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Authors: Jess Granger

Beyond the Shadows (6 page)

BOOK: Beyond the Shadows
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“Think about what?” he asked as he edged his chin forward. She tilted her own head, exposing her neck to him.
“You know what.”
She could feel the heat of his body in the cold empty space of the bay. Standing so close to him made her muscles feel loose and heavy.
“Earthlen aren’t known for their mind-reading abilities,” he murmured. “Why don’t you spell it out for me?”
She whopped him on the side of the thigh with her bar.
“Ow.” He hobbled away from her, clutching his thigh. Then he laughed.
“Why are you laughing?” She lowered her weapon in disbelief. “I just gave you a bruise that should be green for a week.”
“I think I like the way you play, Pix.” He shook it out, then brought his bar up.
“I’m not playing.” She twirled hers again and jumped forward with another pair of quick strikes. It forced his weight back on his bruised thigh, but he didn’t flinch.
Damn, he was strong.
She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. It felt like her pulse pounded in every centimeter of her body. It radiated out from a place just behind her navel and seemed to float by the time it reached her head. He made her feel
hungry.
“Are you sure?”
This had to be lag. There was no other explanation for her completely losing her mind.
No, she couldn’t do this anymore. She tossed her bar at him, and he caught it, immediately turning it into a fast spin before tucking it down and behind his shoulder.
“I think that’s enough distraction for today,” she stated. Sparring with him was dangerous. She needed to be careful. She had a lot more at stake now than when she was younger and more reckless. She’d been overconfident in her position with the Elite. She didn’t want to end up like Cyori, pregnant and banished to the shadows just before she inherited the throne.
Bug zipped into the room, his aura pulsing bright green. He let out a sharp whistle.
Cyrus looked at his pet with his brow knit. “What?”
Bug spun around Cyrus’s head at a dizzying speed as he let out a short series of clicks, then another sharp whistle.
The hairs rose up on the backs of her arms, and she felt the urge to rub the white falcon tattoos there. What was going on?
Yara knew a warning when she heard it.
Cyrus dropped the bars with a loud clatter and ran through the bulkhead door. Yara followed him into the living quarters. He launched himself into the pilot’s seat and scanned the strings of code scrolling in front of him.
“Shit,” he whispered, then shouted, “Brace yourself!”
A heart-stopping
boom
pounded in the air as the ship tumbled, throwing Yara into the sidewall by the beds. Pain lanced through her body as her shoulder and head smashed against the hard wall. She fell onto the bunk and grasped the edge while her head throbbed.
She held on. The room around her blurred as her eyes tried to focus, but it was no use. The ship shook with such force one of the lockers broke its tether bolts and crashed to the floor.
Cyrus braced himself and initiated the energy net to protect the control center. Tuz raced under her bunk.
“What was that?” she shouted at Cyrus above an ominous rumbling coursing through the ship. He was too busy punching commands into the console.
Another thunderous
boom
shook the ship, followed by a second violent round of shaking. Yara did her best to hang on as one of the panels that hid the cases dislodged from the sidewall. It smashed into her injured shoulder, sending a new wave of agony rushing through her body.
She felt herself go weightless, and then gravity reengaged but at a lower threshold than Union standard gravity. The swooping feeling made her stomach turn in knots, but she didn’t have the luxury of giving in to it.
Cyrus jumped off his seat, pushed through the energy field protecting the controls, and ran to the galley, each stride looking like a leap. “Get your weapons,” he commanded.
He ripped open a locker and grabbed a DEC pulse gun. Yara grabbed for her bag and pulled out a sono to complement the knife she always wore on her belt.
“What is going on?” Her heart raced. For all her Elite training, and her five years in service with the Union, she’d never seen live fire.
“We got tossed by an energy web. They’re coming.”
The lights flickered then died. Only Bug’s glow illuminated the quarters. Suddenly Yara felt the heavy weight of gravity increase to a level far higher than Union standard.
Cyrus had the hard look of a soldier as dim red lights along the sidewalls started to glow.
The temperature inside the ship plummeted.
Yara felt the chill in the air seep into her skin and heart.
The unmistakable groan of metal reverberated through the ship as it lurched. Another ship had docked with theirs.
Every sound grated on her nerves as Cyrus took her hand and pulled her into the empty cargo bay.
“Keep to my back. They’ll send the bots first, then the men. I’ll take out as many as I can with the DEC. Shoot to kill.” He brought the DEC to his shoulder and aimed it at the closed cargo ramp. “Bug, stay in the control center and work on getting systems back up. Keep the security link open so you can hear us.” Bug flew back into the living quarters and Cyrus shut and sealed the bulkhead door.
Yara took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. The vapor curled around her face as she braced herself for attack.
“Tuz,” she ordered as her cat stalked to her side. “Attack and kill.”
He purred.
A hollow grinding echoed through the bay as the cargo ramp cracked open.
“What’s out there?” she demanded. She needed to know what they were facing.
“Spiders.” Cyn cocked his gun and fired the first shot into the void.
4
YARA FOUGHT HER TERROR AS NINE LARGE BOTS THE SIZE OF WOLVES PULLED their fat and dented bodies through the gap in the cargo ramp. Their glowing red optic sensors scanned the bay while scorpion-like tails whipped over their bodies. At the end of each tail a paralyzing shock charge glowed with an eerie light.
“Aim for the eye, and don’t get stung,” Cyrus shouted as he fired three quick shots off the DEC. Two of the bots tumbled back toward the ramp, their bodies crashing in a cacophony of noise as they hit.
The seven remaining bots hugged the edge of the bay, scurrying around the outer rim of the compartment. Four moved to the left as three shifted to the right to fill in the gaps in their loose arc. Yara fired at the one closest to the bulkhead door, but the blast dissolved into a sizzling web of fractured light spreading out in a dome in front of the metal creatures.
“Shit.” Cyn threw his gun at one of the bots. “My DEC is out of charge and they’re shielded against blasters. We need to bash them.” He whipped two knives out of the bracers on his forearms and flung them through the air. The knives sank into the eyes of two different bots. Electricity shot out of the damaged scorpions as they collapsed on the deck in spasms, their legs flailing in the air like dying roaches.
Yara turned just as a bot pulled his tail back to strike. “Cyrus, look out!” Yara shoved him to the side as she gripped her own knife and force-kicked. Her heel connected with the hard shell of the machine’s body. The tail swung dangerously close to her as it crashed back into another one.
Yara ran to the fallen scorpion and twisted her body to lure the bot to strike. She felt her shoulders strain as she bent backward to avoid the stinger, while simultaneously grabbing the tail and guiding the jab into the eye of the other overturned bot. Yara leapt back toward Cyrus, the sting of the discharge searing into her legs as both bots froze in a net of webbed lightning before sparking out.
“Bug! Reactivate the hatch locks,” Cyrus shouted at the security link in the corner. “Yara, cover me.”
Cyrus yanked up a floor panel.
The three remaining scorpions inched closer, stabbing their tails in the air. Yara could feel the numbing energy of the shock charges tingle over her skin. She gripped her knife tighter as Tuz leaned against the back of her calf. He hissed, the sound blending with the hum of the bots.
In the corner of her eye, Yara spotted the handles she’d used to spar with Cyrus.
“Tuz, handle.” Yara reached her hand down and Tuz curled his tail around her wrist. With all her strength, she whipped the cat straight up into the air.
The motion distracted two of the bots, but the third struck at exactly that moment. Yara had to dive into Cyrus to prevent getting hit. He cursed at her then connected a conduit as Tuz landed on the far side of the room.
The cat pounced on the metal pipe, knocking it across the cargo floor and through the spiderlike legs of one of the scorpions.
Yara grabbed it, ducking under the glowing stinger as it flew over her head.
“Got it,” Cyrus shouted as he kicked out, knocking three metallic legs off balance.
Tuz ran around the bay, looking like a black streak of shadow as the bots tried to follow him. They couldn’t get a fix on her scout.
Yara leapt in the air, spinning the bar over her head as she landed to the side of one of the bots. She brought the bar down on top of the optic in a smashing blow that shook the bones in her arms and shoulders.
She didn’t have time to lose her breath or focus. Counting on her training for survival, she charged after the one chasing her scout.
“Yara!” Cyrus shouted as a bot righted itself. She tossed him her knife, then gripped the very end of the pole and slashed it into the body of the creature ahead of her.
The blow knocked the bot into the crates strapped to the bulkhead. She had to dodge to her right as its tail whipped back at her. Yara flipped the bar into her hands and used the end to crack the stinger, then jabbed the bar with all her force into the optic.
She spared a glance back at Cyrus, just in time to see him sink her knife into the optic of the final bot.
Just then a hole opened up in the sidewall to the left. Cyrus ran at her and pushed her inside. She tumbled backward and down, crashing onto a grate below her.
“
Shakt
,” she shouted, clutching her bruised shoulder as Cyrus landed next to her. Tuz jumped through the gap just before it closed, landing on Cyrus’s head.
“Damn it, get off,” he tried to grab her cat by the scruff, but Tuz sank his fangs into his hand.
“Tuz, let go,” she commanded.
Tuz growled and leapt down to her. The light from the open hatch went out, throwing them into complete darkness.
Tuz activated his collar, illuminating the room in a pale blue light. Where were they? “What in the name of Fima the Merciless is going on?” she shouted.
“Keep it down,” Cyrus ordered as he pressed his hand to a nasty scratch on his forehead. “Spiders are pirates, bloody opportunistic mercenaries. They send the bots in to paralyze any crew, then ransack the ship for anything they can sell, including people. They usually hit weak trade vessels too poor to travel by macrospace or defend themselves. They aren’t planning on us fighting back.”
Yara looked around the cramped hole. They were in a protected pocket built into the side of the ship. Unlabeled shipping crates rose in tall stacks wedged between the solid frames of the ship.
“With what?” Yara whispered. “I only have one sono, the DEC burned out, and we left all our knives up there.”
Cyrus placed his fingertips on a lock, and opened the top of one of the crates. He pulled out two projectile rifles and tossed one to her. Yara nearly let the thing clatter to the grate. It felt hard and dirty in her hands. With a long barrel and the worn black casing of a highly efficient discharger, it was a weapon of deadly practicality, a cruel and bloody thing.
“These are illegal.”
“I don’t think Spiders are going to turn us in to the Union for breaking arms treaties.” Cyrus snapped an ammunition charge into the rifle. “Listen to me. They will kill us if we don’t get them to back off. Bloody them, and they’ll do a little profit analysis in their head. They don’t fight well as a group, and if the ones coming in think they won’t make it back out, they’ll go find an easier target.”
“How many?” Yara asked as she gripped the rifle tighter.
“I don’t know. If we can take out more than ten, we should be good.” Cyrus pointed above them. “Climb up to the top-load hatch on this side. I’ll be on the far side. That will get us above them, and we’ll catch them in our crossfire.”
Yara saw him for the first time in a new and uncertain light.
He wasn’t lying when he said he was smuggling illegal weapons. He was no honest or harmless trader. He had every intention of spilling a lot of blood to protect what was his.
Her hands shook with the letdown of adrenaline and her dawning horror.
“Do you know what they’re armed with?” she asked. She had to keep her head clear and rely on her training.
“Anything you can buy on the shadow markets, which includes things a lot nastier than projectile weapons. We have to shoot first or we’re dead.” He held no apology in his hard expression. His dark eyes, made even darker by the deep shadows, turned as deadly as the rifle in his hands.
Yara felt the chill slide down her back.
Cyrus cocked his gun, the sharp click echoing through the dark. She watched the muscle in his jaw twitch as he reached back into the crate and pulled out several long knives. Their sharp blades gleamed in the dim light. “If one of us drops for some reason, stop shooting. The ricocheted projectiles are going to get nasty. We’ll have to go in with these.”
“That doesn’t sound like good odds,” she commented.
“Don’t fall.”
Yara tested the weight of a half-meter blade. It was as nasty and cruel a weapon as the projectile beside her. Blades injured. They cut and bled. And yet she had trained with them from the time she was three.
BOOK: Beyond the Shadows
7.73Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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