Marauder Kain: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars Book 5) (7 page)

I
watch
the lights on Darkstar as the shuttle descends. The Seraphim have already landed, and they’re waiting for me.

Thousands of half-Marauder, half-humans discontent with their human half. They want nothing more than to abandon their home system and become Marauders– to travel to a new star system to conquer and interbreed. And I’m supposed to train them. If only Adus knew what I was really up to.

Maybe he does. He certainly is withholding key information. If I knew where specifically these Seraphim were going to fight, or what they were going to fight against, I could specialize their training. But Adus has so little trust that he won’t even tell me what to train them for.

The shuttle touches down in the main hangar, and the roof shuts above me. When I step outside, I see line after line of uniformed Seraph waiting for me.

They try to snap to attention in unison, but they’re completely disjointed. One even falls over.

I want to shake my head, but I snap to attention to meet them.

They’re all watching me. Clearly they know I’m the one who will train them. They’ve all sacrificed everything to be here, to receive this training. I am their first impression of Darkstar– of being a Marauder.

I better sell it.

“On your homes,” I say, speaking loud and projecting my voice so it fills the hangar. “On Earth, Mars, and Venus, what do they call you?”

The Seraphim stand lined up, though some risk looking at each other. They don’t know if they are supposed to speak. I twitch my ears to give them a hint.

“Fallen Seraphim!” someone from the back shouts.

“Yes,” I say, pointing toward him. “They call you
Fallen
Seraphim. But this is wrong. You are not Fallen Seraphim...you are simply Marauders that have yet to rise up. Here, on Darkstar, we will make you into true Marauders. Through sweat and training on this cold, hard planet, we will make you into Marauders….”

They are all looking at me now, all standing straighter...but I need to say something more to really get them on board.

“Fallen Seraphim…,” I say, my voice full of loathing. “How dare they call you that, as if they know what it means to be a Seraphim– to be a Marauder. The only ones who will fall will be the humans. When Darkstar is done– when
you
are done– all humans will be fallen humans. We will destroy their planets one by one, obliterate them. Those left will descend in chaos and anarchy, killing each other while we stand strong and united. We will rise up, and
they
will fall!”

Now they cheer. Thousands of pink hands thrusting up into the air. I smile wide and keep my ears taut, but I don’t believe a word of what I’ve said. Hopefully Adus was watching that scene through a camera, as I probably looked quite convincing.

“Report to your barracks!” I shout, as the cheering dies down. “Sleep well, and wake first thing in the morning. I will have to break all of you if I’m to rebuild you into warriors!”

Senka and Raius have been assigned to help me with the training. I can’t help but feel they are here more to supervise and report back to Adus on me than to actually help, but they lead the Seraphim to their barracks after my speech is over. I stand in the hangar until I’m alone.

I still haven’t been told anything. I have been given no weapons, let in on no plans or information. I don’t even know where I’m staying.

But I know where Kara is, and that’s really all that matters.

With Senka and Raius gone, and the Seraphim resting until morning, now would be the time to pay her a visit. Adus may be tracking my movements, but I have to risk it.

All of the buildings on the surface of Darkstar are connected by sealed hallways, so there’s no need to suit up and go from building to building. I travel through the hallways and toward the area where the prisoners are kept.

When I near the prisoners’ quarters, three human men with bulging muscles– all humans who live on Darkstar are thick with muscle– cross my path.

They stop dead when they see me, and their mouths hang open.

“Do you not have work to do?” I snap.

The tallest one steps forward and speaks. “We just finished mining detail...Sir.”

His “sir” sounds almost like a question. I’m new on the surface, at least for him. He must have been taken in the last year since I don’t recognize him, though I never really visited the prisoners’ quarters very often before my time on Atlantis and Venus.

“Kain,” I say. “Son of Grius.”

“Brother of Adus,” another man says.

They all look at me with knowing expressions. They seem...expectant.

“Kara is doing well, sir,” one of them says hastily. The other two elbow him, and they quickly try to scurry away.

“Wait,” I say.

They stop, but don’t turn around.

“We don’t know anything!” one of them blurts out.

“Where is she?”

“She’s done for the day,” one says. “You can just go to her room.”

“Go,” I say. “And you know
nothing
.”

I don’t know what they know, but I’ll have to figure it out from Kara. She couldn’t have been so stupid as to tell total strangers what I was up to.

I pass through the prisoners’ gruel hall, which is full of dozens of humans. They all look up at me curiously, though some of the women look at me with something much more than curiosity. I ignore all of them and move toward the prisoners’ sleeping quarters– to Kara.

Just past the gruel hall is a console. I consider putting my hand on it to find out exactly where Kara is, but if Adus is actually tracking me, this would make it too easy for him. He
will
find out when I claim Kara, but he doesn’t need to know that I went to see her almost first thing after landing on Darkstar.

Instead, I walk down the hallway and peer through the windows. The windows are all clear, and I can look right in and see human women in each cell. Some scowl at me, others smile and beckon to me, but I ignore them all.

Occasionally I pass a tinted window– which means a Marauder is inside with one of the women.

As I near the end of the hallway, my chest tightens. I still have not seen Kara or Felicia, and there are only a few rooms left.

I reach the last two, and I see Felicia through one clear window, but the last window is tinted.

I unlock Felicia’s door with my hand, and before I can speak, she points behind me.

“Senka just went inside,” she says. “A few minutes ago–”

I spin around, rush toward the tinted window, nearly kicking the door down.

When the door slides open, I see Kara’s back against the wall, fear in her eyes. Senka is close to her. Too close.

Rage fills me. Pure, molten-hot rage that only a Marauder raised on Darkstar can feel.

I growl and grab Senka by the shoulders.

He turns around and flashes a cocky grin at me. He thinks I won’t dare hit him. I notice he’s not wearing his biosuit.

I tighten my fist and slam it into his nose.

I feel a thunderous crack on my knuckle, and when I pull it away it’s covered in blood. Senka’s eyes roll back into his head, and he drops to the ground in a heap. He twitches violently for a second or two, then stops, dead.

“Kara,” I say, putting my unbloodied hand on her. “Are you--?”

“I’m fine,” she says. “He didn’t...you came in time,” she says.

Her eyes are wide, and they look at me only briefly, then they look down past me, wide and terrified.

“He’s...he’s…,” she points down.

I look at Senka, and realize he’s not breathing. His face is a bloody mess, and his nose looks like a bag of loose skin.

“Dead,” I say. “I slammed his cartilage into his brain.”

“You
killed
him?” Kara asks. “Why–?”

“I saw he wasn’t wearing a biosuit” I say, “so I killed him. This is how Marauders fight.”

“Kain,” Kara says, putting her hands on my arm and squeezing. “I don’t care about Senka...but won’t this….” She looks at the door, which is already shut behind us. Felicia is locked back in her room, but our window is tinted now.

“Blow my cover?” I ask. “No. This is Darkstar.”

“What does that even mean?” Kara says, face scrunching up in frustration.

“Senka knew I wanted to claim you, and he overstepped. This is what he gets,” I say, pointing down at his corpse.

“So punching his nose into his brain is just some casual thing for you?” Kara asks, letting go of me and crossing her arms. “It’s who you are?”

“I was protecting you,” I say.

She takes in a deep breath, holds it, and then sighs, shaking her head. Her eyes are tearing up. “I don’t want to be here, Kain.”

“And I’ll get you out,” I say. “But you need to keep tight lips about that.”

“What does that mean?” she asks.

“I passed by three men,” I say. “They seemed to know–”

“That was Felicia,” Kara says. “Blame her. But those three want out, and I’ve already started figuring it out. We are on mining duty with those three, and the rocks are several kilometers away from base. This is the best time to come and rescue us, so we’d need those three on board anyway.”

Kara looks down at the body again. “Can you….”

I open the door and drag Senka’s body out into the hallway.

Felicia looks through her window with wide eyes, and she starts pounding on her door.

I open her door and she shouts, “Is it time–?”

I cover her mouth with my hand and push her into her room. I hear Kara coming in behind me. “Quiet, Felicia,” I hiss.

I take my hand off her mouth, and she starts ranting excitedly. I cover her mouth again.

“Make her be quiet!” I whisper to Kara.

Kara gives Felicia a look, and I feel her body relax. She looks up at me. I take my hand off, and she’s quiet at last.

“You cannot tell anyone else,” I say.

“I thought it was already time,” Felicia says, pointing down at Senka. “Otherwise, why did you kill him?”

“I need to build a certain reputation,” I say.

Kara scoffs. “And what reputation is that?”

“Someone that you
do not
fuck with,” I say. “A
Marauder
.”

“Well,” Kara says, “I certainly won’t fuck with you. Not today. So can you please get the dead alien out of our cells?”

I growl at her, and grab Senka’s leg. I drag him through the hall, like the piece of garbage he was.

When I reach the gruel hall, I whip him across the floor and slide him up to some of the male prisoners’ feet.

They stop eating and stare at me with terrified expressions.

“Bury him,” I say.

Now everyone stares at me. No one is eating anymore.

“I hope everyone is listening to me,” I say.

I point down at Senka’s body. “I hope everyone sees this.”

They stare stupidly at me, as if asking me how they could
not
see?

“This Marauder tried to force himself onto one of the female prisoners. This is
not
our way. Some of you prisoners may be new, you may fear for your lives. We may kill you, and we
will
force you to work, but no one should force themselves onto you. The penalty for this is death, and I will be the executioner. Do you understand?”

No one even dares nod at me. I see dozens of shocked and stunned men and women, and they are hanging on my every word.

“And one more thing,” I say. “I claim Kara. She’s mine.”

I see some of the women look away. They think I’ve contradicted myself.

“No one can claim you if you don’t want to be claimed,” I shout. “It’s your choice!”

In the back of the room, I spot Raius. He’s trying to conceal a smirk, but failing. Either he’s happy that Senka is dead, or he’s happy that I specifically was the one who killed him.

I ball up my fists, digging my nails into my palms. Killing Senka did
not
relieve my anger, it just made it burn hotter. I was supposed to be with Kara now, but because of this piece of shit, she doesn’t want to see me. As if we have unlimited time– as if I’m not trying to juggle two missions at once– three if you count training the Seraphim.

And now another asshole– Raius– is standing in my way. He’s standing in front of the only way out of the prisoners’ quarters.

I walk through the gruel hall with my back straight, and I try to swallow my anger. I don’t want to kill Raius, too.

“Kain,” he says, once I’m near him.

I shove past him, ignoring him entirely.

Before the door shuts behind me, I hear his footsteps pattering behind me. I continue to ignore him.

“I’ve been assigned to assist you in training the Seraphim.”

“Tell Adus I don’t need your help.”

Teal tendrils snap across my field of view, they interlink from both sides, and thicken until they form a thick teal shield in front of me. Raius’s biosuit.

Is he going to kill me? I won’t be able to fight him this close unarmed, but I’ll die trying.

I turn around and glare at him, twitching my ears in anticipation.

“You don’t know how to use a biosuit,” Raius says. “And I do.”

Oh, he’s not going to kill me? I misread the situation– or perhaps he will wait to kill me.

“So you’ll train the Seraphim to use the biosuit. I’ll train them in everything else. I’ll take mornings, you take evenings.”

“There are no mornings or evenings on Darkstar,” Raius says. “Or have you been gone too long?”

“You know what I mean,” I say. “It’s just an expression.”

“A human one,” Raius says.

“Seraphim, too,” I say. “We’ll be training Seraphim.”

It’s a weak save, but the best I can think of.

“We’re training them to be Marauders,” Raius says, narrowing his eyes.

“I train them at waking hours,” I say, my anger bubbling up to a breaking point. “You train them after last meal.”

“No,” Raius says. “This isn’t what Adus wants.”

The teal shield slams into my back, but before it can knock me over, it wraps itself entirely around me. It blocks out all light and sensation of movement. Maybe I
did
fall over, but I can’t feel the inertia or the sudden impact against the floor.

I feel the teal film press into the top of my skull, and then it presses harder into a spot a few centimeters away. It feels like it’s searching for something– probing me.