Page 364 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Jenny

Walking through yet another little alley, I wrinkled my nose at the smell of urine and other bodily fluids I didn’t want to contemplate. Why was it that the underbelly of every major city managed to get this grimy? No matter where you were, be it Kansas or Akrod, it still stunk the same way.

Akri and I had been walking through this city for nearly three days now.

We’d hidden at night in empty buildings, crossing as much distance as we could without being seen during the day.

I couldn’t have done any of this without his help.

There were so many patrols sweeping the streets, I would have been caught by now if not for him.

My fingers touched my throat thoughtfully as I followed along at his back.

He was a good guy, albeit a really strange one.

Not that he’d said or done anything inappropriate ever since that weird comment about a surprise erection.

I still couldn’t believe he’d said that, sounding so confused about what had to be a normal bodily function.

It made me wonder if there was any credence to the way he talked about only just occupying his body, but that was mind-bogglingly impossible, wasn’t it?

He was unfailingly polite and hyper-aware of any of my needs.

He was probably the best companion I’d ever had on a trip.

I was now sporting a nice, warm pair of pants with a comfy top and sweater.

Over it, I wore a nice, puffy coat that was more than enough to keep me warm during the cold Ov’Korad nights.

I had a backpack on, with extras, blankets, and rations of food to keep me going during the day.

I hadn’t asked for any of those things, but he’d woken me after that first night to break into a nearby store to get all of it.

I still felt a little shiver of pleasure when I remembered where I’d woken up that first morning.

Right there in his arms, curled up against his muscled chest. That had been the best sleep I’d had in possibly a year; Akri’s presence just made me feel so very safe.

You could call that naive, trusting a stranger so implicitly after so short a time.

I called it instinct. My instincts had always been good.

They needed to be—when you spent a lot of time out in the woods, hunting or rock climbing.

As a girl alone, when I was hiking, I always trusted my instincts when I ran into strangers.

Akri was a good egg, just a little weird.

I could trust him to treat me right, to help me.

I didn’t need to fear that he would turn around and betray me at the end of this journey.

He was nothing but honest. When he didn’t want to tell me something, I always knew, he’d hesitate, and then be as truthful as he could without revealing his deepest thoughts. I appreciated that.

“We’re almost at the port, aren’t we?” I asked.

Akri seemed to always know exactly where we were.

It was impressive how he could calculate our distance to the port down to the minute whenever I asked.

I hadn’t been able to verify yet if he was right, but I was starting to think that he was.

Right now, we were down to less than an hour, and I could see the massive long haulers come and go almost right above our heads.

“Once at the port, I need to get us to a short-range supply shuttle. We’ll have to stow away.

Is that acceptable?” he asked me. He’d told me the basics of his plan last night: about the science lab hidden out in the desert, the supercomputer there that he needed to crack some data stored on that shiny green medallion he wore around his neck.

I was more than willing to crawl aboard some shuttle and hide for a couple of hours.

At this point, we’d been walking so much that even my feet were up for a bit of a rest.

Akri’s long-legged stride meant he easily outdistanced me if I didn’t hurry.

Sometimes, when we were taking a detour to avoid a patrol, I’d stick almost to his back like a little monkey, and, without fail, his tentacles would grab me.

I was starting to think they were the most honest part of him, and that my buddy here was extremely into me.

Judging by the heat in my belly each time those tentacles touched me, I was as attracted to him as he was to me.

I reached out a hand, just to prove to myself that they would behave as I predicted.

His right tentacle curled over his shoulder as if it had eyes, twisting around my fingers.

I didn’t think anyone would blame me for finding Akri sexy—when he wasn’t forgetting to eat, which happened all the time.

He walked proudly and confidently: tall, broad-shouldered, and packing serious muscle beneath that leather coat.

He could easily pass for a superhero from one of my favorite movies.

His head swung my way when our skin touched, his starry-sky eyes wide.

“Please do not encourage them to malfunction,” he said, a strangled sound in his voice.

Did he not like this attraction between us?

Oh boy, did he have a girlfriend or wife back home?

When I asked, he looked even more shocked, adamantly shaking his head, though the firm grip of his tentacle meant it never dislodged from my fingers.

“Good, I like it, alright? Don’t hold back on my account,” I said.

It wasn’t my best flirt, but I hoped the directness would get through to him.

He swallowed, the deep orange streaks along his cheekbones looking darker than normal.

His tentacle never left my hand, the warm, dry grip tightening a little around my fingers.

Dipping his chin in a tentative nod was all the answer I got, our little interlude interrupted by a loud shout at the end of the street.

We both froze in place, assessing the approaching threat.

I spotted two men behind us, each kitted out in leather, with weapons strapped to their bodies.

They had to be mercenaries or bounty hunters, which was bad news for us.

They would be far more determined to chase us down—and go about it in far less legal ways.

“We are surrounded. I calculate that our best odds are to fight them,” Akri said with a note of resignation in his tone.

His eyes weren’t on the two men behind us; he was looking ahead, where I noticed three more males had turned the corner.

They blocked our way; there was no way out but through them.

“Please do not let my fighting scare you, Jenny. When I fight… I… Just trust that I’d never hurt you.

” He risked looking away from the group of men slowly closing in on us to stare at me with a pleading look in his eyes.

It almost felt like he was apologizing and warning me in one go, as if he thought that what he was about to do would send me screaming into the woods.

I’d seen him fight at the bar; I hadn’t found that terrifying.

He’d looked amazing and in his element, a total badass whom I could only admire.

Nodding seriously, I gently squeezed the tentacle I was still holding.

“I promise, but I don’t think anything you do could scare me.

” And if it did happen, he’d be horrified; Akri was a good guy.

His eyes stayed on me, boring into mine, desperately trying to decipher whether I meant those words.

It looked to me like it was he who was scared of his own mood when fighting.

We didn’t have more time to talk about it, so I could reassure him.

I didn’t even know if things would turn out all right, since we were severely outnumbered.

One of them was in the lead, a big Tarkan male with rings of spiked steel circling the claw tips of his big, leathery wings.

One tusk was broken in his lower jaw, a jagged, splintered piece barely making it past his thick bottom lip.

“Brake!” he yelled, his deep voice rumbling like a gravel avalanche.

“You’re surrounded. Surrender now, and no one will get hurt.

” The way he said the word Brake made me think it was meant to be a name.

Was this a case of mistaken identity? Why were they calling Akri that, and with a hint of reverence, if I wasn’t mistaken?

Akri dropped his bag onto the cobblestones without a care for its contents.

Stepping in front of me, he set his feet wide apart, braced for a fight.

Everything about the posture screamed “protective,” and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

My adrenaline was already up, and my blood was pumping.

What could I do? I didn’t want to stand here like a sack of potatoes and do nothing, but I was no fighter.

“Liar,” Akri scoffed, his attention on the approaching Tarkan, whose tentacles floated around his head, their ends curled into hard knots as if they were fists.

“Who’s paying you?” he asked, arms out at his sides, showing his opponents that he was weaponless.

That wasn’t the case for the guys now circling us, though—we’d mostly managed to keep our backs to a wall.

Each was holding a bat or a shock stick, and one held what looked kind of like a taser.

I’d seen all these weapons before at Drova’s bar; mercenaries and bounty hunters were frequent visitors there.

The Tarkan grunted but didn’t answer, while two Asrai grinned with filed-down teeth at us from Akri’s left.

They bounced on the balls of their feet, eager for a fight, their motions completely synchronized, which meant they were telepathically connected.

On our right were a Xurtal male and one from the local species, much smaller in stature but probably extremely agile.

Though Ovts were smaller than average, they spat acid, so I knew he’d be a major threat.