Page 382 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Akri

The scalpel cutting through the skin at the base of my skull shook me from my concentration.

I could no longer keep myself integrated with the systems of the research base.

Returning to full awareness of my body felt strange, kind of like a falling sensation.

“No, please don’t!” I heard myself say, begging for the first time since he’d started his torturous process of testing all the nerves in my body.

The Ovt male laughed, the sound a weird croaking noise.

“Oh, he speaks at last. I thought I had damaged your ability to do so!” He cackled again, the bloody scalpel he was holding wagging in front of my face.

Strapped down with a clamp around my head to keep me in place, I could only glare at him and bare my teeth.

“I just didn’t have anything to say,” I hissed with venom.

When I got out of these restraints, I was going to tear his fucking head from his body.

I wasn’t even that bothered by the violent thought this time.

I thought I’d come here to pick the brain of a real scientist, but this male was a butcher and a hack.

I needed to stall him so Jenny could get here and cause a distraction.

I’d almost sawed through the strap on my right wrist with my claw; primitive, but it was working. One hand free was all I’d need.

“Well, now, that’s not nice. I’m sure we have lots to talk about!

Your species is so fascinating… Even your toes have more nerves than any other species in the known universe.

It’s like your kind was made to be navigators.

Too bad you’re dying out.” He prattled on now, thinking he had my full attention, and I kept glaring him in the face, fangs bared.

It was a satisfying thing to do, this bit of open defiance.

“Gee, I wonder why?” I asked. “Maybe it’s because assholes like you have been hunting us down!

” I was furious about what had been happening to the Akilad over the past century; they had all but disappeared.

Precisely because they made such good navigators, but also warriors, their bodies fast and quick to regenerate, their Liades a spectacle when they used them as an extra set of fists.

They had never been numerous to begin with, but the greedy and power-hungry of this quadrant had decimated them.

The Ovt scientist spat in my face, a petty, cowardly response when I was tied down.

“You’ll pay for that,” he threatened. The scalpel dipped out of my sight, returning to the base of my right Liades, where he’d already started the first cut.

I couldn’t contain a groan as pain scorched me, the super nerve-rich area lighting up again as he touched the knife to another section of skin.

Now, all I could see was the single Rummicaron guard in the room, who was avidly watching what Lekri was doing.

He’d been the one to wrestle me into the final restraints that pinned my head, and Liades, in place.

He was so cool and detached that he didn’t even appear to feel anything while watching someone being cut into without any kind of sedation.

Lekri was too much of a sadist to use anything like that.

The door at his back opened, and my eyes met Jenny’s for a flash of a moment.

Then she let out a fierce battle cry and leaped onto the back of the Rummicaron, a taser crackling with electricity in her hand.

This giant was going to crush her like a bug; he wouldn’t spare her any pain—he’d simply punish her for the assault.

My body went tense. I should never have come back here. It was extremely arrogant of me to think I could handle whatever Lekri would throw at me and that I would never be in any danger. Now look at what I’d caused: I’d put Jenny at risk to save my own skin.

The growl that rattled from my chest was the loudest and fiercest I’d ever made, and I fully embraced the intimidating sound.

It seemed to make everyone in the room freeze in place, Jenny clinging to the thick gray neck of the guard, him staring at me with his beady black eyes.

And Lekri? He was stumbling back, his tray of torture instruments clattering to the ground.

I hadn’t finished sawing through the restraint on my wrist, but the adrenaline surge Jenny’s arrival caused was more than enough.

It ripped when I yanked, and then my hand was free, and I could tear the metal brace pinning down my head.

Now I had enough leverage to slip my Liades from their own restraints, and I was upright, unstrapping my other hand while leveling another growl in the Rummicaron’s direction.

He responded by throwing Jenny off, the taser only just scraping past his tooth-filled maw.

She crashed into a wall of cabinets, then hit the ground hard.

I didn’t even remember removing the last of my restraints.

I was on the Rummicaron in a flash, growling like a beast; my only thought was punishing him for hurting my mate.

I didn’t even remember that there were other threats around.

With my hands around the thick neck of the guard, I slammed his head back into the floor. My Liades were pummeling his face in hard knots. I felt no pain now, just pure rage that this male had dared to hurt Jenny, my brave, sweet Jenny.

Something hit me in the back of my head, my vision whiting out.

I barely managed to keep my eyes open and focused, a dizzying wave of nausea rising in my gut in response.

Instinctively, my Liades whipped back to hit the threat, and I connected with the slightly spongy body of the scientist. Damn it, I’d forgotten he was even there.

Pushing away any pain or dizziness, I leveled a final blow at the downed Rummicaron with a fist. Leveraging myself upright with a push from my legs, I spun around to face the cowardly bastard.

I expected him to be running for the door now that I was facing him, but he was crumpled at my feet.

His body shook, his heels drumming against the floor.

I hadn’t even heard the noises he was making, my battle rage had blocked everything out.

Jenny was standing over him, leaning down as she continued to press the taser into his neck, a feral expression on her face.

“Take that, you sadistic bastard. I hope you rot in hell,” she said, finally letting up—only to kick the male in the ribs for good measure.

“If anyone is cutting off anything, it’s going to be me!

And you won’t like what I have in mind.”

The male’s eyes were huge in his pudgy, wrinkled face, the whites showing along the edges.

Jenny was lowering her arm with the taser very deliberately, pointing it at the area between his legs.

He made a squeaking noise, and then his body went limp as he passed out.

Jenny’s hands lowered, her eyes wide with shock as she lifted them to meet mine.

“Are you okay, Akri?” she asked. “He didn’t get started yet, did he?

” Her fingers tensed around the taser, and I realized she was battling the urge to hurt the scientist again.

A battle rage similar to mine? My shoulders lowered, breath escaping me in a long exhale, a confusing mess of emotions rattling around my brain.

“I am fine,” I told her, eyeing the empty tool tray next to Lekri’s body with distaste.

That was what he had hit me with; the back of my head still smarted.

“You? Did you get hurt?” She’d made a nasty smack into the cabinets.

The memory of that made me rush over, my hands patting down her body before I could check the urge.

I needed to know that she was fine. Any bruise or scratch I found, I’d take out of his damn hide.

“No, seriously, I’m fine. Let’s get out of here before they send more guards,” Jenny said, smiling as she pushed my hands away.

Then she did exactly as I had just done, her hands stroking over my chest, up my Liades, checking that I was whole.

She made an angry noise when she discovered the cut along the base of the right one, her body jerking back to where Lekri was sprawled on the floor.

I grabbed her hand and pulled. “No, let’s go.

” She only struggled briefly before following me, and she let out a laugh when I bent to pick up my leather coat from the corner where it had ended up the previous day.

We retrieved my satchel and her backpack from just outside the lab, where she’d simply dropped them, and then we raced for the elevator.

Once inside, I pointed at the com device that I’d used to guide her to me.

“You’ll need to ditch that again. They can track it.

” Mine had been taken by Lekri and his guards already, and it wasn’t with my coat—lost then, but that was fine; I could get another.

She obeyed by unstrapping the thing from her wrist and simply dropping it to the elevator floor.

“There were six guards at the top earlier. Are they still gone, you think?” she asked, and I shook my head.

Not a chance, but I would take care of it.

I indicated a corner next to the door where she would be out of the line of fire when we got up there.

She didn’t like it, but she pressed her back into it, backpack clutched in front of her body.

When the elevator doors started to open, I was ready, ducking low to avoid laser fire and diving head-first into the cluster of males lined up in front of the doors.