He nods and then heads off with the lamps.
Now to check the generator.
16
“We’ll keep to this part of the station,” Tide said.
I leaned against the counter, arms crossed, and watched. No mention of sending me to Athion, no clue as to the decision he’d made. But it would come after the star eclipse was over, and then I’d be ready to fight. I had Vex and Xavier on my side, and if the way Lore kept looking at me was any indication, then he was leaning toward helping me.
“It will be tempting to turn on all the lights,” Xavier said. “And even though the generator recharges using star power, we don’t want to put too much strain on it. It’s not exactly new.”
“The kitchens, this level, and our cabins?” Vex asked for clarification.
“Yes,” Tide said.
Lore glanced at his watch. “Twenty minutes and counting.”
“I’ll make some bata,” Xavier said.
I shot Lore a quizzical look.
“It’s the Athion version of what you humans call tea.”
Tea. Oh, God. How long had it been since I’d had a cup of tea? I parked my butt at the table; there was no way I was missing out on this.
Xavier put a pan of water on to boil; it came from an underground reservoir that the station tapped into. The water had a distinctly sweet flavor to it. Was Athion water similar? Was that why Xavier tasted sweet? Did Lore and Tide taste the same? What the heck was I even thinking?
Lore pulled out a chair and sat opposite me, and Vex took the seat beside me. Tide hovered for a moment, his silvery gaze sweeping over us, and then took the seat beside Lore with a sigh that sounded suspiciously like resignation.
Xavier glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, so you all want bata now, do you?”
“Shut it,” Tide said. “You know I always make it too weak.”
“What’s your excuse, Lore?” Xavier asked.
“Me?” Lore’s brows shot up. “Nothing. I’m just being lazy.”
Xavier chuckled and poured water into metal mugs and then sprinkled some grains into them. He stirred and then put white grains in.
“Careful you use the cukier and not the senku,” Lore said quickly.
“What?” I frowned.
“Sugar, not the sedatives,” Lore explained.
“Why are the sedatives in the kitchen?” Vex asked.
“I assume the previous occupants may have had trouble sleeping. The planet’s days and nights differ from Athion, and it can mess with your biorhythm.”
“Don’t worry,” Xavier said. “I know my cukier from my senku.” He passed mugs round, and the smell … wait … Oh, God. It smelled like coffee.
Their tea was my coffee.
“Eclipse is happening now,” Lore said. “It’ll be dark but not freezing as it’s technically still daytime.”
I took a sip, and the taste was familiar, like coming home. It brought tears to my eyes.
“Are you all right?” Lore asked, concern etched on his face.
I nodded. “U-hmmm.”
The concoction was hot, and there was no milk, but still … coffee.
Xavier sat at the head of the table, his attention on my face. “Does it taste like your tea?”
“No, even better, it tastes like coffee.”
He smiled, and his face lit up. “You like coffee.”
“I love it.”
His attention dropped to my smiling mouth, and his eyes darkened. He tore his gaze away but not before heat climbed up my neck as the memory of what we’d done a few hours ago filled my mind and softened my body.
Vex’s hand slipped onto my thigh and then moved up toward my crotch, and I was hot again—heat-cycle hot. Could he feel it? Could he sense my arousal? Could I have them both, together? One after the other. Images swirled in my mind. No, I couldn’t let the heat control me. I was in charge of my body.
“Rogue?” Lore’s voice sounded strangled, and when I looked up, his face was flushed.
Tide was breathing faster, shallower. His pupils dark and large against silver irises.
“Rogue …” Vex squeezed my thigh.
Oh, my God. They could feel it, smell it, sense it. Whatever. They knew I was horny, and it was affecting them.
“You’re like a beacon.” Xavier’s voice was thick and husky.
“Fuck,” Tide growled.
“I feel like I need to be alone with my hand,” Lore muttered.
His comment defused the tension and laughter filled the room, breathy and awkward, but still.
And then the lights went out.
* * *
There was silence, and no one moved, then chairs scraped and bodies collided.
“Stop.” I stood. “Let me.”
I could see them all by their spots. They wanted to get to the lamps on the counter behind me. I pushed back my chair and grabbed the nearest lamp. It flared to life and bathed the room in light.
“The generator must have gone down,” Tide said.
“It was fine a couple of hours ago,” Xavier replied. “I checked it to make sure something like this didn’t happen during the blackout.” He cursed softly. “I’ll go check it out.”
“I’ll go with you,” Vex said.
I pushed the chair in. “No. I will. If the lamp goes out, then I can lead us back here. You guys stay put and conserve our light just in case we can’t get the generator going again.”
Vex looked like he wanted to argue, but he pressed his lips together. “You’re right. But if you’re not back here in the next half hour, I’m coming after you.”
“Wait.” Tide got up and grabbed another lamp. “I have radios in my room. One moment.”
He rushed out.
“I don’t like this,” Lore said. “The eclipse hits, and then the generator goes off a few minutes later?”
“What do you think happened?” Xavier asked.
Lore shook his head. “I don’t know. It just feels off.”
Tide returned and handed me a radio. Our fingers brushed, and a jolt of awareness shot through me.
His eyes widened slightly. “Keep in touch.”
I nodded and followed Xavier from the room.
* * *
The lamp cast a corona of light six feet wide as we made our way down to the ground floor using the exit stairwell. Metal clattered beneath our boots, and then we hit the hard-packed dirt. The world beyond the circle of lamplight was pitch black, and my exceptional night vision was useless with the glare of the lamp.
But Xavier knew the way and led us out of the building and into the courtyard. The silence was thick and heavy. Unnaturally so, but then what the heck did I know about alien planets?
“This way.” Xavier kept close to the building. “It’s between the shuttle bay and the mech chamber.”
Mech chamber was what we’d call a garage, and the shuttle bay was just an enclosure to park the vehicles. It was also a garage, but not one where you’d find tools. The light bounced across the ground as we made our way past the mech chamber.
I touched his shoulder lightly. “What do you think the problem could be?”
“I have no idea. It all looked fine earlier.”
“Is mechanics your forte?”
“I trained in it.”
“Is that why you could sabotage the ship?”
“Yes.” He glanced back at me with a slight smile on his handsome face. “And I’d do it again.”
He led me under the first floor, into the unit that held the generator. It was a sparse space with a counter running along one side, a couple of lonely-looking tools strewn across the dusty surface, but nothing else of note. The light shone on a huge metallic contraption in the center of the floor, but Xavier bypassed that and headed to a box in the wall.
An open box.
With wires spilling out of it.
“Um, Xavier, is it supposed to look like that?”
Xavier shook his head. “No.”
The hairs on the back
of my neck quivered and stood to attention. “Xavier …” I gripped Xavier’s arm, dropping my voice to a whisper. “I think there’s something behind us.”
17
Xavier clasped my hand, and together we turned, slashing light into the space between us and the outside.
A dark shape shot to the left. “What the—”
Xavier stepped forward and shone the light in the direction the shadow had gone, but the space was clear, but … Wait. I grabbed his arm and moved it back toward the wall. Four evenly spaced scrapes were etched into the plaster. Claw marks, high up and wide enough apart to indicate a large hand span.
“Xavier … I don’t think we’re alone on the station.”
“Whatever it is it doesn’t like the light,” Xavier pointed out. “We get back inside. Now.”
I grabbed a tool off the counter—a wrench-like item—and we stepped out into the courtyard, light held high. There was a thrumming in the air now, a rhythmic clicking sound. We moved fast toward the entrance to the main building, breath coming shallow because there was something out there watching us, waiting for us to—
Clink
Something hit the lamp, and the glass shattered.
“What the fuck.” Xavier froze.
I looked down to see a small rock, and horror bloomed in my chest.
“They’re trying to take out the light. Run.”
We broke into a sprint, hands still clasped while whatever was out there pinged us with rocks. They were missing. Okay, that was fine. Almost there, and then, with a clink and fizz, the lamp went out.
The world bled to black, my night vision activated, and terror closed its fist around my throat. There were five—no, six—huge insect-like creatures with humanoid bodies and bug-like heads. Mandibles pinched, and feelers quivered, and there was one right in front of us, blocking the entrance to the main building.
There was no way in.
“Rogue, fuck. Rogue, I can’t see.”
The creatures chittered and chattered as if communicating, but they didn’t attack. They thought they had us where they wanted us. They thought we were blind.
“Xavier. We’re cut off. There are six of them. There’s no way into the main building. I’m going to head for the tower. Whatever you do, do not let go of my hand.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Now.”
I broke into a sprint, the sudden movement startling the creatures long enough for us to slip past, but then they were on our tail. A low-level buzzing filled the air.
Don’t look back. The tower was close. So close. “Almost there.”
Xavier’s fingers were a death grip on mine. The radio at my hip cracked. Shit. Please, do not come after us. I needed to get to safety and radio the guys.
The steps to the tower loomed, and then I pulled Xavier round and into the cage surrounding the steps. “Climb.”
I shoved him, and he began to crawl up, feeling his way with his hands. My body jolted as the cage shook. The insect was in flight, wings beating fast as it reared back to take another bash at the metal.
The whole structure shook, and then the steps beneath me clattered as one of the humanoid insects climbed the stairs.
“Move.” I shoved Xavier, and he grunted as he pulled open the door.
A hand grasped my ankle. Like hell. I swung the wrench at it, making contact. It screamed and let go.
“Rogue, I’m in,” Xavier called out.
I clambered through the door after him and slammed it shut before engaging the lock.
“Windows. Glass.” Shit, they could smash their way in.
“Metal shutters,” Xavier said. “There’s a lever on the wall to the right somewhere.”
Shit! Dark shapes hovered outside the glass, rearing back, ready to smash. The buzzing grew louder. I grabbed the lever and pulled. Metal slid out from the top of the glass and began to slide down.
Shit, shit, hurry. “Can it go any faster?”
“What’s happening?” Xavier asked.
“They’re about to attack.”
Glass crunched just before the shutters sealed, and then the tower shook from another collective blow.
I grabbed the radio. “Hello? Tide? Hello?”
“Rogue, where are you?” Tide’s voice was a blessing to my ears.
“We’re sealed up in the tower. Tide, there are creatures out here, and they took out the generator.”
“What?”
“Do not leave the main building. You need to get to a spot without windows. They can get through the windows. They can fly. They’re intelligent. They took out our lamp too.” I was babbling, but I had to make sure they knew what we were up against.
“Rogue …”
“What?”
“Vex already left to go look for you.”
18
Vex was out there. Vex was in danger.
The thundering against the metal had stopped.
Because Vex was out there.
New prey.
“They’re not stupid, they took out the generator,” Xavier said from his position on the floor by the door.
“I know, and I know Vex is on the menu. I have to get out there.”
“Rogue, you go out there, you’ll die.”
“And if I don’t, then Vex will die. I have to try.” I grabbed the door handle. “Stay here. You stay here, and you’ll be safe.”
“Fuck, Rogue, this is not who I am. I do not cower while the woman I love goes out to fight.”
Love? Oh, God. No time to dwell. “Yeah, well, you can’t see. You’ll get me killed. I have to do this alone.”
He was silent for a long beat. “I fucking know, but it kills me that you have to.”
I pressed a kiss to his forehead, and his fingers fumbled for my face. “I’ll be back for you. Lock the door behind me.”
I stepped out onto the steps and into the night.
The light was a pinprick of warmth on the gray and black landscape. Vex stood outside the entrance to the main building.
“Rogue? Xavier?” he called out.
I crouched and scanned the night. Two on the roof, two in the quad, and two on the other side of the exit he’d just come out of, ready to block him off, no doubt. They were smart, they were hungry, and we were prey.
Something flew across the quad and hit the wall behind Vex.
A rock.
Vex started and then moved forward. “Rogue?”
Could he sense the creatures?
They were going for the light. The wrench was a solid weight in my hand as I crept down the steps. Wings buzzed as the two creatures behind Vex took flight and blocked the exit.
Another rock to the wall.
“Fuck!” Vex cursed.
Were they playing with him?
The urge to call out was a pressure in my throat, but I kept my lips pressed together. The ground was firm beneath my feet, and then I ducked behind the tower and round toward the two creatures in the quad closest to Vex.
My boots didn’t make a sound as I ran toward them. Wings fluttered, and heads turned in time to get a wrench to the face. The creature screamed.
Vex let out a cry.
I ducked as the other one lunged for me and brought the wrench down hard on one of its limbs, and then the quad erupted in eerie screeches. The creatures took flight straight for me, leaving the exit open for Vex.
“Vex, get back inside. Now!”
“Rogue?”
“Get inside. Now! Or you’ll get me killed.”
The urgency in my voice, the warning, must have been enough. Vex turned and ran for the exit; he swung the door open and stood in the entrance, lamp held up. “Rogue, where are you?”
Safe. He was safe, but I was surrounded. The creatures hovered in the air for a moment and then attacked. Oh, fuck.
I swung the wrench with all my might, heart in my mouth, dread bubbling in the pit of my stomach because it was me against four. Two were injured and holding back as ground attack.
; The wrench beat against the butt end of a bulbous torso, glanced off a mandible, knocked a head to the side, and busted an eye. My screams mingled with the creatures’, and Vex’s bellows ripped the air.
My arm burned as something sliced through my flesh. One of the fuckers got me. A blow to the back accompanied by searing pain had me hitting the dirt. Fuck. I waved the wrench, smacking into something, not caring what, before pulling myself up.
“Fuck you!” I lashed out, over and over, creating a no-go zone between them and me; they flew in and back, in and back, trying to get to me. I couldn’t keep this up much longer.
The radio at my hip crackled again, and Vex called my name, but the world was pinpoint-focused on where my feet were planted and the monsters trying to get at me. My limbs were tiring, and my vision was blurring. Please, not another toxin?
My knee buckled, and I hit the ground. Fuckers watched me. Hovering, not attacking, as if they knew I was fucked. As if they knew … A toxin.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Vex, run.” My voice was nothing more than a gasp.
Their bulbous eyes seemed to gleam with glee.
“I hope you choke on me.”
They lunged. I closed my eyes.
The world erupted in dazzling light and the whirr of an engine.
The creatures scattered as I gazed up at the light. So bright, so pretty, and then my face met the floor.
* * *
Oh, hangover headache. I opened my eyes to find Lore looking down on me.
I groaned. “Shit, what did I get hit with this time?”
Lore’s gaze flicked away, then back to me. “It was a paralysis toxin. I assume they wanted you alive but immobile when they fed.”
“Nice.” I made to sit up and froze. My hands … My legs. “Lore, why have you got me tied down.”
Lore’s jaw ticked. “Rogue, I—”
The lights …There had been lights above the quad. Shit, the signal … An Athion ship had come for us. For me.
“You don’t have to do this.” I pleaded with my eyes. “Just let me go.”
Rebel: Survivors Heart book 2: Planet Athion Page 7