by PJ Schnyder
“Gotcha.” Boggle’s eyes darted back and forth. The rapid eye motion had been slightly creepy the first time Kaitlyn had spoken to him via holo but she’d come to learn it was just Boggle reading multiple displays. “Yeah no. Only a few communications coming through from Dev’s ship. The military coding and security flags make the one you all care about kind of obvious. It’s a little too small to contain all that data. The report the Terran military is getting is going to be light on the details.”
“You’re not hacking that communication are you?” Rygard’s question came sharp, his concern evident.
Boggle coughed popcorn bits over his console. Hastily brushing them away, his extra chins jiggled. “N-no. ’’Course not.”
Kaitlyn twisted her lips to keep from smiling. “Your tip is plenty of help, Boggle. No need to dig anywhere dangerous.”
Unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Okay, your reports are downloaded to my servers for safe keeping.” He grabbed a bottle and took a swig from the strange nozzle.
“Is that a filter bottle?” Kaitlyn peered at the holo. “For water?”
“What? A man can’t be properly hydrated?” Too defensive. Boggle might have been breaking into a fresh sweat. Hard to tell, because he sweated a lot.
“Hydration is good.” She cocked her head to the side, curious. “But you practically main line coffee most of the day. I don’t remember you having any taste for plain water.”
Had she ever seen a blush start at the ears and spread across the face?
“A man can look to his health.” Rygard’s voice was full of amusement. “Things come up in life and little changes turn out to be pretty good.”
A pause.
Then Rygard’s voice hardened. “Little changes. Nothing major, right?”
There was a guy thing passing between them and Kaitlyn bubbled with questions. She kept a lid on them because Rygard gently tugged her ponytail.
“What? Nah. Just a friend made a suggestion and it couldn’t hurt to give it a try. Water once in a while isn’t bad and I figure it cuts down the creds I spend shipping in coffee. I mean, I only cut back a couple of cups a day. It’s not like I gave it up or anything.”
Good, otherwise Kaitlyn might not have any place to go for a good cup of brew the next time she stopped at Dysnomia Station. “Seriously though, Rygard, it’s good to see you safe and with all your body parts intact.” Boggle shoved another batch of popcorn in his mouth. “Well, the parts that I can see. I’m assuming Kaitlyn checked over the rest.”
She wasn’t going to take the bait.
Rygard snorted. “It was a near thing too many times to count. You’re welcome to view my report for the details, man.”
Kaitlyn blinked once, slowly. Rygard’s offer was unexpected.
Boggle swallowed hard and then took a big swig of water. When he looked back at them, his expression was somber. “I appreciate the trust.”
“Last time I was on Dysnomia Station, we couldn’t have made things right without you and this time, I’m guessing you had a few things to do with my rescue. Every time I’ve worked with you, you’ve proven yourself to be good people.”
“You too.”
Things were sounding awkward now. In a minute one or both of them was going to clear his throat or some other distraction tactic.
“Of note,” she interrupted before things got too maudlin. “We ran into more of those alien felids, Boggle. We got a name for the species yet? Any info on their home system or form of government?”
“Funny you ask.” Boggle made a sliding motion across the bottom of his image. “I ran a search on them after your encounter here. They’re not in the station logs. They didn’t register a system of origin or species.”
“So how did they circumvent the regulations requiring they log that data?”
Boggle shrugged. “Station officials are still looking into that. But then, they’re investigating how a black market the size of the one Kaitlyn shut down managed to establish itself in the first place.”
“A good hacker would have a theory.” Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow.
“Oh and I’m not just good.” Boggle wiggled his thin eyebrows at her in return, catching her by surprise. He’d never returned such a sally in the past.
“You’ve got something, then.” The amusement colored Rygard’s voice. It was good to hear again.
“Duh.” Several images super imposed themselves over Boggle’s hologram. “The ship they registered was same make and model as a standard Terran mercantile ship. And there was an ambassador clearance associated with the ownership identification. Enough of one that full credentials for captain or crew weren’t required. Since their purpose for docking was logged as recreational and not commercial, there was minimal initial investigation.”
Well, it might have been considered recreational if one considered a revenge hunt of Rygard and his unit a game. It was all in the point of view.
When the hell did her sense of humor start sounding like Bharguest’s?
Boggle was still going on, lost in the data, his voice hushed as he studied his own displays. “They knew the station regs and used the approach that would provide them the fewest obstacles. These guys were good too. The security feed was tampered with so there’s never a clear look at the crew. There’s not even footage of you and Rygard and I know the two of you visited that ship.” He cursed. “It’s damn hard to tell where the splices are in the footage. I’m impressed.”
And so was she. It’d take a lot to impress Boggle. She was betting he was going to spend the near future trying to either replicate what they’d done or manage to do better.
“We’re going to need to get information on them soon though, whether we do it through technology or face to face.” She chewed on her lower lip.
“Face to face?”
“Yeah. It’s in Rygard’s report. Not only did we come out of the thing with all his men more or less whole, but we came up heavy the pair of the felids too.”
She owed them for pulling her out of the lust of violence. The memory of it hung in her mind as a red haze, flavored with the taste of blood and death.
“They’re in guest quarters for now.” Rygard shifted behind her, as if he’d jerked his head toward the door. “The one was pretty civil on the shuttle and Captain Rishkillian agreed to allow them to send communication. We’re guessing they’re going to contact wherever home is and arrange for retrieval now that they’ve been rescued.”
“Got to keep a close eye on the second one though.” Kaitlyn sighed. “He suffered major trauma and I’m not so sure he’ll come all the way back to the ‘normal’ way of thinking, at least for his species.”
Could prove to be problematic, but hopefully not their problem. After all, it’d been the Colosseum and the Sketz’es that’d done it to him. If they could keep things peaceful aboard Dev’s ship, the damaged felid might feel safe enough to remain passive until he could receive proper treatment from his own kind. She was walking proof that post-traumatic stress disorder could be overcome, but she wasn’t the best candidate to treat it.
“What’re the odds you’d run into them again?” Boggle asked.
“Run an algorithm on it.” She shrugged. “Either way, they’re calling home and will soon be gone. We’ve got to get Rygard and the rest of his unit back to the Terran solar system. I took blood samples on all the men, including the ones infected. All have stabilized for now, and will survive, but they’re in different stages of assimilating their mutations. I figured any research would need samples as early as possible to start trending the progression of the changes.”
She reached forward to her own terminal and shot that file off to Boggle.
“Receiving.”
She’d spoken briefly to each of the infected, an awkward pep talk as it were. Ryga
rd had been with her, encouraging her, helping her tear open old scars to let out the pain beneath. It hadn’t mattered what she said, only that they saw she’d already been through it, survived and managed to remain sane.
Sort of.
“You need to get some rest, Kaitlyn.” Boggle had stopped snacking, wasn’t even looking at his various displays. Instead, his close-set eyes were fixed directly on her. “Rygard too, but you, you’ve still got thoughts running through your mind faster than lines of code running through my compiler.”
It was then that Rygard really touched her. His hand settled on her shoulder, heavy and warm. “I’ll see if I can get her to sleep, man. We’ll try to get in touch with you again in the next few days.”
“I’ll keep an eye on communications traffic for you.”
“Thanks.”
* * *
“You heard the geek.” Rygard forced himself to get up from Kaitlyn’s bunk when all he really wanted to do was wrap his arms around her. He settled for standing close enough for his thigh to brush her leg where she’d let it hang off the side. “You’ve been on the move since we got back. It’s time for you to get some rest.”
She stared at him for a long moment, those deep blue eyes of hers unreadable. Then she wrinkled her nose and rubbed the heel of her palm over one eye.
Did she realize how she could turn incredibly cute in the space between one second and the next?
“I swear I was too wound up to sleep before now.” Raising her arms above her head, she reached for the ceiling in a long stretch.
And damn but she’d know what she was doing to him in a couple of seconds. Her sense of smell wouldn’t miss it.
Right on cue, she let her arms fall into her lap and settled her gaze on him, the intensity of her regard searing straight through him. Whatever she was looking for, she wasn’t finding it, because doubt clouded the clear blue and her lashes dropped over her eyes.
Concern hit his chest harder than a physical strike, but he forced himself to wait. Let her come to him. She’d been cornered too many times this last mission.
She hesitated for a moment and then asked her question. “What are you going to do now?”
He’d meant to tell her one thing, changed his mind. “Depends on what you want me to do.”
A slight crease appeared in her forehead. She was probably over thinking things. She wasn’t good at telling him what she wanted yet. Not quite sure enough in knowing herself, his girl.
“I know what I want to do, but I want to give you space to decide.” He held up a hand, wanted to get the next part in before she jumped to a conclusion. “Given the choice, I want to stay here with you, for the night. If you feel safer on your own, feel uncomfortable in any way, I can go bunk with my unit. It’s okay. But if you want me to stay, don’t go saying anything to try to prevent me from feeling obligated either. This isn’t about that.”
She blinked. It took her a minute to work through what he’d said and well, he hadn’t made much sense. But there it was, what was on his mind.
“You saw me down there.”
Not what he expected her to say. He answered slow, cautious. “Yes.”
“The shifting I did, I wasn’t always panther.”
“No.”
“I wasn’t always completely human either.”
“No.” Where was this going?
She took a deep breath, let it out in a controlled sigh. “Somewhere in there, the line between human and panther blurred inside my head. Before, Dev helped me be human and I didn’t think of being a panther unless I needed the skills and tools, like putting on a uniform with a specific set of gear. It was something I could tuck away and only bring out once in a while. But now...”
She looked down at her hands and he followed her gaze. Her human fingertips morphed before his eyes to claws and then back to finger tips. Her upturned hand showed the soft, pink flesh of her palm change over, darker and tougher, the beginning of the pad on the underside of a paw.
When he studied her face, she was biting her lip and her canines had lengthened.
“Careful.” He kept his tone gentle. She jerked anyway, possibly too sensitive and expecting censure from him. “Don’t cut your lip or I’m going to have to kiss it better.”
“You’re not disgusted with me?” From the sound of her words, she was. “Not horrified by the animal I’ve become?”
“We’re all animals, when you boil it down to the basic biologics. The one thing that place did was show me the kind of melting pot the universe is. The truth is, neither of us would’ve survived if you’d stuck with being human.”
And hell if he enjoyed admitting Bharguest had been right.
“We’re not in a life and death situation anymore.” Her hands closed into fists. “And I don’t think I can go back to being just human.”
“You weren’t when I met you anyway.” He rested a knee on her bunk, placed his hands over hers. From what he’d been learning from watching her and Max, he needed to stay on level with her. Even when what he wanted to do was settle down on his knees in front of her so he could look into her down-turned face. “We haven’t seen the last of life threatening situations either. It’s what we do, darlin’.”
There it was, the small upturn at the corners of her mouth as she tried not to smile in response to his playful tone.
“So as far as I’m concerned, you becoming a better killer is all to the good. Just keep that heart of yours too.”
The deadly killer sitting on the bunk beside him wrinkled her nose again. Did she realize it was becoming a habit? “Wasn’t quite where I was going with that.”
“Maybe.” He couldn’t resist brushing a lock of dark hair to the side so he could see more of her face.
“You’re okay with me being like this. I’m still working on it.” She paused, her features gone still. “You still want me?”
Those last words forced their way out in a whisper.
“You’ve reminded me and Boggle in the past, you can smell arousal. You know I do.” God, he wanted to kiss her. But he wouldn’t, not until she was ready to believe him.
“That’s physical.” She turned her head to the side, her shoulders hunched. “Plus, I’m still in heat. You can’t help pheromones.”
“No.” He reached for her, slipped a finger under her chin and gently turned her to face him. “I can’t. But I do have a brain and you know I don’t just go for any butterfly passing by.”
“You’ve seen me change, over and over again.” Her voice came in a strained whisper. Tears welled up, threatened to break his heart. “You saw me kill, told me I was bordering on cruel.”
“You stood back from it in the next fight. I saw. You decided not to be.” He shook his head. “Every decision you make makes me fall for you harder. Doesn’t matter what you change into or what uniform you wear. You are so beautiful, with so much heart, I can’t get you out of my system. Don’t want to.”
She surged up into his arms before he could go on. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight as shuddering sobs wracked her frame. She’d taken fistfuls of his shirt and was holding on with a fierce need.
As soon as it started, it was over. She pressed her face into his shoulder, taking in deep measured breaths.
“Stay with me tonight?” She kept her face buried in his shirt as she asked.
Even with his encouragement, it must’ve taken a lot of courage for her to ask him. He’d guess he’d barely scratched the surface of how much she’d kept bottled up inside her.
“Kaitlyn.”
When she looked up, doubt still darkened her gaze. He was done with words.
He bent his head, gave her plenty of time to pull away. She didn’t. When their lips met, he simply enjoyed the press of his mouth on hers. The way her lips softened under his and then
parted tempted him more than anything else he could imagine.
Taking his time, he lifted his hand to the nape of her neck and encouraged her to tilt her head farther back as he teased and let his tongue dance with hers. Tentative at first, she met him with shy strokes of her tongue. After a few moments, she grew more eager and her hands changed grip on his shirt, encouraging him to press his body along the length of hers.
He used his other hand to enjoy the curve of her, then grasp her tight behind. She nipped the corner of his mouth in response and he deepened their kiss, careful not to crush her, not to push too far, too fast.
He’d missed her. Her scent was a heady combination of sweet and spice, her lips soft, the taste of her mouth honeyed. He wanted to taste other parts of her.
A low growl rumbled up from Kaitlyn’s chest, a strange vibration against his sternum where she pressed up against him. He paused, she froze, but he only held her close and kissed her again.
“Frustrated, sweetness?”
She pulled away enough to look up at his face. Opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.
“The growl is sexy. I don’t think I want you going furry on me, but the growl is sexy.” He watched her weigh his words, test for the truth with all her senses. Impatient, he raised an eyebrow. “What does it take to make you purr?”
Deep rose stained her cheeks. His breath caught in his throat. Beautiful.
She stepped away and he let her go. Before he could worry, she stopped, only a few inches away. Her hands rose up slow, hesitant, and unsealed her ship suit. Her eyes remained fixed low, long lashes casting shadows over her cheeks. Her clothes fell around her ankles, still caught by her ship boots.
Dropping to his knees, he placed his hands on her hips and gazed up the length of her. “I want to taste you.”
She bit her lip. He loved the way she did that. When she placed her hands on his shoulders, he took that as permission.
Slow. Savor.
He pressed a kiss on the waistband of her lace panties, then another on the seam at her hip. When he hovered over the juncture between her thighs, her hands tightened on his shoulders. He took it as a sign she wanted more and pressed another kiss against her, then nipped at the delicate fabric. She jumped and a tiny bit of moisture tinged her panties.