Page 31 of Veiled Vixen

“Because I was helping Veila before you left. I didn’t understand what was happening back then. And Luck thinks I’m trying to steal his flowers.”

“Fucking flowers. What is all this about the flowers?”

“They carry hormones for—”

“Oh, right. Baby-making. That’s all these girls think about.”

“It is,” the Baby admits. “So be careful what you tell them.”

“Who? Which ones? Veila?”

“All of them,” Baby says. And then the elevator doors open onto the top docking level.

I shake my head, trying to clear it so I can focus on Veila and put the Baby out of my mind. He’s right. She’s way better at this trickery stuff than I am. So whatever Baby is talking about with the other princesses will have to wait.

Two dozen cyborgs snap to attention when I enter the hallway and all of them raise their rifles and point them at me.

“Easy,” I say. “It’s probably not a good idea to kill the Loathsome One’s prince, eh?”

They shuffle their feet, eyes flashing red and racing across the upper third of their faces with agitation.

“I’m just gonna talk to her. You guys are on shift change? Wanna get home to your sexbots and whatnot? Well, I’ll get her out of there.”

For a few moments they don’t move. Just stand there like a bunch of empty metal-heads. But I know they have internal comms so I wait it out patiently as they communicate. And it pays off, because after a minute or two of this, they step aside.

I walk up to the airlock door, peek through the long window, and have a flash of memory of the day we all arrived here on ALCOR Station. It wasn’t called Harem back then. We didn’t have a harem. And we didn’t belong to ALCOR when we arrived, either.

Corla sent us here with her messages. Spin node coordinates. A star map, basically.

The wanderer in me is suddenly restless. It’s been a long time since Luck and I have been out in the galaxy doing our job. I miss him, that’s a given. But I miss the job too. I miss the traveling, and the danger, and that feeling when you land on some ancient space station and realize you’re the first person to walk those dark, desolate halls in hundreds or thousands of years.

There was no window in the airlock when we landed on ALCOR so we had no idea what was waiting for us on the other side. We didn’t come through this docking bay. We came in on the lower level. The one Luck is in control of now.

And then when the door opened we saw Xyla.

Crux was trying to be brave and handle shit like he always does. Jimmy was in lust with her. That was before he got put in the friend zone, of course. Luck and I didn’t know what to think. We just stood there like the dumbass kids we were. Tray was in some kind of nerdy awe of everything. And Serpint and Draden had to be carried in because they were too small to walk in the too-big environmental suits they were wearing.

I smile as I remember all this.

But then I see her through the window. Veila. Sitting on the floor of the airlock. Legs drawn up, head pressed down to her knees.

I knock on the airlock. And it’s a loud knock that reverberates through the solid metal of the doors.

Her head pops up, she sees me, then she does one of those sighs. Like I am the last person she wants to see right now.

Ironic. Since she’s the one who trapped me here with her. But also, it kinda stings.

Something in my heart shrivels. Which is stupid and also… unexpected.

I don’t need permission to open this airlock like her cyborgs do, so I just palm it and the doors hiss and slide open.

“What?” she snaps.

“Is that any way to greet your soulmate?” I ask lightly, then palm the door controls again to seal us up and give us privacy from the borgs.

“Don’t start with me, Valor. I’m not in the mood.”

“Well, I don’t really care. I just came from Crux’s quarters and he told me he died a few weeks back.”