by Layla Nash
“We can eat in here,” she said, and waited for the guests to enter the dining room before following. She hated playing hostess, but it happened often enough among the lawyers that she’d gotten used to it. Apparently being the only female lawyer meant she was the one who had to know about ordering refreshments. It had always driven her crazy on the Argo, though she didn’t mind it as much on the Sraibur when she really welcomed the guests. “How long have you been on the hunt?”
Pyix eased into one of the chairs after taking a lap around the room to examine the various panels and systems on the walls. “A few standard weeks for this round, though we’ve been hunting this particular ship for some time. This is the fourth time we’ve gotten close to capturing them, or at least destroying them, though they’ve always gotten away.”
Violet rubbed her jaw and started punching a variety of foods into the ordering panel. “Tyboli?”
“The worst sort of Tyboli,” Estelle said under her breath. “Slavers and thieves, and yet they’ve got enough friends in high places that they’ve escaped accountability. So we had to wait until they ventured into ungoverned space to confront them. And they’ve slipped through our fingers yet again.”
“We’ll find them,” Pyix said calmly. “We won’t dally too long here, just long enough to figure out what Faros and his ship want. Then we’ll be on our way.”
“We just crossed paths with a Tyboli ship,” Violet said. She glanced between them. “Kryken was the captain, I think. Real... unique individual.”
“That’s them.” Pyix sat forward, silver eyes suddenly intense. “You spoke with the captain? Why?”
Violet didn’t look at the door as it slid open to admit Faros and Wyzak. She waved in their direction though, as she answered the other Xaravian. “Some deal between them. Faros has to pay a debt and the Tyboli tried to call it in early.”
The pirate captain’s eyes narrowed. “Dare I ask what you’re talking about?”
“Your business with the Tyboli slavers,” Pyix said, his voice mostly growl.
Violet’s eyebrows arched as she looked between the two warriors. Something else was going on to make Faros bristle so quickly; red flared in his scales from almost the moment he saw Pyix, and yet the two didn’t even know each other. Or so she assumed. Perhaps their paths had crossed elsewhere. Maybe Faros had attacked Pyix’s ship earlier in his pirate career.
Wyzak leaned his chair back and studied the space chicken more than the other Xaravian. “That business is our business, and none of yours. The Earther misspoke.”
Violet wanted to kick all the males out so she and Estelle and Thula could sort everything out. Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and gave Faros a cold look. “You do realize, of course, that if Pyix and his ship destroy the Tyboli ship, that you won’t have to pay what you owe to Kryken. Or did that not occur to you? Perhaps if you both worked together, you could deal with the Tyboli once and for all.”
“Of course I already thought of that,” Faros muttered. But he didn’t quite put the emphasis on it that Violet would have expected if he’d actually thought of the opportunity, so she felt fairly confident he’d come around. “But that particular ship is almost impossible to defeat. Even with two ships. Why would we tempt fate by going after them when my business will be done in a matter of days?”
Violet didn’t wait for Pyix or the other crew to jump in, and instead fixed him with a dark look. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
“The right thing?” He laughed, genuinely amused at her for some reason. “So after all the lectures about piracy and how wrong it is to scan other ships, you’re now demanding that we attack a neutral ship in ungoverned space when it’s done nothing to us directly?”
Her cheeks heated. She hated being laughed at, and it was even worse with an audience. “You’d attack them anyway when you can’t pay what you owe, so it’s not like this is anything new to you. It just…accelerates the inevitable.”
Faros shook his head and tried to share a long-suffering look with Pyix, then gestured at Estelle. “Do you have the same sort of trouble with your Earthers?”
The other captain didn’t blink. “They’re not mine. They serve on the crew, but there is…nothing else to cause trouble over.”
Violet wanted to crawl under the table, since apparently Pyix had also picked up on the fact there was something else between her and Faros. Estelle’s eyebrows arched as she glanced at Violet, and Thula’s feathers ruffled as she sat forward and clucked loudly enough to startle the Xaravians.
The space chicken blinked her enormous black eyes at him, tilting her head. “Trouble comes in many forms, many forms. Are you certain you know what trouble will be knocking on your door, Xaravian?”
Faros tensed and Violet braced herself for a hell of a temper tantrum. Instead, the pirate captain lifted his hands in a negligent shrug. “Fill me in, Hwali queen.”
Hwali? Violet tucked that information away for later; maybe that was the true origin of the space chickens. Or maybe it was a title. She’d have to ask Estelle or someone else on the Lovelace, since she sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Faros.
Thula’s sharp beak clicked as she gnashed her teeth, and it wasn’t Violet’s imagination that the space chicken lost her patience with the Xaravian captain in front of her. “If you pay anything to the Tyboli, you will be complicit in their crimes. You will, you will. And then you will be less than a pirate, less than a noble pirate.”
“A noble pirate?” Violet said. “Is there such a thing?”
Faros’s expression darkened. “You have no idea.”
A chill ran down her spine, since she hadn’t seen that kind of look on his face. And she started to wonder if he really wasn’t as bad as everyone assumed, at least all the time. Maybe part of the time he could be a noble pirate or at least a less-bad pirate.
Pyix leaned his elbows on the table and took a deep, steadying breath. “Before we argue over the semantics of nobility and piracy, perhaps we can focus on the first issue in front of us. The Tyboli. We have been chasing Kryken almost since we received the Lovelace from the Earthers. This is the closest we’ve gotten to ambushing them in that entire time, and as we are in ungoverned space, it is the best opportunity we have to deal with them and incur no additional crimes. We need their coordinates and their last known heading so we can continue on our mission.”
Wyzak spoke when no one else did. “We can provide that information.”
And the silence stretched uncomfortably as Faros glared at Pyix for no reason that Violet understood. She almost shouted in relief when the system finally delivered the masses of food she’d ordered, and it at least gave people the chance to focus on something other than the pirates and their deal with the Tyboli.
Maybe Faros was being such a dick because of low blood sugar. She wondered if that explained everything about the grumpy pirate, then put aside the thought. It wasn’t her problem. She didn’t need to know what made him irritable and whether food soothed the savage beast. She wasn’t going to be around him long enough for it to matter. Even if... She hesitated mentally at her own mental hiccup. Even if she started to like his company, to enjoy being around him—she wasn’t going to be there permanently. It wasn’t even an option. He’d made it perfectly clear that she was just there until his mission was complete, then she’d be dropped back off with the Galaxos.
Violet ended up lost in her own thoughts as the rest of the group ate and made awkward small talk, and she picked at the food in front of her, unmindful of the spicy Xaravian food that made her sinuses burn. What the hell was wrong with her? She could not afford to think of Faros as anything but a short-term good time. Very short-term. A flash in the pan. As much fun as it was to be dragged to his quarters for angry sex, that wasn’t the basis for any sort of relationship, if she even wanted a relationship. He was still a pirate, despite starting to seem like he wasn’t nearly as bad as the rest of the universe thought.
She frowned as Faros flicked
the side of a glass of liquor right in front of her and said, “Drink. It’s a toast.”
She looked up and found that everyone else had glasses raised already and she’d apparently been daydreaming long enough that everyone noticed. Her cheeks heated, but she ignored it and raised her glass as well.
Faros stretched and draped his arm along the back of her chair before speaking. “In this, at least, we are united. Kryken and his ship have caused enough trouble for the rebellion and the innocent residents of these quadrants. We wish the Lovelace the most luck in finding and eradicating this threat.”
Everyone else murmured agreement and drank, but Violet frowned at Faros and didn’t touch the eye-crossingly strong liquor. “You’re kidding, right?”
“It’s fine, Vi,” Estelle said under her breath. “We’re more than able to handle Kryken with our ship.”
She didn’t look away from Faros, though. “You’re really not going to help them take on the Tyboli?”
“I have other business,” he said, tone controlled. He chose every word with care, and they dropped like stones around her. “It takes precedent over their plans for Kryken.”
Violet wanted to shake some sense into him. It was such a simple, elegant solution—the two ships could attack the Tyboli ship and then the universe would be rid of that scourge, the Sraibur wouldn’t have a debt hanging over it, and she could go back to the Galaxos on the Lovelace and never see the pirates again.
“Fine,” she said. She drank the liquor down in one go and put the glass down carefully, hoping she didn’t cough or hiccup. “I’m going with them, then. I’ll go on the Lovelace and assist in taking out the Tyboli.”
She meant to say she’d go gather her things, but realized too late that not only did she still wear Faros’s robes, she didn’t actually have any things to gather. Not that it would have mattered, she supposed, since Faros gripped the edge of the table and his scales flared a dark red she’d seldom seen. She braced herself for a fight, and a little thrill ran through her in anticipation. Maybe Pyix and the guests would leave quickly so she and Faros could argue alone and then sort through all those issues in his quarters. She tried not to smile.
Chapter 30
Faros
When the Earther said she’d leave the Sraibur, Faros almost immediately shouted no right in her face. She wasn’t leaving. Ever. She stayed on the Sraibur, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to another Xaravian’s ship to chase after Tyboli on a dangerous mission. Unless he was there to protect her, she wasn’t going anywhere near the Tyboli. Kryken had already made it clear that he was interested in stealing away the lawyer; Faros had no faith that Pyix and his motley crew would be able to protect Violet from the bastards. Or from anything.
He managed not to explode right there, but instead clenched his jaw until pain ignited in his head. “You stay here.”
“There is no reason—”
“You stay here,” he said. Faros shoved his chair back and rose from the table, then splashed more liquor into all of the glasses. “We have our own mission to complete, and the lawyer is necessary to that success. After our business is concluded, you’re more than welcome to take her on your ship and deal with her attitude, as I’ve about had my fill.”
Violet recoiled and her face turned red. Before she could fire back, though, Estelle cleared her throat. “Perhaps it is best that Violet comes with us. She’s familiar with the Lovelace and when it comes to the shields, she could—”
“She’s a lawyer,” Faros said. “What does she know about shields and weapons?”
“More than you think,” Violet snapped. “I’m still a Fleet officer and I can damn well fly that ship—and yours—better than you ever could.”
Faros wanted to laugh at her but figured she’d kill him outright for doing so, at least with that look on her face. “As I said, you’re staying on the Sraibur.”
“Perhaps reconsider,” Thula said, clucking softly but with a curious razor edge to her words. “Reconsider. If the lovely wants to go, let her go. Let her go.”
Faros had heard enough stories of the Hwali queens that he took her seriously—more seriously, perhaps, than Violet herself. The Hwali ate whatever the fuck they wanted—their males, their enemies, vegetation, animals, even plasma and poisonous minerals. They just consumed everything and shit out weird eggs that grew into more little predators. They only looked beautiful and gentle and graceful, like the birds that flew on Xarav and the ones he’d seen in slideshows about Earth and other planets with diverse ecosystems. The Hwali were killers, first and foremost, regardless of their disarming habits of clucking and repeating themselves.
So he took Thula’s “recommendation” to reconsider seriously, or at least took it as the threat it was. “She stays until the mission is complete. Then we will be happy to meet you somewhere, if you survive the confrontation with Kryken, and she can join your crew.”
“Stop talking about me as if I weren’t sitting right here,” Violet said, and knocked back another glass of liquor. “We have less than three standard days to find the payment for the Tyboli, and then we’re all forfeit. I’d rather be off the ship before then.”
“Your mission is targeting more innocents in order to pay off the Tyboli?” Pyix asked, and Faros clenched his jaw to keep from shouting at Violet to keep her mouth shut. “Brother, what were you thinking, making a deal with them?”
Faros didn’t owe an explanation to anyone, certainly not on his own ship, but he’d had enough of people assuming the worst about him. He hadn’t cared a whit what other thought, until.... well, until Violet showed up and apparently shared those opinions. He wanted her to know better about him, he needed her to see that he wasn’t the heartless bastard everyone else believed him to be.
“My son was dying,” he said as calmly as possible. “I saw him suffer unimaginable pain. I saw him spending a very short lifetime in a cage as we tried treatment after treatment, hoping something would work. The Tyboli had what I hoped would be a miracle cure. It wasn’t, but at least I tried. Now I owe them a payment that is... difficult to acquire. I will acquire it by whatever means necessary, because it is worth less than my son’s life.”
Silence rocked the room, and at least Pyix looked chagrined. He knew how treasured every Xaravian youngling was, and how difficult it was to breed. And to lose a child to illness was an evil none of them wanted to confront. So he waited for a response from any of them, though he wanted to see Violet’s reaction most of all. Her lips pursed in a thin line, an expression of concern he didn’t like to see on her face, and she still somehow looked angry.
Thula clucked and fluffed her feathers, at least sounding chagrined. “The young are precious, precious. But there are young on those ships, too, young on the ships taken by the Tyboli. Someone else’s son might—”
“I care about my son,” Faros said. “He is safe now but will not be safe forever, and if the Tyboli realize where he is, I do not put it past Kryken to try and take him as punishment if I fail to repay this debt. Just as he threatened to take—”
He barely cut himself off in time to preserve his dignity. He didn’t need the lawyer realizing that the Tyboli threatened him with stealing her as punishment. It was best she didn’t realize—or anyone realized—that he might have been blackmailed by threatening the Earther. Faros liked to think he would have prioritized his ship and crew over her, but... it grew more and more difficult to feel confident he wouldn’t have done anything to protect her.
He didn’t need anyone knowing about that kind of weakness, even Wyzak.
But Violet heard something in his tone, or maybe just realized there were only so many things that Kryken could have threatened, because she folded her arms over her chest and sat back. “Threatened to take whom?”
“Wyzak here,” Faros said, and clapped his second-in-command on the shoulder. Pyix cracked a smile and Estelle even laughed, though that earned her a dirty look from Wyzak.
Faros was still standing and debating
just leaving them to the rest of the meal and the liquor, but he didn’t want to leave Violet alone with the Hwali or the other Earther. Knowing the Hwali and Pyix’s mission of rescuing the downtrodden, he couldn’t afford for them to think Violet needed rescuing. So he eased back into his chair and pulled up the spinning map over the table. “If you depart soon, you may still be able to catch them. Do you know what they were chasing?”
He and Pyix were able to discuss the Lovelace’s mission and targets, as well as what they both knew about Kryken and his crew and ship. The whole time, he focused on encouraging the Lovelace’s crew to depart as soon as possible, and studiously avoided even looking in Violet’s direction. The very last thing he needed was her to realize that she had some measure of influence over his decisions. Her opinion mattered to him, though he couldn’t have pinpointed when that happened.
Estelle, the other Earther, asked intelligent questions about the Tyboli ship and other ships in the area, enough that Faros was impressed in spite of himself, and it became clear that they knew of at least a few other targets nearby. When Faros started to wheedle more details out of them, in the off chance he could eventually take one of the targets, Violet’s eyes narrowed. She jerked her chin at the door. “May I speak with you outside for a moment?”
His eyebrows rose and for a long moment he didn’t know what to say. What the hell did she want to talk about? When she stood up her robes flared, and he caught a hint of her scent. He knew that he’d stand around outside for as long as she wanted. Not that he could let her know that. So he sighed and shoved to his feet. “But of course, Earther.”
She glared at him and strode out of the mess, though the rest of the crew at the table traded looks among them as Faros followed her into the corridor. He tried not to smile in anticipation as he studied the way his borrowed robes moved around her hips and ass, and almost missed the Hwali’s dark look before he slid through the doors.