Chapter Seven
Killian
What the hell?
I was upside down, and I was moving, but not under my own steam. If I wasn’t mistaken, I was tossed like a sack over Zak’s shoulders, and he was running.
I tried to open my eyes, but pain flashed through me, and I screwed them up tight. My brain hurt as I tried to piece together what had happened. We’d been running away.
In the palace.
Zak and Ruby.
Then I must have been hit. And I passed out.
I cracked open my eyes. We were out of the palace and racing through the city. It was still dark, though dawn couldn’t be far away.
Zak was clearly here, but where the hell was Ruby?
I tried to peer behind me, but I was bouncing around, and it was impossible to see more than a few feet in the narrow twisty streets. I thumped Zak on the shoulder. He grunted but didn’t slow down.
I shouted in his ear. “Where’s Ruby?”
“She’s just behind us.”
I needed to see her, to know she was okay. But everything was blurring. If I could just see her, know she was safe, then I could give in to the weakness and close my eyes and…
I forced them open as Zak slowed, then kicked open a gate, and we were outside the city walls. I squinted into the darkness. Presumably, we were heading for the rendezvous point with the Helldiver. We’d arranged it at the start of all this. Dawn each day, Creb would bring the ship here. Wait for half an hour, and then get the hell out of there. For one month. After that, she could take the Helldiver and do what the hell she liked. If we weren’t back in a month, then we were dead.
Would she come?
It had been just under two weeks. Maybe she’d already given up. I liked Creb, but I wasn’t sure I trusted her. And I also wasn’t sure she liked me—she claimed to hate all men. But somehow, I doubted she’d abandon us.
Maybe we were going to get out of this after all. And me and Ruby would live happily ever after. And we’d save the Earth, and then we’d come back and save the slaves on Groth. And we’d be heroes. Maybe we’d have some little baby heroes and Zak would be an uncle and…
Where the hell was she?
“Ruby?” I yelled into Zak’s ear, but he still didn’t slow. I started to struggle, but I was weak, and he held me with ease as he kept running. I felt for my pistol; I’d shoot him if I had to, but the pistol was gone, and I swore under my breath.
Finally, he halted and dropped me to the ground.
“Where is Ruby?” I gritted my teeth and glared up at him.
He glanced away. “She’s bringing up the rear. She’ll be fine. There’s no one after us.”
I tried to calm down but my heart was beating too fast, and my skull felt as though it had been cracked in two. “What have you done?”
“Nothing. Everything is going to be good. Just relax.”
“I’ll relax when I see Ruby.”
He ignored me, gazed at the sky. “Come on, come on,” he muttered. “Fuck it. Where the fuck is the Helldiver?”
A slimy sick feeling was crawling up my throat, threatening to choke me. “Where the fuck is Ruby?”
“She’ll be here.” But he couldn’t look me in the eyes, and I knew he was goddamn lying.
I tried to push myself up onto my feet. I had to find her. Something was wrong. I got as far as my elbows and then collapsed back to the ground. Coldness was spreading from my middle.
I heard a ship approaching at the same time as Zak’s voice, as if from a distance. “Thank Groth.”
And then, for the second time that night, I fainted.
When I came around again, I knew I was on board the Helldiver. For a minute, the familiar feel of her relaxed me. I was home. I was safe.
Then I sat up abruptly.
“Ruby!”
Zak stood beside the bed. “She’s dead, Kill. I’m sorry.”
The words didn’t make sense. She couldn’t be dead. I wouldn’t believe it.
I sat up and swung my legs off the bed. The pain was gone. I ran my fingers through my hair and staggered to my feet. I had no clue where we were headed, but we had to get back to Groth. I had to find my girl.
For a second, I swayed, then steadied myself with a hand against the wall. I headed out of the room. Zak followed me, without saying anything. I went straight to the bridge. Creb sat in the pilot’s seat. She turned as I entered and pity flashed across her face. “Glad to see you’re up.”
I ignored the comment. “Turn the ship around. We’re going back to Groth.”
She looked past me to Zak and raised an eyebrow.
“Who’s fucking captain here?” I snarled.
Zak sighed. “There’s no point, Kill, she’s dead.” He sounded so…defeated that for a moment I believed him. But she couldn’t be dead. I’d feel it somewhere inside me. Whereas right now, every cell screamed that she was still alive.
“And the last thing she asked me was to go back to Earth, make sure they know the truth. It was what she wanted.”
I grabbed onto that. “So she was still alive when you left?”
Zak swallowed, and then gave a quick nod. “She asked me to take you to safety and then go to Earth. Finish her mission. She would hold them off as long as she could. There was no other choice. It was that or we all died. And she wanted you to live.”
Red hot rage engulfed me. “You fucking ran away and left her.” I drew back my fist and punched him, but there was no strength behind the blow, and he just stood there and looked at me.
“She didn’t want it to all be for nothing.”
I forced myself to breathe slowly, to push down the panic, think this through. I paced the small room a couple of times, my mind scrambling for an answer that wouldn’t mean the end of everything.
Something occurred to me. “Their guns were set to stun. Otherwise, I’d be dead. I took a direct hit.”
Zak rubbed his forehead, as though he was thinking it through. I knew I was right. “So?”
“So. She’s likely also still alive. They would have stunned her, not killed her.”
“Maybe.” He scratched his head.
“We have to go back for her. If there’s a chance, however small, we have to do it.”
“We’ll never make another break in. They’ll be on their guard.”
“Then we attack the place. They were going to execute you at dawn. My guess is they’ll do the same with Ruby. We have to go in in the Helldiver, shoot them all and rescue her.”
“We don’t have the firepower. It would be a suicide mission.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” I yelled. “I have to do something.”
Think. Just think.
He was right.
I wanted to live happily fucking ever after. I didn’t want to die.
There had to be a way.
We needed help.
An idea came to me. It wasn’t a good idea, but it was the only one. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t get me my happily ever after, but it might save Ruby and her mission. That would have to be enough.
“We need help,” I said.
“And who the fuck is going to help us?”
“We’re going to ask the good guys.”
“Fuck, man, they’ll shoot us out of the sky before they’ll even talk to us.”
“Probably, but we have to try.”
…
Ruby
Yesterday, I’d wondered if dying would hurt. Now I had my answer.
Yup.
And how did I know that? Because Princess Zurian had told me so as they tied me to a stake, in the middle of a courtyard, in the middle of the palace.
Then she’d left me there, no doubt to contemplate my sins.
This was it.
But honestly, never mind dying—right now, everything hurt. She was really just doing the humane thing and putting me out of my misery. Except she wasn’t human.
I wasn’t alone. Tied to a stake next to me was Rekowski. He’d been unconscious when they dragged him out. For his sake, I hoped he’d stay that way.
They were going to burn us. But in a nice, un-messy, sophisticated manner. Apparently, the stakes were metal, and they’d heat up super-hot and burn us to a crisp—just not very fast.
And I really wished I could stop thinking about that.
The sky was beginning to light up, and dawn was close, when a groan broke the silence beside me. Rekowski was awake.
I twisted my head to look at him and saw his eyes were open, gleaming green in the dim light. His face was a mass of bruises and his eyes were almost swollen shut.
“Ruby, I’d like to say it’s good to see you, but I really wish you weren’t here right now.”
“Me, too.”
“I did warn you not to take the fucking job. Bloody women. Never listen.”
I shrugged, or it would have been a shrug if I hadn’t been tied to a post. “You might try honing your persuasive skills next time.” I gave him the best smile I could manage. “Oh, I forgot, there won’t be a next time.”
“Where’s your boyfriend? Not joining us?”
“Obviously not.” And I really hoped that was because Zak had got him away to safety and they were now on their way to Earth.
We were silent for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
“It’s not your fault. Though you might want to rethink your amazingly bad taste in women.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Did you love her?”
“Yeah. Still do.”
“Well,” a voice said from across the courtyard. “That’s good to hear.”
I jumped. Or would have done, except for the whole stake thing. Yolanda came to a halt only a few feet away. Dressed in black leather pants and a black shirt, her long blond hair loose about her shoulders, she appeared cool and beautiful. Ugh! She stepped up to Rekowski and stroked a hand down his cheek. “You look a mess.” From the expression on her face, you’d think she cared. I knew better.
“What do you want?” I snapped. “Bitch,” I added for good measure. Had she come here to gloat?
She turned to me, looked me up and down, the brief softness gone from her violet eyes. “Just be quiet and do what I tell you.”
“Make me,” I muttered.
A smile twisted the corners of her mouth. “I could, you know. You’re hardly in a position to stop me.”
“Well, you’ve already tried to have me killed once.” It was on Yolanda’s orders that Killian had been employed to get me off the Bhaxian slaver and dispose of me.
She shrugged. “Actually, I told them to stop you from getting here. Not kill you.”
“You might have made that a little clearer.”
She studied me through narrowed eyes. “Get over it.”
“Why are you here, Yolanda?” Rekowski asked, breaking our happy little bonding moment.
“To rescue you, of course. I might even take your new friend as well.” She cast me a glance. “If she doesn’t piss me off any more.”
What was going on? My brain couldn’t process the information. Yolanda was here to rescue us? She was studying our stakes, a frown drawing her arched brows together. “I only just learned what was happening. I had to kill my guards to get here.”
“You should have stayed away.”
“Oh yeah, because I’m really such a bitch that I can stand by and watch the man I love being burned alive.”
He winced.
“What’s going on here?” I asked. Because I really had no clue.
She hurried around the back of Rekowski and fiddled with his cuffs. “Shit, they need a key. I’ll have to shoot them off. No time to try and pick the lock.”
“Could you pick a lock?” Rekowski asked. Clearly, he was seeing a new side to Yolanda.
“I was recruited by the Federation when I was sixteen. I’m a trained assassin. So what do you think?” Without giving either of us a chance to express our opinions, she continued, “And the pair of you just fucked up my latest mission. Sorry, this will probably hurt,” she said as she shot a laser blast at Rekowski’s cuffs. He flinched, but he was free.
Me next. Me next.
I didn’t want to beg. Which didn’t mean I wouldn’t, if I had to. I wanted off my stake so badly it hurt.
“You work for the Federation?” Rekowski asked, rubbing his wrists. I wanted to yell at him to talk later. Right now, we had to get out of there.
She rolled her eyes. “Didn’t I just say so? We knew there was a plan to sway the vote, and we knew there was someone high up in the Federation in cahoots with Princess Zurian. I sent out feelers, let it be known I wanted in. That I’d help them for a cut of the profits when Earth was opened up. And it was working. The meeting was set. I would have killed him and been on my way home. Except, because of the uproar you two caused, he got cold feet and canceled. I don’t even have a name.”
Untie me. Untie me.
“I couldn’t leave you,” Rekowski said. “Even when I thought you’d gone bad.”
Her lips curved into a smile and she reached out a hand and touched his bruised mouth. “Thanks for trying to rescue me.”
“Oh my God, this is so sweet,” I muttered. “But can we go now?”
“I don’t think so.”
Fuck.
If something seems too good to be true…
Then it probably is.
Princess Zurian strolled across the courtyard, a cohort of guards at her back. I really hated this woman.
She stopped in front of our little group, facing Yolanda. “You really thought I wouldn’t have you watched?” she asked.
“Actually, yes.” Yolanda shrugged. I was very impressed with her ability to appear unconcerned, but then she wasn’t tied to a stake.
“I never trusted you,” Zurian said.
Yolanda snorted. “Lying bitch. You were totally taken in.”
“Maybe. It makes no difference now. We can go back to the original plan. I always liked it better. We tell your father you were kidnapped—perhaps we can send him a finger or an ear or…” She shrugged. “We’ll worry about the details later. But basically, he votes with us at the meeting or you go home in pieces.” She waved at the guards behind her. “Tie her up. She can watch the executions, and then take her to the dungeons.”
Two guards grabbed Yolanda, cuffed her hands behind her back, and forced her to her knees a few feet from my stake, attaching the cuffs to a post in the ground. Another retied Rekowski to his stake, and we were back where we started.
“Well, that went really well,” Rekowski muttered. “Great fucking rescue.”
“Almost as good as the attempt you made,” Yolanda snapped. Looked like the bitch was back.
“I wouldn’t have needed to if you’d told me the truth.”
“I might have been able to if you’d taken that job with the Federation like I suggested.”
“How was I supposed to know—”
“Okay, guys, just shut up.” I cut him off. But enough was enough. I really didn’t need this. I was going to die. I did not want the last thing I heard to be their bickering. “Just as a matter of interest,” I said, “what did the two of you see in each other?” I managed a snarky smile. “Oh yes, I remember—Rekowski does have a ten-inch cock.”
“How the hell do you know that?” Yolanda growled.
“Because he told me. Boasted about it. But unlike you, I have more taste than to get up close and personal with Rekowski’s monster dick. Hmm, and I suppose you are his boss’s daughter. You know, actually, thinking about it, you two are made for each other.”
People were trickling into the courtyard, no doubt to witness the execution. Though I doubted there would be much of an audience. This could hardly be legal under Federation law.
In the crowd, I caught sight of Sarah. Her eyes were red from crying, and she wouldn’t hold my gaze.
The end.
Then a ripple ran through the mass of people. They all looked up, and I followed the movement. From out of nowhere, the sky filled with ships, and a voice came over some sort of loudspeaker system.
“This is the Federation. Drop your weapons or die.”
All around, the guards were throwing down their guns. It was over.
Yay.
Princess Zurian stalked across to me, halting a foot away. “You think you’re saved? They won’t be in time to rescue you. You’ll be fried before they get anywhere close.” She held up the control unit. “Burn, bitch.” And she pressed the red button.
Immediately, I felt a warmth through my back.
Not good.
I struggled, though I knew it wouldn’t help. There was no way out. Zurian laughed and then tossed the control unit to the ground, spun on her heels, and vanished.
“Fuck,” Rekowski said from beside me. “Yolanda, now would be a good time to show those secret agent skills and get us the fuck out of this.”
“I’m trying,” she muttered.
The stake at my back was heating up, not yet painful, but a mild precursor of the pain to come. I wriggled, but I wasn’t going anywhere.
I stared up at the Federation ships. They were of absolutely no help to me. Then the Helldiver burst from between the bigger ships, sleek and beautiful. Killian.
My heart missed a beat, then started racing. I would have done a happy dance except for the stake.
He’d come back for me. This was his doing. Somehow, someway, he’d saved me. I knew he hated the Federation, and he was a wanted man. They’d probably execute him, but he’d done it anyway.
The Helldiver hovered above the courtyard as close as she could get, too big to land in the enclosed space. Heat seared along my back—a painful reminder that time was nearly up. Had he got here only to watch me die?
Then the doors opened. Killian stood poised on the edge. His gaze caught mine. I saw the fear in his eyes. Fear for me. And then he dived headfirst toward me. He couldn’t survive a fall from that height, but as he neared the ground, the rope attached to his ankle pulled taut. Killian twisted his body, sliced the rope and crashed the last few feet to the ground.
The stake was uncomfortably hot now. I held myself stiff, as far from it as I could, but the stench of charred material filled my nostrils. “Killian, the control box.”
He nodded, searched the ground, picked it up and the heat vanished as if it had never been there.
He strode behind me, drawing his pistol, and a second later I was free.
“My hero.” And I collapsed into his arms.
Where I belonged.