by Anna Hackett
In his time, Rillian had seen physically stronger people than Dayna buckle under the burden of hosting a symbiont. She’d arrived here, half-dead and feverish. Her skin had been sallow and her hair lank. She’d lost weight during her captivity and ordeal with the desert witch.
But within days of coming to the Dark Nebula Casino, she’d pushed herself. She’d eaten, regained her strength, and gotten herself into his gym. She worked out every day, pushing herself to exhaustion. When she wasn’t in the gym, she was in his casino, talking to people and familiarizing herself with life on Carthago.
What she wouldn’t do was feed.
That was a challenge Dayna would have to face before too long.
Finally, the program finished and Dayna lowered her weapon.
“You only missed one target,” Rillian said. “Impressive.”
Her head whipped around. “I’ll get it next time.”
He strode closer, nodding at the weapon in her hand. “The EX-1020 is too large for you.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I’m trying them all. They’re not mine anyway.” She set the weapon back onto the rack. “I kind of miss my Glock.” She sighed. “And the cops I used to work with. A few of us used to meet weekly at the firing range.”
Rillian leaned against the wall. “Yet you’d left your law enforcement job.” He knew she’d been on a transport headed to join the security team at Fortuna Space Station when she’d been abducted.
Her mouth tightened. “I needed a change.”
He detected a story, but he didn’t push her. Right now, he felt the need to put a smile on her face, not a frown. “Come with me.”
She shot him a suspicious look.
“I promise I don’t have anything nefarious planned. I had Tannon copy all the data on the search for Zaabha. I have it ready for you.”
Her eyes lit. “Excellent. I want to see the map that Neve and Corsair recovered from the desert witch.”
Neve Haynes, another Earth woman, and her lover, the caravan master Corsair, had rescued Dayna from the witch on a hunt for a map to Zaabha. Neve was determined to find the desert arena because Ever Haynes was her sister.
When he strode into his office, Dayna was right behind him. He waved her toward an adjoining door. “I had Tannon set you up in the conference room off my office.”
“Bet he loved that.”
She stepped inside and pulled up short. A brand-new comp rested on the table, along with several files. The windows in this room weren’t floor-to-ceiling, but the long bank of glass still afforded a good view of the city. Rillian liked looking out on Kor Magna from high above. He’d seen the backstreets up close and personal as a child, he had no desire to get too close to them again.
For a second, he remembered the other hardened, tough people he’d run with before he’d clawed his way out and made his fortune. People he’d once called friends. He shook his head. The past was always best left in the past.
“This is great, Rillian.” Dayna picked up a stack of images off the table. “Thank you.”
He’d given lovers rare flowers and expensive trinkets…but none of them had looked at him how Dayna looked at him now.
“Aerial images of the desert.” She fanned them across the glossy table. “Is there a copy of the map that was inscribed on the rock?”
“Yes. On the comp and—” He touched the screen.
Light projected into the air around them. Dayna’s mouth opened, and she twirled through the map projection. “Amazing.”
Rillian took in the display of the map symbols and text. “Unfortunately, no one has been able to make sense of it yet.”
Her mouth tightened. “Not even Zhim and Ryan?”
He shook his head. Even Carthago’s premier information merchant and his human lover hadn’t been able to decode it. “I have a team working day and night on it.”
Dayna’s shoulders slumped.
Rillian wanted to touch her, needed to touch her. Instead, he curled his fingers into his palm. “We will decode it.”
“I want Ever and Sam safe.” Determination filled her tone.
“We won’t stop until we find them.”
She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Now go. I’m sure you have gazillions to make and I want to get to work.”
“Gazillions?”
Her lips twitched. “Obscene amounts of money.”
He arched a brow. “Why bother making small amounts of money?”
She shook her head, shooing him again.
“I think you’re forgetting whose casino this is,” he said.
She smiled at him. “No. I just think you are far too used to bowing and scraping from all your minions. I just want to mix things up for you a bit.”
With a shake of his head and a reluctant smile, Rillian headed for the door. “I’ve arranged for the kitchen to deliver you some dinner shortly.”
A gusty sigh. “You’re always feeding me.”
“I like looking after you, Dayna.” He saw surprise widen her eyes before he slipped out of the door. “Don’t stay up too late.”
“Yes, mom,” she called back.
Chapter Two
She woke in darkness, hearing a startled, terrified noise. Then she realized that the sound had come from her own throat.
Dayna’s heartbeat pounded loudly in her ears. She shoved the sheets off her body and glanced at the fancy timepiece beside the bed.
She’d only been asleep for thirty minutes before the nightmares had come. A sob caught in her throat. For months, she’d only managed to sleep in tiny fits and bursts. She kept waiting for it to get better.
She scrambled across the bed, with none of her normal control or athleticism. With an awkward tumble, she half fell off the bed and the soft, plush carpet broke her fall. She stared blindly at the big, opulent bed drenched in night shadows.
In her head, all she could see was rough walls and hear pained screams. She imagined the faces of Ever and Sam. Still captives. Pain stabbed through Dayna’s belly and she doubled over with a cry. The images fled, and all she could feel was an intense hunger that threatened to consume her.
Panic had her skidding backward across the floor until she bumped into the wall. She panted, trying to find some control. She’d always prided herself on her control, on being level-headed.
Now, she felt like she was choking. She felt the foreign presence inside her—quiet, still, but hungry.
Dayna swallowed a sob. All her life, she’d been practical, sensible, and take-charge. Only once she hadn’t been, and her pretty, young sister had paid the price. Old, time-worn memories joined her more recent ones.
And in her chest, she felt something move.
Oh, God. She needed to get out.
Leaping to her feet, she raced for the door and slammed it open.
A guard dressed in a uniform of unrelieved black stood at her door. When he saw her, he straightened, his eyes widening.
Dayna didn’t pause. She ran into the hall and bumped into him. Forgetting her newfound strength, she sent him flying.
She didn’t stop, hurtling down the hallway, her bare feet slapping on the slick floor. The sheet of glass on one side of the corridor revealed the bright lights of the city below. Several enormous towers of glass and light speared into the night sky. And hanging in the dark sky above were two huge moons.
Hunger shifted inside her and her vision blurred. She wanted. She needed. With a sob, she spun and ran again.
Sound, light, and sensation crashed in on her, and the chaotic mess made her stumble. She slammed into the sleek double doors at the end of the hall and they flew open.
She ran into Rillian’s office and almost crashed to the floor. As air sawed in and out of her lungs, her gaze moved over the room. The lights were dim, the only illumination coming from a wall covered in several clear, thin screens. They all showed live feed from the busy casino below. The black desk in front of the windows was empty.
Her gaze went to the screens and the p
eople on them. So many people. She swallowed, pushing at her tangled hair. So many heartbeats. Even from here, on the highest penthouse level of the building, she felt the throb of energy coming out from the mass below.
She was a danger to all of them.
“Dayna.”
The deep, masculine drawl made goose bumps break out on her skin.
She turned her head slowly and spotted him sitting in a chair in the dark. With her newly enhanced vision, she could easily make out his silhouette. He still wore the white shirt from earlier, and it shone in the darkness while his face remained hidden by the shadows.
“Bad night?” he asked.
She took a step toward him. She hated that tone—so smooth and unruffled. So controlled, when she was out of control.
He reached out and set a glass down on the side table beside his chair. The only sound in the room was the tinkle of ice. Even from across the office, she could smell the alcohol. The alien inside her gave her increased strength and enhanced senses that she’d never had as a human.
Rillian rose in a single, elegant move.
He took one step toward her, and suddenly Dayna was aware that she wasn’t the biggest predator in the room.
“I hate this,” she bit out. “I hate being out of control. I hate not being myself.”
“Your symbiont is hungry. You need to feed.”
“No.” Her stomach churned.
“You can’t ignore it.”
The command in his voice made her anger spike. Something twisted inside her. The pain grew in her chest and hunger exploded. She made a choked sound and everything that she’d been fighting to hold back unleashed.
All rational thought gone, Dayna rushed at Rillian.
He caught her as she flew at him.
The symbiont living inside Dayna made her strong…but Rillian’s was stronger.
He held her as she snarled and struggled. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up against his chest, making sure she didn’t hurt herself.
He’d been expecting this. She’d worked hard to get healthier, but she kept ignoring the major change to her body.
She shoved at him and he used more strength to hold her. A fighter, this one. He’d known all manner of women during his life, but this one defied logic. The symbiont should have killed her, but instead she’d survived. Still, instead of accepting it, she continued to fight.
She fascinated him.
He tried not to notice how her sleep shirt rode up, baring long, smooth legs. Rillian clamped down on his body’s response. She was in his care. He let her struggle and fight against him until finally she sagged, exhausted.
“Dayna—”
“Don’t say it.”
“Being silent won’t change things. You need to feed.”
She tipped that strong, interesting face up to his, and gold flashed through her eyes. “No.”
“I’ve energy to spare,” he told her. “Take it. It will help you control it.”
She jerked away from him, stumbling back. “I’m not a leech.”
Spinning, she faced the windows and wrapped her arms around herself. She stared through the glass, but he knew she wasn’t looking at the view. Her chin dropped to her chest.
“Dayna, in the two weeks you’ve been here, you’ve been adjusting well. You suffered a terrible ordeal—”
Her head jerked up and she looked at him over her shoulder. “I can handle it. I was a cop. I’ve been through tough situations before.”
“You don’t have to handle it alone,” he said.
She spun. “Did you? When you got your symbiont? Did you get help and lean on someone?”
His jaw clenched. No, he’d writhed in agony alone in the darkness. “This isn’t about me.”
She turned away. “I just want…”
He waited for her to finish, but she didn’t say anything else. He took a step closer, watching her reflection in the window.
“You want things to be as they were before? To be the same woman you were before? Going back isn’t an option, Dayna.”
“I know that.” She gave a harsh laugh. “I learned that lesson as a little girl.”
Again, Rillian felt the strange and unfamiliar need to ease this woman’s hurts. He fought not to shift restlessly.
She pushed a hand through her hair. “God, I hate that you always see me at my worst.”
“Funny, I always think how strong, competent, and courageous you appear.”
She turned, her gaze on his face. Those eyes reminded him of polished stones from the moon of Anarlia, and were so direct, he found himself feeling strangely exposed.
“I’ve been planning an exhibition fight with Galen—the House of Galen against the House of Rone. It’s in two days’ time. You’ll get to see your friends.”
A flash of panic appeared in her eyes before she looked away. “I don’t want to go.”
“Dayna—”
“I…I don’t want to hurt them.”
Of course, her first thought was for others. “You won’t.”
“You don’t know that!” Her voice rose. “You don’t know how I feel sometimes. So hungry, so on edge.”
He met her gaze in the window. “I know.”
Her body shuddered. “I feel like the leash is slipping.”
“Because you need to feed.”
“No!” But then her eyes flashed gold and she moved fast, spinning and leaping on him.
Her speed took him by surprise and she managed to take him down. They crashed to the floor and her legs straddled his hips. She gripped his wrists and slammed them to the floor above his head.
Dayna’s eyes were shifting, brown turning to molten gold. Her symbiont was fighting for control.
Rillian thrust his body upward and they rolled across the floor of his office. She snarled and pushed to get on top again. They strained against each other. Drak, she was stronger than he’d thought.
They rolled again, legs thrashing. They smashed into a cabinet and it toppled beside them, glass shattering.
Suddenly, the doors flew open and his security guards rushed in, laser weapons raised.
“Stay back,” Rillian roared at them. “Get out.”
Dayna made a pained, animalistic noise and went for his throat. This time, he rolled, and pinned her beneath him.
“Do you want your friends to see you like this?” he asked harshly.
She bucked up against him.
He held her down and tore his shirt open. Fastenings bounced across the floor. Her gaze flickered, sliding down his body. He grabbed one of her hands and pressed her palm against his skin.
“Feed.”
She let out a sob and shook her head wildly.
He watched, with stunned admiration, as she fought for control. She gulped in large breaths and he watched the gold slowly bleed from her eyes.
Her fingers flexed on his chest and now he felt a rush of desire. His cock hardened, like he was a drakking untried teen, not a man in full control of his body.
Oh, he wanted Dayna. Wanted her spread out beneath him, naked and taking him. But he had vowed to help her, not take advantage of her. He’d promised Galen.
Rillian shifted, pulling them both up to sit. She didn’t need to feel his cock digging into her belly. She sat there, still a bit dazed, and fighting to pull herself back together.
“Thank you.” Her words were stiff.
“You will need to feed your symbiont eventually, Dayna. You know I’m here to help you.”
She hunched her shoulders. “We both know you’re my prison guard.” There was acid in her voice.
“Your guardian.” Rillian would never allow himself to take advantage of a woman at her most vulnerable, and he would never allow himself to lose control. He would take care of her, no matter what. Studying her face, he saw how tired she looked. Dark smudges underscored her eyes. “Are you sleeping?”
Her lips pressed together. “I…I have nightmares. Of the underground fight rings, of Zaabha, of the
witch.” Brown eyes met his. “Of what could be happening to Ever and Sam.”
“You need to rest. You can’t help them if you’re exhausted.”
She shook her head. “And I can’t rest knowing they aren’t safe.”
He reached out, his fingers pressing to her cheekbone. “You don’t even know them.”
“I know what it’s like to worry about someone. To not know where they are, to wonder what they’re going through, to wonder what you could have done differently.” There was old pain buried in her voice.
She needed to rest. If she wouldn’t willingly help herself, then he would have to ensure it. Fortunately, his symbiont granted him several abilities. He stroked her cheek and watched her eyelids flutter closed.
As she collapsed, Rillian swept her into his arms, checking her brain wave patterns. She’d sleep soundly for several hours. He rose and headed for her room.
I will protect you, Dayna Caplan. Even from yourself. He shifted her and her head fell against his shoulder. Her lashes were dark against her cheeks. And especially from me.
Chapter Three
“We can’t wait to see you at the arena fight.”
Dayna smiled at her friends on the screen. She was sitting in her new office, after several hours spent pouring over all the information on Zaabha.
“Me, too,” she told Mia and Winter. She mostly meant it. She wanted to see them. Desperately. They hadn’t known each other before their abduction, but the three of them had forged strong bonds in the darkness and nothing could break that.
But last night’s horrible episode left Dayna feeling shaky.
“You look great, Dayna,” Winter said.
She focused on her friend. Dark hair framed Winter’s face. She had one blue eye and one milky white. The Thraxians had experimented on the former doctor and left her blind, but thankfully, the House of Galen healers had restored some of her sight.
“I had a good night’s sleep.” Thanks to a sneaky, bossy casino owner. The man had knocked her out and she’d had her first good night’s sleep. Still, it didn’t mean she liked his methods.
