by E J Darling
“I summoned Keeli while you were out. She seems,” he paused, and closed his eyes, “agreeable.”
“Understatement.”
“Indeed, but I thank you. She will do just fine for what I need her for.”
Maeve wished to know what that was, but she didn’t want to ask such a personal question. It wasn’t her business or her place to know. More uncomfortable silence passed, and Maeve was dying to get back to her room, and to Teak. She didn’t want him to be alone longer than he had to be. He needed her.
There had to be a way to speed this along, while also not getting excommunicated from the home for messing up so badly. Or worse, maybe Roth was right. Maybe Zekekiel would kill Teak if he knew about him. That made her wonder, though. If Zeke knew about Teak, and he was being this calm about it, maybe he wouldn’t mind so much.
“Sir?”
“Mm,” he hummed again.
“I have never had a single rumor about myself. I don’t do things that would soil your name, and my education has given me the logical, and social skills I need to ensure I do my job well, and as requested.” It was all true and she was proud of herself for annunciating her words in a professional way. “Would I be correct to assume I have been a good… slave?”
Zeke dropped his eyes from her when she was finished and white knuckled his woven fingers. He leaned forward, and finally made eye contact again. “You would be correct.”
“And would I also be correct to assume that, because you use me in such an official and personal capacity, that you believe I have at the very least, some sort of judgement on a species’ character that could possibly reflect your own in your absence?”
Another quiet pause. “Yes.”
Maeve’s heart hammered in her chest. Her hands went clammy, and she swallowed down a lump forming. “Then, I beg you now, sir. Forgive me.”
Zeke stood to his full height, a full foot and a half taller than she, and loomed over her physically and mentally, even from that distance. “Speak now, Maevelin.”
“My credits.” She paused, swallowing hard and attempting to still make eye contact, but it was too much in her current state. A fragile mentality. “I spent my credits.”
“You wish to be free now?” His voice sounded alarmingly feral, but she couldn’t truly know because she didn’t truly know her master.
She just wanted Teak by her side, to stand in front of her and take all the rage and anger she was feeling from her master and make it go away, make it okay.
“Last I checked, you had several thousand credits still left on my books, Maevelin.”
“I know, sir.” Maeve panted, trying to make herself stay calm and present in the room.
“Then, where have they gone?”
“Somewhere my conscience and my judgement deemed them more worthy, sir.” She’d gotten most of it out, now it was time to tell it all. With a deep breath, Maeve laid it all out on the table. “I bought the freedom of a slave at the auctions. A Turnish male.”
Zeke’s yellow eyes narrowed. Not his lids, the pupils in his eyes thinned and elongated until he looked too serpentine for her comfort. There wasn’t much of the calm Tallek male she’d been speaking too, not much of her cold quiet master left. Something in him changed and Maeve felt sick to her stomach.
“Where is he?” Zeke hissed deep in his chest, but Maeve stood stunned. “Where is he?” He yelled louder until her back was against the door, pushing it shut in her fear.
“Sir, please.” She begged, fear creeping its way through her. “Don’t hurt him.”
“You are mine, Maevelin Roan. Mine alone.” He spoke in a way she didn’t understand. Not his language, his possessiveness was something she’d never heard before, from anyone. Her fear only rose, and she slunk down into the floor. Roth was right, and she’d underestimated Zeke’s anger on her decision. “Do not fear me, child.” Zeke cleared his throat and spun, turning his back to her. “Have I ever hurt you?”
Stunned by everything that just happened in a short amount of time, Maeve took a moment to find the right words. “No, sir. You have not.”
“Then why do you cower like a beaten animal?”
“Sir, I–”
“Zeke,” he interrupted.
Maeve stood from the floor, feeling her fear subside second by second with his back turned. “Zeke,” she corrected. “You frightened me. I thought you were–”
“What?” He turned around again, and his eyes were back to normal. “That I would harm you?”
“Yes.”
He sighed and took a deep breath before sitting back down in his chair and gestured to the one in front of him. “Sit, Maevelin.” She complied but didn’t know where the hell this was going. She wanted to get back to Teak, to breathe the salt air and sit on her balcony so she could truly calm down. “When you were five, just a tiny little thing wreaking havoc in my home, you found a dead saltee floating on the banks when Pirra wasn’t watching closely enough.”
Maeve smiled, she didn’t remember the saltee, but she remembered the old Human female who’d cared for her. When she’d died, Maeve was only ten, and Zeke had never gotten her another caretaker. There were other servants to care for her, tutors to teach her, but she’d missed that constant female companionship forever. Pirra had been a mother to her.
“It smelled terrible, and you played with the decayed creature on every surface you could reach. When Pirra had finally found you, smearing the putrid thing on the walls of the formal dining room, she thought I would send you away. That I would be so angry a slave had wrecked my home, I would send a defenseless child away.”
She’d never heard anyone talk about her childhood, not a single story about herself she could connect to. But here was Zeke, the most distant of them all, telling her something so intimate. Maeve had been so entranced that she’d almost forgotten why she’d wanted to leave his office in the first place… almost.
“I didn’t,” he continued, “obviously. My point of this story Maevelin is that you aren’t a defenseless child anymore so stop acting like one. I know I have always kept you isolated from myself, and I won’t apologize for it, nor will I tell you my reasons, but do you honestly think that I could hurt you? Have you not developed a backbone in the times you’ve spent away from here? Has Roth not taught you to defend yourself?”
Maeve had no idea Zekekiel knew about her training with Roth, but it made sense since he seemed to know everything. Maeve looked around the room, to her clasped hands and then to the spot on the floor where she’d just cowered in fear of him. “I don’t know, sir.”
“Well. Find your strength, Maevelin. The universe is a terrible place, and it doesn’t care about you. It never will.”
“Yes, sir,” she whispered, her eyes brimming with tears she didn’t understand, her body filling with emotions she couldn’t comprehend.
Zeke cleared his throat. “Summon your slave in here and go about your work. I want the full report of your mission by dinner.”
“Yes, sir,” she repeated. She was on autopilot.
Maeve stood and bowed her head without glancing back his way. She was so torn, so confused about what just happened and feared if she looked at him she’d burst out in tears. None of this was good. Zekekiel wanted to speak with Teak alone, a fact he made very clear, and a pit opened in her stomach.
She made for the door and pulled it open. “I want to see him now, Maevelin,” Zeke called, and she paused.
“Yes, sir.”
After the door shut, Maeve was in a full sprint down the hallway, past the servants dusting away, up the stairs that she took two at a time, and then one at a time because she was out of shape. She sped down the corridor that would lead to her room, and passed Keeli’s door, sliding to a halt in front of her bedroom. She panted hard, catching her breath from her long dash across the home.
When she pushed the door open, she found Teak sitting on her bed, his head buried in his hands. “Glad to see you didn’t jump to your death from the balcony.�
�� She didn’t know why she said that, but it was out of her mouth before she realized it.
“What?”
“Nothing. Look,” Maeve made her way over to the bed and tossed the packages down next to him. “I need you to get dressed. Get out of those bloody clothes and put these on.”
“Why?” His voice was a refreshing sound after not hearing it for too long. “What’s going on?”
“Zekekiel Vint has summoned you.”
Eighteen
Teak stood before the door of Zekekiel Vint’s office, his back straight and his breath steady. At least, he’d like to think it was. The male behind the door was one of the most powerful beings in Vora Galaxy and it would be now, when he was at his lowest point, that they met. He lifted his arm and hesitated a moment before knocking.
“Enter.” The only word that came from beyond the thick wood barrier between him and the formidable male on the other side.
Fear wasn’t something Teak felt in that moment. His fear didn’t come with apprehension or with the unknown. Not anymore. Not since Maeve. Fear presented itself in a way he didn’t understand anymore.
Fear was Maeve. It encompassed itself around her every move. His thoughts encompassed her always. His only fear was her undoing and it trumped anything else he could possibly go through in life. Nothing was more terrifying than losing her.
As Teak stepped into the naturally lit room, the curtains billowing slightly in the salty breeze, he was met with a… male. Just a male. Not the master to which Maeve’s entire world revolved. Not a king on a throne as he’d imagined. Not a sovereign who sat above and lorded over all he owned like he’d been told to believe. No, he was met with a male, and if he was being honest, a male not much larger than Teak was himself. Could it be a gross underestimation of Vint that clouded his judgement? Possibly. Could it be that the male that sat on the other side of the desk, boring holes into Teak’s skull, was no more than what he appeared to be in that moment? Also a possibility.
“Sit.”
Teak did what was asked and sat in the chair opposite his sovereign but didn’t speak. Instead, he watched his opponent’s every move, his mind too busy working on solving the puzzle that was Vint.
After a long moment of painful silence, which Teak wouldn’t dare break out of the last bit of pride he had left. Vint finally spoke. “Why?”
There were too many answers for that small question and Teak couldn’t pick just one. There was no way he could, and even if he were able to, Vint wouldn’t accept a single answer he gave. “Why what?”
“Why her?”
Of all the possible things Teak thought he would be asked, why her was nowhere on his list. It threw his already fragile mental state off further. Still, there wasn’t a single acceptable answer and Teak knew it, but he could play the game they were currently locked in on his worst day. “I was dealt a fate.” Teak sat straighter in his chair when Vint’s body went rigid at his response. Maybe it was better if his opponent thought there to be nothing between him and their prized possession. “She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. But you knew that, since you were the reason she was there. Tell me, has it begun yet?”
“Do not pretend to know a single thing about me.”
Teak only smiled. Getting under the skin of a powerful being when you were currently the scum of nothing, felt too good to pass up. “I know more than you wish me to know. That I am sure of.”
Vint stood swiftly, knocking his chair over in the process. The strong wood and soft leathers smashed hard against the unforgiving floor. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner in my own home. You are nothing but property. You are a slave under my household and will never be anything more than that ever again. I could do unimaginable things to you, Teakin Kade. I could hang your body from the docks and not a living soul on this planet would say a fucking word to me.”
Again, Teak sat silenced. He’d been shut down by his opponent in mere moments, but it wasn’t the anger he’d been hit with that sank into his mind and his soul, it was the words spoken. He’d never be anything other than the slave he was now. Never. Not if he couldn’t get himself and Maeve out of here, out of bondage, out of the reach of Zekekiel Vint himself. Though, it did strike a tightly wound cord within him. One that had now been struck too hard for him to ignore.
“I know what you have done, Kade.” Vint continued. “I know what you did on Hydron-5 and I know the only thing that stands between you and the icy cold abyss of death is me.”
Interesting. Vint was playing a strong one sided game, determined to grab control of the situation as quickly as possible. There was no build up. “Then what’s stopping you from handing me over?”
Vint righted his chair and slowly took his seat before folding his hands together on the desktop. He kept his eyes on Teak, but still he didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, though. Teak knew all along. Maeve is what held him back.
A smug smile crossed his lips, and Teak tilted his head in curiosity. “You care for her don’t you?”
Silence.
“More than you should. More than a male should care for his property, perhaps. More than a master should care for his slave.”
Again, there was silence, but the emotions which laid behind those bright yellow eyes told Teak everything he needed to know about the Tallek sitting before him. Vint felt deeply.
“My only question is, which way do those emotions sway?”
“You can give her nothing, Kade. You are nothing. You don’t have anything, not anymore.” Vint’s eyes went cold once again and the male which should never be underestimated came back to the conversation. “She is everything, has everything. She wants for nothing here and all you will do is ruin any future chance she has at happiness. Know that as you go forward. Know that, as my hands look seemingly tied at the moment, one move on my part will have you swinging by your neck. I own your life. I own you.”
There was a finality in the way he said those words that killed one more thing inside Teak. Owned. How did beings live with this feeling of being so out of control of their own lives, their own bodies in most cases? He wanted to roar, wanted to fight something, kill again, just to make himself feel better. But none of that would change any of the current facts. He was a slave, and he’d be a slave until his last breath.
But Maeve would not be. This meeting with Zekekiel Vint had only fueled his drive to fight in the pits, to use his body to win her freedom as he promised he’d do. She wouldn’t live like that forever. She’d be free, and he couldn’t wait for that day.
“You may think you know why I am doing the things I am, and maybe you are right. Maybe I am doing this because a part of me fears the loss of loyalty from my property as you so eloquently put.” Vint sighed and sat back in his chair. It was odd watching a male as powerful as he relax, especially because it was the complete opposite of how Teak felt inside. “Or, maybe it’s because I know deep down you did what you did because of Maevelin, and that, Kade, is your only saving grace. I cannot put up with someone like you, who has not a thing to their name but a slave debt, but I can stomach your actions and quick thinking.”
“I did what anyone would have done.”
“Roth was there, and he did nothing.” The look in Vint’s eyes that showed emotion, sent a chill down Teak’s spine. He knew the whole truth, that Roth couldn’t have done a single thing, but Vint didn’t seem to care. Actions spoke to the male in front of him, and Teak had made a mental note of that. “Whether you wish to believe it or not, giving yourself to that female was the only thing that kept Maevelin and Keeli safe. But, never pretend my respect goes any further than that, Kade.”
When Teak arrived back to the bedroom, he was shocked to find some sort of peace in Maeve not being there. On one hand, he hated himself for the need of a reprieve at the moment. On the other, the meeting with Vint hadn’t gone as expected, and he needed time alone to think. Something he wouldn’t get if she were here standing before him. Whether he could talk to her or not,
or dare for her to catch him looking, he still wanted to be around her.
Vint brought up Hydron-5, and Teak shouldn’t have been surprised to find out the Tallek council member, the one who had his hand in too many places in the galaxy, had known exactly what happened. What he was surprised about, was the fact that he was currently still living and breathing. Vint had the control now, and there was nothing at all Teak could do about it.
That hadn’t been something he’d considered. Never did he think, once it was known what he’d done, that he would be left alone and not swinging by a rope or frozen to death in the deep black vacuum of space. He’d made an attempt to cut Maeve off emotionally, not wanting her to get any closer to him because he knew his days were numbered. They still were, but now those days were held in the hands of one powerful male instead of the law of the galaxy. It wasn’t a better place to be in the least.
Teak threw himself on the bed and inhaled that intoxicating feminine scent that was Maeve. The room was covered in her. This too could easily be his favorite place in the galaxy, but not because of the heat of the Light Star or the warm breeze and water view. It was for an entirely selfish reason altogether.
His body was beginning to make the point of no return with her, and whether he needed to push her away right now or not, soon he wouldn’t even have the mind to. And damn himself that he didn’t care either. Teak needed her to think he was broken because of what had been done to him, and in part he was. It wasn’t something he’d wish on his worst enemy, but that wasn’t where the silence and emotional distance ended. He’d done terrible things behind those doors, things he knew would get him killed if he couldn’t find a way to disappear. Things that would eventually take him from her.
If he could stand it, if he could bare not touch her or look at her, then maybe the price she’d pay for his actions wouldn’t be her end.
Unfortunately, he’d seen it in her eyes already. Whether she knew it or not, Maeve was getting too deep and it wasn’t just his life he’d be forced to give up. If he was found, or if Vint decided that keeping him alive and around wasn’t useful to him anymore, they’d both share his fate.
