Chapter 16
My body was still feeling the effects of my blood rage, and I blinked aggressively, trying to clear the haze from my vision as I followed the guard’s trembling directions.
Beside me, Naomi had a death grip on my upper arm, her lip caught in her teeth as she struggled to hop forward in her oversized boot.
I itched to pick her up but I needed both my arms free in case we encountered more sytos.
“Are you okay?” she whispered, her lips brushing my arm as she leaned in.
I shivered when her breath skated over my skin and wished we were safely hidden away.
As much as I’d hoped for this chance, I didn’t have nearly enough time to soak in the wonder of my female’s presence.
Part of me worried that as soon as I succeeded in returning her to her planet, she’d disappear, my sanity going with her.
“I am unhurt,” I assured her. I might not be a tactical thinker but I knew an opportunity when I saw it, and the mated turoch’s determination to get free of this hell ship was the push I needed. All I had to do was keep us both alive and find a way to Naomi's planet.
“That’s not what I meant,” she huffed. “You look a little ragey. Are you going to flip out if there’s a fight?”
My ears drooped at the worry in her tone. I felt next to useless to my female. She brought me back to sanity, soothed my rages and filled the well of loneliness that had consumed my existence. In return she was forced to watch over me like a small child too young to be trusted on its own.
“I will stay calm,” I promised her. “It’s easier when I’m touching you. I swear I’ll never hurt you.”
She shot me a small smile.
“I know.”
The syto’s weak voice interrupted us and he pointed shakily at a wide reinforced doorway.
“That’s the officer’s lounge.”
Naomi cocked her head to the side and inspected the door.
“Do you have a key or a passcode?” she demanded.
The syto shook his head. “It’s officers only. I’m not even ranked. Besides, it’s probably occupied.”
Naomi hopped forward and trailed her fingers over a small screen beside the door.
“Can we talk to the guys inside?”
The syto’s wide eyes darted between us.
“They won’t let me in, let alone you two!”
My female bared her teeth in a bloodthirsty grin.
“So you’re going to sound really scared and say one of their fellow officers is below the camera and in need of medical attention.”
***
THE DOOR OPENED SMOOTHLY and I pushed our captive forward as a shield as a periwinkle head popped into the opening. The moment the officer saw me he hissed and trained a charge cannon at my face.
“Traitor,” he snarled at my wilting captive. “The Qwin wasted organic materials when she commissioned your birth.”
“I’m sorry,” the injured male wailed. Unsympathetic, the officer fired off a shot. I hauled my shield up and flinched when his body crunched under the force of the blast. Tossing the dead guard aside, I charged into the lounge, tossing the attacking syto into the wall as I cleared the door.
Another blast glanced off my side, sending my hooves skating back on the smooth floor. I whirled to find another officer cowering behind a long half oval couch. I leapt forward, grabbing him by the tentacles crowning his head and smacked him into the wall with all the force of my momentum.
“Wait! Carn, don’t kill them all!” Naomi hopped through the door, her stolen weapon scanning the small room. The main space was barely bigger than my cell, with three doors opposite the one we entered through.
The male in my grasp moaned, his tentacles roiling in my grasp. I shuddered at the sensation, barely resisting the urge to rip them from his head so he’d stop wriggling.
“Is anyone else here?” I demanded, shaking him until he gasped in pain.
“N-no,” he answered, struggling to relieve the weight on his head. “It was just Ojis and I. The other officers’ stopped answering comms nearly an hour ago.”
Naomi crawled onto the padded couch and peered down at the syto as she leaned against the back.
“Check if he has any weapons and then we can tie him up and keep him for information. I don’t know how any of their tech works and I assume you don’t, either.” Pragmatic hazel eyes met mine and I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my mouth.
“I’ve never met such a female as you,” I said, warmth filling my chest. I was both impressed with her sensible, quick thinking and wanted to bundle her into a bed and coddle her until she kicked me away.
She snorted but looked pleased.
“Gotta work smarter not harder, big guy.”
I shrugged and hauled our newest captive to his feet, efficiently stripping his uniform away until he was left in a single garment that covered him from his shoulders to his knees.
Naomi gestured at his attire with her weapon and snickered.
“You guys are seriously wearing rompers under your uniforms?”
The male flinched as the barrel of the weapon waved his way and swallowed hard as I dug a set of mag cuffs out of his belt and twisted his hands behind his back.
“It’s a standard issue thermo-regulated undergarment.”
My female grinned. “It’s a fucking romper and it makes your dick look non-existent.”
I glanced at the crotch of his faded underclothes and wondered why Naomi felt the need to comment on this males genitals. Was she wondering what it looked like? Did sytos have cocks that more closely resemble human males?
Sytos didn’t look much like humans, but he was smaller than I was, less intimidating. Did she find him more attractive than me? My hands clenched on his arm and he let out a choked whine.
“I have no use for a penis aside from urination,” the syto said, eyeing her like she was unhinged, even as he tried to squirm free of my grip. “Why does the size matter?”
Naomi sighed and propped her chin up on her hands, watching curiously as I finished binding our captive’s ankles with his own belt.
“It was supposed to be an insult.”
I looked down at my permanently hard cock and stifled a smile. If a small penis was an insult, then a large one must be a good thing.
Naomi trained her weapon on the bound syto and cocked her head to the side.
“What’s your name mini-man?”
The syto shot me a look like I was supposed to understand her and I shrugged.
There were no more threats to destroy at the moment, no haze of battle to force me into action, I was content to let my female take control of the situation until she needed my strength.
If I ever had the capacity for strategy and clever planning, years of mental fog had stunted it too much to be useful now.
“Lieutenant Idjiij,” he cast a hesitant glance at the dead officer crumpled against the nearby wall. “Acting first officer of the Administrative Wing.”
“Here’s the deal Gigi.” Naomi leaned forward and pinned our captive with a stern look.
“Do what we say, exactly when we say and we’ll feed you, let you take bathroom breaks and maybe let you go eventually.
Throw a temper tantrum or try to hurt either one of us and Carn here will snap both your hands off at the wrists. ”
“Understood,” Idjiij choked out.
She beamed. “Cool, how do we barricade the door and where is the food?”