Page 24 of The Alien Warrior's Heart

Push through it, Simone. You’ve been through worse than this.

She dragged the heavy sword from the dead guard’s hands and pulled it behind the tree. Letting it flop into the grass, Simone stared at it. The weapon was too heavy for her to lift and carry, but if she could find a way to break it apart…

Her fingers slid over the little trigger at the base of the sword and she grinned when she realized that it was modular. The transparent panes at the bottom were built on top of one another, almost like each round of bullets were built into the square barrel.

If she broke it off…

Simone grunted as she slammed the laser sword against her knee. It held steady.

She tried it again, harder this time.

The gun cracked.

Just then, another lion alien careened through the air. She heard its gargled moans and saw the blood dripping out of its lips from where a sharp dagger had slit its throat.

Simone swallowed hard and forced her eyes back on the task at hand. She was getting somewhere with the sword.

Only a few more tries…

There!

She managed to crack the module until the sword was half its length. The ragged edges probably weren’t the safest, but at least it was still functioning.

Lifting the modified laser sword, Simone jumped from behind the tree and ran into the field. Her eyes swept closed and she pressed her finger on the trigger, emptying round after round.

She expected to hear the thump of lion aliens hitting the ground. The clank of armor. The grunt of exertion. The roars of pain.

Instead she heard… nothing.

She opened one eye and saw that the field was completely clear of lion aliens. They all lay in crumpled, bloody heaps, scattered around one furious blue alien who was staring daggers at her.

“Z-Zar.”

“Si-Moon, ez tud taye het.”

She dropped her gun, a little embarrassed. Here she thought she was about to come and help save the day and Zar had taken care of all the bad guys already.

“Taye het!” He pointed to the tree, a vein in his neck bulging. “Neh human dant?”

She bristled at his tone. It reminded her too much of a darker time. Of a darker place. “I don’t take orders from you.”

“Si-Moon!”

“What?” She shrieked. “What the hell do you want from me, Zar? Should I just sit behind that tree all nice and pretty until you tell me to move? Should I wrap my hands around my knees and rock in fear and suck my thumb, feeling powerless and frightened? Would that make you happy? Would that make you feel like you’re doing something?”

His nostrils flared and his eyes sharpened. She doubted he understood her, but there really didn’t need to be a translator right now. The heat that snapped through her voice could smash language barriers all on its own.

Zar scowled at her so fiercely that she fully expected him to yell at her.

But he didn’t.

With a sigh, he glanced up and out toward the trees. She wondered if he’d heard something, but it wasn’t like he’d understand her if she asked anyway.

Wrapping his fingers around hers, Zar pulled her forward.

She yanked her wrist free. “I don’t need your help to walk.”

The dark look he pinned her with would have made a weaker woman cry. But Simone was not that sniveling, terrified girl she once was. In fact, she hadn’t been that girl since she was eleven years old. Since she realized just how far the darkness in her really went.