Page 9

CHAPTER 9

E irik

My cock is still hard against my heavy leather pants and my balls ache as I walk through the tunnels leading outside of the city.

I shouldn’t have done what I did. There was no reason for it, no justification.

This is not who I am. I am not one who loses himself to the lust.

I need to forget about her. I need to forget about Sasha and her pink pussy, the taste of her cream on my tongue. The sounds she made when she was so close to climaxing it hurt.

My mission is the only thing that matters.

I’m here to secure the alliance that will make Tartarus a part of the Huugwor nation. This is why I am in this city, where my bones hurt from living deep underground and my skin itches from the lack of wind. Once Tartarus is truly an ally of the Huugwor nation, we will all stand stronger against the crushing forces of the Empire.

Together, we will expel them from Valcan and reclaim the sands as ours.

As much as they have accomplished, the people of Tartarus cannot truly thrive in the desert. They never learned how to coerce the sands into a caring, giving mother and grow the food that feeds them.

They never learned to summon the rivers of freshwater that lay in Valcan’s secret depth to make them flow to the surface like tears from the gods of the earth.

They never learned, because they do not know how to make the Soul Stones that are at the heart of our people’s survival and technology.

Once I complete my mission, they will be able to use our Soul Stones and the energy they offer. They will be able to grow food, to drink their fill, and become strong. They will be the allies my people need to fight against our common enemy.

This will give Tartarus the strength it needs to tilt the scales of war in our favor.

Because war is coming and I’m here to make sure the desert gets its share of our enemy’s blood to quench its thirst.

Still, I long for my homeland.

I belong to the desert, to the open sand dunes and rock forests. I belong to the wind that whispers with my ancestor’s souls, the vast lands where my breath mingles with their memory and where my people live, safe and free.

Safety and freedom. This is what I’m here to offer them.

They are more than just thieves and outlaws, I remind myself. Some of these people have honor, like Chancellor Ry.

I remember Sayk, the new chief of the Erynian tribe, who lived with the people of this city for decades, mingling among them. Mating a human female, bringing her with him in the crystal caves to live with his people. Planting his seed in her belly, making it swell with his young.

My thoughts circle back to my little thief.

Sayk mated with a human. Why can’t I?

As soon as the thought takes shape in my mind, I know it’s impossible. I’m the ambassador to the Huugwor nation, not a lovesick youngster.

She is a thief and my prisoner, nothing more. I will extract the information I need from her and release her.

I will never touch her again.

I try to push the images of her out of my mind, but I fail. Visions come back to me, the way her pink cunt spread for me, the walls of her channel greedy as I fucked her with my finger, sucking me in deeper.

I could keep her.

The thought shocks me enough that I frown. I shake myself out of it, shocked at my own thoughts. Those are dangerous thoughts, thoughts I need to control. This female is a human. She belongs to a world I want no part of. Humans do not bond-mate like Huugwors do, in a way that hooks us deep in our guts, the ties impossible to break. No, I can never allow this feeling to linger.

For my sake, and for hers.

I finally reach my transport and power on the engine, then speed far and fast into the hidden tunnels under the city until the free wind hits my face. It feels like heaven, the smell of the desert, mineral and pure, the blackness of the sky like a balm on my raw soul.

As I leave the mountain and its hidden city behind, my focus returns, my thoughts clear and my mind sharp. I have a mission to accomplish and I will not stray from it.

Finally, I stop near an overhanging boulder. I scan the deserted place, making sure no one is there to see me. Unlike the Empire’s technology, no one could follow my Huugwor transport through the desert, but I can never be too careful. Not after a thief just tried to steal from me.

Satisfied that I am indeed alone, I step down from the transport, my heavy boots embedding deep in the sand. A rush of pleasure travels my spine at the sensation of the sand beneath my feet, but I can’t linger on it. I’m here to see the one person who can give me the information I need.

Just hidden from view sits a hover transport, old and battered, barely usable.

“We could meet inside the city,” comes a voice from inside the transport. “It’s getting harder to sneak out. Chancellor Ry has men posted at all exits now.”

“And yet, here you are,” I state as the female steps out and jumps down to meet me.

“What do you want this time?” Maitlin says with that curt tone I’ve become accustomed to. “I can’t stay here much longer. I already waited for you too long.”

I know this. Maitlin isn’t entirely human. She’s part Karrula, a species that thrives in a lush, green world where water flows on top of the land and forests weep from their leaves. Her people need plenty of water to survive, to keep their skins intact and their lungs breathing. She doesn’t belong on Valcan and yet, there she is.

A fact I’ve already used to my advantage before.

“A thief came to my house tonight,” I tell her coldly. Her pixie-like features are tight and she shifts her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the next. I frown at her obvious discomfort. “But maybe you already know that?”

I eye her more carefully. The female has been my informant for months, feeding me bits of information about the people of the city that Chancellor Ry can’t. Or won’t.

I pay her handsomely for her services, but I don’t mind. Good spies are worth their weight in gold. Whatever I give her is a bargain compared to flying blindly into negotiations with Chancellor Ry. Her information has proven terribly useful many times before.

“A thief?” Maitlin swallows, the movement of her throat giving her away. “Tartarus is a city made of thieves and outlaws. Look around a corner and you’ll find one. Why would I know anything about this one?”

She’s afraid. Or she knows something she’s not telling me. Or both.

“Because if the last few months have told me anything, it’s that not much happens in Tartarus without you knowing about it.” I step into her space and her face loses its jaded expression like the veneer it is. Fear etches across her features, and she shakes her head. “In fact, I’m expecting you to warn me before anything like this happens.”

Maitlin shoots a quick glance at her old transport, then back at me. She senses the danger behind my words, the insinuation I barely veil. Good. She’s a spy. Her fear is the only guarantee of loyalty I can rely on.

“I have no idea,” she lies, the sudden, frenzied beat of her heart betraying her. “You know, I would tell you if I heard of something like that.”

I lean in, allowing my size to highlight the threat. Maitlin is good at what she does, the best spy I ever met, but even she can’t hide certain things from a Huugwor. Like the acrid stench of her fear that clings to her pores or the way her heartbeat just went into overdrive.

She knows something. Knows something and doesn’t want to tell me.

“Or maybe you’re playing both sides?” I muse aloud, pleased to see the fluttering at the base of her throat.

“You know I need you,” Maitlin counters, her features recovering some of her self-control. “I’m your ears and eyes in the lower parts of Tartarus. I listen, I watch, and I give you all the information I get. In return, you pay me for my services. Simple.”

Yes, simple. If only it were that easy.

“Find out who hired her to break into my home and why,” I tell Maitlin.

“Her?” Maitlin’s face slackens and for just a moment, I see a flash of a totally different emotion on her face. Then it’s gone, and she is the sly-faced spy again. “Your thief is a girl? Where is she now? What have you done with her?”

I smile and watch Maitlin’s pupils dilate, then shrink as she fights to keep her emotions hidden. She almost succeeds.

“The thief is my concern,” I tell her flatly. “Yours is to find out who sent her, and more important, why?”

Maitlin sucks in a breath and opens her mouth to argue, but no word comes out. A fitful cough bends her in half and she hold her midsection as she struggles against it.

I watch as the girl coughs, sputum falling from her lips and down on the dry sand, immediately absorbed by the thirsty ground.

“Where is your humi-breather?” I ask as she keeps coughing, the sound becoming cavernous as her lungs fight to expel the dust her body can’t filter.

She doesn’t answer. She can’t. But she points to a small bag hanging from the backrest of her driver’s seat. I move to pick it up, then withdraw the humi-breather, shocked to find the device almost empty.

As I hand it to her and watch her put it to her lips and breathe in greedily, I frown. After just a few breaths, she tosses it to the ground in frustration. She still wheezes, air barely filtering through her upset airways, but at least she’s breathing.

“Where’s your full one?”

Maitlin scoffs, for a moment forgetting to pretend she’s some jaded, cold-hearted spy. In that moment, she’s a scared and desperate girl, looking death in the face.

“Don’t have one.” She takes several breaths before continuing. “Need to save to get a new one.”

I frown. “I just paid you last week.”

Her face sets in harsh lines, and she glares at me.

“A single one of those is worth what you give me for an entire month.” She takes several more breaths, her narrow ribcage heaving deeply. “I either eat or breathe. Most of the time, I choose to breathe.”

I stare at the girl for long moments before reaching into the back pocket of my pants. My fingers close around several stones and I extend them to her. She watches my hand for a moment, like she thinks it’s going to bite her, then she reaches for it.

I open my fingers and the stones fall into her small, upturned palm. Her eyes widen and her wheezing increases as she stares at the rubies, emeralds, and diamonds there.

“That’s worth much more than a month.”

“Spies work better when there’s air in their lungs,” I answer her. “Buy what you need. I want you healthy if you’re going to keep working for me. Now go find who hired a thief to come to my house.”

Maitlin and I lock gazes for a moment, then she nods.

I twist on my heels and walk away. I’m about ten paces from her when I hear the transport powering on.

“Thank you,” she calls from behind me. “I’ll repay your kindness.”

I turn to her. “Kindness is another word for weakness. It’s something humans do, not Huugwor.”

Then I walk away, back to my transport.

Back to the woman tied to my bed. She, too, is going to learn that lesson.