Page 26

He shook his head, jaw clenched tight. "I don't know. Like before, but... different." His eyes met hers, the gold now completely overwhelming the blue. "Something's triggering it." He broke off with a groan, clutching at his chest.

She grabbed his other hand, lacing her fingers through his. "Breathe," she instructed. "Focus on me."

His fingers tightened around hers almost painfully, but she didn't pull away. His gaze locked onto her face, using her as an anchor.

"That's it," she encouraged, stepping closer until her body pressed against his. "Just breathe with me."

He nodded, closing his eyes and pulling her closer. She went easily, fitting against his larger, harder body as though she'd been made to be there. Made to be his.

"I'm good," he murmured. "It's easing off."

She looked up, and he bent his head to capture her lips. When she gasped, the kiss deepened with an intensity that stole her breath. By the time they broke apart, his eyes had darkened again, but this time with desire rather than anything else.

"R aaxiin," he said firmly. "It's about six hours away. We find Laaer, we get answers."

She nodded, falling into step beside him as they headed back toward the main concourse. "And if he's working with local security?"

His expression hardened, something predatory flashing in his gaze. "Then they better stay the fuck out of our way."

* * *

Davis rolled his shoulders, trying to shake the constant crawling tension beneath his skin.

It had been three days since the last flare-up of whatever was changing him, three days of his body feeling like it belonged to someone, some thing else.

The sterile hallway of the Latharian apartment complex stretched before them, all smooth, clean lines and efficient design that only amplified the wrongness he felt inside his own flesh.

The scents in the building hit him in waves antiseptic cleaner, recycled air, the lingering chemical tang of someone's evening meal two doors down.

"Eyecam check," he muttered, blinking to adjust the contact lens in his right eye. A faint blue glow pulsed at the edge of his vision, telling him it was active. "You receiving, Mira?"

Her voice came through the comm unit, crisp despite the distance. "Clear as crystal. I can see the whole corridor."

The memory of her skin under his touch surfaced, sending a spike of heat through his blood.

Covak shot him a look, amber eyes gleaming with amusement. "Your pupils just dilated," the Vorrtan murmured, voice pitched too low for the comm to pick up. "One word from her, and your body reacts. Fascinating."

Davis ignored him, focusing on controlling his breathing. Every breath in brought a flood of information Latharian sweat and body odors, distinct and inhuman, the metallic taste of the environmental systems, someone cooking meat three floors up.

"Still think you should have found a way to bring her along," Covak murmured. "Not like there's any real danger here."

"Yeah, right." He gritted his teeth. "This place is Latharian. They don't have women, remember? She'd be recognized as human instantly. That's why I told her to stay on the ship. Where she's safe."

"Sure," Covak drawled. "And that's why you've been checking her location every twenty minutes since we landed to make sure she's safe. On the heavily armed mercenary ship. Filled with heavily armed mercenaries. Right?"

"Can you focus on the damn mission?" he snapped.

"What's Covak saying?" Mira's voice filled his ear. "I can't hear him."

His grip tightened on his sidearm. "Nothing important," he replied, glaring at Covak, who merely grinned, flashing pointed fangs.

"Just telling your boyfriend here that his protective instincts are showing," Covak said, deliberately turning his face toward Davis's eyecam. He waved his hand over his eye, deactivating his own cam. "I swear to God, Covak, if you don't shut the fuck up -"

The Vorrtan's laugh rumbled through the hallway. "Easy, Davis. Just making observations. You've been circling her like a snitzaac since she came aboard." He leaned in, and his nostrils flared. "Your pheromones are doing interesting things right now. Very... primal."

Davis's jaw clenched so hard he heard the creak of bone as he resisted the urge to introduce Covak's face to the wall. Several times.

"Davis?" Mira's voice cut through his thoughts. "What's going on? The feed cut out."

He steadied his breathing, then waved his hand over his eye to reactivate the eyecam. "Sorry. Technical glitch." He shot Covak another glare. "Covak's being a jerk. Didn't want to subject you to it."

"Hey! I'm an utter frexxing delight," Covak protested.

They rounded the corner and stopped dead. Yellow holographic security barriers flickered across an apartment entrance up ahead.

Acid burned up his throat. "Well, shit."

"What is it?" Mira's voice sharpened through the comm. "I can't see clearly with all that light."

"Security barriers." He kept his voice low as they approached more slowly. "Apartment 47 B. That's Laaer's place."

Covak's humor vanished. "This can't be good."

The hallway revealed its secrets as Davis looked around... small flaws in the wall panels, surveillance measures hidden in the ceiling, fresh scuff marks, and a muddy boot print near Laaer's door.

A door opened across the hallway while they studied the barrier. A tall Latharian stepped out, eyes narrowing when he spotted them. Davis tensed, muscles ready for a fight his brain knew wasn't coming. This guy wasn't a warrior. He looked more like a librarian.

"If you're after Laaer," the Latharian folded his arms, "then you're too late."

"Too late?" He kept his voice even.

"They found him three days ago." The neighbor glanced from Davis to Covak. "Suicide, though I never would have thought it of him. He always seemed so... driven."

"What happened?" Davis tilted his head.

The Latharian shrugged. "No one's saying much. They found him in his study. The security team has been in and out for days. Taking things, scanning."

"Any idea when they'll release the apartment?"

"Who knows?" The Latharian waved his hand. "The building administrator might have more information."

"Thank you," Davis said.

The neighbor gave them one more look before retreating to his apartment. The moment the door closed, Davis and Covak exchanged glances.

"What's happening?" Mira asked.

"That was Laaer's neighbor." Davis turned to the security barrier. "Laaer is dead. Committed suicide three days ago."

"Shit. Are you sure?"

"Unless the neighbor is lying, yeah." He ran a hand through his hair. Each setback meant more time without answers, more time with his body becoming something he didn't recognize, more time feeling himself slip away. "Anson, you reading this? We need into that apartment."

Anson's voice crackled through the comm. "Loud and clear. Already working on it. Give me two minutes with the building's security system."

Davis motioned to Covak, and they headed to a recessed alcove near the emergency stairwell, positioning themselves away from the surveillance cameras. The air tasted stale, mixed with the static charge of nearby electrical systems.

"You think he killed himself?" Covak kept his voice low.

Davis eyed the security barrier. "Convenient timing if he did."

"Too convenient," Mira added through the comm. "Right when we come looking for information?"

Pride rolled through him. She was smart and perfect. And all his.

"Got it." Anson's voice cut in. "Security loop created. Building system thinks apartment 47B is still secured but unoccupied. Security alert system is in standby mode. You've got twenty minutes before the system runs its next verification protocol."

"Understood." He pushed away from the wall. "Covak, we're up."

The Vorrtan nodded, amber eyes gleaming in the low light.

Mira's voice was low. "Davis, this is a massive risk. Be careful, okay?"

"Always," he replied. The security panel blinked green as they reached the apartment door. It slid open silently, and they stepped inside.

A wall of scent hit him as alien forensic chemicals and preservation agents assaulted his senses. Beneath them was the metallic tang of blood, days old but still there. His nostrils flared, automatically sorting the smells antiseptic, energy blast residue, brain matter.

He glanced at Covak, who nodded, pistol already in his big hand. He'd smelled it too.

"We're in," he said quietly for Mira's benefit as the apartment's main living area spread before him.

The furnishings were sparse, functional with a distinctly clean Latharian aesthetic.

Drawers had been pulled out and the cushions from the couches were thrown on the floor.

"Looks like the place has been gone over pretty thoroughly. "

Yeah. Just keep your eyes open and look around slowly, I might spot something you miss.

"Yes, boss."

They moved through the apartment methodically, making sure their eyecams caught everything: small scratches on the floor where somebody had moved furniture repeatedly, and headed into the barely used kitchen.

He paused halfway across the room and used the muzzle of his pistol to lift the lid on the waste disposal

Looks like Laaer ate out a lot of the time, Mira murmured in his ear as they swept out of the kitchen, checking the bathroom and moving on into the bedroom. Like the other rooms, it contained nothing personal, just the essentials.

The study was different, though. The moment they walked in, they both stopped short.

The atmosphere hung heavy with death. The room looked clean at first glance, but the cam lens picked up what cleaning hadn't erased a spray pattern of blood and gray matter on the wall behind the desk, still clinging to microscopic imperfections in the surface.

"Covak." He nodded toward the wall.

The Vorrtan narrowed his eyes, examining the pattern. "Yeah. Got it. Energy weapon. Close range." He pointed to the slight discoloration. "Impact pattern's all wrong for self-inflicted."

"Yeah. This was an execution," Davis agreed, the word bitter on his tongue. Rage rolled through him, his hands curling into fists. Someone had killed their loose end, covered their tracks, and removed one more path to the answers he needed.

"What are you seeing?" Mira asked through the comm, her voice pulling him back to the present.

"Blood spatter," he replied grimly. "Laaer didn't kill himself. He was shot. It was made to look like suicide."

"Oh shit," she whispered.

Covak headed to the desk, examining the research terminal and flicking through dataflexes. Davis inhaled deeply, picking up a new scent: fear. Shit . Laaer had been terrified before he died.

"These are all botanical research," Covak said after scanning several documents. "Indigenous plant adaptations. Nothing about genetics at all. Nothing worth killing him over. Not unless you've got a hard-on for plants."

"His cover story," Davis muttered, frustration building again. "Time check," Anson's voice came through. "Fourteen minutes remaining."

Davis waved his eyecam off. "Mira, we're going dark for a minute. Covak's going to try accessing the research terminal."

"Wait-" Mira's protest cut off as he disabled his comm unit as well. The sudden absence of her voice left a hollow feeling in his chest, but the protective impulse won out. If something went wrong, she didn't need to witness it.

"She's going to be pissed," Covak said, pulling a bypass unit to connect to the terminal.

"Better than having her watch if security bursts in and offs us."

"True." Covak's fingers moved with surprising speed across the interface. "Terminal's been wiped. Recently." He frowned. "But not completely. Someone was in a hurry."

"Can you recover anything?" Davis circled the desk. Every second ticking away brought them closer to another dead end, another delay in understanding what was happening to him.

"With Anson's help, maybe. Yeah." Covak reactivated his comm. "Anson, I'm sending you a direct feed. Need your decryption expertise."

Davis reactivated his systems as well, bracing for Mira's reaction.

"What the fuck, Davis?" Her voice came immediately, tight with anger and worry. "You can't just cut me off like that."

"Sorry," he said, meaning it. "Covak needed to focus on hacking the terminal."

"And I'm such a distraction?"

"No, it's not-" He sighed, struggling for words. "I just didn't want you involved if this goes south."

"I'm already involved," she pointed out.

Before he could reply, Covak whooped softly in triumph. "Got something. Partial data recovery."

Davis moved to look over his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Project names, mostly. References to something called the Latharian Medical Archives at Kaaraxis." Covak scrolled through the fragmented data. "Looks like research notes, heavily encrypted."

"Kaaraxis. I know that name," Mira repeated, excitement creeping into her voice. "The ship's database says that's a massive medical research repository. If Laaer was working with K ell, that has to be where they'd store their research data."

Davis exchanged a look with Covak.

"Davis?" Mira prompted when he didn't immediately respond. "This is it. We need to go to Kaaraxis."

Davis closed his eyes briefly. He didn't know much about Latharian history, but he was familiar with events in the last couple of years. "Mira... Kaaraxis was razed to the ground last year. Terrorist attack. Nothing survived."

Silence stretched between them.

"You're sure?" Mira finally asked.

"Yeah. Positive," Covak confirmed. "It was all over the news feeds. The Latharian Purist movement claimed the attack. They targeted it specifically because it had research on genetic modification and the Latharian integration with humanity."

"So we're back to square one," she said, her voice flat.

Davis clenched his jaw, frustration building inside him. Another dead end. Another delay in finding answers.

"We need to wrap this up," Anson's voice cut in. "Eight minutes remaining."

"Copy that," he replied, forcing himself to focus. "Covak, anything else useful?"

The Vorrtan continued scanning. "Nothing immediately obvious. I've copied what I could, but most of it is corrupted. Anson, Jesh, or Jex might be able to make sense of it."

Davis swept his gaze around the study again, as if answers might suddenly appear.

"Okay, we're heading back. We'll have to try something else."