Page 46 of Victoria's Embrace

“I thought you were dead!” she gasped.

A dry snort answered her. “I’m not easy to kill. Now stop hugging me and tell me which of these people I need to shoot.”

Jerking back, Victoria released Aria from the impulsive hug and stepped in front of her blaster. “No shooting!” Glancing over her shoulder, she scanned the people staring on in confusion, half still aiming their guns at Aria and her team. “This is—”

Ishra stepped forward, his youthful face set in hard lines, and answered for her. “We are her army.”

Smiling with a mix of pride and discomfort, Victoria looked back at Aria in time to catch the sharp look she sent her. “Just what have you been up to in my absence, kid?”

Victoria chuckled a little uncomfortably. “A lot. Speaking of, anyone know how to defuse a bomb?”

Spar, splattered with dried blood and dressed scantily in what Victoria could only describe as ‘dominatrix chic’, stepped forward, raised a finger, and gave a nonchalant, “Yep.”

Blowing out a relieved breath, Victoria started to smile only to grimace when she heard Thorn’s low growl at her back, his anger that she’d run off without him apparently not forgotten, regardless of the fact there hadn’t turned out to be a threat.

Spar leaned to the side, her gaze dropping to focus on something behind Victoria’s hip. Lips quirking up on one side, she straightened and met Victoria’s eyes. “Goddamn, that’s a lot of dick. Nicely done, chica.”

Thorn made a choked sound behind her. Before Victoria’s face could decide whether to catch fire or freeze with shock, Spar started off toward the throne, whistling cheerfully.

* * *

Victoria quickly taskedeveryone still standing to go around with RegenBands and help those who’d been injured in the fight, restrain the unconscious people, and check on the other teams, then hurried back to the throne where Spar was working to disable the device.

Vi’kail, no longer needing to hold Salesh’s finger on the button, stood as she approached. “We’ll be talkin’ about you runnin’ off without one of us,” he murmured softly.

Thorn came to a stop at her back and rumbled in agreement.

“I thought we were being attacked,” she replied unapologetically. “Would either of you done any different?”

They all knew the answer. Vi’kail narrowed his eyes, but after a second, blew out a breath and bent to press a soft kiss to her forehead. “No more battles. I can’t handle the stress.”

Snorting, she fired back, “Tell power-hungry assholes to stop attacking us, and I wouldn’t have to battle.”

Before he could say anything, Aria came to a stop at her side. “What happened here?”

Victoria started to give her an abbreviated rundown, but just then, Rellik joined them and made a low sound of shocked disbelief on Aria’s other side. Glancing at him, she saw the pale cast to his handsome face and realized she should’ve warned him that the woman who’d sold him into slavery wasn’t as dead as he’d thought.

Looking between Rellik and Salesh, Aria breathed, “Fuck me. Is that who I think it is?”

Rellik’s voice was shaky with fury, shock, or both when he spat, “Salesh.”

Aria’s gaze narrowed on the dead female, but she didn’t say anything else, instead moved into his side, speaking to him softly and stroking a hand over his lower back and hip.

Something had changed between those two. Wondering at it, but not daring to ask, Victoria looked away to give them some semblance of privacy.

A sound from behind had them all turning to see the other teams come running into the lobby, led by Skaa. It wasn’t until then that Victoria realized just how quickly the fight had happened. It felt like hours but in reality, obviously couldn’t have been more than maybe twenty minutes.

Halfway into the room, the four-armed woman made a choked sound, her eyes locked onto Aria.

“Skaa!” Aria met her halfway, giving her a quick hug before they both pulled back to check one another for injuries. “When did you get here? Braxton? Sauran? A’nu?”

Skaa tipped her chin in Victoria’s direction. “Your tiny tribeswoman found us at a slave market. Sauran and A’nu are here. Braxton is off saving people.”

“Slave market?” Aria repeated, sending Victoria a confused look. Without waiting for an answer, she turned back to Skaa. “Damn, am I glad to see you. We searched for you but didn’t find anything.”

“I will tell you my tale later.” Meeting Victoria’s gaze, she called, “We came upon a large group of enemies guarding prisoners and were slowed taking them down. You are well?”

“Yeah, we’re… mostly okay,” she called back, her gaze flitting to an unconscious Thegan sprawled on the floor.

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