Shit – from this range, those ‘targets’ include me!
My scream is the only warning the Aurelians get before gunshots suddenly crack out.
Bullets whizz through the air, shearing through market stalls and onlookers alike.
Apparently, Spur’s security guards don’t care who they hit as long as they can try to stop these Aurelians. They’d rather risk killing innocent bystanders than get close enough to these Aurelians to risk their own lives.
The brutish Aurelian behind us, Hadrian, suddenly grunts in pain. For a moment, he stumbles… and then regains his fast pace.
In fact, the three aliens start sprinting faster – bulldozing their way through the crowd. Daccia bowls over a carpet salesman and his stall, sending the merchant’s wares flying all over the street as the crack-crack-crack of gunshots continue.
The aliens take a sharp right, and we’re suddenly lumbering down another alleyway – temporarily safe from the gunfire. I struggle to look behind us, half-expecting to face down the barrel of a gun – but Spur’s security team don’t seem to be following us anymore.
I breathe a sigh of relief. For a moment, I’d hoped Spur’s men would rescue me – but the moment they’d started shooting indiscriminately, I’d realized that I’d be safer without them. Spur hadn’t ordered his men to rescue me – just to stop the Aurelians. He was more worried about punishing the aliens for stealing his property than trying to recover it.
While we’re not being shot at anymore, we’re far from safe. Hadrian, the most brutish of the Aurelians – the one who’d looked at me with a hunger I’d worried he wouldn’t be able to control – stumbles and falls.
Daccia and Kitos slew to a halt. Daccia roughly throws me onto my feet, giving me a warning glance since I’m no longer secure across his shoulder.
I stand there as the leader of the triad rushes to his battle brother’s side. Two red dots are clear on Hadrian’s back, puncturing his jacket. Blood streams out the bullet holes. From the placement and the harsh rasping of the Aurelian, I suspect that one or both of the bullets punctured the Aurelian’s lung.
I should be ecstatic. A wounded Aurelian makes my escape a lot more likely. However, instead, I’m filled with terror.
An irrational flood of emotion overwhelms me. These Aurelians might have just kidnapped me – and they might be trying to steal me away to serve the cold ‘justice’ of their Empire…
…but I realize I don’t want this magnificent alien to die. Not like this – shot in the back by a coward’s bullets, in a dark alleyway.
I wrap my arms around my chest and shiver – too numb to even think about escaping. Daccia, the leader of the Aurelians, looks up at me as he kneels by his battle-brother’s side.
“If you even think about escaping again, I’ll punish you even more than I plan to already – understood?”
“…than I plan to already.” Fuck! It looks like I’m going to get punished for that first escape attempt, aren’t I?
Kitos, the third Aurelian, draws his Orb-Weapon. He stands guard at the entrance to the alleyway, while the leader of the triad reaches into the pockets of his suit and pulls out a small, slimline spray.
I recognize it as medi-seal – a military-grade medical gel. Daccia uses it to quickly seal Hadrian’s bloody injuries; filling and sealing the bullet wounds with the expanding spray foam.
“It’s… It’s through my fucking lungs,” Hadrian gasps, blood frothing on his lips. There’s no fear in his voice – merely agony as the huge warrior coughs up blood. The red contrasts almost beautifully against his stark, marble-white skin. Even his lips look like they’re carved from marble, now flecked with blood.
The leader of the Aurelians lifts his arm, the gesture pulling back the cuff of his sleeve. He presses a button on his smart-watch…
…just as a voice rings out from behind us: “Don’t fucking move!”
I snap my head around. At the opposite end of the alleyway are four men, pointing rifles at us. I suddenly hear noises from the way we came, and the three men who’d been shooting at us appear, their pistols pointed right at us.
The three Aurelians look up and down the alleyway – the way we came, and the way we’d clearly hoped to escape. Now, armed men block both paths.
We’re trapped.
For a moment back there, I’d hoped Spur would save me from these Aurelians – but now that thought fills me with dread. I can’t stomach the idea of going back to my miserable existence, stripping for money. I’d almost been relived when I’d finally realized these Aurelians were from Law Enforcement. I’d been dreading their arrival for so long, it was finally a relief to finally be caught, cornered and captured…
But now these three Aurelian Law Enforcement agents are going to either be forced off this planet…
…or just gunned down, right in front of me.
And, if they are – that’s the end of my time here.
I won’t be able to stay any longer on this planet – not now that Law Enforcement know where I am, or after the agents they’d dispatched to capture me have been killed or exiled.
Fuck! I need to get out of here! I need to get out of this alleyway, grab my go-bag, and just jet. My entire life has been spent in fear of the day Law Enforcement tracked me down – and now they’ve got my scent, I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to evade capture.
I’m exhausted just at the thought of it.
I can’t go back to Spur’s, either – even if I’d wanted to. It’s clear that Spur was trying to sell me to these Aurelians – assuming they wanted another woman for their harem, not knowing they were really Law Enforcement officers.
But now he
