Page 88 of Shielded in the Shadows

I, on the other hand, excelled at chaotic fighting. My years aboard corsair vessels ensured it. So I knocked the older brother back with my staff and targeted the younger brother with a flurry of strikes that created an opening for me to slash him across the inner thigh. Blood sprayed across the wall from a severed artery.

As he went down, his older brother roared in fury and attacked in a frenzy that was all rage and little discipline. He slashed my left shoulder and left forearm deeply enough to render that arm significantly less mobile.

No one was using guns or rifles. The building likely had scanners that would alert if someone fired a weapon. No doubt Orqiel hoped to take Keela prisoner without alerting anyone to our presence until he was ready to unveil his acquisition.

With my right fist wrapped tight around my staff, I punched the older Hardanian in the jaw hard enough to feel his bones crack. As he stumbled back, I swung up the staff and jammed its stunner end into his gut. He went down hard, the back of his head hitting the marble floor with a wet crack.

A metallic clang rang out from the bathing chamber, followed by a bellow of pain and the distinct sound of a heavy body hitting the marble. I grinned. It sounded like my mate was dispatching her adversary.

The Atolani had stayed back while the others fought. I’d been keenly aware of his black eyes taking in my every move, assessing and waiting for the Hardanians to wear me down. He was older than the brothers, and had the look of a male who’d made fighting not just his career but his passion. His twin blades were long and curved, larger and heavier than the J’noran intanas Keela favored, but similarly shaped.

Rather than wait for him to come to me, I leapt over the bodies at my feet and charged, closing the distance with a flap of my wings. That usually bought me an advantage, but the Atolani met my sword with both of his own. In a quick maneuver, he locked my sword between his blades and attempted to wrench my primary weapon from my grasp.

With a hiss, I swung the stunner end of my staff at his leg, forcing him to jump aside to avoid a powerful shock. His move loosened his blades’ lock on my sword and allowed me to free it to attack again, parrying and jabbing with my staff while slashing with the sword.

We traded slashes, parries, and blows as I drove him back toward the front rooms of Orqiel’s quarters, where our movements would be less restricted. And maybe he figured that out too, because he abruptly stopped retreating.

Instead, he went on a frenzy of attack in the corridor.

We were more evenly matched than I preferred given my mate and I needed to finish our mission and depart as soon as possible. But as we fought, my blood sang and my horns tingled in a way that made me feel exhilarated and utterly alive.

Just a few meters away, in that obscenely opulent bathing chamber, my mate was taking her revenge on Orqiel, and the matching ferocity and satisfaction flooding me through our bond made this night all the sweeter.

We could not have been a better mated pair if we had formed each other from our best and most satisfying dreams.

But the longer we remained in Orqiel’s quarters, the more we risked discovery. Energized by the feedback loop of battle adrenaline in our bond, I jabbed rapidly at the Atolani with my staff, putting him on his heels. His moves turned desperate.

One mistake was all I needed.

I grazed his side with the stunner, knocked his blades aside, and plunged my sword through his heart. He was dead before he hit the floor.

Breathing hard and dripping blood from a half-dozen wounds, I returned to the bedroom doorway. I gave the dying Hardanian with the severed artery a hard hit to the forehead with the stunner end of my staff. Once he was unconscious, I delivered a single stroke of my sword, severing his head.

As I disposed of his brother in the same way, Keela dashed into Orqiel’s bedroom from the bathing chamber, her bloody nivilus in one hand and a dagger in the other. She was breathless and splattered with blood, but very little of it seemed to be hers. I saw only minor cuts and a darkening bruise on her cheek that made me growl.

Her gaze swept across the males on the floor of the hallway and landed on me, where she catalogued my injuries in a glance.

“Good?” she asked, her chest heaving.

For a moment, I was in two places at once: in bed with my mate beneath me, trembling in my arms and breathing hard as she asked how I felt, and here, where we stood with our enemies dead at our feet.

“Good,” I said, my voice far deeper and more gravelly than it probably should be given how much blood I was standing in. “And you, Captain?”

“I’m good.” She jerked her chin at the front room where I’d left my clothing and weapons. “We need to go.”

“Orqiel?” I asked.

“Dead.” Her smile made all my aches vanish. “It was quicker than you would have wanted, but not as quick as he would have preferred.”

“Dead was all I wanted.” I wanted to kiss and hold her and hear the full story of how she’d vanquished him, but we had no time.

We returned to the front room, where I dressed quickly and returned my weapons to their sheaths beneath my cloak. My wounds ached and some still bled, but none were particularly debilitating except the cut in my left forearm. I set the pain aside as unimportant.

“Same route out?” I asked.

Keela was studying her wristcomm screen. She glanced up at me. “No. My scanner reports six beings gathered in the corridor outside. Probably awaiting Orqiel’s signal.”

“Then we’ll take the secondary route.” I held my hand over the door control panel and used my electrical field to melt all the components.