by Kali Argent
She was a musical goddess, and pretty much everyone in the universe knew her name. Having her standing right there, close enough to walk up and touch, was a little surreal.
“Actually, that’s kind of a long story. The short version is that I did her brother a favor a few years back, and he owed me.” Tariq pointed at the stage. “Now, we’re even.”
“That must have been a hell of a favor.”
Cami bounced up to them, going right into Tariq’s arms and snuggling against him. “Thank you. This is the best birthday I’ve ever had.”
Luke looked away, giving them a moment of privacy and wondering why he couldn’t seem to locate Jael. It had been almost thirty minutes since she’d excused herself to go get them drinks, and she still hadn’t returned. It wasn’t that he was worried exactly, but she should have returned by now.
“Hey, have you seen Jael?” Come to think of it, there was a suspicious lack of any Xenon in the room. “Or Xi?”
“Oh, right,” Cami said, smiling up at him. “I was supposed to tell you that Jael went down to the lab. She also said that Xi is keeping her company, you shouldn’t worry, and to please stay here and enjoy the party.”
“Is she okay? Did she seem upset?” If someone had made her feel uncomfortable or unwelcomed, Luke would annihilate them. “Maybe I should go check on her.”
Cami grabbed his arm when he tried to walk away and laughed. “She’s fine. Calm down. I got the impression that it was one of those sparks-of-inspiration moments.” Her eyebrows winged toward her hairline, and she gave him a shrewd look. “Kind of like you, brother.”
Yes, he’d been known to walk away in the middle of a conversation—in the middle of his own sentence—when an idea came to him. “I’ll just check on her. Maybe she needs some help.”
“Or,” Cami said loudly, still preventing him from leaving, “maybe she’s a grown woman who doesn’t need to be rescued. Leave it alone, Luke. Whatever she’s doing, she’ll tell you when she’s ready.”
Sighing in defeat because he knew she was right, he pulled her into a tight hug and kissed the top of her head. “When did you get so smart, chipmunk?”
“What are you talking about? I’ve always been this smart.”
Luke laughed as he glanced over at Tariq. “Have you told him yet?”
“Told me what?”
Stepping back, she adjusted the skirt of her pale, gold dress and glared. “Not yet, so thanks for that.”
“Told me what?” Tariq repeated louder. “What did you do, angel?”
They stared at each other for a long time, barely blinking, their expressions subtly shifting. Luke had been around them long enough to realize when they were communicating telepathically, and he hated that shit. It just seemed rude.
He cleared his throat. “Hey, guys, still here.”
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Tariq declared, then simply strode away.
“What was that all about?”
Cami shook her head slowly. “Nothing. He doesn’t like it when I question myself.”
Luke wasn’t a big fan of it, either. “What are you questioning, chipmunk?”
“I want this, Luke. I want this so bad I can taste it, but can I do it?” Grabbing his wrist, she squeezed it tight and shook his arm a little. “Tell me the truth. Do you think I can take care of those kids? Give them a real home?”
Gently, he extracted his arm from her grip and cupped his hands around her face. “Camille Leah Navarra, you can do anything you set your mind to, and I don’t think anyone is going to love those kids more than you.”
It wasn’t the Zyphir virus that had rendered Cami sterile, but their own father’s malicious attack on her. Medics had saved her life, but they hadn’t been able to repair all the internal damage. She could live without a uterus or ovaries, but despite the designating scroll tattooed at the corner of her eye, she’d never have children of her own.
Knowing that had made the infertility project bittersweet for Luke, especially since he knew she would be an amazing mother if given the chance. Now, she had that chance.
“Loving them isn’t the problem,” she said. “I don’t know anything about kids. It’s not like I had the most normal childhood to draw from, either.”
No, she hadn’t, and part of that was his fault. For far too long, he’d allowed his father to convince him that it wasn’t safe for Cami out in the big, wide universe. She’d been so young back then, so innocent—and maybe a little naïve—and all he’d wanted was to protect her from unpleasant things.
“Cami, listen to me. Do you remember the day I put you on that shuttle and sent you to X4?”
Her lips curved into a knowing smirk. “And I ended up on Beta Station 4 instead? Yeah, I seem to recall something like that.”
Learning about Cami’s falsified death records had changed everything, thrown the entire situation into a new light. He hadn’t wanted to believe it. In fact, he’d convinced himself that it had been a clerical error, because Canaan Hart would never be so cruel to his own child.
Still, he’d needed to know for sure. So, he’d scheduled leave and made the long trip back to Earth. The answers he’d found had both pissed him off and broken his heart. Cami had been all grown up by then, and she’d been so sad, so…defeated, and worse, his father had confirmed what Luke had been so desperate to deny.
“When I was trying to get you out of the house, you thought I was talking about Derrek.” In reality, he’d been concerned that he wouldn’t get her out of the house before Canaan came up the stairs and discovered them. “I let you believe that, because I needed to get you on that shuttle, and for that, I’m sorry.”
“Hey, that stuff is in the past. I don’t blame you, Luke.”
No, but he blamed himself. It had taken him three weeks to get everything into place before returning for her. He’d gathered credits, medical information, photographs, and anything else he thought might be useful. Finding someone he trusted, then convincing Commander Garret Quinn to look after Cami until he could follow after his sister had been the hardest part. In the end, however, it had all gone according to plan.
Until Cami had given the onboard computer the wrong command and ended up on the other side of the universe instead.
Maybe he should have just gone to the regents and demanded they do something about the situation. At the time, however, he’d worried that if Canaan had enough influence within the Alliance to fake his daughter’s death, he would have someone feeding him information as well. If Luke told the wrong person, and Canaan had found out, the man had possessed the means and connections to disappear with Cami forever.
“Luke?”
Pushing those unpleasant memories into the deepest, darkest part of his mind where he usually kept them, he patted her cheek lightly and smiled.
“The point I’m trying to make is that you had never been on a space station before then. When you landed on Beta Station 4, there were a lot of things you didn’t know how to do, but you figured it out. You learned, and you thrived. If you can do that, you can do anything.”
Her eyes welled with unshed tears, and she threw her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. “I love you, Luke.”
“I love you, too, chipmunk.” Taking her by the shoulders, he eased her back and tapped the end of her nose, just like he’d done when she was a kid. “Now, go find Tariq and tell him the good news.”
“I don’t have the job yet,” she argued. “Maybe Isla won’t think I’m a good fit.”
Isla and her mates were a regular fixture around X4, especially the Krytos sanctuary Fortuna. As such, Luke had gotten to know them pretty well over the last few months of his assignment there, and he felt confident in saying that once they talked, she would love Cami as much as everyone else did.
“Just be yourself,” he told her. “If she wasn’t already considering it, she wouldn’t have offered to discuss it further.”
“Yeah, okay, I guess you’re right.”
“Of course,
I am.” He hugged her again, then sent her out into the crowd to find her mate.
Watching her walk away, he could hardly believe how much she’d matured. There was no trace of the scared girl who had been too scared to leave her house. Insecurities and self-doubt had been replaced with strength and confidence, and it looked good on her.
“You’re a good brother, Luke.”
Glancing to his left, he smiled when Nell came to stand beside him. “I wasn’t always.” He was doing his best to make up for his past mistakes, but by his thinking, he still had a long way to go. “Besides, I didn’t do anything. I just reminded her of what she already knew.”
Nell ducked her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”
He hadn’t said anything he wouldn’t want overheard, so he didn’t see that it was a big deal. “No worries. Are you enjoying the party?”
“Actually, yes.” She lifted her head and met his gaze, her eyes bright with excitement. “Big crowds usually aren’t my thing, but it’s been so much fun.” Some of her inner light dimmed when she glanced around him. “Where’s Jael?”
“She told Cami she was going to the lab.”
“She puts too much pressure on herself.” Shaking her head, Nell looked out over the partygoers and sighed. “So do you. I mean, even if we don’t succeed, it’s not the end of the world.”
Luke had never heard her talk like that, and his first thought was that she’d obviously had too much to drink. “So, giving countless women the opportunity to have a family of their own isn’t important or worth our time?”
“What? No!” She jerked back and sputtered for several seconds before finally getting control of herself. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that the Alliance has been trying to find a cure for the infertility issue for more than fifty years. I honestly don’t think anyone expects us to succeed.”
On the contrary, he had plenty of people who not only expected him to succeed, but who demanded it. “Why do you say that?”
“We live in a world where everyone knows their place. People are used to it. I’m not saying that what we’re doing isn’t important. I’m just saying that if we can’t find a cure, I don’t think anyone is going to be that disappointed.”
What the actual fuck was happening right now? Maybe he was the one who had imbibed too much, because there was no way she’d just said what he thought she did. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. On the other hand, he’d never known Nell to be so careless with her words.
Unwilling to start an argument in the middle of Cami’s party, he needed to put some distance between him and Nell before he ended up saying something he would regret. “I need to go find Jael.” He’d already been considering it, so it wasn’t a lie. “Enjoy the party, Nell, and take the day off tomorrow.”
“Will you be working?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then, I’ll come in as well.”
Luke sighed. She did work incredibly hard, which made him think that maybe he really had misunderstood what she’d been trying to say. Surely, if she thought their work wasn’t important, she wouldn’t have agreed to be his assistant.
“Take the day off,” he repeated. “You’ve earned it. I’ll see you Monday morning.” He patted her shoulder awkwardly, then walked away before she had another chance to argue.
He was stopped many more times as he tried to make his way out of the room, all by people who wanted to speak with the new head of Hart Pharmaceuticals.
He was used to it, or at least, he should have been. As commander of Alpha Station: X4, diplomacy had come with the territory. Since returning to Light City, however, he’d spent most of his time in isolation. At first, it had driven him crazy, but now, standing in a room full of strangers with the music blaring at deafening volumes, he kind of missed the solitude.
It wasn’t even that he wanted to be alone. He just didn’t want to be shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with people who wanted something from him—a job, a contract, a referral, a reference. Not that he was against any of those things, but business dealings had a time and place, and his sister’s birthday party wasn’t it.
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said for what felt like the hundredth time that evening.
For the first time ever, he wished he shared Cami’s gift of telepathy so he could hear Jael’s voice, even for just a moment.
He started walking again, smiling and nodding as he weaved his way through the partygoers. Nearing the exit of the ballroom, he breathed a little easier when no one else tried to stop him or stand in his way. Then, five feet from the goddamn door, a hand landed on his shoulder, and he had to fight the urge to turn and punch whoever it was in the throat.
“Hey,” Tariq said and laughed when Luke growled at him. “Where are you going? We’re about to cut the cake, and I was hoping you might make a speech.”
“Me? What the hell for? You planned the party. You do it.”
“Uh, because you’re the birthday girl’s brother? I’m sure Cami would love it.”
“Damn it. Okay, fine.” Tariq was right, of course, but the Helios could have warned him earlier that he would be expected to speak in front of all these people. “What am I supposed to say?”
“I don’t know. Just get up there and wax poetic about her many endearing qualities or something.” He patted Luke on the shoulder again and grinned a little too smugly. “You’ll think of something.”
Grumbling under his breath, Luke gave one last, forlorn look at the exit, then turned to follow Tariq back into the party.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Seated at her workstation in the back of the lab, Jael tapped her foot along to the music that drifted down from the upper floor as she poured over lab reports.
“Why am I doing this again?” Xi asked from his spot in front of the data unit.
“You wanted to join me in the lab,” she answered without looking at him. “The least you can do is make yourself useful.” She jabbed a word on the glass wall of the cubicle with her index finger. “Dychadradimine.”
Xi sighed but began typing the letters into the data unit as she spelled it for him. “Experimental drug proposed to treat and prevent the occurrence of space sickness,” he read from the display. “Common side effects include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fever, seizures, and in severe cases, death.”
“That was good.” She grinned. “There weren’t any mistranslations in that one.”
Xi stared at her with a blank expression. “There were. I corrected them.”
The Alliance’s translations of the written word made her research easier, but there were still quite a few issues that needed to be addressed, especially when it came to syntax. At the moment, she had much bigger problems than misinterpreted words and incorrect sentence structure, though.
By comparing the original data to her new findings, she’d found at least three discrepancies. Namely, she’d discovered that there were three different substances found in the test samples that had been omitted from the original reports.
At first, she’d written it off as a corrupted sample, or possible contamination on her part since she was still learning how to use the equipment in the lab. Then, it happened again. Then, again. By the fifth report, she’d known she was on to something.
One of the substances, she’d learned, was nothing more than a binder and completely harmless. The second was just a flavoring to make the medications more palatable, especially to younglings. From what the database said about Dychadradimine, it was basically a poison.
“What does all of this mean?” Xi asked as he pushed his chair back from the table. “Why did we need to leave the party?”
When she’d first entered the lab, she hadn’t intended to look up the original reports. She’d just wanted to run another series of tests on the samples to see if the findings supported her new theory—a theory that had developed as the result of a simple almond.
“I was talking to Vada Carlisle during the party.” They’
d been standing near the bar, and Jael had inquired about the strange-looking nuts that filled one of the bowls. “She told me that she’d been allergic to almonds since she was a little girl, and the reaction her body had to them was pretty severe. So, that made me think that what was happening with the volunteers could be something similar.”
Xi arched his brow and snorted. “They’re allergic to magic?”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“And you decided that you needed to retest all of the samples to determine this, because…?”
“Well, first, it’s just a good practice.” At home, she retested her samples multiple times to make sure she always received the same results. “Secondly, I wasn’t sure if the first tests had allowed for autoimmune responses.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
She waved her hand at him. “It doesn’t really matter. The point is, there are substances listed in my reports that don’t exist in the originals.”
There could have been any number of reasons for the incongruities. The samples could have been mishandled. There could have been an error in the reporting. It was possible that the outside elements had been present but undetectable at the time. Honestly, the only reasons he’d accessed the original reports in the first place was to find information about the unknown chemicals. She had been shocked to discover them missing.
Yes, there were a lot of reasons that could account for the missing information, but her instincts told her someone had purposely erased them from the documents. Luke and Nell were the only two with access to the reports, and she didn’t believe for a second that Luke would do something like that. If that was the case, it also followed that Nell had intentionally drugged those poor females with a foreign substance known to cause horrific and adverse reactions.
She just didn’t know what purpose it served for her to do such a thing.
“Do you think Luke knows?”
Jael jerked her head up and stared. She’d been so lost in thought she’d forgotten her brother was still sitting beside her. “Oh, uh, no. I don’t think he knows.” She’d stake her life on it. “I’m not going to tell him yet, either.”
