Page 6 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

Ved

Ved had been in countless hand-to-hand battles in his life. Had seen a variety of weapons and fighting styles all across the galaxy. But never had his opponent wielded a tome like a weapon, much less thrown it directly at his face.

The idea was so difficult to comprehend that the book hit true to its mark, thudding against his helmet. He caught it in his hand, and the small female’s eyes widened. She then dashed, rather slowly, toward the exit of his ship.

“ An impressive hit ,” Exxo commented, humor coloring his artificial tone .

Ved grunted. Exxo had witnessed enough violent encounters to know that not just anyone dared to start a fight with him. Hardened warriors had cowered before Ved in the past. The fact that this tiny female had taken him by surprise was more of a feat than she would ever realize.

Her form, glowing bright in his thermal vision, moved across the crash site, heading straight toward his cloaked dead opponent. A yelp sounded a moment later as she kicked the body’s armor-plated shin and tripped. When she gathered herself again, she was limping.

She reminded him of the gentle grazing creatures who had somehow found their way to the harsh planet of Runus trying to run from the vicious vorgs.

When he’d first spotted her, he hadn’t been expecting her to follow him inside the Clan Rax ship. In that moment, he’d been too fully taken with bloodlust to care what she did. Then she was behind him, chattering in her strange language.

“ Her self-preservation took three percent longer to kick in than most species. That does not bode well for the survival rate of her kind ,” Exxo commented, breaking Ved’s concentration.

“ But as exhilarating as this has all been, are we going to do something about her ? I would like to analyze her linguistic and biological compositions further. The data may help me understand our location .”

Ved had been tracking her with his thermals, but as she rushed into the surrounding trees, her form became spotty amongst the vegetation. Activating his cloaking mechanism, he set off after her.

Once he crossed the clearing, he spotted her once more.

She had halted, as if stuck, before she took off again, considerably slower this time.

When Ved reached the spot, there was only a muddy puddle with something stuck inside.

Crouching, he pulled the item up. It was covered in soft material the same light blue color as her garb, although it was now stained from the sludge.

Footwear? But it was so small.

Tossing it aside with a huff, he stood back up.

Though her heat signature was nowhere to be found, he had little concern about locating her.

She couldn’t hide from him. Her breathing was too loud, her scent too strong.

A strange scent it was, too. He couldn’t quite pinpoint the elements of it.

Beyond the bitter layer of fear, there was something floral and delicate there.

Such scents didn’t cling to the bodies in Cleave.

There, it was salt and metal, blood and dirt.

It wasn’t much of a hunt, but he found her all the same.

He rounded on her hiding spot slowly, studying her as he did.

She sat on the ground with her back pressed against a tree, taking off her other shoe.

Her chest heaved heavily from running, and her eyes darted every so often to her surroundings.

Searching for him. She blew a thick strand of dark hair out of her face—hair that coiled like the vines cloaking the forest near Cleave.

Her efforts were pointless as the curl fell back into her face.

When she stood, he took it as his cue and decloaked paces away from her. The moment she spotted him, she was drenched with dread. The scent was out of place on her, wrong. But more interesting was the curiosity sitting as a question in her dark eyes.

“Where am I?” he tried in the universal tongue.

Shaking her head, her lips pressed into a tight line, she brandished her remaining shoe.

“Don’t,” he growled.

“ Can you stop snarling at her? ” Exxo reprimanded. “ I need her to speak, but you are frightening her .”

“It’s not like I can help that,” Ved snapped. And that was the exact moment she tried to throw the shoe at him.

This time, he was expecting it and snatched it out of the air before tossing it away. She was inventive with her weaponry, he’d give her that.

He stepped closer to her, holding out his hands to soothe her. That had the opposite effect, however.

She stepped forward to kick him in the shin with her uninjured foot.

Pain crossed over her features, but even then, she went for an unarmored part of his midriff and punched him.

He grabbed her wrists with a disapproving click of his tongue.

It was like when the unmasked youth wanted to spar with the older Xaal, except she was far less dangerous than even a youngling.

He was impressed with her earnestness, though, even if her hits hurt her more than they could ever hurt him. She had spirit, just no training or muscle to back it up.

“I will not harm you,” he said in the universal tongue.

She replied with unintelligible chatter, a desperation forming in the way her gaze searched his. The words of this language were somehow choppy and smooth at the same time. He didn’t like the sound of it.

Moreover, he didn’t like the fact that she didn’t recognize the universal language. How far had the vector tear taken him?

“ Keep her talking ,” Exxo said.

Letting go of her wrists, Ved quickly loosened one of the smaller plasma dirks that sat along his ribs and handed it to her hilt first.

She looked from it to him. Her voice was soft as she reached for the blade hesitantly; he assumed she asked a question.

The plasma dirk looked absurd in her small hands. Her grip couldn’t fit around the thick hilt, and the blade was longer than her forearm. Even if she were a fighter, the balance of it would be completely off.

Regardless, she held it up with shaky hands. It was obvious that she wouldn’t be able to successfully wield it against him, but Ved grunted at her and let his arms hang loose at his side. It was as unintimidating as he could get.

“Who are you? How did you get here from”—she gestured to the sky, not taking her eyes off him—“I don’t understand.”

Exxo made a familiar sound of satisfaction before back-translating her words to Ved. Interesting. In that moment, she wasn’t begging or bargaining for her life—she only seemed concerned with the fact she may never understand what she’d experienced.

“I’ve never seen anyone like you or”—she swallowed hard—“the others. I should have gone home, but I didn’t expect there to be people . How is that even possible?”

All she had were questions he couldn’t answer.

Once Exxo translated her chatter, his tone changed.

“ My analysis tells me we have crashed in sector 011 territory. This is planet 3r7h—approximately 5.3 starcycles from Runus. According to Authority regulation, as a native who has witnessed interstellar activity, she must be terminated ,” he reported.

Nevskol the Authority. If they had it their way, species like the Xaal would be wiped out completely. Ved rarely concerned himself with galactic law, either.

But the Authority was strict about 011 planets—those that had no knowledge or no means of space travel.

They were off limits in every way. And if one were to find themselves on such a planet, like Ved did now, they needed to be discreet or take all measures to ensure the native population remained unaware of their existence.

Even if that meant killing those who found out about them in cold blood.

The Authority would say it was for conservation and non-interference in the natural advancements of a civilization.

But it was really because they didn’t want yet another self-ruling planet to make trouble for them, or for anyone else to take advantage of its resources before they could.

If she told anyone else about his presence, he was going to have bigger concerns than getting his ship repaired. The Authority could come for not only him but his clan. They were probably sending their drones to this bloodforsaken planet already due to the gaping vector tear.

Leaving her alive wasn’t smart .

Physically, she was less of a threat than a Xaal youth, yet she could doom his entire clan.

Ved bit off a curse and took another step toward her, the tiny trees’ fallen branches popping beneath his boot.

The female before him took in a barely audible, shuddering breath.

She was scared of him. Rightfully so. And all he was doing was delaying the inevitable.

Over the course of his life, he’d had to decide the fates of many.

But none of those decisions had ever been dictated by the Authority. He despised it.

“Just don’t let Clara or Henry find me, please,” she whispered. Her eyes were wide, pupils dilated, as if she was trying to take in everything about him before her death.

“ Clara and Henry have no direct translation I can discern. They are presumably names ,” Exxo said.

Were they her family? If he let her go, would they be the first people she told about him? And if he killed her, were they the ones who would avenge her?

The female lowered the plasma dirk, but strangely, she no longer smelled like fear.

Just that tender blooming aroma mixed with the metallic scent of the blood streaming down the side of her face.

Was death so common here? Was her life somehow so miserable that to die at the hands of an enemy was a relief?

Ved had fought and killed many adversaries in his life, and some of the strongest had still felt panic in their final moments.

She stared up at him, dark eyes gleaming with unanswered questions and a wetness he didn’t understand. He was so close that her flowy attire brushed against his shin guards as she wobbled.

He was the intruder—she’d done nothing wrong. Her only offense was that she’d seen him. He’d taken many lives, but this kill would be without purpose, without honor. He growled his frustration, but she barely reacted to the sound.

He’d make it quick. He would—

He didn’t have time to do anything before her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed into his arms.

She’d fainted.