Crystal

If Drelix is impressed, he doesn't show it, simply growling and releasing a long plume of smoke as he gets into the pilot's chair and swings the craft towards the surface of the planet, following the homing beacon sent up from below.

I hope he has a plan. I know little about Trefa, only what I've overheard in the markets on Station X42. The capital, Tatatunga, is hugely wealthy and run by a consortium of traders who have more money than sense. Money they've made from those who wish to gamble on the games.

I don't know what the games are. A tiny part of me hopes it's simply alien casinos. The larger, more common sense bit of Crystal, the bit which has spent plenty of time in the company of the dregs of the universe, has a horrible sinking feeling the games are far more gladiator than roulette wheel.

Anywhere which celebrates violence at the heart of its economy is going to be extraordinarily dangerous, and if I had a choice, this is not the place I'd have escaped Station X42 to end up in.

If I ever had the feeling of being completely out of my depth, it's right now. Despite the fact that, yet again, I let him kiss me.

I wanted him to kiss me.

This is such a bad idea.

"Whatever you may think of me, Crystal, I've been to Trefa, and I recommend we behave like a mated pair," Drelix says, not taking his eyes from the rapidly approaching planet.

"Sure." I shrug.

His stunning eyes flicker across and back again. "You agree?"

"Someone needs to take care of you, given you fell for the oldest trick in the book," I say, leaning back against the co-pilot chair as Drelix banks to the left. "I mean, you're not very good at the whole keeping a low profile and stealing stuff thing, are you?"

"I am Sarkarnii. I do not need to steal."

"Not what I've heard." I study my nails, such as they are. "I heard Sarkarnii are space pirates."

"Then you heard wrong," Drelix says, steering us smoothly down to the surface, past numerous larger space craft, many of them impossibly sleek and quite a few which look like something out of Red Dwarf. The homing beacon takes us into a side docking area where a small space awaits.

Along with a set of large Habosu on the gangway.

"Shit!" I exclaim.

"The Habosu you encountered on Station X42 are unlikely to be in league with the Habosu who provide services in Tatatunga. They do not work together. In fact, the different families actively work against each other in most cases."

"What if these are the same family. The Makkan?"

"They are not. And in any event, we destroyed the Makkan fleet some time ago," Drelix says easily.

So, that has to be the reason Lord Makkan was looking for what I have—he wants revenge too. I open my mouth to tell Drelix, but he's already out of the pilot chair, taking my arm and walking us both towards the opening cockpit.

"Welcome to Tatatunga." The first Habosu grunts. "State your business."

Drelix starts to smoke. The Habosu takes a step forward. Which is a mistake. Drelix fires out an arm, grabs the large mound of green blubber around his neck and lifts him from the floor.

"Did you look at my mate?" he snarls.

The Habosu can't actually speak, given Drelix has him by the throat. He makes a gurgling sound.

"He didn't, I assure you," the other Habosu gibbers as Drelix's smoke begins to contain embers. "There is a lot of fuel stored here, Sarkarnii. You really don't want to do it."

"Fuel?" Drelix growls. "What do I care for fuel, if this nevver thinks it's acceptable to look at my mate?"

"It is Fireize. It does not respond well to changes in temperatures," the non-death-gripped Habosu pants.

His fear is not for his colleague, which isn't much of a surprise, but it is for his own greasy green skin. Drelix lets the first Habosu go. He drops to the floor in a heap, coughing disgustingly.

"My business is my own," he snarls. "But I am here to pleasure my mate, that is all you need to know."

He takes me by the arm with a short, formal bow, and we sweep past the pair on the gangway.

"Gak!" I hear the broken one raspingly swear to the other as we put some distance between us and them. "A Sarkarnii in rut."

"Any particular reason you put on that little show back there?" I ask Drelix once we're out of earshot.

"Sometimes there's information to be gathered when you deflect attention. Sometimes there's an image to maintain," he says cryptically.

"So, you discovered they're keeping quantities of Fireize nearby, fair enough, but the whole ‘don't look at my mate' thing?" I intone in as deep a voice as I can muster, but not even getting close to Drelix's velvet tones. "What was that for?"

Drelix gives me a sideways glance and huffs out more smoke.

"Most species won't tackle a Sarkarnii, but a mated Sarkarnii? We're an unknown quantity. I'm banking on it meaning they keep their distance even more."

"And that's because you've been to Tatatunga before?"

Drelix stops and turns to face me. He slides a knuckle under my chin, the claw of his thumb on my skin.

"Whatever you thought Station X42 was, Tatatunga is worse. It is both lawless and tightly controlled by the ruling council. If you can't look after yourself, if you don't have someone to do it for you, then you are fair game," he says, voice low, deep, and delicious, sending messages to parts of my body which should not be responding. "Yes, I have been to Tatatunga before, and had I known what I was looking for was here, I would not have left without it."

"Okay," I say slowly.

"If you're here with me"—he sighs with yet more smoke—"then you're here under my protection, and everyone needs to know it."

He leans in farther until all I can focus on is his lips.

"You belong to me, little morsel, and everyone will know it."

And, just like that, I no longer fear for my underwear…I mourn its passing because Drelix has just destroyed it.