by M. K. Eidem
"It will be late into the dark shift."
"Then we'll…"
"We're running low on Galaian Rum," Mae chimed in, drawing Cali's attention. "I was going to go down to the storage unit and get a case once things calmed down."
"You shouldn't be doing that in your condition," Cali chided.
"You did it all the time when you were the manager," Mae told her stubbornly.
"I wasn't about to present offspring!"
"Well, then I guess you can just go get it," Mae said, a small smile curving her lips.
Cali's eyebrows drew together. Mae usually never interfered with another being's business. Mae normally didn't like to draw undue attention on herself, something leftover from growing up on Gala, but it seemed the security of becoming The Brink's manager had changed that. "I guess I can."
"Unit ML105," Mae told her.
Cali frowned at her. "I know which unit is ours, Mae."
"We'll meet you there." Jamis ended the transmission before Cali could respond, and she suddenly realized what Mae had done. She'd allowed the Commanders to meet with her.
"Why did you tell them that?"
"Because I think you should hear what the Commanders have to say. They seem very interested in you."
"Really?" Cali gave her a skeptical look. "You can say that after they planned to fuck another female?"
Mae waved a dismissive hand. "But they didn't. All males make stupid mistakes."
"Does that include Tay?"
"Sometimes," Mae admitted. "But what you need to do is decide if you're willing to forgive them or give up on something that could potentially be life-altering!"
"Why do you say that?" Mae knew she'd been with the Commanders, but Cali hadn't gone into great detail about it.
"Because working here, I've heard thousands of tales about females the Commanders have been with, past and present. But never in all those stories did someone claim the Commanders all but begged to meet with her. We both know that's true because if they had, it would have spread faster than a Verian rash."
Cali couldn't help but smile because it was well known how fast and nasty that particular rash was. "True."
"So that means they're seriously interested in you."
"I'm just not sure I can trust them," Cali whispered, the fear she hadn't admitted to herself.
"Then don't, but you'll never know if you can unless you listen to them first." Mae gave her a sad look. "My ma used to say, 'If you don't listen, Mae, you'll never know what you don't know.'"
"She sounds like a wise woman."
"She was and a good ma."
"You will be too, Mae."
"I hope so."
"I know so." Cali gave her a reassuring hug. "Now, I guess I better do as you said and find out what the Commanders want."
Smiling, Mae watched her boss and friend leave the bar. Hopefully, she'd come back with a smile on her face. Turning back to the bar, Mae frowned at the untouched drink sitting there.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Cali made sure to stay out of the workers' way, unloading cargo from supply ships attached to the Star Base via airlocks. As a single ship rarely carried cargo for just one business, merchants were assigned a specific storage area for their wares. Ships would dock at the airlock closest to the one with the largest merchant order, then transfer the rest. The Brink's storage area happened to be the farthest away because they did order a full ship more often than not. It also had its own airlock.
As she moved closer to The Brink's area, other beings became fewer and fewer until she could hear her footsteps echoing down the corridor. Rounding the curve, she was surprised to find Jamis and Taarig already there.
"Cali." Taarig was the first one to see her, a welcoming smile on his face.
"Sub Commander," she acknowledged. The only thing she'd decided as she walked was that Jamis and Taarig were going to have to make the first move. Yes, she was keeping something vital from them, but they were the ones who planned on taking another female to their bed. Her gaze shifted. "Commander. You wished to speak with me?"
"We did," Taarig answered for both of them, his smile dimming at her cool response. "We felt we should explain."
"Explain what?"
"What occurred between Tecumseh and us."
"Tecumseh… Tecumseh…" Cali tapped a finger against her lip as if she were trying to remember. "Oh, you're referring to the Si female the two of you took back to the Commander's quarters to fuck."
To their credit, they both looked abashed, but it was Taarig who continued to speak, "Yes, that's what we wanted to talk to you about."
"Really? You think I want to hear about your getting naked with another female before she attempted to kill you?"
"No!" Taarig denied. "But we need to explain what happened and why."
"I already know what happened, Taarig. Ruk! Every being on the Star Base knows. As to the why, I know that too." She turned her attention to Jamis. "What was it you said back when we were in that survival shelter, Jamis? That I should fuck you because I'd get to experience something no other Earthan ever had? Well, I think that's why you did it. Both of you. So you can brag that you've fucked an Earthan."
"That's a lie!" Jamis growled, moving forward until he’d caged Cali between him and the wall. He knew the kind of male he was and what had happened in the past, but he'd never, in his entire life span, used a female the way Cali thought he had her. And he refused to let her believe he had. "I admit I wanted to fuck you from the moment I first met you. You attract me as no other female ever has, and I'm not used to denying myself."
"That's well known." Cali had to tip her head back to glare at Jamis. But she refused to back down even though her back was literally against the wall. "Now, take a step back."
"No. You will listen to what I have to say."
That had Cali pausing. Isn't that what Mae had encouraged her to do? To listen to Jamis and Taarig before making her decision. That little Galaian gave good advice. "Then talk."
"While my past… interactions with females are well known," Jamis began knowing she needed to know it all. "What isn't known is that every time I'm with you, my creation sphere wants to lower."
"What?" She couldn't have been more shocked if Jamis had suddenly struck her because she knew what that meant for an Apre. He had to be lying but searching his swirling grey eyes; she saw only sincerity.
"It also occurs with me." Jamis had shifted so Taarig could stand beside him.
Looking to Taarig, Cali found the same sincerity in his eyes.
"Then why?" she whispered, looking back and forth between them.
The hurt in Cali's eyes and voice gutted Jamis, and he knew he had to be brutally honest. After all, she was his Lalla. "Because I was terrified."
Cali's eyes widened in disbelief because an Apre would never admit that. "Of what?"
"Of all my future happiness, resting with a being whose life span is so much shorter than my own." Jamis’s gaze had softened, and he lifted a hand to caress her cheek gently.
"Jamis…"
"Please, let me finish." The please had Cali nodding because she knew it was a word Jamis rarely used. "I fought against my feelings. That's what the other female was about, but I know here," he touched an area over his heart, "that I would never have gone through with it. I couldn't because my heart, mind, and soul belong to you and always will. You are my Lalla, Cali, and if you give me a chance, I will spend the rest of my life span proving I'm worthy of you."
"Your Lalla…" she gasped.
"Our Lalla," Taarig said, gently caressing her other cheek. He'd remained silent as Jamis expressed his feelings because it was something Jamis so rarely did, but now it was his turn. When Cali turned her soft, hopeful gaze to him, he took it. "I, too, will spend the rest of my life span trying to make up for what I almost did. My heart is yours, Cali. Please, be our Lalla."
Cali didn't try to stop her eyes from filling as she reached out to cup each of their cheeks. Before her
stood the two males who captured her heart even when she'd fought against it. They’d accepted her, exposed their deepest secrets and fears to her and for her. Now it was time for her to do the same.
"Yes, Gods’, yes, but first I need to tell you…" Cali trailed off when Taarig suddenly grunted. His back slammed against the wall then his feet began to slide out from under him as he slowly went down it, leaving a broad, red streak behind.
"Taarig!" Cali tried to grab him before he hit the floor but froze when a piece of the wall shattered between them.
"Don't move or the next onesss in hisss head."
Cali's gaze flew down the corridor to find Nalo, a frequent customer of The Brink, standing near the airlock, suppressors on the active weapon he held in each hand. One trained on Taarig and the other on Jamis. Seeing the weapons, she finally realized what happened to Taarig.
"You shot him!" she accused.
Nalo shrugged, "He'll sssurvive if he receivesss treatment soon." His elongated gaze shifted back to Jamis. "Ah ah ah, Commander, ssstay where you are, or I ssshoot her." He gestured toward Cali with the weapon he'd used on Taarig.
"What do you want?" Jamis growled. Instinct told him to grab Cali and run, but that meant leaving Taarig behind, something he'd never considered doing before. A quick glance at Taarig revealed that while he was struggling to breathe, he was awake and using a hand signal they'd developed to tell him to leave before he passed out.
"For you to sssuffer the way I've sssuffered," Nalo hissed, then turned his attention back to Cali. "Come over here, unlesss you want one of your bond matesss to die."
"Stay where you are, Cali," Jamis immediately ordered.
"Fine, then ssshe can watch him die." Cali watched as Nalo aimed the weapon at Taarig and prepared to pull the trigger.
"Wait!" Moving before Jamis could stop her, she stepped into Nalo's line of fire.
"Come clossser," he gestured to Cali, " and Commander, don't try anything, or I end her ssspan."
Jamis’s entire body vibrated with the need to act. The life span of the male he'd bonded with nearly two hundred years ago was slowly slipping away at his feet while the Lalla they both had only just found was in mortal danger, and there was nothing he could do.
"In there," Nalo pointed one weapon toward what Cali now realized was an open airlock.
"Why?" she demanded.
"The longer you hesssitate, the lesss chansss the Sssub Commander hasss of sssurviving."
Cali knew Nalo was telling the truth because she could feel Taarig slipping away. Glaring her hatred for him, she walked past Nalo and into the airlock. She'd barely crossed the safety line before the door whooshed shut behind her.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Cali turned, pounding angrily on the inner airlock door, and screamed. "Nalo! Let me out!" Even though she knew it wasn't going to happen. She'd seen the look in his eyes. He was going to eject her.
Spinning around, she touched her link as she scanned the airlock for something that could save her.
"What is it, Cali?" Xanto's voice filled her ear.
"I'm locked in ML105's airlock," she told him as she spied stabilizing straps hooked in the walls. Running to them, she began wrapping them around her.
"WHAT?!!"
"I'll explain later. Just get here! Taarig is injured, and…" As she was sucked out into the cold, dark emptiness of space, the rest of what she wanted to say turned into a silent scream.
Chapter Twenty
"Cali!" Jamis exclaimed, horrified, taking a step toward the closed door.
"Ssshe isssn't ended yet, Commander," Nalo told him as he elbowed up the safety shield for outer door release.
Jamis immediately froze as his ears picked up the faint thumping from inside the airlock, telling him Cali was still alive. Looking to Nalo, he demanded, "Why are you doing this?"
"Because you need to know what it feelsss like to lossse everything, and for your life ssspan to continue when you have nothing to live for. I was ssso upssset when Tecumssseh failed to end you on the transssport, and then again with her vipersss."
Jamis’s eyes widened at that. He'd known there'd been something familiar about Tecumseh, but he'd never put it together with her being the same Si female on the sabotaged transport. All that just to end him? Suddenly it all became clear.
"You are Taini’s mate."
"I wasss her mate!" Nalo hissed. "Until you entisssed her into betraying her vowsss, then when you left Sssion, you callousssly left her behind."
Jamis wanted to defend himself of the lies Taini had told her mate but knew it would do no good, not with the madness in Nalo's eyes.
"I'd planned on dessstroying you ssslowly. By causssing chaosss and ruining your command."
"You were behind all the accidents and the changed flight paths."
"Yesss," Nalo hissed gleefully. "But thisss will be ssso much better. You will lossse not one but two matesss and have to live the ressst of your life ssspan knowing it wasss all your fault."
"You'll never get away with this, Nalo."
"But I will becaussse you will be asss alone asss you made me." With that, Nalo pressed a weapon beneath his chin and, as his elbow slammed into the outer door release ejecting Cali into space, pulled the trigger.
"No!" Jamis screamed, but he knew he had no chance of saving Cali. The moment the exterior door began to open, Cali's life span had ended, her body sucked out into space along with Jamis’s future.
Ignoring the rest of the Si's body, he turned to the bond mate he still had. Touching his link, he dropped to his knees beside Taarig and pressed his hands to Taarig’s chest, trying to stem the flow of blood from the through-and-through blast.
"Hold on, Taarig," Jamis ordered hoarsely, and Taarig's eyes flickered open.
"What did you need, Commander?" came a voice in Jamis’s ear.
"Get to ML105, Lead Meddyg Ra, Sub Commander Ynn is injured."
"On our way, Commander."
"Let me see her, J," Taarig gurgled, his eyes pleading, "one last time."
Jamis’s chest couldn't have felt more constricted if that Sion Viper had him in her coils. How could he tell his bond mate and life-long friend that he'd failed to save their Lalla, especially when he, too, was so close to following her?
"Don't talk like that, T," Jamis ordered, trying to force his will into him as he pressed down harder. "Just hold on, the Meddygs are on their way."
"J," blood bubbled out of the corner of Taarig's mouth, "please!"
Tears flowed down Jamis’s cheeks because he couldn't give Taarig his last request. He'd been in enough battles, had seen enough injuries to know that the Meddygs wouldn’t get here in time. "I'm sorry, T," he choked out, "she's gone."
The gurgling breath Taarig sucked in told Jamis how near Taarig was to the end. So, he was shocked when Taarig lifted a trembling hand and pointed behind him.
Swinging around, Jamis was stunned by what he saw. While he'd been trying to save the bond mate he still had, the inner airlock door had opened. Exiting it was a four-legged creature that only existed in ancient space lore.
Its snout crossed the threshold first. The flaps over its nostrils were opening and closing as it scented the room. A massive, scale-covered head followed. It had two black orbs centered on either side of the snout. Those orbs zeroed in on Nalo's decapitated body, and the scales that concealed its mouth made a clicking sound as they curled back in a snarl, revealing razor-sharp shards of obsidian.
As it crept toward Nalo's body across the metal floor, the long, curved talons on each paw screeched as they dug in. The rest of its body was covered in the same dark scales and seemed to absorb the light instead of reflecting it. A long, barbed tail followed, swishing angrily back and forth.
The thump of Taarig's hand on the floor pulled Jamis’s gaze from the beast to witness the life fade from Taarig's eyes. As it did, the creature released a guttural howl as dark, cold, and primal as the universe itself. It pierced Jamis’s soul.
; From the corner of his eye, Jamis saw the beast launch itself toward him but couldn't find a reason to care. Not with his bond mate and Lalla gone. Baring his throat to the beast, he closed his eyes and waited. He wanted the next thing he saw to be his loved ones on the other side.
But the strike never came.
Instead, hands covered his. Small, soft hands that felt exactly like…
"Move, Jamis," Cali ordered, shouldering him aside. "I can still save him!"
Jamis’s eyes flew open when he found himself at Taarig's feet and was shocked to see Cali straddling Taarig's body. But it wasn't their Cali. This Cali had black scales covering part of her face and body and black spikes for hair. Only her glowing, topaz eyes reminded him of their Cali, as did the scale-free hands this Cali pressed against Taarig's chest.
"Come on, Taarig," he heard her mumble. "Come on. Stay with me. Stay with us. Let me pull you back."
Jamis moved closer as this Cali's hands glowed brighter and brighter, and more scales began to dissolve, leaving behind pale, naked flesh. Simultaneously, the blood flow from Taarig's injury stopped, and his body began to glow. His back arched off the wall, then, for the first time since being shot, Taarig sucked in a deep, clear breath.
"Cali?" Taarig croaked, his eyes fluttering open as he relaxed back against the wall.
"You're going to be fine, Taarig," she reassured him, with a shaky smile as she kept her power flowing into him. "Just stay with me."
"She's not…" Jamis began only to be cut off by a shout.
"Cali!"
Xanto had left the Brink at a dead run, ignoring the angry shouts of the beings he shoved out of his way. Thousands of scenarios had flashed through his mind for how Cali had become sealed in an airlock, none of them good. But what worried him most was the way her comm had cut out and the primal howl that had nearly knocked him off his feet before he could reach her.
The entire base would have heard it, and while most would think a piece of machinery malfunctioning caused it, he knew what it really was; the howl of a Zagreus Beast. Something only heard when the Beast was in excruciating pain. Sliding around the last curve of the storage area, he couldn't believe what he found.
