I need to find a ship to get us off this cursed chunk of metal. I’m not familiar with this part of the station, but I’m pretty sure we’re close to where the permanent residents keep their personal crafts docked.
Up ahead, the chamber branches off into four tunnels. Which one—
“Halt!” a deep voice echoes behind me.
Vittu!
Annah stiffens, and I’m sprinting once more.
“Halt! Or I’ll shoot!” the security guard warns.
When I don’t stop, he shoots, just as he promised, but the beam goes wide. A warning shot.
I’m almost to the tunnels. Just a few more strides.
The guard shoots again, and this time he doesn’t miss. The beam goes straight through the top of my shoulder, and the smell of burnt flesh fills my nose.
Annah screams when my knees buckle for a split second, nearly sending us crashing to the ground, but I’m able to regain my balance at the last second. Gnashing my teeth against the burning in my shoulder, I push on until we make it into the closest tunnel. With any luck, the guard is too far back to see which one.
* * *
Anna
“
Halt! Or I shoot!” the security guard shouts his warning just before a laser beam hits the wall to our left.A laser beam.Just like in movies. I can’t believe this is real.
With my arms wrapped around Rovos’ neck, I glance over his shoulder, just as the guard aims again. I suspect the first shot missed on purpose, because the second shot blows straight through Rovos’ trapezius muscle, missing my arm by less than an inch.
I scream.
He grunts and stumbles, but otherwise the shot doesn’t slow him down.
The corridor bends, and when the entrances of four tunnels come into view, Rovos lengthens his stride, taking the tunnel on the far left.
As soon as we’re out of sight of the security guard, I let myself relax. He won’t know which entrance we took, and the odds are in our favor that he won’t choose the same as us.
Rovos doesn’t slow until we come out the other side of the dark tunnel. The bright lights sting my eyes, and I turn to lean my head against his shoulder when I notice his shirt is dark with his blood.
“Shit! Rovos, you’re bleeding.”
I watch as a thin rivulet of blood trickles from his shoulder wound. Shouldn’t the laser have cauterized it? I can smell his singed flesh, but I guess it wasn’t enough to keep the hole left behind from bleeding. Or maybe he exacerbated it by running?
And his blood? It’s not the red color I expect. It’s purple. Not crayon purple. But a dark mix between red and blue.
“I’m fine,” he grunts when he stops beside a small… ship? Shuttle? It’s about the size of a suburban, but tall enough for Rovos to stand up straight. What might have been white, or maybe a very light gray, paint is flaking off, allowing large patches of metal to be devoured by rust.
“This doesn’t look like it’s flown in years.” I look up at Rovos when he drops me to the ground. “Do you think it even runs?”
He ignores me and instead uses his body to press my back against the shuttle. Before I can react, his mouth is on mine, and he’s dominating me with his lips and tongue. Nipping at me with his teeth. My hands go to his sides, and I grab handfuls of his shirt, holding on to him, pulling him closer and kissing him back.
When he releases my mouth, I drag in a ragged breath and then moan when his lips slide to my throat, where his teeth scrape at the sensitive skin just below my ear. Something warm drips onto my hand, and the sight of his plum-colored blood smeared across my skin brings me back to the present.
“Rovos, your shoulder,” I utter between kisses. “And I’m still pissed at you.”
“Fuck my shoulder,” he growls back, running his nose along the path his mouth just took before sucking my earlobe between his teeth. Ticklish shivers run down my spine, making me moan again.
“You make me want tobiteyou, Annah,” his voice rasps in my ear before his mouth goes back to the side of my neck, where his teeth clamp down on the spot where my neck and shoulder meet. “I want to hold you down and sink both my cock and my teeth into you.”
