Page 37

It was hard to get started but once I had, it just spilled out and I pressed my face to his neck to keep from having to look him in the eye.

Sherrod rubbed my back and held me, his breathing even.

I was a bit miffed that he wasn’t panicked and then wondered if it would simply hit him later, or at all.

“I thought I got you out of my system with Zelena and a hundred other people,” he admitted after a few minutes.

“But I think it was a bandage to cover up the pain of losing you. Those feelings, that connection…I think if it’s real then time doesn’t matter, it remains.

Through death, through distance. I can’t explain it, all I know is that how I feel for you is so much more than what I felt before.

Almost like…like time and hardship made it richer, stronger.

It’s real, and it’s everything, that’s all I know.

So you spiral, you question and I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere.”

A tight, jagged piece dislodged in my chest, as if I’d been waiting for him to run, knowing that I had doubts and fears. Now that he wasn’t, I could breathe. My arms tightened around him and I let him hold me. We sat there for a while, saying nothing until the door chimed.

“Oh, that’s right, we have a mission,” I sighed.

Sherrod kissed the top of my head.

“Come on, once we’re done I’ll take you on a shopping spree, anywhere you want to go. And then to a pleasure planet that is clothes optional.”

I let out a carefree laugh and knew that I hadn’t felt happy enough to do that in a long, long time.

“As long as there’s donuts there, I’m in,” I said as I climbed off his lap.

“I’ll import them if there isn’t.”

“You spoil me.”

Sherrod gave me a feral grin as he followed me to the door.

“Sweetheart, I haven’t begun to spoil you.”

He snagged a robe off the back of a nearby chair and opened the door. I felt the chill before I saw his smile slip just enough for me to know something wasn’t right.

Standing in the hallway was a man dressed in dark red pants and a high collar dark red coat with black accents at the cuffs.

He had small, dark eyes that seemed to eat up the light, a hooked nose and shaved head, though it could’ve been a species thing.

It was hard to tell what species he might be though.

His features were Human, but there was a bluish tint to his incredibly pale skin that was like a Mishvaian, but his eyes didn’t look like that species, and he didn’t have the speckled scales either.

I would’ve said maybe Valtoshan, except he didn’t even have the nubs of tendrils at the back of his neck that mixed species offspring often had.

When he smiled, his teeth were straight but his tongue was a purplish color. And his voice was deep like a Damodrid, but not accented like one.

“Hello, I’m one of Lady Seraph’s ambassadors, may I come in?”

“As I understand it,” Sherrod said slowly, “offers of sponsorship were to keep to the public areas, not the lodgings.”

The man’s grin reminded me of a spider, and I suppressed a shiver.

“This is to settle a debt. I believe you had a problem you wanted the Lady to fix?”

I glanced at Sherrod, who was clenching his jaw, all hint of civility gone.

“I see. Come in.”

When Sherrod stepped aside for the man I did too and then gave him a look behind the intruders back. Sherrod shook his head and mouthed “Later.”

“You caught us in the middle of breakfast,” Sherrod said.

“I see that,” the man said, taking a spare seat at the table and helping himself to some coffee.

“Who are you?” I asked, fed up with standing by and letting Sherrod handle this.

“Ah yes, my name. You may call me Che’Pry.”

I didn’t have to ask if that was his real name or not, it obviously wasn’t. But something about it tickled the back of my brain, as if I should know it. I didn’t have time to untangle the mystery of it because Sherrod had started speaking.

“Alright, Che’Pry,” Sherrod said, returning to his seat, “what can I do for Lady Seraph?”

I couldn’t sit without fidgeting so I stood behind Sherrod, my hand on his shoulder and observed the man in front of us.

He didn’t fidget at all, seemed comfortable in his own skin, had no identifying marks that I could see except when he raised his cup of coffee.

He was missing the tip of his middle finger, and the wound looked relatively fresh.

There were no other scars on him, which I found odd considering who he worked for and what he likely did.

Maybe it’s under his clothing, maybe that’s why he’s covered so much.

“I think you know,” Che’Pry said, his cold gaze flicking over to me.

“She wants me to fight for her,” I said, hoping like hell it wasn’t anything else.

“You are as intelligent as I expected,” Che’Pry said with an oily grin.

His compliment was sand against my skin and I shifted uncomfortably.

“I’m the one you need to negotiate with,” Sherrod growled, “leave my fighter out of it.”

“More than a mere fighter to you, I’d say.”

Sherrod’s hand tightened into a fist and he was about to get to his feet when Che’Pry sighed as if he were bored now.

“Please don’t. I hate posturing, possessive males.” Che’Pry set a small data stick on the table. “This is the contract and the particulars regarding compensation. Look it over and sign it within the hour.”

“That’s it?” I asked, gaping at the man. “No negotiating or discussion?”

“That has already occurred, my dear. And I can promise you that the terms are very generous. There’s even a stipend to the person of your choice in the event of your demise.”

“There will be no demise, and I will look this over. If I see anything I don’t like, I will tell you.”

Che’Pry shrugged.

“You can tell me whatever you like, it won’t make a difference. When the Lady sets her mind to something, she gets it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must report to her. A tailor will come shortly to measure you for your new wardrobe. Both of you.”

Che’Pry walked out, leaving the chill he brought with him.

When the door was shut, we both glanced down at the data stick, pretty certain there was a bug in it.

I followed Sherrod over to a wall unit that had a port and inserted the stick, and we read the contract.

It was strangely normal. I read it several times, attempting to find anything out of the ordinary but there was just… nothing.

I used Trade Speak to signal to Sherrod and he nodded.

“What the fuck is going on? Did you make a deal without telling me?” I signed.

“Sort of?” he signed back.

“What does that mean?”

“I implied that Vixen was a threat to you that I would like eliminated, then she told me to not come back to my room too early. I assumed she would do something, but I didn’t think she’d handle it like this.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“This is what we wanted,” Sherrod signed, “right?”

“Yes, but not at the expense of someone’s life!”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure Vixen was wanted for murder in several systems.”

It made me a terrible person that it did kinda make me feel better but I didn’t want to admit it. Instead I threw up my hands and paced.

“Should I agree?” I signed after a minute. “Doesn’t that give her too much power over the situation?”

“She needs to think she has it to make this work,” he signed back. “And you won’t be fulfilling that clause. We’ll be gone by then.”

“And hunted by a psycho with a long reach.”

“Yeah…hadn’t thought of that.”

I wracked my brain but as much as I tried, there didn’t seem to be an option other than this one.

“If we do this,” Sherrod signed, “there’s a chance we can get close to her here. And if the information on Norris isn’t on her now, then we can get it by being in her compound later. You’re a shiny new toy, she’ll want to keep you close at the beginning.”

“That’s not making me feel better, but I think you’re right,” I signed back with a deep frown. “We need to get to Norris before Cypher does. I just feel like waiting until this tournament is over is burning time we don’t have.”

“I know, but what other choice do we have?”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“You sure?”

“It’s the only option,” I signed and then out loud, “let’s do it.”

He kissed me hard, as if he were trying to keep me in this moment forever so we didn’t have to risk one another in this increasingly messy operation.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he signed. “I swear it.”

“Ditto, trouble maker.”

As I digitally signed the contract, a sick sensation settled in my stomach. When things fell into place too neatly in an operation, it usually meant that shit was going to go wrong in a spectacular fashion. I had no reason to think this would be different.

“We need contingencies,” I signed to him.

“Agreed. This did fall into place too easily, didn’t it?”

I gaped at him and shook my head.

“Fucking terrifying.”

“What is?”

“How much we think alike.”

“We were trained by the same man,” Sherrod signed. “It’s not surprising.”

“That’s true.”

“You get to training, I’ll start strategizing with Zelena. She knows the venue and the crowd better than anyone.”

I nodded and then yanked him to me, planting a hard, demanding kiss on him.

“We’ll be okay,” he breathed. “Don’t worry.”

I tried to believe him, to nod and smile and focus on the next steps. But that feeling that we had just walked into a dangerous web was only growing with each step I took.