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Sofie
I tried to put my feet exactly where Raxnor had stepped, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t make my footfalls as quiet as his.
Another bit of leaves crinkled under my shoe, and I winced.Mierda! How the hell does he do it? He weighs like two of me!
But Raxnor didn’t turn his scowl on me, and maybe my noises weren’t as bad as I feared. Once we’d left the area of the fight, the jungle had come alive around us again, with little animals rustling through the ferns while the bird lizards flew overhead.
Damn, it had been satisfying to see him knock out asshole guard! And even better to shoot the fucker a few times myself.
As we continued on, I licked dry lips, thirst gripping my throat. Running with the kids each day had gotten me used to exercising, but we never stayed out for more than a couple of hours before returning to the walled house.
Raxnor kept going, even though each step had to hurt. He carried his body carefully, torso braced against unnecessary movement. Except for his left arm, which swayed with every step as if he had no control over it. I hadn’t noticed it at first, since he’d fought so well, but he’d been fighting one-handed.
Asshole guard had shot him that shoulder. Was Raxnor’s arm “passed out,” like the lizards we’d left behind? Or was he more seriously hurt?
Just as I was about to ask for some answers, he stopped and pointed up.
A pack covered with golden and green material hung from a tree branch overhead.
He held up his phone so I could read,“We have to get that down, but my arm’s still numb.”
I let out a relieved sigh. Numb sounded good, sounded like something temporary.
He did more one-handed typing.“I can’t climb.”
I stepped up to the trunk and set my guns on the ground. The golden bark felt smooth, and there weren’t any branches lower than the one holding the pack. I attempted a couple of scrambles against the side before admitting defeat. Climbing this would take upper body strength I simply didn’t have. I turned to face him with a wry smile. “Sorry.”
“I will boost you. Climb onto my shoulders.”Then he got onto his knees before me, his upright horns level with my chest, giving me my first really good look at them.
Small ridges ringed their dark-purple surface. I instinctively reached out to touch one, but yanked my hand back before making contact.
Then I circled behind him and threw my thigh up over his good shoulder. With a little hop—and a grab of those horns after all—I made it up onto his shoulders.
His right hand wrapped around my leg, so big it spanned my entire thigh. He held me to him with a firm strength as he stood.
Still, I swayed, and only my grip on his horns kept me from tipping over. I was about as sporty as any engineer—as in, not much. I could run but had never done anything that required a lot of coordination. Not that there’d been time for something like sports—not as a scholarship kid, which is all anyone in the middle class could afford to be.
I lifted my arms overhead, able to reach the pack, but not all the way up to where it attached to the branch. “I’m not high enough.”
Raxnor’s good hand slid around under my butt. In a crazy feat of strength, he lifted me up with only one arm.Mierda! That’s hot!Just how strong was he?
I shook off my shock and got to work. Straining upward, I reached the clasps and undid them. The pack’s weight pulled the straps right out of my hands. “Look out!” I whisper-yelled.
He took a big step back, and my heart skipped as I swayed. His tail pressed against my back, trying to hold me. Only a quick grab of his horns kept me from falling.
The pack flew past a couple of inches in front of my face, close enough to feel the wind of its passage. It thumped to the ground.
Raxnor crouched, then lowered his hand until my thighs rested on his shoulders again. They clamped tight to his curved horns. A muffled laugh escaped me.If I’m going to strangle him with my thighs, I want him turned toward me and doing something alotmore fun.
I slid from his back as he dug through the pack. He pulled out something that looked like a medkit and jammed a syringe into his side, right where the lizard had hit him over and over. A tiny sigh escaped him, and some of the tension left his shoulders. I’d been right—he’d been in a lot of pain but had been able to lift me, anyway. This guy took stoic to a whole new level.
He aimed a scanner thing at me, then scowled at the display.“You don’t have a translator chip. I’m no medic, but it’s fairly simple to install. It will make our escape easier if we’re able to talk.”
“I’ll be able to understand everyone?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Mierda, yes!” I’d hated the way the lizards had barked commands at me like I was a mindless animal.
