Heartless

by Kate Rudolph

  She needed a break if she didn’t want to pass out.

  Quinn wedged herself into a little alcove full of building supplies and ducked behind a pile of bricks while she tried to catch her breath. It echoed in her ears and she was afraid that Denmen could hear her. She had to keep moving, had to get away from him, but she was shaking from the force of her exertions and didn’t know how far she could make it. Could she even find the exit from where she was? Where was everyone else? Had they all evacuated already?

  Footsteps echoed down the hall and fear shot down Quinn’s spine, freezing her in place. She snapped herself out of it. If she froze, she was dead. Denmen hadn’t hesitated to reach for his weapon and she knew the second he caught her this was all over. Quinn looked around. She needed a weapon, something that would flatten him in one go. She gulped as she saw the pile of bricks right in front of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to pick one up. She didn’t know if she had it in her to bash someone over the head.

  She almost fell over and her hand shot out, landing on a pile of wooden beams just big enough for her to get a good grip on. She grabbed one with both hands and tested the weight. It was heavy, thick enough to do some real damage. And Denmen was almost on her.

  She held tight onto the board and waited, letting her breathing even out and her muscles relax. She couldn’t swing too early. She only had one shot. She was no fighter, but with this weapon and the element of surprise, she didn’t need to be.

  Denmen’s shadow crossed her path and Quinn stepped out and swung. The blow took him by surprise and he went down with a grunt, his blaster flying out of his hand and lying somewhere in the pile of bricks behind her. A trickle of green blood flowed down the side of his head and bile rose in Quinn’s throat. She’d done that to him. His eyes were closed and his body limp, but he still breathed. Quinn held the board up over her head, but she couldn’t bring herself to finish the strike. Even knowing he was a threat to her, she couldn’t hit an unconscious man.

  She threw the board away and took off running. There was no telling how long Denmen would be out, and she didn’t want to wait for him to wake up. After she’d turned several corners and completely lost her way again, Quinn realized that she’d left Denmen’s weapon back there and if he woke up, he’d be more than ready to shoot her. She was pretty sure it had fallen behind the bricks and she had to hope that if he looked for it, it slowed him down enough to let her find her way out of here.

  Wherever here was.

  She was going to die lost and alone on this hopeless little moon. The thought rose from the depths of her dread and Quinn stumbled at the force of it. She’d come all this way, she’d found Kayde, and she’d begun to heal from the harms done to her, and now it was all going to be for nothing because she couldn’t find the right damn hallway to lead her out of this maze.

  If she just stopped and slid against the wall until she was sitting on the floor, would that be any worse than running until she collapsed? Would it really be so bad to give up? Hopelessness speared through her and she didn’t realize that she was crying until she took a deep breath and discovered just how clogged her nose had become.

  God, she was so pathetic.

  The urge to give up was so strong that Quinn forced herself to move. It was ironic in a way. If her doubts had crept up on her she might have given up little by little until she was convinced that it was the right thing to do. But the force of it was so great that it was like being hit with a battering ram and her instincts to fight back were triggered before she’d even realized she’d begun to fight her fears.

  She could do this. She had to do this. She had to find Kayde and get off this godforsaken moon and go home. They had a life there, together, and she was going to seize it with both hands and carve it out of destiny no matter what she had to fight. If Denmen had shown up right then she could have taken it, she was sure, her determination blazed so brightly within her.

  When she turned the next corner she came to an abrupt halt as a Detyen stood in her path. Her Detyen.

  “Kayde!” She flung her arms around him and held on for dear life.

  He clamped her tightly in his embrace. “What are you doing down here?” he asked, his face buried in the curve of her neck.

  “Long story.” She wanted to tell him what happened, but she wanted to do it when they weren’t under imminent threat of treacherous Detyens. “We should get to the ships.” She’d tell Kayde what happened soon, but she was more than happy to leave Denmen on the moon while the rest of them escaped. She might not have it in her to hit him over the head, but leaving him like this was no hardship. The floor rumbled under their feet and Quinn’s ears popped. Her eyes snapped to Kayde’s as she let go of him and reluctantly stepped back. “What’s that?”

  He looked back over his shoulder. “That was the first evac ship firing its thrusters. We need to go now.”

  The time for talking was over. They ran.

  THERE WAS NO GOOD REASON for Quinn to be in this part of the compound, but they didn’t have time to dwell on it. Whatever had gone wrong, they could fix later. But they had to get to the ships first. The ground was a constant rumble under their feet as all the evacuation vessels began to lift off. Kayde pushed as hard as he thought Quinn could go, but he feared that they were still not moving fast enough. They were deep inside the bowels of Detyen HQ and even at a sprint it would take precious minutes to get to one of the exits.

  It didn’t escape Kayde’s notice that Quinn kept shooting worried looks over her shoulder. “Is there something we should be concerned with?” he asked his mate.

  She opened her mouth to reply, but seemed to reconsider after a moment and shook her head. Kayde didn’t have time to press, but he did speed up a little and though Quinn was breathing heavily, she kept up.

  They made it to exit three just in time to watch the last of the evacuation ships break atmo, the sound cracking all around them.

  Quinn doubled over, her heavy breaths making white puffs in the cold air around them. “They couldn’t wait five more minutes?” she panted.

  Kayde surveyed the land around them, hoping the final fleet ship was still there, still waiting. But they were alone. All hope was not lost. They’d come to HQ in their own ship, and though the plan was to abandon it in the escape, it would still be waiting outside the administration building where they had landed earlier that day. “Come on,” said Kayde. “We need to get back inside.”

  Quinn’s teeth were already chattering and she didn’t argue.

  They moved a little slower through the eerie silence of the abandoned compound. Kayde had never before realized just how much life his people brought to the place, gloomy as it was. They didn’t have time for memories, not when the self-destruct sequence could be engaged at any moment. Kayde kept that piece of information to himself, not wanting to worry Quinn. They had plenty of time to get to their ship and get away, it would only be a few more minutes.

  “Are you going to miss it?” she asked as she ran her fingers along one of the walls.

  “No,” Kayde answered truthfully. “This isn’t my home.”

  She gave me a funny look. “It isn’t?”

  Kayde leaned in and stole a kiss. “No, you are.”

  Her lips compressed and her eyes widened, and for a moment Kayde thought she would cry before a burst of laughter broke free. She flung her arms around him buried her face in his neck, holding him tight as amusement wracked her body. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. Really, I know what you mean. I promise I do.”

  Her laughter was light to his newly formed soul and Kayde promised himself that he would find the right words to express what she was to him. No matter how long it took. “We must hurry.” He pulled her along and they made it to the entrance to the administrative building without any more delays. Their ship was waiting exactly where they had left it and Kayde knew they were home free.

  He could see the valley beyond the ship, the sharp drop off of the plateau giving HQ a perfect natu
ral landing site. But it wouldn’t be long until the entire compound behind them sank into that valley and the plateau itself would most likely disappear in the blast. Kayde’s thoughts on the upcoming changes to the landscape were scattered when he spotted a dark figure standing outside of his ship, trying to open the door.

  “There’s another survivor out there,” he told Quinn as they stood at the final door that would lead them out of the compound. “He must have somehow missed the evac ships.” Though how all of the protocols to make sure no one was left behind had missed him, Kayde didn’t know. Then again, the ships had left him and Quinn behind as well, so they clearly had a level of acceptable loss. He only hoped no one else had been abandoned.

  They stepped out into the cold and Quinn got a good look at the survivor by their ship. She shouted something at Kayde, but the wind roaring around them swallowed up her words. When she threw herself on him and tackled him to the ground he wanted to ask what she was doing, but when a blaster started firing it all became clear. The man at their ship was who Quinn had been checking for. He’d tried to harm Kayde’s mate, and for that he would pay.

  “Take cover!” Kayde yelled. Quinn nodded and Kayde was off, trusting her to do as instructed.

  As he got closer to the ship, dodging the wildly fired blaster, Kayde recognized the Detyen warrior attacking them. Denmen was an older warrior who had been denied his application to become soulless and would die on his thirtieth birthday in the coming months if he didn’t find his mate. The left side of his face was swollen and turning an ugly gray and a trickle of dried blood was plastered along his temple and down his cheek as if he’d been struck by a large object. Quinn’s work? Pride for his mate swelled in him, along with anger that Denmen had threatened her.

  “What are you doing?” Kayde demanded, crouching behind one of the boulders that ringed the edge of the landing pad. He was within easy range of the blaster now and he didn’t want to give Denmen a target.

  “Fulfilling my end of the bargain,” Denmen yelled back. “They promised to find me a mate if I gave them the human that escaped.”

  Who? Rage surged in Kayde and he saw red, forgetting the question before it had been asked. “You can’t have her.”

  Denmen fired a shot beyond Kayde, back to where Quinn was taking cover. “I don’t care about your bitch. They want the other one.” He shot again, all his fire going wide. “It’s all her fault I’m stuck here like this.”

  Kayde didn’t know which ‘her’ Denmen was talking about and he didn’t care. Whoever he was working for, it was clear he’d betrayed the Legion and wanted to harm Quinn and, presumably, Laurel. Kayde wasn’t about to let him get away with that. But the blaster posed a problem. He’d stored the weapons he’d been issued when he went to meet Dru’s ship, and his own blaster was safely stored in the lock box on his own ship. He had no weapons but his wits and his claws, and though he knew he was the better fighter than Denmen under normal circumstances, he wasn’t immune to a blaster.

  “Hey, asshole!” Quinn’s yell made Kayde’s heart stutter. He’d run in front of blaster fire to protect her, but he needed her to stay down if he was going to win this fight. For some reason she didn’t want to do that. Rocks flew overhead, lobbed farther than he would have thought her capable. Denmen gave a rage fueled yell and spun towards her, advancing on her position with no thought to where Kayde was standing.

  Fear for his denya’s safety warred with pride for her wit, but Kayde tamped them both down as the calm of battle overtook him. He stepped out, meeting Denmen with his fists and grabbing at his wrist to isolate the blaster. Kayde might have had more skill and experience, but Denmen was still a Detyen warrior and it was no easy task to hold him back.

  They fell to the ground and a quick jab at a pressure point in the younger Detyen’s wrist loosened his grip on the blaster enough for him to drop it. Kayde couldn’t let go well enough to grab it himself, but he did his best to toss it out of reach of both of them.

  He jammed his knee into Denmen’s side and his opponent grunted and bucked at him, slamming his head against Kayde and unsheathing his claws at the same moment. They fell apart and Kayde staggered, his vision going crosseyed for a moment until he recovered. Denmen eyed the ground near their feet and found his blaster, but Kayde was faster, kicking it out of range and almost beyond the ship, near the edge of the plateau.

  It was a dirty fight, claws swiping for anything they could hit, teeth bared, eyes red. They both rode the hard edge of rage, Kayde defending his mate, Denmen fighting for his life.

  Denmen slipped on a patch of ice and Kayde pressed the advantage, sweeping his leg out from under him and sending him crashing to the ground. He bashed his head against the snow, but it was too soft to do much damage and Denmen was already fighting back, his grappling skills surprisingly sharp.

  But he was getting tired. His chest heaved as he tried to pull in breaths and he was slowing down. All Kayde had to do was wait him out and not let Denmen get lucky. The fight was already over, his opponent just didn’t know it yet.

  They scrambled back to their feet and Kayde saw his opening, saw exactly how it would happen. Denmen would lunge; he didn’t see the small dip in the ground in front of them. His foot would get caught, and when Kayde caught him, he’d flip him back down and use his claws to end this once and for all. In his mind it was already over, the future set in stone.

  Denmen lunged, but the ground under their feet rippled with the sound of a distant blast, distracting his opponent enough to pull back at the last moment. The smell of explosives tickled Kayde’s nose and he knew they didn’t have much time before the self-destruct mechanism reached them.

  “Quinn!” he yelled behind him. “Get on the ship!” He’d hold off Denmen, but he needed his mate moving right now. He couldn’t look back to see if she did as he bid; the ground rumbled under his feet and he had to end this.

  Now.

  QUINN COULD SEE SMOKE rising in the distance and her fingers and nose were numb from the cold. Had the attack started? Shouldn’t she see ships in the sky? There was no time to question it. As Kayde’s words sank in, she was already running, trying to keep low to the ground in case either of them had a blaster she didn’t see. It looked like the ship was way far away, but she covered the distance between the edge of the landing pad and it faster than she thought possible. Her feet slid on the icy surface under her, but she managed not to fall over.

  She made it to the ship and flipped open the control panel next to the entrance, but paused before pressing the button to open the door and extend the ramp. She didn’t want Denmen getting on the ship, but the ground was rumbling underneath her feet and the sound of explosions in the distance was getting closer. She had to trust Kayde to take care of him. She trusted her mate with her life, he’d do anything he needed to make sure that they got off this moon alive and together.

  The hatch opened slowly enough to make Quinn bite her lip and start to gesture with both hands, hoping that might make it move a little faster. She heard a cry of pain behind her and looked to see Kayde clutching his side as green blood pulsed out under his fingers. His name died on her lips as Denmen came up behind him, a mad look in his eyes.

  No. This couldn’t be happening, she wasn’t going to let him win.

  Her eyes locked with Kayde’s and she saw resignation in them. He nodded towards the hatch, urging her to get on board, to not see what was about to happen. To hell with that. She abandoned her post and dove under the ship, looking for something, anything that might turn the tide of this battle.

  A blaster would do.

  She practically tripped over it. It must have been kicked this way at the beginning of the fight. Quinn scooped it up with unsteady fingers and ran back to where she could see the two men fighting. They’d stumbled back until they were practically on the edge of the plateau. One wrong step and they’d go tumbling over. Kayde was fighting hard, but she could see the pain in every line of his body. Whatever Denmen had hit, it had
been vital.

  Quinn raised the blaster, but the way they were fighting meant that she could just as easily hit Kayde as his opponent, and she was no crack shot. She cursed and lowered the weapon, running closer to them. Denmen caught sight of her movement and an evil smile overtook his face, freezing the blood in her veins more effectively than the air around them. He was going to kill Kayde, she could see it perfectly. And once he killed Kayde, he would come for her. He may not have given a shit about her before, but now that her mate had hurt him, had put a damper on his plans, he was ready to take his frustrations out on her.

  To hell with that.

  Determination steadied her nerves and it was like she and Kayde were connected, mind to mind. He pushed Denmen, heaving him back and stepping out of the way while Quinn raised the blaster, practically in slow motion. She squeezed the trigger and watched as the bright blast of light hit Denmen in the center of his chest. His eyes widened, as if he hadn’t realized she had the blaster, and he stumbled back. His arms waved madly and he let out a yell before falling backwards, tumbling off the side of the plateau and disappearing from sight.

  She should have felt something about killing a man. But as Quinn engaged the safety and stuffed the blaster in her pocket, all she could think of was Kayde. As the explosions crept ever closer, she ran towards her mate and got her shoulders under his arm, helping him across the landing pad and practically dragging him up the ramp as he staggered.

  “We didn’t make it this far for you to crap out on me now.” She infused as much steel into her voice as she could manage, trying to mask her fear.

  Kayde tried to say something, but it came out little more than a muffle of unintelligible words.

  “Please tell me you can fly this thing.” They didn’t have much time until the blasts reached them, and she didn’t know how to launch the ship.

  Kayde nodded weakly. “Get me to the cockpit,” he slurred.