Not far from him was a fallen blaster and Nia swallowed, calculating what she should do in a matter of seconds.
It was clear.
Darting forward, she jumped over the creature’s tail and grabbed the blaster.
It was still fully charged and she pointed it at the guard.
For a few moments, there was no more movement and she was about to allow her shoulders to sag when yellow eyes suddenly opened and stared directly at her.
It took everything within her not to shriek and jump backward, but Nia stood her ground.
The guard opened his mouth and hissed.
“Jekinnn,” it said.
Nia gripped the blaster and pointed it at the guard’s head.
Something had obviously happened here.
Now that she was on this side of the pile, she could see there was another guard laying farther down the path motionless.
“Where is he?” She jerked the blaster at the guard and he opened his mouth and hissed once more.
He didn’t seem to be able to move, however, and a dark fluid was staining the ground beneath him.
He was hurt, maybe fatally, and the other one looked dead.
Her body was shuddering with each breath she took and the gun shook in her hands even as she tried to calm herself.
There was only one reason why there would be injured guards on Ka’Cit’s property.
He’d been attacked.
And he was nowhere to be seen.
The reason for that made her tremble some more.
But he could handle himself.
She was sure he was alive.
He had to be alive.
“Where. Is. He?” She spoke through gritted teeth and the guard eyed her, his gaze moving to the blaster in her hand.
Maybe he thought she was bluffing because she was trembling so hard—misinterpreting her panic for fear.
But she wasn’t afraid of him. One thing was sure, the guards didn’t scare her anymore.
What she was afraid of was the fact that Ka’Cit was missing.
As the seconds passed, her mind went through several horrible scenarios, each worse than the last.
When the guard still didn’t answer, something snapped inside her, breaking through her already-thin patience.
She didn’t have time for this.
Gripping the weapon, she disengaged the safety and the guard’s gaze registered some shock.
It was the same as the blaster she’d used at the satellite station. She knew what she was doing.
“Don’t play with me. I am not in the mood. I swear, I will plant a bullet in your head if you don’t tell me where he is. Now, where…is…he?”
The guard hissed again, hatred flooding his gaze, and for a moment, another wave of panic filled her that he wouldn’t tell her the information she needed.
He didn’t have to say a word. He didn’t owe her anything and he was her enemy.
But something changed in the guard’s gaze, something she couldn’t read.
“We came for you,” he said.
“What?”
The guard tried to laugh and ended up coughing up what looked like blood.
“I knew I was right.” He struggled to speak now and pulled in a huge breath through his snout. “I saw you at the service satellite. The Crusher said he didn’t know anything about you. But,” he coughed again, “the general should know I was right. They will kill him and come back to find you.”
Nia’s heart slammed against her chest, the guard’s words slowly making sense.
They’d come for her?
They’d tracked Ka’Cit down because of her and in trying to protect her…
Nia jerked the gun at the guard, pointing it straight at the fiend’s head.
“Where did they take him?”
The guard pulled in another rugged breath. “You cannot save him. They have probably already killed him by now.” He tried to laugh and ended up wheezing and coughing up more dark fluid but his words sent a chill down her spine.
No.
She refused to believe it.
She couldn’t be too late.
“Your kind is weak. Easily disposed of. You should be happy the masters want to collect you.” The guard hissed again. “That phekker was an idiot for not telling us who he sold you to.”
His words made some sense.
Ka’Cit smuggled things. No doubt they thought he’d sold her somewhere on the black market.
But instead of telling them the truth, he’d protected her to the end.
“Weak being…” The guard eyes her.
Weak?
Nia planted the muzzle against the alien’s snout, a snarl on her lips.
“The next words that come from your mouth better be the information I want to hear or I will use this weapon and carve you to bits until you speak.”
The guard stared at her, his gaze locked on hers, but Nia did not waver.
“Tell me where they took him. Now.”
43
Ka’Cit didn’t bother straining against the bonds holding his wrists above his head. They thought this polymer was nearly impossible to break…and it probably was, to a normal person.
But he wasn’t normal, and he didn’t want them to realize he could get his hands free.
Even if he did though, he had no weapons and he was outnumbered.
Being stupid had always worked out for him. It might not this time.
It wasn’t his life alone that was on the line.
Hers was as well.
The room they’d placed him in was dark and a little bit too warm.
Beads of perspiration were developing in the middle of his back, tickling him each time one rolled down his skin.
He could hear them in the other room, playing some sort of deck game, and he was glad they were occupied.
He needed space to think and he’d never needed such a thing before.
But that was because he’d had no reason to live before.
Recklessness had always been his fuel.
This situation, though…it wasn’t just about him.
It was about her.
His ta’ii.
They’d been hunting her, the Hedgerud’s, ever since seeing her at that service satellite and him stealing the talix metal from them hadn’t helped either.
They were out for vengeance.
Ka’Cit growled underneath his breath.
Phek.
He could only hope Geblit had filed the documents.
If he didn’t get out of this alive, at least she’d be protected.
To think he was putting so much faith in the annoying little Torian…
Ka’Cit threw his head back and let out a groan.
Above him, his restraints rubbed against the beam they’d tied him to.
“Trying
