Chapter 12 #2
The hatch at the rear of the shuttle opened with a hiss, and the scent of something spicy and woodsy filtered inside.
With it came other information, dampness, decay, clean air, smoke, and various animals.
My skin prickled, and my body recalled the delightful hunt I’d participated in on Rakex.
A hunt that resulted in my capture by Dimon and his lackeys.
I glared at Xathena as I recalled how she’d stabbed me while I was down.
My left side tingled, remembering its only recently healed wound.
“You’re going to die when this is over,” she hissed under her breath at me, passing with a swish of her long, mossy hair tipped in unnatural gold and the creak of leather from her weapon holsters.
She wasn’t supposed to say that, as escaping with my life was the motivation Dimon thought he needed to dangle to get me to comply.
I rolled my eyes at her, laughing internally because I knew with certainty it was they who would meet that fate instead.
I rose to my feet, smirked when at least a handful of males around me flinched back, and strode from the shuttle after her.
Dimon followed, barking orders and cursing his crew for being cowards.
Hard not to be a coward when he was holding a gun on me and clearly keeping his distance, though.
He was afraid of me, more so now that we were in an environment he couldn’t control.
Out here, he knew I could slip the tenuous leash he thought he had on me.
The only leash they could truly use to control me was Irena, and she was back on the Vidu, hidden so they could not reach her.
With Xathena here, I was certain she was safe, which meant it was time for a little fun.
I’d pick off a few of their number while I was here, maybe even get my hands on Xathena herself.
That would be a most satisfying victory to bring back to my mate tonight.
“You can try to run now. I know you’re thinking it,” Dimon announced as he waved the gun in my face.
I eyed the barrel of the laser pistol, cocked my head, and smirked.
He and I both knew he’d never shoot me, not when I still had a diamond to steal and to save his ass.
Without that diamond, he was as good as dead. Yeah, leverage, he had none.
“There’s nothing stopping me, is there?” I drawled, tilting my chin up as I inhaled the deep, grounding forest air.
It called to me, that air, and the scents that twined through it.
I’d been to places that had no scent at all, like a moon covered in nothing but ice.
Or I’d been stuck breathing artificial air in my space suit for twelve hours straight.
Nothing beat being outside—truly outside—and surrounded by nature.
Well, nothing except the scent of Irena’s pretty little cunt.
I could shift right now and slip away into that forest, never to be found again.
Except they still thought I was drugged and unable to shift.
A card I didn’t want to play, just yet. Point in case, Dimon jabbed the gun toward my chest. “Those injections, they’ve blocked your ability to shift.
By now, that effect is permanent,” he bluffed.
“You ever want to go furry again and hunt like a beast, you’ll need the antidote.
” He completed the lie by patting a pouch on his belt, implying he was carrying that antidote on his person right now.
Stupid, because if I had bought that lie, killing him and taking the antidote would now be my first priority.
Lucky for him, I knew he was lying through his jagged teeth.
So I cocked my head and played along. “Liar,” I spat, because I knew they’d expect me to protest. “There’s no such thing as permanently blocking a shift.
” There wasn’t; it was the kind of research the whole Sune nation would abhor and fight to destroy.
The fact that shift-blocking drugs even existed was driven more by medical reasons; a shift when injured could be really bad if it did happen.
That’s why my body fought it when injured.
Sune, as a nation, also didn’t have that many enemies capable of creating such a thing, and the Vidu’s doctor was a butcher, not a scientist; it couldn’t have been him.
“Oh yeah, and even you, with your black market connections, won’t be able to get your hands on this antidote,” Dimon persevered.
“Doing what I want is your one shot at ever running on four paws again, you bastard.” I inhaled deeply, loomed a little more menacingly, and caught the satisfying scent of his fear, fear he wasn’t supposed to feel at all as a Rummicaron.
“That so?” I drawled. “What’s to stop me from just taking it from you, right now?
” I raised my hands and flexed them as if I intended to wrap them around his thick neck and wring the life from him.
He stepped back, glaring furiously, and a dozen rifles were leveled at once in my direction.
Ah, now the whole damn crew stank of fear, of terror. What a sorry lot they were.
Why had I ever worked with these idiots?
They were nothing like the males of the Varakartoom, for whom I could have nothing but respect.
At least that answered one question: I was right where I belonged on Asmoded’s ship.
That crew was where I belonged, and Irena was my home.
Soon, I’d make sure those two places were one and the same.
Xathena was the only one who did not smell afraid.
She stood her ground, though she’d aimed her gun at me, but then she’d been aiming that gun my way from the start.
No, the Xurtal second-in-command was itching to shoot me, diamond be damned.
She wanted payback, even at the cost of survival, it seemed.
I didn’t take her for a fool, so perhaps she knew something I didn’t.
Pretending to consider what Dimon said, I took my time drawing out the moment.
I met the eyes of each male, watching in satisfaction as some rifles rattled in trembling hands.
This was fun, but it would be more fun to kill a few of them and thin the herd.
They’d really fear me then. “Sure,” I drawled, twisting to give the shaking Ovt an extra-fierce grin. “Guns trump claws, I guess. Where to?”
Dimon hid his sigh of relief and indicated the forest to his left.
“The mansion is that way. The diamond should be in the vault. Get it.” He didn’t think it was that easy, did he?
I knew he didn’t, but he seemed in a hurry now.
That could only mean one thing: Jalima had lost patience, and an assassin had been dispatched to get rid of Dimon and his pirates. I grinned.
“You expect me to steal you the Verana diamond without shifting? Are you crazy?” He opened his massive maw, sharp teeth glittering menacingly, but only by virtue of there being so many of them.
Dimon definitely did not have the upper hand right now, and he knew it.
His crew knew it, and worse, Xathena knew it.
No, that wasn’t going to last much longer. Dimon’s days were coming to an end.
“Fine,” he snarled, his expression growing tight.
He must have been hitting the Roka more over the past five years, because his emotions were far closer to the surface than they’d ever been.
I could read him like he was an open book.
“Recon, then. We’ll discuss the terms of the actual theft when you get back and confirm it’s here.
” In other words, he was suggesting giving me the ‘antidote’ to allow me to steal the diamond.
I shrugged and, without a word, turned on my heels.
Under the chorus of guns cocking and boots shifting, I jogged away without a word.
They did not shoot, but the skin on my bare back prickled anyway.
The feeling did not fade until I’d put at least a dozen trees between me and the clearing.
I was certain they were keeping track of me someway, eyes in the sky, tracking my heat signature, something.
Though I’d checked my pants and boots thoroughly, I knew there was no tracker on them.
Fine. I could do this bit on two legs anyway.
I might not be an expert scout like some of the others on the Varakartoom’s crew, but I was definitely the best when it came to a job like this.
Only Mitnick might be more suited to cracking a security system and vault than I was, but then I wasn’t going to crack it, I just needed to slip through the holes.