Page 239 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Sunder

Lying on my side, with Aggy tucked into my body, I felt sleep tug at my consciousness. My jaw cracked as I yawned, but I muffled the sound in the pillow above her head, anxious not to wake her. I’d kept her from her bed last night, and tonight we’d spend a good portion doing other things again.

Not that I regretted a single moment, but I could see that it was taking a toll on her body.

Dark smudges had appeared beneath her eyes.

I knew what those meant. For a while there, Tori had permanently looked like that, and I’d worried over the young girl.

I was worrying about Aggy now. We’d caught a lucky break last night, but I knew that this wouldn’t last. Could we stick it out one more day? Or should I try and hide the lot of us?

With my wing spread out over her like a blanket, she was warm and protected, and I got to feel each inch of her soft skin against my own.

It was a marvel how soft these human females were.

I’d thought of them as fragile before, but with Aggy, that was certainly not true.

She was soft, but her bones were strong.

She filled up my hands, giving me something to hold onto.

My internal clock told me the sun was starting to rise on Arakon, and I needed to get up. I didn’t want to leave my female, but I doubted that Carator would be up this early. I had heard him say he’d see her again at dinner, so she had several hours of safety ahead of her—at least at first.

Climbing out of her soft bed carefully, I made sure she wasn’t jostled.

As soon as I vacated my spot, she rolled over and curled into the dip my body had left behind, her face scrunched up and her hand moving as if she were looking for me in her sleep.

I gently pulled the blanket free from the foot of the bed and covered her nude body with it, admiring each soft curve as I did.

Gathering my clothes, I headed for the washroom and quietly washed up and dressed.

With a last kiss on her forehead, I headed for the exit, hoping she’d understand why I was gone when she woke.

The door slid open silently, revealing the lit hallway, the wall sconces already burning at full strength.

A figure stood propped against the wall right across from Aggy’s door, and I froze in my tracks, my wings spreading out to shield her private space from his eyes.

Or’tal wore a lazy grin, his uniform neat and precise, his boots so shiny I could see myself in them.

His green-and-black visage was like that of a poisonous lizard or amphibian, warning anyone to stay away.

“Morning, Sunder,” he said with a smirk, his deep voice rich with sub-harmonics.

“What happened to your tail, brother? I noticed it last night,” he asked, a taunt to his voice that made it seem like he already had the answer.

I didn’t move my tail—didn’t try to hide the now-disfigured tip—as that would only give away my spike of nerves.

Keeping my expression mild, I shrugged, stepping out of Aggy’s doorway and letting the door slide shut behind me.

I didn’t need her to wake up for this confrontation, it would only make her worry.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, brother,” I said, acting mildly confused. “It’s been like this for years.”

The head guard raised his eyebrows in disbelief, but he didn’t continue on the subject. He didn’t need to. It was soon clear he’d only mentioned my tail to drive home how indebted I was to him—him and his goodwill. “You owe me one for last night,” he said, nodding his head at Aggy’s door.

I squashed the instinct to bristle and flare out my wings.

I didn’t like that he was this close to her door, and I really didn’t like him looking at it.

He was implying that he’d had something to do with the close call Aggy had with the Crimelord.

Had he fabricated issues with the planetary grid to get Carator away from her?

If so, I did indeed owe him. The tally was starting to get very uneven in his favor, and I didn’t like it.

“What do you want?” I demanded, not pretending I didn’t understand his meaning this time. I wondered what he thought to gain from me, why he wasn’t doing everything he could to curry favor with the Crimelord. What did I have to offer this male? He had all the cards in hand at this place.

He made a lazy shrugging motion with his shoulders, emphasizing the brute strength in them.

“I’ll think of something, eventually,” he said, pushing away from the wall and flicking his barbed tail briefly in the direction of the courtyard door.

“Your protégée awaits you,” he scoffed, clearly unimpressed with Uron.

He sauntered off, his tail lazily swaying behind him, tall, arched horns regally rising above his head.

Everything about his bearing was military-straight, unsurprising, as each Kertinal male served a mandatory period of time in the Kertinillian Army.

I watched him walk away, but I couldn’t change this, and the bastard didn’t know our lift was about to arrive. Just one more night. Spinning around, I padded to the bunk room door and pressed my ear to the panel. Soft snores still sounded, so I breathed a little easier as I went outside.

Uron was pacing around the courtyard, his uniform neat and clean this morning.

The look in his eyes was wild as he saw me, and he seemed to have an abundance of restless energy.

“Start running,” I barked at him, and the command immediately set him into motion.

I fell into step beside him, my clawed feet digging into the cobblestones for purchase as we ran.

For the next hour, I ran with him until both of us were out of breath; we switched to combat practice then.

By the time we’d gone through half a dozen routines, during which I’d steadily called out improvements to the youth, Aggy had shown up with the kids.

I took a break then, shooting a warning glare at Uron before sinking to my knees and giving each boy a hug.

“We’re going to be all right, Jett, I promise. ”

Uron didn’t say a word as Aggy gently ran the boys through their warm-up and basic sparring routine.

His eyes went wide when she sat them down in the sand afterward for reading lessons, but he held his tongue.

We couldn’t trust Uron to keep our secret, but he’d proven more loyal to the kids than I’d expected.

Clean from the Roka, he was trying to make something work, but the change was so new that it was hard to say if it would stick.

It felt calm and peaceful, but I knew that in a few hours, Aggy and I would have to make another appearance in the grand hall with the safe.

I wondered if they’d managed to get it open yet, but I sincerely doubted it.

That safe was made to be uncrackable; it would take extraordinary computing power to crack the access codes.

Or you had to be willing to blow the thing up with something really big and risk destroying what was inside it.

Just before we were about to share lunch that afternoon, I drew Aggy aside.

“We need to talk.” She looked at me with her big brown eyes, a little frown between her softly arched eyebrows.

I shrugged, pointing at the courtyard door, the only thing between us and Carator’s people.

“You need to hide,” I said, worry for her safety a heavy pit in my stomach.

She was already shaking her head, her hands going to her shapely hips as she assumed that typical battle stance that human women seemed to enjoy.

“No way, I’m not leaving the boys behind!

” she said adamantly, shaking her head for emphasis.

She looked indignant that I’d even suggested such a thing.

If it weren’t about her safety right now, I’d actually be impressed with her loyalty and bravery.

“Aggy, the Crimelord is going to call on you again tonight. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be saved again!

” I said, swallowing roughly as I also pushed down my sense of pride.

“I was helpless last night. I couldn’t have rescued you, I would have died trying.

But… you saw the number of guards. It would have been impossible odds. ”

Her frown intensified, and she reached out to jab me hard with one of her fingers, their claws blunt and ineffectual.

“Heck no! Sunder!” she exclaimed, her face paling.

“Don’t say that! You mustn’t risk yourself!

One shot, remember?” she added, and jabbed at my shoulder again to drive home the point.

I hated it, but she was right, my battle-form was ineffectual at this point.

It was as if I had human skin instead of strong Tarkan stone.

“Aggy,” I sighed, watching as her eyes filled with tears just at the thought of seeing me hurt.

I tugged her into my arms, my wings curling closed around her back.

“That’s why I’m telling you to hide. They will come for you tonight.

There will be no rescue. You need to hide.

The boys and I will be fine; it’s just one more day. ”

She didn’t look at me as I spoke, keeping her face pressed into my bare chest, since I hadn’t donned the new uniform that morning.

I’d save it for later today, when I had to report back to that grand hall.

I savored the feel of her soft cheek pressed into my skin.

“Please, Aggy. Let me hide you somewhere so you’re safe. ”

Her body shuddered against mine, tension seeping from her pores. I thought she was about to give in, and my mind raced with the possibilities. I knew where I could stow her for a couple of hours. I could get her there without being seen, as long as Uron kept an eye on the boys for an hour.