“You and Samyra will have to handle it. Jamirr can’t walk unassisted right now,” Kyden said. He and Rennyr guided the dazed Badari toward the rear door, moving faster than Samyra would have thought possible. Talinn slid into cover behind a set of shelves laden with boxes and loose parts. She took up a position behind him, blaster at the ready and waited for the door to open.
Tirion stepped through, eyes fixing on the empty cryo chamber. He swore and rushed forward, the second man behind him. “What in the seven hells? How did he get the container open when he was frozen solid?”
Talinn kicked the door shut. “We may have had something to do with that,” he said in a satisfied drawl. He shot the second man, who’d spun to face him.
Rage rose within Samyra like an unstoppable geyser. She had no sword but she unsheathed her dagger as she rushed forward, screaming imprecations at Tirion. “I’m going to wipe you off the face of the planet, you scum. How dare you kidnap Jamirr and try to ruin me?”
He drew his knife and dodged her first impulsive strike with practiced ease. “Oh you’re already ruined, sweetheart. You just didn’t know it yet. I was going to kill you in the arena in two weeks but tonight will do as well.”
The two went at it, blades flashing in the harsh lights. Samyra drew first blood while blocking Tirion’s blade but then he whirled, kicking at her knee and slashing her side as she rolled and bounced to her feet again. She was in the killing zone, seeing his next moves before he made them and moving to parry or take advantage. She might as well have been in the arena, adrenaline sky high, focus on one thing—the enemy she despised. In her mind everything was now Tirion’s fault and she was going to exact her revenge. He wasn’t making it easy. The two of them were quite equally matched in knife skills and soon both were bleeding from superficial wounds.
He grabbed her by the shirt and tried to sink his knife into her ribs but she literally tore herself free and although the blade penetrated, it wasn’t the disabling blow he’d been going for, glancing off a rib instead of sliding between. Infuriated she drive him back with her own assault and managed to punch him in the eye, sending him sprawling.
Tirion wasn’t quite as quick to get up as she’d expected and Samyra could tell he was tiring and getting weak from loss of blood. She’d scored hits on him more than he’d managed to inflict on her. Her balance remained perfect, feet moving in the dance of the deadly combat, knife hitting its target more often than not as his deflection skills deserted him and panic set in. Samyra chose her moment, done toying with him, and buried her blade to the hilt in his chest. Eyes wide with shock, Tirion collapsed like a puppet cut from its strings and lay in a pool of spreading blood at her feet. “That was for Jamirr,” she said contemptuously, taking a step back.
“Nice work,” Talinn said, grabbing her by the arm and heading toward the far door. “We’ve got to go. Boss is getting impatient and we need to set this place on fire and get gone.”
“Thanks for not interfering,” she said in between gasps for air. The fight had taken a lot out of her too.
“You needed the closure and Jamirr would have been proud of you,” he said as they burst through the door to the cool night air. “Hold on one second.” Turning, he hurled a force grenade through the opening and then grabbed her, taking her straight into the sky with his antigrav unit.
Talinn was accelerating upward so fast she grew dizzy. Below them the building burst into white hot flames, pieces of shrapnel flying like a lethal hailstorm in reverse. The flames boiled upward but they were already above the blast zone. Samyra felt the pressure in her ears from the blast and clung tighter to the Badari.
Chapter Fourteen
He brought them smoothly to the flyer’s ramp and Rennyr was waiting to take her, pulling her into the cabin to safety, while Talinn got himself inside right behind them and closed the hatch. The flyer immediately accelerated into a screaming ascent, which pressed Samyra against the seats and she clung there until the pilot levelled off above the atmosphere.
“Sorry about that but we stayed too long at the party,” Rennyr said as he guided her to a seat next to Jamirr, who was huddled in a survival blanket and staring straight ahead, blank faced.
The senior gladiator examined her wounds. “Nothing too bad, although the one here is bleeding pretty freely.” Guiding her hand, he ordered her to put pressure on it. “We’ll get you to medbay as soon as we’re on the ship. Sit here and rest.”
“I’d offer to try healing the worst ones for you,” Talinn said, raising one hand to show off the green glow. “But my powers don’t extend to humans. The gift doesn’t recognize the need.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said impatiently. “I’ve had worse in the arena. Can you help Jamirr?”
“I already gave him what I could and you can be sure I’ll do another treatment later.”
Rennyr and Talinn walked away as the flyer continued its trip to the mother ship. Samyra fought the growing pain in various places and the dizziness from blood loss. She reached for Jamirr’s hand, which was cold. He was completely unresponsive at first but then turned so he could thread his fingers through hers.
“Victory?” he asked in a raspy voice.
“Always,” she replied confidently. “Tirion will trouble us no more. He’s paid for inflicting pain on you and scheming against me.”
“I heard it was quite a fight,” Rennyr told her, bringing a pair of nutrition drinks, one for her and one for Jamirr. “Sorry I missed it.”
Samyra drank hers while the Badari coaxed Jamirr into sipping the other. “I prefer the sword, more elegant, but I’m good with knives.”
“I remember from when you were training with us.” Rennyr flashed his talons briefly. “I recall you even won a few bouts on points despite our natural weapons. Respect.”
“Will he—will he come out of this semi-conscious state?” she asked fearfully, remembering how Jamirr had been in the cage at the market the first time she saw him.
Hunkering down in the aisle, Rennyr refused to give her too much encouragement. “He did before so we’re hopeful. It may take a while but at least we can provide supportive meds, which he obviously never got any other time he was in cryosleep. And we have Talinn. It would be best if he had the pack bond because then Kyden could provide power.”
“Pack bond?” The term was new to her although Samyra remembered her conversation with Kyden in his office at the end of the season and how he’d said Badari lived in packs.
“The Alpha told us he gave you the thumbnail sketch version of our past, right?” Rennyr asked.
“Genetically engineered in alien labs, alien predator DNA…yes, but he never mentioned this bond or else so briefly I missed it.”
