Alien Paladin's Woman: SciFi Alien-Human Military Suspense Romance (15 page)

A
udrey stared at the enemy
.

Her heart was beating a thunderous, bone-shaking rhythm in her chest. Without the bracelet, it was hard to concentrate on anything other than the Fearless, but Tieran's nearness helped.

More than it used to, in fact. Like a light, the paladin standing by her side kept her grounded in reality. It even seemed like it stopped the Fearless from affecting her emotions too much.

The creature in front of them was enormous, barely fitting onto the bridge. Even then, it had to crouch. A part of Audrey wondered how it intended to get anything from the mines if its size would have brought the mountain down on it.

Which was not a bad idea in itself, but Audrey had more urgent problems.

The Fearless was terrifying, she couldn't deny that. But after the initial shock had passed, her fear was partly replaced by fury. If that thing wanted to get to her planet, it had to go through her and she wouldn't help the Fearless if it was the last thing she did, which was all too likely.

Still, Audrey heard the words come of her mouth: "You think you can force us to help you. I think we haven't been saying
no
loud enough."

She caught a glimpse of a smirk on Tieran's face and took courage from that. If he managed to smile in a situation like that, it meant he didn't count them as dead yet.

The Fearless, however, laughed again. Right before it charged, faster than Audrey could see, plowing through the paladin like butter.

All she felt was Tieran pushing her out of the way when the creature slammed into him, sending the both of them flying across the room.

And Audrey discovered that she was a liar. It had been easy to be brave while the Fearless was only talking, freely sharing its plans with her. Now, panic took over and she had to fight it down with everything she had.

It was difficult though, seeing the way Tieran matched the Fearless' claws blow for blow, but even she could see that it was close. One mistake, one wrong move and the man she loved would be worse than dead.

The realization hit her so hard that it actually knocked the Fearless out of balance, still connected to her emotional core.

It spun its massive head to look at her for a moment, both of them equally surprised by the outcome. But it couldn’t do anything else before returning its attention to Tieran, who came at it with his glaive ready to slice and dice.

Audrey hadn't thought to weaponize her feelings, but she was glad to see Tieran take advantage of the enemy's momentary distraction at once. The paladin managed to score a good hit, the impossibly sharp blade of his glaive piercing the Fearless' stomach.

To the both of their surprise, the Fearless howled like it was dying. The bridge shook under the sound waves, more delicate technology rupturing and Audrey had to cover her ears not to be deafened by that scream.

A pulse of pain rattled through her. It was like a light in her flickered for a moment.

The lifestone!

"The lifestone," she called to Tieran. "You hit it!"

Neither one of them had the time to properly digest that information. The Fearless had heard her exposing its weakness and changed direction, coming her way. It turned its back to Tieran, but the hard skin there seemed harder to break through than on the stomach.

Audrey crawled away, but Tieran wasn't going to let her get drawn into the fight. She saw the paladin run faster than she thought was possible, jumping over the consoles of the bridge to land smoothly between her and the enemy.

The glaive in his hand was marred with dark blood and it gave the Fearless pause. The creature halted its attack, considering. Audrey could almost feel its brain working, trying to calculate.

When Tieran looked her way, Audrey saw a deep frown on his face. She had no idea what bothered him that much about them not dying.

She could feel the Fearless' pain, though.
And
the terrible hunger, the ruthless core that Tieran had talked about. It wanted to kill them both, there was no doubt about that, but it needed them too. A conundrum.

Clearly, sentience came with its downsides. Simply rampaging through planets would have been so much easier for the Fearless if it wasn’t aware of the consequences, which it seemed to be, now.

The paladin surged forward and Audrey almost screamed. The Fearless was grinning with its large mouth, the teeth opening to snatch Tieran up, but he dodged them. While she crawled away again, refusing to get in the way and make Tieran guard her as well as fight, Audrey saw his intention.

He wanted to carve the stone out of the enemy.

That’s insane
, Audrey thought, but it was the best chance they got.

Miraculously, the Fearless backed away, but Audrey noticed the shift in it before Tieran did.

"Look out!" she called, but the Fearless moved so quickly Tieran had no time to parry.

He flew across the room, landing with a thunderous clunk against the command throne. Audrey didn't see whether he was conscious or even alive, because the monster was now coming for her again, wasting no time.

She ran to Tieran, her mind spinning. There was no way out. They had pushed the Fearless too far, drained whatever passed for patience in that dark beast.

Like to confirm her thoughts, the Fearless snarled, its voice like an avalanche:

"I offered you his life. Now I will take it."

Okay, now we're fucked.

Audrey shook Tieran, desperate for any sign of life. If she lost him, just like that, she didn't think she could go on.

His eyes snapped open, but went wide when he looked behind her. Audrey didn't dare to turn, wanting the last thing she saw in her life to be him.

"Run, Audrey," he said instead. "Run to the docking bay and don't stop for anything. And
don't look back
."

His words carried such authority that Audrey found herself moving before her mind registered the fact that she'd sprung up from the floor. She dashed out of the door, hearing the impossible sound of tearing metal behind her. Behind her, she could sense Tieran following her, staying a few steps behind her to cover her escape.

Audrey hated it, but there was nothing to be done. They had pissed off the one creature in the galaxy who should have been tread around lightly.

Tieran had warned her not to, but Audrey couldn't fight down the urge to see. When they rounded a corner, she looked at the Fearless and a scream tore itself from her throat.

It was instantly clear to her that she hadn't really seen the Fearless before, not the way it truly was. She had seen a beast, but nothing more. She had even dared to look it in the eye and that didn't fit anything she'd ever heard about them, which had made it so unbelievable.

Now she knew why.

The Fearless had evolved and become smarter. It had tried to form a plan, but she and Tieran just refused to play along and now it had decided to revert to its roots.

It came after them, tearing apart the ship as it burst through the corridors, seemingly growing bigger with every step. Audrey couldn't believe her eyes, but down at its genetic level, it was part Jorcossi now, wasn't it? And they were able to grow with tremendous speed.

As its mouth stretched wider, the roars became louder and Audrey felt the ship shake under the low-resonating sound.

It had lost control and the way she understood it, that was an advantage for them. Since they managed to outrun it now, which had been impossible before, that had to be the truth. But the Fearless was now true to its name.

"It's going to destroy the ship!" Audrey called to Tieran. "It's tearing it apart around us! There is nowhere to go!"

"Keep running!" Tieran ordered, moving on to speak to his comm link. "Everybody to the bay! We are taking the Jorcossi ship!"

Now Audrey finally remembered. The Jorcossi ship was there too. If they took that, took the ship from the Fearless, it wouldn't be able to follow them, at least for a while. The way it tore through the bigger Brion vessel made her doubt the thing would ever fly again.

She ran for her life and knew that everyone else aboard was doing the same, with the possible exception of Tieran.

The sounds coming from behind her were more reminiscent of the stories she'd heard about the Fearless. Without care or sense of pain, the Fearless clawed its way to them by slashing its claws through doors and walls and floors.

Audrey could see gigantic gashes in the floor behind whenever she turned her head as the Fearless rushed after them on all fours. The sight nearly took her down on its own.

The only reason they were not dead was because the Brions built their ships sturdy enough. It made the Fearless push through the construct, never getting to show them its true speed.

The bay was up ahead now. Audrey could see paladins rushing there, but they were being delayed by a swarm of Jorcossi.

They were so close.

So very close to denying the Fearless a chance to chase them, perhaps even to escape the trap it was putting itself into. Audrey had no idea if it had already realized their plan or whether it would have made a difference. She could feel nothing but hunger and loathing from the Fearless.

And then the beast was gone.

Something had changed, but Audrey couldn't put her finger on it. She almost stopped, but Tieran grabbed her, never slowing down. Her feet left the ground as the paladin picked her up and still ran faster than she had on her own. That told Audrey something had just gone terribly wrong.

"Everybody in, now!" Tieran roared.

The paladins heard him. Audrey couldn't see any Brions, but there hadn't been many left when she had entered the ship. Had they all died? It sounded like them never to abandon a fight, while paladins were able to back down to fight another day.

She slid off Tieran's lap when they burst into the Jorcossi ship. It was the weirdest contraption she had ever seen, but Palians could fly anything in the galaxy. They probably had manuals somewhere.

"Take off!" Tieran ordered harshly.

Audrey looked around. There were still paladins fighting outside the ship.

"We can't leave!" she protested. "We aren't all here!"

"
Take off, now!
" Tieran bellowed to the pilot. "All power to the engines. Make for Verien."

Audrey wanted to rush out to help, although she only had her gun, but Tieran's hands closed around her and held her in place. She struggled, but the ship's doors closed swiftly after them and she could feel the engines flare up.

"Why?" she asked, despairing. "They are your friends, your brothers, we can't—"

"Yes," Tieran said and his voice was very dark. "They are and they understand."

Audrey doubted that very much, but the truth was about to become very clear to her.

"Where is the stone?" Tieran asked as the Jorcossi ship sped away from the larger one.

"The
Vehement
…" Audrey began, but then she felt a change in the Fearless and the guns of the Brion ship suddenly rolled out and took aim at Tieran's ship.

Their own never stopped as the
Vehement
was blown to pieces.

Audrey felt the vessel shake beneath her feet as the engines worked to their full speed. Distantly, she heard Tieran tell the pilot to draw power from any part of the ship where it wasn't vital. Even shields. All that mattered was that they put enough distance between themselves and the Fearless.

"The stone," she whispered. "It's… it's…"

She swallowed dryly, reaching out for the stone, and the Fearless along with it. Her thoughts were muddled however, her grief for those lost souls on the
Vehement
and back on the Brion ship choking her up.

"In the engine of the Brion ship," Tieran said, making her look up at him. "Isn't it?"

"Yes."

"How fast is it eating the stone up?" the paladin asked.

Audrey still couldn't get all those people out of her mind. The crew of the
Vehement
, the paladins they'd abandoned on the Brion ship. They were all dead.

"Audrey."

She pursed her lips, shaking her head clear. That was not the time to mourn. It would come later or wouldn't come at all. Right now, all that mattered was that they prepared for the next attack, which was undeniably coming.

"Fast," she said. "The Fearless had already used it on itself. Now it has to power the engine as well as the guns, but it'll run out soon."

"How soon?" Tieran asked seriously. "The Brion ship is faster. Can we outrun it?"

"I don't know," Audrey said.

"Guess."

She glared at him for taking such a tone with her, but she knew he was furious too. She was just mourning the loss of life, but for him they had been friends and valuable crew. All Tieran was trying to do was make sure no one else died.

"Maybe," she offered. "It's like you told me. The Fearless doesn't care about conservation. It thinks it can get more on Verien, so I think it will leave the stone in the engine. It's coming for the big prize now."

"Can you let me know if they get close enough for it to be a problem?" Tieran asked. "Or if the stone runs out of power."

"Yes," Audrey said. "Tieran?"

The paladin pulled her into a tight embrace, holding her while she drew her own kind of strength from him. Despite all that had happened, he was still standing there, ready to fight. Audrey wasn't going to be worse.

"Don't be afraid," he told her when she moved away, feeling like she'd just charged her inner battery.

"I am," Audrey said, "but that is not what I wanted to say. I have some ideas about how to stop the Fearless."

The look on Tieran's face warred between amusement and love for a long moment, but he settled for a slight grin in the end.

"Paladins are taught never to want anything for themselves," he said in the end. "But I don't think I can let you go."

"I don't want you to," Audrey said quietly, hoping against all reason that they would find a way to make it work, because she felt the same.

And she had realized the same truth, watching Tieran fight the enemy for her without even thinking of giving up. That was the kind of man she'd always wanted and now that Audrey had found him, she refused to go back to the way things had been before.