Finding Lara (Distant Worlds Book 3) (16 page)

“Lara!” Conall bellowed
nearly in her ear making them ring, but she didn’t care.  She grabbed at him
like the lifeline he was and tried to help him get her out.  He yanked and
threw the both of them backwards, then together, her nearly on top of him, they
crab-walked backwards until with a thunk, Conall hit the side of a tree with
his head.  Ignoring what had to be significant head pain, he backed up further
until they were both as plastered to the tree as they could get, practically
sitting on the giant root system the shifting grounds had revealed.  Conall
pulled her as high as she could go so that she was cradled in his arms nearly
at his shoulders.  They both watched the flickering and twisting lights as
cyborgs blasted away at the earth attacking them.  Their feet were taken out from
under them as the very ground they walked became the predator swallowing them. 
When everyone was gone, the ground seemed to ripple and settle like a wave over
whatever was left of the battle, then it flowed their way covering other tree
roots and hardening as it approached.

“Shite,” he said
clutching her impossibly closer as they watched the wave of earth coming their
way. 

“Conall,” Lara gasped,
seeing it too.  Conall jumped up and looked around, teetering on the exposed
roots; everywhere around them was hardening ground, and that wave of frothing
rocks and dirt was coming at them.  Conall looked up at the same time Lara
did.  The branches were too high.  Conall looked from the high branch to Lara
and then kissed her quickly.  Before she could even guess at what he planned,
he tossed her straight up at the branch.  In a move of unbelievable strength,
she felt herself propelled straight up.  She caught the branch almost reflexively,
barely holding on.  Then realizing that Conall was not somehow miraculously
following her, she twisted frantically to see him, and almost lost her flimsy
grip.  Conall was standing in a crouch as if he would do battle with the
approaching tsunami.  She knew it would swallow him just as it had done to
every other warrior in its path.  So did Conall.

Instinctively, she threw
that Heti empathy out and around her trying to find something to connect to. 
If it was a sentient being maybe it could be soothed.  Bargained with,
anything.  When she felt the wave of world energy, it shocked her so severely she
almost lost it.  She could not hold it and the branch as well.  She needed all
her concentration for this.  So she fell, and she would have hit hard and
broken something if Barnos had not looked up at her gasp and caught her falling
form.  As it was, her wind was knocked out of her so she could not explain when
he cursed and went to toss her again.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and
held on as tightly as she could.  She did not have time to explain.  She just
sent out that Heti soothing vibe as far and as fast as she could, hoping the
attacking life would understand.  A second later, they were buried under a wall
of shifting sands and she felt Conall tuck her face into his neck and roll her
under him, protecting her the only way he could. An endless lifetime later it
was over; they were both spat out of the earth, landing on the now solid ground
with a hard, bruising crash. Neither of them stirred.

When she finally opened
her eyes tentatively, Lara was on top of an unconscious Conall.  She knew he
wasn’t dead because she could feel his chest rising and falling under hers. 
Above them frond trees waved peacefully in the flickering morning shadows.  She
turned her head enough to look around them, but found nothing but undisturbed wild
jungle.  It was as if nothing had interfered with the pristine terrain.  The
only foreign thing she could see anywhere was herself and Conall.  They were
not even dusty; every particle of jungle had returned to its rightful place. 
It had taken care of the threat to itself and now it was back to seeming
domesticity.  Lara dropped her head with a thump back on Barnos’ chest.  He
moved under her and she looked up to see his eyes open and staring at her.  She
sucked in a breath fighting her emotions, her brown eyes big on his.

He lifted his hand and
ran it over the side of her face.  “We’re alive,” he said, his voice rough and
gravelly from ill use.

Lara swallowed hard, her
breath, when she pulled it in, ragged with suppressed tears.  “I told you there
had to be a reason there were no animals.”  Then she burst into tears, her head
falling to his chest with another thunk.  Lara pressed her face into the supple
armor above his beating heart and wept the tension out.  Conall wrapped her
into his warm arms and let her.

Knowing what they did
about the world they were walking on, Barnos decided no way in hell were they
sticking around, even if Lara’s Heti empathy had saved their ass the first time.
 Who knew when the planet would change its mind and see them as a threat?  They
were just damn lucky that the only time they lit their fire was on the hard
rock of a cave.  Otherwise, they would have probably been eaten just as the
cyborgs had been.

In any case, he was not
ashamed to admit the place shriveled his balls.  There was a chance that
whatever cleaned up around here would have already eaten the ship the cyborgs
came in on, but they were going to check anyway.  If the ship were there,
fantastic, they would lift off and get the fuck out of there.  If not, maybe
the supplies they abandoned would still be with the pod.  At this point, he
would take his chances with the undoubtedly traced emergency communications
array and Cor Warrung, rather than an entire planet that would eat them.  It wasn’t
even a hard choice.

If Lara had thought they
were moving fast on the way up the mountain, it was nothing to the speed in
which they went back down.  It was a hard pace for her; he could see that
whenever he turned to watch her following at a clip behind him.  She never
complained, but then she was just as freaked out about what had happened as he
was.

For his part, he would
never forget the way she refused to let him throw her to safety when she fell
back into his arms and that tide of earth coming to swallow them.  He could
still remember her fear and the complete determination in her eyes, feel the
serenity she projected like a weapon.  It was damn impressive and the scariest
fucking thing he had ever experienced.  One thing was for sure, when he got her
off this bloody rock he was going to make love to her until this fucking hole
in his gut went away.  They had almost died.  She had almost died to save him. 
If she thought she was fluttering back to her ridiculous world jumping she was
going to learn differently and in as many positions as it took.

Barnos stopped and turned
to give her a good glare.  “If you want to see something I will bloody well
take you myself!” he bellowed.

Lara, who had stopped
when he did just to keep from running into him, gave him big doe eyes.  “What
are you . . .” Then her eyes softened further, her hand going to his jaw.  Her
neck arched back so she could meet his eyes from her shorter height.  “Conall,
I think you might have a more serious head injury then we first thought.”

He shook her soft hand
off with a growl, but it was not like he could keep yelling at her when she
gave him
those
eyes.  He ground his teeth, but his tone was more an
angry rumble now than a shout.  “Keep up!”

She gave him serene eyes
and he could feel her Heti vibe coming to soothe him.  “Of course,” was all she
said.

Barnos turned back and
moved even faster, satisfied when she ran to catch up. “That damn ship better
be there,” he muttered too low for her to hear. 
It better fucking be there.
 
They needed off this death trap before he lost whatever was left of his mind.

Turns out, not only was the
ship there, but it was abandoned and the doors left open.  Barnos blinked at
the sight and looked around.  The cyborgs would have left at least one behind
to guard the ship.  But if the earth had taken them out, there would be no sign
of it for him to find.  “Fuck it,” Barnos said, after searching the scout ship
thoroughly, Lara behind him, his blaster in his hand.  “We leave now.”

Lara blew out a sigh of
relief while Barnos pulled her along with him to the controls.  It was a small
ship, but well-made and top of the line.  “Warrung may be an evil sadistic
bastard but he knows his ships,” Barnos muttered.  Then, directing her into the
nav chair, he took captain and pulled his cybernetic wires again to decipher
the code.  They had closed and locked the docking doors as soon as they were
in, so once he had the key code broken, he started preflight.  “Buckle up, sassy,
we are leaving.”

She did, and then she
pulled up communications and started working.

“Who are you calling?”

“Nori,” she said with
surety.  “If I know my sister, she will already be close by.”

Barnos raised a brow but
kept his eyes on the controls.  “How do you figure that?”

“Tolan Lark put an
Alliance tracker on you when he dumped you into the games.  When you two didn’t
show up with me, Nori and my father would have started looking.  Tolan Lark
admitted he wanted the marines to help him take down the death games once he
got the location.”  She shrugged.  “He would tell her I was there if nothing
else.  Then when she helped him with the games and I was not there, he would
tell her about the sensor on you to keep her from killing him, hopefully before
she ripped out his throat.”  Her matter-of-fact version of what she thought was
happening and the small shrug of her shoulder had Barnos blinking.  It had to
be the best-case scenario of a million bad possibilities that he could think
of.

“When were you going to
tell me that betraying asshat placed a sensor on me?” he asked instead of
arguing.

Lara blinked, and he
turned to see her big eyes on him.  “I didn’t tell you?”

Barnos gritted his teeth
and went back to the controls.  “I think I would have remembered that
discussion, sassy, and since you remember fucking everything, you know you didn’t.”

“I thought I had
mentioned it,” she said with a blithe dismissal that had him shaking his head. 
She tilted her head in deep thought and then a light seemed to dawn.  “Oh.  You
kissed me.  When Forge brought me to bandage you up without bringing any
bandages, I was all set to tell you then and you distracted me.”

Barnos snorted, “All my
fault then, clearly.”

Before she could comment
on his tone, the com unit was blinking back at her.

She read the code and
laughed, opening up communications with a total disregard to their
conversation.  “Nori?!”

There was a second of
silence and then, relief clear in her voice, a woman spoke.  “Lara?  Where are
you?  Are you hurt? We’ve been looking for you since that damn mercenary and
his pirate sidekick went missing with you.”

“I’m fine.  Did you find
Thaos?”

There was a short silence
and Barnos could feel the angry vibes coming through the comm.  “If you ever .
. .”

“I know!  Don’t give
anyone my tracker, but you know why I did.  So what happened to Thaos?”

“Thaos is safe; we found
the station, him, and all the little kidnapped kiddies guarded by two great
beasts your father finally talked down.  He tells me they are Baralians sworn
to your service.  Only you, Lara . . .” Nori went off on a tangent for a full minute,
while Lara dealt with the joy of hearing not only that Thaos safe, but that the
Baralians had survived as well.  Barnos unlatched her and pulled her into his
lap.  She was crying in his arms, tucked wetly up against his neck, before
either of them started listening to the sister again.  “We will talk when we
get to you.”  That was as much a warning as a promise.  “We will be there as
soon as we get your coordinates.  We are following the tracker that bastard
Tolan Lark put on the pirate, but I’d rather not get there and find out you are
somewhere else.”

Lara sniffled against his
neck and then sat up straight, her voice wavering with happy emotions.  “You
won’t.  I’m with Conall.  But I’m sending you the coordinates anyway.”

The silence practically
rang.  “Who. Is
Conall
?”

“My pirate,” Lara answered
blithely, making Barnos chuckle.  “Pirate Captain Conall Barnos.”  She smiled
blindingly up at him and he had to kiss her.

On the com unit they both
heard an incensed, “I knew it!” before a thump and a loud scratchy noise that
Barnos recognized as a struggle for control of the com unit.  Then a low male
voice came on smooth as whiskey.  “We are glad you are safe, Lara.  We should
make rendezvous with you within two cycles.  We can all
calm down
and
discuss what’s been happening then.”

Barnos’ amused chuckle
was followed quickly by the King of Kenosha speaking at an accelerated pace.  “We’ll
see you then.”  The com went dead.

“Your pirate?” he asked
looking at Lara with a raised brow.

She raised her own brow,
her eyes twinkling, her mouth tipped up in her big smile.  “Well, aren’t you?”

If he was not sure they
would be attacked by a giant space squid or marauding hordes while he was
distracted, he would have taken those two hours to cement just exactly how much
“her pirate” he was.  He grinned instead, big and unapologetically.  “Your
sister doesn’t seem to like the idea.”

“Nooo, definitely going
to hate the idea.  Just like my father, and all his space marines that helped
raise me.”  She said it matter-of-factly, her eyes big and sure of the fact her
family were going to hate him.  “They will probably threaten to arrest you.”

Barnos did not snort at
that.  It was more likely they would try to kill him, but he was not about to
tell Lara that.  “But we are still going to wait around for them to catch up to
us?”

Her forehead scrunched
adorably in her confusion.  “Of course.  I need to see my family and assure
them I am alright; besides, don’t you want to find out what has been happening
while we were marooned?”

“Not that badly,” he
muttered low, but she gave him a look and he sighed a big gusty sigh.  “Fine, sassy,
let’s go meet the in-laws, but I expect you to break me out of the Alliance
custody, if this goes the way I know it will.”

“I think that goes
without saying.”  She smiled at him again, and he chuckled.  Then he leaned
over and kissed her, and had to remind himself that trouble was attracted to
her like a barnacle, and that he would do better to keep his head in the game
until they were safe.

***

The thought of reuniting
with Thaos and the Baralians was almost enough to make up for the general melee
her family put her and Barnos through when she stepped out of their stolen ship
into the docking bay of the Alliance marine escort ship,
The Tempest.

Lara was not surprised to
see Nori and her life-mate, King Menelaus of Kenosha.  What did surprise her
was the presence of her father and his elite guard of marines.  She could not
keep the surprise and delight out of her face at the sight of her father, even
as the group as a whole turned their sights on the man following her from the
ship.  It did not help that Conall was so very large and unkempt after their
jungle adventure.  He looked big and powerful in his black nanite armor, and
his beard had been left to grow for enough days that he looked almost savage. 
He was not smiling, she noticed, then turned to find the marines fingering
their blasters.  She felt anticipation and anger all around her mixing with the
relief that she was seemingly unharmed.  Lara was almost positive there was a
plan in the works to arrest her pirate as soon as she could be safely removed
from the danger.  Her smile dropped and she backed up into the front of
Barnos.  She raised her chin and stared them all down.

“Everyone, this is
Captain Conall Barnos.”  She looked right at her sister.  “He’s with
me
.” 
She stressed the word. “He has saved my life more times than I can count since
we met.”

Conall cleared his
throat.  “You did your part, sassy,” he said loudly, his eyes shooting
challenge all around him.  “Don’t go giving me all the credit.”  At the same
time, he tried to nudge her to the side so that she was not protecting him with
her body. She fought against his hands stubbornly, until he blew out an annoyed
breath and she found herself lifted by his two large hands at her waist and set
behind him.  When she gasped her outrage and tried to get back in front of him,
he leaned down and glared at her nose to nose.  “I am not hiding behind you
like a pansy, while you tell lies about my character.”  He crossed his arms, as
if all the big bulging muscle would intimidate her.

Lara narrowed her eyes at
him; little flickers of her temper began shooting sparks at his stubborn
refusal to let her lead here.

“This is my family,
Conall.  Not a dozen cyborgs chasing us through a carnivorous jungle.” She
poked him in his chest to make her point.  “I let you talk me into hiding and
running so you could sacrifice your life to keep me from certain torture and
death, because you knew fighting better than me.”  She stabbed her finger
toward the floor.  “But this is my domain, and what I say goes.  You have two
jobs,” she said holding two fingers up to his nose so he went briefly cross-eyed. 
“One,” one finger goes down, leaving one in his face, “you say nothing that is
guaranteed to make everyone angrier at you then they already are, and two,” the
second finger goes back up, “you let me do the talking, so as not to
accidentally break rule number one.”

He studied her with a
growl, and then pursed his lips.  “Fine, sassy, you can talk, fuck knows it’s
what you’re good at,” then he pointed his own finger at her face.  “But stop
trying to stand in front of me.  You can talk from there.”

Lara crossed her arms and
glared back at him.  “They won’t shoot at you if I’m in front.”