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Chapter 7

seven

. . .

Katarina

I paced the cramped confines of the med bay, fingers drumming a restless tattoo against my thigh. Thaumas slept on, his great feathered chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm that soothed my fractured nerves.

He looked so peaceful, the harsh lines of pain and worry smoothed away in repose. A far cry from the bloody, broken creature I'd hauled into the Crimson Claw just cycles ago.

I shuddered, phantom copper choking my throat. I couldn't get it out of my head - the wet rattle of his breath, the dull sheen of his eyes as he hovered at the edge of oblivion.

Never again. I would never feel that helpless, that utterly fucking useless, again.

Squaring my shoulders, I marched from the med bay, purpose thrumming through my veins. I needed to see the captain. Needed to cash in the myriad favors he owed me.

I found Raza on the bridge. Clawed feet kicked up on the consoles as he reclined in the pilot's chair. He cracked one slitted eye as I stomped up to him, a slow smirk curling his reptilian lips.

"Well, if it isn't the blushing bride-to-be," he drawled, fangs glinting. "To what do I owe the dubious pleasure? Trouble in paradise already?"

I scowled at him, crossing my arms. "Stow it, Scales. I'm here on business, not to trade barbs with an overgrown gecko."

He clutched his chest in mock affront, eyes wide. "You wound me, Blondie! And here I thought we were besties, what with me saving your boyfriend's perforated bacon and all."

"And I'm exceedingly grateful," I gritted out, resisting the urge to throttle him with my bare hands. "Which is why I'm here. I need your help with something."

That got his attention. He sat up straighter, feet thunking to the deck plates. "Do tell. It's not every day a lady of your caliber comes to me for assistance."

I rolled my eyes, but forged ahead. "I want you to train me better than before. Teach me to fight, to defend myself." I lifted my chin, holding his gaze. "I'm done being a liability, a fucking damsel for Thaumas and the crew to protect."

A long, charged silence. Then Raza threw his head back and laughed, a harsh bark that set my teeth on edge.

"Oh, that's rich!" he crowed, slapping his thigh. "The little Earther wants to be a warrior! Wants to protect her feathered knight from the big bad ‘verse!"

Red swam across my vision. Before I could stop myself, I lunged forward and slammed my hands down on the armrests of his chair, caging him in with my body.

"Listen to me, you scaly son of a bitch," I snarled, right in his smug face. "I just watched the love of my life bleed out in my fucking arms. I held his goddamned organs in while he wheezed and shuddered and begged me to let him go."

Raza went still, eyes widening. I barreled on, too incensed to stop.

"I will not feel that again, do you understand me? I will not be the reason Thaumas takes another fucking bullet." I bared my teeth, a wild thing uncaged. "So you will train me. You will make me a threat to anyone stupid enough to come at me and mine. Or I swear by every god in the ‘verse, I will rip your tongue out through your scaly ass and beat you to death with it. Are we fucking clear?"

A long, taut beat. Raza stared at me, gob-smacked. I held his gaze, chest heaving, daring him to laugh again.

Then, slowly, a fierce grin split his face. An approving gleam lit his beady eyes as he looked me up and down, seeing me anew.

"Well, fuck me sideways," he rasped, shaking his head. "There just might be some bite to you after all, Blondie."

I lifted my chin, nostrils flared. "You're goddamned right there is. Question is, are you going to train it? Or do I need to find someone with a bigger pair to teach me the ropes?"

He snorted, flicking a claw at me. "Please. Like there's a being on this boat more qualified than me to make a killer out of you." He sobered, holding my gaze. "You sure about this, Kat? Once we start down this road. There's no going back. You cross this line, let me mold you into a weapon .It'll change you. Permanently."

Swallowing hard, I didn't flinch. "I'm sure. I need this, Raza. I need to keep the people I love safe. No matter the cost to myself."

He searched my face for a long moment. Then he nodded, something like respect kindling in his eyes.

"All right then. You're on, kid." A sharp flash of teeth. "But fair warning: I'm not making this easy on you. By the time I'm done, you're gonna wish Zarath had gotten his slimy hands on you. I'm gonna break you down to nothing and build you back up mean. A real-deal, grade-A killing machine."

I lifted my chin, holding his gaze unflinchingly. "Bring it the fuck on, Scales. I can take whatever you dish out."

"We'll see about that," he purred, a predator scenting blood. "Report to the cargo bay, 0500 sharp. And Kat?"

I paused in the doorway, glancing back at him.

A cruel curl of lips. "Wear something you don't mind bleeding on."

Thaumas was less than thrilled with my new extracurricular activity.

"You want to what?" he squawked when I broke the news, nearly falling out of his med-cot in agitation. "Absolutely not! I forbid it!"

I scowled at him, hands on hips. "You forbid it? I'm sorry, I didn't realize I'd time-warped back to the fucking dark ages when I wasn't looking. Newsflash, bird boy: You don't get to forbid me from shit."

"The kroxing I don't!" He struggled upright, wincing as his stitches pulled. "Kat, this is madness. You're not a soldier, you're not..."

"If you say not built for this, I swear to Christ I will smother you with a pillow," I snarled. "I am so sick of people telling me what I am and am not built for. I've been fighting to survive since I was sixteen years old. I've clawed and scraped my way through the ugliest corners of the ‘verse, alone, with nothing but my wits and my spine to see me through."

I thrust a finger under his beak, eyes blazing. "I am a survivor, Thaumas. Down to my bones, to my cells. This?" I gestured at myself, at the scars and calluses and wiry muscles. "This is a body built to endure. To overcome. And right now, it's telling me I need to learn how to fight back against the bastards who want to lay us low."

His agonized expression revealed a war between pride and terror. "Kat, love, please. I can't...I can't watch you throw yourself into danger. Not after everything."

I softened, the fight draining out of me. I stepped into the circle of his arms, tucking my face into the thick ruff of feathers at his throat.

"I know," I whispered. "I know this is scary, T. It scares the shit out of me, the thought of stepping onto this path. But I need to do this. For you, for us." I pulled back to cup his face, thumbs stroking his sleek cheeks. "I need to protect you, the way you've protected me. I need to be your shield, not just your shiny trinket to be cosseted and defended."

He closed his eyes, expression pained. "You're not...Kat, you could never be a trinket to me. You're my heart. The very air in my lungs."

"And you're mine," I whispered fiercely. "Which is why I need to do this. Why I need you to help me do this." I held his gaze, pleading and unflinching in equal measure. "Train with me. Teach me, Thaumas. Help me become the weapon we both know I need to be."

A long, throbbing silence. I held my breath, willing him to understand. To trust in my strength the way I trusted in his.

At last, he let go with a shuddering sigh. Resigned and rueful and so proud I could taste it.

"I can't," he rasped, bowing his head to rest his brow against mine. "As a Lord Griffin, it's not right for his lady to do such things. You already know some things about battle, but it's enough. It will have to be enough." A hint of fang himself as he smiled, crooked and strained. "My lady will not battle while I live and breath."

I laughed, a damp, hiccupping thing. What the ever-loving hell did he mean? Squaring my shoulders, I grimaced. "I'm not your Lady Griffin. I'm a human woman, and I want, no I need to learn how to defend myself and those I love."

A growl, dark and rumbling rose up through his chest and into mine. "Careful, mate. Talk like that's liable to fry what's left of my logic circuits. You will not destroy my honor. If I can't survive and defend, then there's no point in us."

Heat curled through my belly, chasing away the chill of residual fear. "If that's the way you want to play it, I suppose we aren't well matched." I spun around intending on a grand exit so I could cool off before I said more. He grabbed my wrist and peered into my eyes.

A huff of laughter escaped, and he swooped in, claiming my mouth in a kiss that seared me to my toes. I gasped into the hot slide of lips and tongue, reveling in the spicy-dark taste of him, the way he devoured me like a bird of prey with the juiciest of morsels. I wanted to fight him, to pull away, but dammit, my body grew hot and pliable in his capable claws.

When he finally released me, I was panting and glossy-eyed, lips bee-stung and buzzing. "Keep kissing me like that and I might just have to break Raza's 0500 start time," I wheezed, only half-kidding as I clung to his broad shoulders for balance.

A wicked chuckle and a last nuzzling peck to my brow. "Good. You listen to me. If we're to make it, you must abide by my honor code. Raza isn't your savior, nor will he pull you from me."

I groaned but conceded the point. As much as I wanted to climb my big beautiful bird like a tree., we weren't in any shape for those kind of acrobatics. And as much as I wanted to argue about his chivalrous honor and demands, I gave it a rest. It would be an argument for another day.

But soon. Just as soon as we were both fighting fit and flush with the adrenaline of a hard-won spar. I fully intended to introduce my feathered Adonis to the carnal benefits of Raza's grueling training regimen with me by his side..

Watch out, universe. This little Earther was about to level the fuck up. And when she did.

We were the fell-forged instruments of our own vengeance. And the song we played would be a red one, a reckoning without end.

I hit the mats with a bone-jarring thud, all the air punched from my lungs in a whooping gasp. Raza loomed over me, smug as a Denebian slime-toad as he spun his staff.

"Getting tired already, Blondie?" he taunted, slit-pupiled eyes gleaming with sadistic glee. "We're only three hours into today's session! Barely enough time to break a sweat!"

"Fuck you," I wheezed, struggling to my hands and knees. Every muscle screamed in protest, my shoulders and thighs quivering with fatigue. "Not all of us can be machines."

He cackled, fangs bared in a shit-eating grin. "Machines break down, kiddo. I'm a force of nature."

He made a come at me gesture with his free hand, eyes glittering. "Now, you gonna lay there licking your wounds? Or are you gonna woman up and show me what you're made of?"

Fury snapped through my exhaustion like an icy whip-crack. Gritting my teeth, I lunged for my fallen staff and hurled myself at Raza with a banshee shriek.

He blocked me easily, metal screeching on metal as our weapons collided. Grunting, I bore down with all my flagging strength, willing my aching muscles to obey.

But it was no use. Raza was a wall, immovable as the bones of the earth. A flick of his wrist and my staff went flying, clattering across the deck plates.

Another flick and the butt of his staff cracked across my cheek, snapping my head to the side. I reeled back, tasting copper and seeing stars.

"Lesson one," Raza said with that infuriating calm, slinking towards me like the apex predator he was. "Never let your emotions control you in a fight. Anger can be a tool, but rage?" He tsked, shaking his head. "Rage makes you stupid. Sloppy. Easy pickings for a cool head with ice in his veins."

I spat a gob of blood onto the decking, a feral snarl contorting my face. "Spare me the fortune cookie bullshit. You wanted me to come at you, so I did."

An elegant shrug, a mocking curl of reptilian lips. "Hey, don't blame me for your complete lack of technique. I'M not the one flailing around like a kroxing hatchling fresh from the shell."

I swear I was going to rip his smug face off. "You sanctimonious, scaly son of a-"

"That's enough."

Thaumas's baritone cut through our verbal sparring like a plasma bolt. He strode onto the training mats, face thunderous, wings half-flared behind him.

He leveled Raza with a look that could have flash-frozen a star. "I appreciate you putting Kat through her paces, Captain. But there's a fine line between training and straight up torture. You might want to watch you don't cross it, hmm?"

Raza scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. "Please. Blondie's fine. This is barely a tickle compared to the shit I've been through." His eyes narrowed slyly. "Besides, I thought you wanted your little woman to toughen up? Be the shield to your sword or whatever fairy-tale drivel you two are into?"

Thaumas growled, a sound like boulders grinding together. I jerked my head to the side not realizing he had stood there watching. "Make no mistake, I am not happy about this training union." His eyes flashed, cold as the depths of space.

He smiled, a slash of white in the gloom. "If you so much as harm a hair on her head all will see me wear your entrails as a necklace, my good Captain. Are we fucking clear?"

The two males stared each other down, the air between them practically crackling with tension. I glanced back and forth, barely daring to breathe.

At last, Raza threw up his hands in a gesture of mock-surrender. "Ishtar's glowing gash, fine. I'll go easier on your precious mate, since you asked so nicely."

He cut me a sly glance. "But don't come crying to me when she ends up on the wrong end of a slaver's blaster, bird boy. There are no referees in the real world. No one to swoop in and save your ass from an ass kicking you deserve."

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