Dark Arrow Ch. 01-03

The next mile was the most grueling hike Erillia could ever remember. Finally he sat her on a large rock as he knelt and carefully removed her boot. The swelling made that task difficult, difficult and painful though she did her best not to whimper as he tugged her boots off. Taking off his mask and gloves he frowned as he examined the area. Bruising had already started, and the swelling was moving up the leg a little too quickly for his taste.

"Well you definitely did some damage, and if not for the nano's I'd be concerned about that becoming a bigger issue. As it is if you avoid compartment syndrome they'll take care of the rest, but it will take at probably 12 hours. That seems to be the standard time for muscle or tendon damage to be repaired." She stifled a moan as he pushed on the swelling.

He fished in his bag and produced an air splint he quickly applied before shoving her boot back on and adjusting it to fit around the splint. "The bad news is that the nanos won't do jack for your pain and I don't have anything that would help without knocking you out. We have to get further in and away from the lake edge. They're going to start searching by this leg, but that search will only extend a mile or so around the lake so we have to go cross country from here. There's a little hollow about six miles from here where we'll be safe for a while, but we have to make it there before we can stop. This is going to hurt, but there's nothing for it now."

She nodded and gritted her teeth as she stood. Six miles wasn't that much of a hike, but with this ankle she wouldn't be making very good time. Ren stood back and offered his hand, which she took. Pride be damned she bloody well hurt. The next two hours were brutal, as he'd said, but the finally topped a small rise and she saw the hollow he'd talked about. She sagged with relief when he eased her down on a stump.

"Bloody hell let's not do that again," She groaned as soon as she'd removed her mask.

"I agree," He chuckled, "though we do keep racking up history making events. We're now the first to ever escape the Terra police force after being spotted. I'm pretty sure we're the first criminals to ever make a run for in into the countryside." She groaned, but couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. She'd wanted this job to make a name for herself, and it would certainly do that now. The problem was she wasn't sure she'd be able to return to capitalize on that since the cops were going to go crazy the next time her signature showed up, and with her escape there would be copy cats popping up left and right.

She'd have to do another job just to reestablish her presence, which would bring the police down on her in force again. It was shaping up to be a vicious cycle. Ren rose and quickly scouted the area before returning and rummaging in his bag again. He pulled out an MRE pack and tossed it to her, then retrieved one for himself and pulled a final item out of the bad. She quickly unslung the bag from her back as well and pulled out her bow and quiver. She looked up as Ren walked over to her.

"Pain meds," He said gently handing her the vial. She looked it over carefully and her eyes widened a little in shock.

"This is Morphine Sulfate! That's a street drug, not pain killers!"

"No it's not," he muttered quietly. "Yes it's sold on the streets. That's why I have this. It's easier to get than what they use in the hospitals but this is what they used to use. It's been used as a pain killer for almost a thousand years now. Yes there are side effects. It's going to make you very sleepy and it's going alter your perception of things, but it won't make you an addict with one dose. The effects won't last, but you'll sleep soundly tonight."

She shook her head, unwilling to take something that would leave her unable to defend herself if the need arose. He held up a hand to stop her as he saw her about to explode. "I have a counter agent for it. It's called narcan. It will reverse the med, but that means you'll hurt again. I won't use it unless we have to get out of here, but I will use it before we get ourselves caught. Trust me this one last time. Tomorrow we'll talk, and then what you do next will be up to you." She looked at him, and then back at the drug. Her mind torn between the desire for pain relief and the innate distrust for any med, especially a drug like this, offered to her by someone else.

Then Ren reached out and brushed her hair away from her ear. "Please little one, trust me on this." The touch was so gentle it was more than she could stand, and his words pierced her to her core. With a groan she opened the package and shook out the autoject, but he stilled her hand before she could inject it. She looked at him quizzically. He'd just gone through a fair amount of trouble to convince her to take the drug, and now he didn't want her to? He smiled as if reading her thoughts. "It's very strong, and very quick acting. Eat first or you may not stay awake long enough to eat and as much as you need rest and pain relief you need calories too."

"That fast?" She asked a bit shocked. Top of the line meds typically took an hour or so to kick in from her experience. One that acted in minutes was... both intriguing and scary at the same time. Ren just smiled.

"You eat. I have a bed roll for you and I even have a few perimeter sensors. I'll get the bed roll and set up a perimeter while you eat and then we'll get you bedded down for a well-deserved rest." She nodded her head in acceptance, and tore open her MRE pack. He smiled again, and her stomach did a little flip flop again as he looked at her. She swallowed hard, but he didn't hold her gaze this time fortunately. Instead he moved quickly to the pack and pulled out two rolls and a hand full of sensors. She turned her attention back to the food at hand. He was right. Food was calories. Calories were fuel. If today was any indication she was going to need a lot of fuel. She polished off the food with her with what would normally be embarrassing speed, but she was beyond caring at this point. Ren walked up as she was packaging up the trash, and knelt down beside her.

"Ready to rest?" He asked. She nodded an affirmative, and he offered her a hand up. Helping her to stand and move back towards the rock shelf that formed the side of the hollow. He threw down the bed roll and she placed her quiver and bow under her head as a makeshift pillow. As she settled in he returned with the autoject and an ice pack.

"For the swelling," She asked softly? He nodded and placed it on her ankle. Propping her foot on top of her boots, he adjusted the pack to cover the maximum area. She glanced at the autoject he'd handed her. It had been removed from the package so it was possible he could have switched it out, but she didn't think he'd do that after all he'd done to get her this far.

"One thing," he murmured in her ear as he knelt behind her and held her shoulders to help prop her up. "This drug isn't like the one's you're used to. It's what they call an intravenous drug. It works best when placed directly into the blood stream. That injector is set up for that route. Just place it over the area you want to inject and the little light up top will light up green when it senses it's over a vein." She turned to stare into those green eyes that had haunted her short rest earlier. Reaching up she stroked his face this time, and to her surprise and delight he leaned into the touch just as she had leaned into his. She moved the autoject into place over her right thigh and swallowed as she saw the injector light up green. Gripping the injector firmly she looked back at him again.

"I choose to trust you Ren," She whispered, and pressed the injection button. She jerked slightly at the sudden sting as the needle slid through her skin like a knife through butter, followed by a burn she wasn't used to with typical autojects. He surprised him by reaching around her and hugging her close as she felt the drug moving through her vein for a few seconds as it mixed with her blood.

"Good girl, little one. Thank you." He dropped a swift kiss on her temple and she sighed as she relaxed into his arms. Drug or not she was feeling less pain already, and closed her eyes. Within moments she was snoring softly, and Ren carefully extricated himself from behind her and laid her carefully down. Positioning her quiver under her head again and even padding it with his jacket which he turned inside out. He gazed down at her and smiled before he shook out his own roll and settled down next to her. "Sleep well Erillia. You did more than I thought possible today little one," He murmured savoring the feel of her name on his lips as he too dozed.

Erillia started awake to a light tap on her thigh. Time had clearly passed, though she wasn't sure how much as she jerked to look behind her. Ren came into focus lying next to her, and he immediately held a finger to his lip for silence and then tapped his ear. She strained to hear what had him on alert and what it was that had startled her out of her narcotic induced slumber. It was midday at least, but suddenly among the wood land sounds came the sound of the crunching footsteps of someone unused to walking softly. She started to rise intent on getting her bow and arrow ready for use, but his hand on her arm stilled her.

"Wait," he mouthed. Every fiber of her being rebelled against it, but she lay down again. Pressing her body as close to the ground as she could get it. The footsteps came closer, and for a second, despite her resolve to trust him, She almost broke away and ran for it. Then they came again. Still close, but not on top of them like she'd been expecting. The again, slightly further away and moving past them if she had to guess. She almost breathed a real sigh of relief. The police had managed to come within feet of where she and Ren lay hidden, but they had missed them. Now it was simply a matter of waiting them out and slipping through their line and she and Ren were home free! Ren tapped her shoulder, then motioned for them to get up. She was swiftly on her feet, slinging her quiver over her shoulder then dropping to her knees to roll up the bedding.

Ren quickly retrieved the perimeter sensors, which she now questioned the effective ness of since the police had passed with in a dozen feet or so of them and the sensors hadn't gone off so far as she could tell. She quickly rolled and secured his bed roll as well while he retrieved those, she then placed them and the ice pack into his pack and put her shoes on. As he hurried quietly back into camp she turned and tossed him his jacket. "How's the ankle," he whispered in her ear as he shrugged the strap of the bag over his shoulder and turned to face her. She was a bit surprised to be honest, but she hadn't even noticed her ankle.

Small wonder, between the adrenaline from the near discover, the nano's work, and any lingering effects of the morphine it was unlikely she'd have noticed it much regardless. Still she tested it and was surprised to find she couldn't elicit pain from it under normal range of motion. She smiled and help up the thumbs up. He nodded and then began to glance around.

It took her a second to realize he was trying to determine where to go from their little hollow and she rolled her eyes. There were cliffs and rocky crags about four miles in front of them. The police wouldn't try and scale those, but that didn't leave them much time. She headed off in the direction their intruder had taken. She'd only made it a few yards before Ren jerked her arm spinning her around. He stared at her like she'd lost her mind when she jerked her arm free and glared at him.

"You asked me to trust you, now it's your turn to trust me." She hissed in his ear. Spinning on her heal she slipped into the woods again tracking towards the cliffs. She was a bit surprised when she felt the hairs on her neck rise and turned to find Ren shadowing her every step. She arched and eye brow, but he just cracked a smile and gave her a thumbs up. She smiled inspire of herself. It felt deliciously good to have this man trust her so explicitly that he put his very life and freedom in her hands. As silently as two experienced trackers could manage they moved forward until she held her hand up for him to freeze.

Seconds later she heard the crack of a footfall landing on an errant branch again. Followed moments later by a softer crack farther left of their position. Quickly signaling right she slid quietly out of the path of the oncoming police. Then held up her hand again and signaled for him to get down. She crouched into the bushes watching as one of the men hunting her came crashing through the forest a couple yards away. She crouched lower and fingered an arrow as she watched him tromp past. Had he turned their way she would have put an arrow in his throat so fast he wouldn't have had the time or breath to say anything to warn the others. The man was too busy making enough racket to raise the dead and staring blindly ahead. Soon the sounds of breaking limbs and crushed underbrush faded into the distance. She waited a few minutes more then looked the Ren and jerked her head towards the cliffs again. He stopped her just before she broke out of the trees into the clearing around the cliffs.

"This is why I didn't want to come this way. Those cliffs run for miles in both directions," He hissed. "We're trapped here if they decide to make another pass." She turned and glared at his. Her scowl must have been truly vicious because whatever else he had to say died on his lips as he stared at her.

"You knocked my ass out and shot me up with something I can only hope were nano's. You then did it a second time right before you hand cuffed me and drug me out of that warehouse which moments later was turned to rubble. All along you've asked me to trust you. Even last night when you handed me a drug that is a known abused drug and swore to me that it was a commonly used painkiller in ages past. And Against my better judgment I've come to people I can trust you. Yet I ask for your trust in return just once and that's too much for you." Though she'd kept her voice down to a whisper there was no missing the venom in her words. He reared back for a second before staring at her in shock. But as she opened her mouth to continue her leaned forward and kissed her.

She let out and involuntary moan at the heat in that kiss, and the rat bastard took the opening to slide his tongue into her mouth. She was so lost in the hot thrust and sweep of his tongue that she didn't at first notice that she had wrapped him fiercely in her arms and was doing her damnedest to return his attentions sweep for sweep, and thrust for thrust. She immediately dropped her arms when she came to her senses, and he quickly ended the kiss. Stepping back he left her burning with anger and need. That ache he had woken before was now a force to be reckoned with indeed, and if she thought she'd melted before then she should have been evaporated by the heat coursing through her.

She'd sworn to the heavens she'd never been wetter once before, but now she feared to look down. She was sure her pussy was leaking enough fluids to make the casual observer think she'd pissed herself. She opened her mouth to upbraid him again for his actions, but she couldn't get the words to form. So there she stood, mouth flapping like a fish out of water, staring at him in indignation, need, and confusion. Luckily he saved her from her own speechlessness by pressing a finger to those lips he had just kissed so viciously and thoroughly.

"I have wronged you little one," He murmured. "You have every right to expect the same trust from me that I asked of you. Lead on. There will be time for explanations and discussion when we're out of here and we're sure there's no one coming for us. Lead on." She stared at him in shock. Had this arrogant, self-confident, alpha male personality, man really be apologizing to her? Did he really think he could just apologize and have her ignore the move he had just put on her. And why in god's name did his use of that bloody endearment turn her insides to mush, and fan the flames of her desire which he'd already managed to turn into a roaring inferno.

Being called "little one" should have had her ready to go angry house cat on him. She should want to scratch his eyes not, not roll over and beg. She wasn't even sure exactly what she wanted to beg for, but she figured she could do worse than asking for another of those kisses. At a loss for what to say, and afraid of what she might say if she opened her mouth again she spun and headed towards the cliffs. She had to admit she was a bit surprised someone who was clearly experience with climbing wouldn't have thought of scaling these cliffs. Or perhaps he didn't realize how easily the cliffs could be climbed. Still they'd wasted enough time arguing, so they probably really should hurry.

"Stay close," She muttered as she moved into the clearing. She crossed the clearing quickly chose her path. There were several ways up that she could see, and the one she picked was by no means the easiest. Still it attacked the climb, and got them to the top the quickest of any of the routes, and she knew she could handle it. She was going to assume that anything she could handle he could as well even if he didn't seem as familiar with free climbing. True to his word he didn't breathe a single complaint as she steadily led them up the cliff face. Her arms were burning, and from his labored breathing she gathered he wasn't really enjoying this climb either. She wouldn't normally push herself this hard for a climb since the risk just wasn't worth the decreased climb time, but in this case the risk was worth it. The longer they were on the cliff face the greater their chances of getting discovered. Finally her hands found purchase on the top and she hauled herself over the top. She rolled out of the way and lay panting, only to be joined a second later by Ren.

"Bloody hell woman I'll trust you from now on I swear, but next time try not to torture us just out of spite ok! There had to be a better route."

"There was," she grunted as she sat up slightly. "But it left us exposed too long and in case we had drawn attention or they were coming back we needed to be off this cliff and out of sight." Ren grunted his acceptance of that, and rolled to look over the cliff edge back towards where they had come from. You could see the shinning glass and steel or terra's high rises and the polished pomp of the upper class areas and the space port. The town did it's be to portray wealth and privilege to those visiting. It took one poking in places more would prefer not to go to expose the underbelly of this particular beast. Best of all though she could see police cruisers lifting off from the perimeter of the forested areas in here on the northern side of the city, but they seemed to have no interest in the southern areas around the town.

That was good for her. That meant she could head back to areas where she was used to hunting and stay in areas where she had sheltered before. Then she glanced at Ren. She might be able to, but despite all his training it was clear that outside of the urban environment he was not exactly in his element. He could handle himself just fine, but he was not comfortable in the woods the way he was ducking through alley ways and engaging in firefights. She on the other hand was almost his polar opposite. She could handle herself in the urban settings, but she was never as comfortable there as she was sitting in a tree with her bow waiting for her dinner to wander past.

"Now what," She asked in a hushed tone. She wasn't really sure why she kept her voice hushed. They were miles away from anyone looking for them and she was pretty sure she'd just watched those chasing them get back in their cars and go home with their tails between their legs. Ren stretched and moved back away from the edge so he could sit up fully, so she followed suit.