Page 71 of Xel: Broken Bond

“Wait… Dorral…” Kathy tried to stand up a little straighter, to take the pressure off her arm. “Are you saying… Did youkillJacob Ronson?”

It certainly sounded that way, and we likely already had enough evidence from what he’d admitted so far to make a case against him. That was without even taking into consideration the attempted murder, given the gun to Kathy’s head.

But first, we both had to get out of this alive.

But before I could think of what to say next, a cheerful voice called out from around the side of the barn. “Xel? Is that you? Can you come and look at- Oh!” Behind me, I heard Vonnie yelp and skid to a halt. Stars above, had she been in the barn when Dorral had arrived? Probably in the outside yards, though I couldn’t think why. She’d said she was going to be working on the renovations.

Dorral looked her up and down, then ground out a disgusted, “What the fuck is that? Never seen one of those before. You need to lose a few pounds around your hips, sweetheart. No man’ll want you like that.”

The irony of the statement had me choking back a laugh. Vangravian females were naturally wider at the hips than humans, due to the pouches where they kept their babies. And it only reinforced how naïve Dorral was, since no Vangravian woman in the entire galaxy would have the slightest interest in what any man thought of her.

Given what she’d been through to leave Vangal, I didn’t think Vonnie was about to run away screaming or faint at the sight of Dorral’s gun. But at the same time, this now put a whole new danger on the situation. Vonnie was not just the instigator of our project. She was also a critical part of the entire mechanism, as she was the only possible source of female children, and also the only one with an in-depth knowledge of Vangravian culture. But there was a silver lining to her presence, I realised, as I saw Borl hesitate in the long grass behind the closest shed. Because right at that moment, I also remembered that Vonnie would be armed.

But making her shoot Dorral would be cruel, dumping even more trauma onto her than she’d already suffered in escaping her planet. Dorral was my problem, and he wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t invited Kathy. This wasn’t Vonnie’s fight.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make use of her weapon. “Give me your gun,” I told her, not taking my eyes off Dorral.

“What? I don’t have…”

“Give me your gun,” I repeated, holding out my hand for it. Unless someone was a police officer or a soldier, carrying a gun on Rendol 4 was illegal. But I also knew for a fact that Vonnie took hers everywhere, regardless of the Ranzor security presence on the property, and now was not the time for her to be playing innocent.

I felt her press the weapon into my hand, and I could already tell from the warm vibration that she’d activated it for me. It was a pulse projector, which would normally be used to pulverise an entire person, but with the right adjustments to the settings, it could also be used to aim a narrow laser beam at a pinpoint target. And given that Dorral was using Kathy as a living shield, that’s what I was going to need this time.

“What setting-?” I got as far as asking, before Vonnie muttered, “Narrow. Have at the bastard.” In all likelihood, shedidn’t have a clue who Dorral was. But what she did know was that two entire planets were rooting for the death of her and her son, and with Dorral threatening an innocent woman’s life, it seemed she was more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later.

I raised the gun and lined up the red laser sight with Dorral’s head. And then I saw Kathy subtly lower her body and lean slightly away from Dorral, giving me as clear a target as possible. Clever woman.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Dorral asked. He tugged Kathy closer, trying to hide behind her noticeably shorter body. “You don’t have the balls to shoot me, you whiny littlepup.” He seemed awfully confident about it, for someone with a gun pointed at his head.

Over by the shed, Borl saw what I was doing and broke cover, sprinting in my direction.

Behind me, I heard more hurried footsteps, and then I heard my master’s voice. “Xel? What are you doing?”

I had about two seconds before my master ordered me not to shoot Dorral. Because I knew he was going to. And then I would be compelled to obey him. He would want to take the route of legal justice, not vigilante retribution.

“Xel, don’t-”

I pulled the trigger. The beam sliced a neat hole right through the centre of Dorral’s head. His legs gave out and he collapsed backwards, the gun falling harmlessly away from Kathy’s head. She stumbled, his weight pulling her down a little before he lost his grip on her, but she managed to stay upright.

“No!” my master shouted. “Oh, god, what have you done?” He rushed over to Dorral, checking him for a pulse, though it was quickly obvious that he was dead.

“Nice shot,” Vonnie said, sounding pleased about it. “Who was he, by the way?”

I rapidly sorted through the options as to how to explain who Dorral was. “This is Kathy,” I said, as a starting point. “She’s going to be one of our new nannies for the babies. Dorral is her old employer. He was angry about us poaching his staff.”

“There’s also a good possibility he murdered Xel’s previous master,” Kathy added. “Though I doubt we’ll ever know for sure, given the bastard’s dead.”

Borl pulled to a stop beside our group, seeming a little disappointed that the drama was already over. But then he turned to me, making a loud clicking noise in his throat. “That was an excellent shot, little Vangravian. Now you have a battle story to tell! And a life that you have saved.”

That got my master’s attention. He leapt to his feet, rounding on Borl. “What? No! This is an absolute fucking mess! Xel can’t just be shooting people! That’s murder! We have laws about that sort of thing on Rendol 4.”

As much as I’d known he would object to me shooting Dorral, I was still dismayed to hear the anger and indignation in his voice. Disappointing my master sent a shaft of pain right through my chest. “Xel, you can’t just… Fucking hell!” He was dancing around the body, waving his arms in agitation.

“I would say it’s more like self defence,” Kathy muttered, glaring at my master. “Or would you rather he just let Dorral shoot me?”

“No, of course not,” my master apologised. “I’m glad you’re okay. I just…”

“I am very confused,” Borl said. “On your planet, defending an innocent person isnotan honourable thing to do?” He sounded thoroughly offended by the idea.