Calling upon my ancient bloodline, I allowed my cells to fill with power. Intention. Stillness.
One moment I stood at the top of the ship’s ramp. The next I sliced Rokor’s arm from his body, the detached limb still attached to Rebecca’s neck.
Turning, I shoved a blade into Rokor’s heart with one hand and pulled Rebecca into place behind me with the other. I now stood between Rebecca and the other attackers.
Pity. They were human.
Rebecca shouted as she pulled the hand from her neck and threw Rokor’s limb as far away as she could manage. “Ugh! Gross. Oh my god! You cut off his arm.”
I did not have time to comfort her. The human males were armed as well. Their weapons made of metal and stinking of oil. I knew they were ancient projectile firearms. Not a threat to me, but to Rebecca? Lethal.
Moving faster than I ever had in my life, my vision blurred as I sliced each man’s throat in turn. Rebecca wobbled from the loss of my arm around her, but I was back at her side before she could fall.
“What?” Her eyes grew round with shock as she watched the human men reach for their throats one by one. Blood spurted from their necks. Confusion clouded their gazes. They both crumpled to the ground to bleed out.
I scanned our surroundings for further threats and found none. Pulling her into my arms, I held her close. Stroked her back as she shuddered. “There’s that word again, mate.”
A faint laugh from her allowed me to breathe again. “You saved my life. Again.”
Relief made my knees weak, relief that she did not pull away from me, did not fear me. I had killed in front of her and still she clung to me. “Are you afraid of me?”
“What?”
Gods be damned, I was going to ban that word from her vocabulary.
Slowly, I placed my hands on either side of her face and tilted her head up so I could look into her eyes. “Are you afraid of me?”
She looked confused. “Why would I be afraid of you?”
“I did what I had to do to protect you. I wish you had not been forced to see me like that.”
She lifted her hands and placed them over mine, locking my palms to her soft cheeks. “They were evil, Stark. Pure evil. I’m glad you killed them.” Tears gathered in her eyes and an ache built inside my chest. “I’m sorry you have to do that. Kill, I mean, to protect other people. It must be horrible for you.”
I had sliced open three men’s throats in front of her and she was worried about me?
I kissed her. There was nothing else I could do. She made no sense, my female. None.
Thank the gods.
I heard the Atlans exit the building. Velik whistled slowly as he inspected the scene, the others fanning out behind him. “Didn’t leave anything for the rest of us, eh?”
“No.”
He nodded. “Didn’t know what they were dealing with, did they?”
“No.”
“Scary fuckers.” He tilted his head at his fellow warlords. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Two are human, but that one is from Rogue 5.”
“Got it.” With a slight nod from Velik, two of his men moved to pick up Rokor’s corpse.
Holding onto my mate with one hand, I dug in my uniform pocket with the other and tossed the DNA scanner as well as a bioflare to one of the Atlans. He caught it in midair and grinned.
“Always wanted to use one of these things.”
“Well, get on with it.” I lifted Rebecca and cradled her in my arms. This time she was not gravely injured. This time she wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder.
