The element of surprise.
He means to take it to Edrobaz, the only populated city on this mountain.
He means to destroy my home.
Fear trickles over me, but I push it down. I will find a way out of this. I must.
“You there, yes you.”
A Suevan tail thwaps against the ground.
“You go find the female. Bring her back to camp. He’ll tell us everything once we have her. Do you know the funny thing about humans, friend? They’re soft, and so easy to make scream.”
The cords cut into my wrists, my biceps. I won’t allow it. I will not allow them to hurt my Ni-Kee. I let out a deep, warning growl, hissing at the end.
“See? He’s practically proving it now.”
I will pull the bones from the Roth’s flesh slowly. Meticulously.
“What if she puts up a fight?” the separatist Suevan asks, moving carefully around the campsite.
“She is human.” A snort of derision. “They only think they can put up a fight.”
The Suevan’s tail lashes against the forest floor. “That’s not what the ones who saw her said. They said she was a fighter, a warrior. And that she was fair of face and body.”
I snarl, unable to contain myself, unable to break free, unable to help my sweet, sleeping Ni-Kee.
When she is awake, she is stubborn and fierce, every inch the warrior the separatists call her. But my mate is asleep, and ill, and all too fragile.
I never should have left her alone.
CHAPTER THIRTY
NIKI
I wish I could see in the dark. It’s fucking ridiculous how hard it is to see at night. Lucky Draz with his stupid Suevan vision shouldn’t have any problems, but me?
Fucking stupid human eyeballs.
My irritation fuels me, though, and I keep looking for signs of him, moving quietly as I can through the vegetation.
There.
A berry bush. My breath catches as I lean closer, the cloud cover parting momentarily, allowing a sliver of moon to flash against something long and metal.
I sink to my knees, feeling like I’ve been punched in the gut.
Draz’s energy knife.
There’s no blood on it, it’s clean… I squint, cursing my lack of night vision, as the moonlight flickers overhead, scanning the area for any signs of what happened to him, any signs of a predator or…
Oh no.
There are blood spatters against a large branch, not more than three feet away.
What the fuck?
Did he hit his head and then wander off?
“I do not like how he talks to me,” a voice mutters.
My adrenaline kicks into overdrive, and I crouch, backing up into the berry bush, the knife in one hand and my crossbow in the other.
“Go get her. Bring her back.” It’s said in a different voice, like the Suevan’s doing a poor impression of someone else. Whoever’s in charge, probably. “ Like we’re his pets, fetching the human to get him to talk. Besides, I like the way her scent smells on him. These humans cannot be so bad if Draz, the first warlord, wants one.”
There’s a grunt in response to this, and I cringe.
The human?
Get him to talk?
These motherfuckers took Draz. My eyes slide to the fallen branch. They hit him over the head, and took him somewhere else, to try and pump information out of him. And they’re going to use me to do it.
Fuck that.
My adrenaline and rage mingle, a heady combination. All my training and expertise kickstarts my brain, and a million different plans take shape in my head. The zoleh’s eyes are wide in the dim light, reflecting it back at me eight times.
There’s two Suevans, and one me, and one alien pet who may or may not be any help. I need to find where they took Draz, and considering I can’t see shit at night, I need them to show me there.
The question is, what’s the right lever to pull?
Force? Fear?
Something else?
Fuck. I wish our crew’s xenobiologist had given us more intel about this species. I’m limited to what Draz has told me about this planet, about his people, and what I’ve garnered from living with him and falling in love with him.
Falling in love with him.
My heart stutters, then stops, before pounding even more furiously.
I love him.
If they’ve hurt him, I’m going to go absolutely feral. One hundred percent murder robot mode.
“Do you smell that?” one Suevan asks. “I think we must be close to the human female.”
“She smells very good,” the other Suevan says plaintively. There’s a wistful quality in his voice, and the plan comes to me.
Foolhardy, idiotic, even, but the odds of me physically overwhelming the two of them are slim to none.
I’ve always told Gen you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
I guess it’s time to put that cliché to the test.
The crossbow clips to my side, and I tug the strap of my tank down, taking the time to push my boobs up as far as they’ll go. It’s not much, because sports bras aren’t exactly the sexiest, but considering how much Draz is obsessed with them, I figure a little goes a long way.
“Oh my goodness,” I say, stumbling out of the berry bush. Sure, I have two seriously powerful weapons in my hand, but these Suevans already underestimate me, so I do my best to look small and helpless.
My lashes flutter extra hard for good measure.
The Suevans stop, staring at me with wide eyes, the moonlight glinting off their scales.
I consider throwing out a ‘hello, boys,’ but clamp my lips shut to keep the words from coming out.
“I am so glad you found me,” I say. Their surprised faces would be almost comedic, were it not for the fact that my warlord is somewhere, out there in the jungle, hurt or worse.
Not worse. Can’t be. I won’t let it happen.
“You are the human female?” one says, stepping closer, his big tail twitching behind him.
Ah yes, there’s that trusting Suevan sensibility, they’re proclivities not to lie making this a helluva lot easier than it would be on Earth.
“Definitely. I need your help, you see? Draz, that’s my mate, you know, he was telling me that his warriors would be out here shortly—”
One of the Suevans makes a surprised grunt, standing up taller and looking around.
I clear my throat, rolling my shoulders back. Focus, you horny lizardmen. Never thought I’d be playing the part of the honey trap, but desperate times…
“You must be the ones he was talking about, right? The ones that I’m going to call back to Earth and tell them we need more women for? More human women?” I blink rapidly, grinning at them. My heart’s slamming against my ribs, and I’m lying so hard I’m surprised my nose isn’t going full Pinocchio.
“Draz is requesting more women from Earth?” one rasps, stepping closer.
“Yes, of course he is. We have so many women there, and they are all so—” I pause, stumbling over the lie. “Excited to find a husband. They love to mate. Yep. They especially want a husband as fierce and, ah, big as the Suevans. But the problem is, Draz is gone. I don’t know what happened to him, but he can’t send the comm to Earth for more human women now, since he’s gone.”
Take the bait. Take the bait.
“She does not seem very fierce,” one says to the other, and the other shushes him with a violent hiss.