As desperately as I’d love to say yes and have Jaxin hold me tonight, I knew I had to say no. Jaxin ached with the same desire I felt, but he did not speak. “No, I have no use for him until morning,” I said. With my heart pounding furiously in my chest, I leaned in closer to the microscope to pretend whatever was being magnified was of great interest.
I heard the thud of boots on the floor as Jaxin walked away under armed escort. With my gift, it felt like I was walking out of the lab with him, my mind tangled around his. The furious determination, the ache of being forced to leave me unprotected, and the need to see this through. Save us. He carried such a heavy responsibility on his wide shoulders, and he did not blink twice in taking it on. Aboard this unfamiliar ship, I had a feeling he was in his element just as much as he’d been in the water on Radin. As terrified as I was of all the things that could go wrong, I discovered I also had faith in the future.
Faith that he’d pull off that distraction and escape. Faith that we’d somehow get ourselves off this ship. Bright and beautiful, the future beckoned, filled with endless nights in his arms.
When Koratalin came to stand at my side a moment later, her arms crossed and her expression thoughtful, I felt stronger, ready. I could handle her; Ihadbeen handling her, and she didn’t even realize it. Jaxin had made me stronger; he’d made me able to withstand so much I’d never thought I could before. If not for him, I had no doubt I would already be a shaking, near-burned-out mess. But my gift burned bright and strong, undaunted by the presence of so many dark minds nearby.
***
Jaxin
I knew it was the plan, but walking out of that lab as if I didn’t care one bit either way was tough. Leaving Dani? I never wanted to do that, and under circumstances like these, it was nearly impossible. Somehow, I made myself put one foot in front of the other, the bomb she’d made so perfectly hidden in the palm of my hand. That was what I needed to focus on: the distraction, the escape.
Her scent faded as we went down several hallways, used an elevator to a lower deck, and steadily made our way back to the cells from which they’d retrieved me before. Just as I’d noticed on the way here, we passed a junction point on the ship. It was a place where several important bundles of cables intersected. Blow that, and the ship would be severely crippled for a short while. Not long, because a computer could reroute nearly anything. Spaceships were built with redundancy in mind. It would be good enough for what I needed.
Dropping the bomb by the wall as I passed, I held my breath and kept walking. One of the guards behind me paused after hearing the soft thump as it hit the ground. Poor bastard was going to get hit with the full blast, because I’d set that timer real short. The corner was nearby, and I caught the two guards in front of me by the backs of their necks and shoved them. They stumbled, and I flung myself after them around the corner just as the hallway rocked withthe explosion.
The lights went out, and though I lacked any night vision, I knew exactly where my enemies were. Yanking the garrote from a fold by my elbow, I strangled the Xurtal, whose thinner skin made him a prime target. He passed out from a good wrench of the strong metal wire, and I threw him forward into the arms of the charging Kertinal. His battle rage made the lines on his black body glow with bioluminescence, easily giving away his position. He bit it with a fist to the jaw and a yank on one of his horns that broke his neck.
The third guard who had survived the explosion was the Rummicaron. I sensed him move rather than saw him, but the lights flicked back on just in time for me to see him open his maw. He had the presence of mind to raise his laser rifle to fire at me, but it was too late. A rifle in close quarters like this was a terrible idea anyway. Freeing a knife hidden in the armor on my wrist, and a flick of my hand, was all it took. The blade sank deep into his gills, and he crumpled to the floor.
The fight had taken less than ten seconds after the explosion, but ten seconds had still been plenty of time for the ship to start rerouting the pertinent lines. Power had already been restored, and, with it, the internal sensors of these hallways might be back online too. I needed to prepare myself for a whole lot more hostiles. Bending down, I picked up the rifles of two of my adversaries. Not nearly as good as having Bex at my side, but it would do.
I stole the comm off the wrist of the Rummicaron and then input a connection I knew by heart. This was not a ship I’d been on before, but I was pretty sure I knew where the armory would be located anyway. Jogging in that direction, Ikept my eyes peeled for enemies and waited for the call to connect, if it could. This comm device wouldn’t have a whole lot of range, but if we were still in the same solar system as the Varakartoom, it would connect.
The comm call did not go through for several long minutes, but that did not surprise me. This was an unfamiliar device, calling the Varakartoom from an unfamiliar ship. They would not trust it, and Mitnick was probably running all kinds of checks before they answered. I was almost at the armory, and I’d taken out two more males along the way. Suddenly, alarms began blaring loudly, red lights flashing along the floor. So, they’d figured out I’d escaped, that this wasn’t just a malfunction. The armory would be the first place anyone would head for; not to look for me, but to arm themselves.
I had to hurry. The doors were locked, but I’d made it my job to know exactly how to get into a place like this. You never knew when being able to rearm yourself would come in handy. The door gave way after a few concentrated blasts from the pilfered laser rifles at key hinge points. Rolling in low, I fully expected a guard to be waiting inside, but the armory was unoccupied.
As I’d hoped, Bex lay on a table against one wall, and I rushed to pick her up. “Missed you, lady,” I said, my hands running over the metal and finding the familiar scratch on her barrel. She felt just right in my hands, and the strap I’d once braided myself out of strong leather fit perfectly over my shoulder. Yeah, they wouldn’t know what hit them when I was done with this damn ship. Koratalin was going to pay for the fear and pain she’d put my Dani through. She’d discover the lengths to which a Rummicaronwho had gone completely dark side—and surrendered to the primal beast within—would go. I tasted her blood already.
“Jaxin, is that you?” Asmoded asked as the comm connection finally established. They had not allowed a holographic image, but it felt as if I were seeing onto the bridge of the Varakartoom anyway: the captain in his seat, the twins at the helm, and the Sineater taking charge of weapons in my absence. They would be ready for war.
“Yes,” I snarled. “Get ready to tangle with a crimelord, boss. Koratalin has us. Turns out she’s Dani’s sister.” I did not need to explain much, because Mitnick had already traced the call. They were coming; all we had to do was hunker down until they got here. I needed to find Dani, right now.
Chapter 24
Danitalin
I knew the bomb had blown up successfully the moment it happened. Pain blasted through my mind as a male died, raking talons of fire across my brain. I screamed, my hands convulsed against the counter, and for a moment, I saw nothing but spots of bright light dancing across my vision. My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor as, in short succession, terrible pain blasted across my senses. My throat, my neck—my neck a second time—I thought I was going to bleed out right on the spot.
“What the blazing stars is wrong with you?” Koratalin demanded, her tone sharp enough to cut. She had remained behind after the guards had escorted Jaxin from the room, as if she didn’t believe I could be trusted on my own in here.Some part of me had searched her mind and feelings for a hint of sisterly love and come up empty.
“Emotional backlash,” I gritted out, seeing no reason to deny the truth. She could find the answer in a heartbeat anyway. In fact, it would not surprise me if someone were here to inform her of what Jaxin had done in a moment. “Four men just died.” It wasn’t over either; Jaxin’s mind was a powerful presence I was extremely attuned to. I sensed him heading closer toward me, deeper into the ship.
“What?” Koratalin asked, and she came to stand next to me. She bent at the waist toward me, but I wasn’t ready for her claw-tipped hand grabbing my arm to haul me upright. The sharp, gem-crusted tips cut through the thin fabric of my shirt and straight into my skin. The force of her pulling succeeded in getting me back to my feet, but it also tore the fabric—its collar peeling back along my shoulder and sagging sadly.
With the pain fading from my mind, my empathic gift throbbed in memory of the males who had died. I knew Jaxin was just doing what was necessary to survive, but I wished it didn’t have to be so violent. Then again, considering the things I could sense running through the minds around me, it made me want to run for cover and shower for an hour. Perhaps he was doing the galaxy a service by removing some of these predators.
Lifting my chin, I looked my sister in the eye and wondered if Jaxin shouldn’t remove her from the galaxy too. It would probably be a better place without her, but it went against every Aderian cell in my body to consider such a permanent solution. Koratalin was furious, so mad she did not even notice what she’d done to my skin and clothes. “Did you just sense four of my males die? How is this possible? Your pet with teeth did this, didn’t he?”
“Probably,” I agreed, shrugging off her grip and straightening the flap of torn fabric on my shirt. Koratalin’s eyes went to my shoulder and widened, her fury morphing into such a startled surprise that it caught me off guard. She was always so in control that I’d never seen her bat an eye at anything. With a sense of rising dread, I realized she was staring at my now-bared shoulder.
I dipped my chin and instantly realized what she’d seen: the silvery dots that circled my shoulder from where Jaxin had bitten me—something that might be considered a mating mark in other cultures, though neither Aderians nor Rummicaron had such a thing. Koratalin was smart enough to instantly recognize those dots for what they were, though. “You let himbiteyou?” she gasped, horrified.
It was that spike of deep revulsion—echoing through my empathy senses—that set my teeth on edge. So far, I’d behaved. I’d played the part she expected me to play: distracted scientist with little to no interest in males or clothes, my research the only thing that mattered. That mark, though, it gave everything away. And her revulsion? It made me want to defend what was so incredibly beautiful and precious to me. To have earned my mercenary’s heart—his love—despite all odds against such a thing ever existing? I knew how incredible a gift that was, and I was not going to let her sully it.
“I let him make love to me,” I said. “We are mated in all the ways that matter. And Koratalin? He’s going to put an end to your operations, to this. You’ll see.” I gestured between her and me, then at theworkbench where my research was still spread out to give the appearance that I was doing anything.
