“You’re right, of course,” I said with a heavy sigh.
Madalena gestured to Mikhael and Lux, and they stepped closer to us.
“Adam and I will move clockwise from this position, you move counterclockwise. Do you both know what to look for?”
“White robes or clothes?” Lux asked as her cold eyes scanned the crowds around the booths.
“Yeah,” I said. “The insignia on their ship is a cross inside of a square that is inside of a circle.” I made the design out with my finger in the air.
“I will look, my lord,” Lux replied, and Mikhael nodded.
“Meet us at the adjacent stall,” Madalena said as she pointed across the plaza.
“Yes, Prime Valkyrie,” they both said. Then they moved to our right, and I watched them disappear into the densely packed crowds.
“I continue to issue orders without your approval,” Madalena apologized as she stood closer to me.
“You know your warriors better than I do. Also, I don’t think they respect me.” I looked toward our left at the closest slaver booth and then took my first steps toward it.
“They will,” she said.
“I don’t care,” I replied
“You should.”
“They listen to you. You listen to me. It works. By the way, listening to me is optional for you. If you want, I can drop you back off in Nordar - 13, and you can continue leading your people.” I didn’t look at her while I spoke, but I could feel her anger begin to churn.
“You continue to try and rid yourself of me,” she seethed. “Why?”
“I already told you why,” I said.
“You lie to yourself. I know what you feel for me.”
“Yeah, but I only feel these things for you because you forced them on me.”
“Odin has given us to each other so that we might unite the Nordar and defeat the Draugr.”
“Look, Madalena,” I said as I turned to her. “I’m tired and grouchy, and I want to find my friends. Once I’ve found them, and they are back on Persephone, I’m going to feel a lot better about fighting these Draugr.”
“Agreed,” she said, and I could feel relief pour from her.
“These fuckers don’t look like the fuckers I want to fucking kill,” I hissed as I studied the men at the first slave trader station. They were selling muscular men with strange helmets over their heads. I guessed the device eliminated all sights and sound so the person wearing one would be completely discombobulated. Four of the black armored security guards with the spiked shoulders stood around the booth, and they watched the crowds intently. A quick look around the plaza confirmed that each of the booths was attended by Red Eye - 13 guards, and I realized we were going to have a bit of a problem getting some alone time with any Magate Order fuckers.
If they were even here.
Madalena and I moved to the second booth, and I studied the vendors. These sellers were a pair of men and women, and each of them was a cyborg. Their “merchandise” were women and young boys, but the slaves looked thin and sickly. There were still bidders though, and disgust welled in my stomach.
“Fuck this,” I growled as we moved to the next stand. Thoughts of Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta standing naked on a slaver’s podium made me want to scream, and I’d never felt so powerless. Even when I wore the control collar, I could have ended my life if I really wanted. I had some sort of control over my fate.
“Love does not make us weak, Adam,” Madalena said as we threaded through the next crowd.
“Get out of my head,” I hissed to her. She didn’t reply, but I felt her sadness, and I regretted the words. “Fuck, Madalena, just… damn it. I don’t know how to feel about you, but give me some time. Keep our conversation on the business at hand. I don’t have the attention span right now. It’s taking everything I have to keep my eyes open and my boots moving, Got it?”
“I understand,” she said. “I felt your sadness and wished to help--”
“Later,” I cut her off and then nodded at the next stand. “Those fuckers are wearing white.”
“Yes,” she replied. “Let us move closer.”
Madalena and I threaded through the throng of bidders and came to stand a meter from the raised platform. There were four naked women on the stage, and two white-robed men shouted bidding amounts into the crowd. The women weren’t wearing any sort of chains or manacles, but they wrapped their arms around their breasts to cover themselves. Behind the women stood four men in white robes, and I saw stun batons holstered on their belts.
The beast in my stomach screamed louder than the bidding crowd, and my head swam for a few moments. I didn’t know for sure if these were the Magate Order, but the women on stage were terrified, and I couldn’t fucking stand it.
“No. Adam, you will never find your friends this way.” Madalena’s fingers were wrapped around my wrist, and it took every millimeter of willpower I had not to push her away.
“Damn,” I sighed as I forced my hand to relax.
“Is that the insignia?” Madalena asked as she nodded to the back side of the stage. I looked over to where she indicated and saw some metal equipment cases stacked in neat rows. The boxes had the gold symbol I recalled from the ship that took my friends, and I struggled to contain my rage.
“Yes,” I gasped, and Madalena nodded toward the four black armored guards stationed around the booth. I understood what she meant. We were going to need to figure out how to get rid of the guards before we “talked” to these fuckers.
A group of slave women stood behind the crates, and my eyes desperately searched for my friends. I didn’t see them there, and my emotions tumbled from my chest. It would have been too easy to find them here, but at least we’d found six of these Magate Order fuckers. They might not know where my friends had been abducted, but I’d still take a lot of pleasure in the interrogation process.
“We’ll wait until they return to their ship,” I said after I watched the auction for a few minutes. I had no doubt that Madalena, Mikhael, Lux, and I could kill the fuck out of the four Red Eye - 13 guards and take the Magate Order slavers prisoner, but there were fifty-six other guards stationed in the plaza, and I wasn’t angry enough to risk a suicide mission.
But I was really damn angry, and the monster in my stomach was pushing my exhaustion away.
The bidding ended on one woman, and a Magate Order representative pulled on her arm to take her down the steps of the platform. I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t turn my eyes away from the transaction. Three lightly armored men with red skull caps were purchasing the woman, and they looked indifferent to the process. They’d done this before, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would be familiar with buying slaves.
“We have visited all the stalls in the perimeter,” Lux said as she and Mikhael threaded through the crowd to stand next to us. “There are no other Magate Order booths.”
“Find out who those fuckers in the red caps are,” I said as I nodded to the men buying the crying woman from the Magate Order fucker.
“Mikhael,” Madalena said, and the man nodded before he slipped through the auction house.
“Will they always have to run my orders through you?” I asked the Prime Valkyrie.
“Once you complete your rite of passage, they will follow you without question,” Madalena said.
“Uhhh, what?” I asked, and I temporarily forgot about the slave auction.
“You will need to complete the rite,” Madalena said. “Then you can take the throne of the Vaish Overlord Clan and begin your conquest of the other Blood Clans.”
“Uhhh. No,” I said. “What are you talking about? Your father gave me the rite of passage, and I thought you said he wasn’t in charge anymore?”
“I am now Queen and Prime Valkyrie, but you are my husband. It will be easier for us to unite the clans if you have completed Odin’s rite of passage.”
“You have got to be kidding me?” I asked, but I knew she wasn’t.
“First
, we will rescue your friends, as I swore I would.” Madalena nodded.
“Then I will have to complete that bullshit rite? How about you go fu--”
“I will have to secure my clan first. There will be turmoil after my father’s defeat. I will need to find and kill him first.”
“Wait, Madalena, this is crazy. Your father said I had to complete the rite, he’s not in charge anymore, you are. Can’t you just wave your hand and say I’m a Nordar?”
“We honor decisions of the previous kings,” she said. “He interfered with your rite of passage, so I challenged him. His judgement still stands though, you must complete Odin’s rite.”
“Fucking shit,” I said as I rubbed my tired face with my hands. “You all are bat-shit crazy.”
“You will survive the rite. Odin has deemed it--”
“Let’s talk about it later. I can’t deal with your bullshit right now.” I turned away from the two Vaish woman and tried to keep my emotions in check. I did a terrible job of it, and I was sure she felt my frustration and anger.
“I am sorry I have upset you, Adam,” she said. “I realize you do not see yourself as I see you. Therefore, you have fear.”
“You want to hang me by the neck for nine days. I am being reasonable, and I said I didn’t want to talk to you about it now.” I kept my eyes focused on the auction, and I saw that another woman had been sold to the red cap fuckers. Mikhael was standing a few meters from them, and the Vaish man was watching the group out of the corner of his eye.
“We will speak of it later,” she said, but I didn’t bother answering her.
Fuck, I missed Eve, Zea, Kasta, and Paula.
I watched the auction proceed, and the red caps bought the remaining two women up on the block. Mikhael glanced over at me when the men turned to leave, and I gestured for him to follow them.
“What is the outcome you are expecting?” Madalena asked after she nodded across the crowd to Mikhael.
“I can’t destroy this station, but I can help those women.”
“How will you help them?” she asked, and her eyebrow raised.
“We’ll kill them and then--”
“You are kind, Adam,” Madalena said. “I feel your intentions, and they make me love you more than I thought I could love a man, but you cannot save everyone. If we chase those men, what of the Magate Order? What of your friends? What if we free those four women? Should we take them on our ship? Take them back to their planet? That will delay finding your friends even more.”
“We need more crew,” I argued, even though I felt deflated. “Their lives will be better onboard Persephone than they will as slaves.”
“Perhaps, or perhaps they will serve as luxury concubines, and we will die in the next few days.” Madalena shrugged. “I will serve you in whatever decision you want, my lord.” She glanced back toward the raised platform, and I turned to see the head auction asshole from the Magate Order address the crowd.
“Our permit today only gives us twelve transactions, and that was our last one.”
The crowd booed, and I struggled to keep the animal in my DNA from taking over.
“But take a look at these beauties behind us.” He gestured to the other cowering women standing next to the crates. “We’ll be back tomorrow after breakfast to sell them. You won’t want to miss it. See you then!”
The crowd began to disperse, and the Magate Order assholes went to grab their crates and the remaining slaves. The six men talked to each other for a few moments, and then they walked into the plaza center with their slaves in tow.
“We’ll follow,” I said to Madalena and Lux.
“What of Mikhael?” Lux asked the other woman, and Madalena turned to me.
“I gave him an order, now I am giving you one.” I glared at Lux, but she ignored me and waited for Madalena to reply.
“We follow the Magate Order. Mikhael will report when he has discovered the identity of the men wearing the red hats.”
“Yes, Prime Valkyrie,” Lux said.
I was already pushing through the crowd of slave buyers, but the desire to drag my claws across each of their disgusting necks paled in comparison to how much I wanted to sink my teeth and taste the blood of these Magate Order fuckers.
Their procession moved to a part of the bazaar that we hadn’t walked through. The stands were more food vendors, but the scents of their wares didn’t make me hungry. All I cared about was talking to these men about where they took my women.
The next part of the bazaar sold drugs, brain implants, and prostitutes, a few of the women moved to proposition me, but I shot them a glare, and they backpedaled as if I had smacked them across the face. I could feel Madalena and Lux’s presence right behind me, but I almost didn’t care they followed me. I wasn’t going to lose these men now that I had their scent.
The white-robed men pulled their slaves out of the bazaar and into one of the connector tunnels leading to the harbor. There was less of a crowd around us than in the bazaar, but there was still enough traffic to conceal the fact that we were tailing the white-robed men.
They moved into the harbor, and we followed them for a good ten minutes. Then Madalena’s hand rested on my arm. I turned to look at her, and she leaned into my ear.
“Mikhael has followed the men wearing the red hats to their ship. He believes they will be departing shortly.”
“Damn,” I said.
“We know that the Magate Order will be here tomorrow,” she replied.
“Yeah,” I growled. “Let’s follow them to their ship.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“Then we go to Mikhael’s location, offer to buy the red-cap wearing asshole’s slaves, get on board their ship, kill them, and then ask the women if they want passage on our ship.”
“What if attacking these men raises the station alarm?” she asked. “Then we might be forced to flee.”
“We’ll have to kill them discreetly.”
“My lord, might I offer another--”
“What do you think we should do?” I sighed.
“Your primary objective is saving your friends, correct?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah.”
“We need to interrogate these men first. That could put the station on lockdown and mean we have to flee as well. Would you rather save four unknown women from slavery, or have the information you need to find your friends, and then attempt to help others?”
“You make a good point,” I said. “It’s the smart decision. I’m sorry, I’m angry, tired, and I--”
“Adam,” she whispered as her eyes met mine. “I know your struggles. Do not apologize to me. I am the only one who should ever apologize to you.”
“Like I said, we can talk about it later.” I pulled my arm out of her grasp and then turned toward the Magate Order group.
“I will tell Mikhael to stand by,” she said. “He will inform us if they depart.”
I nodded but didn’t look at her. The white-robed men had turned a corner into one of the docking tunnels, and I felt my heart pound in my chest. I doubted that my friends were on board this slaver ship, but I knew I was getting closer to finding out where they were.
Or so I hoped. This could still be a dead lead. The men in this group might not have ever heard of GUAAY - 23 - C, or know where the women abducted from that world would be taken.
I walked past the tunnel where the men and their slaves had turned and casually glanced inside. It looked almost identical to the tunnel outside of Persephone, except there were more lights on the ceiling, and there was no booth attached to the wall.
The men there were opening the door to the docking tube, but I continued my walk past the tunnel and then turned to the two women.
“Try not to kill anyone. I want to question them,” I instructed as I scanned the harbor. I didn’t see any of the black armored station police, but Madalena and Lux were attracting plenty of lecherous stares from men who walked past.
“Yes, my lord,�
�� Madalena said as her hand rested on her pistol. Lux didn’t reply to me, but her fingers also brushed her weapon.
“Go,” I said, and then the three of us sprinted into the tunnel.
Chapter 14
The Magate Order fuckers had finished opening the door to their docking tube and were pulling their slaves into the tunnel. They didn’t seem to notice us when we first turned the corner, but when Lux and Madalena sprinted ahead of me, one of the men opened his mouth to shout a warning.
The words never left his mouth, Lux’s pistol grip smashed his teeth inward, and he flipped over like a spun bottle.
Madalena’s elbow smashed into the temple of another man. He dropped like a sack of bricks, and then her long leg kicked out to break the knee of a slaver who was turning around. She spun toward a third slaver, who was reaching toward his stun baton, but Lux reached her hand across the man’s chest and tossed him backward. He landed on his skull, and I heard a hollow thwack sound echo from the tube.
The remaining two men were also reaching for their stun batons, but they hardly had time to wrap their fingers around the handles before I reached them. I shoulder checked one of them, and he crashed into the wall of the tube two meters away. Then I spun the other fucker and punched him in the face with my revolver. I hit him a little too hard, and his skull cracked like an egg. I turned around to the man I’d knocked into the wall, but Lux was already there, and she held his face down on the ground with her pistol pushed to the back of his head.
“Drop it,” Madalena ordered, and I turned to see her pressing her weapon into the skull of the man whose leg she just broke. He managed to get his hands around the grip of his pistol but hadn’t pulled it free from his holster. The man glanced up at the brunette woman, and then he removed his hand from his weapon.
“How many more on your ship?” I asked them as I turned to the loading door of their vessel. It was closed, but I wanted to interrogate them in a place where I didn’t care about cleaning up blood afterward.
“Fuck--” the man Lux had on the ground began to say, but his words were cut off when she pushed his face into the floor of the tube. He let out a muffled scream, but the black-haired woman merely smiled and forced his face across the metal grate.
Prime Valkyrie: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 6) Page 20