Torment

by Tana Stone

  It would be a lie not to admit the pull he felt toward the wild warrior woman—both his attraction and his frustration. She was unlike any female he’d known—stubborn and willful, even if it meant putting herself in danger. It had been exhausting keeping her safe, and she’d been less than grateful for his efforts. She’d barely muttered a thank you after he’d taken blaster fire meant for her, although he’d felt her relief when he’d survived.

  Even Dothvek females, who were far from powerless themselves, were not as headstrong and fearless as this female. Of course, there were few Dothvek females anymore. Not since their enemies, the Cresteks, had inadvertently created an illness that had swept through the female population of the entire planet. The ones remaining wouldn’t put themselves at risk like this foolish female seemed to do every time she got the chance.

  No, another reason he’d followed her onto the ship was to keep her safe. He knew her crew mates would be devastated to lose another one of their team, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from shielding her from harm. Not that he would ever tell her that.

  The lights flickered and then went to half power, the hum growing quieter.

  Tori’s face was dim in the lower lighting, but he could still see the flash of her white teeth as she grinned at him. “Ready to have some fun?”

  Chapter Three

  Tori gingerly set the vent cover to one side and listened. Nothing. The crew seemed to be tucked away in their racks, and they were far enough from the bridge not to be heard. She motioned to Vrax and watched, with some amount of respect, as he dropped noiselessly, landing in a crouch on his bare feet.

  She guessed there were some skills the barbarian had that she could learn, and stealth seemed to be one of them. She glanced down at her own heavy boots, considering for a moment whether she should lose them. She decided against it. She wasn’t used to moving around barefoot, and she didn’t like to idea of losing the protection. Not to mention, they came in handy when she needed to throw a kick.

  Lowering herself slowly from the opening, she held the edge until the last possible second, then dropped the remaining distance. She flinched when she felt his strong hands catch her waist before she hit the floor. He lowered her, almost as if she’d break, and set her on the floor, dropping his hands.

  She wanted to bitch at him for grabbing her, but she knew it had been a smart move, and had saved her from making a loud landing and possibly kept them both from getting caught. “Thanks,” she whispered.

  He shrugged as if it was nothing, and she was glad he wasn’t making a big deal out of it. Maybe the guy wasn’t a total macho asshole.

  She peered down the corridor and saw that it was empty. She waved for him to follow her, and they crept toward what she hoped was the central control area, ducking through doorways and hurrying past corridors shooting off from the main one. Although some details were different, and Mourad had made specific alterations to his ship, the layout was consistent with the other ship she’d served on.

  For a brief moment, she felt like she was on that old ship again. She could almost hear the raucous laughter of the crew, and smell the dank air that had reeked of sweat and stale whiskey. Her heart thumped in her chest as she tried to push away the memory of the first mate, his heavy bulk slamming her up against a metal wall and his hot breath on her neck. Her stomach roiled as she thought of his beefy leg pushing hers apart, and his hand ripping at her clothes.

  Tori put a hand to the wall, the cool metal a familiar jolt as she sucked in steadying breaths. This is not that ship, she told herself. He’s not here. You made damn sure of that.

  Vrax’s warm hand closed over hers. Her first instinct was to jerk it away, but she let his comforting heat spread up her arm before slipping her hand out from under his and squaring her shoulders.

  “Sorry about that. Guess I’m lightheaded from not eating.”

  He didn’t respond, and she didn’t look back at him. When they reached the arched doorway leading into the control room, she peeked through the clear top of the door. As she suspected, it was empty.

  She pushed open the door, glad the hinges didn’t groan, and closed it once he’d joined her inside the room. She wasn’t an engineer, but she’d hung around her crew’s engineer Holly enough to know her way around a ship’s controls. She’d never met anyone as enthusiastic about space ship engines and operating systems as the redhead, and luckily for her, she’d acted as the woman’s second pair of hands more than once.

  “What is all this?” Vrax’s usually deep voice was barely a croak as he gaped at the machinery that stretched across one wall, lights flashing and panels whirring.

  “This is how the ship runs. At least, it’s the controls for the systems that run the ship. The actual wiring goes all throughout the vessel, but it ends up in here.”

  By his expression, she could tell that explanation hadn’t helped much.

  “The Crestek use devices like this,” he said, bitterness dripping from his words.

  Tori knew that the Cresteks were the Dothveks’ mortal enemy, although from what she’d seen, the two clans looked almost exactly the same. The only differences seemed to be in how they lived and what they wore. One of the biggest differences was that the Cresteks had embraced technology, although they weren’t anywhere near the point of achieving space flight, while the Dothveks had retained their primitive life on the desert. After having the Cresteks kidnap some of her crew members, she knew which of the clans she preferred.

  “Those blasters they have are nothing compared to this,” she said. “And just because the Cresteks do something, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Not all progress is a bad thing.”

  Vrax grunted, which told her he didn’t agree. That was fine, as long as he didn’t decide to go all caveman on her and start smashing things.

  “How about we agree to disagree?” She moved forward, her eyes scanning the panels until she found the unit that controlled the water reserves. One way to speed up their trip was to cut off their water supply. A crew as large as Mourad’s wouldn’t last long without sufficient drinking water.

  She flicked her gaze to the water skin hooked to his waist. “We’ll need to make sure that’s filled up before we climb back up into the ceiling.”

  He gave her a curious look but didn’t question her.

  “I’m venting their water so they have to land the ship. It’s something they won’t be able to fix without making a supply stop, which means they’ll have to land someplace with some sort of outpost.” She eyed the controls. “It’s also something that won’t look immediately like sabotage. Mourad will assume incompetence among his crew, which will keep us safe for a while longer.”

  “If we make him angry enough at his own crew, maybe he can take them out for us.”

  “Harsh.” She grinned. “I like it.”

  It only took her a few moments to flip the switches to vent most of the water tanks into space, and she watched the readings drop and a red warning light begin to flash. She would have been shocked if the bridge watch wasn’t also dozing off, but in case someone was actually monitoring the ship’s readouts, they needed to be long gone when someone came to check out the problem. “Time to make ourselves scarce.”

  They crept back through the ship, stopping to fill his water skin in a deserted and filthy bathroom that made her hold her hand over her mouth and feel grateful that she worked with women. When they reached the large vent over the main corridor, Tori didn’t complain when he heaved her up so she could noiselessly grab the edge of the opening and hoist herself the rest of the way.

  Part of her thought that this subterfuge was beneath her. She’d much rather engage in hand to hand combat than sneak around playing what felt like pranks on her enemy. But she’d learned from working with Danica that sometimes being sneaky was called for. She adjusted the deadly hair needles holding her mass of curls in place on top of her head. She knew she’d get her fill of death soon enough.

  When he climbed up after her, she slid
the grate slowly back into place, jumping when the air began to flow around them and dropping the grate so that it clattered. She held her breath, but no one came running. She guessed there was a lot of clattering and banging on a ship this old.

  After a moment, she rubbed her bare arms and wished they’d picked another hiding place. Too bad they were going to freeze to death before the assholes on the ship ran out of water. Mourad liked his ship cold, and she wasn’t dressed for living inside the vent. She glanced over at Vrax, who seemed unaffected by the frigid air rushing through the vent. Correction. She was going to freeze to death. She remembered that his skin was tougher than hers, and she suspected the same thing that made it impervious to the blazing heat of two suns also made him able to withstand cold.

  Lucky bastard, she thought, as she watched her frozen breath form a cloud around her mouth.

  He chuckled, and she looked up at him. Had she said that aloud? Was the cold making her delirious?

  “You should let me warm you,” he said, scooting closer to her.

  She scooted backward. “Nice try. I think I’ve heard that one before. Right along with ‘let me help you get the dirt out of your eye’ and ‘why don’t we go someplace quieter?’”

  He angled his head at her. “This place seems very quiet, but you are too cold. Your lips are blue.”

  She rubbed her lips together, but could barely feel them. “I’m fine,” she lied.

  “Are all the females on your crew this stubborn, or am I just lucky?”

  She wanted to fire a snarky response back to him, but her teeth were now chattering too hard for her words to make sense. “Fuuuuuuuck yoooooou.”

  “Yes, that would most likely help, but I suggest we start with something quieter.” He reached for her, moving so swiftly she didn’t have time to dodge, and pulled her against him, tucking her into his chest and wrapping his thick arms around her back.

  What the hell?

  Tori’s first instinct was to fight him off, but his body heat felt so good she couldn’t help relaxing into him. His skin was actually warm, as if all the heat it had absorbed from being exposed to the strong sunlight was now radiating back onto her. Her teeth stopped rattling, and she could no longer see her breath as she exhaled against his massive chest muscle.

  Shit. As much as she wanted to push him away and punch him in the mouth for touching her, she knew she’d never survive without his body heat.

  “Better?” he asked, his hushed word buzzing against her ear and sending frissons of pleasure arrowing down her spine and a rush of heat pulsing between her thighs.

  Well, this was just fucking great. She was hiding in an enemy ship, being frozen to death by the environmental controls, and getting turned on by a living furnace.

  As soon as she wasn’t an ice cube, she was going to punch this alien in the nuts, if for no other reason than she was almost positive he was loving all this. But for now, the arrogant asshole was keeping her alive, so she supposed she should be grateful.

  “Better,” she admitted.

  “You should rest,” he said. “I think when the ship awakens and discovers their lack of water, we should be on our guard.”

  He was right. She suspected that Mourad would be on the warpath when he realized his valuable water was almost completely gone. Someone would have to pay for it, and it was her job to make sure it wasn’t them.

  “Only for a little while,” she said, feeling contentment surging through her as he pulled her closer. “Don’t let me sleep too long.”

  “I won’t,” he said, pulling the sharp sticks out of her hair so that it spilled down around her shoulders.

  The last thought that floated through her mind as she drifted off was that his chin felt warm as he rested it on top of her head, and that she’d never been so close to a male of any species and felt so safe.

  Chapter Four

  Vrax shifted to get feeling back into his legs, a prickling sensation making him wiggle his toes. He hadn’t wanted to disturb Tori’s sleep, but the female had been nestled in his lap all night, and her weight had made his legs go numb.

  Numb was better than hard, he thought, which was what his cock had been, until he’d persuaded himself to think of the squat scavengers on his planet with doughy flesh and beady eyes. That had done it, although he’d had to remind himself of the repulsive creatures each time she let out a breathy sigh in her sleep or moved her ass in his lap. For a female who was such a tough warrior during the day, her sleeping noises were surprisingly feminine.

  Vrax stroked a hand down her bare arm. The cold airflow had stopped during the night, so her skin had warmed and was no longer covered in bumps. Even though her body appeared to be all muscle, her flesh was soft and curved in places his body was not, reminding him again that she was indeed a female. A female who was stubborn and impulsive and made him crazy, he added to himself.

  He’d been able to steal some moments of sleep, but his dreams had been ruined with visions of scavengers, so he was glad that the ship was rousing below them. The lights in the corridors had brightened, and the clang of boots on metal echoed through the ship as the bounty hunters reported for duty. Vrax had noticed one crew member hurrying to the bridge, muttering to himself and wondered if Tori’s sabotage had already been discovered.

  “What the hell do you mean, our water tanks are almost empty?”

  The booming voice seemed to shake the walls of the ship as Mourad stormed down the corridor below them. Vrax tightened his grip on Tori as she jerked awake from the noise, clamping a hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t make a noise to alert those below of their presence.

  Her eyes went wild, then seemed to focus on him and their surroundings. When he was sure she wouldn’t blow their cover and when Mourad had thundered at them, he released her.

  To her credit, Tori didn’t scurry backward. However, she did narrow her eyes at him. “You didn’t wake me.”

  “You needed to sleep,” he said.

  She pulled her hair up and secured it in a messy bun with her two sharp metal sticks. “Don’t think that just because I—”

  “I do not think anything,” he cut her off, holding up one palm. “I do know that the captain has discovered the missing water.”

  Her face brightened. “Good. That means he should have to alter course.” She slapped his leg. “Pretty soon I’ll get my revenge, and we’ll head back to your planet. I can get my crew and get out of there, and you can return to your regular life.”

  He didn’t reply, wondering what regular life would feel like after he’d ventured away from the sands and out among the stars. Could he really go back to hunts for sand serpents after he’d seen all this? He would have to.

  More bounty hunters ran through the corridor toward the control room, and Mourad’s rage-filled voice drowned out all other sounds as he bellowed his displeasure.

  “This is impossible. How could we lose all that water overnight? Are you sure we were fully stocked when we left the planet?”

  The voice that replied was much quieter, and Vrax couldn’t make out what was said, only that it must not have pleased the captain because there were a serious of bangs and crashes like flesh hitting steel.

  “I pay you to keep my ship running. If you can’t fix the problem, maybe I should find someone who can.” Another crash of what sounded like bone against metal. “This mission had been a disaster from start to finish. First those bitches trick us, and then the bounty dies. I wasted days chasing those worthless cunts, and I don’t even have a bounty to show for it. And now one of my idiot crew accidentally vents our water into space.”

  There was a pause and the faint sound of another voice. “We won’t make it there. We’ll have to stop at the Den of Thieves.” Mourad let out a harsh laugh. “Not that I won’t mind the chance to bury my cock in a Kurrilian whore.”

  His crew joined him in laughing, but they were silenced with another crash. “Figure this out, or none of you will make it to Kurril.”

  Mourad
stomped back down the hall, his bald, jaundiced head beaded with sweat and passing so close to the vent that Vrax could almost smell the fury radiating off the alien.

  “So far, so good,” Tori said. “It’s nice to see that asshole sweat it out after what he did to us.”

  “Why does he hate your crew so much?” Vrax asked. He knew this Mourad wanted the same bounty Tori and her crew had captured, but it felt more personal than that. Not that Tori couldn’t drive any sane person to violence.

  She crossed her legs in front of herself and leaned her elbows on her knees. “He can’t stand being beaten by women. We’re smarter and better than him, and he hates that, so he hates us.”

  “How do you beat these men?” He’d seen her crew. They were all small females, and she was the only one who looked like a warrior.

  Cocking an eyebrow at him, she leaned back. “Being a bounty hunter takes more than big muscles, pretty boy. We can sneak into places these brutes can’t. We’ve also been known to use feminine wiles to get what we want.”

  “I do not know this ‘feminine wiles,’” he said, wondering how females who were not warriors could defeat these males over and over.

  Tori looked him up and down. “It’s when you use certain talents to make men do what you want.”

  He still did not fully understand. Did these women spread their legs to get their bounties? The thought made him scowl. “You bed males to help you catch bounties?”

  Tori’s body went rigid. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask me that.”

  “Do you?” Anger coursed through him, although he did not know why. It was not his concern how these offworlders lived, right?

  She bared her teeth. “Are you asking if we’re whores?”

  He did not know females well, especially these alien ones, but he suspected he was in dangerous territory. “Explain to me.”

  “I don’t have to explain anything to you.” She ground out her words. “I didn’t ask you to follow me on board, and I didn’t ask for your help. And I definitely don’t need some chest-thumping barbarian to tell me how we should do our jobs.”