by Anna Hackett
Regan hesitated. “You sure? We could—”
“Go.” Rory shooed her off. The last thing she wanted was to play third wheel. “I’m off to bed.” Alone.
She left Regan to get her drink, and moved into her room, closing the door quietly behind her.
The room was awash in moonlight. Feeling incredibly tired, Rory stripped off her clothes and pulled on a simple sleeping shirt. It hung off one shoulder and fell to mid-thigh.
She wandered over to the window and stared out at the moonlight. She had to remind herself she wasn’t alone. Not anymore. Not like Madeline.
Where the hell are you, Madeline? Could the other woman see the moon? Or was she locked up in a windowless cell, alone and hurting?
With a shake of her head, Rory climbed onto the bed.
She lay back against the sheets, and tried not to think of Kace.
Of course, she thought of Kace.
No. No more thinking about the man. She stared up at the ceiling, and willed herself to think of anything except the tough, sexy gladiator who clearly didn’t want her.
Then she heard a faint noise… A scuffling sound.
Rory sat up. She stared around the shadow-and-moonlight-filled room. She saw nothing but the shifting shadows, and the gauzy curtains at the windows blowing in a slight breeze.
She was just about to lie back down when a skittering noise on the floor caught her ear.
Slowly, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and flicked on the light beside the bed. She glanced around and spotted a shadow of something darting under the bed.
Heart thumping, she reached for her toolbox and pulled out the nearest tool. She didn’t even look at it, so she wasn’t even sure what the alien tool was, but it was heavy and solid. She held it up and walked back toward the bed. She flicked up the covers and looked under the frame.
Nothing.
She circled around the bed. Maybe she’d just been imagining things. It’d been a pretty trying night.
But then she heard another whisper of noise.
She froze, and something burst out from under the bed.
The creature came at her fast. The quick glimpse she got made her think of a spider, with a silver-gray skin.
She dodged to the side and the basketball-sized beast hit the floor, skittering on its legs to find purchase.
No. Not a spider. It was more like a scorpion, a pointed tail rising up with a sharp stinger on the end. The only difference was, it had more legs. Great, it was a scorpion spider.
She watched the creature dart forward, then slammed the tool down and whacked at it.
Without a sound, the scorpion spider scuttled backward.
Then it shot forward again, aiming at her legs. Seconds later, a sharp, horrible sting burned her left calf.
Ow. Shit.
Rory kicked out, and the creature leaped off the ground, higher than Rory would have thought possible. She dropped the tool, and gripped the beast in her hands, wrestling against it, as it aimed its stinger toward her face.
She shot backward, until her back thudded against the wall, fighting desperately to hold the damn thing off her. She watched in horror, as the stinger shot forward, toward her eyes. She wrenched her neck to the side, and the stinger thumped against the wall. It stabbed again and she jerked her head in the other direction.
Straining, Rory pushed against the creature’s surprisingly powerful body. “Screw you, you ugly little fucker. I’m not planning to die today.”
Chapter Nine
Kace lay sleeplessly in his bed, and knew there was no way he was going to be able to rest any time soon.
He was very conscious of the fact that Rory was in the room next door. Only one wall separated them.
Desire still burned in his gut. His jaw locked, and he stared at the ceiling. Even the light sheets were too much on his naked body. He shoved them back, then reached down and curled his hand around his rock-hard cock.
He stroked himself, his quiet groan echoing in the room. Drak. He was an Antarian soldier, and supposed to have unshakable control.
He squeezed his eyes shut, moving his hand faster, reliving those moments in the gym, Rory’s cries of pleasure. The Earth woman was ruining him.
Suddenly, he heard a noise. A thump against the wall between their rooms. Frowning, Kace sat up.
There was another thump, and he strained to hear more, to find the cause. Then he heard something else. The faint sound of Rory cursing.
He jumped up. Something was wrong. He reached out and grabbed his staff from beside the bed where he kept it.
Without stopping to think, he slammed out of his room, and a second later, he shoved open the door to Rory’s room.
Drak. She was fighting off a krath.
Kace sprinted across the room. She was barely keeping the deadly creature away from her face. Any second now, and the beast’s stinger would hit her.
He grabbed the creature by the legs. “Let go.”
Her face was flushed with strain. As her gaze locked on his, she nodded and let go.
He gripped the beast, turned, and threw it with all his strength. It hit the far wall with a heavy smack, and dropped to the ground.
By the time the krath scrambled back onto its feet, Kace was already there. He lifted his staff and aimed for the deadly thing.
It scuttled to the side, dodging the blow. Then it rushed forward, trying to slip around him and get to Rory.
He knew once a krath had a scent, it never gave up.
The creature jumped. It flew over Kace’s shoulder, and slammed into Rory.
With a horrified scream, she fell to the floor, wrestling the animal.
“Rory!”
Kace tore the krath off her. As she rolled away, he stabbed at the drakking creature with his staff. This time, he didn’t miss.
It let out a near-silent hiss and wobbled, clearly stunned. Kace hit it again, and again. The image of Rory trapped against the wall, holding it off, was burned into his brain. He slammed the staff down again, and this time, the krath fell onto its back, its legs twitching.
He hit it a final time and this time it went still.
Rory was huddled on the floor by the bed. She was panting, her hair in disarray, her face flushed. A simple sleep shirt left her legs bare, and made it clear she had nothing on underneath the soft fabric.
“Are you hurt? Did it sting you?” The krath’s poison was lethal.
“Fuck.” She stared at the carcass. “Nasty little thing.” She held one leg out. “It scratched me, but it doesn’t hurt now.”
He saw the angry red line on her skin, but not the telltale blackening that indicated krath poisoning. He strode over to take a closer look, then exhaled, relieved. “It didn’t inject its toxin.”
She nodded and lifted her head to look at him. Her gaze reached his waist, and her eyes widened.
Drak. He’d forgotten he was naked. Her gaze was locked on his still-hard cock, which was currently right in line with her face.
His stomach tightened. He watched, as Rory licked her lips, and his cock jerked.
Suddenly, the door burst open behind them. The others flooded into the room—Raiden, Harper, Thorin, Saff, Lore, and Nero.
Raiden looked at a near-naked Rory, then his gaze moved to Kace’s naked body, then to the carcass of the dead krath on the floor.
“What the hell?” Raiden bit out.
Saff was grinning. “Well, military man. Apparently, you really know how to show a girl a good time.”
Drakking hell. Kace yanked the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around his hips.
***
Rory sat at the table in the living area, cradling a mug of hot ocla that Saff had brought her. Rory was considering how to beg the woman for some of her stash of the stuff. It tasted like coffee blended with hot chocolate.
Exactly what she needed right now.
Regan settled a blanket around Rory’s shoulders. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.” Her
hands were still shaking a little, but she wasn’t about to admit that to anyone.
Harper moved up on her other side and squeezed her shoulder.
A second later, Kace strode in. He was wearing trousers now, but no shirt. It didn’t matter. She could still see the image of his long, thick cock seared into her brain.
Apparently, some ugly-ass alien creature trying to kill her wasn’t enough to stifle her lust for Kace Tameron.
“What the hell was that creature?” Harper demanded.
“It was a krath assassin bug,” Kace ground out. “Our rivals, the Hemm’Darr use them, but they are common across the main systems.”
“Assassin bug?” Rory frowned. “I don’t understand. What would it be doing in my room?”
“Could it have come in the window?” Raiden suggested.
Kace’s mouth tightened. “They’re good climbers, but that’s a long way, even for a krath.”
“So we have a traitor in the House of Galen.” Raiden’s voice turned Arctic.
“Did someone put it in my room by accident?” Rory still couldn’t understand who’d want to kill her.
“This is no mistake.” Kace’s blue eyes looked dark. “Krath are fed the scent of their prey. Someone is definitely trying to kill you.”
God. “Why?”
“You know something,” he answered.
Rory set her mug down and threw her hands up. “What could I possibly know? I can’t think of anything. All I know for certain is that it would take two hundred years to reach my planet, the Thraxians are vicious slavers, and the Vorn are insane. I get the impression that none of this is news to anybody. I don’t know anything special about any of them.”
Kace knelt in front of her. “Think, Rory.”
“I don’t know.”
His gaze burned into her. “Think, if you want to live.”
“Okay, Kace, lay off,” Raiden said.
“You’re okay.” Regan wrapped an arm around Rory’s shoulders. “That’s the main thing.”
“The Thraxians are toying with us.”
Rory looked up and saw Galen had soundlessly entered the room at some point. The imperator was dressed in all black, leaning against the wall.
Galen’s voice was dark and lethal. “They are taking jabs at us, and it stops now.”
“What can we do?” Saff asked.
“I’m tired of being on the defense,” Galen said. “It’s time to take the offense.”
“The biggest blow we can give the Thraxians is getting Madeline Cochran back from them,” Kace said. “They’re taunting us with her, but they don’t want us to find her.”
“But we’ve been searching,” Rory said. “So how the hell do we find her?”
“We know they aren’t keeping her in the House of Thrax. So, what other locations do they use?” Kace’s gaze moved over his fellow gladiators. “Who else are they friends with?”
Looking at him, Rory saw the military commander he was when he wasn’t in the arena.
“No one is friends with the Thraxians,” Galen added. “But they do have business associates and allies.”
Raiden nodded. “They have some small-time scumbag slavers who feed them fresh stock for the arena.” He looked at Rory and the others. “These are people who are not part of the houses. They don’t have the money, prestige, or skills to run a house.”
“The wannabes,” Harper said.
“Yes,” Raiden said. “They are the bottom-feeders of Carthago.”
Galen shifted. “Rory, did you see any particular aliens visit the Thraxians, bringing them slaves?”
Rory frowned. “There were always people coming and going.” She forced herself to revisit the memories. Instantly, goose bumps broke out over her skin, and one memory jumped to the forefront. “There were some aliens who visited a lot. They brought in slaves who weren’t very healthy.” She exhaled loudly. “Those poor slaves were always badly injured. Like they’d already been in the arena.”
Kace straightened. “Can you describe the aliens?”
“They weren’t pretty. They were average height, around the same size as all of you, and with stocky builds, but they had deformed heads and faces.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ugly skin growths and scars. Like they’d suffered burns or some sort of disease.”
Kace shot to his feet, muttering under his breath. She saw the other gladiators all stiffen.
“Who are they?” she asked.
Kace scowled. “The Srinar. The underground fight masters.”
Rory blinked and looked at Harper. “Underground fight masters?”
Her friend was frowning and gave a shrug. She was watching the gladiators carefully.
“The Srinar were almost decimated by a plague decades ago,” Galen said. “The survivors were horribly disfigured, and they torched their entire planet—their cities, farms, dead bodies, everything—to eradicate it.”
“With nothing left, they spread out through the systems,” Kace said. “They had no honor. They believed their misfortune gave them the right to take from others. They became pirates, smugglers, gang leaders.”
“Here on Carthago,” Galen continued, “they are scum. The worst of the worst. Many years ago, they were banned from the arena, and from that time onward, they’ve supplied poor-quality and mistreated slaves to houses like Thrax. On top of that, we believe they run underground fights.”
Raiden crossed his arms over his chest. “There have always been rumors of an underground fight ring, located deep below the arena and the city.”
“We’ve tried to find it,” Galen added. “But we’ve never been able to track it down. People who go there are forbidden to speak of it. The few who do have always turned up dead, their bodies beaten to unrecognizable pulp.”
“I’m assuming fighting in this underground ring doesn’t bring the same kind of money and prestige as the arena,” Rory said.
“You would be right,” Galen said, “but…”
Rory wondered what would make a man as tough as Galen pause. “But?”
The imperator’s face remained impassive but he released a long breath. “They say in the underground arena, the fights are always to the death.”
God. Rory went stiff, and she heard Regan gasp. Surely, Madeline wasn’t down there.
“All right, we’ll follow up on the Srinar in the morning. For now, everyone get some sleep.” Galen’s gaze swept the room. “Someone needs to watch over Rory—”
“I will.” Kace’s tone was firm.
No one argued with him. As everyone filed out, Harper and Regan both gave Rory hugs, and Saff patted her gently on the shoulder.
Great. She was already practically an insomniac, and now she had to have the object of her obsession watch her struggle with her nightmares. Just peachy.
Rory walked back to her room, Kace a big, silent shadow behind her.
She paused in the doorway, her pulse spiking as she carefully scanned the shadows and listened for any tell-tale noises.
Kace brushed past her and did a lap of the room. He checked under the bed, under chairs, out on her small balcony. He closed her windows up tight.
“It’s clear.”
The deep rumble of his voice made her feel a bit better. She sat on the bed, and knew there was no way in hell she’d ever get to sleep. Not with everything that had happened, and certainly not with Kace beside her.
She stared at the wall, torn between feeling miserable and very, very aware.
Kace sighed, and then he sat down beside her, the bed dipping under his larger frame. “You need some rest.”
“I haven’t slept for more than a couple of hours a night since I got here.” She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I’ve gotten used to running on limited rest.”
He reached out, his knuckles brushing her cheekbone. Her throat went tight, and she felt that light touch all the way to her core.
“Please…” The word came out choked. “Don’t be kind to me
. I can’t handle it when I know you’ll just pull away again.”
She saw a muscle tick in his jaw, and his hand dropped away. A part of her mourned the loss of contact.
They both sat there, separated by just a few inches of space that felt more like a few light years.
A second later, he started singing.
Rory looked up at him, her mouth dropping open. His voice was low, deep, and beautiful. She’d never heard a male voice so melodious. She listened, rapt, letting the dulcet tones surround her. The fact that she couldn’t understand the beautiful, flowing alien words didn’t matter.
He paused. “These are ancient incantations of an Antarian soldier. They are sung to us as children, and we learn to recite them in our heads to help us sleep on the battlefield.”
Those words made her sad. She imagined a small, blue-eyed boy lying in bed, with no loving arms to hold him when he was lonely, sad or sick.
Then he started singing again, and it was so beautiful that it made the sadness disappear. God, she could lie here forever and listen to this man sing.
Slowly, sleepiness washed over her. She felt safe with Kace. There was no need to be on guard, no need to fight, no need to be afraid.
She tipped over and rested her head in his lap. She saw his hand hesitate, and then it came down and stroked her hair.
With Kace’s voice in her ears and his hand playing with her hair, Rory drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Ten
“Goddammit!” Rory threw her glass across the room. It hit a couch, rebounded, and landed on a rug, unharmed.
She jumped to her feet and paced across the living area.
She turned, throwing her hands into the air. “I can’t even break a glass right!”
Kace stayed where he was, leaning against the wall. She’d been like this all day—full of nervous energy, muttering under her breath.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Just like last night, as he’d watched her sleep. He’d felt a deep sense of satisfaction that she’d slept beside him for the rest of the night.