by Stone, Layla
“No.”
He glared.
“I was confused, that’s all.”
“I am going to ask you again. Do you want me to kiss you again?”
“Yes.”
“Does the idea of sex with me turn you off?”
She was not going to blitz him. Wouldn’t set herself up for memories that would undoubtedly haunt her. He was attractive, sure, but what she knew about him, she didn’t particularly like, and she wasn’t going to sleep with him just because he had been blessed with good looks. “I’m not blitzing you.”
“Does having sex with me only once turn you off?”
She turned away.
“All right. Finally. Pet, you’ve got it backwards. I’m not avoiding you because I’m not interested. I’m interested. Have been. But I’ve been busy, as you can tell.”
Yeah, she knew that, and she knew his business came first. She was not looking for a one-time or a sometime lover. Her kind mated forever. Seriously mated. She wanted that. A mate.
“Your silence is not something I like after telling you I’m interested. What’s going on in your head?”
“I’m a Grach, and we mate. I know Terrans don’t always mate, and even if they do, it’s not always permanent. But to a Grach, it is. This won’t work between us.”
His tone turned serious. “Because you want to mate a Grach?”
Yes. No. “I liked our kiss, and I want more, but that’s not the way it is between you and me. I know you’re playful, but it’s not serious. What you are serious about is your business. Which I respect. That’s why you’re good at what you do. And let’s not act like I don’t know you hired me for a list of names. I accepted that, and I have and will do my part. But I accepted the job because I needed the work so I could earn enough money to find a nice planet where I can settle down…and find a mate.”
Z didn’t say anything, and while she wasn’t sure, he didn’t look happy.
Sasay brought over their plates, and she expected Z to reply, but he didn’t. Instead, he started eating.
Breakfast was a bust, and this time she was serious, she wasn’t doing this again. They ate in silence, and then Z paid, not acknowledging her as he did it. He also didn’t walk next to her on the way back to the warehouse.
He was so far ahead of her that she slowed down even more just to give herself the extra seconds before she walked inside. The tension between them was so thick, she could feel it all the way behind him.
She wished she could avoid it all and call up a Rounder, go home, pack her art supplies after she got something to wrap them with, and leave. She had a little over a thousand keleps saved, she could easily get a ride off-planet.
Deciding that was best, she felt better. It was time to go and do what she’d planned on doing from the start: find a good home and settle.
But first, she was going to return Z’s Minky pad. Honor wouldn’t let her take it.
Stepping inside, she left the device on the desk, then turned to walk out. She saw Z sitting in a seat, staring at her. He eyed the Minky that she had set down.
The air was thick, or maybe it was hard to breathe for other reasons. Confronting someone who could be just as dangerous—if not more so—as Olmy wasn’t something Adelia wanted to do.
“Lotus Adaamas gets more traffic than any other planet. The odds are good that you can find someone here to take you to your bug-infested dream home. So, in an effort to speed up your hunt for a mate, I suggest you stay away from people here in Eastend and use your free time to head to the Northend bars.”
Free time? Did he fall and hit his head at some point? “I don’t have any free time to go to Northend. I have phone duty twenty-four hours a day, every day. I’m so tired, I barely function with four to five cups of coffee. And yet you want me to keep working for you and spend the few precious hours without calls to travel to Northend to look for a mate? No. I’m not interested in a quick fix.”
The Minky screen pinged behind her. An incoming call.
Z gave her a look. “If you’re going to leave, you leave at the end of the day so I can find a replacement. If you’re going to stay, sit back down and do what I pay you to do.”
No, she was ready to leave. But she walked around the desk and accepted the call, willing to give him until the end of the day.
21
Heart of A Fighter
She had fifteen minutes to go in her last day when a male with four horns lining his temples walked in. Behind him were two other males and one female Roth Demon. Specifically, the female she had met the day she arrived.
How did she find me? Adelia stepped around the desk, standing in front of the hall to keep them from walking back to Z’s office, though not at all pretending to be cordial.
The Night Demon with the four horns asked the blue female, “Is this her?”
“Yep,” she said with a snap to her neck for emphasis.
The male looked her up and down. “You have something that belongs to me.”
“No, I don’t,” Adelia said back, hooking her hands on her hips and speaking with a bravado she didn’t feel.
The Night Demon was shorter than she was, but he was thick, stocky, and his arms were as big as her thighs. His shirt was tight, and it looked like he might be a fighter. He pursed his lips, narrowed his eyes, and scanned her up and down, his gaze catching on her heels appreciatively. Then he sniffed the air. “You’re a sweet-looking thing. Grach, right? That’s a pity.” He moved his hand to pull the air towards his nose.
She didn’t smell much because she’d had her glands removed, and she was surprised when he called it seconds after meeting her.
“She didn’t smell like that when I met her. It might be a perfume,” the female Roth told him.
Adelia would think about that later. The female had a good point. Even Shine had mentioned her smell.
“Perhaps,” the Night Demon halfheartedly agreed. “But that doesn’t change the deal I’m going to offer her.”
Adelia squared her shoulders, ready to shoot down every offer he made.
“Here’s my deal. Give me back my homner and come work off your debts to me, and we’ll be square.”
“I don’t have anything, and I don’t owe you anything.”
There was a darkness in his eyes. His lips twitched, but not because he wanted to smile. “I know you have it, or you know where it is. Jav here said she clocked you leaving the docks. A dock worker confirmed you were working in the space pad that we left the homner on. Jav made some poor choices by keeping it from me and trying to solve our problem herself. But she finally came around after you beat her up pretty good.” The Night Demon turned to look at the female. “But you called it, she’s a fighter. A good one.”
Adelia liked the compliment, but it did nothing to ease the ill feeling in her gut. First, she knew she couldn’t take the male. He looked like he could crush her if he sat on her, let alone used his weight to throw a punch.
Secondly, she knew she had to get them out of Z’s warehouse. She didn’t want to bring trouble into the place on the day she planned to leave.
The male continued. “But you’re not good enough to go up against me. So, last chance. Hand it over and come with me, and you won’t get hurt. A lot. Lie to me one more time and say you don’t have it, and I’ll break open this warehouse, and you won’t live to see tomorrow.”
They knew it was here?
“I don’t—" she started, but was cut off by Z’s voice.
“Hello, Triker, been a long time since I heard your girly voice.” Z stepped out from behind Adelia with a gun in each hand. One was the blue one she knew could cook you from the inside out, and the other was red.
Z took one look at the Night Demon in front of her. “Here’s my deal. In two seconds, I’m going to start shooting. If you don’t want to die a horrible death, leave now.”
The Night Demon spoke to Z, acting as if he didn’t care if a pair of guns were pointed at him. “I’m going to snap my fingers
, and you’re going to put down your little play guns, and then you’re going to get my product. I know you have it because you contacted the local auction and tried to put it up anonymously.”
“So much for anonymity.” Z didn’t lower the pistols. “But that’s why I called in the first place. Was interested in who was still looking for their product. Figured it would at least bring a Roth female to my door.” Z didn’t move his eyes from the head male, but he did move the blue gun the female’s way. “Your chance to not be shot is decreasing. Time to leave, sweetheart.”
The male snapped his thick, swollen fingers. “You Adaamas Demons forget who you really are. Let me show you how a real Kirca takes care of business.”
The front door opened, and three large Night Demons walked in, dragging a pale, unconscious, and bleeding Shine. The skin on his face looked like someone had tried to carve it off. Adelia could see the bones in his jaw.
Her stomach dropped. He looked bad. Really bad.
Jav, the female Roth Demon, was watching her, smiling at her look of revulsion. It sickened Adelia to know that someone could be happy about such a horrendous thing. Shine didn’t deserve that. No one did.
The female’s thick lips mouthed, “you’re next.”
Adelia may not be able to win a grappling match with her brother, but Jav didn’t fight as well as Rannn. Adelia’s blood pounded in her ears, her anger hitting levels she didn’t even know she could feel.
Swiftly, she grabbed a chair behind her and chucked it at the Roth female.
Jav ducked like Adelia had anticipated, which was how she was able to kick out her opponents’ knee, breaking it at the joint. Then she grabbed a handful of blue hair and used it to smash the Roth’s face into the ground.
Wrath had never felt so good.
22
Kirca vs Adaamas Demons
Zane was holding onto a thin thread of control. His friend looked dead. Shine’s jaw had been cut open, his facial horns removed. His eyes were closed, and blood soaked his neck, shoulders, and clothes. Triker hadn’t cut into Shine looking for information. He’d done it to make a point. Kirca Demons had delicate egos, and they wanted them stroked by fear.
Zane didn’t fear anybody. Hatred and fury filled him. Words were better left unsaid. Action was his only route.
He had six bullets and seven people.
Adelia threw a chair and lunged at the female Roth Demon. Triker jerked to the side, and Zane anticipated it, backed up, and fired. The red gun he held was a Miska-charming prototype. He despised wasting a happy ending on scum, but the blue vibrant pistol was already pointed in the opposite direction.
Z knocked Triker’s smiling face to the ground and fired the remaining bullets from both guns at the large males in the room, using the furniture as ammunition.
He missed two shots with the vibrant.
But he hit more than he missed. Triker, two Night Demons, and a Roth male had been shot. Adelia had knocked out or killed the female, who was lying unmoving on the ground. Her leg was clearly broken at the knee, facing in the wrong direction.
Adelia was fighting another Roth now, and the last Night Demon was shifting his gaze between Z and Adelia, probably deciding who to fight or if he should just run. Z made it easy for him. He dropped both empty pistols, slid open a drawer in the front desk, and pulled out an empty pixy pistol.
The Night Demon saw the gun, his eyes went wide, then he backed up and left.
Small wisps of smoke came from the Roth Demon Z had clipped with the vibrant pistol. His blueish-green skin was turning brown and black in spots, and the smell of cooked flesh hung heavy in the air. The male should already be dead, but he would finish cooking to a crisp.
Zane moved towards his friend, picked him up, and slung him over his shoulder, then he walked directly to the container, opened it, and set Shine down. Zane checked his friend’s pulse but didn’t feel anything.
Undeterred, he stepped out, closed the door, and hoped the machine could save Shine’s life.
Zane watched outside the container, catching the sound of soft footsteps headed his way. They were unhurried and heavy every other step. He smelled her before he saw her in his periphery.
She was barefoot, and her cheek looked bruised.
“Is he okay?” she whispered.
Z didn’t answer because he didn’t know.
“I’m really sorry about what happened,” she said at his side.
He was too angry to figure out what she was apologizing for. What pissed him off was that she didn’t leave. She moved closer to him but not too close.
She stood for a time then sat down on the floor, not speaking, just being with him.
He hated it because he was grateful that she was there. He didn’t know what he would do if his lifelong friend died.
Zane wished he could kill Triker again. Bloody Kirca bastards. Z hated them. Hated how they thought they were entitled to run Lotus Adaamas because they were from the home planet.
Adaamas had been created in spite of them. It was a nasty planet with flesh-dissolving oceans, yet those bastards still wanted a piece of it. But they didn’t want to work for it, they wanted to just take it, like the tarq scum they were.
Adaamas was a thriving port that understood the economics of supply and demand. It was for the cunning and the brilliant.
“How long have you been friends?” Adelia asked from the floor near his feet.
He didn’t talk about his childhood to anyone. Not even to Trent. But he heard himself speaking anyway. “We grew up in the same apartment building in Northend.”
“So, he’s like a brother.”
The word almost stuck in his throat. “Yeah.”
“Do your parents still live there?”
“No. When I was fourteen, my father told me that he and my stepmother were moving to Port Meno. I told him I didn’t want to go. When I returned from school the next day, the apartment was packed up, and they were gone.” Z could still remember that day. “I walked over to Shine’s place, and his mom let me live with them.”
“He sounds like a great male with an awesome mom.”
Z looked down at Adelia, who was watching the container. He wondered if she was saying that because his friend was dying or if she meant it. “You said you didn’t like him.”
Her head fell forward. He barely caught the words she said next. “I was wrong to say that.”
That was the last thing she said.
Time felt like it stood still, but he knew it passed because every once in a while, Adelia moved to a new position on the floor. Zane’s knees bent and popped as he descended to the hard cement floor, sitting next to her.
Adelia didn’t look at him, but she did peer at his hand, then she surprised him and slipped her smaller hand inside his to lace their fingers together.
He squeezed her palm, anchoring himself to the moment, to a female he’d mistakenly underestimated. “I don’t think anyone would know that you are an experienced fighter by looking at you.”
She snorted. “I’m not. I never won a match with my brother.” She shrugged. “I thought I sucked until I fought outside the hotel room. Even then, I tried to keep it fair. But after I saw your friend and what they had done to him, and how…. I was so angry. And that Roth told me I was next. That was never going to happen.”
Her brother. Z wanted to know more about that. “You and your brother were adopted?”
She stalled for a moment. “No, uh…he was my parents’ birth son.”
“What’s his name?” Z asked because he had found the massive list of names hiding on the Minky he had given her. He had been angry after breakfast. When he got into his office, he logged into the account he’d set up for her and found the file. Name after name. A long list she had not given him.
When he found them, he had been pissed. As in pissed. Was ready to walk out and tell her that she was never getting off the island. He’d told every captain in the vicinity not to pick her up and was ready to tell her she
was going to rot here on the volcanic island. But when he opened the door…he’d heard Triker.
At the time, he hadn’t expected it to turn out the way it did. He figured he’d just deal with the bastard and then fire her. So, he’d moved back to his desk to grab the prototype and the vibrant.
And now here he was, holding Adelia’s hand, not firing her.
“His name’s Rannn.”
Rannn. He knew that name. Knew it after hacking her system that morning, too. He should have looked into her account months ago, but he had been occupied with more important things like keeping his business afloat.
“And he’s offered you a job on his ship? As a FAVII.”
He watched as her chest shook with her next breath. Zane was feeling a lot of things. The mistrust he felt towards her was back, and he was ready. If she lied to him again, he was going to beat back her lies with his own threat.
“I see you hacked my account. Yeah, he did. He has always offered to help me out. And I always act like I don’t need it.” Her eyes were glistening now, but no tears fell. “My parents, Rannn, and my ex-husband aren’t on the list you likely found on my Minky.”
“I did notice that.” The first thing he’d checked for was Olmy’s name every time she sent him a grouping.
“My parents are high-ranking. My father is an admiral, his sister was one as well, and his father and my cousin Orrin, too. They expected Rannn to be one also. Right now, he’s a captain in the Federation.”
“On a ship that holds thousands of workers. As far as my research went, there is only one ship in the entire Federation that size.”
“Garna, the star carrier,” she answered.
She was amazingly forthcoming. That was good. But the trust had been broken. “Yep.”
Moments ticked by, and Zane remained silent, knowing it was the best tactic to see where her mind took her next. Adelia spoke a few minutes later. “When I was exiled, I was cut off. My accounts were deleted, and no one reached out. I expected that. I started over, found a job, and paid for my own quantum account. Time passed, and one day I got a message from my brother. He found me and wanted to let me know that he was alive.” She turned to Z. “His battleship had crash-landed on Angny, and everyone who didn’t die in the crash was taken and either used as a sex slave or as fighting fodder.”