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Twyla
A ragged scream left my mouth as blood spurted from the back of Cedra’s skull. It splattered on the pitch-black combat suit of the hunters who’d slipped in quietly behind her, the blood seeping quickly into the material as though it was water and not the blood of my love who lay crumpled on the floor.
My vision tunneled and I could hear a scream in the distance. I knew it was mine, but it felt foreign, almost too far away for it to be true. I’d never heard such anguish, never felt such clawing pain.
Shards of glass shred the skin of my knees and palms as I scrambled to get closer to Cedra on the floor. Frantic pants filled my ears and echoed through my body. I needed to stop the blood. With my hands, my shirt. I needed to feel her heartbeat to make sure she was still alive.
Everything seemed to slow down. As I reached for Cedra, I felt two strong arms twine around my waist, pulling me away.
I fought against the twin bands of steel, thrashing this way and that like a trapped animal. I was begging, my pleas to be let go falling on deaf ears.
Tears dripped down the sides of my face, but I barely noticed. My eyes were locked on Cedra, still unmoving, rivulets of blood gushing out of the back of her head.
Please, please, please. Did I say those words out loud or were they a desperate prayer? I didn’t know. My Mate. My Mate. My Mate.
I heard a transmitter crackling and a low male voice saying, “Target acquired. Tank to pick up. I repeat, tank to pick up.”
Almost immediately, I heard something whiz down from the sky. A black transport carrier—or tank for short—blended in seamlessly with the night. Eight sturdy legs extended from the base and planted carefully on the dirt, crushing the tall grass around it.
A short set of stairs extended from its small entryway, hitting the ground with a soft thud.
It was the finality of that thud that set me moving again. I jabbed my elbow sharply into the person holding me. With a surprised grunt, they loosened their grip for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. I turned and ran, jumping over the prone body of the first person Cedra had felled.
I’d almost made it to the front door when I felt a sharp, insistent prick on the back of my shoulder.
Numbness spread through my limbs quickly but my brain took longer to follow. It screamed when my mouth couldn’t, fought the fog when it threatened to close around me quickly with a degree of finality.
There were arms around me again, hauling me to my feet where I’d fallen, just shy of the front door.
“She landed on her face, dumbass,” I heard the masculine voice grunt admonishingly. “If she’s bruised or hurt, he won’t pay us the full fee.”
“She’ll be fine.” I felt fingers on my chin, turning my face this way and that in the moonlight.
I was now a stringless puppet, slumped against whoever held me. I could control nothing but basic thoughts. And my only reverberating thought was Cedra.
I had no control over my body. I felt saliva pool in my mouth and dribble down the side of my lips. A hand swiped across my face, surprisingly gentle.
“Let’s get you home, girl.”
Home?! I wanted to yell that home meant nothing if it wasn’t beside Cedra, but I couldn’t fight the fog anymore. As they dragged me out the door, the tank loomed dark and dangerous under the night sky.
My last fear as darkness crept into the edges of my vision was that I might never set foot on this Star ever again.
