The bound Maloidian met Cylo’s gaze but said nothing.An ally?
Cylo gathered the meager shadows around him as Malo had taught him and hid behind the closest Yithian.He flicked out his dagger, sinking it between the two vertebrae at the base of his neck.
When he slumped, one glanced up and hissed, “Etterian.”His reaction was swift: a kick to Cylo’s knee.
Fiery agony exploded outward and dropped him to the floor, and he hit it hard.He spun his dagger and, in an icepick strike, buried it into the Yithian’s thigh.As he fell, Cylo tackled him to the floor, stopping with the male pinned beneath him.
The other two Yithians released the female and lunged, their weapons drawn.The tap-tap of a blaster button being activated warned Cylo.He rolled the Yithian over him, letting him take the lethal shots.With the full weight of the dead Yithian on top of him, he couldn’t avoid the flare from the shots burning him.His upper arm went numb, and the smell of his blood saturated his nose.He shoved the male off him enough to fire his blaster in rapid succession, killing the last two Yithians.
He staggered to his feet, his knee and arm displeased with him.If the building wasn’t about to blow, he could’ve used his med-gun.With time not on his side, he faced the room, pretending that blood didn’t drip from his fingertips and that his knee didn’t want to buckle.
The purple-clothed Maloidian held the injection gun to her neck.
Ice added to the sensations lambasting Cylo.
His O.D.I.vibrated with Fyca’s voice.“A Yithian ship is inbound.”
Alodon’s balls.No one was meant to see a single Etterian anywhere close to the destruction zone.“Is everyone on board the kuta?”he asked.
“Olin has returned for you,” Fyca said.
“Call him back and leave.We will port.”
“Acknowledged,” Fyca said, ending the comm.
The Maloidian laughed.“You have trapped yourself, Etterian.The facility dampens all porting when a ship is en route.”
Cylo smothered a grimace.They needed to escape the blast zone first.It would take an hour to reach the safest side of the island.Doing so injured and with a female in tow would be hard enough.He didn’t dare glance at the female or the bound male.He couldn’t afford the distraction.Unsheathing his greatsword had the Maloidian flinching.Cylo balanced it against the table’s leg.Placing his blaster on the table, he sidled to the right of it to cup the female’s knee in a ‘casual’ pose while giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“The building is gutted.No one is alive.Do you truly wish to test your skill against an operative?”
The Maloidian paled, squared his shoulders, then lifted his chin.“I am dead anyway.”
With the last of his energy reserves, Cylo struck, slamming into the male and sending them colliding against the wall.There, he held the Maloidian in place.Vials clattered to the floor, shattering and spilling their chemicals across the gray floor.Movement on Cylo’s peripherals caught his attention for but a moment.The female grabbed his greatsword and dragged it to the bound male.Her arms quivered, but she held it still for the male to cut himself free.
“You cannot hope to stop us, Etterian.Earthians do not belong to you or your King Xeus,” the Maloidian gritted out, straining against Cylo’s weight.
He smirked.“They are called humans, xemi.”He snapped the male’s neck and stepped back, allowing his limp body to slither to the floor.For extra assurance, he flipped out his dagger and sank it into the corpse’s heart.
When he faced the female, she met his gaze, unflinching.Time slowed; so did his breathing.Nothing mattered at that moment.Underlying the steady pulse of pain was a tingling and a tightening of his chest as if to still his beating heart.She broke eye contact and rummaged through a Yithian’s armor to withdraw a green-stained knife.Despite the greatsword’s weight, she’d returned it to where Cylo had left it.
The counter on the perimeter was clean of data belts, but in a room this large, this important, there had to be some recordings.“I need data cubes we can use to unravel Yithia and Maloid’s interest in humans.”
The male pushed off, hobbled to a cabinet, and took out a data belt stacked high with cubes.
“You are coming with me, milady,” Cylo said to the female while he tagged the cubes with his good hand.
“Not without Hiossu.”She raised her chin, exposing the graceful column of her neck.“They’ll think he’s a traitor.”
“I will stay,” the male said, clasping his side where blood stained his tunic.
Having run out of tags, Cylo eyed the remaining cubes, considering leaving them behind.But since the data wasn’t on a central system, Olin hadn’t been able to syphon the information like every battleship did passing any inhabited world.
Before Cylo could ask, she stretched past him to shove them into her pants pockets and one down the front of her sleeveless tunic.He was taken aback by her intuitiveness.
Realizing they waited for his response, he growled, “You cannot stay.It is not safe.”Not with the explosions imminent.He sheathed his greatsword down his back and tapped his O.D.I.“Fyca, three to port.”He clasped her wrist—the skin there incredibly silky.Clearing his throat, he quickly grabbed the male’s shoulder.
Fyca’s voice crackled.“Signal unstable.A Yithian K-class is on the way.”
