Catalyst (3 page)

“And you plan to ask him outright if he helped kill our people?” She crossed her arms. “Do you really think he’s just going to give you that information? Whoever he is, he’s in deep hiding and there are people looking for him. Dangerous people.”

“Tell me something, if you thought you had a way to finally find out what happened, wouldn’t you want to?”

“Yeah and that’s why I’m going to continue digging. If the man is alive, I’ll find him. I’ve spent years building good contacts.” She grabbed her boots, stuffed them into her black satchel and swung the latter over her shoulder. “Come on. If I know Lux, she’ll wait to start loading until we’re there and I want to go home to see my family.”

“I put him to work.” Lux grinned and reached up to secure her long black hair into a high tail. “Vala, the kid’s got it bad.”

“Got what bad?” Jarana eyed Bastian as he hefted a crate and carried it on the ship. Admiration lifted one eyebrow as her gaze slid down to his butt. “Absolute and utter hotness? Wonder if Maska would like him.”

“Don’t be greedy,” I snapped without thought then cringed when Lux’s eyes went wide and her grin took on a calculated gleam. Great, I did not need Lux Moyans getting into my personal business.

“Greedy?” Jarana’s mouth tightened. “You spent too much time on Earths.” She looked back at Bastian as he strode to the crates. “He’s got a sort of feminine grace to him, don’t you think? Like a dancer or something.”

“There’s not a feminine thing about him,” I muttered, wishing she would shut up.

She grinned. “I do think my Maska would like this one.”

She was messing with me. I could always tell when a Gwinarian love match was complete and she had that in spades with Maska and Erik. Besides, I didn’t think Erik would ever allow another into their tight circle. Lux and Jarana’s chuckles followed me as I had to force myself to walk, not stomp, to where Bastian now stood still, those dark eyes locked on me as always—like he couldn’t help himself. He ran his gaze over my tattooed arms before drawing them back up my body to my face. Heat turned those pretty eyes molten.

Squirm-inducing memories filled me of myself as a teenager.
Had I looked this desperate following Jacks around?

When I stopped in front of him, I wished—not for the first time—that I’d inherited my mother’s long legs. I was short for a Gwinarian at five foot five, and Bastian had over a foot on me. I opened my mouth then shut it. Asking him why he was here or what he wanted was pointless. It was damned obvious. I just shook my head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I have a few suggestions.”

It was the first time I’d heard his voice, and its smooth warmth flowed into my pores like steam from a saunobath.

Up close, his eyes were spectacular. Gwinarian eye shades came in ambers and browns and he had both—dark brown with a thin layer of amber that made his eyes look iridescent. He’d caught his long hair in a tail at the nape of his neck, but strands had wiggled free and framed his face. They looked silky soft, and before I could stop myself, I reached up to rub one between my thumb and finger. It was as satiny as it looked. I closed my eyes. “You are so young.”

“So?”

Again, I opened my mouth, planning to explain that I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but before I could speak, Lux let out a cry. I spun around to find her flat on the deck, a stranger standing over her with a tranque gun in his hand. He now had it pointed at Jarana who held her hands up in the universal sign for surrender. She watched him closely, eyes narrowed, and I knew she waited for the right moment to attack.

So I gave it to her. I screamed.

His eyes turned toward me and Jarana didn’t hesitate. She high kicked the man’s face, turning at the last minute to give his chin the brunt of her bare heel. The crunch noise was loud. If she’d put her boots back on, he would have lost skin. He staggered back, and I started to run to them but stopped when Bastian grabbed my arms and pulled my back to his chest. “Wait,” he said, voice low.

Glancing up, I saw he looked in another direction altogether so I followed his gaze to the two men by us, one with a laser gun, another with a tranque.

Two more kicks sounded and I whipped my gaze back to find that Jarana had taken out one of the men at the knee. She yanked her laser gun out right before she cried out as Lux had. A man I hadn’t seen stood over her with an old-fashioned stunner. Thing still smoked.

“Are they breathing?” I stared hard at Jarana, then Lux, but couldn’t tell. My heart stopped beating.

A big, ugly bruiser came at me, took my arm. Bastian wouldn’t release me.

“We just want the Gwinarian woman. Let her go and you won’t get hurt.”

Bastian snorted, shoved me behind him and I growled before poking him in the back. “I can take care of myself.”

I quickly slid one of my knives out of my boot, and jumped around Bastian just as one of the men fired his tranque gun. I took the brunt of the blast and the fury on Bastian’s face was the last thing I saw as I fell.

I groaned and blinked into darkness. Disoriented, I tried to pull my foggy thoughts into order, but they felt sluggish, unattached. I lay still, my palm against hard flooring and pulled myself together long enough to feel the vibration of an engine beneath my hand.

My mouth tasted like someone had blasted it with sand. Sitting up, I moaned when pain slashed through my skull. “Lights,” I whispered, hoping the ship would pick up the whisper. When it didn’t, I groped inside my boots to find the knives gone. They would have run detectors over us for weapons. I forced myself to my hands and knees. Dizziness swamped me and I swayed a bit, before reaching out ahead of me to make sure the path was clear for crawling.

When I touched warm flesh, I sucked in a breath and scrambled back until I felt my spine hit something solid. Just then, low light filled the room and I blinked hard to try and adjust my eyesight faster. First thing I saw was Bastian stretched out on the floor, his dark auburn hair in a wild disarray over his face and spilling out onto the tile around him. Holding my breath, I crawled to him.

“Be alive,” I whispered even as I realized he was the warm thing I’d touched and dead didn’t go with heat. I brushed his hair from his face, and bit my lip when I saw the cuts and bruises marring his light skin. A painful-looking split darkened his full bottom lip and one of his eyes had swelled to twice its size. I hurriedly opened the small, metal connectors on his shirt, feeling hot tears prick the backs of my eyes when the marks continued down his chest. Picking up his hand, I saw the scrapes on his knuckles. “Hope you got a few good punches in,” I murmured.

“I did.”

I barely heard the whisper but grinned with pure happiness when his unswollen eye opened slightly. “Bastian, what the Suns happened to you?”

“Fought a little. Think I lost.” That one eye looked me over closely. “They didn’t hurt you?”

“Hurt me? Other than my pride? No.” Looking around the small space, I realized we were in some kind of supply room. Bolted cabinets lined three walls. There was nothing else in the room other than Bastian and myself. No chairs, bed, blankets… Nothing.

I shivered. “Where are we?”

“A ship. We were on the loading dock, remember?”

I remembered seeing Jarana go down next to Lux, remembered Bastian trying to shield me.

“You took a stun meant for me, so you got more than they planned. The one they hit me with didn’t work right away.” He started to sit, then groaned.

“Be still. Suns, they worked you over.” I offered him a small smile. “You fought for me, didn’t you?”

“Not very well.”

“Bet you did some damage with those big hands of yours.”

“I did.” He closed his eye, then opened it again when I shivered. He lifted one arm in an invitation to me and I could tell it hurt by his slight wince. “We’ll have to share body heat.”

“You have bruises forming in front of my eyes—I don’t want to hurt you.” I stood up, assessed the locks on the cabinets. They weren’t palm-coded like the newer ones. The locks were intricate swirls of metal and I had no idea how they could be opened. “Who took us? Space pirates?”

“I don’t know. Think so. All I know is a couple seemed to enjoy pounding me into the loading dock, especially the big one. But another man came running and pulled the others off me. He seemed to be in charge.”

I lifted one of the locks, tugged. “We won’t be able to pry these loose.” Glancing around, I frowned. “There’s nothing to use even if we could. You need medicine for those cuts.”

“I’m fine,” he said, voice hushed to a near whisper again. “But I am cold.”

He wanted me to lie next to him. My fuzzy head was still pounding, so I got back down on the floor and gently rolled against his side. “Am I hurting you?”

“Far from it.” A small smile tilted the side of his mouth. “Got you where I’ve wanted you for some time.”

I started to answer but just then, his arm went slack. I sat up. The boy was out again. I took the time to really inspect him, to try and see if anything looked broken. One purple-ish bruise on his lower chest bothered me, but he was breathing okay. I settled against him, glad for his warmth. I should be more afraid, but my mind still felt detached from the tranque. I drifted into sleep even as I fought it.

When I next woke up, I realized I’d burrowed almost all the way under Bastian in my sleep. The dark in the room unnerved me, yet the sound of Bastian’s heartbeat comforted. He was heavy on me, but so warm, I didn’t mind the pressure. Silky, auburn hair fell in heavy strands over my face, his breath fanned over my neck. His hips nestled between my spread legs and the hard ridge against me assured me he was recovering just fine from the fight.

He groaned, put his full lips on my neck and pumped his hips against me slowly as one big hand slid under my butt to cradle my lower body closer to his.

“Yeah, you’re okay,” I murmured before carefully rolling him off me so I could sit up. “Lights!”

The room lit up slowly and I couldn’t stop my wince when I could make out Bastian’s face.

“That bad?”

“The bruises got darker.” I leaned over him and spread his shirt open.

He grinned.

I shot him a quick frown, but was glad he seemed to have some spunk. “I’m only checking out this ugly bruise on your chest. Does it hurt when I press here?” I pushed lightly on the dark area around his ribs.

“Yeah.”

“I think you have a cracked rib. You need a doctor, meds.” Scrambling to my feet, I beat on the door. “Hey! We need medical attention in here!”

I stumbled back in surprise when it opened. Hadn’t expected that. Two armed men spilled into the room. The first one took up half the space, his human green eyes were black and swollen, like Bastian’s. The man who followed him made me catch my breath in shock. First it was because his eyes were the same piercing light blue as ones that haunted my memories, his hair the same deep brown of Gowlen nuts. But it wasn’t Jacks. This man had a wide, wicked grin that probably got him anything he wanted. He wasn’t as tall as Jacks either—I didn’t have to look up to meet his gaze.

“Who needs medical?” He raked his gaze over my body. “You look fine to me.”

“I think his rib is broken.” Crossing my arms, I tried to see what the weapons were set on, but I wasn’t familiar with these guns—wasn’t sure if they were stunners, lasers or what. “Why did you take us?”

“Bounty.”

“I don’t think so. I’m nobody important and unless the kid here has a long lost rich relative who survived the explosions on Kithra, you guys have wasted a lot of time and expense on nothing.”

He took a step toward me and I didn’t back up, didn’t show any sign of fear. The man might not be very tall, but I could sense that didn’t stop him from being dangerous. “Bagging the number one Tracker in the galaxies was worth my time and worth my client’s money.” He nodded toward Bastian. “Tell the giant not to try and fight us again and I’ll take him to the med unit for a scan.”

They thought I was Jarana. I looked at Bastian, who stared back, and something passed silently between us. I knew he wouldn’t tell the pirates they had the wrong person even though he had no idea that it was probably my fault they’d come after her. She’d said my search for Jacks had set off alarms. My lungs froze painfully. “Who hired you?”

“As a Tracker, you know better than to ask that. We can’t reveal all our clients, can we?”

Jarana would have known not to ask. I flinched when he ran his finger down my arm.

“Nice ink. Always did like a woman with some color. I’m the captain of this vessel. Welcome to the
Ultio Ultionis
, which means—”

“Revenge. I know and don’t care.” I jerked away from him. “No touching. Taken.”

One eyebrow lifted as he tilted his head toward Bastian. “By him?”

“Why so surprised? Ever see anyone prettier?”

The space pirate raked that gaze over Bastian, his teeth gleaming again as he grinned. “Come to think of it, no. But there’s something to be said for experience.”

“Don’t know much about Gwinarians, do you?” The big wounded man holding a weapon on us hadn’t taken his eyes off Bastian since he’d barreled through the door. His slithery gaze made my skin crawl. I stepped to the left so I was in front of him. He merely aimed his gun at me. “The boy is mine.”