Defender (New World Book 7) (8 page)

“Stop,” he commanded. “The tears mix with rain and my damned shield allows my skin to absorb them. I can’t calm you here. We’re exposed. I won’t kill you. Make your eyes behave. Tame your emotional weapon. Fuck, females are dangerous.”

He swore under his breath and was again on the move. Macey was glad it was dark. The beast went from land to tree to land when possible. Frightening shadow glimpses were all she caught of their surroundings. Palm trees disappeared and were replaced by coniferous trees. The air cooled. The smell of the atmosphere was different. Macey couldn’t believe it, he moved so fast she was in different States, she was certain. He was taking her so far from home. With each movement, she was further from the ones she loved. Her heart ached. She wanted her family safe, but how could she return?

Cold invaded her bones. She would die; he would kill her, and her aunt and the children would never know what happened. Macey couldn’t move, beg, scream, whisper. His grip on her was tight but not bone crushing. The lightning was as fierce where he was taking her. They were in a remote deeply forested area. Her world was gone.
Where are we?
The beast stopped and Macey was clutched under her arms and pressed to his chest, belly to belly.

“I’m taking you down into the valley below, little female human. I won’t drop you. You have no need to be afraid. You don’t need to die. There’s a cave down there and my shuttle.”

Macey would have screamed if she could. The rock face was a sheer drop hundreds of feet down. Her heart began to pound, she couldn’t control it.

“Human female, stop. I said you will be fine. I’m a warrior used to threats and uttering threats. How can you not understand a simple guarantee of safety? If I wanted your fear, I would dangle you over the edge not ease your fears. Now
be eased,
damn you.”

The beast had the nerve to be condescending as though what he spoke was fact. He jumped. The claws on the beast’s feet squealed as he surfed down the mountain side. One arm held her secure to his chest, pressed along the length of his body, the other stretched out back behind him. Sparks flew in his wake from long talons against the darkness. Their pace was electrifying and Macey’s tummy lurched in protest as their speed increased. A number of times they were airborne, and then landed against hard rock in a zig zag. An eagle squawked and took flight when lightning flashed.

The beast hit the ground running, and she was tucked under an arm. Macey had no idea how he could find his way in the pitch black. He stopped and swung her up to cradle her against his chest. The pressure to hold her was slight but enough to know she wouldn’t be dropped. She heard a huge amount of expelled air, smoke swirled and a door in the dark opened to reveal the inside of a shuttle. Everything inside was lit up with florescent lights. Macey was slung over his shoulder. When he entered the shuttle, the door closed behind him. Sealing her in with him. She was taken to a room with a small silver cage with bars spaced only an inch apart. It looked like an overgrown hamster house. The beast set her down beside the cage; the shuttle floor was icy. Her chest was on fire while the rest of her begged to shake with cold.

On all fours, he changed into the male she had seen in the shed. The grey hardness disappeared into his skin looking like mercury. His breath was ragged. He sat back on his haunches and stretched. When he turned to gaze at her, Macey was impaled by dark eyes. He was power, and gorgeous, and too terrifying to comprehend.

“Don’t die of fright, little human female. I need to settle you in here. I have to regenerate. You can’t wander my vessel.”

He was the beast and yet she would be caged. She saw nothing in his expression, no pity, no remorse, no anger. His appearance was drawn and haggard. When his warm hands settled onto her bare arms, he released her as though injured. He sat back to stare at his palms. His grey covering enveloped him. The beast growled low in his throat. He glared at her.

“I’m not hurting you. Stop being frightened.” The grey disappeared and he once more looked like a man.

Macey was surprised at his anger. It was as though she were the one tormenting him. Her fingers twitched. Her jaw quivered. Feeling began to return.

“Name?” she whispered. Her lips barely moved; her breath almost inaudible.

“I’m Taz. I’m a Tonan warrior from a distant planet. I’m here to observe, but I hate this place. It’s time for me to go home and end my mission. Earth is an awful planet. You’re lucky I found you. I can keep you—somewhere.”

“Cold.”

He will keep me somewhere?

Would she be kept caged forever? Taz felt her face. His fingers lingered. Macey coughed and shivered. She was soaked, frozen, and afraid. In her haste to retrieve the gas for the generator she forgot she had draped her jacket over Haven in order to protect the child from the heavy rain as they fled the cottage. The numerous puddles had soaked her shoes, her slide down the embankment on the grass had covered her in mud, her jeans and socks were sodden. The ache in her chest grew worse. The pain built, but she wondered if it was an anxiety attack. She really deserved one right now.

“Hurts.” Her palm rubbed across her chest.

“My shield detects an illness beginning inside you. There is pain, I sense it. Your temperature is rising. The cage would be too cold and cause more harm. It’s not my mission to harm, or be seen, or to capture, or to fucking give an anal rat’s ass.
Damn.
Stupid mission. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate Krish more.”

Taz picked her up and strode to a cot. The cot dipped when he sat beside her. He ran a hand over his short spiked blond hair. His head tilted as though thinking. He took her hand in his and held tight. His hand was warm and grew moist in a way she found pleasant. He cocked his head. He nodded and said yes aloud several times as though answering unheard questions.

Oh God, he’s insane. The voices in his head speak to him.

“Close your eyes,” he said. Macey shook her head no. “I won’t leave you to wander. You need rest. I’m going to bite you, but my fangs will scare you. My fangs will give you enough drug to knock you out. This drug is different from the last, I can’t use a numbing agent, it will interfere with the end result and my fangs will be larger and pierce deeper. I sense your exhaustion. I need to make you sleep little female. When you wake you should feel better. Close your eyes, human female.”

“No.”

“Fine, be stubborn. Don’t die of fright, although it would serve you right for your disobedience.”

Macey sucked in her breath when Taz’s top fangs grew past his lower lip. They were larger. Clear liquid dripped from each. He was in human form, wearing only tight grey pants, nothing else. Taz gripped her hair and tilted her neck to expose her throat. In the light he was scary as shit and she saw everything.

Vampires do exist.

“Don’t eat me,” she managed to gurgle.

“
Gross,
female.”

Taz used his other hand to cover her eyes. Two sharp pricks pierced her flesh this time and before she could say ouch, Macey was unconscious.

Taz wrinkled his nose as he sat up. The female was too emotional. Eat her?
As if.
Tonans weren’t a race of cannibals. What a disgusting image. If he needed to sedate her again, he wouldn’t warn her, he would just do it. Insubordinate little thing. Krish would have beat her for her willfulness. She was lucky he wasn’t here. Her skin was on fire with fear, confusion, and desperation. The emotion in her secretions was everywhere. Terror, sadness, loneliness. She was hot and cold. He gazed down on her limp form wondering what to do next. She was sodden. The clothing she wore was cold which might be adding to her distress. Taz didn’t like it much when he had been soaked in confining materials.

Taz went to the replicator and demanded a heated blanket. Heated blankets drew away the cold and dried wetness. A soft fluffy large blanket appeared and Taz took it to her. Taz tucked the blanket around her. The blanket was chipped with sensors and molded to her, within seconds her hair was dry. It was the best he could do. He didn’t know how to take care of a human female. She was too fragile. And Taz was weary.

The only times he had ever been weary on his planet was when Krish locked him away from sunlight as punishment. It happened often as a child and more often as a teen. He would emerge, crawling, half dead. It’s what they did to the Castian prisoners and still they kept their secrets. Not one broke. Then again, neither did Taz. The human females were weapons. They would be the fall of the Castians. This female would be his fall if he didn’t keep his distance. Her touch and scent were emotional toxins.

He rose from the bed and dragged his weary body to the regenerator. The pull of his shield to return to the female was annoying and strange. Taz had no time for her. She was a pawn. He was a deadly warrior.

There were two generators, one hand-held, the other larger and faster. Taz opted for larger and faster. The machine clicked a systems check, reconfigured data and began humming. The pull on his shield to go to the female increased instead of decreasing. His shield was ticked, and tugged on images that Taz rebuffed.

“What the devil are you after?” Taz said aloud. He often talked to his shield when he was alone. “Fine. Show me what the hell you want.”

Thoughts rolled in his head and a scenario played out. Taz watched the scene his shield showed him would unfold when Taz returned home to his planet with the female. The image was vivid; it was as though Taz was home already. Taz strode into Krish’s den in the huge hive; he heard his footsteps on the harder ground Krish liked in his private den so he could hear another’s approach. Taz was carrying the little female. Krish smiled and trailed his fingers over her soft cheek. Krish brushed her locks from her face. He gazed into Taz’s eyes while taking the female.

An emotion flickered while Taz handed her over. Reluctance. Then worry. And Krish saw and scented Taz was swayed by her for a moment. Taz had been interested in the female, he still was. He wanted to hide her away but knew it wouldn’t happen. He returned hoping Krish would allow him this one boon, when he never had and never would. Krish smiled and his fist slammed into the female’s chest and yanked out her heart and stomped on it as she crumbled and dropped to the ground as Krish released her to let her fall. Taz could never have anything; Taz must remain alone, forever.

Taz’s heart pounded until his shield controlled his emotions. Anything that gave Taz pleasure for mere seconds was destroyed until Taz killed the last being before Krish could. He didn’t do it to be cruel, as Krish thought he taught him to be, Taz killed the animal to spare any others. The killing had to stop and only Taz could make it stop. Krish would kill this female in front of him. What was he thinking? Taz couldn’t hide her away; Krish would know of her existence even if Taz left. Krish knew everything. Taz liked this little female. She had pressed her lips to his. She tasted so sweet. He couldn’t let Krish ruin and destroy his only sweet memory of Earth.

“I need to take her back to her home,” Taz whispered. “She must go back.”

But what if she’s caught?

Taz stepped from the chamber, his shield was fully charged. He strode to the female. She was beautiful and of childbearing years. Taz knew what his counterparts planned. It would be hard on Taz’s kind to ignore the suffering forever. His kind would be swayed. He was cruel but he wasn’t evil, at least not Krish’s kind of evil. Must played a heavy role, but it wasn’t his kind’s only drive.

The bed dipped when Taz sat beside her. He placed his palm on her warm brow. The pain was gone. She was dreaming, happy in her dream. He opened the blanket to see if she was dry, she was. He pressed his unclad chest closer. It had been four hundred years since his parents’ death, but Krish mentioned females often. He called them useless. Taz vaguely remembered his mother. She wasn’t useless; she was beautiful, sweet, loving. She had been his world. And, she asked him to make a promise. What had it been? It was so long ago. He would have promised his wonderful mother anything he loved her so much.
Love?
He had loved? No, the memory was distorted. Taz knew only kindness until Krish came along. It must have been kindness his mother asked for.

Curious, Taz leaned closer to smell the female’s breath, wondering about kindness from females. His shield went wild trying to contain his emotions and so many of hers. The shield didn’t stop the sensations; they filed the numerous scents into a different category. One scent was dominant. One scent was claiming his attention. This female’s scent was…
Taz
. Taz drew in a deep breath and jumped up. He was in her scent.

Holy fuck.
This isn’t good. She’s dead for sure and so am I.

She couldn’t wear his scent. He had to get it off. He couldn’t take her back to Earth until he, his scent, was off of her. Krish would smell her on him when he returned home. Krish could track her anywhere. Taz paced the shuttle swearing, dragging his hands over his face and neck. He couldn’t go home; he couldn’t go back to Earth. There had to be a place he could take her that was both human- and Tonan-free until he could fix this insane mess. How the hell, why the hell, what the hell? The female shouldn’t be wearing his scent.

Taz raced to the monitor. It was a hasty decision, but he needed to plan his course without watchful eyes. It was dangerous to disconnect the shuttle’s communication. Krish might think he was lost in space and search for him. The alternative of being labeled a traitor was far more deadly. He needed to elude everyone.

On the screen in the distance of the galaxy, Taz spotted a small planet. He called it up on the monitor for a closer inspection. He surveyed the specifics in record time. It was uninhabited. The female would be able to breathe and Taz could generate under the single sun. There would be ponds, lakes, waterways. He could rid her of his scent. Or he could leave her there and rid
him
of
her
scent.

What if I can’t?

Taz glanced back at the tiny female. His heart pounded until his shield calmed him. As distasteful as it sounded, he might have to end her life after all.