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His hands on her breasts as Ivanda rode Nic felt amazing. He’d already had his time. She’d become a lot more comfortable on her back beneath that big body. Nothing he did put her off. He always seemed to know when she reached that point where more would tip her from pleasure into anxiety.
She didn’t know how he sensed her reactions as well as he did. The male had figured her out and Ivanda loved it. Untret, her Vicillian lover, hadn’t picked up on her moods as Nic did. His fingers dug into the muscles of her hips as she increased her speed. Then he bucked upward, spearing into her while jerking her down to grind into her as Ivanda howled.
You are Ruket’s guard, are you not?
Ivanda went rigid. Her entire body locked up.
His hands fastened on her arms. “What...?”
She tapped her head. “Someone, not Ruket.”
The fingers which would leave bruises relaxed, but he didn’t release her. “Who...?”
“Hush. Female. Asking if I’m Ruket’s guard. Try your implant. Can you listen in?”
I am an old friend of Ruket’s. He called on me to make sure nothing happened to him at the Messerian’s. But something changed.
“Can you hear her?” she asked Nic.
“No.”
“I’ll tell you later.”
What’s going on? Who are you?
Call me Cat. You are Ivanda. The male you are with, he is another friend of Ruket’s. Ah, yes. He is from the Long Sword. You wish him included?
Please.
Very well. The government came after the Messerian. I suspect they have been hunting him for a long while. That male is taking Ruket with him because he fears the government forces will accidently hurt Ruket and blame him. I see in his thoughts he has reason to be cautious.
They are making their way to a place on planet called Teztor. A male named Keem is their contact there. I am not in contact with the other forces. I can only find you because Ruket left a plain trail to your thoughts. I suspect someone may have hit him in the head. By design or accident is unclear. You should go to him.
And the female you seek? I suspect she can be found on Nuthatch. Get Ruket before he is injured further. I must go. Maintaining this over such a vast distance is wearing. I tire.
The female called Cat left as quickly as she had entered Ivanda’s thoughts.
“Who the seven hells was that? I’ve never encountered such a strong telepath before,” Nic asked.
Ivanda wrapped both arms around herself as Nic lifted her and lowered her to the side of the bed. “I... don’t know. She knew who you were and your ship.”
Nic gave a shudder. “And she says Unda is on Nuthatch. By all the snakes in the fucking pit, how the hells did she know who we were looking for? Oh, yes. She was in Ruket’s mind. That’s how she found you.”
“I guess we’d better go. Fuck. By every serpent in the fucking pit!” Anxiety for her mentor caused her fingers to shake as she gathered her hair behind her head. “Should we contact Camat and the Demon Lair to come for us? Or maybe warn them that the Messerian and the government are about to land in their lap? This is one massive black hole of a clusterfuck.” Ivanda got up from the bed. “I need a quick shower.”
“You take one here. I’ll go get Natt moving. It will make his day to hear we may have a line on Unda.”
“What about Camat? You want to tell him what’s headed his way?”
“Sure. I’ll do that now. I think we’d do better getting Drael out of bed. He can hook us up with transportation to Teztor. The faster we can get there, the better. Natt won’t stay here; you can make a solid bet on that.”
“I’ll get down the hall to security as soon as I’m dressed. Natt may take a bit longer so Drael is my responsibility. Deal?”
“Yes.” With nothing on, Nic hurried out her door and it hissed shut behind him.
She was already on her way to the cleaning station. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Ruket had been a partner to her embarrassment. It was a good thing they had both finished when they did. Getting a blast in her mind from an unknown party would certainly have put a stop to everything if they hadn’t. And she liked the way Nic fell into warrior mode. A giggle filled the room. She hoped there wasn’t anyone in the hall when he tore out. The forms managing the monitors probably had a good look.
Everyone to their stations! Camat broadcast through the crew’s implants. Five minutes and I want the lot of you on the bridge. We need to be ready to skip the hell out of here. The fucking government is on the way. They’re tracking that fucking Messerian. He has Ruket to really make this a garbage pile topped with shit. We need to somehow keep the government from getting Ruket, which means we’re going to help the Messerian without getting our behinds in fucking jail. Move it!
“How the fuck are we going to get Ruket if we clear out of here?” Trund asked.
“We’re sitting here waiting to get blasted to shards if we don’t move our ass. Up in the outer atmosphere, we stand a better chance of having a plan.” Camat glanced at his crew now in a bunch on the bridge.
“Fucking Keem is going to use this as a way to clear out,” Brown growled.
“We’ve got bigger problems than Keem at the moment. Either you’re part of the crew or you’re not. If you don’t want to be with us, we can leave you here to deal with Keem. I don’t think the government is going to be happy about you killing that ball of slime.” Camat stared at the engineer. “Choose. We don’t have time for debate.”
It didn’t escape Camat’s notice when Bunde’s hand reached for Brown’s. Those two were dancing around each other and had been since the day he picked them up from this very port. Her fingers stroked down the back of Brown’s hand then she pulled away.
Being captain of a ship turned out to be a great deal more complicated than Camat first thought. He should have expected the life forms part to be the most difficult. Some things didn’t change. It had been the hardest part of running the Demons when they had been nothing more than a gang of youths trying to survive. “Brown, you need to tell me one way or the other. You the ship’s engineer or have you decided to be the mechanic again?”
“Fucking Keem. Engineer, Captain.”
“Glad that’s settled. AI, you get us ready to lift. We need to stay in position over the damn town. Maybe act like we thought about leaving, but changed our mind.”
“Why would we do that?” someone asked.
“Who’s speaking?” As Camat watched, Itty slid out from behind Enkel.
“Me. Most of the town is happy to be free of Keem. We’ve been here helping them recover from his greedy ways. We can expect the council to be on our side, so why suddenly get out? That makes us look guilty of something when we haven’t done anything wrong.”
Murmurs from the crew seemed to back Itty’s stance. “Then what do you think we should do?” Camat asked the small Houser female.
“Continue helping Teztor while still monitoring Keem. He’s up to something and that female, the singer? She’s helping him.”
“Why would she get involved? She doesn’t belong to him now.” Camat shook his head. That didn’t make sense.
Brown’s forehead wrinkled and he glowered at Itty. “Why would she be doing that? I don’t understand.”
Itty waved a hand in the direction of Keem’s office. “He uses the medbed to control anyone with a medical problem.”
“He does.” Both of Brown’s fists went on his hips. “The little piss ball uses anything he can. If he had put me in the medbed with my leg, I wouldn’t be fucking with this thing.” The metal leg rang when Brown thumped it with one fist.
Itty nodded. “That’s what he does. He claims it’s an old one and not capable of doing full healings. The female’s sister has a disease she picked up on the slave ship. He uses the bed just enough to keep her going. That keeps her sister singing at the bar. He takes most of her pay in exchange.”
Camat nodded. “That’s why the female, Eldara, is so opposed to our being here. Fuck. If you’d told me sooner, the sister would already be in our medbed and getting healed.”
“I planned to bring that up to you in this cycle. I just figured it all out yesterday. Still, Keem is up to something and using Eldara to make it happen. She hasn’t had any funds. Yesterday I saw her in that fancy dress shop, and she bought a red dress that looks like it was painted on. She got some fancy shoes with tall heels and these flowery vine things that go all the way up to just below the knee. Where did she get the money card? She has one. I watched her pay for everything.”
Their implants lit up with the battle stations alert.
Demon Lair, report. What the fuck is going on and cut that noise. I can’t think, Camat commanded.
Three small transports on the way in. One of them is firing at the other two. One is a government ship and the others... private. A fourth is inbound. The straggler is hailing us.
Open communication, Demon Lair.
Ivanda here. We don’t know the identity of the third ship, but the first one is a government ship following the second one. That ship is heavily armed and belongs to Eadakn. It has no identifying markings. He has Ruket on board. The third one simply appeared and is an unknown quantity. Fuck. It’s firing at the rest of us. Shit. The government ship seems to be out of commission.
By the Warrior! They’re after Eadakn’s ship now. Ivanda’s voice held a note of panic. I suppose we’re next. We’re going to set down first.
All that damn dust is making it hard to discern who’s who. What should we do? Ivanda? Nic? Camat wiped sweaty hands on his pants. He felt helpless to move.
There’s some dumpy alien creature with a female... in a fancy dress? What the fuck? They’ve grabbed Ruket and Eadakn. Ivanda fell silent.
Don’t move against them. They’ve got an official, too, Nic growled out. If they think they’re getting one of us, they’re fools.
In the monitor, the crew watched as a firefight ensued. It didn’t last long. The crew of the unidentified transport hurried back inside after discovering forms on the ground and away from their craft were fair game.
Nic and Ivanda bolted out from under cover as the transport lifted and blazed away. Let us in. We need to go after them.
Someone is behind you, Camat pointed out. It’s Natt.
He can wait here where he’s safe. We must get the captives back. Ruket for sure. Then Ivanda addressed him privately. You realize Ruket is an important Life Foundation official? He’s also a target. We don’t know who’s after him. It could be this bunch. We’re in. Leave. Don’t lose them. We must get Ruket back.
