Fenturi Fate (Spacestalker Saga Book 1) (16 page)

In the weeks since their escape, he’d learned more about Ren’s people than he’d wanted to know.
The
Eyshan6
’s pilot, Primo, was a seasoned airman.
T
he tall twin warriors and Castor had the battle readiness and training of master swordsmen, and Ren led them in experience and ferocity.

From what Jace had pieced together, Ren’s special unit of elite warriors—the Stalkers—had been broken up into four different teams to engage in a special mission.

To capture the Mari.

Not only were the four warriors on
Eyshan6
deadly, but eight to twelve more of them floated somewhere in space at Ren’s beck and call.

Perhaps the worst bit of news he’d learned concerned the small blue alien on Ren’s ship, the one called Phin.
Phin was an Informa.
In the small bit of time the little man had been in Dare’s presence, he’d no doubt gleaned all sorts of minor details that when put together with an Informa’s amazing brain, told of her past.

Dare was not only Fenturi, she was the Mari, and she’d been right under Ren’s nose all this time.
By now Ren had to know her identity, which would explain the flashes of rage Jace had seen and felt from the angry captain. Combine the man’s bias against the Fenturi with his unwilling attraction for one who’d lied to him, and Jace knew they stood on the brink of disaster if they didn’t leave. Soon.

He breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the hidden path to the ship and bent over to catch his breath. So he didn’t immediately notice the brigands moving out of the trees to surround them.

Dare felt herself tiring and knew they didn’t have time for fatigue, not with the Legion and the pirates both after them. And one Legionnaire in particular—Ren—coming closer.

Then she saw more of the slaving scum appear from the woods to surround them. So not good, not now. She took a blade from the scabbard at her back. Mra growled and stepped closer, and she felt Jace move behind her, covering her six.

“Nice ship ye got there.”

She recognized the pirate captain’s voice first.
He had swarthy skin, watery blue eyes and rotting teeth behind thin lips. His smile boasted nothing good as he and his men approached them.
She
blinked at the glare of the Ocaian water gem encrusted on his decaying front tooth.

She pointed with her blade to the gem. “Be careful or you just might lose that.”
 

“Aye? Well we lost the lot we brought to sell, thanks to ye and yer crew.” His eyes promised an intelligence at odds with his unkempt frame. “But I’m thinkin’ ye and the blond one might make up for that. Pelt of a stalker might work as well.” He nodded, studying her small group.

“Dream on.” She glared.

“O’ course, we’ll also be takin’ yer ship. That’ll more than make up for our troubles today.”

“Dream on,” Jace repeated with a snort of derision.

“In fact,” the captain continued, his eyes shrewd as he studied them.
“We’ll let you live without much torture at all if ye call yer friends out from the ship.
The lads liked the little spitfire especially.”

That answered whether Roc and Shea had gotten safely aboard.
Now if she could just get Mra and Jace there safely.

Not without you,
Jace sent firmly.

“We’re not in agreement. Let’s settle this, shall we?” Dare immediately struck out at the nearest combatant.

By her count it was eight against three, but her three made an intimidating group.
Mra’s sharp teeth and fangs scored several cutthroats who tried to advance on their flank, while Jace skewered two pirates, leaving them with four still standing and able to fight.

Unfortunately, the pirates correctly identified Dare as the group’s weakest link and pressed hard.

She managed to cut down one and wound a second before she took a grievous slash to her left arm.
She kept her pain silent, working to shield herself for Jace and Mra’s benefit.

Angry at the wound that weakened her and losing control of the starfire aching to be let loose, she did her best to hold it inside. Letting it go would alert one and all to her identity. But exhaustion beat at her control until it failed. Utterly.

The pirate who had wounded her moved to strike at Mra, and in her rage, he caught fire. A blue flame of such purity that neither stench nor the crackle of sound released.

Between one second and the next, he turned to a pile of ash upon the ground.

The remaining three pirates cursed and stared at her in horror.

But the pirate captain smiled. “Worth your weight in beks, I’m thinkin’.”
He smacked his lips and advanced.

After that surge of energy, Dare could barely hold her head up. Jace and Mra did their best, but the captain’s blade pierced her shoulder, and she sank to her knees.

The others were joined by another half dozen pirates, and Dare knew they’d come to the end of this particular fight.

I’m done, Jace.
Take Mra and get out of here. Come back for me when you can. I
f you stay you’ll be taken. Or worse.
 

“I’m
not
leaving you.” Jace struck back when others advanced.

Neither am I
. Mra snarled and slashed at the captain, who barely managed to dance out of reach.

With too many enemy to fight, Dare felt an uncomfortable surrender welling up.

But the next few words spoken stopped everyone cold.

“No, you’re not leaving her,” a familiar voice, one as deep and dark as the hels on Dark World, warned.
“In fact, you and the others are coming with us.”

Dare blinked up at the sight of Ren, his eyes blazing a bright green, blood at his temple and a firm grip on two bloodied blades, one in each hand.
He seemed unaware of the carnage around him, focused only on her. A flash of s
omething primitive and deadly flickered in his gaze then vanished, replaced by determination as he focused on the threat around them.

The twins stepped out from the woods behind him, and Castor joining them as well, circling behind Jace.

The pirates were bad enough, but this time Dare knew she wouldn’t escape Ren.

With ease, he and his crew dispatched the pirates, leaving none alive. No mercy for slavers.
When his gaze again met hers, she couldn’t stop the shiver of real fear she felt.
Before he’d burned hot, but now he blazed cold, his fury impenetrable.

Jace stepped in front of her and held his sword at the ready. “Don’t come any closer.”

Beside him, Mra snarled a warning.

“Hold.” Ren held up his hand, and he and his men stilled.

Then Mra did something completely out of character.
She stopped growling and sniffed at the air.
After
moving around Jace, she studied the twins with curiosity. Then she returned to Dare’s side, her attention centered on Ren. The cat stepped toward him, her fur raised, her ears flattened.

He waited, unmoving, while Mra sniffed at his feet.
She opened her mouth, exposing huge fangs. Instead of taking a bite of him, she closed her mouth again and sat back on her haunches. Then she tilted her head, as if talking to him, and began to clean her blood streaked face by licking her paw and wiping.

Dare wasn’t sure if she was seeing things or if she’d already passed out and dreamed the scene.
Mra?

It’s about time he got here.
The blasted cat started to purr.

Dare tried to speak, but the strength that had kept her conscious finally left her.
Her eyes fluttered closed, and she swore she felt Ren hold her close before she hit the ground. As if he could be that fast.

She breathed in his scent, snuggled closer to his heat, and smiled, giving in to the darkness.

Castor hadn’t know Ren could move that quickly. In the blink of an eye, the captain had moved from standing still to kneeling on the ground, cradling his enemy in gentle arms.
Though his eyes gleamed with a fierce satisfaction, Castor noticed the care with which he held their prey. A glance at the twins told him they noted as well. Ned raised a brow. Nesh tried to hide a grin.

“You will return to your crew,” Ren ordered Jace, his voice like ice. “The Legion will accompany you back to Bylar to stand trial for treason.”

Before Jace could move, the twins were at his side and disarmed him. They dragged him into the woods, in the direction of the
SpaceStalker
, where half a dozen Legion shuttles waited, standing guard.

Then, to Castor’s shock, Ren spoke in Fenturi to the cat, of all things. Castor knew enough of the language’s rhythms to guess at a few words. Guidecat he knew. What else Ren spoke about he could only guess. But the cat seemed to understand, because it bobbed its head and rubbed against Ren’s legs, winding between them with affection.

Then Ren lifted Dare in his arms and headed toward their ship. Castor followed, wondering what next to expect.

“She’s awfully still. Is she alive?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“She lives. She won’t die until I’m through with her.” Ren sounded certain.

And a bit possessive. Castor bit back a groan. Now he’d owe the Informa twenty beks. Figured the knowledgeable little alien would be right about Fenturi instincts. Ren might want to deny his wilder half, but he’d recognized a potential mate.

What that would mean for the future of their mission—and the existence of the System—was anyone’s guess.

The cat seemed to wink at him and purred louder.

“Good work, Lieutenant,” Ren said, relieved to find everything as it should be back on his ship as they hovered above Kre. “I shall make sure Legion Master Rorn hears of your skill on the battlefield.”

Castor rolled his eyes, making no effort to hide his disdain for Bylar’s special troops. The lieutenant puffed with pride, gave Castor a scowl, then bowed and left the bridge of their ship, bound for his shuttle to the
SpaceStalker.

“Are you done yet? I think you’ve complimented just about every unit leader that accompanied us to Kre. Lt. Walker, like the others, knows not to harm a precious hair on our captive’s heads.”

“Yes, I’m done.” He watched through is vid screen as the lieutenant’s shuttle readied to jettison for the
SpaceStalker
.
“I trust I was exceedingly imposing?
I don’t want any of those hotheads injuring Dare’s crew.
I have a feeling they’re going to be the leverage we need to get our ‘Mari’ to work for us.”

Castor eyed him with doubt.
“How is she? She hadn’t woken when we boarded an hour ago.
She’s in the sick room, right?”

Ren nodded.
“Under constant guard. I don’t trust her.” Upon boarding the ship, h
e’d immediately placed Dare into the med unit in the sick room.
Designed by the Nexians, the med unit could cure just about anything so long as a breath of life remained in the body.

Ren didn’t think Dare’s wounds grievous enough to make her so listless, and he had faith that the Nexian’s medical miracle would cure her.

“I think she might be suffering exhaustion.
When we came upon them battling the pirates, she seemed near collapse.”

Nesh, Ned, and Phin entered the command bay.

“So Ren,” Castor said, “what did you make of the blue flame that shot into the sky?”

“Yes, Ren.
What are your thoughts on the cause of the starfire?” Phin asked.

Starfire. The answer to the puzzle that had been plaguing him for a standard week. A flash of blue fire, then nothing but ash on the ground, an exhausted Dare surrounded by pirates, and her blond pilot and that mystical feline standing by, protecting her.

The glint in Phin’s eyes said he knew what had happened.
 

“I think we both know what happened, don’t’ we?”

“We do?” Castor looked from Ren to Phin and back. “Are you admitting Dare’s the Mari, then? Because you’ve done a pretty good job of avoiding my ‘I told you so’ for a week.”

Ren growled a curse at his Second, while the twins didn’t even bother trying to hide laughter.

“Sound like you three want extra duty scrubbing the ship. Phin too, I’m thinking.”

“Oh, ah, gee, Ren. We should get back to sickbay,” Ned said and took a step back.

“What he said.” Nesh nodded at his brother.

Castor sighed and stroked his mustache. “Where’s your sense of humor gone, captain?”

“Up in a blaze of starfire, I’m thinking,” Phin muttered and left the cabin.

“Get back to your stations.” Ren forced himself to appear stern. His crew could be such a pain sometimes. “And Primo?” he added.

“Yeah?”

“Make way for Nexios.”

Castor and his pilot stared at him in surprise.

“My instructions…” Ren paused, recalling the enemy witch woman who’d told him where to go. “My instructions are to head directly to Nexios once the Mari has been located.
Castor, let Methan know I want to see him as soon as we arrive.
But give us two days to get there.
I want our Mari refreshed for the trip. You have the con.” He left the control room, unable to stop himself from checking on her. Again.

He entered the secured sick quarters, nodded to the twins standing guard outside the bay, then forced himself inside and look through the clear panes of the med unit. Something he’d avoided until now.

The vision of loveliness lying so still made his heart race.
He’d placed Dare in the unit as he’d found her, stripping away her weapons and boots, but nothing more.
The med unit took care of removing clothing and foreign items from the body.

Now, the lying woman lay naked, her form beyond lovely. High breasts, a trim waist, long legs and toned arms. Her stomach had a slight dip in it, one he’s love to trace with his mouth. To taste her sweetness and savor the tartness of her rebellion.

He swayed, needing her with more than a physical hunger, but an emotional one as well. Which made little sense. Ren took a deep breath and let it out, trying to clear his head. Yet he couldn’t look away from her. His body reacted, tense and needy. He apparently hadn’t managed to take away all of her weapons, he thought wryly.

The long, lean lines of her golden skin glowed as the med unit restored her to health.
Hell, even her were gracefully arched.
She had no body hair that he could tell, only that mane of beautiful color upon her head.

A recollection of one of the many dreams he’d been having about her hit him hard. In it, he could see himself suck at her breast, laving her pink nipple with his tongue.
His hands touched her everywhere, learning her curves and committing her responses to memory. When she arched under him and cried out, he settled between her thighs and…

R
en swore and forced himself to put those thoughts aside.
The little witch enraptured him even as she slept.
No wonder Zedrax had hated his mother. Under Garen’s sensual spell, Zedrax must have been unable to resist her.

Ren turned away from Dare and studied the med panel, fighting to hold onto his hard-won discipline.
He knew Dare for what she was—a Fenturi with the ability to sway his passion with ease. His desire perhaps, but never his mind.

He was
not
Zedrax.
He would never fall prey to a seductive Fenturi, no matter how beautiful she might be. Unable to help himself, he took another glance at her, imagining her soft and vulnerable when he
knew
she was anything but.

By rights he should have had one of his men check on her, but he could barely stop himself from opening the med unit and claiming her. He couldn’t imagine Ned or Nesh watching her this way, seeing her stripped bare.

With a snarl, he grabbed a nearby robe and opened the med unit. Now that she’d completed the second level of her healing, the robe would aid in warming her while the unit took care of her last remaining injuries.

He lifted her up, marveling at the lightness of her body considering the muscles he’d noticed.
Then again, she was female, toned and slender, unlike most hardy Fenturi males. Like him

Just as he put her back inside the med unit, it beeped. “Scan complete. Subject back at full health. Dispense with the unit and retire to quarters for rest and recuperation.”

Great. She’d finished. Now where to put her…? He needed to keep an eye on her but didn’t want to put her in one of the prison rooms.

He rationalized that since the System needed the Mari safe and sound, and he needed to make sure she fully recovered—so that she might again power the Thrax against the Horde—he’d place her where he could best keep an eye on her.

Into the spare room accessed by his cabin as well as the hallway.

Taking her into his arms, he left the sick room, ignored the twins’ surprised stares, and hurried through the ship to his room. He walked through it to the back, and using the adjoining panel, entered the spare unit, where he kept a bed for more amorous pursuits.
After settling her into the bed and covering her up with a blanket, he studied the space.

Nothing she could use as a weapon. Good. Then again, one could use a simple writing utensil as a weapon with a little ingenuity. He took everything sharp away, reset the codes at the hallway door so only he could open it, then double-checked the room.

She had a small writing desk and chair, an extra storage closet where some spare clothing hung, and a bed. Ren looked down at her in the large bed, where he’d taken a pleasurer a time or two, indulging his sex drive before he’d learned to ignore it. Yet as he stared at her, he couldn’t recall what those other women had looked like.

Foolishness.
He shook his head, secured the adjoining panel, and rejoined his men in the control room.

He’d give the female some time to recover before he’d start questioning her.

As soon as he’d learned of her location through various sources, he’d hurried to Kre. It hadn’t taken long before he’d
felt
her presence. Odd, yet he had little time to explore the strange feeling. Not when he had a mission to accomplish and the sense danger loomed close. The presence of an Olm pirate attack had alarmed him. As had his internal warning before the first blast of starfire had ignited, destroying the landing station.

By the Dark World, such energy in that blast. It had resonated throughout his entire body even
before
it had exploded. And it had urged him to hurry before he lost her again.

Finding her, the cat and the blond fighting overwhelming odds, he’d been hard pressed not to interfere at once.
But he’d wanted to see her handle herself.

As with the Shorhu Lord, she fought well. Yet her exhaustion seemed not in keeping with the energy she’d displayed during the bar fight. And he’d known, deep down, that her earlier use of starfire had weakened her.   

Then the pirate had stabbed her before attacking the guidecat. Rage, unlike anything he’d before felt, consumed him.
Yet he’d been unable to move when the
energy churning in his belly met an answering light in Dare’s glowing eyes.
In a flash the pirate had burned to a crisp.

And Dare loomed on the verge of passing out.

Unfortunately, the pirate captain also seemed to realize Dare’s remarkable feat. Ren had killed him before he could do more damage to Dare and her crew. Taking care of the remaining pirates had been both necessary and pleasant. One more blight upon the system vanquished. And if the pirate couldn’t speak of Dare’s secret, so much the better.
For the mission,
he reminded himself. His actions were all for the mission, not just for her.
 

But the imprint of her eyes lingered on his mind.
That bright blue glow had affected him in some way, for even now he felt a tingling in his belly.
A flash of starfire seemed to ignite him from within, and he had an absurd notion to join Dare in the room, on the bed, and sample what belonged to him. Such sweetness and passion in the woman… Such raw, beastly joy…

“Damn me. I’m losing my mind.” He bit his lower lip until he drew blood, centered himself, then entered the control room.

“Everything’s set, Captain. Uh, Ren, do you think, maybe…” Primo floundered.

“What?” Ren barked, in no mood to play guessing games, not with his skin still itching to feel Dare sliding against him.

“What the nabob is too scared to ask you—” Nesh started.

“—because you’re standing there looking as fierce as a Dark World cloud,” Ned took over.

“Is since we’re taking a while to get to Nexios for your captive, why don’t we linger outside of Vembi for a night while she recovers?” Nesh finished.

Castor nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. Ren, the men have been working pretty hard. It wouldn’t hurt for everyone to let off some steam since we’ve got the time. And Vembi’s on our way. What’s the harm?”

Ren considered the idea and thought it had some merit.
The men had been working nonstop these past few weeks to find the Mari, and now they had her.
Besides, maybe some time with a pleasurer would relieve his own stress. Something had to give before he did something he’d regret.

“Fine. I’m not an unreasonable man.” He frowned at Castor’s bark of a laugh. “We’re much closer to accomplishing the king’s task.”

Ren ignored the face Castor made.
Unlike his feelings for that bastard Zedrax, Castor had always respected Zebram and made no effort to hide his respect from Ren.
Since t
he young prince had never hid his affection for Ren, he’d earned Castor’s devotion.

“You might as well acknowledge your relationship to the boy,”
Castor had said time and time again.
“He loves you, and you deserve some softness. Not everything on Bylar is as ugly as Zedrax would have it, Ren.”