Page 10

CHAPTER 10

R ona had to admit, it did feel good to be clean again.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a hot shower, and it felt even better to have clothes.

While she was drying off, Aeron went and fetched a T-shirt for her.

One of his own. On the Merc’s big body, the shirt probably would have fit like a second skin, but on Rona it was big and loose, and it hung down past the tops of her thighs.

Some underwear would have been nice, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Once they were both dressed, Aeron led her to the front of the ship.

There was a heavy steel door separating the cockpit from the corridor, and Rona found herself wondering how the other Mercs had heard the noises she’d been making back in the holding cell.

Was their hearing really that good?

Or were there microphones in the cell that had picked up everything that had happened?

God, maybe there were cameras too.

Rona shivered at the thought.

Aeron pressed his big hand into a scanner on the wall—the same hand that had so recently touched nearly every part of Rona’s body—and the door shunked open, revealing the cockpit beyond.

Aeron gestured inside.

“After you…”

Rona nervously complied.

As soon as she had stepped inside the cockpit, she was smacked with an odor of masculinity so heavy and intense, she felt as if she had stepped into a testosterone factory.

That raw, rugged scent should have disgusted her, but it didn’t.

In fact, it had almost the opposite effect.

She could feel her nipples stiffening in response, and she found herself wishing that the fabric of her T-shirt weren’t so goddamn thin.

But she didn’t dare try to cover her chest. That would only draw more attention from the occupants of the room.

And she was already the center of attention.

Murdok was sitting in the pilot’s seat, and as Rona entered the cockpit, he swung around to look at her.

His faintly glowing augmetic eyes seemed to strip her bare, and his fanged smirk suggested that he really had heard everything.

Rona flushed and looked away.

She turned her eyes toward the other occupant of the cockpit, and gasped.

The man named Zeth was lounging in the copilot’s seat, one leg slung nonchalantly over the arm of the chair.

His hood was drawn back, and for the first time, Rona was able to see his face.

He wasn’t grizzled and scarred like the other two mercenaries.

Not even close. His was the face of an angel, porcelain smooth and pristine, prettier than most women.

A mane of golden hair hung down to his shoulders, and a matching gold fuzz lined his slightly pointed chin.

As his eyes met Rona’s, he dragged his perfect teeth across his full lower lip.

Rona could almost feel those teeth between her legs.

“Took you long enough,” Murdok said.

“We had to take a quick shower,” Aeron explained.

“Things got a little… messy.”

He stepped into the cockpit with Rona, then he closed the door behind them.

Rona glanced up at him nervously, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

As reassuring as a seven-foot-tall killer could give, anyway.

“Well, go ahead and have a seat,” he said.

Rona looked around the cockpit, bewildered.

As far as she could see, there were only two seats, and both of them were currently occupied.

Before she had a chance to point this out, the Merc named Zeth grabbed her wrist and pulled her gently toward him.

“You can sit with me,” he said in a voice as smooth and thick as honey.

He pulled her onto his lap.

“Oh!” Rona gasped. “Um…”

She was tempted to shift her weight to get comfortable, but she was worried that doing so might cause her shirt to ride up.

She was even more worried about the long, hard thing she could feel hiding beneath the fabric of the Merc’s pants.

She remembered what Aeron had told her in the shower, and she shivered.

You drew Zeth’s blood.

It’s only fair to let him draw yours.

Zeth leaned forward and sniffed Rona’s neck.

“You smell good,” he purred.

Rona wasn’t sure if it was intended as a compliment.

Coming from the young mercenary, it sounded more like he was thinking about eating her.

That thought should have terrified her, and it did a little, but it stirred other feelings as well.

Shameful feelings. Rona hoped the thin fabric of her long shirt would be sufficient to hide the wetness that was starting to leak out of her again.

“Go easy on her,” Aeron said, stepping forward between the two seats.

“She’s still a little sensitive. Besides, we’ve got work to do. I don’t want you getting all distracted on me.”

“In that case,” said Murdok, “maybe it would be a good idea to banish her from the cockpit.”

Aeron shook his head.

“No. I want her to help us understand what it is we’re looking at…”

He gestured in front of him.

The window at the front of the cockpit provided a view of outer space, and the broad, brownish curve of the planet below.

That view should have taken Rona’s breath away; she’d never been in space before.

However, it was the holographic image overlaid on top of the glass that really drew her attention.

“Is that… a map?”

“Good guess,” Zeth said, his voice rumbling through her body as he spoke.

“But actually, it’s the real thing. A live image of the planet’s surface viewed from above, from the ship’s long-range scanners.”

“Really?”

Rona looked closer.

The image was rendered in shades of green.

Infrared, she guessed.

It was still the middle of the night on her side of the planet, so there wouldn’t be much light.

The image was slightly hazy as well, as if obscured by clouds.

It was difficult to read, but after a moment, Rona was able to pick out details.

Roads, footpaths, tracks.

“Hey!” she said. “That’s the mine.”

She jumped up from Zeth’s lap and pointed at various locations in the image.

“That’s the road that leads to the village. And that’s the railway that carries the raw silk over to the processing plant over in Jeriko. These are mine entrances here, here, and here… oh! ”

Rona gasped softly as Aeron moved closer, pressing his body against hers.

“Very good,” he said.

“And can you guess what all these things are?”

He was talking about the pale, luminous specks milling around the entrances of the mine.

From this bird’s-eye view, they looked like tiny, white bugs, but Rona knew what they really were.

“Those are the fuckers who invaded us,” she said.

Rona could feel her blood rising.

She hadn’t been present when the attack had happened, but she’d heard all about it.

Hundreds of miners had been killed during that first onslaught.

Rona hadn’t been friends with any of them, per se.

She hadn’t really been friends with anybody in the village.

Still, they were human beings.

Men and women with families.

Nobody deserved to be murdered in cold blood like that.

Nobody.

“Sure are a lot of them,” Aeron said.

No shit , Rona thought.

Maybe the Mercs Guild should have sent more than three dudes, huh?

But she kept her mouth shut.

Aeron pointed to a cluster of figures near one of the mine entrances.

“Zoom in on that group right there. Let’s get a closer look at these assholes.”

Murdok leaned forward and tapped some buttons on the console in front of him.

The image on the screen centered on the group of figures Aeron had indicated and expanded until they were filling the entire window.

The top-down view and green coloration made everything look a bit strange, but Rona could tell that she was looking at a group of large, brutish males.

They were not entirely unlike the mercenaries in the cockpit with her now, but they were a whole lot less human.

The invaders had long, pointed ears and big, clawed hands with only three fingers apiece.

They appeared to be huddled around a heating device, passing around a bottle of liquor.

“Mutants,” Aeron said.

“Parahumans. Could just be a random roving gang, but my instincts tell me they came from offworld. Zoom out again. Let’s see if we can find their ships.”

They didn’t take long to find.

A small fleet of transport vessels parked on the far side of the mountain that contained the mine.

“Shit,” Rona said. “I had no idea.”

She took a step back and started to sit down, forgetting that Zeth was already occupying the seat behind her.

By the time her butt had touched his thigh, it was already too late.

The young Merc grabbed her around the waist and pulled her all the way onto his lap again.

“Let’s take a look at the situation underground,” Aeron said.

“Sure thing,” Murdok answered.

He tapped a few more buttons, and the image shifted again.

Now, instead of green, everything had a bluish tint.

And instead of an overland view, it showed the tangled network of tunnels that made up the mine itself.

Rona gasped softly in surprise.

These guys had even better tech than she’d expected.

“Shit,” Murdok growled.

“Place is a damn labyrinth.”

Aeron nodded.

“Yup. When we go in, we’ll need one person to stay behind on overwatch duty.”

“Wait,” said Rona.

“You mean only two of you will be going in?”

“Two’ll be more than enough,” Aeron said.

Rona’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Looking at the image, she could see that inside of the mine was absolutely crawling with mutant raiders— hundreds of them—and they appeared to be heavily armed.

For some reason, that fact didn’t seem to bother the Mercs.

“Hey, what are these things?” Aeron said.

He was pointing at a big, eight-legged creature that was moving down one of the corridors of the mine.

There were lots of them.

Almost as many as there were raiders.

In spite of the weird angle and distortion from the scanner, Rona recognized the creatures immediately.

“Those are raknids,” she said.

“They’re like big domesticated spiders. They look scary, but they’re fairly docile. They spin the silk that we gather from the mine.”

“Hmmm…”

Aeron was still staring at the image of the mines, brow furrowed, fingers scratching at his coarse beard.

“What’s up?” Murdok asked.

“It’s strange,” the Merc leader said.

“These raiders, they come in, kill a bunch of miners, and take over the mine… but it looks like they haven’t killed any of the raknids. And as far as I can tell, they’re not trying to steal any of the silk for themselves either.”

“Raw silk isn’t worth much on its own,” Rona said.

“It’s gotta be taken to a refinery to be processed.”

“Besides,” Murdok said.

“Mutants are known for being lazy bastards.”

“True,” said Aeron.

“But they also have an appetite for violence and rape. The village is only a few klicks away. It would be easy for them to go over there and indulge themselves. Yet they’re remaining in the mines and just… squatting.”

Murdok shrugged.

“Beats me, boss.”

Aeron studied the image a moment longer, then he turned toward the copilot’s seat.

“Zeth, it’s late, and our guest is probably tired. Take her back to the bunkroom so she can get some sleep.”

“Aye, sir!”

The young mercenary practically sprang out of the seat, scooping Rona up in his arms in the process.

She had to pull the hem of her shirt down to keep from flashing everyone else in the cockpit.

Zeth had the door open, and he was already halfway into the corridor when Aeron spoke again.

“Zeth?”

“Sir?”

“No fooling around. I want you to get her tucked in, then come right back here to the cockpit. We’ve got some things to talk about.”

“Aye, sir.”

Rona didn’t speak a word as the mercenary carried her down the corridor and into a small, dark room equipped with three bunks embedded in the wall.

Zeth placed her gently onto the lowest of the three beds.

The mattress was thin and firm, but it felt good beneath Rona’s weary muscles.

She was even more tired than she had realized.

With the mercenary watching her, she carefully slipped beneath the covers.

“This one’s my bed,” Zeth told her.

“Is it comfortable for you?”

If she hadn’t been so exhausted, Rona might have responded with a hostile remark.

Instead, she simply nodded.

In some ways, Zeth scared her even more than the other two.

It was the face that did it.

That pretty, angel’s face that belied his dark profession.

Plus the fact that he was going to take her virginity.

“Zeth?” Rona said.

“Yes?”

“I, um… I’m sorry I stabbed you earlier.” It was not a sentence she had ever expected to hear herself say.

“No you’re not,” Zeth replied.

Rona’s heart stopped.

She lay perfectly still, watching the young mercenary, and waiting to see what he would say next.

When he tilted his head slightly, she could see the augmetic implants glowing inside his eyes.

He suddenly looked more like a demon than an angel.

“You’re not sorry you stabbed me,” he said, his voice utterly devoid of malice.

“You did it on purpose, and with good reason. The only reason you’re apologizing now is because you’re afraid I’m going to hurt you.”

He brushed her cheek.

“I would never hurt you,” he said, and smiled.

“You’re going to be the mother of my child.”

Then he leaned in close and kissed her on the mouth.

Rona wasn’t expecting it, and she tensed at first, but his lips were so soft and warm, and his tongue was so insistent.

She opened for him, just as she had done for Aeron back there in the holding cell.

Her nipples ached beneath her shirt.

Her sex throbbed. She almost expected Zeth to climb into the bunk with her.

She almost wanted him to.

Instead, he left her lying there on the bed, panting.

He slipped out into the corridor as quiet as a ghost, and closed the door behind him, drowning the room in darkness.

Rona’s heart had started beating again, and it was making up for lost time.

She lay there for a long while afterward, trying desperately to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come.

At last, when she couldn’t take it anymore, she reached beneath the covers, pulled her shirt up, and slipped a hand between her legs.

She bit the pillow to muffle her cries. It tasted of Zeth.