HE’D ALMOST KILLED a man and his only regret was that it wouldn’t be quick enough. Kayleb might have been the violent type back home, but he’d never been one for death. But he’d seen the look of unholy glee on that pirate’s face when he thought he had Tessa to himself. The depraved possibilities flashed through his eyes, and it had taken all of Kayleb’s restraint not to bash him against the wall and kick him while he was down.

A single stun to render him unconscious had been too good for that monster, and if he were alone he didn’t know that he’d have the strength to leave him locked up rather than finishing the job.

Beside him, Tessa looked shaken. He forced the violent thoughts away. They’d do nothing to save his mate.

“There can’t be many of them, can there?” Tessa asked. They stood in the shadows outside the shed. The compound was just as quiet as it had been before they were snatched and Kayleb was thankful that they’d not been taken somewhere else.

Smoke tickled his nostrils and Kayleb turned around, trying to pinpoint the scent. Night had fallen and though the moon shone bright, he couldn’t see very far because of the trees. But the dark bursting plumes in the distance didn’t look like any sort of clouds he’d seen on Earth. “That’s not where the ship was,” he said.

“Distraction?” Tessa ran her fingers over the cuff of his sleeve, the little touch grounding him. He’d never realized how much he could crave something as simple as the brush of fingers on his skin, but now he ached for it.

“It would be easier than fighting the big scary mercenaries. Especially if it was just this asshole and his friend.” And now the only question was where that friend, or friends, was. “We need to be careful.”

“Comm hub is in the house.” Tessa tore her gaze away from the smoke and peeked past him around the edge of the building.

Kayleb knew exactly what she would see. A lot of nothing. None of Jacinta’s crew were walking around the compound, but neither were any wandering pirates. The lights were set to low, giving the peaceful valley a romantic ambiance he might have appreciated under other circumstances. Around them, the woods were practically silent. It still felt early, even though he didn’t have a time piece or any other way of judging the time of night. Birds should have been screaming and chirping as they settled in for sleep. Bugs should have been buzzing. Even the wind was silent, leaving the trees around them still.

It sent unease crawling up Kayleb’s spine. Danger lurked around them somewhere, and nothing gave a hint as to what angle it would come from.

“Let’s keep to the sides of the buildings, I don’t know if anything is waiting for us out there.” His instincts screamed at him to find somewhere safe and make sure Tessa stayed there until the trouble was past, but she’d never accept that role. It didn’t make moving away from the relative cover of the shadow any easier.

Grass crunched under his feet, loud enough to echo in his ears. His every breath was as loud as a shout and his heartbeat drowned out all other sounds. He led the way, Tessa only an arm’s length behind him. She walked on silent feet and he knew it was his own hyper awareness of the noises he made that caused his steps to seem so loud.

A small break behind the shed crossed a paved road and then there was a garage that stood open and empty. Kayleb peered into the darkness of the cavernous room, but nothing moved in the shadows. He looked to either side of the road and back towards the trees, but no one had appeared in the minute since they’d walked away from the shed. Crossing the road was as treacherous as crossing a churning river, but they did it quickly and passed the open garage without interruption.

The hair on his arms stood on end and his claws itched to come out, but the blaster was a better weapon for now. He didn’t need to be close enough to touch.

“This place wasn’t so damn creepy a few hours ago,” Tessa hissed behind him. She pressed against an outer wall of the garage and shimmied along in his steps.

“We’ll be on that desert isle soon enough,” he promised, even while unease coated his veins. Had all of Jacinta’s people abandoned the compound to investigate the fire? Or were there bodies lying hidden somewhere near? He hoped that he hadn’t brought more death to this place, and if he had, he’d take the payment from the pirate’s skin.

Tessa’s hand smoothed down his back. The bond didn’t allow them to read one another’s thoughts, but they could get a sense of the other’s moods. From her he could read stress and a little fear. He reined the bloodthirstiness back in before she could grow more concerned. It was even harder now than it had been standing over the pirate.

“It’ll be okay,” Tessa promised.

They passed three more buildings without trouble, but Kayleb had to stop before they went any further. To get back to Jacinta’s they had to cross over half of the central courtyard. There was nothing resembling cover. If there was a sniper sitting in one of the buildings...

Best not to think of that.

“We need to make a run for it,” he said quietly, the sound uncomfortably loud in the silence of the night. “Don’t stop until you’re at the front door. No matter what.”

Tessa sucked in a breath. “You think there’s trouble?”

He gave a jerk of his head that wasn’t quite an answer either way. “Kiss for luck?” He turned and angled his head down and Tessa was already there to meet him, brushing her lips against his but pulling back before either of them could get carried away.

“Let’s do it.”

They ran and Kayleb’s senses sizzled with the fear that they weren’t alone. But no shots rang out, no one came to attack them, no one shouted for them to stop. By the time he bounded up the steps to the front door, only two paces behind Tessa, he was almost ready to believe that the pirate they’d tied up was acting alone.

But the door to the house had been busted open and a wet trail of something slick stained the floor.

“We’re not alone.”

***

THEY HADN’T BEEN SHOT, so that part was good. Tessa decided she had to focus on the good things in life now: her lack of bullet wounds, Kayleb, the fact it wasn’t raining. If she didn’t savor the good, she might break down screaming in panic and that would just leave Kayleb in more danger.

So the big tentacled alien that looked like a monster out of some movie might be in Jacinta’s house. They could handle it. No big deal.

“We’ve had worse, right?” If her voice was a little panicky, at least Kayleb didn’t comment on it.

“We can try our luck in the woods,” he offered. They were both standing against the wall beside the door, but whatever monster was in there couldn’t hear them, unless it was standing just inside waiting to ambush.

“Who knows what’s out there.” She wanted to wake up in her own bed, wrapped up beside Kayleb and completely safe. She hadn’t been safe in so long that she wasn’t sure she’d know what it felt like when it happened, but almost anything would be better than this.

At least they weren’t locked up any more. Embrace the small good things.

“Comms room,” Tessa reminded him. “We can do this.”

Kayleb handed her the blaster and in a snap his claws were out. They were wicked sharp and could rip someone open with a single jerk of his arm. They reminded her that somewhere in the Detyen past, they’d been the predators on their planet, not beings of reason and diplomacy. And today Tessa couldn’t be more thankful for that.

They entered carefully, taking stock of the front room and finding it empty. The comms room was upstairs, but the staircase was in the back of the house near the kitchen. The wind picked up outside and beat against the windows, but Tessa couldn’t hear anything in the house. She imagined the tentacled alien waiting for them somewhere, lurking.

Kayleb led the way. He had the fighting experience and knew the house better. The blaster was a heavy weight in her hand and her fist squeezed around the grip to reassure herself just how solid the thing was. She was a healer, not a killer. But she’d take out anything that threatened Kayleb, and she wouldn’t feel bad about it.

The kitchen showed evidence of disturbance. Not a fight, but something had been knocked off the counter and another trail of slime led towards the stairs. Kayleb nodded to it and then to her, making sure that she saw it. Tessa really hoped Jacinta didn’t have an easily accessible weapons store upstairs.

Her mate edged towards the staircase and leaned forward, getting as best a look as he could. He stepped cautiously, moving only on his toes as he took the stairs, careful not to make any sound. If Tessa hadn’t been gripping the blaster so hard her arms would have been shaking from the tension, but she did her best to move as silently as Kayleb, taking each step slowly and carefully. Wood groaned under foot and she froze. Kayleb snapped his head back but the noise hadn’t come from her.

It had come from upstairs.

A second step sounded and whatever it was, it wasn’t right at the top of the stairs. They kept moving. Tessa’s blood rushed loud in her ears and sweat plastered her hair to the back of her neck. She expected some scene of carnage, bodies ripped open, cries of the dying, terror heavy in the air. But when they came to the second floor, it was just as quiet and empty as the entrance.

Except for the creak of wood under distant footsteps.

Neither she nor Kayleb dared say anything. She pointed down the hallway to the comms room. The footsteps seemed to be coming from the other direction. The comms room was secure. All they had to do was get there, make the call, and barricade themselves in until help arrived.

Simple.

Terrifying.

Kayleb moved faster now and Tessa had to take a jog-step to keep up. She kept throwing glances behind her to make sure nothing was on their tail, but it was just the two of them and the empty hallway. Any movement she spotted out of the corner of her eyes ended up being frayed nerves. She carefully kept her finger off the trigger of the blaster, not wanting a stray shot to give away their location.

She didn’t let out a relieved breath when they got to the comms room door, she couldn’t believe that they’d made it. Instead, she tried to keep her calm and kept the blaster poised. Kayleb swung the door open and stepped inside.

Before she could step in behind him, he let out a strangled yell and something awfully heavy thumped to the floor with a disturbing squick. Tessa tried to move forward, but something soft and too strong to be human latched onto her leg and pulled her off her feet.

***

FUCKING PIRATES.

The red haze of rage in his vision was an old friend that Kayleb welcomed with open arms. The pirate in the comm room was neither human, nor Detyen, nor whatever tentacled beast might wait for them outside. He was a little shorter than Kayleb with neon green skin and three eyes. When he grinned, his teeth were as sharp as the sharks that Penny had shown him at the aquarium. But he didn’t have claws, and when his blaster went flying that sharp smile faltered.

Amateur.

Kayleb was on him in an instant, a flash of claws digging into the heavy layers of clothing that protected the pirate. He growled and pushed forward as his claws tangled, unable to rip his enemy to shreds in a single swipe.

The pirate recovered quickly, getting a hold of Kayleb and flipping him over his hip until he crashed down to the floor and landed on something soggy. Kayleb rolled up just before a foot smashed down where his throat had been and came back for the pirate, using fists this time instead of claws. Some of the street fights back home hadn’t allowed for anything more brutal than fists and feet.

Kayleb had still been the winner, even then.

They settled into a rhythm, an exchange of blows one way and then the other, and after several back and forths, Kayleb’s arms were heavy and his breath came in labored pants. A fight couldn’t last forever. And as soon as he slowed down, it would be lost. But his pirate foe wasn’t in any better shape. He bled from several cuts and his face was a mass of bruises that turned his green skin into a sickly yellowish gray. But Kayleb could feel the fullness of his own bottom lip and knew his skin must be a mottled purple.

He’d hurt in the morning because he was going to be the one to walk out of this mess.

In the back of his mind he wondered where Tessa was, but until the threat was dealt with, he couldn’t split his attention.

The pirate came at him again and the fight shifted in a blink. His foot landed in something on the floor and he wobbled, arms swinging for balance. Kayleb lunged, taking the guy down. This time there was no thought of mercy, no instinct to tie him up rather than end him. And with a swipe of his claws and a hot burst of blood gushing over his fingers, it was done.

Kayleb took a moment to breathe and instantly regretted it. The place smelled like rotten fish and sweat.

He pushed himself up off the ground and was about to go searching for the blaster when a scream sounded and was immediately cut off right outside the door.

Tessa!

He ran, shooting into the hall so quickly that he slammed against the opposite wall. His mate was wrapped up in the tentacles of a third pirate, one clutching her leg while another had her around the waist. A third was wrapped tightly around her throat and though her hands were up and trying to pull it down, her face had turned a bright red as she struggled to get enough air.

The blaster she’d been using had fallen to the ground beside them. Kayleb dove for it, but a fourth tentacle swung at him, flinging him out of the way. How many tentacles did this thing fucking have?

It didn’t matter.

Claws out, he went for the blaster again, ready for the swing of the appendage this time. He clawed at it and was satisfied at the hiss of pain that came from the thing’s hidden mouth.

Tessa struggled and managed to get its arm out from around her neck. She drove an elbow back into the mass of body behind her and threw herself forward, trying to get away. While she distracted it, Kayleb found her blaster.

He tried to get a shot off, but they were moving too much and he couldn’t shoot it without hitting her. And he wasn’t going to shoot his mate.

Kayleb ducked under a waving tentacle and sank a punch into the being’s side. It couldn’t move much while it used most of its limbs to subdue Tessa. It tried to twist around when Kayleb got behind its back, but with Tessa’s struggling, it couldn’t stop him without letting go of her.

Finding the biggest mass of flesh on the alien’s oozing body, he pressed the blaster against its skin and fired. It lit up like a candle and Tessa gasped.

“Fuck!” she bit out. The alien didn’t go slack, but its hold loosened and she struggled while Kayleb stood there. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he couldn’t fight it while she was stuck. She jerked her head towards him. “Shoot the damn thing again!”

It snapped Kayleb out of his hesitation and he fired once and then once again. Tessa hissed as the alien conducted energy through its flesh and into her, but with a hiss it let go and slid bonelessly to the floor. She fell with it and for a moment he worried that she was about to pass out, but she crawled on hands and knees until she’d escaped the gooey mass of tentacled beast and propped herself up against the opposite wall, right next to the dent he’d made in it.

This skin around her neck was darker than it should have been, with circular sucker marks from where the tentacles had latched on. Her head tipped back and her chest rose and fell as she sucked in deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. Kayleb stumbled over to her, heedless of the mess he made, covered in blood and slime and other gross shit.

They’d come this far to make a call, but even the distance across the hallway seemed too far to cross, his limbs as heavy as Jaaxian iron. He managed to seat himself beside Tessa and she leaned against him.

“You smell,” she muttered, but she didn’t pull away.

He let his head rest against hers, her hair soft against his cheek. He gripped the blaster and stared down the hall towards the stairs, willing them to stay empty while he and his mate did their best to get their energy back.

Footsteps pounded over the wooden floor, determined to shatter the illusion of safety they’d just managed to pull over themselves. Kayleb struggled to his feet, legs wobbly as the fight took its toll. Even as Tessa stood behind him, he placed himself in front of her, guarding her. Giving her time to run.

A human head came into view and Kayleb held up the blaster, but when he got sight of who was coming down the hall, he sagged in relief.

Thank the gods and devils. They were saved.