Kieran

by Allyson James

  “I’m Captain Jarrell,” the woman said. “I’m in charge of these interrogations. To inform you, this warehouse is fortified outside by more patrollers and armed response, plus transports for when we’re done here.”

  “That means there’s probably a crime spree going on in other parts of the city,” Felice pointed out. “If you’re all here guarding the oh-so-dangerous Shareem, who aren’t doing anything that I can see.”

  “They broke the law, Ms. Henderson,” Captain Jarrell said. “They know the restrictions on their movements, one of which is they remain on Bor Narga. And yet, we found them tonight, gathering in a space dock, with an aim to board transports off planet.”

  “Really?” Felice said. “Did you actually see any of them walking up a ramp onto a ship? Or were they just standing around admiring fine spacecraft?”

  Jarrell looked pained. “They are forbidden to be in the dockyards. And we can’t account for all the Shareem, which means that yes, a few of them did walk up ramps into ships and left the planet against strictest orders.”

  “Arrest them, then,” Felice said, not changing expression.

  “We can’t. They are now, unfortunately, out of our reach. Which they and their cohorts know.”

  “So you’ll punish the rest for what a few of them did?” Felice asked. “How fair. How democratic. And here I thought Bor Narga was a free world.”

  Angry, Jarrell said, “Our laws are our business. You are not Bor Nargan, and I cannot expect you to understand. You are of Old Earth—a long way from home.”

  “Yeah, well, being a slave means you don’t get to pick where the ship you’re working on goes. So here I am.”

  “Because the terms of your indenture were illegal on Bor Narga, they are now null and void,” Captain Jarrell said. “You are once again nothing but a free citizen of Old Earth.”

  “Yes.” Kieran rubbed Felice’s shoulders vigorously and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “See? I knew you’d be all right.”

  “However,” Jarrell broke in firmly. “You helped Shareem in activities illegal for them and resisted arrest. Seriously resisted it. Two of my patrollers have broken wrists and one has a broken jaw because of you. That’s assault. I have to arrest you for all this, but such is the treaty with Old Earth—one that hasn’t been invoked in about seven hundred years but is still valid, apparently—I can only have you deported. That will happen immediately.”

  “What?” Felice jerked in her chair, her strength returning. “No, wait. I can’t go. Not yet.”

  Captain Jarrell gave her an irritated look. “Under the circumstances, you’re getting off lightly. A transport is waiting to take you to a shuttle, which will fly you to a liner heading in the direction of Old Earth. Go, Ms. Henderson.”

  Felice grabbed the edge of the table. “No.”

  Kieran leaned down to her again. “Do it, Felice. You need to be safe.” He kissed her cheek, his breath warm, his lips shaking a little.

  “No,” Felice said a little louder. “What’s going to happen to them? To Kieran and all the others? You’re going to kill them, aren’t you?”

  Jarrell nodded. “The sentence for their violations is termination.”

  “Termination,” Felice repeated. “Termination by what means? Tell me. I want you to say it.”

  “We’re not inhumane, Ms. Henderson. The Shareem will be injected with a drug that puts them to sleep, then the lethal injection goes in. They’ll never feel it.”

  “That makes it all right then?” Felice asked, rising in fury and anguish. “And makes you feel less guilty? Sure, ease them into death. End of problem. Genocide that lets you sleep at night.”

  A big hand covered her mouth, Kieran’s voice in her ear. “Felice. Shut up.”

  The captain regarded Felice without expression. “When it’s your job to patrol an unruly population of men who think they’re better than women, come and talk to me.”

  “They don’t think they’re better than you,” Felice said shaking free of Kieran’s hand. “Try one. You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  “You really need to shut up, sweetheart,” Kieran said, the hint of his Dom voice breaking through. “Now.”

  The patroller’s eyes flickered. “Shareem were created by a conspiracy of male scientists who wished to return Bor Narga to a time when women were subjugated. We will never let that happen. Ever.”

  Felice thought about Dr. Laas and the world she’d created singlehandedly below the streets. Her computer might have helped her, but Dr. Laas had designed the computer. Felice couldn’t by any stretch of the imagination see Dr. Laas as a “subjugate-women” kind of person.

  “I don’t think—” Felice began, and then her words turned into a startled noise as she was plunged into darkness.

  *** *** ***

  As soon as the lights went out, Kieran figured out where Rees was. Or at least what their leader had been up to.

  Patrollers shouted orders in the darkness, but the Shareem made no noise. Too busy getting their asses the hell out of there.

  Kieran felt his transformation from laid-back Shareem to the single-minded Dom who knew exactly what he needed to do. Felice was his. He had to take care of her and make sure she was safe.

  The second the darkness hit, Kieran had his hand around the back of Felice’s neck, marching her to the nearest exit. He knew where all the doors were, even in the dark, his instincts having marked them as soon as he’d walked in.

  His first task as a level three was to make sure his lady was all right. Protected. Unharmed.

  Felice stumbled, but Kieran had her upright and steady the next moment. She was smart enough to say nothing—no panicked cries, no questions, no resistance—Felice simply let Kieran guide her out.

  Behind them, patrollers were pulling out handheld lights, flashing them around the darkness. The lights cut into patrollers boiling every which way, lights clashing into lights, illuminating only movement.

  “Stand still!” the captain yelled. “That’s an order!”

  An order no one was obeying. They’d eventually get their shit together, but in the moment of pandemonium, Kieran was going.

  He shoved Felice out an open door and into the hot night. The street was black too, and empty. Rees must have killed lights for a large radius, Kieran thought as he ran with Felice down the dark street. He chuckled, thinking how Rees, one lone Shareem, had confounded dozens of patrollers. What a beautiful thing.

  “Run now. Laugh later,” Felice said breathlessly.

  “You got it, babe.”

  The advantage of living in Pas City all his life was that Kieran knew the streets better than most. Even many of the patrollers grew up elsewhere, on the moons or on nearby planets, and then were assigned the Pas City patrol. They couldn’t know the town like Kieran.

  He guided Felice down narrow passages that ran behind the markets and along dust-choked lanes filled with the gods knew what. The dockyards would be crazed if the blackout extended that far, but with any luck the effing transports wouldn’t have all closed up and left. Rees and Talan would have promised the transport captains shitloads of money, but even so, there was no guarantee the captains wouldn’t have second thoughts about getting caught in Bor Nargan politics.

  Kieran heard other sounds in the dark, and he knew exactly what—and who—they were. “Everyone get out?”

  Braden’s voice came to him. “Yep. We’re going. Same place you are.” A soft laugh—difficult for Shareem to stay panicked.

  “Where are the ladies?” Felice asked. “Elisa, right? And the others?”

  “We’ll meet them,” Braden said, his amusement dying. “We fixed a meet-up point on the space station . . .”

  He meant he didn’t know where they were. Kieran heard it in Braden’s voice. Braden was trying to stick to the plan but afraid he’d never see his lifemate again.

  A week ago, Kieran wouldn’t have understood what Braden was going through. He’d have felt bad for him, but now the sam
e kind of fear beat in Kieran’s heart. Braden didn’t know whether Elisa was safe, and it was killing him.

  The dockyards were as dark as the rest of the city—the floodlights gone—but the ships’ captains and crews had running lights going, plus standing lights powered by their ships so they didn’t have to slow down the loading or unloading. Something in Kieran relaxed when he saw the outlines of at least one of the transports Rees had hired still there.

  “Go,” he said to Braden. “Maybe Elisa is already waiting on board.”

  Braden’s face in the half-light was haggard. He knew better. “I’m going to find—”

  “No, you’re not.” Kieran turned abruptly and put his big hand around the other man’s throat. Braden was as level three as he was, but Braden wasn’t thinking straight. “More important to get you off-world. All of us. That’s what Rees wants. You get it? If he’s back there pulling levers to help us, it means he might not make it. And then he dies for nothing.”

  Braden’s startled expression settled into a grim one. “Point taken. Come on, lads. Let’s not keep the ladies waiting.”

  “Fucking Rees,” Ky said. “Aiden, move your ass.”

  “Look who’s talking.” Aiden came into the light. Ky had his arm around Aiden’s wide shoulders, Ky limping heavily, his left leg half fried by a shock bolt.

  “That’s what I mean,” Ky said. “You have to drag me out of here, so mush.”

  Kieran didn’t see Justin or some of the others, but a good number of Shareem went for the ship.

  Another contingent of patrollers charged into the dockyards, realizing that was where the Shareem would go. About half the Shareem who went for the ship had made it up the ramp before the patrollers started to open fire—not with stun weapons this time. As bolts struck the ship, its hatch slammed closed, and the pilot jumped the vessel out of reach of the patrollers’ shots. As with the other transport, takeoff regulations went to hell, and the ship soared upward. Kieran imagined Shareem falling all over the place as it rocketed upward, but at least they’d made it on board.

  Some of the patrollers started using explosive rounds. A lucky shot could bring that ship crashing down, with Aiden, Ky, Braden, and the rest of Kieran’s friends inside.

  Kieran shoved Felice back into the shadows and shouted, “Hey!”

  Patrollers turned. They spied Kieran and the other Shareem left behind and turned the weapons on them. Kieran dove into darkness as the first bolt grazed the ground where he’d been standing, and ran after Felice.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kieran pushed Felice through unlit streets again, and she didn’t resist. Kieran knew where he was going, that much she believed.

  She’d been glad to see Braden and the injured Ky get away, but she equally wished she and Kieran could have dived onto that transport before the doors slammed. A little space sickness in the teetering craft would have been a small price to pay.

  The craft in question zoomed out of atmosphere above them, its engines making a bang as it broke the regulated speed. They’d gotten away.

  Felice didn’t waste her breath on questions, though they swam through her head. What now? Where was safe? Could they make it to Dr. Laas’s hideaway? Or was that compromised as well?

  Though the streets were still dark with the blackout, the markets hadn’t slowed down. The vendors had brought out their own generator-run lights and kept on hawking, adding the promise of cheap handheld lights to their sales pitches. Kieran spoke rapidly to a vendor he seemed to know, then walked away from his stall, thrusting a set of robes at Felice.

  Felice pulled them on with shaking hands. If Kieran wanted her to blend in, not bothering with robes himself, that meant he planned to go off on his own. Felice could only be anonymous without a Shareem next to her.

  In another dark street behind the markets, Kieran quickened his steps and caught up to the bulk of a man who wasn’t Shareem.

  “Mitch,” he whispered.

  The man swung around. He was with the woman who ran the bar—Judith—who’d pulled a half robe over her coveralls and a veil around her face.

  “I’m taking Judith out of here,” Mitch said in a low voice. “I have enough room in my boat for two more, but that’s all.”

  “Kieran and I are two more,” Felice said. “Lead on.”

  Kieran closed a strong hand over Felice’s wrist and drew her back, then jerked her against him. Felice looked up into eyes that held fury, agony, and grief, before his mouth came down on hers in a hard kiss.

  His lips bruised, mouth desperate, stealing her breath. He swept his tongue against hers, tasting her, memorizing her, galvanizing her to kiss him back.

  After a long, searing moment, Kieran drew away. He traced Felice’s cheek with his thumb, holding her with his blue eyes. The glitter in them, she realized, was tears.

  Kieran was saying good-bye.

  “Kieran, no,” Felice said savagely. “You have to come with me.”

  Kieran shook his head, released her, and stepped back. “Too many patrollers between here and the docks. You’ll make it with Mitch. I won’t.”

  Felice clutched at him. “We’ll find you some robes. We’ll stick to the dark. We’ll hide you.”

  “He’s right,” Mitch said. “Patrollers have Shareem in their sights. Won’t be looking for two women and their human chauffeur.”

  “Kieran . . .”

  “Go.” Kieran pulled Felice to him again, as though he couldn’t keep from holding her one last time. “We’ll meet up on station 579, with everyone else. Remember what you said? I’ll scour the universe for you. I will for you too. I’ll find you. I have to.” He slid his hand between her breasts, over her heart. “You’re mine. Always remember that.”

  Felice grabbed his wrist. “No, I’m not letting you stay.”

  “Rees is stuck here. Many others too. I’ll help Rees. We’ll make it, sweetheart.”

  They wouldn’t. Felice saw that in his eyes. Kieran knew damn well that staying meant his death. He was stepping away so Felice and Judith would have a chance.

  “Kieran’s right,” Judith said, her voice strong but sad. “We have to go.”

  “No.” Felice could fight, and this was one fight she was going to win. “I stay with Kieran. If we go down, we go down together.”

  “Damn it.” Kieran glared at her with all the arrogance of a level-three Shareem. “You obey me.”

  “Screw you,” Felice said.

  “Oh, you are so asking for it.” Felice’s heart fluttered at Kieran’s growl, loving how excited he made her, even in the midst of her dread. The knowledge that they’d stand together, no matter what the odds, eased fear out of her, letting determination take its place.

  Only for a second. Kieran shoved Felice away from him, so abruptly that she stumbled. Felice caught herself, spinning around with her fighter’s instincts to maintain her balance.

  As she righted herself, Kieran sidestepped around her, grabbed Mitch’s stun gun from its holster, and shot Felice.

  Felice stared at Kieran, incredulous, before the bite of the stun took her. The setting was low, she recognized, but that didn’t matter. Her legs gave out, sending her to her knees. Felice fought—she’d learned how to fight a stun—but she’d also learned she always lost.

  Her body slowly collapsed, the dirt street seeming to rush toward her. The last thing she saw before Mitch caught her around the middle, was Kieran’s strong feet in dusty Bor Nargan shoes walking away from her.

  *** *** ***

  By the time Felice came fully out of the stun, she was in Mitch’s ship, which was powering up. Mitch had carried her over his shoulder, and Judith, damn her, had walked quietly ahead of him, making sure the way was clear.

  Mitch’s ship, a tiny, small-cargo shuttle, was docked a long way from the larger transports Rees had fixed up for the Shareem. Mitch’s craft had four seats in the small cabin—Judith had taken the copilot’s chair, though she sat back and didn’t touch the controls. Felice had been s
trapped into the seat behind Judith’s, and the empty one next to her made her heart ache. It should be full of smartass, impatient Shareem, who’d slant a wicked smile at her.

  Mitch had the ship warmed up and shivering, wanting to go. He talked politely with the control tower, who was asking him to wait a few minutes while they cleared the air space. A power outage had them stymied, the woman’s no-nonsense voice said, and she hoped he understood. Mitch said he did. No rush.

  No rush. Sure.

  Felice waited until Mitch muted the com signal, no controller overhearing what was said in the cabin. “Where are they?” she asked.

  Her tongue felt thick, and it was tough to talk. Damn it, she hated getting stunned.

  “Where are who?” Judith asked her. Her brown eyes were wide with worry. “The Shareem? We don’t know.”

  “No,” Felice swallowed on her dry throat. “The ladies. Elisa, and Brianne, and . . . I don’t remember all their names.”

  “Safe,” Judith said. “Sort of. They were taken to the ruling council after the patrollers came charging in after the first ship went up. At least, that’s what I understood from the patrollers trying to question me. Brianne d’Aroth is one of the ruling family.”

  “Seriously, that’s where they are?” Felice drew another breath, willing the vestiges of the stun out of her nervous system. “Can you take me there too? In this thing?”

  Mitch turned around. “This thing is a Class 4 rapid carrier, sweetie. I can fly it anywhere.”

  “Good. Take me to where the ruling council is, then. I need to talk to them.”

  “It’s also not a taxi. We’re going to Station 579, and that’s it.”

  Felice ripped the restraining straps from her body and sat forward. “Take me to the others. Please. If you want the Shareem to get free, you’ll do it.”

  “Why?” Judith asked, startled. “What can you do?”

  “Just trust me,” Felice said. “Come on, Mitch. What have you got to lose?”

  “My license, my freedom, permission to land on Bor Narga again, which is where my girlfriend lives…”