Page 12 of Warrior Enchanted

I was starting to think I was out of luck and these guys weren’t stupid enough to leave something with a sharp edge out in the open. Then my eyes caught a tiny glint of something shimmering as it reflected the fire. Underneath the strap of one of the bags, was that the edge of a blade? I felt a brief surge of hope at the sight. Yes, it might be! I could do this.

To reach the knife, I had to shimmy and crawl across the mossy forest floor without drawing the attention of the guard. I didn’t think I had to worry about the other guy. He was softly snoring, so I could safely assume he was asleep. I couldn’t imagine being able to sleep out here in these woods with bugs and other creepy crawlies. I was trying hard not to imagine what I might be lying on or worse; what could be crawling on me right now.

Eyes focused on the one guy that was awake, I inched myself across the moss, freezing in place each time he so much as moved his pinkie finger. It was taking forever simply to move a couple of feet, and though it was hardly like I was running a marathon, sweat was trickling down my back. Almost there, I just needed to roll over carefully so my tied hands were closest to where that blade was. With them tied behind my back, I couldn’t see what I was doing and rolled over, I could no longer see the guy who was supposed to be standing guard.

Wiggling my fingers beneath the edge of the bag, I felt the touch of something slick and cool, the blade. Yes, got it! I had to struggle to keep my breathing quiet as I pulled on that edge, wincing when it nicked my finger. Then I was pressing the tight wire on my wrists against the edge, fumbling to get the leverage I needed to cut it.

Almost there, almost! I felt the bonds loosen around my wrists, my fingers tingling from the increased blood flow. Then I was roughly yanked up by the arm, a furious voice yelling at me. “What the fuck are you doing?” I was spun around and tossed like a sack of potatoes, landing painfully on my butt and hands.

The guard was standing over me, his figure a towering shape with arching horns and glowing blue eyes. He was snarling, displaying sharp canine teeth while a tail with a sharpened blade at the tip swung around threateningly, pointing it at my prone form. “You bitch thought you could escape, did you? Not on my watch.”

He was rambling on, his words a threat about my future, about the money I was going to make him. But my eyes were drawn to the second male sitting up in his blankets, not glaring at me, but with yellow eyes at his companion, as if he was ready to strangle his own buddy. I tried to ignore both while I wriggled my hands behind my back. There was more slack now, and then a wire snapped and I felt the whole tangle come free from around my wrists. Yes… Now what? Hiding that I was free until they fell asleep again was my best bet; I hoped they wouldn’t drug me a second time.

“Hey, look at me damn it, I’m talking to you!” the younger of the two snapped. He leaned down, his hand grabbing me by the front of my shirt. Hauling me up by the fabric, I groaned, scared he was about to hurt me. I missed my knife. He wouldn’t be so mean after I stabbed him like I’d done with the previous asshole.

Up close I could feel his breath ghost over my face and smell something that closely resembled garlic breath. I could see the fine blue lines that crisscrossed his skin in random, wriggling patterns. I saw the antelope horns jutting from his forehead and the three notches in his left one. They looked carved, emphasized with red dye on the inside.

His growl was fearsome, blasted into my face from this up close, and my body was jarred roughly when he shook me by the front of my shirt, a ripping sound indicating the fabric was starting to tear. “Let go!” I pleaded with the bastard, struggling to keep my hands behind my back when my instincts urged me to grab the hand holding me. To fight his grip.

A shadow passed over my head, a whooshing noise followed, and then I was suddenly tumbling backward again. This time my hands were free and I instinctively braced myself for the fall with them, rolling away from the frightfully close fire when I felt heat singe my left side. Not wanting to stay prone, I scrambled to my feet, frantically trying to figure out what had just happened.

There was no sign of the older male; he was just not in his blankets or anywhere nearby. My other guard was on the ground and a shape was looming over him, the sound of fists hitting flesh echoing in the small clearing. The two shapes rolled, growling and grunting like they were a pair of rabid dogs, and then the blue-tinted male was flying away, his body roughly thudding into the nearby trunk of a giant tree.

The winner rose to his feet, red skin gleaming with golden highlights in the flickering fire. Four arms flexing at his side, chest heaving like bellows, and his black curls even messier than usual. Jakar was the most welcome sight I’d ever seen. I had never felt as relieved in my life as I did right then. He’d come for me; I should have known that this guy would mount a rescue even if nobody else did.

“Jakar,” I said, my voice a breathy whisper, my limbs trembling from adrenaline. “You came.” I was starting to realize all that praise his friends had heaped on him whenever I was willing to listen… It might just be the truth. He was loyal, and he was an amazing fighter. I could deduce that he’d leaped from out of a freaking tree on top of bad guy number one to free me. It was… impressive.

“Meena!” he responded, rushing toward me so quickly that he nearly tripped over his own pair of feet. He paused just in front of me, hesitation written all over his face. I could see the spots that covered his cheeks and nose slowly turn from deep red like his skin, anger, to this much brighter yellow, which I knew now meant happiness. Gosh, this guy was more transparent with his feelings than anyone I knew.

His yellow eyes scanned over my body, darkening, spots turning back to red when he spotted the rip in my shirt. “Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked, voice turning gruff, upper hands twitching forward as if he wanted to touch me. Then he was clasping them behind his back, almost literally restraining himself from reaching out.

“I’m alright,” I said, rubbing at my wrists, which were a little sore but not cut. I was probably a little bruised on my hip and tailbone from being tossed around just now, but that was a small price to pay for freedom. “Let’s get out of here,” I told him. Scanning around the campsite, I located the backpacks of my two kidnappers and started rummaging through them to see if I could locate anything useful.

“Leave it, I have supplies,” Jakar told me, a hand reaching out to still my frantically moving hands gently.. A second hand held something out in front of me, a knife in a brown leather sheath, a belt wrapped around it. “Here, for you,” he said quietly as I took it with a growing sense of warmth for this guy. Okay, he was a flirt, but he was a thoughtful flirt. He’d given me a weapon so I could feel safe, a knife to replace the one that I’d lost.

Rising to my feet, I quickly strapped the belt around my hips, testing how quickly I could grab the knife should I need it. Then I turned back to my rescuer, “Okay, thanks, what now? What way do we have to go to get back to Rakex City?” He was looking at me, his spots glowing pink on his face, and I shivered. I knew that one too, arousal. He liked it when I wore that knife, did he? Or was it my torn shirt that was drawing his attention? The tear wasn’t too bad though, just a little rip in the collar, so it now exposed my collarbone. Nothing outrageous.

For a long moment, our eyes locked, his golden yellow orbs focused intently on my face. I had this flash of worry that he might not want to take me back to the Vagabond. He could easily lead me in circles for a while so that he got to spend time with me. No, that was crazy thinking. I needed to stop being so insanely distrustful; that was my trauma talking.

Jakar lowered his head to look down at one of his many wrists, cursing as he started to furiously tap at something strapped around it. “My com is shattered, it must have sustained a blow when I leaped from the tree…” He smacked at the tiny screen once more and then gave up on the thing. Patting his hip, he cursed again and started looking around, his eyes frantically searching the forest ground where the fight had taken place.

I did the same, unsure what we were looking for but still wanting to help. There was a tablet, no I should say datapad, lying on a log near the fire, that belonged to that younger kidnapper. There were scars and furrows dug into the moss where Jakar and the guy had fought, and the male still lay like a crumpled mess on the ground near the base of a tree.

“Can’t we take his com?” I asked, pointing at the prone form and restraining the urge to go over and kick that asshole while he was down. He tore the only freaking shirt I currently owned. I was so angry that everyone was just treating me like I had no say in anything. Well, everyone except the people on the Vagabond.

He nodded, striding over to grab the male roughly by the back of his shirt. He yanked an arm out, then the other, and cursed, “No com. They might not have any to avoid being tracked that way.” He turned around to scan the campground, rushing for the backpacks and shaking them unceremoniously out on the ground. I didn’t need to look long to know that there was no technology of any kind in the pile of belongings. Just a few changes of clothing, food, and a set of blankets. There was also a little hatchet attached to the outside of one of the bags, probably the blade that I’d managed to cut my bonds on.

“My biosignature scanner is broken too,” Jakar said mournfully, pointing at a small box with a few wires dangling from it. “I’m sorry Meena, this was supposed to be a rescue, but I failed you… Now we’re lost in the woods.”

I felt a little daunted at the idea of being lost out here when there were big predators purported to live here. Still, my situation had much improved in the past hour. I was now free and my kidnappers were taken care of; I was afraid to ask what had happened to the other one. He wasn’t anywhere in the clearing. I also wasn’t alone and though he wasn’t my first choice of companion, but I felt sort of… comfortable around him? I might not like him much, but I knew that I could trust him.

“It’s okay. Can we backtrack the way you came?” I asked, eyeing the deep dark beneath the trees that surrounded this clearing. I felt like I could see all kinds of shapes moving in the shadows, but I was certain that was just my imagination talking. If we didn’t know the way back, how were we ever going to get out of here?

Jakar shook his head, dipping his chin to his chest as if he was unable to meet my eyes. “I am sorry, Meena. I have failed you.” His voice gave me shivers; it was pleasantly deep but smooth like a fine whiskey. I really liked his voice. I didn’t like what he saying though, which was both really self-accusatory and the last thing I wanted to hear.

“No, you got here just in time. That’s not a failure!” I pointed out, stepping a little closer to his giant body and feeling my heartbeat starting to race. He was so big, and so incredibly alien-looking with his four arms, and yet… Yeah, I guess I found him sort of sexy. Maybe that’s why I’d been trying so hard to make him look bad in my mind. I didn’t want or need any kind of attraction right now. I needed to focus on rebuilding some kind of semblance of a life. Even if it was going to be a weird, alien one, where I’d have to mourn and miss my family.

Reaching out, I gently placed my hand on his chest, right where I suspected his heart was supposed to be. I could feel the slight dip between his pectoral muscles, but when I looked closer, I could see a second set of them stacked on top. Yeah, this freaky alien had four arms, which meant two sets of pectorals. So strange…