“You don’t. I’ve been waging war against the Federation for decades because of that, but before that, I was a general’s son. A Federation ensign in training, and I believed in that alliance. But after I saw what they were capable of, I knew I had to go my own way.”
“So you became a criminal and a rebel.”
His grin melted her heart to pieces. “They’re the same thing, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” she said dryly.
He leaned closer still. His hand found hers. His touch aroused her, and her legs pressed together as that arousal hit and stayed, sending heat along her inner walls and making her juices start up and slowly spill.
How he could manage to do that to her? How he could make her body react in such a way was beyond her, but it excited her, a lot.
She said, “I guess I’m a criminal now too. Or will be when Jack dies. He will die in that box.”
Blade didn’t flinch away from the bald statement. “He will.”
“I killed that thing on that planet too. Even if it was in self-defense, I suppose there may be a law or two about that.”
His face lit again. A small grin lifted his lips again. “Maybe not. You killing a Shambler would likely be looked upon as a good deed.”
She asked, “How many have you killed?”
He sat back. The motion made his armor rest against his skin, outlining the powerful flex of it. “Too many, but there will be many more before I am done. And yes, I feel guilt. I have waged my own war against the Federation, as I said, for too long to have clean hands. I have tried to balance that out by—”
She cut him off. “By saving people you think are innocent?’
His shoulder lifted and dropped. “You could say that.”
She had to ask. “How many have you saved?”
His smile faded totally away. “Not nearly enough.”
She took that in and then sighed. “So where are we going?”
“To Revant Two.”
Her brow creased into a heavy frown. “I have never heard of it.”
“Most haven’t. It is a private planet held by four brothers. They are Revants, by the way. You probably think them extinct. Most of the universe thinks that, but there are some left. Too few, that is true, but they are still a race.”
She looked down at her hands. She said, “I have never heard of the race either. I told you I never lived beyond the city. Well, I lived on the outskirts of course because of my family’s station, but until I went to Orbital, I had never seen anything else.”
His voice was loaded with laughter. “So, other than being sold off to a slaver, what did you think of the place?”
Their shared laughter echoed around the bridge. The entire time between her waking in that house of horrors and that moment had been filled with things she had never been able to imagine because she had had no experience with anything like them.
She would never have believed, had he told her just a minute before, that she would ever see the humor in things ever again, but there she was, howling with laughter and unable to stop.
Between guffaws, she said, “Oh, it was nice. I mean, it was beautiful, and the grounds—have you been?”
He nodded and chuckled out, “A time or two. One of the brothers we are going to meet had a gambling and gurley hall there.”
“I see.” Her laughter tapered off. She sat back, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes as she sobered. “I didn’t get to go to one, though I wanted to. Jack—he said we could not afford that and honestly every time we turned around, some machine was chirping and spitting out a new credit demand for something we had done. Once it was for air. He said that…”
Remorse at what she had done, leaving him to die in that box, came up, but it was blotted out by the memory of the Wallen that had nearly caught her and the thing she had killed, and the knowledge of what it had been trying to give her in that cup.
Blade’s knees brushed hers. Her eyes came up and their gazes locked. He said, “I have to fly this ship. I can tell you’re tired.”
“You must be too.”
He said, “We’ll be meeting a larger ship soon enough. Go rest.”
Disappointment hit. She would have much preferred that he joined her in that bed but she was afraid to say so.
