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For fucks sake.This should be child’s play. He hadn’t earned his boots and armor from sheer good luck. He’d fought his way through countless opponents on specially built battle grounds to merit his warrior gear along with the emperor’s respect. There were few who could beat him, and yet this biped alien with more brawn than brains had managed to outwit him.
It would be the first and last time.
He was only thankful Sienna wasn’t here to see his temporary defeat. He’d bet she wouldn’t have intervened, she probably would have laughed her ass off, possibly even hoped he’d get killed to save having to get her own hands dirty.
Sorry to disappoint you, but my end isn’t happening now or anytime soon.
He’d had enough of death in his life. He’d been an assassin before he’d left that gruesome business behind to become a bounty hunter. After all, one paid just as well as the other and his services were in huge demand thanks to his high success rate.
Not that anyone would believe it now seeing him sprawled on the ground with a Dronian getting the better of him. That he probably looked like a pin cushion with all his cuts, including the one on his throat from Sienna, just added salt to his various wounds.
The Dronian lunged for him, its mouth opened wide and exposing its double-serrated teeth, its already bloodied talons gleaming under the moonlight.
Gray swung his leg to the left, cracking the side of the Dronian’s jaw in a momentary distraction that gave him enough time to surge into a backflip. He did three more rotations, putting distance between him and the vile lizard-creature, the train moving slowly forward alongside him, as though the driver was hesitant to set it back into full speed after the emergency brake had been applied.
Standing squarely on his feet once again, Gray ripped off his hoodie. It would not only free his movements, but also released his wings. He let the pair of them fan out around him, the leathery pleats straightening to their massive glory.
The Dronian paused, its shock evident.
Thinking twice now, aren’t you motherfucker?
His enemy didn’t need to know that his wings were rarely used for flight, not when he could only glide from a high point to wherever he needed to go. His wings, like all his species, were more often used as a weapon. Not only did they deflect, the sharp prongs on the tips of his wings could as easily slash and stab.
Not giving the Dronian any more time to think and adjust, it was Gray’s turn to leap high before he spun at high speed, his wings whirling out right along with him. One prong then the other slashed the Dronian’s neck before Gray landed on the ground with his knees bent. He looked up as the Dronian staggered, its talons grasping hold of its now mangled and bloodied neck.
Gray might have enjoyed watching his enemy slowly bleed out, but Sienna was even now getting farther and farther way. Besides which, the Dronian’s thick, purplish blood was almost as gross as the rotten egg odor it was already emitting.
Not that he had to hang around waiting for its death. With a gargling hiss, it lurched sideways. With impeccable timing, it fell heavily between the last two moving carriages, its head smashing onto the railway line. The carriage wheel immediately ran over its head, the exploding purple goo spraying the tracks in a macabre graffiti.
Gray shuddered even as he turned away with one wing outstretched, using the prong at its end to wrap around the handle of the rapier. He picked it up and launched it into the air, catching it with one hand. And without a backward glance, he ran toward the river he’d scented earlier. Toward the woman he was determined never to lose again.
Chapter Three
Sienna might have laughedat glimpsing the river under the moonlight, with the train far behind her and the promise of power surging through her once again...if only a part of her didn’t feel guilty for leaving behind the bounty hunter. But surely if Gray could see the Dronians, he’d at least have a fighting chance against them?
No, he had every chance of surviving. He was, after all, in the business of hunting others. He’d know how to look after his own skin, know how to defend himself. A bounty hunter only cared about making coin out of those people he hunted down. He wouldn’t care why Sienna was a wanted woman, only that shewaswanted and that he’d be getting paid for his trouble.
