Page 23 of Chased By the Alien Mercenary
“Inside source?” I asked out loud, certain I’d heard that wrong. It hadn’t appeared that anyone was on my side in there. Not even Keya or the other servants, though it had been obvious they were there against their will too. Definitely not any of the Krektar or the other guards, and certainly not Goldie. That bastard had tried to harm me more than once, and I hoped he was rotting in a cell somewhere right now.
I didn’t really believe in fate or magic, though truthfully, before Solear, I hadn’t believed telepathy was real either. It certainly felt like fate was laughing at me when, directly on the heels of those thoughts, a new party arrived—and with them was Goldie, the fucking bastard. Solear saw him too, and he lunged for real this time, snarling like a rabid beast. Still clinging to his arms, I was dragged with him, and I was impressed with the soldiers’ restraint for not shooting us on the spot.
“What is he doing here?” I shouted, though I did not dare point, because then Solear definitely would slip from my grasp and leap through the guards that surrounded the smug, gold-and-red bastard. He was accompanied by another of those shimmery anthracite guys, one with fancy robes and long black hair almost down to the cobblestones. Gold adorned his neck and the pointed tips of his long ears; something not quite a crown rested on his head, too, indicating he had to be important.
The soldier, who had so far been the only one to speak boldly, stepped closer, almost to my side. I had a feeling he was bracing himself to help me hold back Solear if I needed the help. He answered slowly, as if he were confused. “That is our inside source, miss. He is the one who called us to rescue the slaves, yourself included. Chancellor Arifires is here to escort him to his ship so he can return to his undercover mission.”
I faltered, which allowed Solear to surge forward again with a snarl, but my startled gasp was enough to halt him again. Shoulders heaving with repressed anger, his entire body was still ready to strike. His arm shifted in my grip, slick armor hard to keep hold of, but he twisted and tugged me under it instead, against his chest. Then his head lowered, rubbing against my hair, and I could see how this move made the whole crowd relax.Like the sight of his affection, his desire to protect me, eased their fear of him.
“Allow me to clear up your confusion, lady human,” the slick, smooth-talking bastard with the Chancellor said. He held his hands out at his sides in a welcoming, relaxed gesture, and his expression was warm and kind. I wasn’t fooled; he’d looked just like that as he prepared to order his men to whip me. He was playing a role, this was a lie. Had to be.
“How did you get out? You should be dead,” I snapped at him. “You’re not their source, you tried to hurt me. You did hurt me!” I shouted the last, and though the soldiers did not respond, the Chancellor winced as if my outburst pained him. If I’d thought the lead soldier was haughty and aristocratic before, this one took the cake. He looked so regal, with that gold circlet on his shiny black hair, that I had to fight the urge not to bow when he turned his black eyes on me.
“Easy there, miss. We understand you are a victim, and we only wish to help you. All humans are safe within Aderian boundaries. This is a sacred law we all uphold. Right, son?” He intoned these words like he was declaring a new law, full of official weight. I was actually impressed by his ability to do so, as if the authority he carried leaked out of his pores and into my mind.
“That’s because it is,”Solear snarled inside my head.“Aderians are all empaths, but some can project, or more. He is definitely more.”Oh… So that’s what these guys were called. At least they were trying to make it clear that I was safe on their world. Too bad that wasn’t true; I hadn’t been safe until Solear had found me. I still didn’t feel safe, not with all these guns aimed our wayand Goldie standing over there like he was the hero, not the villain.
“Yes, Father. You can trust us, miss. You have sanctuary here.” That was the lead soldier speaking, and unless “Father” was a weird way to address their Chancellor, he was the son of that important official, the one looking all buddy-buddy with the very guy who had tried to assault me more than once. I didn’t trust any of this—not one bit—but I did believe that these Aderians were being fooled by Goldie. At least Solear had actually calmed enough that I wasn’t worried he’d attack at any moment. Maybe the presence of the true bad guy had made him think again, to plan. It certainly felt like his mind was racing, though I could not make out any fully formed thoughts.
“If I may,” Goldie said, bowing in my direction. “I know how it appeared, but I had to play a role, or they’d have suspected my status as an undercover agent for the Xurtal Empire. Allow me to formally introduce us: I am Heliosor, at your service. And if you wish to leave the planet, might I suggest I walk you and your...mate to your ship?” He gestured at the port gates, then smiled magnanimously at the Chancellor beside him. “The lady is not a prisoner here, is she? If she wishes to leave Llykhe, she may do so, correct?”
Ah, fuck. The bastard thought he could convince me to walk onto a ship with him, then kill Solear and punish me for what went down. I just knew it. How he was fooling these Aderians, I had no clue. If they were empaths, shouldn’t they sense his evilness? Shouldn’t they know they were being lied to? Unfortunately, this Chancellor did not suspect a thing and began to nod at the offer.“Of course, miss. If you wish to leave with Heliosor, that is also an option. Why don’t you let your men stand down, son?”
I glanced at the lead soldier still hovering near Solear and me and realized that his expression was not as placid as that of his father. Did he not trust this either? Or did he not trust Solear? But he ordered his soldiers to stand down and lower their weapons, all with perfectly identical motions and timed at exactly the same instant. I knew soldiers were drilled to do that, but this was downright eerie. “Very well. I assume you have no papers? We shall escort you to the port, if that is what you wish.” His eyes searched mine then, almost as if he were imploring me not to leave.
There wasn’t a single bone inside my body that wanted to agree with Heliosor’s offer, that bastard was lying. But Solear caught me by surprise by suddenly nodding. “Yes,” he growled—one of the few words he ever managed to say. For him to make that attempt made it clear he very much wanted to do this. But why? Surprised, I looked up at him but saw only the sharp edge of his jaw above my head. He did not look down, did not share his thoughts with me, but his hands against my body gently pressed, as if to reassure me that all would be well.
Then Heliosor waved a hand, smiling warmly. “Surely we don’t need armed guards inside the port? Besides, the human has her own guard, doesn’t she?” And that idiot Chancellor, he agreed.
Chapter 20
Solear
A better way to get past all those obstacles than this, I could not have thought of myself. And now, I would be able to kill the bastard who had dared to hurt my female on more than one occasion. Perfect. I needed to keep the killing intent banked low, though, or these stupid sensitives wouldn’t let us pass through. The Chancellor’s son was a smart one, and more observant than his father. He suspected all was not as it appeared, but obedience was too ingrained for him to speak up. Good.
The Chancellor stayed with his guard, but the port authorities were ordered to let us through, and just like that, Lyra and I were walking through the gate. The Xurtal bastard was just ahead of us, flanked by two guards of his own, both of them Rummicaron, who had their feelings firmly tucked down until they believed they had none. The one species in the Zeta Quadrant that was the antithesis of Aderian empathy. The perfect escort for a liar like this Xurtal guy.
A small, open-air hover vehicle was waiting for the Xurtal male beyond the gate and offices. He paused beside it and eyed the limited space. His guards and he would take up nearly all of it, but it was obvious he very much wanted Lyra to accompany him. He struggled to hide the avarice in his eyes now that the Aderians were only looking on from a distance.
Beyond the vehicle, the port stretched out, practically a city on its own. Ships, large and small, were parked in their assigned berths and loaded via drones and automated rails. All of it wasoperating smoothly so there would be a minimum of delays. I could not see the Varakartoom anywhere, but they had likely only come down with a shuttle, and such a small ship wouldn’t be easily visible among all these Long Hauler behemoths. It was not immediately obvious to me where the Xurtal had a ship waiting, either. He had to have lost that big Star Class Cruiser he’d arrived on in the raid, after all.
I waited, and I kept Lyra safely tucked against my side so the bastard knew I would not leave her without a fight. He did not feel like getting onto that hover vehicle with me, but without the protection of his guards. Though a gun was waiting for him on the seat inside the vehicle, he did not believe he was fast enough to beat me. In the end, with a disgruntled look, he holstered the weapon beneath his jacket and gestured vaguely toward the west side of the port. “We’ll walk. This way.”
Lyra was tired, and I would have gladly carried her to make things easier, but I wanted to be able to move fast in case of danger. I wanted to keep a hand free to fight. So we walked, but I made sure to go slowly so my mate could take her time. It annoyed the Xurtal male, but he didn’t say anything, not when we were still being watched by the Aderians at the gate. That included the pompous Chancellor and his very suspicious son. I was certain that as soon as we were out of sight, we’d be jumped. That Xurtal knew as well as I did that he was no undercover agent. It was the Ulinial slave I’d seen who had tipped off the authorities, not him, that was the only explanation.That’swhat she’d been doing in that office, on that computer, before I came in.
The Xurtal was not a mind reader; his species was not prone to those types of talents. Yet, just as I wondered how he’d managedto fool the Aderians into believing he was the informant—an undercover agent for Xurtal—he spoke. He knew we did not believe a word he said, and he must think he had the upper hand; that he had us under control. “Aderians and their pious attitudes. They’re all idiots.” He tapped a gold chain around his neck, an ostentatious red gem dangling from it. Having some experience with Xurtal gem technology, I eyed that stone with suspicion now that he’d drawn my attention to it.
Evie, my twin’s mate, had worn a much smaller gem once—on a piercing through her belly button. That gem had created an illusion that altered her features and changed the color of her skin, so she passed as a Xurtal princess. It did not surprise me when he—this male—laughed and declared that the necklace was the best money he’d ever spent. So that thing somehow interfered with Aderian empathy, a static field of some kind. It did not bother my telepathy, but then again, I couldn’t read anyone’s mind. Just Aramon and Lyra’s, and, through my twin, sometimes Evie. I bared my teeth at the bastard to let him know what I thought of that.
“Landing berth x-017, bro,” Aramon announced. “We’re waiting for you there,” he added. Then with a hint of confusion: “We would have escorted you through the gate, you know. We wouldn’t have abandoned you.” I knew that, well, I hadn’t known that, but I knew it now. He was right. If I’d reached out to my twin, he wouldn’t have started shooting up the gate to let me in; he would have told the captain first. The captain would have known how to fix the situation right away. Itwasconfusing that my first impulse when facing a problem hadn’t been to reach for my twin. I’d wanted to solve it myself, I’d wanted to figure it out with Lyra, and while thingshadspiraled a little out of control, I hadn’t lost it. That was a post-Lyra development. I’d been sodependent on him to be my conduit to the world, while I’d once been the one of us who was more independent and adventurous.
“I just need to take care of a little situation first, then we’ll meet you,”I informed my brother. We had passed several Long Haulers and were now approaching an area clearly reserved for private yachts. Another gate sectioned it off from the rest of the port, with yet another guardhouse manned by port security. Did the Xurtal plan to take us through that checkpoint? Did he think that would make us feel trapped? No, it was too open and patrolled inside that area; he couldn’t risk jumping us there.
I braced myself when I saw that we had to pass some stored stacks of crates before reaching this new gate. That’s where it was going to happen.“Oh.”Aramon said, and then much more drawn out: “Oooooh! Gotcha!”There was no further information through our bond after that, as if he’d firmly shut it. He was holding secrets, but I’d figure that out when I was done with this trouble. He could never keep those from me anyway. I grinned, already looking forward to the prospect of figuring out what my twin was up to. Then we rounded the first row of tall metal crates.
I saw the barrels of guns, the glimmer of a dozen eyes, and I reacted because I was ready for them. Pushing Lyra with one hand behind me, I snatched the Xurtal by his collar with the other and yanked him close. My claws were digging into the vulnerable skin at his throat within moments, holding him trapped against my chest. He fought, and that just made him bleed—every drop of which I relished. He deserved that and more. Of course, bastards like him were very good at self-preservation. He froze, then yelled at his men to stand down,because even without me telling him so, he knew his life was over if they tried anything.
He thought he was leading us to the slaughter, that he could kill me and take my mate. He thought wrong. To protect my female, I made sure to step us back until she was against a crate, safe between it and my body. The Xurtal male was a big guy, but he did not seem so impressive as he hung in my claws. Now we just needed to figure out how to get out of this standoff—with my prey dead, but the two of us alive and hale. There were only five of them, plus the two guards from earlier. Without their guns, I could take them. That, I was sure of.
