Page 38 of Twin Warriors

She smiled at him again. “You guys pay the bills?”

“Yes. But trust me, for all the credits we have spent on the needs of the compound, there is a hundred times more where that came from.”

She watched him with a look of admiration in her eyes.

“You approve?”

“That's amazing, Cole. You and Cane could go anywhere you want, do anything you want, yet you both still fight for those that need you the most. You put others before yourself and you don’t expect anything in return. That's very noble in my eyes.”

“We have everything we could possibly need, Amy. Iron gave us a home… a reason to keep living, even when we thought there was nothing left for us. Because of that, we had the chance to find you. I will never be able to thank him enough for that.”

She placed her palm on his cheek, pulling him in for a soft, warm kiss.

“Strap in for landing,” Cane called over his shoulder, breaking the moment. Cole helped Amy buckle into the strap and waited as the transport lowered to the soft, pale-yellow sand.

Chapter Thirteen

As they climbed out of the transport, the hot, dry air hitting Amy in the face, she touched the markings on her wrists to reach out to Emi and Tope.

They were close. They would be at the transport in a few hours.

“We have about five hours of sunlight left. We need to cover at least twenty UMU’s before we set up camp for the night. Let’s go.” Iron called as he slung a large heavy looking bag onto his shoulders.

Cane came over to her, pulling her to the side of the transport and pressing her back against it. His lips came down on hers hard in a passionate kiss that left her breathless.

“What was that for?” she asked when he pulled back enough to look down at her.

“I could scent your need in the transport, and it was driving me crazy not being able to touch you. Stay close to us, Amy. The desert can be a dangerous place.”

“I will,” she said, pulling his face back down for another hard kiss.

They walked at a steady pace over the loose sand, each of them quietly scanning the horizon for any threat. Amy wasn’t worried. She could already feel Kisma and Maku’s presence dancing on the gentle breeze around them. They would warn her if there was any danger nearby.

“What are UMU’s?” She asked Cane.

“Universal measurement units. It is how we measure distance.”

“Right,” she said, wondering how they calculated into miles. Iron had said they needed to walk twenty UMU’s before the sun set, so they couldn’t be as far as miles. No one could walk that far in a desert in five hours.

Cole and Iron walked ahead of them, talking quietly to each other. She had no idea how they knew where they were going. This part of the desert was just sand as far as the eye could see. Nothing to give her a sense of direction at all. The only thing she could think of, were the two suns baking down on them.

She adjusted the scarf on her head, already feeling the trickle of sweat running down her back. It was going to be a long few days of walking without her symbiotes.

Memories flashed in her mind of the last time she walked in the desert like this. When she was sure she would die alone and in pain.

Glancing over at Cane, who had a deep frown on his face, she smiled at the thought that she wasn’t alone anymore. In fact, she had a lot more company than she ever thought she would find on an alien planet.

“What’s wrong?” She asked Cane when he slowed, then paused.

“I don’t know.”

He slowly turned in a circle, scanning the sands around them.

“Is there something out there?”

There was nothing out there. Kisma and Maku made sure of it.

“I can feel… I can feel something watching us.”