Page 93 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Kitan

I tried hard not to pay too much attention to the soft curves of my mate, where she sat in my naked lap.

The combination of the high-speed chase, my hands controlling a tiny vessel, and the excitement of being free seemed to be too much for my body.

I just hoped Chloe didn’t think I was a complete lunatic for getting aroused during such a high-stakes moment.

Grinning, I had to admit that I hardly cared.

I just needed to make sure her sweet curves didn’t distract me too much—I wasn’t about to let us crash and ruin this chance.

Not that I had much of a plan for us beyond getting to a city where there were many people to hide among.

If we could get to a spaceport, I could sneak us aboard a vessel and get us off-planet.

My plans stalled there; Chloe needed the surgery or a stasis pod as soon as possible.

If I picked a vessel that didn’t have one of those…

The two drones that had been on my tail hadn’t managed to keep up with my daredevil flying. That was good news—maybe… Maybe they’d backed off because this damn thing likely had tracking, and they were just going to be waiting for us when we landed.

I flew us as erratically as possible for hours.

Chloe had gone from tense and alert to soft and pliant in my lap at some point, and I knew she’d fallen into an exhausted slumber.

She hadn’t mentioned the blood that I smelled on her, but I feared the worst if she was having nosebleeds…

She was deteriorating far quicker than expected.

When the drone’s fuel cell was getting close to depleted, I set us down in a clearing.

In the distance, I could see the lights of a city glitter against the predawn light.

Chloe, groggy as I hustled her and our packs out of the drone, sat down on the ground with a sigh and watched me as I fiddled with the controls, managing to get the thing to lift off the ground again and set off in a drunken, swerving course towards the buildings in the distance.

Hopefully, that would buy us a little time.

Chloe rallied when I urged her to her feet.

She’d done her best to wipe the blood from her face, but I saw it anyway.

There were also small cuts on her cheeks where her hair had flayed her skin.

I didn’t mention either of these things, though my heart felt heavy with the knowledge.

Right now, there was nothing either of us could do about it; we simply had to soldier on and hope we’d make it.

Taking her hand in mine, I pulled her towards me, just so I could press my mouth to her soft lips.

It was gratifying that she came immediately and melted into my arms with a soft sigh.

“I need to have you again, soon,” I murmured against the delicate shell of her ear, enjoying her shudder and the scent of her arousal tinting the air almost immediately.

We had no time; this was far too exposed a location.

Stepping back but holding onto her hand for a moment longer, I extended the connection between us.

I finally allowed a shift to come over me again: the shape of the fast and strong Fantreal horse.

She eyed my gleaming back, and I swatted my three tails in her direction, drawing a smile.

Then, with a sigh, she slung the packs over her shoulders and climbed on.

I set out a course that partially circled the city to make sure we’d enter the suburbs from an unpredictable direction.

I kept my pace to a steady trot this time—something I knew I could sustain for several hours if needed—my split hooves providing grip and traction in the uneven, hilly, forested terrain surrounding the Sune capital.

When we reached the first road, I crossed it and kept on into the forest. I did the same for the next two, but I followed the fourth along the side, in the cover of the woods, until we approached the first homesteads that dotted the landscape—a precursor to the densely-packed buildings of the city.

I couldn’t be seen in a shape with tails from this point on, so behind some bushes, I shrugged Chloe off my shoulders.

Her slight weight dropped lightly onto the mossy ground.

I shifted back, feeling a twinge in my muscles that time, which let me know that my body wasn’t entirely happy about the strenuous activity of the past few hours. Maybe it wasn’t as recovered from all the shifting as I’d like it to be either.

Naked, my skin pebbled in the cool night air, but I paused to pose for Chloe when I noticed how her eyes clung to me, a flush creeping across her cheeks.

She shook herself out of the moment far too quickly, and hurried to pull my clothes and boots from the pack.

She shoved them at my chest with what was almost irritation, and I couldn’t help it—I chuckled.

“Like what you see, don’t you, Chloe?” I taunted her with a grin. She groaned and rolled her pretty eyes.

When I popped my head through the black knit sweater, she had a comeback, though: “I’m not the one who gets turned on from high-speed chases.”

I grinned. “Your pretty behind was right there, on my cock. Of course, I was imagining you riding me.” She made a choking noise and then giggled, swatting softly at my arm. I lived for those sounds and had to scoop her up and cuddle her close for a moment.

After we breakfasted on the leftover dinner foods, she’d had the foresight to pack for us.

The bread and meat were a little dry but still good, especially after I’d burned so many calories shifting and running.

I couldn’t complain and ate far more than I normally would.

It made what was leftover a paltry amount, but I couldn’t worry about that.

We’d scavenge once we got to the city itself.

"Now what?” Chloe asked. “Walk to the city? Steal a ship?” I grinned at how her first thought seemed to be grand theft and shook my head, wagging a finger in her face.

“Uh-uh, you’re not with the pirates anymore.

At most, we’re going to stow away somewhere.

” Then I took her hand and guided us through the woods and past the first homestead.

I knew what I was looking for, and Chloe was fully expecting to walk the entire distance, so she didn’t complain—even though an hour in, I could see that she was flagging.

She was tired, and so was I, to be honest, but we couldn’t just walk up to the nearest homestead and ask for help; that would be far too suspicious.

When we’d traveled for a good hour, I finally spotted what I was looking for.

Hurrying her along with a hand to the small of her back, I guided us off the rarely used ground road and onto the driveway of the homestead I’d spotted.

A large threshing barn loomed nearby, and fields filled with purple Haras wheat stretched out beyond the line of trees.

What I was after, however, was the smaller shed to the left of the low-built homestead itself. A relay station—most farms didn’t bother with them because they didn’t care to receive news from all over the galaxy. This homestead was likely run by Adasun: people not originally from Sune.

“There,” I pointed at the small building.

“It should allow us to try and contact the Vagabond.” Chloe’s blue eyes shimmered at me, something like a hopeful smile pulling at her lips.

I could see the strain around her eyes, though—the paleness of her face.

She was struggling to keep up, to hide that her head was hurting her.

I stroked a thumb over her soft cheek. “I know your head is hurting. It’s going to be okay.

” Deep down inside, I wondered, fear coiling through my belly thick and strong—was it? Was she going to make it?

I had no lock-picking skills to speak of, and, sadly, as it turned out, neither did Chloe.

So, we resorted to simply breaking down the door, granting us access but possibly also alerting the farmer and his family.

Once inside, I flipped on a light and headed for the switchboards in the neat cabinet.

This thing was meant to be used in conjunction with normal coms and viewscreens, but there should be a simple sound-only option to dial out, too.

I had the hail frequency for the Vagabond memorized—a good habit to have, one that I’d tried to teach my fellow gladiator brothers.

One never knew when one could end up stranded somewhere and need to signal for help.

Now, I hoped that Ziame hadn’t done as I’d asked and left orbit, though this relay was powerful enough to reach them even if they were en route to some other place.

It had only been a few days; they couldn’t have gotten far.

The connection was smooth, the system fairly new.

I could tell that the call was going out correctly.

Now, it was just a matter of them picking up.

That took a moment—a nail-biting, tension-filled moment during which I kept pacing and eyeing the shed’s single exit, checking furtively to make sure no one was approaching.

I didn’t want us to get ambushed by a bucklaser-wielding farmer.

Chloe seemed oddly calm as she sat against the wall, her gun at the ready, facing the doorway.

She nodded my way, letting me know that she was on guard.

Just then, I heard a voice come in over the audio-only com.

The sound was terrible, crackling a little, but that was more to do with bad speakers than a bad connection.

“Hello? Who the hell is this?” demanded a female voice. I could feel my knees go weak with relief at the sound of Abby’s voice, crisp and English, so similar to how Chloe sounded when she spoke English to herself.