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I glanced at Lady Krynn’s intended and felt sorry for the kid. He looked as if he knew he was the sacrificial lamb in all this and was less than pleased.

It doesn’t make sense for Lord Bryson to sacrifice his son like this. He must think he can get Lady Seraph out of the way somehow, make his son Lord Krynn. But I never thought he’d be that stupid.

By the time the banquet was finished, my mind was swimming with questions and the need to get Zephyr back to the suite so we could strategize.

The first round of brackets for the fights were tomorrow, so the fighters were supposed to be getting rest. But as Zephyr slipped her hand into mine before we left the room, I felt the tension coming off her like a taut string.

She’d seen as much as I had and I wondered what she’d heard up there.

The three of us walked into our suite and immediately I knew something wasn’t right.

I looked down at Zephyr and she shook her head with a deep frown creasing her forehead.

Zelena went straight for her scanner to find the bugs and cameras.

The thing lit up like a firecracker and we proceeded to help her debug the suite. Again.

It took an hour to find them all and when we had tossed half of them down the toilet and the other half down the drain in the tub, I was sweating with anger.

“Something else is wrong,” Zephyr said, coming out of what had become our room. “Our clothes have been gone through. Some of my cyber unit replacements are gone.”

“Those cases were isometric,” I said, patting the pocket of the jacket, grateful that I’d decided to take the Lazarus Drive with me.

“They were,” Zephyr said, “but I bled out there during that first fight and a healer came to look me over. They’d have a cloth with my blood on it.”

“The question is,” Zelena said, handing us all drinks, “are they on to us or is it sabotage from one of the other syndicates?”

I nodded and was shocked when Zephyr batted the glass out of my hand and Zelena’s.

“Don’t drink it!” she shouted.

The glasses fell to the floor, shattering into wet shards.

“I turned on my optic scanner at the banquet,” she explained, kneeling down in front of the broken glasses and puddle of alcohol. “I don’t trust these people.”

“What do you see?” I asked.

“Nanites,” she said, a bright yellow light replacing the amber iris of her cyber eye. “And a chemical…that’s odd.”

“What is?” Zelena asked.

“This wouldn’t have affected you, Zelena, only a Cyborg.

The chemical is called Befflein, it was used in surgeries to implant new cyber units but it often resulted in other systems being corroded.

One of those was the system that keeps Cyborgs autonomous, protecting us from control by outside devices.

It’s a complicated failsafe, delicate. The chemical was banned years ago. ”

“But we’re talking about a group that runs the black markets. They could have barrels of the stuff.”

“Well they obviously knew what they were doing,” Zephyr said. “According to my scan, the dose would’ve been just enough to override that part of our CPU without damaging much else. And I assume the nanites were to allow someone else to control us.”

“I would guess this has to do with the fights,” Zelena said. “If someone could control you, then they could make sure you didn’t perform well. It would humiliate Lady Seraph if you were eliminated in the first round and sent away.”

“You mean each fighter that’s defeated is kicked off the station?” Zephyr asked.

“When did that rule become implemented?” I asked.

“During the last Blood Celebration, a few of the defeated fighters in the male category decided to take out their frustration on some of the other fighters. By the time security got it all under control, half the fighters were dead or incapable of continuing. So now, if you’re defeated, you’re escorted to a shuttle and sent back to wherever you came from.

To have the prized fighter of the Krynn house lose right off? That would be humiliating.”

“And the list of people that want to do that to Lady Seraph are as long as my dick,” I said.

“So not many then?” Zephyr asked with a smirk.

“I’m going to make you regret that later.”

“I do hope so.”

“Alright you two,” Zelena said, with a grin, “we’ve got to clean this up and figure out our next move so keep it in your pants for a little bit longer or I’ll get the hose after you.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Zephyr said with a seductive grin at Zelena.

“If I thought Sherrod could share, I would.”

“Maybe when I’ve had a few months with her all to myself,” I said.

Zephyr’s eyes lit up and suddenly all I could picture was her, with my dick in her mouth, and Zelena eating her pussy.

I cleared my throat and tried to wipe away that thought at the same time, but the twitching chub in my pants was far too obvious for either of the beautiful women in front of me to not notice.

“Dear goddess,” Zelena said with a shake of her head and wave of her hand as if she were hot, “I wish we weren’t in a life or death situation right now.”

She swished to the suite she’d taken over from Zephyr, leaving us alone for a moment.

Our lips collided in a sweet kiss that turned feral in seconds.

No matter how many times I had her, it only made me more ravenous for her body and soul.

From the way Zephyr was biting my bottom lip, I knew she felt the same way.

If Zelena hadn’t called to us, I would’ve carried her into our room and spent the rest of the night between her thighs, showing her how she was the only thing in the galaxy worth dying and living for.

“Hello?! Planning now, fucking later! And that’s me saying that.”

We broke apart on a snorting chuckle, Zephyr’s cheeks darkened, amber eyes dancing up at me.

“Definitely a few months just the two of us,” she said.

“You really think that will be enough to get each other out of our systems?”

“Hell no, but it’s a good start.”

We held hands like love sick teenagers as we walked into Zelena’s room.

It was staggering how much better I felt just touching her, having her next to me.

I didn’t care if it made me look like a fool, or if people thought me sentimental.

I had waited so long for this and I wasn’t going to waste a single moment.

When we got into the room, Zelena was wearing a dark purple robe, her face stripped of makeup making her look years younger. Her tendrils were writhing behind her, a sure sign she wasn’t happy and she was staring at a letter on the coms display on the far wall of the room.

“My courtesan who took a look at the contract says that it’s incredibly standard, almost as if she didn’t really care about it and just copied it off of somewhere.”

“Does that strike you as something Lady Seraph would normally do?” I asked.

“Not in the slightest. So I think you’re correct,” Zelena said, “there’s something going on that we can’t see.”

“She doesn’t care about the contract,” Zephyr said, “so perhaps that means I’m not meant to fulfill it.”

A cold, greasy sensation wound down my spine and dug hooks into my gut.

“Then we’ll have to be on guard,” I said, my voice far more a snarl than I’d intended.

“I’ll have some of my guards accompany you around the station,” Zelena said. “It’ll make the most sense. You’re still technically in my employ, my asset, if you will. It will be understandable that I want to protect you.”

“And I’ll tag along as much as I can too. Not because I don’t think you can take care of yourself,” I added hurriedly when I saw the deep frown on Zephyr’s face.

She waved my concern away however.

“It’s not that. It’s more that I don’t like walking into a situation when I don’t know all the moving parts. I feel partially blinded.”

“Well, leave that to me,” Zelena said, “I have a lot of feelers out. And several powerful people that owe me. I’ll suss out the situation.”

I gave Zelena a grateful smile and squeezed Zephyr’s hand, hoping that it would be enough.

“Now,” Zelena continued, a sour note in her voice, “we already have instructions from our benefactor. She sent several com messages and a training schedule. She doesn’t want you in the common training room anymore.

You’re to report to her head guard in the Krynn wing of the station to train with him. ”

“Do we know anything about her head guard?” Zephyr asked.

“Only that he escaped from the maximum security prison on a GUP penal colony. Twice,” I said, discomfort crawling up my skin at the thought of that man anywhere near Zephyr.

“Sounds like a winner,” Zephyr muttered. “Have you found out anything about Che’Pry?”

Zelena shook her head.

“And that unnerves me. I ran his face through every single database, and believe me, mine make the GIB look like child’s play.

Secrets, knowing who is who and what they do, that’s my real business.

While there were faces that came up, they were all less than a twenty percent match.

So either he’s had multiple reconstruction surgeries, or he’s a ghost.”

Zelena showed us a different screen with an insanely complicated security overlay. It was still running searches for the man at frighteningly fast speeds. I opened my mouth to ask Zephyr where she thought we should make sure to look when I saw her eyes widened and lips part.

Before I could ask what was wrong, she darted to the screen and stared at where Zelena had entered Che’Pry’s name in a different part of the search.

“Can you give me access to your AI real quick?” she asked.

Zelena glanced at me and then back at her with a deep frown.

“Sure but—”

“I’ll explain in a minute.”

Zelena gave her access and I watched as Zephyr went to an adjacent screen with just the man’s name. She began to take his name apart, scrambling the letters until…

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

It was an anagram for Cypher.

“I found you, you fucking bastard,” Zephyr growled.

I recognized that look in her eyes. It was the look of someone with a single minded focus, who was about to march out of this room and do something stupid.

“Hold on,” I said, grasping her shoulder. “We have to play this smart. If he is Cypher, then he’s embedded deep in the Krynn organization. We can’t just go in and kill him without risking a lot more than our lives.”

She huffed out an annoyed breath.

“I know. It could destabilize the region, causing a syndicate war that could easily spill over into GUP territory and we can’t have that and the K’Tavi up our asses. But this is the man that murdered my uncle, my agents! He’s the entire reason I’m here.”

“And the bio weapon, don’t forget that,” I said.

She started to pace, running her hand through her braids in a frustrated yank.

“Yes fine, that too. But this—”

“Is personal.” I stopped her with both hands on her shoulders, her skin warm and soft.

“I get it. I hunted the piece of shit that tried to kill you that night we met. I was obsessed. But I fucked up when I finally found him and innocent people got hurt, many of them died. I’ve never been able to shake that off.

I don’t want you to have to carry that around too.

We have to tread carefully. He’s not going anywhere, and he’s here with Lady Seraph for a reason, probably that weapon.

So we find that weapon and we get him too. ”

Her jaw tightened and she looked away, taking in what I’d just confessed.

I hated that memory. In a lifetime of shitty, selfish decisions, that one might’ve been one of the worst. I braced for her questions about it, for her to rage at me that this was different, that she would go do it herself if I wouldn’t.

But instead she nodded, anger sparking in her eyes.

“I hate that you’re right,” she said.

“We’ll get him, I swear.”

“Let me see what I can do to find out who exactly is part of Lady Seraph’s entourage.

If this Norris guy is with them, then we know we’re looking for a scientist and not just the weapon itself,” Zelena said.

“A few of my entourage are with some of the Krynn body guards tonight, they should have some information tomorrow. In the meantime, try to get at least a few hours’ sleep. ”

That dragged a grudging grin from Zephyr and I thanked Zelena with a smile of my own. She winked at me and shooed us out of her room.