Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (36 page)

“There are. He’s not a clone. Just your garden variety traitor,” she said.

“Is she dead?” he asked about the woman at her feet.

“No, just knocked out. Why, do you want her dead?”

“No, we need to question her about the bombs she said she planted.”

“I knocked her out pretty hard it might take her a while to come too.”

Commander Azael had ordered his men to lower their weapons and had regained control. He grasped the situation quickly and said, “It has to be the shield.”

That was so not good
, Blue thought. If the shield came down the Ragillians could open fire on the planet.

“Is she really a clone?” Azael asked.

“Yes.The Ragillians managed to replace several of your key people with clones. If you know any of your staff has been off planet at all in the last couple of years do not trust them until Blue can talk to them,” Jayden told him.

Azael looked at the beautiful young woman with the strangely beautiful eyes. She was dressed in black and armed to the teeth. She looked like the warrior she was and not the princess he knew her to be.

He did not need to be told who she was. He remembered meeting her when she had been just three years old. She had been enchanting and had wrapped his crusty old bachelor’s heart around her little finger.

He had been new to his post and made many trips to the palace to confer with the King. The highlight of those trips for him had been his conversations with the little girl. On one memorable trip she had convinced him to play hide and seek in the gardens.

As impossible as he found it to be that she was alive, no one else had ever had eyes like that. The big question was where had she been for the last twenty two years and how had she survived the explosion that had killed every other person on board the doomed ship.

“Princess Aaliyah it is very good to see you alive and well,” he said with a formal bow. “I had the pleasure of knowing you as a child.”

Unable to think of what to say to that Blue said, “Thank you. I am sorry to say I don’t remember much of my years here.” He looked startled then thoughtful.

Blue found that she respected this man. Yes, he was rigid and pompous but from what she was getting from his emotions he was a fair man with high morals. His belief in what was right and what was wrong was absolute. He also was not as rigid as some might think. He had grasped the situation and who she was without any explanations.

“How did you get through the shield?” he asked politely.

“Umm, that’s kind of hard to explain,” she said.

“I do hope Prince Idris understands that I could not lower them with the threat of the Ragillians.”

“I’m sure he does and if he doesn’t he will get over it,” she assured him.

He cocked his head indicating the woman still lying on the floor. “Would you really have let her shoot me?”

“Yes. I would have done what I could to stop her but if it had been necessary I would have let her kill you,” Blue told him with no apology in her voice. He looked thoughtful then nodded his head in approval.

“Good. Now we have to find those bombs.”

“What areas did she have access to?” Jayden asked him.

“She is, was my assistant. She had access to every part of this space port and the chrystals that make up the shield,” was the grim reply.

“You are going to have to take us to the shield chrystals.” Jayden told the Commander.

The placement of the chrystals was known to only the top levels of the government military. Wasting no more time the commander said, “Follow me.”

He hurried from the room with Jayden, Blue, Jos and Sparks on his heels. They ran through the port, weapons ready for any resistance. People scrambled to get out of their way.

“The chrystals are at twelve points across the globe. If the bomb was planted in the last few weeks she had to plant it at the closest sight, which is just outside the port at the base of the Chrystal Tower. It is also the one that ties the others into the shield. Take it down and all of them go down.” Azael informed them as he ran to the nearest transport. That he was not out of breath or slowing them down showed just how well he took care of his body.

It was the first alien ground transport that Blue had seen and it did not look like any car she had ever seen. It was bullet shaped and there were no wheels but it didn’t touch the ground at all. She hopped in with the others and Commander Azael placed his palm on the control panel. The vehicle came to life. As soon as they were all in he took off at high speed.

Talk about going zero to one hundred in one point two seconds. Riley would love this. She loved speed and had received many tickets to pay for that love. The commander disengaged all safety protocols and weaved through the little traffic that was around like a mad man.

He sped towards one of the towers that had pulled so strongly on Blue. She was going to get her wish sooner than she thought and get an up close and personal view of it. She just hoped they were in time to prevent it from becoming dust.

Commander Azael brought the transport to a screeching halt at the base of the tower just as several men poured out of the small building next to it. They were dressed in the uniform of the Shillidon Navy but as soon as they recognized the Commander and Jayden they opened fire catching them all off guard.

The only saving grace was they were armed with old fashion laser rifles. Not the new energy weapons that killed without leaving a mark on the body. Because Commander Azael had stopped them so close to the tower there was not much room for the traitors to aim accurately and their shots were all over the place. That was almost as bad as if they had been able to aim.

Sparks was hit and a bright red spot appeared on his thigh from the wound but he continued to fire without pause. Jayden, hampered by the arm that was still numb from the earlier shot he had taken still managed to fire fast and accurately with his pistol. It was a barrage of weapons fire in a small area with no cover.

Blue mentally shouted to all of them,
“There are only a couple of clones the rest are aligned with Balik.”

“We have to get Jos to the tower to disarm the bomb. He is the only one who can.”
Jayden said.

Blue waded into the mess shooting anything that moved. With no time to waste the others followed her. They whittled away at the traitors. Weapons were discarded because there was no room to use them and they became a hinderance instead of a help.

The hand to hand combat was vicious and deadly. It was a fight to the death for both sides. When the last of the traitors fell Blue looked around at the ground littered with bodies. She felt a sharp cry from Jos and turned to see him rush to Sparks leaning against the tower. The wound on his thigh still bleeding, he now had a matching one in his shoulder but he was still alive. They were all bloody and sporting various wounds including Commander Azael who was not looking quite so polished anymore.

Blue pushed Jos out of the way and told him, “Go, we don’t have long before the bomb is set to go off.”

He gave her an anguished look, “Do not let him die please.”

Blue knew that Sparks was the only family he had left. Yes he still had a brother and sister alive on his planet. But since that planet was still under quarantine and would be until a cure was found for the biological agent that was released into the atmosphere, for all intents and purpose Sparks was it.

“I won’t let him die I promise. Besides he is not hurt that bad,” she joked.

Jos gave a stiff nod and ran into the tower. She made sure Sparks was going to be ok. The wounds looked far nastier than they were. She had just finished bandaging him and stood up when she felt a prickle of warning. She turned to find Jayden just as a shot rang out.

She felt the punch to her stomach first then her shoulder was on fire. A blow to her chest had her falling to her knees. She heard Jayden’s cry of disbelief. Saw him run towards her in slow motion. Saw too the Commander throw himself in front of her. Saw his body jerk with the blows.

She fell forward and lay there, her blood being soaked up by the thirsty ground, unable to move. Unable to help. The commander fell next to her and she was looking into his eyes, eyes filled with tenderness as the life he had sacrificed for her drained from him.

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 33

The roar of rage and loss that came from within Jayden was heard all the way to the space port. He started to go to Blue when he saw the first shot hit her. He met her eyes as she fell to her knees. He forced himself to go after the shooter, knowing that if he did not kill him he would keep shooting at his beloved.

The coward panicked when he saw Jayden bearing down on him. He tried to fire the laser pistol but it was out of juice and he threw it at Jayden even as he ran for the forest. It did him no good, Jayden caught up to him and snapped his neck in one move. There was no time to waste on revenge, he had to get to Blue.

He raced back even as he shouted to Jos, “You have to disarm the bomb now.”

“I cannot find it. Jayden it is not here where I can see it.”

Jayden was no longer paying attention and barely heard the words. He gently rolled Blue onto her back the hideous wounds pouring her life’s blood in to the ground. With shaking hands he pushed her hair from her face.

“You are going to be fine,” he told her repeating the words he had heard her say too many times since he met her.

The pain in his heart was worse than any wound he had ever received. A tear fell from his eye onto her cheek. Blue gave him a weak smile and with no energy to speak she said through their mental bond.
“Of course I am going to be fine. Don’t worry I have had worse. Did you find the bomb?”

“Jos is looking for it now,” he told her pulling out his med kit and wishing Dro was here.

If Idris had made it in time to the palace he and Dro were probably on their way back now. He sent out a mental call and got a strong response. They knew something was wrong and were coming as fast as they could. Jayden told him to come to the Chrystal Tower but not why.

How was he going to explain that he had let this happen. Idris was never going to forgive him. Blue was covered in blood and more was bubbling out of the wounds in her chest and stomach. He ripped her shirt open exposing the wounds. They were really bad. He had seen enough like them to know just how bad. He rolled up a bandage from the med kit and pushed it against both holes. Cringing at the pain he knew he was causing her, all the while talking to her.

He told her that she could not leave him. He loved her and she had not gotten to meet his Dragon and how mad her brother was going to be that she got herself shot. Afterwards he would never be able to remember what he had said only the panic he felt at loosing her.

The blood had slowed by the time a vehicle fell from the air to land next to them. Idris had broken every record set to get here as fast as he did. Jayden never took his eyes from Blue as he felt Idris come to kneel next to him.

“Hi baby sis. I knew I should not have left you,” he said to her.

Blue whispered to him, “Tell the big guy I am going to be fine. He thinks this is his fault.”

“I will and of course you are going to be fine,” he said not knowing if it was true or not. He was pushed aside and the next face she saw was Dro’s. He pushed Jayden’s hands aside to lift the bandage to look at her injuries. They were bad. On anyone else he would be preparing the family for her death but this was Blue and this was not the first time he had thought she would die. She was more unique than anyone he had ever met.

Reading the records of her torture at the hands of the human scientists he had been surprised that she had survived, especially at such a young age. He took out his scanner and ran a full medical scan. Her heart had been sliced clean through along the right side and the hole in her stomach would require major surgery to repair. If they tried to move her he was not sure she would survive. He would have to do what he could to stabilize her here and hope that the healing abilities she had were enough to get her through this.

The soft horrified gasp behind him reminded Idris that both his parents had insisted on coming to meet their daughter. This was not the way he had planned for the meeting to go. He stood to face his mother and father with his sister’s blood on his hands once again, only this time it was literally instead of figuratively.

Blue heard the gasp and turned her head to see a woman wearing her face staring down at her with one hand covering her mouth and smoke colored eyes wide with horror. She knew that this had to be her mother, The Queen.
Great,
she thought,
what a way to meet the parents. She couldn’t even stand at the moment.
She thought the horror was probably from all the blood so she said the first thing that popped into her head, “Don’t worry it’s not all my blood.”

The gasp turned into a strangled forced laugh, “I should hope not.” She had a voice that was soft and sweet and caused a faint memory of hearing the smooth tones as a child.

The next voice was a deeper version of Idris’s. It was that voice along with the strong face that filled her vision that had the missing memories rushing into her. Running outside with him chasing her and when he caught her throwing her high into the air so she could fly before catching her in his arms.

“Dobo,” she said almost too soft to hear.

But he did hear her and cradling her face in his big hands, his blue eyes bright with so much emotion. Blue felt wrapped in his love. A love so strong that it had never dimmed even when he had thought her dead.

“That is right little one, it is your Dobo. What have you done to yourself this time?” a gentle teasing.

“Why are you all saying I did this. Do you really think I would shoot myself?” she asked in irritation.

A deep strained chuckle, “No little one, we do not think that. It is just that as a little girl you were always getting into trouble of some kind and I see that has not changed.”