Page 6 of 3 Secrets to Love (Romance Tales from the Quadrants #2)

Xacalla

“Where are we going?”

I wanted to bring back the children, but with no idea where those fake guards had taken them, the task seemed impossible.

Yet, Phalon rushed through the halls with the determination we had to and could find them before they left the planet.

“C’mon.”

He tugged my wrist as we burst out of the north exit of the USRA headquarters.

“There is only one spaceport anyone can fly out of right now, and it’s reserved for the pilots putting on the shows and the racers practicing.”

A light mist fell as we sprinted across the tarmac of the private spaceport. Strange weather for a mostly hot and dry planet, but I hoped it might help us somehow. Maybe slow down those who had taken the children.

We searched from one hangar to the next, only finding technicians working on spacecraft or racers having team meetings. No signs of the Kalpierene children or their abductors.

My side ached, and I was sure my wound hadn’t fully cauterized before Phalon yanked me to my feet, but I kept up with him, just as determined to find them.

My P-comm buzzed in my pocket several times already, but I didn’t have time to answer it.

Phalon halted and pulled me in between two of the hangars.

“We only have three buildings left to search. If they are not here, we should be able to get to them before they can leave at the main spaceport.”

I nodded, unsure why we’d stop searching. If we only had three buildings left, we needed to keep going until we checked out all of them. He’d been so anxious before and then turned hesitant.

“The next hangar belongs to Team Sren.”

He peeked around the corner then darted back.

“I have some bad blood with them, so I need you to go in by yourself while I go behind to check the one after.”

I shook my head and sighed, remembering all the beefs between teams my siblings had told me about over the many star cycles they’d raced.

“Fine, but let’s go.”

As I stepped out from between the hangars, a small cargo ship taxied out of the one at the end, heading for the runway.

Phalon charged out after it, no longer worried about an encounter with anyone from Team Sren. I tried to keep up, but both were too fast, and my calf cramped.

As I limped past the closest hangar, one of the racers came up to me.

“What’s going on? Who’s Phalon chasing after? I didn’t see anyone go past, and there’s no one scheduled for take off at the moment.”

“Kidnappers,”

I managed to blurt out as I winced in pain.

“Phalon kidnapped someone?”

“No!”

I paused to stretch out my calf.

“I brought children here to meet him through the Four Corners Wish Foundation. And two guards came in with plazers, shot the guard with us and took the kids.”

The racer pointed at my uniform.

“Looks like you got shot, too.”

“I did but that doesn’t matter. I’m fine.”

With the cramp mostly gone, I limped faster to catch up with Phalon, but the racer grabbed my arm.

“You’re not going to catch up to them now.”

Phalon came up behind me and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Nate.”

The racer nodded.

“Phalon. Seems you’ve got a situation on your hands. I can lend you our SDF-16 to go after them.”

Phalon scoffed, a reaction I understood since I could feel the tension between them.

“You trust me to fly it?”

“I trust your determination to find those kids.”

He slapped Phalon’s arm.

“Now, get in here and suit up. I’ll get it ready for you.”

In a matter of moments, Phalon added a harness and other safety gear to his flight suit and tossed a similar outfit at me.

“Um, I don’t know how to fly.”

I would be a hindrance to him with absolutely no experience in the sky except when someone else piloted the spacecraft and I was a passenger.

“You don’t need to fly, but I want you with me.”

He held out the suit then the harnesses for me to step into.

“You know these kids better than me.”

My stomach fluttered at the idea of him wanting me with him. I barely knew the kids, but they were my responsibility as far as I knew without any of their real guards around. Yet, I had a feeling that wasn’t what he’d meant by the words.

“It’s ready and I found the ship on the radar. I’ll let the authorities know where they’ve headed after you’ve left.”

Nate handed Phalon a fob.

“Treat it well or you owe us a new one.”

“Thanks.”

Phalon slapped Nate’s back before helping me climb into the large jet.

He buckled me in, making sure the straps were super tight before pushing the snug-fitting helmet over my head.

It was all so constricting, almost too much, especially around my legs, and not an outfit I’d ever had to wear on any previous flights.

I didn’t have time to think about it too much, Phalon already steering the jet out of the hangar and taxiing on the same course as the ship we needed to pursue.

We gained speed quickly then took off into the sky.

I’d never traveled so fast in my life.

If I hadn’t been so tightly strapped in—the harness restricting circulation to my lower extremities to keep my blood in my head—I would have been sucked back into the seat.

Or passed out.

We climbed and climbed until we broke through the atmosphere, my ears popping several times with the change.

As we transitioned into outer space, speed occurred differently.

The shift happened with every space flight but seemed more drastic in this jet.

Probably because we traveled faster than I ever had on any commercial flight.

Plus, I could see in many more directions.

Space was so dark around us.

Faraway stars twinkled in the distance, and some closer planets danced in the light from their suns.

But we headed away from Loso One, Eurebly’s sun.

According to the navigation screen, we headed into Quadrant Two, where I’d originally met the children.

I doubted the kidnappers would head back to Jenegath, but I had no idea where they would flee to.

With so much secrecy around the assignment, I didn’t even have a clue as to why anyone would abduct them.

“Rennir,”

I heard Phalon say over the two-way comm built into our helmets.

“They’re heading to Rennir. It’s the closest planet.”

My stomach clenched, thinking about the fake guards taking children to a tourist planet where beings from across the quadrants went to hook up.

“Hurry, please.”

Phalon adjusted the controls, racing the jet so fast, I had even more pressure pushing me back into my seat.

My chest ached and I struggled to breathe, though it did not seem we traveled any faster.

When we landed in Temek, the capital city of Rennir, I couldn’t leave the jet right away.

It felt like I had worms in my veins as I waited for blood circulation to return to my legs.

Eventually, we did find the ship the abductors had used, but they left nothing behind, no indication of where on the planet they’d headed.

I checked my P-comm, finding an abundance of messages.

Most of them told me to stay on Eurebly.

Too late for that.

I sent a private message to my supervisor, telling them to alert the authorities on Rennir.

There was also a missed call from my sister, but I didn’t want to call her back until the children were found.

She would make me panic about the situation more than I already was.

“Quick!”

After we ditched all our equipment but our flight suits, Phalon grabbed my hand and tugged.

“The next hoverbus is about to leave. Let’s hop on and search for them in the city.”

I followed behind him yet chastised myself during the bus ride for not remaining at the spaceport.

I had no idea how we could save those kids.

We had no weapons to protect ourselves from their captors, and without any defensive training, my size wouldn’t help me stand up against them.

“Let’s get off here.”

Phalon stepped out of the bus before I realized he had moved.

“I have a feeling about the club up ahead.”

A feeling? That was all he was going on? I doubted his instincts but still rushed to keep up so I didn’t get left behind or caught in the crossfire if he did find them.

“The authorities have been notified. Shouldn’t we leave this up to them to get the kids back?”

Phalon shoved open the door into the club.

“By the time anyone gets here, they could be gone already. We need to get inside, figure out where they are, and stop them from leaving again.”

“And how do we do that?”

I raised my arms.

“No weapons. I can’t stop them.”

“You focus on the kids and leave everyone else to me.”

I loved his confidence but wished I shared even a small measure of it.

Suddenly he clutched one of my hands with his and wrapped his other around my waist, guiding me toward the dance floor.

I winced as his fingers grazed over my wound. Definitely not healed.

“What are you doing?”

I had no time to live it up at a club. I thought he was here for the children, too, but maybe I’d guessed wrong.

“Dancing,”

he shouted over the music then moved his hands down my body and leaned into me.

“We need to look like we fit in, otherwise they’ll see us and run.”

I didn’t think we’d fit in with flight suits on. Not when most racers were on Eurebly to relax for the weekend. But in the crowd, one might not pay to close of attention to what we wore.

Phalon swayed to the music, his hands on my hips guiding me along with him.

He glanced down at me and smiled.

For a moment, everyone else in the room disappeared. My heart fluttered in a way I had never felt. Then reality came crashing back.

“Where could they be?”

Phalon glanced around. With his height, he could see over most of the beings around us.

“This way.”

He guided us through the dancing crowd toward the back of the club.

He wrapped his hands around the back of my thighs and picked me up.

I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist like a small child being held by their parent.

Yet, the rapid pace of my heart and the blood rushing to my nether regions were very much adult reactions.

“Kiss me,”

he said before I had the chance to make him put me back down.

“What?”

I had to have heard him wrong.

“Kiss me,”

Phalon repeated.

“One of the guards is right over there. We want to follow him, not make him run. So, kiss me like all the others around us are doing.”

Stars, I had no idea how to kiss, had been told as much when I had tried dating a few star cycles back.

It never appealed to me.

But I didn’t have the strength to run.

So, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.

He responded with strength, guiding and molding my mouth through the exchange until I had to pull away to catch my breath.

I quickly dove right back in for another, enjoying the connection for the first time in my life.

Phalon intensified the kiss with the sweep of his tongue across my own.

With anyone else, I likely would have gagged, but instead, I imagined everywhere else I would like to feel his tongue on my body.

My heart raced and fire coursed through my veins. I needed more of him.

Phalon ended the kiss, and his eyes sparkled as he set me back on my feet.

“Come on. They’ve left, so we’ll follow them.”

How he even noticed the guard had left was beyond me. During the kiss, I had had my eyes closed, and everyone but Phalon and I had temporary left my mind.

Taking his hand, I followed him through the bodies and back outside, trying to regain my focus on our purpose for being on the planet the entire time.

“This way,”

Phalon whispered, no longer having to shout to be heard over the music.

We took many side streets and sandy paths near the beach but ended up back at the spaceport. The ship the guards had used to flee from Eurebly was already running, and the guard we trailed headed straight for it.

“Coddleswap.”

Phalon raced toward the guard, leaving me behind. But when the guard heard footsteps from behind, they started to run.

I thought Phalon stood a chance to catch the guard.

Until plazer fire erupted from the cargo hold of the ship.

The guard fell in front of Phalon, hit by a blast.

Phalon tumbled over the body as the ship taxied away from us, taking the children away again.

“Where are they going?”

Phalon gripped the collar of the guard’s suit, pulling the guard off the ground.

“Where are they taking the Kalpierene children?”

But the guard’s head lolled back. No sign of life in their eyes.

I reached down for their P-comm. Using their face to get access, I searched through the messages for any hint the ship’s destination.

A notification popped up to confirm a flight path.

One to a very cold planet on the other side of the quadrants.

A planet that didn’t even belong to any of the systems in the quadrants but simply orbited through Quadrant Three for ten of its days every star cycle.

Resting my palm on Phalon’s shoulder, I held the P-comm in front of him.

“Leave them. They are taking the children to Arodin.”