Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
“Show me the item and then I show you the money,” I argued with the portly, angry male bugza sitting at the counter before me.
He was almost completely bald, except for three long hairs that he had swept from the right side of his head across the top to the left side.
It was incredibly comical, but I knew better than to insult someone’s hairstyle, especially on this planet.
His insect-like segmented body was covered in a sheer shift that allowed all four of his arms to move freely as he worked on his inventions.
Despite his grumpy personality, he was one of the best inventors I had ever met on any planet.
We had landed on Porantine just an hour earlier and I had immediately come to pick up the order I had placed over a year ago. Thankfully, the seller knew me and had held onto it until I returned.
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” the seller argued. He knew me well enough that he’d held onto my item, but also knew from life experience better than to trust someone at their word. The mandibles on his face twitched in irritation as he waited for me.
I sighed, took out my bag, and showed him the credits inside.
He nodded and started to pull out a bag.
Gage stepped inside and I held my hand up to the seller.
He lowered the bag and asked, “How can I help you, Dragonkin?”
“I’m just here with her,” Gage said, stopping behind me.
“I’m on personal business. Can you wait outside?” I asked him.
“No,” he said and folded his arms across his chest.
“Please,” I begged.
He sighed and turned around. “That’s as much as I’m moving.”
The seller gave me a glimpse of the machine inside the bag.
It looked perfect.
“It works?” I asked.
They nodded their confirmation.
I gave him the coins and took the device, still wrapped up. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
“Have a good day,” he called as he counted the coins, his mandibles curled and uncurled in excitement.
“What’s that?” Gage asked.
“Something important,” I said, and headed towards the center of town.
“Now where are you going?” he asked, walking next to me with a scary scowl on his handsome face that sent people scurrying out of our way.
Having him at my side for the past few years would have made things so much easier.
While I knew this “friendship” wouldn’t last long, I was going to savor having some scary guard dog privileges while I could.
“Home,” I said and stopped at the shadiest bar in town. I walked inside, ducking and dodging the beer bottles being thrown, and climbed the stairs in the back to the single metal door. “Scout,” I whispered, “unlock the door.”
Scout zipped out and slid into the door’s lock. Scout chirped and the door swung open.
“Welcome home, Princess,” Scout’s voice said in greeting over the speakers in my room.
Scout’s voice was never the same as I didn’t bother programming it to any specific one.
Normally, it was just a robotic voice, like the one currently.
Had I been able to put down roots for longer than a few months, I would have worked on giving it a personalized sound. Maybe someday in the future.
“Scout, lights,” I ordered and once Gage was inside, I shut and locked the door behind us.
“Princess, you need to drink two vials to recover your energy,” Scout informed me.
“Thank you, Scout,” I said and headed to the cabinet in the miniscule kitchen.
My house was really just a studio apartment above the bar, but for me it was the largest piece of property I had owned. Something I had purchased with money earned by working jobs and saving.
“Princess?” Gage asked.
“Princess Xoe of—” Scout started answering.
“Silence!” I shouted at Scout who immediately obeyed.
Gage spun around and faced me. “You’re royalty?”
“Was,” I corrected as I grabbed a vial of electrolytes and downed it. “My planet and all my people were destroyed.”
“But, you’re still royalty,” he said, taking a step closer to me.
I spun around, a knife in my hand. “And? Does that change anything?”
He looked at the knife and frowned. “Why are you holding that?”
“Why do you care if I’m royalty or not?” I asked, gripping the knife tighter.
He took a step back and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not going to hurt you. We all signed contracts with you, remember?”
“I knew I should have put a clause in there about selling me,” I grumbled.
Gage laughed.
The asshole actually laughed at me. And not a chuckle, no he had his head thrown back, arms around his stomach as his laughter boomed around the small apartment.
“Why the fuck are you laughing?” I growled. My grip on the knife was so tight now that my hand hurt.
He wiped at the tears in the corners of his eyes. “I can’t explain it, but trust me. We would never, ever, sell you. No matter how much they offered.”
“What about fifty million credits?” a nasally, male voice asked.
“Communicator has been hacked,” Scout said.
“Wow, a little slow, Scout,” I growled as I turned to look at the communicator’s screen.
A blue-skinned Bolsan named Charles smiled at me. His cow-like ears drooped down to his shoulders and he had a scar across one of his brown eyes that made me smile, since I’d given it to him when I escaped. “I’ve been biding my time, waiting for you to come back, Diamond.”
“Fuck off,” I snarled.
“I see you’re just as feisty as ever,” Charles said. His eyes shifted to Gage who stood by me, his fists clenched at his sides. “So, how about it, Dragonkin? Fifty million credits if you bring Diamond to me.”
“Why do you want her?” Gage asked. “You are the Underlord of Porantine. You could get any woman you want.”
How did he know that Charles was Underlord? Did they spend more time here than I knew? How hadn’t I run into them?
“This one has already cost me a pretty penny and I need her back in my labora … I mean, home. I need her back home,” Charles said. “I miss her dearly.” He couldn’t even fake emotions, the bastard was devoid of them, so the statements came out flat and incredibly unconvincing.
“No,” Gage said.
“What?” Charles asked. I was pretty certain no one in his entire life had ever told him no before … except me. It was nice to hear.
“No. I’m not bringing her to you,” Gage said.
“Princess, there’s movement on the floor,” Scout whispered in my ear.
“Time to go,” I told Gage, swiped a dozen vials into a bag, as well as a few other things, and headed to the back corner of the room where a secret hatch hid beneath my bed.
“You’re mine,” Charles snarled from the communicator. “I will have you.”
“She’s not yours,” Gage growled and steam poured from his nostrils and mouth in his fury. “You try to touch her and I’ll tear your arms off.”
And my heart just about exploded hearing him say that. No! I didn’t know him and he was just following our contract.
“Gage, let’s go,” I whispered.
Gage turned and followed me.
“End call,” I instructed Scout.
The call ended, but not before I saw Charles’s pissed off face.
“He’s going to come after you,” Gage said.
“He always does,” I whispered and pushed my bed aside to reveal the hidden hatch.
“We need to have a talk when you get back to the ship,” he growled, following me down the ladder to the first floor of the bar and out the back exit.
Gage went first, grabbed my hand, and began to run.
“Scout, best route to the ship,” I ordered.
The route came up in my vision, one of the positives to the enhancements Charles gave me was that I had a built-in display Scout could connect to.
That meant I didn’t need to wear any special glasses or headsets, which was great since I tended to lose things or break them.
“Right here,” I said and Gage obeyed. “Left. Next right.”
Gage followed my orders without question, which was surprising but also a relief. We were two turns away from the ship when Charles and a huge group of his soldiers dropped down into our path.
“Darling, I’ve missed you,” Charles said. He wore a grey suit with a lab coat over it, his goggles perched atop his head, just in front of his bovine-like ears.
The soldiers surrounded him. Their ranks were comprised of some, like me, who had been experimented on, and others who had been down on their luck and were “saved” by his employment.
Unfortunately, his employment required them to do all sorts of despicable and disturbing things that left dark marks on your soul.
Of the twelve with him, I only recognized three of them.
The three who had been personally assigned to guard me.
“I’m surprised you three are alive after failing to guard me properly,” I taunted with a half-smile. “Did you get punished with more experiments? Forced to spend time with my sisters?”
They showed zero emotion, no acknowledgment of my taunts. Shit, he’d zombified them. That meant they were going to be even deadlier to fight. Fortunately, the front line consisted of his weakest members, who I knew I could take down without much trouble.
“If you find an opening, run to the ship and stay there,” Gage ordered me.
I pulled my swords out of the sheaths I had strapped to my back and let some of my electric powers out. “Not a chance. This is my fight.” I leapt forward, cutting down three of the guards I didn’t know before Charles could shout orders and back away.
Gage shifted partially, letting scales cover his body, claws appeared at the tips of his fingers, and his head turned more dragon-like.
Somehow, we fought together seamlessly. It was like I could sense him and anticipate his moves.
With every turn and slash, he matched me and cut down one for every kill of mine.
It was a beautiful and deadly dance that had an electric feeling buzzing within my skin.
Within minutes, all of the soldiers were dead and only Charles still stood.
Gage stood beside me, wings folded against his back, scales covering his arms, neck, and face. His eyes had slitted pupils, but his face now looked human aside from that and the scales. “Leave or you die,” Gage threatened him.