“Then I have done my people a good service, breaking down that image you have,” Mak answered, bowing his head slightly.
“What exactly did you say to my father?” Tiana asked.
“That is between me and him. I don’t give secrets away; they have to be bought. Or earned.”
She laughed, knowing how he would expect her to earn the information. She would not complain. The time aboard Stellia with Mak had been the happiest for years. She planned to enjoy every minute of it, especially once they were alone.
They neared the surface of Trealian, and Stellia guided them down to the star port.
“Will the Maraki be able to trace where we’ve gone?” Tiana asked. “It would be pointless to go through all of this for them to turn up on the doorstep and try to take Larka again. Even if my father did destroy the ship coming for Kilma. They are bound to keep looking.”
“Hopefully not. Your father is going to leave a trail back to Kalisov, and tell people he has ended his feud with Kilma and imply they are settled somewhere on your home planet. And if Stellia can change the credentials for her when we dock.”
Stellia, who had been on her best behavior ever since they picked up Larka, huffed. “You want me to break the law.”
“Bend. Bend, not break.”
“Is there a difference?” Stellia asked.
“What’s wrong? They can’t exactly put you in jail.”
“But they can impound me and melt me down into tin cans.”
“I will never let that happen to you, Stellia. Never,” Mak promised.
Her circuitry crackled in pleasure.
***
“This is where we are going to live?” Kilma asked, looking at the small tea shop.
“Hopefully,” Mak said, as he stepped up to the door, and looked inside.
“I hope you aren’t responsible for this,” Tiana said. It was deserted, no one drinking tea out of fine china or eating delicate melt-in-the-mouth pastries. She had been looking forward to sampling the sweet treats after Mak had described them, and her mouth watered for a sticky cake.
“Wait. There’s someone coming,” Kilma said, stepping back from the window and taking Larka’s hand.
“Is this Misha’Ha?” Tiana asked.
“No, it’s the girl who works for her.” The door opened, and Mak stepped forward. “Hello, Driole. Remember me?”
“Unfortunately.”
“We were wondering if Misha’Ha was here? We would like to talk to her.”
“Come in,” Driole said, standing to one side. Mak hesitated. “What? Are you afraid of a little girl?”
Mak ducked under the doorway, looking around, before motioning for the rest of them to follow. “Business not good?”
“We’re shut for the day.”
“Why?” Tiana asked warily.
“She knew you were coming, and she didn’t want a scene. Last time he came he frightened four customers away. They’ve never been back,” Driole accused.
“He has that effect on people,” Tiana said sympathetically.
“Right. Well, you can go through,” Driole looked at Tiana.
“Me? But we came to see if Kilma and Larka could come and live here.”
Driole looked at them, not unfriendly, but not exactly welcoming. “There are rooms upstairs. I’ll show you.”
“You knew?” Tiana asked.
“Didn’t he tell you who Misha’Ha is?” Driole asked, indicating Mak.
“Yes. He did, but…” Tiana left her words hanging.
“Go and speak to her. She doesn’t like to be kept waiting. You two come with me. And you stay here. If you break anything, or eat anything, she says she’ll curse you.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Mak said.
Tiana felt nerves knotting in her stomach. She wasn’t sure she wanted to come face to face with a witch, and she certainly didn’t want to hear her future. But she needed Misha’Ha to give Kilma and Larka a home.
“She won’t bite,” Driole said, when she saw her hesitating.
“Thanks,” Tiana said, going through into the back of the shop.
“Follow the smell of incense,” Mak offered loudly, earning him a scowl from Driole.
His advice was spot on. The scent grew stronger, until she stood outside a door that was slightly ajar. There she stopped, not knowing if she was supposed to knock, or simply enter.
“Come in, Princess Tiana of Kalisov,” a voice said from inside the room.
Taking a deep breath of the scented air, she pushed the door open and went inside. There, sat at a table, was a kindly old woman. Tiana immediately felt at ease. “Hello. Are you Misha’Ha?”
“I am. Come and sit down.”
Tiana took the seat across from Misha’Ha. Between them stood a small empty table, on which the old woman rested her hands. “I can’t look into my own future, but after that big Virdian came here a few days ago, I was worried I would have to move on. Then I had a sense of your aunt. Kilma, isn’t it. And the child, Larka. They will be safe here with me.”
“I’m very grateful.”
“I know. Anyway, I had a memory of your mother in my head. That is where I got the connection to Kilma and Larka.”
“My mother?” Tiana asked, her voice barely audible. “She came here?”
“Not here. No, she came to Carinia once. Before she was married to your father. She was looking for work after leaving that small place she called home.”
“And you sent her to my father?” Tiana asked, frowning.
“Just as I sent that larger-than-life lout to find you.”
“He mentioned he had been to see you.”
“He didn’t come looking for you. But I don’t give information to bounty hunters. Not the kind of information he wanted.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I want you to know, that whatever it takes, whatever your father says, you two belong together. My gift never lies.”
Tiana looked at Misha’Ha’s hands, and said, “Are you going to read my future?”
“No need. I saw it all when I read his.” She sighed, her face thin, worn, her eyes flashing violet, and then it all faded, and she was the old woman again. “I saw you grow old with him.”
Tiana felt a weight she had not known she carried shift. “Old.”
“You worry that you will die young, like your mother. You don’t want to leave a child alone, as you have been alone. I know your father distanced himself. He loved your mother very much. Which is why he will let you marry that … man. Although part of me thinks I should lie and let you walk away from him. Trouble on two legs.”
“But what fine legs they are,” Tiana said, laughing.
“Each to their own.” Misha’Ha shook her head. “You can go. I’ll speak to your aunt later. Just don’t bring that giant around to visit too often.”
“I won’t. And thank you.”
Tiana left the room, hesitating briefly when she was outside the door to collect her emotions. When they traveled here, she had been afraid to leave Kilma and Larka, but not anymore. Tiana was sure that Misha’Ha would not let any harm come to them, not once she gave them her protection.
“Are you OK?” Mak asked, worry creasing his face as she came back into the shop.
“Yes. She warned me you are a drunk and a brigand, and I would do well to keep away from you.”
“And you are willing to ignore everything she says because you love me?” he asked hopefully.
“Something like that.” She leaned against his broad chest, knowing that this man wouldn’t let anything happen to her; she was his woman. At least for now.
Chapter Nineteen – Mak
“Ready?” Mak asked.
“This sounded much more fun in the planning stages,” Tiana said, adjusting her clothing.
“Wait until it’s worn in, then it will feel like a second skin.” Damn, if she wasn’t careful, it would never get worn in. She looked so sexy, so incredibly desirable, that he wanted t
o rip off the black leather bodice, which gripped her curvy body in all the right places, then tear off her tight leather pants and then kiss every bit of her skin and then…
“Hey! Mak! Mind out of the gutter, please. I’m the newbie, you have to focus.” She had her hands on her hips, breasts thrust forward as she berated him.
It did nothing to ease the hardness filling the crotch of his pants. However, she was right: he needed to get a grip, and get rid of his primal need to make love to her, or they would lose their bounty.
“Coming into land,” Stellia announced, as if they couldn’t see out of the window at the rush of ground coming up to meet them.
“Here we go,” Mak said to Tiana. “You’ll do great. Just follow my lead.”
“Because that always works,” she said under her breath.
“You did know all my senses are heightened? Including my hearing,” he said, rechecking his side lance was secure.
“Yep.”
He grinned all the same; she was something else. And she was his. Just like the ring she wore on her finger. His woman. His ring. Soon to be his wife.
Mak still couldn’t believe she had accepted his proposal. She’d made him the happiest Virdian alive, but he was also aware that her acceptance had also changed their relationship. At least for him.
Suddenly, this bounty hunter had an intense need to protect her. However, with their quarry cornered, there was no way he could ask her to stay onboard Stellia, but he wanted to. If he had his way, he would sneak off the ship and then order Stellia into lockdown so Tiana couldn’t follow him.
He knew what Tiana’s reaction would be, that ring would no longer be on her finger, and he would no longer be engaged to Princess Tiana of Kalisov. The princess part didn’t bother him, but the Tiana part—well, she was quickly becoming his reason to live. Not that a Virdian would ever admit those feelings to anyone.
“Landing complete. Preparing for takeoff,” Stellia announced.
“OK, we have an hour to find him and get off this planet before Stellia has to leave without us.” This was why he wanted Tiana to stay onboard. Their quarry had crash-landed on Iridis, a planet with a hostile environment. There were bacteria in the air that was attracted to anything with a large surface area, it would hit Stellia first, eating into her metal until it devoured every last electronic piece of her, but it would also find Mak and Tiana too, and strip the flesh from their bodies.
Victor Ulha had managed to escape into a cave system that offered some protection, Stellia had calculated they could survive in there for two days, but she would have to leave the planet and return for them if they took longer than an hour. Even that short time was a risk.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t leave and then come back for us?” Tiana asked.
Stellia sighed. “We have discussed this, Tiana.”
“I was just checking,” Tiana answered, rolling her eyes at Mak.
“I appreciate your concern,” Stellia added, obviously the eye roll had not gone unnoticed. “But I trust my calculations, and I would rather stay put than come back for you. The descent was not as easy as I had calculated, and I do not want to risk repeating it.”
“But you made it look so easy,” Tiana said.
“You two need to get a room,” Mak said, and then added, “After we get this son-of-a-quasimid.”
“What the hell is a quasimid?” Tiana asked as they left Stellia.
“You’ve never seen one?” Mak asked.
“Nope.”
“Sixteen legs, the size of your fist and they can jump. And swim. And their teeth…”
“I get it,” she said with a shudder. “Do they live on your planet?”
“No.”
“Good, or you would be single again.”
He drew his taptab out of his pocket; a protective sleeve covered it. They needed it to remain functioning as long as possible. If its circuits got eaten, and Stellia had to leave, they had to be able to find her again.
They were taking no chances. Both of them wore comms bracelets, and Stellia had given them both back-up bracelets, which were tucked under their clothing. She had wanted to insert tracking chips into them too, but Tiana had drawn a line at that request.
“Is that what’s left of his ship?” Tiana asked. She pointed at a mess of metal and wires, which sat in the sand like a molten clump of debris.
“Looks like it. Damn, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mak said.
“We need to hurry; I would hate for Stellia to end up like that.”
He nodded. “The opening to the cave is dead ahead. The taptab hasn’t detected any heat on the infrared, so I’m guessing Victor is deep inside the cave. Last chance to run back?” He tried not to sound hopeful that she would take this last chance, but his mind had filled with images of her beautiful body ravaged by the thing in the atmosphere that would already be starting to gather, and come for them like a swarm of locusts.
“Want me to go first?” she asked in return.
“No. This time I’m not going to be a gentleman. Ladies are going a firm second.” He slipped into the darkness, using the taptab to map out the underground system, making a mental note that some kind of night vision goggles would be a good investment. The light in here was already too dim for them to see far, and even with his enhanced sight and a flashlight, there was an awful lot of darkness where cold-blooded things could lurk.
His hearing, though, that was working perfectly, and he could pick up the faint sound of what could only be described as moaning. Not the good, pleasurable kind of moaning, but the sound of someone in pain. A lot of pain.
“I think our man might already have been here too long,” Mak said, inching forward, waiting for the taptab to fully map the caves so that he didn’t make a wrong turn.
“I thought Stellia had calculated he wouldn’t be affected yet?”
“So did I.”
“I can hear you,” Stellia said. “I will rerun my calculations.”
“OK, fully mapped. There is a very faint heat source around five hundred feet away. We have to go through a maze of tunnels to get there. We’ll keep a steady pace, eyes open, check the roof of the caves and the walls. We need to keep a steady, sweeping motion with the flashlights. Got it?”
“Got it, Captain,” Tiana said with a mock salute, but her voice did not reflect the same bravado.
“Let’s get him and get out of here,” Mak said and set off down the first tunnel.
She followed close behind him. He could hear her footsteps, along with her breathing, which came fast and shallow. He could tell she was scared. Scared was good, scared kept you alive.
Turning left, they kept on for around ten feet before taking a sharp loop back on themselves. As they turned, and twisted, he knew they would never find their way back out of here if the taptab failed.
“Still with me?” he asked, as her light swung off the wall and went out. The low moaning was louder, eerily echoing along the walls.
“Can’t get rid of me that quickly.” She was tapping the flashlight, and sighed in relief when it came back on. “There’s nothing worse than being afraid of the unseen, is there?”
“Nothing worse. It’s like love, it creeps up on you and surrounds you, and there is no escape,” he said, his voice low. His brain was screaming at him to take her hand and get out of there, fast. It was an internal battle he had to win.
“Do you want to escape?” she asked. Then her flashlight went out again. “Damn it.”
“Here, try this one.” He reached into his pack and took out another one, passing it to her. “I’m thinking these caves might not be such a sanctuary,” he said as his flashlight also went out.
“You really think this guy is worth it?” Tiana asked.
“Yep. Since I’ve been on his trail, he has killed another three people. Innocent people—for food, clothes, a ship. The guy needs taking down.”
They rounded a bend, and he dropped his voice. “The heat source is only a hundred fee
t away. “You know what to do. Hang back, let me go in first.”
She nodded, and he pushed on faster, knowing Victor would be able to hear them coming. If he had any ears left…
“Fuck. Stay back, Tiana,” he said, as he took one look of what remained of the bounty he had been following for a month now. It appeared justice had been served. “We should get out of here.”
“Aren’t we taking him with us?” Tiana asked, her voice high with fear.
“Not like that.” Mak crouched down, took a tube out of his pack, took out a DNA swab and touched the seething mess of sore flesh. The taptab flashed, confirming they were in the presence of Victor Ulha. Then he backed away.
“What are we going to do?” Tiana asked, as he neared her.
“Get off the planet, quickly.”
“No bounty?” Tiana asked, seeing his face and backing up. Not much fazed him, but this did. Victor Ulha was hanging onto the thinnest of threads to this world.
“We’ll turn the information in. I recorded it on the taptab. If they take it, great, if not, at least we know we found him and he won’t be hurting anyone again.”
“You always surprise me; you know?” Tiana asked.
“Why? Because I’m a loser?” He was cross he had spent so much time and fuel on tracking this guy. Mak had been looking forward to taking him in to face justice. But justice had been well and truly served.
“Because you are in it for the greater good.”
“I have a village and people who rely on me, so the money is why I do this. But there is also a good amount of job satisfaction.”
“Well, Mr. Job Satisfaction. Once we are on our way home, I may have to give you a different kind of reward.”
He laughed, despite the fear they were going to end up like Victor, a pile of gooey flesh. “I am going to take you up on that, Princess Tiana.”
Chapter Twenty – Tiana
“Decontamination chamber. Now!” Stellia’s voice sounded over the comms as they made their way back onto the ship.
Tiana tried not to panic. “I thought the caves were supposed to be safer?”
The Princess and her Bounty Hunter: Alien Romance (Fated to the Alien: The Psychic Matchmaker Book 2) Page 10
