Brax Page 7

  Suddenly his need to protect his mate from herself was not the only reason to free these women. This was not what he wanted the Tellox to become. It was one thing to hear that prospective mates had been taken, another to see the females caged. They needed to find another way.

  "At least they left the lights on." Ariel said from beside him as the women watched them warily some standing, others cringing back and huddling low.

  "I know I look a little different, and it took me a while,” His mate said, loud enough for her voice to carry. “But I found a way to get you all off the ship and back to Earth." She motioned to the seven-foot honed warrior beside her. "He's going to help us."

  "Why would he help and why do you look so different?" A woman asked and stepped forward. She was close to the door, and her posture and careful way she eyed them and kept an eye on the empty space beyond them told Brax that she had some training.

  Ariel shrugged. "Because I asked him to. The rest we don't have time for, so everyone who wants off this ship and back home, please follow us in an orderly and quiet manner." Then Ariel tugged his arm and turned to lead him and anyone who would follow to the teleporters.

  That she was not going to waste her time trying to talk them must have reassured them more than mere words could, because everyone followed them.

  They were able to teleport up to ten at a time, mostly because the women were so small. Since she did not have time to be picky, all of them were teleported to the same place. Here was hoping the secret service did not shoot first and ask questions after. But it was the best she could do, since they would then be protected and returned to their homes after, she was sure extensive testing to verify they were who they were supposed to be and not carrying anything that would be harmful to the Earth or its people. Since she thought that was a good idea, Ariel did not quibble. By the time half of the women had been teleported, the Tellox were banging away in the distance, trying to open the portal she had locked them behind on the bridge. Ariel was on the computer sending various commands too fast for Brax to see, and he had to take the time to marvel at his mate’s capabilities. Not only had she taken over commands from the bridge, but she had also managed to instigate the bridge shut down in case of attack and board of an enemy. Right now, the Tellox ship captain was fighting against his own defense and losing to a human woman. A species they had all considered primitive.

  Brax would have laughed if he had not already figured out for himself that he would not have been able to do it, and he was a Tellox General. His mate was indeed formidable. He teleported the next group of women and verified they were clear of the area before he herded the last of them to the teleporter and off the ship. The woman who had spoken was one of the last to go. She looked at Ariel with a question in her eyes. "Are you coming?"

  Ariel looked up from the computer she was playing like an instrument and met the lady’s eyes. "I'm going to find my sisters," she said simply.

  The woman looked her over and those eyes missed nothing of the changes, or just how protective Brax stood, always between Ariel and anyone else. "I can help you."

  "Help them," Ariel said simply. "We still have work to do here."

  "Good luck Ariel."

  "You too, Ivy." They know each other then, Brax thought watching the exchange. Ariel finally ended with a warning. "I would avoid the press if I were you. They might try to get you back and you don't want to be sitting in a room advertising where you are and what you just went through, so they can pick you back up. We aren't going to be here to help next time."

  The woman Ivy nodded her understanding and then stepped up with the other women on the teleport platform. Brax sent them on their way.

  Ariel breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back in her chair. "At least that is done."

  Brax did not give her more than that. "Time to get to the ship," he growled. Pulling her up by her arm and hauling her to the portal. They could still hear the boom of the battle being fought between warrior and bridge portal, so at least that much had worked. But if they managed to override what she had done, they could trap their ship with them on it inside the shields. And if they got through the shield on the bridge they would not need the computer to override the commands.

  All they had to do was get to the cargo hold and hit the manual override before they could get the ship launched and away. The possible mates they had been waiting for were gone. He did not think it was going to be enough for him to simply order them as their king to go about their business. Somehow, he doubted even his brother generated that much fear.

  They were running down the corridors and nearly to the docking bay when an explosion rocked the ship. Brax cursed, knowing that they now had less time. He pulled Ariel along behind him and would have been dragging her if she had not been moving just as fast.

  "That didn't sound good," she muttered.

  Brax just ground his teeth and yanked her faster. They made it to the docking bay and with more than a little relief he watched the doors swoosh open, still in working order. They might make it off the ship. Then they opened fully, and they came face to face with a wall of Tellox elite brandishing stunners, and Brax looked up into eyes identical to his own, but with a manic gleam in them that he hoped never to see in the mirror.

  Rygan smiled widely at them with nothing of humor in that display of teeth.

  ***

  Ariel did not hesitate, even as they were surrounded by stone faced giants she sent out a heartfelt and desperate SOS. Sara, Megan? If you guys can hear me wherever you are. You sent Brax to help me, but I think even he might need back up on this one.

  "My brother the traitor, returned from the dead," Rygan said almost mildly, but that look in his eyes was pure madness. He was even worse than the last time she had seen him. "Did you think you were the only one who could lay a trap?"

  "My men?" Brax asked with a growl. Unlike his brother he appeared completely unmoved by the turn of events. If Ariel could not feel his anger and worry for her she would think he was as unconcerned as he looked. A neat trick that.

  "Taken. They live, for now. I would not waste the opportunity of executing them for treason where all can enjoy the message."

  "And will you explain that your attempt to kill the General of their armies was unsuccessful before I join them?"

  "You won't be joining them. I have something altogether different planned for you." Ariel knew the exact moment the mad king’s attention turned to her. "You will watch your loyal men die from the safety of this ship, then you'll scream in pain for trying to take what is mine. Tell me," the king asked silkily, “have you enjoyed my mate?"

  Brax snarled and readied for battle, but Ariel grabbed his arm and thought soothing thoughts his way. There is not a lock in this place that can hold me, and he has no idea. Just stay alive. For my sake, please.

  She felt the brush of his mind like a caress of reassurance, but he did not relax his stance.

  "You know as well as I do, that I would not have been able to claim her had she not always been meant for me." Brax gave his brother a pitying look. "How many men do you think will follow a King who would take what belongs to another."

  "She is mine," Rygan snarled. His good mood vaporized.

  "If she was, you would have claimed her the second you tasted her blood. That you could walk away at all was testament to your incompatibility."

  "I will take her over your corpse brother dear, and we will see who wins. After all it was not you who started her transformation."

  "What you have never failed to understand, brother. Is that it is not a game to be won between us. And you underestimate my mate, as you do me, something that will get you killed. That," Brax said. "Is a comfort. As is the fact that you have tried and failed many times before to kill me, and yet here I stand. And you might have started her transformation. But you could not claim her, because she has been, and always will be, mine.”

  His voice went harsh then, the cool of Brax’s eyes changing to a cold fury as he co
ntinued. “My mate that you bit and left to die alone on the floor of your chambers while you went off to battle. That I will not forget. I did not want you dead before brother, no matter what you thought. But after the way you treated my mate? Now you have finally seen fulfilled your paranoid delusions, because for that I will see you dead."

  Rygan hissed at him, his eyes practically pinwheeling in his head. Then like a switch had been thrown he went cold as ice and all expression left him. It had to be the scariest thing Ariel had ever seen.

  "Take him," he ordered his men, and the nearly dozen elite warriors swarmed over Brax like locusts.

  He shoved Ariel back and out of the way and fought them while she stood around like a damsel in distress and wrung her hands. But she was not foolish enough to think she could help him in a battle with other warriors, if she did try something she would just be in the way, so she had to bide her time. She wanted to tell him to stop fighting and go peacefully but knew it would be futile. This was not a man who ever surrendered without a fight, even when it was logical.

  She did not realize she was crying, but that never changed anything and this time it was less than useless. In the end Brax lay unconscious and bloody among the half dozen bodies strewn across the now blood-soaked floor. Even those still standing were bloodied. It had been a fast, brutal battle and the best thing she could say about it was that Brax was still breathing.

  Rygan who had hung back like the bloody coward he was, looked over his brother’s battered form and met Ariel's eyes. And smiled. She nearly launched herself at him.

  Brax had been right about a few things. Rygan underestimated not only her, but his brother, still. If he had any self-preservation he would kill Brax, right now, and her along with him and be done with it. Because Brax was also right about something else. If her mate did not manage to kill his brother, Ariel swore in that moment that she would.

  CHAPTER NINE

  "All are called to witness the death of traitors.” That was the very dramatic announcement sent to all Tellox ships, and to the warriors looking for their mates on Earth. Ariel was back in the rooms she had shared with Brax. She watched silently from her seat where she had been shoved while Rygan gave his orders. He cleared out the command ship of all but his most trusted elite fighters. His own version of the praetorian guard, Ariel mused, watching the almost robot-like motions of the men that followed every order their King gave without emotion or argument. She had seen a lot of Tellox, mostly from Brax’s memory and the emotionless brutality of his elite struck her as wrong. In more than one way.

  Brax, she thought the question to her mate. Why do the soldiers with your brother seem so off to me?

  There was a long moment before he answered her, and she could feel his reluctance. What is it you are seeing?

  Ariel knew from the way he was shielding so fully that she was not wrong about the warriors. I'm not sure what it is, but they seem to be less human, for lack of a better word, then the rest of the Tellox I have met.

  He was quiet so long she wondered if he would answer her. Just before my brother sent me on my last assignment, I had started to question the warriors in his guard. I saw too many changes in them recently. Too many similarities to the weapons we were originally created to be. Before I could find any answers, he betrayed me to the slavers, and I admit my mind was turned to other matters.

  Ariel watched the men and their king, wondering what it was that was pinging her radar, but besides the fact that they reminded her of the cyborgs in the terminator movies there was nothing obviously different. She did know that they were nothing like Brax, or Rygan for that matter. They were just so controlled.

  Rygan did not tell any of the crew that it had been Brax that had released the mates, or that he was even alive. Instead, his warriors quickly and quietly told them all that none of them were a match for the Tellox genetically and that he had released them. Then he just basically sent everybody on their way without addressing the issue of Brax at all. As far as they understood, Rygan had locked them in the bridge to bring in his own forces in case there were more traitors among his people. No one had dared argue with him when he was surrounded by his elite. And looking at the dead eyes of the large brutal looking warriors, she could not blame them. Not when it would have called attention to them in a time where traitors had been found and attention from Rygan and his men would be a very dangerous thing.

  As far as Ariel could tell no one yet knew who the so-called traitors were, and how they had betrayed the Tellox. Rygan was all set to make that announcement at the execution. Brax sat in lock down in a much more secure prison than they had felt necessary for the human women. Ariel even knew where he was being held, which was a stroke of luck and a clear sign that Rygan still did not understand what she was capable of.

  Not that it was doing her any good now. Rygan was busy but he did not intend to let her out of his sight as far as she could tell. And she knew from the way his eyes drifted to her with cold fury every once in a while, that he had not forgotten her and eventually he would get to dealing with her. The thought was not a comforting one.

  Though there was some comfort in the fact that she could still feel Brax through the mate bond. Could even communicate with him, which Rygan did not know, or he would never have been so open with information in front of her. Information she passed right along to Brax, while he did the same to her. So, she knew where he was being held. The number of guards that were posted and what kind of security needed to be bypassed.

  Brax knew his men were alive and that the entire fleet was being recalled to witness their execution, gladiator style at a small desert moon on the outskirts of Tellox space. A place traditionally used to settle disputes and punish law breakers. A place called, overly dramatically in her opinion, ‘The Sands of Judgment’.

  Ariel had to actively stop her mouth from smirking every time she heard the name. It was also the place where challenges for territory were fought. For good reason according to Brax. A desolate barren place of sand and blood where natural rock outcroppings surrounded a plateau of sand and deadly crevices. Crevices that housed beasts that in her mind resembled nothing so much as dragons, without the fire breathing abilities.

  If Brax had ever truly challenged his brother this was where the two of them would have fought each other, the beasts and the terrain. Last man standing wins.

  Brax's men were not there for a challenge but an execution so they would be dropped there without the usual shields and weapons and face the beasts and the terrain in nothing but their leathers and boots. She knew from the pictures Brax's memories painted that they would not stand a chance against the armor-plated lizards who had teeth and claws that could cut through solid rock.

  The one good thing she could see of this was that Earth had a little more time to work on their defenses. From what she had gleaned from listening to Rygan, none of the women that had been tested had come up compatible. He had not lied about that. Which meant the only mates that had been found on Earth for the Tellox were from Ariel’s family line.

  They had dropped most of the women back down to Earth like so much discarded garbage, keeping only a small number for what Rygan called experimentation. From the way he looked at her when he discussed this, she had the feeling this did not bode well for her or the women they had kept. All of which had been transferred to this ship. She did not think the other warriors outside of his trusted, knew that some of the incompatible women had been kept but she knew from the cold gleam in his eyes that Rygan was not going to be treating either her or them with even as much care as he had previously.

  While Ariel had no wish to become a lab rat at least Brax seemed to have been right about one thing. The only thing she felt for Rygan was a driving need to get away from him. The male quite frankly made her skin crawl. There had been a niggling worry that she would react to both genetically similar brothers the same way. But thankfully that was not the case, in fact, if anything Rygan physically and mentally repelled her. Somet
hing that had not been lost on the king every time he grabbed her and shoved her along where he wanted her.

  Not that he was giving up. If anything, the fact that his brother had claimed her, and he could not made him that much more determined to find a scientific way to change that.

  That he still thought to somehow claim her once Brax was dead was something she did not want to think about. Especially when he had called for his best scientists to return to Tellos and discover what made her family different, and how the Earth females could be manipulated on a genetic level to get the Tellox their blood mates back. Ariel, and the dozen or so women trapped on the ship, no doubt in the same hold where she had been originally, were the key to make that happen, in his twisted mind at least. But for now, he had other priorities.

  Ariel knew that once Brax was dealt with she would become very expendable to the king, especially if Brax was right about his inability to claim her. She had a feeling her life would be short and painful, and end with her dissection in the name of science.

  The irony was not lost on Ariel, when she had dedicated her life to science. She was not however willing to sacrifice quite that much of her death in that direction.

  What Ariel needed was a moment without a half dozen armed Tellox watching her every move. She just was not sure that was going to happen before his men were dropped into The Sands of Judgment. Rygan was right about one thing. If Brax had to watch helplessly as his loyal men were eaten by sand dragons it would kill him. And he would kill himself to try to stop it. Ariel was not about to let either happen. She just needed an opening. She assumed he would leave her behind while he went to pass judgement on the traitors and she would have her chance. She would free Brax and together they would get to the transport and transport his men out of danger, hopefully before anyone was killed. It was a solid plan.