Page 22 of Rescue

Zaandr rolled his eyes as he hurried forward to untie him. If Rixx tried to seduce his rescuers, he might decide to leave him tied up.

Rixx eyed him with a startled expression. “You wouldn’t.”

Try me, Zaandr told him.

His friend glanced at Tegan and then narrowed his gaze. What have you been up to while I’ve been tortured?

Zaandr peered at his friend’s head wound, which was superficial. Tortured? You’ve looked worse after encountering a giant turtle on the sands.

Rixx shook his hands after Zaandr untied him and touched his wrists where they’d been rubbed raw. You’re changing the subject.

“You okay?” Rose asked, unaware that Zaandr and Rixx were carrying on a conversation without speaking.

“This is Rose,” Zaandr told him. “She’s the leader of an underground resistance in Kurril. She’s the reason we found you.”

Rixx’s expression became serious. “I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Saving you and eliminating some mercenary scum at the same time is all the thanks I need.” Rose smiled at him. “But you’re welcome. Now, I’m going to go back down and see if my fighters are okay.”

She ran from the room, passing Pog and patting his side.

Rixx seemed to finally focus on the green, scaled creature in the room. “What in the—?”

“It’s Pog,” Tegan said before he could finish. “He shifted to save me.”

Rixx rubbed his temple. “At least I’m not hallucinating.”

Zaandr stepped closer to him. “Can you walk, or do you need help?”

“I can walk.” He raised an eyebrow in challenge. “I can race you out of here, if you’d like.”

Tegan sniffed and then frowned. “Do you smell that?”

Smoke. Zaandr’s stomach clenched as he ran to the doorway and peered down the hall. Black smoke was billowing up from the floor below. The Zevrian who’d been on fire must have set other things alight as he’d been running and flailing.

“We can’t get out that way,” Tegan said in a small voice as she stood next to him.

Zaandr pressed his lips together. They were on the third floor, and he’d seen no external stairs anchored to the outside of the building. His gut clenched into a hard knot of fear. What other way out was there?

Chapter

Eighteen

Tegan coughed and put a hand over her mouth and nose. The acrid smoke was rising fast, and she could see orange flames licking the top of the stairwell. There was no getting out through the building anymore.

“Back in the room.” Zaandr pulled her inside and shut the door.

Rixx was already wrenching the boards from the window and tossing them behind him. Zaandr ran to help him, and the two Dothveks cleared the window in a matter of seconds. They tugged at the sill, but it was stuck, so they exchanged a knowing glance before both raising their boots and kicking out the glass.

She ran to the window and peered down. Rose was below them with both of her fighters, but they’d managed to avoid the cascading glass. The fighter she’d seen lying on the floor looked badly wounded, but she held a hand to her bloody side as she looked up at the burning building. Smoke now poured from the windows below them, sending a pillar of black into the sky.

“So much for an in-and-out mission,” she muttered from behind her hand. People were already streaming from nearby buildings and gaping up.

“We have to jump,” Rixx said.

“From this high?” Tegan shook her head. “We’ll never survive.” Then she eyed the huge, muscular Dothveks. “Correction, I’ll never survive.”

Zaandr’s face contorted in pain. “You can jump with me. I’ll hold you.”

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