Page 346 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Meena

Jakar was beautiful in motion like that; fighting shouldn’t look so much like he was dancing, but it did.

He looked like he was having casual fun while he did it, too, with a grin on his face, his spots gleaming yellow on his cheeks.

Only, they flashed white with dread each time they landed on my face, so I tried to make sure none of my fear showed.

I didn’t like the cool, harsh grip of the shark-like male on my left.

He looked far too much like the bastard I’d stabbed back on that space station.

But I hid my feelings, shoving them away so that Jakar wouldn’t worry.

He had to concentrate on what he was doing, no matter how effortlessly he was making it look.

The male he was fighting was no slouch either, and that knife on his tail was absolutely wicked.

Despite Jakar’s effortless grace as he moved, I could still see a few minor cuts welling with blood along his chest and arms. I didn’t understand how he was moving so easily when I’d seen him get hit with two of those lasers, a burn, an ugly black scorch mark, on his shoulder, and a hole burned into the fabric of his pants at the hip.

The fight seemed to last forever in my panic-filled mind, my heart pounding so hard in my chest that I feared it would burst. I was well aware that I couldn’t last more than a few minutes.

Fighting was an exhausting business, but once upon a time, it had been all Jakar had trained for.

The longer the fight lasted, the more obvious it became that he far outclassed his opponent in stamina.

The Kertinal he was fighting was an absolute giant, the biggest one I’d ever seen.

Granted, that was based on a limited sample, but still.

This guy had almost a head in height over Jakar, horns included.

Curling back like a set of ram’s horns, they were used to batter at Jakar whenever he wasn’t slashing with his tail or using his massive fists as hammers.

His skin was a gleaming black, patterned with many lightning-like lines in burnt orange.

His eyes, the same freaky orange, glinted with furious rage as he began to realize he was losing.

My stomach dropped in fear; I knew that couldn’t mean anything good.

Jakar was about to get stabbed in the back; that male wasn’t going to let himself lose in front of all these people.

They might mostly not be of his own species, but he was clearly their boss.

I knew the type. On Earth, at the law practice where I’d worked, one of the partners had been much like this male, a big bully who could never admit fault.

There it was! Jakar had just punched him with an uppercut that made the Kertinal male stumble back into his men.

He roared in rage, and Jakar gave him a wicked grin while making a taunting, come-hither motion with his hand.

When the Kertinal male charged, that would have been the end of him.

Even I could see that he had let down his guard, exposing himself to a final strike.

Silver flashed in his hand; Jakar’s eyes went wide when he spotted it.

He leaped into some kind of insanely agile roll instead of taking the opening and finishing the Kertinal off.

I screamed—I couldn’t help myself—fear filling me until I felt dizzy from it.

A hiss filled the air, the red flash of a laser, and Jakar’s dodge was possibly the only thing that saved him from a fatal shot.

It hit him along his back, the laser burning a long, jagged wound into his skin and melting the fabric of his shirt.

It looked awful and painful, but I was fairly certain the shot had just brushed past him, not fully penetrating.

From how much bigger and louder the laser had been, I was pretty sure they’d turned the settings up on that pistol or something.

“Fucking cheating coward!” I yelled at the Kertinal male as he stood over Jakar, arms raised and crowing as if he’d won fairly.

Jakar lay on the ground, prone, and he seemed to struggle to raise himself back onto his hands and knees.

Was he hurt much worse than it looked? Had he somehow hit his head on the way down?

I hadn’t seen it happen, but maybe he’d knocked himself against the ground.

The giant Kertinal swung his orange eyes to my face, grinning maliciously as he leveled his weapon at Jakar again.

My muscles ached as I fought the two assholes holding me back; if he shot Jakar a second time.

.. I didn’t know what I would do if he died.

I thought that maybe that would finally break me.

“Aargh! You bastard, let him go!” My foot kicked out, and I managed to strike one asshole in the back of the knee.

He buckled, his grip loosening, and I slipped free, twisting painfully out of the grasp of the second one, who hadn’t expected my sudden leverage.

Throwing myself on top of Jakar protectively, I glared up at the big Kertinal male, almost daring him to shoot me instead.

“No, Meena…” Jakar groaned from beneath me.

“I’m sorry…” I didn’t flinch as I stared up at the barrel of the gun, my hands clenching into Jakar’s shirt beneath me. Do it then. Shoot us.

The last thing I saw was a flash of light—bright white and blue—and then everything went dark, to the sound of roaring in my ears.

*

Jakar

My body ached in far too many places when I woke up, but I didn’t spare a single thought for any of it. “Meena?” I called out in a hushed tone, my eyes opening to scan my surroundings and search for my mate. Had they taken her from me?

She didn’t respond, but the surroundings were familiar: a cell block meant to house slaves.

My alertness shifted to what was inside the cell with me as soon as I realized there was no guard waiting outside.

It was an effort to roll over from my side until I could push up to a sitting position, sweat breaking out across my forehead.

She was there, right next to me, a small little bundle curled up on the hard metal floor.

Her normally tan face was pale along her cheeks, with shadows beneath her eyes.

She was out cold, her long black hair fanned out around her, small hands clenched into her shirt at her chest, as if she were in pain.

“Sweetheart, my beautiful mate, please wake up,” I said, reaching out to touch her shoulder with a wince. The burn on my arm ached down to the bone. I wasn’t hurt badly enough to require immediate medical attention, but now that the battle rage had worn off, I was definitely feeling it.

She made a soft moaning noise, rolling over onto her back, and I took the chance to scan her for any sign of injury.

I didn’t like the dark bruises that circled her biceps, but there wasn’t anything glaringly obvious—no blood, no torn clothing.

“Wake up, Meena!” I urged her, worried that she’d hit her head.

Running my fingers through her long hair, I felt her scalp, but there were no bumps.

The taste in my own mouth told me they’d zapped me again to knock me out.

They must have done the same thing to her.

No wonder all my muscles ached, two zaps in a row, as I’d sustained, did a number on a male.

I was going to be feeling that for a while, but at least everything still worked.

I just needed her to wake up, to hear her voice.

She was tossing her head around now, moving a little in her sleep.

I realized she had to be uncomfortable on this hard, cold floor.

Hurriedly, I gathered her in my arms, cradling her in my lap to warm her up.

She started to shiver, her blunt little teeth clattering together, and her skin breaking out in all those little bumps.

Come on, wake up, I couldn’t stand this.

I desperately needed to see her eyes again.

Then they fluttered up, large and wet with the beginnings of tears, but they focused on my face without any trouble. “Jakar,” she said, “you’re alright!” I felt a surge of relief wash over me at the sound of her voice. She was going to be fine as soon as I got us out of here.

Her eyes dropped from my face, and the relief gave way to a look of utter horror. My spots burned across the bridge of my nose as they rapidly changed color. What was she looking at? My neck? That’s when I felt it, the band of a collar around my throat. A pain collar.

My brain shorted out, struggling to catch up with the realization.

How had I not noticed it? How could I not have felt it?

Was my body still so used to having that horrid thing stuck around my throat that it had just blanked it out?

I felt like I was going to be sick. I couldn’t do this again.

My world narrowed to just the terrible memories flashing through my mind. No, no, no! Not this.