Chapter 10

Harper

I attempted to doze for a few minutes, a bit disoriented by how calm everything was after all the chaos from before. Dravion had left a while ago with only a vague assurance that he'd be back and that I was completely safe. He'd insisted that I rest; even though the procedures were simple and non-invasive, my body needed to recuperate. I didn't feel like I had to recuperate; I felt wired, buzzing with energy.

For the third time, I checked the tablet, the lifeline to information, and to Nick. He had not sent me any messages, and I felt like a silly, clingy girlfriend for wishing he did. He was probably busy trying to save all our asses by confusing this Batok guy. Who I knew was a major threat; a player in the criminal circuit. My research, thanks to Nick, had informed me that he considered himself a crimelord, one of twelve in the system. They worked together, but they back-stabbed just as easily, and that position meant he wielded considerable power.

Mandy had left because she'd promised to have dinner with her mate and his son, something which was apparently happening come hell or high water. She'd smiled as she explained that Saisir had only recently been returned to Asmoded, and her mate never missed the promised time to his son. Even in the midst of what was a bit of a security threat. She hadn't looked worried, confident that it would be handled. I knew who was handling it, my Nick.

I jerked upright when I heard the sound of boots heading toward me and swung my legs over the edge of the bed to get a better look. It wasn't Nick, and it sounded like two pairs of boots, so it couldn't be Dravion either. When they rounded the corner and ducked into the med bay like they owned the place, I froze and stared.

Two tall and identical-looking men. Their red skin gleamed with hints of gold and orange, and their humanoid faces displayed white markings that closely resembled the features of a skull. I'd seen them before when they'd taken part in restraining Nick, and in hauling him off to the brig. A glare settled on my face at the recollection.

"Hi," one of them said with a grin and a wave of his hand. He smirked as he crossed the room to stand right in front of me, coming dangerously close to invading my personal space. This close, he was bigger than I expected, his armor-clad body outlined in black and bulky with muscle. His twin followed him, standing back and to my left, not too close, but he still made me feel trapped.

"Hello," I responded, uncertain what they were up to. Was this a social visit or another threat? Had someone sent them to guard me? Maybe the quiet one was just a tad skinnier, rangier than his counterpart. He had a light in his eyes that made me uneasy like I was looking into the eyes of a tiger.

"I'm Aramon," the cheerful one said, "And that's my twin, Solear." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the other guy, and this Solear opened his mouth and grimaced at me. Maybe it was meant to be a smile, but the result was creepy and unsettling. His teeth weren't straight and blunt like his twin's but filed down to needle-sharp points. He looked like a freaking serial killer or something.

"Okay," I said, "I'm Harper O'Neill. Nice to meet you." I didn't mean for my last statement to sound like a question, but my voice went up at the end as I struggled with a flood of nerves. The last time one of these aliens had cornered me in the med bay hadn't gone so well. I wanted to turn on the charm and convince them to talk to me, so I knew what was happening. I needed to find that journalism grit, but my mouth had gone dry.

The smiley one smiled even more. "I know." He crossed his arms over his chest but restless energy seemed to thrum through him, and he shifted again, his hands flying into the air as he started talking. "We had to come to see you, the human who made our ever so cool and rational Mitnick lose it." He seemed very satisfied by this knowledge like he took great pleasure in seeing one of his crewmates experience a bit of chaos. I didn't like it.

"You're not nice," I said, surprised that it was vinegar, not honey, that was spilling from my mouth. That wasn't my usual tactic. If I wanted answers, I knew how to lure them from most people. But I felt protective of Nick; I didn't like that this guy was taking enjoyment from a situation that had almost killed him.

It just made the evil twin grin evilly and the nice twin smiled like I was being cute. I opened my mouth, forgetting how big these two were, so I could give them a piece of my mind. He beat me to it, Aramon. "No, we're not. But you don't need to worry. Mitnick is our friend, our brother. We have his back."

I swallowed the not-so-kind words I'd been about to say and lost some of the tension in my posture as I tried to appraise them again. So they did care about Nick, they were just creepy weirdos. Was this the ship's gossip, trying to get all the juicy news? I hid the smile that wanted to form at that idea; Aramon might actually fit the part, but not his brother.

"So tell us, how'd you do it? How did you activate his mating drive? I didn't even know his species mated! He doesn't tell us anything about his kind, so closelipped." Aramon bounced on the balls of his feet, not giving me a chance to respond to any of his questions; not that they made sense. "He was kidnapped like you! You guys match! Did he tell you that?"

It seemed to excite him to share this information, but he dropped his voice into a more hushed whisper and leaned in even closer for the next bit. With a hand cupped around his mouth, he said, "Mitnick is from even further than you. Did you know that? What was it again? Do you remember the quadrant, bro?" He elbowed his creepy twin in the chest and the guy growled, a feral, animal noise.

"Ah, right you are," Aramon agreed as if his brother had made sense. "BetaGamma, they went into doubles for him." He winked at me and I wasn't sure if he meant to let me in on some joke about how non-talkative his brother was, maybe? Or if he was trying to get me to unwind? Either way, I was grateful for his information, because now it started to make sense how Dravion hadn't known how Nick's mating situation worked.

"That's far," I said, though I had a hard time picturing that. Space wasn't a two-dimensional place, it went in every direction, it was mind-boggling to me how to place locations and correlate distances. Nick had tried to explain it through our chats, but dang, I couldn't wrap my head around it. "Really far. How did it happen? Did he spend a long time in stasis, too?"

Aramon shook his head, his skullish features gleaming bone white in the bright light. He didn't look at his twin this time, but the other male rumbled a growl again, turned around, and stalked across the med bay. It felt, oddly enough, like the two were having a rapid-fire discussion that was almost turning into a fight. Yet not a word was said.

"Only for the journey here. He was put on the sands as a gladiator, but nothing holds Mitnick for long, as you know." He grinned and waggled the bony ridges that seemed to make up his brows. He was referring to Nick's breakout to rescue me from the Sineater, and I started to smile in response. I could picture that; he seemed good at anything technology. Mandy called him the ship's hacker.

"And then he tried to steal the captain's credits, and the rest, that's history," Aramon added, and he gestured expansively, encompassing the entire ship. "Cap, he likes to take in strays. But don't tell him I said that." I couldn't picture the terrifying presence that Asmoded made with his gleaming scales and serpentine body to be such a bleeding heart. This ship seemed filled with rough around the edges, dangerous aliens that terrified me just by their appearance. Although, Aramon was growing on me, just a little.

I glanced at the other guy, Solear, who was pacing by the exit as if he was dying to be somewhere else. Maybe he was the type of guy who disliked hospitals, I'd run into them more than once when I'd done an article on a local hospital. Something was definitely bothering him, but mostly, he just looked creepy with his feral stare.

"I don't know this history," I said, smiling and shifting to a more open, casual position on the bed. Inviting, relaxed, that usually helped to get people to talk. Aramon was more than willing. He started rattling off the pick-pocketing story in all its glory with an eager expression. So, a guy who liked to hear the sound of his own voice; my favorite interview subject because they always spilled the beans.

When he wound down, I grinned, inviting him in on a joke. "So he has a habit of stealing things, huh?" I said. Aramon's answering smile was wide and even creepy, Solear made a huffing noise that could almost constitute a laugh. A quickly smothered laugh.

"Damn right, I do!" Nick announced loudly as he strode into the med bay on the heels of my remark. My heart fluttered in my chest at the sight of him, my eyes eagerly roving his body to make sure he was all right. His wings were a big, white-feathered presence at his back, the tips a bold red. His crest, a mohawk of bold, white, and red feathers, stood straight up in a proud display. He seemed confident, virile, and very much in good health.

With a hint of regret, I realized he'd covered up. No longer was I staring at his bare and beautifully muscled chest because he'd pulled on a suit of armor just like the ones the twins were wearing. A matte black carapace covered him from his neck to his wrists to the heavy black boots. It was still a delicious sight, his muscles outlined and on display while making it look like he was wearing something that resembled a uniform.

I hadn't made the connection yet, but seeing three together at such a calm moment made me realize they looked like a unit. They were brothers, brothers in arms, and when Nick brushed casually past feral-looking Solear, he seemed completely at ease. It didn't seem to bother him that the guy growled at his back, even if that would have made me duck for cover.

Nick glared at Aramon, who stood far too close to me to be polite, but I'd gotten used to it already. The cheerful twin smiled as if the glare amused him, but stepped aside, hands clasped casually behind his back. It was Solear that stalked aggressively closer, but just a tilt of Aramon's head, and he settled. "At it again?" Aramon asked with a laugh, "At least tell me you're not taking my favorite shuttle?"

Nick didn't reply, but his wings spread a little and casually pushed his crewmate in the chest. It set off Solear, but both of the others ignored him. When Nick got into my personal space, that felt entirely different from how it had appeared when Aramon did it. My body seemed to charge with electricity, tingling all over, and my stomach swooped like I'd just gotten on a rollercoaster and taken that first plunge. I had such a big crush on him, and it didn't even cross my mind to question what he wanted.

He reached out his hands, and when he tucked one under my knees and the other arm came behind my back, I just sighed. He picked me up like it was nothing. It made me feel light as a feather when he cradled me gently against his chest. "Stealing me, are you?" I whispered as I tucked my head against his shoulder. "Okay. Where are we going?" Anything was better than being stuck in this med bay.

"Away from here," was all the answer I got. He said it in a dark, husky drawl that made my nipples perk beneath my shirt. Nick's tone made me think he was stealing me back to his quarters to do sexy, seductive things. I was very much on board with that plan, but I had a feeling it was going to be far more exciting and far less fun at the same time.

"Rendezvous where?" Aramon asked when Nick started to carry me out of the med bay. I'd managed to forget about the weird twins for a second, but now I jerked my gaze back at the skullish face that had followed us to the doorway. Aramon knew his crewmate, he had guessed Nick's plan while I was still wondering.

Nick paused, glancing first at a still rumbling Solear. The alien had his shoulders puffed out, and if he had a tail, I knew it would be angrily swishing behind him. Aramon was bouncing on the toes of his combat boots again, smirking like this entire situation was just a ball of laughs. I expected Nick to brush off the question, but he offered his crew mate a tentative smile, a hint of gratefulness filling his wild, tigerite eyes.

"I'll send you the coordinates. Thanks Aramon." He carried me off through the ship, and I gasped in utter shock at the transformation that greeted me. The last time I'd come through this hallway, it had been a dreary, black place with no distinguishing features. It was nothing like that now, with splashes of vibrant colors streaking across the walls. They were guidelines, blue for engineering, red for med bay, green for the bridge, and so on.

"You're one of us now, Harper," Nick said against my ear, a smug satisfaction coloring his voice. "When the Doc installed your eye implants to help you read alien scripts… A little extra was included. Now you can find your way around the Varakartoom." His words hung in the air like a promise, like a prediction of the future. It felt like he was saying that this ship was going to be my home, not that sanctuary that had been dangled in front of my face before.

He was saying, without words, that my future would be at his side, and he'd be on this ship. I wasn't sure if those ideas made me nervous or if they actually settled my nerves. It was all so fast, so confusing, and with the danger looming over my head, this was not the time to even contemplate.

I forced myself to switch to my investigator mode instead, the innate question-asker. When in doubt, gather information, ask questions, and get all the facts. "You still haven't told me where we are going…" I left the statement hanging, my eyes on his face to see if he was hiding it on purpose, but he seemed startled. Like he hadn't realized.

"Somewhere safe. I couldn't get the watchers on the ship to be fooled, so I'm taking you elsewhere." He quickened his pace, and I flung my arm around his neck and held on while I tried to decipher the colorful lines to figure out where we were going. "I don't want Batok chasing the Varakartoom, or us. Especially not you. And we need answers."

Answers, yes! That was a plan I could get behind, and when we entered a large room with several small ships and other vehicles, I knew what he intended. We boarded the small ship closest to a massive set of doors, easily big enough for any of the vehicles to leave through. He was taking me off the Varakartoom, and it was going to be just the two of us, I realized as soon as I saw the interior. There was no one else aboard the small vessel.

Nick set me down in one of the two available seats at the front and started to strap me carefully into it. "Just a precaution. In case we'll need some evasive maneuvers, but I doubt it. All is clear." He tapped the gleaming metal device on his left temple and instantly a blue light shimmered in front of his eyes, like a pair of very sci-fi sunglasses.

I pressed my tablet to my chest and watched as he strapped himself in and took control of the little ship. When we flew out of the slowly opening doors, I held my breath, half expecting someone to stop us. This didn't seem like a course of action Asmoded agreed with, but maybe he and Nick had talked while I hadn't been around.

"Got your coordinates," Aramon's voice suddenly cheerfully announced, and I jerked in my seat. For a brief moment, I thought he was on the small ship with us, but then I realized he was talking through some kind of radio connection. "Good luck out there, brother. As long as you know that I'm not putting in a good word for you with the captain. You're on your own with that. But I'm happy to fight this Batok asshole. That should be fun! Right, bro?" he trailed off, and the connection ended without Nick ever saying anything. I had a feeling that ‘bro' hadn't been meant for Nick, he'd directed that at his twin.

"The captain only cares that we get paid and that there is a minimal risk to the crew. I've got a plan for both of those things," Nick said to me, his hands competently holding the yoke-like thing he was using to steer the ship. We darted away from the huge spaceship we had just exited and I got a good look at the space station before we spun around and aimed for a starry patch of space that looked identical to the rest to me.

I didn't have long to really take in the Varakartoom, the mercenary ship that Nick belonged to. A huge, sleek black shape that looked intimidating and threatening, especially compared to the mostly gray and silver ships it shared the docking arm with. It seemed like a tank to me or a great big shark; definitely a ship that shouted aggression and danger.

Then we were flying into space, just the two of us. I had this moment of panic. Was I crazy for just flying off with a guy I barely knew? A guy that not that long ago had acted like a dangerous, feral, instinct-driven maniac because he was that up in knots about me? My grandma would call that a major red flag, but then, she'd always been a realist, while I was the dreamer.

I wanted answers about why Batok had locked me in the vault, my safety, and my future. Mostly though, I wanted answers about Nick and this thing between us. I was willing to take a few risks to get what I needed. The one thing that was crystal clear to me was that my safety in Nick's presence would never be in doubt. He would protect me, to his own detriment, if needed.