Page 228 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Sunder

This was an old lock, and it was taking me a few seconds to deal with what was probably a layer of rust. At least the finicky lock—the rust—assured me that nobody was manning this little station.

Likely, the required maintenance hadn’t happened in years.

Good news for me, just like I expected when I’d heard Carator’s personal guards talk about the outdated posts out here.

These little towers were scattered across the planet, forming part of the planetary defense grid. If I was right, I could use one of these towers to relay my com signal to the Vagabond, and, hopefully, Akri could then pull the required landing codes straight from the network.

The lock clicked softly, and with a nudge, I swung the door inward, a waft of stale air rushing out.

“Oh, you got it,” Aggy whispered, and then I heard her smother a coughing fit in the crook of her arm.

The dust-laden air was tickling my throat too, but I was far more interested in the blinking lights of the control panels that lined the interior of this small room.

Guiding the human just inside, I propped open the door with a rock, allowing a breath of fresh air while we worked inside.

Our presence triggered the overhead lights to flick on, a dim yellow glow bathing the bare-bones interior of the tower.

A metal stairway curled up into the dark to the top of the tower, where the laser array was situated.

We didn’t need to go there; everything we needed to see was right here in the control room.

I urged Aggy to stay close to me while I scanned each panel, checking to find the specific one I needed.

“It’s okay, there’s no one in here.” I flipped a few of the switches, checking to see if there’d been a sensor alerting security to our presence in the tower.

If there had been such a system once, it wasn’t working now, no signal had gone out to the palace.

“What is this place?” Aggy demanded. “And why did you take me here?” she added as she nervously scanned the dusty interior, her eyes lingering on the dark corners.

That was a question that was hard to explain.

These kinds of excursions were always safer when you had backup, but that wasn’t why I’d taken her here.

I could have taken Uron if I had wanted to; he’d have been better to have at my back in a fight.

I couldn’t be sure of the Rummicaron’s loyalty, of course, so I’d entrusted him with a much smaller task, one that could be explained away with simple, basic explanations that the male understood.

Like wanting to take Aggy out for a romantic flight…

My belly heated when I remembered how the younger male had dared to lay a claim to Aggy during one of my first days of knowing her.

I vowed I’d work him harder tomorrow, so hard he wouldn’t be able to do anything but drop, exhausted, into his bunk that night.

I wasn’t going to let any male come near the female, not on my watch.

“I might need your smaller hands to reach something for this,” I said, the excuse I knew she’d buy in a heartbeat.

To emphasize the point, I popped the protective casing off one of the bottom panels and indicated the mess of cables now exposed.

I felt her presence like a warmth brushing against my side when she approached to peer into the panel.

My wing had already lifted to cup around her back protectively; it was extremely hard to curb the urge to touch her when she was this close.

“This is one of the many towers scattered over the surface of the planet. They form the planetary defense system—that’s why there’s a big laser array on the roof of this thing.

” As I explained, Aggy’s face turned up to look at me, a worried expression on her face.

Her hand was wrapped around her messily braided hair, tugging on it nervously.

“And we could just walk in?” she demanded, her eyes darting over the dust-laden surfaces and the rust drip staining the concrete wall next to the door.

The tower wasn’t maintained, but while it looked filthy, the system would keep running until this place was either blown up or decommissioned.

Even though maintenance was required for optimum performance, like all military technology, it was made to endure.

I shrugged as I ran my fingers over the nearest screen to wipe off the dust. “They have no reason to expect anyone to come out here, they don’t generally have staff with wings, for one, and there’s not much you can do in here.

Taking out this one tower isn’t enough to bring down the entire network.

” I shivered my wings to draw her attention to them and preened a little, like a youth, when I saw her eyes appreciatively inspect their width.

“If there’s not much you can do in here, then why did you take me?

And why the heck would you leave Uron to watch the boys?

” She looked upset at the latter, confused, maybe, about the first. I had been trying to keep my distance after that kiss.

I couldn’t have a distraction when I was running the most important mission of my life.

Except… I felt more unbalanced and distracted when I was trying to stay away from her. So maybe that wasn’t the solution.

I took one of her small, soft hands in mine, admiring how fragile and small the bones were.

“Uron is loyal to no one but himself, but he admires strength. Right now, that’s me.

So yes, he’ll do as I say, because I hold his fate in my hands.

He thinks he just needs to warn us in case they misbehave, and if I fly fast, I can get us back in minutes.

” On my own, I could reach the courtyard in a minute flat.

I had tested the theory with a matching distance earlier that evening.

She didn’t look too convinced, but she shrugged out from beneath my wing to wander the small room, inspecting the consoles with their blinking lights. I felt the need to fill the silence, to make up for not sharing with her before and for practically ignoring any chance at an adult conversation.

“I was a gladiator once,” I said over my shoulder.

I could tell her about my past while I worked on getting a connection established with my com.

She seemed interested, her dark eyes lingering on the side of my face as I spoke.

“I was a soldier in the Tarkan army, military intelligence. I specialized in undercover missions.” I shot her a wry smile, indicating that I knew how well that fit with our current situation.

“A mission went south; I found myself captured, then sold. Soon, I was fighting on the sands for the Crimelord Drameil. I was a prime fighter for well over a dozen years, and then I became a trainer. That’s when Drameil decided to try to raise another like me, and he sent Akrona into my cell, she was a Tarkan Gladiator too. ”

I checked Aggy to see what she thought of that—her face unreadable—as I mentioned Jett’s mother.

Deciding she wasn’t distressed or jealous, I continued in a softer tone, “I didn’t want to cave, but I was lonely.

Akrona was in heat… It was impulsive and irresponsible.

She gave birth to Jett, but she was still young and fit, so Drameil sent her back into the arena soon after. Too soon, she died on the sands.”

She let out a soft gasp, her face showing nothing but empathy.

Then she surprised me by hurrying over, ducking back beneath my wing, and curling her arms around my middle in a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry, Sunder, that’s terrible. Poor Jett!

” Ah, she was thinking of my boy too. I curled my arm around her shoulder and held her close, soaking in her warmth and her caring.

“It was lucky that my trainer position made it convenient for Drameil to leave Jett in my care. Then he wanted to move him, and I fought tooth and nail to keep my boy.” Emotion gripped my throat, and for a moment I flashed back to the horrible scene when guards had ripped him from my arms, shocking my pain-collar until I passed out.

In my dreams, I still heard the anguished screams of my son as they took him from me.

Aggy didn’t say anything, but I heard the muffled sound of a sob as she pressed herself into my body, her face tucked into my chest, uncaring of the rough texture of my battle-form against her soft cheek.

Her sympathy for what had happened to me—to Jett—was like a balm to my soul.

I knew my brothers aboard the Vagabond cared; those who knew would have been down here with me right now if they’d been given the chance.

But this softer female caring was good too.

I had been upset with her for risking herself so dangerously to rescue the child of her friend, but I was grateful at the same time.

She’d been here for more than three months, caring for Jett and Amar, making this place better with her presence.

Giving the boys the feeling they had a place to go, someone who cared.

I could dislike the fact that she had risked herself with no plan and no training, but for the boys, this was absolutely the best thing she could have done. Now, it was up to me to get us all out.

“What happened then, Sunder?” she sniffled.

“How did you get here?” That was a much easier story to tell, so I let myself enjoy the luxury of running my hands through her hair as I spoke.

I talked about our uprising on the Vagabond after I’d been sentenced to a death match, and some of the adventures we’d been through while my brothers found their mates.

All the while searching for a speck of information on where to find Jett.

Until Luka’s new mate handed the data to me on a golden plate only a few months ago.