Alien Paladin's Woman: SciFi Alien-Human Military Suspense Romance (19 page)

T
he cold in
the bay was nothing like she'd ever experienced before.

The sudden shock of the temperature was so terrible that for a long moment, Audrey wasn't able to make her limbs move. The wave of coldness that washed over her showed the governor
vividly
what kind of a pampered life she'd been able to live on Verien after all.

She was reminded of the morning when Pelar had forgotten to turn on the floor heating. That had been one moment of slight discomfort.

Now Audrey was finally faced with what Verien was really like, and she still hadn't experienced the true wrath of it.

Nothing like this,
she thought, wrapping the cloak around her tighter.

At the other end of the bay, she could see Tieran already moving to the Fearless. She and her paladin guards who'd finally caught up with her entered the bay carefully too, having been forced to take the long path to her, with Pelar on their trail. Audrey and her assistant stayed behind the rows of the warriors and guards who surrounded the monster.

As Tieran came closer, the glaive bared in his hands, Audrey could feel her heartbeat go through the roof.

This is it. This can all be over right now.

Telling herself that didn't help one bit, however. She simply couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly, inexplicably wrong.

It was too easy, that's what it was. And if dealing with the Fearless and the Jorcossi had taught her anything, it was that too easy was never a good sign. It just didn’t work that way.

She wanted to call out to Tieran, let him know he needed to be careful, but decided against it. The paladin knew that himself, for one. And she didn't want to embarrass him, for the other. Finally, she wasn’t even sure she could produce any sounds with the way her throat seemed to be iced over.

So she shrunk back.

“Pelar, stay with me.”

The Palian girl already knew what she needed from her. At the first sign of trouble, she would have to close the bracelet around Audrey's arm.

It was a dangerous ploy, because despite everything, the Fearless wasn't dead yet. Audrey could hear its vicious heart beating somewhere. Until then, it was bound to fight with all the recklessness of a cornered animal.

She watched as Tieran stopped in front of the creature, appearing to take a moment to decide which way was the best to kill it.

"Keep watch," Audrey told Pelar, smiling uneasily. "I'm going in."

She didn't want to take the bracelet off, especially so close to the monster, but if Tieran was going to go and punch his blade right into the Fearless' heart, she needed to keep watch. She figured the risk was worth it and besides, the enemy was practically frozen. It had to have some effect on it, after all.

The only way she could really help Tieran was if she could see what the Fearless was planning and warn him in time. For that, she needed to take the bracelet off and focus on the beast before her, drowning out the call of the lifestone stores beneath her feet.

Audrey realized her mistake a second too late.

Her fingers hadn't even left the clasp of the bracelet when the dark red eyes of the Fearless snapped open.

The bay came to life along with her.

Everyone was looking at her, because the Fearless was. The monster was shaking now, trying to throw the layer of ice off itself. Every glaive, every gun, every last weapon in the bay was trained at it.

The guns were already firing, but they only helped to reduce the ice.

“Stop!” Tieran roared.

The warriors heeded the command, lowering their guns and just waiting at the ready.

Audrey was gasping for air, her hand still hovering, shaking over her wrist.

The Fearless was in her head, laughing.

She had never felt anything like that, the way the monster completely overwhelmed her like she was nothing. It was almost like she was holding the lifestone again, taken to pieces as though she didn't exist, but different.

The Fearless
enjoyed
the fact that she was very much alive and tormented.

Pelar was trying to pull her hand away, covering the clasp of the bracelet, but Audrey felt like it was her that was frozen in place now. She didn't move, or budge, and there was such strength in her now that Pelar couldn’t force the bracelet shut either if Audrey didn’t allow it.

“Audrey, please!” Pelar gasped.

She gritted her teeth in fury, feeling the Fearless wreak havoc in her brain. It shuffled through her memories and feelings, looking for weaknesses. She hated it, absolutely despised the fact that the enemy managed to use her against Tieran, because the commander of the paladins had discussed everything with her.

She couldn't keep the Fearless away. It was too powerful. It was going to break through.

It had been hopeless all along.

It’s over.

That last thought knocked her back to her senses for a moment. She realized that the misery she felt wasn't hers, wasn't her at all. It wasn't like her to abandon all hope before the loss was clear.

She fought it, with everything that she had, and for a second, it felt to Audrey like she was inching closer to slamming the bracelet shut. Somewhere, the lifestone of the mountain shone, but her mind was made blind to it for the first time since she'd emerged from the mines.

Distantly, Audrey could hear Tieran and the others fighting the Fearless. It had shaken itself free and the dark black form was once again a free target, but it was also rampaging again. Men fell to the claws and the jaws like they were nothing but puppets in its way.

She sensed Tieran close by. It was the only light she felt, only certainty she could hold on to. The commander of the paladins was one of those who weren't falling to the enemy, was giving back as good as he got.

She cried out when a particularly well-aimed strike hurt the Fearless enough to carry over to her. Audrey winced, but it was nothing compared to what the enemy felt.

The Fearless was in pain.

Tieran couldn't get a good enough blow in to kill it, perhaps because he seemed to keep an eye on her.

Maybe
, Audrey's clouded mind thought,
he’s afraid that slaying the Fearless while we’re connected might kill me too.

But just because he was holding back until she was in danger didn't mean he wasn't afflicting damage to the enemy. Through the eyes of the Fearless, Audrey could see it all.

It was immediately clear to her that those weren't the images the monster had intended for her to see. The gleam of Tieran's blade, the flashes of pain that shot through it almost visibly, the dark blood running to the floor.

For some reason, that was the one that sealed the deal. The blood.

It had been a long time since the Fearless had seen its own blood flow.

As Tieran cut it, stabbing the glaive so deep as to almost slice the beast in half, the Fearless finally lashed out.

Audrey had been so close. Her fingers had already been brushing the clasp again. After the Fearless was so busy with Tieran, its attention towards her had slipped a bit, but then it realized it had to fight its way out of there.

“It’s all over, little one,” the Fearless growled, its voice echoing through the frozen bay.

And Audrey felt herself disappear.

The last she remembered before she slipped into darkness was the horrified, wide-eyed look in Pelar's eyes. Audrey’s hand felt like she was the one who had claws as she lashed out and then there was no more Audrey at all.

* * *

T
he smell
of blood was horrible.

As she opened her eyes, she was hit with a bundle of emotions. It felt like she had been sleeping for ages, but also like she had never closed her eyes, which was probably true as well.

She wished she had never opened them, instead.

The scent that had awoken her was coming from the carnage right in front of her eyes. She was standing at the entrance to the mines and everything was fucked up. Her hands were bloody.

"Oh god no..." she whispered as the despair buried her, truly hers this time.

Standing at the entrance to the mines, she could see bodies of dead paladins and miners. The realization of what had happened was too clear. While being controlled by the Fearless, she must have come down here, and killed them. Luckily, there were not too many, but any life lost was one too many.

She could hear urgent footsteps and then Tieran's strong hands closed around her as hopeless sobs wrecked her entire body. Audrey clung to him, knowing she didn't deserve any of the comfort.

"It wasn't your fault," Tieran said, pressing kisses against her hair. "Not your fault, do you hear me, Audrey? I need you to focus and to listen. Repeat it back to me, I need to make sure you understand."

Audrey could see the heap of dead bodies even with her eyes pressed closed, her face hidden against Tieran's armor. Her bracelet was nowhere in sight.

"They followed orders," she said, her voice almost as dead as she felt inside. "They fought.”

Another round of tears threatened to come, but Tieran took a hold of her shoulders and made Audrey look him in the eyes.

"It wasn't you," he said. "You would never do this and you know it. I need you to stop thinking you can take on the Fearless on your own. You can't. Perhaps even I can't. We must do it together and I need you to tell me that you agree, Audrey. Are you with me?"

She shuddered, but his words were starting to break through the initial horror that she'd felt, seeing the bloodbath in front of her. Rage arose again, realizing that the Fearless had let her free right then just for the effect the sight would have had on her.

She made sure her bracelet was shut tightly before nodding, wiping the tears away. The time to mourn was later, not now.

The most urgent problem was right behind the dead.

The Fearless had outsmarted them every step of the way and it finally had what it wanted. The doors to the mines were ripped out of the frames and there was a huge hole, signaling that the Fearless had pushed itself through.

Audrey didn't know how much time had passed, but it made sense for Tieran to come at once so they were probably only minutes behind.

And there wasn't anyone else in sight.

"Did I kill Pelar?" she asked very quietly, not seeing the diligent girl anywhere.

"I don't know," Tieran admitted. "She was the first you attacked and the blow you gave her was a nasty one, but I didn't stay to check. You were gone from the hall so fast I only had time to come chasing after you."

Tieran looked a mess. He was bleeding from several wounds and seemed to have a limp to his right leg. His eyes burned feverishly and his expression was stony, like the paladin had finally seen too much. It seemed to have only strengthened his resolve to end it all, though.

Audrey wondered if everyone in the station was dead but them. She didn't even see any Jorcossi around, but that didn't really make sense. The Fearless wouldn't bother with anyone not explicitly in its way, and the Jorcossi had been fighting for him. Would he not have them follow him once he broke out of the bay?

Maybe he doesn’t want them close to the lifestones…

She nodded seriously.

"I am with you," she said. "I am. Let's get that bastard."

They entered the mines, immediately witnessing the destruction the Fearless had left behind. It had no finesse, no patience, no anything.

Audrey walked carefully along tunnels that the monster had simply broken through. Everywhere, broken equipment and damaged structure hinted at its passing.

Like the Fearless, she and Tieran were forced to travel down into the depths of the mines on foot. All the elevators were broken and the passages too damaged to be used in anyway and as such, it took a while for them to catch up to the Fearless.

All that time, she didn't dare to speak a word. Everything that mattered had been said between her and the paladin already and the situation was unfortunately clear enough.

Their attempts to stop the Fearless in the station had failed and that had been the only objective, in truth. They had both figured that once the monster got into the mines, it would be over.

Perhaps it was.

Audrey knew they wouldn't learn that until they stood face to face with the enemy. Again.

Not that it has done us much good so far.

Going deeper and deeper, Audrey felt the glow and the power of the lifestone more clearly than ever before. It was comforting that compared to that, the Fearless was nothing but a speck in the distance. She hoped it meant that the Fearless hadn't found the lifestone yet.

"Tieran," she said, the sound of her voice in the silence surprising even herself. "If we get down there and it has found the stone, I just want my last words to you be the truth.

“I love you."

The look in the paladin's eyes was as close to happiness as Audrey had ever seen, the stillness of his expression changing for a moment.

"I love you too," he said and took her hand, holding it firmly in his.

They took a moment to simply look at each other, despite not having a second to spare. After all, Audrey thought they were both prepared for the likely event of dying. Almost everyone else had already, so it was the only reasonable outcome, right?