Page 315 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Tori

I knew Eoin was fast and that he could do incredible things with his Metallurgist skills, but watching him rush into the forest and straight into a battle…

it was something else entirely. I had never seen the metal pour from his skin the way it did now, forming a gleaming suit of armor around him that somehow seemed to retain all the flexibility of just wearing cloth.

He looked absolutely badass, like a knight in shining armor.

My mind flashed back to that moment on the Yengar spaceport, when I discovered that he’d been injured.

He was not invulnerable the way he liked to think he was, but I had to admit that down on a planet, he had many more materials at hand to help him maintain that amazing power of his.

On a space station, he couldn’t just consume metals willy-nilly—he’d risk compromising something important.

Here, there was always air to breathe, he could destroy whatever he wanted, and that was exactly his mission right now.

“Your boy is going to be fine,” Aramon said quietly at my side, his obnoxiously loud and boisterous personality still tempered by his earlier failure to protect me.

Despite his scary appearance, I had to conclude that he was mostly a good guy, a good guy who really liked to fight.

“He’s lucky,” he added, one red eye winking at me.

I wasn’t sure if luck was a cultural thing to the Asrai, or just something that mattered to him, but I had to disagree.

Eoin didn’t have luck—he had skill—and it was always really sexy to see it in action.

“I know,” I said, and then I spoiled the moment when I felt my ears go hot with the beginning of a blush.

Damn it, just when I thought I was getting control of those.

Clenching my hand around the butt of the pistol holstered at my hip, I watched anxiously as a group of the mercenaries surrounding me started to move off into the woods, following Eoin.

Not even a second later, there was a soft push at the small of my back, and Aramon and Solear started leading me in the same direction.

I guessed I was going to be seeing the fighting up close.

Our pace quickened when the terrain proved easy beneath the trees, the Asrai brothers flanking me on either side.

I’d heard the part of the Captain’s angry scolding where he’d assigned them to be my bodyguards to make up for it.

That was the point where I figured Eoin would start to object; I didn’t think he trusted them enough to give them another chance.

He’d given a nod in the Captain’s direction and then stared down Aramon, which was when I knew I was stuck with the two-man detail.

I once again silently thanked Camila for being such an awesome trainer.

I wasn’t even winded when I caught up with the rest of the mercs on the edge of the woods.

A year ago, I wasn’t out of shape or anything, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that.

Let alone feel confident that I could calmly hit my target with the laser pistol at my hip.

Leaving the safety on, I pulled it from its holster so I’d be ready when the action began.

I had never intended to be on the front line, fighting, but I wasn’t going to be caught unprepared; not like I’d been on that shuttle.

Staying just out of reach of the destructive laser cannons mounted on top of the wall that circled the mining camp, we all watched as Sin and Eoin did their job.

I winced in sympathy when I saw that Eoin took a blast straight to the chest. After that, it didn’t look like he had any trouble at all.

I held my breath when the two males disappeared entirely, the sounds of laser fire and shouts filling the air.

It seemed to be the signal for the rest of the mercenaries to charge forward, screaming their own battle shouts, their excitement a tangible force.

It was contagious, and caught up in the moment—filled with purpose, pumping with adrenaline—I charged along with them.

I knew at that moment that I was a changed woman, and that I could never go back to being quiet and shy.

Not after charging a wall with a group of warriors, ready to do battle.

Except for Camila, maybe, none of the other ladies on the Vagabond could claim to have done something like that.

If my friends could see me right now… what would they think?

I knew what Eoin would probably think, but even that thought couldn’t dampen my spirits right now.

I wasn’t even scared, which was crazy to realize.

The gate swung open when we were halfway across the barren space between the woods and the camp.

Laser fire erupted from inside, whizzing over our heads and hitting some of the mercenaries on their body armor.

Then Eoin was there, his armor melting away to form a giant shield that he held up to block the rain of fire as if it weighed absolutely nothing.

Safe from the blasts, we crossed the final stretch in a matter of moments, and then utter chaos seemed to reign.

The courtyard beyond the gate was a big, box-like shape, I was pretty sure Camila would call it a kill box, which was exactly what it seemed to be used for right now.

Low buildings sat around that courtyard, some with windows and some more like warehouses.

On the roofs of some of these buildings, more weapons were installed, and it was these that were raining down laser fire on our charging force.

Eoin was back in his armor, protectively staying in front of me while the two Asrai picked off enemies with well-aimed rifle shots.

The noise around me was deafening, but I could ignore it in favor of watching the skills of the mercenaries we had hired.

Outnumbered three to one, with powerful weapons aimed against them, they still didn’t even look like they were having a hard time.

Sin, in his silver armor with his silver beast, stood out among the crowd of mostly black-clad men fighting.

He was all over the battlefield, always finding the place where the fighting was most intense.

I spotted the Naga Captain a moment later, his long, snake-like body somehow coiling up the side of a building, where he destroyed the armaments installed on top of it.

“You almost look like you’re enjoying yourself, Tally,” Eoin said, a teasing note in his voice that had my skin break out in goosebumps.

This was the moment he chose to give up on his overprotectiveness?

It was the last thing I expected him to say, and the fighting was trickling down to just a few final skirmishes before I could formulate a reply. I wasn’t even sure if he was right.

“Mitnick, where are the humans?” the captain demanded of the feathered communications specialist. He was standing in the center of the courtyard, his drones circling above his head, his face angled down to look at his datapad.

He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that, just a few feet to his left, two of his buddies were still fighting to subdue a few of the stragglers.

He didn’t reply in words, just lifted a hand from his datapad and pointed at one of the low buildings.

Through the gap between it and another building, I could see the mine itself stretching out beyond it.

The first portion of the mine looked like a giant hole in the ground, much like a quarry, with shafts opening up in the stony walls, black holes that looked ominous and probably not even close to safe.

“Let’s go,” Eoin said, and he started jogging from our stationary spot just inside the gate, heading straight for the building the comms specialist had pointed at.

I rushed after him, my palms a little sweaty.

This was it—how bad was it going to be? Were they going to be hurt?

Scared? Would I be able to convince them we were here to rescue them?

After all the fuss I’d made over needing to be there, I was suddenly worried I wouldn’t be needed at all.

My stomach turned even more when Eoin busted open the locked and barred doors.

The smell inside the barn-like structure was revolting, a mixture of decay, filth, and misery.

It was a little like the way the cells had smelled, in which Abigail, the gladiators, and I had been locked before they rebelled.

The interior was dark, but my eyes adjusted quickly enough, revealing not even the basics of cells with beds.

Instead, chains and shackles dangled from the walls at intervals, and dirty straw covered the floor, the only thing to soften the hard-packed dirt.

The place was also empty of anyone. If slaves were present at this camp, they weren’t here, which could only mean that they were currently in the mines themselves.

“Shit,” Eoin cursed. “He said in here, didn’t he?

” He spun around the large room to get another look, a dark, angry expression on his face at the sight of the abysmal circumstances.

It was easy to forget that he had been kept in ‘stables’ just like this before he’d escaped.

The look on his face now said enough: he remembered.

My heart went out to him, to the young boy he’d been when he’d gone through this.

Curling my fingers into his palm in support, I tried to remain more objective and clinical while I surveyed the place.

It was hard because it was such a horrible place, but the shadows and the piles of dirty straw meant we had to look around.

I couldn’t risk missing them if they had hidden themselves; I knew I would hide if I could, if I were in their shoes right now.