Ruk glared at the retreating enemy and bared his fangs with a roar of challenge. There were seven of them left. We’d managed to take out the Scouts and five of the Soldiers. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was an Integration Unit, one of their evil doctors who did all the implantations and torture, standing a good distance behind them. Waiting.
“That fucker in the back is mine.”
“He leave you in that cell?”
“He did. I will tear out his throat.”
No argument from me. But we had seven Hive Soldiers standing between us and Ruk’s prize. Unmoving. Blank expressions. Waiting for…something.
My Hunter blood kicked in and with it the gifts of instinct and heightened senses. I heard the new arrival before I saw it. The mid-sized cargo ship appeared half a minute later. The ship was coming in our direction, the body style not one I recognized, which meant it wasn’t legion or Coalition. Fuck. Had to be Hive.
Ruk noticed it, too. “Reinforcements?”
“Looks like.”
Ruk lowered his gaze to look over the remaining Soldiers on the ground several paces in front of us. “Guess we’d better finish them off before their friends get here.”
“You go right, I go left?” I asked.
“Meet you in the middle.” Ruk charged the far right of their line as I ran toward the Soldier on the far left. Both knives out, I leaped into the air as an ion blaster hit me from the side. The energy bolt stung but did no real damage. Score another win for Styx armor. The fact that the Hive had our tech was a fucking nightmare I couldn’t think about right now.
I landed on the ground and rolled on my shoulder. Coming up in a crouch just to the left of the Soldier’s boots, I drove my blade up through his groin, going deep.
The Soldier cried out, bending over in agony.
I lifted my remaining knife as his head dropped low and slit his throat.
Blood spilled in a hot flood when I pulled the knife free of his body, giving my blade an extra twist on the way out to make sure this fucker bled to death before any of his friends could save him. The Hive had no mercy, no remorse, no conscience. They would give no quarter. Neither would I.
In the corner of my vision, I saw Ruk’s first target fall. He bellowed as he moved on to the next. “I’m coming for you, Four-seven-two. I will bathe in your blood!”
The Soldiers fought viciously, but they were not fighting for anything or anyone. They did not have a mate to protect. A brother who needed them. A legion that needed to be warned about our stolen armor.
They did not have a low-life traitor to hunt.
I rolled and dodged and fought like the monster all of Rogue 5 had named me. I would not lose because I could not. Rage boiled in my blood at the thought that they would harm Abby. That fury gave me speed. Strength. Power. I was Hyperion and Prillon and Everian. I would not fail.
The two Soldiers I faced took turns trying to draw me close. Surround me. Get their hands on me. But I was Hunter fast. Hyperion fast. I did not have to wait the split second it took their bodies to receive their orders from whatever kind of group mind controlled them. The delay made them slow enough to kill.
The first I knocked to the ground. I drove my boot through his helmet to crush his head. His skull cracked and shattered beneath my heel like an oversized egg as I drove my boot all the way to the ground.
The death of his friend seemed to stun the other. I took the opportunity to move in close and shove my knife up under his ribs and into his heart.
With a roar, I twisted the blade before I pulled it free. Time to kill another. And another. And another. I would not stop until Abby was safe.
The ground was littered with Hive dead. Looking for Ruk, I found him chasing down the Integration Unit he’d sworn to kill.
“Leave him. We have incoming!” The ship we’d spotted earlier looked to be just a few minutes from landing.
“He is mine!” Ruk was the fastest creature on two legs I had ever seen. The Integration Unit Ruk had called Four-seven-two had a significant head start. Ruk caught him in seconds, lifted him by his head and bent the Hive’s body nearly in half to expose his throat.
I turned away before Ruk could rip through flesh with his fangs. I didn’t need to see that. I fought. I killed. But not with claws and fangs.
But killing was killing. Thinking I was more civilized about it was a head game I didn’t need to play. We were the same, Ruk and I. The fucking exact same.
I didn’t know how Abby even allowed me to touch her. She was everything I was not. But gods be damned if I was going to give her up now.
Leaving Ruk to his vengeance, I gathered weapons and anything useful I could grab from the Hive corpses. There wasn’t much, but anything I could give my legion’s scientists and engineers might be helpful. I also made sure to record everything I saw with my helmet’s comm system. Maybe the researchers could find a clue as to who had betrayed our legion on one of these dead Soldiers’ bodies.