A Darkside Interlude: Darkstar Mercenaries Book 0.5

by Anna Carven

  “Tend,” he agreed. Why did it bother Iskar that the idea of him tending to her seemed to cause such trepidation?

  “Why would you help me? I stole from you.”

  The truth was, Iskar hadn’t thought about it all that much. It went against his nature to personally involve himself in the affairs of others, but here he was, holding a human female in his arms as if she were his personal property.

  Victory had come easily, but it felt empty. He took no pleasure in her capitulation, and as he understood more about her existence, a strange sense of guilt rose inside him.

  In this world, she was powerless. She stole to survive, and he had run her down like a common enemy. Physically, she was no match for him, and the chase had left her injured.

  Iskar couldn’t just leave her like this. He would use the remainder of his incredibly rare and expensive nanite-impregnated fibrogel to heal her feet. It was the least he could do.

  “Human, do not ask complicated questions. I have pledged my assistance. Just accept it for what it is.” He eyed the entrance to her dwelling with suspicion. “Well, aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  She slipped her fingers into the pouch at her waist and retrieved a ring of small dangling metal instruments. “What are you, a vampire? You’re going to have to let me down so I can unlock the bolts.”

  “Your front door does not have voice activation or identification sensors?”

  “What are those?” she asked sarcastically, slinging the metal ring around her index finger. “We’re in the Dust Alleys. These are called keys. Now if you’re going to enter my house, can you please lose the hood and the face-scarf?”

  Iskar tipped his head in acquiescence as her curious stare burned into him. “What, have you never seen a Kordolian before?”

  “Actually, you’re my first.” Red lips parted, giving him a tantalizing glimpse of her pink tongue.

  Was that intentional, or just a slip of the tongue?

  Fuck. His cock strained.

  There she was again, the temptress. Irrepressible, despite her fear of him.

  This is the point at which Iskar knew he should just take her inside, hand her the fibrogel tube with instructions, and leave, but he couldn’t.

  “Let’s go in,” said the thief, unaware that she was inviting the High Commander of the Kordolian forces on Earth into her den. Would she recognize him without the disguise? Did Iskar even care?

  As if reading his thoughts, Torin raised him on the comm. “You lost, Commander? I thought you would have caught your thief by now.”

  “There was a slight… delay,” he muttered in Kordolian. “I am attending to some unfinished business.” No way in Kaiin’s hells would he admit to Torin that he’d been shot by a human. How embarrassing. In his haste to catch the female, he’d been sloppy. It had been a little too long since he’d been out in the field like this.

  “Nothing you can’t handle, I presume.”

  “Indeed.” His voice became a low rumble as he stared at the intriguing creature in his arms.

  She stirred his basest desires in the most unexpected of ways, eroding his famous self-control. Iskar was a principled man, a disciplined man, who never let his own needs interfere with duty, but now he was caught in a bind.

  The human aroused his lust.

  And in this empty dustbowl of a street, in this lawless part of town, on this primitive backwater of a planet, who the hell was to stop him from doing as he pleased?

  Chapter Nine

  “Artoo, vamosh!”

  She’d yelled the warning as they reached the entrance to her home, knowing her little brother would still be awake.

  Arturo would understand what she meant.

  Vamosh meant disappear in Eskulin. Ever since Arturo was small, Mari would tell him to vamosh whenever they had unexpected guests. People around these parts talked. It was better if they forgot he even existed, because she never, ever wanted her kid brother to come onto the Syndicate’s radar.

  That was why she’d taught him to be invisible—just another scruffy street kid, indistinguishable from all the others.

  Vamosh! Disappear!

  Arturo was smart enough. Mari guessed he would have taken one look through the viewport, seen the big bad stranger, and disappeared up into the roof-void.

  Arturo had to be protected at all costs. Unlike her, he actually had a chance of getting out of this shit-hole.

  As the front door swung open, Mari looked around and saw that her kid brother had indeed disappeared. Relief coursed through her even as the Kordolian stepped across the threshold, dipping his head to avoid banging it on the low door-frame.

  Her feet throbbed like crazy. The alien had briefly let her down so she could unlock the door. As her feet touched the ground, agonizing pain had ripped across her soles, and when she’d hissed in protest, the alien had swept her up into his arms.

  Again!

  He did it so effortlessly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and somehow, she was getting used to the feeling of being in his strong arms. Mari still didn’t understand how he’d healed so damn quickly, but underneath the fabric of his jacket, his arms felt as if they were made of sculpted steel.

  Without waiting for directions, he carried her across the small space and gently deposited her on the tattered floral couch in the corner.

  Then he pushed back his hood.

  Mari’s eyes widened. His hair was as white as snow, cropped high and tight in a style that seemed distinctly… military.

  He pulled down his scarf.

  Mari’s heart did a flip. He looked… exactly the way he sounded. Hard, dangerous, and a little bit cold. Everything about him was sharp. His elegant, angular features could have been carved from solid silver, and his grey lips were pressed into a thin, disapproving line. Pointed ears curved upwards, giving him a distinctly otherworldly appearance. Sharp eyes dissected the room, taking in every detail.

  Fierce. Striking. Kordolian.

  And not entirely… unattractive. One might even call him handsome, if one had a thing for aliens.

  Who are you kidding, Maribel? He’s hot. Scary-hot, alien-hot, mysterious-hot.

  He was definitely some sort of boss, a hard-ass who issued orders. He had that authoritative sort of air about him; she couldn’t imagine him taking shit from anyone.

  As his crimson gaze returned to her face, his lips slowly curved into a smile, revealing the twin points of his fangs.

  Fangs! As if his appearance wasn’t already fearsome enough! Mari knew about the Kordolians’ silver skin from the footage on the Networks, but she’d had no idea they had fangs. What other interesting features did they possess that humans didn’t?

  “Is your curiosity satisfied now?” He reached into his jacket as he spoke, retrieving the healing-gel-tube-thing she’d used on him earlier. “Put your feet up.”

  “I—” Taken aback, all Mari could do was obey. She had an inkling of what he was about to do to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare at you like some desert bumpkin.” She rested her head on a frayed old pillow and sighed, looking up at the low ceiling. The ancient solar-powered light flickered, casting uneven shadows across the room. “We don’t get many offworlders around these parts.”

  For a split-second, light shone between the gaps in the ceiling-boards, alerting Mari to movement above.

  Arturo. Knowing that brat, he’d be peering down between the cracks, watching Mari and the Kordolian.

  The alien removed his gloves, revealing long-fingered hands tipped with black nails. With the Kordolian’s attention momentarily diverted, Mari looked up at the ceiling, her eyes narrowing. “Quiet. Don’t move,” she mouthed in Eskulin, knowing Arturo would be able to read her lips. “I’ve got this under control.”

  The Kordolian took one of her feet by the heel, lifting it with surprising gentleness. He frowned as he examined it. “I am no medic, but this looks like a chemical burn. You must have stepped in something corrosive.” His frown de
epened. “You must also have an impressive pain threshold.”

  Mari shrugged. “It’s a tough world. If I lay down and cried every time something like this happened to me, I’d have no tears left.”

  “Hm.” He held the gel-tube against the bottom of her foot. “Next time, you should wear shoes.”

  A cold, tingling sensation spread across her burning sole, providing her with instant relief.

  “I don’t plan on there being a next time,” Mari muttered, hiding her inner thoughts. By pointing out the obvious, he unwittingly reminded her of a depressing truth.

  Good shoes were a luxury she couldn’t afford. Now that she’d lost her fuck-me heels on the Glory Strip, she only had a pair of worn-out sandals to her name. Secretly, she longed to own a pair of lifetime-guaranteed, thick-soled duragard boots, but when the Collector took ninety percent of whatever she earned, she could only dream of such things.

  Mari doubted this powerful, intimidating Kordolian would understand what a pain-in-the-ass it was to be broke on Earth.

  “You don’t plan on stealing again, or you don’t plan on getting caught?” He switched to her other foot, deftly applying the silver gel-stuff to her other sole. His hands were tough and callused, but his touch was feather-light, and it sent a pleasant shiver down her spine as the magical salve did its thing.

  Blissful relief came to her feet within seconds. Only when the pain had completely disappeared did she realize how bad it had actually been.

  “I’ve learned not to steal from people who wear sunglasses at night,” she said carefully as she experimentally wriggled her toes. “I won’t do that again.”

  “Hm.” His hard features revealed no emotion.

  Her heart fluttering wildly, Mari took in his overwhelming presence. He practically filled the dingy little room, making everything else—the shitty furniture, the swept concrete floor, the flickering solar light, the faded plas-posters on the wall—seem irrelevant.

  She didn’t even have time to feel self-conscious about her shabby little domicile, and the alien didn’t show any sign that he was bothered by the surroundings. His attention was fixed entirely on her. Suddenly, Mari felt like a rabbit that had caught the interest of a wolf.

  He couldn’t be an entirely bad wolf, though. He’d taken her home and healed her feet.

  “Wh-what do you want from me?” Mari broke the brittle tension by asking the question that had been on her mind all this time. Now that the thrill of the chase had worn off, she felt nervous.

  She was alone with a strange male alien who was bigger, faster, and stronger than her. She didn’t have anything to offer him, except… Mari’s stomach did a backflip.

  “Firstly, I want what you stole from me.”

  Done. She dipped her hand into her belt-pouch and produced the precious item. “I kept it safe for you.”

  White eyebrows rose in disbelief. He took the pendant and the attached leather cord, his fingers brushing against hers ever so briefly. Was that intentional? He seemed like the kind of man who wouldn’t do such a thing by mistake.

  His touch was electric.

  Never taking his eyes off her, he fastened the pendant around his neck.

  “Secondly, I want to know why you stole from me.”

  “I need to eat.” Mari shrugged. “Got bills to pay.”

  “That I understand, but out of all the targets you could have chosen, why me?”

  Because of the way you stared at me. In that moment, I could have stolen the shirt right off your back and you wouldn’t have noticed.

  Deep down, she knew he would never be dumbstruck like that again. He wasn’t the sort of person to repeat the same mistake twice.

  “The sunglasses,” she said instead, tapping the side of her nose. “On Earth, there are two sorts of people who wear sunglasses at night: those who are trying too hard to look cool, and those who aren’t from around here—those who might have something to hide.”

  He shook his head. “Make that three. There are those who consider the Glory Strip a garish nightmare of headache-inducing hyperstimulation. The dark glasses were necessary.”

  Was it just her, or did he sound a little defensive?

  “Either way, you stood out.”

  “You thought I would be an easy target.”

  “An interesting target.”

  “Oh? And did I prove interesting enough for you, little human?” White fangs flashed again, glinting in the flickering light.

  “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night, thank you very much.” The soles of her feet started to tingle like crazy, as if someone were gently tapping the bottom of each foot with a thousand blunt-tipped needles. It occurred to her that he was still holding her left foot in his rather large hand. He stroked the surface of her heel with the pad of his thumb, and Mari was surprised that it wasn’t painful at all.

  His gesture was slow and deliberate and strangely sensual, and he really was a tall, striking, handsome male, and the way he looked at her, with those slightly narrowed eyes…

  It was powerful and terrifying, because nobody had ever looked at her that way before. People stared at Mari because she wanted them to; they ogled and leered and generally treated her like eye candy, but they never scratched beneath the surface.

  The alien’s gaze roamed over her face as he lowered her foot, gently placing it on the armrest of the couch. Mari was unable to read his thoughts as his eyes slowly traveled down her body. Was he still angry with her? His expression gave nothing away.

  As his eyes snapped back to hers, he took a deep breath, going very still.

  What the hell is he thinking? This guy really didn’t give much away, and he made her all kinds of nervous, but she was also impossibly drawn to him, in a way that threatened to rob Mari of her deeply-rooted survival instincts.

  “You are careless,” he said at last. “I do not know how you’ve survived in this place so long by doing what you do, but you need to be more cautious.”

  “Cautious? I’ve been doing this since I was five, and you’re telling me how I should act in my own neighborhood?”

  “You are lucky I possess some degree of restraint, human, but not everyone in this universe is like me. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

  Mari sat up, indignation burning away her fear. “You don’t know anything about me, offworlder. You don’t know what it’s like to survive in this place, to become this,” she gestured down at her scantily clad body, “just so I can scrape together a few credits and keep the fucking Collector off my back.”

  Still, the alien’s stony expression didn’t waver. Had she crossed the line? Mari stiffened. The Kordolian might have helped her, but he was still a very dangerous man.

  “You’re right,” he said finally, some unreadable emotion swirling in his crimson eyes. “I know nothing about you, and I intend to keep it that way.”

  What? Relief, anger, and disappointment surged through her all at once. Why did his cold statement leave her feeling so… empty? Mari withdrew her feet, curling her legs up so that she was hugging her knees. “Fine by me.” She couldn’t help but sound a little sullen.

  “There is something I want from you, though. I will pay.”

  Emptiness gave way to disappointment. He was no better than all the other sleazebags in this shitty slum, after all. “You’ll pay? This isn’t for sale, Kordolian. I’m not a fucking wh—”

  “For your silence.”

  “What?” Mari blinked.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  “Never seen you before in my life.”

  “Good. Then you never stole from me, never ran from me, never even saw me. I was never in your home. I do not exist. If the Touched One starts ranting about me, you will publicly dismiss his words as the ravings of a madman.”

  “Th-that’s it? You want me to keep quiet?” It confirmed what Mari already suspected; this guy had to be some sort of big-shot.

  And he was buying her silence, not her fucking virginity. For s
ome reason, that made her extremely happy. It meant he wasn’t a scumbag, after all.

  The alien reached into his jacket and produced a small red metal square. “My payment. This is an Imperial krath. Our Empire may have fallen, but our currency hasn’t. Based on current Universal exchange rates, its value on Earth should be… significant.”

  A metal square. Mari held out her hand, and he pressed the object into her palm.

  Kordolian currency. A shiver of excitement ran through her, and it wasn’t because of the money. His touch felt so warm, so firm, so good. It sent an electric ripple across her bare arms and set her heart on fire.

  And now he was about to leave, and she’d never see him again. Mari took in his proud features one last time, imprinting them on her mind.

  Her crazy heart beat faster, faster, faster. It was that feeling she got when she was about to do something stupid and reckless.

  Fuck it. If she was never going to see him again, then…

  Mari rose to her feet. The silver stuff had dried and formed a second skin over her soles. As she took a step forward, it cracked and shed, leaving her feet perfectly healed.

  Magic.

  She walked right up to the Kordolian, wrapped her arms around his neck, and planted a long, slow kiss on his grey lips.

  Because I can. Because I’m never going to see you again. Because you’re hot and intriguing and powerful, and I find that combination irresistible.

  Because I’m not afraid of you anymore.

  He responded with all the intensity of a parched man in the desert, crushing his lips against hers, taking a long, slow drink from her desperate mouth.

  Strong fingers slid through her hair, caressing her scalp. As he molded his body against hers, his insistent erection pressed into the soft skin of her lower belly.

  His kisses were as good as she thought they’d be.

  No, they were better. She could kiss him until the bloody sun came up, and then…

  He let go.

  What?

  As he looked down at her, Mari felt as if all the air had been sucked from her, leaving her breathless and wanting.