Like mother, like daughter.
Zan turned quickly, blocking her view and breaking her away from her mental diatribe. “Close your eyes.”
Gia considered him a moment and did.
“Take my hand.”
His warm, calloused palm slaked over hers and he tugged her forward. She took a deep breath, the air sweet with scent of flowers. A cool breeze lifted the hair from her neck, and through the distance she thought she heard the murmur of voices, though they sounded far off.
“Go on and look.”
She opened her eyes and gasped. “It’s incredible!”
Water every color of the rainbow spilled into a shimmering pool of liquid light. Tropical blooms in orange and pink, coral and gold, all as big as her head, swayed in the breeze, sprinkled among the thick foliage. People swam in the water, naked as the day they were born, mostly men but a few women sprinkled in the mix. None with inhibitions, because several were engaged in hedonistic explorations.
“Who are they?”
“My father’s trusted counsel. Men who have proven their loyalty to him. Most live off world, but they all come back for the ranking.” His gaze flit to hers. “You saw the state of the locals. They are so focused on surviving that none are likely to challenge me. These men are a different story. We’re here to size up my competition.”
Damn Fenton. As Zan glanced around he wished he’d gutted the man out in the town square. The last thing he wanted was for Gia to get to know the men he’d be forced to fuck during the ranking. She had a soft heart and he didn’t want her getting attached to any of the men he’d be forced to kill.
Plus, he didn’t want any of them sizing her up. Many of the men had grown complacent, were settled on moons or stations around the system, content with their lives as they were. But for a prize such as his companion, they might bestir themselves, consider challenging him.
“Knowledge is power, right?” Gia squeezed his arm. “Maybe one of them knows about my stinger.”
Zan had a pretty good idea of where her ship was being stored. “If I were to guess, I’d say directly beneath us.”
Her eyes lit up, more excited at seeing whatever remained of her crashed ship than the hedonistic paradise spread before her. “Let’s go there now.”
Zan shook his head and waved to one of the military leaders. “Not yet. I’ve already been seen, and if we just walk out someone will report it to my father.”
“So we’ll go to him directly. Like I said, I’ll offer to show him the technology, since that’s what he’s interested in.” Her eyes related the rest, that she planned to send a message to his ship if given half a chance.
“Patience.” Zan shucked his vest and draped it over a boulder. “We’re not supposed to have a care in the world, remember?”
Green fire flashed. “Don’t think I’m going to perform some public sex scene with you. I may be adventurous, but even I have my limits.”
Zan grinned. “The thought never even crossed my mind, you magnificent female. Honestly, we swim, we chat, we leave. Get the lay of the land, so to speak.”
He expected her to roll her eyes at the pun. Instead she gripped his hand, twining their fingers together. She didn’t say anything, just unfastened the pin that held the layers of fabric together and let it puddle at her feet. Stepping out of it, she tugged him forward, as though putting her body intentionally between him and his competition. Like she was protecting him.
Stunned, he let her pull him down into the water, even push him onto a flat stone before straddling his lap. Lowering her forehead until it touched his, she stared into his eyes, silently communicating with him. Soothing him, letting him know she believed in him, that she wouldn’t think less of him regardless of what he had to do.
Could he really hear her? Or perhaps he just imagined her gesture to be one of acceptance and support. That’s what he desperately wanted from her, he realized. Maybe his brain filled in the blanks to suit him. Did she sense his regret, that he despised the bastardization of an act of pleasure, the way his father morphed sex into a power play for the ranking? It had always sickened him and Xander knew that, exploited it to hurt him. To kill or be killed because there was no room for placidity, compassion, or tenderness.
The few tastes of such emotions he’d had in his long life made him crave them all the more.
“So, the second returns to the fold.”
Zan closed his eyes, needing to reconstruct his defenses before he looked to the newcomer. “Do I know you?”
The man sloshed through the pool until he reached their side. His dark gaze fixed on Gia, and Zan fought the urge to block her with his body. Show no weakness. It was Xander’s first rule of combat. And Gia was a huge liability, though he would never be stupid enough to tell her so. Seeming indifferent about her well-being was their best defense.
Luckily the dark-eyed man fell for it, turning his attention back to Zan. “My name is Kalg, son of Havers. We are the appointed stewards of the third moon.”
“Agriculture, right?” Because of the planet’s turbulent weather patterns, the third moon grew most of the food that people on Hosta consumed. Strategically speaking it was a necessary position but far from the glamour of the research and development of the first moon. Or the prestige of one of the shipping stations. Chances were high that Kalg planned to challenge him to see if he could better his position.
“For now,” Kalg said, confirming Zan’s suspicions. He reached for Gia, who flinched at the unwanted touch. The snap and sizzle of her germ shield made the other man pull away from her, scowling. “What is that?”
Zan offered no explanation. If Xander hadn’t made the details of Gia’s health guard public knowledge, he wasn’t about to. Instead he pulled his sizzling little firecracker closer. “How many rankings have you experienced?”
“One.”
Zan pasted a sneer on his face. “And did you better your position?”
“I have learned much since then.” Kalg’s defensive reply spoke volumes.
“Let’s hope so. Set your sights lower, little boy, because the real men will make a meal out of you.”
Kalg retreated, and Gia murmured in Zan’s ear, “Masterfully done.”
“Why did you activate your health guard?”
Green eyes sparkled. “I was afraid his ignorance was contagious.”
Zan threw back his head and laughed. “Good call.”
Others approached them, some older dignitaries from off world, other younger bucks sizing them up. Gia remained silent, and Zan knew she was taking the measure of every man who approached him, sussing out weaknesses that she would relate to him later. The novices were easy to spot, full of hot air and bluster. One went as far as saying he would enjoy fucking Zan first and later “his little alien whore” after he claimed his new rank. Her nails dug into Zan’s thigh beneath the waterline, and he knew it took everything she had to keep silent. He made a promise to them both he would reward her for it later.
Three men from lesser houses concerned him. They stayed to the back of the pack, observing his reactions, studying him. They had the most to gain from challenging him and the wherewithal to do it. After his first victory, the hotheads would fall away, especially if he had to kill the man he dominated. But those three could give him trouble, especially if they challenged him one right after the other.
Their collective lack of interest in Gia was a mixed blessing. She wouldn’t have to fend off their advances, but that would leave her vulnerable to Xander.
“Son.”
Speak of the devil. Zan turned to glance up at his sire, evil incarnate.
“I wanted to borrow your pilot for a while. We’ve recovered her ship and I want a full readout of her technology.”
“I’ll go with you.” Zan started to rise, but his father cut him off.
“That won’t be necessary.”
What was he supposed to do now? He held Gia’s gaze for a long moment before brushing a light kiss over her lips. �
�Go with him now. I’ll meet you for dinner in our rooms in one hour.”
She nodded and scrambled from the water, reaching for her clothes.
Zan deliberately turned his back on the two people, even as his heart banged frantically against his rib cage.
It was going to be a long hour.
20
Gia had to fight back the tears at the sight of her stinger. The small ship had held together remarkably well considering it had crash-landed through a frozen lake. It might not ever be spaceworthy again, but just seeing it gave her a sense of self she badly needed.
Xander hadn’t said a word to her since they left Zan, but every time she looked his way he was staring at her. His consideration was creepy as hell and her skin crawled when she imagined this man, who looked so much like her lover, watching the intimate things Zan had done to her. Somehow being in his presence, feeling his fixation and sharing the same space, made the danger so much more real.
Considering how women were treated on this backwater planet she didn’t dare speak first, in case it broke some social mores. But now that they stood outside the ship, with her long-range transmitter within reach, her impatience grew unbearable. He’d probably want to disembowel her anyway, so what the hell.
“Would you like to see inside?”
Xander gestured with his hand, his body eerily still. Gia fought a shiver. He gave her the impression of a snake coiled and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The only question was, would he sink his fangs into her or simply swallow her whole?
When she and Zan had ejected from the stinger, the safety shield had been erected around the hull. Similar to her personal health guard, the shield responded only to the pilot’s handprint. Supposedly the designers had installed that safety precaution to keep space pirates and other unsavory characters from cutting off lone stinger pilots from their squadrons, killing the pilot and stealing the technology. The major flaw in the plan was that any mercenary worth his stardust knew about the design and could easily cut off her hand to lower the shield.
Though it took every ounce of her mettle, Gia turned away from Xander and pressed her palm against the invisible barrier. The low hum dropped away and the hull split open like a hatching egg.
“Doesn’t seem too structurally sound,” Xander observed.
Her smart-ass reply died on her lips as she met his ice-cold stare. He’d crept closer when her back was turned. She’d been wrong—he wasn’t just one snake, he was hundreds of them, slithering through greasy, black oil, swarming closer and closer, scales glittering, forked tongues flicking, whispering her name. Gia . . . Gia . . .
“Did you enjoy my gift?” His voice was robust, thick like spilled tar, and she got stuck in his words.
“Gift?” She couldn’t swallow, the fear churned inside her and clogged her throat. She was such an idiot. Zan had tried to warn her not to be alone with his father, but she arrogantly believed she could handle herself.
“The woman, I sent you. Shalla.”
She wanted to be brave, to say something snotty about how people weren’t commerce to trade, but provoking him seemed like a stupid idea. He was the reason all those people in the market suffered, the reason Zan’s wife had died, that her space pirate drowned in nightmares every time he closed his eyes and was forced to scrounge in order to survive.
Gia wanted to lash out at him but couldn’t, and her helplessness pissed her off.
He slithered closer still, invading her personal space. “I surely did, right after you were done. I tasted you on her lips the same way Zan did. You are delicious, especially mixed with her blood.”
“You killed her?” It was a stupid thing to say. Of course he had murdered Shalla. She hadn’t been a person to him, just a plaything he had broken. She couldn’t think, her heart beating too fast, blood pounding through her at light speed, making her dizzy.
Those cruel lips curved up, more of a threat than a smile. “I had no choice. She wasn’t equipped with your marvelous . . .” One finger trailed along her arm to her elbow and stopped right above her health guard implant. “Technology.”
She backed up, stumbling up the gangplank. “But Zan didn’t—that is, he was only with me. You could have left her alone.”
He stalked her, mirroring her every step, keeping close to her. One dark eyebrow arched up, the move so similar to Zan’s but twisted, bastardized for evil intent. “Now, why would I do that?”
Gia’s back hit the bulkhead at the same time as realization struck her. She couldn’t talk to this man, couldn’t reason or plead with him. He had no compassion. The magical memory spooge was just an excuse for him, a reason for him to do what he loved to do most . . . kill. The only reason she was still alive was because he hadn’t figured out the best way to hurt her yet.
“Sire,” a man called from the bottom of the gangplank.
Xander moved back to speak with him, leaving Gia alone. She didn’t hesitate, just dove for the long-range transmission console and typed furiously.
She knew Zan’s ship frequency by heart, had memorized it when her stinger squadron had been assigned to hunt his ship down. Tapping it in, she followed with a quick message:
SOS.HOSTA.ZAN.GIA.SOS.
She punched in her pilot’s code to send, and the panel went dark. No!
Something gripped her hair, yanked her back. Another arm, like a vice, pressed into her rib cage, knocking the air from her lungs. “What are you doing?” Xander’s tone remained level yet still filled with menace.
“Checking energy levels,” she whimpered, sure he was going to rip her hair from her head. Or fling her into the bulkhead.
He spun her around to face him. “What did you find?”
“Almost completely drained.”
He let her go, stepped back, probably to give her a false sense of security before he struck. “More’s the pity. I’d hoped to salvage it, but between the stress fractures on the hull and the lack of power source, I think it would be wasted effort. I’m having the ship dissembled and brought to my labs so your technology can be studied. After the ranking, you will make yourself available to my research team if they have any questions.”
“Of . . . of course.” Her beautiful ship, left in pieces on some scientist’s table. Tears threatened again, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the sense of loss or the fear that after he was done with her ship, Xander would do the same thing to her.
“Come now, my son will be waiting for you. He has such lusty appetites and not a shred of patience. Guard. Escort the young woman back to Zan’s chambers.”
The guard snapped off a crisp salute and dragged her away.
Gia stared at her feet as the man marched her back to Zan’s room. Her head throbbed and defeat hung around her like a lead cloak, making her smaller and smaller. How could she look Zan in the eye and tell him she’d failed? That he’d have to go through with the ranking.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip, nails digging into the fleshy part of her palms, the bites of pain all that kept her together, kept her moving. If she stopped it’d be over.
“There you are. Food’s already here.” Zan had been sitting on the bed, studying some sort of handheld device. His golden gaze flew to hers and then focused on the guard. “That will be all.”
The man bowed and shut the door behind him. Gia didn’t stop, just walked directly into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Stripping off her robe she curled into a ball in the corner of the stall and let her tears fall.
“Gia?” Strong arms wrapped around her and Zan pulled her away from the cool tile, back up against his chest. He’d stripped off his clothes “You’re scaring the shit out of me. What happened?”
“The console died. The ship, he’s going to pull it apart and the message might still be in there. I risked our lives for nothing.. . .” A hitching sob stole her voice.
Zan held her, and she appreciated that he didn’t offer ridiculous platitudes. They’d gambled and lost.
And come the morni
ng they were both completely fucked.
Xander studied his handheld, specifically the camera focused on his son’s room. He watched Zan rise from the bed as the little human pilot whisked by without a sound. To the untrained eye it looked as though Zan was following his woman into the bathroom for a piece of ass.
Punching in the command for his holosuite he moved faster, irritated that he might have to miss something important. His boot heels clicked smartly against the floor, and servants scurried for safety in his wake. Survival instincts, not that they’d fare any better once his main goal was achieved.
His palms were actually damp, as though in anticipation. Xander couldn’t recall the last time he’d looked forward to something so much. Millennia of life experience took its toll, and what had once been invigorating now seemed stale. He’d spent a fortune amassing top-of-the-line technology yet had little to do with it. Expanding his domain took time and he’d traveled to all the worlds in easy reach of Hosta via the traditional space lanes multiple times. Being gone too long put his territory at risk for invasion or, worse, insurrection. The people wouldn’t fear an absent overlord for long.
Stuck between two warring evils, pride in what he’d achieved and lust for new experiences, Xander had festered for over a century. His first attempt to expand his influence had been his progeny, but he knew almost immediately that the boy was flawed. Zan had always been weak, a scrawny child with a soft heart. He’d intended Zan to hold his place here in the Hosta System while he got his fill of conquering new worlds. But the only thing young Zan had been interested in holding was a woman.
A smile tugged at Xander’s lips as he recalled bringing his son to the Infinity Pool. By that time, Zan had learned enough that he could mimic the responses he thought others expected of him. What he didn’t know was that his sire had long since developed other abilities. Xander could sense fear, aggression, and had almost a precognitive ability to know when someone conspired against him. He’d made Zan immortal as a punishment, not a reward. To take away the crutch of emotional connection through sex.
No Mercy Page 16