Page 291 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Eoin

I hurried Tori out of the bar as soon as I had what I needed from that sleazy bartender.

Knowing what a good and honorable male my father was made it hard to deal with a Pretorian on the other end of the spectrum.

That male had no morals to speak of; he talked a good game, but I knew a liar when I saw one.

Keeping her slight figure beneath my arm, I adjusted my stride as much as I could to match hers.

That dropped our pace significantly, and I scanned my surroundings tensely, worried someone was going to bother us when they realized Tori was human.

The thought alone—that she’d traversed Yengar on her own when following me—made my stomach clench in fear.

This was no place for a human to be without an escort.

Ziame had taken his mate and Chloe onto the station for a long shopping trip, but he’d made sure to stay in the crowded areas. Kitan had followed behind them, making sure nobody bothered any of them as they bought what they needed for the growing group of people living on the Vagabond.

“Come on, we need to get you back to the ship,” I urged her.

She needed to pick up the pace, or we’d never get there, this was taking too long.

Every noise was making my skin itch; I hadn’t been this tense on a mission since my first one five years ago; and that had been my first mission ever.

I was an old hand at it now; it was just Tori’s presence that was making me so worried.

The sharp look on her face—those narrowed eyes—told me I’d said something that pissed her off.

This was exactly why she’d told me to get out after that one special night.

But how could I rein in my protective instincts when she was in actual danger?

That lone Elrohiran was staring way too avidly at her silhouette.

I gave him a glare and he moved on, but that only made Tori even more upset with me.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” I barked at her, my emotions running high.

“This isn’t safe for you!” They were all the wrong words to say to her—I knew that—but I couldn’t help myself.

She needed to be safely back at the Vagabond, running the kitchen, cuddling Novalee, and singing for us in the evenings—not running around on a dangerous, lawless space station.

Despite my thoughts, I knew women could be as badass as any warrior, my adoptive mother, for one, could wipe the floor with most of these thugs here.

I had sparred with Camila on the Vagabond regularly enough to know that she was a force to be reckoned with.

It was just Tori… She was so small and fragile; she blushed over every little thing, and half the time, she was too shy to say a single word.

“I came here to have your back. You were injured last week. You nearly died, Eoin!” she hissed at me beneath her breath.

Her small hands were tucked under the large black swath of fabric she’d wrapped around herself; I was pretty sure one of her fists was on the laser pistol.

That was good, not that I thought she’d actually squeeze the trigger if she had to.

She was too soft-hearted for that. I didn’t want her to; she deserved to be safe, so that she didn’t have to do things like that.

“I am fine,” I said. All the scarring along my skin had healed, and my heart had never gotten damaged, as the metals I stored in my skin had acted as a lightning rod.

I was just a little low in my reserves and not as well equipped as I’d like; that wasn’t an issue, though, I could manage.

My tense nerves made me want to pull metal to the surface to form a weapon, like I’d done back at the bar.

“Okay, if you’re fine, then we don’t need to go back to the ship,” Tori declared.

When I tilted my head to stare at her in shock, she lowered those sharp little curved brows of hers; another glare.

“We have a lead on two humans; we need to go rescue them now before they are shipped off this station.”

No, just no. Everything in me rebelled at the idea of letting her tag along on this mission.

It was my job. My gladiator brothers had entrusted me with this rescue, just like they were conducting their own rescues right now.

I was not putting Tori at risk just to save time, I couldn’t take her into a slaver’s den.

She suddenly ducked out from underneath my arm and spun around to block my path.

Daintily jabbing a finger at my chest, she said, “Oh, no! I can see you thinking in that thick skull of yours. No! Listen to me, I need to help. They will trust me when they see me! I know what it was like when I first woke from stasis!”

Her impassioned voice was drawing attention, and not the good kind.

I could see several thugs slink out of the shadows to draw closer, looking at us curiously, especially at Tori.

They likely wouldn’t have her language in their translator database; they wouldn’t know what she was saying—but that hardly mattered.

They had recognized what she was anyway.

Grabbing her by the shoulder, I pushed her off the main thoroughfare we were on and into the shadows of an alley opening.

“You think I don’t know what that was like?

I am Terafin—I was stolen from the Alpha Quadrant, just like you—and I was just a kid when it happened.

” I snarled the words in her face, angry.

Didn’t she know that I’d rescued countless slaves since then with Jasmin and Yashan?

I knew how to do this. I didn’t need her help, I needed her safe.

Tori wouldn’t be Tori if the reminder of my past didn’t make her deep brown eyes soften with compassion.

Her hand found my chest and patted it gently, a stripe of pink coloring the bridge of her nose before spreading down into her cheeks.

“I didn’t even speak the first year after my parents rescued me,” I added roughly, a different emotion now coloring my tone.

I didn’t like to remember that first stretch of time here in the Zeta Quadrant, but I had a good life now. I’d turned out just fine.

“I know that, but you’re pretty intimidating to look at. A friendly human face will help them—especially if they don’t have a translator yet,” she explained. Then, her eyes darted to my left, a little hint of fear filling them.

I spun immediately, taking in the three thugs who had followed us into the mouth of the alley.

So they wanted to fight, did they? I wasn’t going to let them take Tori, and all the frustration from the past few months—arguing over her safety—filled me with excitement at the chance for an outlet.

They had made a big mistake trying to come after her.

One was a Xurtal, bronze skin on display in his sleeveless vest, the swirling gold patterns that marked him shimmering in the dark.

He looked like he could be a threat, with the dagger in his hand and the agile way he moved.

I was far less worried about the sallow-skinned Rummicaron; clearly riding a Roka high.

The third one had worn black clothing with a hood that covered his face. My eyes couldn’t quite pick out what was beneath that hood, but I was pretty certain it was another Xurtal anyway. He moved the same as his companion, and the curved dagger he held was a twin to the one the other was holding.

“What’ve you got there, pretty boy?” the Rummicaron drawled, his voice raspy from Roka inhalation damage.

He shuffled a little closer, his mouth pulled into that fang-filled grin, opening a maw made for gobbling up entire chunks of meat in one go.

A Rummicaron bite could leave devastating damage; they were never unarmed as long as they had teeth, and those even regrew should they lose some.

Lucky that I could make my skin as hard as metal.

That asshole was going to find out the hard way what it was like to bite a Metallurgist. Just like the bite of a dagger would mean nothing to me, I’d just bend the blade.

Hey, maybe I’d absorb the weapons. I could use the hit to add to my depleted resources.

I didn’t bother to answer them, just spread out my arms, showing them that I was unarmed while also covering Tori.

“Stay behind me, Tally,” I said, then winced as I realized I’d slipped up and called her beloved in my native tongue—not just the common form, either, but the one reserved for one’s mate.

I hoped her translator didn’t know what to do with that word; the Terafin language wasn’t in the database here, so my chances were good.

She patted me on the back with her small hand, not saying a word, but I felt the tension in her body radiate toward me. The scent of her fear, swirling into the air around me, was hard to mistake for anything else when she was this close to me—and I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.

“Thinks he can fight us.” The Xurtal with the vest grinned, his gold markings shimmering with health, his teeth a mess of holes and black decay—a sign he, too, was an addict, hooked on Mesmerize or Kanfray. “We’ll take the pretty human female, and if you just walk away, you won’t get hurt.”

“As if a few thugs like you are going to scare me. Bring it on!” I snarked, moving my fingers in a come-hither motion.

Done talking, the one dressed in black was the first to leap at me, his dagger slashing at my side.

I avoided some of the blows and caught the rest on my lower arm, the skin hardened with a coat of steel.

They weren’t trained to fight as a unit, so when the second Xurtal dove into the fray, he managed to clip his partner in the side with an elbow.

I used the distraction to my advantage, punching the first guy in the chin with an uppercut and laying him out in one fell swoop.

Tori made a whooping noise behind me, cheering me on.

Maybe this would impress her enough with my skills that she’d let me protect her like I wanted to.