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Time Hunters - Warrior

When Jess blinked away the purple afterimages, her attacker had vanished. “What the hell?” She fell back against the wall behind her and slid down it, staring at the singed spot in the carpet. Her ears rang. “Did he blow himself up? Why are we still alive?”

“No, he just Jumped.” It was the big man who spoke. He was using English now, not whatever the hell he’d been speaking earlier. He walked over and flipped on the light switch somewhere far over her head.

Jessica blinked, bracing her back against the wall as she looked up at him in dazed exhaustion. He crouched beside her, a frown of concern on his face. A very handsome face.

He pulled off his gloves – they were covered in blood -- then clamped both hands over her stomach. She sucked in a breath of pain. “What...are you doing?”

“Putting pressure on your wound.” His face was grim as he leaned into her. His grip tore a yelp of agony from her lips. “Sorry, but I’ve got to keep you from bleeding to death. There’s a doctor on the way. Just hold on.”

“Are you...a cop?” Talking hurt. Everything hurt.

“Something like that.” His hair was short and very blond, shining under the overhead light. She stared at it dreamily, concentrating on it through the waves of pain. Shades of sunlight yellow, ocher, gold. I’d like to paint his hair, she thought. Her eyes fluttered, tried to close.

“Hey!” His voice turned sharp. “Stay with me, Jessica.”
She licked dry lips. “Tired.”

“I know, but you need to stay awake. Don’t let go. Help’s almost here.” His eyes were pale amber, reminding her of sun-kissed honey, warm and unusual. And worried.

She could feel herself drifting away, and shook her head hard, fighting to concentrate. “Talk to me. Keep me awake. What’s your name?”
“Galar. Galar Arvid.”

“Galar.” Funny name. She’d never heard anything like it. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Not really, no.” He wore a dark blue one-piece suit of some kind, made of tiny scales and piped in silver along the arms and across the width of his chest. Splashes of blood marked it, presumably not his own. The suit, whatever it was, appeared hard, dully gleaming, more like armor than fabric. It hugged every powerful inch of him so tightly, she could make out the impressive musculature that lay beneath it, from broad, brawny chest all the way down to powerful thighs and gleaming boots. A weapons belt rode his narrow waist, with a holstered gun, a couple of knives, and an array of pouches of different sizes.

Okay, so maybe he was some kind of cop.

The room rotated slowly to the left. “May...I paint you, Galar?”

Golden eyes met hers, urgent, demanding. “I’ll be happy to let you do anything you want. Just stay with me.”

She fought to concentrate on those remarkable eyes. The pain was intensifying, and with it the cold, radiating from her belly as if she’d been stabbed with a frozen ice pick. She gritted her teeth against the need to scream. “It ... hurts!”

“I know, but they’ll be here any minute.” He gave her a smile, but it was a little tight, a little fixed. “You know, it was really clever, the way you got rid of the Xeran. Took guts, too.”

“Xeran?” Her voice sounded slurred. “What the hell is a Xeran?”
“Long story.” He lifted his head, alert. “Here they come, Jessica. Just a little longer, and it’ll be all right.” She smelled ozone, dimly felt every hair stand up on her body, heard a faint crackle.

A lightning bolt struck right in front of her with a deafening crack and a quivering static shock. She yelped and tried to jerk upright, but Galar held her still as the room filled with people. They just appeared there like something out of a science fiction film. Men, women, all of them in the same dark blue suit he wore, except for two people dressed in cherry red.
The first, a woman, hurried toward Jessica and Galar, towing a man-sized transparent cylinder. A second red-clad person, a man, veered down the hall leading another cylinder. Both tubes floated three feet off the ground with no visible means of support whatsoever.

Three impossible feet.

What the hell?

The woman crouched before her, exchanged urgent words with the cop in that alien language.

Alien, Jessica thought, stunned, as the pieces came together with an almost audible click. They’re aliens.

Darkness flooded in and swept her away.