Rykhan (Book 1 of Mate Search Series) (40 page)

“How’s your charge?”

Pam looked down to her phone as Leah peered out
into the dark hallway only lit by the strobing lights. “I’m at
eighty.”

“Then I think we need to move, don’t you?”
Surprised by her own badass instructions, Leah glanced down at the
mop of blonde curls. “I don’t know how many guys are after us on
this bucket of bolts but we’re working a mission of our own,
right?”

“Mission: Outta Here. Absolutely!” Pam mumbled
as she gained her feet and again took point as the two females made
their way forward.

*.*.*.*.*

“
What are the females facing?”
Bronsyn called out and Rykhan waited a beat to allow Wyst to
answer. When the other man only hung his head, Rykhan
answered.

“I can only read my
blay
’s emotions.” He did
not want to say the rest but it had to come out sometime. “Wyst and
his mate appear to be able to thought-share along their
Mycalyte
connection.”

Rykhan half-expected Wyst to start bellowing
his ‘not mated’ speech but surprisingly Wyst simply sat down and
covered his face with his hands.

“How many did you say were on the
med-staff?”

Even the statue-like Wyst turned towards Laxon
as if anxious for his reply.

“Only ten including Jyrl,” the young warrior
murmured.

“Frack
!
That is too many,” Wyst complained, shifting his weight in his
chair. “The females are holding their own, succeeding even. But
they have only dropped four. And their
tresls
are losing power.”

“They only need a brief amount of
time to recharge,” Arbrynt was quick to add. “No more than
ten
lesps
will
take them to full power!”

“I’m more concerned with their
strategy,” Gyard complained, his voice dark with worry. “If they
cannot find a safe place, they will not have the time to allow
their
tresls
to
obtain more energy.”

Rykhan’s hearts sank as he recognized his mate
only had access for their assigned quarters, not for any other
rooms on the rest of the vessel.

As his eyes met Wyst’s, Rykhan knew his own
reflected the same bleakness.

He wanted to assure his warrior-brother. Wanted
to say words of comfort that would allay both their fears of what
their mates were facing.

Rykhan could not do it, could not offer even
one reassurance.

Because it would have been an out and out
lie.

*.*.*.*.*

“C’mon,” Pam urged on a whisper as she
duck-walked forward, out and away from the protection Leah’s body
offered.

Leah took a step out and away from their
position, holding her cell out in front of her. It was such a tiny
rectangle of technology, but one that made her feel protected with
the enhancement Arbrynt had added. The women had only taken two
steps forward before the lights cut out, leaving them both in utter
darkness as the bleating of the ship’s internal alarms
ceased.

Leah began carefully navigating her way,
stepping over the sprawled limbs of the downed Picari as she
vigilantly made her way forward on shaking legs and ears that rang
in the abrupt silence. The total dark of the hallway found the
heels of her feet sliding against the fallen Picari limbs as she
stumbled through the mass of inert bodies.

Men who had only been following orders,
rendered unconscious because her and her girl’s actions in
protecting themselves as they tried to escape.

She didn’t want to cause any harm to anyone,
she just wanted to go home. And her adversaries were only stunned
at the most, according to what Pam said. Even so, the feel of her
full weight stepping on their slack limbs made her
wince.

But they had fired first! From the
marks on the hallway walls, the crewmember’s
tresls
had been set a helluva lot
higher than hers.

That’s how you need to think of it, she told
herself as she and Pam slipped and slid as they clamored barefoot
over the various prone bodies in the dark.

We only reacted to the threat of capture, to
the danger of being held again our will, she assured herself. We
didn’t actually hurt anyone.

“How much further?” Asking into the dark seemed
strange, even though Leah could sense the movements of her tiny
friend.

“Like I know? I can’t see shit,” the other
woman grumped. “Tell you what, why don’t you turn on your
flashlight app while I stick with the stun-gun portion?”

“What’s your charge?,” Leah demanded as her
bare feet again slid around the bodies she couldn’t see but only
feel as she tried to step carefully. Her foot caught on the sleeve
of the man on the floor and she fell to her knees.

Or would have if her hair hadn’t snagged and
held on something behind her. She quickly shifted her weight and
got her feet beneath her as she reached a hand behind to unhook her
hair from whatever was holding it so tightly.

When her fingers encountered warm skin instead
of the metal she’d expected, it took her brain more time to realize
what her body had already processed.

It wasn’t something that had kept her up by her
hair, but a someone.

A hard yank on her hair only emphasized the
cold plastic bore down on her neck, just underneath her earlobe and
ensured she stopped all movement.

“No one cares about your friend’s charge,” was
the oily reply as a hard physique pressed into her back. “She only
needs to know I have you and both of you will do exactly as I
demand.”

When Leah aligned the cadence of that
particular voice to the Picari male she’d seen everyday she’d been
aboard the star-ship, she knew her and her girl were up to their
armpits in deep shit.

“Leah!” Pam called out. “What the hell is
happening?”

Her response to him, the only one Leah could
allow herself, was a nod of acquiescence.

“
Dr. Jyrl has me,” she called out,
her voice reedy thin with the fear she tried to hide.

Pam’s flashlight app came on and as it did,
Leah’s feet left the floor as Jyrl yanked her higher. She was sure
he’d ripped out pieces of her scalp with his renewed grip. Leah
couldn’t see him since he was behind her but by the expression on
Pam’s face, she knew her friend was as terrified as she
was.

“Do you know how much I’ve come to hate you and
the other females of your species?”

Leah rolled up on her toes as she instinctively
tried to ease the hurt he inflicted. Whatever device he held had
already bruised her but he shoved it in even further.

“Fracking
humans!” Dr Jyrl’s words exploded in the dark, dank
air.

He pressed his face next to hers, so close she
could feel the spittle of his speech on her cheek. “I hate you!
Have always hated the very thought of your gender!. Especially
human females who believe themselves better than a
male.”

Jyrl leaned in further until the side of his
face was on hers. She hated the smell of his breath, the feel of
his skin against her cheek and the heat of his chest pressed
tightly against her back. “You are nothing but a way to incubate
our young.”

He tilted his head downward and out of the
corner of her eyes, she could see his gaze move as he looked over
her body.

“What? No words?” Leah felt his perusal as if
it were a touch, his mouth canted as it sneered at both her and her
human form. “I don’t care that you can carry life! We have
engineered methods to recreate that self-same environment. So why
do I view you as such a threat?”

“Step. The. Fuck. Away, you crazy dirt-bag,”
Pam called. At the sound of her bestie’s voice, Leah tapped into a
level of resolve she wasn’t aware she had. Turning her eyes to the
side, she saw her small friend was in a crouched position, arms
extended with her cell pointing at the ship’s doctor. Although how
Pam was going to shoot in the dark when she changed apps was
anybody’s guess.

In Leah’s opinion, it was do-or-die-trying
time.

*.*.*.*.*

“I’ve got the head of security heading up to
the observation deck while our communications officer is holding
the other five med-bay personnel in their quarters.” Captain
Pryntal was in constant communication with Bronsyn, reporting as
much as he knew at any given moment.

At the word ‘med-bay’ Rykhan’s entire body
tensed. “Where’s Dr. Jyrl?” he demanded.

“Sensors indicate he is on deck five,” Pryntal
replied.

“Frack
!” It
was not only Rykhan who yelled the curse word, but every warrior in
their group.

Bronsyn shook his head and glanced at his
communication device.

“The good news is that we found the override
for the emergency alarm and are now able to restore full
power.”

Wyst frowned and looked to Rykhan.
“What the
Frack
does that mean?”

But Pryntal must have overheard Wyst’s
question. “When the system senses an emergency, an alarm sounds and
the lighting flashes in cycles. It is the signal to all aboard to
make their way to the escape pods.”

Everyone stared at the
tresl
that sat front and
center in the middle of the table.

“Typically this is done throughout the ship but
someone hacked into the system and the emergency alarm was only
activated for that particular deck. We found the line of code and
my systems engineer rebooted all the systems on that level.”
Pryntal’s voice held a note of relief. “We should have full power
back up in just a few moments.”

“How long has the system been down?” Arbrynt
obviously had clued in on something the other warriors missed in
the captain’s explanation.

“Only about twenty
lesps
,” the captain
announced proudly.

Rykhan looked across the table at Arbrynt and
saw his frown. “What does that mean, brother?”

The blonde warrior dragged his eyes up to
connect with Rykhan’s face. “It means all lighting and life support
were shut off while the system recycled.”

“They’re fighting for their freedom
in the
fracking
dark?” Gyard exploded, rising up out of his chair while he
slammed a fist into his palm.

Rykhan dragged a hand over his face as he again
tried to tap into Leah’s emotions. What he sensed was her
determination, mostly. She was in pain but from a mortal or even
lethal injury. In fact, the pain sensation was only a light touch
compared to the sheer resolve he received from their link. He
looked to Wyst wondered at his grin.

“What is your mate telling you of their
situation?” he finally asked.

Wyst chuckled ruefully. “I still don’t
understand all of her words. However, I think I get the spirit of
them. And she’s telling me that she’s damn-well done dancing with
the doc. That his ass is hers. Not to worry because she and Leah
are working their girl-power mojo.”

“Posket
!”
Tyshar mumbled. “I shouldn’t be able to understand any of that but
I somehow do.”

Bronsyn’s face was no longer holding a frown
but broke into a wide smile. “As do I.”

Rykhan shook his head because the
weird thoughts Leah’s friend sent her mate even made sense to
him.

Her strange, confident words renewed every
warriors faith in a successful outcome.

*.*.*.*.*

“Do you have a clear shot?” Leah asked,
surprised she sounded so calm˗˗what with Jyrl still holding her by
her hair and his weapon gouging into her neck.

“Not yet, but I sure the fuck will find one.”
As her eyes connected with her best friend’s, Leah blinked
slowly.

Yeah, it was time to stop messing around and
shut this shit down for the last time.

As quickly as she could, Leah jerked
herself forward. Her move was so sudden, Jyrl’s grasp in her hair
slipped as she raised her back foot and kicked out as hard as she
could.

She’d been aiming for the man’s kneecap as her
self-defense instructor had taught her, but she somehow managed to
score by connecting with Jyrl’s balls instead. His scream found her
twisting out and away from him, throwing back an elbow. It was
unfortunate that he was bending towards his crotch because her blow
landed on his nose, instead of his stomach as she
intended.

As his weapon clattered to the metal floor,
Leah wasted no time in her race to freedom.

“Move to the left, girlie, and let me smoke his
ass,” Pam demanded fiercely rising to her feet.

Leah complied but didn’t stop running even when
the flash came from behind her. It was a bisecting wall that
stopped her trajectory, sending her on her ass. The lights in the
hall began to flicker and then brightened into a steady glow, as a
hum grew in the vents overhead.

“Here,” Pam said as she came up to stand next
to her tall friend, calmly holding out Leah’s cellphone while
shaking her curls out of her eyes. Leah hadn’t realized she’d
dropped it when Jyrl had snatched her. “So you ready to blow this
popsicle stand or what?”