Page 23 of Guardian's Destiny

"You're gonna make me sleep there?" I groaned.

She arched one of her beautiful eyebrows, and I stood up with a sigh. "Merciless female."

"Oh, I have mercy," she crooned, "you're still alive, aren't you?"

"Very funny." Reluctantly, I walked over to the piece of furniture I would have never suspected turn into an instrument of torture. "Do I need to keep an eye open while I sleep?"

"As long as you don't try anything funny, we'll be alright." She assured me, teasing another grin from me.

I would have liked to prolong the conversation and asked her what she considereddoing anything funny, but she was right; she hadn't killed me yet, and she hadn't thrown any insults at me for a while, so that was progress, right? Other females would have swooned by now. Fallen at my feet, utterly charmed by my presence. I had seen it before—I never had to put in much effort. But Sloane? No, she had to bedifficult.Challenging.No matter, I was up for it. It would make the eventual conquest all the sweeter.

SLOANE

"So what's the plan?"I asked, yawning, when we sat at the table in the breakroom that seemed way too big for just the two of us. The mush coming out of the nutrition machines didn't help my mood; that stuff was atrocious. I figured I might have finally gotten four hours of sleep last night, although time in space was, as Einstein said, relative. I would have never imagined regretting not paying attention in physics class, but right now, I would have loved to know more about this E=mc² thing. Again, Zapharos was coming to mind; he might have been able to explain all this to me. Then again, I suspected I would have probably pulled a Vraax, and my head would have felt as if it was exploding.

I had always considered myself an above-average intelligent person, and I did get the wholeevery planet rotates differentlything. In layman's terms, it was just like time zones. Like Australia had been a day ahead of us, or behind? Didn't matter; same with that, their summer was our winter, this was just on a much larger scale. Much larger. But I figured as long as when everything was said and done and I returned to Earth, it wouldn't be the year 3636, I would be okay with it. Come to thinkof it, I supposed I would be alright with that too because there was nothing for me on Earth.

"It shouldn't be hard to get our hands on two simple Ohrurs. I figured we'll pay a visit to Ux Ohrur, one of their moons. We should be able to get our hands on visitors or merchants there." Vraax filled me in.

I didn't like the idea of kidnapping civilians, even if they were Ohrurs, and voiced my misgivings. "I don't like involving civilians."

His hand, on its way to bring a sporkful of that horrendous mush to his mouth, stilled. "You might have a point."

"I'm all for expediting this, but what other options do we have?"

"We're not going to get our hands on one of the presiding families or their imminent relations. Tharaax said he had a hell of a time getting his hands on Possedion, so a minder is out of the question."

"Then who else would be closely involved?" I wanted to know.

"I don't know, but if I were a betting male, I'd say that's it."

"Shit," I conceded.

"We're not going to harm them," he promised.

"Kidnapping is harm enough. Do you think we can…" I shrugged. "Hire two?"

"We need to keep a low profile. The Ohrurs don't know yet that I'm involved with the others; as far as they're concerned, I'm still hunting them down…"

"Who is your minder? It wasn't Possedion, was it?"

"No, Possedion was exclusively assigned to the four Space Guardians rescuing humans for the emperor. Mine is Moddekdum."

"Can we trick him?"

He put his spork down. His dark eyes regarded me deep in thought. "It would be a lot more complicated. And take a lot longer."

Was he doubting me? He knew I was in a hurry to get to Astrionis or anywhere near the Pandraxians. Or was he testing me? Still, I couldn't leave my scruples behind. I had done a lot of shitty things, most I wasn't proud of, but I had always managed not to get civilians involved and I wouldn't do so now.

Zapharos entered my mind. But I wouldn't try to balance his life against that of two Ohrurs. I couldn't because a hundred lives weren't worth his. Not even a thousand. I closed my eyes for a moment. Before Zapharos, I hadn't believed in anything, and now, not only did I wearmating marks, but my entire view of the world had been turned upside down. Still, there was no way I would involve civilians.

"How much longer?"

He shrugged. "That depends on the plan."

He wasn't going to help me, was he?

"Alright, so you two never meet face to face?" I wagered.

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