Unintentional Addiction: Lotus Adaamas Series

by Stone, Layla

  Now, the little bugger hummed around the warehouse all day, bumping into walls, chairs, and boxes. This morning, she’d spent twenty minutes tracking the stupid thing down just so she could glue a five-inch pixy doll on top, along with a few gems. Then she christened it a pixy cleaner and set it free to work its magic.

  That was hours ago. Bored, she decided to check her quantum account. Something she had not thought about until just then.

  Her Yunkin accounts had been closed when she was exiled. She hadn’t heard from anyone there in years, even after she’d bought and created her own account on the quantum network.

  Rannn had found her months ago and sent a message letting her know that he wasn’t dead. The worst part was, she’d had no idea that his ship had crashed-landed or that he’d almost died in the fighting pit on Angny. Her adoptive parents didn’t even have the decency to tell her.

  She logged into her quantum account to see if he had messaged her. Rannn hadn’t responded quickly to her last messages, and she was afraid that he had only contacted her to tell her that he was alive but didn’t want to stay in contact.

  So, she’d stopped sending him messages, and her inbox had stayed empty since the morning she had been fired from the Krants’ merchant ship. To her surprise, she had two messages waiting. One from two weeks ago.

  She tapped the message to open.

  Adelia,

  There are over a thousand available positions on my new ship. Review the attached list and let me know if you’re interested. I can hire you as a FAVII so you don’t have to go through the academy. I know you didn’t want to do that. Let me know.

  Rannn

  Adelia bit her lip, genuinely tempted. But her parents would find out, and she would be damned if they discovered that she was working with Rannn. They would assume that he had taken pity on her; that she couldn’t make it on her own. Plus, working on a ship full of people who knew that she was exiled would be too humiliating.

  Life with Yunkins and her connection to the Federation was over.

  The second message had been sent a week ago.

  She tapped the file and began to read.

  Adelia,

  It’s okay if you don’t want to join my team. I’m not going to push you, although I think you should. You’d like my elite crew. It consists of a Red Demon, a half-Red Demon half-Yunkin, a half-human half-Kooyon, a Numan, a Cerebral, a Cyborg, and a Bolark.

  If you’re worried people will know about you, they won’t. I will make sure of that. But if you still don’t want to, at least reply.

  Last I talked to you, you were on Lotus Adaamas for a maintenance check. Are you still there?

  Rannn

  Adelia had a lot of conflicting emotions. Rannn was her brother, but he never let her act like she was adopted. To him, she was family. It was both the best and the worst because he always pushed her to be better.

  Sometimes, she just wanted to…be. Like when he constantly pushed her to train and fight. After training, he always checked her wounds, made sure she was checked over by a doctor, and then constantly make sure she was healing correctly.

  The best…and the most irritating.

  Selecting Rannn’s contact information, she wrote him back.

  Rannn,

  Thank you for the offer, but I already have a job. Plus, I doubt you want anyone knowing that we’re related after what happened.

  I do have a question for you, though. Have you ever been to Port Meno? Do they have a lot of bugs?

  Adelia

  She hit send and logged out of her account.

  “Pet? Come here,” Z’s voice called from his office.

  She bit back a smile, wondering if he’d found the little pixy cleaner. When she walked into his office, she didn’t see it or hear it.

  “What are you looking for?” Z asked.

  “Nothing. What can I do for you?”

  Z pointed at his Minky screen. “The owner of the apartment building called me.”

  Grabbing the desk for security, she replied as calmly as possible. “Why did she call you?”

  “Because there are people at your door, trying to get in.”

  Burglars? “Did they get in?” If they took any of her art, she would cry. Flat-out bawl rivers of tears. She loved her paintings. She had finished three and had started another.

  “That’s why the manager called. She said they were dropping off a black leather couch. She wanted to know if she should let them in.”

  “Is she on the call still?” Adelia looked at the blank screen, confused.

  “I said she could let them in.”

  Her heart dropped. A bunch of strangers in her house? They were probably Demons. Her paints would be gone. “I’ve got to go.” Escaping the office, she rushed towards the front door.

  Z called after her. “What? Why? Didn’t you order furniture?”

  He didn’t understand. Would never get it. Her stuff! Her domain. She didn’t want anyone inside her home.

  A strong hand wrapped around her forearm and twirled her around.

  “Let me go.”

  “Tell me why you’re freaking out. Did you order that couch or not?”

  “Yes, but I didn’t want them to deliver it until after one-eighty tonight. They knew that. They are not allowed in my apartment without me.”

  “Your manager will watch them. Calm down.”

  She would not calm down. She pulled her arm from his hand. “I don’t bother you when you’re in your office. I respect that it’s your private place. My apartment is the same to me. I don’t want anyone inside.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What do you have in there?”

  “Nothing. It’s just…mine.”

  “You’re lying, and you know how I feel about that. I’m going to ask you one more time, what’s in there?”

  Did he think she was smuggling something? She had no idea what kind of stuff he was imagining, but the whole accusation pissed her off. “My things are in there. And I shouldn’t have to explain. I’ve worked nonstop for you since you hired me. I deserve to go and check on my apartment since you allowed strangers in there.”

  He walked with her outside, typing on his watch. He walked all the way to his Grummer and opened the door. “Take my vehicle and let me know if they took anything. Even if there is a crumb gone, you tell me, and I will make them return it plus interest.”

  His words and threatening tone made her feel better.

  The tightness in her chest relaxed. “Thank you.”

  When she got in, he didn’t close the door behind her. “Pet.”

  She peered over at him.

  “When you get back, you’re going to remove the creepy doll from the floor cleaner.”

  Deadpan, she said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  He pointed at her face. “I mean it. I almost pissed myself when I went back to check on an order, and it hit a pallet behind me.”

  She tried not to smile. Biting the inside of her lip didn’t help either. She broke down and laughed. Hard. Z programmed the Grummer where to go and then shut the door.

  She didn’t stop laughing until she was halfway to her apartment. Wiping the bottom of her eyes she soaked in the moment. Her stomach hurt and her face ached; she could imagine Z freaked out, screaming at the cleaner then jumping up on a pallet just to keep it from touching his fancy shoes.

  After arriving at her apartment she decided she wasn’t going to remove it… she was going to buy another.

  18

  Not Clear Yet

  Zane sat back in his chair, a small smile on his face. Adelia’s laughter still rang in his ears. He’d messed up. If the situation were reversed and she’d let someone into his office or his house, he would have been pissed.

  If anything happened, he would get her vengeance and then some.

  It also didn’t occur to him that she probably didn’t have all her furniture in her new apartment.

  And the fact that she worked all day long didn’t
make it easy to get shipments. Demons liked working during the day—the ones that worked commercially anyway—and playing at night.

  Zane chastised himself for not checking on her sooner. Later in the week, he would make time.

  His Minky pinged with a new message. Then another one…and another. Z opened the first and read that a Bolark wanted a Miska pistol.

  The second and third said the same.

  An hour later, Z was feeling victorious. All the pistols were sold.

  Riam had come through. As a thank you, Z ordered the male a bottle of jubriaan and had it sent to the father, knowing the male hated it but also loved to offer it to his guests who drank it with glee, thinking it was a Demon delicacy.

  Checking the time, his pet had not returned. He hesitated to call for about three seconds before he selected her name on his employee list and made the call to the Minky pad.

  Adelia answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, I’m on the way, don’t worry.”

  He could see her face and the background behind her. She was in the Grummer. He wanted to trust that if anything had happened, she would tell him. But she was also too stubborn to understand that anything that happened to her, happened to him. “Did they touch anything?”

  “No.”

  “You sure?” he pressed, just to make sure.

  “I’m sure. They were already out when I got there. I moved the couch to where I wanted it, locked up, and got back in your hover vehicle.”

  “I’m glad it went well. As an apology for letting people in your home, I’m going to buy you dinner.”

  “Really? Do I need to change?”

  “No. I was going to order in.” But as the words came out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back. Going out sounded good. “But we can go out if you want.”

  “No, that’s fine. I don’t mind eating in the office.”

  “I’ll order it now.”

  “Great.”

  Zane terminated the call and felt a small thrill at spending a few hours with Adelia. She had worked her way into his mind, and he wanted to work her into his life. He wished she would come to breakfast with him, but she never arrived early enough, and he wasn’t going to beg.

  But maybe he could substitute his daily break from breakfast to dinner.

  His Minky desk pinged with a new message from Shine.

  Hey,

  Call me.

  S

  Zane selected his friend’s name and initiated an audio call.

  Shine greeted him with a quick, “Hey.”

  “Still in Northend?” Shine had gone to the north end of the island a week ago when the Miska pistols were finished. He’d told Zane that he was going to stay up there for a few days.

  Shine told him, “Yeah, just checking in on things.”

  “That sounds good. Anything I need to know about?” Shine visited Northend the same time every year to visit his mother’s grave. Zane knew what he was doing, but Shine didn’t like to act like Zane knew, so he kept it to himself.

  Shine paused. “That’s why I sent the message. I have some Night Pulse. Going to take it. Meet me in the lab.”

  Zane was so taken aback by the turn in the conversation. Night Pulse was a Demon drug that knocked a person out and made it easy to abduct, kill or rape. It wasn’t sold on the streets. You had to know the maker. The fact that Shine had bought one and planned to use it shocked the hell out of Zane. First because Shine didn’t like it when Z dropped into his dreams. Second was that Shine didn’t want to tell him over the call, he wanted to do it face to face this instant – not in thirty to forty minutes, because that’s how long it would take Shine to return to Eastend.

  There was only one explanation. Shine was worried about something.

  “Hold on, I need to lock up.” Z went to his office door, locked and secured it so it could only be opened from the inside. He couldn’t take the chance that Adelia would walk in and freak out when he didn’t wake up because he was in a trance meeting Shine in his dreams. “Thirty seconds,” Z called out to Shine to let him know he was ready. Shine terminated the call.

  Z cut the power to the Minky desk, laid down on the couch, intertwined his fingers, and put his hands over his waist. Zane forced himself to relax and slip his mind.

  In Zane’s imagination, he was still in his office. The walls were tubes again, and he looked around at the tube ends for Shine’s. He found it on the opposite wall. Zane walked over, turned to a shadow, and traveled down the tube.

  At the end, he dropped into Shine’s subconscious safe place. His lab.

  Shine was dreaming. He was in his lab, tinkering with something. Even though Shine had told him to meet him in the lab, Shine’s subconscious hadn’t, so Z had to act as if this weren’t a dream.

  “Hey? What are you working on?”

  Shine turned around in the dream. “Zane? What are you doing here? I figured you’d be sucking face with your Grach.”

  Zane didn’t know why Shine would bring that up. Z had not been caught kissing Adelia, even though he thought about that kiss every day.

  “I don’t know why you hired her, she smells. All Grachs smell.” Shine went back to tinkering with something on his desk. “But I do think it was odd that she didn’t smell when I first saw her.”

  Zane couldn’t hide his emotions in his dreams, which was why he responded, “I hired her because she grew up on Yunkin. Her contacts have helped cover some of the damage that Trent’s betrayal caused.”

  Suddenly, Shine ran to a box and opened it. “It’s gone. I didn’t know it was gone until I found out it was gone.”

  Dreams didn’t always translate well. Nor was there any sense of time. Only moments. Apparently, the last moment was over, and Shine was moving on to the next dream.

  “What went missing?” Zane asked.

  “Pegmire.”

  “I don’t know what that is.”

  “You wouldn’t, because I created it.”

  That was something Zane was going to bring up outside the dream. “Okay, but what is it, and who took it?”

  “He took it. Found a video. They died because someone let pegmire into the air.”

  Zane couldn’t follow. Shine was leaping from one moment to the next. Zane tried to hold on to this one. “Okay. What does pegmire do?”

  “It eats your skin, muscles, and bones, turning you to ash.”

  “That’s new. When did you make it?”

  “A year ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I couldn’t find a good application for it.”

  Shine moved to another room in a matter of seconds. All of a sudden, they were in a different moment. Shine was looking at a video. Zane couldn’t see the image because it was fuzzy, but he did see a large puff of pink powder and then heard distraught screaming.

  “That was pegmire?”

  Shine turned around. “How did you get in here?”

  “I got bored.”

  “Figured you’d be with your Grach. Shouldn’t have hired her, she’s addictive and you’ve been different lately.”

  “I know she’s addictive, and I can handle her.”

  “She has no reason to not like me. That’s mean.”

  They were totally getting off track. “How much pegmire did you make?”

  “I think Trent took it. He must have found the codes to my lab. How did he get the codes? When I checked the pegmire, the container was empty.”

  “How much was taken?” Zane tried again.

  “Enough to kill a significant amount of people. Enough for an entire batch of guns to be made with it.”

  “Okay. Have you asked anyone in Northend if they’ve seen Trent?”

  “Yes. No one has seen him or heard from him. I have to empty my lab. Nothing is safe anymore.”

  “Okay, I understand.” Dreamworld Shine was paranoid about everything. He was also a strange dresser. Looking at his friend, Zane saw he was wearing blue and red furry Kingling slippers an
d a smock. And that was all.

  Zane told him, “Come back to Eastend, and we will figure out the rest.”

  “Okay. I’m going to start packing up and check on my plants.”

  Zane knew Shine didn’t have plants. But in Shine’s dreams, he did. Another oddity. “Okay, I’m going to wake you up in three…two…one…”

  Zane pushed his energy into Shine, causing a snap in the bond. It woke Shine, causing Zane to thrash in his mind as a result of the quickly severed connection. While he was still in his subconscious, he pulled energy from all the unconscious minds around him and filled himself up as much as he could before opening his eyes, no longer in pain or tired.

  Sitting up, he dropped his feet to the floor and rubbed his temples. Breaking a connection like that was not fun.

  Trent had screwed him over so well that it was almost crushing. It felt as if it might be easier to give up.

  Zane wasn’t ever going to do that though, because Adelia was right, his business was his identity.

  He grabbed a fresh bottle of water and left the office. Her scent was in the air, but it wasn’t strong. Walking to the front of the warehouse, he peered at her empty desk. The food was there with a note on top.

  I tried knocking, but you didn’t answer. Maybe another time.

  Adelia

  Moving to the front door, he locked it and took another drink, feeling something score his chest. She’d left. She hadn’t waited. She’d probably thought he was ignoring her.

  Zane cursed. He could almost see the hurt in her eyes when she realized that he wasn’t answering the door.

  If he wanted to pursue something with her, he needed to make time for her. For them. Unfortunately, now was just the worst possible time to do that.

  19

  You’re My Boss Not My Life

  Adelia was back at home and checked her quantum messages. Her brother had written her back. She smiled excitedly as she pushed to open his message.

  Addy,

  I wouldn’t have asked you on my ship if I didn’t think you’d like it.