Alien Paladin's Woman: SciFi Alien-Human Military Suspense Romance (20 page)

If they had to pay for their mistakes with their lives, she was glad for that moment.

She let go when the flicker that had been the Fearless suddenly flared to life again, becoming a burning flame once more.

It had reached the bottom of the mines.

T
ieran seemed
to read the truth from her eyes.

The paladin turned very serious, more so than Audrey had ever seen him. She felt a tinge of guilt, like it was her fault. They were faced with a terrible enemy and it just happened to have gained another edge on them.

"What now?" she asked quietly.

"How bad is it?" Tieran asked, his deep voice firm as iron. "Has it reached the core?"

Audrey focused on the Fearless, increasingly brighter in her vision, but the mountain still outshone it.

"I don't think it has reached much," she said. "Maybe the same batch we found. It would make sense, it's the most easily accessible part."

The paladin considered the information for a moment. Then he took Audrey's hand and they started going back towards the station.

"Tieran..." she protested. "We can't leave it there."

"We won't," he said sternly. "I told you. I have no intention of letting the Fearless get away with anything. It has outsmarted us so far, but I will put an end to it. I should have done this in the first place."

"What are you going to do?" Audrey asked, barely keeping up with his long strides.

"I will collapse the mines," Tieran said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Audrey stopped right in her tracks, staring at him, glaring.

"You would be willing to lose the lifestone stores. Everything we've been working towards for over a year? After all the lives we’ve lost? Wasn't it you who told me what it could do for the galaxy?"

"Yes. Right now," Tieran said, pulling her along again. "It is threatening to be the thing that brings the galaxy down. I will not permit that to happen. We can reach the core again, but if the Fearless escapes, there is no telling what it will do."

It made sense, but it still hurt. As the governor of the planet, she felt a kinship to it. Not only to Verien itself, but also the people who lived there, who had sacrificed so much to gain something so valuable.

"You're right," she said then, picking up the pace as well. "But Tieran... I don't think it will kill the Fearless."

"I don't expect it to," the paladin said. "I believe it will make it choose between the stone and its life and that is not a choice at all for it. I want it to claw its way up a collapsing mountain and meet me face to face at last. No tricks, no hosts, just the enemy and me."

"It will be furious," she pointed out.

There was an odd smile on Tieran's face as he nodded.

"Yes," he admitted. "Trust me, Audrey. We will end this right now."

* * *

T
here weren't
many people left alive outside the barricades. A few other paladins had managed to survive and they were as close to furious as paladins could get.

The enemy down below was grating on all of their nerves, pushing aside every other issue.

Tieran ordered an immediate evacuation of remaining personnel as Audrey got to work with the safety measures of the mines.

Time was of the utmost importance now, but Audrey needed to give her people some time. Collapsing the entire mine right under the station was a last resort, not something that could be planned precisely, even with Palian technology. Tieran was very clear about that.

None of them had any idea whether the station would still be standing when they detonated. He assured her that they wouldn't be sucked down to the planet along with it, but there were risks.

Earthquakes, collapses, loss of power due to all of that... And Audrey didn't need to be told that. She had her own experiences with things like that and she'd seen them take a wrong turn.

At least Gil isn’t here,
she told herself, smirking wryly as she worked.

As many people needed to get away as possible, but Audrey wasn't wasting time. She trusted in her teams. They were well-trained and well-organized. By her command, they would move without question.

The Fearless, of course, was an incentive that she couldn't possibly hope to match. Who would have wanted to stay on the surface with that monster?

Except for her.

Audrey still refused to leave, but she was also intent on not letting the enemy use her again. The bracelet had been found in the bay and now remained locked on her wrist. Although she'd had a blinding headache ever since she set foot on the planet again, it was bearable.

All that mattered to her was helping Tieran in any way that she could.

"How's it going?" the paladin asked, coming closer.

"Almost there," Audrey said. "I'm trying to make sure it goes as I want. It needs to hit the Fearless hard, but we also need the station to stand. It's not exactly a precise science."

Tieran looked over her shoulder, interested, and if Audrey didn't mistake the emotion, somewhat impressed.

"I wasn't aware you knew so much about mining," he mused out loud.

Audrey smiled, her hands never stopping flying over the console keyboard, overriding every safety with her identification code.

"Of course I do," she said. "This is not my first mining world. I would be a pretty bad governor if I didn't know how my own enterprise worked."

There was a strange light in Tieran's eyes as he regarded her, a warmth that almost washed away the intensity of their joint battle-readiness.

"There is so much about you I still don't know," he said.

Finishing the preparations with a sigh, Audrey pressed herself against him, loving the way he immediately cradled her in his strong arms. Ever since she'd met him, there had been a constant throb of desire whenever she was near him, but Audrey felt another emotion taking over that spot.

Tieran was as gorgeous as ever, but the simplicity of being with him was unmistakably love.

"That is just another reason to finish this," she said. "Are you ready?"

The paladin laughed, the timbre of his deep voice hearty and soft. It gave Audrey courage too, knowing he hadn't given up. As long as Tieran believed they had hope, she was going to do everything in her power to aid him.

So far, everything that could had gone wrong, and she was damn well ready for their luck to change. Even if Tieran didn’t believe in luck.

She opened a comm link to the entire station.

"This is your governor, Audrey Price," she said firmly. "To anyone still listening. Commander Tieran and I are ready to face the Fearless and make our final stand. In a minute, I will collapse the mine.

“To all of you, in case I never see you again, it has been an honor to be here with you. I hope you all make it into ships before the Fearless comes, but we can't delay any further. Brace for impact in ten seconds.

“Goodbye, and good luck."

All the concerns over who had the highest authority over Verien cast aside, Audrey looked at Tieran, who nodded. In the back of her mind, she could still feel the Fearless, just as strong as before, but no stronger. With the bracelet on she could still sense him, but like it was through a window, safely on the other side.

He doesn’t have more of the lifestone yet. That’s good,
Audrey encouraged herself.

Then she pushed the button that ignited the detonation in the mines. The sound of the first explosion was almost deafening and the ground shook beneath their feet so hard Audrey expected the floor to swallow them.

It didn't.

A thought flashed through her mind as Tieran held her that Palians really were the best at everything. She hoped the paladin was, too. Audrey couldn't imagine her life without him anymore.

Below them, she could feel the Fearless realize their plan. It had a few seconds to consider. Between the choice of being buried underneath the mountain and abandoning its prize, Tieran had been right. It was no choice at all, but it was still a painful realization.

When the Fearless roared thirty floors beneath them, everyone heard it echo over the station. Only Audrey, however, felt as it began to climb back up. She gripped at her chest, sensing its fury.

Everything it had ever wanted had been ripped from its grasp at the last moment. The Fearless was coming for blood.

This won’t be easy.

* * *

I
n the minutes they had
, Audrey made sure to get out of the way of the monster. She considered herself to be incredibly lucky – at least in one way - and she assumed Tieran shared that opinion with her. The fact neither of them had been taken on as hosts yet was nothing short of miraculous and she didn't want that small mercy to end.

Being mind-fucked by an alien entity was already bad enough. Dying by having it burst out of your body would be… well, worse.

From her cover, Audrey watched as Tieran waited for the Fearless to emerge. The paladin was standing ready, the glaive at its full length. The warrior was motionless, she could almost believe he was so focused he didn't even breathe.

In fact, the only part of him that moved was the gray, silver-etched armor, growing bigger around him. The nanobot technology was as amazing to Audrey as everything else about Palians. It was like a living shield around him, ready to move to brace whichever area needed the most help.

She kept silent watch over him, praying to any god who could hear her to give the man she loved strength.

Determination he had to spare.

It was nearly impossible to stay still though, as the Fearless' roaring came ever closer. Audrey shuddered, feeling the floor beneath her feet begin to shake as the beast was pushing through the final levels.

Reports kept coming in over the comm link, of ships leaving Verien and fighting their way through the Jorcossi, that had been contained in the launch bays, searching for the
Evela
or what was left of their supply ship.

Audrey was thankful for one thing, at least. After all the killing, there was no one left for the Fearless to use as a host. It was Tieran or the enemy, as easy as that.

"It's here!" she called as a warning seconds before the Fearless emerged.

Audrey gasped.

The creature climbed out of the mines, shaking off the debris that had fallen on it, dust and rocks and metal. It was so big it barely fit in the hall and the entrance to the mines was one of the grandest, with a high ceiling and reinforced walls.

The dark glow in its eyes was pure, ancient loathing as it roared, spittle flying. And underneath all the dirt and gore, Audrey could see it glow.

After all it had done, it had managed to gobble up some of the stones it had desired. It must have reached the small store they had uncovered originally. But she could tell that its hunger was nowhere near sated.

Seeing Tieran, the Fearless charged without pause. It didn't bother with words. The message was clear enough.

T
his is it
.

Tieran only had a moment to register the Fearless' appearance before the creature struck. He jumped out of the way of its massive claws, growing longer with every second.

He felt like laughing, although the situation was dire and Audrey had never been in greater danger.

But the Fearless was finally giving him a
chance
.

Dodging the powerful blows that threatened to take his head off, Tieran was pleased to see that for the moment, the creature's attention was on him and him alone.

As it should be.

As the Fearless roared, the walls of the station shook. Even Tieran's ears hurt, but he made himself push through any pain the monster might have caused, blocking it out to be dealt with later. It had finally reverted to its basic instincts and that was the final opportunity he was going to get.

He could see the lifestone's glow within the Fearless, making the monster almost transparent where it was hidden in its body.

It was a disadvantage, but Palians were known for one thing above everything else – and that was taking problems and turning them against themselves. It was how they handled the galaxy and everyone in it.

They had even let some dangerous species go unpunished and unchallenged to give the Brions something to do. The violent core of the most formidable race in the galaxy needed a target and from time to time, the Palians were forced to provide that.

Never the Fearless, though. Never them. They were a plague upon the galaxy and Tieran meant to end it once and for all that day.

The Fearless towered over him, looking like something out of a storybook more than real life. It truly was the epitome of a monster, with the burning eyes and the black-as-night skin, almost impossible to break.

The size of the enemy didn't scare him. On the contrary, it was everything Tieran had been hoping for. In a place that small, that cramped – at least for the Fearless – it was hindering itself while he had a large opponent to aim at.

And his target was right ahead, glowing.

He needed to get closer, much closer.

The Fearless seemed to realize that too. Suddenly it understood what he was about to do and Tieran saw the most furious gaze he'd ever seen, a deathly red glow in its eyes. The Fearless bellowed such a cry it knocked him back, sliding on the floor before regaining his footing.

"Not so fast," the Fearless gargled at him. "If you do this, she will die as well. We are connected, forever. She knows this."

Tieran never dropped his guard, but the monster's words gave him pause.

Could it be true? Would Audrey not have told him if she was inescapably tied to the fate of the Fearless? Everything he'd seen of her told him it was possible. Audrey cared about her people, Verien, the galaxy. It wasn't impossible that she would have sacrificed herself like that, confessing her love to him as her final words.

The eyes of the Fearless were burning with vicious glee.

No.

He couldn't believe that, refused to accept the prospect of losing her. The creature was lying, it had to be.

In the next moment, Audrey screamed.

The shrill, heartbreaking sound made Tieran turn. The Fearless struck at once, sending him crashing into a wall. Only his armor saved him, morphing in mid-air to soften the blow, but it also destroyed many of the nanobots, leaving him with less protection moving forward.

Audrey's cry continued, unbroken, like she was never going to say another word, nor laugh in the way that he had come to love.

He got up, rage burning in him now. It wasn't natural for a paladin to hate the enemy, but the Fearless was pushing him deeper into emotions he didn't want to feel. If Audrey had taught him anything, it was that embracing his emotions was not always a bad thing.

"Do you hear that?" the monster asked, prowling, edging closer to her. "I'm doing that to her. And I can do a lot more if you don't lead me to the rest of the stones."

"The stones are gone," Tieran said, coming closer carefully, watching the Fearless bare its fangs in a terrible growl. "
You know that
. They're under the mountain now, buried again. It isn't in my power to bring them back."

He didn't have the connection to the Fearless that Audrey had, but even Tieran could feel the Fearless shake with rage then. The disappointment surrounded it like a physical aura.

He wondered if the other paladins were prepared to follow his orders and destroy the planet if he failed. The lifestone would be gone with the Fearless, but there was no other choice.

"Tieran…"

The sound of her voice was so pained it hurt him to hear. He saw Audrey, lying on the ground, her long blonde hair spread around her as she'd fallen. Her eyes were bloodshot, but she was looking at him.

"It's… lying."

In the next second, the Fearless cast a look in her direction and Audrey's eyes slid shut.

Rage blinded Tieran.

He charged the Fearless, but the enemy was prepared for him. The true battle began as Audrey's lifeless body laid on the ground. Tieran couldn't see if she still breathed.

It can’t be over!

The glaive in his hand cut and tore at the Fearless, trying to get closer, but it came at a price.

All the simulations he'd fought were not a match for the real monster. Even in its gigantic form now, having lost some of its speed, the enemy was damnably fast and agile. Every slash of its claws diminished the nanobots in his armor as the Fearless sought to tear through them and rip at flesh.

The smart bots compensated for every loss, strengthening the places that were weakened, but their numbers were running out.

Still, it was more than any other armor would have done. Tieran had seen vids of it, the Fearless needing only one strike to punch through even the strongest metal.

The last Brion general to kill one of them had been luckier than his predecessors. Tieran had seen quite a few of the galaxy's most feared warriors fall to the monsters that lurked in its darkest depths.

Step by step, he was advancing, pushing the Fearless back. At the back of his mind, he knew that the only reason he was able to do that was that the monster had to be defensive.

It needed to cover its belly and the lifestones it had swallowed.

He doubled his efforts, remembering that it had been Audrey's idea, her observation. The monster's power was boosted by the stone, but it tied its life to it. The stone, for all intents and purposes, became a part of it.

Audrey had described the pain, the sense of loss similar to losing a limb, or worse, when the Fearless had been forced to sacrifice the last stone.

He was going to carve the stone right out of the Fearless and the monster knew it.

Their fight became a battle for survival. Every mistake, every attention slip was going to end in death now, Tieran knew that.

He was close enough to feel the monster's breath, dealing constant blows with the glaive, his hand never stopping the attack. He needed to keep the pressure on the Fearless until the beast finally let him grab a hold of it. The dragon-like body kept swirling out of the path of its glaive, making Tieran grit his teeth.

After long minutes of slashing and cutting and being cut, he caught a grip on the Fearless' monstrous form. It screeched somewhere above him, trying to bite him in half, but it had grown too big to bend that way.

Size wasn’t always a good thing.

I can’t stop now!

The paladin knew he couldn't pause for even a second or the fate he suffered was going to be worse than death. The Fearless hated him with a passion, blamed them both for its failure.

Not only wouldn't the monster chew him up slowly, it would do the same with Audrey, whether she was alive or not.

The Fearless had become the terrain itself, its monstrous draconic form big enough for Tieran to climb inch by inch up its body to where the glow beckoned him.

He slipped in the Fearless' blood, stumbled in the wounds he had inflicted on it. When the creature saw that everything else failed, both of them moving with speed beyond anything that should have been possible… it began to mutilate its own body to stop him.

Seeing it was futile, the Fearless tore at its own skin and flesh, trying to snatch Tieran up.

The paladin had already accounted for that possibility, of course. It only made his job harder, to jump and climb over chasms of flesh, at points staring right into the Fearless' body.

And then the monster caught him.

The smallest slip cost Tieran his balance and the Fearless snatched him up faster than he could react.

A victorious roar echoed over the hall as Tieran felt himself being pulled upwards with nauseating speed. He could see the Fearless open its gigantic jaws to chew him to powder between its powerful fangs.

He braced himself, admitting no fear.

Audrey!

All he thought of, in the face of the embodiment of terror in the galaxy, was her. He couldn't fail her, her world, her trust. Tieran didn't want to believe she was dead, but if she was, he would avenge her if it was the last thing he did.

The same trick that had worked on the simulation wasn't possible. With the same eerie knowledge, the Fearless seemed to know exactly where the danger lay for it. The mouth opened, but there was no place, no good angle to stab it and fight it off like he had with the mech.

Instead, Tieran rolled his shoulders and took a strong hold of his glaive. When the Fearless reached to pull him in two, he cut. A long claw fell to the ground as the Fearless screamed in anger, squeezing him in its fist. The pressure was enough to almost squeeze him to death, but the last remains of his armor were resisting with everything it had.

He needed to get out before it gave in or he would be squished right there in the Fearless' palm. It wasn't a fitting end for a paladin and
definitely
not for him.

“You’re mine now,” it hissed.

“No!” Tieran snapped back, reverting to the word the beast hated so much.

As the Fearless claws aimed to cut his head from his shoulders, he took the blinding pain, turning his attention to the hand holding him. The Fearless was big enough to actually hold him tight there, but he could still reach the wrist and that's what he attacked.

The first strike of his glaive made the Fearless howl and the second made him thrash. The claws around him let up a bit as Tieran realized the monster was going to throw him across the hall again.

He couldn't let that happen. His armor was almost gone and with the Fearless growing stronger every second from the lifestones within him, the impact would kill him without question.

Tieran slammed the blade of his glaive into the Fearless' hand a second before it tried to shake him loose. With a screech, the beast loosened its grip.

As soon as nothing was holding him anymore, he pulled at the blade and dropped. He could hear the Fearless roar in fury, but it was already too late.

He landed right on its lap, stopping his fall by grabbing on to the monster, shoving his glaive into its flesh. With heartbeats separating him from certain death by decapitation as the Fearless struck at him, Tieran began to slice the enemy open.

He was bleeding heavily and so was the Fearless. He was covered in crimson head to toe, more the monster’s than his own, and it trickled down to his eyes, but he kept cutting.

The stones were the key. Audrey had been certain of that and he trusted her.

He could already see the glowing mineral, right at arm's reach when the Fearless’ claw struck home. It impaled his shoulder and tore a pained grunt from him as Tieran almost blacked out from the pain, but then something happened neither of them had been able to foresee.

The Fearless winced away, like it had been shocked. Through the pain and the blood, Tieran could see Audrey, who had pushed herself up to sit against the wall, although she looked very weak and pale, her skin the color of her hair.

She had done it. Tieran didn't know how, but she'd managed to turn the Fearless' tricks against it. Somehow, she must have played with its mind just as it had done to her before.

The creature roared, charging at her with him dangling from its body. With a cry, he made sure he had a solid enough foothold and brought the glaive down with both hands.

The Fearless stumbled, crashing against the wall as everything flipped around. Tieran tumbled away from it, the stones spilling out to the floor near Audrey, along with blood and flesh and bone. The creature was down, but not dead.

All three of them moved at once.

“The stones!” Audrey gasped.

Audrey and the monster had been closer to the stones and went for them. No words of warning left Tieran's lips before Audrey's hand closed around the stones that had already almost killed her. Her scream was inhuman, but the Fearless slumped back like it had been struck.

The floor was so slick with blood Tieran was able to push Audrey away easily, sending her sliding away from the monster that was thrashing on the floor like something was torturing it.

In the next second, its cruel red eyes flashed open and Audrey screeched.

“Tieran!” she screamed, her voice half her own, half the Fearless’.

Tieran didn't waste a second. He was at the Fearless' side in two steps, thrusting the glaive right into its brain where it had fallen. The monster tried to claw him away, dragging bloody wounds on his body, but he held on, pushing the blade between its vicious red eyes.

For a moment, its eyes flashed green instead of red and Tieran’s blood curdled in his veins.

The monster opened its mouth, blood trickling from its fangs.

"This is not the end," the Fearless gargled, the words breaking, but Tieran had no more patience for it.

He struck the blade home and twisted it until the light in the Fearless' eyes went out.

Holding it there, he breathed heavily, only then starting to feel the toll the fight had taken on his body.

Audrey.

Turning, he saw her body convulsing, her fist closed around a lifestone. Tieran dashed to her as fast as he could, knocking the stone out of her hand.