aHunter4Rescue (aHunter4Hire) (3 page)

“What
century are you from?” Fiona had only heard words like this in historical
fiction, never from a real person. “Were you fighting on the plane and that’s
why it crashed?”

“We
refused to be led to our death.”

Before
Ardal could continue speaking another man rushed up to them. “The Captain
lives.”

“Bring
him to me.” Ardal was definitely in command. He straightened his shoulders and
his mouth thinned with determination.

A
slight man with brown hair was pushed toward them. Fiona gasped when she saw
that he was walking with a limp. That didn’t seem to matter to the two men who
were leading him. Then again they were also walking with difficulty and their
wounds looked more serious. One of the men had a large gash to his forehead and
blood was dripping down his face. The other’s arm was bent, which suggested it
was broken, on top of several gashes. Overall the man they led seemed to have
gotten off light.

“Captain,
you have earned honor.” Ardal’s voice was low with the faint hint of sarcasm.
“That is more than you deserve.”

“You
were the ones who forced the ship down. If you had followed orders, none of
this would have happened.” The Captain shook off the hands of the two men
holding him. “Your death would have ensured peace. They will hunt you down
until every last one of you is dead.”

“I
think it is unlikely that the Holman will search for us. We are all dead to
them.” Ardal’s tone was matter of fact, his features betraying no emotion.

“You
killed all of my men.” The Captain pushed forward and jabbed Ardal in the
chest. “You’re no better than animals.”

“Because
I refused to let my men be killed without honor?” Ardal shook his head. “We had
no choice but to fight you.”

“So
you caused more loss. Hasn’t there been enough death on our planet?” The
Captain turned and gestured to the carnage all around them. “Look what you have
done. Instead of dying, you will have to live with being traitors.”

Fiona
listened to this conversation with growing confusion. These men spoke in
riddles. It sounded as if they had just come from a war, but that wasn’t
possible. The Middle East was the nearest battlefield. These men didn’t look as
if they came from there.

“Could
one of you please explain where the hell you’re from?”

The
Captain and Ardal both turned to look at her. The Captain’s eyes scanned her
face and then perused her body with a lazy indolence that she had come to
recognize. A shudder of revulsion skittered along her back. It was only then
that she realized that Ardal and his men had not looked at her with lust.

“Ah,
a beautiful mistress to greet us,” the Captain said in a low voice. “This does
look promising.”

Fiona
didn’t have a chance to reply before Ardal had grabbed the man by the neck and
lifted him from the ground. “You will be respectful in a woman’s presence,” he
ground out between clenched teeth. He gave him a shake and then threw the man
to the ground.

“My
pardon, Fiona.
The Captain forgets the rules of the
Sacred Code. His actions suggest that he never knew them.”

“You
haven’t answered her question.” The Captain rubbed his neck and shook off the
hands of the men trying to help him stand. “She has a right to know that you
are traitors who have escaped from the Holman forces.”

Fiona
frowned. “I’ve never heard of them. Is that a country in Africa?”

The
Captain snorted. “Look closely at my ruined craft and you’ll see that it is
beyond the technology of your people. We come from another planet.”

Traitors.

Another
planet.

The
words kept repeating in Fiona’s head all that long night. When daylight had finally
relieved the darkness, she had driven out to the far field where the crash had
happened. What the night had hidden was now all too apparent. The Captain had
not lied. The ruined hull of his craft was not a plane. It wasn’t even like any
of the experimental crafts she had seen on television. This was a large rounded
vessel made from some sort of metal that glinted with a silver shimmer.

“Aliens.”

Fiona
whispered the word beneath her breath. Her mind shied away from such a thought.
There was no such thing as aliens. Only crazy people believed in them. Insane
headlines from some of the more disreputable magazines flashed through her
head. It couldn’t be possible that those lunatics had been telling the truth.

And
if aliens were real, why would they come to earth?

The
Captain had said that they came here to die. But there had to be a zillion
better places in the universe to die. Earth was just another planet in a long
line of them. No, there had to be another explanation. Perhaps they had gone
off course. There had been a fight after all. That could be the only
explanation.

But
these men looked human. They were tall, all of them over six feet. Ardal had to
be six seven at the very least, but it wasn’t unheard of for men to be that
tall. They seemed to have the same organs as humans. She’d helped with their
medical care all last night. There were no visible differences. Perhaps at a
cellular level there were variances, but nothing evident to the eye.

The
only one that was different was the Captain. He was smaller, both in height and
stature. He was probably no taller than five feet with a slight build. If he
had muscles, they didn’t show under his clothing. The unusual thing about him
was the shape and size of his eyes, nose, and mouth, and his lack of facial
hair. His skin was smooth and without wrinkles. It was also a sickly pale color
as if he had never seen the light of day.

Fiona
heaved a sigh and walked back to her truck. There was no point in denying what
had happened. A spacecraft had crashed in her back field. Her field was
littered with debris and among the wreckage there were many more bodies. She
had a houseful of male aliens. Most were wounded, but not severely. Ardal was
already rounding up men to bury the dead. At least the evidence would be gone.

What
was she thinking?

When
had she accepted the impossible?

Sometime
between last night and this morning her universe had been turned upside down.
Thoughts of the men in black paying her a visit flittered through her mind. If
the stories about aliens were true, then the rest of it must be true also. That
meant a government cover-up of huge proportions. The only thing that was saving
her from a full scale invasion of the military was the fact that she was in
such a remote area. Perhaps no one had noticed a large alien spacecraft
invading their airspace and crashing.

And
pigs could fly.

Fear
gripped her stomach. The problem of cleaning the devastation in her fields was
the least of her worries. The publicity involved with an alien spacecraft in
her back forty acres was something that she could do without. Her cover would
be blown. David would find her all too soon, and then she’d be on the run
again.

If
he didn’t catch her first.

Fiona
shivered and brought her clenched hand up to her chest. The last time he’d
almost killed her. If she hadn’t pretended to be unconscious, he probably would
have. She’d been lucky to escape. There was no way she was going to let it
happen again. She had to protect her new identity and if necessary, she’d
disappear again.

First
she needed to take care of all the wounded aliens. Fiona shook her head and got
into the truck. She had about one hundred and fifty men divided between her
house and the barn. Most had injuries that needed attention, but Ardal had been
serious when he’d said they look after their own. So far she’d only been
allowed to do basic first-aid.

These
men were more skilled than some surgeons Fiona had seen at the hospital that
she’d interned at. They worked with swift, deft motions almost as if they knew
intrinsically what the other man was feeling. They were like computers, moving
quickly and without emotion. It was uncanny.

Fiona
started the truck and smothered a yawn. She needed sleep. She put the truck in
gear and headed back to the house. There was no point in delaying the
inevitable. Somehow she needed a plan to deal with this situation and the
possible consequences.

Confusion
still reigned at the house. Men were everywhere. When she walked into the
living room the men’s voices stopped, though. Those who could stand did so. A
surge of embarrassment rushed through her. She had never been treated with
gallantry before. She thought that had gone the way of the dodo.

“Finally.”
The Captain’s voice broke the spell. “You’re a breath of fresh air. I’d never
tire of looking at you, gorgeous.”

Ardal’s
fist shot out and connected with Eamon’s jaw, sending the man back against the
couch.
“Silence.
By Cygnus and Warrior, you will learn
respect.”

Fiona
cringed at the violence, but couldn’t prevent an upwelling of thankfulness. She
hated the sexual innuendos that she’d endured since she’d turned sixteen. It
was a relief to know that these men would not step over the line.

“I’ve
been out at the field. It’s a bigger mess than I realized. I don’t know how
we’re going to clean it up. The trees will take years to recover.”

“We
will cover the damage.”

“How?”
Fiona sank onto a kitchen chair. “You’d need big equipment to drag all the
debris away.”

“We
are many.” Ardal waved to his men. “We are used to cleaning up messes.”

“The
men need time to heal.”

“There
is no time.” Ardal put his hands on his hips. “We heal fast.”

“There’s
another thing.” Fiona glanced back at the kitchen. It was a typically large
farm kitchen, but she wasn’t a big eater. “I don’t have enough food for
everyone. I’ll have to go into town for groceries.”

“We
will find food.” Ardal nodded to three of his men who moved forward. “Do you
have any weapons?”

“There’s
a shotgun in the closet, but it’s locked.”

The
men went for the gun and came back a few seconds later. “Can you work it?”

“It
is primitive, but will be effective,” the man holding the gun answered. “We
will be back shortly.”

“You’re
going to kill breakfast?” Fiona shook her head. Why not? They seemed to take
care of everything else. She was too tired to care. “I need to sleep.”

Anxiety
and tiredness were catching up. She couldn’t think properly especially with so
many men surrounding her. Usually it only took one man to send her body into
full panic. Now she was on overload. The fact that these guys kept their
distance was the only thing making it bearable.

“Which
is your sleeping chamber?” Ardal held his hand out to her.

Now
that daylight had come, she could see that his hair was a deep dark brown,
almost black. It was only the odd highlight that kept it from being black. His
skin was olive-toned and his eyes a dark obsidian. He wasn’t exactly a handsome
man, but his air of command meant that he would never be overlooked in a crowd.
Strangely enough, most of his men had almost the same dark appearance. The only
one that was different was the pilot with his light brown hair.

Fiona
took Ardal’s hand, suppressing a gasp at the now familiar jolt that ran through
her body when he touched her. She pointed to the room farthest away. “I can
sleep somewhere else, though. I don’t want to disturb those men. They need to
recover. I just need to get my sleeping bag from the closet and then I’ll sleep
in my truck.”

“No.”
He motioned to a couple of men. Before she could stop him, her bedroom had been
cleared.

“Sleep.”
He led her to the room. “We need your truck to clean up the debris and bury our
comrades. All will be taken care of by the time you waken.”

Fiona
knew it was useless to argue with the man. No matter how much she wanted to
help, last night he’d pushed her aside. His only explanation was that it was
not the work a woman need do. Doubtless things were different where he came
from, but surely women worked there. She was too tired to think about it. Instead
she snuggled into her bed and fell asleep.

***

She
was a strange lady. Never had he seen such an exquisite female before and he
had seen many an attractive mistress. The women on his planet were noted for
their loveliness and grace, but none could compare with Fiona. Her hair was the
color of the early morning dawn on his home planet, deep, rich red with a hint
of gold. The people of his planet were either dark haired warriors or had hair
the color of the Kaladin and their mates, which was brown.

The
other difference was her eyes. They were a deep green, the shade of grass under
the light of the setting sun. Her hair and eyes were truly spectacular, but
even more so against the pale ivory of her skin. A creature of unique beauty,
but never before had he seen such fear in a woman’s eyes. She tried to hide it,
but every time she looked at one of the men, it was there.