He wrinkled his nose at her. "Nah, see I know how this goes. It's called progressive entrapment. Come here, little boy. I got a piece of candy for you. Get in my shuttle ... next thing I know, I'm drunk and naked in your bed. You're having your wicked way with me. My mama warned me all about females like you and taking candy from strangers."
She laughed at him. "I think I'd have a hard time getting away with that."
"Sadly, I doubt you would. Pretty sure I'd be an easy fool for you, which is why I have to pass on the boots. Besides, I hate shopping. If you took me, you'd see the beast that lives inside me and I'd rather you live with the myth of this noble hero for awhile longer."
Ushara tsked at him and that adorable grin on his handsome face. "You are so incredibly charming."
"Not really. I'm told I'm a giant asshole by most."
"Who?"
He screwed his face up. "Oh that is a frightfully long list. Terabytes of data, point of fact."
"They don't know you."
"They would all argue that they do."
"And what do you say?"
Sobering, he glanced away. "Maybe they know me better than I do, really. Are we not all a thousand characters in millions of plays throughout our lifetime? Is Ushara the mother the same character as Ushara the daughter? Or Ushara the admiral the same as Ushara the older sister? Or the younger sister? Did your husband not know a different side of you than anyone else in your life? What about the male who knows Ushara the testicle-launcher? I'm sure he would paint a very different image of you than I would. Who among us is not ever-changing? Ever evolving into someone new? Maybe someone better ... or someone worse."
Dear gods, he was incredibly astute. "And who do you want to be, Dagger?"
"Honestly? I would sell whatever is left of my used up, blackened soul to be the hero Vasili sees whenever he looks at me and not the piece of worthless shit I know for a fact I truly am." And with those barely audible words, he turned and walked away with that sexy predator's lope that was uniquely his.
Tears choked her as she watched him go. He was exactly the male Vasili thought him to be. If only he could see it.
But sadly, his past was too brutal for that. And his conscience too riddled with guilt. Yet one day, she hoped he could find the ability to judge himself with the same compassion that he used when he looked at others. 'Cause the gods knew, while he wasn't perfect, he was as caring and kind as anyone she'd ever known. And if ever anyone deserved a second chance in their life, it was definitely him.
She just hoped he realized it before it was too late.
Sighing, she headed back for her office.
*
"Told you so, didn't I?"
Oxana blinked in total disbelief as she watched her older sister leaving the bay. "Wow ... I've never seen her look like that before."
"I know, right?" Her twin sister, Jalyna, turned toward her, eyes wide. "I know what Paka said, but he's wrong. We have to do something."
"What?"
"What, what? You know what! That's what. Sheez, what? I can't believe you'd even ask me, what. Like you don't know." Her sister took off after the tiziran.
Oxana panicked. "Jay, stop!" she hissed. "What are you doing?"
"What we should have done while he was at Mum's. Now, are you coming? Or are you going to stand there, looking like Mary and being all scared of me? Are you a Fyreblood or a darkheart?"
Oxana hissed at her. "You shouldn't be using that term, you know? It's obnoxious and rude and insulting, especially for someone who's about to try and hook her sister up with one."
"Well it's not like he's a whole one. He's only partly darkheart."
"Oh 'cause he's human. Like that's so much better."
"Now who's being bad, huh?"
"Still you," Oxana said sullenly. "You're always the bad twin. Ask anyone who knows us."
"Bite-it!"
"What are you hens gaggling on about now?"
They froze as their little sister, Mariska, caught up to them. Almost identical in looks to Ushara, she was the smaller, more petite version of their older sister.
Jay glanced around with feigned innocence. "Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Oh yeah, right ... um.... Never. What are you plotting and who's your victim, and can I help hide the body this time?"
Rolling her eyes, Oxana let out a long-suffering sigh. "Why don't you go find a cousin or brother to annoy? Davel's in. Better yet, go trash Axl's wife. We don't like her."
Mary shook her head. "I'd rather aggravate you two."
"'Course you would."
"So leak the damage..." Mary poked each of them in turn.
They exchanged an annoyed frown. "Fine," Jay yielded first. "We're going to see the male who fixed Ana's ship."
"I thought you didn't know who repaired it."
Oxana shrugged. "Paka found out his name. I was going to thank him."
"See." Jay flipped her red hair over her shoulder, dismissively. "Now run along."
"Nuh-uh. There's more to this. He's hot, isn't he?" Mary gasped audibly. "Jay's going to cheat on her husband! Oh my God! That's it, isn't it?"
"No!" Jay snapped. "You're horrible! Why would you think that?"
"'Cause Ana can't cheat on hers. Then what's the deal?"
Oxana leaned in to whisper in her ear. "The tiziran is the one who did it. And Ushara is falling for him."
Mary gasped even louder. "No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!" the twins squealed in unison.
Mary's eyes widened. "Can I come?"
"Well you have to now or else you'll tell and we'll have to kill you." Jay grabbed her arm and they hauled her after them, toward Jullien's stark condo in the icky, awful section of the station where they tried to never venture.
Mary stuck her tongue out and shuddered as they approached his door. "Does he really live here?"
"Yes," Oxana said under her breath while Jay knocked. "Stop being rude."
"Is he not home? Knock harder. Place can't be that big." Mary pushed Jay aside. "Here. Let me help."
*
Jullien scowled at the insistent pounding on his door as he fastened his pants. He was still dripping from the shower. But the furious frenzy outside said whoever was there wasn't going to give him time to finish bathing and if he didn't answer soon, they might break through the door's meager hinges.
What the hell was so imminent?
Toweling his hair, he opened the door to find three very colorful, young females on his stoop. Three who gaped in an almost choreographed unison at his appearance. It would have been comical if he wasn't so damned irritated.
But at least it succeeded in taking the edge off his anger and allowed him to be cordial to them. "May I help you?"
The two with insanely bright fluorescent red hair were obviously identical twins. One was dressed in a yellow and red flightsuit and the other in a plain red one. Both were well-armed, but didn't appear threatening. The smaller of the three had stark white hair with pieces of it that she'd dyed bright pink and purple--the same colors that Ushara used as Tavali war paint on her face. And now that he looked at them, he realized that their features were extremely similar to hers, especially the youngest girl's.
She elbowed her way past the twins. "Hi." She extended her hand to him. "I'm Mariska, but you can call me Mary. Everyone does. These are my sisters and when they find their voices again, which will be any shrill moment, they're Oxana and Jay, or actually something unpronounceable my mother cursed her with because we're weird, as if Fyrebloods weren't strange enough already. Anyway, we came over because--"
"Oh shush, Mary!" the twin in the red suit said, pushing her sister back. "You weren't even a part of this. You hijacked our mission." Growling, she faced Jullien. "I'm Ana. Or Oxana and I'm the one you helped. I wanted to thank you, personally, for it."
Mary hadn't been kidding about the shrillness of their voices. Jullien had to resist the urge to cringe or cover his sensitive ears.
In
"Yes, I did. It was very kind of you and we wanted to do something for you to show how much I appreciate what you did when you didn't have to."
True, honest terror set in for the first time in his life. Jullien had no idea what they had in mind, but it couldn't be good for him.
All scenarios from sex to food ended with his bloody dismemberment, and pieces of his body being found all over the universe.
"Um ... I don't think this is a good idea."
Jay laughed. "Look at that face! I think we scare him."
Mary grinned and elbowed Ana. "He should be afraid of us. We come with a herd of male relatives, but ... we're harmless. We're actually here to set you up with our sister."
Jullien scowled, even more terrified now. "Excuse me?"
The twins took him by the arms. "Mary's right. We saw how Shara looked at you. She practically licked you all over."
Mary nodded. "She wants you and we're here to make you presentable to her."
"Pardon?" he repeated.
Jay tsked at her sister. "Listen to him talk. I could hear that accent all day. He's so proper! Just makes my motor hum. We should record that and play it at night. You think my husband would mind?"
Jullien choked. "Taras ... please, I ... um, have something burning in the kitchen."
"No, you don't. But that's a nice try." Mary grinned at him, exposing her fangs. "Just give in. It'll be a lot easier and less painful for you." She glanced to her sisters. "I'll grab a shirt for him and shoes."
Jullien let out a groan as he realized there was no way to protest this. They were not about to give up. "You're really not going to let me out of this, are you?"
"Not on your life." Jay grinned.
He kept trying to break free without harming them. "Don't you three have children and males of your own to torture?"
"Yeah," Jay said, "but you're new male steak. We have to break you in for our sister. Get you well seasoned."
"Besides, I have no male of my own. So I have to torture you." Mary scowled up at him. "Are you all right? You look rather green."
"You do realize that I've seldom been around females."
"Why? Are you gay?" Mary blinked innocently. "If you are, we have a cousin..."
"No. I come from a predominantly male family. On both sides. I've seldom interacted with the females, and whenever I did, it wasn't a positive experience."
"Oh. Poor you." Mary patted his arm. "You're in for an education. But we'll try and be gentle."
That might have carried more weight had Mary not punctuated it with a sinister laugh.
Little did Jullien know that they had no intention of showing him mercy.
Of any kind.
Rather they spent the next couple of hours getting him groomed like some prized pet. They shoved and pushed and pulled and prodded until he was near insane from it all. He'd never been so groped or lovingly malehandled in his life. They gave him no choice in anything. Not even how they styled his hair or shaved his face.
Nor would they let him see what they were doing to him. He really felt like a show beast before a performance.
Every time he began protesting, Mary patted him on the arm. "It doesn't matter what you think, precious. We're doing this for Ushara. Just think about the benefits to come. I promise, she'll put a giant smile on your face."
He snorted.
Honestly, he found Ushara's sisters strangely amusing and quirky. They were a stark contrast to their much more serious-minded older sister, and he wondered why Ushara lacked their sense of whimsy.
Had she ever been like them?
And if so, what had stolen her smile?
It saddened him that she wasn't more like them. And the longer he was with them, the more he realized just how guarded and closed off she was in comparison.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't imagine her like them.
Bemused, Jullien watched as the twins fought over his clothes.
Oxana rolled her eyes at Mary and shoved a pair of pants back onto the rack. "If you put him in those, you'll sterilize him. No male needs pants that tight. Good gracious! That's not sexy. It's obscene!"
"I disagree. A body like that should be flaunted! Why hide it?"
"'Cause one day Shara might want to have another child. You don't want to lower his sperm count. Good grief! Besides, if he tries to sit in those, he'll rack himself and be out of commission for the night. Think about it!"
They turned to Jay to settle their disagreement.
"Well, Ana's not wrong. But Mary has a point, too. He does have an edible ass and arms. And his abs ... if my Bar looked like that, I'd never leave my bed. I'm just saying, I'd have more kids than Ana by now."
The three of them turned to stare at him.
Yeah, okay, he felt naked, even though he was fully clothed.
Scowling, Ana handed him a jacket then snatched it back as she changed her mind for the tenth time.
Mary handed him another one.
Jullien hesitated before he took it and shrugged it on.
They screwed their faces up to study him like a lab experiment.
Yeah, he just couldn't envision Ushara part of their group, participating in this lunacy. "Was Ushara always so serious and stern?"
Oxana stepped forward to adjust his coat for him. "No. She was actually a lot of fun back when she ran her own crew. That's why they named her Star Skream."
"Star Skream?" What a peculiar call sign.
Chewing her lip, Mary handed him a different, longer jacket to put on. "She was so reckless and daring as a pilot, they say that you could hear the stars actually scream as she blazed past them in her ship. She would run against any Leaguer, anywhere, anytime. Fearless."
"Ridiculously so," Jay concurred. "She was a nut. Trajen kept her on report constantly for it. Then poof! After Chaz died ... She, the best pilot in the Gort Nation, grounded herself so that Vasili wouldn't be an orphan."
"And she never really smiled again," Ana finished the sentence. "Not until you came along. She smiles a lot around you."
Jay nodded. "Gavin said that she even flew to rescue you. It's the only time she's been at the helm since Chaz died. Weird, isn't it? She took the helm to get you and Vas out of Steradore."
"That's why we're doing this." Mary wrinkled her nose. "Still not the right jacket."
She handed him another one.
Groaning, he changed.
Again.
They all three gasped, then clapped in joyous unison. Mary even did a little dance of happiness.
"What do you think?" Mary stepped back with an impish grin.
Relieved that it might be finally coming to an end, Jullien allowed them to turn him to face the mirror behind him. But the moment he focused on his reflection he was wholly unprepared for what he saw there.
It was no longer the bearded face of the ragged survivor Dagger Ixur.
That was the flawlessly groomed image of the bastard Tahrs Jullien eton Anatole.
In one heartbeat, his past slammed into him with a furious fist.
Bitter, horrid memories tore through him and unbalanced him. He didn't see the shopping parlor they were in. He saw the gilded and gaudy palace ballrooms. Heard the mocking laughter and the constant rapid-fire biting criticisms that came at him in thinly veiled barbed witticisms. The sneers and fetid backbiting that had gone on for years.
All that self-loathing and hatred came back with a vengeance.
And it shattered him.
"Dagger?"
The walls closed in on him as he staggered back and tore the jacket off, trying to catch his balance. But he couldn't. Everywhere he looked, he saw that hated face of a prince who disgusted him. Heard the voices that mocked and insulted everything he was and told him that he had no right to live.
Unable to stand it, he ran for the door.
*
Ushara left her office, intending to go home, make a nice quiet dinner for Vasili, and spend a night doing nothing.
But as she left the building, she almost collided with her youngest sister who met her in a screeching panic, that was followed by the twins running up behind her, and their equal ear-piercing tizzy as they piled on with Mary.
Oh, this can't be good.
"Dear God, what'd you do now?"
Jay bit her lip before Mary blurted out the answer. "We broke your boyfriend!"
Ushara scowled. "Excuse me?"
Breathless with her panic, Oxana nodded. "It's true. We were only trying to help. We took him out to thank him for what he did, and we got him a haircut and shave."
"Some clothes," Jay chimed in.
"And he ran like Corela was about to ride up his ass with her thorny hammer."
Oxana nodded again. "We went to his condo and he's not there. We've no idea where else to look. But he was really, really upset."
"Really upset!" Jay repeated for emphasis.
"We're so sorry," Mary breathed. "We didn't mean to break him. It was going all good. Then ... blam! He broke. No warning or nothing."
"We'll go watch Vasili for you." Jay pushed Ushara toward the street. "All night if we have to. I'll take him to my house and keep him. Just please ... find Jullien. Fix whatever we did wrong. Jullien's a sweetheart."
Now Mary was nodding. "We had no idea. Please tell him that we're sorry."
Ushara hugged them. "Okay, I'll find him."
But the problem was, she had no idea where to look either. She hated to call Trajen again. Yet what choice did she have? It was a big station. Without Trajen, she didn't know where to begin a search.
He's going to kill me.
Both of them.
Pulling out her link, she cringed as she pressed the code for Trajen.
He answered immediately.
"Hey, boss. I hate to bug you. Jullien's gone MIA again, and I've no idea where to look. Can you point me in the right direction? My sisters accidentally upset him, and I just want to make sure he's okay."
He appeared at her side so fast that it startled her.
She hated whenever he teleported in. It creeped her out completely. "Little warning next time, please?"
A phantom hand tickled her neck.
"Really not funny, boss."
Trajen snorted, then went completely still. Until a strange expression came over his face. "What the hell did they do?"
Before she could answer, he grabbed her hand and ran with her through the station.
Ushara had no idea where they were headed until he took her to the oldest part of their base--up to the abandoned section where no one went anymore. This area had been closed off and abandoned for years. Probably since before she was born. Honestly, she'd never been here. She'd only passed by the area back when she'd first toured the station during her officer orientation. No one should have access here.
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