by Sky, Stella
“Everything alright?” I asked cautiously, extending my hand to her arm in a gesture of concern.
“Yes, everything’s fine.”
I raised a brow and smiled at her, knowing better.
“I thought I could use a walk,” she shrugged. “Being cooped up hasn’t exactly been ideal. I’m sick of staring at the walls.”
Since our meeting with the Koth, Sarra had been instructed to stay in my quarters for her own safety. The Koth would be using their own soldiers for Rerdig’s extraction. Of course, they didn’t want her knowing where he was being kept. Little did they know I’d taken her there myself.”
I gave an over-exaggerated shiver and rubbed my arms at the chill. “Tell me about it. This whole thing makes me feel uneasy, especially without you by my side.”
“Aw, and he’s being sweet.”
“He is,” I grinned. “I am ever intrigued and beguiled to have you next to me, especially when dealing with a situation as precarious and–”
“Easy, boy!” She began to giggle. “I don’t need a speech at four in the morning. Charming as you are.”
“I miss you,” I said with a smile. “That’s all I was trying to say.” The two of us paused, and she seemed to be studying me hard. “It’s not as effective without the flowery speech, is it?”
“No, actually, it’s not,” she said, slipping her hand over her mouth as her laugh turned into a yawn.
“Better them for submitting to your help, my lady,” I paused, perhaps for too long. “But in truth, I can’t wait to go back to Earth with you. Get away from all of this upheaval.”
She nodded ruefully. “Do you really think they’re better for submitting to our help, or are you just saying that?”
I paused and raised a brow, my expression clear that I wasn’t sure what to say to the green-eyed woman before me. “Of course. Why would you even ask?”
She frowned. “You know, they say answering a question with a question is an evasive maneuver.”
“Or just a quest for more knowledge,” I said with a tap to my head.
She nodded. “I suppose I had delusions of… willingness. Thus far it’s been a bit of a struggle to get any sort of compromise from the Koth, more than usual, even. Especially regarding this. Don’t you think?”
“You don’t think they’ve been receptive?” I repeated uneasily. “I think you’ve done a lot since you’ve been here, and in such a short time, too. I stand proud of my chosen and what you have accomplished.”
“I suppose you’re right.” She shrugged, now stepping away from the balcony and heading back into the warmth of the home we’d created together. I shut the glass doors and came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and kissing down her neck as I reached my hand under the gentle band of her pajama bottoms.
“I just want Zaphira to be proud. I want to show her I can do this,” she breathed, craning her neck to give me a better field to kiss. “For once, I’d like for her to have nothing to complain about.”
I licked up her neck and nipped down gentle with my teeth. She moaned against my touch as we slowly walked toward the bed, my hand busying itself in her most private of areas.
“I want to be given full control on missions and get access to all of her secrets. I want to earn that.”
“And you want to talk about this right now?” I asked, my words muffled by her skin. Then my ears perked up. Secrets? “Secrets, like what?”
Sarra pulled away for a moment, brushing her short black hair behind her ears before falling back on the bed and opening her legs, inviting me over top of her. I nestled in between them and resumed my kisses, grabbing her breast with my left hand as I used the other for support.
“They wouldn’t be secrets if I knew them, would they?”
“Good point,” I grinned. “Anything you could take a guess at?”
She closed her eyes in a ruse of pleasure, but I thought she was probably just trying to avoid my questions. My body was torn between losing myself in her and desperately seeking answers to the questions I had.
“We’re not being honest with each other,” I warned, partially in jest.
“No, we’re not. But that’s our job, in a way,” she said back with passion in her voice. “It’s more fun this way, don’t you think?”
“I prefer other methods of fun,” I whispered back huskily and ran my hand down her body.
“Oh yes, me too,” she grinned and reached up to grab my face, pulling me into her kisses and seductions.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
She giggled into my lips and slapped me gently on my arm, causing my scales to heat up and glow with lust. “I’ve already shown you mine, many times now, actually,” she teased.
“I’m serious. Don’t you want to uncover something here? I know I do. There’s a rebellion on the tip of our government, and nobody wants to talk about it, not even in our own Koth. Don’t you find that odd?”
“Are we doing this?” she asked flatly, wondering if she should continue undressing or if the conversation had finally turned serious.
“We’re doing this,” I said with a raise of my brow. “Why does Zaphira want this prisoner and how did she know about him?”
“It’s my job,” she sighed in something close to a whine. She didn’t want to let me down, but she didn’t want to leave me in the dark, either. “Please Haden. You know I can’t.”
By her expression, I knew she could see the question weighed on my mind. I wrung my hands absent-mindedly and finally exhaled in frustration, catching her eyes with mine. “You don’t… you don’t think there’ll be war, do you?” I asked quietly, probing.
She seemed taken aback by the question and frowned deeply. “No, do you?”
“I think the rebellion is a lot bigger than I let on.”
“So… more than just a few?”
“Much more. They’re willing to start a fight over this and I’m worried that Riddell’s interference and your refusal to accept Rerdig on asylum may have involved the Earth in a negative way.”
I thought I might see her features wash over with fear, but instead, she looked defiant.
“Never gonna happen,” she enunciated with glee. “We have forces, you have forces, we’re in an alliance. There’s no way Rerdig is going to do anything to us without serious backlash. This rebellion is–”
“Members of the Koth are involved,” I blurted out.
That got her attention. Finally, the reaction I was hoping for. Her features fell with marked disappointment, and she pushed her head into the mattress to get a better look at me. I was still overtop of her from our previous encounter; still wedged in between her legs.
“Oh,” she said.
“Oh,” I repeated in the same tone. “So please, it’s my job to make sure we’re sending Rerdig to Earth for the right reasons. Do you honestly believe that you will do a better job of getting information out of him than we can?”
Her eyes flicked back and forth from mine. This was the do or die decision. The green flecks looking up at me were intense, thoughtful. She reached up and kissed me once more. Not passionate this time. Just sweet, simple… honest.
“I love you,” she said with all sincerity.
My heart began to swell with joy, and I smiled as wide as my lips would allow. I smiled so hard it hurt. “I love you too,” I said, kissing her.
“So… we’re in this?”
“Of course.”
“And… your secrets are mine. Mine are yours?”
I put her hand over my heart and looked her square in the eye as I promised, “You have my word.”
She held her hand over my chest for a moment longer before releasing a sigh of relief. “We think Rerdig is Zaphira’s son.”
“What?”
“Furthermore, Zaphira’s been onto the resistance for a long time now, she just couldn’t pin down who was involved. We got word from a spy in the Koth.”
Ikar, I groaned inwardly. It had to be
him.
I couldn’t believe they had a mole in our government. Dirty little sneaks, I thought. If they had moles on council, it could be especially dangerous, not to mention a huge violation of our alliance.
“I see.”
“And…” she bit her lip. “Zaphira has a weapon.”
My brow perked up, and I tried not to sound too intrigued. “Oh? For the purpose of…?”
“Killing shifters,” she said through gritted teeth. “Or just disabling them,” she quickly defended. “It’s supposed to be for the choosing ceremonies only, you know, in case things go wrong. I haven’t seen it myself, nor has she confirmed its existence to me, but I know she has it and I know it’s dangerous.”
“Then she’s well-prepared indeed, isn’t she?”
As if on cue, my phone rang. We locked eyes for a moment as though we stood on a precipice; the ring continued to sound throughout the apartment. I stood from my comfortable nook and walked over to the tablet. I pressed talk and immediately Eddrys’ face came up on the other end.
“Good news for your little missus, boss,” he said cheerfully, though not without reserve.
“What’s that?”
“We’re taking the prisoner to Earth. You, me, Rerdig, and Sarra. Choice security.”
I cocked a brow and turned to Sarra to see if she’d heard the news. She did. Now perched on her knees, still on my soft mattress, she looked absolutely elated. I turned back to the phone with a bemused roll of my eyes. “When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow.”
Chapter Nine
Sarra
We’d packed our things as soon as Haden got off the phone with Eddrys. The morning couldn’t come fast enough for me. I could barely sleep all night thinking that I would be able to bring not only a rebellious prisoner, but potentially Zaphira’s son home to her.
We boarded a private shuttle back to Earth first thing in the morning. The prisoner was restrained by the Koth security, but Rerdig seemed apprehensive to make a move out of turn. Haden told me the Koth had threatened Rerdig’s children, and since then he was more than willing to comply with our wishes. I couldn’t exactly put my stamp of approval on their methods, but whatever got him to behave as we got him into cry was fine by me.
Shifters didn’t have to go into cryo for hyper speed space travel as humans did, but we figured this was our best bet for not having to watch him all the time.
The room I now inhabited was filled with beds, just a handful of them occupied by members of our crew, now disheveled by the cryo and the cold. The occupants, even from their pods, seemed to be in some sort of psychosis. This included Rerdig. It took some extra time for him to feel the effects of our induced sleep to hit him. But when it did, I knew we were truly in the midst of something overwhelming.
I loved the cryo room, the comforting hues of the glowstone and the absolute silence.
I frowned and looked around the room for my pod. I knew Haden would soon be in to administer my cryo, and then we would be back on the Earth. Technically, I still had days to go before I had to be put under, but I was so eager to get back to Earth and share my findings with Zaphira, I was ready to go now. Haden told me he would be in the chamber the entire time, in case something went awry. Then he kissed me on the forehead and told me everything would be fine.
My toes tingled with anticipation that made me want to run indefinitely with excitement. I was bringing back a member of a resistance organization; I was bringing back a story. I was bringing back a reason for Zaphira to be proud.
I was so getting a raise.
Spinning on my heel, I felt my burst of excitement suddenly waning. My brow raised just an inch as I looked around the room. There were no guards, no nurses. No one. My eyes flicked upward as I heard a sudden commotion coming from the deck above me. Some kind of struggle.
I breathed out sharply and ran to the doorway. I could hear stomping and screaming, and then all at once... silence. I bit my lip and instinctively crouched down, hitting the passcode into the wall above me to open the interlocking doors. I crept out into the hallway and looked down the vast, white corridors for any signs of life.
My mouth gaped as I realized that one of the pods had begun to ignite with sparks. I closed the door to our room once more and ran to the cry pod. Girls coming back from their science expeditions were kept in here. If not chosen to be a breeder, scientists would have exactly one year on Udora to research. Having one of them keel over on our expedition back to Earth would definitely take the cherry off of my sundae.
But it wasn't one of our girls.
Upon closer inspection, I could see it was Rerdig's pod that was sparking. I backed away from the domed casing with a gasp as his eyes shot open. He stared straight ahead; yellow enveloping the space around his pupil. His sightline seemed eerily calm, never offering me any mind, even as I was mere steps away.
I frantically input the code for him to be frozen once more, but I was interrupted as his orange scaled fist burst through the glass on his chamber and the broken lid raised above him on a track. Blood trickled down his strong arm, and I blinked in surprise, my breath echoing out in heaves. My hands began to shake wildly, and I instinctively ducked down behind the pod, pushing my back against the steel and willing my breaths to be silent as Rerdig crashed out of his chamber.
Crouching down, I could feel him move across the room, stopping only once to give a brief once-over to the rest of the pods. I didn’t know what I would do if he started attacking the chambers, and luckily I didn’t have to wing it because he strode right over to the door, whipping his tail wildly behind him as he tried over and over to open the door with his hands.
He wedged his fingers between the doors interlocking clasp and let out a groan of effort as he made to pull the doors apart, but it was no use.
Finally, his attention rested on the passcode reader next to the door.
I cringed inwardly. He would never be able to figure out the code to the room. Then I would be stuck with him, and it would only be a matter of moments before he found me. Trapped with my enemy. I swallowed and tilted my head to the left to try and catch a glimpse of what he was doing.
He tried to open the door twice with a passcode before violently pounding his fists against the door and letting out an enraged roar.
I shook from behind the pod and knew I either had to find a way to open the door or confront him. The latter didn’t seem like an ideal choice, so I crawled behind the row of pods, quietly, slowly approaching the keypad.
He whipped around the room wildly, letting out an aggravated cry every so often as he busied himself with the central computer that connected all the pods. I used his cries as opportunities to shuffle a little faster without being heard. Then, suddenly, he was silent again. I peeked out from above on of the pods and ducked immediately as I caught sight of him in the blue glow of the glowstone.
I’d reached the door but felt too afraid to make my move. I could feel my body shaking violently within, but as I held my hand out in front of me, it was steady as ever. I pressed my eyes shut for just a moment before checking on the dragon again. He simply stood at the mainframe with his hand on the screen below him, not moving or attempting to unlock the pods.
With a breath, I raised to my feet and input the code for the door. With a click press of the enter button, I fell back to my knees and scrambled behind the metal beds as the doors shot open. Rerdig turned quickly, and his whole body seemed to shift the room.
He raced to the door and into the hallway, stopping only once to turn back around and inspect the cryo room from the hallway. I pressed my face to the floor and tried to get as small as possible as his gaze passed over the room.
The moment seemed to linger on forever before he finally turned on his heel and stomped down the hall and out of earshot.
He’d escaped.
I crouched in the fetal position and cupped my hands over my mouth as I let out a stifled cry, scarce tears falling down my face before I inhaled sharpl
y and willed them away.
I had two choices: stay and pray or leave the room and find a weapon. Find Haden.
Several minutes passed, and the doors had already locked shut again. I found the strength to crawl across the floor once more, and soon I reached the doors. I pressed my back up against the wall and raised my legs slowly until I was standing next to the opening.
I input the code once more, and the doors slid open with an audible click. I waited, listened for footsteps or the sounds of breath or commotion. I heard nothing and took it as my cue to slip out into the halls.
The bright white lights made me feel even more vulnerable than I already had as I tiptoed along the hallways into the main vestibule. The ships reception area was the main hub for each section of the shuttle. From here, the room branched off to the main elevators, control room, and stateroom corridors. With any luck, I would be able to find Haden there.
I shifted around the U-shaped desk and crouched behind its shelves, making myself as low to the ground as humanly possible. Footsteps could be heard running through the corridors up ahead leading into the control room, and then they went disturbingly quiet. The lights in the ship suddenly went down, causing the whole carrier to be lit up only by emergency lights in the ground that gave off a warm white hue and very little visibility.
The ship was suddenly ablaze with shifter energy. I looked down into the hall adjacent to me, and my body tingled with fear. My eyes widened as far as they could as my pupils tried to adjust to the darkness.
I scraped my top teeth against my bottom lip, and my eyes darted around in suspense. Find Haden. It was the only thought that ran through my mind. I jumped in surprise and crouched even lower as the orange shifter charged through the room, striding with confidence through the office to get to the corridor behind me. I willed myself to stay quiet and tried to think where weapons were kept.
Then suddenly I felt a hauntingly familiar hum of energy. I’d felt it only twice before. Once when I was making love to Haden, and the other time when shifters invaded the offices at Riddell, coming to demand answers from Zaphira about an incident that had happened years prior regarding a match gone missing.