Battling Rapture

by Stormie Kent

  Play-for-credit machines lined the walls and randomly whirled and buzzed with sounds and flashing lights. They hurt his hypersensitive eyes and ears. The mood was boisterous.

  They passed from the larger room to a smaller room in the back. The noise and lights fell away as if it were a waterfall. Each sound was measured, used or discarded here by patrons, based on whether or not it moved them closer to more credits. The United Universe’s common currency was only half of the motivation here. The other was the lure of the winning hand. All the serious card players congregated here in the back room.

  Somewhere on this casino moon was the Huntu’s newest first lady’s kinswoman. His cousin Venn’s wife, Camryn, was an Earth woman, the love of his cousin’s life and a former slave. Venn had hired the crew of the Dovian Heart, a group of anti-slavery mercenaries, to search for the woman. Rhine had been dubious in the extreme about the likelihood she would be found. Niki Sawyer could have been on the beleaguered Earth or on one of the hundreds of thousands of inhabited planets scattered throughout the United Universe. She’d been identified quickly, surprising him more than he wanted to admit.

  The information sent to Venn from the crew of the Dovian Heart indicated Isor Ja, an itinerant gambler and lackey for the region’s number two press gang boss, had purchased his new cousin’s kinswoman. Rhine had been waiting in space, ready for the message that the Dovian Heart had found Niki. He’d changed course immediately and set out with his cousins Tor, Gunter and Olaf. Unfortunately, he also had an extra crew member. Bronwyn.

  She was untried on a mission like this one. If Isor Ja wouldn’t allow Rhine to purchase Niki Sawyer, Rhine fully intended to kill him and take her. They tried to give Camryn what she wanted. She wanted her kinswoman. She was nearly sick with wanting her.

  The desire to give Camryn what she wanted was why, when the small Earth woman asked if Bronwyn could continue her coming of age trip instead of being returned to Ordan, both Venn and Rhine had folded. They had pretended to be swayed by Camryn’s argument that Bronwyn would be with family. He knew the truth. They were fools for her every request. Outside of her brothers, who would protect the girl more fiercely than her cousins and the ruling cabinet of her Tribe, she’d asked?

  When he returned home, he would practice saying no to Camryn each day until it was easy.

  At least Bronwyn looked the part of a badass. They’d all donned black leather and the girl had emulated Camryn’s style by wearing thin leather pants under a bisected skirt. Extreme eyeliner and black lipstick, combined with the fact that as an Ordanian she was taller than most men in the casino, eased his mind on how tough she looked. Besides, Bronwyn had come into the world with icy disdain in her eyes and a cold sneer on her lips.

  He kept her close to his back and Tor stationed himself behind her. Anyone would have to be a damn fool to come against four armed Ordanian men and one mean and armed Ordanian woman.

  He scanned his surroundings again, blocking the maelstrom of emotions which swirled around the room. He wondered if the patrons would control their feelings if they knew empaths walked among them.

  “This place is a dump,” Bronwyn said.

  For once, he was happy to see the contempt on her face. Without Camryn to make her smile, the girl had no other expression.

  They needed to find Isor Ja. Each man and Bronwyn had his image on their communication pads from an old warrant. Sweaty, unwashed bodies and tryzu smoke created an aroma which curled his lip and caused his eyes to water.

  “How are we going to find him in this crowd?” Gunter asked.

  “We have to guard the little one here,” Rhine said.

  “I’m almost as tall as you. How is that little?” she asked.

  “I mean age, Bronwyn.”

  “I’ll cover the door,” Gunter said quietly. “Contact me on the com link if you find him.”

  Rhine was proud of his new communications links. They had to be special ordered because Ordanian hearing was so advanced that a regular link sounded as if someone was screaming in their ears. Rhine nodded and they set off to the right side of the room. They wound slowly through the tables. Anyone in their way moved. Those who glanced at them looked away quickly. Being bigger and scarier was satisfying in the extreme.

  A familiar scent assailed his nose at the same moment Bronwyn gasped. He hurriedly searched the room. It smelled as if they had bottled Camryn’s scent, cut the layer of sweetness with an extra dose of spice and then sprayed the rear of the room with it.

  “There,” Bronwyn whispered.

  She quickly pointed to a table behind a haze of tryzu smoke and surrounded by several species he knew to be hypersensitive. The scent of the Earth woman would be too much for them to resist.

  He barreled through the aliens. As he neared, he got his first clear look at a woman who had to be Niki Sawyer. Now we’ll have two of them to defend.

  She was exquisite. She looked like Camryn, yet she…didn’t. She had the same Rhinonian colbruna-colored skin and long, curly brown and black hair. Their features were almost identical at first glance. Niki’s face was symmetrical, her eyes large and brilliant, her lashes long and her lips full.

  But her brown eyes were also hard and her mouth was implacable instead of just stubborn. She stared at the back of Isor Ja’s head as if the force of her gaze would be enough to shatter his skull. She radiated a controlled anger which was almost frightening coming from such a beautiful woman. He glanced down. Isor Ja had her hands chained behind her. She wore a sheer sheath in a shimmering rainbow print and ankle shackles. The bastard hadn’t even given her shoes for her feet.

  They reached the table just as a player folded and stood. A yellow and brown amphibious male from Ol attempted to take his place. Rhine pulled him away by the neck, careful to keep the man’s shirt between his hand and the mucous covering the Ol’s body.

  “Hey, I was—” The man looked up at Rhine. “I’ll find another table.”

  Rhine sat down. “What’s the game? What are the stakes?”

  “Ordanian,” Isor Ja said. He glanced behind Rhine at the others and shuddered. “Ordanian nobles, no less. We aren’t playing for steep enough stakes for someone like you.”

  “We are Huntu. Are you telling me I may not play?”

  Silence descended on the table.

  “She’s mine. You have your own Earth exotic,” Isor Ja blurted as he scraped his chair back.

  Rhine could feel her eyes on him. Her malevolence was now directed at him.

  “You speak of my new cousin, Camryn, Lady Huntu. Do so with respect.” Or die was a given.

  Niki’s hostility lowered and the look she gave him was more speculative than murderous. Rhine leaned back casually in the chair. He felt more than heard Gunter join them.

  “What are we playing?”

  He wanted to say his prowess at cards was saving the day. In reality, the Earth woman, Niki, gave him clues to best his opponents. He’d worked out a system based on how she moved her body. A toss of her hair indicated a bluff. If she cocked her head to the right, it meant bid higher. If she cocked her head to the left, it meant hold. Her clues were too reliable for chance. It seemed the woman had chosen sides.

  Rhine didn’t feel at all guilty about cheating. Maybe Isor Ja wouldn’t mind either if he knew that winning Niki would save Rhine from slitting Isor Ja’s throat and tossing his body into the casino’s incinerator.

  Isor Ja was clearly in trouble. Their fellow players had abandoned the game, saying the stakes were too steep. Isor Ja refused to admit defeat. Olaf had already hacked into the other man’s credit account and knew what his balance was. He’d whispered the information to Rhine five hands ago.

  “I raise my bet ten thousand credits,” Rhine said coolly.

  Isor Ja was visibly sweating now. “I can’t cover a bet like that.”

  The man didn’t fold, though. Rhine stared at him for several moments, allowing the man’s anxiety to escalate.

  “What do you have that I w
ould want?” Rhine asked.

  “I have a cache of tryzu.” Isor Ja sounded hopeful.

  “Tryzu won’t work on an Ordanian. I have no use for drugs.”

  They sat there in silence for a while. Rhine allowed the tension to build. Isor Ja was a compulsive gambler. When he wasn’t running errands for his boss, he was hopping from casino moon to casino moon. The B’wor’s Luck just happened to be his favorite casino.

  “Come now, if you can’t match the bet or make it worth my while, I’ll take the entire pot.” Rhine made to move his credit badge to the table computer, which recorded each bet and ensured it was paid.

  “I have a new single-man fighter.” Isor Ja leaned forward in his chair.

  “If it’s standard issue, I won’t fit in it. Come, man, you have a perfectly good exotic behind you. I would accept her as payment on the debt.”

  “Fifteen thousand credits. She’s a level one exotic.” His tone was proud.

  Rhine’s lip turned up in disdain. “You’ve already lain with her.”

  “I haven’t. I was waiting for tonight after we partied some.”

  Rhine inhaled. The man was telling the truth. Their scents weren’t intermingled. He had merely touched her, and by the look of the cut under the smaller man’s eye, Rhine knew why she was shackled.

  “Thirteen thousand,” Rhine said. “Make sure the codes for her chains come with her deed.”

  She was angry again. Didn’t she understand that they had to play this a certain way? They all needed to make it out alive.

  Isor Ja looked down at his hand. “Fine, I accept the terms.”

  The table computer flashed green. The bet had been recorded.

  “Barbarian’s hammer,” Isor Ja said. He smiled as he laid his cards on the table.

  Rhine glanced down at all five warrior cards. The holographic images of each armor-covered hulking warrior in red, black, blue, green and orange bludgeoning an opponent with a mallet-like weapon flashed repeatedly. Rhine could hear the blood pumping swiftly through Isor Ja’s three chambered heart.

  Rhine laid his cards down one at a time. In the game Warrior’s Curse, only two hands won over a barbarian’s hammer. Rhine held one of them.

  “Emperor’s council,” Rhine said. The table computer beeped, recording the win. Rhine waved his credit badge over the machine and then quickly uploaded Niki’s deed to the satellite server that their spaceship, the Alta, stored information in.

  Isor Ja still stared at the cards on the table.

  Rhine stood and rounded the table. He grabbed Niki’s arm and pulled her toward the rest of the Ordanians. He had his blaster out and aimed as Isor Ja woke from his stupor and did the same. Rhine shoved Niki behind him and was relieved when he realized Bronwyn had pulled her weapon with the rest of the Alta crew. They shifted, covering every direction of the room, and keeping Niki in the middle of the group.

  “You must have cheated,” Isor Ja said.

  The blaster was trained on Rhine. There was almost no way the man would miss.

  “You lost. You’re a terrible gambler. I’m questioning your manhood as well. You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like this. That’s why you have that black eye, and had to use shackles on one small woman. How badly did she beat you?” Rhine sensed the rage welling up inside Isor Ja.

  “I’m going to kill you,” Isor Ja said.

  Rhine had been waiting on the declaration. He fired once, hitting the other man in the forehead. Isor Ja dropped to the ground, still clutching his weapon.

  “I guess he wasn’t any good as a killer either,” Rhine said quietly.

  No one stopped them as they slowly moved toward the door. Isor Ja had declared his intention to kill Rhine while brandishing a weapon. On a casino moon, Rhine was clearly within his right of self defense to terminate Isor Ja before he could act on the threat. They still needed to make a rapid retreat. The gambler might have had family in the casino.

  In the front room, they all turned, continuing to keep Niki in the center. Tor cut a path to the door by simply pushing any and everything out of his way. Sometimes it was good to be bigger and stronger than everyone else. They reached the door quickly and Rhine thought of her unshod feet. He turned her toward him and lifted her. She remained straight, and stiff against him. He shifted her some so he wasn’t blinded by the tumble of her hair. She still hadn’t said a word and her emotions were shifting too rapidly for him to keep up.

  They began to run as soon as they left the casino. Gunter fell back to cover Rhine and Niki. Rhine made sure he kept Bronwyn in the middle of the men. She was doing well and he was proud of his young cousin. Mostly he tried to block Niki’s scent. It was hitting his system as if it was a drug and the urge to rub his scent into her pores, obliterating Isor Ja’s stench, was strong.

  They made it to the Alta quickly. He gave the verbal command to open the door. He didn’t put her down until they reached the bridge. He let the others start the launch as he searched the information he’d gotten from his win for the code to her shackles. She still hadn’t said a word, yet she was exuding impatience. He found what he was looking for and entered the release code. Her chains fell away.

  “Where’s Camryn?”

  It was the first thing she said as she shook out her arms. Her voice was husky and sultry. Rhine took off his jacket and helped her into it. It covered her past her knees. He took her left arm, and began to massage the feeling back into it. She paused and cocked her head, but otherwise didn’t protest.

  “Camryn?” she said again.

  “Why haven’t you spoken before now?” he asked.

  “The little shit had the chains set to stun me if I talked. I didn’t know if they would still work when you won me.” She shrugged. “Where’s my cousin.”

  Everyone paused.

  “Cousin?” Rhine asked.

  “Camryn didn’t send you?” she asked.

  He took her other arm and massaged it.

  Bronwyn answered while he gathered his thoughts. “Yes, she is waiting for you. You don’t smell as if you are cousins. You smell as though you are sisters.”

  “We smell as though we are sisters?” She pulled her arm away and he let her. “You’re not the same as the Trogo, are you?”

  “Do we look as if we are illiterate animals to you?” Bronwyn said. Her customary sneer was in full force.

  “My mistake. Where is Camryn?” She enunciated each word.

  “Don’t worry, Niki. When we are safely away from here, we will contact her on a secure channel so that you may speak with her. Right now we need to put distance between ourselves and this casino moon,” he said.

  His expression never changed as he grabbed the hand she was using to lightly steal his blaster. She stared back at him defiantly.

  “Give it to me as an act of good faith,” she demanded.

  “We don’t know you. I won’t have you at my back, scared and confused, with a weapon.”

  “You know Camryn,” she said.

  He allowed a slight smile to touch his mouth. “I’ve seen your sister elbow a hostile alien in the crotch before breaking his nose. Excuse me if that isn’t a ringing endorsement.”

  He felt the pride well in her and she grinned. A lesser man would have been blinded by the sight. He had practice with her sister. She visibly relaxed.

  “I bet she still looked sweet and helpless as she did it too,” she whispered. “That’s my Cam. How long is this escape going to take?”

  “Just stay out of the way and it won’t take long at all.”

  He turned then. He restrained the urge to check to see what she might have stolen from him. He took the captain’s chair and pulled out the hidden seat behind him. She could make her way to it or not. He wouldn’t coddle her. He had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate it.

  He launched the second he had clearance. They needed to leave the ten thousandth galaxy. The planets and moons were inhabited by the desperate and the lawless. He pushed the Alta. They needed to reach a
hyper-jump entryway fast. He set a course and then handed the bridge to Gunter.

  Niki hadn’t moved, but the smell of Isor Ja mixed with the scent Rhine had created on her when he’d carried her turned his stomach and made him increasingly angry. He knew he was being unreasonable. Rhine wouldn’t try to lie to himself. He hadn’t lied to himself with Camryn and he surely wouldn’t with this one.

  He wanted her. He wanted her more than any woman he had met before. The lure of the exotic had struck again and something about Niki called on all of his possessive instincts. Maybe it was the slave deed still stored in his credit badge. He hoped that was it, and when he released her from the deed, it would cure him.

  Rhine stood and headed toward her. She clutched the jacket to her chest and watched the crew with unconcealed interest. She slowly turned to him as he approached.

  “Follow me,” he said.

  The doors opened as he approached. The narrow hallway was dimly lit and quiet. Her bare feet hardly made a sound as she followed behind him.

  “I don’t even know your name,” she said.

  “Captain Rhine, or Sir Rhine, if you prefer.”

  He opened the door to the room he’d set aside for her.

  “You said Camryn was Lady something or other. What does that mean?”

  The door closed as she entered. He needed a moment. Her scent trapped him in the small space. He stared down at a holographic photo. Camryn called it their family photo. It showed a thirty second moving shot of the moments after Venn and Camryn’s wedding ceremony. She had made them all stand for the pictures and they had done it, letting her mix her customs with their own.

  He stiffened as Niki neared. She tried to touch Camryn’s face, but the hologram scrambled and reset when she drew her finger back. He looked down at her and she turned to him.

  “Camryn sent you clothes. Our culture requires women to cover their legs and wear skirts, but she has gotten around that with the split skirts and leggings. I put everything in the closet.” He turned to go.