Page 24 of Shielded in the Shadows

As the port began to slide open, revealing the interior of Keela’s ship, a flash of movement made me turn.

Captain Sjer stepped out from behind a stack of crates, his plasma rifle aimed squarely at me. His expression was cold, but his eyes glinted with murderous intent.

Keela slipped out from between me and the port hull and fired just as Sjer unleashed three bolts of plasma.

Her attack forced Sjer to take cover behind the crates, but his first shot hit my shield, knocking me aside just enough for the second and third to strike my mate’s overloaded shield. The third bolt punched through and hit her in the left upper chest near her shoulder. Blood and tissue sprayed across the wall.

The sound she made—part dismay, part agony—cut through my gut as painfully as a dull blade.

As Keela staggered, I caught her with one arm, shielded her again with my body, and muscled my way through the half-open port door with my wings and tail tucked tightly against my body. The mechanism groaned as I forced my way inside.

Another volley of Sjer’s plasma bolts struck me in the back. My shield absorbed most of the hits, but it still felt like I’d been punched three times in rapid succession by a boulder-sized fist with spiked knuckles.

I stumbled and went down to one knee, cradling Keela to keep her from falling hard to the deck. Two more shots sizzled over our heads, burning holes in an interior wall of the ship before the port closed behind us.

Dull thuds reverberated through the hull. Sjer was probably firing at the door, trying to get through, but the shielding held.

I cradled my mate as her breath rattled and gurgled in her chest. Her lung sounded like it had been punctured.

“Keela,” I grated.

She hung dully in my arms, her hood falling back to reveal her darkened hair and lovely human face. Her Gandarian biomask had deactivated already. Maybe it did so automatically when she boarded her vessel, or she’d switched it off manually.

She coughed and wheezed, blood bubbling on her lips and dripping down her chin. Her labored breathing hurt me in ways I didn’t know I could be hurt.

I ripped off her cloak with one hand and wrapped it tightly around the wound in her shoulder to staunch the flow of blood.

“Captain aboard,” the vessel’s AI said in a female voice, startling me. “Brace for emergency departure.”

Holding Keela in one arm, I got to my feet and staggered toward a nearby emergency seat. I unlatched it from the bulkhead and folded it down.

“Scanners show multiple vessels moving to intercept our ship,” the AI continued calmly. “Launch and evasive maneuvers commencing in three…”

I dropped into the seat with Keela wrapped in my arms.

“…Two…”

The emergency harness activated automatically, securing us tightly but definitely not comfortably. My wings ended up compressed in a particularly painful way. The webbing wasn’t designed to hold two individuals, much less one with wings.

“…One,” the AI finished.

The ship launched.

The detachment from the docking port was only a minor jolt, but two seconds later the thrusters kicked in, crushing us back into the emergency seat. My head and neck were stabilized by the seat’s adaptive cushioning. I had to hold Keela with one arm across her upper chest and my other hand on her forehead so she didn’t suffer whiplash. I also wrapped my tail tightly around her legs.

I held my true mate in my arms, but her blood was running down my chest and she was wheezing. Her suffering made my chest hurt like my ribs were being crushed in a vise.

Driven by instinct, I used my fangs to rip into my forearm and pressed the torn flesh to Keela’s mouth. “Drink,” I said, my lips against her hair. Gods, even now her scent was maddening. “My blood will help heal you.”

She tried to turn away, but I held her firmly as the ship began a series of abrupt evasive maneuvers. Vibrations and shuddering impacts indicated we were being attacked and the ship’s AI was returning fire. At least the defensive shields seemed to be holding.

“Drink, Keela. Please,” I begged as the painful pressure in my chest continued to build. “I can’t get you to the medpod until the ship stabilizes. I swear to you on my life this will help.”

With a ragged sound, she put her lips on my arm and sucked.

My entire body shuddered. I hoped given the ship’s violent movement she didn’t notice, or if she did that she wouldn’t think my shiver was a sign of arousal. There was no pleasure in this—only the visceral knowledge I was designed at the cellular level to care for her.

When the ship lurched sharply, Keela stopped sucking at the tear in my arm and let out a groan.