Alien Slave (35 page)

But I’ll make my boys proud. This is
for you, Gelan, Wynhod, and Krijero.

She grinned through her tears and kept
firing.

* * * *

Wynhod worried as they dashed through
the already trampled foliage that they may fall into an ambush, but
he wasn’t about to slow. Dani was alive. Still alive. He had to
make sure she remained that way, or if there was no way to get her
away from the Tragooms, he must at least deliver her a merciful
end.

The air-trembling report of a
percussion blaster being fired made his heart pound fit to burst
through his chest. Wynhod exchanged a wide-eyed look with Gelan.
They were close, and the Tragooms were fighting amongst themselves
again. Now was their best chance of saving Dani.

They made no attempt to sneak up on the
enemy. The Kalquorians traveled at breakneck speed, crashing
through underbrush as fast as possible towards the sounds of
pitched battle.

Wynhod’s fangs had fully descended, and
his hands were full of blasters. His being screamed for blood,
oceans of hot, spurting blood. The killing frenzy was upon
him.

* * * *

One thing about being under fire; Dani
barely noticed the stench of the dead Tragooms she hid
behind.

Percussion blaster shots rained down
all around her. A love for vid games back on Earth had served her
well. Once she had figured out how to compensate for her blaster’s
recoil, she was taking out Tragooms with deadly accuracy. Any
conscience she might have possessed about killing other sentient
beings before had been swallowed in the desperate fight for
survival.

And I doubt I’ll live to feel guilt
later. Or grief.

A lull in the firing allowed Dani to
pop up, squeeze off a few shots, and duck back down before a
shrieking squeal let her know she’d at least injured one of the
nasty aliens. She thought maybe ten were left. Too many, and they’d
eventually overrun her. Dani’s hope wasn’t for survival so much as
to take out as many of her clan’s killers as possible. She thought
she was doing pretty well on that front.

Remember the Alamo, she thought
crazily.

She popped up again and had a Tragoom’s
big pig head in her sights. She shot and snarled delight when the
bastard’s face disappeared. The next instant, pain exploded in her
shoulder.

Dani was too surprised to scream.
Warmth cascaded down her arm as blood began to flow. She ducked
back down as fire shivered the air overhead.

The pain from the percussion blaster’s
hit was phenomenal, and she blinked back tears and swallowed
nausea. God it hurt! But she made herself go over the injury,
noting that she’d been more grazed than anything. She made her
fingers move. But raising her arm was nearly impossible, and she
was bleeding like a bitch.

She wouldn’t be able to fire the
blaster effectively with just one hand. It was too big and heavy
for Earther hands.

“
Time to exit the party,
Dani.” That made her remember a conversation with her mother. It
had been during one of the lucid periods when Dani was young, back
when her mother’s good periods still numbered in months rather than
hours.

“
You don’t want to be among
the last to leave,” Emily had coached her daughter as she readied
for a party that Dani’s parents were attending in an official
capacity. “Especially if you have social standing. It makes you
look unimportant. Always leave while the party is in full swing, as
if you have far too many engagements to waste an entire evening on
one.”

“
Definitely not going to be
the last to leave this one,” Dani confirmed. She wedged the blaster
against the dead Tragoom she hid behind, pointing the barrel
skyward. She thought she’d be able to fire it fine with one hand
from that position.

She’d gone several seconds since her
last barrage on her enemies, cluing the Tragooms in on her injury.
They exploded out of surrounding trees, racing towards her but not
firing. Dani thought perhaps they were still hoping to take her
alive, take the worst revenge on her possible.

“
No lovin’ for you, you
fucking pigfaces,” she muttered, resting her chin against the
opening of the blaster’s firing tube. “Not with a head attached,
anyway. See how hot you find me now.” Her fingers caressed the
firing mechanism.

The Tragooms were closing the distance,
almost on top of her when blaster fire erupted from the trees,
cutting three down. The Tragooms turned with furious squalling
cries and returned fire as Dani jerked her hand away from the
blaster.

Howling like rabid wolves, Gelan and
Wynhod burst into the clearing, firing at the Tragooms scattering
for cover once more. Dani shrieked disbelieving laughter as the
age-old enemies exchanged heavy fire.

They were alive, and they’d come for
her. Damn it, she loved those guys.

The blurred speed of the howling
Kalquorians seemed to be their best defense. The Tragooms simply
couldn’t get a bead on Gelan and Wynhod as they dashed here and
there, weaving in and out of the surrounding trees. One by one, the
Tragooms fell as percussion blasts found their mark.

One finally realized the weak link of
the group, and he charged out of cover at Dani, still crouched
between the two Tragooms she’d killed. He didn’t shoot, and she
guessed he was looking for a hostage. She struggled to raise her
blaster with one hand, but it wobbled wildly in her grip and her
two shots went wild.

The alien was only half a dozen steps
away when Krijero staggered out of the woods. He brought the
Tragoom down, adding to the pile of bodies around Dani.

The Imdiko called, “Stay there, Dani.
I’m coming.”

Crouched to avoid the blaster shots
ripping through the air around him, Krijero limped towards her. She
propped her blaster on the Tragoom carcass in front of her and
provided cover fire for him. Halfway across the clearing, his leg
went out from under him. He went down hard, face first.

Dani’s eyes widened with horror as
another Tragoom, this one improbably unarmed with a blaster but
brandishing a knife, braved the battle to come after Krijero. She
screamed.

“
Krijero! Look
out!”

Krijero twisted onto his back in time
to hold off the blade flashing down at him. His blaster went flying
through the air, and the Tragoom landed on his stomach, trying to
stab the Kalquorian. Krijero was holding him off barely, his fangs
extended in a fierce grimace of effort.

Dani frantically aimed her blaster, but
the desperate struggle the two combatants were engaged in made it
impossible to get a clear shot at the Tragoom. She scrabbled over
the corpse in front of her and found the headless Tragoom’s blade.
In an instant, she was running towards the fighting pair in a
crouch. As she neared them, she unleashed a banshee
scream.

The Tragoom trying to stab Krijero
looked up at her approach. Krijero took immediate advantage of its
distraction and grabbed the blade from the Tragoom. He stabbed it,
but the knife didn’t penetrate far into the tough hide.

The Tragoom shrieked in fury and fought
Krijero for the blade, getting it back. Krijero held the thing by
its wrists as it tried to bring the knife down on him. As he
battled for his life, the Imdiko cried, “Its eye, Dani. Stab it in
the eye if you can!”

Dani reached the pair and slashed at
the Tragoom’s face. It flung itself back out of reach, and she
stood over Krijero to protect him, holding the knife in attack
position. With a shrieking squeal, the Tragoom came at her, his
blade aiming for her heart.

The air shivered and a blaster shot
rang out, nearly cutting the Tragoom in half. Gelan was suddenly
there, his dark face fierce with excitement. “Stay down, both of
you!”

Dani obeyed without hesitation,
crouching next to Krijero who dragged her beneath his body,
shielding her from the fire as he had before. Wynhod also joined
them, facing the opposite direction from Gelan as they continued to
fight the much reduced Tragoom force.

After a few moments, the blasts ended.
Dani shuddered against Krijero.

“
We got them!”

“
Now that was a fight. This
is the best damned vacation of my life.”

Krijero barked laughter at his exultant
clanmates before pressing his lips to Dani’s hair. “Are you all
right, my Dani?”

“
I thought you were dead. I
thought they killed you all.” She burst into tears as the terror
and grief she’d warded off for so long took hold. Using her one
good arm, she clung to the Imdiko with a grip fit to hold him close
forever.

Chapter 19

They made it to the clan’s shuttle less
than an hour from full dark. Dani jumped with surprise when Wynhod
deactivated the camouflage field, revealing the clean lines and
luster of the oblong-shaped ship. She had to shake her head at her
own stupidity. She’d have never found the shuttle on her
own.

Gelan carried her and Wynhod carried
Krijero on board. Incredibly grubby and bloody from her adventures,
Dani didn’t want to touch the clean interior, all done up in shades
of green and tan. There was even a small kitchen with cooking
elements and cold storage. At their entrance, a soft glow emanated
from the walls to light the interior, and Wynhod’s guttural command
made it even brighter.

“
Nice ride,” she said as
Gelan settled her on a seat in the main cabin. The area was
spacious enough for the entire clan to lounge around, watch a vid,
and eat a meal. The surfaces of the seats, tables, and floor were
all materials that were easy to clean, she noted. Good thing.
Everyone was a bloody, filthy mess from their battle with the
Tragooms. Gelan and Wynhod had received their share of scrapes and
cuts too.

“
We bought it not too long
ago. As much as we like to travel when we get the opportunity, it
seemed a reasonable purchase. We might have spent a little too
much, but—” Gelan shrugged then straightened and went to a wall
where he pushed a button. A panel slid out, revealing a
cupboard.

Was I a reasonable purchase, Dani
wondered? Probably not.

Wynhod lowered Krijero onto a seat next
to Dani’s. “Who first?”

“
Dani,” the Imdiko announced
firmly. “Open wound trumps busted ankle.”

“
You work on him and I’ll
take care of her,” Gelan counter ordered, bringing a first aid kit
to the round table anchored to the floor before Dani and Krijero.
“She’s only winged, so I think I can handle this.”

First they dosed both injured parties
with pain inhibitors. Then while Wynhod used a hand scanner to
determine if Krijero had broken a bone or simply sprained it, Gelan
unwound yet another strip of formsuit material from Dani’s
shoulder.

“
We sure made a mess of your
wardrobes,” she noted, wincing as her wound came into view. The
skin looked crispy-fried around the open gash. At least it didn’t
hurt anymore.

Wynhod snorted. “Gelan never picks
anything easy to hunt. We go through formsuits faster on vacation
than we do at work.”

“
This looks worse than it
is,” Gelan noted as he applied a coagulant cream to the gouge on
Dani’s shoulder. “No muscles were damaged from what I can
tell.”

“
Will it scar?”

“
It might, because I’ll have
to cut away the burned dead skin. All we have is flesh sealant to
close the wound. Cellular regeneration is definitely beyond first
aid. But we can have a doctor on Kalquor remove any scarring.”
Gelan glanced over at Wynhod and Krijero. “How is my
Imdiko?”

Wynhod had propped the injured foot on
another seat and from Dani’s point of view, seemed to be sliding a
sock over it. “No break. A very bad sprain, so I’m putting a cold
sleeve over it for the swelling. You’ll have to stay off it for the
duration of our return home, Krijero.”

The Imdiko grumbled under his breath in
response.

Dani averted her eyes while Gelan took
off the worst of the damaged skin. Then he sealed the wound and
wrapped a proper bandage over it while it set. “That should hold
you both until we get to Kalquor. Krijero, you will stay off that
leg and not argue about it. Dani, don’t use your arm if you can
help it.”

“
What a couple of mother
hens,” Dani teased. She nudged Krijero. “I thought you were the
Imdiko of this clan.”

He smirked as the other two men
mock-glared at her. “Indeed. They do seem awfully good at
nurturing, don’t they?”

“
Keep it up, you two,”
Wynhod growled. “I’ll remind you both of my disciplinarian
side.”

Dani sighed. She was safe. She wasn’t
hurting. Her men – well, the men she wished were hers – were alive
and mostly well. The next thing on her agenda to recovery clamored
to be dealt with. “You said you have bathing facilities on this
thing.”

Finished with Krijero, Wynhod stood.
“I’ll show you.”

Gelan was repacking the first aid kit,
putting everything neatly away. “Get it set up for her and rejoin
us, please.”

Wynhod glanced at him, his body clearly
stating it wanted to help Dani with her shower. But at the look
Gelan gave him, he nodded. He helped Dani to her feet and led her
to another cabin.