Page 211 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

The ship landing was not a tiny little shuttle; it was a cargo ship, and one of the type I’d seen millions of times before.

A UAR vessel, with actual letters I could read that boldly declared it the “Beverly.” In a very non-regulation-like manner, the ship had been brightly decorated with all kinds of colorful pictures, and she was in pristine condition even though this model had been in use for well over fifty years.

I didn’t think they made these ships new anymore.

It landed gracefully on the tarmac, and before it had even fully touched down, two figures leaped from an open hatch.

They were each big males, one a Tarkan in his battle-form, the other a huge Pretorian with four arms and a short, curved blade in each hand.

They were clearly not UAR personnel, dressed in loincloths and sturdy boots—gladiators.

I didn’t know who they were, but I was fairly certain they could only be friends of Luka’s. They’d heard the message and come. But why were there only two guys? Didn’t he have a whole horde of gladiator friends?

They turned to the front entrance of the mansion, looking for a way in, so I darted out of the tower and whistled sharply on my fingers.

“Over here! You’re looking for Luka?” I yelled when they spun my way.

The two males shared a look, then started jogging across the tarmac, up the slight hill, and toward me.

“Are you Noa?” the Tarkan asked me. He spoke in a voice like gravel, his visage both fearsome and strangely captivating.

Tusks jutted from his mouth, and his skin resembled cracked, rough dark granite.

A circle of horns crowned his head. His legs were like those of a lion, and a long tail swished behind him, while large, bat-like wings made him appear even more massive, well, even bigger than he already was.

“I am,” I said. “Who are you?” This could be anyone of Luka’s friends, but I wasn’t going to be sure unless he told me, so I kept a firm hold of my knife.

I made sure they saw it too, as I was holding it out in front of me.

At least the two of them seemed to be willing enough to keep a respectful distance.

That second guy—the Pretorian—had four arms and gleaming red skin, and he looked absolutely deadly with those four short blades.

He also had a sexy streak of gray on one temple through his thick head of black hair.

“I’m Sunder, one of Luka’s friends, and this is Yashan. He used to be a gladiator too,” the Tarkan male said. “Are you injured, Miss Noa?” he added, his sharp gray eyes roving over my body in a respectful manner, lingering on the copious amounts of blood that stained my front.

“That’s not mine. Luka’s inside, his mother is holding him captive,” I explained.

I gave them a quick update on the last situation inside, and at the mention of Drameil being present, both males bristled and shared a look.

Yeah, they wanted to get their hands on that bastard pretty badly.

The more I spoke about what was going on, the more I believed in Luka and in what I meant to him.

He’d been playing a role, trying to keep me safe.

As always, I was a total idiot for even thinking anything else.

I’d have to spend a good long while making that up to him.

Sunder and Yashan led the way into the tunnel system below the mansion, but they let me give directions. Any guards we ran into were swiftly disabled and tied up; it was gratifying to see a few of them end up in that little broom closet.

As we walked, Sunder explained the situation with the Vagabond, Luka’s ship.

“It had to leave Aderia quickly when a ship with bounty hunters showed up for us. The Varakartoom has been chasing us down for months now. Thankfully, Yashan and Jasmin had met up with us, and since my bounty is the lowest, I stayed behind with them.”

Then Yashan briefly explained that five years ago, he and his mate, a human pilot named Jasmin, had escaped from Drameil’s stable.

They’d had to leave Ziame, the Captain of the Vagabond, and other gladiators, such as Sunder, behind, but now that they were all free, they were happy to team up and join forces.

I was glad, too; this would have been extremely foolhardy to try without two big gladiators for backup.

Even if these two were both a little older than I expected.

Not that they didn’t look incredibly capable anyway.

We briefly discussed our options for how to approach this as we neared the kitchen, which led into the ballroom. Charging in wasn’t going to be smart, someone had to scout the place, and I was the best bet. I just needed to get a new set of clothing because my current uniform was drenched in blood.

“What about the Aderian Authorities? Are they coming?” I asked. Could we count on them to break up this party? Sunder nodded, then told me to wait here while he fixed my uniform issue, disappearing into the kitchen under the sound of startled screams from the staff inside.

“My mate stayed aboard Beverly to communicate with them. They were rallying as we managed to supply them with enough evidence to investigate. Your message was very incriminating. I suspect they’ll have rallied in another twenty minutes at the most,” Yashan explained as he gestured with one of his arms back the way we had come, his voice going soft as he mentioned his mate.

That was good news—twenty minutes wasn’t that long—Luka would probably be alright for the time being.

Sunder charged back out of the kitchen with a bundle of clothing in his hand.

He stuck it out to me, but I was busy staring at the chaos I could spot through the open door.

Three guards had been thrown onto the counter and tied down, the kitchen staff and other slaves standing around, staring in shock.

I nudged Pato on his side. “Look, buddy, more people with pain collars. Why don’t you go around taking those off?

” He made a happy chittering noise and darted from my shoulder into the kitchen.

A few people screamed, but he didn’t pause for any of them and darted up the stairs to the ballroom instead.

Hurrying into a nearby empty storeroom, I quickly changed into the fresh uniform, switching my knife to the new, clean apron.

I still had blood staining my skin, but it wasn’t all that noticeable, and I had nothing at hand to clean up with.

The two former gladiators followed me into the kitchen, urging the staff there to be quiet, rescue was coming soon.

It looked to me like some of those guards were a little worse for wear than before.

Maybe leaving them alone with the people they had imprisoned wasn’t the safest choice for their health, but it wasn’t like I felt any sympathy for them.

“Listen, Noa. Just recon, check how many guards, where they are, and whether Drameil and Luka are still there. Then you come right on back and we’ll formulate a good plan,” Sunder instructed me in such a teacherly tone that I felt inclined to obey him to the letter.

With nerves fluttering through my stomach, I made my way up that set of stairs, ready to face that crowd and get to Luka, to show him that I loved him and that I was not leaving him behind.

I still wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I opened that door.

I didn’t expect the whole Jihari Resort staff to be kneeling on the ground to one side.

My stomach twisted with regret when I realized the damn Aderian authorities hadn’t gotten there in time to free them—if they’d even heard the news at all.

What if the Dragon had done something to the Leaper’s crew?

The number of guests had thinned out a little, but the table at the head of the banquet was still full.

Drameil sat in one chair, the Dragon in another, and several more men and women who looked equally important had joined them.

The way they sat made it clear they were separate from the rest of the guests; this was the VIP table.

The crimelords. They were all turned in their seats to look at a podium set up at the end of the room.

My breath stalled at the sight: Luka, bare-chested, fighting against half a dozen guards with his bare fists.

A deep grimace twisted his face as if he were in serious pain, but he moved fluidly and gracefully.

He didn’t appear injured, but the pile of bodies surrounding him made it clear he’d definitely dealt out plenty of injuries to others.

A symbol blazed from his chest, glowing faintly red. It was a Caduceus. I didn’t know when or how he’d gotten that, but it was the symbol he’d liked so much, the one I wore on my wrist to remember my mom, my roots. He’d put it on his own body.

He knew I was there; I saw how his attention shifted from his opponents to me.

Those dark eyes glittered as they flicked my way.

They were warm now and worried, for me. I really was the dumbest idiot for letting my past experiences color what I had with him.

This was real. This man really cared about me.

A fist came flying at his face then, and he ducked just in time, responding with a rapid flurry of moves that had me hella impressed.

My guy could fight, how had my slightly goofy, sweet, and kind Doc been hiding skills like that?

“Nice. I see he remembered what I taught him,” Sunder murmured from behind my shoulder.

He and Yashan had followed me up the stairs and were looking at Luka’s fight just like I was.

“Circle the room quietly, check the exits, count the guards, we can’t see all of them from this angle,” he instructed me again, and with a slight nudge, I was out the door.

I did as suggested, circling the room, but my attention was constantly drawn back to the spectacle on the stage.

Despite Luka’s prowess, he had to be getting tired, he’d been fighting nearly a dozen people at this point.

That had to be exhausting. He was bound to get badly injured at some point, and hitting all these people with his bare fists had to be terrible for his surgeon’s hands.

I counted exits, and I counted guards as best as I could. Then I spotted Pato near the Jihari slaves, he was climbing up Aradne’s back and unlocking her collar. Good monkey, good idea. Aradne was a good ally to have on our side when shit was going to hit the fan in a bit.

As I neared the front of the room, I worried that Luka’s mother would see me and do something, but her attention was completely riveted on her son.

She was laughing and pointing, talking with her fellow Crimelords as if this were the height of entertainment.

When I returned to the kitchen and relayed what I knew, Yashan jogged back outside, making sure the soon-to-be-arriving law enforcement would have the best intel.

“Now what? Luka can’t keep that up! We need some kind of distraction until help arrives,” I said to Sunder.