Page 303 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Tori

Novalee was a good girl. She’d stayed so quiet all day, nothing like her normal, boisterous self.

As I jogged to keep up with Eoin’s long stride, all my baby did was keep her large eyes focused on his face.

She was totally in love with the big guy—just like her mamma—even if I was pretty angry with him right now.

That posturing, the angry looks at a guy who was just trying to help…

I wasn’t his girlfriend. He had no right, he knew he didn’t, and he did it anyway.

Why couldn’t he trust me to take care of that myself?

Our footsteps made no noise on the weirdly rubbery texture of the airlock leading into the mercenary spaceship.

My skin tingled with nerves, unsure of what to expect when we entered this ship.

They seemed nice now, and in that bar, they had assured us that they were no longer after us since Drameil couldn’t pay.

Drameil had sold a dozen humans; however, what if he could pay them now?

The airlock sliding closed behind us was an ominous sound that made my knees tremble.

I realized that I’d drifted closer to Eoin, seeking his protection, and I immediately scowled.

This was why he kept being so protective, I was giving him all kinds of mixed signals.

I had to be stronger than that. I’d proven to myself that I was a good shot under pressure; Camila’s teachings had worked.

I hadn’t hit Eoin by accident, and I was pretty sure I’d downed at least two of the soldiers Eoin had been fighting with leg shots; I couldn’t bring myself to shoot to kill, yet.

The interior of the Varakartoom wasn’t black and dark like the outside of the ship.

It was gray and utilitarian as we were led through several corridors and up an elevator.

It didn’t look that much different from the inside of the Vagabond, although on the Vagabond we’d done our best to decorate the communal spaces and our private ones.

I had hung lots of colorful fabrics along the walls inside my quarters, giving it a cozy, warm vibe.

I doubted these mercenaries had done anything like that; I just couldn’t imagine it.

When we left the elevator to traverse a hallway with only three doors—one a double set at the end—I was pretty sure where they’d taken us. No one had said a word at all, and the silence was making me even more nervous; it felt like we were walking into the lion’s den.

The doors opened quietly, and the bridge beyond them was lit up with blinking lights from the many sleek, sophisticated-looking consoles.

The dazzling view of space and a section of the Yengar Space Station appeared on the massive viewscreens that curved around a large portion of the front of the bridge.

That view wasn’t what caught and held my attention; that honor could only go to the giant shape draped in the Captain’s chair.

I had never, ever seen anything like it, but I knew immediately what it was.

Hina and Fierce had described a creature just like this in great detail, although the colors of this one were very different.

A Naga. The long coils of his tail curled around the chair behind the navigator and pilot seats in front of him, and a section of the tail stretched out behind him almost all the way to the door where we stood.

The thick, triangle-shaped scales were black, but their edges held shimmering gleams of gold and yellow.

The sight of something so… primal—something that called back to crocodiles and dinosaurs, to ancient cold-blooded predators—sparked a deep-seated fear in me, rooting me to the spot.

If I didn’t move, maybe it wouldn’t see me—and decide to eat me.

This Naga was a monster; there was just no other way to describe him.

“Hey, Cap,” a voice called out cheerfully, and my skin prickled.

I wanted to hiss at this fool that he needed to shut up and back away.

That monstrous creature could turn around and snap at us at any second.

I could see that narrow tail tip flick, reminding me of the agitated tail-flicking a cat might do.

The Naga curled out of the chair, the many coils of his body sliding silently along the ground.

Facing his human half, I could see that he was a black-scaled male with patterns of yellow and gold along his flanks.

Long, silky black hair hung around his shoulders from a widow’s peak, and yellow eyes with slitted pupils appraised Eoin and me with a cool kind of calculation.

Suddenly, I didn’t care one bit what it would signal to Eoin.

I reached out and curled my hand in his, hanging on tightly.

The movement had those sharp eyes in a strangely human face dart down and hone in on our clasped hands.

Finally, his eyes settled on Eoin, appraising him with a kind of predatory intensity.

I couldn’t believe how cool Eoin remained under the scrutiny, his posture relaxed, his breathing slow.

Wasn’t his heart pounding in his chest from that look?

“What did you bring me, Aramon?” the Naga asked in what I knew to be the Trader’s Common of this Quadrant.

There was a sibilant quality to his speech pattern; he was drawing out his S’s, probably because I could definitely see a split tongue flicking out from between his dark lips.

My fear was morphing into a morbid fascination now, this Naga was both terrifyingly deadly and primeval, and also incredibly beautiful.

The more talkative of the two Asrai brushed past Eoin, tossing a look over his shoulder aimed my way that was entirely saucy. There was a twinkle in his eyes that eased some of my nerves, strange as that was.

“These two are from the Vagabond,” the Asrai, Aramon, declared.

“Ain’t that lucky, boss?” He cackled a laugh, and now I saw how Eoin’s body went tense, and something cool whispered over the skin of my hand.

I looked down at our clasped fingers to see that metal had come to the surface of his skin.

He was ready to fight that Asrai, ready to fight that monstrous snake.

A pulse of heat shot through my body at that thought. I didn’t want Eoin to fight—he might get hurt—but I couldn’t deny that it was sexy that he was ready to protect me if he needed to. I was such a mess. Why did I think that was hot? Didn’t I want my independence?

“Mmm,” the Naga said thoughtfully, a clawed hand gesturing at Eoin’s clenched fists. “There’s no bounty. What’s the point?” Yellow eyes narrowed at his subordinate as if that were his screw-up, and he looked terribly annoyed at our interruption.

Eoin spoke up, stepping a little closer to that giant snake and using his hand to pull Novalee and me behind the protective shield of his body.

“We’d like to commission passage to a nearby planet, that’s why.

” My eyebrows shot up in surprise. He wanted to hire these mercenaries to bring us to Rakex to meet the Vagabond? Was he crazy?

I’d forgotten that there were two more mercenaries standing behind us, but when the big Rummicaron spoke, I spun to put my back to Eoin’s. “We’re not a passenger ship,” the male scoffed in a cold tone. “Bex and I have got better things to do than ferry silly kids around.”

“Hush, Jaxin,” the snake drawled. “You and Bex do the jobs I tell you to do.” Then he moved, his body coiling so smoothly that it was like he was liquid, he was just suddenly right in front of Eoin, rising up in front of him on the strong base of his tail.

“What do you have to pay?” he demanded. “And where do you want to go?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, this Naga was curious; maybe he just wanted to know our destination because he hoped to catch the entire Vagabond crew there.

Eoin shrugged. “I’ll tell you when you promise to take us.

I can pay good money.” From behind his back, I could just see how he held out an open palm to the Naga without fear, the glitter and glimmer of precious jewels shimmering against his silver skin.

“Whoa, now that’s a lot of money,” Aramon exclaimed.

“Are you seeing that, Solear? Bro…” And then I saw movement from behind the snake and realized that he hadn’t been alone on the bridge.

More males in black armor rose from their seats to peer into Eoin’s palm at the precious stones he was holding out.

“I see,” the captain drawled with a sibilant hiss. “You have a deal. We will deliver you, your mate, and your child to whatever destination you have in mind.” The clawed hand snapped out to grab for the gems in Eoin’s hand, but they had already disappeared, and Eoin was smirking.

“Half now, half upon safe arrival,” he said, and when the Naga captain agreed with a hiss, he held out his hand again and, with a tinkling noise, deposited several shimmering gems into that scaled hand.

“Jaxin, show them their room,” the Naga hissed at his subordinate, then shot a glare at Eoin.

“What is the destination? We will leave now.” While Eoin explained that we needed to get to Rakex, I carefully looked around at the gathered crew, worried by the slightly hostile expressions on most of their faces.

Only Aramon looked cheerful, but I had to conclude that that was his default setting.

It was the huge Rummicaron—still holding his laser cannon in his arms much like it was a precious baby—who led us away from the bridge.

No one followed, and he wasn’t much for talk, as it turned out.

He pointed at the galley and mess hall along the way, but then left us in front of a single door.

Keying Eoin to the lock took only a moment and a single grunt, while he jerked his chin at it.