Raff (The Vorge Crew Book 4) Read online

  Prix backed up and lifted his hand, making a gesture with it. Two of Prix’s guards rushed forward to attack.

  Raff sucked in a deep breath and threw his blades, hitting the approaching males in the throats. They staggered back, clutching at the blades buried deep, before falling over. He went for his daggers lining his belt next, twisted his upper body, hoping the human followed directions by holding still and not moving. She’d trip him, if he didn’t outright step on her.

  He threw his daggers in rapid cessation, taking out the four Raxis by targeting their throats too. It was the fastest way to kill. They fell back, blood spraying. He whirled around, bent, and grabbed the small guns hidden inside his boots.

  Screams of panic erupted from the marketplace. Shoppers and merchants ran to leave the area or to seek a place to hide. It helped him know who to kill. His enemies ran at him instead of away. He opened fire on the last two approaching guards as he straightened before they could slam into him.

  Prix tried to flee and dove toward a nearby table. His body cleared it and he fell out of sight. The jackass knocked it over to give himself cover. Raff spun, avoiding stepping on the huddled human at his feet, and shot more advancing guards. He saw Prix’s head lift out of the corner of his eye and dropped one of his weapons, reached for the back of his neck, and yanked out the longer blade he kept sheathed down his spine. His finger and thumb pressed the two points on the handle to activate it. He threw it at table and watched it stick deep into the wood.

  He twisted, crouched, and put his body over the human. A loud blast deafened him as the bomb inside the handle exploded. He waited to see the destruction until after the pieces of the table flew through the air and landed around him. It stopped and he turned his head.

  Prix was down, not moving, and covered in blood from where the blast had thrown him. It was tempting to go make certain he was dead but there wasn’t any time to spare. More guards would be scrambling to their location after hearing a bomb go off.

  Raff rose, grabbing hold of the human’s arm as he did, to pull her up to her feet. “Grab the back of my belt and don’t let go. We need to move. Stick close. We’re not out of danger yet. I have a shuttle waiting nearby. We need to get the hell off the surface fast.”

  She didn’t speak but grabbed hold of the back of his belt. He took off, mourning the loss of so many weapons he didn’t have the time to retrieve, making her run to keep up with his longer strides. Weapons were replaceable though. Life wasn’t.

  His gaze darted around, looking for any signs of another attack. Most of the aliens they passed avoided his gaze or stayed on the ground where they’d dropped. He made it out of the market ship and crossed the desert strip to where shuttles were parked.

  He was glad to see no one had messed with his ship. The force field protecting it glowed blue to show it hadn’t been tampered with. The tiny shuttle wasn’t much but he owned it.

  Chapter Two

  Raff made it to the shuttle and punched in the code on his wrist bracelet to drop the shield. The door slid open when it sensed him and he reached back, grabbed the human by her wrist, and yanked her roughly in front of him to put her back to his front.

  “Don’t fight me if you want to live. They are going to come after us hard and fast. Do everything I say.”

  She looked up at him, fear showing in her eyes. He hated the sight but didn’t have time to explain more. He wrapped his arm around her waist, lifted her higher, and threw them both inside the cramped cockpit of his shuttle. His ass hit the only seat and her rounded bottom slammed onto his lap. He released her, reached up to hit the engine switch with one hand, closing the door with the other.

  The loud sound of the engines coming on line was welcome and he grabbed the human, grateful she wasn’t big, and adjusted her on his lap to give him access to the controls in front of him. Her body felt stiff, her breathing ragged from their running, but she wasn’t fighting him or screaming. He was grateful for that. They needed to lift off fast.

  Something hit the side of the shuttle with a loud ping. He flinched, grabbed the thruster control, and shoved his knee against the dash to brace since he didn’t have time to buckle in.

  “Hold on!”

  He pushed the thrusters full blast and the shuttle lifted straight up, violently. That caused the woman to make a whimpering sound. The force of the maneuver at least kept them in place as they rapidly shot into the sky. He needed to get out of weapons firing range before they took out his engines or thrusters. He watched their elevation and finally eased off when they reached eight thousand feet. An alarm chirped at him and he snarled, his gaze going to the screen to his left to glance at the readout.

  “Fuck! We have a breach in the hull.”

  The human on his lap looked at him, seeming paler than she had before. The blood on her lip looked stark in comparison. He hated to see terror in her eyes and figured letting her know what was going on might calm her a bit and make the situation less frightening. Talking much wasn’t his thing but he’d try more for her sake.

  “We can’t break atmosphere with a breach. We’re stuck on the planet for now. I won’t let them get you.”

  He had to adjust her body to reach the comms. A display of light out of the corner of his eye and another alarm went off. It signaled that they’d been targeted for missile fire. He turned his head, staring down out the side window, and saw what appeared to be a flare shooting toward them.

  Prix must have upgraded the city’s defenses. He reached around the human and grabbed the controls, flying them the hell out of there. The missile tried to follow but it disengaged after a few miles and the attack alarm silenced. The hull breach one still beeped. They couldn’t leave the planet but it didn’t mean they had to hover above the city to remain targets.

  Once he flew them three hundred miles away he had the craft hover in place again, Raff reached for the comms. They weren’t damaged at least. He opened a channel to The Vorge, hoping they were still in range. He’d told them he’d be on the planet for a week, not less than a full day. His crewmates had dropped him off early in the morning to go visit a station located on the other side of the solar system.

  “Dovis?” He waited.

  The male responded within seconds. “What’s wrong? I didn’t expect to hear from you for a week.”

  “I had problems.”

  “Are you injured? If not, we’ll pick you up when planned. We’ve already set a course and are fourteen hours out.”

  Raff grit his teeth. He knew the male purposely tried to piss him off just to see how many words he’d get out of him. Talking wasn’t Raff’s thing. “I rescued a human from slavers and had to fight my way out of Daba City. They got a lucky shot and pierced the shuttle hull. Bounty hunters will be sent after us if Prix survived. Come get us and send down the larger shuttle.”

  “Shit. Prix is that bastard who tried to kill us when we first came looking for you, isn’t he? The prick that didn’t want to let you go because you were his main muscle? Are either of you hurt? I’m changing course.”

  Raff glanced down at the human on his lap. “That’s Prix. Female, are you hurt more than the damage to your face?”

  “They shot me with something.”

  He sniffed. “I’m only smelling a faint scent of blood but your lip is busted. Where is the other wound?”

  She lifted her arm and shoved up the robe covering her skin.

  He saw a tiny bloody scratch on the meaty part just under inner elbow. “The shot barely nicked you. You got lucky. They missed.”

  Her lips turned down at the edges of her mouth and then she licked them with a little pink tongue. “A shot as in a syringe. They injected me with a drug. That’s why I started fighting so hard. They said it would make me livelier, whatever the hell that means. I feel lightheaded and weird.”

  Raff tried to think of what they’d inject the female with. He reached up and gently gripped her jaw, forcing her to turn her head more his way. She tensed but didn’t strugg