Alien Paladin's Woman: SciFi Alien-Human Military Suspense Romance (13 page)

Time that was precious for him now more than ever because of the brave woman by his side.

One option revealed itself to him, wrenching him from the inside. But it would be the easiest way.

“Call up the blueprints of the ship,” he barked, sending the nearest crewmember scrambling to provide the feed for him.

"Audrey," he said, hating to hurt her like that. "I need you to take the bracelet off. I need to know where the Fearless is. Can you do that for me?"

She nodded, a hint of fear and understanding muddling together in those jade pools he’d come to adore despite knowing he should not get sucked in them.

“I can,” she whispered.

“No one, and I mean
no
one, can hurt her. Geroy, assemble your squad. You must contain her, lead her away from the bridge, but
don’t hurt her.
She must be kept alive and in one piece. If you have to, place the bracelet back on her wrist. Understood?”

“Commander,” Geroy acknowledged, pulling his glaive free and taking it into his hands in a way that he could use it for blocking and parrying instead of cutting with the sharp blade.

Several other men were forming a diamond pattern behind him.

“The rest of the warriors are with me,” Tieran boomed, before turning back to Audrey.

He wanted to stay and make sure that she was alright, but the farther he kept the Fearless, the better it was for her. He kissed her, sharp and fast, trying to imprint the taste of her lips on his mind.

“It’ll be alright,” she whispered, her voice steely.

“It will.”

Undoing the clasp of the bracelet, Tieran felt his body tense just as hers did. Audrey’s scream pierced the air, echoed by another – a deeper one, guttural and thunderous – from the depths of the ship. Tieran handed the bracelet to Geroy, both men looking sternly determined.

"There," Audrey pointed on the blueprints, gasping for air.

She still had control, but there was no saying if the Fearless would want to take over her again, even when so close to its prize.

"Keep out of its way," he ordered Audrey and the paladins he left with her, even as her eyes clouded over. "Let me know if she marks any changes of direction in the Fearless’ movements. I
will
be back for you."

With one final glance at the woman who’d impressed him so, Tieran rushed in the direction she'd shown to meet a legendary monster that he didn't know how to kill.

A
s soon as
Tieran was out of her sight, Audrey felt the Fearless move.

The movement was so sudden it left her feeling dizzy, like she was somehow riding along with the creature's nauseating scream. She could feel actual motion sickness, something she had never suffered from in her days of space exploration.

Audrey gagged, but her mind was still lucid and growing more furious with every second. She wondered if the Fearless saw Tieran leaving and was coming for her now that she was helpless.

It made sense, since she also caught glimpses of it. But somehow those moments were less clear than before. As though the Fearless was blocking her out.

Whether or not it was doing that to her, the Fearless become brighter in her mind with every step it took. Audrey had to bite back another scream, refusing to give in. All her body wanted to do was crumble into a heap on the floor and just not look until it was all over. She wanted to disappear.

But she knew she could not, and would not do that. No. She was a fighter and that’s what fighters did.

They fought. By any means necessary.

It was a wholly insane experience, to actually feel her death come closer with pounding footsteps. To feel the bloodlust of her future killer, the vicious drive that Tieran had spoken of.

Audrey got up, fighting down the horrible desire to just sit there and wait for it to come and find her. That, too, was new. Like an invisible hand forcing her to move.

Stumbling away from the bridge Audrey was getting the firsthand experience of just how powerful the Fearless was. Her mind was still her own, but if she didn't put the bracelet back on very soon, it wouldn't be much longer. The Fearless was forcing its will on her and it had so much more power behind it.

Her gaze flickered drowsily from Geroy to the other paladins. She knew they must have hated being there, guarding her, when there was a battle raging. Their sense of duty was bar none, though.

“Steady,” Geroy growled, and Audrey wasn’t sure whether it was to the paladins or to her.

They must have been expecting her to flip out on them at any moment, turning from a silver-haired diminutive governor to a conduit of the greatest evil in the galaxy. The juxtaposition would have been delicious, had she not been on the receiving end of it.

In her last attempt, Audrey focused on Tieran. That was the one solid, certain thing in her life right then and she held on to the image of him like it was the only lifeline keeping her sane.

Possibly it was.

The Fearless didn't seem to be able to banish him from her mind, but Audrey was well aware it didn't need to. Once it reached her – and damn, that thing was fast – she would be a goner.

What a way to go. I can imagine the headlines already. "Governor Audrey Price eaten by a monster."

She really had the worst sense of humor, Audrey concluded.

The Fearless was getting very close now. The
Vehement
wasn't a big ship and the only thing slowing it down were the corners. Audrey was honestly surprised it didn't just barge through walls, but perhaps it really wasn't as reckless as Tieran had guessed. The warriors must have been slowing it down as well, though Audrey knew that there weren’t many of them to spare. Especially with a whole squad dedicated to making sure she didn’t rip one of the bulkheads out for the hell of it.

Audrey wished she could have contributed more to the fight, but now she was only going to be another victim.

Her strength was quickly running out and she didn't know where Tieran was. There was no way even the paladin could have outrun the Fearless. She wished she hadn't let him go away, but back then it had seemed like a good idea.

The Fearless moved so quickly that pointing anywhere on the likeness of the ship was useless. The bridge gave up on reporting the changes before she was done trying, but the outcome was the same. She’d managed to show Tieran where the beast had entered, but that was all that she could really offer.

And then she saw it.

Audrey felt the Fearless slow down first and then a man rounded the corner, coming her way with very casual, completely un-monster-like steps.

“Halt,” Geroy barked, but the man did not do so much as pause in his steps.

The man was a Brion. Audrey saw a horrible smile on his face and torment she couldn't even imagine. The poor guy the Jorcossi had used as a host on Verien had been lost, completely taken over by the splitter, but this one… The Brion was still there, somewhere.

The pain in her head as the creature approached was growing unbearable. She knew it was the Fearless, knew it as clearly as that air was needed for breathing. She felt herself choking, overwhelmed by the power of the beast, when the bracelet was slapped shut around her wrist by Geroy.

But before the latch locked, she got the feeling the Fearless was letting its victim, the Brion warrior, keep its consciousness on purpose, enjoying the anguish.

She felt something else, too. Audrey hadn't had time to see it before, but now that she knew, she couldn't believe she had no way to let Tieran know.

The Fearless was powerful, yes, but the host was not. Right then, the Fearless had picked the best host it could have hoped for, but it wouldn’t be good enough. Brion warriors were trained from birth, their senses and abilities were far beyond most.

The host, therefore, could take much more punishment from the Fearless than a regular person would have. But as the Fearless filled the host with its own power, it was bound to eventually fall short. The man was still in there, fighting against the beast, and it would only hasten how quickly his body would break down.

Even now, Audrey could still feel the utter tiredness of the man. His legs had carried the Fearless across the ship and away from Tieran faster than the Brion would have been able to run on its own. His legs were almost broken and his body was bruised from the Fearless' uncaring maneuvers.

That was a weakness that could be exploited. Even though it was a Brion warrior being used as a vessel, he could only take so much, and the breaking point could not have been far. Audrey had no idea how to let Tieran know that.

For some reason, life didn't flash before her eyes. The bracelet was blocking most of the lifestone's awesome presence, pulsing within the Fearless, but Audrey still felt the monster, standing almost in front of her now. She felt malice, but not… threat, specifically.

It didn't want her dead.

"You," the host gargled, speaking like someone who hadn't used words in a long, long while. "Come with me."

Audrey's mind was spinning. The most dangerous, ruthless creature known to the galactic whole hadn't killed her, or the paladins around her protecting her from it. That meant there was something it wanted from her.

“Miss Price,” Geroy started, a warning in his voice.

She held up her hand, silencing the paladin. Her gaze remained on the Brion.

"Why?" she asked after a moment. "You have no use for me. I don't even have a stone."

The host cocked its head to the side and Audrey could hear an ugly crack in its neck. Terrible pain flashed by in the Brion warrior's eyes.

She shuddered.

"See him?" the Fearless asked. "I can do this to you. I want you whole, but if you refuse, I can make you claw your own eyes out. Get up now. Walk."

Well, that certainly was a request she couldn't refuse.

Audrey straightened up, watching the lifeless eyes of the Brion, wondering if he was still alive or the Fearless had snapped his neck. She assumed he was, since Tieran had told her that Jorcossi couldn't take over a dead body. It needed to be alive, even if by a thread. If the Fearless had simulated the capabilities of the Jorcossi now, it would stand to reason that the same rules applied.

Not that she could really make any assumptions about an ancient evil that seemed to be on a whole other level of evolutionary standards.

The warrior was walking oddly, though. Like he was trying to act natural while most of its body was broken. His valor squares pulsed a deep, muddy maroon.

Audrey pitied him with all her soul, but another part of her was glad. The Fearless was making a powerful enemy. Brions were a proud race who would never forgive what it was doing.

“Miss Price, I cannot let you do that,” Geroy snapped, putting his glaive in her path.

Both she and the Fearless turned their attention to him. The paladin remained unfazed, just like the rest of his men.

Mission-driven, all of them
, she thought with a hint of pride for the men she was surrounded by.

“If I don’t go with him, we will
all
be dead,” Audrey whispered, another certainty in her mind that could not be argued with. “I will be the last, but everyone on this ship will be slaughtered. I do not want that.”

“We will fight,” Geroy said in response, a simple truth he believed in fully.

“You will lose.”

Audrey took a breath, knowing what she had to do next. If she tried to leave, the paladins would attack the Fearless and die. It would be a massacre. And if she didn’t leave, they’d be slaughtered just the same.

There was only one way out.

Eyeing the Fearless, she raised her wrist. Before Geroy could stop her, she clicked off the bracelet and immediately, a surge of raw power swept through her, making her silver hair practically stand up.

The Brion grinned, an awkward, wide, dead smile. With the Fearless looking on approvingly, Audrey launched herself at the paladins.

Quickly, it turned from them not harming her, to them fighting for their life. She grabbed the man closest to her and shoved him back, taking two others with him before he slammed into the bulkhead. They left a dent three men wide as they crumpled to the floor.

Next, Audrey yanked a glaive coming at her right out of the hands of the paladin and then spun it back at him, slamming right into his temple. One by one, the paladins fell, crushed by the awesome power the Fearless was ‘loaning’ her. It was like everything she did was in a dream, like she was watching it from the sidelines.

Actually, she was fighting as hard as she could to retain control. The only thing she truly kept out of her mind was Tieran, for fear of losing her will to fight entirely then.

The Fearless wanted the men dead. She wanted them alive. Having them unconscious was a safe bet right down the middle.

When she came face to face with Geroy a moment later, Audrey had a glaive in each hand. She took a step back, feeling her face jerk into a vicious sneer.

“Tell Tieran his opponent is not all it seems,” she hissed, her voice her own, before she threw both the glaives at the man at impossible speed. “The Brion’s a weakness.”

He screamed out as the glaives bit into his shoulders, sending him flying back and pinned against the bulkhead by the blades. He still held onto his glaive.

Panting, Audrey collapsed to her knees and grabbed the bracelet. As if being given permission, she felt the fog lift from her brain and she could clasp it shut once again. When her vision cleared, she cupped a hand over her mouth.

The paladins were all in various states of brokenness. The way she’d pinned Geroy had locked the bridge from the outside. There were droplets of crimson on the floors.

Like using the training she’d received during her life, and what Tieran had shown her, she’d combined what she knew and the power of the Fearless to wipe out a squad of some of the most elite warriors in the galaxy. In the back of her head, she knew that they had to hold steady to their oath of not hurting her, but
damn
. It was still something.

A true show of what the Fearless could do when it wanted to, if nothing else.

Turning away from the carnage, she paced to the Fearless. She walked as slowly as she could, but the Fearless saw through that trick in a flash.

"Walk, or I will walk for you," it said.

Audrey began to move considerably faster, unable to stop imagining the Fearless dragging her almost broken body through corridors. Though she had the bracelet on her now, she knew that the Brion could easily remove it. The way the Fearless had taken over her before was testament to what he could do with her if he was given the power to do so.

She could hear sounds of battle all around them. Apparently the Fearless hadn't come alone, but Tieran was nowhere to be seen.

"He is dead," the Fearless said, as if reading her thoughts.

Audrey's heart nearly stopped. Panic began to take ahold of her, but she forced her heartbeat slower, reminding herself that the Fearless was an enemy and no information could be trusted.

It tries to scare you. It sensed concern and went for the easy blow. Calm down, calm down. Tieran is fine.

"I sent three splitters," the Fearless said with the voice of the Brion. "He is dead."

"You saying that doesn't make it true," Audrey said defiantly before she remembered who she was snapping at, but her mouth still kept talking. "Are you afraid of him?"

The look the Fearless gave her through the eyes of the warrior made her stumble back, but they didn't stop or slow down. They kept going and going until they reached a fighter that had been used during the initial boarding by the Fearless’ forces. Audrey climbed inside, seeing no point in trying to resist.

Besides, she already had a victory point. As the doors slid shut and Audrey wondered if she'd ever see Tieran again, there was one silver lining in it all.

The connection between them went two ways. The Fearless could exploit her feelings and scare her, but she had caught something too. When she'd mentioned Tieran, there had been a sliver of fear in the monster.

Not the kind of fear normal people felt.

Different, somehow.

She remembered what Tieran had told her about the Fearless. It wasn't death they feared, but Audrey found now that their name wasn't entirely true either. It saw Tieran as a possible threat, someone to stop it from getting what it wanted.

It wasn't terrified of him, but it did avoid the paladin.

It wasn't strong enough to feel safe yet. Even with the lifestone calling to Audrey within it, the Fearless had not yet had the time to become all that it could be.