by Lee Savino
I stare at him, stew forgotten, entranced by his life story. It’s beyond impressive. He was created in a lab. They taught him nothing. Everything he’s achieved, he’s done on his own. “What is the rathr?”
“Pain,” he says simply. “Endless, agonizing pain. The rathr is a parasite that attacks my DNA. The scientists created it to keep us in line. The Supreme Mother had an antidote. If I was obedient, I was rewarded with it. For a few hours, I could sleep without the rathr clawing my body.”
Just when I think the Zorahn scientists couldn’t be any more cruel, they sink to a new low. “How could they do this to you?”
“It’s easy,” he says simply. “We are not people to them. We never were. They used the rathr to keep me in line. Now, they pretend that they are more civilized. Instead of death, they exile Draekons to the prison planet. A life sentence on a primitive, unpopulated world.”
“Do you miss your friend, the one that died? First?” Of course he does. That was a dumb thing to say, Alice. “I’m so sorry.”
A thousand years in stasis. Everyone Kadir would have ever known is now dead. How does he do it? How does he keep functioning? In his place, I’d fall apart.
“First was… flawed.” His gaze turns inward. “It feels disloyal to say it out loud, but it’s true. He was the Supreme Mother’s most precious creation, brought to life after decades of trial and error. She almost worshiped him. It made him arrogant.” He sounds troubled. “The rebellion’s need was great; they wouldn’t have pulled us out of stasis otherwise. But I’m glad that First is gone.”
“Why would the rebellion want to keep you in stasis? And why couldn’t they come for us themselves?”
“They have other priorities. The scientists had secret laboratories spread across the galaxy. Humans aren’t the only sentient species they experiment on. Rather than sending Draekons into exile, they’ve been holding them captive.”
Oh, God.
“The rebellion wants to free these Draekons. Unfortunately, an anarchist group called Blood Heart is also searching for the laboratories. When they find one, they butcher every Draekon there.” His expression is hard. “Probably because of our inferior blood. As to your first question, they’re terrified of us.” His smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “I was made in a lab. I was made to kill. The Zoraken, the soldiers of the High Empire, have their memories wiped after each battle as a coping mechanism. I don’t need to cope, Alice Hernandez. Death doesn’t affect me.”
He’s telling me he’s a merciless killer.
He’s telling me I should be afraid of him.
And yet…
And yet he ordered a bath for me.
He let the innkeeper live. All six Infar mercenaries as well.
He’s helping me find Tanya.
Seven months ago, I might have run screaming from the room. Now? I’m not sure. My space adventure has changed me.
Kadir is very still. “I understand your discomfort,” he says stiffly. “I apologize. I should have told you the truth before I kissed you.”
“Huh?” I blink at him, completely confused. “What does kissing have to do with anything?”
He gestures to the bowl. “Eat.”
I roll my eyes and pick up the spoon. Still bossy, my alien warrior.
“You’re a healer,” he says, once I’ve eaten another mouthful of stew. “Highborn. I’m even worse than Lowborn. I don’t have a family, and I don’t have a House.”
Okay. My translator’s still working, because I understand the words. They just don’t make any sense. Highborn? Lowborn? House? What?
“It’s a caste system?” I guess.
He nods.
“And you think I shouldn’t have kissed you because I’m Highborn?” My forehead furrows. “I’m not Highborn. I’m just confused.”
He stares at me. “You don’t care about my blood status, do you?”
“I don’t even know what that means.” My spoon scrapes the side of my empty bowl. All done. Does that mean Kadir’s going to stop answering my questions? “I’m from an entirely different planet. I’m an emergency room doctor. I care about gun violence. I care about the opioid epidemic. I live for Taco Tuesdays. I am passionate about yarn sales. Most days, the only thing I want is another hour of sleep.”
“You kissed me.” His look is focused. Intent. Predatory. A prickle of anticipation zings up my spine. “If you don’t care that I’m not part of a House, why didn’t you continue?”
I was waiting for you to make a move. Gah. That sounds pathetic even to my ears. “Maybe it’s because you boss me around,” I retort. “Consider the evidence. I didn’t want the innkeeper and his wife to think that you were a pedophile, and as thanks, you practically bit my head off.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “I thought you talked to the innkeeper’s bondmate so she’d help us find the Bikana?”
Goddammit. He has a mind like a steel trap.
His smile grows smug. “You cared what the Cotari thought of me? I’m touched, Alice.”
“Asshole.” My face is burning. “I had a momentary attack of insanity. It won’t happen again.”
He laughs again. “You forget that I can read your emotions, little human.” He puts his hand over mine. “Thank you.”
I’m so aware of him. Of the calluses on his fingers. Of the strength of his touch. Every nerve ending in my body is attuned to Kadir. “For what?”
“For not treating me like a freak.” He gets to his feet. “And Alice…”
I look up.
His fingers brush my scar, his touch so light it’s barely there. “You’re beautiful.”
13
Kadir
She wants me. I want her.
But she’s fragile. She’s been tortured for seven months. She holds it together during the day. She’s smart and sarcastic, always ready with a sassy quip, and she’s so strong that I almost forget what she’s endured.
Night after night, her whimpers of pain remind me.
The search for her friend is the only thing that is keeping Alice together right now. If there is to be anything between us, it can only happen once we find Tanya Sinclair.
If there is to be anything between us…
A life without the dying screams of soldiers echoing in my ears, without the smell of blood and guts in my nostrils… It seems an impossible dream.
I’ve never allowed myself to want. I’ve never allowed myself to crave. A bondmate, younglings, the warmth of a home—these things have always been out of reach.
There’s a part of me that wants to mock my folly. Another part—the dragon part—that aches to claim the human as mine.
You didn’t tell her about the dragon.
I should have. I should have told Alice everything. But she hadn’t recoiled away from me when she’d heard my story. She’d stayed where she was. Her expression had been tinged with sympathy.
And she’d still been attracted to me.
You didn’t tell her that you could shift at will into a fearsome dragon, the most terrible predator in the High Empire. You forget to mention that you could fly between the stars. You failed to tell her that when you opened your jaw, you could breathe fire, destroying all that stood to oppose you.
Alice is not afraid of me. She’d defended my reputation to the Cotari innkeepers.
No woman has ever cared about me. Sex, I understand. Lust is not unfamiliar to me. Desire, need, arousal: these things I have felt before.
But caring?
Nothing I’ve learned has prepared me for this.
Four hours later, we enter Frez’s atmosphere. Alice sucks in a breath as the ocean comes into view. “Water,” she whispers. “I never thought I’d see the seaside again.”
There’s a wistful look in her eyes. I’m about to ask her about her homeworld when my nerves prickle. A feeling of unease sweeps over me. “Something’s wrong.”
“With Tanya?”
I frown. This feeling… it is familiar somehow. I should recognize it, but
the rebellion injected so much new knowledge into me that everything feels jumbled. “I don’t think so. I can’t be sure.” I glance at Alice. If her friend is dead, I don’t want my human stumbling on the body. It won’t be pretty. “You should stay behind in the safety of the ship.”
Steel rolls over her expression. “Kadir, I worked in the ER. I’ve seen more people die than you realize. If Tanya is dead…” She swallows hard. “If she’s dead, I have to face it. I need to know.”
I want to protect her, but I also respect her opinion. “Promise me you’ll stay close to me, Alice. Whatever happens, you don’t run off on your own. Are we clear?”
Her deep brown eyes lock on mine. Her expression is serious. “I promise.”
We land on the outskirts of Kosagash and make our way into the city. It’s a warm day, but the sun is hidden behind clouds. A fine drizzle mists the air, but it doesn’t deter the people on the streets. Skimmers clog the roads. The sidewalks are filled with vendors selling skewers of meat, fried vegetables, and sugary treats. Alice gawks openly, her head turning from side to side.
Of all the towns we’ve been to in this star system, this is the busiest. Too busy for my liking. I pull Alice close to me, my senses on high alert. The nearer I get to the docks, the greater my unease grows.
Then we arrive at the warehouses, and the reason for my disquiet becomes clear.
Red-clad Zorahn soldiers swarm a warehouse. I don’t need to access my implanted memories to recognize their uniforms.
Mahr. What in the name of Caeron is the Crimson Guard doing here?
Acting instinctively, I melt into a side street, dragging Alice with me. “Who is it?” she whispers.
“Crimson Guard,” I say tersely. Memories dance through my mind. Strapped down to a gurney. A Captain of the Crimson Guard beating me methodically while the Supreme Mother injects vial after vial of the rathr into my veins. Agony. So much agony. Battle red rolls over my eyes and rage threatens to overwhelm me.
“Kadir?” Alice takes my hand in hers, her voice hesitant. “Are you okay?”
Her touch drags me back to sanity. “They are the soldiers of the Crimson Citadel. The scientists’ private army.”
Her eyes go wide. “They’re here for Tanya and me?”
That doesn’t make sense. Nobody knew we were heading to Frez except the serench. The serench only cares about one thing, and that’s the destruction of their archenemy. They also didn’t have enough time to alert the Crimson Guard, whose nearest base is a day’s journey away. “No. It’s something else.”
Something bad. The rage has flushed out of my body, but I feel nauseous. My skin is cold and clammy. My nerves are on edge. Death hangs in the air; I’m convinced of it.
A street urchin slips into the alley. I grab his shoulder and hold out a Frezian xianar. “I want information.”
The coin represents more money than the child has ever seen in his life. His eyes widen, and he nods fractionally.
“What’s going on in that warehouse?”
The child’s brilliant blue eyes don’t leave the coin in my hand. His ribs stick out of his chest. He’s undernourished, and his clothes are rags. Bast. The High Empire is hardly perfect, but children don’t starve there. The same rules don’t seem to hold in Frez. “They found bodies in cages,” he says. “Thirty of them. All dead, torn to bits.”
Cages. The anxiety clawing at me shifts into full-blown dread. Next to me, Alice bites back her gasp. Her hood is up, shrouding her face, but I don’t have to see her to know the look in her eyes.
I give the kid the coin I promised and add another xianar for good measure. “Eat something.”
Alice waits for the kid to go out of earshot. “Kadir, we need to go in there.”
“I know.” What I wouldn’t give for Alice to be far away from here, safe where she can’t be harmed.
My dragon stirs in displeasure at the thought of being parted from the small human. She is safe with us. We will protect her with our life.
I don’t understand what’s going on. My dragon has never been possessive about a woman; it has never even paid attention to any of them. But I don’t have time to figure that out now. Pressure scrapes my insides. I have to know what happened inside that warehouse.
There are ten soldiers in the squadron, armed with top-of-the-line laser weapons. I’ll need to shift to vanquish them, which will mean leaving Alice alone, unguarded. That’s not happening.
There’s only one option. “We’ll have to wait. It’s almost time for the evening meal. If, as the child said, everyone inside is dead, the Crimson Guard will stop their investigation to eat and drink.”
Sure enough, in less than three knurs, the Captain and seven of her soldiers emerge from the warehouse, cross the square, and head to the nearest tavern.
Only two soldiers on guard now. Much better odds.
“Now.” I bring up a map of Kosagash and plot a circuitous route to the back of the warehouse, Alice moving silently next to me. There’s a guard there, one of the two left behind. I knock him out, break his weapon, and open the door.
Carnage awaits me on the inside.
For an instant, I can’t make any sense of what I’m seeing. Blood, so much bright blue blood. Smearing the walls, pooling on the floor, splattered on the tables, the cages, the instruments…
Blue, not red. Not human, then. At least I can spare Alice this one thing.
“What happened here?” Alice’s voice has a tremor in it. She takes a step into the room and trips over a torn-off arm. I steady her before she falls. Her face pales when she realizes what she stepped on. “Oh God, oh God.”
She looks like she’s going to be sick. She cannot throw up here. The Crimson Guard cannot find any trace of a human here. I can tackle the three rogue scientists stupid enough to sell Alice and Tanya Sinclair to the Cotari. I can take down the badly trained Cotari traders who hunt Alice. But I cannot stand against the entire might of the Crimson Guard. Fear shudders through me at what they will do to my human.
“Alice.” My voice cracks like a whip. “If you are going to make a fool of yourself, go back to the ship.”
Her head snaps up. Her eyes breath fire at me. Then she realizes what I’m doing and gives me a rueful smile. “Sorry. I’m okay now. I’m not supposed to be here, am I? Do I have to worry about fingerprints? Stray hair?”
Caeron, she’s perfect. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Not planning on it.” She looks at the bodies, her expression bleak. “What happened here, Kadir?”
There’s only one explanation. This must have been one of the Zorahn scientists’ secret labs, where they imprisoned Draekons and experimented on them. The rebellion had been trying to save these men, but it’s too late for the Draekons in this room.
“They were Draekons.” I move silently among the bodies. Blood Heart normally burns the labs. This is the first time they’ve left a crime scene intact. I kneel next to one of the corpses. The man is young. He looks twenty. Twenty-one. Barely an adult. His stomach has been torn, and his intestines are hanging out. A circle has been carved into his chest, a curved line bisecting it. Battle red once more rolls over my eyes, and I take a deep breath to hold the dark rage at bay. “This is the work of Blood Heart.”
Alice looks at me, at the boy, and then turns away. Too late, I wish I could have shielded her from this. She’s a healer, it’s true, but she wouldn’t have encountered this. No, this is battle rage. Battle lust.
Torn to shreds.
Everyone slaughtered without mercy.
Scorch marks on the walls.
My sense of unease. My feeling of acute nausea.
All the pieces click into place.
This was the work of a Draekon. One particular Draekon.
First did this.
Dread snakes through me. I grab Alice’s elbow. “We’ve got to go now.”
Then I hear the low whine of a laser. The tenth soldier stands in front of us, his weapon pointed straight at me. “Yo
u’re not going anywhere,” he says, his voice sharp. He hits the button for backup and then fixes his stare on me. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
How long before he figures it out?
His gaze falls on my forearm, and he stiffens. Not long at all. He’s quick on the uptake, this soldier. “Where are your testing tattoos?”
“I’ve never been tested.”
“Every citizen in the High Empire, from Emperor Lenox himself all the way down to the poorest Lowborn is tested every year for the Draekon mutation. You’re telling me that the rules don’t apply to you? Try again.”
The rest of the Crimson Guard will be here soon. I don’t have time for this. “I am Draekon. And no, the rules don’t apply to me.” I let him see the fire in my eyes. “You’re alone. I will kill you before you can fire your weapon. If you want to live, drop the laser and kick it to me.”
He hears the death rage in my voice, and his fear is palpable. His hands shake as he lowers the weapon to the floor and slides it to me. I pick it up and snap it in half. I can hear footsteps running toward the warehouse. Backup.
We need to get out of here in a hurry. To stay and fight would be to risk Alice.
I swing the small human into my arms, ignoring her squeak of surprise, and I run at full speed out the back door.
They pursue us. I snake through the alleyways of Kosagash, moving as quickly as I can. I’ve never been to the city before, but I’ve looked at a map, and that’s all I need to find my way around. The Crimson Guard falls behind. We’re almost safe.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash of metal. A knife flies through the air. Acting on instinct, I move, but I’m not fast enough.
The blade grazes Alice’s neck and draws blood.
“Oww,” she yells in my arms. My human is not pleased. “Asshole.” She looks at the man who threw the blade, and her expression turns flat. “Kravex. I might have known.”
She’s trying to be brave, but there’s a tremor in her voice that she can’t hide. Not from me.