Page 17 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

Ved

The way Isobel Nott had pleaded with him made something in his chest twist like he had a plasma dirk searing a path between his hearts. Turning away from her had been more difficult than it should have been.

Which only let him know that he’d made the right decision.

She couldn’t be here. Not now. Between the Kroids and the Blood Vultures, there was no telling what could happen to her. He shouldn’t have encouraged her visits to begin with, shouldn’t have allowed himself to be caught up in her.

It’d been foolish. Irresponsible. Weak.

This way was better for them both.

“ I will say nothing that rhymes with I told you so ,” Exxo said.

The only reason Ved chose not to respond rather than permanently disable the neurolink was because if it hadn’t been for Exxo, Isobel Nott could have been severely injured or killed.

And he was right. Ved’s world clung to him like a second skin.

The moment he let Isobel Nott on his ship, he had introduced her into it.

And his world was no place for someone like her .

He hardened himself against the invasive image of her standing on the edge of the forest before pushing it away altogether.

He had bloody business to attend to.

The Kroid who had attacked her was close to where Ved had left him. He’d attempted to crawl, leaving a trail of green blood, but hadn’t made it very far. The Kroid’s black gaze focused on Ved as he approached, and the stench of fear intensified.

Here Ved was in his element, here he was fully in control.

“Why are you working with Clan Rax?” Ved demanded in the universal tongue as he knelt beside him. “What do you gain from this arrangement?”

The Kroid chittered something that Exxo couldn’t translate, but he otherwise remained silent.

Ved placed his knee against the wound in his chest. His aim had been perfect, clipping one of the Kroid’s complex lungs. The Kroid let out a rattling trill and squirmed beneath him. “Answer my questions and I’ll consider giving you a quick death.”

Dread came from the Kroid in waves, releasing the pungent chemical that would lead other horde members to his position. But his comrades were all torn apart in bloody messes, and he was dead no matter what. He quickly came to the same conclusion. “I will,” he said through a wheeze.

Ved eased off the wound.

Air whistled from the hole in his chest as he inhaled. “Rax promised us protected land and bountiful resources in return for our compliance.”

Kroids were nomads, stealing and trading, always on the move.

They weren’t truly safe on any planet, whether that was because the Authority would find them or because the inhabitants would.

To be given land on one of the three Xaal planets under the protection of a strong qon would be as close to safety as they ever got.

But something told Ved that Clan Rax didn’t intend to hold up their end of the bargain.

“And in return you gave them what? Your ships and technology?” Ved asked.

“We gave them our auto-piloted probe ships, but”—he coughed, causing green blood to leak from his jagged teeth—“when the vector tear happened, they blamed us . And since our ships can bypass Authority scanners, they sent us here to find their clan mates, get rid of any evidence of their being here, and ensure…” He cut off as a spasm overtook his body.

“To ensure what?” Ved said through gritted teeth.

“That Ved Qon Cleave was dead,” he rattled out.

“Surprise,” Ved growled. Clan Rax had assumed he was alive. Which was exactly why they’d chosen to send Kroids instead of more Xaal. Why waste their own to confirm?

The Kroid squirmed, then said, “Honor your word, Qon.”

Ved pulled out his plasma dirk but made no move to use it. “Who is the qon of Clan Rax?”

“We never dealt with the qon directly. I have no name to give you.”

Ved had suspected that would be the case. “Why attack the human female?” The Kroid didn’t deserve to know her name. “Once you saw that I was alive, you could have tried to retreat.” Tried , because Ved would have hunted every single one of them down.

The Kroid’s depthless black eyes studied Ved as if weighing his options. “She smelled like you. She could have been useful.” His thin tongue wiped across his mandibles, smearing blood as his gaze narrowed. “I tasted her. She’d make a delicious meal with all that soft flesh. ”

Ved growled—a feral sound that clawed out from deep in his chest. The Kroid was trying to goad him into killing him faster. But Ved was not a merciful Xaal. Rising, he left him there to slowly drown in his own blood.

It didn’t take long for Ved to find their vessel, which was cloaked and hovering in the direction the Kroid had been crawling in.

The only thing that marked its location was their thick-roped ladder trailing down.

The ship was one of their smaller ones—the type that could more easily glide past the Authority’s watchful gaze with whatever black-market technology they used.

Yet, somehow, they’d managed to pack eight Kroids in it.

It reeked of them.

“ Remind me to never work with Kroids ,” Exxo said, as if he could smell it himself.

Ved was looking for anything that could tell him about Clan Rax.

Who was its qon? Did Ved know him? Many qons had their minds set on conquering Clan Cleave.

That, in itself, wasn’t surprising. It was the lengths that Clan Rax was willing to go to—and so dishonorably—in order to do so. Something about it nagged at him.

It felt personal.

Ved had made plenty of enemies for plenty of reasons, especially in his rampaging youth.

The stronger he became, the more others wanted to challenge him.

To beat him in a blood challenge would be a meaningful victory.

And his clan had everything Xaal needed to survive and thrive.

There were fertile lands that were rich in minerals and metals and drew big game for hunting.

There were well-placed mountains for defense and control.

And from Cleave, they could easily manipulate the trade routes that ran through Runus like veins.

But what really made other clans envious was the ixom running deep within their mountains.

It was a rare metal that they used in everything from their vessels to their clothing.

The technology that could be made from it was far beyond what most Xaal had.

A supply of ixom would give any qon power that reached far beyond his own clan.

Far beyond Runus. Xaal, after all, weren’t the only ones who wanted such a metal.

Exxo was able to hack into the Kroid ship’s system while Ved finished inspecting the interior. There was nothing of use there.

“Think you could fly it?” Ved asked as he entered the cockpit. If Exxo could operate the ship, it could be a way off the planet. And away from Isobel Nott. He pushed the thought of her, and whatever strange emotion that went with her, down.

“ Their systems are deeply encrypted. They would take me approximately fifty-three hours to circumvent. After which, there is no guarantee that I would be compatible with it.”

Ved wasn’t shocked. It was exactly how they bypassed Authority detection more often than not. By the time Exxo figured out how to operate the ship, the Blood Vultures would have already disposed of it.

“ I did, however, find something of interest, Qon ,” Exxo said.

On the ship’s secondary screen, Exxo brought up a recording of a security feed.

“ Watch the corner of the screen. ”

The corner looked like it held a crate or cage, and Ved could only make out the shadow of something moving in it. Then, suddenly, the container’s door creaked open. The Kroids didn’t seem to notice until a pale, undefined body skittered out of it straight toward them.

Recognition dawned on Ved as he leaned closer to peer at the thing. It lunged for one of the Kroids while the others tried to restrain it. Something happened offscreen, and the Kroids turned toward it at the same time the creature loped out of view .

He knew what it was and what it did. By all accounts, it shouldn’t be alive—the Authority had hunted its kind down long ago and exterminated them. “I want this footage, and any others related to it. Then erase it from their databank.”

Exxo had just found what the Blood Vultures were looking for.