“Okay, this is going to hurt.”
“I am accustomed toOw!”
“Told ya,” she said, tossing the jagged metal aside.
Shalia rinsed out the wound and checked for more. There were a few additional small pieces stuck in his torso, but that had been the biggest by far. She quickly pulled out the others, rinsed it all clean, then washed off his hands as best she could.
“Put pressure on those. I’m going to go get our pack. There are clean clothes I can use for a bandage in there.”
“But—”
“No buts, Mister. You’re hurt. I’m helping. Deal with it.”
He locked eyes with her, his stare almost painful in the intensity of emotion behind it. “As you wish,” he said softly.
“Good boy,” she replied with a grin, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss then hurrying back to the scene of the crime. The carnage was impressive given how quick the whole thing had gone down. Valin had managed to make fast work of all three of them, and even without his weapons he’d improvised quickly and without hesitation, putting an end to their attackers.
The pack was where it had fallen, the ruined rifle as well. The pistol, however, was missing, still lost in the bushes somewhere. Given what had just happened, Shalia decided recovering that would be a priority. They’d been so worried about the Dohrags that they’d totally forgotten there was still a Raxxian threat out there. It was an oversight they’d not repeat.
She waded deeper into the brush, immersing herself in the prickly thicket. Shalia was still covered in Raxxian gore which made the leaves and dirt stick to her everywhere, but she ignoredthat disgusting fact as she forged ahead. There would be time to rinse later. For now, she needed to?—
The whack on her head was hard, whatever had been hurled at her landing with impressive force. She fell to the ground in a heap, her unconscious body half propped up by the bushes. A group of shirtless Oraku hunters stepped from the trees, the leader hurrying and collecting the padded ball he’d launched from his sling. This was a capture mission, not a kill one. But the Raxxians they’d been tracking were all dead.
They’d heard the unmistakable sound of weapons fire and followed it in a hurry, ready for a fight. What they found, however, was not exactly what they’d been expecting. Three dead Raxxians? It was quite the shock. And this fourth person? What in the world could have happened here?
Adzus, the leader of the hunter group reached down and rolled his target over, studying the filthy victim, his eyes widening as he realized who it was.
“Take the bodies, strip them of anything useful, and bury them,” he commanded a handful of his men. “We leave no trace of the Raxxians. Cleanse this site. You two, help with this one.”
“That’s not a Raxxian,” a hunter noted.
“No, it is not. It is Shalia, the missing human,” he replied, glad he’d not caused any lasting harm.
The others realized what had just happened at once, as well as the near miss disaster their leader had narrowly avoided. They’d all thought she’d been killed or worse. Zepharos had reported her abduction by the Dohrags, and they all knew how that would play out. But somehow, impossibly, she was here. More than that, it appeared she had killed not one, butthreeRaxxians.
Adzus noted the destroyed Dohrag rifle lying on the ground and nodded his approval. She had somehow stolen a weapon and put it to use. A resourceful woman, this one.
“Come,” he said to his hunters as they bundled her up. “We must return to the village at once.”
33
“This is taking too long. Something is not right.”
Valin pushed up to his feet, ignoring the pain. He tore a strip from his shirt and gave it a quick rinse in the stream then tied it tight around his body, a wadded-up piece of fabric pressed firmly against the most serious of his injuries. It wasn’t life-threatening, but it would need to be addressed if it was to heal properly.
Fortunately, somewhere in his bloodline was a robust healing factor. He’d heal much faster than any regular Dohrag might. He’d long wondered where in the mix that trait had come from. But that was a mystery he didn’t dare pursue as he rose in the ranks. Once he started scanning his genome, the Dohrag command would take much more note of him than they had previously, and definitely not in a way he wanted.
Whatever the case, it would only take a day to begin healing, he just had to get the wound stitched up first. But the tools needed for that process were in the pack. The pack Shalia had failed to return with.
A protective fire roared deep within him, numbing his body significantly and allowing him to press on as efficiently as possible. It wasn’t a Dohrag thing, nor was it part of his heritage fromhis mother’s side. This was his Infala, the bonding rune all but screaming at him that yes, something was wrong.
He glanced down at the pigment as he walked. It had stopped shifting he realized. The pattern was set. He and Shalia were a bonded pair. They had finally completed the bonding stage, but in his heart he knew that somehow, she was gone. When he came upon where the fight had happened his fear was confirmed.
The bodies had been removed, all traces of the carnage wiped clean. Even the splattered blood had been cleaned up. He knew at once that Shalia hadn’t done this. Not because she wouldn’t have thought to cover their tracks, but because this was clearly done by those with experience. He didn’t bother searching for the bodies. He knew he wouldn’t find them.
All that remained were faint tracks. A group, it seemed. Even the most skilled couldn’t hide all traces of their passage on this sort of terrain. But that didn’t seem to be their motivation. They simply erased all traces of what he had done and moved on. And he knew in his gut that they’d taken Shalia with them.
“No,” he growled through clenched teeth, a surge of adrenaline pushing his fight response to the surface hard and fast. He looked up to the sky, his hand pressed against his Infala, reaching out for his love. “Iwillfind you. On my life, I swear it.”
