by Presley Hall
It was brutal, terrifying… and breathtaking. For all the violence of it, all the blood, watching him move was one of the most graceful and beautiful things I’ve ever seen. He moved like a dancer—like a frightening, powerful, deadly dancer.
I’m shocked by what I’ve seen, and even more stunned to realize that despite it all, I’m more than a little turned on. I don’t feel sorry for the alien slumped on the floor. I have no doubt that he would have killed Zatir, and possibly done worse to me. I’m still shaken and a little afraid, but I also feel… alive. More alive than I have in a long time. And with Zatir here, I feel safe too.
This feels crazy, but also like an adventure. And although I’m not so foolish that I don’t see the danger in our situation or the fact that Zatir definitely wasn’t expecting this, I also feel confident he’d never let anything happen to me. That he’ll protect me no matter what.
Zatir is leaning over the body, searching it. He digs through the pockets in the alien’s flight suit, his expression intense, and I feel the fear start to take over again, pushing my other feelings aside.
“What’s going on?” I ask, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. Zatir doesn’t look like a warrior who just won a battle. He doesn’t look triumphant, just worried.
“I don’t know.” He sits back on his heels, frowning. “I’m concerned about what this attack means, though.” He rises to his feet, striding back into the cockpit. Once he’s seated, he turns to look at me, his gaze fixed intensely on mine. “You know I would never willingly put you in danger, right?”
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
I realize the moment that I say it that I really do. Zatir is cocky, but I don’t think he’s reckless, at least not when it comes to me. If he’s reckless, it would be with his own life, but I don’t think for a second that he would be careless with anyone who’s important to him.
And I also believe that I’m one of those people. I don’t fully understand it yet, but I know he genuinely believes in the bond.
For Kalixians, this is normal, I remind myself.
Their culture is founded on mate bonds that happen instantaneously. In a way, it’s flattering that he didn’t question it or fight it. He wants me, and more than that, he’s already taken on the duty of protecting me as a mate would. It makes my chest tighten a little to think of it that way. Since both of our parents died, Brielle is the only person who’s cared enough to try to protect me for a very, very long time.
“There’s something wrong about the fact that we were attacked here,” Zatir murmurs, switching on his comms device. “We’re going to be all right,” he adds, seeing the expression on my face. “I’m going to get in touch with one of my contacts. Maybe he can shed some light on this. And then I’ll figure out how to get us back to Kalix.”
I nod speechlessly. Now that some of the shock has subsided, I’m disappointed that our trek out into space ended like this. It was supposed to be a fun, romantic adventure, and now he’s going to take me back home. I’m sure it won’t stop his pursuit of me, but I wanted a different ending to the day than this. And if Brielle hears about it—
Oh, god.
I’m going to have to do my best to make sure she doesn’t. If she learns about what happened, she’ll never let me around Zatir again. Hell, she might try to find a way for us to go back to Earth, just to keep me away from him. She won’t put up with anything that means I’m in this much danger, even if it was an accident.
Zatir types in a code into the comms device and waits for it to connect.
“I’ve bought information from this contact before,” he says offhandedly to me, as if making casual conversation. “Hopefully he’ll know something.”
The comms unit crackles, and Zatir leans in. “Grub?” He presses his lips together, frowning. “Can you hear me?”
“I can hear you.” A gruff voice comes over the comms unit. “Is this Zatir?”
“It is. I’m in space a little way out from Kalix, and I was just attacked by a pirate ship. There shouldn’t have been one this close to the planet’s surface. There’s no reason for it, which makes me think it might have been more personal. Is there anything you’ve heard?”
There’s a moment’s pause, and then Grub’s voice crackles over the line again.
“I might have some information about that. But I can’t relay it over comms like this. It might not be secure. And it’s dangerous information. You need to come and meet with me.”
Frustration passes across Zatir’s face as he tells Grub that he’ll get back in touch with him, then disconnects the transmission. He sinks into the chair, looking over at me where I’m still seated. Nerves are fluttering in my stomach as I try not to look at the body of the alien on the other side of the cockpit door.
“I should take you back to Kalix,” Zatir says finally. “Get you home safe and sound, before your sister puts out a bounty on my head. And then I’ll go to Na’ar, where Grub is, and meet with him to get this information he says he has for me.”
“Is he trustworthy?” I ask curiously. “You’re sure the information is good?”
He hesitates before answering, running a hand through his dark hair between his horns.
“Grub hasn’t failed me before,” he says finally. “It’s always possible, I suppose. But he’s given me information that has helped on a number of occasions. I consider him a generally reliable contact. So I feel confident in going to speak with him.”
“Where is Na’ar? Is it close to where we are now?”
“It’s not too far.” Zatir peers at the map display on the console in front of him, tracing the coordinates between his ship and what I assume is Na’ar. “I took us farther away from Kalix than I meant to while trying to evade the bounty hunter’s ship. But I need to get you back there before I go anywhere else.”
He rises from his seat as if the decision is made, but I stand as well, reaching for his elbow to stop him. “Wait.”
Zatir freezes instantly and turns to look at me, surprise evident on his face. “What is it, Nadia?”
The way he says my name sends a shiver down my spine, but I stay focused, holding his gaze with all the courage I can muster. “We—you—should go meet with Grub before you take me back to Kalix. If you take me back first, you’ll lose valuable time. Whoever is behind this could get away.”
“I don’t think—”
He starts to speak, but I quickly interrupt him.
“Besides,” I continue, “something else could happen between here and Kalix. You just said we’re pretty far away. Someone else could spring an attack on us before we get back. Better if you get the information before anything can happen to ruin it. Before something happens to Grub, or us. Or the information is too old to be any good.”
Zatir was only half-looking at me when I first started to speak, but by the time I’m finished, he’s turned fully and is looking directly down at me, admiration plain in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment, his gaze fixed on mine. I can see the heat in his eyes, the glowing amber sending a wave of that same heat through me. It turns me on every time I see his irises change color now, because I know what it means. I know that he’s feeling the same aching need that I am.
“You’re very courageous,” he says finally. “The other warriors mentioned to me that Terrans are rare women—that there aren’t many as brave as you in the universe. But I hadn’t had the chance to see it firsthand until now.”
If it were anyone else, I would think he’s smooth-talking me, trying to charm me. But for all the naked attraction in Zatir’s eyes, I feel without a doubt that he’s being entirely sincere. I believe that he believes everything he’s saying. I just wish I did, too. Because if there’s anything that I haven’t felt like I am for longer than I can remember, it’s courageous.
I haven’t felt brave, or strong. Going up in this ship was the bravest thing I’ve done in a very, very long time. And that… didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped. But now I can feel myself
grasping at this new adventure, at this new chance to make the right choice instead of the safe one.
“This is dangerous,” Zatir says reluctantly. “And your sister will have my head when we get back.”
“We have a saying on Earth,” I tell him, a small smile tugging at my lips.
“Oh?” he cocks his head, grinning at me. “A chance for me to learn a Terran aphorism. I like it.”
“Better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” I tell him, making quotes in the air with my fingertips. “And with my sister, I find that’s often the case. Or at least, it used to be, before she stopped letting me out of her sight.”
“Brave and rebellious. A woman after my own heart.” Zatir laughs, and as his shoulders relax, I can tell that he’s relented. “All right. We’ll go to Na’ar first. And then, when we get back to Kalix, I’ll ask forgiveness and pray to all the gods that Brielle doesn’t go to Khrelan and demand my head on a pike.” He runs a hand through his hair again. “We’ll have to take the pirate’s ship. Mine was damaged too badly. I can’t fix that door out here.”
I can see the sadness in his face as he says that last part, looking regretfully around the cockpit. He loves this ship, I can tell.
“There will always be another,” he says when he notices me looking at him. “It’s not the first ship I’ve lost. This one will be particularly hard to replace, though.”
The ease with which Zatir steps into and takes over the new ship is impressive. He closes the door and breaks the seal with his own ship, taking me into the new cockpit with him as he sets the coordinates for Na’ar.
This ship is slightly different in layout than Zatir’s was, but it’s very similar as far as size and style go. It’s obvious that it wasn’t as well-loved as Zatir’s ship, though. The fabric of the seats in the cockpit is split in places and fraying, and the surface of the control deck chipped and scratched in places. The AI is completely disabled, the mechanism for it ripped out and thrown into a corner, a box with fraying and broken wires. Zatir points it out to me, frowning.
“Clearly, whoever flew this ship wanted complete control of it, with no way to track it or have their controls overridden. They had some tech knowledge, certainly, but they were a pirate through and through.”
I settle into the seat beside his, watching as he quickly acquaints himself with the controls of this new ship. My fingers grip the arm rests of my chair as we lurch into motion and then begin to zoom through space, nearly as fast as we went when he was trying to outrace the bounty hunter earlier. It feels as if my stomach must’ve been left behind somewhere, and I breathe in and out through my nose as he navigates us through the seemingly endless blackness of space.
The journey takes some time, and I’m surprised to find that after a while, my body and mind begin to adapt to the sights and sensations of space travel. My tight grip on the arm rest relaxes a bit, and although my stomach is still tight with worry, I no longer feel like I might barf at any moment.
We touch down on Na’ar without incident, which is a relief.
Zatir docks the ship and takes us through the market district on the way to the place where we’re meant to meet Grub—a shop where he works in the business district.
Stopping at a street vendor’s stall, he buys us each a folded soft bread filled with vegetables and meat and a sweet sauce, and although I’ve always been a bit wary of eating alien meats, I’m too hungry to think much about it. The air smells amazing, perfumed already with all sorts of foods, and I devour it hungrily while Zatir eats his as well, watching me with amusement as we walk. I can tell he likes seeing my enjoyment.
“We could do this more often, you know,” he tells me as he leads me through the winding streets.
“Meet up with slightly dodgy informants?” I glance up at him, swallowing the last of my food.
He rolls his eyes, laughing.
“No. Go to new planets. Explore. I could show you so many places, Nadia. Places you’ve never even dreamed of, that look and smell and taste like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.”
His face lights up as he speaks, and I feel an answering thrill go through me.
Yes, I think. That’s what I want. Exploration. Adventure.
But at the same time, I hear my sister’s voice in my head, whispering, No. Be careful. Be safe. You’re too quick to jump. Look before you leap.
It’s a litany I’ve heard many times recently, over and over again. Our abduction from Earth just solidified her concern for me, and now Brielle sees even more danger everywhere.
We stop at a small wood-paneled shop with a carved door, and Zatir knocks once before pushing it open. The interior is roomy but full of displays, textiles of all sorts that fill the air with a warm, stuffy smell. There’s a short, squat alien in the middle of it all, with drooping ears and extraordinarily long and thin fingers. He looks up at Zatir, then quickly over at me with plain curiosity.
My heart beats faster when his gaze lands on me. His eyes are an unnervingly bright blue, but the color is very small, a pinprick in the vast sea of white. I feel instantly uncomfortable, and as if Zatir can sense it, he steps closer to me and slightly in front of my body.
His posture is defensive, almost possessive, clearly meant to send a message to Grub.
This is mine. She is mine.
If any human man did something like that, I’d probably be offended or freaked out. But seeing Zatir act like this sends a flood of warmth through my veins, and I feel myself leaning closer to him as well, wanting to be as near to him as possible.
Somehow, between the time when I met him last night and now, this man has come to represent more than just a fantasy in my eyes.
He’s come to represent safety too.
12
Zatir
I can feel Nadia leaning closer to me as I step in front of her, and it sends a rush of proud satisfaction through me. I want her to trust me. I want her to believe that I would protect her from anything. I don’t think there’s anything here to protect her from, but it doesn’t matter. I want her to feel safe with me.
And that simple motion—her leaning in close as I angle myself in front of Grub’s curious gaze—gives me the inclination that she’s beginning to feel that way.
“So what couldn’t you tell me over the comms?” I ask Grub bluntly. “You can speak in front of the Terran woman. She’s with me.”
I don’t give him her name. I trust Grub, but not with everything. Not with what’s most precious to me.
The short alien tears his gaze away from Nadia, looking up at me. “Kildred is after you,” he says with a grimace.
“Kildred?” My brows furrow. It’s not a name that I can place immediately. “I’ve angered a lot of the scum who do business all across the universe. You’ll have to give me more than that.”
“Kildred runs a colony by the name of Manea on an asteroid belt some distance from here. He’s very powerful, but he’s achieved that power by underhanded means—and one of those means was supplying materials to the Orkun. He’s recently found out that you were the one sabotaging his supply ships. And as you can expect, he is less than pleased about that information.”
“Less than pleased?”
“He’s furious,” Grub says flatly. “He has a bounty on your head, and it’s considerable. Enough to set anyone up nicely wherever they’d like to go. The bounty requires you to be brought in alive. It’s very clear on that point. I imagine he has some specific plans for you.”
I feel Nadia shudder behind me, but I don’t flinch. This Kildred fellow is far from the only alien in the universe to have very detailed fantasies about tearing me limb from limb, but I don’t plan for any of those dreams to come true.
“What does this mean?” my mate asks in a soft voice, and I glance over at her.
“For the last few years, I’ve been destroying storage facilities and supply ships along the Orkun trade lines so that the goods couldn’t be shipped. Clearly, this Kildred is one of those whose mean
s of trading with the Orkun I dismantled. And he is apparently quite upset about it,” I tell her wryly.
“So all of those stories about you were true?” Nadia’s eyes go wide.
“Well, I don’t want to brag, but it’s probably almost all true.”
I grin at her, and she gives me a small smile in reply, despite her nervousness. She likes my attitude, I think. My cockiness is part of what draws her to me. And I like the way she’s able to give some of it back, when she gets up the nerve.
“You shouldn’t underestimate Kildred,” Grub says suddenly, breaking the moment between Nadia and me. “It’s very dangerous to go up against him. He’s gotten to the level of power he has because he rewards those who fall in line. He rewards them… very handsomely.”
Something about his tone is strange. I turn to face him, noticing that his tiny blue eyes are unusually bright and nervous, even for him.
Alarm bells go off in my head.
Krax.
I straighten to my full height, reaching for Nadia and pulling her behind me so that my body is shielding her entirely.
But it’s too late. Grub has well and truly double-crossed me.
It’s not the first time I’ve been double-crossed by an informant, but it hasn’t happened often. And it’s never happened when I have someone besides myself to worry about—especially not someone as precious to me as Nadia is.
The door behind me opens, and I turn just in time to see a tall and muscular alien step into the room, his skin marked with more scars than I could ever count and bony spikes growing out from his skull. He’s wearing leather pants and a tunic made of a material that repels blaster fire, a clear indication that he’s a bounty hunter.
He moves like one, swift and quick. Before I can react, he lunges forward and snatches Nadia with one muscular arm, dragging her up against him as she lets out one high-pitched shriek that feels as if it cuts to my very soul.
