Page 6 of Stolen By the Wraiths
She woke with a start, her eyes wide and disoriented before they found me. A flicker of fear, then recognition, then a carefully constructed wall of indifference.
"How long was I out?" she asked, her voice rough.
"A couple of hours."
She nodded, rubbing her face. She looked at me, then away, her face flushing. "Did I...?"
"You were dreaming," I said, keeping my voice neutral.
Her jaw tightened. "Right. Well. We need to move." She was pushing me away, rebuilding her walls. After seeing that crack in her armor, I felt an overwhelming need to offer a piece of my own.
"Alix," I said, my voice low. "Vain... he didn't just betray my unit. He experimented on us. On my people. The Tsekai bond is... sacred. It's a connection of mind and body, a biological imperative to protect one's mate above all else. He learned how to break it. How to turn it into a weapon." I met her gaze, letting her see the truth of it. "What's on that core isn't just data. It's a record of his atrocities. It's the only way to make him pay for what he did to my brothers."
Understanding dawned in her eyes, empathy that went beyond our current situation. She knew what it was to be used, to be betrayed by those who were supposed to protect you.
"The people who raised me," she said, her voice barely audible, "they taught me the same lesson. That loyalty is a one-way street when you're just a tool."
In that moment, in that cramped, forgotten closet, we were no longer a soldier and a thief. We were two survivors, recognizing the same scars on each other's souls. The air between us shifted, the professional distance dissolving into something more fragile, more dangerous.
A new sound reached us—the whine of a cargo drone. Time to move.
"The cargo platform is two levels up," I said, packing away the med-kit. "We'll have to cross the main maintenance spine. It will be exposed."
"Then we'd better be fast," she said, her voice regaining its sharp edge.
The final run was a blur of motion and controlled violence. We took down two security patrols, moving as a single, coordinated unit. She created the openings with her tech, and I exploited them with my strength. It was a brutal, effective dance, and with every enemy that fell, the respect between us grew.
We burst onto Cargo Platform 9 just as a sleek, black shuttle decloaked from the station's sensor shadow, its engines flaring. The ramp lowered, and Malrik, that cocky Jazurai bastard, grinned at us.
"Cutting it a little close, aren't you?" he called over the engine noise.
We scrambled aboard, the ramp sealing behind us as the shuttle shot away from the station, leaving the chaos and the hunt behind.
ALIX
The shuttle ride was short and silent. The immediate danger was over, but a new, more complicated tension filled the small cabin. As the shuttle accelerated, the Jazurai pilot glanced back at us, his iridescent feather crest flaring. "That was a neat trick with the lockdown pulse," he said, his voice a cocky drawl. "Almost as impressive as my flying. Almost."
I just grunted in response, too tired for banter.
We transferred from the shuttle into the cavernous hangar of a much larger ship. From the quiet chatter on the comms between the pilot and whoever was waiting for us, I learned its name: the Raptor. It was a military-grade vessel, sleek and deadly, and it was waiting for us in the silent void of deep space. It looked less like a ship and more like a predator holding its breath.
The rest of the crew was waiting in the briefing room. I took a moment to size them up, matching what bits of information I’d heard from Ressh to these strangers.
Serak, the pale Khavai in command, stood like a statue carved from shadow, his pupil-less eyes missing nothing. Malrik joined the group, his swagger a complete reversal from the quiet intensity of the tech, Deyric, whose dark eyes were already fixedon the data core I held. A human woman, Jessa, watched me with a practical, maternal warmth that I immediately distrusted. And then there was the giant. Thoryn. He was a wall of emerald scales and silent muscle, his presence a form of gravity in the room.
A dangerous, broken, and probably lethal crew. And they seemed more than that. A family. Just my luck.
The debriefing was a tense, drawn-out affair. I handed over the data core, and Deyric plugged it into his console.
"The data is intact," he announced after a moment. "And it's worse than we thought."
Serak turned his pale eyes to me. "What Ressh told you is true. We are what's left of the Rift Wraiths. And Kess Vain is hunting us. By stealing that core, you've painted a target on your back that will never fade."
"So I've gathered," I said, crossing my arms. "What's your offer?"
"We need your skills, Alix," Serak said. "The information on this core is heavily encrypted. Deyric is good, but you're not bad either. More importantly, you're an unknown. Vain's network knows all of our faces. They don't know yours."
"And what do I get out of it?" I pressed. "Besides a bigger target on my back."
