Page 18 of Doom Averted

We needed a lot of ore if I wanted to use it to coat the inside of the Vagabond’s engines with it, fixing any micro-fractures and strengthening them for future use. Eoin was the only male on the ship who could extract and refine the ore for us. If it weren’t for him, we’d be out here for weeks, mining it, then running it through a refinery I’d have to build from scratch.

If we’d have to wait that long while I rebuild the engine, we’d never reach the Yengar Spacestation in time to do anything meaningful for the humans Drameil had taken there. My eyes lingered on Arianna’s slender back, her dark hair dangling in two braids over her shoulders, a holster with a laser pistol strapped to her hip. I’d seen how Camila had given her a rundown on the weapon before we left, but she’d had such a look of distaste on her face when she accepted the weapon that it was obvious she disliked violence.

Didn’t make her look any less sexy, especially in the Vagabond jumpsuit that the Doc had altered for her to make it fit. The sturdy, warm fabric clung lovingly to every part of her body, outlining her tailless behind, the curve of her calves and thighs, I could even see her breasts if I leaned a little to the side. Who knew gray could look that good on her after I’d admired the colorful fabrics she’s worn so far. The weapons belt only accentuated her curves, drawing my eyes to her hips like they were magnets.

All she’d been doing was driving me crazy with her soft, sweet scent, and her radiant smile. Not to mention her voice. She was always talking and the sound of her voice made my spine tingle, it made me want to feel her hands along my tail, and other body parts… I had work to do, I couldn’t let myself get this distracted.

“I think this is it,” Eoin announced from ahead of us. We stopped our trek in front of the sloping wall of a cliff. The trees grew almost right up against it, but rubble had fallen down over the years, causing bigger stones to lay scattered about the base.

I ran my scanner near the surface of the towering stone wall to verify if was the spot, while next to me, Eoin did the same with his hands. We shared a look and without further prompting the younger male closed his mercury eyes and started to work. “Let’s make camp, we’ll be here a while,” I said to the others. I left it to Jakar to pick the best spot, then helped to set up the small lightweight tents.

“There’s only two?” I demanded with a growing sense of panic when the first one was up and I held the second in my hands. Arianna had managed to make a fire, she’d even lined it with rocks, and she’d cleared the ground around it from fire hazards. She looked up at me with an enigmatic smile on her face, her eyes sparkling at me, her hands outstretched to warm them on the merrily crackling flames.

“I’m pretty sure we can figure something out,” she murmured, which resulted in a loud snicker from Jakar. I shot the Pretorian a glare but he just crossed all four of his arms over his chest and kept on smirking. I wasn’t quite sure if Jakar was thinking he would get to share a tent with her, or if he was teasing me about it. Regardless, the thought of anyone, especially me, sharing a tent with her was making clammy sweat break out across the back of my neck.

If she was in my tent tonight, I would not be able to keep my hands to myself. I knew I was welcome, but it wasn’t right, not as long as I was keeping secrets. Glaring at the younger gladiator, I barked out, “Shouldn’t you check the perimeter? You like climbing trees don’t you?”

He laughed, pretending I hadn’t just said something offensive. Demonstrating that he was in fact an amazing climber, he leaped up, caught a tree branch, and disappeared into the canopy above us without a single sound. “Woah, you’re not kidding. Where did he go?” Arianna exclaimed, a look of astonishment on her face as she stared at the spot Jakar had disappeared at.

I just grunted to let her know I’d heard her, then I focused on getting the last tent set up and the rest of the camp sorted. We’d walked for a good four hours to get here as the trees made landing the shuttle safely any closer impossible. I was hungry and I was sure my brothers had to be as well. Arianna wasn’t complaining about the physical exertion, she still looked pretty, and somehow clean too.

Actually, she looked right at home at the campfire that she’d made herself. She had camped out before, maybe not so strange to take her after all, at the very least she hadn’t been a burden. She’d even carried a backpack filled with supplies. It was impressive after the long period she’d spent in a stasis pod. There were systems in place that helped a person retain body and muscle mass, but such a long period still weakened you.

Behind my back, as I tried my hardest to ignore that she was here, I heard her sing about someone being her sunshine, her favorite tune to hum. My tail twitched and then it brushed against her arm, electricity shooting up my spine at the contact. My skin was starting to glow, the purple striations that bisected my flesh giving expression to my desire for her. Opposites definitely attracted in our case, she was day to my night, I shouldn’t find her this… Perfect.

“There’s enough here, I’m drawing it to the surface now,” Eoin suddenly said. I started to yank my tail away from Arianna, not wanting to be caught touching her when I was trying my damndest to stay away from her. She folded her fingers around the end so quickly that I couldn’t pull without hurting her with the blade at the tip. So I froze in place, staring at Eoin while I tried hard to pretend that she wasn’t touching me in such a sensitive spot.

“Okay, what’s your estimate for how long it takes to mine what we need?” I asked, my voice rasping through my vocal cords like they were suddenly made of sandpaper. I caught the satisfied smile on Arianna’s face from the corner of my eye and realized that she liked having this kind of power over me. It almost broke my resolve right then and there, I wanted to teach her a lesson so badly. The sensual kind of lesson she wouldn’t ever forget.

“Eight hours, I’ll have half by the end of the day, you could take that in the morning and head back for the ship so you can get started on the repairs.” He didn’t expect a response, turning his back to me so he could continue whatever it was he was doing to the rock face.

I spun on Arianna and pointed a finger at her grinning face, “Give that back.” My growl only made her smile wider and even through the wet, slightly rotten smell of the woods around us I could tell that she was aroused by my tone. She liked to play like this, did she?

Stepping forward, I was about to touch her for the first time voluntarily since that kiss, but a noise made me pause. My hands were on the hilt of my blade before I could fully process what I’d heard. With the familiar weight of the Claymore in my prosthetic palms, I had my body placed squarely in front of my woman right as a predator threw itself out of a tree on top of me.

It would have rendered my blade useless in such tight quarters if not for the fact that I’d raised the point just in time for the animal to solidly impale itself. Arianna had let go of my tail and I swung it around, slamming the sharp arrow-shaped blade at the tip, into the eye socket of the beast.

Tossing it free of myself with a grunt, I yanked my Claymore from its belly just as three more creatures rushed from the underbrush. I fended them off with broad sweeps of my favorite weapon, my senses focused on making sure Arianna was safely protected behind me. Then Eoin joined the fray, metal melting from his skin as if it was liquid, forming into solid blades over his hands. He called himself a metallurgist, and the applications of his skills never stopped amazing me.

I didn’t know what had happened to Jakar but I couldn’t worry about it now. First, the two of us needed to take care of these and secure the camp, then I’d go out to look for the Pretorian.

*

Arianna

I was terrified when jaguar-like animals leaped from the trees and attacked us. I hadn’t heard a thing, and I had assumed the fire would scare animals away. These beasts were like big cats with strong, fanged bites and sharp claws. They didn’t have any kind of visible ears sticking from their heads, and their fur was the deep green of the foliage, indicating that their prey saw colors or they wouldn’t need that kind of camouflage.

Then I was mostly just incredibly impressed. I’d seen Da’vi strap that huge sword to his back when we left the safety of the shuttle, just like Jakar had covered his body with knife sheaths and blades. I was still not prepared to watch him wield that weapon like it weighed nothing. Then Eoin joined the fight and I was shocked to discover the reason he had appeared not to carry any weapons at all. The swords just grew out of his hands like it was magic.

It didn’t look like the two of them had all that much trouble with the earless cat creatures. They were wiping the floor with them and while I didn’t really condone violence, being a pacifist. I could appreciate this, this was a fight for survival, this was self-defense.

Those thoughts had just crossed my mind when the hairs on the back of my neck raised, I turned around, and something in me made me look up. Oh fuck. There was something crawling down the face of the cliff, something far bigger than the earless cats. It was just a black shadow that looked to my eyes bigger than a damn car, two red orbs glowing down at me.

I fumbled for the gun at my hip, pretty certain that that creature wasn’t going to respect a little pacifism. It was big enough that it could probably swallow me in a single bite. My hand trembled when I lifted the laser pistol and aimed it. I’d shot guns for fun once with a guy I’d dated at the time; a real self-proclaimed cowboy. I hoped I still remembered his instructions and those that Camila had hurriedly given me that morning.

“Da’vi,” I said, not wanting to distract him from his own life and death battle but desperately wishing he was aware of the danger lurking above us. Only I never got much further than that, the moment the sound of his name left my lips, that huge black shadow above me leaped. My finger squeezed around the trigger on instinct and a blast of laser fire burst from the barrel, glowing red as it flashed through the air. In what had to be a stroke of beginner’s luck, it hit the creature square between the eyes.

I screamed, the sound echoing against the cliff. The shadowy creature crashed down at my feet, dust flying up into the air. I scrambled backward, only just avoiding the crushing weight of the collapsing creature. Then Da’vi was in front of me, slashing with his sword at whatever animal it was.