Page 82 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Chloe

The door slid open only moments after I’d tried it, and I stumbled back in surprise, righting myself quickly and squaring my shoulders when I was suddenly face-to-face with that old priest from the night before.

His eyes were blackened with dark eyeliner for a dramatic effect, and his steel-gray hair was swept up in the typical Sune-styled topknot.

Today, he wore a red robe with silver embroidery and a scornful smile on his wrinkled face.

“Ah, trying the door, were you, Kitan?” he said with a smirk. Immediately, Kitan was urging me to the side, slightly behind him, his entire body in protective mode. At least he hadn’t yet shifted himself into his hybridform.

It wasn’t until the male Sune stepped inside that I realized he wasn’t alone.

There were two guards behind him: one looked vaguely familiar, dressed crisply in his uniform of black and silver, officer bars decorating the shoulders and a topknot in his long, straight, silvery hair.

The other was just a lowly soldier, equally crisply dressed but with his hair shaved short.

“Gotta try, of course, Purveyn,” Kitan drawled.

“Here to take me to the training grounds?” I placed my hands on Kitan’s lower back and pressed close, worried about how tense he had become.

I could hazard a guess that the training grounds for Kitan meant someplace where he’d have to shift—shift until he bled.

“In a moment,” the priest, Purveyn, said, “Let’s talk about your cooperation first.” He walked across the room as if he owned the place, which he probably practically did, as he appeared, at the very least, to run this place, trailing his wizened hand across the back of a chair and surveying the mess left behind from breakfast—the haphazardly scattered chairs around the table, all evidence that we hadn’t had a peaceful morning so far.

Kitan eyed the two guards, and I too wondered if they were about to follow Purveyn into the room or remain outside to stand guard.

When I looked at the officer again, I tried hard to remember where I could have possibly seen him, because he looked so familiar.

When his eyes met mine, I saw them widen a little, and his nose lifted as he inhaled.

Then, the male stepped into the room and made a sharp gesture with his hand at the soldier.

Immediately, the guy snapped to attention, turned his back to us to stand outside the door, and caused the panel to slide shut at the officer’s back.

“Joining us, are you, Ga’tera?” Kitan said in a low murmur, and I shivered at the realization that it would be hard for me to keep track of who was who when they could take such different shapes.

At least I could take comfort in the fact that Ga’tera had looked familiar to me in his skin-form, even though I’d only seen him in his hybrid-form.

The male didn’t say anything; he simply crossed his arms over his chest and watched with an undecipherable expression on his stern features.

He was exotic-looking and handsome, but he had even more patrician, regal features than Kest had.

Much of it was expression and bearing, and I wondered what it would look like if either of these males unwound a little. I probably wouldn’t recognize them.

When Purveyn turned from his contemplation of the breakfast disarray, he made his way to a large seating arrangement that would put him right in a sunbeam, highlighting him dramatically.

He sat down as if it were a throne and arranged his expensive silver-and-red robe around him with fastidious attention.

In response, Kitan pulled me to a couch across from Purveyn and had me sit down at his side.

Instantly, the lazy, insolent teenager was back, draping himself into the pillows and stretching out his legs in the rudest way.

He pulled me against his chest beneath one arm, and I followed suit, taking my cue from him and curling up on the couch as if this were a meeting with a parent and I wasn’t about to show that I cared.

Ga’tera took up position silently behind and slightly to Purveyn’s left, arms behind his back in parade rest, and his sharp gaze focused on Kitan.

I couldn’t believe that, at one point, I’d been even a little hopeful that he’d come around to our side and help us.

Looking at him now, he was the perfect flunky to this priest: loyal to a fault, with a chip on his shoulder.

“So, are you?” Purveyn demanded eventually. “From what I’ve seen so far, you don’t plan on it. That would be stupid, though—you have much more to lose this time, son.” His gold eyes drifted to me meaningfully, and the threat was clear.

I thought Kitan would stiffen and growl, maybe; he’d done so previously if someone threatened me.

Instead, he made an angry snorting sound.

“That threat would carry weight if she was healthy, but she’s not, Purveyn.

She’s dying.” I flinched at the bald way he’d stated that but didn’t say anything else, observing the reactions of the other two instead.

Purveyn looked more disgruntled than anything and then calculating.

Ga’tera’s eyes had gone wide for a brief moment, but he hid his thoughts well behind a blank facade.

Kitan’s hand gently stroked across my hair. “Degrading nav-ports.”

When no one continued to say anything, I added, “Less than a month to go if nothing’s done, and with a dependency on feedback from the nav-computer.

” I rubbed at the back of my head myself and felt the slightly hard bump where the port was located.

So innocent, so small—it hardly seemed like it could be something so deadly.

“I see,” Purveyn said. “And if we don’t heal her, you are never going to cooperate. But if we do…” He didn’t finish the statement, but Kitan immediately nodded.

“If you save her life and let her remain at my side, I will be your loyal slave. Breeding rights excluded—I will not betray my mate that way.”

My heart was pounding at the words, at the calm way Kitan was driving this bargain, as if they were talking about something as mundane as trading goods.

I saw the calculating light go on behind Purveyn’s eyes, and I had a feeling he knew that those breeding rights, which sounded horrible to me, were not entirely off the table.

He could easily agree now and threaten us with them again later.

I could see how the word “slave,” at least, had made Officer Ga’tera uncomfortable, especially since Purveyn didn’t refute it.

Indeed, he smirked and nodded. “Those sound like reasonable terms, I suppose. I wouldn’t want to separate you from your pretty mate nor cause you the pain of losing her so early.

” When he paused deliberately after that statement, it made my skin crawl—as if he was implicitly saying that he might very well be willing to cause Kitan that pain later.

“So we’re agreed? You ensure that Chloe gets the very best implants available and receives them from the best neurosurgeon there is on Sune, and I’ll cooperate in every way you want, except when it comes to breeding.

” Kitan sounded like he was spelling out a legal contract, wanting to hammer out all the details before he agreed to anything.

Of course, if they wanted his cooperation, he could always simply stop cooperating should they renege.

Was it going to be this simple? Cooperate, and I’d be cured?

Would we get to spend our lives together, after all?

Suddenly, that seemed like a possibility again, and my heart was racing with the thought.

Of course, what kind of life would we have when we’d remain in captivity?

Would we find some kind of happiness, because at least we’d be together? I didn’t know.

For a long time, Purveyn didn’t answer, just stared at the two of us with a smirk and a mean look in his eyes.

I wanted to shift around, feeling uncomfortable underneath that look, but Kitan seemed impervious, sitting still, sprawled back lazily as if he didn’t care one way or another what Purveyn’s answer was going to be.

The old bastard was taking great pleasure in drawing out the moment, clearly loving how much power he had—power over life and death, even my death.

Eventually, he nodded. “Very well. Cooperate, and I’ll see to it that she gets the very best. No breeding will be scheduled.

” “I’ll cooperate now if you ensure she gets the new implants within a week,” Kitan said, and now I could feel a little tension in his body, as if he worried that he’d pushed the old priest too far with that statement but knew he needed to make it.

I understood it. If he didn’t push here, how long would we be waiting, anxious and worried that my implants would implode at any moment?

How long would Purveyn draw out that fear, just for the sake of his power-hunger?

This time, though, Purveyn didn’t make us squirm; he simply nodded. “You’ll have the implants soon. I’ll have them delivered here for your inspection. Getting the right surgeon will take longer, but I’ll see to that too.”

With no further talk, the priest hoisted himself out of his seat, swirled his robes dramatically around him, and made his way to the door.

Ga’tera didn’t follow but instead jerked his head at us, indicating we had to come along.

Kitan and I both rose and did so. I was aware that we, or rather Kitan, had just agreed to follow their commands, so we didn’t have a choice.

I wasn’t about to let him leave me behind.