Xia’s vision cleared at those words.
She did know how that was. But she also knew there were other ways to warm up, other ways to fight back the fear and the blood.
Loving.
Having fun.
Stars, even getting a criminal off the streets without actually gutting anyone.
She didn’t want to become a person who had to kill to feel warm and alive. She didn’t want to be like Nitari Belesku.
If she killed Belesku, maybe she’d just be making sure she and the cold darkness would be together forever. Just her and the darkness, with no real chance of building on the connection she’d developed with Rahal and Cal, or getting close to anyone outside her Malcolm family because every time she started to trust and feel affection, the darkness would close in again and block them out.
Besides, if she killed Belesku, she’d also kill the identity of the person who’d contracted to kill Xia’s family, not to mention a lot of stories that might provide closure for other survivors.
Tap into muscle memory. Find the disabling blow, not the fatal one. Remember, she’s not entirely human.
For a second, Xia’s mind was blank.
Then her hands moved without her brain’s seeming involvement, and Belesku went limp and slumped down to the floor. She was still breathing and Xia realized she was relieved about that.
Less blood on her claws and the potential for answers.
She turned her neurorelay back on. “Hey, Cal, Rahal, I have Nitari Belesku in custody. Any idea what we should do with her now?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ten days had passed since Nitari Belesku and Karn Anders had disrupted their lives, ten days in which none of Xia’s lingering questions got answered. Within a few hours, Cal had flown out with his two prisoners, bound for Khetti. With its underground prisons and a legal system where everyone, no matter how wealthy, had court-appointed defenders and didn’t have a bail option, Khetti was, in Cal’s opinion, the most likely of all the planets with an interest in both prisoners to keep them in custody. (Rahal and Xia considered Improved Texas for Belesku, but it turned out that Cal was wanted there himself for “interfering with justice”—i.e., rescuing an innocent person from an angry mob.)
While she was still spending her nights in Rahal’s bed, sleep was pretty much all that was happening. Well, sleep and sex, but not much in the way of deep conversation, or even shallow conversation. The brand-new Siantana legislature opened its first session just three days after Nitari’s invasion. Between prepping for that, setting up security, dealing with bomb threats, actual bombs and assassins sent after either legislators or Rahal himself, and attempting to wrangle the legislators into doing some work in between outbreaks of danger, Rahal was exhausted. Xia, who was helping with security and assassin chasing when she wasn’t dealing with would-be slavers and child molesters, wasn’t much better off.
The only good thing was that the assassins were mostly random thugs for hire, not trained specialists—adept at hurting people, but not so good at stealth or subtlety. Stopping them was easy enough for someone with Xia’s background.
She was grateful beyond words to the unpleasant people of Siantana for keeping her so thoroughly distracted. It kept her from thinking too much. There’d been no time to wonder about her family on Mrrwr or the people who might want to kill her. (Though she did ask herself once or twice why someone would bother when she hadn’t even been on the planet since childhood.) No time to clear the air between the three of them. No time to figure out what she actually felt for Rahal, let alone whether she could forgive Cal for his deception.
Just enough time for her and Rahal to speculate to each other about whether Cal would come back, or even keep in touch. He’d relayed Rahal to let him know he’d arrived safely on Khetti, but since then he’d been silent, not answering relays or responding to the com on his shuttle.
Silent as the grave. Xia refused to say that out loud, though, and every time she started to think it, she distracted herself. She had plenty of opportunities for useful violence and cathartic sex, and when neither was available, Buck had good whiskey.
But it still niggled at her.
Which was why, when Cal strolled into Rahal’s office unannounced close to midnight on day eleven, leather duster swirling behind him, tight pants outlining his sinfully long legs and blue eyes looking considerably less confident than his body language, Xia couldn’t decide whether to throw herself at him or fling a heavy object instead. She did neither, mostly because she was on the other side of the room from the door, so he’d have too much time to brace himself for either option.
“Lousy timing,” Rahal drawled. “If you’d shown up half an hour ago, you could have caught us fucking. But now we’re reviewing security footage to figure out how the latest wannabe bomber actually made it as close to the palace as he did before someone noticed him skulking around.”
“Especially since Orebekis are luminescent, so you’d think he’d be kind of obvious. He must have cloaking tech, but we don’t know what kind, which might clue us in about who hired him.” If Rahal was going to play it cool, so would she. Besides, Cal probably knew more about personal cloaking tech than either of them. It wasn’t something felinoids bothered with, enjoying the challenge of sneaking without it. In Cal’s real line of work, though, he’d likely looked into it, either to use it or work against it. “Want a look?”
The monitor took up about half of one wall. Cal had no need to come closer, just turn a bit. But he came closer anyway, standing behind the pair of them like he had every right to be there. Xia felt his body heat, smelled his skin. She fought the instinct to touch him.
She was mad at him, wasn’t she? She couldn’t remember now, after the long silence, worrying if he was all right.
He was standing too close on purpose. She knew he was.
But he didn’t try anything, just said, “Could you zoom in there?” and pointed to the shadowy blur they knew was the Orebeki. He studied the magnified image in silence for a few minutes then asked, “Do you have a feed that picks up heat signatures?”
“Already checked that,” Xia commented as she switched over, “but maybe you’ll see something we missed.” She didn’t mention that she’d been the only person checking that particular loop; the shades of red that indicated heat signatures were invisible to Rahal. And they might as well have been to her.
Cal narrowed his eyes, studied the now-colorful screen and finally commented, “It’s not hard tech, it’s biotech. I think he was using a suppressant drug of some kind; his heat signature’s visible, but it’s funky for an Orebeki.”
Xia hissed then said, “Biotech used for crime sounds like Blemondians to me.”
“The representative from District 12 is Blemondian,” Rahal said with a sigh, “and he was butting heads with me and with the District 8 rep long before he got elected. Or it could be Blemondian intelligence trying again for the Malcolm’s crew since Belesku failed—but I think they’d have hired someone more competent.”
“Let’s go,” Cal exclaimed, and despite being thoroughly sick of hunting down inept criminals, Xia wanted to bounce. They were all working together again. That was a good first step.
Rahal, though, shook his head. “The security team can bring him in without us.” He tapped his forehead, relayed the security team captain with instructions. Then he tapped again to disconnect the link and turned to Cal. “We need to talk. Now.”
He closed the small gap between him and Cal, grabbed the collar of Cal’s duster and pulled his head down.
Kissed him like it was a punishment.
Though in about two-point-three seconds, Rahal wasn’t looking especially punitive and Cal didn’t seem especially punished, not the way he was melting against the other man’s body.
Just when the view went from pretty to “let me get comfortable on these cushions”, Rahal shoved
the other man roughly away.
Cal’s lips were swollen, and a trace of blood welled in a bite wound on the lower one. His blue eyes had gone all smoky, and Xia doubted he minded the blood, even if he was touching his lip curiously.
Xia wanted to lick the blood away, but before she could spring to her feet, Rahal broke into a rant.
“You disappeared, Cal. We thought, at best, you were running away like a big, cowardly nashbet, not coming back to clear up the mess you’d left or tell Xia what you know about her family. Only you’re not a coward. A liar and a complete lunatic, sure, but not a coward. Got us a little worried.” This was the first time Rahal admitted he’d been worried, but Xia hadn’t talked about it either.
Yeah, she and Rahal had more than a bit in common. Something warmed and swelled inside her and she wanted to say it was her heart, although she knew that wasn’t literally true.
Cal shook his head. “You’re wrong. I’m a coward, all right. Just not a hopeless one. I thought about not coming back. Thought it might be better for all of us. Then I finally heard from Xia’s grandmother.” He looked at Xia. “You might want to sit down for this. Okay, scratch that. I know you’re tough enough to take it standing up, especially since it’s good news in the end. I’m the nashbet who needs to sit down.” Despite everything, he smiled.
And it made the already brilliantly lit, gaudy room even brighter.
She figured she didn’t need to sit down. But she did anyway. Why not be comfortable while you learned some of the missing bits of your history?
She was grateful she had when Cal announced, “I’d been trying to reach your grandmother for some time, but she waited to get back to me until she’d tracked down the person responsible for your parents’ deaths and disposed of him. Which, unfortunately for her, was difficult, not because he was hard to find, but because he was on the other side of her bed. Easy to find him, hard to believe it was the truth.”
Xia hid her face in her hands, remembering what Nitari Belesku had said about a zelacxi who’d wanted to cause a tragedy so someone would turn to him for comfort. Apparently it had worked. “So my grandmother’s an idiot,” she moaned from behind her hands.
Cal scooted closer to her, but didn’t actually touch her. “She said herself she can be dumb about lovers. But I’d hardly call her an idiot.” He hesitated then added, “She’s the Prime Minister of Mrrwr and they keep reelecting her, so she must be doing something right. Your birth name is Xia Merrin, though Rahal will probably correct my pronunciation.”
Instead of doing so, Rahal let out a noise she’d never heard him make before. “Xia’s grandmother…is Madam Ialani Merrin?” he said weakly.
At about the same time Xia said, “She’s the marling prime minister? So how come she hasn’t tried to find me before now, and why was she sleeping with an enemy?”
“Turns out he is…was…the head of the Mrrwr Intelligence Division, so he created evidence framing a bitter political rival of your grandmother’s. Then he helped ‘solve’ the murder and won her heart in the process. He’d even manufactured evidence so it looked like you were most likely dead. As soon as she heard about the incident on San’bal, your grandmother hired me to investigate. But her lover convinced her to make contact through the Mrrwr embassy on Khetti, where my main office is. His nephew is an attaché there. So if I hadn’t gotten suspicious, and if I hadn’t been reluctant to yank you away from the family you know, even before things stopped adding up, I’m sure they’d have managed to step in and harm you.”
“They could have tried,” she growled. “I still think she’s an idiot. Or at least way too trusting.”
Like her, trusting Cal even though she already knew he was a liar. Caring for Rahal even though he was a self-proclaimed monster. So maybe being an idiot about lovers ran in the family.
But she leaned against Cal anyway, and swung her feet around so she put them on Rahal’s lap.
“I missed you both,” Cal said suddenly. “I know I fucked things up. I was trying to get close to Xia to find out if she was the missing girl, and someone at the spaceport mistook me for Karn. I decided to take advantage of the mistake just so I could get into the palace, and after that, things got intense really fast. Wasn’t sure how to tell you the truth without messing up the investigation, the budding law enforcement on this planet and…” he took a deep, obvious breath, hesitated then spat it out, “…and what was turning really quickly into something I couldn’t stand the thought of losing. Though I suppose I did anyway.”
“I’m not sure,” Xia said. “I’m angry, but I’m not tearing your throat out or anything, and you know I can do that. You were trying to reunite me with a rich and famous relative, even if she’s an idiot about men, so I’ll grant you some leeway. And you feel good.” Too good, but she couldn’t resist.
“That you do. But more than that, I can’t be too mad at you because you’ve been good for me,” Rahal admitted. “The only problem with being the supposed baddest alpha badass on your planet is no one challenges you in interesting ways. By lobbing grenades at you, sure, but that’s not much fun. And it’s my own damn fault for making them think I was that guy. Thank you, Karn…that is, Cal. You’ve challenged me in a positive way and I realize I’ve missed it. I certainly missed it once you left.”
“Wait a damn second. Think you were that guy. Supposed biggest badass? What happened to Warlord Rahal Mizyar, the murderous monster turned seeker of justice? Please tell me I’m misunderstanding you, because it sounds like you’re confessing you’re a huge liar too.” Xia sprang up and put her hands on her hips. Otherwise they’d end up at Rahal’s throat, and she wasn’t sure she’d win that fight.
Although based on those hints, maybe she would.
Rahal rolled to his feet. “I… Do you know what I was before I came here?”
“A pit fighter,” Xia said confidently, because Drax had told her that and Drax was his sworn brother so he should know.
Although a sworn brother, at least a devious ex-covert operative one like Drax, would back up your outrageous lies for you.
“I heard he was a syndicate boss somewhere. Not here or Lysander, but someplace that’s not quite this much of a zelacxi nest. Argo, maybe.” He scratched his head thoughtfully. “Maybe he was a pit fighter before that. They like pit fighting on Argo.”
“Worse. I made syndicate bosses look good by comparison. I was…” Rahal paused for dramatic effect, “…a marketing executive.”
Xia let her mouth hang open, not bothering to hide her confusion.
Cal managed a curt laugh. “Good one, Rahal. You almost had me going for a second.”
“Sad to say, it’s true. I was a damn good one. Too good. I could sell anybody anything, get them to believe anything. Only one time I helped sell the planet Karthan to the wrong side. Got paid handsomely to do it, but they really were scum. Well-dressed, educated, polite scum who’d destroy the place over a couple of generations, not the kind of scum we have here, and they were careful not to break any laws doing it, so I couldn’t prove what I knew. I used some of the money they’d given me to start a revolution.”
“It wasn’t even your planet. Why would they start a revolution on your say-so?” Xia had done some pretty crazy things on Rahal’s say-so, but at least she had the excuse that great sex and his extreme hotness had turned her brains to mush. Karthanites weren’t even anatomically compatible with felinoids.
He laughed. “I’m a marketing genius. I know how to tell stories so people listen. To this day the people of Karthan have no idea what hit them, or that neither the dictators nor the Karthan Revolutionary Front started out as their idea.”
“Usually revolutionary governments wind up just as bad as what they overthrew,” Cal said, “but the Karthan Revolutionary Front’s decent. I’ve done some work for them, helping to track down some assets and a whole lot of people who went missing under the dictatorship.”
“If it actually turned out all right, I take no credit. I just realized I’d messed up Karthan’s game and wanted to give them a chance to fix it. If it stayed messed up, that wasn’t on me.”
Xia’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t give a plate of fish about Karthan, a planet she’d never visited. “Tell me more about how you went from a boring marketing guru to a sexy badass warlord.”
“I always was a sexy badass. Marketing paid really well, so it let me playboy all over the galaxy. It was a great game until I got over my head in Karthan.”
Xia looked him up and down. “I’ll buy the sexy. But badass?”
“I wasn’t a pit fighter. But I was the planetary mixed martial arts champion on Mrrwr three years running. Represented us in the Olympiad the year it was on Drago. Won multiple golds.”
Cal was squinting as if he was accessing his neurorelay.
“Search Rahal M. Settazz. M for Mizyar.”
Xia pulled out her com-pad—she wasn’t that adept with neurorelay searches. “You…you’re telling the truth! You had a great career in MMA before you turned into a sleazy businessman. You’re not a criminal mastermind at all.” She supposed a lot of girls would be relieved to know that, but she wasn’t one of those girls.
“That’s where you’re wrong, kitten. I became a criminal mastermind after I got here. My skill sets worked well for it. I came here to get away for a while after Karthan because no one here would know either the athlete or the marketing jerk. To survive here, I had to play this planet’s game. I decided I liked a game where I could fight with no rules, a game where I could be even more ruthless than I had been in business.
“And I was good at it. A predator who’s a trained MMA fighter has a few advantages if he wants to convince people he’s a badass. You know most species can’t keep up with us if violence is the game. And crime’s not so different from legit business, as I’m sure the real Karn Anders could tell you. I just spun things to show me in the best—or in this case, worst—possible light. So everyone wound up terrified of me, I won the game without having to kill nearly as many people as rumor has it, and I’m in a position to do some good as well as have my very own tacky palace and more gemstones than I know what to do with.”
Bad Kitty Page 19