Chapter 7 #2
“You must be as eager as I am to get this over with,” she rasped. “We’ll fight tomorrow. Prepare yourself. One way or another, I’ll be done with you then.”
Kedar made a noncommittal sound. His eye shields glowed orange this time as his gaze ran over her. She felt it on her like fingers tracing over her flesh, reaching for her soul. What was it that he could see? Could he see all the things she locked away? All the burning fury and hurt?
“I told you, I’ve been preparing all this time,” he finally said.
“You should have killed me. That was the only way that fight could end, Vessa. You disrupted the stars when you didn’t, and it was up to me to set it right.
I’d have spent my entire life hunting for you if necessary.
It has to end.” Fire lit his words. Passion. And something darker on the edge of it.
This time, she caught it before it consumed her.
She tamped that infernal storm down, kept the beast locked away.
Instead, she let out a humorless laugh. “We get it. You’ve had one thing on your mind and that’s finding me and killing me.
Give it a rest, already. You think you’re the only person with a revenge arc?
I’ve seen better ones on the shows I watch.
Unless it involves a secret twin or faking death twice, I don’t want to hear about it anymore. ”
“Do you just watch Galac-com and kill for pay, or have you actually kept up with your training? I’d like a battle that lasts more than a few seconds. Otherwise, it will be most unsatisfying.”
“What does it look like to you?” Vessa flexed her legs.
Her thighs were thick and shapely, but muscles shifted beneath.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and spun around in a circle, showing off her form the same way one showed off a new outfit.
Vessa had always been equal parts curves and muscles, a dangerous combination for those who looked at her and only saw the fullness of her chest and her shapely backside.
People often underestimated her. Her favorite pastime was proving them wrong. Efficiently and permanently.
Kedar, though, had always seen her as a threat and acted accordingly.
Even before their first sparring match, he’d known to take her seriously.
If anything, he’d overestimated her, believing she could do things that she never thought to try, like climbing the hanging cliffs of Dulen Nar or swimming in the raging black seas on planet Wake.
He challenged her, pushed her, believing in her even when she thought she had reached the limit of her abilities.
He’d made her a better fighter.
Now, Vessa trained alone on her ship, pushed her body as hard as she could with weights and endurance training.
When she stopped on planets for supplies or work, she would enter a fight house and pick the biggest warriors to spar with, usually earning herself some extra credits in the process.
Never mind the amount of fights she ended up in on her job alone.
But she hadn’t truly trained. Not in the way she had with Kedar. That, along with everything else she’d ever been, had burned up and turned to ash seven years ago.
“Your body hasn’t changed much,” he admitted, “but do you have a sparring partner? Do you still run through forests every morning? Push your boundaries in new ways?”
If she told him she didn’t, would he try to delay her even longer?
Abduct her and make her train with him for seven years or some ridiculous shit that only he would think to do?
“Yes,” she lied as she sat down as close as she could manage to the fire.
“I found myself another big Xaal to train with. He’s much stronger than you. And far more loyal.”
Kedar’s dagger scraped against the Orcru’s skull with a sickening noise. “And this Xaal,” he said carefully, “where was he when you were being pulled apart by Orcru?”
She lay back with her hands behind her head. This was safer territory. And far more fun. “Aren’t you a curious little oolut.” That earned her an annoyed grunt. “Xer is on a mission of his own. He trusts me to get myself out of situations, of course. That’s what makes us so good together.”
“Xer.” He said the name like a curse. “What is his clan? What code does he follow? What Xaal planet is he from, or did he—”
Vessa propped herself up on an elbow. “For fuck’s sake.
Would you like a full report on him? Want to know the color of his plasma dirk, his armor measurements, and the size of his cock, too?
I’d say it’s—” She held her hands up and gave him an estimated size, then added a couple more inches while wiggling her fingers.
Kedar snarled. “You are his mate?” There was a barely subdued violence to his tone. His chest rose with a heavy breath before he said, more calmly, “I only ask because, depending on his code, he may be duty-bound to challenge me once I kill you. I’d make myself available.”
Vessa’s lips curled into a wicked smile.
It felt good to have the power fully sway in her favor.
She’d always loved to needle him, and this conversation had irritated him immensely.
He was always cool and controlled. Being able to get him worked up, even now, was something she prided herself on.
In the past, she knew she had accomplished it when he threw something, grumbled under his breath to himself, or turned on his cloaking system and stomped away.
She found her smile broadening at the memories before she caught herself. “Guess you’ll just have to see. That is, if you can kill me. Those Corros Xaal are a whole other breed, and he has kept me well… occupied.”
Kedar abandoned his skinning of the dead Orcru altogether. “He’s from Corros? Vessa, you can’t trust them. They move in shadow, and their sense of honor and duty is warped.”
“Oh? I used to know a Xaal who I thought had the highest sense of honor and duty, and he betrayed me, so maybe it’s the other way around.
” She couldn’t keep the very real anger from her voice.
“But what do you care? You plan on trying to kill me anyway, so I would say you’re far more of a threat to me than dear Xer. ”
Kedar stood up suddenly, his muscles bunched together like he was preparing to rampage across the universe and find this made-up Xaal himself. The Orcru’s vertebrae cracked against the stone as he bent to grab the refuse of flesh then moved toward the entrance.
Vessa tried to keep triumph from her features. “Now where are you going?” she asked at his broad back.
“To hunt.” Kedar disappeared into the storm without a backward glance.
“Hunt what?” she called after him while laughing.
He didn’t answer her.