Page 9 of Protected By the Alien Mercenary

“But you didn’t do it,” she said immediately. So firmly, so confidently, that it made that warmth spread like wildfire through my limbs. Such unshakable faith in me. How had that happened? I couldn’t believe that I had earned that kind of trust; it was humbling.

I nodded slowly, my fingers raising to touch that first notch with a rueful expression on my face. “I did not,” I agreed with her. “And the court marshal that followed lacked the evidence to convict. I was dishonorably discharged from the army, forfeiting my chance at a slice of land in the empire.”

Raising my head, I made sure I was looking her in the eye when I explained, “I can’t offer to build you a home on my own land, you understand?” She smiled, shaking her head like I’d said something funny, her hand reaching up to stroke my chin. We’d lost our physical connection. The dark topic had softened me too much, even if her reception filled me with far too much hope.

“I don’t need that, Thar’oc. We’ll figure things out together.” She sat up, her legs spreading as she sat astride me, shamelessly displaying her beautiful, soft breasts. Then she crossed her arms with a firm expression on her face; it was cute. “I’m really sorry that happened to you, but if they couldn’t prove it, then why that notch? The notch symbolizes a kill?” Her eyes roved over the dozens that marked each of my horns.

I rolled a shoulder and offered her a smirk. “A couple of that officer’s brothers grabbed me off the street after I was released, and they were the ones who did the first one. My reputation was already down the drain. I figured I would build myself a new one.”

“As a killer?” she said. Her eyes were still on the many marks I’d made myself after that. Those each did mark a significant kill. I hadn’t marked my horns for goons like those attacking us in that motel, but I would make a mark if I managed to get my hands on the rich Asrai prick who thought he could own my girl.

“As a sharpshooter,” I amended, “But essentially, yeah. I worked almost exclusively for the Varakartoom for the past three years. Now I’m ready for a change.” All the marks I’d made on my horns had been kills for hire, kills that saved the lives of my crewmates, or ended a target the Varakartoom had been hired to take care of. It had been no different from what I’d done for the Kertinillian army, and I did not lay awake about those at night. The marks on my horns were like my advertising. They impressed people in certain circles, and they demanded respect.

Her hands stroked along my chest, petting me as she tilted her head and thought. “So, I guess I’m not terribly inconveniencing you with this damsel in distress routine?” I laughed at those words. She had been worried about that? That’s what she was taking away from this whole confession? I guess I had more honor left in me than I thought.

“Never,” I said, wanting to tell her just how much meeting her meant to me. A sound drew my attention before I could, my ears twitching, the fine hairs at the back of my neck rising. Throwing Rikki off of me, I had her wrapped in the blanket and pushed into a ball in the corner before she could so much as blink or squeak. “Stay still, whatever happens. Do NOT move,” I hissed in warning.

I couldn’t locate the blade that was supposed to go onto the tip of my tail, but I had never fully undressed last night. It took no more than a second to thump my feet into my boots and yank my armor back in place. With a pistol in my hands, I braced myself for the attack, snarling loudly to warn the creature that he was making one big fucking mistake coming here.

Chapter 11

Rikki

Huddled in a corner, buck naked except for the thin sleeping bag thing, I was trying hard to wrap my head around what the fuck was going on. I didn’t see a threat. The door was firmly shut to this place, that proximity alert ward thingy hadn’t started shrieking either. But whatever Thar’oc had heard, I knew it was real.

His wild black and blue hair stood on end around his head like the hackles of a wolf. His posture had dropped into a defensive crouch in front of me. He was holding the pistol from his thigh holster in his right hand, a sharp knife in the other, and his tail was waving wildly behind his back. The growl rattling out of him was terrifying, like that of a tiger or a vicious wild dog.

I tried to locate where the bag with my new clothing was, then where I could maybe get my hands on a weapon. I was pretty sure I could see the glint of his tail knife not far away from me. Those thoughts fled when a grate-like panel suddenly burst at the bottom of that strange bank of ancient computers. Was that a freaking tentacle? It really was! It was incongruously pink, with large suckers along the bottom.

“Close your eyes, Rikki,” Thar’oc warned me grimly, his deep, sub-harmonic voice vibrating through the room with his intensity. His laser pistol whined as he fired a shot into that writhing tentacle thing. Then another and another, and still it kept advancing, hissing and twitching each time my mercenary struck true.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t close my eyes. Something told me that whatever that thing was, it was danger incarnate. I couldn’t look away from a threat like that. I wanted a weapon; and I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.

Then that thing started to spill from the small hole it was crawling through, impossibly huge as its shape started to make more sense to me. Many tentacles, a misshapen head with huge blue eyes, and a third pink eye that flicked open. Immediately, the world started to turn hazy around me. I wanted to stand up and crawl forward. None of those thoughts made sense, but I found myself rolling languidly out of my blanket.

The whine of the laser pistol was sharp and bright, piercing through suddenly foggy thoughts. Then everything went clear again, the fog lifting, and my mind growing lucid. Thar’oc stood in front of a pile of gooey pink tentacles. They took up far too much space in the small room. Some had even spilled over his boots. His tail was wildly lashing, his pistol aimed down at the thing. “Are you okay, Rikki?”

He twisted his head to look over his shoulder at me, growling when he realized I wasn’t safe in the corner where he stuck me. It was that worried look that was his downfall. He didn’t see it in time. The tentacles twitched and then struck so rapidly that they blurred. I shouted a warning, but it was too late.

That thing held Thar’oc in those strange pink arms; he fought, pulling with his hand and slashing with his knife. With his tail, he was twisting to stab at the eyes in that weird head of the octopus-like thing, but without his knife attached, those were hard strikes didn’t seem to do much damage. Then I saw the maw that started to open from somewhere between those tentacles and any fear for myself faded away; that was just background noise at the sight of Thar’oc in mortal peril.

The knife was slippery in my hands. It did not have a hilt to hold, just a ring where it hooked around his tail. The knife bit into my palm as I clutched it, cutting my skin when I pulled back and struck as hard as I could. It was the most disgusting feeling ever as my hand struck that huge eye thing and sunk right in.

In an instant, the fight was all over. Like I’d flipped the magic button, the pink octopus thing collapsed to the ground. Thar’oc swayed on his feet, his arms and a part of his neck covered in weird suction marks. Then his azure eyes focused on me, and the wildest, feral grin spread across his handsome face. “You fucking goddess,” he said, his voice deep and gruff. He clutched his hand to his chest, “I’m in love.”

I opened my mouth, trying to figure out what I was supposed to say to that. He spun, turning his back to me, and then the laser pistol fired again and again into that pile of tentacles. He was making really sure that the creature was dead. “What is it?” I asked, choosing to take the easy road for now.

“Something that resembles a Grolarnx, only much smaller. I don’t think this one is young; it must be an unsuccessful half-breed.” That thing looked like a total freak of nature, and it had seemed pretty successful at what it wanted to do, kill, and eat things. I really didn’t want to know what a full-sized Grolarnx looked like.

Thar’oc didn’t take much time to check his injuries. He was focused on making sure I was dressed, and stuffing my shoes so I wouldn’t slip and slide and get blisters again. My bleeding palm was quickly bandaged with tender fingers. Then he tossed his pistol in his bag, pulled another out to put in the holster at his thigh, and scared me when he strapped another to mine. “Just a precaution. We need to leave ASAP. That dead body is going to draw in other creepy crawlies.”

When he started assembling a huge rifle as the final step before we left, it drove home his profession. That was the tool of his trade, the real one. A rifle that he’d probably used countless times before. It might be responsible for some of those notches he’d carved into his horns. I swallowed roughly, forcing myself to get over my aversion to having a gun strapped to my thigh. This wasn’t Earth; this was a freaking space station populated by crooks and criminals.

In short order, he had me hustling out the door, all the gear packed up and strapped to his back. The rifle he cradled carefully in his arms, and it was only his tail that kept me connected to him; a loop circled my wrist. The knife glinted at the tip again; it had been quickly cleaned on the remains of my shredded catsuit.

“Shouldn’t we hide out here another day?” I asked, “Your ship isn’t leaving until tomorrow, isn’t it?” Where else could we run if these weird bowels of the station weren’t safe any longer? Not that they had ever been truly safe if that weird creature had been roaming down here all this time. Thar’oc had mentioned that this place was home to some very unsavory things; now I knew what he meant.

“I’m calling the Captain, telling him of our situation. Without that tracker on you, he might agree to just take us aboard.” He only thought of that now? Though I had to admit that it hadn’t been bad to hide down here, not at all. I’d liked every part of it, except the monster thing. Thar’oc was the most generous lover I’d ever had, in more than one way. My whole body flushed just thinking about the sex we’d shared.