Page 7 of Marked for Vengeance
Vengeance feigned indignation even though he knew it was a joke. “You calling me ugly?”
Havoc laughed. “Not ugly, my brother. Terrifying.”
“That’s better.” Then he spun on his heel and sprinted toward the ship. They could stay and make plans if they wanted to. He intended to scout out the vessel… and any females that might be on board.
“What happened to slow?” Risk called after him.
He didn’t bother answering. The time for talking was over.
For all their talk about taking it slowly, his brothers didn’t take long to get into position. They used the same formation when hunting dangerous game. Vengeance took the lead, Havoc covered their flank, and Risk circled around behind. Vengeance drew his largest blade, the well-balanced weight feeling good in his hand. Havoc had a short spear in one hand and a small blade in the other. Who was he trying to impress? It took Vengeance only a second to answer his own question.Females.
It wasn’t until the wind shifted that he finally caught the scent the others had already detected.Food. Several meals were involved, each with a unique scent profile. There were proteins he didn’t recognize, some familiar seasonings, and a chemical smell that stung his nose. The food might be strange, but that scent told him the meals were prepackaged and made to last a long time. The scrawnies had provided something similar on the journey to their new home. They could be emergency rations or the kind of thing soldiers consumed when out in the field. He’d have to get closer to know which it was.
A minute later, he knew. The evening breeze strengthened, carrying new information to his sensitive nose. There were three of them. At least one was armed with some kind of energy weapon.
There.
He broke into a jog the second he sensed it—a scent he’d only encountered once before when he’d met Hope. All three of the new arrivals carried the same scent markers, probably something to do with the ship they’d all traveled on together. The ship full of human females.
In a matter of seconds he was through the tree line and into a clearing. Two strides forward were all he managed before an energy pulse slammed into the ground nearby.
“That’s far enough,” a female voice rang out. Steady, clear, and full of authority.
For the first time in his life, Vengeance didn’t mind being told what to do. He froze and tried to keep from grinning. They’d found females!
He could see two of them. Both were in the entryway to the ship, one standing with the other lying prone at her feet. The prone one had a blaster trained on Risk, who had just stepped into view. Vengeance ignored her. All his attention was on the female aiming a pulse rifle at him. She had a warrior’sconfidence and enough skill to know how to use the hull of the ship as partial cover. Admirable. Her short hair was the color of clouds on a summer day, and her eyes were a deep shade of green.
His cock stirred as the wind carried her scent to him, and it told him all he needed to know. She washis.
5
Despite the unknown threats,the loss of theHarvest, and everything else that had happened, Loris had to admit things weren’t all bad.
Against all odds, the autopilot had set them down in a decent location. In fact, it was downright scenic. The sky was a dazzling blue, and the foliage ranged from soft golds and umber to blazing shades of yellow, orange, and red.
The shuttle was stocked with plenty of prepackaged foods and a decent supply of recyclable water, and so far, none of them had seen any kind of wildlife that could be deemed dangerous.
Loris already knew that Maddison was resilient and had her own brand of quiet courage, but Joy Bashir proved herself to be an excellent and good-natured companion who was more than capable. No wonder the captain had put her in the shuttle with them.
They’d treated her concussion with some of the more advanced meds in the first aid kit and left the more minor injuries to heal on their own. She still had headaches, and one ankle was sprained badly enough she couldn’t do much besides limp around the interior of the shuttle. She made up for herlack of mobility by doing most of the meal prep and answering their questions about what had happened to theHarvestbefore they’d arrived on the bridge.
Nothing she told them was good news. Not only did she confirm they were inside verexi space, but the ship hadn’t only suffered a mechanical failure that knocked it out of hyperspace. Someone, most likely the verexi, had fired on theBountiful Harvest. Entire sections of the ship had been exposed to the void, crippling her and ensuring they had no way to escape the gravity well of the planet.
They’d received no word from theHarvestsince the incident. All they could do was hope the ship had managed to stay relatively intact on the way down so at least some of the passengers and crew had survived.
They’d spent some of their time together learning about Joy’s blindness. The story was familiar enough. She’d lost her sight in an industrial accident caused by poor maintenance and a disregard for the safety of the workers. Her eyes looked natural enough Loris hadn’t realized she was blind, especially since she acted like a sighted person. It turned out the headband she wore collected visual data and sent it to her visual cortex, allowing her to “see.”
Joy hadn’t said anything, but Loris suspected the headband had been damaged during the fight with Hooper, probably when Joy had struck her head on the deck. Joy could still see well enough to get by, and none of them had any chance of repairing the delicate medical device.
They’d set up a simple camp, and once that was done, they’d told stories and shared details of their lives. They couldn’t do much else to pass the time while they waited for someone to respond to their rescue beacon. According to Joy, this planet was uninhabited.
As the sun dipped down toward the horizon, Loris and the others discovered that Joy was wrong.
Loris didn’t know what sense had told her they weren’t alone anymore, but when the feeling came, she’d reacted instantly. “Maddi, into the shuttle and lie down on the floor. You know the drill. Joy, stay where you are. I’m coming to you.”
Maddison raced up the ramp, only slowing enough to step around Joy, who was in her usual spot by the shuttle door.
Loris rose from her place by their small campfire and joined Joy on the ramp, grabbing a pulse rifle for herself and handing a blaster to the woman now stretched out along the floor with most of her body out of the line of fire. For someone with limited experience, the woman had learned the basics with impressive speed.
