Wings of the Seraph

Wings of the Seraph, Chapter 4

Off hand, I wasn't sure what was more miraculous: the fact we hadn't been caught or the fact either of us could walk upright after we'd finally had enough. We never even bothered turning on the holo-vid we'd rented; I just slumped back in the chair with her in my lap, and we kissed and cradled each other for what felt like seconds but was probably at least half an hour. I almost fucked her ass again—Kaveri literally begged me to do so every few minutes—but I decided that I would save our next bout until we were back on the ship. I intended to honor the promise I had made to myself earlier: I was going to follow her back into the guest quarters, push her down onto the bed, and slip my cock between her tits before we jumped out of the system. After that...who could say?

We eventually slipped out of the holo-theater, giggling like a pair of teenagers who had tricked their chaperone, and returned to the station's main promenade. At this point, I had fully cast aside all sense of caution and basic reason. This girl was magical, and I intended to have as much fun with her as I could before this was over. I no longer cared how stupid or irresponsible it was; I didn't even care if Gol Zabras slashed our final payment. Credits would come and go, but enjoying the company of another man's Succubus was the opportunity of a lifetime.

I took her on a tour of the rest of Vrassk-Ka, and Kaveri drank in the sights and sounds with an innocent wonderment that made her even more irresistible. We didn't bother keeping our hands off each other; she would pin me against a wall and kiss me every few minutes, and one of my arms always remained curled around her waist. I started noticing more and more sideways glances the longer we kept it up, but for once, I actually enjoyed it. Every man on this station was jealous. Hell, half the women on the station were probably jealous.

The game continued right up until Kaveri abruptly stiffened and pulled away from me in the middle of a particularly long kiss.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Her luminescent eyes narrowed before she seemed to catch herself and turned back to me. "There is a Rakashi male near the holo-pad store to your left," she said, her normally light, cheerful voice unexpectedly grave. "He was in the corridor outside the docking port, and I saw him again outside the clothing store on the lower level."

A warning tingle shuddered down my spine and snapped me back into reality. I knew better than to turn and look outright; instead, I lazily lifted my chin and studied the reflection in one of the giant decorative gold orbs in front of a nearby store. Kaveri was right: one of the tall, feline aliens was indeed keeping an eye on us, and when I searched my memory, I confirmed that I

had

seen him earlier. There were tens of thousands of Rakashi on this station, obviously, but all those years with the Red Ring had taught me the importance of mastering my surroundings. I recognized the almost-too-plain clothing, the almost-too-generic orange fur, and the almost-too-nonchalant body language of a spy.

"That's not good," I murmured, scanning the rest of the area. "There's a second one near the lift about twenty meters behind us. Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure I saw him near clothing store, too."

A knot twisted in the pit of my stomach, though only part of it was anxiety—the rest was sheer self-annoyance at how thoroughly I had let my guard down. I had known going into this that we needed to be careful...

"You should signal your partner and let him know we're returning to the ship," Kaveri said.

I glanced back down at her. Physically, she was exactly the same gorgeous blue alien who had been throwing herself at me this whole time, but the shift in her mood and attitude was so abrupt and so drastic I couldn't help but notice. Her stance, her breathing, her voice—if I had been blindfolded, I might have thought she was a completely different person.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to question her about it. Not if the situation was anywhere near as bad as I thought it was.

"Raxyl, you there?" I asked, activating the com in my jacket as subtly as I could.

"Yes," the Kali's voice came back. "Allow me to speculate: you are in trouble."

I sighed. "Just tell me whether or not the ship is ready to go."

"The technicians have begun the refueling procedure, but they will not be finished for another twenty-three minutes."

"No rush—we're actually enjoying ourselves up here," I said. "This place is beautiful. It reminds me of Prascal Minor."

He paused for a fraction of a second. "I understand why. Perhaps I should join you on your tour of the station, then. I'll rendezvous with you in the upper levels shortly."

"Good. See you then."

Kaveri shook her head in confusion. "You want him to meet us up here?"

"No, but we have to assume our coms are being monitored," I said, keeping my voice as low as possible. "It's a code. He'll cut the technicians short and get the ship prepped for launch as quickly as possible. We just need to move without arousing any more suspicion. Come on."

I took her wrist and gently led her back into the main traffic stream flowing across the promenade. I wasn't surprised in the least when both of our Rakashi friends detached themselves from the walls and resumed following us.

"They know we're onto them," I said.

"How can you tell?" she asked.

"Because they stopped being subtle. We need to keep moving."

The Rakashi government shouldn't have cared about two random customers flitting through their station, but if their intelligence operatives had learned that the Convectorate was interested in us...well, that would be more than enough to get their attention. I doubted they would actually open fire into the crowds, but given the realities of the lifts and the density of the population, they could effectively herd us wherever they wanted.

At which point, they would cuff us, throw us in a cell, and torture us until we told them everything we knew. Just because the Rakashi were subtle didn't mean they were squeamish.

"I don't understand," Kaveri said, her voice trembling. "What do they want with me?"

I squeezed her wrist harder. Her behavior and body language had returned to normal. The poised persona she had adopted—intentionally or unintentionally—had been replaced by the naïve alien slave girl. All things being equal, I would have preferred the other version right about now.

"This way," I said, tugging at her arm toward another clothing store ten meters to our right. "This shop has another exit. We might be able to—"

The premonition hit me mid-stride. I froze in place, paralyzed as if time itself had come to a halt. And then the images rushed into my mind: I saw the crowd on the other side of the shop, and beyond that I saw the door to the nearest lift opening before we could reach it. Three more Rakashi were standing there, but this time they were openly brandishing their stun pistols. They took aim at us and fired...

"Cole?" Kaveri asked, shaking my arm. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," I gasped, swallowing heavily as the world around me returned to normal. "But we can't go that way."

I dragged her back into the crowd, ignoring her confused look and frantically searching for another option. I wasn't sure we could trust any of the lifts now, but it wasn't like we could just dive over the edge of the balcony.

Or could we?

Grinning at my own cleverness, I nudged Kaveri back toward the inner ring of the promenade. Several of the aliens in the crowd snorted in annoyance when I shoved them, but at this point, I wasn't worried about attracting any more attention. The Rakashi were closing in on us from both directions. We were already out of time.

"You said you want to reward me for taking care of you during the trip, right?" I asked.

"Yes, but—"

"How about I just convince you to trust me instead?"

Kaveri blinked. "I don't—"

"Just follow my lead," I said. "We're going to have to improvise."

Café tables were festooned around the railing on this part of the balcony, allowing the customers to peer down at the lower levels while they enjoyed their food. I drew a score of irritated glares when I pushed past the barrier stanchions, and a few patrons actually shouted at us when we leaned over the edge.

"You ready?" I asked.

Kaveri shook her head. "I do not understand."

"Just trust me," I said, offering her a reassuring smile as I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "And hold on tight."

Mentally crossing my fingers, I tipped us over the balcony railing.

The fall should have been suicidal. The floor on the next level was a solid thirty meters down, more than high enough to shatter every bone in our bodies regardless of genetic enhancements. But I had been on plenty of stations just like this one, and I knew that even the notoriously miserly Rakashi would have safety nets in place to catch potential fallers—not because they cared about the lives of their patrons, but because they were worried about potential structural damage. And thankfully, I was right.

Just as Kaveri screamed into my ear and clutched my body with her arms and tail, the hidden projectors fired glowing, diaphanous orange energy tethers to catch us. The web-like strands gently cradled us like a net, then abruptly stiffened to hold us in place about ten meters above the fountain on the lower level. A few startled screams caught the attention of the crowd, and within seconds, every ocular organ in the area was staring right at the two idiots who had jumped from the upper level.

So much for keeping a low profile.

For the moment, at least, we had broken line-of-sight with the men shadowing us, but I knew it wouldn't last. Once the station security administrator saw what was happening, he could order the energy webs to ensnare us until the guards arrived.

"Don't let go, sweetheart," I said. "The ride's not over yet."

Reaching into the concealed holster of my jacket, I drew my holdout pulse pistol, took aim at the closest web projector, and fired. The blue-white bolt of energy burned through the focusing lens with ease, collapsing a corner of the web and allowing us to tumble safely across the strands until we hit the floor near the fountain, the crowd scattering out of our way. Kaveri was still clutching at me for dear life when I helped drag her back to her feet.

"

Echu tari

!" she babbled so quickly my translator implants didn't catch it.

"Just stay close," I told her, glancing around as dozens of nearby shoppers screamed and fled from the madman with a pulse pistol. I had bought us a few seconds, at least, but we still needed to drop another level and maneuver through a long, overcrowded corridor before we reached the ship. Unfortunately, we were all out of balconies and energy webs.

"Behind us!" Kaveri called out.

I turned just in time to see one of the Rakashi agents lean over the balcony above us. We were almost certainly beyond the effective range of a stun pistol, but he aimed his weapon and fired anyway. I dragged Kaveri forward a few steps, still searching for more inspiration...

"There!" I said, pointing toward a lift twenty meters to our right behind a pair of bank terminals. A red light blinked above the control pad, presumably signaling that it was down for repairs. I pulled Kaveri along behind me, firing a few more shots into the air just to cause an even bigger panic—and a more effective distraction. The lift was disabled, just like I'd expected, but a few quick, well-placed shots into the control pad were enough to overload the electronic locks. I groaned in exertion as I struggled to wrench open the door.

"They're coming!" Kaveri warned, her tail curling around my leg so tightly it hurt.

I half expected to get shot in the back with a stun blast before I actually pried the doors apart, but just when I was about to give up, the mechanism finally buckled. The lift's shaft was empty like I had hoped, and that meant we still had a chance.

"Get in!" I ordered, squeezing off a few shots at the Rakashi guards scrambling into view from further down the now-deserted concourse.

To her credit—and my unending surprise—Kaveri didn't balk nor panic. She slipped through the narrow gap and began climbing down the emergency handrails in the lift shaft. I squeezed in behind her just as the first stun blast burned past my shoulder.

I didn't bother with a return shot. I just started climbing down as fast as I could.

I had pulled off plenty of preposterous escapes in the past few years with Raxyl, but if we actually got out of here unscathed, this would definitely be one for the history holos. I still didn't even know what was going on. Were the Rakashi after us for the same reason as the Convectorate? Were they after me or the alien slave girl?

"The door is locked!" Kaveri said as she pounded at the lift exit below us. I dropped down beside her a second later.

"Stand back!" I warned.

She curled into a ball as I fired a trio of shots into the door. Afterward, one nice, solid kick was all it took to wedge it open, and ten seconds later we were sprinting down a half-empty corridor toward the hangar with our ship.

"Raxyl, we'll be there in thirty seconds," I barked into the com as we ran. Everyone here was fleeing at the sight of my weapon just like they had in the upper levels, but I didn't see any more armed Rakashi. I didn't see any security officers at all, actually, which was a little disturbing...

"Raxyl, you there?" I repeated.

"Why doesn't he answer?" Kaveri asked.

"Hopefully because he's too busy prepping the engines," I said, grimacing. This pistol only had enough energy for a few more shots. I really hoped we didn't run into any more—

The thought died in my brain the instant we rounded the corner and entered the hangar. Raxyl was there, but he wasn't alone.

"Ah, there you are. A bit earlier than I expected."

The speaker was a tall Subari man wearing the pristine red uniform of a Convectorate naval officer. He was holding his own pulse pistol, though I was far less concerned about him than I was about the six humanoid combat mechs fanned about the hangar. Their heavy crimson armor and cumbersome plasma rifles were a rare sight in this sector, but everyone with a milliliter of sense was still terrified of what they represented.

Namely, death.

"Please, put the weapon down," the officer said. "I would rather not kill your Kali friend here. Plasma weapons tend to ignite their blood, and the smell is quite...

disturbing

."

I gently slid my pistol across the floor and swore under my breath. Apparently, I didn't need to worry about recording this escape in the history holos after all.

"I admit, I didn't think you were capable of evading the locals quite so easily," the officer went on, smiling thinly. "Then again, this entire sector is a lawless backwater. I shouldn't have expected competence from fringers and outcasts."

"I don't know who you are, buddy, but you have the wrong ship," I said, risking a quick glance at my partner. He was shackled and helpless on the floor, but to his credit, he was controlling his fear well. I didn't see a single shimmer of yellow anywhere on his brown scales. "We're not carrying any contraband."

"Not in your cargo holds, anyway." The Subari's solid black eyes narrowed at Kaveri. "But you do have something quite valuable in your possession—something Admiral Ferron has been trying to find for a very, very long time."

I glanced back at Kaveri. She was locked in place, her arms and tendrils visibly trembling, though her face almost looked more confused than terrified.

"Admiral who?" I asked. "We're a long way from Convectorate space."

The Subari's smile faded. "Feign ignorance if you wish. It will only make your lives more difficult. If you simply turn over the girl without any additional fuss, I have been instructed to show you mercy."

I cocked my head, careful to keep my hands fully exposed and extended. Convectorate mechs had notoriously twitchy trigger fingers, and I had already resigned myself to the fact there was no way we could possibly fight our way out of this.

"Since when do the Vecs care so much about what happens to Velothi slaves a hundred light-years from their border?" I asked.

The Subari man eyed me curiously for a moment before his smile returned. "You already have him wrapped around your finger, don't you, my dear?" he asked, turning to Kaveri. "He has no idea who you are or what you're capable of."

"No, he doesn't," she said flatly. "And neither do you."

Without warning, Kaveri abruptly thrust out her hands. The air around me rumbled with overpressure, and every single one of the Convectorate mechs went flying backward as if a concussive grenade had just detonated at their feet. Several of them crashed into the hangar walls, while others smashed against the hull of our ship. All of them crumpled over and dropped their weapons, momentarily stunned.

And then Kaveri moved.

In one instant she was standing next to me, arms extended, and in the next she was rolling forward with the preternatural grace of a professional acrobat. Somewhere amidst her tumble she plucked a long, slender needle from inside one of her horns—how had I not noticed that?—and hurled it at the Subari officer with lethal grace. He didn't even have time to aim his pistol before the metal spike pierced his throat and conjured a geyser of blackish-green blood.

"Grab a weapon!" she yelled. "They'll have backup!"

I still couldn't bring myself to move even as the Subari man crumpled to the floor. Kaveri didn't wait. After vaulting back to her feet, she extended her right hand toward one of the mechs. Its fallen plasma rifle leapt up off the ground and flipped into her hand as if her fingers were magnets.

Psychic

.

She's a stars-damned psychic!

The conclusion was so obvious and yet so shocking I found myself completely unable to breathe. I stood there, paralyzed like an idiot, as she began firing at the prone mechs, surgically and ruthlessly eliminating them one by one as they struggled to recover their weapons. I may never have shaken myself out of stasis if a trio of black-uniformed Rakashi security officers hadn't appeared behind us in the hangar doorway.

Powered purely by adrenaline, I dove forward and recovered my pistol, then twisted around and fired at the newcomers from the deck. I shot one in the chest and another in the arm before Kaveri whirled about and slammed them all with another burst of telekinetic energy. Two shots later, it was all over.

"You managed to outmaneuver four Convectorate reclamator drones in this piece of garbage," Kaveri said as she freed Raxyl from his restraints. "I hope that was skill and not luck, otherwise we're never getting out of this place in one piece."

"What are you...?" I swallowed and tried to catch my breath as I climbed to my feet. "How...?"

"We need to get out of here," she said. "Now! I'll explain everything on the way."

Part of me wanted to argue. Another part wanted to shoot her before she decided to turn her powers upon us. But a third part—the only sensible part—belatedly took control and forced me to nod as I dashed for the ship.

"You did get some fuel, right?" I asked Raxyl, frantically pounding the access code into the control panel on the hatch.

"Some, yes," Raxyl confirmed, rubbing at his wrists as an anxious orange shimmer rippled up his neck. "But we will have to stop again before we reach Gol Zabras."

"One problem at a time," I said, opening the hatch and waving everyone inside. Kaveri raced past me, the muzzle of her rifle still glowing, and in that moment, I fully appreciated just how thoroughly I had been fooled. I had feared all along that she was a simple con-artist using her body and wiles to dupe us out of credits, but this...