The Lyran female's dark eyes pleaded him for an answer and his heart said she craved reassurance. She was turning to him for help and for hope. He couldn't deny one as beautiful as her, as delicate and scared. Her fear and beauty spoke to him, making her appear as fragile as a Cyoliane butterfly, and tempting him to reach out and cradle her gently in his hands. He wondered at this strange desire.
"I am sure they will release you. Ransoming you would contravene the Treaty of Espacia.” He noticed her look didn't change. “They will not harm you."
Silently, he added a promise to those words. He wouldn't let anyone harm her or her brother. He moved to the end of the bench near her, wondering what strange twist of fate had brought her into this side of the galaxy. She seemed too frail to survive in such a dark place but at the same time her black eyes held a trace of determination and there was a hint of strength in the set of her subtly curved jaw. A strange mixture. Beauty and grace joined with strength and resolve.
It was a shame she wasn't strong enough.
His heart said that she could be. He could probably get her to her brother and then to a ship. He knew this class of Vegan fighter well enough to be able to take her through the ducts to the medical deck.
Tres looked up at the ceiling. It shifted from pale grey to a thermal image and then he could see through the panels to the ducts, pipes and wiring beyond. Down the side of the image, thermal readings gave him the temperature of each duct. Below it was an assessment of width, height and other factors.
It was warmer in the duct than it was in this room.
"Is there something interesting up there?” she said.
His gaze shifted to her and, in a matter of seconds, his ocular implants had her vital statistics displayed next to the thermal image of her body. She was hot. Far hotter than he had expected. She was radiating heat at a level that made him consider crossing his cell to the bars, reaching through and taking her hand to warm himself. She was also shorter than he had expected and lighter. If they stood side by side, she would be a good head shorter than he was.
"Only ducts and engineering passageways,” he said without thinking and her thermal image frowned at him. His gaze slid down to her chest and he watched her heart pounding. It was beating faster than he had thought it would. As he watched it, it picked up speed. Her body temperature rose. He smiled inside, amused at this reaction to his staring, and then switched off the implants and looked away from her. It was wrong of him to stare, even if she was the most fascinating creature he had ever met.
"Ducts? You can see the ducts?"
He nodded. “On ships this size, they are wide enough for someone to crawl through."
"How can you see the ducts?"
She seemed more interested in how he knew things than how they could help. He tapped the side of his head.
"I have ocular implants, amongst other things."
Her eyes widened and her brows rose in surprise. “Implants? Like cybernetics?"
"Far more advanced than that.” He smiled at her. “Does Lyra not have such things?"
Her jaw tensed and he realised that she didn't like it when he spoke about Lyra in a way that made it sound less advanced than Vega or any species on this side of the barrier.
She was even more beautiful when she was angry.
His gaze ran over her again, this time seeing her as she was. Dressed like a male in what appeared to be a white shirt and brown trousers. It didn't suit her. He could imagine her dressed in the raiment of a female, something flowing and soft, in subtle shades. With her hair down, long black locks flowing over her pale creamy skin, she would be stunning, more beautiful than any butterfly.
Tres frowned when her dark gaze fell to her knees, a blush of colour caressing her cheeks. When she raised her eyes again, she gave him a little smile that sent a jolt of heat through him. Not actual temperature he realised but something else. Unfamiliar feelings that made him desire to touch her. Touch. He longed to feel her skin against his, to feel a connection to something at last.
A noise in the corridor startled him out of his perusal of her. His eyes shifted to the door of the cellblock and then roamed back to her, unable to leave her for any amount of time. He wanted to look at her forever. He wanted to touch her. Not with gloves on. He needed to feel her soft skin, needed to feel her warmth. He didn't care if it was forbidden. It only made him want it more. He wanted her to touch him. He craved the feel of her fingers on him, hungered for her touch.
The violence and strength of that need surprised him. Never before had he wanted to be touched. Never had he considered that he had been deprived all these years by the law that forbade skin-to-skin contact with him. He wondered what it would feel like to have her warm little hands on him.
"The guards are coming. If they find you talking to me, you will be in trouble.” He lay back down on his bench, frowning at the hardness of it, and hoped that she would take the hint and be quiet for a while.
She moved to the bench and sat on it, still nursing her hand. She had been foolish to touch the bars. He knew that some Lyran vessels had similar light technology. Perhaps she didn't travel on those kinds of military vessels, or perhaps she hadn't seen any cells in her time. A delicate creature like her would probably want to stay away from such areas.
Or perhaps a protective male had kept her safe from them.
That thought sent a cold spike into his heart.
One as beautiful as her probably had a male.
The door opened, chasing away his thoughts. He sensed her stiffen when the guards passed her cell. They stopped at his.
"It is cold in here,” he said, casual and with a smile.
"We have orders to maintain this temperature and inquire whether you will eat now?"
Tres shook his head. “I will not. Perhaps your other guest will."
The two male Vegans looked over their shoulders in the direction of the woman. They grinned and then the smile fell off their faces when they looked back at him. He frowned at them.
"We have orders to starve her, at least until Lyra sends a party to negotiate."
"Negotiate?” he said and then bit his tongue to stop himself from saying anything more. Angering the commander of this ship wasn't wise. He had proven himself to be quite ruthless and a male who followed the rules to the letter. The moment the commander had caught him, he had thrown him in the cells and done everything required to stop him escaping.
"If you try to ransom me it will be a direction violation of the treaty! You will be starting a war with Lyra,” the female said.
The two guards laughed and moved to the female's cell. She should have kept her mouth shut. Vegan military officers hated all things Lyran, regardless of how beautiful they appeared to be.
"It's none of your business. Just wait there for someone to come and get you."
"Wait,” she said as they started to leave and got to her feet. “My brother."
"What about him?” The first guard glared at her, his yellow eyes intent on her face.
"Is he alive?"
The guard hesitated and looked over at him. Tres held his gaze. The man looked back at her and nodded.
"He is stable. He will be ransomed with you."
She went to speak and then stopped, as though she had got the better of herself at last. They had answered one of her questions. It wasn't wise to ask any more.
The guards left and she moved back to the blue energy bars near his cell.
"Do you believe them?” she said and he nodded. The officers of this ship would ensure her brother's survival. They stood to gain a large amount of currency from ransoming them, but only if her brother were alive.
"Your family must know that you travel together and that you would never enter the Black Zone without reason. Therefore, they would know that you would have been taken together. If they only have you to ransom, Lyra would enquire after your brother. If they discover he is dead, they will not pay the Vegans anything. They will attack."
She
flinched at that last word and he could see she didn't want that to happen.
Tres sat up and pulled the blanket around him, muttering to himself about the guards and their orders to keep the cells at such a horrible temperature.
"Are you cold?” she said again and when his eyes met hers, he saw a hint of concern in them.
What kind of warm hearted created was she that she cared about a male she had only just met? None on this side of the barrier would care about someone they hadn't known for less than two standard Vegan years. He calculated that in his head. By her species, she would've had to known him for at least fourteen years to reach this level of concern.
He tugged at the collar of the tight suit beneath his looser black clothes, pulling it up his neck until it almost reached his jaw.
"It is cold,” Tres repeated but not in the same tone he had used before. This time there was a hint of resignation in his voice that surprised him. Perhaps it was because the guards had flatly refused his attempts to raise the temperature.
"What's that suit you're wearing?” She moved close to the bars and peered at the collar now visible above his clothes. “It looks like a flight suit. Did they capture your ship too? I didn't see another ship in the cargo bay."
Tres reached into the pocket of his loose trousers and pulled out his one remaining glove. He had lost the other to the commander of the ship. Proof of capture he had called it. Sighing, Tres stared at the glove. In his current state, there was no way that he could help the woman find her brother and leave the ship.
His gaze roamed back to her, studying her face as she looked at his hands. His heart beat and then only a few minutes later beat again. He had never felt it race like this, not even when he had been running. Hers was thundering by the time her eyes met his again. His beat again. When compared with hers, it was leisurely at best, but to him it was a giddy fast beat.
"It's a thermal suit,” he said and flexed his fingers while looking at his forearm. His muscles shifted beneath the skintight material and the residual heat they created was absorbed and used to warm his entire arm. “The commander of this ship wanted to ensure I did not get it into my head to escape so he broke it."
Her eyebrows rose. “But you need heat."
"He cares little about such technicalities as that,” Tres said and slowly stood. It took incredible effort to move his stiff limbs and stretching was painful but rewarded him with a short burst of heat.
She stared at him, silent and pensive.
He wondered what she was thinking behind her beautiful eyes and then remembered what he had been thinking about before the guards had entered.
Her. Males.
Tres frowned at the door to the cellblock and clenched his fists. The thought that she might already belong to another male infuriated him and his heart beat again, quickly followed by another. Two in as many minutes. If a male had her, owned her, then he would fight that male for her.
His eyes grew wide when he realised what he was thinking and he looked down at her. She knelt by the bars, her hands in her lap, her eyes round and dark as she looked up at him. He would fight for her. On this side of the barrier, such a fight would be to the death. If her male was large, Tres could lose, but he would fight regardless. She had him fascinated, a slave to her, enthralled by her beauty and her frailty. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and protect her from the darkness of the universe. He would protect her from anything.
Anything.
"What do your kin call you?” he said and a flicker of shock crossed her face followed by a crimson blush that stained her cheeks. Beautiful. He had never seen a female react to him the way she did. He had never seen a female react like her to anyone. Were all females like this on the other side of the barrier? What was she like compared to them—strong, weak, loving, tender, cruel? He wanted to know. He was so tired of being trapped on this side of the barrier, surrounded by darkness and loneliness.
"Renie,” she whispered, as though ashamed to tell him.
Perhaps not ashamed. She cast her eyes downwards into her lap and twisted her fingers around themselves. Embarrassed? Awkward? All new emotions to him. There was none like her on this side of the barrier. Meeting her and experiencing this wondrous array of feeling had only strengthened his resolve to leave the Black Zone.
He moved to the bars and knelt in front of her.
"Tres,” he said and slid his hand between the bars, holding it out in what he hoped was a Lyran gesture of greeting. His knowledge of different species’ formalities had all collided in his mind and become tangled over the years.
She stared at his hand as though it was going to attack her.
Perhaps he had been wrong.
Her hand slid into his.
Tres's entire body jolted and tensed, a sweep of tingles racing through him, fanning out from the point where her skin touched his. She closed her fingers around his hand, her soft skin brushing his, creating smaller waves of pleasure with each tiny caress. His heart beat hard in his chest, pounding in his ears as he stared into her eyes, absorbing the divine feeling of her body against his. For a moment, he forgot himself, lost in the feel of her hand in his, her gentle touch. He had never been touched before, not skin on skin. It was forbidden for anyone to touch him. As a child, those who'd had to touch him had worn gloves, and since then he had always been wearing his thermal suit when he had been touched.
Not that he had ever been touched as intimately as this. Anything more intimate than touching his arm or shoulder was forbidden also.
His fingers slowly closed, clasping her hand, and he never wanted to let it go.
"How do you know a Terran form of greeting?"
His eyes had almost closed when she voiced that question. They opened slowly and ambled over her body and then her face to meet hers.
Terran. One of her species then. To think the Vegans and Lyrans had almost destroyed the species that had created her, a stunning dark rose, a flower so delicate he wanted to hold her gently and savour her scent.
"Education,” he said as an answer and reluctantly took his hand back, sliding it carefully through the bars.
He could have held hers forever.
His entire body felt warm from just that brief touch but the heat quickly faded.
"Your hands are freezing,” she said with a smile that he supposed was meant to make him feel as though that wasn't a bad thing.
She was trying not to offend him.
He smiled at her, showing that he wasn't at all offended. He knew that he was cold compared to her. His species relied on the strong sun of their planet and thermal suits to keep them alive. In deep space, and with his suit broken, he was so cold that it was difficult to move. Painful.
Still, as he looked at her, he found that he didn't feel the cold. He didn't feel the pain. He felt only warmth. A strange warmth that suffused his entire body.
"Tres?” she said and his eyes half-closed on hearing her soft voice speak his name.
He managed a nod in response and clawed the scattered pieces of his mind back together. Something about her made him lose all reason and control. He wished that he was able to get closer to her. He wanted to feel her body against every inch of his and needed to help her get away from this dark place. The Black Zone was no place for her and the Vegan commander of this vessel was intent on hurting her, or at least damaging relations between Vega and Lyra. He had to stop that from happening. He looked around him at the cells. Trapped here, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
"Do you think my brother is going to be all right?” She leaned back against the wall near him and pulled her knees up to her chest.
The vulnerability in her look made him frown and a dark feeling filled him, an urge to escape the cell at any cost to set her free and take vengeance on the commander who had captured her. Her near-black eyes shifted to meet his, sending another bolt of warmth through him. She gave him another little smile, a faint curving of her lips that spoke of hurt. Her brow furrowed.
"H
e will be all right, won't he?” she whispered, her look almost pleading him to lie to her.
He didn't need to lie.
"Nothing will happen to him,” Tres whispered in return and moved closer to her. He leaned his back into the wall and kept his head turned towards her, watching her closely. She was beautifully unguarded with her feelings and the depth of her love for her brother stunned Tres. He was sure that his sister, Tesia, loved him, but it couldn't possibly extend to this. Renie looked as though she would die if anything happened to her brother.
For some reason, that made him a little jealous.
Jealous.
It was a new feeling for him. He had never had a reason to feel it before.
He held a high position within society, so admired and feared that he wanted for nothing. Only his family could refuse him something. Yet he craved more. He stared into Renie's eyes, reading all the love in them. He longed for a life where he was treated differently. An existence where there was more. More. He didn't know exactly what it was that he craved, but he knew that he would find it on the other side of the barrier, away from the Black Zone.
Freedom. Feelings. Life.
All the things he had ever wanted but had never had. The things that he couldn't ask for. The things that were denied him.
He wanted to live. He desired to see how others lived. He longed to experience life in a place less dark than the Black Zone.
Something dawned on him, something that made him feel the depth of his loneliness and the hollowness of his existence, something that made him despair at the thought that he might lose what he had found. He didn't want to go back, didn't want to continue his old life now that he had discovered what was missing from it.
He wanted to live. He desired to see how others lived. He longed to experience life in a place less dark than the Black zone. But he didn't want to do it alone.
He wanted to do it all with a female like Renie.
She was everything that he had ever wanted.
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Chapter 4
The door opened.
Heart of a Prince [Daughters of Lyra Series] Page 3