Heartless

by Kate Rudolph

  Quinn tapped her hand against the sturdy roof of the vehicle they were leaning against. She pressed her face up against the window and nodded to herself before testing the door. It opened easily and she slid behind the driver seat. The passenger-side window came down and she leaned over. “Get in. I’ll get us to the ship.”

  Kayde wasted no time following her instructions. As long as the guards were just using blasters, this little transport vehicle would give them the cover they needed to cross the distance. Quinn took off and they were both jolted back in their seats by the unexpected speed of the vehicle. It wasn’t incredibly fast, but definitely faster than either of them were counting on. They jetted across the tarmac and just as expected, the guards began to open fire as soon as they were exposed. Quinn dodged the shots as best she could, sending the vehicle spinning in mad circles before righting it again and heading for their ship.

  “Don’t worry about the blasters,” Kayde told her. “They can’t get us through the metal.”

  “I know that,” Quinn grit out, her fists gripping the steering controls tightly. “That doesn’t mean they can’t fry the electrical.”

  They crossed the open space much faster than they could’ve hoped to on foot, but when Quinn swung the vehicle so that the passenger side faced their ship and got a little cover from it, they could both see that the hatch had been sealed shut and was locked with an impressive looking device that Kayde had never seen before.

  “Get that door open,” Quinn commanded. “I’ll keep them distracted.”

  SHE HAD TO BE GOING fucking insane. Sure, Quinn knew how to drive. It wasn’t like it was all that difficult, but until today the most dangerous obstacles she’d had to overcome were angry rush-hour drivers, and one angry farmer who’d been upset that she and her foster siblings stole eggs from his farm. None of that could have prepared her for today, and none of it would’ve suggested that this was almost fun.

  Yeah, exhilarating, edge of your seat, heart-pounding fun. As Kayde rolled out of the vehicle and slammed the door behind him, Quinn let out a whoop of triumph and sped away, wheels squealing against the pavement. She was sure that one of the switches in front of her would engage the anti-grav, but she didn’t want to risk stalling out by hitting the wrong button. She headed straight towards the guards, drawing their fire away from Kayde and praying to whatever god was listening that none of the guards got off a lucky enough shot to fry the engine.

  At the last minute, she swerved away and headed back towards where Beznifa’s answer to a saber tooth tiger had tried to rip Kayde to shreds. In a perfect world, she would’ve been able to find the cat and lure it towards the guards, setting her two enemies against one another. But given all of the noise and lights coming from the port, she would bet the cat was long gone, and so far nothing about Beznifa had been perfect.

  How long would Kayde need to get inside the ship? A minute? Five? She could drive in circles all morning, but eventually the guards would realize what she was doing. Already they were beginning to divide their fire, sending shots towards Kayde, a few of the braver guards even beginning to advance on his location.

  Quinn wasn’t about to let that happen. She spun her vehicle back around and charged straight for them, ready to batter them to the ground if that was what she had to do to protect her warrior. The guards must’ve figured out that she meant business. They scattered as she got close, one missing being pulled under her wheels by a few scant centimeters.

  A minute had never seemed so long in her entire life. That was strange to consider when she was driving so quickly, but no one thing could hold her focus while she was so worried about Kayde. Her heart was there with him, cheering him on and trying to give him a little bit of her strength, as if he needed it. He had been the one to get them this far. She knew she was practically dead weight when it came to this escape, so she was determined to be useful now, using this one skill that she had.

  She couldn’t fire a blaster for shit, her hand-to-hand combat was laughable, and she hadn’t been able to plan any kind of escape, but she could drive, and she could ignore the fear burbling in her veins and head straight into danger if it meant keeping Kayde safe.

  The hum of a ship starting up was loud enough for Quinn to hear it over the sound of the blasters and the skating of her vehicle. Laughter bubbled out of her throat and if Kayde had been sitting beside her rather than getting their ride prepared to take them home, she could not have stopped herself from kissing him.

  She’d have to save that for later.

  It felt like she should throw some glib comment over her shoulder at the guards, but nothing came to mind, so she didn’t waste her breath. She swung the vehicle back around to make her final pass across the tarmac. The guards redoubled their efforts to take her out, but Quinn thought she was home free. She could practically taste her escape.

  And it was at that exact moment that the smell of smoke tickled her nose and her vehicle lurched to a sudden stop ten meters from the waiting hatch of the ship. She was so close she could taste it, but there was no way to cover the distance and avoid getting hit. Acrid and chemical smoke filled the cab of her vehicle so quickly that Quinn barely had time to stumble out before she choked. She slammed the door shut behind her, but that did little to deter the air around her from being polluted.

  Flames licked up the side of the vehicle and Quinn knew, just knew, that the main battery had been compromised. Depending on what the Beznens used to power that thing, that could mean she was seconds away from an explosion. She had two choices. Die by blaster, or be incinerated. The opening to the ship was so close that the injustice of it all overwhelmed her and tears pricked at her eyes. Though she could just as easily blame them on the smoke all around her. She hoped she was far away enough that if the car exploded it wouldn’t damage Kayde’s ship. At least one of them needed to get off this damned planet. He was the one with the mission, he was the one who needed to make it. He was the one who deserved to live.

  A sense of peace stole over her as it sank in that this was the end of the line. She was pinned down with no hope of escape. If she had a blaster, things might’ve been different. But all she had were her wits, and she’d already used them to steal enough time. She could have died at any moment when those slavers held her captive, but she had stolen almost an entire year from them. And then the impossible happened and she was rescued, and in being rescued she met the man on that ship who had fascinated her in a way she’d never known was possible.

  She had regrets, tons of them. And the biggest regret was that she’d never know the taste of Kayde’s lips. But it was something she could live with—well, die with—as long as he survived.

  The sounds of blaster fire were even closer now and Quinn risked a glance around the vehicle to see if the guards were coming. But the smoke and the flames were holding them off for now, and they seemed to be falling back, taking cover, as if they themselves were under attack.

  No, they were under attack. The blaster shot was coming from the other side of the ship, and there was no way Beznen guards were shooting it.

  Kayde. He was giving her a chance, Providing the distraction and cover fire she needed to make it to the ship. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t give herself a second to doubt that she could make it. She sprang to her feet and sprinted for all that she was worth, paying no attention to the guards who could lay her flat with a single shot. At the moment they were too occupied with avoiding being hit to hit her.

  She scrambled through the hatch and threw it shut behind her, sprinting through the ship to find Kayde, who had taken position behind a different hatch near the ship’s main storage section. She wanted to launch herself at him, to wrap her arms around him and never let him go, but she wasn’t about startle a man holding a giant blast rifle. “I’m on board,” Quinn panted from a safe distance away. “Let’s get out of here.”

  At first she thought he didn’t hear her. He calmly let out two more shots before pulling back and slamming the hatch close
d. He put his rifle to the side and turned towards her, his eyes blazing red.

  Quinn’s breath caught and though it shouldn’t have been possible, given the excitement of the last few minutes, her heart started beating even faster, and she was distantly concerned that she might pass out. Kayde stalked towards her, every bit the dangerous alien warrior that she was completely obsessed with. She expected him to yell, to be commanding, to be demanding, and conquering. But he reached up and cradled her cheek like she was something precious, something breakable, and irreplaceable.

  “You put yourself at risk.” There was a ragged edge to his words, emotion like she’d never heard from him before in every syllable. “For me.”

  “Yeah, I did.” She couldn’t break away from his gaze, like he held her under some kind of spell. What was this power he had over her? This connection that spring up between them?

  “Why?” He sounded truly puzzled.

  “Because your...” She couldn’t finish that sentence, she had no right. And though they were still in danger, still sitting in the middle of the port that they needed to fly away from right this second, there was something Quinn needed more, something she needed to give to Kayde, to share with him. She leaned forward and sealed her lips over his, taking that taste and marking it so deep on her soul that she could never forget.

  Chapter Fourteen

  SENSATION, EMOTION exploded through Kayde as Quinn’s lips moved against him. Any lingering question about who she was to him dissolved as they shared their first kiss in the heat of battle, moments away from danger, and as far away from home as either of them had ever been. It was perfect. Denya. He could sense it in his bones, and the remnants of his soul that was trying to piece him back together and make him a man worthy of Quinn.

  The need to claim her rose within him, almost overpowering everything else. He backed her up against the wall and deepened the kiss, sweeping his tongue against hers and imprinting her taste on his being. She arched against him, letting out a moan that shot straight to his cock, and her hands gripped his sides almost hard enough to bruise. He wanted it that way, wanted to take her rough and fast before slowing down and doing it all again, this time worshiping her like the goddess she was.

  It was only the defense system coming online and alerting him to the blaster fire currently threatening the shield that made him pull back. Quinn looked up at him, pupils blown, eyes dazed, and sucked in a deep breath before her tongue darted out to lick her lips. “Hello to you too.” She smiled at him. “That better be a thing we’re doing now, cause if it was only one time I think I’m going to go crazy.”

  There was time for one more kiss, and Kayde stole it. “Later,” he promised.

  “Later,” Quinn repeated.

  They both ran for the cockpit. There was no more time for greetings, and no knowing what kind of defense system Beznifa had in place. Kayde slid into the pilot seat while Quinn was buckling herself into the co-pilot’s station beside him. They shared a glance filled with hope, lust, and just a little bit of fear. That stolen moment in the back of the ship could be the only time they had together, and they both knew it. The ship could be blown out of the sky in a matter of minutes, but neither of them mentioned that possibility. There was nothing they could do to change it.

  “Next time,” said Quinn, “I get to choose the vacation spot.”

  For the first time in two years Kayde felt the urge to smile, his lips twitching at the corners. “Next time,” he agreed. He started up the ship, abandoning half of the safety protocols in favor of speed. As soon as he confirmed that their fuel levels were satisfactory, Kayde took off, shooting straight up as fast as the vehicle would allow them to go. The shields were at full capacity, ready to take the laser blasts headed their way. The ship rocked with the first impacts, but quickly stabilized as the defense system began to predict the attack pattern.

  “Should we be firing back or something?” Quinn asked. Her hands were gripping the arms of her chair tightly, so hard that her fingers had to hurt.

  “Not unless we have no other choice. Our goal is to escape, not escalate the situation.” It rankled his newly blooming emotions to not punish the people who had harmed his denya. But the more important thing at this moment was to see that she escaped.

  Quinn nodded and flinched as something bright flashed across the view screen in front of them. She opened her mouth as if she were about to ask a question, but clicked it closed again almost as quickly.

  Kayde didn’t know how to comfort her, and most of his focus was on making sure they didn’t get blown up. But Quinn was trembling and she had lost a lot of color in her face. That couldn’t be good. “Close your eyes,” he instructed.

  Quinn did the opposite, her eyes widening to an almost impossible degree as she jerked her head towards him. “Seriously?” She practically yelled it.

  “Seriously. I give you my word that we will both get out of this, but you should shut your eyes right now.” If she couldn’t see what was happening, she couldn’t panic about it. It made perfect sense to him, so why was she having such a terrible time understanding it?”

  She still didn’t shut her eyes. “I’m just going to be imagining something worse. Focus on flying this thing, I’ll be fine.”

  She didn’t look fine, but right then flying got a whole lot more difficult as two speeders launched into the air, giving chase. Kayde engaged evasive maneuvers, but the speeders had been expecting that and the ship rocked as one of them got a good hit on the shield outside of one of their engines. Quinn couldn’t bite back her yelp, but she just gripped her chair harder and clenched her jaw.

  “Can’t we jump to FTL?” she asked, voice quavering.

  “Not until we break atmo.” There were too many variables when it came to engaging in faster than light travel, and jumping to it before they hit the vacuum of space was a guaranteed death sentence. It was coming up close, but the shields were already weakening and it would only take a lucky shot by one of those speeders to take them out. “Ten more seconds,” he promised. One way or another it would all be over then.

  “Okay,” said Quinn, her breath unsteady. This time she did close her eyes while she sucked in deep breaths, trying to keep a hold of herself.

  Kayde increased their speed as much as he dared. He put a little distance between them and the speeders, but they were still easily within range of the blasters. He keyed in the coordinates on the FTL controls and left them there, ready for the second they broke away from Beznifa and could safely get a move on. The ship rocked as they went higher, but this time it wasn’t blasters trying to stop them, it was the gravity field of Beznifa letting them go.

  Kayde waited one more second before engaging the FTL and jumping them away from Beznifa and on their way to safety.

  Quinn opened her eyes and let go of her death grip on her seat. “We made it?”

  Kayde nodded, unsure of what to say now that they had finally arrived at safety after their week in hell.

  Quinn took a deep breath. “Good,” she said, repeating the word several times, mostly to herself. “I’m going to go...” She waved her hand towards the back of the ship before unbuckling her safety restraint and standing up on unsteady feet. “I just need a...” She shook her head, maybe unsure of what she needed.

  “Go,” said Kayde. “Do what you need to do. I’m going to set the auto nav and then take a shower.” He had never before announced his schedule for the day to her, but she seemed at a loss and he hoped that something mundane like that would help her find her footing.

  She nodded absently. “Okay.” She shuffled back towards the cockpit door and climbed carefully down the ladder. Kayde heard her footsteps retreat into the heart of the ship and he had to quell the urge to chase after her and promise her that everything was going to be okay. It only took a few minutes to set their coordinates before Kayde was pushing himself out of his chair, his muscles heavy with exhaustion as the last week caught up with him. He could collapse into his bunk and sleep f
or several days, but the grit and grime of the arena in the woods covered him, making a shower his first priority. His stomach rumbled and clenched, a bit of queasiness rising in his throat, making a meal the next item on his list.

  He was just past the galley when footsteps pounded coming towards them and Quinn burst through the door, a practically maniacal smile lit up on her face. “You’re never going to believe this,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Our supplies actually made it to the ship. They loaded them just like they were supposed to. I thought for sure we were meant to be stuck rationing whatever meal bars we could scrounge up, but we’ve got plenty of supplies to get all the way to HQ and back. I really think we’re going to be okay.”

  Kayde had thought about their supplies while they were making their journey to the ship. He’d forgotten about their day in the market, it seemed so long ago. But Beznifa was a legitimate trading planet, and it was completely possible that the market traders had little or nothing to do with the people who had taken them prisoner and use them for their entertainment. He felt light all of a sudden, his muscles unclenching and his breaths suddenly deeper. Relief, that was what this was. “I agree,” Kayde finally said. “We’re going to be great.”

  KAYDE ONLY TOOK A FEW minutes in his shower and Quinn barely had time to gather some toiletries before he was turning the water off and leaving the now humid chamber for her. She didn’t see him get out of the shower, but she could imagine the water streaming down his neck and back, over every muscle and down to the floor. God, even the thought of his feet made her shiver, and she’d never been into anything like that before. No, this madness all just came from Kayde. There wasn’t any part of him that she wasn’t attracted to, from his dark hair to his color shifting eyes to his hidden claws and the emotions he kept buried so deep she had at one time been worried that he didn’t feel anything at all.