Chapter 11

She screamed all the way down to the surface.

The escape pod rattled violently around Sadie as it hurtled through the atmosphere of the purple and teal planet. She clutched at the straps meant to hold her in place, shoving her arms through them.

Tears streamed down her face as she craned her neck, trying to see out the tiny window of the pod. Vaarn was up there, sacrificing himself so she could live. She couldn"t see the ship. All she could see through the window were the chunks of rock that flew past, debris from the asteroid field, and laser cannon fire as he vaporized them all.

She didn"t care that he was clearing her path. All she cared about was that he was still on that damaged ship, with no escape pod. No way to escape to safety.

"Vaarn!" she screamed over and over, though she knew he couldn"t hear her. She pictured him in the cockpit, still firing as the ship broke apart around him, and her gaze frantically latched onto every burst of cannon fire. As long as he kept firing, she knew he was still alive. Still up there.

Her guardian angel.

Her alien guardian angel.

She was being torn in two. Half of her soul was in her body plunging rapidly toward the planet's surface, while the other half was back on the ship, with him. Her sobs were broken. She loved him… needed him. She couldn't do this without him.

The pod rattled again and red warning lights flashed.

"Secondary safeties damaged, and offline," the alarms blared, almost deafening her. "Deploying emergency measures."

This was it, the pod was about to crash. She squeezed her eyes shut as a sob was torn from her throat. She shouldn"t be in here on her own. She wanted to be back in his arms, to feel his strength around her. If she was going to die, she wanted to be with him.

The escape pod slammed into the ground, the impact throwing her hard against the straps. She screamed as agony lanced through her body… sure she'd broken something.

The small capsule screeched and skidded across the rocky surface. The door with the window ended up underneath and was torn clean away as they rolled. Dust and debris billowed into the air, obscuring her vision.

Finally the pod slid to a stop, creaking and groaning. She blinked, looking up as the dust cleared at a surprisingly blue sky.

Coughing and spluttering, she tried to clear her lungs. Unbuckling her harness, she pushed herself upward to climb out of the mangled craft. Her entire body ached, her legs weak and wobbly but she managed to get to her feet. She was alive, and more or less in one piece.

Glancing around, she winced at the unfamiliar terrain, it looked so alien. Then she saw it, the ship coming down in a blaze of flame like a bullet toward the ground.

"Vaarn!" she screamed, half throwing herself, half sliding down the side of the pod. As soon as her feet hit the dirt, she was off running toward where the ship was going to come down.

She ran faster than she"d ever run before. Her chest heaved as her lungs and muscles burned, desperate strides churning up dirt as she sprinted. She was single-minded as she watched the fireball's descent. The wind blew her hair back, whipping it around her face, but all she could see was that ship. Vaarn was in there. The man she loved. Nothing on this planet would stop her from reaching him.

The ground sloped upwards, almost tripping her in her haste. The muscles of her legs burned as she scrambled up the rocky incline, and her lungs screamed for air. She was so close now that she could feel the heat of the descending ship on her face.

Just a little further. She had to make it. Had to get there in time.

Then the toe of her boot caught on a rock and she went down. Hard. Pain lanced through her knees and palms as she slammed into the ground and slid, gravel biting into tender flesh. Frantic, she shoved herself back up and staggered to the top of the rise.

There was a beach on the other side, surrounding a tranquil lake. It was a picture out of her dreams, a slice of heaven, but she ignored it. She only had eyes for the fireball hurtling toward the ground.

"No!" she screamed, her voice breaking as she forced her aching body into a run. But she was too late.

The ship crashed into the beach ahead, exploding in a ball of fire and smoke. The force of the impact knocked her off her feet. She hit the sand, hard, throwing her arms up to shield her face from the intense heat as flaming debris rained down around her. The world disappeared in a deafening roar, and for a moment all she knew was fire and pain.

She must have blacked out, because she came to with a groan. She shook her head until the ringing in her ears faded, replaced by the crackle of flames and random, smaller explosions. Choking on smoke, she staggered upright and stared at the blazing wreckage through tear-filled eyes.

"Vaarn," she whispered brokenly, taking one stumbling step forward before falling to her knees in the sand.

No… He couldn"t be gone. He just couldn"t. Her heart fractured, raw grief welling up and choking her.

As she stared at the burning wreckage of the ship, the acrid smell of smoke and melted metal filled her nostrils, making her eyes water and her throat burn but she didn"t care.

"Vaarn!" she cried out, choking on her sobs. "You asshole! You can"t leave me like this!"

Her body shook as she stared in horror at the flames. This wasn't happening. He wasn't gone. He couldn't be. He was invincible, untouchable. He was her protector, her savior. Her guardian angel.

The trouble with angels though, was that you weren"t supposed to see them.

"I love you," she whispered. "I love you and you"re an asshole for leaving me like this."

She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid.

"I thought I was interrupting something," she choked out, her voice thick with tears. "With you and Laythia. I thought you were mad at me for tagging along and getting in the way. Then you kissed me. We… last night… "

Oh god, last night. Last night everything was perfect. Last night she"d had a future with the man she loved.

"…and now you"re gone."

She tilted her head back, her tears burning her cheeks. It felt like someone had reached in and was ripping her heart right out of her chest. She couldn"t breathe because of the pain, couldn"t think. All she could do was blink at the flames with a vacant, glassy-eyed stare.

"I love you," she whispered again. "I love you so much, and I don"t know what I"m going to do without you."

She felt like she'd shattered into a million pieces. She didn"t know how to keep going, how to keep breathing. Her thoughts were a mess. She couldn't believe he was gone. That he'd sacrificed himself for her… She couldn't— didn't want to believe she'd never see him again.

"It"s not fair!" she bellowed in rage, her voice echoing across the beach. "It"s not fair that you left me like this! You can"t just leave me!"

Shaking with rage, she grabbed handfuls of sand and threw them toward the ship. "It would serve you right if I brought you back just so I could kill you myself!"

* * *

Vaarn emerged from the lake,water cascading from his burned leathers and battered skin. With each step he felt like he lifted a ton of weight, his muscles screaming at the abuse he"d put them through. Chuckling, he unbuckled his drop harness and let it fall as he strode forward. His gaze was locked onto his mate, relief at finding her alive and well washing through him with the force of a tidal wave.

"Humans are so confusing," he said, his lips quirking up at the corners. "You love me, but you also want to kill me?"

Sadie whirled around, almost falling over in the sand, shock written on her beautiful features. She blinked, her eyes full of tears, and then screamed. The sound echoed through the trees surrounding the lake, sending the local avians into flight. His heart swelled as she launched herself into his arms, her petite form colliding with his chest.

He caught her easily, wrapping his arms around her waist as he stumbled back a step at her momentum. The surf surged around them, almost taking him off his feet. He spread them for balance, and held onto the precious bundle in his arms.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, nails biting into the skin of his shoulders as she held on for dear life. He felt the fine trembles that ran through her body. Tightening his grip on her, he pulled her closer to whisper in her ear, "I"m here, kelarris. I"m here."

She buried her face in the side of his neck, hot tears wet against his skin. He murmured soothing nonsense, stroking his hand down her back.

Her fingers tightened in his wet hair, and she yanked him closer to crash her lips against his with a fierceness that left him reeling. Heat rolled through his veins at the demand of her lips, and he tightened his arms around her with a low growl.

"I love you," she gasped between kisses. "But you"re an asshole, Vaarn T"Kaan."

He smiled against her mouth, a deep rumble of laughter vibrating in his chest. The way she could say that and insult him in the same breath would have been confusing to anyone else, but he thought he understood human emotion… her emotions… well enough now to pick up the important part of her words.

She loved him.

Cupping her face in one hand, he used his thumb to brush away the tears on her cheeks.

"And I love you, Sadie Jane Keare," he leaned down to claim her lips. A shudder rolled through him at the sweet taste of her mouth, and the press of her delicate little body against his larger, harder frame. He held on all the tighter at the realization that he could have lost her, lost everything. If he had, he had no doubt that he would just become a shell of a warrior. Empty to the end of his days.

He didn"t fear his own death. He"d faced it before, all Latharian warriors had, usually before they"d left youth behind. Death was an old friend and adversary who was never far from a warrior"s side. But this time was different. This time, he would have welcomed it if it meant Sadie could live.

But, draanth, he was glad he"d survived, if only for a few moments to hold her in his arms again.

She pulled away to look into his face, and he saw the hurt in her eyes. "Why did you do it?" she asked, her bottom lip trembling in a way that made his heart ache. "Why didn"t you come with me? There was enough room for both of us in the pod."

"The pod... the ship... both were damaged," he admitted, still stroking his thumb over her cheek. "I wasn"t certain either of us would make it. But the odds for the pod surviving to reach the ground in one piece were better if I stayed behind and used the ship's weapons to clear a path."

She stilled in his arms, searching his gaze. He watched the fascinating display of emotions crossing her face as she processed his words. Then realization filled her eyes.

"You... you put me in that pod knowing you were going to die?" Her voice wavered.

He nodded, expecting her tears. What he didn"t expect was for her to wind her arm and smack him in the shoulder hard enough to make him wince. What the draanth? Humans weren"t supposed to be that strong.

"You fucking idiot!" Her voice cracked with emotion as she unleashed a string of curses at him, most of them too quick and unintelligible, each punctuated by another punch to his shoulder. Fortunately, the first blow was the hardest. Before long she ran out of steam, her hands clinging to him, clutching his shoulders instead of hitting him.

He bit back his smile as he figured it out. She wasn"t angry with him, or rather she was… but the anger was driven by the fear of losing him, driven by the depth of her love for him. Warmth spread out from the center of his chest, soothing like the suns of Lathar Prime on a summer morning.

Another wave came, and this time it nearly knocked them over. He tightened his arm around her waist, holding her close as he waded for the shore. Once they were out of the water, he set her down gently onto the sand.

He scanned the beach with a frown. They"d managed to survive the landing, but that was just the start of things. They were on an unknown planet and the sun was setting, cooler temperatures rolling in that hadn"t been there before. Her shivers were barely perceptible, but to him, they might as well have been violent convulsions. And he had no way of knowing how cold it was going to get tonight.

"We need shelter and warmth," he told her as he looked around. His eyes settled on the driftwood scattered along the shoreline and he grunted.

It didn"t take him long to gather up enough driftwood and he started to build a lean-to against a rocky outcrop at the back of the beach. He wasted no time, making sure that each piece interlocked with the next, as methodically as if he were constructing the framework of a new ship. He worked as quickly as he could. Night was falling fast, and most planets' darkness brought out predators. He wanted to be sure but if it came down to a fight, there was only one route of attack for him to defend.

With the structure secure, he motioned her into it and turned his attention to building a fire. He stacked the smaller pieces of wood into a triangular formation, leaving enough space at the base to slide in his makeshift kindling—a collection of dried seaweed and smaller twigs.

She watched him work, her arms wrapped around herself. He kept sneaking glances at her. Even dirty with soot and bedraggled as she was, she was still the most beautiful female in existence to him. The light to his darkness, and his reason for living.

The fire caught, the kindling and seaweed igniting the dry driftwood. With a sigh of relief, she moved closer to the meager heat. He tilted his head to the side, smiling at her as he nurtured it, feeding it larger pieces of wood until it roared to life, pushing back the chill of dusk.

The warmth seemed to thaw some of the tension from her body and she uncurled from the tiny ball she crunched up into. She watched him, eyes sharp and intelligent, her intensity making him keenly aware of her presence, but he ignored it for now. He needed to get the fire nice and hot, to keep her warm and safe from night predators while he ventured back to the crashed pod to see what supplies he could recover.

He squatted in front of the blazing fire, poking at it with a stick to make sure it was burning evenly, and glanced down at his wrist computer. With the destruction of the ship, it was more than useless. Given that it usually went up to a larger ship's computer, it didn"t have much onboard power or processing capacity. In fact, pretty much all it could tell him was the ambient temperature, and an approximate time for sunrise.

But he tapped through the screen anyway, comforted by the familiar motions. On a hunch, he checked the messaging system, and his heart sank as red letters blinked back at him: "Message Send Failed."

"Draanth!" The curse slipped from his lips before he could stop it.

Sadie looked up sharply, concern etched on her features. "What"s wrong?"

He met her gaze. She trusted him so much, but now he might have to shatter that trust.

"I sent a message to S"aad for a rescue," he said. "Just before the ship came apart. But it didn"t go through."

Panic flitted across her face for a second, but then she masked it with a forced smile. "So... shouldn"t we just wait? The rescue teams will search for us, won't they?"

He shook his head. "This planet wasn"t on our original route," he explained, his voice grim and serious. "We had to go off course to escape the pirates. They wouldn"t think to look for us here."

Her shoulders slumped, and she nibbled at her lower lip. He"d noticed the quirk before. It was a dead giveaway that she was nervous. She looked up at him again.

"So what are we going to do? You"ve got a plan, right? I mean, you guys are all warriors. Surely you"ve trained for stuff like this?"

"We do… yes." What he didn"t tell her was that often warriors were left for weeks, or months even, before rescue. He didn"t think she needed to hear that.

"So…" She tilted her head to the side curiously. "What"s the plan?"

He glanced down to where the bracelet he'd given her was wrapped around her wrist and a new plan formed in his mind.

"Your bracelet," he said, reaching for her arm. "I can adapt its tracking technology to send out a location signal rather than just respond to a ping."

She jerked away, her eyes widening.

"What do you mean… tracking technology?"