Fractured Souls: Darkstar Mercenaries Book 3

by Carven, Anna

  She was completely powerless here.

  “We’re not going to treat you badly,” Nythian said. His voice reverberated right through her; rough, deep, and tempting. A flicker of warmth sparked in her lower belly. “That’s not how we do things around here.”

  She wanted so badly to believe every word he was saying, but she knew this routine.

  Good cop, bad cop. She used to do it all the time in the HPA. Usually, she played the bad cop.

  Could she trust them?

  This Nythian, this warm, growly, reassuring person—was this really him, or was he just doing his job?

  There had to be another side to him. There was another side to him. He hadn’t even flinched when Enki cut off Zharek’s hand. In fact, the three warriors had moved in perfect sync, as if they were connected by some sort of ESP.

  As if they’d done this sort of thing a thousand times before.

  But without them… she had nothing.

  She couldn’t go back to Earth; not now.

  Perhaps not ever.

  So Alexis made a quick decision. “Fine. It’s not like I have a choice.”

  Nythian’s rumble of approval warmed her cold, once-dead heart. “Maybe this is what you need right now.”

  A cynical laugh escaped her. “Because everyone needs an alien symbiote in their heads, right?”

  “You are stronger than your mind leads you to believe.” For the first time, Enki spoke. He was a striking looking individual, handsome but in a cold, cruel kind of way, with unnerving golden eyes and sharp features that would have been beautiful if not for their harshness.

  In the beginning, she’d been utterly terrified of him, until she realized that he was Layla’s mate.

  Alexis stared at him, not knowing what to say.

  Don’t anger him, human. The Tharian was definitely scared of Enki.

  “If you were not a strong-willed person, Anuk would have consumed you by now. The fact that she was unable to, even when you were in the throes of delirium, says a lot about your will. I give no guarantees, but I can explain to you how I used to keep the Tharian under control. Perhaps it will help you.”

  No! Don’t listen to him. He knows nothing of the Bonding. His way is wrong. I can give you power, Alexis Carter. You do not have to feel afraid ever again… if only you will help me return to Tharos.

  Power… Did she really want that?

  Of course she did. She wanted to feel strong again; in control. God, it had been such a very long time since she felt that way.

  “I’ll take it,” she said, and Enki responded with a sharp nod.

  Don’t. What he will teach you is the opposite of the True Way. They are as far from us as any race in the Universe. Please don’t listen to him, human.

  Alexis sensed the Tharian’s desperation, her horror, her helplessness… The very same emotions she’d carried since the attack in the woods.

  Maybe Anuk wasn’t entirely sane, either.

  “Hey,” she whispered, not caring that the Kordolians could hear her. “Just because I decide to learn from Enki, doesn’t mean I’m going to do things the same way as him. Let me figure this out in my own way.”

  That was what she always did.

  As a detective back on Earth, she’d been the first one to throw out the possibility of a Kordolian link to the human disappearances. Anyone else would have been dismissed as crazy, but when Alexis came up with a theory, her superiors in the HPA had sat up and listened.

  Bloodhound. That’s what they’d called her. Deputy Chief Ramos had always half-joked that she didn’t care as much about getting results as she did about the process.

  The search was her drug.

  Now she had something to search for again.

  She needed to crack a mystery that not even these Kordolians knew how to solve.

  A mystery called Anuk.

  She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. Felt Nythian’s closeness, his warmth, the smooth alien texture of his armor…

  And her own strangeness. She was still cold. She made her own skin crawl.

  “Anuk wants to go back to Tharos,” she said at last. The Tharian’s sense of relief flooded through her, so powerful that she suddenly felt like bursting into tears. “She says she’ll co-operate with me if we make that happen.”

  The three Kordolians went quiet, and Alexis wondered if she’d said something horribly wrong.

  But then Tarak nodded. “I will consider it. Get the Silent One here,” he snapped to someone in the background—presumably Zharek. He turned back to address her. “Where my wife is from on Earth, it is now past four a.m. The humans on this ship are all asleep. For now, you rest. In your circadian equivalent of evening, you will start your training.”

  “Training?” A new wave of apprehension washed over her, but there was a surge of excitement, too. She didn’t really know where that came from.

  “Since the two of you seem to have come to some sort of understanding, Nythian will be your trainer.”

  Trainer? What the…?

  “Understand one thing, human. Whether you like it or not, you are ours now,” Tarak said. That single word—ours—should have pissed her off, but somehow it was reassuring. “The thing inhabiting your consciousness is not going to go away. Even when she was inside Enki, we could not expel her, so it is up to you to find the answers that we couldn’t. It has been my experience that whenever you humans come into the equation, strange things happen. I will leave the specifics to Nythian, but I would advise you to do as he says. Life will go easier for you that way.”

  Nythian released her, taking a step back. Alexis spun around to face him. Her blue hand tingled with an electric sensation, reminding her that it was no longer completely hers.

  Nythian’s boss silently withdrew his imposing presence.

  Enki was nowhere to be seen.

  Even Zharek had disappeared, taking his bloody severed hand with him.

  When did they…?

  Goddamn ghosts. It was almost as if they’d conspired to leave her alone here with him.

  “So,” Nythian rumbled, and the sound of his deep, slightly hoarse voice was a little bit of fuel on her fire. “Do you trust me enough yet, Alexis?”

  “I’m getting there.”

  He chuckled. “That’s about what I was expecting.” Nythian smiled; a patient, knowing half-curve of his dark grey lips. “Let’s get you back to your quarters. You look tired… but hey, at least we finished what we set out to do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your hand’s not broken anymore, is it?”

  “Well, that’s something, I guess.” Alexis opened and closed her blue hand, both fascinated and horrified at its strangeness. Her flat, smooth, human fingernails were gone, replaced with pointed shards that looked like tiny diamonds. They glittered in the dim light, reflecting a thousand brilliant colors. At her wrist, the blue skin faded like a sunset, melding into her deep brown skin.

  Zharek emerged from a doorway. An obsidian metal claw extended from the stump of his right wrist, replacing his severed hand.

  That was quick. She shuddered.

  “I need to study that transformation.” The prospect seemed to fill him with an unholy kind of glee. “I have never, ever seen anything like this in all my thirty-two revolutions of performing the medical arts. How fascinating. Let me examine that new acquisition of yours, Alexis Carter. I must—”

  “No. Fix your own fucking hand first,” Nythian thundered, moving between them. His massive frame formed a protective barrier between her and the medic. Alexis couldn’t help but stare at Nythian’s broad, perfect shoulders… the way they framed his powerful, muscular back, which tapered down to a narrow waist and hips, and an ass that was just sinful to look at.

  Sheer male perfection. That’s what he was.

  And he was protecting her.

  “She’s my charge,” he growled, going from reassuring to terrifying in a heartbeat. “And it’s obvious that when it comes to the human-Thar
ian interaction, you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing. From now on, you don’t lay a hand on her unless I say so.”

  Zharek threw up his hands in silent surrender. He raised his eyebrows as he backed away slowly, obviously not wanting to anger Nythian any further.

  The warrior turned to her, his expression softening. “Come. You’ve had enough bizarreness for one day. Time to go and rest. You look dead tired.”

  “Dead tired? I really hope that’s not a bad attempt at a joke.” The Malachi disaster was always at the back of her mind.

  “No.” He scowled and cursed under his breath in Kordolian. “Sorry. That was insensitive of me. Just a turn of phrase. A human one, actually. Can’t remember where I picked it up.”

  “Yeah, it is, actually.” For the very first time since she’d woken up in stasis, Alexis smiled. She couldn’t help it. There had been something almost… human about his reaction just now.

  And he was having a weird effect on her.

  That tiny dancing spark of arousal was still there, and every time he drew near or did something unexpected, it threatened to flare into something more.

  Unexpectedly, Nythian smiled.

  Her insides clenched, in a good way.

  This time, Nythian’s smile was real, revealing his gleaming white fangs. Small creases formed at the corners of his eyes. Dimples appeared. Fucking dimples.

  Actually, he was rather cute. How was it possible for a male to be dangerous and intimidating and cute, all at the same time?

  “Hey,” he rumbled. “You’re at the edge of the abyss right now. I know what it’s like. You might not believe me when I say it, but it’s not so bad, Alexis Carter.”

  She flexed her blue hand again. Fixed.

  She folded her arms across her chest, rubbing her upper arms. She was intact. Whole. Strong. Well, not yet, but she would be.

  She felt the seamless, slightly-warm floor beneath her bare feet. She saw the blue glow from Zharek’s monitors, saw the dark ceiling curving overhead, saw Nythian’s spectacular expression, and marveled at the unearthliness of it all.

  At that moment, everything came together. Being here, amongst darkness, catching glimpses of untold power…

  “Hey,” he said again, his brow creasing.

  “Hey,” she replied softly.

  “You’re with us now.”

  He was right.

  Maybe this was exactly where she needed to be right now.

  Seven

  Nythian sat outside Alexis’s quarters, listening to the rhythmic sounds of her breathing.

  At last, after much tossing and turning, she was finally asleep. Even after Zharek’s assistant, Mareth, had come to her quarters and given her a light dose of neurosedative, she’d remained awake for some time. She’d been up and down, pacing across the floor, going back and forth between the sanitation chamber and her bed. Even from behind the thick walls, he sensed her pent-up tension.

  At one point, he’d thought about going in there and comforting her, but he’d already overstepped his boundaries. If he was going to be responsible for training her—Goddess knew she was a mess; she needed structure and discipline—he had to keep a certain distance.

  He would be doing her a disservice otherwise. He couldn’t go soft on her. She needed to be mentally strong to deal with the Tharian. According to the boss, a mission on Tharos was a very real possibility, depending on how things played out.

  The Kordolian Empire had left a lot of big, smoking clusterfucks in its wake, and Tharos was one of them.

  A planet full of restless, angry spirits. His skin crawled at the very thought of it, but if Anuk was so important to the future of the Tharian race, then Alexis would have to go to Tharos.

  That meant he would go too.

  She was his mission now.

  To think that not long ago, he’d been in the boss’s office, trying to find excuses to get out of this particular job.

  But Nythian wasn’t indifferent to her anymore. He’d quickly come to realize that beneath Alexis’s vulnerable and oh-so human exterior, there was a brave, intelligent soul. The fact that she was a revenant didn’t bother him. When he was close to her, she felt very, very much alive.

  The sound of her heartbeat… fast, slow, steady, strong… No matter what her mood, its rhythm was addictive.

  He could hear it now through the Qualum walls—thudthud, thudthud, thudthud—the sound of her fragile human heart contracting and relaxing, accelerating as she shifted in her pod.

  She was awake again.

  “Goddamn it,” she cursed, and he heard her bare feet drop to the floor. She paced around, her steps quick and deliberate. Her breathing quickened. “Hey, Nythian, I know you can hear me out there. I think we… uh, I have a problem.”

  He was on his feet in a flash, barreling through the Qualum-fiber doors as they unravelled, coming to a halt right in front of her.

  He looked down.

  Stared into her brilliant tawny brown eyes.

  Saw her panic, tightly restrained behind a carefully composed face.

  Outwardly, she was calm.

  She hadn’t been capable of that before, but now her demeanor reminded him of a soldier’s composure under fire—a feat of mental strength that could only be achieved through discipline and training.

  Who was this female, really? Who had she been in her past life back on Earth? Military? Enforcement? She just had that feeling about her.

  “What’s wrong?” He almost—almost—reached out and put his hands on her.

  Frowning, she held up her right hand and pushed up her sleeve. “It’s spreading.”

  The blue transformation had indeed spread, extending halfway across her forearm. There was a subtle iridescence to it, and at the point where it blended into her brown skin, startling cerulean blue gave way to a smattering of translucent scales.

  Despite the dramatic changes to her body, Alexis was the calm one. Nythian, on the other hand, was ropeable. He uttered a particularly dirty Kordolian swear-word. “Anuk have anything to say about that? Is she doing this on purpose? Because if she is, I’ll—”

  Alexis raised her hands in a placating gesture. “She swears she didn’t mean to do it. The medicine knocks her out completely, same as me. That was Zharek’s intent, wasn’t it? We both fell asleep, then I woke up because my arm started hurting. That’s when I saw this. She doesn’t know how to explain it. She’s never bonded with a human before. No Tharian has.” Maybe he was just imagining things, but Alexis sounded almost protective of her symbiote. She shrugged. “Looks like I’m turning blue. Could be worse. Could be a color I don’t like, you know, purple, orange… wouldn’t that be awful?” She made a face. Her composure cracked a little. Her heart began to pound.

  Nythian had spent a reasonable amount of time around humans. He’d learned to read the rhythms of their bodies a little. Their heartbeats always sped up when they were frightened or angry or excited.

  And sometimes, they tried to cover it up by laughing at themselves or making silly attempts at humor. Strange species, these humans.

  “Alexis.” Gently, he took her transformed hand into his. She didn’t resist. He willed his armor gloves away, and she gasped as the obsidian nanites melted into his skin. Normally, he wouldn’t bother with this kind of thing, but he was trying to make a point.

  “Y-you’re…” She took a deep, shuddering breath.

  “A freak, even by Universal standards. You’re not the only one who has a strange thing inside of you. We’re still learning about your condition, but we’re well equipped to deal with this kind of thing.”

  She stared at him for a while, her gaze traveling up his arms and chest, taking in his entire form. She appeared fascinated by him, and he liked that. Her glistening lips parted slightly. A shade between brown and pink, they were deliciously full.

  Tempting.

  He would kill to read her thoughts right now.

  “Okay,” she said simply, after a long pause.

  �
��Good.” He held her hand up to examine it. The blue surface was cool to the touch, and a little harder than her soft brown human skin. A sliver of horror shot through him as he imagined the Tharian’s blue skin slowly absorbing her entire body, erasing her beautiful features.

  No. He wasn’t going to let it happen.

  Alexis’s gaze became distant. “Anuk says the answers are on Tharos.”

  “That’s what Enki said too,” he muttered. Getting information out of Enki was like trying to find a warm spot on Kythia. His brother was still touchy when it came to the topic of what had really happened on that remote desert planet. Too bad. If Nythian had to beat the information out of him in the training room, he would.

  “I don’t want this thing to consume me,” she whispered, allowing him to see the true extent of her fear for the first time. Strong yet vulnerable. He’d always known humans were contradictory creatures, but this…

  A powerful instinct stirred within him.

  He didn’t want to see her like this.

  “It won’t consume you,” he said at last.

  “How can you be so certain?”

  “Because you’re strong.”

  “I don’t feel very strong right now.”

  “Well, you’re here, aren’t you? After everything that’s happened to you…” Unable to help himself, he slid his fingers over hers, feeling her strange blue Tharian skin. She didn’t flinch, didn’t pull away. Instead, she simply watched his fingers in fascination.

  He ran his hands up her arm until he reached the point where Tharian blue turned into deep human brown.

  Just beautiful.

  Her human skin was so smooth and supple.

  Really, she was a lovely thing. Why hadn’t he noticed until now? His gaze traveled up her arms, which were encased in the kind of thin, flexible inner-garment that humans sometimes wore to keep themselves warm.

  Her body was lithe and toned, her shoulders broad and athletic, her breasts pert and tantalizingly full. Narrow waist, narrow hips, powerful thighs. She had the body of a warrior, and yet she was undoubtedly feminine.

  He’d never seen anything so tempting in his life. All of a sudden, his senses were flooded with her sublime presence; her scent—heady sweetness with a subtle hint of spice—was all around him.