Page 44 of Guardian's Soul (Space Guardian's Mate #2)
HANNAH
While the menfolk , as Nova called them with a derisive sneer, interrogated Possedion, the girls stayed in the common room to find out more about Sloane.
"So what happened to you?" Zoe asked without much preamble.
"Hold on, let her ask questions first. I'm sure she has a ton of them," Luph cautioned.
"Actually, Vraax already filled me in on most of it," Sloane admitted. "I asked him to take me to Astrionis, and he told me about your mission and made it clear that I wasn't going to Astrionis until this is finished first."
"You know about Astrionis?" I asked, surprised.
She nodded. "I've heard of it. Other prisoners talked about it."
Sloane appeared all open and relaxed, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was either lying or stretching the truth. Suddenly, Thrax's earlier words of warning came back to me. We had no idea who this woman really was and why she had been in that bathroom. I didn't share his suspicions that the Ohrurs might have planted her, but there was something she wasn't telling us.
"Other prisoners? Were you a prisoner on that space station?"
"I escaped." Sloane nodded. "I broke my ankle in the process. I've been hiding and scavenging for a couple of weeks."
"Oh, you poor thing," Zoe exclaimed.
"Why were the GTU forces after you?" Nova asked straightforwardly, making me think that she, too, was feeling that there was something our new sister wasn't telling us.
Sloan shrugged. "Probably because I stole food, and there was this minor incident where I tried to slip into the cargo hold of a GTU transporter."
She's lying!
I didn't know where this thought came from, but I felt its truth in my gut.
"Wow, badass," Zoe remarked, oblivious to Nova's and my skepticism. I looked at Luph, but her facial expression, as usual, didn't give much away. It either looked like she was frowning—a resting bitch face , one of my clients had called it—or it was warm and bright with the most beautiful smile. There was nothing in between. "What were you doing before… the invasion… you know."
"I was in the MARSOC before I was recruited by the CIA," Sloane told us.
"MARSOC?" I asked.
"A specialist unit of the Marines," Nova interjected, surprising us with her knowledge. "Marine Forces Special Operations Command. What?" She looked at us. "My brother wanted to be one." There was hurt in her eyes now, and I felt bad. We all lost people who meant everything to us, but her pain seemed deeper.
"I thought the Marines already were a specialized unit." Zoe voiced my thoughts .
"The best of the best," Sloane agreed.
"Guess they were jealous of the Navy Seals and Army Rangers and had to have their own." I tried to giggle to lighten the mood some.
I scrutinized Sloane a little bit closer. I believed she was telling the truth, and if she truly was CIA, it would make sense that she could lie with the best of them, which didn't make her any more trustworthy, in my opinion. Admirable, though. I had all the respect in the world for Marines, and hearing she had been in an even more specialist unit garnered my respect. No matter if she was lying about other things.
She looked tough, too. Her diamond-shaped face was all edges and would have been almost manly had it not been for her full lips and large, green eyes, which made her look stunning, like a supermodel. Add to that her height of probably five-eight or more and her lean body—which appeared too malnourished right now—and you saw one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen, especially in real life.
Not even her malnourishment could distract from the muscles on her forearm; they weren't large or out of proportion, but as a fitness instructor, I could spot if a person worked out or not, and she definitely had.
"So you're CIA now?" Nova questioned.
"Was," Sloane said with a wry expression around her lips. "I don't think there is a CIA any longer."
"No, probably not," I agreed.
"Well, we can sure use you." Nova still didn't sound very enthused, but that could be just because of who she was, not because she was mistrusting Sloane. It was hard to tell with Nova. She could be very cold until you got to know her better.
"Use me?" Sloane arched an eyebrow.
"Well, you weren't exactly rescued," I admitted. "We're in the middle of something."
Sloane chuckled slightly. "Yeah, Vraax said as much. "
"I'm sorry we can't take you to Astrionis," Zoe apologized.
Because I was still scrutinizing the hell out of her, I caught the flicker of anger in Sloane's eyes before her smile deepened. "That's all right. Astrionis was just a place I thought I could find safety."
"Well, we're safe." Luph smiled her bright smile.
"Yeah, for now." Nova rolled her eyes.
"Killjoy," Zoe accused her.
I was still staring at Sloane during the exchange, and amusement spread between her and me at the exchange. I would have loved to add to it, but as usual, I had no idea what I could have said. As it was, all five of us giggled now, and it felt not only good but right as if the five of us were meant to be together.
Finally, Sloane shook her head. "I should have known. Danger is literally my middle name, and I seem to attract it wherever I can."
"Your middle name?" Zoe asked.
"My full name is Sloane Pericolosa Storm. My father was Italian. He didn't like taking my mom's last name, but she made him, so he filled out my birth certificate before Mom had a chance and put Pericolosa in, which literally means Danger in Italian. It was supposed to be a warning never to let anybody get so close to you that they will emasculate you."
All four of us stared at her incredulously.
"It's true," she said, grinning widely.
"Wow, I feel kind of small now, having been named after a supernova," Nova said.
"Hannah isn't exactly colorful either." I tried to make her feel better.
"Or Zoe." Zoe laughed. "But Princess Luphelia might offer some competition."
"Princess?" Sloane asked, and we gave her more details about our motley group than Vraax probably did. And the Ohrurs .
"Doesn't sound like people you want to fuck with," Sloane agreed.
"No, they aren't," Zoe agreed. "They did something to the men, erased their memories or grew them in a lab or both. We don't know…"
"Erased their memories?" Sloane creased her forehead.
"Yeah, whenever they try to remember something from before they were Space Guardians, they get incredible headaches, stopping them from remembering," I added.
"They are the worst. We're trying to get to Darlam to find more answers, but the Ohrurs put a force shield up around the planet that's impenetrable." Zoe got herself back under control.
"And that's what they're interrogating the Ohrur about now?" Sloane asked.
We nodded in unison.
"You think he'll talk?"
I filled her in about the Ohrurs' pain tolerance and the waterboarding and sleep deprivation we had tried so far.
"Nice." Sloane nodded at me with approval. Then she looked at Luph. "That sleeping stuff you gave me yesterday. Are you some kind of healer?"
"We don't really need healers anymore. We have healing wands," Luph replied. "But to answer your question, I do know how to make certain remedies."
"Let me see, please." Sloane requested and Luph retrieved the wand we had used yesterday to heal Sloane's ankle. "Oh, I think I remember that now. Let me borrow that. Also, do you have a potion that will make someone violently sick, like throwing up?"
Luph shook her head. "I can make something, but why would you?—"
"Give it to me, and I'll make your alien talk," Sloane promised.
"That I've got to see." Nova boxed me in the side, and I agreed with her .
"Nock is streaming the whole thing. Not live, live, but we can watch it," Zoe suggested.
"Is there anything else you need to know from the Ohrur?" Sloane asked before she left.
"We want to contact the other Space Guardians, but their names are encrypted on the Ohrur database, and we haven't figured it out yet. If we can get their names, I can try to contact them and convince them to join… our little rebellion." I tried to lighten up our entire mission a little but failed because that's exactly what we were doing. Creating a rebellion.
Last night, we had decided that if we could ever crack the code, I would be the point of contact with the other Space Guardians. I wasn't sure why or how good I would be, but Zoe and Luph were digging through databases to find more on Darlam's history while Nova hacked into all kinds of secured sites. For reasons only she and Nock knew, but they always came up with something new and surprising. Unfortunately, neither one of them had been able to crack the encrypted code.
"I'll have that to you in a jiffy." Sloane sent an encouraging grin my way, and a few minutes later, we dropped her off by the cell Noodar had prepared for Possedion, and the rest of us stormed back into the break room to watch on the projector through Nova's comm that was linked to Nock's.