Tansy's Titan: Cosmos' Gateway Book 3 (6 page)

*.*.*

Tansy pulled back as far as she could. She had killed five of the sons-of-bitches so far and taken one of the mics so she could listen in but the number of men crawling through the building seemed to be more copious than the rats living in it. She sucked in a sharp breath as she dropped down onto a lower floor. The last bastard had sliced her across her stomach. It wasn’t more than a deep scratch but it still hurt like hell. Her leg and side was throbbing as well. Over the past week plus, she had lost weight. Her pants had a draw string inside but the sides were bunching up so much it was making it hard to keep them on. Tansy leaned down and drew in slow, deep breaths in the hope of pushing
away
the exhaustion through her mind and body long enough to take as many of these assholes with her as possible. She was out of time, energy, and resources. This was her last holdout. When the men came for her at the last abandon warehouse she hid at, she escaped down the elevator shaft and made it out using an old coal delivery chute.

They had hounded her every step for the past week and she was working on an hour of sleep here or there, no food to speak of, and rain water. Her body had hit empty and was sucking the bottom of a dry tank. She was down to nine rounds of ammo, eight if she didn’t count the one for her. Her only solace is that Cosmos would know where to find her body and bring her home.

Tansy stood up and moved to the door on the middle level of the warehouse. She was done with this shit. She had sent the information to not only her bosses but to RITA and to a friend who worked at the New York Times. Matt would get it two weeks from the time she sent it. Something smelled about this assignment. It twisted in her gut and pulled at her since she was first sent out. If her boss or anyone along the path upward was in
volved with Boris, she would not be the only one going down. She was about to charge out when she heard some of the men shouting in anger and fear.

“
Где она? Найдите ее. Сейчас! Отсчитайте!”
Where is she? Find her. Now! Count off!
A deep voice yelled.

“We
are missing teams one, three, five, eight, nine, and ten. What the hell is happening? I can’t believe that bitch has taken out over half of our men!” A different voice said.

Tansy paused. Over half their men were dead? Who the hell was here? She didn’t believe Cosmos when he said he was sending help. Hell, even if he did there was no way someone could have killed another ten men this quickly. Tansy listened as gunfire erupted on the same level as her. A loud roar sent a chill down her spine.
That
had not been human! Screams filled the air before silence took over. Tansy heard frantic whispers over the mic she was wearing. They were down to three men from the sound of it. Maybe she would make it out after all.

*.*.*

Mak moved through the level. His shoulder burned where one of the weapons had sliced through but it was a minor wound that would heal within a couple of hours. He had surprised the two men as they were talking to someone through a device in their ear. He could smell the other three men and was about to go after them when a new scent struck him so hard it almost brought him to his knees. He smelled blood but it was sweet and tangy. He knew it was his mate’s blood and a dark rage filled him at the thought of her being wounded and hunted. He lifted his head and drew in a deep breath. She was on this level but he could not be exactly sure where. The device he had that tracked her was good to within fifty feet. He was closer than that. He moved out of the room he was in and onto an open platform. He hadn’t taken more than a dozen steps when he saw a beam of red light focus on the center of his chest. Cursing at letting his guard down, Mak froze and waited.

“Who are you?” One of the deep voices from before called out.

Mak did not reply. They would not understand him anyway so he did not bother with wasting his time. He merely looked at the man in front of him while listening to the two coming up quietly from behind.

Karp moved closer holding his assault rifle up. A wave of cold dread passed through him as he saw the glowing silver eyes of the man standing in front of him. At least, he thought it was a man. He had never seen such a huge bastard in his life. There was a cold calm that belied the fact the man had three weapons aimed at him. It was almost like he knew they could not kill him before he killed them.

“What are you?” Karp asked.

Mak grinned letting his canines lengthen as he did. He watched the human male standing in front of him pale and fall backwards a step. He could feel his muscles tightening. He would take a couple of bullets probably but he would kill the men before they could kill him. Mak watched as Karp opened his mouth. Before he could say a word, a dark figure flew out of the doorway firing at the man in front of him. At the same time, it hit Mak at waist level with such force it knocked him sideways into the railing. Gunfire erupted missing Mak by scant inches. The dark figure rolled and continued firing at the same time. Mak growled out a warning, wrapped one of his beefy arms around the slender waist and rolled so he was on top. The figure lying under him suddenly went limp. Mak raised up enough to see if the female was alright. She quickly shifted the gun from one hand to the other with a flick of her wrist. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled it down against her chest, firing another two rounds to his right just as a bullet whistled by where his head had been.

“Next time, keep your fucking head in the game if you want to keep it attached to your body. Now, if Cosmos sent you, get the fuck off me. If not, I’ve got a round for you,” Tansy growled out pressing the hot tip of her gun against Mak’s temple.

Mak froze as he felt the hot metal against the side of his head press harder the longer he waited. It was difficult for him to move. The body under his was so slight, so fragile he was afraid he would crush her if he put any pressure on her at all.

Mak gingerly rolled off of Tansy. Once he was clear, he rolled to his knees keeping his hands up, palms forward as Cosmos told him. He let his fingers move slowly to the back of his head in a position to show his mate he meant her no harm.

“I will not hurt you,” Mak said softly staring down into the thin, tired face of his mate.

Tansy bit her lip as she sat up never taking her gun off the figure that even on his knees was almost as tall as she was standing up. She was staring at his eyes. They were glowing. They were silver. They were not fucking human. Neither were his teeth if the fangs hanging down were real.

“Who the fuck are you?” Tansy asked cautiously. “What the fuck are you?”

“I am Mak
‘Tag Krell Manok,” Mak replied knowing she couldn’t understand him. He looked down at the platform when she asked her last question. Until he was able to insert the translator, she would not understand anything he said. “I am Mak,” he repeated instead.

In truth, he was afraid to look into his mate’s eyes and see the rejection he had experienced time and time again from the other females as they looked at his massive size and harsh features. He knew this female was his bond mate. She had to be. Even though she had touched him and he did not feel the shock like his brother described, he knew she was his mate. Her voice, her scent, everything about her called to him on a level he had never felt before.

He started when he felt a cool hand under his chin. He slowly lifted his eyes up until he was staring into a pair of dark green ones. It wasn’t until she lifted one of her hands that he noticed she was wearing gloves. She bit the end of the glove on her left hand and pulled it off so she could touch his skin. The moment her hand touched his heated flesh, a shock went through them both. He watched as the pupils in Tansy’s green eyes dilated with surprise and her breath caught as she felt it course through her. Her left hand jerked away from him and she clenched it protectively against her chest. Mak slowly let his left hand move from behind his head so he could gently cup the one she was holding against her body in the palm of his. Her whole hand disappeared as he wrapped his larger one around it. He carefully turned her hand over, letting his gaze drop down to the intricate circles beginning to form in the center. His eyes rose again to meet hers as he slowly brought her hand up to his mouth and pressed his lips to the center of her palm. He would never forget the look in her eyes at that moment. The look in them burned its way down to his soul.

Chapter 6

Tansy swayed dizzily. Her heart seemed to be beating too fast for her to catch her breath. It was like her body was telling her it was okay to shut down for a little while
;
she no longer had to worry. She tried to shake her head in denial.

No,
she thought fiercely,
she couldn’t give in. She couldn’t trust anyone.

She looked down into dark silver eyes staring up at her in wonder. Cosmos told her the truth. He said he was going to send her a big ass alien warrior to help her and he did. She couldn’t understand a damn thing he said, couldn’t even think straight enough to understand what the hell happened when she touched him, and could only hope the look in his eyes meant that he really wouldn’t hurt her because she was about to crash and burn. Tansy tried to shake her head to clear her vision but the black spots were growing.

“Help me,” she whispered before her body collapsed.

Mak grabbed the slender figure as it melted in front of him. He wrapped his huge arms around her slight figure pulling it close against the warmth of his body. He stood up surveying the area. He saw a dark bag just inside the door of the room Tansy had rushed out of. He bent, shifting her in his arms so he could pick it up. Slinging it over his shoulder, he scanned the area carefully.

He needed to get her out of the building. In the distance he could hear the sounds of sirens. Cosmos warned him that neither he nor Tansy could be seen, especially by the local law enforcers. He moved around the dead bodies and headed for a set of metal stairs leading down. He would get her away from the building and assess her injuries. It went against everything in him to wait but her safety had to come first.

Mak moved silently through the warehouse. He headed toward a large set of doors that opened out back into the dark streets facing the same way he entered. When he reached the metal door, he raised a booted foot kicking it hard enough to knock it off its hinges and out into the deserted parking lot. He winced when he heard the loud clatter it made when it hit the concrete outside.

He picked up speed once he was outside moving away from the sounds of the approaching sirens. He turned the corner just as the first lights appeared. He continued at a slow, steady run for several blocks until he felt confident he was far enough away from the warehouse they would not be seen. He kept to the shadows and alleys as much as possible. Every once in a while he would bend his head to let his cheek rest alongside his mate’s soft one wanting to make sure she was still breathing. His arms tightened protectively when he scented the smell of fresh blood on her.

Mak paused to look around him. There was a door leading into an empty office building. Mak moved over to it and twisted the knob. It was locked. With a frustrated growl, he shifted Tansy’s slight weight in his arms again and pushed his shoulder against the door. It popped open. He quickly moved inside and shut the door behind him. It was cold inside but there was nothing he could do about that. He moved toward a back room so they would not be seen from the street. Pushing through a half-closed door, he saw it was some type of office. An old wooden desk that had seen better days stood in the center of the small room. A broken chair was pushed into a corner. Old papers were scattered along the dirty, concrete floor.

Mak walked over and gently laid Tansy’s body down on the desk. He ran his hand over her cheek as a shiver escaped her as she lost the heat from his body. He pulled the dark cap covering her hair off and drew in a swift breath at the beauty of it. The image he had did not do justice to the magnificent color. Shaking his head to clear it of anything but seeing to her well-being, he quickly moved from her head down to her booted feet. He cursed when he saw the healing wound on her side and the long, shallow cut across her stomach. He quickly cleaned both as best he could with the items he found in the black bag. Once he was done, he pulled her shirt down to cover the chilled flesh. He continued his examination pausing when he got to the material in her pants that was stiff with dried blood. He leaned over noticing the material had been stitched together carefully. Pulling his knife out of its sheath, he sliced the material open again hissing as he saw the red and swollen wound on her leg. The bandage covering it was soaked with fresh blood. The flesh around the narrow strip of material covering it was hot to his touch.

Another shiver racked the slender body and a soft moan escaped the pale lips. Mak’s eyes flew to the face of his bond mate. Exhaustion and pain were etched in the pale beauty of it. Dark shadows spread out under the crescent moons of her lashes. Her cheeks were flushed a bright red even as she shivered. Tiny lines formed between her closed eyes and around her mouth at his touch. He looked down at the wound again. It needed to be cleaned and redressed. He cut through the material wrapped around the wound and cursed silently when he saw the obvious infection. Mak grabbed the bag and dumped the items out on the desk next to Tansy. There was a small satellite phone like the one Cosmos gave him, a small device that looked like a computer,
and
a small box. Opening the box, Mak found two bandages and a small tube of ointment
,
n
othing else.