Warlord's Mercy - Cynthia Sax Page 0,46

stomach, digging the tips through the being’s thick skin.

The male screamed and toppled to the sand.

The fourth and final brute abruptly stopped, waiting, watching.

“You’re going to die, you female-hating fiend.” Lea pelted him with daggers, releasing them as quickly as she could. Her arm muscles burned with that effort, the strain tremendous.

Her attempt to down him was unsuccessful. The male snapped his whip, deflecting each dagger, until she ran out of blades to throw.

“Blast it.” She wanted to shriek with frustration. “I have nothing left.” She eyed the weapon stuck into the waistband of her Warlord’s ass coverings. “I could use your gun.”

“That gun is too powerful for you, gerel.” Tolui’s deep voice lilted with humor. What her normally grim male found amusing she didn’t know. They were facing beings seeking to kill them. “Grant me the honor of slaying our two remaining enemies…if they don’t slay themselves first.”

“You can have that honor.” Lea sighed, wishing she could protest his decision, yet unable to do that. She didn’t have the weapons to help him. “If you need my assistance, I’ll be right here, behind you. I’ll steal blades from other beings should that be necessary.”

“I don’t doubt you’d do that, little human.” His tone was firm. “You’re fierce.”

He said that as though it was a compliment.

She stood taller. “I am fierce.”

She liked that view of herself.

“And you can defeat two opponents, my Warlord.” She uttered that statement for him and for herself, needing that verbal reassurance. “I believe in you.”

Chapter Twelve

His little human believed in him.

Tolui squared his shoulders. He would be worthy of her trust, wouldn’t let her down.

His gaze settled on Daisun, the male who had threatened her, tormented her, made her feel unsafe on a planet she loved.

“Do I scare you, Palavian?” He sniffed the air. “I smell your fear.”

“I’m not scared of you, Chamele.” The male’s top lip curled, revealing yellow teeth.

“Ahhh…” Tolui nodded. “I’m not scared of Chameles either.”

He faded in and out of sight, blending into the background and reappearing. That was a distinctive Chamele ability, and he had it.

A trickle of sweat ran down Daisun’s bald head.

The male knew Tolui was a danger to his lifespan.

“Nor am I scared of genetically enhanced clones.” Tolui dashed forward at his top speed, moving faster than any human or any Chamele could run.

As he whizzed past Daisun, he sliced his claws through his enemy’s top right wrist. Then he looped back to his original position, his muscles straining with the effort.

He returned to the spot before the hand hit the sand and the male registered the wound. Widening his stance, making himself as large as possible, Tolui shielded his gerel from any possible attacks.

There weren’t any aggressions against her. Daisun howled and waved his severed limb. Blood sprayed from his wrist, those arcs of crimson coloring the sand. The male didn’t go on the offensive, didn’t take one step toward them. He stayed where he was.

“Yes.” Lea verbally endorsed the strike. She was skilled with her daggers, had downed one of the males. Judging by her reaction, by the paleness of her face, that had been her first kill.

Yet she hadn’t fled the battle, hadn’t abandoned him.

Tolui was proud to be her male, was honored to have her guarding his back.

She wasn’t the only one on his side. The beings gathered around them had previously been neutral, quietly watching the confrontation, their faces blank.

Now, they grew braver and more vocal, cheering.

For him—a stranger, a clone, a Warlord without a planet.

“I’m not a Chamele, and I’m not merely a genetically enhanced clone.” He lifted his chin. “I am Tolui, Chamele 4’s future Warlord, and you should fear me.”

“You tell him, my Warlord.” His little human whooped behind him.

The crowd cheered louder.

The male with the whip wet himself. A puddle of yellow formed around that enemy’s boots. The acidic scent of urine hung on the air.

Tolui turned his head toward him. “You’re next.” He rippled his claws. Blood dripped off them.

“Can’t.” The male’s gaze fixed on him, then shifted to Daisun, before returning to him. “I can’t.”

He dropped his whip and ran. The male made it to the edge of the crowd before a huge human split his head open with an axe.

“The beings on your planet are tough, gerel.” Tolui was impressed.

“They aren’t bad beings.” His little human insisted on seeing the best in them…as she insisted on seeing the best in him. “They’re angry and frustrated, and they have reason to be that way. The fiend