Bounty Page 3
Holly staggered to a chair in front of a working console, pulling a handful of her red hair over her nose and breathing through it. She glanced toward the rattling steel door as they heard a muffled boom. "If the engine explodes before we get far enough away, we're goners."
Danica swallowed hard and tasted soot. She didn't know if she thought exploding was worse than burning to death, but neither was on her bucket list. The ship pitched to one side as the bridge broke free and Danica slid to the edge of her seat, the frayed safety straps keeping her from falling to the floor.
"I'm not sure if I believe you anymore," Max shouted, over the successive blasts from the engine room.
Danica looked over at the woman whose grease pencil was running black streaks down her face from the heat. "What are you talking about?"
"I think the other bounty hunter's ship might not have been so bad compared to this," Max said as she braced her arms on a console.
If things hadn't been so dire, Danica might have laughed.
The ship ripped apart with a final groan and the bridge jerked forward, unencumbered by the bulk of the ship. All the women looked up at the monitors and at the hazy, red planet as they hurtled toward it. A massive explosion behind them made the hull shake and the bridge list to one side.
Holly looked over her shoulder, her expression pained. "Gods, I'm going to miss that engine."
Danica refused to think of how much she would miss her ship. No point in crying over a hunk of metal if she might not be alive in five minutes. She watched the approaching surface of the planet, and her only thought was how desolate it looked. No cities, no buildings, no signs of life. Not even any forests or water she could see. Just endless desert. She mentally added dying from thirst to the list of ways she didn't want to go.
"Brace!" Caro screamed, as the sand dunes rushed toward them.
Danica closed her eyes without thinking as they crashed into the unknown planet.
Chapter Five
She ran her hands over his broad shoulders and down his rippling chest muscles, scraping against his skin with her fingernails. But his skin didn't yield to the pressure; it was as hard as armor, although it felt smooth and warm.
Her eyes fluttered open and rested on the bold, black slashes across his massive chest muscles and over his shoulders. She drew a finger down the roped muscles of his arm, shuddering as they shifted beneath her touch.
The tattoos were inky black and a stark contrast to the burnished gold of his skin. A dark, matte gold that didn't shine like metal, but seemed to shimmer from within as her fingers pressed against it. He wasn't human, but he wasn't any species she'd ever seen before, either.
She closed her eyes again as he lowered his head and nuzzled her ear, his long hair falling around her face. She ran her tongue up his neck then along his ear to its pointy tip, tasting the slight saltiness of his skin. He growled, and the deep rumbling shot a jolt down her spine. She arched her back, pressing against the firmness of his chest, raking her nails across his back and feeling the sharp ridges that swept out from his spine.
Danica felt him lift his chest and throw back his head, his moan primal. A fire spread through her body as she bucked her hips against his, wrapping her legs around his waist. She dragged her hands down the hardness of his stomach until she met rows of ridges leading her fingers lower.
As she let her fingers follow the ridges, Danica could feel his desire for her. She could sense it almost like it was a part of her, like his wanting was engulfing her thoughts and emotions. Then his hands were pushing hers away and he pressed his body against her, tilting his hips so the ridges she'd just been exploring now rubbed against her bare flesh and sent a wave of pleasure through her. She gasped as her body throbbed with the need for more.
This was how he wanted her—trembling with desire. Somehow, Danica could sense his emotions swirling through his head in a jumble with hers. He wanted to take her, to have her, to make her his. Yes, she thought. I’m yours.
Danica woke feeling dazed. Her dream had been so real; it took her a moment to realize that she wasn't in bed with a massive man covered in tattoos and ridges. And had his ears actually been pointed? She shook her head and felt her cheeks warm as she flashed back to the images that had seemed so real.
What was that about? It certainly hadn't been anything close to a memory, since most of her encounters with men had been fumbling, awkward experiences after one too many drinks at an outpost. Nothing passionate or steamy about those. No, this had been entirely different. It had been like the ultimate fantasy she never knew she had. Who knew an alien with ridges and gold skin was what turned her on?
Her heart raced from the memory of the creature even though the images were fading, as the scent of smoke and the pounding of her head assaulted her senses. Shifting fully into consciousness, she realized alarms wailed somewhere in the distance. She blinked a few times and her eyes focused. Not only was she not in bed with a hottie, she wasn't in bed at all. She was on her ship, and the wails were the alarms reminding her they'd crash-landed on an unknown planet.
Danica raised one sluggish hand to her head as she unhooked herself from the safety harness with the other. Her fingers touched a sticky patch matted with hair, making her flinch. She didn't know if this was an injury from the crash or from when Mourad knocked her out and dumped her on the bridge, but it didn't matter. There would be time to assess her cuts and bruises later. Right now she needed to make sure the rest of her crew was okay.
She scanned the dim, smoky interior illuminated by glowing red emergency lights and could make out other figures moving slowly. "Is everyone still with me?" she called over the sound of the alarms.
Tori was the first to respond. "Present and accounted for."
"If this is the afterlife, it looks just as shitty as real life," Caro said, followed by a series of coughs. “But at least we aren’t in Mourad’s brig, so that’s a positive.”
Bexli unstrapped herself, and Pog fell to the floor, bouncing once then changing into a pale green transparent ball and rolling across the floor.
Danica had never completely adjusted to how quickly Bexli and Pog could change form, but she’d learned not to be startled each time. When Pog hit the far wall, he changed back into his fluffy form and scampered back to Bexli.
"Can we do anything about those alarms?" Bexli asked, pulling herself to a console and pressing buttons.
The shrieking of the alarms wasn't doing her pounding head any favors, either.
Danica spotted Max slumped forward in her seat, her head bowed. Her stomach clenched at the sight. Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. She shook the woman by the shoulder and let out a breath when she groaned, lifting her head and squinting up. The black grease marks Danica had drawn under her eyes to make the doctor look tougher had melted to look like black tears trailing down her cheeks.
"Where am I?"
“We crash-landed on the planet, remember?" Danica gave her a cursory once-over and didn't notice anything bleeding.
The alarms stopped screaming, and Danica felt her shoulders unclench.
"Um, Captain," Tori's voice from across the bridge held a tone of alarm. "You'd better get over here."
Danica walked unsteadily across the slanted floor until she reached where Tori and Caro huddled over Holly. The engineer was still strapped into her chair, but a jagged piece of metal now protruded from her shoulder. Blood seeped through the fabric of her shirt and created a stark contrast with the bright-pink paisley.
Danica mouth went dry. "Is she…?"
Tori removed her fingers from the side of Holly's neck. "She's alive, and her heartbeat is regular."
"Holly, honey." Caro gently patted her cheek. "Can you open your eyes for me?"
Ho
lly eyelids fluttered open, then her gaze shifted to the metal in her arm. "Fuck."
"Don't worry," Danica told her. "We're going to get it out, and you'll be fine."
"I'll bet now's the time you wish we'd brought on a medical officer," Tori said, under her breath.
Danica shook her head. So far they’d been able to rely on the scraps of medic training her father had given her, along with her other crew mate’s basic knowledge of how to patch up minor injuries. Now, for the first time, they had an actual doctor on board. "No need. We have Max."
"I thought she was a scientist," Caro said. "Does she also have medical training?"
"It's close enough," Danica said. "And more than the rest of us have, anyway."
Danica knew enough to do basic first aid, but Holy needed more than that. She walked back to Max, keeping her balance on the sloped floor by holding onto the consoles and chairs, and unfastened the harness keeping the scientist upright. Danica caught her when she began to slip out of the chair. "Ready to earn your keep, Doctor?"
"What keep?" she said. "I was in your brig for all of thirty minutes before that big, creepy guy came on board."
"Okay," Danica sighed. "Forget the keep part. We need your help." She led her over to Holly. "One of my crew members is injured."
Max blinked at Holly a few times, then looked at the captain. "What do you want me to do?"
Tori crossed her bare arms over her chest. "Aren't you a doctor?"
Max waved a hand in Holly's direction. "Not that kind of doctor. I'm a scientist who studies minerals." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm not even that crazy about the sight of blood."
"Great," Tori muttered. "A doctor who isn't a real doctor. This day keeps getting better and better."
Max glared at Tori, the black streaks on her face making her look severe. "I can tell you from common sense that you should remove the metal, clean out the wound, and close it up."
“Yeah,” Danica said. “That much we know.”
Caro stood up and wiped her hands on the front of her pants. "I dealt with worse than this when I was with the Valox resistance. I’ll get the first aid kit."
Danica grinned. So far, they hadn’t encountered anything that was worse than what Caro had dealt with as a resistance pilot. Another reason she loved her rag-tag crew.
Holly managed a weak smile as she gingerly shifted in her chair. "Do we know anything about the state of the ship, or where we landed?"
Danica exchanged a brief, embarrassed look with Tori. "Not yet. We were focused on making sure everyone on board was okay."
"Now that you know I'm going to survive," Holly said. "We should find out what we're dealing with. Do we have comms?"
Tori pulled herself over to a console and lowered her face to see the read-outs in the red glow of the lights. "Doesn't look like it. We're running on emergency power."
Danica groaned. No way to send out a distress call, if the communication systems were offline. She guessed she should be grateful they had emergency power and weren't sitting in pitch darkness.
"I can work on comms as soon as I'm patched up," Holly said. "Do we know anything about what's outside?"
Danica joined Tori at the console and pressed a few buttons. "We have environmental readings. Breathable air, if a little thin for us, but hot."
"Got it." Bexli held a white first aid kit over her head as she made her way to Holly.
Caro took it from her and popped it open. "Now we just need to remove, clean, and close."
"I'll help," Max said after Caro produced a few packets of antiseptic.
"Thanks." Caro smiled at her and passed her a metal flashlight. "If you can hold the light, I should be able to handle the rest."
Bexli swiveled her wrists and her hands emitted a glow that illuminated half of the cockpit.
Max glanced at her, then at the feeble flashlight, clicking it off. “I guess we really don’t need this since one of your crew members has glowing hands.”
“She’s a Lycithian shape-shifter,” Caro explained, her mouth twitching up. “It comes in handy.”
Bexli shrugged. “I can shift one part of my body if I need to. Nerimbians can emit light through their hands, so I just shifted my hands.”
Max cut her eyes to Danica. “Kudos to the most interesting crew I’ve seen in a long time.”
“Thanks.” Since the others had Holly's injury well in hand, Danica turned to Tori. "You want to come with me to check out the planet?"
Tori straightened her shoulders and pushed her wild mass of dark curls off her face. "Wouldn't miss it."
Danica snaked her way around the chairs and consoles of the bridge, pulling herself the last few meters because they were the steepest.
"We went into the ground nose first," Tori said, glancing back at the steep pitch of the bridge and the crumpled steel of the ship's nose.
"But the ground couldn't have been too hard," Danica said. "Otherwise our ship would have been torn apart."
Danica paused before she pressed her hand over the sensor to open the door, nervous to see what type of planet Mourad had marooned them on. From what they'd seen on their descent, there were no cities or even villages. Danica hoped that meant there would not be a greeting party of angry natives waiting for them.
Tori pressed Danica's hand to the door sensor with her own. "Let's do this."
The door slid open and Danica stepped to the edge, looking down to the ground several meters below. She raised her eyes and stared out at the sand dunes that stretched in front of them, rising and falling like golden waves to the edge of the horizon. A pair of suns—one orange and one nearly white—blazed at different points in the colorless sky, and stifling heat seemed to radiate off the shimmering sand. There were no natives, restless or otherwise, but there was also no visible water or vegetation. Nothing but sand.
Danica closed the door quickly and took a gulp of the cool air that remained on the ship. "Well, this isn't great."
Chapter Six
K’alvek looked up at the sky. The fiery streak that ripped across the heavens was gone, but he could see smoke twisting up in the distance. Whatever it was had landed about five tetrons from him.
He knew he wasn't the only one to see it. A crash like that would attract attention even out on the sands, and there was no way to know how far away it had been seen. He scanned the vast expanse of glittering dunes stretching out to either side of him. If his enemy had seen it, it would take them some time to reach it from their city tucked behind the rocks.
This wasn’t the first ship to land on their planet, but offworld vessels did not usually arrive in a flaming streak. The ship tearing across the sky had interrupted his thoughts as well as his trek, startling his calm and filling his mind with images he couldn't explain. He grunted as he adjusted the strap that crossed his bare chest and felt the attached blades shift against his skin.
He did not like his mind being bombarded with things that made no sense. He was used to reading others’ emotions. All Dothveks could. It was one of the ways they communicated with each other, and was another reason K’alvek relished the emptiness of the sands. But he’d never experienced anything like that before.
He cleared his mind of the desire he felt building again, dismissing the images that had flashed through his mind after the object crashed. Images so real and strange he couldn't explain them any other way but to connect them to the arrival of the ship. Who was the frail creature who had intruded in his thoughts? Not someone he'd imagined, for he'd never laid eyes on anyone as tiny and helpless as her. Fragile and pale with skin so smooth the thought of touching her quickened his breath and made his cock grow hard. He shifted his stance, feeling his girth strain against his leg coverings. He exhaled sharply, angry with himself. The female he'd seen looked nothing like Dothvek females—no ridges or hard skin to protect against the heat of two suns—so why did he find her so appealing?
He uttered an oath under his breath. The last thing he needed to do was to chase after some frai
l female. His priority was avenging his father, not rescuing anyone. Finding out what crashed and if there were survivors was not part of his plan. He stared at the curling, black smoke and cursed again.
He despised himself for the need he felt to find the ship and discover if the strange creature was inside it. A warrior didn’t have any room for weakness, but there he was, worrying about the female he’d seen in his vision. Even if she wasn't Dothvek, she was clearly female. He could not ignore that even if he wanted to. Even if he told himself his revenge came first.
After a lifetime spent worshipping the goddesses that had created his planet and revering the priestesses who interpreted their prophecies, he felt a fierce urge to protect the creature from his vision. He'd never fantasized about a Dothvek priestess, though, and felt a flush of shame at the thought. He reminded himself that the female in his vision was not a priestess. All the more reason to find her before anyone else. Not every species on the planet believed females were to be protected. He inhaled deeply, breathing in the hot air like long gulps of water. If he ran, he could reach the crash before any others did. He wasn't sure if he was the only one to feel the pull, but he knew he needed to find her before the beady-eyed scavengers did. Or worse, the Cresteks.
K’alvek began running across the sand, his wide feet finding easy traction in the powdery surface. It felt good to run, to unleash some of the energy that had been pent up because there were no battles to fight. He pumped his legs harder, his leather pants slipping lower on his hips and exposing his front vee of ridges. He closed his eyes for a moment and could feel her fingers on him again, feather-light as they stroked his ridges and followed them down farther.
K’alvek shook his head and opened his eyes. A creature as fragile as the one that entered his thoughts should be nothing more than a curiosity, he told himself. Then why was he overpowered with the need to protect her, to claim her? He forced that absurd thought from his mind. If she was not Dothvek, there was no chance she could forge a mating bond.