“Yea.” She nodded.
“Make a run for it. I have your back.” Then he chuckled, she was sure. She couldn’t see it, but she sure heard it. “Not that you can’t handle yourself.”
His eyes were on her again and pride swelled within her.
She hadn’t realized her ego had needed that. It meant a lot coming from him.
He had shot most of the Niftrills while his whole attention had been on her. His aim was that good.
For him to say that to her…
Nia held back her smile.
With one last glance at him, she set off across the space.
She was light on her feet as she jumped over the bodies littering the floor.
She picked a path through the fallen Niftrills, one that had the least amount of henchmen and hence fewer hands that could grab her ankles and trip her as she made her way.
But a glance behind her had her coming to a stop.
Ka’Cit wasn’t running.
Instead, he was moving from Niftrill to Niftrill, flipping them over and taking the hood of their cloaks from their heads.
Their heads were bald and looked just like the exposed hand she’d seen earlier.
Like dark rock with lava flowing underneath it.
One of the aliens he held up had its arm exposed and Nia’s eyes widened in their sockets.
Now she knew why they didn’t bother to continue fighting when they were hit.
The Niftrill’s arm was swollen with what looked like a huge pocket of lava under flesh.
What the…
Ka’Cit kept moving from one alien to the other, flipping them over, checking their faces, until he stopped when he reached one of them.
She couldn’t hear what he said to the alien or what the alien said back, but he seemed satisfied with what he’d heard and he released the alien.
As the alien fell to a heap on the floor, Ka’Cit lifted his head to follow after her and that’s when their gazes locked. Something changed within his eyes.
His look was guarded, as if he expected her to say something negative, but she simply gestured to him.
“Are you coming or what, big guy?”
His gaze softened then and it dawned on her that she was learning to read him quite well.
As she started running again, she checked behind her to see if he was following this time. His steps were so silent, she wouldn’t have known he was if she hadn’t looked.
They finally came upon the huge doors and Nia halted.
“She’s watching us, you know,” he said when he reached her and the words sent a chill down her spine.
Nia’s gaze immediately went to the entry to the corridor where they’d come from, but no one was there.
“There.” Ka’Cit jerked his head and she looked in the direction he’d indicated.
She couldn’t see at first, not till a panel lifted in the wall high across the room like a set of blinds.
The tall female alien was standing there.
Herza.
She stood alone, her hands fisted at her sides and her tail swishing through the air in much the same way a cat would do when looking at a mouse.
The suddenness of seeing the female just standing there sent a chill through Nia.
“Oh my God.”
She was aware that Ka’Cit was punching in a series of codes into the panel by the door but she couldn’t take her eyes off the alien female.
Why was she just standing there watching them?
Why was she not attacking?
Why wasn’t she trying to stop them?
“Get in, ta’ii. Quick.”
Somehow, Ka’Cit had opened the huge doors, but his eyes were on Herza too as he spoke.
“What is she doing?”
His understanding of what she was trying to say only went so far, she knew. Ka’Cit didn’t respond and his gaze remained locked on the alien across the room.
It was as if they were having a staring match and Nia gripped her gun to her chest.
A sliver of fear ran through her.
She hadn’t been this afraid just moments before.
Not when the swarm of aliens had attacked them. Not with those same enemies now writhing in pain at their feet.
But now, with Herza watching them, her cold eyes focused on them only, the fear Nia felt was very real.
As she slipped through the doors with Ka’Cit following behind, he didn’t take his eyes off the alien above them till the doors sealed shut.
He turned to her then.
“Let’s go.”
The urgency in his voice was evident but she didn’t need any encouragement.
“There,” he said and Nia followed his gaze.
They were in the room with the large ramp now and there was a shuttle, well, two shuttles, parked within it.
The shuttles were oval, with two engines on each side and they were no bigger than commercial vans.
They headed toward the shuttle closest to them and Ka’Cit retrieved something from his pocket: a flat metallic card.
He pressed it against the shuttle and the back doors began to open.
He caught her gaze then and shrugged.
It sounded like he even chuckled a little.
“It was a…gift…that I…took.”
Right.
Nia couldn’t help but chuckle a little too but her eyes darted back to the huge doors that separated them from Herza.
The female really wasn’t coming after them.
Why?
“Come on.”
Ka’Cit gestured to the inside of the shuttle and Nia hurried in.
At the same time, he turned, aimed across the room, and fired a single shot.
An alarm began blaring immediately.
“Airlock. Compromised. Airlock. Compromised.”
Nia’s eyes widened.
Shit.
Not what you wanted to hear when all that protected you from the vacuum of space was said airlock.
The doors to their shuttle closed and they were suddenly in a small space together once again.
There was a set of suits secured to the inside of the shuttle and another set of doors behind her.
Ka’Cit let out a breath.
“We don’t have a lot of time. Herza will try to override the airlock soon or she’ll let us go.” He dropped his gun, pressed a button against the wall and the second set of doors opened. “Either way, we need to hurry. I’m probably more trouble than she wants on her ship, but we
