by Presley Hall
He raises his eyebrows in mock surprise, and Bohrir’s laughter rumbles in his chest. I know I have a reputation among the other warriors for being hotheaded and a bit impulsive sometimes, but despite Ochar’s words, I know they trust me to lead them through this mission successfully. Droth wouldn’t have given me this responsibility if he didn’t think I was up to the task.
Our little huddle breaks up, and Orin and Bohrir take the lead, heading down the narrow street toward the part of the city where we’ll find the market we usually trade in. Ochar follows, and Raina is about to step after him when I catch her arm.
Her body responds immediately, her spine stiffening a little as her feet freeze. I can see the hitch of her breath and the way her pulse leaps in her throat, and the knowledge that she responds like this to such a simple touch makes it impossible for me not to wonder how she might respond to other, more intimate touches.
What would she look like laid out beneath me as I used my hands and mouth to explore every bit of her body? What kinds of sounds would she make?
My cock twitches, and I banish the thoughts before they can distract me from our mission entirely. We have a job to do here, and I need to keep my mate safe. That requires focus.
“Remember what I said,” I murmur in a low voice, stepping closer to her as I dip my head. “The promise you made. That no matter what happens, you’ll follow my lead.”
She nods. “I will.”
I want to say more, want to demand that promise from her over and over. But I can see in her eyes that she means it. My mate is no fool, and although she’s very brave, she’s not overly reckless.
“Thank you.” I nod and reluctantly release my hold on her arm.
We fall into step behind the others, and this time, when she shifts to walk a little closer to me, I move closer to her too.
It takes us a while to reach the part of Pascia where we usually trade. This area is run by a coalition of several prisoners who banded together to keep from being overrun by the powerful crime lords who dominate Pascia. No part of the city is truly lawful, but this section is less dangerous and chaotic than many of the others.
Our first stop is to see an alien named Upod. He’s a spindly little thing, with arms that wave like tentacles and legs that start to bow if he stands still for too long. He does business out of a tiny hut, but I don’t let the size of his small dwelling fool me. I know he’s doing well for himself, and it’s none of my concern where he’s hiding away the wealth he’s accumulated.
“Kaide.” His shiny black eyes widen as he catches sight of me, and a greedy look passes over his face. “What have you brought me?”
“Things I think you’ll like.”
I gesture to Orin, who removes his pack and digs out several objects from inside. We have parts taken from various animals we’ve killed on our hunts, as well as some rare plants. Although we keep some of these kinds of things for ourselves—more than we used to, even, since Axen’s mate Elizabeth has been learning how to utilize them for their healing properties—there are plenty that we don’t have skill to extract or use as ingredients. Upod does, and he trades us several syringes full of wound binding epoxy in exchange for the items we offer. He’ll be able to use them to create other medical supplies, something that’s always in high demand in Pascia.
We get something that relieves pain, as well as a small flask of a drink that can bring down fevers, then bid goodbye to Upod and move on.
Our next stop is to see a woman named Argok. She’s a Difydae, a species known for their dexterous hands, and I keep a close hold on my pack as we trade with her. She’s been known to try to steal from us even as she trades with us, and especially on this mission, I can’t let that happen.
I take the lead in negotiating, charming her with banter and managing to drive the price down on several of the items we need. We procure several things for the village, including a few small fuel cells and specialized tools. We’re very self-sufficient out there in the forest, able to forage for and build most of what we need, but there are some items that would be difficult for us to produce on our own.
As we step away from Argok’s tent, leaving her running her fingers greedily over the furs, horns, and talons we traded her, I glance at my fellow warriors and then at Raina.
“Time to pay a visit to K’Mek,” I say, and they all nod seriously.
This is it. Now that the easy part of our trading mission is complete, it’s time to focus on the most important aspect.
The freedom of our people depends on our success.
10
Raina
I got pretty good at keeping my head down and my expression neutral back on Earth. In my neighborhood, it was better to pretend I didn’t see or hear any of the shit going on around me as I walked down the street. The people there didn’t take kindly to anyone poking his or her nose into their business, so I got good at keeping my gaze focused straight ahead with a bored look on my face.
It’s hard as hell to do that here, though.
Aside from the Voxerans, I’ve only ever seen a few different alien species. I knew there must be plenty more out there, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they would look like.
Now that I’m being exposed to the wide array of aliens who live in Pascia, it takes all my self-control not to let my head swivel back and forth with my jaw hanging down to my knees.
There are just… so many of them. I catch sight of a few aliens who appear to be the same species, but for the most part, they all look different. It makes sense, I guess. They were all sent here from various parts of the universe, shoved together on this planet with only one thing in common—they were all convicted of some form of crime.
I’m guessing there are a few others like the Voxerans who were sent here as political prisoners, accused of wrongdoing and shipped away to keep them from causing trouble for the ruling parties back on their home planets. But from what I’ve gathered, most of them were sent here for actual criminal activity.
Although I manage to keep myself from gawking at the aliens we pass, I know my carefully controlled expression isn’t enough to keep me from drawing attention. I haven’t seen a single other human here except for the women who crashed on the ship with me, and judging by the interested, lascivious looks several of the aliens shoot my way, they haven’t seen one either.
Kaide is walking by my side, and I notice him tense up every time another alien looks at me. When one man eyeballs me for a particularly long time, a low noise that sounds almost like a growl rumbles in the Voxeran warrior’s chest.
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep my expression from changing, but his reaction makes a little bubble of warmth expand in my chest. I dated a guy for a few weeks once who was so over-the-top macho that it drove me nuts. We couldn’t go anywhere without Mike puffing up his chest and strutting around like a peacock trying to start some shit just to prove how badass he was. I hated it, and he hated that I refused to play the damsel in distress role he so obviously wanted me to fill.
But for some reason, Kaide’s posture and attitude seem different than that.
Maybe because it’s not an act.
I get the feeling he would absolutely fight any of the prisoners we pass if they threatened us—if they threatened me—but if he did fight, it wouldn’t be to prove something or to stroke his own ego. It would be to protect. Even the brawl he got into on his first trip to the city, the one Ochar teased him about, was because he was trying to defend his people’s honor.
Kaide doesn’t have to act like the kind of person Mike always pretended to be. It’s just who he is, and it radiates from him unconsciously with every movement.
I step a little closer to him, ignoring the way my skin prickles at his proximity. “How confident are you that this K’Mek guy will be able to help us?” I murmur.
He shrugs. “I’m hopeful. We’ve dealt with him before on a few occasions, and he’s traded fairly with us. He’s a criminal just like everyone else here, but he
’s probably about as trustworthy of a dealer as we’re going to find.”
“So it’s not that he’s our best option, it’s just that all of the options are pretty much equally bad?” I ask, grinning wryly.
Kaide glances over at me, his own face splitting into a smile. “You’ve developed an understanding of how this planet works remarkably quickly.”
I chuckle. “What can I say? I’m adaptable.”
“I know.”
Heat flares in his eyes as he speaks, and I tamp down the answering flutter in my stomach. I still haven’t quite gotten used to the fact that Kaide seems to be turned on by my self-confidence. It’s a jarring shift from most of the men I knew on Earth, who were usually either annoyed by or threatened by my ability to handle myself.
All of us keep our guards up as Ochar leads the way confidently through the winding city streets. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the layout of the buildings and pathways, which I suppose makes sense. This place wasn’t designed by city planners, after all. It was built piecemeal by various groups of prisoners from different cultures, each of whom probably had vastly different ideas of what a metropolis should look like.
Kaide mentioned earlier that Pascia is divided into sections ruled over by criminal kingpins, and that becomes even more obvious as we make our way toward wherever K’Mek does business. I can practically feel the atmosphere shift as we move from one section to another, as if the very air is different. It’s clear that the delineations matter to the residents of Pascia, almost as if there are dozens of smaller cities packed inside this larger one. Some of them seem much more dangerous than others, and I can tell all of the Voxerans feel the same shift in the air that I do, because they grow even more tense when we walk through those areas.
By the time we come to a stop in front of a large, squat building, my skin prickles from being on high alert for so long. The structure is ugly as hell, but it seems more solidly constructed than a lot of the others I’ve seen so far, making me think K’Mek must do all right for himself.
Kaide raps on the door with his knuckles in a staccato pattern that must be some sort of signal. A moment later, the door swings open, and an alien man peers out at us. The greenish shade of his skin makes him look almost sickly—an effect that’s amplified by the way his eyes water and his lips seem to droop at the corners. He’s extremely bony, almost skeletal, although I don’t know if that’s because he’s not getting enough to eat or if that’s just the way his species is built. Probably the latter.
“Ah. The Voxerans.” His nose twitches as he speaks, and he runs a hand over the stringy brown hair that falls almost to his shoulders. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“We haven’t been in need of your services for a while,” Kaide says. His voice is easygoing and relaxed, but I can tell he hasn’t let his guard down one bit. “But we do today. It’s a big job, and we’re prepared to pay well for it. Is that something that interests you?”
K’Mek’s nose twitches again. “I’m always interested in pay. Come inside.”
He steps back to make way for us, and we all file into his workspace. Kaide glances over at me as if he can’t stop himself from wanting to confirm that I’m still here and okay, and I give him a subtle nod before glancing around at the interior of the building.
The space is long and narrow, stretching out behind K’Mek as he ushers us inside. It’s also the best exemplification I’ve ever seen of the words “organized chaos.” There are parts and pieces scattered everywhere, scraps of ships and hover bikes and other things I can’t even identify. Some of them are massive and some are tiny, stuffed into piles with other tiny things. It’s a little overwhelming, like stepping into a hoarder’s house, but K’Mek doesn’t seem bothered by the clutter at all. He cocks his head at Kaide, interest glittering in his watery eyes.
“Well, what is it? What do you need?”
“We need a device capable of interplanetary communication,” Kaide tells him bluntly. “And as I said, we can pay.”
He slides his pack off and reaches inside, digging out the pouch of gems Kzuri and Gemma brought back with them. He holds it out to K’Mek, who peers inside. The bony alien’s eyes practically bug out of his head, and he looks back up at Kaide quickly.
“All of that?” he asks. “For the communicator?”
“Yes.”
K’Mek makes a soft hissing sound in his throat, his lips twisting into a grimace. “That would be a very fine payment, indeed… if I could make what you need. But it requires materials I don’t have. The best I could manage would be a device that would—”
“We have what you need,” Kaide says, interrupting him. Handing his spear off to Bohrir, he digs into the pack again, coming up with the small leather bag containing the rare mineral diamantum. He opens it up, showing K’Mek what’s inside, and the man’s eyes bulge so much that they look about ready to pop out of his head.
“That… that is…” He stares at the chunks of mineral for a long moment, then blinks and jerks his head up to look at Kaide again. “Yes. I could make the communicator with this. Where did you get it?”
There’s a greedy tone in his voice as he says the last words, one I recognize very well.
Kaide chuckles, his usual air of casual confidence out in full force. “Thinking of taking up mining?”
“Maybe,” K’Mek mutters, his gaze darting down to the bag again.
“Well, the cave where this was found collapsed. But once you’ve completed the communicator for us, I’ll tell you roughly where the cave is. You can consider it a bonus for a job done well. And quickly.”
He stresses the last word, and K’Mek nods fervently, his expression turning almost manic.
Shit. I knew this diamantum stuff was important and valuable, but based on his reaction, I think I underestimated exactly how valuable it is. Worry tugs at me as the bony alien chews on his lower lip. He seemed very impressed by the offered payment of the gems, but now that he knows what else we have, I wonder if the gems seem as valuable as they once did.
What if he ups his price or demands something we can’t pay?
I hate the idea of walking out of here without what we need, not just because we’ll have to find someone new to build the communicator, but because I don’t trust K’Mek not to tell other prisoners what we’re carrying. It would be like painting a target on all of our backs.
K’Mek breaks me out of my thoughts when he nods sharply, as if he’s just finished doing some mental calculation in his head.
“I can do that.” His nose twitches again. “I believe I have all the other supplies I’ll need. But it will take me at least two or three days to complete the communicator. Even with the proper materials, they’re complicated devices to build.”
Ochar makes a frustrated noise in his throat, so low that I almost don’t hear it. I know the men were hoping we could get this done fast and be on our way home by tomorrow, but it sounds like that’s not going to happen.
Kaide studies K’Mek for a moment, his gray eyes narrowing a little as he assesses the spindly man. Then he dips his chin. “All right. We can accept those terms. But we’ll be staying here with you while you work. I’m sure you understand why.”
K’Mek blinks, his lips curling into a grimace before he smooths out his features. He nods again, making that same strange hissing noise and appearing a bit disgruntled. “Of course. Of course. It won’t be the most comfortable arrangement”—he gestures around the messy workspace as if daring us to try to find a place to sleep in here—“but I’m sure you’ll make do.”
“We will. Can you start right away?”
“Yes.” K’Mek’s greedy gaze darts from the gems to the diamantum and back. “Payment is required upfront.”
Kaide’s jaw clenches, but he steps forward and hands both bags to the bony alien. “Of course.”
K’Mek’s face splits into a wide grin, which somehow doesn’t make him look any less sickly. His eyes are watering so much that th
e rims of his eyes are wet, his thin lashes clumped together. With the hand holding the gems, he gestures for us to follow him deeper into the building.
“You can watch me work,” he says over his shoulder, still full of that manic energy. “Since you’ll be here anyway. That way you can see that I’m doing everything right, using the materials as agreed upon.” He smiles. “Perhaps you can even serve as my assistants. The job will go much faster if I have you to fetch the supplies I need from where I keep them.”
Ochar makes another quiet noise, and I bite back a groan of my own. The idea of rifling through this chaotic mess to find whatever pieces or parts K’Mek needs to build the communicator sounds like a nightmare. I’m suddenly not all that surprised that he said it would take two to three days—it’ll probably take him almost that long just to gather the supplies from his stash.
Still, if it gets us out of here faster, I’m not going to complain about being put to work by K’Mek.
Kaide must feel the same way, because he nods. “We’ll help.”
K’Mek grins. “Good.” He squints as if thinking, then points to a pile of what looks like scrap metal that we just walked past. “Find me three coils. They should be in there somewhere.”
Kaide sighs, glancing at the rest of us before peeling off from our group to head toward the haphazard pile.
As he steps toward it, movement in my periphery catches my attention, and I look up just as K’Mek darts toward the back of the warehouse. Something about the way he’s moving trips a dozen alarm bells in my head, and my heart skips a beat. Kaide opens his mouth to shout—
But the words never reach my ears.
An explosion rips through the warehouse, booming so loudly that it drowns everything else out.
The force of it hits me like a truck, hurling me through the air as the world spins around me.
I hit the ground with a heavy thud, and everything goes black.