Page 30 of Stolen Fire (N.O.A.H (Nostradamus Outerspace Advancement of Humanity) #2)

Based on the speed at which Blaize was losing Dez, he had to be in a sled. She flagged down a transport.

“Where to?” the robotic voice asked.

Blaize checked the tracker. The only logical place Dez could be headed, based on the map with his glowing dot, was the remote garbage docks.

The ones used mainly for offloading nonrecyclable waste to distant, uninhabitable planets.

She voiced the command. Of course, Varik would be hanging out in what amounted to a dumpster.

She dug her fingers into her thigh to stop herself from rattling her foot against the vehicle platform.

There was no way to make it go faster. The wrench rested on her lap.

She clutched her data pad in the other hand, each moment making her more certain of Dez’s destination.

Would have been helpful if Cyra had told her where Dez was going.

But it wasn’t like she’d given the captain a chance.

Finally, the sled stopped at the entrance to the dumpster docks—the same place Dez had paused.

He’d moved much slower since that moment.

Blaize authorized the credit transfer and raced to catch up.

As Cifer had explained, she wasn’t able to hide, so she might as well barge in.

She caught up to Dez talking to a crying child, huddled behind a foul-smelling clunky ship that had probably been transporting the worst kind of waste for galactic years. Blaize swallowed back her gorge.

“Dez?”

He startled and glanced up with narrowed yellow eyes. His gray skin blended better than her own.

“Get down.”

Blaize crouched, using the length of the wrench as a prop. Dez gave her a puzzled look before returning his attention to the child.

“Do you remember what the ship looked like?” Dez asked in a gentle tone.

The kid shook his head.

“Big or small?” Blaize asked.

The child glanced around. “Small.”

Blaize gave him an approving smile. “Dirty or clean?”

“Clean?”

“Very good. That’s so helpful.”

The child gave a shaky nod.

“Okay, last question.” Because a kid that age with that much trauma could only be expected to do so much. “Can you point to where you think it might be?”

With a nod, the child spun, hesitated, and then thrust out a finger.

“That’s so good. I’m going to get a sled to take you to a friend of mine. Have you ever ridden in a sled?”

The child nodded, surprising Blaize. “Will you be okay to find my friend? I’m going to text her to tell her to expect you. She’ll be waiting when the sled stops.”

Another shaky nod. Blaize fired off a text to Director Glinchart with a line of explanation and a promise to tell all later. She pinned Dez with a glare. “Wait for me.”

Dez opened his mouth, closed it, and nodded.

Thankfully, the sled she’d arrived in hadn’t been contracted. She uploaded the address and her credits. “You’re going to be okay.”

The child’s wide-eyed gaze ripped through her chest. The urge to get in the vehicle and see him safely to the orphanage was difficult to fight.

But there were likely more kids. And Blaize had to find out how Cifer was involved.

Because if he had anything to do with making that child cry, she was going to brain him with the wrench and have zero regrets.

Well, maybe one. Sleeping with him. But she’d carried the regret of Varik for galactic years.

Cifer wouldn’t be that much more emotional weight.

As soon as the sled was moving, Blaize raced back to Dez.

“I think Cifer is on one of the ships.”

“His tracker isn’t here, is it?” Blaize had more to say, but that was the most important question.

“I found his abandoned pad at the entrance. Not sure why he would have left it.”

Blaize could guess. He was up to shady shit, and he didn’t really want Dez and Cyra to know. Same as when he’d left her at his apartment.

Crouched over, Dez slow-walked along the dumpster ships.

Blaize mimicked his movements, but there was no hiding her hair, as Cifer had helpfully pointed out. A flash of the moment in the mirror when he’d taken on her coloring and she’d blended perfectly took over her vision. She blinked it away.

Dez froze and lowered himself farther. Blaize did the same.

He held a finger to his lips. Like she was going to talk at a moment like that.

Although she did have plenty of questions.

Dez pointed, and Blaize traced the imaginary vector to a shiny ship with hardly a scratch on it, as if it hadn’t spent much time in space.

She shifted past Dez to get a different angle.

Cain’s Alibi. That’s the ship that had attacked them—Varik’s vessel. That weasel.

She gripped her wrench tighter.

Dez moved around behind her. The ship was closed up tight. Whatever method the kid had used to escape, it was likely Varik was aware of the loss and had battened down the hatches. Dez wrapped his hand around his stump and stared at the ship as if he could read it somehow.

Blaize stood up, marched over to the ship, and raised her wrench. She brought it down with her full strength just below the area where the bridge jutted out from the main hull. Again. And again. She lifted the wrench to continue when a strong hand stopped her.

“What are you doing?” Dez hissed from where he still crouched.

“Knocking.” Blaize tilted her head. The crew ramp lowered, and Varik emerged, looking nearly purple with rage.

Blaize grinned at Dez. “Guess they’re home.”

Dez whipped out his data pad, rested it on his thigh, and tapped out a message.

Blaize marched toward Varik, wrench held like a club. “Where’s Cifer?”

“You fucking crazy bitch. You’re going to pay for that.”

“Doubt it. You’d have to call the authorities.

And knowing you, that isn’t an option because you have to be the vilest criminal asshole I know.

All I’m curious about is if Cifer is working for you or against you.

” Before she could continue, a male came racing past Varik, a stunner in hand.

As he lunged for Blaize, she swung as hard as she could.

Teeth fountained out of his mouth, and he dropped into a heap.

Her distraction allowed Varik to sneak up on her, but a single gray arm wrapped around his neck and tugged him off his feet.

Blaize continued up the ramp. Over her shoulder, she told Varik, “Purple is a good color for you.”

Inside the ship, there were two options. One upward-sloping hall led to the bridge. She pivoted to the aft door. A single unsecured button made the thin panel slide back. A cramped space filled with metal cages enraged her more than she already had been.

She would kill Varik. The wrench weighed heavy in her hands as she moved to the first cage. The oldest child stared up at her from his knees. He couldn’t even stand up in the too-small space.

“Move back and cover your face.”

The child didn’t move.

“I’m going to get you out.” She flapped her hand to shoo him back and mimed covering her own head.

Finally, the boy moved back. Blaize whacked the biometric lock on the cage.

It took two hits before it shattered, and she was able to sweep the door open.

Without waiting, she moved to the next cage.

The little one was already in position. At the third cage, she froze.

Instead of a child, she found Cifer, smelling foul and completely unconscious.

She bashed the lock, her heart racing, hoping he didn’t catch any shrapnel.

Although the door opened, he still didn’t move, except for a slight rise and fall of his chest. Alive.

A wave of relief washed over her. She may have felt like killing him at a point or two in the last cycle, but that didn’t mean she really wanted him dead.

Without Dez, she wouldn’t be able to move him, and there were still two more kids to free. Once they were all out, she guided them back through the doorway. Dez had turned over Varik to the uniformed port guards. Medics were lifting the toothy asshole into an emergency service sled.

“Wait,” she called out to them. “There’s one more.

He’s unconscious. I don’t know from what, but he needs help, and I can’t get him out of the cage by myself.

” Just because Cifer was in a cage didn’t exonerate him.

Varik turned on his partners all the time.

She should know. But she couldn’t leave Cifer there like that.

One of the medics clambered into the sled next to the toothless guy, and the other met Blaize at the end of the ramp.

“Show me.”

“He’s breathing, and I don’t see any obvious issues.

I mean, besides the fact that he’s not talking or opening his eyes or moving.

But I mean, he’s not bleeding, and nothing is at an odd angle.

I don’t have any medical training, though.

I’m an engineer.” She held up the wrench.

“Tools and tech, not blood and guts.” And then she clamped her mouth shut, her cheeks heating.

The medic stayed silent but followed her.

Cifer stood out because—holy fuck.

She hadn’t noticed it before, but his skin wasn’t copper… It was green and kind of scaly. And he wasn’t as bulky as he had been, and— She blinked. Something besides a foot had emerged from one of his pant legs. What was he?

The medic had crouched beside him, blocking some of her view, but there was no mistaking that he had a tail.

So besides being able to change his coloring, he could change his shape.

Green and scaly with a tail was his natural shape?

Spots dotted her vision, and she lowered herself to the floor and put her head between her knees.

She’d had sex with him. He hadn’t had a tail then. Had he?

She flashed to the moment he’d teased her ass. Had he ?

Her distress wasn’t about how he looked. He was still a perfectly cut, sexy example of masculinity, but she’d been intimate with a lie.

“Where am I?”

She lifted her head. The medic had moved back, and Cifer was crawling out of the cage, looking exactly as he had the entire time she’d known him. No tail. Scaleless copper skin. Bulky muscles.

A quick glance at the medic did nothing to confirm or refute that she’d lost her mind.

Dez appeared at her side from nowhere. “Are you okay?”

He held out his hand, and she let him guide her to standing.

“You saved me,” Cifer told him.

“I believe Blaize has to take most of the credit.”

Cifer reached for her, gliding his fingers along her face to shift her hair back. She stepped out of his reach. “Beauty,” he sighed. “Thank you.”

“I came for the kids. You just happened to be here. And after I get the kids to the orphanage and under the director’s care, I’d like to know how exactly you ended up here with Varik, with kids in cages, and why you have a freaking tail.

” She recognized that her voice had taken on an unhinged tone, but she couldn’t help it.

Rather than try to get control, she stomped off to deal with the one thing she could handle.

The kids.