Page 1 of Keeping Sarah

CHAPTER 1

Sarah

“What the fuck are you thinking?” Rex seethed inside my mind, as his ship took off and we left Halla, along with Jac and Deacon, behind.

I ignored him. Considering Rex Terian was now a part ofme, he knew exactly what I was thinking. I could read his thoughts, and he could read mine. To stop the fight and protect my family, I had possessed him. I had forced his ghost into my body.

The first time I had let him possess me when my life had been in danger, it had felt like a warm summer rain that washed through me. But when I had forced his ghost into my body this time, my muscles thought I was being boiled from the inside out. I didn’t know if it was normal to feel that way when forcing a ghost inside of oneself, but it didn’t matter.

Normalhad been a foreign concept since I had been abducted by aliens.

“Quiet down,” I chided him.

I needed to think without his enraged rambling as a distraction in my mind. I was on his ship with his mercenaries, and we were flying back to Faithless, the city Rex ruled with an iron fist.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire, as it were?” he asked with sarcasm coating his voice.

I no longer needed the bone knife at my throat to keep his men at bay. The crew knew I was serious once they had seen Rex’s ghost head sticking up from my body near my shoulder. I had him inside of me, and I wasn’t letting him go.

Not yet.

One of his soldiers came to me, edgy wariness in his violet eyes. He could have been handsome, were it not for all the tattoos covering his face and body. “So, I’m curious about something, Queen.”

Queen of the conduitswas now my title, and I embraced the moniker. “Yes?”

“You have Rex trapped inside you, yeah?”

“Yes,” I confirmed.

He assessed me through narrowed eyes as he folded his arms across his thick chest. “And we’re on our way to Faithless, so you can…do what, exactly?”

“Negotiate.”

He chuckled softly, a trace of derision in his tone. “You really think he’ll let you live, after he escapes you?”

“I have things he wants. He has things I want.” I shrugged, refusing to let this brute bait me. “That’s how negotiation works.”

“Sure, but—"

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.” I lifted my chin imperiously. More than that, I didn’t like him poking holes in my plan.

Rex, now having intimate knowledge of my thoughts, laughed in my head.Asshole.

“No, you don’t,” he agreed, stepping closer to me. “But ifI’mthe guy who saves Rex from you, don’t you think he’d show his appreciation?”

“How do you propose to do that?” I scoffed. “You hurt me, you hurt him.”

He stopped about two feet away, still maintaining his threatening stance. “True, but it’s an interesting thought, right? What would the richest man on Halla give to the man who saves him from yourfilthyconduit clutches?”

I glared into his eyes, and our two foot-height difference seemed to diminish as I stood up to him without an ounce of fear. As a human conduit, we both knew I was the one with all the power here, not him. “You will never have the chance to find out,boy.”

He tried not to look away. He didn’t want to look berated in front of the other men. Even the smallest among Rex’s crew watched on with amused expressions.

So, instead, he laughed and opted for vulgarity. “I can show you what a man I am, little human. In fact,” he unzipped his uniform, “let me show you right now—"

“Oh fuck off, Rundown,” Rex snapped, taking control of my mouth without my consent. “You can’t show her that thing. She’d need a damned microscope to find it. Now get back to your station, before I use her tiny body to kick your flabby ass!"

“Uh, nice to see you, boss,” he stammered, then left for his station.

---