Chapter 22
Jaxin
Waking up in a prison cell under lock and key was not as strange a situation to me as it might be to others.
I’d gone through that a time or two before, perhaps more than I could count on one hand.
Like that time Aramon had goaded me into getting just a bit too drunk on Rummicaron ale on the Yengar Space Station, and I’d trashed the place.
They’d had to bail me out of a cell that time, but a Yengar cell did not smell nearly as clean as this one did. That was the part that worried me.
Metal and cleaning products; beneath it, the scent of blood and vomit.
This was the kind of cell where torture happened, and even if I was good at blocking out feelings, torture was a bit much, even for me.
I’d gone through that once in a prison after a failed mission on some backwater planet with a species very similar to Xionians: feathered raptors with sharp claws, except these could fly, and they had been anything but civilized.
Those times, though, I’d known rescue was imminent.
I’d had full faith that someone from the Varakartoom would free me at any moment; all I had to do was hang on for a little while.
This time, I knew they’d try, but how would they know where we were?
We… It wasn’t just me to worry over, either. There was Dani, and she was missing.
The cell was empty—no cot, not even a bucket.
I paced it restlessly as fear and anger mounted.
How could such a simple setup have gotten the best of me?
A single pilot and a few flicks of a button, and I’d been helpless to stop it.
The knockout drug had done a number on my head, and it throbbed with a headache I ignored.
Dani needed me to be strong, and I was certain she was alive.
She’d stay alive as long as she didn’t finish making her cure, if she even could.
She’d only uttered those worries to me, though, and I knew she’d be wise enough never to say them to her half-sister.
My cannon wasn’t with me, and that only made my fury grow.
If they’d harmed Dani, I’d have decimated all those on the ship, and if they’d so much as scratched or dented Bex, I’d do the same.
The thought of some filthy criminal touching her controls made me see red, and that, for the first time, made me realize I’d grown as attached to this version of my cannon as the previous one—like Bex had reincarnated when Ysa had put her old barrel on this cannon.
With no comm, no weapons, and no Dani, I didn’t know what to do, so I paced.
I felt like a wild animal, trapped, furious, terrified.
Dani was brave, but she was facing her evil half-sister, a woman who’d caused her great danger and pain over the past couple of weeks.
I needed to be there with her, to protect her, to guard her.
Trying to bend the bars of the cell was impossible, though, no matter how hard I tried.
I just made my chest ache fiercely because my muscles weren’t quite strong enough, quite healed enough.
Roaring, I slammed a fist into the wall, then raked my claws over the metal with a screech. This wasn’t right. I should be with Dani right now; I should have protected her from being caught in the first place. I was proving a failure to the one I loved, all over again.
“A failure?” a voice whispered. “No, you’re not a failure, Jaxin.
” I twisted around and faced whoever had spoken, shocked to discover that my empty cell was not so empty after all.
A silver woman sat in the corner, her legs sprawled carelessly and silver hair draped around her nude form to obscure her chest and bare hip.
“You’re not real,” I said to her, the strange features of her metal face alien to me, but somehow familiar, though I was certain I’d never seen someone quite like her. She smiled, a beatific kind of smile that made my stomach clench. Familiar, but how? Who?
“Of course I’m not real, silly,” she said with a laugh. “You’re dreaming.” I blinked at her, confused. Dreaming? No, I was awake, I was pacing this damn cell like a caged beast, and Dani was in danger and needed me. My chest ached from pulling on the bars of the cell. That was real, wasn’t it?
“Who are you?” I asked, eyes flicking to the door and the dark hallway beyond.
There was nobody guarding this cell, but that didn’t help me get out if I had no key to unlock this bloody door.
The silver woman rose silently to her feet, her hair whispering against her metal skin as she came to stand next to me and tested the bars with her segmented fingers.
As if she were a robot—a very advanced one—she didn’t move quite right.
“I’m Bex, Jaxin. Or, if you will, the figment in your brain you created as a small boy to protect you after your sister died.
Bex, your cannon; Bex, your friend; Bex, a part of you.
” I stared, because she made that sound like I was crazy.
“And I’m here to remind you that you were a boy when Bexlin died, and you would have drowned if you had tried to save her.
I’m here to tell you that you’re not a boy now. ”
I jerked upright with a gasp and discovered I was lying on a cold metal floor in an even colder cell.
My heart pounded in my chest beneath my metal sternum, and my thoughts raced wildly.
A dream. It really had been a dream. The words Bex had whispered in my mind echoed through my waking thoughts now: You’re not a boy now.
I could still do something to save Dani, even if I could never change what had happened to my sister or save her.
I was not going to lose anyone this time.
When a set of guards came not much later to retrieve me from my cell, I discovered I had a much cooler head than I expected.
The temptation was great to break their necks, to bite them with my sharp teeth.
You could never truly disarm a Rummicaron, after all.
I did not act on that impulse, but let them guide me from the cell without comment.
Not only could they not take away the risk of my bite without muzzling me, they’d also failed to strip me of my armor.
I was the Varakartoom’s weapons master for a reason, I had more weapons on me than anybody ever expected, including several small knives and a garrote they hadn’t located, hidden in my armor.
At least they had not dishonored me by giving me a mediocre escort.
No, they’d given me four guards, and they were armed to the teeth: two Kertinal, a Rummicaron like myself, and a Xurtal male with an extraordinary amount of gold marking his red arms. When I so much as looked at one of them, they raised their laser rifle to threaten me, except it came across as frightened, worried.
And they should be, because even these four I could probably take; it just wouldn’t achieve anything or might put Dani at risk when I didn’t even know where she was.
That was a question soon answered; I caught her scent before I saw her.
They had taken me to a room that probably had to pass for a lab, but even I could tell it was a bit of a mess.
The benches had been hauled in recently and screwed to the floor.
Scientific instruments and machines were placed haphazardly all over the place, some not even installed yet.
There was also a wall with cabinets filled with all kinds of interesting chemicals.
Some of those I recognized, because I was well-versed in the making of bombs.
The cabinet looked much like how someone who knew absolutely nothing about how to stock a lab might stock one.
Dani stood at the center of it all, her hands on her hips and her head bent in concentration.
She was clean, dressed in a typical Aderian outfit, and clearly unharmed, at least physically.
I drew in a sharp breath, full of relief I wasn’t supposed to feel.
There was another Aderian in the room too, a woman I did not recognize.
Her presence meant I had to push my feelings aside, hide them under the same conditioning I’d been trained for all my life.
In the presence of another empath, I could not feel.
I could not let anyone know how much Dani meant to me, or they’d use her against me.
It was rough, putting my fear and worry—my.
..love for her—back in its neat box. Stuff the lid on it and pretend it didn’t exist. But I managed, enough, at least, for the average empath not to know.
When the woman turned to look at us, her expression revealed nothing.
A mask of cool indifference that could make a Rummicaron proud.
Still, I saw the resemblance in the high cheekbones and the arch of her black brows.
This was Koratalin, Dani’s half-sister—the woman who’d stepped into her father’s footsteps and taken control of a massive empire of crime.
Dani also turned, her hair sliding with a swish over the gray fabric that covered her shoulder and our mating mark.
It was a good thing it was covered, especially since there was another Rummicaron besides me in the room.
I hated it anyway. A powerful surge of emotion rose up—one I needed to roughly shove back behind the walls it came from.
If Koratalin sensed anything, she didn’t let on, but I saw Dani’s left eyebrow rise in question.
She had definitely felt my emotions misbehave.
“He’s here,” Koratalin said. “Now get to work. You have until we reach my nearest Roka plant on Planet Thirty-two to finish it.” It was obvious that such a threat held no meaning to Dani; she didn’t have a clue where Planet Thirty-two was located.
She might know it by its more colloquial designation: Sarpon.
Even then, she would not know how long it would take the average ship to travel there.
I did. Two months could seem like a long time, but I knew Dravion and his work.
I knew two months could mean nothing to a scientist.
“Thank you, Koratalin,” Dani said politely, and then my little scientist casually turned her back to her sister again and bent over the workbench.
A dismissal, as if she were already lost in the work and had forgotten anyone else was even in the room.
As if she didn’t care one bit where she did the work, as long as she could do the work.
It was, quite frankly, a terrifying piece of acting, because I was almost convinced myself.
The crimelord’s expression tightened with displeasure, and her hand twitched at her side.
It was tipped with metal and gem-studded claws that were decorative as well as functional—a tool to inflict harm.
Not so much a weapon as a means to express her power over others.
I shifted my body, ready to lunge and intervene if the female dared to strike out at Dani, but she didn’t.
Relaxing on my heels, I watched the female sweep toward the exit with a flutter of gold silk robes and blood-red embroidery.
She never even acknowledged my presence, that’s how little I mattered to her plan.
I was simply the hired guard who’d failed at his job; I probably had Dani to thank for not having been executed in my cell by now.
She’d done or said something that had prompted them to take me here. Clever girl.
As Koratalin crossed the threshold, Dani called out.
It was in a tone that, to my ears, sounded distracted, like it was just an afterthought.
“Oh, your guards, outside please. I can’t think with all these feelings in the room.
” It was then that I realized how truly defining Dani’s powerful empathy was.
Koratalin’s expression turned furious, but she gave the males surrounding me a sharp nod.
Out they went, trotting after her, and with a soft swish and a definitive click, the door locked behind them.
What Dani had asked was so normal to the Aderian crimelord that she had not questioned it.
I crossed the room toward Dani, my mind spinning as I cataloged options along the way.
My first desire was to draw her into my arms, to drop the shield dampening my feelings and revel in having her back at my side.
But her words halted me in my tracks. “There are cameras on us, Jaxin. Don’t approach too closely, we must pretend we do not care about each other.
” She had her head bent low over whatever she was working on, her hair shielding her face.
She turned her face just enough to give me a glance over one slender shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re unhurt.”
Doing as she had told me was only possible because of the Rummicaron conditioning.
It bucked and fought in my grip, struggling to control the powerful feelings underneath, but it held.
I wandered closer, casually, anyway, because I had to be near her and assure myself she was fine.
I did not have any empathy to count on to do so for me, the way she did.
The palm of my hand itched with the desire to lay it against her spine, to test the curve of her rear, the shape of her waist, her ribs.
“We need to find a way to contact the Varakartoom,” I said under my breath.
There were many devices in here, but none of them appeared capable of that task, however.
I was no hacker like Mitnick, able to use nearly anything as a gateway into the wide-open universe.
Very unfortunate, but it could not be helped.
“Don’t worry,” Dani said calmly. Now that I was closer, I could finally see what she was working on.
Her anthracite hands were working with confident precision.
Beyond her, on the counter, lay the open satchel with all the samples we’d gathered on Radin.
Her tablet with her research was also right there, but a red warning flashing over the screen told me its communication function had been disabled.
“I have a plan,” she added, and she turned what she was fiddling with just enough for me to see that it was a small bomb. All emotional conditioning splintered in a rush. Damn it, yeah, I loved this female. I adored her. She built bombs! She was blazing perfect.