“So named for her ability to bring peace by any means necessary.” A quiet voice spoke from behind Azros’ back.
Azros spun around. A robed woman stood by the foot of the bed. A woman he hadn’t heard or sensed. He cursed medical disinfectant and how it masked all other scents. Kendra’s dislike of his quiet movements came to mind. His gaze flicked to the closed door. Mase leaned against it, unconcerned. The blue man’s gaze traveled back and forth, taking in expressions, if not understanding the words.
She had long blonde hair, and a simple torc wrapped around her neck. Everything else was covered in the nondescript robe he’d seen others wearing. Her face was in shadow.
“Who are you, and how do you know our language?”
“Shyla,” Xavier sneered.
She strode forward with the confidence of someone who was expected, if not welcomed. Her eyes captured his attention. In color only, they reminded him of Kendra. Iron-gray eyes, cold and desolate where Kendra’s were warm, if wary.
“Xavier. We don’t have much time.” The blonde’s face grew drawn and pale at first glimpse of Xavier’s bruises. There was a story here.
Xavier bit out a laugh. “What else is new?”
She ignored his comment and glanced at Azros. “Greetings, Valorian Prince Azros. I’m Shyla, daughter of Skreeta. You’ll forgive me if I don’t shake hands as I’d expect you would rather kill a member of my family than befriend them.”
Azros stiffened. “You know who I am.” It wasn’t a question.
Shyla nodded. “Unlike my mother, I’ve studied your people.”
“Makes her a more efficient sadist.” Xavier’s voice was bitter with anger and remembered pain.
Azros was unable to decipher the levels of subtlety in their conversation. They both obviously knew one another, and despite Xavier’s words, he sensed no threat from Shyla.
The blonde beauty cut a glare at Xavier. “War is war. I have done what needed to be done to protect your people…and mine.” She looked back at Azros. Her silver eyes, so much like Kendra’s, were like the storm-tossed sea, but overfilled with emotion he didn’t understand.
“Why help us?”
“Because my mother is insane, and the royal bloodline is tainted.”
“What do you hope to gain with our assistance? Why not kill her yourself?”
Shyla gave a wry laugh. “You wouldn’t understand our ways.”
“How would you know?”
“Your brother wouldn’t listen.”
Azros nodded once. “I am not my brother.”
She looked from Xavier to Azros and back again. “I suppose not.” She looked disappointed in Xavier. “I am here because the Sheon are going to make a move against your home world. They have to be stopped.”
Hair stood on end at her words. “An invasion? With what army?”
Shyla sighed. “She doesn’t need an army. All she needs is the Auberon drug dispersed among your people. She has space to ground tactical weaponry aboard ship. There’s enough of the drug to enslave all of your people ten times over.”
Horror froze his mind. “Your queen is allowing this?” Azros shook with rage.
“Our queen is old and feeble. Her mind is slipping. She doesn’t remember ordering the murder of her own children and grandchildren. This invasion, however, is not by her order, but Skreeta’s.”
“How do you know this?”
“I was there when she gave the order. The only reason we’re not at your home world right now is because the queen has sent us here to find proof that her children are dead.”
“Find proof that her children are dead?” Azros shook his head. What kind of queen would kill her children in the first place? The thought was completely alien to the Valorian culture.
“Yes.” Shyla stood at the foot of Xavier’s bed, looking at him with longing. “I’m here to stop the invasion.”
Azros watched Shyla. “You helped me escape.” It wasn’t a question. She looked at him.
Shyla’s gaze was steady, confident. “Helping you escape would have been treason.”
“No more so than stopping the invasion,” Xavier spoke quietly.
“Can we trust that her information is good?”
“Yes.” Xavier crossed his arms over his chest, and Azros did the same. They both faced the petite Sheon daughter. Xavier’s head tilted, listening to every move.
Her smile held an edge of impatience. “Your intimidation tactics won’t work. My mother is far deadlier than you could ever hope to be. And that’s why I’m here.” She reached into the sleeve of her robe and Azros leapt across the short distance, locking her wrist in an iron grip.
She huffed out a breath in impatience. “I have critical information.” She moved slowly and pulled out a Kanorian crystal. “This holds everything you’ll need to stop the invasion. Ship schematics, security codes, shift change times by area, you name it.”
Azros stared at the Sheon daughter. This was the contact?
“Why are you giving this to us?” Xavier was quiet, thoughtful.
“I want your word, the word of the Valorian prince, that you will not harm anyone on that ship. When I get your word, I’ll give you the pass code to unlock the encrypted data.”
Azros shook his head. “I can’t promise that, but I can promise that I will minimize losses as much as possible.”
Xavier nodded. “That’s the best you’ll get, Shyla. You know how this has to end.”
She closed her eyes. “Yes. I do.” She held out her hand and set the crystal gently in Azros’ palm. “The pass code is…Xavier Cross.” She whirled around and put her hood over her head.
Azros’ fingers closed around the crystal and looked at his brother.
Xavier’s face had drained of color, leaving the bruises stark against his pale face. “Son of a bitch.” Xavier shook his head. “Don’t ask.” He slowly released a breath and settled back against the pillows. “Insanity must run deep in their bloodline.”
“Yeah.” The crystal reflected the light in a sharp arc of color, and he thought of Kendra. “I think the bloodline is starting to grow on me.”
Chapter Nine
It’s in his saliva…organ failure. Dr. Monroe’s words chanted in her mind like a mantra. She could feel the simmer of animalistic lust tightening her body, making it more sensitive to everything.
A glancing blow to her side jerked her attention back to the present. The pain was minimal, but significant enough to clear her head.
“You’re not focused, Chief.” Reeva’s grin was deadly, and full of delight. Very few of Kendra’s security staff knew how lethal the soft-spoken woman could be.
“You’re telling me.” Kendra went on the offensive. She attacked with a flurry of kicks and punches. Reeva expertly blocked each one. “It’s that damn Valorian.”
“Ahh.” Reeva’s counter kick whizzed by Kendra’s face. She backed out of leg range and grinned. “Men have been put in this universe to exasperate us.”
“True.” Kendra launched another attack. She punched at Reeva’s face. When the woman blocked, Kendra rolled her arm over and tucked against the smaller woman. One hand latched on the woman’s forearm. With Reeva’s arm as a lever, she used the body’s momentum to hook a hand under her armpit, to toss her across the floor. Reeva turned the throw into a roll and came up with a devilish grin.
“Well done, Chief.” She gave the sign of truce. “You’re getting better at hand-to-hand.” Reeva strode over to the mirrored wall and took her towel from the bar. “You’re moving much faster.” The sparring room was as private as it got around here. Only her people had access. All shifts. Twenty-two personnel.
“We should work on your close combat weapon skills.” Kendra grabbed her towel and mopped her sweat-soaked face.
Reeva shook her head. “With weapons, I have yet to get a mark on you, Chief. I’d like to end on a high note today, if you don’t mind.” She wrapped the towel around her neck. “Besides, I think you’ve got company.” She n
odded toward the door.
Kendra looked up. Mase had brought Azros to the sparring room. One look at the Valorian was enough to send her blood boiling, in both lust and anger. “How did you find me?” She hooked the towel over the rail.
Mase grinned. “This is the spot to find you when you’re not working or sleeping.” He looked at Azros. “She doesn’t know the meaning of the word downtime.”
Reeva clapped her on the shoulder. “That’s my cue.” She jogged to the door and linked her arm with Mase’s. “Come on, blue boy. We have somewhere else to be.” She started dragging him toward the door.
Mase struggled, turning back toward Azros. “No. Wait. I really need to see this.”
Reeva shouldered his back, shoving him through the door. “Nobody needs to see this.”
Azros’ gaze swept over her. She cursed as her traitorous nipples hardened. Her pussy slickened with desire. Damn him. He opened his mouth, and then closed it.
She glared at him. “What are you doing here? I told you I had work to do.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “What did the lab results say?”
She wouldn’t ask him how he knew where she’d been. Mase had probably told him. “That I’m being altered.”
He nodded slowly. “And?” He cautiously stepped closer.
“And I won’t be able to change back on my own.”
He jerked to a stop. “Change back? Is there really a way?”
Kendra wanted to lie, but couldn’t. “No. Not unless I want every organ in my body to fail…at once.”
He considered the information, and then nodded. “You know what this means.” He stalked closer and Kendra’s breath caught at the pure male possessiveness that captured his expression.
“Yeah. It means you lied to me.” She unconsciously took a step back.
He laughed. “I didn’t know you were Sheon. So where did the lie begin? Besides, it’s impossible to react to the lambyre if your body wasn’t compatible with mine. It looks like the Sheon people are a little more than receptive to ours.”
“You lured me in like a spider.” She walked to the weapons wall. “Now I’m caught.”
“Is that really what you think?” He paced her, watching her, waiting. For what, she didn’t know.
She could feel the walls of a trap closing in on her. “I don’t know what to think.” She crossed her arms. “I am in a constant state of anxiety. My whole life is turning upside down. Again.” She shook her head. “I had a nice, stable, wonderful life.”
“We can be so good together.” He held his hands out. “Start a new life.”
“It’s the mating hormone talking.” Kendra fought every instinct that told her to reach out to him. “Your body will return to normal once the mating cycle ends.” Fear and desperation rolled around in her heart. “There is no going back for me.”
“I have done a lot of things in my life that I’m not proud of, but you have to know I wouldn’t change this for anything.” He prowled closer.
She shook her head, backing away from him. “You don’t know what you’re saying.” In a heartbeat he had her back to the wall and his hands on either side of her head.
His gaze captured hers. The depths of his emotions slid through her mind. Hope, need. Lust. It was just wishful thinking. She shook her head, and the moment disintegrated.
“I’m saying that you’re mine.” He captured her wrists when she would have pushed him away. He nipped at her lips, pressing his body against hers.
“I don’t belong to anyone.”
The hard length of his cock twitched through his pants against her stomach. Damn him. His scent surrounded them. Her pussy ached with the need to fuck him. “And I’m yours.” His words wove their magic.
He didn’t know what he was saying. Did he? Azros nuzzled her neck with those soft kisses that drove her insane. “I love the way you taste. The way your body reacts to mine.” He released her wrists and cupped her face.
“I can’t think when you…” Her words ended on a cry when his hand cupped her breast. His thumb brushed over the tip until the nipple became a hard, sensitive point. Electric shocks of pleasure shot down to her core.
“Don’t think.” The whispered command sent shivers down her spine. “Let go.”
She clenched her jaw against the urge to do exactly as he wanted. “I’ll make a deal with you.” With a backbone of steel and grit, she ducked away from him and walked back to the practice weapons wall. Her body screamed at the loss, but she pressed on.
Azros growled his frustration and Kendra almost laughed. Almost. “Let’s fight for it.”
“Fight for what, exactly?”
“Control.” She tilted her head. “If I win, you follow my lead. If you win, I follow yours. How does that sound?”
He crossed his arms. “I like my plan better.”
Kendra chuckled. “What? Fucking like bunnies? Giving in to the mating hormone? So far all it’s done is create ample opportunity for Skreeta’s attack. She may be back in the sky, but that makes her more dangerous. We are distracted while she’s planning her next move. One mistake and it’s game over.” She pulled two blades from the wall. Both were about the same weight of her knives. “What’s your pleasure?” She gestured to the wall.
Mischief lightened his gaze and expression. “You, of course.”
Kendra grinned and her cheeks grew warm from minor embarrassment. “Choose your weapons.”
Azros assessed the wall of weapons with the critical eye of a skilled fighter. “Short sword and a dagger.”
He chose close combat weaponry. She grinned and tossed him the two blades. He caught them and tested the weight with a few practice swings. He examined the blades and frowned. “These blades are strange. I’ve never seen this design before.”
Kendra’s grin widened. “David, engage sparring weapons.”
A familiar tingling in her hands told her the blades were live.
Azros looked down. The edges of the weapons sizzled and cracked with a charge. “What the hell is this?”
Kendra rubbed her knives together and they arced beautifully. “Mase’s design. They’re called Live Touch. Every brush against your body sends an electrical shock. It’s a small shock, and not dangerous to your health…unless you have metal in your body.”
She looked him up and down. “I don’t think you’re a metal man.”
He grinned. “No.” He tested the weight of the short sword. “This might just be fun.”
Excitement tingled down her spine. He was in her territory now. She moved to the center of the sparring mat. Azros prowled around the edge before stepping across from her.
Her senses expanded. This time relief settled in her mind. It had come when she called. Maybe she was getting used to this. Relief instead of fear. She could hear every move, see every twitch of his muscles. Maybe she could call it at will. Her smile wasn’t a nice one. He was so going down.
She moved and struck, ducking a halfhearted stab in her direction. A blade slid along his side and his bellow made her grin. She turned to face him, stepping out of attack range. “I thought you were a better fighter than that.”
He glared at her and tightened his grip on his weapons.
“Don’t hold back, Azros. I’m not a fragile little princess.” She launched at him again. He was ready, this time. Blade crackled against blade. She ducked and swept him, knocking him to the ground. His legs tangled hers, flipping her on her back. She rolled out of his reach and back to her feet. He grinned.
Kendra glowered. She stood to her full height, and a red haze surrounded her vision. She slowed her breathing, trying to keep control of her senses. Time slowed to a crawl. She attacked again, seeing every move before he made it. Her skin felt tight, alien. She swiped her daggers against his torso and hip, arcing electric pulses into his skin. One after another, until he finally began blocking her strikes.
His curses filled the room and Kendra laughed, swirling out of reach.
“You are quick,
mate.” He grinned. “I’m so hard for you right now, it’s killing me.”
His words shot a bolt of lust straight to her pussy. She bit back a moan. “You can’t manipulate this to your advantage. I’m not easy to fool.”
His grin was feral, fangs gleaming in the light. “You didn’t set the base rules, Kendra. Everything is fair game.”
He launched at her and she reacted a moment too late. His short sword glanced off her stomach, while the dagger punched against her side. She cried out and stabbed back. Her blades hit major organs and he jumped away. They both held their sides and glared at one another.
“You have got to be the most frustrating female I have ever met.”
“You’re the one who’s forcing the mating issue, here.”
“How? You think this is my choice? An argumentative, maddening and aggressive female?” He began circling around her.
“Sorry, I’m not vapid, simpering or Valorian enough for you.”
“Oh, you’re Valorian enough.” He lunged, she blocked. They tested one another with steady strikes and feints. “The question is, how much of it can you handle?”
The door opened and Kendra’s attention split. One of Destiny’s pleasure crew walked in with a purposeful stride and a hand behind her. How did she get in here? Her name slipped Kendra’s mind, but something about the woman set off alarms in her head. Something about the way she walked seemed so familiar.
Azros launched another attack and she was blindsided, knocked to her back. The newcomer raised her arm. A weapon! A red haze instantly descended across her vision. “Get down!” Time slowed and Kendra could see every move, every detail. She launched at Azros’ legs, knocking him out of the way, and threw the dagger. The blade flew true. “David! Intruder!”
A shot fired. Searing pain exploded in her shoulder. Her grip tightened on the remaining dagger, as the would-be assassin collapsed like a rag doll.
She palmed Azros’ cheek, satisfied that he still breathed. “Were you hit?”
He shook his head. A shot of relief loosened the fear around her heart. “I suppose I have you to thank for that?”
Kendra’s gaze swept the room. Azros’ hand touched her shoulder. He pulled his hand away. “Desh’ra, that’s blood.”
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