Page 23

Tanin

“C aptain, are you okay?” Sorbet and Tebros intoned at the same time as they approached him, their short blades drawn.

“Fine,” he answered, turning, his ribbon twisted around his arm and hanging from his hand. “The females?”

“Rok took them back to the ship,” they said together again. The twins often spoke in sync, or Sorbet would speak for both of them. Avanava males were all born as twins, and they spent their life together, even mating a single female. They felt what the other did and rarely outlived the other. To the Coalition, one set of twins was considered a singular person. To the avanava, it was more of a spectrum. Some twins considered themselves fully separated from their brother and knew themselves to be two separate people.

But then some, like Sorbet and Tebros, considered themselves a single person in two bodies. They spoke and moved as one. Tanin was sure some of it was a survival mechanism, needing to rely on each other in Rik-Vane, but it was also probably part of who they were. Some avanava twins were just like that, and these two were.

“Thanks for the backup,” he told them, winding his ribbon up so he could tie it back around his wrist.

“Sorry we lost him.”

“Don’t be. He’s the coward who ran.”

“He was trained. He was a professional.”

“Yeah, he was.” Tanin looked at the black blood on his claws. He’d hurt him badly, but a good mediring would heal that right up without a problem.

He was a shinuk male. Tanin didn’t recognize him, but there was a very rich shinuk king that he’d crossed recently. And now this one tried to take Garnet. That was either just a coincidence and a passing shinuk was trying his luck at stealing a human, or Gissrn was trying to get his treasures back.

When the smoke bomb went off and Tanin was blinded, he reached for his ribbon first, preparing for an attack. It was reflex at this point. It wasn’t the most popular method of attack on Rik-Vane, but if you blinded your opponent, your odds of winning went up.

It was a mistake.

Because Tanin did that, Garnet had been taken. If he grabbed for her first, that male wouldn’t have been able to get his hands on her.

Rok, luckily, on Rik-Vane had been a bodyguard on occasion. He had the right instincts and grabbed for the females. He managed to catch Goldie, but Garnet was out of his reach. By the time Rok warned Tanin that Garnet wasn’t where she had been, it was too late.

Then, she was screaming for him.

He followed the sound of her voice, only to find that shinuk male trying to take her. She was putting up a good fight, but it didn’t really matter. She was human, and humans were notoriously weak. She didn’t have a chance.

The twins were already there. Tanin could see them hanging back, waiting. They’d blocked the exit at least, preventing the guy from getting away, but they didn’t want to get too close and risk Garnet getting hurt.

Once Tanin got her free and Rok took her and Goldie away – protecting their most vulnerable crew members – they converged on the target. And he was good enough that he was able to hold the three of them off long enough to escape.

He dragged Garnet into the dark alley beside the office building of their last client so no one saw him. And when he escaped, he did it by utilizing the maintenance halls. Tunnels that ran everywhere under, above, and around the station, used to access specific areas for repair and upkeep. They weren’t typically accessible by the general public, but their attacker somehow had access. No doubt, that’s how he planned on getting away with Garnet if he succeeded.

As it was, once he got in there, Tanin and the twins quickly lost track of him. The turns were too close, too tight, and too random for them to keep up, so Tanin finally had to call off the chase. That’s where they were now, the three of them standing within the dim maintenance halls, stowing their weapons back into place.

“I’m going to go to the ship,” Tanin said, looking at the twins. “I need to check on the females. You two, see what you can find out about that guy around here.”

“Yes, captain,” they intoned before turning and jogging back down the hall, heading back the way they came.

Tanin watched them go before turning, looking forward again. The distant rumbling of machines, the groaning of metal, and the hissing of a steam valve somewhere in the distance filled the air. Otherwise, the halls were dim, empty, and cold thanks to their proximity to the vacuum of space. There was no chance he was going to find that male, especially if he already had his getaway planned.

But he had come after his crew, and Tanin could guess why.

Giving it up as a lost cause, he returned the way he came. By the time he emerged from the maintenance doors, the twins were already long gone.

However, Trove was there, reclining against the wall, using a knife to pick at the scarred skin where his claws used to be. He gave Tanin a look as he emerged. His hair and clothes were a bit mussed from the brothel, but he definitely hadn’t been done there. Trove would usually spend his entire leave in a brothel. If he was here now, it was because one of the others alerted him.

“Someone came after our females?” Trove asked, grinning at the prospect of a fun hunt.

“He got away for now.” Tanin started walking back to the ship, Trove falling in line beside him.

“Think it was an opportunist? Someone saw a pair of humans and thought they’d take their chance?”

“They’d be a fool if that were the case. Rok and I were right beside them, so it clearly wasn’t a good opportunity. Besides, it was a shinuk male.”

“Gissrn.”

“I imagine. The twins are looking into it.”

“If it was Gissrn, how did he know we were here?”

“That’s what I’m going to look into.”

“What do you want me to do, cap?”

“Where are the others?”

“Rok and Alred locked down the ship with the females inside. Vytln is the one who came to get me. He said Alred told him. He’s guarding the ship from outside.”

Tanin grunted, not at all surprised by the immediate response from the others.

Never trust anyone was a pretty solid rule on Rik-Vane. That being said, gangs and families still formed, gathering together for protection. You didn’t fully trust them either, but you could at least rely on them to be with you against anyone else.

Garnet had been attacked. The others immediately acted to protect her. It didn’t matter that Trove was busy spending his hard earned credz on eager females or that Vytln barely spoke to them. They were crew, they were one of them, and they had been threatened.

True to Trove’s word, as they approached the docks, they saw Vytln leaning against the wall between their dock and the one beside it. He was on the larger side, shorter only than Rok on their crew. But he was just as muscular and, more importantly, he looked mean. Rok smiled and tried to make himself smaller for others comfort. Vytln never made such an effort. If anything, right now, he was doing his best to glare at as many people as possible, orange eyes glowing like magma.

He stood straight as Tanin and Trove drew even with him.

“Twins are investigating,” Tanin said immediately. “See anything?”

“No, captain,” Vytln grunted. “Been quiet. Haven’t seen anyone suspicious. Haven’t seen a single shinuk either.”

Tanin inclined his head, silently acknowledging the report. “I’m going to go check on the females. Stay here until the twins return, then come inside. Ship lockdown after you get back.”

“Aye, captain,” Vytln said, leaning back against the wall.

Tanin went to the dock doors and punched in the code, opening it. Trove followed him inside, back up to the ship, where they had to request permission to enter. Alred had made it so that only those inside the ship, or himself, could open it.

Trove immediately peeled off. Going to the weapons room, no doubt. It would be the height of foolishness – and illegality – to shoot their weapons here, this close to a station. But if it was that or let their crew get hurt, it was an easy choice for them.

They had built this life from the ground up, they could do it again if necessary. Protecting the crew was more important than anything else.

“Alred, report,” Tanin said as he made towards the medbay where, he figured, Rok would have taken the females.

With a blink, Alred appeared at his side, walking with him down the hall. “ Goldie is unharmed. A bit shaken up, but no injuries. Garnet has three broken fingers, some bruising, but nothing major. She is joking around to try to calm Goldie. ”

“Is she in the mediring now?”

“ Ah, that’s the thing, ” Alred said, tone sheepish. “ I don’t have human bio scans yet. I cannot steal them without being flagged and bringing unwanted attention onto us. ”

“Yes, but I am their sponsor now. I have the right to those.”

“ Actually, you don’t. Their healer has the right to request human scan data to add to their database for the purposes of treatment and health maintenance, but we have no official health officer on board. And I do not have the ability to override the mediring’s safety protocols. Well, I do. But not without doing the scan and repair manually and, as I have said, I don’t have that skillset. ”

Tanin stopped, turning to face him. “Are you telling me we have no way of healing her?”

“ We do. Goldie has already splinted her fingers and given her pain medication. But if you’re asking if the mediring can do it, no. None of us know how to operate the machine that way, our mediring isn’t advanced enough to scan her and form its own healing protocols, and even if it was, you’d still need a healer to oversee the process to make sure it doesn’t try to ‘fix’ something that’s not actually broken. Especially when it comes to the humans. ”

“So, she has to heal the slow way.”

“ The natural way, yes. ”

Tanin let out a growl of annoyance, running his hand over his quills. Trying to flatten them back out before he went out in front of the females. He didn’t need them to see him agitated. But it was frustrating how little he could do. An old, dying subspace generator, inefficient shielding, a mediring that none of them could use, and a food synthesizer that was so out of date, everything it made tasted like the amino acid powder it used as a base.

They had all been problems before the females got here, but now that they were here, they suddenly seemed that much more unbearable. The females were getting sick, they couldn’t have their injuries healed, and he couldn’t even provide them proper food. Thanks to the gems Gissrn tried to hide them with, he now had the funds to fix those problems, but he had to get them to the space station that could perform those repairs first.

“ Are you stressed about this? ” Alred asked, surprised. “ I’ve never seen you stressed. ”

“I’ve never had to take care of females before.” Tanin let out a long breath, squaring his shoulders to face the problems head on. “The twins are going to try to figure out who attacked her. It was a shinuk though, so I assume Gissrn is involved.”

“ Rok already told me. If it was Gissrn, how did he even find us? Why hasn’t Ikvar dealt with him yet? ”

“That’s what I’d like to know. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t know that it is him. The mediring can still scan the females, right?”

“ It can. As long as we’re not trying to heal anything, it works just fine. Are you thinking they have a tracking device in them somewhere? ”

“It’s a possibility. And it’s what I would do if I were Gissrn.” Tanin started walking again, Alred’s light form trailing behind him.

He heard the females before he saw them. The medbay doors were open. Garnet’s laughter was carrying into the hallway. It greeted him as he turned into the room along with her smile as she looked his way.

“Tanin! There you are!” She cried out jovially, holding out her hands like she expected a hug.

Though the machine was useless in healing her, she was sitting on the side of the mediring bed, legs dangling over the floor. Her hair was still a mess from where that vekting shinuk grabbed her, but she had straightened her clothes.

Her short sleeves couldn’t hide the large, hand shaped bruise on her upper arm, and no sleeves could have hidden the tape binding three of her fingers together on her left hand. The sight of which made his quills start to tense with the urge to stand again. He kept them down by sheer force of will as he approached.

Goldie was standing beside the bed, frowning as she stared at her sister like she was trying to figure out if there was anything else she could splint or bandage or something. Rok was still there as well. He would not leave their side again until it was certain they were safe. He had sat down in a corner, one leg up, the other flat, watching them with a deceptively easy grin. Rok would be up and over in an instant if something threatened the females.

Rok didn’t like killing people. But, unlike Sway, he didn’t actually mind fighting. And he was lethal when appropriately motivated. Like needing to protect someone.

He was kind; he wasn’t soft.

Tanin gave him a simple nod of acknowledgment as he reached Garnet’s side. Approving of his decision to take a post near them until-

Garnet threw her arms around Tanin’s waist. Squeezing him close. Resting her chin on his chest. He knew her arms had been open like she wanted a hug, but he hadn’t actually expected her to hug him. The surprise made him stiffen for just a moment as he looked down at her.

She smiled, grinning like she knew exactly what he was thinking.

There was bruising on her scalp as well. Mostly hidden by her hair, but he could see the discoloration in the brighter skin visible through the part down the top of her head.

His arm went around her as well. Holding her back as her arms tightened further, humming in contentment for having him there.

She was shaking.

It wasn’t obvious. Her entire body was tense like she was trying to hide it, but he could feel the small vibration now that she was pressed up against him.

She was still afraid. Still affected by the attack. But she was attempting to conceal that fact from her sister who hovered nearby, obviously not fully believing her.

But as Tanin returned her embrace, his hand traveling up and down her back, petting her gently, he felt her starting to relax. Some of that tension ebbing out of her. She turned her head, resting against his chest with her eyes clenched tightly closed.

Comfortable.

Safe.

She felt safe with him. It didn’t matter to her that Rok was in the corner. That they were locked in the ship. She hadn’t felt secure until Tanin returned to her side.

The rush of pleasure and purpose that swept over Tanin at that moment was staggering. It hit so hard, he nearly stumbled even from standing.

Because Garnet felt safe with him. She couldn’t relax until she was holding him. After something like that, it wasn’t Rok – who was far larger and stronger – that she got the most comfort from. It was Tanin she reached for. It was Tanin that she needed. When he appeared and she opened her arms, it wasn’t her acting happy and okay for her sister, she genuinely needed him.

And that was… unexpected. And new.

And he liked it.

He really liked it.

Tanin wasn’t used to being needed as a safe place. His mother never looked to him that way. When he was young, she was his safe place, but even that wasn’t guaranteed. She was always lost in her grief about his father or her own despair at the direction her life had taken. Her misery didn’t leave room for him, so he didn’t rely on her often when he was little and almost never as he got older.

His crew looked for leadership, not safety. If he tried to hug them and offer them a place of comfort in that way, it would be awkward at best or lead to violence at worst.

But Garnet held him so sweetly. So tightly. Like she was never going to let go. Her body relaxed into his side as she let out a long, shuddering breath.

Tanin looked up again, catching Goldie’s eye. She gave him a grateful smile as though she noticed it too. And she wasn’t displeased at their closeness. Because she might not seek him out for safety and reassurance, but Goldie trusted him too. Enough to let him hold her sister, the one she’d given up her entire world to make happy.

It was incredible that anyone would trust and rely on him this much.

But having it felt like holding a precious treasure, priceless and fragile. And, like the female in his arms, he was determined to protect it.