The Moon's Fangs | 1

15 | leap of faith

A storm of footsteps increased in speed when Nolan fell in a tangle of drapes outside of pod nine.

Reks didn't waste a single step. His hand fell away from my chin down to my exposed lower back, which made my stomach do a sudden flip-flop as he ushered me toward the back of the room with practiced strides. "Punk kid called the damn cavalry. Come on," he muttered under his breath, swooping the back wall drapes over to expose a quaint balcony on the outside. "The last thing we need is our faces all over the news."

"Why did he call so much backup?" I asked, still flustered by his earlier statement. When he assured me I wasn't off his hook.

"No time," he took my hand. "Up you go. On the railing then on the roof."

My insides screamed - heck no I'm not doing that - but what choice did we have? I didn't want to see what would happen if these alien reinforcements caught us.

An instant tremble vibrated through my legs as I stepped up on the thin railing. I squeezed Reks' hand, reaching up towards the edge of the roof as tunnel vision took over. The edge was too far over my head. My fingers barely skimmed it. There was no way I'd be able to pull myself up on my own.

"How did you even find me?"

"Later." Reks released my hand, then grabbed my foot. In my palm, he left a flat circular chip smaller than my pinky's fingerprint. It looked like it belonged on a miniature Bingo board.

"Jump off and don't lose that comm. Don't make a sound and stay out of sight." he boosted me up with a powerful thrust.

I held a roller coaster gasp in between clenched teeth, going airborne for a hot second. My heart hammered hard in my chest, pumping endless adrenaline as I landed on the flat-topped roof. Dear Lord, did this man mean business.

What did he expect would happen if we were caught? Nolan was the one who pulled a gun out, for goodness sake. Shouldn't he be in trouble? How had things escalated so quickly? I wanted answers. I wanted to know more about why Nolan tricked me. I hated how easily I'd fallen for it. I wanted to yell at him. And I wanted to know how Reks found me so freaking fast. What were those weird whip things that came out of his wrists? What exactly did he do to Nolan's crew in the other pod?

Oh. This man was in for a serious earful.

I peeked over the edge to see if Reks needed a hand up but quickly held my tongue.

From my elevated view, the tops of three armed guards' heads pushed their way onto the confined balcony, cornering Reks. My breath caught in my throat, ducking out of view from the guards.

With the black mask hiding his features from the nose down, only his eyes and body language communicated his disposition. Those dark eyes of his gave nothing away. Yet his stance resembled a daunting wolf whose territory had just been threatened.

All three guards trained their weapons on him. "Don't move!" one barked. "Where's your partner!"

Reks reached behind and gripped the railing with both hands. I knew he had me in his peripherals, but he dared not glance up.

"Wait - hold fire!" Nolan ordered from somewhere inside, followed by glass being crushed under someone's boots.

"But sir—"

At that same moment, Reks threw his weight back against the rail, driving his legs up and back into a backflip, landing against the opposite side of the bars. The veins in his toned forearms bulged, then without hesitation, he launched himself off the balcony and out of sight toward the ground.

My heart nearly stopped, witnessing him dive backward towards what I knew couldn't be a tactfully placed foam ball pit to stick the landing. And after all the trouble I went through to get him out of cryo, he goes and pulls a wild stunt like this? The nerve!