Page 283 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Arianna

I’d been using this empty room to sort yarn for a while now; it was the place I could duck into and hide from everyone.

I liked the girls, and I liked hanging out and talking with Jakar or watching Fierce and Thorin play their alien version of chess.

I just wasn’t my usual social self right now, I was feeling all out of sorts, so I just wanted to… hide. Man, I was just such a coward.

Sitting here, pining over Da’vi, when I was the one making the choice to stay away.

He was working his ass off to fix the ship, to get us to Yengar so these gladiators could heroically burst in and save more humans stranded out here.

I was a useless lump of flesh, just taking up space and air.

Instead of feeling more confident, of managing to stay in that glass-half-full mind space, I was starting to think more and more like my dad and brother did about me.

The warnings over the com told me I needed to strap in, and I tried to figure out how to fold down the seat in the corner of the room.

I struggled to get it to latch down, so far, someone else had always helped me with this.

See? I was useless yet again. What was with me today?

It was far worse than normal; I just wanted to curl up under my blankets and cry.

“Sunshine,” a deep voice called out, the dual layers of tone vibrating against my skin.

I froze where I was standing, sure I was imagining it.

This was the very last moment when Da’vi would abandon his precious engine room to talk to me, they were about to engage his special engine again.

The back of my neck itched with the urge to turn around and look, and since I was already feeling unstable, I gave in.

Unless I was now also delusional—besides having horribly intrusive thoughts—he was really there.

His coveralls were torn at the knees and on one arm, the sleeves rolled up all the way to his biceps, his hair in disarray.

He looked like he’d slept in his clothes and barely slept at all, too.

I was immediately angry that the girls had been telling me he was taking care of himself.

Clearly, that wasn’t true; he looked a mess!

He looked wonderful, too, that warm look in those deep purple eyes, the way he was devouring me with that look.

I just knew that he’d missed me. I had been missed.

Me. That felt like a weight dropping from my shoulders, and a smile formed on my face, one that felt real for the first time since I’d left that shuttle. Oh boy, they were right.

In two strides, he was in the middle of the room, and I just leaped at him, my eyes already growing wet.

What an idiot I was. Why would I think I couldn’t love?

It was my family that was burdened by that, not me.

That’s why I’d run all my life, searching for the place I belonged.

Then I’d found it, and I almost let my fears destroy that chance.

Da’vi caught me against his body, his mouth crashing against mine. It was like an earthquake, everything was shaken to its foundation, my world turned upside down, my life rewritten in that instant. “I love you, Da’vi,” I said against his lips. “I’m sorry.”

He pressed his forehead to mine, our bodies rocking together as if the world were still on a crazy seesaw ride.

“Why are you sorry about that, my Sunshine? I should be the one who’s sorry.

I should have come for you sooner. I love you, and I’m telling you right now: no more separate beds, no more running, you are mine. ”

I’d had men say they loved me before, but Da’vi was the first I believed.

Especially when I realized the rocking wasn’t just my crazy rollercoaster emotions—it was the ship shaking for real.

Da’vi was holding me up, his legs braced against the wild motions.

He’d left the engine room to find me in the middle of a crisis, right as he was engaging his experimental engine, the one he feared might kill his friends. He’d gone completely bonkers.

“I can be yours,” I said. “If you promise to make sure I never run scared again, I’ll promise to fill your days with happiness.” He laughed, his grip around me tightening, his mouth coming back down to press against mine. That was answer enough; the man was kissing me like his life depended on it.

Then his head jerked back. “I smell smoke. Fuck. Akri, status report. What happened?” I saw the wide-eyed worry on his face and watched his jaw clench tightly when the ship’s AI didn’t respond.

That wasn’t a good sign; that AI was always up for talking, I’d prattled endlessly to it over the past two weeks, whenever I felt lonely.

Akri never judged, and he always had questions.

Why wasn’t he answering now? “I need to get to the engine room,” Da’vi said, but he didn’t let go of my middle.

I grabbed his hand and started pulling, shoving aside my worry for the AI so I could help.

“Let’s go then, together.” That got him in motion, suddenly I was flung over one shoulder, and then he was running from the room at breakneck speed.

I didn’t complain, but I did wave at Babbit when the animal started running after us.

We skidded to a stop just inside the cavernous room.

There was no hum of an engine, and smoke filled the air; something was crackling and burning.

Worse, it smelled like barbeque in here, and I had the feeling that was really bad news.

“Stay here, Arianna. Don’t touch anything,” Da’vi said, and he set me on my feet just inside the doorway.

I watched him dash across the space to the main console.

It was still lit up and giving out readings, but he froze just in front of it, his head turning to the left.

I followed his line of sight and gasped in shock.

The stasis pod that had been parked in one corner, hooked up to some cables so the Doc could get readings—had a body lying over the top of it.

“Oh no, is that Eoin?” I asked, already stepping that way when Da’vi shot a glare over his shoulder.

I froze on the spot, especially when I realized I’d been about to step over a bunch of cables—one of which definitely looked a bit melted.

This was not a safe place for someone who had no clue what was safe to touch—or not.

“It’s Eoin,” Da’vi confirmed, his head tilting left and right as he assessed the situation.

“He is still breathing; there’s blood seeping from a gash on his head.

I’m going to move him.” Then he stepped closer and carefully picked up the downed male without touching the stasis pod himself.

I followed him out into the hallway just in front of the engine room, where he laid his injured brother down on the flooring.

Eoin was covered in white, lightning bolt-like streaks on every exposed bit of skin.

His hair was smoking and blackened, but his chest was moving up and down steadily as he breathed.

When I pressed my fingers to his neck, I could feel the steady beat of a pulse.

He’d been struck by a strong current, but it hadn’t done anything to his heart rhythm.

Da’vi had already disappeared back into the engine room, this time talking on his com.

“Ziame, I can’t get a hold of Akri. Is everyone okay?

” I heard hissing noises and, from the corner of my eye, saw that he was flicking switches, tapping something with a wrench, and even perusing the readings on the main console while he spoke with the Captain.

I had to strain my ears to hear what Ziame said; the volume of Da’vi’s com wasn’t quite loud enough to make it over the engine room noises from this distance.

“Everyone is fine. We’re dead in the water.

That damn Kertinal ship hitched a ride.” That made Da’vi curse, banging his wrench against some nearby pipes.

“Engine is fried; it overloaded, thanks to those assholes. I need Luka down here, Eoin is injured. Let me see what I can do to get power back. They’re not firing now, right? Did you get a ‘prepare to be boarded’ warning yet? Can you stall?”

I was pretty sure that Ziame had promised he’d try to stall so that Da’vi could attempt to create some semblance of order in this chaos.

I didn’t think he’d manage to get our engines back before the Kertinals boarded.

My belly clenched painfully as my mind raced with possibilities.

They were going to board this ship, try to take him from us to force him to build them this super engine.

I was going to lose him. I couldn’t let that happen.

Looking around, I tried to locate a weapon.

It was a silly idea, I couldn’t possibly fight against trained soldiers the size of Da’vi.

Still, it made me feel better to know I had something to fight with, this coming from me, the girl who had considered herself a pacifist ever since fourth grade, when fighting bullies for my brother hadn’t worked out.

Eoin made a moaning noise on the ground, and I froze. The doctor was coming, but should I be doing anything to help him? Tearing the cuff off my sleeve, I settled for pressing the fabric against the gash on his forehead, putting pressure on the still-bleeding head wound.

“How bad is it?” I asked Da’vi, daring to look back into the engine room to see that he was neck-deep in some hatch.

I could only see his tail sweeping back and forth, and the scrumptious curve of his ass.

Normally, I would have been willing to watch that all day long, but now I was just filled with fear.

What if he got shocked too? It was a miracle Eoin wasn’t more badly burned, that his heart was still working…

“Engine isn’t damaged according to the readings, but my prototype exploded.

I’m disabling and removing what I can, so we should have normal functions again soon.

” Da’vi didn’t need to say more to let me know that he was destroying the evidence, too, removing anything that the Kertinillian Army could try to appropriate and rebuild that upgrade from without his help.

There was the sound of racing footsteps.

Then Luka came around the corner, pulling a floating stretcher behind him, a leather bag dangling from one shoulder.

“I’m serious, Luka, I’m not an invalid; I can carry stuff,” Noa was saying, jogging after the Doc with a disgruntled look on her face.

I wasn’t quite sure what this was referring to, but Luka was one hundred percent focused on his patient as soon as he spotted him.

“Keep the pressure on, Ari. You did good,” he said as he dropped to the ground next to Eoin, his handheld scanner running over the big guy’s prone body.

“Heart’s good, no damage, all vitals are fine, actually.

Just damage to the epidermis and a nasty bump to the head.

” I breathed in relief at the verdict, even happier when Noa sat at Eoin’s head and, with a warm smile directed my way, swapped my wad of cloth for a proper pad to press against that bleeding gash.

“We’ve got him, honey. Why don’t you go help Da’vi?

” she said gently, gesturing with one colorfully tattooed arm at the engine room, where I saw that Da’vi had collected a pile of parts in the middle of the room.

He was making grumpy, snarly noises as he worked, but I saw his head turn every so often, purple eyes going to me.

He was checking to make sure I was all right.

Leaving the professionals to take care of the injured, I stepped cautiously into the engine room. “What can I do? Do we need to hide that stuff?” I asked him as I gestured at the pile of parts. I was pretty sure it was all from his upgrade. It needed to disappear.

“Yes, you’re small, stick it as far as you can into the cleaning bot tunnels.

Babbit can help; he likes to use them.” Da’vi gestured at several small openings along the edges of the walls.

At the sound of his name, the male Riho popped out of one of those holes, and I hurried to hand the animal a cluster of wires with a dangling square box.

It was fascinating to see him agilely disappear into one of the small tunnels with it.

I’d gotten on my knees and started stuffing more parts down another little tunnel when the ship-wide intercom came to life.

“Everyone, please gather in the mess hall. I’m afraid we can’t keep these bastards off our ship.

No fighting, we’re severely outnumbered.

” Ziame’s growled words shot a chill down my spine.

This was it? The end of the line for Da’vi? I couldn’t accept that.

The hand coming down on my shoulder made me spin around, a fist raised to punch my assailant straight in the face. My hand was caught in a metal grip, and I deflated on the spot. “Da’vi, I can’t… You can’t let them take you. I don’t want to lose you!”

He was kneeling behind me, his expression determined, eyes glowing intensely.

Gathering me in his arms, I happily burrowed against his chest. Even if he smelled like oil and sweat, he also smelled like Da’vi.

“You won’t. We’ll figure this out, my Sunshine.

I promise.” I wanted to have faith in those words, spoken in that beautiful voice of his, but what could we do against a literal army?

“Come on, Babbit will take care of hiding the last parts. The engine is back online, so we’re not helpless.

I just wish I could figure out what happened to Akri.

He’s still not responding…” Da’vi helped me to my feet, his arm slung around my shoulders as he steered me away from the now softly humming blue glow of the engine.

Without Da’vi’s added parts, it suddenly looked strange and bare to me.

Yanking on Da’vi’s collar was more than enough to get his attention; he tilted his head to look at me, and I curled my arm around his neck.

Then I was kissing him, not the wild, passionate kiss like before, but something softer.

This wasn’t a kiss I was familiar with; this was a kiss to let someone know I loved them, to remind him that I’d agreed to be his.

“Yeah, I love you too,” he groaned against my lips. Then he looked away, and I knew he was trying not to let me see his own worry. He’d promised me that we would figure this out, but what if that meant he’d leave? That he’d protect us by going with them?