Page 195 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Noa

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?

We can all get out of here!” I asked the two women.

Moira didn’t say anything. She was sweet and shy, and even now she ducked her head and simply looked at the ground.

Aradne was nothing like that; she gave me a fierce look and pointed over my shoulder at Luka.

“You and hot stuff over there need to get out. He’ll alert the authorities as soon as he can; we’ll all be free then.

” She made a shooing motion. Her stern features relaxed into what almost passed as a maternal smile.

“We’d just get in your way.” She waggled her eyebrows, and I felt heat stealing up my neck.

Did they know that I’d been playing tonsil hockey with Luka a moment ago?

I almost reached up to touch my lips, sure they were kiss-swollen and giving me away.

“Take this,” Moira murmured, and a bag was shoved into my arms. Opening the flap was enough to tell me it was filled to the brim with ration bars.

They must have gone to steal those from the kitchens shortly after everyone had gone to bed.

This was more than enough to keep Luka and me fed for a couple of days, even if I hated the taste of that stuff.

“Thank you!” I said. “I promise to get you out of here!” I quickly took Pato’s little stash of things out of my shirt and tucked it into a pocket of the bag.

Aradne was not the type to do well with sentimental stuff, that much was obvious in her brusque way.

She pushed me in the direction of Luka with much more force than even she probably intended.

I stumbled and crashed into his arms, which was no hardship.

Luka caught me in his arms, my skin tingling at the proximity.

Then he made me laugh with his ridiculous phrase; it reminded me so much of home that I felt a pang of unexpected homesickness. It also made me wonder where he could have picked that up, that was such a human thing to say. Who had taught him that?

Pato was riding on Luka’s shoulder, my hand curled in Luka’s hand as we made our quiet way up from the basement level and into the hotel proper. Once there, we needed to be extra careful because guards were patrolling, and more than usual since the cameras were down.

We reached the big lobby and had to duck out of sight because two of them, both Rummicaron, were walking across the space.

Unlike a normal hotel, like the one I’d worked at before on Earth Colony Four, there was no front desk employee at night.

There was some kind of AI interface, but that was it.

Because this hotel was only reached by spaceships, they knew exactly when they’d have new arrivals.

The potted plant we crouched behind barely provided enough cover, but the guards already had their backs to us.

I held my breath because our fast jog meant I was panting, and as soon as they turned a corner, I let it out in a soft hiss.

That was close! Now, we needed to head out the front entrance, past the maze of manicured gardens, and out of the dome.

The hotel was located at the center, with the spa buildings spread out like a horseshoe.

The spaceport was close, but guests were still ferried across in closed shuttles so they never had to experience the ashy air outside the dome.

We could try to get on one of those shuttles just outside, but I had a feeling that making the hike on foot would give us better odds.

I was concerned that Luka had so blatantly mentioned our plans in front of Mikasul, but there was no other way off the planet as far as I knew.

We had no other option. Judging it safe, I got up and started to go across the lobby for the exit, but Luka pulled me to a stop and shook his head.

“Not that way, that’s too obvious. Follow me.

” Ah, so he did have another plan; he’d been fooling my snitch of a roommate.

He pulled me deeper into the hotel, leading me through several corridors, and then we reached the resort entrance.

Wide-eyed, I checked if that’s where he wanted to go, worried he wasn’t making any sense at this point.

The spaceport and the front entrance were a really obvious choice, he had a point there.

What other way off the planet was there, though?

I pulled the access card Pato had scavenged out of my pocket, letting us inside the darkened and blissfully empty interior.

“This way,” Luka insisted again, and I followed him through treatment room after treatment room until we reached one with access to the gardens, a private area enclosed on one side by the dome.

He seemed to know the way confidently, so it felt right to follow him, even if I didn’t know his plan.

The same card allowed us access to the outside, and now I inhaled greedily as fresh, flower-scented air filled my lungs.

The ground was soft and spongy beneath my soft-soled shoes, our steps quiet as we darted across the open space and behind a row of hedges.

Then Luka made us follow the curve of the dome, outside the line of trees and hedges that camouflaged some of the ashy ground just beyond it.

“Where the fuck are we going?” I asked, starting to get worried.

Was he trying to make us run around the edge of the dome back towards the port?

What was going on? It had seemed like he’d been very familiar with the internal layout of the hotel and the resort.

Had he just been confidently making random choices instead?

“Getting us out of here, I promise,” he answered, and then, with satisfaction, “There, see that? That’s our way out.

” He pointed into the distance at a dark cluster pressed low against the silvery foot of the dome.

I tried to decipher what exactly it was supposed to be, but it wasn’t until we were nearly there that I realized it was a door, recessed into the ground and partially hidden by plants.

An access point to the outside of the dome.

I doubted my guest-all-access card would work on it, though.

Luka’s eyes went up to scan the inside of the dome, then he checked the door before stepping in close to the access panel and pulling a card out of his pocket.

My eyes widened in surprise when I realized the dark blue piece of plas was that of a security guard.

I’d seen the Rummicaron staff use them to get in and out of places.

Though, come to think of it, why were they using cards instead of their palm prints?

“Rummicaron skin has all kinds of microscopic barbs, so touch sensors don’t work all that well for them,” Luka said. His dark eyes glimmered at me as he explained, “This might give a read in their system, though, so I hope they don’t think to check for it.”

The door made a clunking, hissing noise when it unlocked.

Luka had to wrangle the thing out of place as if it were a little twisted and bent in its frame.

Judging by the thickness of the panel, it was also really heavy.

He managed to let it close quietly, pulling it shut behind us with a grunt to get it to fit again and the lock to engage.

He looked up, ash falling from the sky in soft flakes, already covering my hair and my shoulders, and now doing the same to him.

Jihari was a volcanic planet, with dozens of them nearby.

They were steady, though—rumbling and spewing ash and fire, but never actually erupting in any dangerous way.

Not at the location where the resort was built.

From what I understood, the mineral-rich spring water, which they guided into the spa through special channels, was what drew people here.

“We need to head in that direction. Let me know when you’re flagging, okay?

” Luka said, and he pointed me in the direction of a range of mountains, the much smaller silver dome of the science outpost glimmering far in the distance.

Finally understanding his plan, I appraised the distance.

That was far—much farther, no doubt, than it appeared.

Trudging through all this ash was probably also not all that healthy, but Luka had to know that; he was a doctor.

We set out with the tiny monkey tucked into Luka’s sweater to protect him from the falling flakes.

My mind lingered on the feel of my bare throat and the fact that we’d just left the resort.

We’d made our break for it; we weren’t home free yet, but wow…

my chances were so much better with Luka at my side.

Then my thoughts lingered on that scorching kiss we’d shared. Maybe that pheromone issue had a point. Maybe it was telling me I should get with this guy, that we’d make pretty babies together. Wasn’t that how it was supposed to work?

Honestly, the thought of tiny babies with charcoal skin and bright blue eyes… not a bad thought at all. I wondered if they’d have those adorable pointed ears and Luka’s killer smile. Yeah, I was practically melting into a puddle in my shoes.

“You okay, Noa? You’ve gone awfully quiet,” Luka said.

He cast me a smirk over his shoulder that made my lady bits tingle.

It was so mischievous, so knowing. I had a feeling he knew just where my thoughts had headed.

Okay, maybe not towards cute babies with his genes, but he definitely knew that I’d just been thinking of jumping his bones, or rather, one bone in particular.

I shrugged, trying to act casual. “Just happy to be free.” Then my dirty mind got away with my tongue, and I added, “Thinking of ways to celebrate.” In response, he threw back his head and laughed—a full-throated, real belly laugh.

His black eyes twinkled like a starry night; they didn’t look so freaky anymore.

Not on him—they were kind of pretty, actually.