Light of Kaska

by Michelle O'Leary

  Stryker felt himself clench with hideous, possessive, useless rage.

  Keza gave a muffled shriek, scrambling to sit with her back against the wall, the covers pulled up to her chin. “Who are you?” she cried. No one answered but they didn’t have to. It was obvious.

  “Chase Stryker, we are here to re-obtain you and return you to your holding facility. Lie face down on the floor with your hands behind your back.”

  “Oh, no,” Keza moaned.

  “Ma’am, we require you to do the same.”

  “She’s not part of this,” Stryker said in a hoarse voice.

  “She was found with a fugitive. We will discover the extent of her involvement when we have you both in confinement.”

  Panic ran down his muscles like liquid fire. “I won’t resist. Just let her go.”

  Their spokesperson gave him a measured stare. “You will agree to be banded now?”

  Stryker clenched his jaw so tightly that pain shot through his skull. They were using her as leverage. They knew he would fight them tooth and nail when it came time to put the band back on him. But the thought of his Keza, innocent and vulnerable, in their cold, callous hands…unbearable. “If you let her go.”

  “No, Chase!” Keza’s voice shook, but he didn’t look at her. He couldn’t.

  “Agreed,” the Collector said without infliction, lowering his weaponed arm and reaching into his uniform. When he drew back his hand, he was holding a thin, silver band.

  Stryker stared at it, unable to tear his eyes away from approaching doom. It seemed inevitable now, like the implosion of a star, a calamity that seemed so distant until it ruptured space and time and sucked everything into its destruction. The man advanced and the rest of the group shifted with him, making certain they kept Stryker in their weapons lock. For an instant, he considered fighting anyway, throwing himself into a frenzy of attack. Hopeless as it was, he’d do it if he was alone. But if he fought they’d have no reason to leave Keza be. They would take him down, band him, and take Keza, too.

  The Collector stopped in front of him and lifted his hands. Stryker watched the band rise toward him and couldn’t keep his body from jerking back in horrified revulsion. The man paused, raising his eyebrows in silent question. Panting, Stryker turned his head to find Keza, his body going lava hot and ice cold in waves.

  She had both hands over her mouth, staring at him with wide eyes, tears running unheeded down her face and slim body shaking. She shook her head violently and he heard her whispering, “No, no, no,” behind her hands.

  “Do it,” he snarled without taking his eyes from her, clenching his hands into fists and commanding his body to stillness. He looked into drowning amber as the Collector lifted the band, settling it against his forehead and pressing it to his temples. “Keza,” he said before white-hot pain struck him blind, tumbling him into the howling blackness that was his prison.

  Keza. He said her name and then she watched his face contort with pain, before all animation drained from it. She watched as his eyes lost focus, lost life, and his face went slack. Chase Stryker disappeared. In his place was a blank emptiness that horrified her to her soul.

  “Oh, Goddess, take it off!” she cried without considering her words, scrambling toward him, oblivious of her own nakedness. Someone caught her arm, restraining her. She sobbed, “Take it off. You’ll kill him.”

  “He is in no danger. Compose yourself, please.”

  “You don’t understand,” she whispered, hunting and hunting his face for some sign, some spark of life. “He’s wild. You’ll kill him.”

  They ignored her, their faces cold and composed as they moved in an orderly fashion toward the door. The man holding her spoke to Stryker. “Convict, turn and walk to the exit.”

  Stryker turned and walked to the door, his movements stilted, as if his powerful body was a strange machine without his soul to animate it.

  Sukeza felt herself breaking into a million pieces. “Please,” she sobbed.

  The Collector released her arm and moved away without responding.

  “You can’t do this,” she whispered. But it was done. They marched him, naked and defenseless, from the room.

  He didn’t look back.

  Sukeza tried to follow them but when she got to the hall, the trailing Collector paused, giving her a warning look. “If you persist, we will obtain you as well for questioning.” The woman’s voice was emotionless, factual.

  Sukeza stayed where she was, watching until they were out of sight. Then she collapsed, blinded and wracked with sobs. She felt sick, so sick… With a lurch, she bolted to her feet and dashed to the lav to vomit. When she was done, she curled up on the cool floor and tried to think. What was she going to do?

  Leaving him to his fate was not an option. It would kill her by slow degrees, just as it was killing him. Wild things weren’t meant to be caged. She didn’t care that he was serving his sentence for crimes he’d committed. The method they used wasn’t punishment for him—it was a death sentence. Maybe it was the same for all the subjects they banded. How could anyone stand it? She’d never considered this before, never questioned—Universal Legislature said it was humane imprisonment and she’d taken their word for it. Now that she’d seen first hand what the bands could do, she was appalled. Stryker could not survive like that, so she was going to free him. Somehow. But she couldn’t do it alone.

  Pushing shakily to her feet, Sukeza moved into the bedroom to find her discarded clothes, tears spilling down her cheeks again when she remembered how he’d removed them. With impatient fingers, she wiped them away and headed for the door.

  Time to see Bella.

  Belladonna’s Delight thronged with patrons. They crowded the front entrance and lined up into the vendor area, waiting their turn to enter. Sukeza felt a moment of despair until she remembered the side entrance. Chewing on her lower lip, she eased through the press of people and moved toward it. The barrier was down but a guard stood blocking the doorway, a hulking brute who watched her approach with cold, forbidding eyes.

  “I need to see Bella,” she told him.

  “You’n everybody else, little sister. You got an appointment?” His eyebrows lifted while he looked her up and down. Yesterday, Sukeza might have been embarrassed by the implication that she was a client of Bella’s, but today she didn’t have the time.

  “No, but it’s an emergency. Please, could you tell her I’m here? It’s about Stryker.”

  He gave her a bored look, as if he fielded these kinds of requests all the time. He probably did. But with an enormous sigh that ruffled her hair, he turned his head, putting a finger to his ear. “Yeah, I got somebody here who wants to see the boss. She says it’s about Stryker.” His jaded expression changed while he listened to the reply. When he turned back to Sukeza, his face was warmer and held a hint of respect. “Escort’ll be here in a sec.”

  “I know the way. Could you just let me in?” she tried, chaffing at the delay.

  He shook his big head slowly. “You’ll need an escort. Place is wild today and I can’t leave my post.”

  Remembering her last venture in the club, she subsided with a reluctant nod and waited. To her relief, it didn’t take long. The door opened to reveal yet another big beast of a man, but he was courteous with her, waving her over the threshold and taking her elbow to lead her through the throng. The place was indeed wild and Sukeza found herself gaping more than once at some new visual exhibition. But no one bothered her this time and her escort pushed his way through the tight-packed horde with ease.

  They reached the bottom of the steps leading to Bella’s private area faster than she expected. She gave the big man a grateful smile. He nodded gravely but didn’t join her when she mounted the stairs. Bella’s door wasn’t locked. When she entered, the sitting room was empty. Sukeza fidgeted for a moment before deciding that the situation called for more direct measures. She headed for the bedroom.

  The scene within stopped her in her tracks. Bella wa
s masked, her entire lithe body covered in some body-hugging black outfit except for a couple of distinct areas. A thin rod ran between her nipples this time, and there appeared to be fine links of chain dangling from the exposed place between her thighs. She held a many-tongued whip and cracked it lazily across her victim. The man was hooded, suspended upside down between two posts, completely naked except for the hood and the straps holding his ankles and wrists to the posts. Red strips criss-crossed his skin and he moaned piteously as he thrashed. But he was violently aroused.

  “Uh,” was all Sukeza could manage in the first moment of shock.

  “Sukeza bet Marish,” Bella purred, prowling toward her, whip twitching at her side. “Care to join us?”

  Okay, Bella still made her nervous, the urge to bolt like a bunny strumming across her muscles. But she didn’t have time for that either. With an impatient shake of her head, she said, “They’ve got Stryker.”

  The woman froze, stiffening. Then she tossed the whip on the bed and pushed Sukeza out the door. “Be right back, lover,” she called over her shoulder, removing the mask when they were alone in the sitting room. Her light brown eyes fixed on Sukeza with fierce demand. “Tell me.”

  Sukeza told her. It didn’t take long, but then the actual incident had been stunningly, brutally quick. She felt tears rise again and took a shaky breath, pressing fingers hard against her mouth.

  For a moment, Bella did nothing but stare at her with wide eyes. “He…let them band him? For you?”

  “They were going to take me, too,” Sukeza tried to explain, voice thick. Guilt clawed at her, tearing her flesh from the inside out. “He bargained with them. Goddess, Bella, you should have seen his face—!” Sukeza put her hands over her eyes, unable to stop the soft keen of pain and sorrow in her throat.

  Bella moved abruptly away and Sukeza dropped her hands to watch as the woman checked a digital display. “Bastards snuck in. This whole place would be in an uproar if anyone knew the Collectors were here.”

  “I need your help, Bella. We have to get him away from them.”

  For the first time, she saw real shock on the woman’s face. “Are you insane? No one takes on the Collectors! We’ll be lucky if Chase is the only one they drag out of here.”

  “I have to free him, Bella,” she said, stiffening her spine against the resistance she saw on the other woman’s beautiful face. “I have to try, with or without you.”

  Bella snorted, turning to pace like a lioness in a tight circle. “Gods, I thought you were coming here to hide. I love Chase. He’s been a good friend. But I can’t put myself and everyone here at risk for him. I just can’t. He wouldn’t ask it of us.”

  “There’s got to be a way,” Sukeza whispered, watching the other woman with desperation. “I’ll do it myself so if I’m caught, no one else will be blamed. But I need to figure out how. Please. I don’t know how to do this.”

  Bella paused, her mouth in a grim line as she studied Sukeza. “Even if we could get him away from them now, get him on a ship out of here, they’ll find him again anyway. What’s the point?”

  Sukeza swallowed hard. Lifting her sleeve, she showed Bella her matrilineal mark. “I’m Kaskan. Do you know what that means?” She could see by the widening of Bella’s dark honey eyes that she did, that she understood what Keza meant to do.

  The woman strode slowly toward her, gaze never leaving the mark. Raising gloved fingers, she traced the lines of the selkie, her expression suspended. Then she looked up at Sukeza. “He might hate you for it,” she said in a soft voice.

  “I’ll take that chance,” Sukeza whispered, heart drumming hard in her throat.

  Bella nodded, face hardening with resolve. “Then let’s get him out of there.” Spinning on her heel, she strode quickly back to the digital display. “First thing’s first—we need to keep them here. If they leave this post he’s lost.” She settled herself on one of the low couches with the display under her fingertips, tapping her left ear and barking, “Harry, I want you, Speed, and Barker up here now. Warn the rest that you’ll be out of commission for a while.”

  When she dropped her hand to the display, she glanced up at Sukeza with a grim half-smile. “Have a seat, little one. This will take a few minutes.”

  Legs leaden with relief, Sukeza moved to sit next to her, peering over her shoulder at the display. “What are you doing?”

  Bella’s lips peeled back from her teeth in a silent snarl. “Bastards are probably still here because they’re trying to secure his ship, to get a crawler out here to pick it up as evidence or confiscated goods. Here’s a little something they don’t know, though—that used to be my gods-damned ship. I gave it to Chase when he skipped past here the last time.”

  “So…what does that mean?” The codes and figures flashing across the display made her dizzy.

  “One second, love.” Bella tapped her left ear again. “Boys, I’m going to need to move the timetable up again.” She paused, her head tilted in a listening posture before she smiled like a hungry predator. “Oh, honey, you so don’t want me to answer that. Do you love me? Do I scare you? Good. Than be ready to leave within the hour.” She sent Sukeza a rueful glance before focusing her attention back on the display. “The twins will not like you, dear. But just ignore the pouting. They’ll be good.”

  The door to her suite opened and three large men moved into the room, standing at almost military attention in front of Bella. She nodded to them like a queen. “Harry, go make my guest comfortable. Let him know I’ll return, but it may be a while.”

  The big man on the right nodded, marching away from his cohorts and into the bedroom without hesitation. Sukeza remembered the scene she’d walked into and winced, wondering how long it would take to work here before a person could stare at something like that without flinching.

  Bella drew her attention again by gesturing at the display. It now showed a space view, angled to catch part of the outpost. At first, Sukeza could see nothing remarkable about the scene. Then Stryker’s cutter zipped past and she gasped in surprise.

  “Prior ownership gives one a certain amount of access privilege,” Bella said with smooth arrogance. Then she added in a softer voice, “And fire is fine motivator.”

  Sukeza shot her a puzzled glance, but the little ship’s trajectory took an alarming sharp turn. A moment later, it dove into a docking area at tremendous speed. The view cut to the inside of the docking area, disorienting Sukeza until she saw the flash of ship and the explosion as it crashed into the outpost. Bella made a little sound of satisfaction and touched a gloved nail to the display over a long, sinuous looking ship next to the threatening blue flames. The Collectors’ vessel.

  “They will abandon their ship until it’s safe to return.” Bella gave her a significant look. “All of them.”

  Sukeza’s heart picked up its pace. The Collectors would be coming back on board the outpost with Stryker. She would never have been able to get on board their ship to free him, so this was a step in the right direction.

  Harry returned from the other room and Bella gave the three men a stern, imperious look. “We’ve got trouble in paradise, boys. Seems the Collectors have come calling.” The three men showed various levels of surprise and dismay, but Bella didn’t wait for any comments. “They’ve taken a friend of mine and you know how I get about my possessions. Here’s what I need you to do.”

  She outlined a plan that was brilliant in its simplicity, though Sukeza’s heart hammered harder with each word that fell from her red lips. Criminal activities and flouting authority were not her areas of expertise. But when Bella warned them that they didn’t have much time and told them to go, Sukeza rose immediately on unsteady legs. Bella walked her to the door.

  “Thank you,” she told the taller woman with heartfelt gratitude. “I couldn’t have done this without your help.”

  Bella paused at the threshold, studying her with solemn honey eyes. “No, I can see you’re not the risk taking type. Will you be able t
o do this?”

  “I can’t guarantee that I won’t screw it up,” Sukeza said with a shaky laugh and a depreciating wave of her hand. “But I’ll try. I have to try.”

  The other woman nodded, staring at her for a moment longer before a small, mysterious smile curved her lips. “I’m starting to see why our boy is so twisted about you.” She lifted a hand to run caressing fingers, disconcerting in their black-gloved mastery, down Sukeza’s cheek. “I’m growing sorrier by the moment that things did not work out differently. Run along, little Kaskan. I’ll facilitate from here.”

  She lowered her head and placed a brief, yet sultry kiss on Sukeza’s mouth before turning away with a wicked smile. Sukeza stepped over the threshold, trying to ignore the fire in her cheeks and the sensation of narrow escape.

  Harry gave her a faint, kindly smile and ushered her with all due speed down the stairs. They didn’t head for the side entrance but left by a back entrance, which startled Sukeza, since it had seemed as though the place was built into solid rock. There must have been a cavern adjacent to the one that housed Bella’s club, because they moved through a short tunnel before exiting into a small boutique. The place was mostly empty, and no one paid them any attention as they moved through the holographic displays and out into another open area.