Page 314 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Eoin

With my hand clenched around Tori’s fingers, I spent the whole flight down to the mining planet trying to get my feelings under control.

Hearing Tori describe the alien creature that had tried to board the shuttle had been one of the most terrifying moments of my life.

A Grolarnx was one of those types of aliens out there that were just incredibly dangerous; there was a reason they were not even allowed in gladiator arenas.

A Grolarnx could hypnotize those around him with that baleful, fake blue eye.

It had sounded like Tori had gotten really close to falling completely under its spell.

She would have freed it from where it was stuck in the shuttle hatch if she had.

I had to admit that trapping it the way she had had been extremely clever.

She’d shown more willpower than most males when facing a Grolarnx, too, managing to get off that glancing shot.

It had saved her life, I had no doubt about that.

Tilting my head to look down at the crown of her head, I realized she was staring at her toes, wiggling her booted feet back and forth.

Was she nervous? I could see the tip of her left ear, and it hadn’t gone red like it commonly did when she felt some kind of strong emotion.

Then she tilted her chin up and met my eyes, a soft smile playing around her pink lips.

My heartbeat stuttered, my breath faltering at that pretty smile, at the warmth in her deep brown eyes.

I loved this woman so damn much, and that’s why I struggled with how tightly to hold onto her…

My fingers twitched around hers, wanting to pull her closer, audience be damned. I wanted to tell her how much she meant to me. I wanted to tell her what I was saying each time I called her my Tally.

I could have lost her today; she could have died in this very shuttle ten minutes ago.

She hadn’t, and it was because she’d rescued herself, she’d proven just how strong she was.

I was feeling a deeply disturbing mixture of extreme pride and paralyzing fear over it.

I knew what I was going to have to do, but I didn’t like it.

“ETA in two minutes,” Aramon announced quietly, his usual excitement subdued after the tongue-lashing his captain had given him.

I wanted to pile onto that, if not for their reckless behavior, Tori would not have had to face that Grolarnx on her own.

From the way Aramon’s eyes darted to Tori and then quickly back down to the pilot yoke, it looked like he was well aware of how much he’d screwed up.

I didn’t like the Asrai, mostly because he seemed to enjoy flirting with my Tally a little too much.

I did know that he was not the type to let a female come to harm.

Solear was feeling even more beat up over it; his shoulders were hunched, he’d drawn them almost all the way up to his ears, and his head was tilted down.

As he was the type of navigator with an implant, he didn’t need his sight to help his brother steer this ship where we wanted to go, so I had no doubt that he’d closed his eyes and shut himself off from his environment entirely.

Shoving all thoughts of Tori’s near miss, the misbehaving Asrai twins, and my ever-growing feelings aside, I focused on what was ahead.

We were entering the atmosphere, and on the viewscreen, I could see the ravaged landscape and the surveying spikes that pierced the planet, rising at angles into the air.

There were the remains of stripped and abandoned camps sitting around massive holes in the ground, and the glitter of camps still functioning, clustered around the base of each of the surveying spikes.

The little gravity generator on this shuttle couldn’t keep up as we transferred from zero-G in outer space to the sharp pull of the planet.

For a moment, everything and everyone started to float, my booted feet leaving the floor, my body drifting into the harness restraints of my seat.

Next to me, Tori was suddenly grinning from ear to ear.

“This always makes me feel like I’m on a rollercoaster ride! ”

I had no idea what a rollercoaster was, but it had to be fun.

Her smile was downright infectious, so I found myself smiling back.

Her lack of nerves now made it easier to push away my own concerns.

She had been changing, and while I’d loved her from the moment I’d laid my eyes on her—all shy and blushing—this was good too.

I liked all versions of Tori, especially since she seemed to be feeling better in her own skin.

We thudded back into the jumpseats under the collective sound of dozens of boots hitting the deck and a few curses. Only the Naga captain lowered himself gracefully into his seat, having used his tail and a hand to grip the handholds above his head.

“Approaching low, parking us behind that rocky outcrop, Captain,” Aramon declared.

“We should be out of sight of the mining camp.” True to his word, the shuttle was skimming low over the planet, approaching our targeted camp so that we would remain unnoticed.

It took a skilled pilot to dart the shuttle around large boulders and trees and make sure to avoid any camps.

When we touched down, it was without even the slightest bump, and the communication specialist was already out the door before the hatch had fully opened.

I helped Tori unsnap her harness and, with lead in my shoes, disembarked with her.

My eyes were restless as I watched the thicket of dark green trees and a large rock outcropping that separated us from the mining camp on the other side.

Several of the mercenaries had spread out to form a protective perimeter around the rest of us.

The captain and the Son of Ragnar flanked their specialist as he worked his drones.

The little bots whizzed into the air, disappearing from sight rapidly.

“If the humans are indeed at this camp, we’ll know soon,” I told Tori, who was watching the drones vanish.

As soon as we had confirmation, we’d head out, and it looked to me like Tori was finally starting to feel her nerves again.

“Okay,” she said, nodding firmly, her face a little pale.

“I’ll stick close to you as promised, just get me to where they’re keeping them so I can help.

” I gave her a nod, happy that she wasn’t making a fuss about that particular stipulation.

I would have fought harder and risked our future more if I thought she’d take any unnecessary risks. That wasn’t Tori, though, so I hadn’t.

When I looked down at her small figure, bouncing on the balls of her feet, dark eyes focused on the direction of the mining camp, I had to admit to myself that maybe I’d still made too much of a stink over it.

It was a wonder she was still putting up with me.

Once we made it through this, I’d make sure to make it up to her.

“I’ve got them,” the feathered male said triumphantly. He’d gone to his knees on the mossy ground and was peering intently at a datapad he was holding. Over his shoulder, I could make out the biosignals of many different bodies, but two were flaring red—the humans.

The Captain and his second-in-command, the Talac male, were already deep in conversation as they discussed the best approach.

We didn’t have a lot of time: at any moment, the crew we’d restrained on the orbiting station could manage to free themselves and sound the alarm.

I didn’t think it was likely to happen that quickly, but you never knew all the circumstances with impromptu missions like this.

“Alright, Sin is taking out the big guns on those walls. You,” the Captain said, jabbing a finger my way, “since you’re as invulnerable as he is, help him.

There are two guns, it’ll save time.” My instinctive response was to say no; my place was at my Tally’s side, but that was stupid.

I was the best man here, besides the Son of Ragnar, to tackle one of those defensive cannons that flanked the gate to the camp.

Tori would be safely surrounded by the rest of the mercs.

I’d join her the moment they started breaching the gate.

“We’ll breach as soon as the guns are down.

I need two teams, as we have two objectives.

” The captain divided his men, lumping Tori and me into the team that would extract the humans, while the second, smaller team was going to head for the storage facility where they suspected the goods were being held.

I hoped that whatever they mined here was enough to satisfy their payment needs…

If not, I’d have to get into that mine to soak up as many metals and minerals as I could to make something that did.

Tori was much too small to reach my face for a kiss if I didn’t bend down, but when Sin started to jog into the woods, she tugged on my shoulder to make her desire known.

I dipped down and pressed my mouth to hers in a quick, rough moment of passion, as much possessive as it was a goodbye.

“Stay safe,” I told her, not waiting for an answer as I sprinted after the Son of Ragnar.

I needed to focus, and I owed it to my girl to do that completely, to trust that she was safe.

With just a thought, I allowed metal to melt from my pores, covering me in a fine layer of steel for protection.

I had enough juice to keep myself almost entirely covered, down to a helmet for my face, which needed only a thought to twist into a creepy mask meant to intimidate.

Sin was just exiting the treeline ahead of me, the male feeling competitive—or at the very least, just a terrible team player.

He wasn’t waiting for me to tackle the other gun, just forged his way across the cleared stretch between the gate and walls, his symbiont flanking him with the long-legged stride of the Gracka hound.

I increased my pace, sprinting all out to reach the other tower in time with him.

I settled my breathing into a steady rhythm and grinned when the first shot from that tower glanced along my hardened skin without harm.

From the corner of my eye, I saw how Sin used his symbiont’s ability to shift into anything and let it lift him up onto the wall.

I had no tricks like that, but I easily formed claws over my hands and feet to help me climb it.

We thudded onto the top of the wooden barrier at nearly the same time.

Then I leaped forward at the small defense cannon and the three males who stood around it.

One was behind the controls, and he fired off a shot straight at the center of my chest. I felt the blast heat the metal coating my skin, burning my chest with the impact.

Since this camp was a prison, using slave labor to man the mines, I felt no compunction about using lethal force here.

This time, the Captain hadn’t said anything, so I felt justified in pretending the previous order didn’t stand.

Sacrificing the armor over my arms to form blades over my hands, I sliced through the first two males like they were paper.

With a leap that helped me avoid a second blast to the chest, I landed on top of the armament, palms on the gun, already pulling metals into my body.

The male manning the cannon was raising an arm to shoot me with a pistol, and I swept out my leg—blade forming over my heel—catching him in the chest the way he had me.

It was over in moments, no reinforcements rushing up onto the wall—yet.

One look across the gate told me that Sin was just finishing his last opponent, his symbiont crouched over the control panel of the cannon, claws slashing through it.

There were precious metals inside each of these weapons, not just the steel and thorium casing, but the specialized alloys that made up the barrel.

I took the moment of relative peace to harvest what I could, strengthening myself and healing the burns across my front. I barely felt the pain, used to dealing with it when I fought, taking the risks that I did because I could survive them.

“Let’s open this gate,” Sin called out, his gray face filled with the first real emotion I’d seen on him—a wide, feral grin that hinted at a love for the fight, for the spilling of blood.

He walked to the edge of the wall, laser fire blasting at him from the courtyard beyond the gate.

Dozens of males were gathering there to resist our incursion.

Sin stepped off the edge without a single ounce of consideration for his safety, wading into the fray.

Looked to me like he meant that I was going to be opening that gate; all he wanted to do was fight.

I followed his example, forgoing the stairs, though I used a clawed hand to slow my descent, scraping it along the palisade under the noise of steel and wood grinding together.

My booted feet hit the ground, laser fire pelting me from the courtyard, but, freshly filled up from taking apart that laser cannon, I felt none of it.

The gate was closed with a large wooden beam crossing it from the inside.

It took me only a moment to consume the metal brackets that held it.

The beam thudded to the ground under a cloud of dust, and a single kick had the gate swinging wide open.

It was what the mercenaries on the other side had been waiting for, their black-armored bodies making an impressive sight as they sprinted for the gate, battle yells issuing from many throats.

Tori was at the back, flanked by the Asrai twins, and my heart leaped at the sight of her.

She was so small, yet in that armor, with that determined look on her face, she was a goddess to me, so brave, so fierce.

It was an honor to see shy Tori shape up into this fierce warrior, and it almost made me forget completely where I was.

The burn of a laser gun searing across my shoulder blade was enough to yank me back into focus.

It brought with it the awareness that the mercs—and Tori—were taking fire on their approach.

Not the devastating kind from those two laser cannons, but a good amount of it from the horde of males rushing from the barracks to protect the camp.

Focusing the metal in my system into the form of a huge shield, I sacrificed body armor for a moment.

Holding it up to block the entrance to the camp absorbed more than half of the laser fire, and I grinned when the first merc passing me gave a salute in thanks.

The shield flowed back over my body the moment Tori reached my side, and, using my body as protection now, I led her into the compound.