by Erin Raegan
Tohn hesitated.
“No,” the other Juldo growled. “He’ll kill you before you can get close enough.”
I pushed against the hand to see Tohn’s sword drop to his side.
There was a commotion at the door, and I looked over to see a human female trying to push through the crowd.
“No, love.” Uthyf stomped over and banded an arm around her waist.
“What’s going on?” the woman asked. Her eyes met mine and widened. “Who’s that?”
“Hiya.” I waved weakly. “I’m London.”
“Mona. N-nice to meet you.” She looked at Chyn then Uthyf. “What’s he doing with her? Why is he here?”
A moan came from the floor. Everyone looked at the battered Dahk at my feet.
“Take him,” Uthyf barked.
A Dahk stepped forward, but Chyn shook his head and the Dahk stopped.
“What do you want for him, Chyn?” the other Juldo asked wearily. He walked straight through the crowd and stopped a foot from us, not a flicker of the fear the others displayed on his face.
“Gratitude from the young king?” Chyn looked at Uthyf and chuckled as the king glared at him. “A trade.”
“A trade for what?”
“The Bour.”
3
Uthyf
“The Bour?” Tahk asked in disbelief.
I shared his shock. What could the assassin want with the Bour?
Chyn did not answer. Though I could not see beneath his hood, I could feel the assassin’s impatience.
“Give him the Bour,” I said.
Tahk glared at me.
“He’s holding a human female for leverage,” I spit at Tahk. We needed the Bour, but not so much I would leave a human female in the Shadow Assassin’s grasp. She was small and frighteningly filthy. She had not been cared for.
My Mohna squeezed my hand tightly, and I knew she felt the same. We’d gotten what we could from the Bour for now. I doubted he was holding many more secrets now that Ignyt was finished with him.
“No,” Tahk growled. “He is all we have to offer Viytenus.”
Viytenus was the leader of the Bour and the head of the Galactic Council, and we were now at war with the Bour. I looked at my friend and felt his frustration acutely. One Bour had nearly crippled my kingdom not long ago. If the upcoming war involved more than the Bour leader himself, they could devastate our militia. The Bour we held in captivity was the only bargaining chip we had with Viytenus. But unlike my commander, I did not believe it would matter. I did not believe Viytenus cared for his spy.
“Give him to the assassin,” I repeated.
Tahk cursed, but it was the assassin who spoke. “The trade is for the traitor. Not the human.”
I turned to him, as did Tahk. “Pardon?”
The assassin’s jaw was firm. He lifted his hand to his hood and slowly revealed his face. “The human is mine.”
Tohn stiffened and Yilt barred him from stepping forward once more.
“She doesn’t belong to you,” Tohn snarled at the assassin. “She is the human leader’s daughter and our ally.”
Chyn shook his head. “That does not concern me.”
“Why bring me here at all then?” The human asked him, her voice trembling. Chyn grinned down at her. “Another game? Asshole.” The assassin chuckled.
Vyr stepped closer to Chyn, closer to the assassin than any of mine or I were willing to risk. He whispered something to the assassin, but the assassin snarled, low and threatening. The voices ailing him thundered in low tones deep into the floor and through my heels. Several of my Dahk shifted anxiously. Chyn then lifted the human by her waist and stepped back to my throne, arrogantly seating himself with her tucked onto his lap.
Tahk hissed his outrage, as did Tohn and the rest of my council. The assassin insulted my rule and arrogantly dismissed my Dahk’s rage.
Tahk pulled his sword and marched toward the throne. Both Vyr and Wohn held him back from attacking the assassin.
“Tahk,” I rumbled in warning.
“I’ve had enough of this cretin,” he snarled, straining against Vyr and Wohn’s hold. “We don’t need him.”
The assassin chuckled quietly. “No?”
My Mohna trembled in my arms. She knew as well as I that we needed the assassin. The Kilbus Lord was adamant he would not go to war with Viytenus without the Shadow Assassin’s aid. And without the Kilbus Lord, the leaders of the Xixin and Guhuvin would surely pull out. The rest of our allies would follow suit.
I could not allow that to happen. Viytenus would hunt each of our worlds one by one, and without each other’s aid, none would survive a war with the Council. And if Viytenus brought the full force of the Bour—I could not even contemplate it.
“Why keep her?” Tohn asked, his voice distressed. He had forged many bonds with the humans. He’d fought beside them, lost comrades alongside them. He had both saved and been saved by the humans while battling the Vitat. He was my main emissary with the humans. He had worked directly with the human leader, Burin, and so he must have grown close with his daughter.
What could the dead master have possibly wanted with her? Nothing good, I knew. Her abduction was no happenstance.
“That is my concern.” Chyn rested his head back against my throne and closed his eyes.
Tahk cursed savagely.
I looked at the assassin with suspicion. “Why not take him yourself? We can’t keep you from him, so why trade at all?”
Tahk stiffened and observed the assassin. Vyr himself regarded the assassin in surprise and curiosity. Vyr was of the same ilk as the assassin. Their abilities were not easily thwarted. The assassin was known the galaxy over. He was feared and respected. Yet he had been alone before Vyr was made Shadow Born and Juldo. Chyn’s entire species had been slaughtered by the old Juldo Master, or so it was believed. The Shadow Born had been executed because they could not be controlled. Why the old master had allowed Chyn to live—or perhaps it was not let. Perhaps Chyn had escaped solely because, if the rumors were true, the assassin could not be killed.
I was not even a babe when the Shadow Born roamed the universe freely. It was said just one of them could decimate an army in mere moments. They were of the dark tales told to prepare a young warrior for what he would face in battle. The Shadow Born were an enemy you feared and an ally you would slay worlds for.
At one point in time, they had exclusively served the Juldo Master in power. Juldo, yet not. Something more than Juldo. Other than. But in time, the master’s control of them waned. Fearing they would take worlds without mercy, lives without feeling, the old master—Dordyn— ordered their destruction.
Thinking on it now, I did not know how Dordyn had managed to best his Shadow Born army of hundreds. No mere Juldo—no mere militia, Juldo or not—could have defeated an army of Shadow Born. My father would have known. He began his rule some time after the destruction of the Shadow Born, but he was an ally of the old master, a friend even. My father would have had his confidence.
But ultimately, the assassin could have taken the Bour from my dungeons at any time without our knowledge.
Why trade for him? And why now?
“Why indeed,” the assassin replied irritably beneath closed lids.
4
London
I sighed, shifting on Chyn’s lap. His thigh was rock hard and my not-so-wide-anymore-after- starvation ass was falling off into the center of his lap. I’d briefly threatened him with my belt buckle when the Dahk king and his buddies went off into a private heated argument, but Chyn had plucked it from me so fast, my fingers had snapped around empty air.
Though Chyn gave off a ridiculous amount of body heat, I was freezing. I was a Florida girl through and through. My dad might have been vice president in the good ol’ days, but that hadn’t stopped Mom and me from disappearing into Florida’s beaches with my grandparents every chance we got. That was where I had been born and raised. I didn’t do well in cold weather. Give me
a bikini and flip-flops and I was your girl forever.
But here? Home World? I snorted. What a name.
Hey, what should we call this planet?
Oh, well we live here… Home World?
Genius!
More like unoriginal. I would have named it something bomb like Dark Frozen Abyss. To the point, sweet, and unapologetically true. You’d know what you’d be getting if you were abducted and dropped here. Or god forbid, chose to come here. Unending darkness, unbearable cold, and an alien race that bickered their way into a corner.
Nothing had been decided. I had been sitting on Asshole McGee’s lap for close to an hour and the Dahk were still arguing over what to do with me and the one—one!—lousy alien standing in the way of my freedom.
If I truly believed he was sleeping, as his relaxed demeanor projected, I would have bolted off his lap and solved the crisis myself. But though his eyes were still closed and his body relaxed, his arm was not. It was still tight around my waist and grew tighter every time I moved. Now I was sulking, my chin in my palm. My elbow was propped on the arm of the apparent throne of the Dahk king. Yeah, Chyn had just plopped his ass on it, not a care in the world.
I eventually got bored of watching the crowd—right around the time I realized they were pretty divided on whether they were gonna fight Chyn for me—so my gaze roamed the big room we were all puttering around in. It was purple. That was really the best way I could describe it. Dark and purple. The walls were lavender, as was the floor and ceiling. The furniture? You guessed it—purple.
Purple was a great color. One of my favorites. But I imagined if I lived in a purple castle on a purple planet surrounded by purple aliens, I would get sick of it pretty quickly. In fact, I was pretty sure I never wanted to see the color again.
It didn’t seem to bother Mona though. Queen Mona apparently. Girl was set. She’d nabbed herself the king of the bats.
Though the mohawk one was a close second in imposing figures. That one was mated to the girl who had run in with a few others some twenty minutes ago. She had run right up to him, wailing and stressed. His name was Tahk, and he was the king’s commander. The quiet blond girl was mated to the scarred guy with the creepy white eye, and the blond Barbie was mated to the red guy that looked like Chyn but I suspected was mixed with a little something that looked a whole lot like human.
I was a pretty proficient eavesdropper. I had to be, growing up, if I wanted to find out why my pop was bailing on my soccer game for the millionth time. Otherwise it was always, “Next game, bunny.”
That had stopped being good enough when I was fifteen, right around the time he and Mom started arguing in their bedroom every night. My dad had loved going to my games, but over time, as he got busier and busier, his attendance became less and less frequent.
Then again, if you were planning on going into office, you had to make sacrifices. My dad’s sacrifice was his family.
I knew he loved me and I was so proud of him, but now that Mom was gone and everything she’d touched was destroyed, I wished he had held on to us a little longer. Just a little tighter. Maybe we would have all been together the day those monsters took her from me. Maybe he could have saved her.
I scrubbed at my face and wiggled again, trying to wake up my numb ass cheek. Fingers pressed in tight at my pelvis and I dug my fingernails deep into his hand in revenge.
“I have to pee,” I snapped. “You’re making it worse.”
He ignored me, as I expected. That was fine. I had no problem letting go of my bladder all over him if I had to sit there much longer.
Peyton or Vivian? They talked too low for me to decipher. I had great hearing, but reading lips was a struggle. I couldn’t quite tell who exactly was talking. Regardless, the one mated to the commander was watching me with what looked like a whole lot of completely unwanted pity. I glared at her and looked pointedly at her mate—the one with the killer sword and the penchant for escalating an already testy atmosphere.
Chyn had said he wasn’t trading me, but they hadn’t even tried to negotiate with him. They just accepted it and were now arguing about the prisoner Chyn wanted.
“Why him and not me?” I shifted sideways and looked at Chyn’s relaxed face. I snapped my fingers in his face until he cracked his eyes open to scowl at me. “A prisoner for a prisoner is a good deal and all, but I’m extra work. You have to feed me, for one. I’ll starve if you don’t. Then I lose my value.” I nodded, getting into my own negotiation. “Plus, I’m a woman. We nag, like, all the time.” I sighed, looking him over. “You don’t strike me as the type to keep me for sex. I mean, my ass has been glued to you for an hour and you’re not even hard. I have a nice ass.”
Hell, maybe he couldn’t get hard. I avoided inspecting his lap like I wanted to. He was an alien after all. I knew the Dahk had to have something. Those women wouldn’t have mated them if not. At least, I didn’t think so.
His brows rose, and he looked down at my wide hips and dimply ass encased in dirty, threadbare jeans.
“I can rock a thong.” When he still looked unimpressed, I changed tactics. “I’ll annoy you. I won’t ever shut up. I’ve scared off plenty of guys with my mood swings. I’m due for my monthly cycle, and unless you have double chocolate cake and a barrel of wine, you’ll get to meet bitchy London. Yeah, she’s worse than regular old London. My ex lost his entire record collection just because he told me my ass didn’t need any more peanut butter cups.” I leaned into him. “Spoiler alert. I set them on fire.” I crossed my arms when he reclosed his eyes, dismissing me. So I fisted his black tunic, shaking him. “You using me against my pop? I’ll gut you before I let you do that.”
He snorted, and an angry growl worked its way up my throat.
“You can have the Bour,” Uthyf called from his safe distance away. Chicken.
Chyn peeked at him through one cracked eye.
“But we need your assurances Lundun will not suffer in your care.”
Chyn quirked his lip and looked at me. “Apparently it is I who will suffer.”
“Are you serious?” I said hotly. “You’re really going to let him keep me?”
I looked at Tohn, feeling lost and betrayed. His eyes were pleading with me. I looked away from him. Uthyf nodded, but he looked equally as regretful. I gritted my teeth. Too damn bad.
I stood, completely unaware that Chyn allowed it, and stomped to the Dahk king. “You know who I am, right? My dad is probably freaking out right now! I’ve been gone so long! I need to get back!”
“We will speak with your father,” Uthyf said, but I sliced my hand through the air.
“No. I will speak to my father when you take me back right now.”
Peyton looked between Uthyf and me, gaping. “We’re really going to just let this happen?”
“My mate, it is compl—”
“Don’t you dare.” She pointed at Chyn, who was hunched over with his hands clasped between his spread knees while he watched us. “He is bad news! You know that.”
Tahk shook his head, then all the women were ganging up on the commander and the king. It felt good to have a little support, but only for a second. Dread was settling in. I couldn’t go back to that cell again. I just couldn’t.
“Enough,” the other Juldo, Vyr, growled, quieting everyone. He was eyeing Chyn. “She will go with him. He will just take her anyway.”
Vivian and Peyton sputtered.
Vyr walked closer to Chyn. “I don’t know why you play this game, but you will aid the Dahk or I will take her back,” Vyr said.
Chyn shook his head. “I have my own battle with the Bour. I will not fight the Dahk King’s for him.”
Vyr watched him closely, the rest of us holding our breath. “He knows.”
Chyn nodded slowly.
He knows? Who knows what?
Vyr nodded back. “And the human?”
“They want her,” Chyn said.
Vyr looked at Chyn’s mouth and rocked back on his heels, his
arms crossing. “You realize this makes me want to take her from you that much more.”
Chyn nodded again, a flicker of challenge in his eyes. And maybe even a plea. For what, I had no idea. But I knew they were talking about me and none of it was good.
Vyr sighed. “What of Latari?”
“Our brother is hunting for it.”
Vyr cursed furiously and stepped away.
“Vyr?” Vivian asked.
“You cannot harm her,” Vyr said. “I won’t allow it.”
Chyn nodded once, his face startlingly grave.
“Bring him the Bour,” Vyr growled, stalking away.
There was a beat of silence before a few of the Dahk shuffled out of the room.
“Kil will pull away if Chyn does not offer aid,” one of the Dahk said low.
Vyr shook his head. “I will speak to him.”
There was several minutes of more heated arguments. I didn’t hear a word. I just stood numb in the center of the room, a bleak sense of doom encompassing me.
And when they dragged a smooth, grey-skinned alien through the door and Chyn pulled a dagger, walking up to the prone Bour, and stabbed him in the head without hesitation, that numbness turned to terror.
It only grew when he thrust his hand through the wound in its skull and pulled out a slick, wet sack the size of a baseball.
5
London
The Dahk watched Chyn in stunned horror as he bagged the baseball-size sack and tied it to his waist. More than one of the women bent over and vomited on the floor.
“You want to defeat the Bour?” Chyn asked calmly as he wiped his blade on his cloak. “Tell your healer to remove their stem from the head. He will find the answers he seeks inside.”
No one thanked him.
No one stopped him when he took my arm.
Not one of them said a word as he disappeared with me.
“I still have to pee,” I griped, wiping my mouth free of vomit. That was just not a normal way to travel and my body was very angry at the asshole for putting me through it, repeatedly.
