Page 6 of Guardian's Heart

The Ohrurs—my employers, the ones profiting from my efforts to save the humans. More irritation rose inside me. The ones who didn't give a shit about this new species. They were just in for the credits. Credits I never saw as much as a shadow of.

"And who gives the Ohrurs the power to decide who gets terminated?" Nock continued. "As far as I know, the Ohrurs are merchants. Why would they be interested in saving humans?"

"They're not. The Pandraxians are."

"So the Pandraxians hired the Ohrurs to have you save humans?"

That little cunning asteroid had just managed to land a hit on me. Frygg. It probably wasn't a secret that Emperor Daryus had hired the Ohrurs; still, I had never before divulged who did the hiring.

He pretended like he didn't catch my slip of the tongue and was probably filing the info away. "So if I paid the Ohrurs to have my competitor killed, they would send you?"

I stopped midstride, pretending I took him seriously. "Depends. Has your competitor done anything criminal that the GTU can't get him for?" I had no idea why I was even arguing with the little frygg. Instead of sending him on his way, I indulged him. But, here we were, standing outside the auction house, where shady eyes watched us, waiting for an opportunity to either steal a human or take me on.

"Don't give me that righteous starfog talk," Nock flared. "Your employers are nothing but minders of killers who set a bunch of sociopaths loose on the universe."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm a sociopath now?" Not liking that idea at all. It was true; I never hesitated to kill and did so without remorse, but only criminals. I could never hurt an innocent. I had long learned that a moral compass was buried deep inside me. One that sought justice wherever it could.

"Don't be dense, you know what I mean."

"No, I don't. If you approached the Ohrurs, they would carefully vet you and your competitor to determine if the GTU will handle him if he has done something criminal. Space Guardians are only deployed when a hardcore criminal is unreachable by the GTU."

"Maybe the GTU should expand their agents to serve the citizens' needs better then," Nock suggested.

I shrugged and started walking toward the hangars again. "Suit yourself. It won't be any sweat off my chest."

"It will be once you're out of a job. What will you do then, Zaarek? How will you satisfy your bloodlust?" Nock provoked me. He had no idea, but he had hit a vulnerable spot. What or who was I if I wasn't a Space Guardian? I had never heard of a Space Guardian being fired. That simply didn't happen. So what would happen if one of us stepped out of line? And what line was that?

I stopped again and bent low to look into Nock's face in anger, not directed at him, but born from confusion. "Do you not have any self-preserving sense in your body? If I'm such a killer, why haven't I terminated you yet?"

"Because you like me?"

I shook my head. "I like you as little as that trouble-making human fe—"

I stopped right there to stare over the heads of the human group. Counting eight.

"There were nine of them, right?"

Nock nodded. "Yes, you saved nine humans. Praised be the great Space Guardian Za—"

"Frygg," I cursed, feeling the need to stomp my foot. "That insufferable human agitator is gone."

"What? The one who attacked you?" Nock’s eyes searched our surroundings.

The plan had been to return to my ship, take care of my finger, and fly the human cargo to Astrionis where they would be safe. For a moment, temptation to do just that rose inside me. Forget about her.So you lost one...

That was just the problem, though. I neversimplylost one. Not ever!

With a resigned sigh, I pulled my broken finger back in alignment. The pain served as punishment for my stupidity. I grabbed for Nock's shirt and ripped a strip off.

"Hey," he protested.

I wrapped it around my finger. It wouldn't do much in lieu of a splint, but at least the fabric's presence would remind me not to strain it too much. Healing would have to wait until I was back on my ship.

Now, I had to find that troublesome female who was as slippery as a Nogartian eel.

NOVA

I wasn't ungrateful forthe cape the alien handed me to cover up my nakedness, but I wasn't about to sink to my knees in gratitude for something as simple as this, either. I didn't have the faintest idea of where I was or who he was other than that he was extremely good-looking—once you got past the shark eyes and silvery-grey skin. He was a mountain of muscles and armed to the teeth. By his hips, he wore some high-tech guns, and wickedly sharp-looking knives were secured to his calves. I was also willing to bet he was concealing an array of other weapons as well. Judging by his strength and quickness, he was one mean fighting machine.

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