knocking Virn's hand away with his bound arms.
“You want her to do this, frightening her even more isn't the way.” He loomed over Virn, and Lucy could see the Tecran did not like that. Did not like that at all.
“You don't issue any of the orders here. This isn't the UC and it isn't Grih Battle Center. Get it into your head, you're my prisoner as much as she is.” Virn shoved Dray, but he barely moved.
“You want her to get down into that cave, tread a little more softly.” Dray kept his voice low.
Virn took a step back, as if he was conceding the point, and then suddenly swung his grapple, hitting Dray on the temple.
Dray fell, and Lucy dodged around him and launched herself forward, elbow up, and struck Virn as hard as she could on the side of his head.
He went down, his face a study in shock.
She pivoted, crouching down beside Dray. “How bad?”
He pushed himself up and then stood, swaying a little. The edge of the grapple had gouged his skin--a trickle of blood ran past his ear and down his jaw.
“Not as bad as Virn.” Dray lifted his hands to touch his wound, and winced. Then his gaze flicked over her shoulder, and Lucy remembered Rua was behind them.
Her stomach dropped and she tensed, ready for a blow, or even a shockgun hit.
“Move.” Rua shoved her out of the way and knelt beside Virn, who lay crumpled and groaning.
Dark Matters (Class 5 Series Book 4) Page 15