“Not your fault,” Gryffnn informed him. “Mechanical failure happens. It’s why we prefer to fly rather than ride in machines.”
Mogens did something to his leg, and the pain…the pain stabbed with the force of a rusty knife, sending his vision white at the edges. Another tug had him screaming like a girl, and it was the last thing he recalled of the crash site.
* * * * *
Viros city, Viros
Yes! The recruitment post on the links showed her the perfect way to infiltrate the close-knit group she’d only been able to scrutinize from a distance. Without hesitation, Jazen applied and contacted Azarious about organizing fake references.
“It will be done. Your alias?”
“Jazen Yelhsa.” Jazen was real—her only true name—while Yelhsa was the handle of her first kill. A reminder not to get cocky since over-confidence led to mistakes. In this assignment, she couldn’t afford to fail. Her period of indenture had ended, and she needed the funds from these last few contracts to secure her future. She intended to buy a small catering business on a, as yet, mystery planet since she hadn’t decided where to settle.
“You have a lead?”
“Yes, but it has proved difficult getting close to my target. They have connections to the royal family in Viros.”
“Contact me if you need further aid. Send your usual reports.”
Jazen hit send, confident her application would stand scrutiny. She slipped her comm to her jacket pocket and scanned the occupants of the grubby bar on Second Street.
A shifty trader wearing a patch over his left eye, a tired waitress and a bored cyborg bartender. Not surprising given the time of the cycle and the dark, dingy interior. Straw covered the floor, and Jazen spotted a few dried flowers amongst the straw stalks. Someone had attempted to make the place smell better, but rotations of grime and spilled drinks plus uncaring customers had taken their toll. Five tables sat amongst the straw and a sprinkling of mismatched chairs. No modern float tables in this joint.
None of the customers paid attention to her, and she relaxed, deciding to linger and complete her Narenda investigation. She’d claimed a corner table with a view of the door and settled in to her research.
Jazen learned dragon shifters ran the planet and, until recently, hadn’t welcomed visitors. The leader had relaxed control of the borders although visitors required permits to journey to the verdant lands.
She’d already discovered the crew of the Indefatigable visited regularly. Approaching any of the crew at the castle had proved impossible. The womenfolk—Captain Coppersmith’s woman and the rest of the female crew—always had bodyguards trailing them when they left the castle. The male crew was equally elusive and the seer that traveled with them was plain creepy with his skin tones that changed from white to black and mixtures in between. She assumed the changes occurred due to the seer’s moods, but that was a guess.
For a dozen cycles, she’d trailed the Indy crew. She’d researched them and tried to discover more about the escaped cyborg, last seen on Ornum. Rumor said the cyborg had left the planet with her charge, and they’d departed onboard the Indy. A child-minding cyborg.
Jazen snorted. Raised to be nurturing, child-minding cyborgs shouldn’t have the skills to evade recapture. This one had, and it had sparked the ire of the corporation who owned her. Their investigations, to date, had proved fruitless. Not wanting to give other indentured cyborgs hope, they’d put out a contract for her capture. They wanted her alive and intended to make an example of her, then disassemble for her parts, after studying her programming for faults, of course.
Amme Vanak had left Ornum and after two sightings on the planet of Ibrox, she’d vanished. She wasn’t on Ibrox, which meant she’d left on the same ship because she hadn’t purchased a ticket to leave the planet. Her whereabouts now…undetermined.
Jazen tapped the fingers of her right hand on the sticky tabletop.
The waitress approached, a drag in her step. “Can I get ya a drink? Bartender says you have to eat or drink or ya have ta leave.”
“I’ll have an aloc. In a bottle,” she added, aware of what some unscrupulous bar owners did to their cask drinks. “I’ll open the bottle myself. How is the food here?”
“Better than what ya’d expect. Bar owner’s wife likes ta cook.”
“What do you recommend?”
“Meat pie.”
Jazen tilted her head, setting her straight black hair swishing against her cheek. She never passed up an excuse to research the food prepared by other cooks and few places did pies. “I’ll take a pie.”
The waitress nodded, relief clear in her reddened blue eyes. Jazen mentally counted her coins. Yeah, she had sufficient to tip. She knew this woman’s life, knew the helplessness, the futility of working long hours.
It was never, ever enough to escape.
She’d watched her mother live this life and struggle to raise two hungry children. This woman had it better than her mother, although the waitress mightn’t realize there was worse.
Jazen had seen and taken note not to fall into the same trap as her mother. She’d calculated the odds and taken her chances, begging to go with Azarious when he’d offered a way out for her younger brother. No lying on her back to entertain strange men with peculiar body parts and weird sexual habits. When she slept with a man, it was her choice. She controlled the situation, not her lover of the moment.
Her comm beeped to indicate an incoming message. A slow smile bloomed, satisfaction filling her with elation. A step closer to locating and capturing the missing cyborg. She tapped back a quick message. Yes, she was in Viros and willing to conduct a comm interview at the onset of blacklight. Yes, she had references and would send them at once.
The confirmation came secs later.
All systems go.
The waitress arrived with her drink and the pie. She set them on the table in front of Jazen and limped to the other side of the bar to serve new arrivals. The six young men wore black uniforms, their close-cropped hair proclaiming them servicemen. A military ship had arrived to replenish their stores and give their crew furlough. The bars and brothels of the lower Viros streets would ring with drunken foolery this eve. An attraction for every lowlife in the vicinity to tease or steal money from servicemen with flush pockets and voracious appetites after journeying throughout the solar system for a quarter of a rotation.
Jazen opened her drink and after wiping the top, drank straight from the bottle. Once she finished her pie, she’d wander the market to learn if any of the Indy crew ever left the castle alone.
She’d scored an interview. Luck might favor her twice in one cycle.
The Undercover Warrant-Taker
Four cycles after the crash, the pain in Nanu’s leg had subsided to a manageable ache. Mogens had weaned him off the painkilling meds but refused to allow him to move around for at least another three cycles. He’d ordered Nanu to relax and heal.
Bored and cranky at the inactivity, Nanu reached for the bell by the side of his gel-bed. He heard a feminine shout, the register a hairsbreadth from rage. He grinned in anticipation. Stomping footsteps heralded an arrival, and Nanu composed his features into a pained grimace.
His sole entertainment was riling his friend and shipmate Kaya Ignatius, who was acting as his nurse. A job she loathed since he had her running around like an underpaid maid.
“What do you want now?” she snarled, her eyes flashing salvos of wrath, and her straight blue hair flying back to reveal one pointed ear. “Isn’t it enough you ruined my date with Ransom? I was getting somewhere with him. He’d asked me out for a drink, and you’ve put him in a coma. It was going to be—”
“The two of us,” Nanu broke in, recognizing her speech by rote after hearing it many, many times while stuck in this bedchamber. “How is Ransom?”
“He’s stopped humming.”
Grata, not an improvement. If he was humming, he was alive. Fear and guilt writhed in Nanu’s gut, making his hunger flee. He licked lips th
at had gone dry. “Is he…is he dead?”
“No, you haven’t killed him off yet.” Kaya’s sly regard told Nanu she was enjoying his unease, even if Ransom’s illness concerned her. “He’s still in a coma. Mogens isn’t certain of the cause and the Incorporeal medics are at a loss. They’ve decided all they can do is make sure he remains comfortable and pump sustenance into him.” She paused, her blue eyes serious now. “Gryffnn has researched the phenomenon. It’s happened twice in the dragons’ history. Both dragons died.”
“Phrull,” Nanu muttered, guilt kicking him again. He should’ve refused to take Ransom on the jaunt over the mountains, but he’d been so insistent. If someone was stealing their precious stones, he’d wanted details, information to enable him to stomp on the thieves. Now, he was in a coma, the prognosis scary bad. Nanu replayed the fubar on a loop, going over different steps he might’ve attempted.
“Yeah.” She studied her short, bright red nails with a knitted brow. “I’ll never get to fly with a dragon. I’ve dreamed of it, soaring through the skies, the wind in my hair.”
Nanu let out a snort. “A dragon only flies with his mate. Dragon flying was never a choice for you.”
Kaya sniffed. “Never say never. Once I’d worked my wiles on him, he’d morph to that Earth flexible clay stuff. No man can resist my charms.”
Nanu coughed. It was either that or howl with mirth. Kaya wasn’t the easiest woman. She was a tough warrior and not one to cross. Strong men attracted her, yet she stuck to losers who let her tromp all over them.
Kaya glared at him, aware he was laughing at her. “What do you want?”
“A drink.”
Her gaze slid to the jug of nectar juice within easy reach.
“A hot drink,” he explained, struggling to keep his amusement contained.
Kaya stared at him for a moment longer and stomped from his chamber.
She arrived ten marks later with a steaming pot of tay.
“Oh, I’d prefer kafe.”
“Mogens informed me the tay holds healing properties. He added extra herbs and sweetened it with yenoh.” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “You’ll drink it if I have to pour it down your throat.”
“I’m injured,” Nanu said. “You’re meant to be my nurse, not my jailor.”
Kaya cursed and stormed off. He waited until she had time to reach the end of the passage before an evil smile curled across his lips. He picked up the bell again and rang it.
Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling.
A shriek of rage resounded down the passage, and Kaya appeared in the doorway as he rang the bell a third time.
“Put down that fraggin’ bell before I shove it down your throat,” she ordered.
“But my leg is itchy. I need help to scratch it before I go crazy. And I’m hungry.” He formed his lips into a pout and waited for the fallout.
“Food? You’re eating more than Jannike and she has a good excuse since she’s having twins.”
“She informs me she is having one child, and she will never go through this again. I spoke to her on the comm not long after whitelight began.”
Kaya darted closer to the bed and poked him in the belly. “You’ll get fat if you’re not careful. You’re already lazy.”
“I’m bored, and I get hungry when I’m bored.”
“I offered to play cards with you.”
“You cheat,” Nanu said. “Please, my leg is itchy.”
Kaya eyed his face, then his groin. “It had better not be your third leg.”
“The support bandages to fix my leg are making it itchy. I need a scratchy tool.”
“Ask Mogens. And I don’t cheat. I’m lucky in love and cards.”
“Not so lucky with Ransom,” Nanu shot back.
Kaya glowered at him, her right fist—no, make that both fists—curling at her sides.
“You wouldn’t hit an injured man when he’s down.”
“Then don’t be mean.”
“Are you arguing again?” Mogens asked, gliding into the chamber. This cycle, his face was pearly white—a sign of contentment and happiness.
A woman dressed in a white uniform strode into his chamber behind Mogens. Nanu stared at her curvy form beneath the uniform, her straight chin-length black hair, her blue, blue eyes and creamy pale skin. His lungs burned, and he dragged in a breath. It was full of honey and herbs. A shiver went through him and every muscle in his body locked as he continued to gawp at the woman.
“He keeps ringing his stupid bell,” Kaya complained. “I haven’t even had time to do my training this morn because he keeps interrupting me.”
“I believe Gryffnn is waiting for you in the training room,” Mogens said. “Before you go, this is Jazen Yelhsa. Gryffnn has hired her to nurse Ransom and Nanu.”
“I’m going to kiss Gryffnn,” Kaya declared. “Nanu is impossible. Impossible, I tell you. Nice to meet you, Jazen. I’ll see you ’round. Good luck. You’ll need it.” Kaya made her escape before the new arrival replied.
“Nanu no longer requires painkillers. All you need to do is make him comfortable and take him his meals,” Mogens said.
“I’m sure I won’t have any problems,” Jazen said in a husky voice.
“Nanu will be on his best behavior.” A ribbon of black crept across Mogens hand. A second crawled up his neck and across his chin and nose. “Or I will be unhappy. Jazen comes highly qualified, and we do not wish to scare her away.”
Nanu relaxed against his propped-up pillow, heeding Mogens’s warning. Not that he’d try to scare away this woman. A nurse. Once, he’d presumed his inner beast would wake for a warrior, someone strong like Kaya or Jannike. Someone like Camryn.
How could this be? Fleeing the planet of Indra had doomed him to live alone without a mate. He’d had his brother for company, and that had been enough.
Yep had since died, but the crew of the Indy had helped him through his loss. He had true friends. Loyal friends. Friends who cared about him and his wellbeing.
He cleared his throat. “Pleased to meet you, Jazen.”
She didn’t understand how pleased.
Yet.
His inner beast stirred, stretching and flexing its muscles as if he were waking from a long slumber, which wasn’t far from the truth. Except how? His inner beast had withered and died.
Now, it seemed he’d been wrong, and joy filled him at finding his mate.
“Nanu.” She inclined her head, her hair spilling forward to conceal her face. In the process, she revealed the pale vulnerability of her neck.
He swallowed, willing away the longing. Too soon. He had the luxury of time since she was attending him. If he were on Indra, he’d snatch her and hide her away in his specially prepared courtship gattoc until the mating locked into place, and she accepted him.
“Nanu, is there anything I can get you before I take Jazen to meet Ransom?”
“My leg is itching, and it’s driving me crazy.”
Mogens beamed, his smile a blast of white in his already pale face. “Ah, a good sign. You are healing. I believe I have a salve to do the trick. I shall also bring you something to keep your mind busy.”
Jazen exited his chamber with Mogens. Interesting. She moved with a soldier’s ease, silent on her feet, with fluid, confident steps. Her trim body appeared strong and contrasted with the innocence portrayed by her up-tilted nose and soft pink lips.
He wriggled against his backrest and closed his eyes. As he often did, he retreated to his favorite memories. His visit with the Indy crew to Camryn’s home planet of Earth. He recalled the teasing rhyme Olivia Polo had sung to her brother and Amme, revamping it for his own fantasy purposes.
Nanu and Jazen, sitting in a gattoc. K. I. S. S. I. N. G.
He grinned, pleased with the mind pictures, except—he altered his fantasy—they were doing much more than kissing.
* * * * *
Jazen followed Mogens, paying close attention to everything he told her of her patients. The dragon shifter presented no
trouble. All she needed to do was check his condition and keep him clean and comfortable.
Nanu, her other patient, was the one who offered more value to her mission. Her comm buzzed, and she checked the screen. Her brother. Again. She pushed the silence button and found Mogens regarding her quizzically.
“Do you need to answer that?”
“I’ll attend to the message later,” she said. “I am enrolled with several agencies, and they send me notifications of assignments.”
“We’ve been rolling Ransom daily and massaging his muscles. He’s a large being, and you will need help to shift him. I will aid you with the first rubdown now so you understand my methods.”
Jazen barely maintained her impassive expression. Oh, she was no stranger to massage since her mother had done a stint in the brothel. As a point of difference, to compete against the neighboring businesses, they’d offered the service. With her mother half out of her brain with vroom—an addictive liquor—for most of the time, the massage part of the services had fallen to her.
A lucky break, since she and Chobe had met Azarious, the man who had offered them a way out and trained them as warrant-takers.
“Tom-cycle, when you need to rotate Ransom, call one of the security guards. They will aid you.”
“That seems straightforward.” Jazen itched to start her questioning even though experience warned her it was too soon. She had to phrase her curiosity carefully because the crew of the Indy were the only lead she’d found.
It was as if the cyborg had vanished into the mist. Of course, irreparable damage sending her offline might be a factor. Or someone might have captured the valuable cyborg as a personal slave.
The cyborg Amme was out there somewhere, and she had to deliver. She had to. Most warrant-takers didn’t last as long as she had, and she worried her luck might run out before she put her retirement plans into action.
Aware of Mogens’s quizzical gaze, she jerked her mind off her warrant-taker duties. “What is the best way to shift him?”
“We roll him.” Mogens studied the unconscious shifter. “He’s so big that it’s not practical to lift him. Ah, here is Tobias now.”
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