Vengeance (Celestial Empires Book 3)

by Raymond Cooper

  They were dressed in black from head to toe, but the blue skin of their faces and yellow eyes marked them out as Etrosians and I idly wondered if they were friends of the Star Queen's crew. They looked like hard men. Men who'd seen – and done – terrible things. Even from that distance, I could sense the air of violence about them. Could almost smell it.

  They were bad men up to bad things.

  Having caught them staring at me, the pair dropped the pretense of being casual shoppers and headed straight over to my table. As unobtrusively as possible, I slid my hand down to my belt and unsnapped my holster. By the time the two had taken a seat across from, I had my gun out and pointed at them underneath the table.

  “There's no need for weapons,” said the first man, laying his hands flat on the tabletop. “We're only here to talk.”

  I looked to the second man and he followed suit, playing his hands palms down on the table. They both looked at me, the silence between us bloated with expectation and the promise of violence.

  “So, talk,” I said.

  “Our boss would like to meet with you.”

  “Your boss?”

  The first man nodded. “Yes, our boss,” he said. “Dyra.”

  “And why would I meet with your boss?” I asked. “What could we possibly have to talk about.”

  A feral grin crossed the Etrosian man's face. “An old friend of yours,” he said. “The man who murdered your mother?”

  My body tensed and the dark rage the bubbled along inside of me suddenly boiled over. My jaw clenched and my grip on my gun tightened. It was all I could do to not pull the trigger right then and there.

  I forced myself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, my eyes never leaving the Etrosian. Gradually, the tightness in my shoulders eased and I loosened my grip on my gun.

  “What about him?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Meet with Dyra,” he said simply. “Just talk. You might find what our boss has to say very interesting.”

  “When and where?”

  Holding one hand up, he slowly reached into his coat and pulled out a commlink. Setting down at the table, he slid it over to me. Standing up, he and his companion backed away, hands still raised.

  “Dyra will be in touch.”

  Chapter Eight

  “You do realize this is very likely going to be a trap,” Theron said.

  We were sitting around the table in the common room aboard the Umbra. Or rather, I was sitting. Xavix stood on one side of the table, while Theron paced excitedly back and forth on the other side. There was a look of genuine fear in his eyes when he looked at me.

  “That's why I'm not asking you to go with me,” I said.

  “Like I'd let you go out there by yourself,” he replied.

  I shrugged. “I would prefer it if you stay here, actually.”

  He stopped pacing and turned to me, his eyes narrowing, anger suddenly replacing the fear. “And why is that?” he asked, his tone sounding offended. “I think I've proved myself capable in a fight.”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “Sit down, Theron.”

  He let out a breath and grudgingly took a seat across from me. Leaning back in his seat, he folded his arms over his chest and stared at me.

  “Because honestly, if this is a trap, I don't want you anywhere near it,” I said. “You've more than proven that you're capable in a fight – ”

  “It's spaceflight he seems to have real trouble with,” Xavix piped up.

  “Shut it, tin man,” Theron snapped. “Nobody asked you.”

  “Look,” I said, chuckling, “you and Xavix have put it all on the line for me for the last year. It's a debt I can't possibly repay. But, if I'm walking into a trap, I don't want you walking into it with me. If, for whatever reason, this all goes sideways, I want you and Xavix to take the Umbra and get the hell out of here.”

  “I hate to be the only logical one here,” Xavix said, “even though, you would think I'd be used to it by now. But, Theron is right. The probability that this is anything but a trap set by Mr. Boygan is incredibly small – ”

  “But, there is a chance that this Dyra person, whoever he is, can give me what I want,” I said. “If he can give me Boygan's location, I could end this. And if I end this... ”

  “If we end this – what?” Theron asked.

  It was a simple question and one I didn't have the answer to. I'd been so caught up in my little war for so long now, that I hadn't stopped to ask that question of myself. What would I do when it was all over? I had no desire to return to Earth. There was nothing but memories and ghosts left there for me. What would I do if I managed to win this war?

  I sighed. It was a question I didn't have the luxury of pondering at that moment anymore than I had the luxury of indulging in my thoughts of Kysos and that kiss. I needed to keep my head clear and focused on the task at hand.

  And that task was finding and killing Boygan.

  “I guess, when this is over, you can go live a happy little life with whatever girl you have stashed here on Acrov,” I said and gave him a smile.

  Theron's cheeks colored and he looked away. I'd hit the nail on the head, which made me burst into laughter.

  “It's not funny,” he said. “Shyrna is amazing. Unlike any woman I've met before.”

  “I'm not laughing because it's funny,” I said. “I'm laughing because I'm happy for you.”

  His cheeks were still an unnatural shade of red, but he smiled and finally met my eyes. I could see that he was in love and I genuinely was happy for him.

  “Why did you think you needed to hide that from me?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I don't know,” he said. “It's kind of like having a big sister looking over your shoulder or something, I guess.”

  I grinned. “Well, once this is over, I want to meet her.”

  Theron laughed. “When this ends, I'll let you,” he said.

  “I'll hold you to that.”

  “I for one cannot wait to see the kind of woman who can put up with you,” Xavix chimed in. “As you humans say, she must be a saint.”

  Theron looked from Xavix to me. “So, if you don't come back from this little get together,” he said. “It's okay if I have him melted down, right?”

  “Not if I melt you down first,” Xavix replied.

  I laughed and shook my head. As I looked around the table, I realized that this had become my family. Xavix and Theron – and to some extent, even Kysos. They were the three people closest to me, the three I held most dear - in the universe.

  If anything happened to any of them, I honestly didn't know what I'd do. It was one reason I was going to this meeting alone. I knew the probability of it being a trap was high. Especially in light of Kysos' warning about assassins.

  But, if there was any possible chance of this being on the up and up, of this Dyra person helping lead me to Boygan, I had to take it. There was no other choice. If I ever wanted this war to end, I was going to have to roll the dice.

  The commlink the Etrosian had given me beeped. Picking it up, I looked at it and nodded.

  “Time to go,” I said, the knots in my stomach constricting almost painfully. “If I'm not back in three hours, get the hell out of here. Do not try to come find me. Do you understand?”

  Theron nodded, his face grim. “Watch your back, Gemma.”

  Xavix cocked his head and looked at me in what was a strangely human gesture. “Please be careful, Gemma,” he said, and then added, “Do not leave me here with him.”

  Laughing, I got to my feet, checked my weapons, and headed out. I had no idea what I was walking into and had a bad feeling about it, but I went anyway. There was no other choice.

  Chapter Nine

  I sat in a booth at the rear of another one of Old Town's infamous anonymous bars. It was a lot like the bar I'd met Bruq in – the only real difference being the amount of dirt in it. It was sparsely populated, as these places often were. Even so, I kept a careful eye out, not sure i
f one of Boygan's assassins was lurking in the shadows or not. To say I was a little on edge would be an understatement.

  I was surprised though, that this Dyra had agreed to meet me in a public place. I'd kinda figured that we'd be meeting in some shadowy warehouse on the outskirts of town or something equally cliche. Not that these bars were much better, but it sure beat being somewhere completely devoid of people.

  I sipped my Acrovian ale – not that it was necessarily a good thing, but I'd really developed a taste for the stuff – with my weapon on the table in front of me. No sense in hiding it and in a place like that bar, it wouldn't even be remarked upon.

  The doors opened and the two Etrosian men I'd seen earlier stepped through. Just behind them came a figure in a heavy cloak, a hood pulled down over his head. Dyra, I assumed. They spotted me and quickly made their way over to my table.

  The two familiar men sat down at a table across the aisle from my booth and looked around, surveying the room. The cloaked figure stood before my table for a moment, and, as I sipped my ale, he pulled back his hood. I was more than a little surprised to find that Dyra was not a he. She was a woman.

  She unfastened her cloak and threw it back over her slim shoulders, revealing a body that was stunningly gorgeous. She had full breasts and hips, and a perfectly hourglass figure. Dyra was a sexy, voluptuous woman, there was no question about it.

  Given the patriarchal nature of Etrosian society though, I was shocked to find that she was the boss and that the two men following her actually obeyed her commands.

  “May I?” she asked, gesturing to the booth I was sitting in.

  “Please.”

  She looked pointedly at my gun and gave me a faint smile. “That won't be necessary,” she said. “If I were looking to kill you, rest assured that you would be dead already.”

  I gave her a brief smile but made no move to re-holster my gun, just letting it sit there on the table before me. She smiled and gave me a small shrug.

  “If it makes you feel more comfortable,” she said.

  One of her men got up and went to the bar, coming back a moment later with two fresh mugs of ale. He set them down before us and went back to the table he shared with Dyra's other bodyguard. I couldn't stop looking at her though. She was delicate and feminine and yet, in her eyes, I could see a steel core beneath that soft exterior.

  “You look surprised,” she said, her rich Etrosian accent coloring her words.

  “I have to admit that I am,” I said. “You're – a woman. A woman in command. I didn't think that happened in Etrosian society.”

  She shrugged. “Times are changing,” she said. “In some areas of our society, anyway. Unfortunately, those areas tend to be in the underbelly of Etrosian society. But, a woman can make quite a name for herself if she's willing to get her hands dirty.”

  “And given that you're at the top of the food chain,” I said, “I take it that your hands are very dirty.”

  She shrugged. “No dirtier than yours, Gemma,” she said. “We do what we have to do to survive and to get ahead, yes?”

  “That much, I can agree with,” I said.

  I took a swallow of my ale and Dyra followed suit. We sat in silence for a moment, staring at one another. It was as if we were silently taking each other's measure. And it's hard to explain, but I didn't get a sense of malice from her. There was no dark and foreboding feeling hovering around her like a fog. It sounded crazy – most especially to me – but I felt relatively comfortable around Dyra.

  I got the impression that she was being honest and upfront with me and didn't feel like she was there to do me any harm.

  “To be perfectly transparent,” she said. “I am actually not at the top of the food chain. At least, not yet. Though, I am endeavoring to change that state of affairs.”

  “A woman with ambition,” I said, raising my glass to her. “That's something I can admire.”

  Her smile was soft and a little mysterious, which made me curious. Dyra looked at me with her yellow cat-slit eyes, her gaze direct and penetrating. It was as if she was looking straight into my soul.

  “That's also where our interests intersect, interestingly enough,” she said.

  I cocked my head. “Oh? How so?”

  “My boss is quite upset with you, Pirate Queen,” she said. “He doesn't appreciate the fact that you not only blew up the Star Queen and killed the crew, but made off with his cargo too. You cost him quite a bit of money with your antics.”

  “Oh, that's too bad. I'll send him a fruit basket,” I replied. “Tell him if he doesn't want it to keep happening, he should think about who he does business with.”

  “He's on the verge of putting a bounty on your head,” she said.

  “Well, that's fun,” I replied. “Are you here to collect that bounty?”

  “Hardly,” she laughed. “I'm here to seize on an opportunity. An opportunity for the both of us to get something we really want, actually.”

  “And what's that opportunity?”

  She shrugged again, looking at me with those strange, unsettling eyes. “The opportunity for me to move up to the top of the food chain,” she said, never taking her gaze off of me. “And the opportunity for you to avenge your mother's death.”

  I sat up a little straighter. She had my attention.

  “I'm listening,” I said.

  Dyra leaned forward, her eyes intently on mine. “My boss works for your Mr. Boygan,” she said. “If both of them were somehow gone, it would solve all of our problems, would it not?”

  “It would,” I said.

  Dyra took a long pull of her drink and looked at me with a steady gaze. She hadn't given me much in the way of concrete detail, but what she had said was enough to intrigue me. I had an idea where she was going with this, but I wasn't entirely sure, so I decided to let it play out.

  “So, where is it that our interests intersect, exactly?” I asked.

  A small smile played upon her full lips as she looked at me. “You're a smart woman, Gemma Sage,” she said. “I'm sure you've already figured this out.”

  I shrugged. “I have an idea,” I said. “But, I'd like to hear it from you.”

  Dyra took another drink of her ale and set the mug back down. “My proposition to you is this,” she said. “You take out my boss, thus moving me to the top of the ladder in my organization. And in return, I give you the location of one Zhakan named Boygan. What you choose to do with that information is entirely up to you. Though, I have a pretty good idea what you'll do with it.”

  She had more than my attention now. I sat up straight and looked at her closely, eyeballing her and looked for the slightest trace of deception. And she was either very good or she was being honest with me.

  “This is a genuine offer,” she said, smiling faintly as if she'd read my mind. “We both stand to gain something from it.”

  “And why don't you just take your boss out on your own?” I asked. “Why do you need me to do it?”

  “For obvious reasons,” she said. “I can't be seen to have had anything to do with his death. Otherwise, I run the risk of losing the whole organization. My ascension to the top has to look pristine – or, as pristine as things get in my line of business, anyway.”

  I nodded slowly. What she said made perfect sense. It was logical. And the fact that it did make so much sense sent up a million red flags in my head. It was one of those things that seemed too good to be true. Which, in my experience, usually meant that it was.

  Of course, there was a strong possibility that I had just become horribly paranoid over the last year or so. I couldn't quite rule that out either.

  “You have doubts,” Dyra said.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Yes, I do.”

  “Such as?”

  “I'm wondering what the catch is.”

  She shrugged. “There is no catch,” she said. “This is an honest business proposal.”

  I drained the last of my ale and set my mug down, watching her carefull
y. But, she remained completely unruffled. And as far as I could tell, she was being completely honest.

  “I know you came here expecting a trap,” she said. “I know you expected us to try and kill you.”

  A wry grin touched my lips. “Actually, yeah,” I said. “I did.”

  “Sorry to disappoint,” she said. “But, I'm a business woman. I evaluate opportunities as they arise and calculate the risk versus return. And in my estimation, the potential return on a temporary alliance with you is far greater than the risk.”

  Dyra definitely seemed like she could be a bit cold and calculating. But, she also seemed highly intelligent and more than anything, pragmatic. Like she said, she was a business woman.

  “You know where he's hiding?” I asked. “Boygan?”

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “And you'll give me that information in exchange for me taking out your boss,” I said.

  “That is my proposal, yes.”

  The idea that she had the piece of information I needed to bring this whole crusade to an end was a carrot that was proving too tempting for me to resist. But, there was still a small voice in the back of my head, whispering to me, telling me that getting into bed with Dyra would be the end of me. That it would be a mistake and that this was, indeed, all a trap.

  But there was another voice, louder and stronger, telling me that, as crazy as it was, I could trust her. At least, trust her in this.

  “Okay,” I said. “I'm on board.”

  She nodded. “I'm glad to hear that.”

  “So, how is this going to work?” I asked.

  “You'll keep the commlink my associate gave you,” she said. “And I'll send you the necessary information. Once you've completed your task, you will receive the information you desire.”

  I nodded and looked at her for a long moment. I still couldn't quite push past the idea that this was all too good to be true. I thought about it all, tried to examine it from every angle, looking for holes or hooks. But, I came up empty.

  I wasn't about to let her walk away thinking that I wasn't still skeptical and wouldn't be on guard though.