by Kim Knox
She kicked her boot to the plate and the door to the washroom thunked into place. She sank onto the toilet bowl and her fingers caught the wet tangles of her hair. A slow breath escaped her.
“It was just sex.” Her mutter became lost in the roaring vibrations of the engines as they shook the metal walls. “And I’ve had sex before.” She wasn’t scrabbling back through her memory to when she hadn’t fucked flesh. When it had been a born man. “He’s no different.” Lust. It was simply lust driven by Igasho tech. Nothing more. Hell, wrap it around Aleph-Nun and she would’ve been slavering over him too.
Daned’s…distaste stabbed at her again and she found her feet in a hot rush of adrenaline, the blood heating her cheeks. It burned with the old pain that had driven her to seek out flesh-pets in the first place. “Fuck him.” A sour laugh burst from her. “Oh, I already have.”
The vibrations changed and she winced. Time had flown. The tau was about to break out of the rift lock. Chae cursed and wrapped the towel around her chest. She palmed the doorplate and pulled in a tight breath, preparing herself…but the room was empty.
Her fingers curled into a fist. Just another man. Just another fuck. Chae ignored the cramp in her stomach. She had more important things to worry about than Daned Traern. The end of the rift lock would spit them out in Shavgar-7 and she needed her wits.
She palmed open the door and the silver streaks of the rift lock flickered across the cockpit. Daned sat in the second-pilot chair, studying the instrumentation, the silver gilding him. Sensibly, he kept his hands on his towel-covered thighs. She refused to let her gaze wander over the smooth muscles of his arms, the strength of his shoulders…and with a wince she realized she was doing exactly that. He was just flesh. And now the false push of the living gold had been removed, she could forget about her insane rush of lust.
“We’re coming out of the lock,” she said and Daned’s attention snapped to her. His dark eyes, holding pools of glistening silver, flicked over her body before he found her gaze again. His mouth thinned. She ignored it. “In a few minutes.”
She ran her hand over her tunic hanging from its jag of metal and found it dry. She dropped the towel over the back of the pilot seat and made a smile cut her mouth. “Better to be dry and covered up when dealing with Shavgar’s tower. The Misae there can smell nakedness.”
Daned had pulled in a breath, but didn’t turn away. Chae straightened her shoulders. She’d been strip-searched more than once and could weather a man’s stare. She hooked her thumbs into her trousers and yanked them down. Stretching the material, she stamped free until she stood only in her boots. “Still horrified, Daned?”
“We’re coming out of rift lock, Captain.”
Chae shrugged the tunic over her arms and head, its dry warmth tingling against her skin. Daned was still watching her, his gaze unreadable. Hell, she’d had her taste of him—She gritted her teeth and willed herself not to go down that route. She dropped into her pilot chair and ran quick fingers over the gleaming interface. The rough vibrations rattled her bones and she cursed the tau wreck she sat in.
“Strap in.” She reached for the belts tangled around her chair with a free hand. They clunked under her breastbone and she braced her body, her boot planted hard against the curve of the instrumentation. Her fingers flexed around the guidance rods. “The de-lock is going to kick.”
Real space snapped over them, fire and force ripping through every muscle. Chae bit down on a scream, willing her eyes to stay open, to focus on the broad screen curving over her. Shavgar-7 was deadly for those who came out of rift lock unprepared.
The darkness of space forced her to widen her eyes, every instinct strung out. Her heart thudded, racing with the roar and rattle of the tau’s engines. The misted brown bulk of the planet filled the lower edge of the screen, the space lanes heavy with traffic, hulls gleaming in the burning red light of the system’s red giant.
Chae shot for the curves of the protected space lanes, her body still screaming from being ripped from the lock. Shavgar-7’s outer zones teemed with rift pirates, ones too eager to strip a ship of its cargo and space the crew. Hell, she wasn’t surviving all the shit on Arkhengai only to have her hull ripped open by some skank pirate.
But there were no rift pirates. None.
She let out a heavy breath. More than once she’d appeared over Shavgar-7’s industrial atmosphere and had to scramble to find the safety of the defense drones. Maybe a more lucrative cargo had broken out over the planet and maybe she’d found her first piece of luck that day.
“This is Shavgar Tower. Welcome to Shavgar-7, Captain Beyon.”
Fuck. Or maybe not. Chae’s knuckles tensed around the guiding rods, but she kept her course in the outer orbiting lane. Shavgar Tower never offered an image, ever, and she relied on her memory of the controllers. She had a sharp ear to back up her keen instincts and the synthesized voice wasn’t one of the usual tower Misae controllers. “Thanks…Alna, isn’t it?”
“What brings you this way again, Captain?”
Nice little dodge of her question. “Just passing through, Alna.” She kept her voice light and it earned her a narrowed glare from Daned. “When you’re ready, a lock to Istakatar is appreciated.” Her fingers moved over the controls, her attention fixed on the stream of traffic. The fierce rush of her blood pounded in her ears. She forced a smile to curve her mouth. “How’s Renar? Have you two finally wrapped tentacles?”
“Prepare to join the rift stream, Captain.”
And there was her absolute proof. Alna liked nothing more than to subject Chae to the most lurid details of her sex life. It was a primal Misae trait.
“Thanks.” Chae lurched the tau upward, following other ships toward their locks.
“Captain, you’re drifting off course.”
“Yes, Tower. Damn tau piece of shit. Making corrections.” Chae held back a snort. Like hell was she going for the opened lock. She didn’t trust the rift the false Alna had opened and because of it, she was about to risk her license. No. She wasn’t risking it. She was holding up her bloody license and burning it in full view. Shit. Now she needed her crates of black crystal. Her flying days were over.
An alpha-class cruiser surged ahead of her ship, an effortless mass of gleaming, curved metal. It was time for Chae to do something completely and utterly illegal.
“Captain Beyon, you are in danger of slipstreaming.” The angered edge to the synthetic voice created a burr that jarred her teeth. “Pull back and correct your course.”
“Still attempting to compensate, Alna.” Chae willed every ounce of her body into driving her ship closer to the bulk of the cruiser. Its wake would give her ship the speed to join it in rift lock, and exiting the lock would be rough as fuck, but it was a risk she had to take. They didn’t have a choice.
“Lady?”
Chae shook her head, wishing she had a touch of his telepathy. She cursed the open comm. to the planet. Daned had to trust her. She almost laughed at that thought. But if her screaming instincts were right—and she had no excuse not to trust them—then the lock Shavgar Tower had opened would tear their craft apart the second they entered it. Riding the alpha’s slipstream into its rift lock was the only chance they had of reaching Ladaia-prime. And more importantly, her black crystal.
Proximity alarms droned and Chae swore. “The automated defenses. A little excessive, don’t you think, Tower?” There was no reply. They couldn’t drive her into their lock, so they were planning to blast her ship. “Wonder which Family organized this?” she muttered.
“Lady…?”
There was an edge to Daned’s voice, but he didn’t trust the open channel. “We’re heading out of this system a different way, pretty. The tower is not happy.”
Daned frowned. “Why?”
Did he really want her to spill the truth? The ship rocked and Chae fought to keep it in the wake of the cruiser. So much for explaining. The defenses planned to rip her tau to pieces. She regripped the rods a
nd gave in to her instincts. The drone of the alarms, the ripple of the energy wake as it buffeted her ship, the feel of space around her, thrummed through her body. Somehow she almost became one with the ship. It was why she was such a bloody good pilot.
The eddies of the slipstream tugged at her ship, pulling her closer, faster, yanking her away from the attack drones’ slicing fire. The first opening punch of the rift lock broke a cry from her. Daned grunted. Pain lanced through every muscle as the massive wake swept around them, enveloping the cruiser and her gnat of a ship in tearing tidal forces.
“Hold on.” Her words came out through gritted teeth. Agony bit deep into her bones. Hell, she should’ve taken the other rift lock. Least that would’ve been a quick death. “This may not work.” Sudden blackness engulfed them. “At all.”
Chapter Five
Chae groaned and peeled her face away from the damp surface of her guiding rods. The silver stream of the rift lock flowed over the screen, the bulk of the alpha-class cruiser a blurred mass of curved metal just ahead of their ship. The tau’s engines screamed around them, the vibrations rattling the walls. Chae wanted to laugh. Nothing new there then.
“Why?” Daned asked.
Chae rubbed at her jaw and cheekbone, wincing at the pain. She glanced at the time. Shit, she’d been out cold for over ten minutes. “Because the controller wasn’t who she said she was.” He’d left her slumped over the controls. Bastard. Her gaze flicked over his almost-naked perfection, no red welts and bruises staining his skin. “And thank you, I’m fine.” She fell back into the leather of her chair and pressed her palm to the belt lock under her breasts. The straps released and her body sagged. Sarcasm bit through her words. “Glad to see you’re well.”
“I couldn’t risk moving you.” His mouth thinned. “I can’t fly this thing.”
Yes, there was that. It was good that he could be so…clinical. Chae let out a slow breath. “Well, that’s my flying license fucked.” She stretched her leg, the twist of leather in her boot pressing the sliver of black crystal against her calf muscle. “I’ll need to hire a pilot.” Her gaze slid to him. “Buy myself some flesh with other implanted skills.”
Daned ignored that, though a vein throbbed in his temple. Good. Bastard.
“You can break out of this ship’s slipstream?”
“I can try.” Chae rolled her neck and winced at the tug of strained muscle. “There’s a reason why this maneuver is illegal.” She pushed herself out of her chair and arched her spine. There were a few disconcerting cracks. She felt Daned watching her and met his dark gaze. “Are you indestructible?”
“It’s how we’re bred. I heal quickly.”
“That and telepathy.” Chae turned to the panel, her fingers moving, working to plot a way out of the rift lock. A bitter laugh escaped her. “Definitely in the wrong caste.” She paused. “Wait. Bred?”
“The Traern are a specialization within the Ara. They bred us with advanced fighting skills, speed, agility, strength.”
Something lurked in his words, something he wasn’t saying. All was not well with being…bred. She couldn’t resist poking him about it. “Yes, I enjoyed the last one.” It earned her a dark look and she closed her eyes. The unexpected heat of embarrassment burned in her face. She had no regrets about…fucking him. He’d been tasted and forgotten, like any flesh-pet. She changed the subject. “It looks like we have fifty-two minutes before we jump.” She shrugged. “We’ve saved ourselves another rift lock. If we get out of this one alive.”
“And the chances of that are?”
“You don’t want to know.”
She locked down the information and fixed their flight plan. She knew the theory—what runner didn’t?—but she’d never put it into practice. Her mentor, the man Jobal Reve had apprenticed her to, had loved to ride the slipstream and burst into any area of space, no rules, no towers, no questioning his cargo. That was his job. It wasn’t hers. Hadn’t been for years. She enjoyed flying too much to risk her freedom. Or had.
“Captain…?”
“A one in ten chance.” She stared around the curve of the cockpit, the walls shuddering. “I’ve done this before, just in something that could actually fly.” Not exactly the truth, but she was lying to herself as much as him. Loxias Malyn had never let her take their ship out of the lock. “My mentor was a legend.”
“Loxias Malyn. Jobal’s longest-serving smuggler. He gifted you his ship.”
“That was obviously a long report.”
She jabbed her thumb back to the bedroom and grabbed her bag from the hook. Shit, she felt awkward. She never had to do the after-sex unpleasantness. Deactivated flesh sat in the corner until she wanted him again. She winced. She’d used flesh-pets to scratch an itch when she was younger and all the men she knew now were smugglers and skanks. But, hell, she hadn’t meant it to become a way of life. It was not a realization she wanted right then. “I need to snack, rest.” She waved her hand at him. “I don’t have your ability to regenerate.”
“An Ara Emperor created us two centuries ago. We were designed as bodyguards.”
Chae stopped at the arch of the doorway. There was that…strangeness again. Her instincts screamed he wasn’t telling the whole truth. She frowned. “I don’t need to know this.”
He stood and tucked the towel more tightly around his lean waist. Chae looked away, focusing on the battered metal trim of the door. When had simply looking at him become painful? Was this the kickback from the Igasho metal the manufacturers kept quiet? Euphoria and then a weird crash of emotions? Wonderful.
Chae pushed herself away from the doorframe and padded across the room to the single bunk. She flopped down and bent forward to tug off her boots. The sliver of black crystal pushed against her palm. Her life had been so simple that morning. Now it was screwed seven ways—she snorted—if not more.
“Even in the restrictions of the Ladaian breeding programs, we’re constrained.”
And still he wanted to talk. “Daned. Really, I understand.”
He moved toward her and Chae held down a curse. She wanted to curl on the bed and forget all about him in mindless sleep…but it seemed he wanted to carry on explaining his horror. Yes, she had zero luck.
“I don’t know what you are.” His dark gaze darted around her face as if she had the answer seared into her skin. He stood too close and she couldn’t help but breathe in the spice of his scent. It made her too aware and she crossed her arms, denying him the sight of her traitorously peaked nipples through her tunic. He reached out to touch her jaw and she flinched. He frowned. “You’re unlike any in your caste.”
“Does that make it easier? Explainable? Less likely to stick in your throat or maybe stain your record?” Chae held down a silent curse. Damn it, he was not getting to her. It was some crazy fallout from the living gold. She didn’t want to look at him anymore. That had to be a sign. “Breaking out of a rift lock isn’t easy. It’s timed and needs…”
He drew her to her feet, stopping her words. His warm fingers slipped through hers. “I follow orders. That was bred into me too.” A smile curved his mouth and the familiar need she had to cover it with her own warmed her flesh. “What happened before?” His lush mouth quirked upward and Chae couldn’t help but echo it. “That wasn’t a part of them.”
His hand slid from hers and he threaded his fingers into her tangled hair, cupping the back of her head. He tilted her face up. His bare chest brushed against her folded arms, and the contact charged through her skin. She blinked. It felt like the tech-embedded gold. She caught the sudden flare of desire in his eyes and sucked in a quick breath. “What the hell is that?”
“And as I said, I don’t know what you are.” His lips brushed hers, the light touch almost sparking heat against her suddenly dry mouth. “But whatever it is…I want it.” His hand slid around her waist to tug at the smooth material of her tunic and his teeth tugged at her bottom lip. “I want you.”
Chae pulled back from him, edging alon
g the bunk to put distance between them. He was offering himself. Why the hell was she running away? “All right, now I’m completely confused.”
“Don’t be.” He closed the distance between them, something slow and predatory that forced her heart to an almost painful thud. His mouth was so close his breath warmed her. She should resist him, Chae knew that, but the temptation of Daned was still too strong. “A Ladaian finds a genetic match, one who complements and enhances his or her inheritance.”
“Sounds blissful.”
Daned smiled and something about it made her insides flutter.
He didn’t smile. Not like that. She ignored the demands of her body, the need she had to rip off her tunic and shove Daned onto the hard bunk mattress. “You said this couldn’t happen. Fucking below your caste.” The words tasted sour in her mouth. She liked him. Liked having a real human in her life again. Damn it, when the fuck did she get to be so needy? She pushed down the stupid emotion. “Don’t you have to breed true? Refrain from sullying your parts with the lower castes?”
“Sullying my parts?” Daned grinned and it caught her breath. He pulled at her tunic until he found the curve of her backside and his finger teased along it. The unexpected sensitivity broke a gasp from her. “Is that a promise?”
“Daned…” His name came out almost as a growl and a spark lit his dark gaze. The curl of her anger mixed with her sudden flare of desire. She shouldn’t want him so much, not without the push of living tech in her veins. “What is this?”
“Ladaians aren’t human.” Daned teased her lips with the tip of his tongue, his familiar, hot taste sinking warmth and need into her flesh. “The Founders changed us, forged us into Families and castes. We seek…perfection.”
His words wrapped around her. She wanted more than a fast fuck. She wanted to taste him, feel the strength of his arms around her, lie awake and listen to his breathing, the slowed beat of his heart as he slept. The strange—almost affectionate—thoughts spun through her mind, unbidden, unexpected. She curled her fingers into fists and pressed them hard against her ribs. “Why are you doing this?” She shook her head. Fuck, was he spinning some sort of mind control on her? She took her orgasm and she passed out. That was sex. Raw, hot and fast. She did not—and had never—cuddled. “What are you doing to me?”