Fuck! I seethed as the Councilman smiled at us through the screen. He was right. We had been distracted, and I was furious that they’d managed to track us down.
"Surrender," he ordered.
All I could think about was how much I wanted to shove my fist into his face. Instead, I jabbed a finger at the off button on the screen and just growled under my breath.
"They're going to shoot us down?" Ella's panicked voice melted my heart. Getting caught by the council wasn't an option. Not when we'd be locked up for life...if they didn't kill us first. And what would they do to Ella and our unborn baby? The council was behind the virus spreading through Vepar, taking so many lives. Their experiments led to this disaster, and suddenly I knew what they were going to do. Frame everything on us.
I checked the radar with a wide radius to another ship speeding up behind us from a fair distance. Even in this cloud cover, he’d track us down with ease.
"They're not going to get a chance," Derrial murmured, and I realized belatedly I’d been speaking out loud.
I glanced back to see him holding Ella tight and looking at me with fear in his eyes. Hell, we were fucked, alright.
"So, what are we going to do?" Ella asked, her voice shaky as her gaze drifted to the coms screen. "What about all the women in this ship? The baby? We can't endanger them." The worry on her face twisted an invisible blade in my heart. She was right. Of course she was, but our choices were limited.
"We're going to jump out of ship," Derrial announced.
Ella's mouth dropped open as she stared at him incredulously. "Are you crazy? How is that woman's baby going to survive a jump?" She pulled out of Derrial's arms and started pacing back and forth.
I met Derrial's gaze and nodded. "I think it can work. We leave the women on the ship."
"Exactly my thoughts," he responded.
"What are you talking about?" Ella asked.
“Pet." Derrial reached out and took her hand before taking it to his mouth to kiss her fingertips. I adored seeing the affection she received, because she deserved so much more.
"Thane is going to set the cruiser on auto-pilot with a destined landing position, which he’ll give to the council. There’s heavy cloud cover farther ahead, and the ship’s got exactly three parachutes with non-detection shielding. It's how those bastard Khonsu have been sneaking into cities to steal women."
Ella was shaking her head. "I've never jumped out of a plane and I don't know what to expect." Her words were running into one another. She was so adorable when she got nervous.
Derrial held her tight, covering her face with kisses. "You won't be alone. But it's the only way for us to escape, and the women to survive. If the council gets ahold of us, I’m worried what they’ll do to you. We need to leap to safety right under their noses."
Derrial gave me a nod, and I turned in my seat to the controls, sending the council coordinates of where I'd be landing. A perfect spot right in the middle of a park near residential homes to draw just enough attention from locals to see the terrified women emerge from the cruiser. For one main reason - the women's presence would gain a lot of attention, and meant more time before the council sent a search party for us. By then, we'd be long gone.
I shot the message to the council and waited for their confirmation. Moments later, a word flashed up on my screen.
Agreed.
I set the coordinates in auto-pilot, then shot Corran a message of our change of plans and where to come and meet us next. I hoped he wasn’t caught but just distracted. Then I sprung to my feet.
My heart thumped in my chest as I marched across the flight deck. I approached Ella and cupped the sides of her face. "Hey, gorgeous. I need you to do something while Derrial and I prepare our jumps."
"What is it?"
She looked at me with those heartfelt eyes that gripped my very soul. I would do anything she asked, anything that kept her safe. My heart hammered and gut twisted at the idea of her and our baby hurt. I'd kill before I let anything happen to her. She was mine to protect, because if anything happened to my beautiful Ella, I'd never forgive myself.
"I need you to speak to the women and explain to them the ship is taking them to safety. That they are to tell everyone that we saved them from the Khonsu, in particular the media."
"So, you want them to give everyone our names?" She arched a brow, as if questioning my decision.
I nodded. "Their arrival will gain media attention, and we might as well use the opportunity to show people we aren't as evil as the council paints us."
"That's a good idea," she said. "Don't think it will change their minds, but we’ve got nothing to lose, right?"
"Exactly." I leaned in for a quick kiss on the mouth, but the moment our lips touched, I lost myself.
The way she mewled from my kiss went straight to my head, along with the heat and growing arousal. I gripped her waist and drew her closer, then really kissed her. Tongue plunging into her mouth, her gorgeous breasts pressed against my chest. Blood rushed to my dick as she nibbled on my lower lip and moaned. And we kissed until the room spun with me. Until nothing remained but the primal need between us.
She breathed just as fast as me, and if were anywhere else, I'd carry her to a room to strip her down before fucking her.
Derrial cleared his throat. We broke apart, our heads touching, her long lashes blinking as if she'd just awoken from a dream.
"Later, gorgeous." I leaned in closer to her ear. "Later, I'm going to lick you all over and fuck you real slow."
She gasped in my arms, and my cock punched at her reaction. Every sound she made was like nectar to me.
"We need to move fast, now," Derrial reminded me, and he was right.
Ella slipped out of my arms, her full lips red and raw from our kiss, and already I wanted them back.
"I'll speak to the women and be back in five minutes."
Derrial and I nodded, then we set on getting everything ready for our jump.
By the time Ella returned, Derrial and I were strapped in our parachutes. I turned to her. She was studying the straps, fingering the harnesses.
"Is everything alright?" I asked.
"Are you sure this will hold me? It just doesn't look sturdy enough."
"You and I are jumping together, baby," Derrial stated, taking her hand in his.
"You're going to be fine," I reassured her, cupping the side of her face. She meant the world to me. "Priority is jumping out now that we're in cloud cover.” I pressed the button on her strap sitting just below her left shoulder to activate the invisibility device to any sensors once she exited the plane. I lowered my hand to the rip cord dangling from the strap across her chest. "Once you’re outside, follow Derrial’s instructions. This cord will spring open the parachute." Underneath she wore a full body suit the color of the clouds to help protect her against the cold.
She nodded, but fear shone in her eyes.
"We need to go," Derrial said urgently.
"Let's do this," she said.
I was so proud of her at that moment, and I slammed a hand to the sensor on the door. It swished open in a heartbeat, and a gush of cold wind burst inside, freezing my cheeks. I tapped the sensor built into the head gear. A transparent mask slid over my face, and the other two did the same.
Derrial drew Ella closer to the entrance. And without hesitation, they leapt out hand in hand without a single sound. Wasting no time, I tapped my invisibility shield button, then I hit the sensor on the wall, then lunged outside as the door shut behind me.
Cold air slammed into me and tugged at my hair and jumpsuit. I fell through the clouds fast, until I came out and saw the other two not far below. Falling from such a great height felt much like flying. Down below, the land was a tapestry of country fields, and farther in the distance, lay the heart of the city.
I leaned my body forward in Derrial’s directions, my arms tight by my side and I accelerated faster and faster. They grew closer, and before reaching them, I pulled up, muscles taut to not lose my balance.
Ella’s head twisted in my direction, and her expression surprised me. She was beaming a smile and waved to me. My little vixen loved skydiving. I tucked that piece of information into my mind for later.
Derrial was pointing to an open landscape slightly to our right then back at me, instructing our destination. I nodded. The landscape came closer to use, looking larger now.
He and Ella tugged on their rip cords, and their parachutes blossomed overhead, hauling them away from me.
I followed suit, and my whole body jerked upward, the hardness cutting into my armpits and sides. I tugged lightly on the toggle on the left and glided toward to the left. Adrenaline pumped through me, and I fucking loved the feeling of falling and seeing the ground rush up to me. That sensation of almost dying tugged at my heart.
When I finally touched the ground, I stumbled forward a few steps before stopping. Without wasting time, I unbuckled the harnesses and let them drop down around me as I looked up to see Ella coming down. Her face was panicked as she came in ahead of me.
I threw myself into a run after her and caught up fast. Her feet dangled, the toes of her shoes almost touching the ground. The moment her feet touched the ground, she was still running forward from the momentum, her body tilting forward. I swooped in and collected her, holding her still.
“I got you.”
She was breathing so hard, her mask fogged up. The parachute fell around us, and I quickly unlatched her. She tapped her temple and the mask vanished. I did the same, and she burst into laughter.
“That was incredible! Oh my gosh, why haven’t I done it before?”
I held her close, even if she was shivering uncontrollably from the adrenaline rush. “If Veon is ever back to normal, I will take you skydiving every weekend,” I promised her. “But for now, we need to move and fast.”
Derrial had already unbuckled from his parachute and ran toward us. “Corran is here!”
Just as the words left his mouth, a searing heat grazed over my back, and I turned as Corran’s ship appeared out from under the invisibility shield, and winked in the sunlight.
The panel slid open to the doorway into the side of a cruiser, and Corran stood there. Eyes strained, shadows underneath, hair messy as though he’d been running his hand through it over and over. His heaved for each breath, his posture curled forward enough to tell me he’d been working tirelessly. I’d seen him this way before when he worked himself to the bone to find a solution in his experiments. I studied his face for any indication that he found a cure, except he gave none. Fear speared me like lightning. I took a tentative look at Ella who studied Corran just as closely as me.
“Get inside,” he ordered tersely, and the three of us rushed inside.
The door shut behind us, and I needed answers.
Ella was at Corran’s side, concern flashing over her expression as she studied him and took his hand in hers. Her care and love for each of us was endless, and my heart beat a bit harder at the reminder of how lucky I was to call her my wife. How lucky all three of us were.
“What did you uncover?” she asked, her voice choking as she waited for good news like all of us. A solution to our problems.
“The city is almost overrun, but I found the location of a laboratory in the middle of the city that might be the source to all the chaos with the infected. So, that means that’s the one place that is most likely to have some information on an antidote.”
“Then we go to the city,” Derrial agreed, his voice firm and determined to eradicate the spreading sickness. Just like we all were…all I wanted was to spend time with my new wife away from danger and prepare for our newborn. I had no doubt Derrial and Corran were the same. So, we needed to find this damn antidote, then clear our names.
I gritted my teeth just thinking about how much was still unknown for us.
Corran kissed Ella on the brow, then pulled back and returned to the driver’s seat. “Let’s head off. We’ll break in and see what we can find.”
I took Ella’s hand and drew her with me to a seat and made sure she was buckled in.
“I’ll drive,” Derrial said, to which Corran didn’t object but slumped in the front passenger seat.
We ascended in no time, and I glanced over to see Ella rubbing her stomach. She had definitely started to show a bit already. Reaching over, I stole a quick kiss.
“You look beautiful,” I whispered.
She looked up at me with a sweet smile, one that told me her mind was miles away and she was trying to hide her emotions. I was certain they had everything to do with the loss of her mom. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms, inhale her into me so nothing could ever touch her. Nothing could hurt her.
“I’ll be alright,” she said, as if reading my mind, then reached over and smoothed out the crease at the bridge of my nose.
I loved how strong she was after everything she’d gone through. And after so much, I’d give up everything to keep her safe.
The rest of the trip went by quick and we descended in what looked like a small park in the city. With chaos running amuck, we could easily leave our concealed ship here without detection.
When the cruiser gave a small jolt from our landing, I unbuckled my belt and was on my feet. Staring out the front, there was nothing but trees and a small kids’ swing set. In the distance, lofty buildings surrounded us.
“We move fast,” Derrial said, already on his feet and heading to the door before looking at us. “And we stick together no matter what.”
“How far is the lab?” I asked as Ella pressed up against my side and I slid my arm around her waist.
“Just a few blocks. Not far at all. We just shoot any infected on sight and don’t make too much sound to draw any attention.”
“Then, we’d better hurry,” Ella said.
Derrial opened the door and hopped out. He checked the perimeter around the ship. Once we returned and waved a hand, we all followed as a close group. I quickly took the lead, my tactical training making me the best person to help us avoid detection. I knew this city like the back of my hand. At one point, my team had been in charge of putting a security system in place to protect it. Looking around, it didn’t seem that the council had bothered using it to protect the city from the infected.
We moved down a side street and kept to the sidewalk before taking another backstreet.
The place was barren and empty. Storefronts smashed in, rubbish rolling across the road in the howling wind. There was a sadness to see our home in such decay. If nothing was done, the place would turn to wastelands. So many lives and homes and memories lost. This wasn’t how I wanted to see my home planet end up. My heart clenched, but I swallowed back the boulder in my throat and kept going. This wasn’t the time to get sentimental or let anything get in my way.
Movement caught my attention from an old building up ahead. It was only three stories tall and looked like it had been used as an information storage center before it had been destroyed. I stopped and the others did the same. “Infected just ahead,” I whispered, my heart pounding.
“Go round the building then.” Derrial pointed to a side road just ahead.
If we moved quickly enough without sound, then we wouldn’t grab any attention.
Corran held onto Ella and they rushed forward.
In their rush, Ella accidently kicked a loose rock from a broken wall and it skittered right across the road like a rocket and smacked into the old building near the infected.
In that exact moment, the building exploded and ignited into a fiery ball of yellow flames and stones, billowing outward. The booming sound reverberating over the city with such ferocity, it shook me to the bones.
We all flinched backward.
“Oh fuck!”
Ella screamed and we all darted for our lives down the side street.