Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (20 page)

“Yes, I haven’t figured out how to cut the thread yet.”

“Don’t. We can use it.”

She slowly nodded her head.

Blue made her way down the mountain. Angling her descent to come up behind the first group of three Ragillians. She would have to make this as quick and quiet as she could. Once she and Jayden started eliminating them it would not be long before they caught on to the fact that the prey they were looking for had turned into the hunters.

She motioned for Leo to stay down when they came in sight. She knelt down to steady the rifle and aimed for the first man. They were more than likely wearing some type of body armor so the head was going to be her best chance of taking them down. She adjusted the power and fired. Before the first man fell to the ground the second was in her sights. Then he too fell. The third had time to bring up his gun before she shot him.
“Three down,
” she sent to Jayden.

She ran to the downed Ragillians. All of whom were alive, unconscious but alive. She tied and gagged them before dragging them further into the trees. This would be all over one way or the other before they woke up. But there was no sense in taking chances.

She stripped them of everything but their clothes. All three looked exactly the same. If Jayden hadn’t told her they were clones she would have thought they were Identical triplets. There was nothing threatening about them. They looked so ordinary for bad guys.

She headed for the next set. Really they were making this too easy being spread so far apart. The next two went down just as easy. She was getting closer and instead of two or three together they were spread apart. Blue took a moment to do another scan. There, twenty yards to her right. Aim, fire, run to the next. Six down, Jayden had ten down, only twenty five left.

She heard the commotion as she snuck up on the next guy. The jig was up, they knew someone was here. Make that two someones she thought when she heard the Ragillian’s com unit inform them that two or more assailants, working separately were attacking from all directions. She gave a quiet snort. Things were going to get just a little bit harder from here on out.

The Ragillian ahead of her took cover behind a tree. There was no way she could get to him unless she backtracked and came in from behind him. Blue slowly backed up and inched her way around in a wide circle. Coming up behind him she peeked around the tree she was hiding behind to see he was still looking the wrong way. The distance was too short for the rifle so she pulled the pistol aimed, fired and another Ragillian bit the dust.

She heard a rustling sound behind her and turned in time to see Leo pounce on the guy aiming at her. He made short work of tearing the guy’s throat out before sending her a reproachful look.
“Thanks sweetie,”
she sent to him. That was close. She didn’t think she would have been able to get off a shot before the Ragillian did. In all the years they had been together this was the first time she had been on a mission with Leo. Looking at the dead guy with his throat missing she thought he was a very efficient partner.

She motioned for Leo to go to the right while she worked her way around towards the next guy. Time was getting short. If any Ragillian ships were still in orbit the ones on the ground could call for reinforcements. Despite the numbers she and Jayden had the advantage for now.

She stopped every few minutes and scanned for the positions of the enemy and sent the information to Jayden through their connection. If they talked telepathically then anyone who was a telepath could hear what they said and there was no way to know if the Ragillians had a telepath close by. It would be easier if she could scan all the time but she couldn’t afford to have her mind split in two directions.

Two more Ragilians fell under her fire before she came to a stop when she heard movement ahead. She made a quick check with Jayden and learned he had taken out three more. Eighteen left and they were more than half way there. The men ahead were moving away from her. Heading towards the ship. She couldn’t have that.

Blue directed Leo to cut them off and watched him slink through the trees without disturbing so much as a leaf. Moving as soundlessly as she could, which was pretty quiet, just not as silent as Leo, she inched her way forward. It was the largest group yet. Five Ragillians stood several feet apart laser pistols ready to fire and on high alert. They walked with their backs towards each other leaving them free to sweep their pistols back and forth, covering all sides.

She could probably get two of them before they got her. Leo could take out one. That still left two. She took a deep breath ducked around a tree aimed and fired. Before she could get off a second shot they swept the air with laser fire. One of them said, “Hold your fire, take him alive”.

Blue ducked and rolled to the left and fired blindly. It was pure luck that it hit one of them. They charged her position. She leaped up off the ground ready to take advantage when her chrystal repelled them when they tried to grab her.

It. Didn’t. Happen. No flare of light, no throwing them back for daring to touch her. “What the heck?” she said as the first one reached for her. She spun and landed a roundhouse kick to his stomach at the same time pulling her knife. With the momentum from the spin she plunged it into the other man’s chest. They were too close to use the gun and for some reason they wanted her alive.

“It’s a female. Kill it.”

Scratch that, apparently they only wanted her alive when they thought she was male.

“You are a chauvinistic jerk,” Blue told him then leapt at him just as Leo came up behind the other one. When it was over there were five bodies on the ground and Blue was still on her feet. She had a cut on her arm and a bruise she could feel forming on her cheek from the last guy’s fist that she didn’t dodge in time. “Think this will heal before we meet up with Jayden?” she asked Leo. He looked at her as if that was a stupid question. “Yeah, you are right, he’s going to be mad. You don’t think he meant that whole spanking thing do you?”

“Blue answer me damn it,”
Jayden shouted through their connection.

“Speak of the devil,” she told Leo.
“What, I’m a little busy here.”
She felt his relief and only then realized that he must have been trying to contact her for the last several minutes.

“Are you hurt?”
he demanded.

“No, of course not. Are you?”
She really didn’t think the cut and bruises counted.

“Nothing that will not heal. My area is cleared. What about yours?”

She did a scan.
“All clear,”
she told him.
“The only ones left are the three in the ship.”

“How far away are you?”
he asked.

“Not far. It will take us about five minutes to get to the meeting point,”
she told him.

“I am a little closer. We need to hurry before they take off in the ship,”
Jayden said.

“Would that be so bad? That ship will probably fall apart before we hit the atmosphere.”

Blue felt Jayden’s amusement and knew he was laughing at her. She didn’t care. She was not getting on that rust bucket he insisted on calling a space ship. She would explain that to him in a calm rational manner.

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 20

Up close the Dalor ship didn’t look any better. In fact it looked worse than she thought. She walked around it with Jayden. “What are you looking for?” she asked him.

The three remaining Ragillians had locked themselves in and were not coming out. She couldn’t blame them. They knew what awaited them. Jayden had thrown a fit when he had gotten a look at her cut arm, bruised cheek and all around disheveled appearance. Did he think she was going to come out of this looking pristine?

He had taken one look at her and started swearing while inspecting every inch of her. For a minute when he was brushing mud off her butt she thought he might make good on his threat to spank her. She was a bit bemused. This was all so new to her. Having a man trying to protect and care for her. She didn’t expect whatever this thing between them was to last but she was going to enjoy it while it did.

Jayden was an interesting and complex man and the sex had been incredible. Their lives were destined to go in different directions. She may be a so called princess but Jayden was from a very powerful family on his planet and in the Alliance. During one of the talks she had with Idris, he had told her that as soon as Jayden was ready to settle down and quit his adventures he was slated to take his father’s place. On both his home world and on the council as head of the Combined Alliance Space Fleet.

It was an important and influential position. It was also understood that he would marry someone of his own race. Not that she wanted to marry him but he couldn’t marry her even if he wanted to.

She, well, she wasn’t sure what she would do after she got to Shillidon. First she had to save the planet then she just didn’t know. Idris had let some things slip that she didn’t think he was aware of and she had spent time pulling information off the computers. She knew she wouldn’t fit into their society. The Shillidonians sounded like a peaceful, gentle people. She was neither peaceful nor gentle.

She would do what she could and if she survived she would find a place to call hers. After all she no longer had to hide and there was a whole universe to explore. The thought of being free, totally free to do what she wanted, when she wanted was a heady feeling. She would not make the mistake of making more of this thing between them than it was. A pleasant fling that’s all it was and all it was going to stay.

Blue watched as Jayden found what he was looking for. He pulled a rusty panel off the ship, exposing an entrance with a ladder into it. She looked at the entrance then at Jayden. It was going to be a tight fit. She giggled. She actually giggled at the picture of him greased up and squeezing through, what for him would be a small, tight fit. For her it was plenty big enough.

Jayden heard the soft musical laughter first in his mind then with his ears, coming from behind him and froze in place. It was such an unexpected and out of place sound and it could only be coming from Blue. He slowly turned around in shock. She was beautiful in any circumstance and he had thought she was exquisite when she smiled. But the laughter on her face turned her into something beyond anything he could describe.

At the look on his face Blue wrapped her arms around her stomach and the giggles turned to laughter. She couldn’t talk so she sent a picture of a giant greased pig with Jayden’s face squealing its way up the shaft into the ship to him. He had no idea why that was so funny. He hadn’t spent time on Earth to get the reference and the puzzled look on his face just made her laugh harder until she sat on the ground.

Leo went to stand next to Jayden and both of the males looked at her like she had lost her mind. Maybe she had. They were stranded on a mud hole masquerading as a planet. Between them they had disabled or killed thirty eight men. Now they were about to kill the three remaining men to steal a ship that looked like it belonged in a junk yard not space. All so she could go save a dying planet and she was laughing like a loon. It was official, she had lost her ever loving mind.

She tried to get herself under control but made the mistake of looking up at Jayden which set her off again. The puzzled look had been replaced with a patient one and he was leaning against the rust bucket waiting for her to finish. He was adorable. She could love him, she thought. That brought her laughter to an abrupt stop.

Horrified she stared at him. No, absolutely not. She would not fall into that trap. She just had this conversation with herself. She liked him, that was all. They were in an intense situation and he was her first lover. That’s all it was, she assured herself. Women always fell for their first lover. She would not be a cliche and make more of it than it was.

Jayden wondered what she was thinking. Whatever it was wiped the laughter from her face. She stood up and asked him, “How do you plan on getting the Ragillians out of the ship?” She was back to being all business. Jayden started to say something then changed his mind. He would find out what thought had stolen her laughter later. When they had time and no place for her to run.

“I am going to get into the ship through this access panel. When I do I am going to force them to come out on their own.”

“What’s to stop them from just shooting you?”

“They are not going to see me. I’m going to let loose one of these,” he said pulling a round ball the size of her fist from the utility belt at his waist. “This releases a noxious gas. They will not be able to breath,” he finished with satisfaction.

Blue nodded her head thinking of the tear gas used on Earth, then shook it. “We won’t be able to either,” she pointed out. With a grin he held up two gas masks. They weren’t the big awkward ones she was used to seeing. Instead they were small and compact fitting in the palm of her hand and no thicker than a dime.

“We probably will not need them. When I release this into the ventilation ducts it will take a few minutes to fill the ship. When it does they will either come running out or die,” Jayden explained.

“Unless they have their own masks,” Blue said.

“I doubt they have anything that will work. They are new and only issued to teams like mine. There has not been time for them to be available in any other market. This mask is the only one that can block this gas.”

“Works for me,” Blue said. Motioning for Jayden to get on with it.

He wormed his way up the shaft, set the gas bomb to go off in five seconds, tossed it into the air duct and was back next to Blue in less time than she thought possible. They ducked behind the landing gear in case the Ragillians came out firing their weapons. It wasn’t long before the door slid back and the ramp extended. The Ragillians came out stumbling and coughing. One by one Jayden shot, dropping them on the spot.