Scar landed the smaller shuttle, the Penumbra, in the onboard dock and sat at the controls for a moment, thinking. He knew that R'Zuul was not expecting him back yet; he'd only been away for seven days. He didn't worry that his squad leader would be too concerned though. He'd only been tasked with scouting duties – fairly routine stuff to make sure their sector of the planets and territories the clan counted as their own were not being violated by any hostile force. It had taken less time than he'd expected and there was no sign of any encroachment that he could find. In any case, he knew R'Zuul's main purpose had been to get him off the ship.

The time away from the atmosphere of the Shadow had made him calmer, at least on the surface. Underneath, he was unable to keep from turning over the events of the past months in his head: the deepening feud with D'Kand, his unsettling conversation with R'Zuul and – more than anything else – his relationship with the human, which seemed to be at the root of all his problems. His frame of mind was still somewhat disturbed but he was thinking more clearly than he had been for weeks.

One thing he had decided above all else was that he wanted to speak to Lex and resolve their previous disagreement. He had been angry with her when he left and now he wasn't sure why. The more he turned it over in his brain, the more it seemed like the problem had been with others rather than with anything she had done. He liked to think of himself as loyal to those he counted as allies and his anger towards her had not been justified, he realised it now.

He stepped off the shuttle, still masked and armoured, and started to make his way to the upper decks that housed the communal living areas of the ship. He was hungry and was on his way to get food, but on the way he happened to run into G'Rithik and Rika. Both of them seemed rather shocked to see him.

"S'Kia! What are you doing here? R'Zuul said you were going to be away for a while." G'Rithik said.

"Well, I am back." He looked from one to other, a little puzzled by their odd behaviour "Surely you have not managed to fuck anything up too seriously in my brief absence?"

As he spoke he noticed them look at each other momentarily, it was obvious there was something they weren't saying.

Rika shifted uncomfortably "S'Kia, we are not supposed to tell you but – "

G'Rithik rounded on him "Put your stupid jaws together!"

"I do not see what difference it makes!" Rika growled back "He will know soon enough. Everybody knows!"

"Spit it out, before I spill your guts for you!" S'Kia gave an infuriated snarl – they both turned to look at him.

"The ooman was attacked."

"By whom?"

"R'Zuul forbade me to tell you but I think you can guess," Rika looked distinctly uncomfortable "I… heard some juveniles talking about it on their way down from the gymnasium, saying someone had her cornered in there and that there was going to be a massacre. I thought I would go and see what was happening."

"And then?"

"They were going to kill her… eventually."

Rika waited for the outburst of rage but there was no reaction. It seemed to take a few minutes for Scar to digest this information. "And where is she now?" He asked, finally.

"We took her to the infirmary. As far as I know she is there still."

Scar stood for a few moments, his expression concealed under his mask. Then he turned on his heel and stalked off down the corridor, back the way he'd come.

"S'Kia wait! Where are you going?" Rika called after him. Behind him, G'rithik sighed "Where do you think he is going, idiot? He is going to kill D'Kand!"


Lex was currently in a state of semi-sedation. She'd already left the infirmary and was back in the sleeping quarters, spending the past day in a narcotised drowse. She'd managed to persuade the medics to give her painkillers. Most hunters would refuse them as a matter of pride but she was sick of all the macho crap and had decided she wasn't going to suffer any more unnecessary pain. She hadn't realised quite how strong they were going to be. Having only taken half the dose the medics had (extremely grudgingly) recommended she was still flying.

To give the medics their due, she was grateful they were so skilled at patching you up after a fight – probably because that's what they did all the time. She doubted that she would've been able to walk out of the infirmary after only a couple of days otherwise. She'd also been lucky that her injuries, though painful, were not permanent or life threatening. She guessed D'Kand and his friends had been interrupted before they'd got a chance to start on her properly. The damage looked worse than it was. Her face was still purple in places but the swelling had mostly gone down and miraculously she hadn't any broken bones. Her ribs were the injury that hurt the most, but they were bruised rather than broken.

She was sleeping on her uninjured side when she thought she heard someone say her name. Assuming it was part of her sedative-riddled dream, she mumbled something indistinct and tried to go back to sleep. Again someone was talking to her, forcing her into consciousness and she realised the voice wasn't just in her head.

For a split second, fear flashed through her mind that it might be one of those three bastards come to finish the job and she squinted, desperately trying to focus on the hunter standing in front of her. Automatically she went to rub the sleep from her eyes and cursed as she'd forgotten they were still bruised and sensitive.

As her vision cleared, she realised it had to be Scar. He was the only one who had access to the room anyway. Despite the fight they'd had before he left she was incredibly happy to see him and her face split involuntarily into a broad grin "I did not think you were going to come back until after I was gone!"

He didn't say anything, just stood looking down at her. He looked as if he might still be angry – really angry. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving like it had done when she'd seen him lose his temper before. When he finally spoke she could tell from his voice that he was furious. Every word was a poisonous hiss "I came to find you because I wanted to see for myself. Now that I have, I just want you to tell me: who has dared to do this?"

She squinted up at him, confused – her brain still foggy from the effects of the drugs and the lingering sleepiness. Surely he knew?

He continued "Rika told me what happened – but not their names. So I want to hear it from you. Give them to me." By the time he finished speaking, his voice was a blood-curdling growl.

Lex thought for a moment. R'Zuul had been to see her during her brief stay at the infirmary and had made it obvious his visit was not anything to do with concerns for her health. He wanted her gone, he'd said so very bluntly. They'd had a tense conversation in which he told her that she had to leave as soon as she they were within landing distance of Earth. Obviously she hadn't argued with him about going back to Earth – it was what she'd wanted for a long time – but she was curious about why he was suddenly so keen to get rid of her.

"You are an irritant that causes trouble wherever you go, ooman bitch!" R'Zuul had said brusquely, his voice crackling with dislike "If S'Kia carries on this feud the council may decide to execute him. I want you gone… before you decide the matter for him."

Now that she was to face to face with Scar, she resolved to put a stop to this. She couldn't let him write his own death warrant in this stupid fashion "You do not need to do anything. R'Zuul told me – " she began.

"I am not interested in anything R'Zuul has to say." He cut her off "I just want you to give me their names."

"Why? So that you can go crazy and get locked up again?"

"No. So that I can kill them all."

"Have you learned nothing?" She closed her eyes wearily and pinched the bridge of her nose "Why do you think they did this to me in the first place? Because of your war with D'Kand! Do you not see that it is just going to make things worse? Forget about getting revenge. "

"This has got nothing to do with revenge." He snarled, fingers twitching in agitation "Either you must kill him yourself – or I must."

"I am not going to – why does everything always have to end in death? Can you not drop your stupid feud?"

He began prowling the room like a caged animal, talking to her almost as if he were talking to himself "This will end in death no matter what I do. All that remains to be decided is who will die. D'Kand is not playing a game. He hates me certainly, but he loathes you because you are human!"

"I do not care what he thinks of me!" She retorted.

He turned on her suddenly "It is not his opinion that is at stake!" He roared "It is your life!"

"What are you talking about?" Despite herself, she was beginning to get angry – stung by this sudden outburst of aggression. She was still suffering the effect of the tranquillisers and it was making her feel as if she were drunk or stoned. She couldn't see what he was driving at.

"The clan would not take any real action against him for killing a human, blooded or not." He snorted dismissively "I am surprised they troubled themselves to intervene this time. If we let him live it is only a matter of time before he lays your flayed corpse at my feet. That is why he has to die!"

As he said it he was already walking towards the door. Almost fully awake now, she sprang up off the bed and put herself between him and the doorway, spreading her arms across it. He checked and stood facing her, seething.

"I am not going to let you do this. It is stupid." She said flatly.

"You cannot prevent me so get out of my way!" He growled, looming over her. In the confines of the tiny room he seemed huge, but this only made her angrier. Did he think he could just bully her into submission? The drugs were eroding her usual self-possession, making her fearless.

"Or what?" She yelled back, glaring up at him "You will attack me yourself!?"

"I do not want to fight you!" He roared, right in her face "I am trying to protect you because you refuse to protect yourself! Can you not see that, you stupid, soft-meat bitch?!"

Enraged, she lashed out and punched him in the jaw, catching him on the bone. She hurt her hand but managed to draw blood, emerald green spattering across the metal floor. It was a split second loss of control. Chin up, staring him straight in the eye, she braced herself for the retaliation but none came.

He just stood there jaws twitching, almost shaking with fury …but he did nothing. A creeping sense of unease stole over her. In the gymnasium he never shrank from dealing out blows that made her head ring and left her bruised or bloodied if she wasn't quick enough. Now his strange lack of response filled her with a creeping dread – but whatever was wrong with him, she refused to let herself be intimidated.

"The soft-meat bitch will be gone soon." She said through gritted teeth, massaging some life back into her hand "You said yourself I should go back to my own planet so why are you so eager to throw your life away for nothing?"

"Because D'Kand is right!" He spat back and then, stopped short as if he hadn't meant to say it. He froze and an odd look flickered across his face almost….guilty.

She frowned "I do not understand you, right about what?"

When he spoke again it was like he was being forced to it at knife point, jaws clenched with suppressed rage "What he says …about me."

She blinked in bewilderment but then as she saw his expression, the pieces suddenly started to fall into place: the over-protectiveness, the weird behaviour over the last few weeks, the disproportionate anger. She'd thought he'd lost his temper with D'Kand because he was insulted by his comments and innuendoes. Now it was dawning on her that it was actually because D'Kand, whether he knew it or not, had struck a nerve. He didn't just like her, he desired her and he had no idea what to do about it. She wondered how she could not have noticed before.

"I just didn't see it because it's ridiculous!" She thought "Why would he even think about me in that way? I sure as hell haven't thought about him …or maybe I have but not… seriously, because he's so …"

As she stared at him in shock, she was horrified to discover that she was not repelled – quite the opposite in fact. It was as if all the anger she'd been feeling suddenly turned and crashed down on her, a huge tidal wave of unexpected lust, no less powerful because she knew absolutely that it was disgusting. "What is wrong with me?" She thought, horrified.

He was a different species; he was fantastically, revoltingly, ugly by human standards. Worse than this, he was an arrogant bastard who drove her insane. She knew all this but – whether it was down to the painkillers or stress or maybe it had been there all along – God help her, she didn't care.

There were a few moments of appalled silence as they stared at each other.

He was first to break it, he made a move towards the door "Get out of my way." He said again "This changes nothing. I am going to kill him now."

She stepped forward, right up close to him, knowing now that there was at least one sure-fire way she could keep him in this room. She laid a hand flat on his chest and he stared at it as if he'd never seen it before.

"What is the matter?" She said "Are you afraid? Forget about D'Kand… stay here."

"You are drugged. You do not know what you are saying."

"Don't bullshit me!" She spat in English.

"What you suggest is disgusting and unnatural and vile. And it is forbidden!"

"Unnatural? Forbidden?!" She sneered "More excuses!"

Pale with rage, he leaned forward until their faces were only inches apart "Why are you goading me?" He snarled.

She looked straight into his demonic eyes "Because I thought you were supposed to be fearless," She hissed "But now I see that you are just a coward!"

She saw the moment, the very instant, that his self-control finally shattered. His eyes flared and for a moment she wondered if she'd gone too far, using the one insult she knew would enrage him the most. With a snarl he seized hold of her as if he would tear her apart but then he wrapped one arm tightly round her waist and dragged her up against him making her wince in pain as he crushed her bruised ribs. He grabbed a handful of her hair, yanked her head back and buried his face in her neck, sinking his teeth into her. She felt the skin break and something hot run down into the hollow of her throat.

She responded by pressing the whole length of her body up against him and biting him back as hard as she could on the shoulder. Her mouth tingled with the bitter, unfamiliar taste of his blood, mingling with her own as the cut on the inside of her lip reopened.

Too impatient to bother with the fastenings on her suit he grabbed two fistfuls of it and pulled, tearing it off her body, whilst she wrenched frantically at the clasps of his armour. Bits of metal plate went clashing onto the floor at her feet, but when she'd finally managed to get his armour off she checked in surprise.

His cock was the most bizarre thing she'd ever seen. It was covered in ridges of translucent spikes "It's like a weapon, or some kind of hardcore sex toy!" she thought. Fascinated, she ran her hand along it. The spines were flexible, more like cartilage than bone. They bent and sprang back under her fingertips.

He gave an involuntary shudder at her touch and purred deep in his throat, sending a shiver up her spine and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Lifting her off her feet easily, he slammed her up against the door, driving the breath out of her lungs. Knowing she was being stupid and reckless she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, the thudding of her pulse in her ears drowning out everything else.


Much later, in the dim night-hours lighting of the room, she opened her eyes and with one hand pushed damp tendrils of sweat-drenched hair off her forehead and looked at him in the darkness.

"So tell me, exactly how much trouble would you get into if anyone knew about this?"

He shrugged, rolling onto his back "It depends on how lenient Narjat and those other old bug-fuckers are minded to be. Officially the penalty for unsanctioned sexual intercourse is castration… or possibly death."

"What?!" She sat up – horrified. "Surely they wouldn't really do that to you?"

"If you are lucky they may just expel you – because you are not one of our species and you are a female. They might even send you back to your planet – if you are lucky. For me, the penalty for unsanctioned sexual intercourse would be far harsher. I do not know if it makes a difference because you are human. I doubt the question has arisen previously…"

"But that's barbaric!" She was so shocked she lapsed into English.

"I do not understand that word." His spikey brow drew down.

"'Barbarity' means… uh… uncivilised, savage, brutal –" She groped for the right vocabulary to explain in his language.

"I see. So – what we did, that was 'barbaric'?"

"I am being serious!"

"So am I. Five – or was it six? – acts of terrible "barbarity." He grinned at her.

"I cannot understand how you can find this funny!" She said. He was surprised to see that her face was ashen "Why did you not tell me?"

He looked up at the ceiling, putting one huge arm behind his head "It was not really the foremost thing on my mind at the time and I thought… maybe you were right about my being a coward. I realised I am not afraid of the council …and I may be able to talk my way out of it."

"Talk your way out of having your balls cut off? Out of a death sentence?"

"I will tell them you used your devious, alien wiles to overcome my resolve and enslave me to your evil will. That I was powerless to resist. It is very nearly the truth."

"I knew somehow it would be my fault."

"Of course! You did seduce me. But how can I blame you for that? I am hugely desirable." He stretched and glanced down at himself complacently, then turned to look at her "Or I could fight them. I fear no-one. And I regret nothing."

As usual, his boundless self-belief made her think maybe he could figure a way out of it. He never seemed to worry that life would dish up anything he couldn't deal with.

"Do they have to know?" She asked "I will not tell them if – "

"You will not need to. They will know – unless you stay in here for many days. Any other male would be able to smell me all over you from the other side of the room. To them it will be obvious what has happened and with whom."

He rolled over again and pulled her easily towards him with one arm "Anyway why are we wasting time arguing?" He purred "I want to make the most of my sexual organs… whilst they are still attached to me."

"You old romantic." She murmured in English.

"What did you call me?"

"Oh, I was just insulting you." She grinned "I know how much you like it."


Long after she had fallen asleep, Scar sat on the edge of the bench, thinking. It was getting near to the ship's official active hours. He looked down at the unconscious human. Of course he'd pictured many times what sexual intercourse with her (with any female!) would be like, but she had taken him totally off guard.

He'd always understood from other males that it was simply a matter of convincing the female to hold still long enough for insemination to take place – by force if necessary – and then getting the hell out of there before she gutted you. He'd expected her to be reticent, reluctant even.

"Reluctant!?" He grinned to himself that he could ever have been so naive "She is just as lascivious as I am, but considerably more… imaginative."

He put out a talon to touch the bruises on her face. She moved slightly, mumbled something, but didn't wake up. Asleep she looked smaller, more vulnerable.

Easy to kill.

He stood up, stretched and went to wash off the dried sweat plastered to his skin. Then he came out and retrieved his scattered pieces of armour from where he'd let them fall, strapping his weaponry methodically into place on his wrists and in various holsters. He took one last look at her sleeping figure, purred to himself "Shameless female!" and stepped out of the room, closing and locking the door behind him.

He'd had no sleep and he was in the most obscene amount of trouble – probably was about to get into a lot more – but he felt good for the first time in months. He couldn't suppress a grin as he set off on the hunt.


Lex woke up when she thought she heard a noise and looked round in the temporary confusion of interrupted sleep, wondering where she was. She was momentarily puzzled, wondering why she was naked and why she ached all over.

Then the memory of the previous few hours came back to her with shocking clarity. She gave a sharp intake of breath and one hand came up involuntarily to her mouth. Looking down at herself, she realised she was covered in fresh scratches, bruises and bites. She wondered if she'd managed to inflict similar damage on him and one corner of her mouth curved up, then she stretched languidly.

The next thing that occurred to her was that she was alone. She looked around. All her things were exactly where she'd left them but Scar's armour and weapons were gone.

A thought struck her like cold shower, wiping the smile right off her face and shocking her out of her state of exhausted drowsiness. He'd gone to find D'Kand – she knew it with absolute certainty. The bastard! The devious son of a bitch! She thought she'd talked him round. He'd fucked her, waited until she was asleep and then gone to do exactly what he'd been going to do all along!

"I'm such an idiot!" She groaned and rolled onto her back with her hands over her face "Why did I ever think he was going to listen to me? Out of what? Friendship? Love?! Ridiculous, he doesn't even know what those words mean, they're just alien concepts to him! He's going to get himself executed for nothing and it's all my fault!"

She sat for a moment wondering what to do. She didn't even know where he was – but at least she could look for him, maybe it wasn't too late.

She stood up, ignoring the stiffness in her limbs where she hadn't quite recovered from the attack a few days before. She was about to start pulling on her clothes, when she froze, recalling what he'd said about other males being able to smell him on her. She couldn't smell anything stronger than perspiration on her skin. Was he telling the truth or was it a strategy to keep her in the room, out of the way whilst he went after D'Kand? She wouldn't have put it past him.

In the end she went in to the wet room and hastily scrubbed herself all over as vigorously as she could stand with all the bruising. She hoped this would at least make it less obvious. Her bodysuit was unwearable, ripped clean in two. She discarded it and pulled on a different one.

The attack in the gym had made her even more wary of going about the ship without weapons so she slipped the knife into her boot and strapped her dah'kte onto her wrists. She also put on the metal wrist-com. She still didn't really know how to operate it but since the day Scar had given it to her she had always worn it anyway – reasoning maybe it would be useful. As she stepped out of the door, she didn't notice a figure detach itself from the shadows where he'd been watching the room and follow her silently down the corridor.


D'Kand had arrived just after Scar left and since then he'd been waiting for the female to emerge. He was seething with hatred after getting a dressing down from R'Zuul. As Scar had predicted, however, the squad leader hadn't done much except read him the riot act and smack him around for dishonourable conduct, nothing serious. D'Kand's head was ringing from the blows but his pride was the only thing that was truly injured and he was looking for redress. He meant to finish what he'd started in the gym.

Lex hadn't gone very far when she suddenly had an uneasy sense of being followed. She saw a shadow in front of her and managed to duck just in time as a blade sliced the wall with a nerve-shredding shriek of metal on metal.

A quick glance confirmed her worst fears and she took off down the walkway like a scalded cat with D'Kand thundering after her.

She was so busy running for her life she hardly had a moment to notice where she was going. She ran down one darkened corridor after another, not bothering to look behind because she could hear him following, feet pounding heavily on the metal floor.

To her panicking eyes, every passageway looked the same and she couldn't get her bearings. She ran up a set of stairs in the direction she thought the communal areas might be in. As she rounded the next corner she realised in dismay she'd run into a dead end. She turned just in time to see D'Kand appear, blocking her exit.

As he saw she was trapped his mandibles spread in a grin, then as he got nearer his expression changed. His jaws curled back on themselves in revulsion and she realised Scar had been telling the truth about one thing at least "So S'Kia finally stuck the spear in you; filthy, ooman slut!" He grimaced "You stink of copulation! I always knew he was sick in the head, but I did not think even he would really sink so low!"

As he was talking she feinted to one side and made a break for it, trying to dodge under his outstretched arm and get away. He was too quick for her and caught her by the shoulder – spinning her round and smashing her back against a wall. With a bellow of rage he lunged, grabbing for her throat, intent on breaking her neck. Instinctively she brought her hand up and pressed the catch in her palm. Unsheathing the dah'kte she plunged them into his gut, his own weight giving the blow added strength. It was an automatic reaction, happening so fast she didn't even have time to think about what she was doing. He looked at her in surprise as they were both splattered with his emerald blood.

Before he could move to strike her again she withdrew the blades in a spurt of hot gore and stabbed him again. This time she twisted them, ripping a huge wound in his side – determined to prevent him from using his own wristknives. He coughed up green foam, but bought his face closer to her in a gurgling snarl, hands still groping for her.

Her jaw set in a grim line and she brought the blade up and skewered him through the throat, the triple points emerging out of the back of his neck. He made a choking noise. As she drew the blades free he collapsed and fell at her feet. She stepped back quickly out of his reach as he made a grab for her ankle and watched him struggle. One hand clutched at the wound in his neck whilst his eyes focussed on her in impotent rage. The floor was slippery with his blood.

She looked down at him dispassionately as his movements got weaker, breathing deeply and serenely as the adrenalin subsided. She couldn't bring herself to feel any pity or remorse. She hadn't even known she was going to use the dah'kte until she'd done it and after that it had been easy. "What the hell is happening to me, that I can do something like this and feel nothing at all?" She thought shaking her head slowly.

As she stood looking down at the slowly spreading pool of luminous blood, someone hit her on the back of the head.


R'Zuul had gone down to the living deck with the express purpose of confronting S'Kia and the ooman and throwing her off this ship. He'd only just heard that morning that S'Kia had returned against his express orders and he wanted to head off any trouble before it started. He'd arrived just in time to see her emerge from the room and see D'Kand go after her. He made sure that neither of them realised he was there. The thought had occurred to him that if D'Kand killed her now it might solve their immediate problems, as long as the fool could be made to keep his mouth shut. Then he could just tell S'Kia she had left unexpectedly and there would be an end to it.

He'd watched the struggle unfold – both of the fighters too busy even to notice him. Much to his amazement, it was all over before he had a chance to do or say anything. He never would have thought the ooman female had it in her to kill a fully grown male warrior in close combat.

He looked down at D'Kand. He was obviously dead. "What a waste," he thought in annoyance, "If the idiot had only learned to keep his mouth shut during a fight he would have been a great warrior. Moreover he might have been alive!"

He was reluctantly impressed, but it didn't deter him from his objective. He'd come up behind her where she stood and knocked her out. As soon as he came near he realised D'Kand had been right, he could smell S'Kia on her. She positively reeked of him.

He clicked his jaws together in irritation "Another fool – this one letting his groin think for him. S'Kia, what in the name of the gods possessed you? Well that only makes it all the more imperative that she should disappear. I cannot allow that to continue."

He considered the female as she lay at his feet, out cold. He could just kill her now, but something in his sense of honour rebelled at the idea. Ooman though she was, she didn't deserve to die that way after fighting as she had against D'Kand. Anyway he didn't need to do that, there was another option.

He lifted her feather-light body up easily, gagging slightly at the persistent stink of sex-hormones that still clung to her, and made his way down to the docking bay in the ship's hold. He opened one of the transport pods and strapped the ooman into it. She was still unconscious, her head lolling forward, long, black hair obscuring her face. With one talon, he tapped a few co-ordinates into the control panel. The door closed with a hiss as the airlock sealed. They were almost within range of her planet now so there was a possibility she would survive. At least it gave her a fighting chance.

He retreated to a safe distance and once he was behind the viewing window, used his wrist-com to open the access doors into space. He paused before pressing the launch button, feeling a slight twinge of something like shame at using such contemptible, underhand methods. He consoled himself with the reflection that one of his command had died today at the hands of this female and another was risking castration, even a possible death sentence because of her. He shook his head in disgust and pressed it, watching the pod until it was just a tiny dwindling spark in a sky full of stars.