Page 4 of Logic Broken

One of the health inspector’s camera drones buzzed straight into my face and I stumbled. An arm curled around my middle, yanking me back up. “Got you, sweetheart,” a cultured voice said in my ear in English. “Let’s blow this joint.” Akri sounded almost like an entirely different person but I gladly let him help me. He turned sideways as we passed through the door, the laser pistol and his hand whining as it fired.

I saw the shot hit Laimeil in the center of his chest and the evil loanshark started to fall. His hand rose, a gun of his own firing in our direction. Somebody moved in front of us, stumbling, and the shot hit that male in the back, downing him, sweeping him beneath the feet of the brawlers.

Akri didn’t check his results; he just tightened his grip around my waist, one of his long tentacles slung around my shoulders. He was boosting me down the steps, urging me to greater speed as we left the bar. He didn’t need to tell me to run, he might not be concerned, but I was pretty sure that the Bacli, the inspector, had just met his maker. I was pretty sure I knew who was getting the blame for it; his drones were following us. We had to shake them as soon as possible.

I was panting from exertion, running full tilt. Akri was right beside me. He was no longer holding me tight but keeping up with an easy, long-legged stride. One tentacle curled around my arm but he wasn’t pulling me in any direction. It was more like I was the one who was leading him now.

I was filled with this sense of camaraderie like he and I were partners in crime in this. Maybe we were. He had not hesitated to come to my defense. I was still in awe of his fighting skills. No wonder he had seemed so unconcerned stepping into a seedy place like Drova’s. He probably didn’t worry about much; he fought like he was invincible.

Drova had occasionally let me go outside, running errands for him. I had a basic sense of the layout of this district, and I’d made sure to study the maps available to me. There were ‘tourist’ maps I could pull up of the city on my order tablet. That didn’t mean I knew where I should be going right now. I’d decided long ago that I should try for the port if I ever got out, but right now, I was just focused on getting as far away from the bar as possible.

We came careening around a corner, and ahead of us, I saw a skyscraper rise up to the clouds. On it were giant billboards that normally all showed many different colorful commercials and ads. This time… I stumbled to a halt in shock, gaping up at the sight of Akri and myself plastered all over.

The picture was of him holding me as he aimed that pistol. He looked fierce and dangerous and I looked scared; I looked like a freaking damsel in distress. Worse than that, the pain collar was clearly visible around my neck. It looked like Akri was caught in the act of killing someone and stealing me at the same time. This was bad.

“I calculate that this might be detrimental to our survival,” Akri said calmly. Yeah, you think? Everyone and their mother were going to be looking for us. Our odds couldn’t be worse.

Vagabond

Fierce

I stalked down the hallway, ears twitching as I tried to catch even the slightest sound. Hina said she’d be working on her not-wisteria today; I remembered how excited she’d been to get started this morning. Yet she wasn’t in the lab. Had she gone to the hydroponic bay to get more samples of her flowering climbing vine?

“Fierce Hunter can’t find Fierce Female?” Snarl inquired over our bond. I could hear the amusement coming from the beast and I tilted my head down to growl at him, showing off my sharp teeth. Fellow was riding along on the back of the Ferai beast, and the little black and white rodent chittered at me as if he was trying to chastise me.

“Hina is her own person. She goes where she wants to go,” I asserted. That wasn’t something the beast understood very well. To him, those who were pack should all stick together, especially mates. He didn’t understand why I was often looking for my female when I should have never left her. Sometimes, I thought the same, but then I remembered how happy Hina was to go to her lab and look at her plants through the big lens.

Ducking through the door into the big hydroponic bay, I drew in a deep breath. This was a place that Jakar and Hina had created aboard our ship, and I liked it very much here. There she was, even with the many scents that filled the humid air; I could never miss the scent of my mate.

She was standing at the back of the room where the not-wisteria was growing thickly along the wall. Her midnight black hair hung down to her shoulders, curling at the temples from the humid air in this place. In her white, shapeless lab coat, I couldn’t see her figure but I knew each and every sexy curve. I loved the focused expression on her face, down to that little scrunched-up wrinkle on her brow.

“Hello, mate,” I said, announcing my presence from the doorway. Hina jerked upright and spun to face me, hand clutched to her chest, despite my best effort to warn her, still startled by my appearance. I smirked, amused by the sight. She was always so absorbed in whatever she was doing; it was cute.

“Fierce!” she exclaimed, expression transforming into a big smile. She abandoned what she was doing to come to me. Her eyes roved over my body, lingering on my left shoulder, which had been badly dislocated and broken a couple months ago. Though I had long since healed, it had become a habit to check my physical well-being each time she saw me.

“Prruh!” Fluffy purred, her head appearing from one of the big side pockets in Hina’s coat. My arms were suddenly full of my mate, and I gladly held her tight, basking in her presence. Fluffy the Riho was climbing up my chest, curling her slinky body around my neck. Yeah, that’s why I’d gone looking for her; I wanted a hug and some kisses.

She obliged when I pressed a finger beneath her chin, tilting her face eagerly up to mine. Our breathing mingled and I was starting to think I might want more than kisses. The buzzing of the com device strapped to my wrist distracted me; a message!

My mate laughed when I pulled away to look at it, and I sheepishly grinned back. She knew how excited I got when someone sent me something now that I could read it. I loved getting messages. This one was from Jakar, who never failed to text me during the day. When I tapped on it, a holographic image unfolded above my wrist and Hina and I both gasped in shock. Akri was in the picture; he’d been missing for months now. Worse, I could see the warnings above and below, ‘wanted’ it said. Wanted for murder. This was a wanted poster; it couldn’t be good.

“Puppy in trouble?” Snarl asked with an anxious whine. The hound rose on his hind legs, slinging one front paw over my wrist so he could look at the image. Fellow squealing and chortling on his back, acting like it was just another fun game.

“Yeah,” Hina said gently, “But look, he’s got himself a girl!” she grinned at me while pointing at the image of a brown-haired, pale-skinned girl in Akri’s arms. His head vines were curled around her, clutching her close.

I lifted my head and smiled, so he was in a little bit of trouble, but he found himself a mate. “Good for him. Let’s go see what the others think. We need to find out where they are and extract them.” Only a little disappointed that our private moment had been interrupted, Hina and I headed for the mess hall. A mate would be good for Akri like it had been good for me. She could teach him what it was like to truly live.

Chapter 3

Akri

It was starting to get dark when Jenny and I ducked into yet another alley to avoid the patrolling police force. I caught enough of the news blasted all over the city to know that I was wanted for the murder of some government official. Jenny had explained that it was a low-ranking male that went around and checked if establishments were up to code. She’d added that this particular one had readily taken bribes from the bar owners, so he was not even a very good employee.

She said that he was a federal employee and they couldn’t let one come to harm without severe retaliation, or others might think they could get away with it. That made sense, but I had not killed this male whose image they were showing in memorial clips. I had seen him, but I had not shot him.

“We should split up,” Jenny announced from just ahead of me. “They’re looking for us together. We’ll have a better chance of escaping if we’re not.” My whole body rebelled at the suggestion. No, Jenny couldn’t leave; she couldn’t… I tried to figure out why I didn’t want that but it was hard to understand, these were feelings. They were strong and urgent but I couldn’t explain them. Jenny was her own person and her argument was sound.

“No,” I said firmly and I feared that I was starting to lose control again like I had during the fighting at that bar. I had only meant to push that Sythral away, grab Jenny, and make a run for it. Somehow, once I had my hands on the male, I wanted to pound his face into the floor instead. It was terrifying not to be able to control the violent, dangerous urges of this body. I had to find answers, and Jenny would be much safer if she wasn’t near me. “No,” I said again. “We stick together. We just need to hide somewhere until the media attention fades.”