by L. A. MARIE
“It heals, right?” I asked.
“It should,” Thane said. “If it works.”
My stomach dropped. “Why wouldn’t it work?”
Thane rolled his eyes. “My father can’t replicate genius. He got it right once, but he can’t do it again. It’s why I took it.”
I frowned, shaking my head. I had no idea what he was going on about. But I didn’t care.
“I’m showing you this so you get it,” I said. “My sister is sick. She’s dying. And no one can help her. I stole this to save her. But she’s going to die if I stay up here with you.”
“My condolences.”
I gasped in shock that he was so flippant about it. But my shock was quickly replaced by anger.
“You selfish son of a bitch!” I shouted. “I didn’t ask for any of this! I didn’t ask for your kind to invade my planet—”
“To save it,” he interjected.
“I didn’t ask for you to fly me away on a ship—”
“You are a stowaway.”
“I need to get back home and you’re kidnapping—”
“Listen here,” he said, twisting in his seat, the anger on his face mirroring my own rage. “You can accuse me all you like but I didn’t ask for any of this shit either. So quit your whining and stop acting like you’re the only victim here.”
I barked a laugh. “You call yourself a victim? How many people have you killed? You escaped from prison, didn’t you?”
“What gave me away?” Thane asked. He didn’t sound hurt that I pointed it out at all.
“The fact that pain and death and all this injustice gives you joy! You fucking psychopath!”
Thane tilted his head to the side and didn’t look as angry as he had a moment before. “A psychopath,” he echoed softly, as if to himself. “Huh.”
“What?” I asked.
Thane looked at me again, and that rage was back, flashing behind his eyes. “Let me tell you something, little human,” he said, spitting out the word as if it had a bad taste. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you just now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. If you don’t shut up, I’ll shut you up. And you’re not going to like how I do it. So quit yakking about whatever you had on Earth because you just lost it. All that’s left for you is a hell of a ride and maybe you won’t end up as a sex slave on Nolmilea when I sell you.”
I gasped. Would he do that to me? The answer was simple – he absolutely would. Thane wasn’t a nice guy. And from what I could tell, he didn’t care about anything or anyone but himself. He didn’t have a shred of compassion and he had no conscience. People like that were dangerous.
I fell silent and looked out of the window.
“How long until we hyper jump?” I asked.
Thane pulled up his shoulders. “Not long. I can’t jump while we’re in the Milky Way. I’ll just have to get out and then we’re gone.”
I nodded. That gave me a bit of time. I had to overthrow him before he jumped, or I wasn’t ever going to be able to get back home. I didn’t know how to fly the damn ship once I did gain control, but I could figure it out, I was sure.
I waited until Thane was calmer. Until he didn’t expect me to say or do anything. I hadn’t strapped myself into my seat after I had shown him the device from my backpack. I had tucked the bag under my chair, the device – Noether – safe inside it. I waited until he leaned forward to inspect a monitor more closely, and then I jumped on him. My plan was to wrap my arms around his neck and squeeze. Not until I killed him – God, I could never do that to anyone, not even my worst enemy – but I could block off his air until he passed out at least. Then tie him up, if I could find rope. I hadn’t thought much further than that.
As soon as I was on his back, I wrapped my arms around his throat and squeezed. My life and Naira’s depended on it.
Thane didn’t even fight me on it. He sat up as if nothing was happening and sighed as if he was irritated. As if I was a fly and he wasn’t in the mood to swat me away. After a moment, he reached back and grabbed me off his back, yanking me forward and slamming me into the ground. I cried out in pain as the air was forced out of my lungs and I lay on the floor, gasping. Thane stood from his seat and grabbed my ankle, dragging me across the ship. I kicked and screamed for him to let me go.
“Now, you listen to me very carefully,” Thane hissed, grabbing me by the shoulders and hoisting me to my feet. He wrapped one hand around my throat. His face was incredibly close to mine, his eyes filled with fire. He was going to kill me, I thought.
But for some reason, my body responded to him, and I became wet. He frowned and took a deep breath. He swayed a little on his feet closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, they were filled with something other than rage. It had the same intensity, though.
In one swift motion, he pressed his lips against mine, kissing me. Hard. My eyes widened and I felt electricity and heat pulse through my body as if I was plugged into some super charger. A hot, sexy super charger.
I shoved him away from me. What the fuck? I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t going to be attracted to the enemy.
Because Thane was the enemy through and through. My body hummed with heat and tension even though we were a few feet apart again. We were both breathing hard, although he hadn’t done anything to exert himself.
I wasn’t going to win this with a physical fight, was I? I wouldn’t be able to beat him. Not only was he a Malaki male, bigger and stronger than I would ever be. But this tension between us was driving me crazy. It was confusing as hell. I hated him with all my heart. But my body didn’t agree.
“Please,” I finally said. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to be, but maybe he would pity me or something. “My sister is going to die. I have no one else. She’s all I have left.”
“I’m not taking you back,” he said.
“Then at least let me tell her. Let me warn her.”
Thane frowned. “How?”
“I don’t know… don’t you have a messaging system or something? Your tech is a big deal, isn’t it?”
Thane hesitated before he nodded.
“Fine,” he said. “But it’s going to hurt.”
“What!?”
Thane stomped toward me and I fought the urge to back away. A moment ago, I’d wanted him. Now, I was scared. Hurt?
He grabbed my hand and yanked me closer.
“Finger,” he commanded.
“No,” I said, tucking my hands behind me like a child. “What are you going to do?”
Thane rolled his eyes. “You don’t trust me.”
“The hell I don’t,” I said.
Thane grunted.
“You’ve heard of our bond?” he asked.
I nodded slowly. I’d heard of the bond the Malaki kept talking about, something between them that happened when… I wasn’t quite sure.
“It’s a connection created between two Malaki who are destined to be with each other. Its forged through intimacy, a sliver of Destiny itself.”
“It sounds dramatic,” I said.
Thane didn’t bat an eyelid at my comment.
“What about it?” I asked when he didn’t keep talking.
“The Noether,” he tapped his chest where the device was under his shirt, “creates a mirror of that bond. It copies it, and tricks your genetic makeup to think there’s already a bond created.”
It sounded complicated.
“Will it work?” I asked.
“She is your blood?”
I nodded. Naira was all I had left. She was my everything. Not just my blood.
“It should be fine,” he said. “Finger.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant. I pointed a finger to him and he pulled me closer, yanking his shirt up and pressing it against the Noehter in his chest. A sharp pain shot into my finger, puncturing the skin. I yelped, yanking my hand back and studied my finger. A drop of blood formed on the tip. I stuck my finger in my mouth.
“Send your message, but don’t t
ell her anything about who you’re with, or where we’re going.”
“How?” I asked. This was crazy.
“Think it,” he said. “The device will pick it up and find her. The bond will. Even if it isn’t real.”
“With my blood?”
“You’ll have the same biological signature. It will only go to her.”
It was too advanced for me to understand. But I nodded. I would do as he said. It was the only thing I could do.
I closed my eyes and focused on Naira, trying to think my message to her, as Thane had said. And I could feel her. Oh, my God, I could feel Naira.
And feel how sick she was.
It broke my heart.
I’m coming home soon, Naira. Stay strong. Wait for me. I’ll come back to you and heal you, and we’ll be together again.
I could feel her wanting to reach back to me, but she was too weak.
Wait for me, don’t leave, I thought again.
The connection flickered and disappeared.
“Where did it go?” I asked.
“The connection is a short one if you’re working with blood. The tech is good but not complete yet.”
I realized I was crying. My cheeks were wet when I touched them.
“She means a lot to you,” Thane said. He looked a little perplexed.
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
I turned my back on him, looking for a space in the ship where I could be alone.
Chapter Eleven
Thane
The human was ruining everything. All I wanted was to go to Nolmilea so that I could live my own life again. Away from my father and his unrealistic expectations, away from the disappointment that I had become to him. I wanted to go home. Where the memories of my mother were untainted. Where I could try to be happy again.
Happiness. Fuck, it was a term I hadn’t thought of in years. Being happy seemed like a foreign concept. It was something I related to my mother. When she died, all the happiness had died, too.
I just wanted to go back home. I just wanted somewhere I could stop running. Rest. Where I could just breathe for a moment and know that I wouldn’t be set up for something, blamed for something, punished for something.
Earth was a shit show. The whole place needed to be blow up. There wasn’t any reason to save the damn planet, but the Elders like my father were adamant. The planet had resources, they said. It had water. It could sustain life.
And that was all true.
But it had humans. And in my humble opinion; fuck the humans. They were arrogant and entitled and they thought they deserved mercy when they had ruined the planet they had more than anything I had ever seen. They had brought on their own destruction, why should we help?
But the Elders of each House that ruled that it was useful having them around.
And to that I say, “Ha!” How could a pest be useful?
On Nolmilea, the Malakus knew what to do. They lived. They breathed. And there was harmony. War only came when you tried to colonize. And Nolmilea had been ours from the start, no blood had been shed for us to be there, no wars had erupted.
I ran my fingers over the Noether in my chest. The hooks had settled into my flesh and it was only tender when I touched it, now. This device gave me strength. It gave me the power to do whatever I wanted to do. I was stronger, better, faster than any military my father might send after me. I had taken it for a reason. Well, the fact that it turned me into a beast that couldn’t be defeated.
And because my father liked this thing. He was proud of his work. And I had taken it out of spite. Because he couldn’t do it again without the original prototype. And even then, he failed. Just looking at the piece of shit Emori was running around with was proof enough of that. This Noether, the original, had been a fluke. They still had to work on the concept for years. My father had outdone himself. He had tried to push the race further ahead in time than it already was.
And now, I had it in my chest, and I was far, far away from my father.
I chuckled at the idea of him finding out that it had been taken. The anger, violence… my father was comprised of pure, unadulterated rage on a good day. And when he found out the Noether was gone, it was not going to be a good day.
I didn’t plan on being a super soldier forever. As soon as I set foot on Nolmilea, I was going to sell the device. I would get good money for it. Great money. And I could build a better life. I would have enough to get by for a long, long time once I got rid of this thing. And once I was home, I wouldn’t need it. The Noether had been created for war.
And I was sick of war.
My father was going to shit bricks when he realized this thing was missing. How would he keep everyone in check?
Well, it served him right to panic. He deserved to suffer. For so long, he had used me as a scapegoat for everything. He had put me on the Council for a reason. To learn, he’d told me. To help. But that hadn’t been true, had it? It had been to help, but not me. It had only been to help him. Because with me on the Council, I could be blamed for everything that went wrong. I had a vote, a strong voice, and I used it. Just as my father had known I would. And every time something happened, I was to blame, too.
My father deserved all the pain and anguish it caused him that this device was gone. It was meant to keep the humans in check. A part of me wished the humans would stand together and overthrow the Malakus. Just so that my father could have a taste of defeat, the arrogant son of a bitch.
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, trying to relax. My stomach was in a tight knot of tension and my shoulders and neck ached. I tilted my head from side to side, trying to stretch out my neck.
Where the hell had Emori disappeared to? After she had sent that message, she’d left to the back of the ship.
The ship was a large vessel, and there were bunks back there to sleep on. This ship had been built for long journeys. Maybe that was where she’d gone.
Not that I gave a shit where she was. I didn’t want her here at all. She was a pain in my ass, she was dead weight. Speaking of dead, it would be better if she was. It turned out that she wasn’t just a nuisance, she was also a distraction. In a bad way. I had no idea what I felt when I was around her, but it wasn’t good. It was the type of shit that could get me killed.
I couldn’t afford that. The Malakus were going to come after me sooner or later. My father wasn’t going to relax until he got his Noether back. It was going to be a hell of a fight, and I was ready for it. The Noether was for that purpose, after all. And the ship had blasters and guns, everything I needed to protect myself.
I would go through it all for the sake of having this Noether with me, for the sake of starting over.
But the human was a curve ball. And what I felt around her confused the living shit out of me. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I thought of my mother. I thought of the way she used to talk to me, tell me stories. She used to talk to me about what life should be like, about what I needed to aim for. Who I could become if I chose it.
Fuck, she would be so disappointed in me now.
“Are you ready?” Mother asked, popping her head around my doorframe.
I nodded, pulling the cloth over my legs and wriggling down into bed. Mother smiled and sat down next to me.
“Tomorrow’s your birthday,” she said, running her fingers through my hair.
“I know,” I said, excited.
She laughed. I loved the sound of her laughter. It sounded like sunshine. “Of course you know.”
I’d been counting down to my birthday since forever. It always felt so long before I turned older. And that was a badge of honor. After tomorrow I could say I was ten. TEN!
“I have bad news, though,” my mother said and I frowned. Was the celebration s canceled? Did something happen to my friends?
“Is it my birthday?” I asked in a small voice.
My mother shook her head. “your father isn’t going to be able to be here. He has work to do.”
/> I relaxed and pulled a face. “That’s okay. He always works. And he’s angry a lot. I don’t mind.”
My mother sighed. “Your father isn’t very good at showing his emotions, but he loves you very much. And he’s proud of you.”
I wasn’t so sure she was right. My father didn’t spend any time with me. And he was always angry with me for what I did. Sometimes, he brought me gifts when he went away for work. And sometimes, he took me out to get treats. But I didn’t really think he wanted to be around me that much. I didn’t care that he wasn’t going to be at my birthday celebrations.
“I can’t wait to see what sort of man you’ll become,” my mother said. “And who you’ll find to take as your mate. "
I pulled a face. “I don’t want a mate.”
My mother laughed. “Not now. But one day, you’ll find them. And when you do, you’ll know.”
“What will I know?”
“That they're your person.”
I shook my head. That didn’t make sense at all.
“We all have a part of us that’s missing,” my mother said. “Each and every one of us. But when we find the people we’re supposed to be with, we fit together, and we fill up those parts for each other. So that we’re complete again. Its called a soul mate.”
“Are you and father soul mates?” I asked.
My mother nodded.
I couldn’t imagine that my father completed my mom somehow. He was always grumpy and that didn’t seem like something that would fill a hole. But whatever.
“Out there in the universe, your person is waiting for you,” my mother said. And when you find them, you’ll know. It won’t be like anyone else. When you find them, it will be like you’re whole again. And you’ll know what they are thinking and feeling. And you’ll be able to find them no matter where they are. Because they'll become a part of you, and you of them.”
I groaned. “I hate this mushy stuff,” I wailed. “Can’t we talk about what gifts I’m getting?”
My mother laughed. “I’m sorry, I just get so excited about who you’ll meet and what your life will be like. But I’m not telling you what gifts you’re getting, you’ll have to wait and see.”
