“Nebula Viper”—the harsh, masculine voice continued—“prepare to be boarded.”
The sound of the communication clicking off echoed.
A loud shudder made the ship jerk.
“Guess we have uninvited visitors,” Ari quipped. “Shall we take out the fine china, dust the place off, and spritz something sweet to eliminate the Ozevroc stench?”
Morgan eyed him. “You seem awfully chipper about an unknown fraction boarding our ship.” Her eyes narrowed. “What do you know?”
Ari spread his arms wide. “Why, nothing, myirnini!”
“Did you psychically scan them?” His innocent expression didn’t fool her one bit.
His guffaw was short. “Now, darlin’. What fun would that be?”
Chapter Eleven
Arihadn’tliedtoMorgan. Just because he’d gotten his psychic abilities back didn’t mean he should put himself in a vulnerable position if he didn’t have to. Look how opening his senses turned out when he first encountered As’ni aboardElemi. Luckily, his arrogance only cost him a temporary memory loss.
Speaking of As’ni, he checked on the crystal being.
The guy was happily playing with his coil toy as he hummed, his back against the wall.
Case in point… As’ni was now a much different person than before they combated. The crystal alien had once been a vastly intelligent creature with an immovable determination to capture Ari at all costs and was as formidable an opponent as he’d ever met. His intent to take Ari to his Krystalii master from another dimension, Lord Baelon, was all-encompassing, and drove him to extremes.
Not that Ari had the faintest idea why the Krystalii wanted a human, any human, for some sort of breeding purpose. That wasn’t gonna happen to this boy. He’d rather die than suffer at the hands of some perverted dictator again.
The intense psychic fight with As’ni ended in a draw, with neither one of them overpowering the other. The only thing they’d accomplished was blasting the ship, JR12, as well as themselves, into unconsciousness. Which left them afloat in the galaxy to be picked up easily enough by the Ozevroc. When he’d finally come to, he’d lost all his memories and a huge part of who he was at a fundamental level.
While he watched As’ni hold the Ozevroc in a death grip, Ari ran an encompassing psychic scan on him. The prior intellect As’ni had before was gone. It’s as if their battle left a permanent scar on his brain, leaving him with the limited intelligence of a child. A happy and contented child, but a simple one nevertheless.
“Can you take this off first?” Morgan interrupted Ari’s musings. She confronted him, gripping thenuteshsnare around her lovely neck. “Otherwise, I can’t leave this room without getting my head blown off.”
Ari cupped her precious face in his hands. “This crass material doesn’t deserve to touch your lovely skin, myirnini.“ He made the leather collar disappear, casting its molecules into the very fabric of space. With her reddened skin exposed, he placed a light kiss on the side of her neck and smiled when she shivered.
She gripped his hands, her eyes smoldering. “Thank you.”
Not one to fight such a powerful urge, he leaned in and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to her full lips. “Let’s greet our guests, hmm?”
Morgan stepped back with a warm smile that reached the golden-green of her eyes. “I can’t wait to get to know the real you when we’re done with all this chaos.”
His stomach tightened. Stepping closer to her, he brushed one of her golden curls behind her ear. “I’d like that, Morgan. I only hope I’m worth the wait.”
Her grin was mischievous. “We’ll see.” She turned and exited the engine room, bypassing several prone Ozevroc frozen in place.
Mesmerized by the sensual sway of her hips, it took her leaving his sight to jolt him back to reality. From the corner of his eye, he noticed JR12 prone on the workstation table. “Come on, Zippy.” With a light tendril of power, he finger-waved at the bot and psychically lifted him to rest on his shoulder. The action juddered the spybot awake. “No time to sleep on the job. We’ve got work to do!”
“First, you shut me down for no good reason, and then you act like it’s my fault?” JR12 groused. “I’m mad as hell, Ari, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” The bot huffed, stomping his front two legs. “It’d serve you right if I just stayed here and let you flounder on your own.”
“Quoting old movies won’t get you out of things, Sparky.” Ari was light as a feather as he rushed out of the room to follow Morgan. “Besides, it’d piss you off more if I left you behind. Right?” He picked up the pace when he spied her turning at one of the branching corridors.
“Fine.” JR12 huffed. “You’re lucky I like havoc as much as you do, A-Man.” The little bot poked him in the neck with one of his pointed forelegs. “Now, keep up, or I’ll quote something really annoying to make you move faster.”
It didn’t take Ari long to catch up with Morgan since the docking station was close to the engine room. The low hum of machinery grew louder as they entered the immense chamber. The stark lighting from the ceiling cast long shadows over the floor, giving the place an eerie atmosphere. A groan of metal on metal fixated him on the main bay doors, which took their sweet time sliding open.
Morgan stood beside him, her arms crossed, her expression revealing nothing.
The ship that emerged from the darkness of space was unlike anything Ari had seen before.
