Adira's Mate (2 page)

Chapter Two

She was walking through the halls
of the facility on her home world when she received the news. She stared at the
data pad in complete disbelief. It simply wasn’t possible that the facility she
had put together, one that had been created to study disease, was doing what
the anonymous sender was saying. It simply wasn’t possible. She would know.
Right?

Then again in the back of her
mind
Adira
had always known but had chosen not to
acknowledge the situation. She had heard rumors for the last half cycle that
the military had captured and were testing
Craegins
,
but that was something she would never sign off on as the head of the Medical
Ministries. No, she would never allow any being to be
tortured,
because that was how she saw the way these men had wanted to
test
the
Craegin
.
It had all been presented to her as hypothetical and she had shot it down
before their presentation was even over.
Now, however
…
now she had a feeling
that she would have to face the facts.

Rubbing her temples,
Adira
hurried back to her offices so she could pull up the
reports that came to her from the facility. What she read made her sick. There
was nothing that stated there was torture happening, nothing to hint at the
truth of what they had turned her facility into. No, instead the reports were
boring and plain. Scrubbed of anything that might cause her to bat a lash, the
reports read as the smoke screen that she was now certain that they were. It
was because of how plain and boring the reports were that had her suspicions
rising and her intuition kicking her ass, proverbially speaking of course.

Once she was back in her private
office she began to pour through the files and chewed her lower lip as she did
so. She didn’t like this, at all. She was the head of the Medical Ministries
and for one of her facilities to be used for these crimes was too much for her
to bear. It simply couldn’t be true. Her fingers tightened around the sheaf of
papers. There would be only one way to figure it out. She would go to the
facility in question and see for herself.

Picking up her phone, she called
for a crawler. It was more than past time for her to visit the facility. Once
the crawler was arranged, she put in a call to her brother. When she was put
through to his video cache she put in a message to him, asking him bluntly if
he knew what was happening at Facility 98-3. She then turned, grabbed her
personal bag as well as her medical and communications kit, and headed off to
meet the crawler.

****

Facility
98-3 on the
Imarian
Homeworld
,
Planet
Traxa
in the
Imarian
system, four hours later…

Adira
Lora was anything but
superstitious. She didn’t believe that their immortal enemies, the
Craegin
, were the very devils that the
Imarian
government tried to make them out to be.
Adira
had a
feeling that the
Imarians
and the
Craegin
were far more alike than anyone wanted to admit to. She had, after all, read
the ancient documents that stated that at one time their worlds were one, so
very long ago.

As she walked through the halls,
her heels made a distinct
click-click-clack
, the sound a constant
staccato on the floor as she moved. The light lavender lab coat that covered
the black dress was crisp and fresh. She was nervous, but there was good
reason. She had seen the prisoners of war that her people had in custody and
were using to experiment on. It was too much. She was utterly stunned at what
her people had done. This atrocity was far too much. She needed to get to her
brother; he would help her. She might be the head of their Medical Ministry but
he had the might of the War Ministry at his back.

Pressing her fingers to her belly
once more, her hand shaking viciously, she could again see what she had done.
What would cause her to be killed at the first possible
opportunity.

Turning once more, she started up
a darkened hall but didn’t think a thing about the lights being out, didn’t
think about the fact that there should be guards on this hall. She was too lost
in her thoughts for that. Swallowing hard, she rubbed at her forehead as she
walked and saw the blood on her palm again.

“
By the spirits,” she whispered
and felt sick all over again. She had killed a man. Not only had she killed a
man but she had killed a military officer. Sure, he deserved it, but she killed
him.
Dead.
“Why would he have to do that?” she mumbled
as she thought of the young officer whose head she had just bashed in.

Adira
was so lost in thought that she
made a wrong turn and instead of heading for the communications hub, she was
headed into the maximum security wing. “I couldn’t let him rape her, though. No
one deserves that.” The
Craegin
woman was an
innocent. When
Adira
had walked in and saw what was
happening she simply reacted and, well, she killed him. At least, in that
moment she had thought the woman was innocent. “My brother will kill me,” she
said under her breath in dread. That was if the guards left on the planet
didn’t get to her first. Putting her hand to the wall, she felt another wave of
nausea rolling through her, not only because she had killed a man but what the
Craegin
woman had revealed afterward.

“
Spirits,” she whispered once
more, wiping a hand over her brow. The woman had gleefully told
Adira
how she had gladly became a lover to the scientists
that were part of this facility. How she was given herself freely to them and
how they had made life easier for her. What had made her even sicker was the
fact that the woman had even helped the men capture a
Craegin
man.

“
I can’t believe that someone
would do that to their own people. This isn’t good,” she said again, then stopped
dead in the center of the hallway. “What in the world?” she asked as she turned
around, her breath coming in a small mist of air. Why were the lights off in
the corridor? Where were the guards? She shivered and rubbed her arms that
prickled in unease, a sense of foreboding racing up and down her spine.

****

The soft scuff of shoes had
alerted him to the fact he was no longer alone in the hallway. Fin had killed
the lights so he was able to see
better
. The
Imarians
liked things too bright for his light sensitive
eyes to work well. Squinting as he stumbled around wasn’t going to be
beneficial to his escape.

Easing into a doorway that was
offset from the hall, he listened to the voice coming closer. At first he
wasn’t sure if it was male or female. Soon, though, he caught the scent of the
person approaching.
Most definitely female,
Imarian
female.

He slipped one of the laser
pistols from the pocket of his borrowed lab coat. Maybe he’d found his ticket
out of this hell hole. The map was only getting him so far. He desperately
needed someone that knew where the guards patrolled, and where the blasted
cameras were. He was weakening quickly from the blood loss through the multiple
cuts the
Imarian
torturers had inflicted on him. Fin
knew time was getting away from him and if he didn’t get free soon, they’d end
up discovering his unconscious
body in the hall come
morning.

He really didn’t want that to
happen. Who knew what his captors would inflict upon him for his escape
attempt.
Come on, get a little closer.
The
female had paused in the hallway. He could just make out the sleeve of her lab
coat, but not a lot else given where he’d hidden.

When she eased forward another
step he forced himself to relax. Another step brought her closer. She looked
confused as she glanced up and down the hallway. A look of annoyance flitted
over her face before she took two determined steps. Obviously she’d been about
to head off to chew someone out over the lights.

At least that had been her plan,
he was sure, right up until he slid out of his hiding place to wrap an arm
around her throat and press the pistol to her temple. “Do not scream,” he said
in a low tone. Fin could feel the tension in her body and caught the first hint
of fear wafting from her skin.
“You scream, you die.”
Simple as that, even though it turned his stomach to even consider
harming a female.
Even if she was his sworn enemy.

Chapter Three

Adira
went stiff as a board when the
pistol was lifted to her temple. She took a deep breath and nodded. She
understood what he was saying, understood and would comply. She had no idea who
it was that had her, so she would play along until she could be free.

She listened to the man’s
breathing and frowned. He was in pain; it was clear from how he was gasping for
air but there was something more. He wasn’t breathing as an
Imarian
would, three sharp intakes of breath and one exhale.

Her stomach felt as if it were in
knots. She felt ill because she suddenly knew that she wasn’t being held by
someone that was on the island and had no idea who she was. She was being held
by one of the
Craegin
that her people had kidnapped
and had been torturing.

Stars.
She was in deep trouble. “You
really don’t want to do this,” she told the man. “I’m more trouble than I am
worth. Ask anyone. I’m seriously not a good person to take hostage.”

“
I don’t have what one would call
a lot of choices here.” His voice was low, but she could hear the underlying
growl that gave it a certain rough quality. “One way or another you are my
ticket out of this hellish place. So you can either help me willingly, or I
start to break bones. Nothing important, but I know the ones that will cause
you immeasurable pain while still allowing you to function enough to get me
free. The choice is up to you. What will it be?”

There was no choice.
Adira
was a lot of things, but able to withstand pain was
not one of them. She just nodded. “What do you need?” She would get him to
where he needed to be in order to get free. Then she would run as far and fast
as she could.

He let out a harsh-sounding
breath. “I need you to guide me to the ship bay here.
Preferably
to one of your crawlers.
Then you and I are going to leave on that ship,
and get me to a place where I can contact one of my own vessels to pick me up.
If
you behave yourself, don’t try
anything to alert anyone, and generally do not make yourself an annoyance to me
I might let you go free. Depends on how bad my mood is by that point.” She felt
him shift slightly, his arm slowly letting go of her neck. “We’re going to take
the path of least resistance. No guards, as few cameras as possible, and you
are not going to let anyone know anything is amiss in any way. I have zero
problem
shooting a woman, but I’d rather not have to drag
you around at my heels to break free of here.”

Stars.
“Okay,” she said with a wobbly
voice. “Then the best way to go will be back the way that I came.” She had
already killed a guard. This had to be her punishment. She knew it. She had
killed one of her own people so this was the spirits’ way of punishing her. She
was going to be this
Craegin’s
shield to get free of
her people. “I have a crawler. I came over from one of our other worlds.”

The weapon lowered until it was
pressed into her lower back, right on her spine. At that range he’d never miss,
and if she wasn’t dead she’d definitely be paralyzed. “How many guards between
here and the bay?” he asked. He’d given her a nudge to get her moving, but a
hand on her arm slowed her pace.
Adira
couldn’t see
much of him beyond the one arm down at his side. But she did notice he seemed
to be limping, even dragging one of his legs slightly.

“
None.
There was one but he won’t be a
problem.” The physician in her wanted to heal him. She wanted to reach out and
find out what was wrong, but the prudent part of her kicked in and she knew
that would be just plain dumb. She did, however, slow down. She ensured that
she kept a pace that would keep them moving, but wouldn’t push him too far. She
didn’t know what to expect of this
Craegin
,
especially since the female captive had so easily sold out her people.

“
What about the cameras? How many
are we going to have to contend with once we’re past the holding areas?” The
pressure of the weapon on her spine eased a little. She knew it was still
there, but he wasn’t digging it in any longer. He might be injured, but she
didn’t think for one moment he wasn’t aware of everything around him.

“
None.”
She had disabled them so that
she could wheel the body out and dispose of it. Why hadn’t she thought to
reenable
them? “I had disabled them,” she told him. “I had
been so caught up in my own mind that I forgot to
reenable
them,” she added honestly. “My crawler is the one closest to the exit doors as
well, so there shouldn’t be anyone in the bays that will see us as that side is
blocked from view by my crawler.”

“
Good,” he grunted out. Suddenly
his hand came up to her arm, pulling her to a stop. “
Shh
,”
he hissed. The pressure of the weapon was back for a moment as the sound of
boots on the tiled hall could be heard. They faded a few minutes later, and he
released her arm. “Go.”

She nodded and went. There was
something about his touch. It was odd. She didn’t focus on it, though. Instead,
she concentrated on getting through this alive.

She made several twists and
turns, being stopped a few times by the rather large male that held a weapon at
her head, and finally they were before the bay doors. “When we enter we need to
be fast. Get on my crawler. I need to make a call to the booth. There is audio
as well as visual so you will have to stand far to the left behind a console
and have to trust me. I really don’t want to die, so I will get you out of
here.” She would have somehow gotten him free anyway because she didn’t believe
in the tortures her people were inflicting upon this male.

His hand was on her arm again,
holding tight. “Say or do the wrong thing when you talk to them and you won’t
live long enough to make another mistake. If need be I can fly this thing out
of here, but I’d really rather not have to do it with your blood all over the
console.” He gave a light but firm squeeze of her arm, then let go. “Move,” he
said under his breath.

She nodded and moved as quickly
as his pace would allow to her crawler. The medical insignia on the side
denoted it to be the head of their Medical Ministry, her. Her hand to the panel
at the side had the doors sliding open and engines starting. She explained,
“I’m still a doctor. My crafts need to be able to go the moment I get in, just
in case of an emergency.”

No words came from him, just a
grunt. A hard hand landed on her shoulder as soon as they stepped into the
crawler. She could see the weapon out of her periphery as it was sweeping
around the space. He was ensuring they were alone in the small craft. The hand
eased and gave her the smallest of pushes toward the cockpit as the doors
sealed behind them with a hiss of air.

Adira
settled into the pilot’s seat
and strapped in. Looking back at the male, she viewed him for the first time.
He was large and impressive, handsome even. He was also severely injured.
“Stand just to the left there,” she told him as she pointed to a console. “Now,
please. They are beeping to get through.” She adjusted herself slightly, and
when he was hidden pulled up the view screen. “Sorry that took so long,
gentlemen. I had to take another call. I have an emergency on
Talaxia
five. I need clearance to scuttle quickly.”

The man on the screen was looking
around the inside of her cockpit. “Likely a good thing you’re getting out of
here now, Doc. Sounds like there’s an escapee in one of the wards. No clue how
the freak got loose, but he’s extremely dangerous. He’s killed three of our men
already, the spirits only know what he’d do to a woman,” he said. The hangar
bay doors began to open. “You are clear for departure. Head straight out, and
stay in the lane until you clear the beacons.
Safe journeys.”

“
Thank you.” She winced. Oh God,
had he really killed three men? Or was the man she killed one of those? She
closed off the view screen,
then
looked back. “You
might want to hold on to something.” She began to move her crawler into place
and took off as quickly as she typically would in any emergency situation.

Ten minutes later they were free
of the planet and she looked to him once more. “Where are we headed?” She knew
that he had said to a planet where his people could pick him up, but she had no
idea where.

Easing around the equipment board
he’d hidden behind, the
Craegin
male came forward. He
leaned over the console to input some coordinates. “There,” he said. “Set the
autopilot, and then we’re going to check the rest of this crawler over.” There
wasn’t a whole lot left to check, except for the kitchenette, a tiny medical
bay, the small sleeping quarters, and the bathing room that approximated to
less than a closet amount of space. Crawlers were meant for short runs, not for
comfort. Beyond that there was a storage area, but it wasn’t accessible from
inside, only from the exterior of the craft.

Once she’d set the autopilot, he
leaned in once more to type something else in. A quick glance showed he’d just
locked down the entire panel. Without the code he’d entered she couldn’t call
out, or fly the craft.
Which meant she had to keep him alive
if she wanted to survive this.
“Stay here,” he ordered. Now that she
couldn’t alert anyone to the fact she was a hostage, he likely felt secure in
leaving her in the space. A hard look from his bright gray eyes under the heavy
fall of badly tangled black hair, and he turned to leave the cockpit.

He had to keep his head lowered
to move through the spaces, being taller than the average
Imarian
male. She noticed he was also broader, more heavily muscled than an
Imarian
. Not that she should be noticing anything about
him, but it was hard not to when he seemed to take up so much of the space
around her.

“
Since you have locked everything
down you should let me have a look at your injuries.” She should just let him
bleed to death, but with him having locked her out of her own ship that would
end very badly for her. “It’s beneficial to me for you to survive. The least I
can do is tend to your injuries. I am a medical doctor, allow me to assist
you.”

A derisive snort was her only
answer as he continued away from her. He disappeared from view a couple of
times, checking out the additional spaces afforded on the craft. Finally he
reappeared from the sleeping quarters and signaled her toward him.

Adira
cautiously moved forward. “Yes?”
she asked as she looked up into his gray eyes. They were actually rather
beautiful and ringed with a bright green that captured her interest.
Adira
shook her head.
No, not her
interest, something else.
“I have a full medical bay. It’s very small
but it has everything that we could offer. I could close your wounds and do a
scan of your leg to find out what’s wrong with it.
If you
will let me?”
She couldn’t push him to do as she asked, but she itched
to ensure that he was okay.

“
I know what’s wrong with it. I
was there when they did it,” he said. No, it was more of a snarl, given the
curl of his lip.
“Inside.
You’re going to sit on the
edge of the bunk and not move while I clean up. I need to get the blood off of
me so I can evaluate the exact amount of damage your colleagues inflicted.”

She winced and nodded. “I know
that this isn’t a good time to tell you this.” She settled on the bunk and
watched him as he moved. “And please don’t shoot me for telling you this
truth.” She was chewing her lower lip as she watched him and gasped at the
injuries that he wore. “By the stars, how can you even be mobile?” Gone was
what she was going to tell him about the
Craegin
female. Instead her medical training kicked in and she wanted to heal.

He turned a cold look on her as
he dropped the coat and shirt he’d removed to the floor. “Sheer will to not die
in an
Imarian
testing facility. It’s amazing what the
body and mind can do when the goals are so simple. Do not move,” he warned
again. He took the pistol, and one other she hadn’t realized he had, and set
them inside the shower—up high so they wouldn’t get wet, and where he could
easily reach them but she couldn’t. He turned on the water and dropped his
pants. No warning, no closing the small sliding door, nothing. Down they went,
and a moment later his ass disappeared behind the sliding pane of the
enclosement
.

Adi
simply watched him. Her mouth
had gone suddenly dry and her mind went places that an
Imarian
held captive by a
Craegin
should never go. He was
stunning. His height was massive, over two meters tall, easily, and his build
was thick but it was the markings on his body that captured her attention.
Well, that and the musculature and his ass. By the mother, his ass was
impressive. “I’m sorry that you were taken,” she told him honestly. “There was
a
Craegin
female that was held there as well.” Please
don’t let them be related, she prayed.