by Mary Wine
Light glittered off a knife and her hand reached for it without hesitation. It was a cutting knife, not a weapon, but the edge looked sharp to her desperate eyes. A strange sense of calm settled on her brain as she listened to the house go silent. They were hunting her now, stalking her within the walls like scavengers.
Zeva tightened her grip and hunched lower. Her eyes watched the shadows as she waited for a tiny little sound to give her a target. Craddock and Helmut had made one miscalculation.
She would not act like prey.
Chapter Eight
“She could be dead.”
Greer’s voice was controlled but the scene around him wasn’t. Maroon-clad warriors battled against their own kind as Ravid and Keenan were held back by their comrades. Greer cast a long look at his communication bracelet and studied the information.
“Let me go, Osher.” Keenan’s voice was a low sound of warning. Osher looked at Greer before he let Keenan go. The warrior holding his opposite arm immediately stumbled back as Keenan flexed his shoulders. Rage burned from his eyes as he shot the warriors holding Ravid a warning look. Ravid took a long look at the information being displayed by his communication link. He shot Greer a hard look before reaching for a disintegration weapon.
“It matters not, I am going. This will end today.” Ravid scanned the group of Judgment officials but no one protested his decision. Keenan moved beside him as Ravid caught sight of Amin.
His sister-in-law stood watching him with her son standing on a bench so that the child could clearly see. Amin’s eyes were hard as she offered a single nod of her head.
“Let’s go get our mate.” Keenan’s words were soft as he cast a look at Ravid. Burning in his eyes was a rage that demanded blood. It was a need that had driven them both for too long. Today they would come back with blood on their hands or they would be dead.
Primitive…hard…maybe even animalistic, but it was a warrior’s way.
* * * * *
Zeva felt her body shift into the tight control that she had lived with on Earth. It was an odd distortion of life where your emotions turned off and the instinct to survive rose to the top of your brain. Nothing mattered but ensuring that her lungs filled and her heart beat. She would do anything to ensure it. Her fingers grasped the knife handle and found the weapon comforting. It was one more little insurance that death would not take her without a struggle.
Her nose caught a faint smell drifting past. Her skin itched as she recognized it on some deep level. The few moments of captivity and helplessness were etched into her memory along with that scent.
A soft step hit her ears a second before the lights brightened. Zeva surged up from her hiding place and sliced through the air with her knife. Helmut’s eyes rounded with surprise as the blade cut through his neck. His lips moved but she had cut the flow of oxygen from his lungs, rendering him silent in those last seconds of life.
The deviant fell back as Zeva tightened her grip on the handle. It was slick with blood and the metallic scent satisfied her need to survive. Helmut’s eyes never closed. His body fell on the floor as his blood flowed out of his cut throat. Zeva looked at the body without remorse, instead all she felt was a surge of hope that she might have earned the right to live with her deed.
“You bitch.” Cradock’s face was distorted by rage. He looked at his fallen companion as his lips twisted with grief. “I’m going to send your body back to Ravid and Keenan in little pieces.” His eyes burned as he lifted a finger. “And I’m going to make sure you live while I butcher you!”
His fist landed on her wrist and the knife went flying across the room. Pain raced up her arm as Zeva spun in a circle from the force of the blow. Craddock moved forward like a solid wall of death bearing down on her last moment of life. Zeva kicked out her leg as she turned and hooked her heel as she caught sight of his head.
A sickening crack filled the air as her kick connected with Craddock’s temple. Zeva turned with her kick and lowered her leg behind her in a perfect kicking position. Craddock stared at her with dazed eyes a second before his knees buckled and his body dropped towards the ground.
A flash of movement in the doorway made her jump around before her brain even registered who stood there. Ravid’s hand held a weapon pointed at the spot Craddock had stood but his eyes were frozen on her. The muzzle of that disintegration rifle lowered as Zeva watched her own fist begin to vibrate. Her hand was covered in blood and she stared at it as the limb began to violently shake.
She didn’t care about the two lives she’d taken. The bodies lay at her feet and all Zeva saw was Ravid’s eyes. She could feel Keenan behind her as she let her hands drop to her sides. Ravid watched her with intense eyes, waiting for something that her brain couldn’t seem to understand. The only thing she felt was a pressing need to be pressed between them. She had earned the right to feel their bodies next to hers and absolutely nothing else mattered.
“Take me home.” Pain slashed across their mind-bridge as Ravid’s lips tightened into a thin line. Keenan stepped back before touching her back, and she cast a look over her shoulder as emotion came spilling out of the walls she had locked it behind in order to survive.
Didn’t they want her? The crimson blood coating her hand caught her eyes as Zeva shuddered with horror. Maybe they didn’t want a mate who had taken lives. She lifted her eyes to Ravid and the tight mask he’d drawn his face into. She had to reach the man who was behind that taut control, because she wasn’t sorry for her actions. “I had to do it… They were going to send you my hair…I had—”
Her words ended as Ravid crushed her with his arms. Keenan slammed into her back and she couldn’t even fill her lungs as they smashed her body between their larger ones. Zeva frantically twisted between them, trying to touch and absorb the details of their bodies. The warm brush of breath on her neck, the beat of each male’s heart beneath her fingertips. She needed to feel them!
Her lungs filled with their rich male scents and she felt her body rejoice. She had fought for the right to be close to them, even if it was just for one last time. They could renounce her, even impose penalty for taking life, but Zeva took a deep breath and straightened her back. She had no regrets. Deviants like Helmut and Craddock did not have the right to share her planet with her. She suddenly understood why warriors would pledge their lives to the Judgment ranks. Once your innocence was stripped away, how did you ever turn your back on the job that needed doing? She would never walk across the female ground with the same lack of care to attention.
And she certainly would never answer a summons without making certain it was sent by her family! Zeva lifted her head and looked into Keenan’s topaz eyes. “I am not sorry. If that means I am a deviant, then I am.”
Two grumbles of male displeasure hit her as the warriors surrounding them shot her a disbelieving look. “Defending yourself is not against the law, Zeva.” Keenan suddenly looked down her body and shot a nearby warrior a harsh look. The man turned his back on her nude frame as Ravid released her in order to punch commands into his arm communicator. A little pop announced the arrival of whatever he had requested and Zeva found herself free of Keenan’s embrace as Ravid wrapped her in a large sheet. The blood on her hands soaked right into the fabric, making her head spin in a dizzy circle. The surge of adrenaline was gone and her body was cheerfully releasing its grasp on consciousness. Slipping into deep oblivion beckoned to her like food to the starving.
Keenan picked her up and she sighed as her head found his chest to lean against.
* * * * *
“Mother!” Zeva surged up as she saw the transport heading for her mother’s body. Every muscle drew taut but her eyes didn’t show her the leering grins of Helmut and Craddock as they ran her mother down.
“Be at ease, shihori.” Large hands stroked her face as Zeva tried to look at Keenan. She needed to see his face, just to assure herself that it was him.
But the chamber was dark, so all she saw was shadow. But it was Ke
enan. Zeva knew his scent, her skin confirmed that it was his hands smoothing over her cheeks. She knew his touch and how it differed from Ravid’s. It wasn’t something she could explain, only feel. Keenan’s emotions touched hers and mingled in a stream of intimacy that fed her starving soul.
But she needed more. “Where is Ravid?”
Keenan threaded his fingers through her hair and inhaled her scent before answering. Relief surged through their mind-link before she caught just a hint of a smile lifting the corners of his lips. “He will be here shortly. First you need to dress.”
The room brightened as Keenan moved away from her. Zeva lifted her hands to see her skin was clean. Even her fingernails were scrubbed free of every last hint of red. She lifted her hand and didn’t even catch an odor of blood.
“I am amazed you did not wake during your bath. I confess I thought our mothers were going to peel your skin away with all their scrubbing.” Keenan held a pair of her pants out but wouldn’t let her take them. Instead he insisted on helping her dress.
Zeva looked at her hands again and rolled her eyes around to him. “You stayed?” Bathing was a female ceremony. Modesty did rise up as she thought about Keenan or any warrior being in the chamber while she bathed. That was not done on Alcandar!
Keenan grinned at her before holding out a jacket. “Someone had to hold you while you slept, shihori.” His eyes flashed with the endearment as Zeva froze in place just to savor the sound of that Alcandian word. Add to that the rich tone of Keenan’s voice and she was completely content.
Ravid pushed the curtain aside and Zeva couldn’t stop the smile her lips aimed at him. His face was a stone mask that twisted her stomach. Keenan’s hand landed firmly on her back as a second team of warriors followed Ravid into their chamber. The fingers on her back made a soothing motion as a third warrior also walked into the room.
Her breath lodged in her throat as they considered her with serious eyes. Zeva held her chin high—she still wasn’t sorry. The only thing she lamented was the fact that there needed to be Judgment officials because deviants existed.
The warriors suddenly moved and she was certain her heart froze. Their heads nodded with respect, stunning her. They swung her right arm across their chest to strike the top of their fist against their shoulder. On Alcandar, there was no higher praise from Judgment warriors.
Tension flowed out of her like ice that had been tossed into an open flame. Her knees wanted to buckle as a sigh escaped her lips. Ravid’s eyebrow rose with confusion as he crossed the room to search her eyes with his dark ones.
“What were you expecting, Zeva?”
Ravid caught her chin as his mind mingled with hers…searching through her tattered emotions. She was too tired to care what he saw, relief still flowed so freely from the fact that she had awakened in Ravid and Keenan’s chamber.
Their chamber.
“I am sorry, ruthima.” His eyes burned with guilt. Zeva gasped with horror as she watched Ravid shoulder the blame for her abduction. She grabbed his forearm when he moved to turn and grabbed and handful of his uniform top.
“It was not your fault.” Zeva hissed each word in a louder tone. The last one was loud enough to shake the window coverings. Ravid’s face flushed with pride and stubborn denial of her words. Zeva dug her fingers into the fabric covering his chest and heard a faint ripping sound as she dragged his head down towards hers. “Fate makes a lot of choices that we don’t like.”
Ravid’s eyes widened as he listened to his own words. Zeva let his uniform go and balled her fingers into a fist. “I’d be happy to beat it into your thick skull. You two might not like it but I can look out for myself sometimes.”
Ravid leaned down to whisper next to her ear. “And I will always argue with you.”
“I hope so.” Keenan raised an eyebrow at her words and Ravid did as well.
Greer cleared his throat. Ravid turned around abruptly as Keenan stepped up completely behind her. His hands landed on her shoulders in a solid motion of comfort.
“Mayhaps, we best finish this.” A small smile betrayed his enjoyment before Greer stepped forward. Keenan leaned over her shoulder and spoke calmly near her ear.
“Greer, will observe your abduction before shifting it.”
“No.” The word came out of her lips before Zeva really understood what she objected to. Ravid shot her a confused look as Keenan’s hands tightened on her shoulders. “Observing is fine, but I do not want it forgotten.”
“Why?” Both her mates demanded that together. Greer looked at her with open astonishment. Ravid cupped her chin as his dark eyes cut into hers. “Zeva, there is no need for you to suffer with the memory.”
But there was. Zeva felt each of Ravid’s fingers along her jaw and noticed the stark difference between that touch and the one that Craddock had used on her. In that difference she finally understood why Ravid and Keenan were her mates. It went beyond the sexual fire and into the pure bliss of their connection to one another.
Keenan leaned over her ear. “The nightmares will be gone. Do not insist on keeping them.”
“I have to.” Zeva shook off their hands and stepped toward Greer. “I’ll explain it to you once this is finished.”
Keenan listened to his knuckles pop as he tightened his hands into fists. He wasn’t sure if he could survive long enough to hear Zeva’s explanation.
“It is shock speaking.” Ravid growled around his words as they both flinched. They could not see what Greer witnessed through Zeva’s eyes but the sickly pallor of her face as she relived her ordeal tormented them from their viewing spot. Endless moments of pain stretched them as Zeva’s horror and desperation bled across their mind-link. Their comrades stood between them and Greer forcing Keenan and Ravid to let the investigation finish.
Greer grunted and stood up. “I am satisfied.” The warrior left on silent feet a second before Zeva flew across the chamber. She jumped into the bathing pool with her clothes on as her body shuddered with horror.
It was just a memory! Zeva reached for that idea as her brain tried to yank her back into the nightmare. Nausea twisted her stomach as she swore she smelled the sickly scent of fresh blood. It was all over her! She had to get it off her skin!
“Zeva! Stop!” Ravid caught her body and crushed it within his embrace. Zeva thrust her hands against his embrace and slipped out of his hold.
Zeva submerged herself in the water and then thrust her body up. She shook the water off as she came face-to-face with Ravid and Keenan. They glared at her and she didn’t mind the frustration, but the pity raised her temper.
“I am fine,” she announced. “Better than fine, I am home.”
A last shiver shook her body and Keenan snorted at her statement. “You need to let Greer shift that nightmare.”
Ravid nodded agreement and Zeva reached for the buttons holding her soaking wet jacket on. A naughty smile lifted her lips. Life with Ravid and Keenan was never going to be smooth. Who could have ever thought that might be viewed as a positive aspect of their relationship? “I consider it an interesting gift.”
“A what?” Zeva wasn’t certain who said it louder. She was sure the eating hall below must have shook.
Zeva pulled her jacket off and tossed it onto the side of the pool. Ravid and Keenan frowned at her as they both battled to keep their eyes on her face instead of her bared breasts. She wanted to tempt them. She needed to watch the way their eyes moved over her body, not simple lust but driven by more than just the desire to fuck.
“They taught me something.” It was horrible but true. Zeva looked at her warriors and saw everything that Helmut and Craddock hadn’t been. Her eyes drank in the details. “I really thought I could live without you.”
Zeva climbed from the pool and pushed her wet pants down her legs. “I can’t. They showed me what selfish lust is and I don’t ever want to forget the difference.” Her eyes settled on the maroon coats as she smiled. “And I never want to forget that there is a reason for
all of your rules for me.”
Ravid caught her because he just couldn’t contain the urge to touch her any longer. Zeva moved into his embrace with ease, letting him mold her to his body without resistance. Her scent filled his lungs as her breasts pressed against his chest. Keenan joined their embrace and Ravid shook with the pure perfection of it.
Zeva traced his chest with her fingertips, making him groan. The way she touched him sent fire coursing through his blood. She would trail those little fingers over each ridge on his chest and then sigh. It was the most basic form of compliment. There was no way to fake the delight simmering in her eyes as she touched his body. His next breath drew the hot smell of arousal into his head and his cock thickened in response.
Perfection. Zeva moved slightly so that her body moved against both warriors. Yes, she was right where she belonged. Keenan stroked her shoulders as Ravid’s growl filled her ears. Their scents told her they were strong and the close embrace let her feel the twin erections just waiting for her to enjoy.
Lifting her chin she caught Ravid’s eyes. They flashed blue electricity at her as his mind began to bridge with hers. Keenan leaned over her shoulder to draw a deep breath. His chest rumbled against her back as she felt his cock harden even further.
“Make love with me.” Her words sounded desperate and maybe she was. Zeva didn’t know or care. All that mattered was making a memory that would shame the one Craddock had left on her body.
Keenan chuckled in her ear and lifted her from her feet. He spun her in a wide circle before letting her body bounce on the bed. He stood just mere inches from the bed as his fingers unfastened his uniform. Zeva’s breath caught in her throat as she watched him shrug out of it. Removing the maroon jacket didn’t change the warrior that he was.