Page 29 of Guardian's Soul (Space Guardian's Mate #2)

HANNAH

The Ohrur was good. I only hoped Thrax wasn't buying any of his bullshit. His expression was unreadable, making my stomach cramp with unease. For some reason, I felt like I had been here before. Listening to Ohrurs spouting nothing but bullshit and lies and increasing my resentment for Possedion. No, resentment wasn't a strong enough word. I hated this man with all my being, much more than I reasonably should have. "So you want us to believe he was brewed up and raised in a lab?"

"To simplify things for your sake, yes." Possedion glared at me.

"If that is true, give me access to your database, and I will research your claim." Thrax dared him.

I smirked. I bet the Ohrur hadn't seen this one coming.

"Fine."

"Fine?" I echoed, totally taken by surprise.

"I'll do anything to make you see what you've gotten yourself into. You are like our… sons." Possedion looked at Thrax almost fatherly, turning my stomach.

Thrax held out his comm. "Go ahead. "

With a gleam he failed to hide, Possedion did as told, handing Thrax the comm back when he was done.

"I will check your claim," Thrax told him and grabbed my elbow to lead me out.

"Hold on." I protested. "Just like that? We can't?—"

"Let's check this data out," Thrax said in a deep voice, sending a look at Possedion that seemed to say, I want to trust you .

Frustrated, I huffed and opened my mouth, but Thrax shook his head. "I have to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Oh, come on, you can't be serious. Remember how we met? I had no clue who you were or if you would be there. How could I have planned ensnaring or bewitching you?" I nearly stomped my foot for good measure. Anger simmered inside my veins. How could he throw away everything we had gone through this far? How could he even consider… and then something else hit me: fear. If Possedion succeeded with his lies… I was at Thrax's mercy. There was no police here I could simply call. If he decided to drop me off on an asteroid or send me into a sun, there was nothing I could do about that. Strangely, that notion didn't scare me half as much as losing Thrax did. Or what it would do to him if he really did hurt me and later found out the truth.

"You evil, lying—" I lunged at Possedion, but Thrax caught me easily midair.

"Let's go."

The door had barely closed behind us before Thrax pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

"By the eternal darkness, I needed that," he said when we came up for air.

"You needed that?" I asked, pulling a finger up to my swollen lip. Hell, I needed that.

"You don't believe him?" I dared to hope .

He shook his head. His expression was a grim mask of hate, but not for me. "Not a word."

"Phew." I let out a deep breath.

"You didn't think I would, did you?" He looked at me.

"Not for one second," I lied, and we both laughed. It wasn't a good laugh. It was nervous and tense.

"I should have told you this before, but Ohrurs have a large pain threshold. Torturing him won't give us much." Thrax ran a hand through his hair.

"Why didn't you?" I demanded, a bit offended that he hadn't.

"Well, let me see." He pretended to think about it. "Probably because you keep distracting me with those lips of yours."

This time, my smile was deep and real. All the way. "I'm distracting you, eh?"

"All. The. Time." He grinned.

"All right." I took his arm. "Apology accepted. Let's see what we can find out poking through the database."

Thrax hesitated as if he wanted to say something else but stopped.

"What?"

"Nothing." He started walking toward the bridge.

"I know that look, and it doesn't mean nothing."

"I just don't think we'll find much on this database."

I frowned. "I don't understand. Wasn't that the whole point of getting it?"

"I might be wrong." Thrax tried to wave it off, but his words raised worry inside me.

"Let's just go and see," he said, and we entered the bridge, where we sat down, and he changed the screen ahead of us into a large one instead of projecting a multitude of smaller ones.

He browsed through the screens at a dizzying speed. "Just like I feared," he finally sighed.

"What?" I had no idea what he had discovered .

"Earlier, I got the suspicion that everything Possedion was telling us was a lie?—"

"You don't say," I interrupted, unable to keep the sarcasm from my voice.

Thrax chuckled. "There she is."

"Who?" I nearly looked over my shoulder, even though I knew it was just him and me aboard this ship. Well, and now Possedion.

“Your feisty side. I've missed her."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, space cadet."

"Space Guardian." He grinned so brightly, my lips curled.

"So are you going to tell me or keep me in suspense for a few more hours?"

He pretended to think about it, and I nearly boxed him in the side.

"I think that whatever happened to you and me has happened to people before," he explained, and I bit my tongue in time before another sarcastic snark left my lips. Probably often enough for the Ohrurs to have a contingency plan, and"—he motioned to the screen—"maybe even a secondary database."

I stared at the screen he pulled up. Several Ohrurs were inside what was definitely a lab, a very high-tech, alien lab, surrounded by test tubes, and in the background stood an array of large cylinders with forms floating inside. Forms of different sizes and very Space Guardian-ish looking.

"Oh, Thrax!" I exclaimed, reaching for his hand. He let me grab it but shook his head.

"It's not real."

I frowned. "Not real? How can you tell?"

"Because I'm not a test-tube baby ," he replied with conviction. "I feel it in here." He pointed at his heart with his free hand.

"Ok-ayyy," I drew the word out skeptically.

"Trust me?"

I looked him in the eyes. "With my life. "

His smile was deep and genuine. "Good."

"This is going to take time. I need to win his trust, make him believe that I?—"

I shook my head. I didn't know how or why, but I was certain that time was the one thing we didn't have. "You said Ohrurs are as good as immune to pain, right?"

He nodded, waiting for me to continue.

"What about fear, terror?"

"I don't know. I imagine they're as susceptible to this as any other creature in the universe."

I couldn't believe I was thinking this. I had been appalled—and still was—when I first heard about it on the news years ago. But I couldn't shake this nagging sensation deep in the pit of my stomach that urged me on, that told me this was the right thing to do, even though it was so fundamentally wrong. The Ohrurs were keeping a dark secret, and for some reason, I felt justified that it would be right to use any means to get it out of Possedion. I wondered if others before me had felt that same way, and that was why they had done the unspeakable things they did. I prayed I was right and not condemning my soul to hell.