The Thief's Dark (Renegades Book 3)

by L P Peace

  Of course, if she thought about it, she didn’t want to examine any of this too closely.

  Anti-alien sentiment in the sol-system was bad. Some openly talked about opening up once Endurance completed its mission and IGC membership was secured. But there were many more who wanted all borders closed. Even the Tessans, who were so generous, still hadn’t been allowed within the solar system. Instead, the Tessans had parked a ship on the border of Earth space where they could relay messages and arrange face-to-face meetings, though no human had ever stepped aboard. So far, Makios Desares, Dairon Ethallion, and the Todaal scientist Kadian Helass were the only aliens who had been within Earth’s system legally. Even with everything Makios Desares had done, Rhona Desares was the target of abuse and violence whenever she was at home because of her relationship with an alien. When news got out that she’d given birth to a hybrid son, someone had gone as far as putting a bounty on their heads.

  Zoe could only imagine what Earth’s reaction would be if she showed up with Daris.

  ‘Are you ready, ahdali?’

  Zoe turned to him. His flint grey eyes watched her with adoration, tinted with worry. She was beginning to wonder if she cared what people would think.

  Swallowed against the fear. ‘The shirt?’

  ‘Leave it on,’ he rasped. ‘None of these keth have the right to look at you.’ Daris turned and picked up a bag.

  ‘I thought we had everything we needed?’

  ‘We do,’ Daris smiled. ‘We’re not taking this with us.’

  When they left the quarters for the last time, the Athon was in the hall. Zoe took a step away from him. He sneered, but when Daris growled, he quickly entered his own room.

  They walked to the elevator, not encountering anyone on the way. Inside, they were alone.

  ‘How are you, ahdali?’ Daris whispered, pressing his lips to her head.

  ‘Scared,’ she admitted. Dread had been pooling in her stomach for the last few minutes. Now it was expanding through her stomach, up into her throat, and threatening to erupt. Her body was shaking, her hands twitching with restless energy.

  Zoe wasn’t built for times like this. Astronavigation didn’t call for much in the way of nerve.

  The lift doors opened and she led the way into the hall leading to the bay. A couple of aliens stared at her as they replaced them in the lift. Daris ushered her on, and they walked down the long hall, towards the huge doors that stood between them and their escape.

  ‘Shirt?’ Zoe looked at Daris as he leaned to open the bay doors.

  He shook his head. ‘The Kuyon likes you enough. You don’t need to remove it.’

  Relieved, Zoe pulled the sides closer together.

  The bay doors opened.

  Another kind of alien stood in the control booth. This one was taller than Daris, amethyst in colour with two sets of twisted black horns growing in a V above his eyes. Black hair fell down to his waist, and teal eyes stared out at her with cool disinterest.

  ‘Vrok,’ she heard Daris whisper behind her.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Koldar,’ Daris said through gritted teeth. ‘I’ve never known one to show interest to a female outside their own species except for Zavi.’

  Zavi, one of the slave races. Zoe remembered seeing pictures of them and realised it was because the Zavi were similar to the Koldars. They had orchid purple skin, and their hair was pale, off-white lilac to amethyst. They were also sans horns.

  The Koldar was almost as pretty as the Zavi, though while the Zavi she had seen had delicate, soft faces, the Koldar’s face was made up of strong lines and sharp features.

  Frowning, the Koldar walked into the bay.

  ‘Maruzen.’ He indicated Zoe while giving Daris an enquiring look. His meaning was clear. What the fuck is this human doing here? Or vrok, as the aliens said.

  ‘I’m just getting Tolomus’s female accustomed to the ship.’ Daris unhooked the leash. Freed, Zoe took a few steps away from Daris and the Koldar.

  ‘Where is she going?’ His voice was hard, authoritative. ‘Human, come back here.’

  Zoe paused, looking back fearfully at the alien.

  ‘Where is Raday? We arranged to meet this rote.’

  ‘How would I know? Tolomus tells me where to go, I go there.’

  ‘I’m surprised to see a Koldar here.’ Daris moved away so that the Koldar had his back to Zoe, as he followed the obviously larger threat.

  ‘I’m surprised to see a Maruzen here,’ the Koldar snapped, losing patience.

  Zoe moved further away from the conversation, but carefully watched them, waiting for some kind of cue.

  After a minute, Daris went into the control booth, followed closely by the Koldar, who scowled at her as he entered.

  He seemed utterly disinterested.

  Daris had some sort of device he planned to use that would give him remote access to the bay from his ship. He would need the Koldar distracted for that. Also for the inevitable attack.

  Zoe moved closer to the booth and saw the two males inside. The Koldar was talking animatedly while Daris, somehow, managed to keep relaxed and smiling.

  The Koldar looked out at her. Zoe slipped the shirt off. For a moment, his cold demeanour changed, and he stared at her with a heated look in his eye.

  So he could be affected.

  Taking a deep breath, she grazed her fingers across her stomach while holding the Koldar’s gaze. She bit her lip; his eyes fixated on it.

  Swallowing her nerves, Zoe let her eyes flutter closed, and pretended it was just Daris and her. She raised her hand and smoothed her fingers over the mound of one breast.

  The Koldar was as cold as the space outside the ship.

  Daris watched his mate walk around the bay, clutching at her shirt and wondered how anyone couldn’t be drawn to watching her. She was stunning. It took effort and concentration for Daris not to spend all of his time with his eyes fixed on her.

  ‘Tolomus offered me a permanent job,’ Daris said. The Koldar had his back to the delectable human. ‘I’ve never worked on an Amaran vessel. What are the controls like?’

  The Koldar turned and looked at Zoe.

  ‘Don’t worry about her. She’s human. What can she do?’

  The Koldar seemed to consider the question as he watched her. Daris took advantage of his distraction and entered the control booth.

  He’d barely stepped foot inside when the Koldar was there.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘How do I work this?’ Daris looked around the console, unsure what anything did. Of course, thanks to the device he had on him from the syndicate, it didn’t really matter if he was familiar with the tech or not. The device would do the job for him.

  ‘What does this do?’ Daris’ finger was halfway to the button when the Koldar snatched out and grabbed it. He was fast. Faster than Daris had realised.

  ‘If you are required for this duty, I will train you. Not before,’ the Koldar sneered down at Daris. ‘Perhaps you should consider if you have the discipline for this kind of life,’ he continued. ‘We have more than enough crew and don’t need the likes of…’

  It took Daris a few moments to realise the Koldar had stopped speaking. When he looked up, he was transfixed as he stared through the glass. Daris followed his gaze.

  Zoe was standing outside, her eyes closed, Tolomus’s shirt on the ground. Her hands brushed over her body, her breasts, her stomach, her hips, her…

  Oh, vrok, that’s beautiful. She’s so beautiful.

  In the hazy lust of his mind, Daris remembered the Koldar’s reaction. What was she doing putting on such a display in front of another male? It was wrong! It was indecent!

  It was extremely effective! The Koldar’s eyes were glued to her as her hand slipped inside her…

  Daris struck out, punching the Koldar in the face with all his strength. The Koldar’s head whipped back, and he stumbled as dark purple-maroon blood exploded from his nose.

  Teal irises
turned on him in shock and outrage.

  ‘Keth vrokker!’ the amethyst alien hissed.

  Daris snarled in response.

  I hope this is working. I hope this is working. I feel like such an idiot.

  Crash!

  Zoe’s eyes opened to find the Koldar had Daris pinned to the glass of the booth. Daris looked at her for a moment, his eyes becoming hard and resolute before his tail appeared around the Koldar’s throat and pulled him away from Daris.

  Zoe didn’t realise Daris’s tail was that powerful.

  Daris turned into the space abandoned by the Koldar, who was backing away. He crouched and pounced, using the height of the ceiling and landing on the alien. They landed on the floor, and the fight turned into a scuffle of purple aliens. It was fast, too fast for her eyes to follow.

  They parted and both were on their feet a moment later.

  Daris jumped again. The Koldar tried to get out of the way, but Daris landed on his chest, and he wrapped his tail around the Koldar’s throat, using his weight and arms to bear the alien to the floor. By slow degrees, the Koldar lost consciousness and slumped on the ground. Daris stayed there for a long time until Zoe was sure the other alien must be dead.

  Finally, Daris stumbled to his feet, his eyes searching for her. There was an annoyed look in his eyes when they found her.

  Fixing something to the panel, Daris ran out, and picking her up, he threw her over his shoulder and ran to his ship. It opened and he deposited her on the ramp, another annoyed look, then ran back to where her shirt was.

  Okay, why was he so mad at her? It’d worked, hadn’t it?

  Grabbing the bag from where he had dropped the contents out onto Tolomus’s shirt. It was all of the underwear Tolomus had bought her, as well as all of his shirts. He pulled something out of his pocket, lit it, and dropped it onto the clothes.

  An alarm went off almost immediately.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she yelled, looking at the control booth to see if the alarm had woken the alien. He was either unconscious or…

  ‘Get in,’ Daris said, approaching fast. In almost a panic, Zoe turned and, spotting a spiral staircase, she ran over and climbed it.

  Daris was right behind her now. Grabbing her, he pulled her to the cockpit, flicked a button on his console and strapped her in.

  Faster than she would ever have thought possible, the engine roared to life. The viewscreen flickered on in front of her and readouts scrolled over it, everything lighting to green within seconds. Thanks to the language implant, Zoe understood every word.

  Daris grinned at her when he saw the look on her face.

  ‘I have all the best toys,’ he said. There was something indecent about that smile, she decided.

  Sitting, he switched to a side terminal and grabbed something that looked almost three-dimensional, throwing it onto the screen. It was a holographic representation of the small device that would crack the control booth and allow him access to open the bay doors. He tapped a finger at it, and it opened.

  ‘Execute escape,’ Daris said, placing his hands on the controls.

  The viewscreen split and alien writing scrolled up. When it got to the bottom, the writing changed and disappeared.

  Moments passed. In front of them, the bay doors opened.

  There couldn’t have been more than a foot of clearance on either side of the ship when Daris lifted off and guided her through.

  Zoe resisted the urge to cover her eyes. Instead, she watched as the lights of the bay gave way to the black of space. The ship dropped beneath the huge Amaran vessel and turned one-hundred and eighty degrees.

  A chime sounded.

  ‘Ah, incoming call.’

  The screen lit up and Tolomus’s face appeared before them, four feet tall. He looked at Zoe, his face twisting in anger.

  ‘Couldn’t wait?’

  ‘Never had any intention of waiting,’ Daris said. ‘You see, I can’t train Zoe up to be your mate Tolomus, because she’s mine.’

  ‘I’m going to hunt you down and kill you,’ the Fedhith promised.

  ‘We’ll just see, won’t we?’ Daris grinned. He hit a button, and space appeared. A moment later, the stars cascaded into a break wave across the screen.

  ‘We’re going to do a series of small jumps,’ Daris said. ‘Change direction a few times to throw them off.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ It was a question Zoe had avoided asking before now. She was afraid of the answer.

  ‘At the moment, nowhere in particular, my precious ahdali,’ he said the word ‘precious’ as though it was just another part of his pet name for her. But there was an underlying tension to it that told Zoe she’d have to make a decision quickly on what kind of relationship she wanted with this alien.

  She bit her lip. This alien criminal. This alien criminal who had rescued her. This alien criminal who had rescued her and made her feel things she hadn’t even known about until him. Things she didn’t want to feel but did want to feel at the same time.

  ‘I’m programming in the jumps,’ he said. ‘Then we’re going to have a little chat about what happened on that bay deck.’

  Zoe swallowed. ‘It worked, didn’t it?’

  ‘Not just yet,’ he said, waving a hand at her.

  For the next few minutes, Daris worked in silence.

  She knew it would be a problem, the dancing, the touching. But thinking about the growing tension in Daris over the last few days she realised what an unknown entity Daris was.

  He was a criminal, one who had admitted to killing and possibly worse. It occurred to Zoe, for the first time, that she had no idea who he was or what he was capable of. He had romanced her, for sure, and Zoe had responded—was responding. She was feeling things that she definitely didn’t want to examine too closely because they got in the way of her career, her return to Earth, her mission. But on The Crucible, he’d needed her compliance so that they could escape. Now, what did he need?

  He needed to complete this mating because it was affecting his state of mind. Beyond that, Zoe wasn’t sure.

  ‘Zoe?’ He was watching her with a frown and concern in his eyes. ‘Why are you afraid?’

  ‘I’m not,’ she denied. ‘I mean… how do you know?’

  ‘I’m your mate,’ he said. ‘I’m highly attuned to you and I can smell your fear.’

  Some tension inside Zoe eased. She didn’t know him, not in the way of knowing a friend, through shared experience and interests. But she knew him. He would never hurt her.

  ‘I guess I just got too much in my own head.’

  A smile crept across his face. ‘But that’s so unlike you.’

  Zoe couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Yeah, I get it. It’s a control thing. I thought, as a kid, if I could think about all of the things that could go wrong, then I could figure out how to deal with them. After a while, it became an ingrained habit.’

  ‘I know, Zoe,’ he said. ‘Not how you got there, but how your mind works.’

  They sat in silence for a few minutes more, while Daris finished what he was doing. When Daris unclipped his restraints, Zoe followed his lead and sat on the huge chair with her knees drawn up to her chest.

  The ship dropped out of FTL, turned on a wide arc, then re-entered on another bearing.

  Daris pressed a few more buttons, and with a grin in Zoe’s direction, the comm screen activated.

  After a few moments, a bald, naked grey-blue alien with huge black eyes appeared on the screen.

  ‘What the fuck is that?’ Zoe’s hand went over her mouth as she stared at the alien, horrified at her response. ‘I’m so…’

  Beside her, Daris was guffawing with laughter.

  The alien held up a hand. ‘All is well, human,’ he said. ‘I’d say you look as strange to me, but I’m both familiar with and fond of your race.’

  Zoe looked at Daris, who was holding his sides and bent double, his shoulders rocking as he tried to gasp for breath. He looked up at the screen, pulling in a shallo
w breath and was lost again, shaking his head and looking away from the screen.

  The grey-blue alien sighed and pressed something. ‘Makios to the bridge. It’s Daris.’

  Zoe turned to look at the alien in shock. There was no way this criminal knew Makios Desares. No way.

  A few moments passed in which Daris managed to pull himself together.

  In the background, the door to the bridge opened and Makios Desares walked in.

  ‘What trouble have you gotten yourself into now, my friend?’ When he looked at the screen and saw Zoe, he froze.

  ‘Err, human, you might want to clothe yourself.’

  With a horrified yelp, Zoe slid from the chair and landed on the floor with a bump.

  Daris’s face went from shock back to laughter and back to shock. He stripped off his top and handed it to her on the floor.

  Grateful, Zoe slipped it on and, attempting some modicum of dignity, sat back on the seat.

  Makios was both chortling with laughter and respectfully turned away. ‘Did you find your mate, Daris?’

  ‘I did,’ Daris said, his tone sobering.

  ‘I’m glad for you, but it’s a difficult time. The human ship has disappeared.’ Makios sighed, his shoulders hanging in defeat. ‘We have no leads.’

  ‘It was a slaver called Tolomus,’ Zoe said before Daris could speak.

  Makios turned to face the screen, his eyes wide with surprise.

  ‘I’m Lieutenant Zoe Winters, astronavigator on Endurance,’ she said, the words spilling out of her. ‘The Halidan abandoned us, and then The Crucible showed up.’

  ‘How did The Crucible take Endurance?’ Makios walked over to the grey-blue alien. Reaching over his head, he switched the comm on. ‘Rhona, get to the bridge now.’

  ‘They were funded by someone,’ Daris said. ‘Tolomus told me he had Bentari and Fedhith allies. I think they equipped his ship. It had full ordinance, Makios.’ Daris leaned forward. ‘Endurance didn’t stand a chance.’

  ‘And how do you know all this?’ Makios’s face became a mask of anger.