Captured: The Xandari Chronicles (Book One) (Dark Sci-Fi Romance)

by Raven Dark

  Well, crap.

  Raul put his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Z’pheer cradled my nape, a reassuring gesture.

  “If you already have jewels like these, then you can have more,” Malek growled. “You could annihilate every rival gang you have with what half of these will buy you.”

  Raul glanced at him in warning, and Malek silenced.

  “Fear of me keeps the local gangs in line, Protector of Raul.”

  Fuck, this was going south in a hurry.

  “Then what in fost do you want, Kudar?” Raul hissed. I could feel the desperation to save his world radiating off him. “All we need is that weapon. The Rith won’t touch you out here. There’s a magnetic field around this galaxy that makes them ill. You don’t need it.”

  “You are correct. I do not need it, but it is mine. It is one of a kind. I collect rare objects, and that weapon is the rarest there is.”

  “Tell us what you want. If we can give it to you, we will.”

  Kudar shrugged his house-sized shoulders and sat back in his chair. “Give me something I have never seen before. Something no one else has, and you will have the weapon.”

  The twinkle in his eyes made it clear; he was toying with us. He had us and he loved it.

  “We have nothing like that, you pompous demon,” Malek bit out. “Our world is on the verge of annihilation, and you know it.”

  And they couldn’t kill him. Not here with all these people.

  “I do know it,” he said blandly.

  “If you had respect for my father,” Raul said, “then you must have some respect for his people.”

  Kudar shook his head. “I had respect for Haruuk because he helped me out of a… misunderstanding once with a rival. I am not a hero, Hadu Raul, and I have no interest in being one.”

  “Name a price.”

  “I have. Give me something new. Something I can’t get anywhere else. If not, get out.”

  Defeated, Raul turned around. The look he gave Malek and Z’pheer terrified me. It was hopelessness. Regret. Pain.

  We weren’t going to get the weapon. His planet and his people would perish. All because some wanna-be god was being a selfish prick.

  Jesus Christ. My thoughts spun, scrambling for a way out of this. Kudar wanted something he didn’t have. Something…

  My throat worked, and my eyes started to sting. I would not fucking cry. Turning my eyes to look anywhere but at the asshole on the throne, I watched the Tara N’a woman on the stage, still crooning away. She was beautiful, her bountiful hips swaying as she sang her sweet tune. Her voice was nice but nothing like—

  Wait.

  Your voice is gorgeous, Vahashatai. There’s nothing in the universe like it.

  Either I was having a brain aneurism, or I had the world’s worst idea. One so crazy it couldn’t possibly work.

  Nope. Don’t even think about it, Danika.

  But it was either I try it, or Xandar would become a fucking space rock.

  Unfortunately, to try it, I had to break a promise.

  I drew a huge breath, then I did what I always did, something galactically stupid.

  I touched Raul on the shoulder, a subtle warning I hoped he understood, slipped my arm out of Z’pheer’s grip before he could think to tighten it again, ignored his mortified curse, and stepped in front of my masters, to the throne.

  Right in front of Kudar.

  “Ex.. excuse me, Your Highness.” I didn’t know if he was a highness or not, but he looked like one, and who didn’t like being called a king?

  Besides Raul.

  His head lowered and his eyes widened. The whole VIP area, hell, probably the whole club, erupted in a babble of shocked whispers. I knew exactly why. I was a fucking slave, standing in front of my masters and speaking without permission to the universe’s scariest pirate as if I had a right to ask him for anything.

  The babble in the room almost drowned out Raul’s livid hiss. “Nayna! What are—” He cut himself off as if he realized nothing he could say would undo the catastrophe unfolding. The damage was done.

  Malek muttered a string of curses, several of which I was sure were threats to end me

  “A slave,” Kudar said in a violent hiss.

  “Yeah, I know.” I shrugged lamely. “I’m not supposed to talk to you. Hashtag, sorrynotsorry.” I steeled myself and hoped the hell I wasn’t making a horse’s ass out of myself. Trying to sound confident instead of like I was terrified out of my skull. “Look, I have what you want.”

  He gave a deep resonant chuckle that would have been hot if I didn’t have three hot-as-fuck masters behind me. “Either I like her, or I’m going to eat her,” he told the men. “Is that so, tiny one?”

  I resisted the urge to swallow and show fear. Shelly had often told me that if you believed you were good at something, it went a long way to making others believe you were. Either this would work or it wouldn’t and we’d be sunk.

  “Yes,” I said smoothly.

  I swore I could feel the men rolling their eyes in dread. Everyone in the room was listening, the room pulsing with a kind of curious, nervous energy. No one stopped me, though.

  Kudar sat back more comfortably. “Now this I must hear. A slave so bold as to speak to me this way, you must have a hell of a thing under that red ribbon you’re wearing. Show me.”

  My eyes widened, until I realized he wasn’t asking me to show him my pussy. He was being figurative.

  I cleared my throat, pulling a leaf out of my dad’s book, making everything part of the performance. “If you will indulge me, your singer will have to stop.”

  His brows winged down. “All right, you have my attention, little one.” He made a strange sound and looked at the Tara N’a woman, making a slicing motion across his throat.

  Her voice halted. She looked a little put out but stepped back.

  I backed up and looked at my three masters.

  “What the fuck are you doing, nayna?’ Malek hissed.

  “Yes, I’d like to know that too,” Raul growled.

  I heaved a breath. “Probably getting us killed,” I muttered. “Wish me luck.”

  Before they could ask, I turned and walked past an impatient Kudar up to the stage. “Excuse me.” I took the mic off the stand in front of the Tara N’a woman. “I need to borrow this.”

  She shrugged. I turned to the crowd that whispered and watched.

  The whole club was silent, waiting. A spotlight wavered above me, adjusting to set the mood.

  I heard Raul draw out a swearword, his eyes wide. He’d just realized what I was doing. Z’pheer looked like he got it, too. Malek looked lost, and I knew why. He’d never heard me do this.

  Heart hammering, and feeling beyond ridiculous, I made myself look at Kudar to make sure he was watching me.

  He was, his eyes locked on me with something between disbelief, annoyance, and a hint of curiosity.

  A hint was better than nothing.

  Shoot me now.

  Oh, fuck, I hadn’t even considered what to sing. Darkside was my favorite song, but I wanted something that matched the Tara N’a’s seductive, lyrical purr.

  I looked around the room for inspiration. Looked out at space and then at the room again. What the hell fit this situation? I was stuck on a strange world filled with strange beings, with three sexy alien men from another planet. Men who had somehow become closer to me than anyone I knew, trying to save their world from evil. I was just a girl. Far away from home.

  Three men. A strange world. Away from home. Oh God. If this situation hadn’t been so terrifying, I might have laughed. Fuck, there was even a damn dog in the mix. Tarku was standing on guard beside Raul.

  Unbelievable. Welcome to fucking Oz, Dorothy.

  This was either so stupid I really was going to get us all killed, or it was utterly perfect.

  I gripped the mic, and then, shaking from head to fucking toe, I closed my eyes. I pictured Vertigo, the club I’d been in the night I was taken,
and imagined the billionaire Blackwell in my head instead of a horned gangster.

  Then I opened my mouth and sang the very last song I expected to ever sing in my life.

  Somewhere Over the Rainbow dripped from my lips, clear and resonant. Only, I made the song my own, adding whimsical octaves that made it even more moving. I put every ounce of pain and loss and dreams into it, everything I’d felt since I’d left Earth. I put all the grief I felt over the loss at a chance at independence, of a singing career, my freedom into the song.

  The room lay eerily silent, a percussion that terrified the hell out of me, but I didn’t have the nerve to look at the crowd, so I pushed the awareness of the silence out of my mind and kept the notes coming.

  Halfway through the song, the room still lay too quiet. I hoped against hope that everyone hadn’t left and I hadn’t heard it over the hammer of my own heart. And that Kudar wasn’t about to burst into laughter.

  Finally, I chickened out, unable to stand the silence. I cracked open one eye.

  What I saw nearly halted my voice in my throat.

  Raul, Malek, and Z’pheer had their eyes closed. I couldn’t tell if they were taking it in or praying, or both. Everyone else was staring as if their eyes were glued to me.

  When I hit a particularly poignant note, several of the guests put their hands over their mouths. A few eyes were watering.

  I closed my eyes again, lost. My voice gave even me goosebumps, and for a few moments I forgot why I was here, what I was doing this for, and where I was. I lived in that song, I dreamed, I wished, and I saw that rainbow.

  Opening my eyes again, I saw Kudar. He had turned in his throne. He had his elbow on the armrest, his huge chin on his hand. His eyes were lost, as if he’d been sucked into a vortex. The look on his face reminded me of that look Simon Cowell got when someone floored him.

  Elation swept through me, and I let the song build with my confidence. I carried the notes high and put all my power into them, and for the first time, I actually watched my audience instead of hiding.

  I changed the remaining notes to a minor chord, gently pulling it out, then carried it strong, letting it pound out of me.

  Kudar’s face broke into an almost spaced-out smile. If the situation hadn’t been so life or death, it would have been hilarious.

  My heart thudded with excitement, and suddenly I understood. My dad was a jerk, but I got why he loved performing. I felt it.

  When the last note faded, I knew Kudar could still give a good old Caeser’s thumbs down, though.

  The room was silent again. My masters opened their eyes, all of them looking mesmerized. Raul was smiling. Then he looked at Kudar and licked his lips.

  My heart thudded into the silence.

  Until the entire room erupted in clapping and cheering, hollering, some screaming. The people at the tables were on their feet,

  Kudar drew a huge shaking breath as if he’d forgotten to breathe all together. His fangs showed and he shook his head.

  I handed the mic back to the awed Tara N’a and made my way back to my masters—yeah, the title was growing on me.

  Kudar raised his hand for silence. When the room was quiet once more, he spoke, his bright eyes wide on me. “I’ve never heard anything… like that in my life. A thousand, thousand voices in this universe, and hers… It’s like hearing heaven sing.” His voice was down-right reverent.

  He leaned forward. “The weapon is yours.”

  Everyone let out a breath. My eyes slid closed. That was a golden buzzer if ever I’d heard one.

  “On one condition,” Kudar added.

  I gulped. My men stood frozen.

  “The weapon is yours if you give her to me.”

  “Absolutely not,” Raul growled.

  “No deal,” Malek snapped.

  “Forget it,” Z’pheer said.

  Kudar leaned back in his seat like a pimp, not giving three shits what the three Xandari in front of him were saying. “You would let your world die to keep a slave? No, she will sing her life away in my club. I want to be able to hear that voice anytime I choose. You can’t hand me a slice of heaven and take it away.”

  Crap!

  My masters all started talking at once, but I put myself between Kudar and them.

  “Wait.” I held up my hand. “Kudar, your Highness.”

  He stared down at me, incredibly possessive.

  Jesus, he was intense. I licked my lips. “What if you record my voice?”

  “What?” His big brows scrunched.

  Damn it. He obviously didn’t understand the word record. I hoped that wasn’t because he didn’t have the capability to do it.

  “Your Majesty, what if you could keep the song you heard just now? What if you could play it back just the way you heard it, anytime you wanted?”

  “Ahhh.” He smiled and nodded his understanding, then said a word that was probably supposed to be the equivalent of recording. “You would do that?”

  “Yes! I’ll sing again, and you can record it. Play it back, do whatever you want with it. Just…we need that weapon, sir.”

  Saying nothing for a full half a minute, he just watched me intently. An unbelievable sadness filled his eyes.

  Right then, as this intergalactic lord looked at me, searching my eyes for who knew what, I realized that, in some other world, there was a woman out there for him. He wasn’t searching for riches or treasures; not the kind that could be bought. What he was really searching for was deeper than that. I smiled at him.

  Whatever he saw in me must have sealed the deal, because he nodded, and then said in perfect English, “What are you called, little one? What is your name?”

  Shocked out of my ass, I answered him. “Danika. Uh… of Earth. Your Highness.”

  Kudar nodded again. “I accept your offer, Danika of Earth.” Then he snapped his fingers at one of his men.

  My shoulders dropped in relief so pure I thought I would faint. I looked back at my masters, hoping they weren’t pissed. We had the weapon, but when the shock of our success had worn off and it hit them how badly I’d overstepped, would that still matter, or would they make me pay for the violations I’d committed?

  But they didn’t look mad. Malek looked gob-smacked, his eyes shining. Z’pheer was nodding in appreciation.

  Raul was the biggest surprise of all. His smile made my knees week. Over the crowd’s talking and excited babble, I couldn’t hear if he’d spoken or if he’d just mouthed the words, but regardless, I was pretty sure I knew what he’d said. He’d said the same thing I’d said to Malek before coming to this place.

  Kan Jun Hada.

  Thank you.

  I nodded. My heart soared higher than it ever had.

  We left Kudar’s trading station an hour later. The men hustled me onto the ship so fast I wondered if they were pissed at me, whatever their reactions earlier said to the contrary. They said nothing, Z’pheer’s grip tight on my arm. As soon as the ship’s doors had opened, Raul rounded on me. His huge fists seized the front of my slave’s dress.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” he growled between clenched teeth.

  I blinked up at him. Until I realized his eyes were dancing and his grip lacked force.

  “What in Rosht were you thinking, you crazy, crazy girl?” He yanked me close. “You crazy, brilliant girl.”

  I let out a shaky laugh and my cheeks reddened. Z’pheer and Malek were grinning, and then suddenly all of them were talking and hugging me at once.

  “What was that song you sang? It sounded like you pulled it from heaven and swallowed it,” Malek said, sweeping my long hair out off my shoulders.

  “And calling him Your Majesty, playing to his ego,” Z’pheer said cupping my nape and shaking me lightly. “That was great.”

  I beamed.

  “You are a born performer, you know that, don’t you?” Malek said.

  “So you’re not mad?” I looked at all of them with a playful wince.

  Okay, maybe
I was crazy, but I almost hoped they were just a little pissed. I liked when these men got rough.

  “Rosht.” Raul gave a smirk. “Yes. We’re livid.”

  “Yes,” Malek added. “You saved our world. You shall be punished.”

  I giggled. Then, feeling daring, I leaned into Raul. “You disappoint me, Raul.” I waited for his eyes to narrow in confusion. “All the rules I broke, and you’re not even going to spank me?”

  He laughed. Then his arms closed around me, crushing me as he breathed me in. Z’pheer did the same. Malek kissed my hand.

  “I just have one question.” Raul drew back and wrinkled his nose. “How in names of the Five Gods did you know that was going to work?”

  I shrugged and gave a shaky laugh. “I didn’t.”

  “You were meant for the stage,” Raul affirmed, kissing my forehead. “It seems your singing adviser was right,” he added softly. “Music does have the power to change the world. Or save it.”

  I hugged him tight, and only when I buried my face in his neck did the smile on my face slide away, sadness pricking me.

  I was thrilled they had the weapon, a small, handheld metallic device that looked a little like a tricorder. I was thrilled the Rith would be destroyed and we were going home, all of us alive and well. And I was overjoyed that my warriors were happy with me, proud of me. I felt a little like a hero.

  But my heart also privately ached because, as much as I’d gained, I had lost something. I would never be going back to Earth, and as a slave, I would never spend my life on the stage these men thought I was meant for. Slaves didn’t have freedom, or independence, or careers.

  Tonight had been one of the best nights of my life, and it would never happen again.

  35

  A Hero’s Reward

  The journey back to Xandar was only three weeks, but it felt like a year.

  While I loved these weeks spent alone with my men, a million fears whirled through my mind at any given time.

  What if the weapon didn’t work? What if the Rith didn’t die, or if only a few did? What if Kudar Gavik or Haruuk had been wrong, and the weapon killed not only the Rith, but also harmed or killed innocent people? I knew too little about how it worked even with the men’s explanations.