“We are alive though,” Eve said as she laid her hand on Juliette’s arm.
“Juliette, get your men up here. There are still morrrre of these mercenaries in Queen’s Hat. We neeeeeed to find them, kill them, and then take their shippppssss.” My words were mostly growls now, but Juliette seemed to understand what I wanted.
“You should rest, my love,” Eve said as she smiled at me. “You have been in this form for over twenty minutes.”
“I’m fineeee,” I said as my anger began to churn.
“Yes, but there is nothing more we can do in ten minutes, and then you will need to change and rest. Juliette, Madalena, Paula, Kasta, and I can handle the rest of this clean up. We have the drones in play now, and Juliette will be able to talk to the other police stations.
“We have an infirmary down one level,” Juliette said. “There are some beds in there.”
“Alright,” I said as I rested my shotgun back over my shoulder strap.
“I will come with you,” Madalena said. “To help you remove your armor.”
“I’ll be fine,” I replied as I stepped out to the stairwell.
“Let her go with you,” Eve said to me, and then she turned to Madalena. “If you just intend on helping him with his armor.”
The Prime Valkyrie’s armor dripped away from her face, and the two women stared at each other for a few tense seconds. Eve’s eyes burned like hot fire, and Madalena’s were like a stormy ocean.
“I will assist with the cleanup,” Madalena finally said to Eve, and the vampire nodded. I didn’t know who won the brief struggle between them because of the monster in my soul screaming for more death, but neither of the women smiled when they turned to face me.
The tiger in my soul may have thirsted for battle, but he didn’t want to get involved in this one. I turned away from the women, walked down the stairs to the next level, and then found the infirmary.
I was already thinking about the ocean when I flopped into the bed in my armor, and it only took a few seconds for me to shift back into my human form.
Before I knew it, I was asleep.
Chapter 8
I was startled awake and twisted around in the bed to face the presence that I felt in the room with me. My eyes focused on Madalena, and an exhale of relief poured from my lungs. She was lying on the bed next to me with her eyes closed, and I saw a bandage covering her left shoulder. Her chest rose and fell with a slow movement, and I saw her uniform hanging on the bed bars beside her.
I studied her sleeping face for a few moments and tried to make sense of the conflicting emotions in my chest. She had really helped us rescue Juliette, and I knew I held strong feelings for her. I just didn’t know how to move forward with them, or how to leave them alone, or how to do anything with the bond we shared. She’d taken any choice from me, and from the two women I loved.
I supposed that I did have a choice, I could ask her to kill herself, and then I would be rid of her.
I pushed the thought out of my mind immediately. I had fucked up plenty of times in my life so I couldn’t fault her for her actions without taking a good long look at my own screw-ups. I’d already spent a lot of time doing that, and it was a waste of time. I needed to move forward, but I didn’t know how. Should I love her? I knew I already did, and while it didn’t mean we had to be physical lovers, I felt the connection between us growing stronger every day.
Drinking from her would be dousing the flame.
I moved to the edge of my bed and set my booted feet on the ground as quietly as I could before I stood. My body was a bit stiff from sleeping in my armor, but my muscles relaxed after I took a few steps toward the door of the infirmary. I turned to look at Madalena before I exited the infirmary. She was still asleep, and I opened the door and slipped out like a whisper.
Eve was waiting for me in the hallway. She wore her usual skin tight gray and black flight suit, but her ebony hair was braided over one shoulder like a twisting snake. Her eyes looked into mine, and they glowed a warm red.
She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. I recognized the passion in her eyes, and our lips were pressed against each other’s a second later. My hands circled under her small ass, and I lifted her up so she could lean down into my mouth. Eve let out a gasp of pleasure when I lifted her, and her hands ran up my armor and cradled my face while her teeth lightly dug into my tongue. Our make-out session lasted for another half a minute, but we finally let our lips part from each other, and I set her back on the ground.
“Damn,” I gasped as I struggled to slow my heart rate. “One hell of a way to wake up.”
“I love you, Adam,” she said as she ran her fingers along my jaw. “You are a wonderful man, and I thank the stars for every moment we spend together.”
“I feel the same about you and Zea,” I whispered. “We’ve made it through the grinder again, and we are all stronger because of it.”
“Yes,” she said with a relieved sigh. “I will pray we continue to be lucky.”
“How long have I been asleep?” I asked as she wrapped her arm around mine and led me away from the door to the infirmary.
“A little less than a day. I was upstairs speaking with Juliette when I felt you wake up. She is waiting for us.”
“Great,” I said. “Did you update her on what’s happened since we last saw her?”
“Yes, she has an idea that is intriguing. I wanted to ask Madalena, but we convinced her finally to rest some four hours ago, so I didn’t want to wake her.”
“What about Paula, Kasta, and Zea?” I asked.
“We’ve dealt with the mercenaries and their ships,” Eve explained as we reached the stairwell. Police officers were quickly moving up and down the stairs, but no one interrupted us.
“How?” I asked.
“Zea was able to fix the alarm systems in Queen’s Hat so that Juliette could talk to the other police stations. Once the alarms went up, Zea, Kasta, and Paula took our drones toward the other stations. The Black Hearts surrendered, and the station’s defense cannons were able to prevent their ships from leaving.”
“Sounds like Queen’s Hat owes us another thank you.” I chuckled.
“Yes,” Eve agreed. “They will need to change their procedures, so this doesn’t happen again. Currently, Queen’s Hat’s districts operate as autonomous cities, and their senators meet every month to discuss statewide laws. Their security teams all follow the same rules, but they have minimal contact with each other.”
“It made it easy for the Black Hearts to isolate and takeover individual districts,” I said with a sigh.
“Yes, but first Juliette has a lot of cleanup work to do, then she will have to figure out how these mercenaries organized the takeover, and then they can implement processes to keep this from happening again.”
“Have you interviewed any of the mercenaries?” I asked as we reached the main level of the police station.
“Yes. Four of them so far. I am passing the information I learn to Juliette. I am helping with her investigation.”
“Where are Zea, Paula, and Kasta now?” I asked.
“They returned to Persephone to sleep. When I felt you wake, I communicated with Lux, and she is waking them.”
“Oh, shit,” I chuckled. “I hope Lux didn’t wake them with a bucket of ice water.”
“I doubt she would,” Eve said to me with a smile.
We reached Juliette’s office, and I pushed on the cracked door. The policewoman sat behind her desk with her boots up on the table and a datapad in her hand. Her black eye had a bandage over it, and her cracked lips sucked on a burning cigarette.
“Ahhh, so Sleeping Beauty is awake.” She smirked and then gestured for Eve and me to sit on the chairs on the other side of the desk.
“Good to see you, too,” I said as I smiled at her. “Smoking again?”
“I’d prefer to do it after sex,” she said, and her uninjured eye blinked, or maybe it was actually a wink since it would match
the smirk on her face.
“I don't think you have time for sex,” I replied as I gestured to the stack of papers on her desk and the ashtray filled with half burnt smokes. “Looks like you’ve been awake since we rescued you.”
“Yep, and I was awake for three days before that, but who’s counting?” She blew a smoke ring out of her lips and then fixed her eye on me. “I owe you again, it seems.”
“Just helping out,” I shrugged.
“We keep needing it,” she sighed. “I ended up getting promoted a bunch because everyone here was an idiot.” She gestured to the bullet filled walls around her and then blew out another puff of smoke from her nose. “Just a bunch of freedom fighters who got lucky and overthrew a megacorp. I’ve done okay here, but this made me realize that I’m out of my league. This shit shouldn’t have happened. We’ve got two million people living on this station and an influx of almost a hundred thousand travelers every hour. I’ve been waiting for Nebula Gammon or Elaka Nota to attack again, but this attack came from the inside. I didn’t even expect it until they were in my office with their guns pointed in my face.”
“We all get caught off guard,” I said as I thought about my friends getting kidnapped. “It’s hard to maintain a constant state of awareness.”
“It’s what I’m paid to do though.” She blew another puff of smoke out of her lips and then looked at the ceiling for a few moments. “I’m going to quit.”
“You are?” I asked, and I tried to hide my surprise. She had said she wanted to join up with my crew, but I suspected that was all talk.
“Yep,” she answered. “I need to fix all this shit first, and then find a better replacement, but I never should have been a cop. I’m too much of a bitch and an egomaniac.”
“Admitting such things would argue otherwise,” Eve said.
“Yeah, well, just ‘cause I admit it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” Juliette took one last puff from her smoke and then ground it into the ashtray on her desk as if she was trying to murder the thing.
“It is a step in the correct direction,” I said.
“Hmmm, I heard you’ve got a good pilot now,” the redhead said.
“One of Madalena’s soldiers. Her name is Nikki, and she is excellent.”
“Yeah, but I doubt she is better than me,” Juliette snickered and then looked at Eve. “See? I’m a bitch and arrogant.”
“I like you,” Eve said with a shrug.
“You are like one of those golden retriever dogs who licks and snuggles everyone. Don’t take that like I’m calling you a bitch. Just saying that you are a sweetheart.”
“I understand.” Eve smiled.
“Anyways, Kitty Boy.” Juliette looked back to me as she fished her pack of smokes out of her front pocket. “Eve’s been talking my ear off while I’ve been trying to work. I think I have an angle on your problem you might not have thought of.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“Yeah. So, Ice Queen wants you to complete this crazy ass rite of passage and then hang from a tree like some grouchy old guy.”
“Odin,” I said.
“Whatever. I’m not going to name crazy. The way I look at it, you’ve got two issues.”
“Two?” I asked.
“Yep, first you’ve got this rite; but then you’ve got the Ice Queen’s dad. She wants you to finish the rite and then go after him, but Eve told me whoever kills that asshole gets to become king.”
“I’m not sure that is how it works,” I said as I thought back to the conversation I had with Madalena on her battle fortress. It seemed like forever ago, and I couldn’t remember everything we talked about in perfect detail.
“I have not spoken to Madalena about the specific details,” Eve said as she laid her hand on top of mine. “But in her thoughts, she knows her current title will be stronger once he is dead. She thought it was why he tried to kill you on the planet. His birth prophecy detailed his death by the snow leopard.”
“If I can get out of the rite by killing her father, why wouldn’t she have told me of that course of action?”
“She believes with every part of her being that you are sent by Odin and will live through his rite,” Eve explained. “There is no alternative course needed because she knows you will live through it.”
“Fucking religious zealots,” Juliette groaned.
“Madalena did help us save your life,” I replied.
“Fair enough,” the policewoman snickered and then lit one of her cigarettes with a match.
“So you think I can kill the old king and then bypass the rite?” I asked.
“How are these Vikings going to say you aren’t one of them if you are king?” Juliette shrugged. “And you are also married to their queen. Passing their rite seems like a bunch of bullshit at that point. The whole thing is bullshit, but you see where I am going with this, eh?”
“Yeah,” I said as I thought through the logistics of Juliette’s suggestion.
“When Madalena awakes, we can ask her,” Eve said. “I know her thoughts when she speaks.”
“You think she would lie to me and tell me I still need to do the rite?” I asked.
“She would never lie to you.” Eve shook her head quickly. “She does want you to complete the rite though.”
“Jeeze, I thought wives were supposed to kill their husbands over a few dozen years.” Juliette puffed on her new cigarette while she smirked at me.
“Zea said the exact same thing,” I replied.
“Ahh, Blondie. She’s a hoot.”
There was a knock on the door, and Juliette told them to enter while her hand strayed down to touch the handle of the black revolver on her hip.
“Lieutenant Colonel Larns, Captain Tuval has made ten more arrests in District D. It is the last of the Black Hearts.” The man who spoke was Constable Smith, and his face bore a series of bruises.
“Good news,” Juliette said. “Have him throw them in his cells. I’m out of room here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Smith said. “The repairs are almost done in the lobby. All the bullet holes and the front doors are repaired. They are about to paint, and then they will move into the hallways.”
“Thanks, anything else?”
“No ma’am,” he said before he saluted her and gave Eve and me a nod.
“He’s a good kid,” Juliette said after Smith had closed the door. “Maybe he’ll be in charge one day, I’m too damn old.”
“You are twenty-eight,” Eve said.
“Yep!” Juliette replied with a nod. “Too damn old to be sitting in a space station on my ass. It’s just getting less tight every day. What do you think, Adam? Does my ass still look great?”
“Hard to see because you are sitting on it,” I replied.
“I’ll stand up and turn around so you can see it better. Maybe later I can give you a closer look?” She pulled her long legs off her desk and moved to stand, but then the door to her office opened, and Zea, Kasta, and Paula walked in.
“Hey, guys!” The hacker waved at us and then leaned down toward me. I turned to kiss her lips, and then I pulled her down onto my lap. She let out a giggle after she fell on me, and she wiggled a bit so that she was balanced on my armored thighs.
“You have perfect timing, Blondie,” Juliette said with a sigh.
“I do?” Zea asked.
“No,” the redhead took an angry puff from her cigarette and then turned to Eve. The vampire was smiling, and Juliette soon mirrored her facial expression.
“Oh, we got the video off the eyeball,” Zea said as she reached into her computer pack and pulled out a small hard drive.
“Did you watch it?” I asked as Juliette reached across her desk to take the device from Zea’s long fingers.
“Yeah, but it was like that fucker said, just a woman who hired him. She had a lot of data on you and Eve, but I figured we could all watch it together a few times to see if there are any other clues.”
“I’ll play it,” Juliette said as she push
ed aside the mess on her desk and inserted the drive into a slot. Then she twisted her console’s screen around so we could all see it and leaned back in her chair.
The video played with surprising detail. It was a dark restaurant, and the image darted around the cloth-covered tables and expensively dressed patrons a bit frantically. Then the video settled on Warren’s water glass, and he reached out to grab it. The bottom right part of the screen showed the man’s nose, and it was a bit discombobulating when he lifted his head back to take a sip from his water.
“This goes on for a few minutes before she shows up with her guards,” Zea told us, and I could feel her fingers trace along the back of my neck. I wasn’t in my tiger-man form, but my nose was still sensitive, and the scent of the five women crammed into Juliette’s office was causing my mouth to water.
“I’ll fast forward,” Juliette said as she pressed her finger on the screen and advanced the video. She stopped it a few seconds ahead, and we observed Warren’s vision dance through the rest of the people eating in the restaurant.
“Royzar?” a woman asked a moment after he looked back down at his glass, and his vision shot back up to the side of this table. The woman standing there wore a tres chic business jacket and a matching pencil skirt. She was flanked by two gorilla-sized men in tuxedos, and they wore mirrored sunglasses even though the restaurant was dark.
“Yeah, you’re late,” I heard Warren say, and my stomach dropped when his eyes focused on the woman.
“No,” I gasped, and my friends turned to me.
“That is my sister,” I choked out.
“What?” Zea gasped, and Juliette quickly reached out to pause the video.
“Are you sure?” Paula asked.
“Yeah,” I said as I studied the still image of her on the screen. She looked a bit older than I remembered her, but that was understandable since it had been four or five years.
“How could she be your sister? Where is this restaurant?” Kasta asked.
“It has to be on Ganymede,” I said. I didn’t recognize the place, but I wasn’t wealthy enough to visit such establishments, and the Yakuza always made the muscle dine at restaurants that were fronts for their operations.
King Killer: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 7) Page 12