And for some reason, that just didn’t sit right with me. Maybe it was something about saving the devil I knew. Or maybe it was something else. Without even realizing what I was doing, I started walking out between the tents towards the carnage.
“Dude, what the fuck are you doing?” Kat hissed loudly. I ignored her, moving to a jog, adrenaline cascading through my body, forceful and hot as gunfire.
“Come on,” I heard another girl mutter, and then I heard the others start to follow me, jogging behind me in the weirdest rag-tag group you could ever hope to see. The other girls stopped at the edge of the tents, but I kept going, breaking into a sprint, my long legs flying. Sweat drenched my back, and my breath came in gasps. The alien I didn’t know was raising his blade. He was about to swing -
“Stop!” I screamed, pumping harder. The Enemy jerked his head to look at me from the ground. I was close enough now to see the weird swirly parts of his eyes go crazy.
Fuck you. Don’t even try to stop me.
I slipped in the sand, catching myself and snatching a huge knife from one of the straps at The Enemy’s back as I scooted around his front, standing between him and the intruder. The new alien reared back, nostrils flaring, his weapon lowering somewhat, as if he were unsure what to do. The Enemy growled something behind me, and I figured I had a sense of what he was saying. Something like Get the fuck out of my way, human, or, Don’t bother. Whatever. This alien had been a royal pain in my ass, but I wasn’t about to watch him get slaughtered just so that us humans could hauled off by yet another group of hooligans.
I gripped the huge weapon with both hands, staring murderously up at the intruder. I had always done well with hand-to-hand combat, but I had never gone up against a seven-foot-tall slab of alien muscle. First time for everything.
“Bring it on, big boy.” I raised a challenging brow.
To be honest, I was bluffing. I didn’t stand a fucking chance.
But, by some unbelievable stroke of luck, it seemed to be working.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I said, jabbing my knife, a knife that was more like a sword in my hands, at the other guy. The Enemy said something else from behind me, and grabbed my ankle. But holy shit, had he ever grown weak, The grip felt almost just like a normal man’s.
Almost.
The other alien looked dumbfounded. He stepped back, studying me, then finally turned and called something out into the crowd of fighting aliens. Eventually the brawling slowed and came to a stop, everyone turning to stare at us.
“OK,” I said, my bravado starting to slip.
I hadn’t exactly thought past this part.
“Now what?”
CHAPTER THIRTY Cece
“How much longer do you think it will be?” I asked Galok. I was seated backwards in my saddle, staring at him, as if by staring I could make him somehow end the battle. As if I could make him tell me that Buroudei was OK. I wanted to be on the ground. I would be pacing if I were. But Galok wouldn’t let me. He said it was for my safety, so that if things went south we could take off immediately. But I had a feeling it was more to do with the fact that he was watching me like I was some kind of flight risk. Like I would take off running after Buroudei the first chance I got.
To be fair, he wasn’t that far off.
I was desperate to see Buroudei. To make sure he was OK. To help him, if I could. But instead, I was stuck in some fucked-up staring contest with a very loyal, very stick-to-the-rules alien.
Great.
Galok sighed and opened his mouth to tell me, for the umpteenth time, that it would be over when it was over, when we heard the startling call of his name echoing through the dark air. Galok straightened immediately, his ears and tail twitching, looking out over my head. I swiveled in the saddle in time to see one of our warriors, a guy named Malachor, riding his irkdu, fast, really fast, through the hills towards us.
My heart leaped into my throat. This would either mean something very good or something very, very bad.
“Gahn Buroudei requests the immediate presence of the Gahnala,” he panted, raising then lowering his tail quickly. Relief melted inside me, warm and sweet.
“He’s alive,” I said, the words coming out in a soft whoosh.
“Yes. Gahn Buroudei is alive.”
Galok gave a victorious whoop behind me.
“So then we have won!”
Malachor didn’t seem excited, and something like dread settled in my chest.
“Gahn Fallo is still alive,” he said. “But the battle is over. For now.”
He stopped speaking to Galok, turning his eyes to me.
“Please, Gahnala, the Gahn requests you right away.”
I nodded vigorously.
“Of course. Galok, go, let’s go!”
With that, we followed Malachor out of the hills and onto the battlefield.
Only there was no battle. Not being fought right now, anyway. I saw a small number of men who looked to be dead, and others badly wounded, lying on the plain. The rest stood silently, watching in a broad circle, the men we’d come with on one side, and men I did not recognize on the other. We pressed into the circle to see what was happening.
And I tell you, I almost lost my shit. I mean, I knew we were coming here to find the others. But actually seeing one of the humans I’d come with, alive and in the flesh, hit me like a ton of bricks. And it wasn’t even a human I liked. It was Chapman, the soldier from the space ship. But in that moment, she looked like a red-headed angel. I laughed and screamed her name, and her head jerked towards me, her eyes widening.
Grinning, I took in the rest of the scene. Buroudei was facing Chapman, and I noticed now that Chapman held a giant alien knife out in front of her. Behind her, slumped over on his hands and knees, was a massive alien I didn’t recognize.
Buroudei turned to look at me, and before Galok could stop me, I slid out of my saddle and careened down to the ground clumsily. I sprang back up, running to Buroudei’s side. As I collided with him, breathing in his scent, counting every heartbeat to make sure he was OK, I realized that he was bleeding. Black blood coated his chest and abdomen, coming from a long, jagged wound along his upper chest. Fuming, I whirled, staring at the weapon in Chapman’s hand.
“You better not have done that,” I muttered, and she rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t. Relax. And why do you care, anyway? They’re aliens.”
My gaze flitted from her to the alien behind her. It kind of looked like she was... protecting him?
“You tell me.”
Even in the darkness I could see her freckled face grow red.
“That’s different.”
I was about to tell her that it didn’t seem a whole lot different, when I heard the excited shriek of my name. Kat was barreling towards me, followed by Theresa, Melanie, and the other women from the space ship. My face broke into a smile so wide it hurt. They were alive. They were all alive.
Kat reached me first, crashing into me and laughing, followed shortly by Theresa and Melanie, and then the others, until we were all lumped into a massive human hug. Half of us were laughing, half were crying. I was pretty sure I was doing both. The only one who didn’t join in was Chapman, who kept her knife raised, her eyes on Buroudei.