I jiggled my legs, my hands growing into tight fists against my thighs as I contemplated the usefulness of the tattoo I’d asked Solear to design and Thatcher to ink onto my skin. That was my ace, but I’d need Irena at my side before I tried to use it. Dimon was dead certain I’d tried to find this diamond just like he had so I could steal it. He was right, but he didn’t know that I cared far less about the diamond now than I did about Irena.
The shuttle had been filled to the brim with pirates bristling with weapons. That wasn’t because they expected a fight, but because they expected me to try something. I was almost flattered by the turnout, a dozen guns to keep me in line? My reputation had taken on a life of its own, clearly.
When we landed, deep in the forest, I saw the spire of a mountain rise high above us through the front viewscreen. It was capped in snow, but lower on its flanks, green trees held domain. The spire stuck like an accusing finger through their canopy toward the sky. According to my own research, this was the place. The mansion was supposed to be nestled between hills at the foot of a mountain range just like that. It wasn’t visible yet, but that was no surprise. The clearing we’d landed in was surrounded by tall, branchless trees with massive leaves that obscured our vision.
The hatch at the rear of the shuttle opened with a hiss, and the scent of something spicy and woodsy filtered inside. With it came other information, dampness, decay, clean air, smoke, and various animals. My skin prickled, and my body recalled the delightful hunt I’d participated in on Rakex. A hunt that resulted in my capture by Dimon and his lackeys. I glared at Xathena as I recalled how she’d stabbed me while I was down. My left side tingled, remembering its only recently healed wound.
“You’re going to die when this is over,” she hissed under her breath at me, passing with a swish of her long, mossy hair tipped in unnatural gold and the creak of leather from her weapon holsters. She wasn’t supposed to say that, as escaping with my life was the motivation Dimon thought he needed to dangle to get me to comply. I rolled my eyes at her, laughing internally because I knew with certainty it was they who would meet that fate instead.
I rose to my feet, smirked when at least a handful of males around me flinched back, and strode from the shuttle after her. Dimon followed, barking orders and cursing his crew for being cowards. Hard not to be a coward when he was holding a gunon me and clearly keeping his distance, though. He was afraid of me, more so now that we were in an environment he couldn’t control. Out here, he knew I could slip the tenuous leash he thought he had on me.
The only leash they could truly use to control me was Irena, and she was back on theVidu, hidden so they could not reach her. With Xathena here, I was certain she was safe, which meant it was time for a little fun. I’d pick off a few of their number while I was here, maybe even get my hands on Xathena herself. That would be a most satisfying victory to bring back to my mate tonight.
“You can try to run now. I know you’re thinking it,” Dimon announced as he waved the gun in my face. I eyed the barrel of the laser pistol, cocked my head, and smirked. He and I both knew he’d never shoot me, not when I still had a diamond to steal and to save his ass. Without that diamond, he was as good as dead. Yeah, leverage, he had none.
“There’s nothing stopping me, is there?” I drawled, tilting my chin up as I inhaled the deep, grounding forest air. It called to me, that air, and the scents that twined through it. I’d been to places that had no scent at all, like a moon covered in nothing but ice. Or I’d been stuck breathing artificial air in my space suit for twelve hours straight. Nothing beat being outside—truly outside—and surrounded by nature. Well, nothing except the scent of Irena’s pretty little cunt.
I could shift right now and slip away into that forest, never to be found again. Except they still thought I was drugged and unable to shift. A card I didn’t want to play, just yet. Point in case, Dimon jabbed the gun toward my chest. “Those injections,they’ve blocked your ability to shift. By now, that effect is permanent,” he bluffed. “You ever want to go furry again and hunt like a beast, you’ll need the antidote.” He completed the lie by patting a pouch on his belt, implying he was carrying that antidote on his person right now. Stupid, because if I had bought that lie, killing him and taking the antidote would now be my first priority. Lucky for him, I knew he was lying through his jagged teeth.
So I cocked my head and played along. “Liar,” I spat, because I knew they’d expect me to protest. “There’s no such thing as permanently blocking a shift.” There wasn’t; it was the kind of research the whole Sune nation would abhor and fight to destroy. The fact that shift-blocking drugs even existed was driven more by medical reasons; a shift when injured could be really bad if itdidhappen. That’s why my body fought it when injured. Sune, as a nation, also didn’t have that many enemies capable of creating such a thing, and theVidu’sdoctor was a butcher, not a scientist; it couldn’t have been him.
“Oh yeah, and even you, with your black market connections, won’t be able to get your hands on this antidote,” Dimon persevered. “Doing what I want is your one shot at ever running on four paws again, you bastard.” I inhaled deeply, loomed a little more menacingly, and caught the satisfying scent of his fear, fear he wasn’t supposed to feel at all as a Rummicaron.
“That so?” I drawled. “What’s to stop me from just taking it from you, right now?” I raised my hands and flexed them as if I intended to wrap them around his thick neck and wring the life from him. He stepped back, glaring furiously, and a dozen rifles were leveled at once in my direction. Ah, now the whole damn crew stank of fear, of terror. What a sorry lot they were.
Why had I ever worked with these idiots? They were nothing like the males of theVarakartoom, for whom I could have nothing but respect. At least that answered one question: I was right where I belonged on Asmoded’s ship. That crew was where I belonged, and Irena was my home. Soon, I’d make sure those two places were one and the same.
Xathena was the only one who did not smell afraid. She stood her ground, though she’d aimed her gun at me, but then she’d been aiming that gun my way from the start. No, the Xurtal second-in-command was itching to shoot me, diamond be damned. She wanted payback, even at the cost of survival, it seemed. I didn’t take her for a fool, so perhaps she knew something I didn’t.
Pretending to consider what Dimon said, I took my time drawing out the moment. I met the eyes of each male, watching in satisfaction as some rifles rattled in trembling hands. This was fun, but it would be more fun to kill a few of them and thin the herd. They’d really fear me then. “Sure,” I drawled, twisting to give the shaking Ovt an extra-fierce grin. “Guns trump claws, I guess. Where to?”
Dimon hid his sigh of relief and indicated the forest to his left. “The mansion is that way. The diamond should be in the vault. Get it.” He didn’t think it was that easy, did he? I knew he didn’t, but he seemed in a hurry now. That could only mean one thing: Jalima had lost patience, and an assassin had been dispatched to get rid of Dimon and his pirates. I grinned.
“You expect me to steal you the Verana diamond without shifting? Are you crazy?” He opened his massive maw, sharp teeth glittering menacingly, but only by virtue of there being somany of them. Dimon definitely didnothave the upper hand right now, and he knew it. His crew knew it, and worse, Xathena knew it. No, that wasn’t going to last much longer. Dimon’s days were coming to an end.
“Fine,” he snarled, his expression growing tight. He must have been hitting the Roka more over the past five years, because his emotions were far closer to the surface than they’d ever been. I could read him like he was an open book. “Recon, then. We’ll discuss the terms of the actual theft when you get back and confirm it’s here.” In other words, he was suggesting giving me the ‘antidote’ to allow me to steal the diamond.
I shrugged and, without a word, turned on my heels. Under the chorus of guns cocking and boots shifting, I jogged away without a word. They did not shoot, but the skin on my bare back prickled anyway. The feeling did not fade until I’d put at least a dozen trees between me and the clearing. I was certain they were keeping track of me someway, eyes in the sky, tracking my heat signature, something. Though I’d checked my pants and boots thoroughly, I knew there was no tracker on them.
Fine. I could do this bit on two legs anyway. I might not be an expert scout like some of the others on theVarakartoom’screw, but I was definitely the best when it came to a job like this. Only Mitnick might be more suited to cracking a security system and vault than I was, but then I wasn’t going to crack it, I just needed to slip through the holes.
Chapter 13
Irena
It was the strangest thing to suddenly have time to myself. I didn’t really know what to do with it, and at first I felt this low-key anxiety that I should be out there, working. Flack was right, though, now that Xathena was after me, nowhere I went on the ship would be safe. Except here, hidden so deep between pipes and bundles of cables, in a junction impossible to reach by anything except a repair bot. Too bad for them theVidu’s repair bots were all broken.
So I sat on my blankets and took inventory of the supplies Flack had brought me. Stacks of boxes with rations, and lots and lots of clean, bottled water as well. It was instinctive to count out the food and water and calculate how many days it would last me. When I came up with a shockingly large number, it was still hard to convince myself to use any of it—let alone for something as frivolous as washing up.
I was sweaty, though, and sticky from the things Flack and I had done together. Recalling that made heat sting my cheeks. Had I really touched his cock, let him touch my folds? God, it had felt so good to give into such a basic need. To forget everything for a short while and just surrender to pleasure. Flack had been a very generous lover, and we hadn’t even had real sex yet. It was inevitable that we would, that much was obvious to me now. If he came back, that is. I trusted him, as crazy as that was to realize.
So I slipped out of my dress and eyed the sticky strands of seed that decorated the front with a hint of amusement. More white had dried on my breasts and neck, which I wiped away with cold water and a corner of a blanket. After that, I washed up with stolen soap no pirate would miss, and more water. It wasn’t as good as a shower, but I even managed to give my hair a rinse and a soak. A first since getting here, and it feltgood.
After washing up, I sat naked on my blankets while I let my panties and dress dry, hanging from some pipes overhead. With a ration cradled in my lap, I tried the self-heating alien stew with delight. It was remarkably similar to the food Trixom had been giving me to serve Flack, and now I wondered if the chef wasn’t just heating rations. I wasn’t complaining; it was lovely to have a full stomach and to feel safe.
Fed, and my clothing already dry courtesy of the ship’s warmth, I dressed, then worked the tangles from my hair with my fingers. It was a slow, patient process, but I had nothing better to do anyway. When I was done, I eyed myself in the reflective surface of the ration’s discarded packaging, and a completely changed face stared back at me.
What a surprise, how three days of solid meals could already make such a difference to my features. I did not look quite so gaunt now, or so sickly. The scars were still very present, still ugly to my eyes, but they were not nearly as bad as I’d thought they’d be either. Perhaps it was the way my brown hair now lay about my shoulders in waves that softened everything. Whatever it was, I almost felt pretty. Almost, I felt like I was the woman Flack called beautiful.
