Trazen must have heard that, too.
He let out another frustrated-sounding growl.
“No,” he said, his voice angry. “Do you really not understand this? The venom goes two ways, Jet. It always has. You’ve just never been educated on how it actually works.”
Jet’s eyes widened more as his words sank in, even as she continued to pant against his hand.
Two ways? The venom goes two ways?
What the hell was he talking about?
“Do you really want me to sting you?” he said, his voice still low. “Jet. Think about what you are asking. I cannot promise you––”
But she was already nodding her head, jerking it up and down vigorously.
Yes, she thought at him loudly. Yes, damn it!
He exhaled in exasperation.
Again she felt frustration on him.
“Jet, you are being unreasonable,” he said.
That time, he almost sounded like the Trazen she knew from before all this.
Cold, borderline condescending, his voice stripped of emotion.
“I understand why you are being unreasonable,” Trazen added. “But it does not make what you are asking of me any more rational. Moreover, I cannot do as you ask. I cannot.”
She shook her head, struggling against the hand over her mouth.
She fought to argue with him, but he wouldn’t let her go.
He didn’t remove his fingers but shook her lightly, sharpening his voice.
“If you will just wait a few days, I can perhaps obtain more of the serum.”
Going still briefly, she thought about that, too.
When she turned her head to look at him, he took his fingers off her mouth, slowly, returning her gaze with a grim look.
“Why not just sting me?” she whispered, still watching his face.
“I cannot.”
“Why not?”
He exhaled in a rumbling growl, giving her an annoyed look. As if seeing the anger building back in her expression, he held up a hand in warning.
“It is not only what I said to Laksri,” he said, quieter. “I have taken… vows. I cannot do what you are asking of me. Not without taking precautions.”
“What kind of vows?” she said, feeling her brow wrinkle.
Who the hell was he, anyway?
As if hearing that, too, he pressed his dark lips together.
After another pause where she just stared at him in bewilderment, he let a low rumble of a growl come out of his chest.
“You’re not going to tell me that, either?” she said in disbelief.
He gave her a more exasperated look.
“It is not important, Jet,” he warned. “What is relevant is that those vows do not allow me to sting and molest humans simply because they cannot wait a few extra days for information… versus attempting to prostitute themselves to me.”
Anger flushed her skin.
Anger, but also disbelief.
Some portion of her reaction must have reached her expression because Trazen clamped his muscular hand back over her mouth. He pressed her body and face back into the adobe wall before he leaned closer once more and whispered in her ear.
“I do not work for Laksri, all right?” he said. “I am not doing this for him! I work for others.”
Who? she thought at him, as loudly as he could.
Trazen must have heard her, because he sighed.
“I cannot tell you,” he said. “Not yet.”
She gave him another hard glare over his fingers wrapping her mouth.
His expression didn’t budge.
“I cannot tell you, Jet,” he growled. “But know this: I am not overly concerned with the political conquests of Richter or any of the First Sons, including your friend, Laksri. Not beyond what they are doing to the soul of my people. I have my own reasons for taking part in this. I have my own reason for being here, too.”
Jet’s mind whirled around his words.
Her frown deepened against the fingers over her mouth.
The soul of his people? His own reasons for being here?
What the hell did any of that mean?
“I cannot tell you that, either,” he growled.
Jet tried to look at him again, fighting to speak, but he shook her again lightly.
“I will, though,” he said, lower. “Not tonight, but I will. I promise, Jet. All right? Even if I cannot get ahold of the drug, I will find some way that we can talk.”
She felt that indecision on him again, but still had no idea what it meant.
“You will find out anyway,” he added then, his voice gruff. “You must have discerned that we will have to do something drastic to keep you from being killed in the challenge match.”
Jet let out a derisive snort.
Why the hell would he care about that?
He gave her a hard look.
“Because I need you, Jet,” he said, his voice still soft. “The people I work for need you as much as Laksri and Richter. Perhaps more. You are still the best hope we have of an alliance between human and Nirreth. You have ties to rebels among the skags who do not yet belong to Richter. Rebels we believe would be reasonable about compromise and joint leadership… and moral about the type of world they would build.”
His voice grew lower, filled with an emotion that bewildered her.
“Like it or not, you are a symbol, Jet,” he said. “More than you know. Even to the humans here.” He motioned at the buildings around them with his head and eyes. “You are a symbol to them, too, although they fear for their lives under Isreti, and with good reason. We need to demonstrate to them that you are not broken yet. They must see you as you are. Not merely a puppet of my people, but someone like them, with a mind of your own. The challenge could allow us that opening.”
She let out another derisive snort.
He shook her a second time, anger bleeding off his skin.
“I won’t let them kill you, Jet! I promise you! That is not what I meant!”
She stared up at him, not hiding her bewilderment.
Who the hell are you? she thought at him loudly.
He didn’t answer.
Even so, the way his dark eyes darted back towards hers, she found herself thinking he’d heard her.
He just didn’t want to tell her.
Before she could try to ask him more, his eyes shifted up, scaling the walls and windows over where they stood. Another light had come on. She didn’t see anyone in any of those windows yet, not even any silhouettes, and they were in the shadows now, not visible even in the moonlight.
She felt nerves on Trazen anyway.
She watched him look around and found herself thinking his fear was genuine. He didn’t want them to be caught out here, not alone.
He was afraid of what the residents here would do to them.
He was afraid of what they might do to Jet. He seemed to think they wouldn’t kill him, although they might try to capture him and use him for leverage, possibly even as a hostage of some kind.
They’d have no such qualms about killing her.
Her own people.
“Right now, they see you as a traitor, Jet,” he said, soft. “Not all humans, and not all Nirreth… but the ones out here, yes. They hate all slaves of the Center, maybe especially those who fight in the Rings.”
He gripped her tighter in his arms, watching her face.
“Trust me on this, Jet. We are not safe here. Not now. Hopefully we can change that. But for now, you are a rich lizard’s pet to them, nothing more.”
She felt the truth of his words.
Well, he seemed to believe them anyway.
That, or he was trying really hard to convince her that he did.
She was still trying to make sense of everything he’d said when Trazen pulled her bodily off the wall. He began walking with her back through the buildings she’d run through to get away from him. One of his hands held her wrists in front of her, the other he kept clamped over her mouth.
His tail coiled around her waist, holding her tightly against him while he walked.
She didn’t fight him.
She didn’t see the point now, so she just walked, letting him push her ahead of him.
She didn’t stop thinking about what he’d said.
She turned over every word, repeating them in her head, the whole time he guided her through the shadows and back to the waiting trolley.
She fully intended to hold him to it, however.
For the first time in a really long time, she also had some small spark of hope.
Not just that she might learn the truth, but that a real rebellion existed here.
Something that wasn’t about Richter and his delusional quest for power. Something that wouldn’t involve humans remaining the house pets of Nirreth for the next few hundred years. Something both Nirreth and humans wanted, that wouldn’t involve destroying either species.
She needed more, though.
She needed to know the rest.
Not just about Trazen, but all of it.
Something told her Trazen might be the only one who could give her that now.
7
Not As Alone As You Think
“Hey! Are you all right, girl?” Tyra grabbed her arm, then flinched, blinking in surprise when Jet turned on her abruptly, her arm half-cocked. “Whoa… hey! Relax. It’s just me.”
Jet lowered her arm, feeling her face flush.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m a little jumpy, I guess.”
“I guess,” Tyra said, chuckling.
She didn’t lose her smile, but her eyes remained wary, studying Jet’s face.
“I just wanted to check in with you,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot of… stuff. And not all of it from Anslom. This is the first time I’ve even seen you to ask…”
She gestured around them at the Rings practice yard.
Jet followed her eyes.
Truthfully, she was having trouble focusing on Tyra even now, or her question. When she looked back at the other woman’s face, the taller woman frowned, her full lips scrunched.
“Hey, seriously,” she said. “Are you okay, Jet?”
Jet forced a smile, coming even more out of the fighting stance she’d barely noticed herself falling into.
“Yes. Yes… I’m fine.” She smiled again, a little more normally that time. “Sorry. I’m a little wound up about the challenge match, that’s all.”
At that, Tyra seemed to relax, too.
Then, as if thinking about Jet’s words, the other woman gave a derisive snort.
She looked over one muscular shoulder while Jet watched, staring at the other woman who shared part of the space with the two of them.
The look in Tyra’s eyes was pure hostility.
The third woman in the arena with the two of them, who weighed more than Tyra and Jet combined and soaking wet, didn’t spare them so much as a glance. She swung a sword the size of a small tree trunk as Jet watched, slicing a metal remote ball coming at her in two, cutting through it like it was made of paper.
“Challenge match?” Tyra said, snorting again. She looked back at Jet, one eyebrow cocked. “You mean public execution?”
Jet winced at the accuracy of the other’s words.
She knew Tyra probably meant it as a joke.
For the same reason, she forced herself to laugh humorlessly.
“Appreciate the vote of confidence, Tyra,” she said, clapping her friend on the shoulder with one hand. “Thanks for that.”
Tyra barely seemed to hear her.
She turned back from where she’d been staring at the giant woman, Bukka. Tyra’s cat-like eyes narrowed on Jet’s face.
“Why did Trazen agree to it?” she said, her stare sharpening. “I mean, I got it before. He was trying to put the First Son in his place––”
“Tyra,” Jet cut in, her voice warning. “We can’t talk about this.”
“But why?” Tyra said. “He never stuck me as a sniveling, political kiss-ass, whatever his other issues. He has to know what this match is really about!”
“Tyra, for crying out loud.”
Jet looked around the two of them, checking to make sure no Nirreth were close enough to be listening.
She looked back at Tyra, incredulous.
“Keep your voice down,” she said, her voice a low threat. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
On its own, calling Laksri “First Son” was treason, now that he’d been replaced by Isreti.
Tyra knew that. She had to know it. She’d been in the Green Zone longer than Jet.
But Jet’s words barely seemed to make a dent in the other woman’s tirade.
“…Why would he do this now?” Tyra went on, almost like Jet hadn’t spoken. “Trazen owns you now. Why would he agree to something so stupid? Did you piss him off or something?”
Tyra’s eyes narrowed more, studying Jet with an intelligence that frankly unnerved her.
“Did he get bought off? Does someone want you gone, Jet?”
Jet grimaced, fighting to keep the truth of the other woman’s words out of her expression. Shaking her head, she unsheathed her sword, leaning over to pick up the sharpening stone at her feet so that if anyone was watching the two of them, at least she’d be doing something.
Smoothing the whet stone along the edge of the blade, she hesitated only a bare moment before she decided to take a chance.
After all, she didn’t have Anaze and Richter around anymore, telling her how stupid she was for wanting to trust Tyra with any part of the truth.
And Trazen, despite his promises of that night, still hadn’t told her anything.
He claimed it was because he hadn’t been able to get any more of that drug. He hadn’t stung her apart from right before her practice sessions for the same reason, and those stings he’d done in public, and in full view of at least one other Nirreth, if not a group of them.
Jet had seen a few of them watching with interest when Trazen pulled her closer to him each of those times.
Jet had to admit, it had gotten harder to keep her hands off him when he did it, public or not. Since that night in Santa Fe, it was harder to convince herself he was just another evil, manipulative, lying Nirreth, which didn’t help.
He seemed to be having more problems with it, too.
He held her a little longer than necessary after those stings.
The pauses before he let her go seemed to be stretching, too.
That day, he held her for what felt like a few minutes, stroking her hair, arms, and back with his hands, purring softly in his chest. Eventually, he’d let her go. She’d noticed his face was taut as he turned his back and walked away.
She hadn’t missed his arousal in that.
Nor had he been the only one.
Clearly, he’d gone out of his way beforehand to make sure neither of them could really act on it, apart from a few quick touches. In the process, he’d also made sure Jet wouldn’t have either the time or the clarity to ask him much of anything.
Scowling as she remembered the truncated conversation they’d had earlier that same day, right before this practice session, Jet looked back up at Tyra.
“I think someone does want me dead,” she murmured.
She gave Tyra a warning look, glancing around.
“Trazen thinks so, too. But you have to know you’re risking my life even asking me about this, Tyra. Much less expecting me to give you a real answer.”
Tyra blinked, maybe in surprise Jet had been honest.
Then a smile stole up the corners of her mouth.
“What? Because of Anslom?” She snorted, refolding her arms across her chest. “You’re worried he’s the big bad who’ll turn you in?”
Anslom was Tyra’s Nirreth boyfriend.
He was also her Rings trainer, and used to be a member of the Royal Guard.
“Partly him, yeah,” Jet said.
“You think he’d go running off to the new Royals? Tell them what we’ve
been talking about?”
Jet glanced around in reflex, then shrugged, drawing the stone in another long, smooth scrape along the edge of Black’s blade.
“The thought crossed my mind,” she murmured.
Tyra nodded thoughtfully, then crouched down, as if she were doing something over the blade. From only a few inches away, she met Jet’s gaze.
“You’ve got more friends here than you think, Jet,” she said quietly, giving her a meaningful stare. “And humans have more friends among the Nirreth than you seem to realize, too.”
Smiling, she let her voice grow lower before adding,
“The venom thing. It goes two ways, you know? The Nirreth, they’re a lot more vulnerable to it than you seem to get. Miracle samurai or no, you need an education in Nirreth biology, Jet… and probably in their psychology, too. In any case, Anslom is a true friend, but even if he wasn’t, you don’t have to fear me.”
Jet flinched, feeling her eyes widen.
Her heart thudded in her chest as she turned over the woman’s words.
Had Trazen put her up to this?
Tyra used nearly the exact same wording the Ringmaster used in that alley. Fear hit Jet as she wondered if she was being set up, if they were all just lying to her again, toying with her mind and her emotions before Bukka ripped her apart.
And if it wasn’t that, how had Richter, Laksri, and Anaze never told her about this?
She wasn’t sure what to do with the information, in any case.
Tyra seemed to be waiting for Jet to finish reacting to her words.
Then the other woman’s voice grew even lower, her eyes holding more meaning.
“Trazen wanted me to talk to you about this, Jet,” she said softly. “He asked me to talk to you about it, okay? He seems to think you wouldn’t believe it coming from him, given who he is to you. But he was telling the truth. It’s how things are with me and Anslom… it’s how they’ve been with us, almost from the beginning.”
Jet swallowed, hiding her disbelief badly.
Then she fought to hide a different reaction, as something else occurred to her.
Trazen might have stung Tyra to tell her this.
Well, or maybe Trazen had spoken to Anslom about it.
Jet had to fight not to ask Tyra which it was.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 76
