Hyperspeed Dreams by Anna Carven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“Where are we going, Tasha?”Lodan kept close as they made their way toward the end of the corridor. Tarak was waiting at the junction, his brutal outline illuminated by the cool, faint light of a single bulb in the ceiling.

He nodded once at Lodan and the warriors behind him.

The dark squad all tipped their heads in a deferent greeting.

Allof them.

Lodan hadn’t been exaggerating. Tarak really was the boss around here. Funny, she’d always thought these higher-up sorts avoided getting their hands dirty, but here he was, right in the thick of it.

He made a small signal with his fingers.

His men nodded in acknowledgement. None of them said a word.

The silence was jarring.

Surveillance alarms should have been going off.

There should be dozens of tiny flashing indicator lights; The Praetorian’s surroundings were packed with advanced monitoring tech. Tasha half-expected to see a sentry drone whirring past.

But there was nothing.

Only shadows and darkness and the eerily graceful silence of a dozen big, scary alien males.

“Left,” Tasha whispered, relying on her infallible sense of direction. “There’s a fire escape, then a set of stairs, then you’ll go through a door and down into the second basement level. We go down another set of stairs again and then another, and then you’ll be in the lodging quarters of the Level One assets. That’s where you’ll have to be careful. They’re the best mercs on Praetorian’s payroll. The ones that have been modified… like…”

“You?”

“Sort-of. Except they aren’t as good as me.”

Lodan chuckled. “Then what are you worried about?”

“Well, it’s a maze of narrow passageways with very few entry and exit points. It would be easy for any infiltrating force to get separated. Fighting in close-quarters means that no matter how strong you might be, you can still be held back… for a time. There are emergency doors that can seal off parts of the corridors, trapping someone inside, but I guess you don’t need to worry about that, since your swords can cut through concrete and asphalt like it’s nothing. And… they have plasma now.”

Half the warriors started to advance, with Tarak in the lead. Tasha began to move, but Lodan held her back, pressing his hand against her chest. “Wait. They’ll clear the way first then double back. It’s safer that way.”

“You’re seriously trying to protect me, huh?”

“You got a problem with that?”

“No problem… I’m just not used to it, that’s all.”

“Well, get used to it, because I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“I can fight for myself, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Lodan said silkily. She could almost see his wicked smile behind the helm.

A flush crept across Tasha’s cheeks. Her heartbeat became erratic. “Can you just be serious for once? This isn’t really the time to be messing around.”

“With you? Believe me, I’m never messing around.”

Tasha’s knees went weak. A retort hovered on her tongue, but it never left, because at that moment, she crashed.

“Tasha!” Lodan was around her in a heartbeat. His sword disappeared into its sheath. He hooked his hands under her arms, stopping her from falling. “That fucking medic,” he hissed as he gently lowered her into a sitting position, dropping to his knees as he did so. “Hold still. Breathe.”

Tasha tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t do what her brain was telling them. Her heartbeat was all over the place. Am I in fucking atrial fibrillation right now?

A dull pain throbbed through her chest. It would probably feel a lot worse if her pain receptors weren’t blunted.

Ambrosia… if only I could get a little hit to make this terrible feeling go away…

The craving returned, stronger than ever, wrapping its dark, suffocating tentacles around her, threatening to drag her under...

“Easy,” Lodan rumbled. He was trying to sound in control, but she could see the tension in the tautness around his eyes. Dark shadows moved at the edges of her vision; the silent Kordolian warriors moving into a protective formation around them.

As Lodan cradled her in his lap, he pressed something on her armor.

Her helm melted away. The upper part of her chest-armor opened up, revealing her bare skin.

“As much as I want to jump your bones, I don’t think now is the best time to—”

Lodan put a finger to her lips. “Shush, you. Don’t even joke around right now. That’s not your style, is it?”

Tasha laughed weakly. Since when did she have a sense of humor?

“You do strange things to me.” Her heart jumped around in her chest. She felt giddy, and not in a good way.

“Shush.” Lodan opened his comm. He might be gentle with her, but she could tell from his eyes that he was livid. “Zharek, you bastard. You told me we’d get in and out of there comfortably before she was in any real danger. But the dokari’s showing a warning signal.”

Warning?

Tasha became aware of a faint purple light emanating from her chest. The glowing star-monitor thing had changed color.

Purple is deterioration.

“What do you mean, unlikely,” Lodan snapped. He switched to Kordolian, letting out a stream of what sounded like vicious cursing.

He was furious. Not in a cold, scarily controlled way; this anger was raw and volcanic.

Unpredictable.

Sounlike him.

“Fine,” he growled at last, reaching for a compartment somewhere on his body. He produced a small black device the size and shape of a pen. “Little sting now, Tasha.” He pressed the thing against her neck. Something bit into her skin; a tiny pinprick, almost painful, but not quite.

Some of the tension drained out of her body.

But her heart was still flipping around inside her chest.

This is not good. I won’t last much longer at this rate.

“Time’s running out,” she murmured, her voice wavering. The thought of dying loomed large in her mind, and for the first time ever, she was utterly terrified of that possibility.

In the short time that she’d been free, she’d gained so much.

She’d found her family again.

She’d found him.

She didn’t want to lose them… not now, not when she was so close…

“I know.” In a single fluid motion, he rose to his feet with Tasha still in his arms, hefting her metal-filled body as if it were as light as a feather. “Can’t be helped then.”

“What are you...?”

“Wait.” Lodan pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. Then he yelled something in Kordolian, his voice reverberating in the narrow hallway. “Let’s go.”

He started to run, with her in his arms. Tasha opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again as she quickly realized there was no point.

She really did feel like shit.

Whatever Zharek had given her was becoming less and less effective with every dose.

“Just tell me where to go, Tasha,” he whispered in her ear, before activating whatever it was that made her armor go back to its original form; once again protecting her chest and face. “We’re going to tear this place apart. I just need to know where to find it.”

“Lucky you’ve got me here then, huh? Like I said before—go left. Then down. When we get to the place where I used to stay, you might find some humans… locked up. Those ones, please don’t kill them.”

“We will try, but I can’t promise,” Lodan said, his voice turning as cold as winter ice. “My first and only priority is to keep you alive at all costs.”

“I know. I wouldn’t expect anything less.” As they drew nearer to the heart of her worst nightmares, Tasha was the weakest she’d ever been—her jacked-up, modified, artificially fueled body was finally on the verge of breaking down.

But somehow, in his arms, she felt safer than ever before.