Page 233 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Agatha

“We go up,” Sunder said, pointing to the metal stairs.

“I just need a minute to catch my breath, and then we’ll fly off from there.

Those Jukjuk will lose interest and leave once we’re gone.

” He sounded confident as he spoke, but I couldn’t help but worry about the many cuts that had cracked open across his shoulders and chest. He’d lost a freaking part of his tail out there just now, not that he was bleeding from the stump.

That part seemed oddly fine, almost as if he were stone, and a bit of rock had simply broken off.

Searching through the interior of the dimly lit tower room, I finally located what had to be an extremely bare-bones and outdated first aid kit.

Digging through the meager contents, I found some packaged bandages, which I pulled free.

It wasn’t much, but at least I could dab away some of the blood dripping from his cuts.

“Do these need a disinfectant or something?” I asked as I inspected a larger crack across his right pectoral.

The Tarkan made a scoffing noise, but he didn’t move his wings or his shoulders, clearly in pain.

“No, those will heal just fine with a bit of rest.” His gray eyes were warm and soft when he looked at me.

“It’s alright, I will be healed by morning.

Don’t worry about me, Aggy.” He reached out and cupped my hand against his chest. “I am fine.”

It wasn’t until he’d said it that last time, so fervently, that I started to believe it a little.

He had been a gladiator; he’d gone through many fights in his life—maybe even fights just like that.

He had to know his own limits. That didn’t mean he didn’t deserve someone taking care of him for once.

Pulling my hand free, I resumed dabbing at the injuries carefully.

I even took a look at the tail, but upon closer inspection, it looked like the injury had scabbed over and didn’t need any care.

“You’re not like a lizard, are you? You can’t grow your tail back?

” I asked, feeling silly for even uttering the notion, but he was an alien; who knew?

He laughed. “No, sadly not. You’ll have to get used to me without the magnificent plume on my tail.

” I wasn’t sure if there was a hint of vulnerability in his voice there.

Did he think I wouldn’t find him attractive with a foot of his tail missing?

I was just sad that he was in pain, that he’d been hurt protecting us.

I wondered if taking Uron would have been the better choice after all.

The guard might be a recently rehabbed addict, but he knew how to fight.

As if to punctuate my thoughts, the Jukjuk outside the tower had arrived.

I heard their howls and groans even through the thick concrete walls and the metal door.

Would the panel hold? How quiet did we need to be in here?

We needed to get back to my room before morning.

I wasn’t about to let the boys wake up and discover us missing, they would be terrified.

“I don’t care, Sunder. I’m just upset you got hurt,” I whispered.

My bandage had gotten soaked with blood, so I tossed it away and leaned in to inspect his injuries.

It already looked much better, the biggest crack had halved in size, and some of the smaller ones had gone completely.

Relieved that he was healing that quickly, I wrapped my arms around his middle and hugged him close.

“That was pretty terrifying, seeing you launch yourself out of the sky like that.”

He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, his wings following suit so I was tucked into a cozy cocoon with him.

“You didn’t think it was a little impressive?

” he asked, laughter coloring his softly spoken words.

I snorted out a laugh. Yeah, it had looked impressive.

Watching Sunder fight that massive creature had been like watching him dance, he was so fast, darting through the sky like it was nothing.

“I can’t believe your tail just broke,” I murmured into his chest. It was just so awful, and he seemed so alright with it, like it was nothing. It wasn’t it, he’d just lost a piece of himself, and he wasn’t going to just grow it back.

He let out a long, tired-sounding sigh. “It’s not supposed to happen.

Not to a healthy Tarkan, at least.” The admission seemed wrenched out of him, as if he were reluctant to admit that there was anything wrong.

It was making me worried, but I was certain that if I pushed, he’d clam up, so I stayed silent, patting his skin as I waited for him to explain more.

“Tarkans have two forms, you’ve seen it with Jett, right?

A peace-form and a battle-form,” he eventually said.

I did know; Jett flowed between his two shapes whenever he felt safe or threatened, but Sunder was always in his battle-form.

I suddenly had a feeling about where this was going, and it made me feel sad for him.

“I’m stuck in this one,” he said, patting his stony skin, which, in peace-form, would have been much softer, more like human skin.

“Somewhere between being caught and fighting as a gladiator for Drameil… I just couldn’t manage the shift back to peace-form any longer.

That’s dangerous because we’re not meant to stay in one form for so long—at least not our battle-form. ”

As he took a deep breath, I tried to imagine what it was like for him to be so trapped in his situation that he hadn’t felt safe enough to assume a peace-form.

He was stuck, and he was saying that’s what was hurting him.

I murmured in sympathy, stroking my hands up between his shoulder blades and the thick, strong muscles of his wings.

“We call it the Crumbling on Tarkan, and it’s not fully understood or known how to cure it.

Essentially, I’ve been in battle-form so long that what was strong is now turning brittle.

The fact that my tail snapped off… it means it has advanced far enough that I am as fragile as a human now.

” I tried not to take offense at the comparison—because it was obviously true—but it chilled me to the bone when he added, “Normally, a laser shot or a good hit would do nothing to me. But with how brittle my skin has turned, I suspect a single shot could kill me.”

“Well, then don’t get shot!” I demanded, scared all over again that he’d gone out and fought that Jukjuk when he was at risk of getting badly injured.

Now, there was a whole horde of them outside the tower.

I had visions of Sunder being torn to shreds by the lot of them and fervently clutched him tighter to me.

He laughed softly, but the Jukjuk outside responded by howling, and we both froze. Not good, if they tried as a group to get into the tower, I wasn’t sure the panel would hold. As we stood together quietly for a while, they stopped their howling, and we both relaxed.

“I’m so sorry that’s happening to you,” I said.

“I wish there were anything we could do to make it better.” I petted over his pectorals, where the worst of his bloody cracks had started to fade away.

Then I lifted onto my toes and kissed his chin.

“You need to be careful. Don’t take any risks, okay?

You need to survive this—for Jett.” And for me, I thought silently, but I didn’t dare say that part out loud.

“I will,” he murmured into my hair, turning his head so we could press our lips together.

I delved into that kiss, allowing it to push away all my worries for a moment, pulling me back to the warm, pleasurable moments just after the intimacy we’d shared.

I wasn’t going to let him withdraw from me again.

As the Jukjuk’s outside snuffled about, calling out in weird yowls to each other, Sunder and I cleaned up the interior of the tower as best we could.

We tried to make it appear as though we hadn’t been in there.

It was kind of hard to reapply dust, so we’d have to settle for leaving no trace that it had been us.

Eventually, Sunder urged me up the tower stairs, and we climbed the structure in silence and darkness.

By the time we reached the top of the tower, where the dangerous bit of the laser stuck out of the building, I was completely out of breath.

Sunder wasn’t bothered by the climb, though, which was promising for the flight back.

We shouldered the door open and stepped out onto the small maintenance platform that circled the laser array.

I really wanted to get out of here; it was making me uncomfortable to stand this close to what was essentially a loaded gun.

If an unauthorized ship tried to land right at this moment, Sunder and I would be incinerated on the spot.

Despite that fear, we carefully shut the door behind us and checked the clearing. The Jukjuk were still in it, and it looked to me like they were satisfying themselves by eating their fallen buddy. Definitely yuck.

Sunder gathered me in his arms, and I slung my legs around his hips, clinging to his big body like a monkey.

I was prepared for the sensation of soaring into the sky this time, but I still felt my stomach plummet as we rose.

The wind grabbed at my hair, which had come mostly undone from my braid.

I kept my eyes open the whole ride, not watching the planet below us, but watching Sunder carefully for any signs of strain.

He landed us gracefully in the courtyard, and I felt like I was stepping back in time.

As if that entire episode out at the tower hadn’t happened, as if I hadn’t heard Sunder speak to his friends on the Vagabond, as if we hadn’t set the date for our escape two days from now, as if I hadn’t just spent a magical moment sharing pleasure with this confident, smart male.

I looked at his strongly defined face and sighed. Sure, most humans wouldn’t think him handsome, but I was really starting to like his strong features. He looked wise and capable, looked like he could take care of anything, and that was sexy as heck.

“Come on, my Fire,” he said, his hand cupping the small of my back.

“We need to kick Uron out of your room,” he added, a growl in his tone.

I suddenly realized that maybe Sunder didn’t like the thought of a strange male in my bedroom all that much.

Maybe he was uncomfortable about it too, but he was doing what needed to be done, and it was undeniable that someone had needed to be there to call us if the boys were in distress.

When I unlocked the door to my bedroom, all seemed quiet with the boys, and to my surprise, Uron was sprawled out on the area rug on my floor.

He was softly snoring, but jerked awake when we stepped inside.

Briefly, I wondered if he’d used his drug of choice again and had simply passed out.

Then I realized there was no sign of the foul-smelling brew.

He got to his feet, rubbing blearily at his eyes and cracking a huge, shark-tooth-filled yawn. It was silly, but I stepped back into Sunder’s chest at the sight of those sharp rows of teeth. A brave woman, willing to kiss a mouth like that. Rummicaron probably didn’t kiss.

Uron’s eyes flashed over us, a smirk curling at his shark mouth.

“Back at last? Had fun?” he asked. Then, I guess he realized who he was talking to—and that he was now kind of scared of Sunder.

I saw his shoulders curl down in an effort to appear smaller.

If he could blush, he might have, and I was starting to wonder how old Uron was.

“Get to your bunk,” Sunder said, his head jerking to indicate the male needed to leave.

“No detours. I’ll know!” The male snapped to attention, and then he practically scurried from my room and down the hallway.

I watched him disappear in surprise; it sure looked like Sunder had him under his thumb.

Then everything seemed to turn awkward for a moment.

I stood just inside my room, looking at my bed.

The urge to just pull him inside with me so we could share that bed was strong.

He’d just declared he was going to leave, and I wasn’t sure how smart it was anyway.

It was starting to creep toward morning, and we’d been up all night.

I wasn’t a teenager anymore; I was going to feel the lack of sleep tomorrow.

Sunder cupped the side of my head with a large palm, leaned in, and claimed my mouth.

I melted into his arms, holding on tight to him.

Mmm, maybe a bit of a sleep hangover was worth it…

I should stay with him to make sure he was all healed by tomorrow.

I curled my fingers around two of the bigger horns on his head, holding him to me when he started to pull back.

He laughed into my mouth, a husky chuckle that sent a wave of heat traveling up my spine.

“Aggy, my Fire,” he said as he freed himself.

“We shouldn’t be doing this… What happened in the tower,” he started to say, and I shushed him in a hurry, not at all ready to hear him say that it was a mistake and that it shouldn’t happen again.

“We’ll save the rest for later,” I said, allowing him to withdraw. My heart started racing when I thought he was going to dispute that assertion, but he didn’t; he started grinning hugely. His eyes heated as they skated over my body, lingering on my hips and my breasts for a hot moment.

“Yes, definitely. After we’re safe,” he agreed.

He turned, then, his now significantly shortened tail swishing behind him, wings slightly spread, as he marched down the hallway.

I ogled his wide shoulders without shame, eyeing the proud shape of his head and the magnificent, almost-red shimmer of his wing membranes.

When he turned the corner, I turned into my room and locked my door.

Though I was exhausted, I took a moment to check that everything was where it was supposed to be, it was.

Then I rushed through a quick shower to wash the dirt and grime from that tower from my body.

A little blood swirled down my drain too, and with a pang, I realized it was from Sunder.

I hoped he would be feeling fine tomorrow.

My head hit the pillow, and I was out like a light, exhaustion dragging me under.