Page 17 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Jasmin

He’d pulled away from kissing me. There was probably a perfectly logical explanation for that, but my heart still ached a little.

It let me know I’d gotten far too attached to this guy in far too short a time.

Blame the extreme circumstances, his sexy body, hormones, whatever.

I just hated that I felt like there was suddenly a bit of distance now that we were out of the cells.

Urging the young male with me, I pointed him to the navigator’s chair. “Sit here, kid. I’ll get Bev warmed up so we can get out of here.” I dropped into my chair, familiar and safe, with the cracks in her leather covers and the dark red stain where I’d spilled soda.

Flicking switches and running through my pre-flight checklist in rapid order, I kept my ears tuned to the sounds coming from behind me.

There was definitely a skirmish happening on the gangplank, and I heard the roar of the Beast farther away.

Once I had the ship warming up, I rushed out of my chair.

“Stay here, kid,” I yelled over my shoulder as I located my power rifle in its cabinet and quickly checked its power levels.

Taking up a spot at the top of the gangplank, I leaned around the corner and appraised the scene.

Yashan was fighting with half a dozen guards.

At his feet lay a nearly entirely mud-covered form; the white hair that was normally so recognizable was now a matted, tangled mess.

I watched in awe as the Pretorian male used the chains dangling from his manacles as effective weapons.

He was so fast and graceful as he darted between his opponents.

Beyond him, Beast was fighting a crowd of even more. They were shooting at him with nets and shock sticks. To my shock, the alien male was breathing fire on some of his opponents. I could no longer think of him as crocodilian; he cemented his place in my head as the dragon guy instead.

Lifting my rifle to my shoulder, I looked through the sight and took aim.

I shot two of the males that Yashan was fighting before turning my focus to the Beast. Thank God, even pilots in the UAR had to pass their gun proficiency tests.

At that range, and in this pouring rain, it was harder to land direct hits, but I did my best to take care of the ones attacking him with their nets.

“Jasmin! Go, get out of here!” Yashan suddenly yelled, his red body covered in streaks of mud and what I suspected was some blood. He stood in a pile of downed guards and was gearing up to run to the Beast’s aid. “Leave,” he ordered. His silver eyes flashed at me.

“Like hell!” I yelled back. Here I’d been worried he was pushing me away, he was just being an idiot instead.

Too noble and responsible for his own good.

“I’m not leaving without you, Yashan, so get your damn butt into my ship.

” I felt a hard clenching sensation in the vicinity of my chest at just the thought of never seeing his ruggedly handsome face again—or those bright silver eyes.

He was riffling through the pockets of some of the guards, slinging a belt with weapons around his narrow hips.

A few seconds later, he’d gotten some kind of electronic key from one of them, and the shackles and chains dropped from his wrists.

Even from my distant spot atop the gangplank, I could see the abraded skin that circled each of his arms now.

There was a smirk on his face. “Are you sure you want to be stuck with me for the rest of your life?”

My heart leaped; he did want to spend time with me.

His next words revealed just how much he’d been in his own head—just like I had been.

Our past experiences made us see obstacles that weren’t really there.

“You could do so much better than me, Jas.” There was no smirk accompanying those words; he didn’t even look at me, but raised the gun he’d picked up and carefully aimed and fired at the opponents circling Beast.

I followed suit, aiming my more powerful rifle at the approaching vehicle with more reinforcements.

I blew out a tire with a spectacular explosion of mud and dirt.

I whooped with joy before more sternly yelling, “I doubt that. If I recall, it was you that saved me from hypothermia and drowning. You that got me free from that blue-furred Hoxiam. And get this—” I gestured fiercely at the body of Okar lying in the mud some distance away. “You who avenged me.”

His silver eyes darted to me, briefly breaking his concentration from shooting.

He wasn’t as good a shot as I was with my rifle—made sense; I doubted the gladiators fought anything other than melee combat normally.

“I guess I did do those things,” he admitted in a husky drawl.

Then he tossed the pistol back down with a disgusted grunt.

“Can you fly low? I’m going to help Beast out, we’ll leap aboard. ”

That was a risky flight maneuver he was asking me to do.

Luckily, I had been a pretty damn good pilot in my day, and I could swing that.

“Promise me you’re getting on this ship!

” I yelled after him, but the monsoon swept my words away.

In the rain, I could now only see the red blur of his form as he headed for Beast and his tangle of guards.

I emptied the charge of my rifle with a last few shots, aiming to take out the approaching vehicles and slow them down.

Then, I tossed my rifle over my shoulder and rushed back to the cockpit.

Soaked to the skin, I dropped into my chair again and spared a brief moment to check that the kid was still okay.

He looked like he hadn’t moved, curled up into a tight ball in the navigator’s seat.

His bright eyes followed me as I checked the progress of the engines and flicked switches to get us into the air.

“Hang on tight, she’s not supposed to fly with her hatch open. We’re going to pick up Yashan and Beast.” Alarms blared, letting me know about the hatch. I switched them off, but Bev threw another hissy fit about them in the form of some rattling and shaking. “Come on now, baby girl, you got this.”

She lifted off into the water-laden sky, and I pointed her at the fighting crowd that surrounded Beast and Yashan.

They were side by side, trying to clear a hole in their defenses big enough for escape.

I pointed our nose at them and opened the throttle just enough to bear down on their position, skimming low across the mud.

At the last moment, I spun her sideways so her gangplank pointed right at the males—as close to them as I could get her.

*

Yashan

Too many guards had swarmed our position.

Beast was a tremendous adversary, but his stamina was waning.

As was mine. My right upper arm was nearly useless at this point; each move of the joint sent agony shooting through me.

I was sweating and bleeding from several small gashes, but the rain was washing everything away.

Despite the struggle of the fight, I had never been as motivated to win as I was today.

She’d told me she valued what I’d done. She had called me out on my feelings of not being worthy, and she’d sounded happy at the thought of sharing life with me after this.

The thought of being welcome at her side, of being welcomed into her body, again and again. Yeah, I was motivated.

The hum of the ship’s engines signaled the approach of her vessel.

While the smallest in the Hauler class, it was still far bigger than a shuttle; blotting out the light and the rain as it swerved over us.

She swung the long body of the ship around, the gangplank sticking out like a tiny tongue.

It mowed through at least three guards, briefly creating a gap.

A look over my shoulder told me that Beast was still tangled in two shredded nets, fighting with four Krektar wielding shock sticks.

Heaving a deep breath, I tightened my grip on the two shock sticks I’d gotten my hands on, winding up for another go at these damn guards.

They were going to start using lethal force on me soon, I knew it.

They wouldn’t do anything but subdue Beast; he was too valuable.

Me, if I became too much of a nuisance, they’d kill me.

The whine of an approaching engine warned me that more opposition was incoming.

This time, the guards surrounding us were actually backing up, so whatever it was, it was going to be big.

I met Beast’s eyes, their green glow glinting at me through the rain.

“Go,” he said, his voice low and growly.

“Be happy. Don’t come back. Take care of that kid and your female. ”

I was barely processing the shock of this male actually speaking to me in Standard Traders’ Common, the most widely used language between species.

He’d moved lightning-quick, grabbing me around the middle and sending me sailing through the air without warning.

I twisted into the momentum instinctively, my upper arms spreading high to grab for purchase as I flew toward the gangplank.

I landed on the lip with a thud, scrabbling to hold on, my lower hands finding leverage on the underside and pushing me up.

Jasmin’s ship had hung higher off the ground than it had appeared, simply due to its size.

My right upper arm gave out at the last moment, and I grunted in pain, swaying from just my left hand as the ship was forced to spin and rise into the sky.

I glanced down to see an explosion of blue light land in the spot that Beast and I had been in only seconds before.

It burned into my retinas, making everything dance and blur.

When the crackling light dissipated, I saw not a crater but only the collapsed, prone body of the Beast. He’d fallen where he stood.

They had used one of the stun cannons mounted on top of the walls surrounding Drameil’s massive mansion in the distance.

No wonder the guards had started backing up in a hurry.

Had the Beast not thrown me when he had…

I would have been out cold, just like him.

My heart ached at having to leave yet another person behind. But Beast had known what he’d done for me, and he’d given me that moment to speak, to tell me what he wanted for me. There was nothing we could do now; they were already swarming back around him, shackling his prone form.

With effort, I hauled myself onto the gangplank, ignoring the dazzling height as Jasmin took us up into the sky.

Having grown up living in trees, I’d never been bothered by heights.

Jogging up the plank, I slammed one hand on the control that would shut the hatch, then sagged against the wall to the side for a brief moment to catch my breath.

Free. Jasmin and I were both free again.

At last. The realization was so hard to grasp that I struggled with the concept.

I was free, but so many of my brothers were not.

I had a female who wanted me—a female I knew I would love for the rest of my life.

And I was not going to be an idiot about it.

I’d let her know how much I wanted her every day. How lucky I was to have found her.