The stranger then handed her the bag of devices. The Orcru must have stolen the entire stock of maglocks from a Federation prison ship with how many were in there.
There wasn’t enough time to go through them before the horde got there.
Making a snap decision, Vessa tied the fastener of the leather bag together before hooking it on her suit.
Without another word, her bounty hunter cut an opening into the back of the tent and ducked outside. Frigid and violent wind assaulted her immediately. It howled and raged through the makeshift exit as if its only goal was to get to her. It was a gods damn blizzard.
But she had no other choice but to follow him into it.
She extended her raze sword as she peered into the winter-made dark. Jumping down from the raised platform, she landed in an unsteady crouch in the snow. Pain racked through her entire exhausted body, but she ignored it. This was no time to be weak.
A faint green glow was her only guide. She pushed against the force threatening to blow her back. Vessa was no small woman, and she usually had impeccable balance, but each step was a struggle.
Fuck. She refused to die here.
An Orcru roared. Grunts and snorts sounded from all directions. Shadows swayed and loomed in the storm, playing tricks on her. There was no telling if she were walking into the open arms of a thousand Orcru or not.
The glow of the plasma dirk disappeared. She was alone.
What a piss-poor bounty hunter. Squinting through the snow and ice collecting on her eyelashes, she couldn’t see a damn thing.
An axe sliced through the storm, and she was forced to throw herself to the side sloppily to avoid it cracking her skull open. The Orcru appeared out of nowhere, his gray skin giving him an advantage in the white chaos. Using his momentum against him, she brought her blade slicing against his back. He fell to a knee. Twisting her sword in her hands, she struck him down.
The only way she survived this was if she could get out of the encampment, but trying to orient herself was near impossible. And fighting with bound wrists doubly so. Before she could move, two more Orcru were on her.Shit.Maneuvering her sword awkwardly in her cuffed hands, she managed to kill one almost instantly by thrusting her blade up through his chin.
But then her stranger appeared, cutting the last Orcru’s head off with the plasma dirk. He let out an annoyed snarl and picked her up, throwing her over his broad shoulder with an arm banded around her hips.
Vessa’s immediate reaction was to slam her cuffed hands against his back. “Have you lost your mind? You’re going to get me killed,” she hissed.
“I think you were doing a fine job of that yourself.”
“I didn’t need your help,” Vessa snapped. “That kill wasmine.” She was jerked violently as the bounty hunter reacted to another Orcru. Her grip on the hilt of her raze sword slipped, but she caught it at the last second, retracting it and holding it so tightly her palms ached.
The stranger dispatched three Orcru in quick succession as they flung themselves out of the storm into their path. Begrudgingly, she had to admit his skill was impressive. But there were so many of them. While he battled, another came from behind him. Vessa let a female Orcru, who was far more intimidating than her male counterparts, draw dangerously close before extending the blade of her raze sword through her torso and out again. She killed two more in a similar manner, narrowly dodging having her back split in two while she was at it.
He only grunted when he saw her handiwork.Bastard.
Her bounty hunter, who was both savior and captor at this point, traversed the maze of tents expertly. Whatever he was, his senses were far superior to hers, as he only had to kill a handful more of the Orcru on their route before he’d taken them completely out of the horde’s encampment. With no tents to block the wind, the storm only became more violent. Chunks of ice as large as the nail of her smallest finger mixed with the snow and stung on impact. Deep regret mixed with the sheer exhaustion in her bones. If only she had bailed in favor of her multi-sun planet when she had the chance.
It only took minutes for Vessa to grow so numb that she barely felt anything at all. “I hope your bounty is for dead or alive,” she rasped over the wind.
He didn’t respond, but she swore his pace quickened until they were practically jogging. Vessa didn’t know how much time passed. Her mind was as blurry as the world around her. She was just contemplating closing her eyes and letting fate decide what happened next when she was sat down on her feet suddenly.
“For fuck’s sake,” she growled as she swayed on frozen legs. “You could have warned me, you thick-skulledy’ak.”
The plasma dirk’s green glow was the only light between them. The stranger tilted his head, his face still hidden in the darknessof the hood. “That pretty mouth of yours always did come with venom.”
This time, there was no modulation. The voice was deep and gravelly. Resonant like the waterfalls of her home. As familiar to her as her own heartbeat.
She could be withered with age, her own name forgotten, but she would still know the sound and shape of that voice—and who it belonged to.
Kedar.
Chapter 5
Vessa
“You,” Vessa hissed.
