by Kyle, Celia
Still, I don’t want to let Ilya out of my sight. Too much is at stake, and we know for a fact there’s a bounty on her head—a considerable one at that. Just one look at these desperately poor people and I know they’ll grasp at any rope that might lift them out of abject poverty, even turning against one of their own.
We move along slowly, navigating the press of humanity toward the shop stalls that ring the square. An aging Vakutan offers geodes, which he claims date back to Precursor times and have magical powers to boot.
“Those are lovely.” Ilya stares at one fist sized geode with a spectacular lavender and orange sunburst pattern.
“Would you like me to buy you a magical rock, Ilya?”
She chuckles and twirls her hair around her finger.
“Gee, mister, would ya?” She bats her lashes like a caricature of her normal self.
I pay the rather exorbitant fee of twenty credits for the “authentic” Precursor geode, which looks suspiciously like the ones dug out of the nearby hills. Still, Ilya acts like I’ve just bought her the Royal Crown of Kilgari itself.
“Thanks, Swipt. No matter what everyone says, I think you’re an all right guy.”
“What? What have they been saying…”
I notice her mischievous grin and roll my eyes skyward, a habit I’ve picked up from the humans on board.
“You’re fucking with me. Aren’t you?’
“Yup.” She grabs my arm and clings to my side as we navigate the crowd. Her lithe body feels good up against my own, and again I idly wonder if she might be my fated mate. I almost don’t want to hope she is in case I jinx it.
As we peruse the various stalls, it becomes obvious that high-tech parts like we need are not in large supply. Most of the tech for sale is ancient, even older than the Queen herself, and in such shoddy condition I fear to part with so much as a single credit for any of it.
I hear a bit of a tumult and crane my neck around until I find the source. My blood runs cold when I see nearly two dozen IHC marines spilling into the marketplace. They’re accosting nearly everyone in their path while others rudely shove their way into stalls and toss merchandise mindlessly on the ground in their search.
Whatever they want, they want to find it badly. And looking at sweet Ilya, I fear I know exactly what they seek…
“Ilya, do not turn around, but there are marines in the square.”
“Shit,” she hisses through clenched teeth. “Shit, shit shit.”
“I concur. Wholeheartedly.” I stoop over a bit, hoping to blend in with the crowd. I stick out like a sore thumb here. “We need a place to hide.”
“We need that phase converter more. But that looks like an excellent place to fulfill both our needs.”
She points at a brick and mortar shop on the edge of the square. The building looks halfway toward collapsing under its own weight, but numerous devices are on display in the window, which is heartening.
We quickly make our way inside, leaving the IHC marines to their task. It won’t be long before they make their way here as well, so Ilya and I immediately split up and start searching for the phase converter unit.
The inside of the shop looks more like an antique store than an establishment that sells modern tech. The low ceilings and narrow aisles between overstocked shelves mean I have to move carefully indeed.
I come around a corner and run into Ilya. Judging from her grimace, she’s had no more luck than I have in locating a phase converter. She looks up at me, and her scowl turns into a grin.
“You’ve got a little something on your horns.”
“What?” I reach up and find that a pair of small gears have affixed themselves to my horns via the dangling price tag strings. I quickly remove them, my cheeks burning with shame. How did I not notice?
“Hey.” I turn around and find the shop’s proprietor, an aging and rotund human male, glaring at me pointedly. “You break it, you buy it, buddy boy.”
“That was unnecessarily alliterative.”
He frowns at Ilya.
“Hey. I ain’t never even looked at another man.”
Ilya and I exchange glances while trying not to laugh.
“My good sir, I was hoping you might have a…”
“So. You’re a Kilgari. Aren’t you?”
I close my mouth. I can’t believe he just interrupted me like that. How rude.
“Yes, I am. And I need—”
“Is it true that you guys have two wieners?”
Ilya covers her face with her hand, something between a laugh and a sigh coming out of her lips. I glare at the little man and growl low in my throat.
“It’s rude to just go asking questions like that about someone else’s body.”
“So you don’t have two dicks?”
“I—that is beside the point. What I need is a phase converter unit. Do you have one, or know of someone who does?”
Ilya, in the meantime, has slipped to the front of the store and parts the curtains in front of the windows. Her face pales, and I have to stifle a cursing fit when I see that the marines are already two doors down from us. Any moment they’re going to burst in here, as well.
“Phase converter? Sure, I’ve got one. Not too many people can afford such around these parts.”
I can tell that’s a loaded statement.
“I have plenty of credits, my good sir. Name your price—within reason.”
He straightens up as much as his sway back will allow and sneers at me.
“I don’t sell to aliens. Only humans. Especially I don’t sell to aliens that won’t even answer simple questions.”
“If I tell you I have two cocks, will you just let me have it?”
His eyes widen.
“So you DO got two wieners.”
“Swipt.”
I turn to face Ilya, who has gone pale as snow. The marines are right next door. We have to move, now.
I turn to the proprietor, and dig out my credstick.
“Please, good sir, how much do you want for it?’
He turns about and pats the device sitting on a dusty shelf.
“This bad boy? Seventeen thousand creds, and she’s yours.”
Shit. I don’t have that much on my account balance. Should have borrowed Solair’s stick. But there’s no time to go back and get it, no time at all. If those marines catch us, they might take Ilya. I can’t even stand for a moment to think about losing her.
So I do what I have to do. One right cross to the jaw, and the bigoted man crumples like aluminum foil into a heap on the dirty floor.
“Swipt.” Ilya gapes in horror at what I’ve done.
“What? I am a pirate.” I shrug and grab the unit.
“Wait, you should pay him first.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Do you want to add theft to the list of reasons they want to arrest us?”
She has a point. I don’t see his cred stick, so I leave some M’kal ducats, a rare physical currency, on his slowly rising chest. Then I grab Ilya’s hand and we rush out the rear exit just as the marines are coming in the front.
Too close for comfort, and we’re not out of the woods yet.
Chapter Ten
Ilya
“That was close.”
“You think?” Turning to me, Swipt purses his lips. He then looks past me and toward the shop, and I can almost see the gears turning inside his head. “It’ll take them less than a minute to find the unconscious shopkeeper. We can’t be around when that happens.”
“Agreed.” Nodding, I follow Swipt down a maze of alleyways and cramped streets, my eyes peeled as I remain alert to any signs of IHC forces in our vicinity. By now, the marines must have slapped the shopkeeper into consciousness, and he has probably already told them about us. “We need to find a place where we can hide.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, slowing down his pace as we reach a quieter part of town. In here, the top of the buildings seems to slant inward, keeping the natural light at bay. The shadows grow longe
r around us, and I start imagining IHC marines jumping from behind a corner to ambush us. “What about that place?”
Raising one hand, Swipt points at a battered wooden door, a lousy sign someone has stapled to the wood announcing the place as a boarding house. It doesn’t look like much, but it’ll have to do. It’s either that or keep on wandering through these streets until the marines find us.
“All right, let’s try it,” I say and then follow after Swipt. He raps his knuckles against the door and then tenses up as we hear footsteps coming from the other side. I can tell he’s ready for an ambush, both his fists clenched by his side. Thankfully, no marines appear on the other side of the door. Instead, there’s an old woman with disheveled white hair and terrible posture. She has a brown shawl draped over her shoulders, one that gives her the appearance of an annoyed hunchback, and her lips seem like they’ve been designed for everything but smiling.
“Whaddya want?” she asks us in a thick accent, one borne of spending a lifetime as part of a small community. She eyes us with suspicion, her eyes going from me to Swipt.
“We’d like a room for the night,” I tell her, putting on my best smile and forcing myself to sound as nice as possible. She doesn’t seem to appreciate my attempts at politeness. Instead, she just knits her eyebrows together and folds her arms over her chest.
“A human and a Kilgari,” she mutters, more to herself than to us. “That’s not something you see every day.” She taps her fingers against her thigh, gaze cast down before lifting it and focusing on the Kilgari. “IHC patrols have been looking around. You wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Would ya? I don’t want any trouble.”
“IHC patrols?” Placing one hand over my mouth, I feign shock. “That’s terrible. We’re just here on our honeymoon, though. We don’t know anything about the IHC, and the last thing we want is to cause trouble.”
“Honeymoon, huh?” she asks, her words coming out as raspy laughter. “Who in their right mind would come on honeymoon to a shithole like this?”
“Well, huh, we ended up here by accident,” Swipt says, and then he surprises me by placing one arm around my waist. He glances at me, doing his best impersonation of someone deeply in love, and I find the hairs on the back of my neck standing up on end. If he’s only pretending, he’s doing a damn fine job of it. “See, we met in Glimner and fell in love right away. But Glimner isn’t exactly the place to raise a family. Is it? So, we bought a ship and decided to tour frontier space. We thought maybe we’d get lucky and find a place to settle.”
“And you thought this place would be your forever home?” she asks us, that harsh laughter of hers making me more nervous than I should be. I don’t know if she’s buying our story.
“Our ship malfunctioned,” I say, “and we decided to land here and look for parts. See, my father didn’t agree to our marriage, so we’re trying to avoid large commercial hubs and keep a low profile. My father has some reach, and we want to stay under his radar.”
“Young love, the mark of fools,” she says in a low tone, shaking her head to herself. Mercifully, she steps to the side and waves us in. I sigh with relief as she closes the door behind us, the sound of the latch falling in place enough for my entire body to relax. “So, what happened here?” she continues, aiming her questions at me. “How does a pretty woman like you end up falling for one of these guys?”
“I fell for her as soon as I realized she could fix a ship as well as I could fly one,” Swipt offers before I can say anything. He looks at me as he says it, and I feel my heart tightening inside my chest. Holy shit, he sounds so damn genuine right now. Is he just going along with this ruse or is he actually telling the truth?
Ducking under the counter occupying most of cramped reception we’re in, the old woman plops herself down on a creaky chair. She folds her hands over her lap, leans back, and then a small smile spreads across her lips. All suspicion is gone from her face, and that smile makes her look a couple of years younger.
“Well, I hope you find a place where you can settle,” she says, her tone far gentler than before. “I came out here to start a new life after what was left of my family was massacred in Armstrong by the Coalition.” She hesitates for a moment, as if she’s remembering something, and then sighs. “I hope you’ll get everything you want. Fools or not, everyone deserves a shot at being happy.” Rummaging through the drawers behind her, she fishes out a large iron key and tosses it our way.
“I already have everything that I want,” Swipt says, catching the key mid-air and then looking straight at me. At his words, my tight heart seems to fold upon itself. My heartbeat is going crazy, and it becomes almost impossible to herd my thoughts into something coherent. Why the hell does Swipt have to be so convincing?
Taking my hand in his, he nods at the old woman in a silent “thank you.” She returns the gesture and then guides us down a cramped corridor. We trail after her as we look for our room, and my eyes never leave Swipt as we do it. It is, of course, a mistake. The more I look at him, the more my body seems hellbent on having him.
Get a grip, I chastise myself, taking one long breath. We’re just pretending we’re in love. That’s all.
“Here ya are,” the woman finally announces, pushing an old wooden door open to reveal a small room. There’s only one window, the glass stained and cracked, and the bed looks far too small to accommodate a fully grown Kilgari and a human. Still, it’s better than being out on the street. “Ya know, you two remind me of Onawer.”
“Onawer?” I ask her as I step into the room.
“Ya, my Onawer,” she replies, and the sudden warmth of her voice surprises me. “He was handsome when I met him although he wasn’t very bright. Was the love of my life, if you can believe it. I’ve never been a big believer on those things, but when I met him…well, I knew he was the one.”
“What happened?” I ask her, feeling oddly invested in the woman’s story.
“Like I said, he wasn’t very bright,” she replies. “He thought he had to make more money to give me a comfortable existence, and the dumb bastard signed up with a group of mercenaries the Alliance had hired for an assault on an Ataxian outpost. He was in one of the first waves in. Died in an Ataxian artillery barrage.”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her, my throat suddenly feeling solid. “That must be—”
“Tough, ya,” she says. “I wish I appreciated him more when he was around. Don’t make the same mistake I did, girl.” Slowly directing her gaze toward Swipt, she nods to herself. “You never know when the galaxy will take away what you have.” Before any of us have a chance to say a thing, she turns on her heels and starts ambling down the corridor.
Suddenly, she stops and looks back at us.
“Also, don’t worry about any marines comin’ in,” she says. “These IHC bastards can go fuck themselves.”
“Thank you,” Swipt and I say in unison, surprised at the change in the woman’s demeanor. She might be one tough old lady, but she has a heart of gold.
“All right,” Swipt starts to say, closing the door and locking it. “That went—”
I don’t let him finish his sentence.
Moving fast, I crush my mouth against his.
Chapter Eleven
Swipt
I wasn’t expecting it.
Surprised, I offer zero resistance as she presses her entire body against mine, the warmth of her lips enough to make my head spin. My heart rams itself against my ribcage and, for a moment, I struggle to accept that this is really happening.
She pulls back from me, her lips lingering on mine for a second before there’s enough space between us, and then looks up into my eyes. Her eyes are wide and anxious, almost as if she’s afraid of what my reaction is going to be, but the warmth of her smile is enough to assure me that there’s no fear in her.
Not knowing what to say, I reach for her and brush my fingers against her cheek. Holding her gaze, I brush my thumb over her lips and feel electricity crackling under m
y skin, just like when she kissed me. Fully knowing what that means, I return Ilya’s smile.
Then, it’s my turn to kiss her.
Placing both my hands on her waist, I pull her into me and lean in. Our lips touch once more, and this time there’s no mistaking it. The whirlwind of electric sensations, the scorching heat emanating from her body, and the weight of the atmosphere around us…it’s all proof of something I should have known already.
Ilya’s my jalshagar.
She is my fated mate.
“Do you feel it?” I whisper against her lips, my heart like a hand grenade without a pin. I’ve been in a lot of skirmishes and fights over the years, but I’ve never experienced a rush like this before. High-octane adrenaline courses through my veins, and every single cell in my body feels as if it has just awoken from deep slumber.
For the first time in my life, I feel truly alive.
“Yes,” she replies, her lips moving against mine. “I do.”
She doesn’t need to say anything else. Closing my eyes, I let my instincts take over and I push her back until I have her pinned against the wall. I force her to raise her arms and, with one quick gesture, pull her shirt over her head. The moment her bra comes into view, the rising curves of her breasts calling for me, the adrenaline inside my veins turns into pure boiling lust. I feel myself stiffening, the fabric of my pants being pushed back by my two hard members, and the real world becomes nothing but background noise. Right now, the only thing that matters is the woman in front of me.
Breathing hard, I move my mouth down, placing gentle kisses down her neckline until I feel the soft flesh of her breasts under my lips. I move one hand behind her back and unclasp her bra. The cups droop over her breasts to reveal two rosy nipples, the buds hardening under my gaze, and it only takes a fraction of a second before I make a move.
“You’re so damn delicious,” I growl, moving the tip of my tongue up her right breast and toward her nipple. I suck it into my mouth, its warmth spreading to my tongue, and cup her left breast with one hand. She lets out a soft little moan, the sound of it coiling itself around my thoughts, and I can’t help but move my free hand down to her waist. Hooking my fingers on her waistband, I push her pants down her legs.