Page 11 of Aura Awakened
“Uh, nice to meet you, I guess. Given the circumstances.”
“Yes, the circumstances.” I glance around at the darkened interior of the slave ship. “They leave something to be desired, don’t they?”
She gapes at me. “That’s putting it mildly. I don’t understand why anyone would willingly come here. Which begs the question, again: Why are you here? Alone? What exactly is this mission of yours?”
“It’s a long story.”
She rolls her eyes. “So you keep saying. Here’s an idea: summarize. You said you need information. So, what, your planet just sends princes off by themselves to infiltrate dangerous ships? Without backup? If I’m gonna help you, I need some details.”
I sigh and scrub a hand over my face. It’s a reasonable question, but the Malifect Empire’s centuries of conquest and the formation of the Coalition is not something I’m in the mood to delve into. “All right. The short version is that the Malifects produce a gas—the same gas that kept you knocked out, in fact—in vast quantities. I think they mine it here.” I point vaguely at the wall, indicating this strange area of space. “I not only need these spatial coordinates, but I want to take a look at one of their conversion labs and see how they do it. How exactly does the mining work? How much do they convert on the ship? How much do they store and take back to the processing plants on their homeworld? That kind of thing.”
“You’re here because of a gas?”
“I know how it sounds, but it’s incredibly powerful. They can and do render entire planets unconscious with it. They leave devastation in their wake, and that gas is one of their most powerful tools.”
“Oh.” She blinks. “Okay. I can see how you might want to put a stop to that. But that doesn’t explain why you’re by yourself.”
“I have a partner, but this was a very last-minute mission. I had an opportunity and I took it. I didn’t have time to really prepare.”
“What, so you’re just McClane-ing this whole thing?”
“Mc-whatting?”
She shakes her head. “Never mind. It’s an Earth reference from more than a hundred and fifty years ago.” She mutters something under her breath, but I only catch part of it. Something aboutonly one of my favorites.
“What’s a McClane?” I ask, curious. This woman is my star-mate. I should know about her favorite things.
“John McClane. Fictional character. Seriously, it’s not important.”
“You can tell me about it later. Anyway, I’m certain this ship must have hatches and interior crawl spaces.” Every Malifect ship on record does. “We need to find one. It’s not safe to move through the corridors.”
“Sure. That makes sense. Any idea where we should start looking?” She’s already running her hands along the walls.
I have to commend how calm and sensible she’s being. After all, it’s not as though she’s a trained Coalition soldier. She’s a scared human who has undergone a physical assault, but she’s keeping her cool.
She’s more rational than I am, probably. After all, I’m the one who abandoned my partner and followed an enemy ship into what turned out to be a Wraith Nebula. I’m the one without a concrete plan to get home, the one who has to rely on that enemy opening a jump gate. I’m the one who woke up my star-mate and dragged her into a dangerous situation.
Well, no. That last one’s not on me. The Malifects are the ones who brought her here. My fists clench at the mere thought of those monsters. I’ve seen firsthand the devastation they’ve wrought on invaded planets. The millions enslaved, the buildings destroyed, the ruined farmlands and crumbled cities. I’ve met slaves who’ve been freed after years of imprisonment on Malifica Prime, with their haunted, empty eyes and robotic movements. I don’t know what the Malifects do to keep their prisoners in line when they’re awake, but whatever it is, it destroys the personality from the inside out. It renders them nearly soulless.
I bare my teeth. I’m not letting that happen to Aura. We’re getting what I came for and then getting the fuck out of here. I will find a way to get her back to Acacia, if not Earth. With renewed determination, I join her search.
We prowl along the outer edges of the vast room, scanning the flat black walls for any indication of an opening.
“Fillian,” Aura calls in a low voice. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
I cross over to her and examine the slight indentation in the wall. It’s rectangular and small—getting through will be a tight fit. Odd, considering how large the Malifects are. They must leave all the internal ship repairs to their slaves and auto-bots.
I pry the panel off and check. Yep, it’s the crawl space we need. “Nice find,” I tell her, and she grins.
Her smile is luminous. That’s the only word for it. Her whole face lights up and her eyes sparkle. I know, intellectually, that she’s just a normal woman, but the star-bond finds perfection in her every move, every expression. It’s a compulsion.
I can’t help it. To me, she’s perfect. I feel my blood turn hot and thick as lust courses through me. I want her, by my side and in my bed. I want to explore that silky skin, lick at that full mouth. I want to know what makes her moan, what makes her pant, what makes her scream. I want to feel her wrapped around every part of me.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop wanting her. It’s unnerving.
I break eye contact before my desire for her gets the best of me.
I never dreamed I would find my star-mate, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Certainly not in a situation like this. I sigh; I like my military life, my missions with Ramp, and I don’t have room in it for a woman, even a perfect one.