Page 1 of Guardian's Heart

ZAAREK

By the Dark Abyss,I loathed coming to this place. Morrakbarr was one of the worst planets in the entire universe. Whatever scum the universe had to offer, it was here. I could have apprehended several wanted criminals at once. The moment I stepped into the auction house, my eyes landed on three males, each with bounties worth millions of credits on their heads. My minders would not have been satisfied with such measly amounts, but my entire being craved to bring these males to justice.

All of my inner alarm bells went off like they always did in the company of evil. I didn't bother pulling up my hood; with my face exposed, the questionable patrons of this event gave me a wide birth—a courtesy they would not have extended toward a regular law enforcement officer—leaving a path for me to walk through instead of being shoved like the others. My right hand rested on the butt of my blaster, making it clear I was ready to take on whoever dared step in my way. Space Guardians were feared throughout the universe. We went where no one elsedared to go—for a price. Highly trained and more lethal than any blaster, nobody in their right mind would fuck with us. Not even in situations like this, when I was alone in the midst of the greatest cesspool of depravity.

The frown on my face allowed me another few paces of distance between the cramped bodies. I didn't want to be here. I despised being here. Every step I took made that perfectly clear. Only an idiot would dare approach me in this mood.

An idiot or Nock. I despised him even more than being here. The slimy little Kred was the bane of my existence. How someone this short and painfully slim could be such a pain in the ass was beyond me. I probably weighed four times as much as him. He was forced to crane his neck to look at me since he barely reached above my hip.

"I should have expected to find you here, Zaarek," he announced in his usual aggravating, nerve-grinding chirpiness. "Have you come to kill another sentient being?"

I ground my jaws until my molars hurt, unsure why I even engaged with the frygging holostreamer. I thought I had learned from our last interaction that he was nothing but bad news for me. Still, I couldn't help defending my position as a Space Guardian. We cleaned the universe of the worst criminals who had ever roamed the galaxies and exterminated the ones who thought themselves untouchable. "Sentient implies intelligence, sensitivity, and empathy, traits none of which my targets possess." I had no sympathy for my targets. None of them had ever met an end they didn't deserve—except that it was usually delivered too swiftly.

"By that logic, you should terminate yourself," Nock braved.

"If I'm that incapable of emotions, you should probably take a step back and not challenge me," I snarled. The left side of my nostril pulsed in irritation; a look normal, intelligent beings recoiled from. It was usually enough warning of myflaring temper, giving my expression an even more menacing appearance—or so I had been told.

"You wouldn't dare kill me." Nock proved once more that not one adroit brain cell occupied his oversized head. "I'm not only livecasting, but there are hundreds of witnesses around." He pointed at the small lens attached to his ear.

I couldn't believe the stupid little cretin was actually livecasting inside a highly illegal auction house. It was probably thanks to his small stature that nobody had noticed it yet. I looked around, thinking he must have brought some bodyguards, but again, he proved his ignorance when I didn't see anybody.

Last time we met, he livecasted me as I brought a well-known criminal down. Admittingly, it hadn't been my finest hour since it involved a lot of destruction at a marketplace, but the male had managed to send me on a merry chase that had flared my temper. So much so that I didn't see Nock and realize he had caught the entire mess on his Holostream until he approached me. My minder was furious about Nock streaming the entire incident, demanding why I hadn't killed the little Kred. The truth was that as much as I would have liked to wring his scrawny little neck, I simply wasn't capable of hurting the innocent. Despite Nock's hatred of Space Guardians, he wasn't a criminal, which I explained to my fuming minder.

Inhaling deeply now, to keep my composure, I resisted the urge to swipe the holocaster off his ear.

"You are aware that yourwitnessesare all participating in a highly illegal activity?" I pointed out, destroying his argument of being safe. None of theguestsat this auction would appreciate being on Nock's show while participating in a highly illegal slave trade.

Just to prove my point, a Pronex shouted right then, alerting others, "Hey, is that a holocaster? That warped Kred is livecasting?"

Pronex, as a race, were known for their evil temper, zero conscience, and muscular build. Most of the times, seeing their ugly form was enough to make one run in the opposite direction, not Nock though. No, Nock turned his camera right at him. "Smile."

The Pronex growled in response, a good indication that his already flaring temper was reaching the fury level. Even for a Pronex, this guy was massive, his bare, green chest was filled with scars. I had never seen a Pronex who could be described as good-looking, but this one looked like he stepped straight out of a nightmare. His long nose was broken in several places. One of his fangs had been replaced with a metallic one, and out of his four eyes, he had only one left.

I closed my eyes, prayed for patience to the gods I didn't believe in, and put on my most menacing grimace as I stepped forward. His eye moved from my head to toe as he took in my unique uniform and the silver skin that marked me as a Space Guardian. His one eye, dark orange, pulsed with resentment. He was primed for a fight, and I cursed Nock for putting me into this position. I never shied away from a good fight, but I was on a mission, and the idiotic Kred was putting it in danger.

Slowly, I shook my head at the Pronex, willing him to back down. He was a good head taller than me and could have given me a good fight, but in the end, his survival instincts kicked in. Knowing full well who the better fighter was. Not only that, on the off chance of him beating me, the entire Space Guardian force would come after him and anybody else here tonight. An attack on one of us was an attack on all.

The Pronex sent a resentful glare at Nock and me, but finally, he retreated into another corner.

"You don't have much brain matter, Nock, do you?" I stared at the much smaller Kred, whose gray skin had turned a few shades lighter.

"Enough to say thank you?" His gratitude, phrased as a question, mademequestionmysanity for endangering my mission and saving his ungrateful little life.

Space Protector, I mused. I supposed, that implied saving others from themselves as well as eliminating threatstothem. Funny, at the very bottom of Kred's stupidity, he actually had a point. The Ohrurs had given us our names, but it was more of a psychological trick than anything because, in reality, wewereSpaceAssassins. The people we eliminatedwerecriminals, but the vast majority of them had never been convicted, not in a tribunal or council. This was one of the many reasons why criminals and many civilians were afraid of us. We might be hailed as heroes, but only thanks to the Ohrurs’ relentless, unwavering campaigns to call us that—not because we rescued people. Unless, you counted all the males and females who would have fallen victim to the criminals we terminated. But this was exactly why Nock's little holostream had made my minder so furious. It had been bad publicity.

"Does that mean you would not oppose to me terminating him?" I couldn't resist rattling him.

"Is he your target?" Fascination turned his skin back to his usual gray sickly looking coloring.

"What if he were? Would you condemn me?"

"Ah, I see, you're posing an ethical question." He seemed to ponder my question for a moment. Normally, I would have enjoyed watching him squirm when questioned about his morals, but a loud siren announced the event to begin. I walked away from Nock to find a better spot further down, leaning against a wall, from where I had a free view of the stage.

"Don't tell me you're here to buy slaves?" Nock followed me.

"Are you?" I threw his question right back at him.

"I'm here to report on the darkest underground activity—"

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