Colliding Worlds Trilogy 01 - Collision (15 page)

Sienna shrugged. “Knowing Cookie, it probably is. After all, Sephians are vegetarians. But you got to admit,” she held out her partially eaten veggie burger “this is a lot better than the alternative.” Despite the cardboard flavor and dry texture of the sandwich, she had to give the Sephians credit for trying to fit in. They were trying to Americanize themselves. Before long, the whole lot of them would be video game junkies and hopeless Facebook addicts.

“Yeah. It’s all fun and games until someone brings out the moldy hinds,” Jax said with a visible shudder.

“
Mulhean
,” Legian replied irritably. “And at least we still have food. Our supplies are getting dismally low. Soon, all we’ll have are these meat cakes.”

It didn’t seem to bother Jax one bit, but Legian’s comment worried her. They’d been living on borrowed time for too long. Being stuck in a bed in Med gave her plenty of time to think. Their current situation was like a beetle that randomly reared its ugly head, biting her back to the reality. The United States was onto them. The Draeken had already painfully proven the fact that they knew the location of the base. They needed to reach out to the military soon, before something happened.

“Make way. Some of us have to work around here,” Risa said as she walked in front of the screen.

Sienna frowned. “Party pooper.”

“Well, I guess you don’t want this then,” she replied, popping the cork off a bottle of wine and then turning away with a fake sad face.

Sienna motioned for the bottle. “Whoa. Get that over here.”

Risa giggled before handing over the wine. “I figured you all needed a little celebration. Fayel says Sienna is ready to try standing tomorrow.”

Sienna gave a whoop before taking a swig right out of the bottle.

Legian eyed the bottle warily. “I don’t think that bottle is going to last long.”

“Oh. Hold on a sec.” Risa stepped out of the room, returning seconds later with a case of beer.

Nalea grabbed the case. “Now we have a celebration.”

“Sephian roulette?” she asked hopefully.

“What’s Sephian roulette?” Risa asked.

“It’s a drinking game Lea taught me. An awesome drinking game.”

A grumble sounded to her left. “The last time we played that game, Doc kicked all of us out of Med for a day. You really want to take that chance?”

Sienna’s shoulders slumped. “Things would not have gotten as out of hand if we didn’t use cups the size of beer steins.” she pointed at the man on the couch. “Or maybe if Jax wasn’t so damn generous with the beer.” She’d been lucky. She had pain killers so she slept straight through her hangover. The others weren’t so lucky.

Nalea gestured for the med-tec to join in. “Grab a seat, Risa. Tell me. Have you ever played
Assassin’s Creed
before?”

“I’ve never played any video game before,” the med-tec replied shyly.

“Ooh. Fresh meat.” Sienna tossed the controller to the petite med-tec. Risa fumbled, and Jax caught it right before it hit the floor. He handed it to her, and she blushed.

Sienna curved into Legian’s warm chest to watch the game in style.

Nalea started up a new game. “I’d be happy to show you.”

“First, beer me,” Jax said. And Risa scurried to grab a can.

Where she had tossed the cans to Legian and Nalea, she handed the can to Jax and sat down next to him. She could have sworn she let her fingers linger on his. She sat next to Jax as he went about showing her how to operate the controller. When Nalea started a game, he casually draped an arm around Risa to help her with the controls.

Sienna smiled. Jax the soldier had finally taken a break for Jax the man. She watched the trio play the game. To be more accurate, she watched Jax and Risa get their asses served to them by Nalea who rocked the RPG world. She was about to put the coup de grâce on the pair when Doc walked in and scanned the room, his eyes stopping when they came to Risa.

“There you are.”

Risa looked up toward the voice as Nalea killed the med-tec’s assassin. “Just taking a break, Fayel.” When she turned back to the screen, she stammered. “Wha — what happened?”

“You got squished. Rule One. Don’t touch the ground,” Nalea replied cockily.

“I don’t understand.”

Nalea smirked as she interlaced her fingers behind her head and leaned back. “You will, little grasspopper. Oh yes, you will understand.”

Risa jumped up with a smile. “This was fun. I’d love to do this again. Although I think I may need a bit more coaching.” Her words were clearly directed more at Jax than anyone else.

“Anytime,” the Ranger replied.

Handing the controller back to him, she walked around him, touching his shoulder as she passed him on the way out.

Sienna’s smile didn’t last. She wondered if she was the only one who noticed Doc brush his hand across Risa’s ass when she stepped through the door.

One Month Later

“Do you yield?” Legian boomed.

“Never,” Sienna shoved out through clenched teeth while she knelt on her hands and knees, panting. The pain in her leg was agonizing. She had been stuck helpless in a bed for over a month, and her muscles had seriously atrophied. She’d always had some cellulite, but now she felt like a jellyfish. This session felt worse than her first one with Legian. She was weak and hurting big time. And the worst part? Legian knew it.

Her sparring partner held out a hand, his face tight. “Yield, Sienna. Please.”

She slapped his hand away.

Moving about as fast as a snail stuck in peanut butter, she pulled herself up, trying not to favor her bad leg. Not that it mattered. The bitch burned like acid with each movement. She grunted through the pain and somehow managed to get herself pulled to her feet. Legian gave her space while she came to her full height across from him on the training mats.

She could feel eyes boring in her, and she yanked around to glare at the pair on a mat two down from the mat where Legian and she sparred. Her look of death did the trick. She practiced it often around the base. Today, this pair picked up their stuff and walked out of the room, leaving Legian and her alone.

She knew what she looked like. She’d been getting her ass handed to her all morning by her
tahren
. She looked around the Olympic-sized training room as she took the time to catch her breath. Padded sparring rings covered the floor, each a different color. Weapons of various shapes and sizes filled racks lined against the dark walls. A muted sound always filled the air from the filtration system. Like white noise, only less obtrusive. More like a gentle sigh.

Today, they used no weapons. It was time to get back to the fundamentals. It was her first training session since the attack. And, it was pitiful. Worse than pitiful. Her leg couldn’t support her own weight, let alone any sharp moves. She wore a stiff brace and even with it she could barely stand. Without it, she was a cripple.

But she would do this. She had to do this. “The Draeken have painfully proven the fact that they know the location of this base.”

Legian’s lips tightened. “The base is secure. For now. At least from the Draeken. Their greatest strength is their anonymity on this planet. They won’t risk that with a frontal assault. The next time they try something, we won’t be unprepared,” he said.

“But we no longer have the numbers to take them on. And there’s still the elephant in the room.”

“Elephant?” Legian looked around, confused.

“It means there’s a big thing that no one wants to talk about,” she replied. “In this case, the elephant is the traitor on our hands. We know there’s one — or more than one — on this base. Just as we know Apolo’s inside guy has probably been compromised. We’ve been playing defense the whole game. And it’s fucked us. We’ve got to switch to offense if we want to win.”

She motioned her
tahren
to her. “Bring it on.” As long as the Draeken were a threat, she would train.

He raised an eyebrow and stared at her. When he realized she was serious, he gave a proud smile. Then he attacked. His arm shot out, and she dodged to the side. He kicked out a leg, which she jumped. She landed with a wince, but that wasn’t what pissed her off.

“You’re holding back,” she snarled when his blow rolled off her shoulder.

“You’re still injured,” he said, matter-of-factly.

“Doesn’t matter. I can’t afford not to be ready next time.”

He stepped back. “You sure?”

“Sure as your skin sparkles, Tinker Bell.”

He narrowed his eyes while he examined her for a moment. Then he shrugged and attacked. This time for real. In under a second she was flat on her back.

This time Sienna embraced the pain. Turning it into a war-scream, she twisted and grabbed Legian’s legs in a double-takedown maneuver. Except he didn’t go down. Just as she’d planned. She switched her pressure, pulling back rather than pushing. It knocked him off balance, and he fell on her.

She twisted on the ground in time to keep him from toppling onto her. But, he ducked his chin and rolled head-first to the side. He was on his feet and attacking before she was standing. Diving to the side, she narrowly missed his swing. He snapped around. She held her breath and leapt at him. He moved to the side like she expected, and she spun her good leg out the moment she hit the ground. She knocked him off balance and jumped on him.

With a full-out smile, she looked down to see a surprised Legian on his back.

“Do you yield?” Sienna asked in her best smart-ass tone as she straddled him.

He looked up with a wide grin, and her smile dropped.

Suddenly, she was the one with her back to the mat, staring up at the lights. “Dammit. You played me.”

“I was having too much fun seeing the look of success in your eyes. You actually thought you had me,” he replied, standing victor over her.

“Interesting training technique.”

She looked up to see Apolo saunter into the training room. Her fists clenched. Why did he always have to walk in at the worst possible moments? For the past month, every time he checked on her, she’d been flat on her back.

“It’s Sienna’s first training session. She’ll be back in prime condition in no time,” Legian tossed out as he turned to face their leader.

“But the real question is will her leg be a weakness we can afford out there?” Apolo asked.

“She’ll recover,” Legian replied simply.

“We’ll see.” Apolo walked around Legian and bent down, leaning on one knee no more than a foot or so from her. She pulled herself to one elbow and looked him in the eye. She wasn’t one to buckle under intimidation, and she wanted to make damn sure he knew it.

“Tell me, Sienna. Will you be ready when the U.S. officials come to visit our base?”

Her eyes widened. “You approved contact?”

Apolo huffed. “I am not obtuse. We all want what’s best for your people.” He brushed hair from her face with a couple fingers. She fought to keep from cringing. He noticed and backed away with a frown. “Show me that your leg won’t be a detriment.”

Legian stepped forward. “She’s not ready.”

“She’s a human
and
the
tahren
of one of my trinity. As such, she will be at the forefront of sensitive negotiations. We may not have the luxury of waiting for her to be ready,” the Sephian leader snapped back.

Legian lowered his head and stepped out of the mat. Sienna eyed him, and he looked at her right back, tense, unmoving.

Apolo motioned her to him. “Any time you’re ready, human.” He didn’t even widen his stance. He assumed she was harmless.

She turned her pain into rage. She launched herself at him. He didn’t bother to move out of the way. Instead, he held his arms out and embraced her as she rammed into him. She dropped and swept out his legs. Apolo fell to the floor with a look of surprise, as if he didn’t expect her to take him down. She took advantage of his hesitation and clapped her hands on his sensitive ears.

All that did was piss him off. In the next second, she got slammed against the mat so hard she could have sworn a tooth got knocked loose. Apolo had a knee against her throat. She clawed at his leg. He watched her gasp for air then smiled and the weight was gone. She grabbed the hand in front of her, and Apolo pulled her to her feet. The brace clanked as her leg straightened, pulling her healing muscles too tight. She bit her lips to keep from crying out.

Apolo showed her no mercy because she was female. He held true to the Sephian belief that females were as strong — or stronger — than their male counterparts. A belief Sienna firmly supported, although right now she was feeling markedly less than anyone’s equal, let alone superior.

She turned to face him and panted shallow breaths while he scrutinized her. After a moment, he gave her a slight tilt of his head, like he approved. Of what, she had no idea. “Jax has the details. He is making the arrangements. Connect with him.” Apolo nodded at Legian who nodded back and walked out.

The moment he left she collapsed back to the floor and inhaled sharply. Her eyes burned from sweat. She yanked off her bandana, wiped off her face and tied it back around her wrist. With a quick tug, she tightened her ponytail, then fell to her back. She could feel Legian lie down next to her as she stared at the ceiling.

“Why did Apolo lead the Sephian force here?” she asked, knowing that the Sephians were a matriarchal society.

“Krysea asked him to lead us here. Apolo is our greatest warrior. I would follow him to my death.”

Which you nearly did,
she thought to herself. “I hope you never have to,” she said instead. “I get why she asked him, but I mean, why did he accept?” Being apart from his
tahren
must have been a living hell each and every day. And then to have to work harder than a woman to earn the respect of the troops, well, it seemed like a no-win situation for him. Apolo was too much of a pragmatist to take on an assignment where the odds were stacked so high against him.

“He would never turn down an assignment Krysea gave him. Our Leader has always done what’s best for our people. He knows that and accepts it.”