02 Dragon - Capturing Cara (25 page)

“Fight again and she dies.” N’tasha said coldly.

Cara slowly straightened up trying to jerk away from the hands that were grabbing her upper arms. One of the men stood with Abby pressed against his front, a knife to her throat. Cara looked to where Symba and Goldie were crouched hissing and snarling.

“Tell them to back down or I will make sure there is no way they can heal her. I’ll cut her head off if they so much as move a thread of gold.” N’tasha said looking at Cara first then at Abby.

Abby nodded slightly wincing when the blade cut into her skin drawing a thin line of blood. “Goldie.” Abby whispered hoarsely. “Don’t move, baby. Just do what she says.”

Cara’s eyes glittered fiercely. “Symba, chill out. It will be alright.”

Cara could feel Symba’s rage at the idea of her being in danger. Both Goldie and Symba were turning a variety of colors and small spikes rose and fell over their golden bodies as they silently raged against the threat to their mates. Cara sent an image to Symba hoping she would understand. She pictured the little dragon’s guiding Trelon to her. She sent the image over and over until she felt Symba’s warmth move through her that she understood. The thin arm bands on her moved ever so slightly until them slid under her clothing around her waist. She had been fortunate enough to be wearing one of Trelon’s long shirts. Abby was wearing a sleeveless tunic and her arm bands were clearly visible.

“Tell the symbiosis on you to go to the mother symbiosis. NOW!” N’tasha snarled at both of them.

Abby looked at Cara in dismay. She gasped when she felt the cut of the knife at her throat again. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell them to go.”

Cara watched as the blood slowly soaked into the front of Abby’s tunic. The symbiosis around her neck slid over the wounds healing them before it turned into tiny little birds and flew to Goldie where it was absorbed. Goldie growled and twitched but never moved from the spot she was at.

Cara looked at N’tasha before she told the little gold symbiosis hanging from her ears to go to Symba. “That’s all I have on me.” Cara lied coldly holding up her bare wrists.

“You better hope it is or I’ll have the men strip you to make sure.” N’tasha said with a hatefully smile.

“What are you going to do?” Cara asked furious. This was the bitch that had fucked Trelon so she was already on strike three as far as Cara was concerned. “Why are you doing this?”

N’tasha jerked her head at two of the men. “Gag them and tie them up. We’ll take them with us. We already have the other one. At least with these two and the other one we will be able to strike a deadly blow to the royal house.” N’tasha turned with a nasty smile and looked at Cara. “You see, I was supposed to be the mate of Trelon. If you had not come along I would have been. I have been working him for the past year trying to gain his trust enough to learn more about their plans.” She jerked her head towards Symba. “Only that creature hated me on sight. His dragon at least tolerated me as long as he got to fuck me. But, his symbiosis never would let me near. I thought I had finally worked my way far enough into his affections that he would ignore it; but, he found you, his true mate, instead.”

N’tasha jerked her head at the men. “Get them out of here. I’ll slit the tiny human’s throat and leave it for Trelon once our true King is done with her.”

N’tasha turned and moved towards the door. It opened before she got to it. Standing in the doorway was the seamstress and two of her young helpers. Her gaze moved quickly from the dead guards to her two ladies standing gagged and tied. As N’tasha rushed towards the door the seamstress screamed and threw her basket of sewing items at the rushing figure. The two younger helpers had already started running down the hall yelling for the guards. N’tasha swung out, striking the seamstress a heavy blow to the side of her face knocking her unconscious.

“Move!” N’tasha screamed.

She was already running down the corridor with two men in front of her followed by the man carrying Cara then the one carrying Abby. Symba and Goldie rushed for the two men who had dragged in the dead guards. They were not fast enough to get out of the door. All Cara saw was a splash of blood on the floor as she was being carried away. Cara fought back a wave of nausea as she was thrown heavily over the shoulder of one large man. She knew Abby was fighting it as well from the frantic breathing she was doing through her nose. Cara knew she could get the symbiosis under her shirt to do enough damage to the man carrying her he would probably let her go but she wouldn’t go without Abby. Her mind started spinning as one idea after another went through each scenario and how it could end. There were only four men and N’tasha. Cara wasn’t too worried about N’tasha because if it came down to the two of them fighting, N’tasha might be bigger but Cara was meaner. She had more to live for then N’tasha did and she was really, really feeling like roasting the bitch for dinner.

Cara heard the shouts of additional guards as they responded to the two young helpers’ cry for help. By now, they were out in the garden where she and Trelon had spent the month when she had been so lost. Two guards suddenly appeared in front of the man carrying Abby cutting him off from the rest of the group. He wasn’t able to swerve fast enough to avoid them. Cara watched over the shoulder of the man carrying her as one of the guards grabbed Abby around the waist pulling her away to safety as the other one sliced his sword across the stomach of the man who had been holding her. She watched as the man crumbled to the ground. Her eyes jerked up just in time to see Trelon, Zoran and Kelan running full speed up the path towards them. Cara vaguely heard N’tasha say something and the roar of the three men before let her head drop back down. She knew she was in big trouble when she felt the familiar tingle as she was transported away from Trelon.

“NO!” Trelon roared in protest staring in horror at the empty spot where Cara had been just moments before.

His heart was pounding so hard in his chest he thought it would explode. He watched in terror as Cara was transported away from the garden. He called to Symba who burst out of the palace at a full run, snapping and snarling at anything in her path. She skidded to a stop as if frozen for just a moment before she shimmered and changed shape. Trelon watched as Symba expanded her form turning into a sleek fighter.

Trelon ran forward and jumped into the opening Symba had left for him. “Go!” He said urgently. “Go to her.”

They lifted up off the ground and moved swiftly upward, climbing at a steep rate. Symba changed directions a few times before she put on a burst of speed and left the orbit of Valdire. The blackness of space enclosed them as Symba followed the faint signals from the symbiosis on Cara.

Trelon opened communications with his brothers. “Do you have anything?”

Kelan’s image appeared on the screen that formed in front of Trelon. He looked haggard. “A cloaked ship appeared on our surveillance a few moments ago. They had to uncloak to transport. It was N’tasha, Trelon. Abby says that N’tasha and six men killed two of her guards before taking them hostage. Symba and Goldie killed two in Zoran’s living quarters and the guards were able to kill the one holding Abby. She is fine.” Kelan didn’t mention the fact Zoran went ballistic when he saw the blood staining the front of Abby’s tunic. It had taken a while to calm him down enough for him to realize she was unharmed otherwise.

“According to Abby, they have Trisha, as well as, Cara.” Kelan choked out. “Abby says N’tasha plans to slit Cara’s throat as soon as the ‘True King’ is done with her. She said N’tasha wants to leave Cara where you can find her. She didn’t know anything else about Trisha. N’tasha didn’t say where she had been taken.”

Trelon paled and let out a curse. “Cara must have some of Symba’s symbiosis on her since she seems to know where to go. I will find them, Kelan.”

“I’m leaving now. I have the
V’ager
ready to go. Send me constant updates so we can intercept.” Kelan said. His eyes flashed in rage at the idea of Trisha being held captive.

“I will. Trelon out.” Trelon knew the pain his brother was feeling. N’tasha had signed her own death warrant when she threatened their mates.

Cara studied the locking mechanism on the cell she had been deposited in. She grinned as she saw it was very similar to the one she had broken out of on the
V’ager
. She whispered to the little symbiosis around her waist. Soon, she had a highly polished reflective surface in the shape of a golden hand mirror.
One of the good things about being so small was people had a tendency to under-estimate you,
Cara thought as she carefully moved the reflective surface between the high energy beams. Cara had carefully explained what she was going to do to the symbiosis. It was too small to protect her but it was perfect as an accessory in breaking out. She had also discovered it was sending signals to Symba who was following them. All Cara had to do was stay alive long enough for Trelon to rescue her. If she happened to get a chance to fry a couple of the bad guys in the process, especially N’tasha, then so be it.

Cara bit back a giggle when she heard the hiss of firing circuit board. Placing a gentle hand against her stomach she said softly, “Okay, girls, lesson number one: How to break out of a detention cell.”

Cara pushed open the unlocked door quietly. She listened for a few moments to make sure she was alone. The detention cells seemed to be situated in an octagon shape with each cell facing a center console in the room. Cara peeked in each cell looking for Trish. She was worried when she found all the cells empty. Where would they be keeping her? It made sense if they were going to put Cara in one of the cells that they would have put Trish in one as well. Cara walked over to the center console and studied it. She knew this. It was like the ones she had torn apart on the
V’ager
. She just needed some tools. She looked down at the symbiosis on her wrists and imagined the tool she would need to open the panel. Kneeling down, she gripped the symbiotic tool that had formed and quickly opened the panel of the console. If she could reprogram it so she could get into some of their other systems she might be able to slow the bad guys down long enough for Trelon to get to her. Cara worked quickly pulling out the micro-programming console attached to the system.
Rookies,
Cara thought. Yes, it was easier to leave an attached micro-console board for maintenance but it also opened up the ship for easy access to hackers like her. Jarak had discovered that when he had finally figured out how she kept getting into the systems on the
V’ager
. He had ordered the maintenance crew to detach all of the micro-consoles hidden in the major consoles. It had slowed her down but not defeated her. She had to just remember to keep one on her after that.

Cara worked quickly to hack into the communication’s console. She sent out a repeating signal using the configurations she had discovered when she was experimenting on the
V’ager
. That signal had been strong enough to be received from galaxies away. She giggled as she remembered finding out she had been sending Trelon’s personalized porn videos out to everyone. Boy, had he turned red as he finally told her what a PVC was. She had to admit he had some pretty creative ideas. Next, she hacked into the engineering section. She set up an auto-reboot of the different consoles managing the cooling, electrical, and drive systems to be repeated every fifteen minutes in a random order. This would keep them busy trying to figure out what was wrong. Finally, she located a schematic of the ship so she could figure out a good place to hide. That was another bonus to being small; she could fit into places nobody thought to look in. She found the perfect place not far off of the docking bays. There was an access tunnel leading to it off a covered panel just down the corridor from the detention cells. She could crawl through the access ducts and down a service ladder. The big problem would be getting to her safe space. She thought about hiding in the ducts but they were big enough someone could come after her and she would be cornered. Plus, it would be one of the first places they would look once they realized she was gone. She had noticed there were sensors located throughout the duct systems. Probably to determine if anyone was hiding in them. She could use the micro-console to plug in and disable the sensors as she reached them then re-enable them so it wouldn’t show. The only way anyone would know was if they pulled a report. That would take time and someone would have to analyze them. By then, they wouldn’t know where she was hiding. Closing the panel to the console, Cara gripped the micro-console to her and headed for the door.

Trelon cursed when he saw the image of the Curizan warship on the screen Symba was projecting. It was an older model but still deadly. He needed the
V’ager
desperately if he was going to try attacking it. Symba could send out energy bursts that would disrupt the engines but it would drain her on a warship that large. That would leave him vulnerable. He was about to signal Kelan when his brother’s image appeared in front of him.

“We have a visual of the warship. We have also been receiving a continuous signal from the warship. It looks suspiciously like the one your mate sent out before. I have a feeling they are having as much trouble keeping her locked up as we did.” Kelan said with a strained smile before continuing. “I’ve instructed the crew to send a disruption pulse to knock the engines off line. The new system you installed should work at bypassing their shield briefly. It is a good thing the cloaking device only works when the ship is stationary. We need to find out how it bypassed our defense system, though. I have a feeling N’tasha’s hand might have been in that or we have more spies among our ranks.” Kelan finished harshly.

“It is something we’ll have to look at after this is over. Right now, I just want to get our mates back. It won’t take them long to realize we are here. Those aboard better hope they have not harmed a hair on either of our mates or there will be nothing left of that warship.” Trelon snarled.