Page 18

Jaz

The Drakes permitted Yani to mend their deepest wounds. The more minor ones were already healing well. Their reticence turned out to be fortunate, as our beleaguered cellular regenerator ran out of juice long before we ran out of injuries.

Finally, as Yani cursed and shook the unresponsive device, Zyair asked me, “How long until we fall out of slipstream?”

I glanced at the chronometer. “Just over four hours.” I swallowed. There was no avoiding the destination—once the coordinates were set, you were stuck until the slipstream spat you out. We were headed into Nirzk territory whether we wanted to be, or not.

Not. Definitely not.

Yani glanced at me as she snapped the regenerator into the charging unit. If we did, in fact, wish to be free of the Drakes, what better place to start than with their mortal enemies?

A fuzzy head popped out of Yani’s coverall pocket. Apparently when the Drolgok had nipped into the engine room, she’d done more than just jimmy the engine quiet.

Xandros leaned into the sickbay. “Is that a hedgegopher?” he asked .

Okay, it was difficult to not smile at an enormous alien leaning in to wave his thick finger at Sookie while making silly clicking sounds with his tongue. This was sooo not Drake behavior.

Or maybe, it was. Truthfully, I didn’t really know. They so seldom mixed with the human rabble that most of my knowledge of them was based on rumor and innuendo. Maybe all Drakes coaxed hedgegophers out onto their hands, and tickled behind their ears.

Yani seemed unfazed by this behavior. The Drolgok didn’t bat an eye at three-hundred pounds of solid muscle making cooing noises.

Yep. That’s what he was doing now. Sookie was enraptured. So was I.

Instead of even so much as raising a brow, Yani looked at me and said, “We need the navigation cube.”

“I’ll fetch it.” I turned to leave.

“Bring it to the galley,” she called after me. “It’s the only room big enough for all of us.”

Wasn’t so sure about that, myself. But it was the largest space we had, other than the storage bays. One of which was currently occupied by a fucking asshole, in every sense of the word.

“Rhodes and I will do a more thorough search of Senaik’s room and meet you back at the galley.” Zyair said. He added something to Xandros in Drakonian that I didn’t catch.

“Gotcha, bro,” Xandros replied from where he stood in the hall, petting Sookie. He offered the hedgegopher to Yani. “Do you want her back?”

Yani shook her head. “She looks happy there. Just bring her to the galley with you.”

To my surprise, when I headed down the hall, the big Drake fell into step with me.

“I don’t need help with this,” I stated.

“You got it anyway,” he said easily.

I couldn’t look at him. I mean, Sookie was purring . “And if I don’t want it?”

He shrugged. “I am hard to stop. It is easier to comply. ”

Well, he had a point there. I settled for not looking at him as we strode along. Because I didn’t want to acknowledge how damned sweet it was that he tickled Sookie under her furry chin.

The bridge was quiet, and for a moment I paused, staring out at the empty space beyond the viewscreens. Of course, it wasn’t really empty, but it always looked that way in slipstream. And it was carrying us into trouble.

“We could stop the ship.”

I didn’t realize I’d spoken aloud until he responded.

“Yeah. If you want to die bloody.” Xandros moved up beside me. He cradled Sookie against him, his thick fingers working in her fur.

I sighed. “Yeah.” The slipstream wasn’t really one long channel between two points, but rather a series of interconnected pathways. Travel through it was a delicate balancing act, one thrown into chaos if there was a breakdown in mid-slip.

We could shut the drive down and hang in limbo. There were systems for monitoring breakdowns, but before the cosmic equivalent of a tow truck arrived, another ship could slam right into us.

Such accidents happened often. Xandros was right. It wasn’t worth the risk.

But, every second we remained in the slipstream, it hurtled us closer to the Nirzks.

“We will find a solution,” the big Drake rumbled. “Zyair is smart. It is why he is our alpha. And Rhodes—he—he also has a certain wisdom.”

I glanced up at him. He was so tall that I barely came up to his chest. Which was naked. And no human could compete with those muscles. Wow.

I opened my mouth to speak and nothing emerged. So I cleared my throat and tried again. “What about you?”

He shrugged, grinned, and flexed his arm. “I thump things, my sweet-cheeked drifter.”

His blue eyes sparkled with gentle mischief, and my heart did an odd little flip .

No. I couldn’t afford to fall for this guy. But fucking hell, it was hard not to, with that lopsided grin and his fingers making Sookie close her eyes in bliss.

I wouldn’t mind those fingers stroking me…

Where the hell had that come from? I wrenched my gaze away, and hit a button on the console. A drawer popped open, revealing the cube.

It wasn’t a cube, exactly. More a three-dimensional hexagon. It glowed as I snatched it from its berth. Turning to march back up the hall, I did my best to ignore the sexy behemoth striding along with me.

Yani was already busy in the kitchen. Sookie made a chirruping sound and bounced out of Xandros’s arms to the table, and from there, jumped to the counter.

The Drolgok shook her head and placed her off to one side with her own plate of goodies. Although she preferred live insects and worms, Sookie had developed a broad palate—she particularly loved snickerdoodles, which was a large part of what Yani had given her.

Yani then placed a package of wraps on the table, along with vacuum packs of various meats. And to that, she added a plate of my favorite chocolate-covered pastries.

Xandros’s eyes lit right up. “Those look amazing. Mmm… chocolate,” he rumbled, and snagged one before Yani had even placed it on the table.

A Drake that loved small furry creatures and chocolate. Be still my heart. My mouth opened, and I yammered, “Our supplier guy is a foodie and he has a thing for me. He always adds extra treats to our list.”

Xandros started to plunk his big frame into a chair, then winced and yanked hard on the crotch of his coveralls again.

“How do your males wear these?” he complained as he lowered himself more carefully. “Shaftzing things almost unmaled me.” He didn’t wait for an answer, but pounced on the meat packs like he hadn’t seen food in months .

It was rumored that Drakes only wore the loincloth thingies or cloaks, as they enabled them to shift form in a hurry.

There was a certain metal that expanded with them, but these guys only had metal on their ears.

I supposed if you weren’t used to the constriction of clothing in key personal places, it would be uncomfortable.

Particularly if those assets were of impressive size.

Which they were.

Zyair and Rhodes came in. Neither one of them looked happy. “There is nothing of use in Senaik’s room,” Zyair growled. “He is unlikely to tell us anything.”

They both sat down—carefully, with such depth of facial contortions that my lips twitched. Something deep inside me relaxed as I sat there with the three of them. As if I had nothing to fear now that they were with me.

Which was, of course, ridiculous. They were Drakes . The very ones I was attempting to avoid entanglements with. Get with the program, Jaz , I thought as I unconsciously scratched my butt cheek against the stool.

To be more honest, my escape was as much about Kurt. Or, mostly Kurt. Along with my seriously twisted half-brother.

The Drakes were more fussed about their pants strangling their personal bits than they were about their multitude of half-healed wounds. As though being covered in wounds was commonplace for them.

Maybe it was.

Warriors. For the first time, I considered just what that really meant.

I wasn’t one. Just a woman on a mission. My own arm had been healed, but it still ached slightly, as though it hadn’t yet forgiven the insult of being clawed.

Kurt appeared in the doorway. His brows dropped when he saw the Drakes, but he directed his question to me.

“So now that you have royally farked things up, what is our next step? ”

I stiffened, and so did all three Drakes.

“We haven’t discussed that yet,” I said.

“We?” His gaze darted around the room. “Clearly, as soon as we emerge, we need to report to the slipstream authorities. They can deal with the Drake issue.”

The Drakes in question turned hard stares on him. Kurt took a step back.

“Once we have decided on a course of action, we will notify you,” Zyair rumbled.

To give him credit, Kurt tried to match glares with him. But he looked away almost immediately. He clearly didn’t know where he stood within the new hierarchy—Tazier Drakes were our overlords, while these Drakes were not.

The glance he shot me was less certain than it had been. “Keep me posted,” he said, and vanished back into the hall.

I sat down. All three sets of Drake eyes rotated to me as I placed the cube in the center of the table and pressed a button on the side, before tapping a few controls.

It obediently called up the starmap I’d last requested, which was our destination. It projected the map above it as a hologram, showing the resident systems and other features, each labeled.

They all stared at the starmap.

And then Zyair revealed the brainpower that Xandros had previously mentioned. My mind reeled at what he suggested, but the respect with which the other two listened to his plan revealed much.

They were brothers, but each so different. Xandros was a mountain of muscle who was once again stroking a purring and now stuffed hedgegopher.

His contribution was, “I will take the starboard gun.”

Rhodes was icy calm as Zyair went over the plan. He offered critiques with impeccable logic and listened to why his alpha thought they would, or would not, work.

They were balanced, these three, with Zyair as the leader.

Alpha, the Drakes called it. As he concocted a plan that left my head spinning, the word took on new meaning—Zyair combined Xandros’s passion and Rhodes’s logic.

And while what he outlined would be dangerous as hell, neither of his brothers protested.

I would have liked to, because I liked living.

But try as I might, I couldn’t come up with anything better.

Finally, after much discussion, there was silence as we all chewed on a combination of food and our thoughts.

Yani stood and started putting away the leftovers. She paused with her hands on a package of meat.

“Are we feeding the prisoner?”

“No.” Xandros may be a softie with Sookie, but he clearly had no love for Senaik.

Zyair’s nostrils flared. “He will live for a while without nourishment.”

Yani cast him a look. “It’s dangerous to keep him on board.”

I didn’t know if she was suggesting we dump him on a planet or kill him outright.

“He has information we require,” Rhodes rumbled.

“He will not tell us,” Xandros countered.

“We will get him back to Earth,” Zyair stated. “Azrome has access to interrogation techniques we do not.”

I frowned at them. “What kind of information do you need?”

Zyair didn’t answer right away. But then he spoke through gritted teeth. “Our clan was decimated during a battle with the Nirzks. Our leader, Azrome, suspects that we were betrayed.”

“Will Senaik know anything?” Xandros argued.

“He is here, is he not?” Rhodes pointed out. “He was taking us to the Nirzks. He knows.”

Zyair gestured to Xandros. “Take turns guarding him until we leave the slipstream. You take first shift. We need sleep. I will relieve you in a couple of hours.” He looked to me. “Is there a place for us to repose?”

I nodded. “There is a crew room with bunks. I can show you.” Even tired as I was, I didn’t think that I’d be able to sleep, not with what we faced once the Stardrifter left the slipstream…

As they stood, I was acutely conscious of their size and presence. These guys had been through hell. And we were going to need their skills to survive.

I led them to the bunkroom. All the beds on the Stardrifter were oversized, and now I appreciated that they were perfectly proportioned for the Drakes.

Zyair paced into the tight space to stare at the picture I’d mounted on the far wall. Travis had removed my drawings from the galley, claiming they were too distracting during crew meetings. But he’d permitted me to keep the one in the crew quarters.

It was a large painting of two dragons fighting. I’d never expected Drakes to see it, and now I held my breath as all three of them stared at it.

“That—that is beautiful.” Xandros swayed from one foot to another.

“It is,” Zyair agreed.

“Not enough head spikes,” Rhodes grumped.

“I was guessing at that, considering I’ve never seen the beasts up close and personal.”

Zyair spun to regard me with raised brows. “You drew this?”

I nodded. “Dragons are my favorite subject.”

It was an admission made without thought, and when they all stared at me, my face heated. I found myself blabbering, “I sell the images to the local tattoo parlor. They are quite popular.”

“I want ”—Xandros purred the word—“your drawing on my skin.”

As my knees went weak, Rhodes countered reasonably, “Is there any room left? ”

Xandros certainly had an impressive expanse of tatts showing. Or maybe he was just impressive.

“I have a special spot.” Zyair’s eyes gleamed emerald. “I would love one of yours on it. Do you have more to see?”

Okay, the undertones had me backing out of the room. My heart thundered in my ears, and I didn’t understand the heat flushing through me. These guys weren’t human, they were Drakes . I needed to get a serious grip.

As all three of them stared at me, I heard myself stammering, “When we get out of this mess, I’ll show you more drawings. For now, I need to rest, and so do you.”

I turned and fled. But I sensed their glowing gazes tracking me with every step I took…