Karma released him and stepped back. “Benjamin? Please be careful.” Worry darkened her pretty eyes.
“I will.” It felt good to have somebody worrying about him, but this wouldn’t do. What if they were mated and he didn’t make it back from a mission? What if the final ritual happened much sooner than even he realized? Did a year of happiness make up for leaving her alone for centuries? Two years? Three?
She smacked him on the arm. “Worry about us later. Right now, just stay alive.”
He rubbed his chest, right where she was making a place for herself. Then he kissed her goodbye.
Just in case.
* * * *
Benny slid beneath the boughs of a sweeping pine after his eighteenth mile of running. They’d had to set the helicopter down in a secure location far away from the Kurjan stronghold. Garrett and Logan kept pace beside him, both quiet and more than prepared for battle. He had one moment of unease. If he got either the Realm King’s nephew or the demon king’s brother killed, war would most likely erupt. One the earth had not seen before.
It was good he hadn’t mated Karma the night before. If anybody perished on this mission, it would have to be him.
Logan hand-signaled them to stop. He wore specially made glasses with a light purple tint, ones that could detect mines in the ground as well as laser boundaries.
Benny stopped and moved toward Logan. “What?”
Logan handed over the glasses. “Land mines set in a pattern I can’t read. They look like they were just planted anywhere.”
Benny peered through the glasses, memorizing the locations of the faint purple blips on the screen. “There must be cameras near.”
“You could say that.” A uniformed Cyst strolled out of the trees, his gun pointed at Benny’s head. It was General Jaydon—not a surprise. Within a second, more Cyst soldiers appeared, their white strips of hair gleaming in the meager sun. The storm hadn’t moved this far east yet, so maybe the sun would help. So far, it didn’t seem to be weakening the Cyst. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
Were they? Obviously not. Benny pivoted in case he needed to kick more than one soldier at a time. “I didn’t see cameras or sensors on the way in.” He waited.
General Jaydon smiled. “Let’s just say our technology is better than yours.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Benny agreed. “Our sensors didn’t detect you.”
“Good. We’ve learned to use the metal deposits in the rocks to mask our signatures,” Jaydon bragged. “You had no clue we were so close.”
An unfortunately true statement. For centuries, the Kurjan technology had lagged far behind that of the Realm. That situation had changed in the last couple of decades. Benny lifted his chin in acknowledgment of the two soldiers Logan had claimed with a pointed look. He slightly tilted his head to the three on the left, while Garrett marked the two to the east.
Jaydon flashed a set of yellowed canines that looked sharper than a Bengal tiger’s teeth. “I suppose we should have a sit-down now?”
Benny winced. “We appreciate the offer. But no.” With that, he jumped up and kicked both Jaydon and a taller Cyst right beneath their jaws, snapping their heads back with loud crunches. Faster than they could recover, he was on Jaydon, taking the bastard to the ground.
The general countered with a punch to the neck that had Benny seeing stars. They rolled over the wet pine needles, punching and kicking, each trying for leverage. A knife slid smoothly into Benny’s thigh, and he growled, ripping it out and punching the offending blade right into Jayden’s rib cage.
The thing sliced through like butter.
“Sharp,” Benny grunted, going for the eyes.
“Of course.” Jaydon pulled the blade out, swiped at Benny’s face, and shoved him off. Then he backflipped to his feet, barely landing before rushing forward again.
Benny levered himself up on one knee, swept around, and kicked the general in the groin with the blunt edge of his boot.
Jaydon dropped to both knees, his eyes wide.
Benny burst forward, reaching for the knife in his boot. He slashed down, and Jaydon blocked with both arms crossed together. They battled, each trying to cut the other.
A cry of pain came from behind Benny. It sounded like a Cyst soldier, so he didn’t turn. There was a crashing sound from the trees, and several Kurjan soldiers came into view.
They were seriously outnumbered. Benny increased his attempts to slice into Jaydon’s neck, while the general did the same, drawing out yet another blade so he had one in each hand. Both males backed up and jumped to their feet, circling each other.
Garrett went down on Benny’s side and then rolled, coming up with fury in his eyes. He darted out of sight, and the sound of a body smashing into a tree echoed back. Pine cones and pine needles rained down, coating Benny’s jacket. He dodged the slash of a knife and then pivoted, catching Jaydon in the gut with a roundhouse kick.
The general roared and kicked back, nailing Benny in the knee. The bone cracked, and Benny switched his balance to his other leg while directing immediate healing cells to the injury. He smiled. “This is more fun than I thought.”
Logan tackled a Cyst to the ground between them, plunging his knife through the Cyst’s throat.
Benny angled himself out of the way, keeping Jaydon within arm’s reach.
Jaydon glanced at the prone soldier. “That’s enough.” Straightening his shoulders, he let out a whistle that had a couple of coyotes in the distance responding.
Benny frowned. “What the—”
Immediately, a series of darts hit him. The ones that hit his torso bounced off. The others dug deep with a heated burn that felt like live fire. He shook his head, almost in slow motion. “What have you done?” The forest swirled around him, and he dropped to his butt. They had drugged him? Seriously? “This is unheard of, even for Kurjans,” he slurred, his head feeling as if it was under water.
Garrett landed by his side, facedown. Logan fell off the Cyst soldier he was trying to decapitate and instantly went into convulsions that looked painful.
“Bring them.” Jaydon turned and strode through the trees, wiping blood off his neck as he moved.
Rough hands hefted Benny up, and two Kurjans put their shoulders beneath his and dragged him between them. The world remained blurry and his body useless as they traveled through the woods and down a series of rough rock formations into a mountain. They removed his earbud immediately.
The Kurjans threw him into what appeared to be a solidly built cell with bars on three sides and solid rock on the other. He landed on his face and painfully turned over to sit up. His body felt like it had gone through a woodchipper, and his nerves fired in pain. He leaned back and forth, relief washing through him as Garrett and Logan were tossed into nearby cells after their earbuds were also removed. They were both unconscious.