My Alien Warrior (12 page)

Calin’s words made a lot of sense, actually, but Khaos’ head was still spinning from the overload. He didn’t want to sit back and think about what was going on, he wanted to act. And since there was no way he could do that from Earth, he wanted to go to Kayla’s and rant to her for a while and then curl up with her. It never failed to make him feel better, but when he checked the time, it was late enough that he knew she was probably already home and in bed.

She didn’t get enough sleep that he could feel okay with disturbing her, so he sighed and resigned himself to a night spent tossing and turning alone in his own bed.

If he ever made it there, that was.

It wasn’t until the next morning that it registered that something was wrong. Khaos was in a foul mood brought on by not sleeping well and not having an outlet for his frustration. One of his fellow Kaspersi had suggested he use the gym in the building they were staying in, but that didn’t seem like a good idea to him. He wouldn’t be able to really let loose the way he wanted to without hurting someone or breaking something or raising questions he wouldn’t want to answer.

So he kept it bottled up, hoping that Kayla would have some time for him before she got started with her work day.

Usually when he showed up to the clinic in the morning, the parking lot was mostly empty, except for the cars of the nurses and Kayla, but now the whole thing was packed with cars and people and the flashing siren of the police.

Somehow, in the pit of his stomach, Khaos knew something was wrong and that Kayla was involved, so he hurried over.

“You!” one of the nurses practically snarled as he walked up. “Where is she?”

“What?” Khaos replied, frowning. “Why are you asking me? I just got here.”

He could see the scene better now, and it wasn’t pretty. One of the windows to the side of the door was completely shattered, glass littering the carpet inside the clinic. The door was wide open, looking like it had been blown off its hinges, and there were claw marks on the wooden frame that were oddly familiar.

“Who did this?” he murmured under his breath.

“That’s what we’d like to know,” one of the other nurses said, rounding on him. “No one can find Kayla. The clinic was like this when we got here this morning, and Kayla’s not answering her phone and her car is still here.”

“She never went home last night?” Khaos guessed. It made more sense that if someone had hurt her, they’d do it at night rather than first thing in the morning.

“She stayed late to go over some files. You didn’t know?”

Khaos shook his head. “I wasn’t here at all yesterday. I had some things to take care of.”

“Your ‘family emergency’?” the nurse asked, making strange motions with her fingers.

“Yes, that. I didn’t see her at all.”

“She didn’t call and tell you that she was working late?”

“I uh...don’t have a phone,” Khaos lied. At least not one that worked on Earth’s frequencies.

The nurses exchanged glances, and it was clear that they thought he was lying or that he had something to do with Kayla being missing. “Look,” he said firmly. “I know you’re probably blaming me for this, but I don’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t even know she was here last night, and I would
never
do anything to hurt her, okay? Never. She means a lot to me, and I
care
about her. So if someone would tell me what’s going on here, I’d really appreciate it.”

It was said more calmly than he felt because there was a sick feeling in his chest that made him think that maybe he did have something to do with this. Why would someone take Kayla unless they were trying to get something out of someone?

“Fine,” the nurse said, shaking her hair back from her face. “We don’t know much, and the police are inside looking for prints or more evidence. What we do know is that no one saw anything apparently and there are definitely signs of a struggle. Someone
took
her, and we don’t know who or why. Everyone loved her. She’s the best doctor in this city, and there’s no way someone would have tried to hurt her unless there’s something we don’t know.”

Khaos felt sick to his stomach. There were plenty of things that they didn’t know, and he didn’t even know how to begin explaining them. It hit him all at once why the claw marks looked familiar, and he clenched his hands into fists tightly.

The Vekosh.

It had to be. But how? There were very strict limits placed by the governments of Earth on who could enter from other planets and who couldn’t. He knew for a fact that Calin had made sure that the Vekosh were blacklisted, and there was no way they could have gone around him and made some kind of deal. They didn’t have the skills or the resources for that.

Unless someone was helping them? But that didn’t make any sense. No one trusted the Vekosh, and it wasn’t like they had anything to offer anyone in exchange for their help.

No, there had to have already been someone here. Some representative of the Vekosh who was still in contact with their king. And if that was the case, then things were much more complicated than any of them were prepared for.

And now they had Kayla.

Standing around wasn’t going to help anything, so Khaos took a deep breath and tried to come up with a plan. First thing he needed to do was talk to Calin. He needed to know that there were Vekosh on Earth and that they were clearly more organized than any of them were expecting.

“Where are you going?” one of the nurses called as he walked away.

“I’m going to find her,” he called back. “Don’t worry, okay? I’ll bring her back.”

They called questions after him, wondering how he knew where she was and what he had to do with this, but he didn’t have time for that.

Everyone looked up when he burst into the apartment that they used as their command center. Calin’s face was on the holo screen, which saved him the trouble of making a call.

“I need to talk to you,” he said, interrupting whatever briefing was going on.

“Good, because I need to talk to you as well, Khaos,” Calin said, voice clipped. “I received a message from the Vekosh today, and I think you will be interested in seeing it.” He pressed a few buttons on his end, and then a grainy video clip filled the screen.

The first thing he saw was the sharp grin of a Vekosh raider, and his blood boiled.

“Hello, leader of the Kaspersi,” the Vekosh said. “Greetings from Earth. You didn’t think you were the only one who could send people to Earth, did you? That would be foolish of you, and you’ve never struck me as a fool.”

The shot panned out, showing a filthy room that looked mostly empty except for the broken furniture and a chair in one corner. When the camera focused on the person who was tied to that chair, Khaos had to work hard to keep from launching himself at the screen.

“Does she look familiar?” the Vekosh taunted. “She wouldn’t to you, but ask your champion about her. Ask him what she means to him. And then ask him what he’s willing to do to get her back.”

The shot lingered on Kayla’s face for a long moment after that, and it was clear that she was unconscious, the side of her face red and swollen where she had obviously been hit.

Khaos didn’t realize he’d been clenching his fingers into fists until his bones started to protest as the screen went dim and then brightened again to show Calin’s face.

“What have you done, Khaos?” he asked. “This is not why I sent you to Earth.”

“No,” Khaos agreed. “You sent me here to try and find a cure for the Sickness, which is what I was
doing.
She’s a doctor, and I asked for her help. And now they
have
her. She wouldn’t even be in this mess if it weren’t for me, and I have to help her.”

“We can’t risk the lives of our people for one human woman, Khaos,” Calin said. “You know that. We are already facing an unknown threat from the Vekosh, and we do not need to make it worse before we know if we can stand against it.”

“So what are you saying?” Khaos demanded. “We should just leave her there? Let them
keep
her? Who knows what they’ll do to her!”

Calin shook his head. “It’s unfortunate, yes, but it’s out of our hands. Our loyalties are to our people, Khaos. You are the Kaspersi champion., and your first duty is to them.”

Rage boiled in him, and Khaos let out a messy breath through his nostrils. He wanted to throw something at the screen and tell Calin exactly what he thought of his loyalty. Kayla was hurt and in trouble because of
him.
Because somehow the Vekosh had found out that she was special to him and wanted... something.

They wanted to know what he was willing to do to get her back, and suddenly an idea formed in his mind.

“She’s bait,” he said quickly. “They’re using her as bait.”

“What’s your point, Khaos?”

“My point is that they obviously want something. It’s...it’s worth it to find out what, don’t you think? What their angle is? They wouldn’t have just taken her for no reason.”

He was breathing hard, but trying to keep his face impassive. Even if Calin told him to leave it alone, he was still going to find out what they wanted with Kayla, and he was
not
going to leave her with them. Not when he knew he could save her.

Calin appeared to be deliberating, and finally he looked up and nodded. “Fine. I will send something back asking what they want in exchange for the girl. But we are not risking our people to save her, Khaos, do you understand?”

“Yes,” Khaos replied. Because he did understand, but it didn’t mean he had to obey.

The first order of business was finding out where they were, which of course meant more waiting. Calin replied to the message, and then they had to wait for another message to come in response. It seemed like wishful thinking that they would just
tell
them where they were and what they wanted, and that proved true, but the advanced technology that they had was good enough to track the signal that the message had come from.

Of course, Calin didn’t want to pass this information over to Khaos, and he pretended to understand. For a moment.

“They want us to leave Earth,” Calin said later that night once he’d reviewed the reply message. “They don’t know that we know they’re responsible for the Sickness and everything involved in that, which worked in their favor, and of course it made sense that they wanted them out of there before they could figure it out.

Apparently they were more than willing to use Kayla as leverage to make sure their demands were met, and Calin told them that they needed time to think about it before they agreed to anything, which Khaos already knew meant that he had no intention of negotiating.

“Think of all of the Kaspersi who’ve died because of them, Khaos,” Calin said. “Your parents among them. If we give up now, then what is the point of all we’ve lost?”

More than anything, Khaos wanted to reply that there wasn’t a point. All of those deaths had been senseless, and leaving Kayla to be killed or tortured or worse by the Vekosh wasn’t going to make it any better. People were still dying while they sat around trying to figure out why the Vekosh were doing what they were doing, and Khaos was tired of it.

Sitting around and thinking about doing something wasn’t his style, and he was pretty sure it would never be. He wanted to leap into action. He wanted to find where they were keeping the woman he cared for and rip their heads off until she was safe and back in his arms.

Instead, he’d just nodded and told Calin that he would defer to his judgment, all the while plotting in his head. He had to find some way to get the information about where that signal was coming from.

“You need to calm down, Khaos,” said Bran, one of the Kaspersi who had already been on Earth when Khaos had arrived. “We can all see that you’re thinking about doing something stupid.”

“The only stupid thing here is not doing anything,” he replied sullenly, folding his arms. “I’m not leaving her there.”

“We all know that. I think on some level Calin knows that, too, even though he’s trying to pretend like you’re too loyal and dedicated to the cause to do something reckless. We know better, and that’s why we’re going to help you. Better the champion go in with a fighting chance than end up dead, right?”

Khaos blinked for a moment, caught off guard by the desire to help him. Bran was from Earth more than he was from Blessini, meaning he had probably never seen Khaos fight in the arena and knew nothing about him other than what he’d been told.

Already a couple of the others were nodding their heads and giving him conspiratorial looks, making it clear that they were going to help, too.

“Thank you,” Khaos replied, giving them all a nod.

“What do you need?”

“To know where they’re keeping her. I can probably handle the rest from there.”

“Warriors,” said one of the others, rolling his eyes. “We’ll see what gear we can sneak out for you, okay. In the meantime, if you’re as close to this woman as rumor has it, then you might be able to find her on your own.”

“What do you mean?” Khaos asked, frowning.

“Mates can always find each other.”

Bran snorted. “I thought that was just part of the story.”

“No one knows where story begins and truth ends until they try it. Try to focus on her while we try to trace the signal. It’s not like you have anything to lose, right?”

He had a point, and Khaos nodded, settling back into the comfortable chair he had parked in and closed his eyes. It was easier said than done to focus on Kayla while the rest of the room around him was a hubbub of activity, but little by little he worked on blocking it all out.

He concentrated on the way Kayla made him feel, how her soft voice and lovely smile brought warmth to him. He imagined her laugh, and the way her face lit up when he said something that she found interesting or amusing.

Khaos thought about the color of her hair and her eyes and the way her skin felt under his hands, and for a moment, he worried that he wasn’t doing anything but making him miss her more. But then he felt...something. It was cold and he was stiff, and there was something biting into the skin of his wrists that he wanted to shake off.