“First, I want to know something,” Titan said, still sprawled on the sofa, his legs spread out wide. One of his hands was numb. His face throbbed. Oh shit, his metal tooth felt loose. Just fucking great. “How did you manage to lose her in the first place?”
A shadow crossed the Yithian’s face and Titan could swear he was sad for a moment. “A fellow Hunter lost his way and sought to take her back from me so he would raise himself in the eyes of her captain, a human female the likes of which your species is sorely deficient.”
“He took her back from you? How? You let him have her just like that?” Nothing like needling a Yithian in the ass, right? Titan needed some time, desperately so. And he was good at stalling, playing games.
“I would not part with her until he paid the price and returned the symbol.” Drokesh pointed to some thick ink work on his belly.
Titan shrugged. “Yeah, whatever you say, so then you let him go and lost Kim. Why didn’t you just find another one?” Like there was anyone like her elsewhere in the galaxy.
A look of pure rage flashed in the opalescent orbs and Drokesh leaned forward. “The human female was mine, is mine, and will always be mine. So I kept my ear to the ground, as you humans say, and waited for a sign from her. When she contacted Mister Collins—I believe the two of you have been acquainted—I sent two of my guards to secure the place.”
“But then I showed up and fucked everything, right?”
Drokesh laughed. “You have indeed.”
“What do you want with her now?”
“She is to be my first concubine.”
Titan arched an eyebrow. He was drawing a blank here. “Fill me in on the details of Yithian mores, would you? I’m not sure I’m following.”
Drokesh leaned back in the sofa. His silver hair didn’t even look messed up. Titan hadn’t given much of a fight. Yet.
“A Yithian’s first concubine is the one chosen to bear the male’s child.”
A gag made Titan cough. “You want that tiny woman to bear you a kid? You Yithians are missing a few screws upstairs.”
A very faint smell floated to Titan. Fruits. Kim?
Without letting it on, he tried to see where the woman could be hiding. Shit. Why didn’t she leave? Much too dangerous for her here. Titan would stall only so long, could stand it only so much. He was getting the crap beaten out of him and on top of the large amounts of pain involved, she was there to see it? Where the hell was she anyway? Behind the door most probably, since she couldn’t have entered the house without them seeing her. Had she seen the other Yithian standing guard?
“Our customs are no worse than your own,” Drokesh replied before sitting up straighter.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s what all of you Yithians say. What about you,” he asked to the one by the door, “do you enjoy raping women half your size as well?” Titan hoped she got the message, wherever she hid.
His eyebrows arched high, Drokesh leaned forward and raised his hand in warning. “I am renowned for my patience, Mister Harris, but you are testing it. I said I would not ask again.”
“And you won’t have to,” Kim said as she darted past the guard and stood with her back to the farthest wall. She had her arm forward, like she was going to shoot them with her fingers. The decoder blinked in several places.
Leaping to his feet, Drokesh took a few steps toward her. One of his hands twitched at his side. “How it pleases me to see you again, little one.”
She smiled a mirthless smile, her eyes cold, her naked feet wide. “My ship is pleased to see you again too.”
As if on cue, a deep rumble shook the whole place, rattled the furniture, made the honeycomb thermoplastic panes squeak and groan. A shadow fell on the room. As one, Titan and the two Yithians looked up to see the large underbelly of a spaceship. It hovered close, much too close to the compound. Its emission heat blazed white-hot. Titan could even see its antennas bristling along the hull like a metal porcupine.
A wide grin stretched his split lip. He looked at Kim and gave her an imperceptible nod. She winked at him.
Titan thought he felt his heart inflate like a balloon—he could swear to it. Goddamn, had anyone told him he’d be going all lovey-dovey for a woman with purple hair, he would’ve put a bullet in them just for insulting him. But hell, he did feel a burning, raging affection for Ballistic Kim, one he couldn’t explain and didn’t want to. Energy returned to his battered body. She needed him to right some terrible wrongs that had been done to her. He was ready. She just had to say the word.
“Do you know what’s inside those buildings over there?” Kim asked of Drokesh.
The Yithian didn’t even look where she pointed. “Nothing relevant to me.”
Kim snorted a laugh. “Oh but you’re wrong. It is. That building is filled with ammo, missiles, kinetic weapons—the works. And can you guess what my ship’s pulse cannon is pointing at right now?”
From where he stood, Titan could see Drokesh blanching noticeably. The guard shifted, his kinetic gun gleaming like a dormant snake.
“You would not destroy us all,” Drokesh replied, making to take a step closer.
“No, you’re not.” Kim slid her hand over the decoder and the rumble outside intensified.
Titan feared for a moment her ship would land on their heads. She piloted it so its ass pointed directly at the house while its prow lined up with the warehouse. That took some piloting skill. And she said she didn’t even have a working gyrocompass! Thrusters blazed white-hot and threatened to melt his whole fucking house down. Even he was getting worried.
“One shot, and everything blows up. Even your two ships holding position up there.”
Drokesh grinned widely. “You have changed, little one. But I will enjoy getting to know you all over again. You were always my favorite.”
Her lips curled up. “I don’t think so. Now tell both your ships to jump, and remember, I speak Yithian well enough to know if you’re fucking around.”
As though he were humoring a headstrong child, he nodded to the guard, who pressed his collar against his neck and hissed something Titan couldn’t get.
Overhead, both Yithian cruisers turned about and banked away from the asteroid. Their tail ends diminished in size, as did their directional lights, until all that remained were the two tiny dots of their firing thrusters. Titan opened his mouth in a silent O when a rip opened in space and both sets of tiny dots were swallowed up by it.
Drokesh had actually done it. How arrogant was that? He couldn’t even see, couldn’t understand the menace. Humans to him were so damn low on the danger scale that he’d send his backup away and would deal with Kim alone.
Titan still studied her, waiting for his cue. Surely she had a plan. The woman had a brain like quicksilver. She had a plan. She must have a plan…did she have a plan? She did, right?
Right?
Drokesh turned toward Kim and motioned for her to join him. “I did as you commanded, little one. Now you must do as I say.”
Kim maintained her ship in midair, bow still pointing menacingly at his warehouse. The light show it’d make if she decided to fire at it.
“Well,” Kim said, her other hand, the one not with the decoder, going to her hip, which she popped sideways and nearly sent Titan swooning with lust. “I think it’s time we get our museum cards and get swiping.”
Ha!
Titan leaped from the sofa and sprinted across the one-room place. His hand was on his SIG before Drokesh had finished cursing in Yithian. He charged for the door.
Whirling around, Titan let his honed reflexes take over.
Boom.
The guard, who was covering his boss’s back, collapsed on his knee.
Boom.
His arm flew back, barely attached to the rest of him, blue blood sprayed on Titan’s wall.
Boom.
Titan made a nice little hole right between the opalescent eyes. Three rounds down, seven to go.
Meanwhile, Drokesh had barreled past th
e parted doors and was already taking the corner when Titan rushed out after him. Man, Yithians could run!
“No time,” Kim yelled behind him. He kicked at the rubble and found his Glock. He could’ve launched into a jig! And it was full too, full of ten, nice, shiny bullets meant for blue foreheads. He slipped his dusty gun back in its holster.
She joined him in the tunnel, even sprinted past him. Her naked feet squeaked on the sprayed-on rubber floor. “Hurry, I’ll get the gyrocompass from the warehouse. You get your ship ready. He’s going to blow it all up!”
Titan gritted his teeth. Fuck. Of course, Drokesh would board his ship and make sure they never had time to get to theirs. While she ran down to the warehouse, Titan fisted the controls to the bay.
“Hurry! Hurryyy!” Kim squealed as she ran back up the slanted hall ten seconds later and bounced in place when it didn’t open fast enough for her. She had the compass under an arm.
Beyond the landing bay, Titan spotted Drokesh already boarding his ship, the hatch closing after him.
They were reaching Titan’s ship when the Yithian cruiser powered up and lifted off the concrete floor. Not even waiting to be fully airborne, Drokesh brought his ship around, scraped the hangar with the tip of his wing and angled his powering-up thrusters at them.
With a yelp, Titan ripped the hatch open and shoved Kim inside, climbing in just as a wave of heat nearly melted his shoes. His best shoes!
While he sealed the hatch, she opened the airlock and rushed inside his ship. Titan found her on the bridge, her face glued to the rectangular porthole above the consoles. She was clicking furiously at the decoder strapped to her arm. Outside a loud roar indicated Drokesh had gunned the engines and flown out of the hangar. A deep tremor shook Titan’s ship.
“This is going to be a rocky takeoff,” he warned as he collapsed in his seat and activated the ship’s systems. He brought the steering controls to him and grabbed each in a death grip.
They were off the ground and backing out of the hangar within seconds. A record.
“Can you spare one of the viewscreens on her?” Kim asked as she hurriedly went from porthole to viewscreen, trying to pilot her ship from inside his own.
Titan nodded, flicked one on so she could have the best view possible. She leaned against the console and cursed as she clicked and tapped at her decoder. When this was all over, he’d ask her how she’d managed that.
If they survived, that is.
Kim chanced a quick peek up from her decoder to watch Titan maneuver his ship around to clear the hangar. One nasty bruise was spreading over the bridge of his nose while his swollen bottom lip made it look like he was pouting. The thought made her smile. Despite a run-in with an explosion and a very large, very angry Yithian Hunter, he still didn’t look too bad. But his suit was toast. Dust and rips covered it.
A shrill alarm made her wince a split second before a violent tremor rocked the ship.
“He’s firing at us,” Titan warned. “Hold on!”
Kim anchored her feet wider apart and wedged her hip against the console as Titan rolled his ship into a downward spiral that sent all systems blinking and beeping.
While he piloted his ship, she maneuvered the Femme Metal around, brought her pulse cannon at Drokesh’s ship and fired. It felt strange not to hear the deep whomp-whomp of the cannon above her head. One shot missed but the other caught the Yithian cruiser along the hull. A glancing blow but a hit nonetheless. Kim couldn’t help it and whooped.
As she was bringing the Femme Metal about, ready to send her into a tight roll that would take her right under the Yithian, Titan cursed loudly and slammed the controls.
“No!”
Drokesh’s ship pointed at the asteroid and the next second a silver streak sliced space toward it. A burst of red and white and yellow energy engulfed Titan’s compound, shot outward in an expanding ring. Kim stared as his home, hell half the asteroid, exploded. But the ring didn’t stop then. It spread wider, brighter, each tiny explosion at its core testament to Titan’s weapons going off one by one.
“Prepare to jump!” he roared.
She initiated the hyperjump sequence on her ship and braced for impact. Just as a rip in space opened for both ships, the burning-hot coiling wave of the explosion hit, sent them tumbling inside hyperspace.
The conduit twisted, iridescent flashes sped by, the ship groaned when it felt like it would implode, then as fast as it had begun, both ships spilled out into normal space, the Femme Metal coming dangerously near as she crabbed out of the hyperspace channel then spun belly up. Alarms went off on Titan’s ship, and Kim could well imagine the cacophony in hers. She leveled the Femme Metal and matched Titan’s speed and heading.
His home disintegrated…all his work gone. Kim stared at her naked toes.
“Drokesh didn’t jump with us. He’s probably on his way back to the Gorgosh,” he announced flatly then closed his eyes.
Kim approached his seat, put her hand on the armrest but didn’t touch him. “I’m sorry.”
Titan raised a finger to his pursed lips. “Just…” he snapped harshly then clamped his mouth shut and sighed. His voice was gentle when he went on. “He didn’t touch anything of value to me. It’s all that counts.”
She avoided his gray gaze when he set it on her face. “I wasn’t going to let him take you back, baby. No way.”
“And now you lost your home, your stuff, everything.”
“I have a home right here,” he countered with a lift of his lip. The metal tooth looked a bit dull with blood. “Which reminds me, you do have food on your ship, don’t you? ‘Cause I have nothing to eat in here.”
How could the guy be hungry after everything that had happened? “Uh, yeah, I have stuff in the galley.” Kim grinned and shook her head.
“Good, I’m dead on my feet—on my ass, actually. Why don’t you go back to your ship, see what you can find and I’ll join you there after I hit the sack for a bit. Three hours okay?”
He really did look exhausted. Kim nodded. She needed a bit of sleep as well, and a shower…and some shoes, for god’s sake. But first, she had to replace her gyrocompass. Shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. Still, she couldn’t wait to crash into bed.
While she maintained the Femme Metal’s position, firing attitude jets at regular intervals, Titan brought his ship along and released the anchoring clamps. Four deep clunks announced successful ship-to-ship mooring.
He walked her to the airlock, opened the hatch for her but put a gloved hand on her shoulder when she meant to step through, gyro under an arm.
“Wait,” he said, turning her around and kissing her.
Kim tasted his blood on her lips.
“I’m looking forward to this.” A feral spark was shining in his eyes. “A real date.”
“So am I.”
With a wink, she stepped inside the airlock and let him close the hatch on her. After he equalized the pressure, she opened the exterior hatch to the Femme Metal and took a big breath.
“I missed you, girl.”
Familiar smells and sounds greeted Kim as she gingerly tiptoed on the metal floor of the landing. After replacing the gyrocompass, running a couple of simulations and making sure everything was in order on her ship, she went to her cabin and didn’t even bother taking her clothes off as she crashed on the bed. Titan’s thinly veiled intent thrilled her. Oh yeah, there’s plenty for him to eat on my ship!
Chapter Eight
Kim patted herself down and made sure the acid green suit hugged her butt perfectly. She wiggled it in the mirror and grinned. He wanted to see one with the access panels? Well, he’d be served. She ran a finger over the back-to-front slit between her legs. Lip-gloss made her nether lips look as though they were made of nacre. A frisson shook her as she snapped on the miniskirt that went over the suit. After she slipped her feet in the knee-high heeled boots—the ones she reserved for dancing and having fun—she stepped out of her cabin and wringed more water out of her
hair. That shower had felt soooo nice. And a bit of sleep hadn’t hurt either.
Anticipation quickened her steps, rushed her gestures. She broke a nail as she tried to hurry around the galley and put the things on the table. Soon, her tiny galley was in full romantic ambiance mode—something she’d never done before. No man had ever stepped inside the Femme Metal. Not as a date anyway. Well, except for Sekmeth but he hadn’t been her date. Thinking of Alex and Sekmeth made Kim feel homesick and alone.
She stood in the door and surveyed her work. Glow-sticks floated in a dish of water and created a nice little glow on the table. A string of lights were hanging above the place, hooked at regular—or somewhat regular—intervals and provided just the right amount of light to create the mood she was going for. She’d spread a black sheet over the stainless steel table so it wouldn’t be too “institutional” gray. It was enough the thing rested bolted directly to the steel floor. At least she had real chairs, albeit ugly, molded plastic affairs. The other doorway to the galley, a beaded curtain, created a splash of color with its rows of pink and purple plastic pearls.
“Oh music.”
She ran back to her cabin, returned with a portable decoder that could play music and hid it inside one of the cabinets. The warmer binged so she pulled the hot pasta out and set it on the table. Pasta, fruit jelly and water. A feast…
Everything was ready. Kim pulled a chair and sat. It’d been three hours. Not two seconds later, she stood and paced the tiny galley. What if he didn’t come? Was he still sleeping? Did he change his mind and prefer to sleep? Had she dolled herself up for nothing and now looked like a big dumb fool?
She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorjamb. Man, what a loser she’d become in the span of a day or two.
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