Daahn Rising (19 page)

Aleeks provided her cover, ordering his men to cut down every Xxan in fighting stance, letting instinct rule him in the manner that had served him so well in battle thus far. Still, the Xxan didn’t turn on the humans again.

He let out an explosive sigh as she disappeared down the shaft. Aleeks cut down the first five Xxanian warriors trying to run her down. If he could give her a decent enough head start, she might just escape them.

Jacks pulled at his shoulder. “The councilors are gone, Daahn. We’re pulling out.”

He nodded, covering his men to the darkness on their side of the mountain range. Not that there was much to cover them from. Some of the Subdominants had followed Mirienne Johns down the tunnel, but the rest of the Xxan had retreated to their own side of the range.

There were only two transports left when he reached the touchdown point. Aleeks ignored them both, heading for Admiral MacNair. Only MacNair would understand, and only he had the power to keep them from pulling out completely.

In the distance, Aleeks noted several Xxanian transports lifting off and speeding farther into their space.

“Daahn,” MacNair greeted him.

“I need a transport and my team,” he stated bluntly.

MacNair gaped at him. “Denied.”

“We need Mirienne Johns.”

“We do or you do?” he challenged.

Aleeks forced his ridge plates down, aware that his forehead undulated in the battle to keep them retracted. “We need her... and she needs our help. We would have been sitting ducks in there without her.”

He didn’t add that he’d warned them it was a trap. That might push MacNair too far, especially since MacNair had agreed with that assessment. Though politics went against Aleeks’s Dominant male Xxanian side, his human side could rein that in... usually.

MacNair sighed. “Captain Seaver,” he shouted.

Seaver’s head came up. “Sir?”

“You have a mission, Captain.”

Seaver scowled at Aleeks but didn’t comment.

“Bring her in for questioning, Daahn. You have eight hours. After that, I’ll leave you on this rock, your
gran-seir
and
seir
be damned.”

Aleeks bit back a smile. “Understood, sir.” He turned away from his “godfather.” “Jacks! I want the team suited up for stealth and ready to roll in thirty or less. Less
is
preferred.”

The lieutenant grumbled but complied.

****

Miri hissed a series of curses in Xxan and human English. Damn her
gran-seir
and
seir
alike. Damn her entire family, the Grea Elders, the Dominants... and anyone else who had even a passing knowledge of this shit.

It had all been a lie, from conception... She ground her serrated back teeth at the unintended pun.

From conception to execution, and if I am not mindful, it will mean
my
execution.

That eventuality firmly in mind, Miri crept along the darkened tunnel, her senses open to scent and sound and movement of air as much as they were to sight. If she could find her way back to the surface, Miri could hide herself in the old growth, lose herself in the sacred areas no one else cared to tread.

The ambush came without warning. The six humans had been shielded from every sense: wearing dark clothing to blend into the tunnel walls, unmoving, silent, and masked in breathers to still their air.

Her hand shook, and she rested her thumb on the weapon lock, torn on the point of readying the weapon for a firefight.

On one hand, she had no wish to harm the humans. Miri had been raised and trained to be a negotiator to them. She hadn’t been raised as a weapon.

Yes, I was, and now I know it. And so do they.

That fact was the one reason she kept her thumb on the lock. Innocent of the plan or not, Miri had been used by the Xxan to stage the attack. She might have to fight her way out.

“Lower your weapon, Johns,” one of the humans ordered.

She spied the black on black insignia of a lieutenant, the only protection he’d have on a world that obeyed the Interstellar War Pact. Failure to display rank and affiliation could see him dead.

I have no insignia.
No doubt, the Xxan had planned it that way. She hadn’t questioned it, because this had been presented as a diplomatic mission and she as an honored representative of the Xxan. Now she was a combatant. They could kill her without pause.
And likely will.

Miri took a step back into the tunnel she’d come out of, her trembling more severe. She’d passed a crosstunnel ten meters back. If she could reach it —

The arms suddenly encircling her were as strong as her
Xxan-Dree
trainer’s. Miri didn’t waste time questioning who he was or how he’d managed to sneak up on her. As he ripped the weapon from her hand, Miri moved — down, then in a flowing movement around his body.

He was quick... and skilled. Her trainers had never put her through her paces so strenuously. Every move to escape was met with a block. Every move to incapacitate him for a moment was countered skillfully. Miri was considering doing him real harm when the end came.

It was a move she’d never encountered before, either with her
Xxan-Dree
trainer or her human martial trainer. One moment, she was on her way to freedom. The next, Miri was facedown on the stone, her wrists captured behind her back, locked in his larger hands. The length of his body pinned her down, spikes of pain from her injured abdomen making her gasp for breath.

“Concede,” he grumbled.

Miri pressed her forehead to the smooth stone floor, abruptly weary. “It would seem... I have no choice in the matter.”

His laughter was low and dark... but not cruel, as she usually experienced. “An accurate assessment.”

“If you’re through dancing with her,” another voice interrupted. “Perhaps you would verify her identity, Daahn?”

Miri braced herself for the sting of a blood test that never came. Her captor nuzzled at her neck, and she jerked at his hold, panic driving her to flee. He pushed her down with a wordless growl, stroking his tongue up the side column of her neck to her jaw.

Every muscle in her body tightened in fury. How dare he examine her so intimately! A hiss of warning escaped her lips.

His next move stunned her, rendering Miri a babe in his hands. His tongue stroked over her mating stripe, and her body responded fiercely. Even before she felt the press of his erection to the back of her thigh, Miri’s body had slicked to welcome him in, the pains fading into the background for once. Her glands released
Zhigaaah
, the female sex pheromone, making her head swim.

“You are mine, little blue,” he whispered.

She shivered in delight, needing him to finish what he’d started. Another voice buzzed at the edges of her consciousness, drowned out by the cascade of
Zhigaaah
.

“She’s the one,” the male over her attested.

Miri’s blood went cold at that pronouncement. Her eyes pricked in tears she couldn’t bear to shed. She swallowed down a sob, then forced words out, feigning confidence she didn’t feel and pride she had no right to display. All the while, she nursed the loss of the illusion stoically... as she’d done before.

“I suppose you should kill me now, though I am hardly worth the energy. If my —”
They aren’t my people. I have no people.
“If the Xxan find me, they will kill me, and I have no information to give you. I am worse than useless to either side now.”

There was a moment of tense silence. Miri forced her breathing to even.

“Are you?” the one over her challenged.

Daahn. They said his name was Daahn.
And she thought she’d spied the insignia of a commander on his uniform.
Commander Daahn.

Her muscles ached. “Yes, I am.” She prepared for the blast that would kill her. Or would he break her neck? It would save them the energy of killing a useless prisoner.

There was another moment of silence. “I see. Jacks... the shackles, please.”

Miri didn’t fight the restraints. She didn’t intend to fight anything they did. If they wanted to question her, even to beat nonexistent information from her, it would still be a gentler death than the Xxan would grant her.

Chapter Two

Aleeks stared down at his prisoner, wondering at her reaction. He’d seen Mirienne Johns take down two dozen of the Xxanian command, three of them Grea Elders, to allow all but the first slain human —
Councilor Allen, may the stars welcome him home
— the chance to escape the trap set for them.

Still, Mirienne wasn’t fighting his hold on her arm. She wasn’t attempting to slow them. She wasn’t even examining her captors and her situation for possible corridors to escape. She was silent, biddable... but still proud.

But why? Was this just another step in the plan? Was she meant to be captured, in order to attack later? Or had she truly been surprised by the Xxan’s duplicity and deception?

“Ahead,” Arris directed him, pointing the way, no doubt because Aleeks had veered off slightly in his inattention.

Aleeks nodded, tugging Mirienne toward the waiting warship. She glanced at it, then away, matching his long-legged gait. She winced, half closing her eyes, dropping her chin back to her chest as it had been for nearly the entire trip back.

“Jacks,” Aleeks called out, not taking his eyes off the prisoner, though he was certain she didn’t mean to attack him.

“Yeah?” the human replied distractedly.

“Glasses.” He put his free hand out for them.

“But you have —”

Aleeks glared at him, knowing full well that it unnerved humans, even with his dark glasses in place.

“Got it,” Jacks grumbled. He pulled his own glasses from the padded case at his back and settled them in Aleeks’s hand.

Aleeks pulled Mirienne to a stop. She hesitated, then raised her head slowly to meet his gaze. He settled Jacks’s glasses on her face, shading her eyes.

Mirienne moved her mouth as if to speak, then closed it. Her nostrils flared, and her tongue appeared at her lips, taking in his scent. The sour smell of adrenaline poured off her, and her muscles tensed. Aleeks grasped her other arm, shaking his head slightly in warning, and she looked away. A tremor worked through her body, then went still.

“Daahn, we’re out of time,” Jacks reminded him.

“Right.” He turned her toward the waiting ramp.

From above, Captain Seaver’s voice bellowed out, “I hope this madness was worth it, Daahn.”

“It wasn’t,” Mirienne breathed.

“We’ll see,” Aleeks answered his CO. “It was worth a try.”

Despite her statement and her fear, she preceded him up the ramp.

Seaver scowled down at her. “Lock her down. We’ll get to her once we’re clear.”

Aleeks started to lead her away.

“Not you,” the captain ordered. “Hand her off to Jackson.”

Aleeks released her as the human lieutenant took hold of her opposite arm. He watched long enough to ensure that Jacks would treat her fairly... and long enough to see her single peek back at him.

Seaver didn’t address him immediately. The captain had more important things to do... like getting them the hell off Xxania Hethhh and into human-controlled space, where they could dock with their carrier. At that point, Mirienne Johns would be transferred from the lock-seat to a cell aboard the carrier.

Luckily, the trip to the rendezvous point didn’t take long. With a transport still out, their carrier was the one guarding the fleet’s back, lagging behind the rest, though not by much.

Aleeks spent the time at tactical. The others probably thought he anticipated problems with Mirienne. He didn’t, but it didn’t hurt to appear vigilant.

On their way down the ramp into the carrier’s primary landing bay, Seaver finally broke the silence. “Well, we’ve got her, Daahn. Now explain to me why we want her.”

He considered that. “If it was a setup, she would have taken out only cannon fodder. She went not only for the Subdominants and Dominants, but also for the Grea Elders.”

“It could have been a coup,” Seaver suggested, handing off a docking order to a waiting deck chief.

“No. She ran from the Xxan, and though she had ample time to do it, Johns didn’t try to harm us.”

Seaver’s eyes narrowed. “She allowed herself to be taken?”

“No, but she didn’t attack me, either. She just tried to escape me... at first.”

His captain’s raised eyebrow asked the question silently.

“Mirienne... Johns expects us to kill her, eventually. She thinks one side or the other will. Once she was caught —”

“She should have fought,” Seaver surmised. “She had nothing to lose.”

“She had nothing to gain,” Aleeks countered. “Not against seven of us and without her weapons.”

The captain sighed. “And if she doesn’t have information about their military?” he asked.

“If she turned against the Xxan that way, Mirienne Johns would be a good ally. Military information or not, she has information from inside Xxania Uuaahth, current information. And she’s well trained.”

Saying that sent an atypical spike of annoyance through him. It made little sense that he could fathom. He worked with female soldiers every day, but the idea of Mirienne Johns fighting was different somehow.

“
If
we could trust her,” Seaver cautioned.

“If it comes to that, I can assure it.” But if it came to that, she wouldn’t be permitted to don a uniform.

It could go that way. The residue of
Zhigaaah
in his bloodstream had Aleeks semierect and aching to follow through. Just the scent of
Zhigaaah
, that of a female not related to him and untainted by
Zhigaaal
, which would indicate mating, was enough to catch a Dominant’s attention, but Mirienne was a potent female. The sight and taste of her blue mating stripe, confirming her in her fertile window, had been too enticing to let pass without a sample. How she’d made it this long unmated...