Page 9 of Veiled Vixen

Then Jimmy got caught up with another Cygnian princess—Delphi. Who, turns out, is Corla and Crux’s daughter—real daughter, that is. Not like how Jimmy and Crux are brothers-from-another-mother kinda of daughter. And even though Jimmy and Delphi are not genetically engineered soulmates and that means somewhere out there is Jimmy’s real soulmate, Jimmy and Delphi are pretending they are. Soulmates, that is.

Then Luck came home and yup. Nyleena was his soulmate.

Which kinda pissed me off because up until that time Luck and I were… well, not soulmates. Because that’s just dumb. But we were definitely best friends.

And then we weren’t. Because of Nyleena.

That’s when I figured out Veila was my soulmate. And even if I hadn’t seen that crazy message she sent Jimmy while they were all escaping her creepy Lair Station and been told about her sicko breeding program she was running on it using Akeelian boys, I’d still hate that bitch.

Because she is fuckin’ evil.

I’m talking evil as in she farms Akeelians for genetics and tortures people.

And by people I mean me. She did that to me. And probably Jimmy too.

All of that is enough for me as far as this hate goes. But she’s also a vicious, vindictive, and heartless woman. Always barking orders, and fucking shit up, and generally acting like she owns the sundamned universe.

And she doesn’t. OK? She doesn’t. There’s no way I believe this harpy is at the top of the food chain.

No. I refuse to believe that.

“OK,” Crux says, pushing me back with two flat hands to my chest. “Just calm down for a minute.”

“Calm down?” I scoff. “Do you have any idea what she did to me on her ship? Any fucking idea? I will not just calm down. And if you think I’m selling out Luck for this bitch, you can both go fuck yourselves. I know Luck. I know him better than anyone. And he’d rather die than sign on as some side act to this shit show.”

“Listen to me,” Serpint growls in my face. “You have no idea what’s happening here, OK?”

“Leave us,” Veila commands. “Now.”

Both Crux and Serpint look at her, then at me. And I’m sure, like one hundred percent positive, their rage is directed at me, not Veila.

“What the fuck, Serpint? Don’t look at me like that.”

“She—” Serpint starts.

“Leave. Now.” Veila cuts him off. “Or there will be consequences.”

Both Crux and Serpint trade a quick glance, then both of them push past me and storm out of my quarters.

I watch their backs disappear into the hallway, then train my rage on Veila. “You…” I seethe. “You have some nerve, lady. How the fuck did I get here?”

She presses her lips together in a smile. “Well, that’s quite a story that I don’t have time to get into just yet. What I really need from you is—”

“The answer is no,” I say. “There’s nothing to think about. There’s nothing to discuss. I’m not doing anything for you. And if you think asking Serpint and Crux to come in here and talk to me is enough to change my mind, you’re delusional.”

“They’re not betraying you,” Veila says, sauntering forward. She passes me with a swish of her diamond-encrusted silver gown, grabbing my pink drink right out of my hand, and takes a seat in an auto-mold chair. She crosses her legs and leans to the side like we’re about to have an intimate fireside chat. “I have them by the balls, so to speak. I’m in control of the Baby and we’re about two spins away from removing the Succubus AI out of the station data core. And once that happens I will order the Baby to shut off life support on certain levels to speed things up.”

“They’ll just fight their way up, you know. You can’t turn the whole station off.”

“Oh.” She laughs. “No. You misunderstand me. How many people are on this station?”

“I don’t know. Ask Crux. He’s in charge of the census.”

“I have. It was a rhetorical question. There are three point seven five million people currently on Harem Station. Roughly half of those three point seven five million people are on levels ninety-six through four hundred. The other half are all crammed down in the bottom ninety-five.”

Damn. I don’t say that, but I think it. Damn. That’s a lot—

“That’s a lot of people down there, wouldn’t you agree?”