3013: SALVATION (3013: The Series Book 5) (17 page)

“Gee, thanks. I feel so much
better,” Dom said dryly.

Malik slapped Dom on the back. If
he were a weaker man the friendly blow would have knocked him off his feet. “It
is tradition, my friend. Traditions are important. You should know this since
you trace your heritage back to our people. Yes, I know who you are. A
background check was done when you requested a meeting with me when you
arrived.”

Jax’s eyes narrowed as he
regarded the Tarin lord. “And yet you made us wait?”

“Of course. I came to speak to
Jaden about your request.” Malik sobered. “We are in a war here on Tartarus. We
are only as good as our allies, and I knew allowing Alliance soldiers onto our
lands would annoy him.”

Skylar was distracted from the
conversation as she watched Arik take a few practice swings of his sword with
obvious skill. He looked over at her and winked. “You’ve forgotten, keeper of
my heart, the D’Aire are skilled swordsmen.”

“Well, fuck me twice,” Dom swore.

Arik laughed. “I will protect you,
my friend.”

Jax grinned. “This should be
entertaining. Anyone want to place a bet?”

Ignoring him, Dom grabbed Skylar,
pulling her to him. He kissed her hard before saying, “If your father kills me,
I expect you to avenge me.”

She nodded solemnly. “I will.”

The group made their way to the
front entrance, and Arik frowned as he looked outside. “It’s still raining.”

“You going to melt, D’Aire?”
Malik taunted with a grin.

Skylar sighed.

This was going to be a long
night.

****

Skylar and her father spent the
rest of the night talking.

Both Dom and Arik survived their
fight with Jaden, although they were both sore as hell after the hours spent
with him in the battle arena. Jaden had used them to work off his fury at what
had been done to her, but they had shown well for themselves. He had put them
both through their paces, starting slow then working them further to see what
they were capable of.

Jax had paced the sidelines,
eager to go out and try his own hand at fighting so Lord Rego had taken pity on
him. They went out on the battlefield to square off against one another, using
the time to speak about the current mission. When Calum invited Matt Malloy out
on the field, the other warriors had paired up with the other Strike Force
members until all the men were fighting.

Skylar had sat on a stone bench
outside with Reva as they watched, using the time to plot. They came up with a
good plan to get to Khan, both of them working out the details and thinking of
ways to counter any arguments the men would surely come up with. Once
everything was set, Skylar stood up and told the men she was starving, putting
an end to their play.

Before they had left the field,
Jaden had called her over to him. Reaching down, he retrieved a black dagger
from his boot, the hilt a dragon’s talon clutching a large blood red stone. He
had turned to her bonded ordering them both to remove their shirts so they were
bare-chested.

“Will you bleed for her,” he
demanded.

“Yes,” both of them had said
without hesitation.

“Prove it.”

Skylar had wanted to stop him as
he sliced a thin line over each of their chests right over their hearts. When
Dom and Arik didn’t flinch, Jaden nodded, then turned to Skylar. He held out
the dagger, giving it to her.

“They are worthy.”

The men had washed up then
everyone had reassembled back in the main hall for dinner. This time when they
had sat down, everyone was more relaxed and comfortable with on another despite
the language barrier. Once the meal was finished, the men had gone to bed,
leaving Skylar some private time to spend with Jaden.

It was like a dream for her.

They had spoken about their
lives, filling each other in on what the other had missed over the years they
had been apart. She liked hearing about his people, and the changes he had tried
to implement to make things better for his world. In turn, she told him about
her life at the Academy and her job as a Security and Investigations officer.
He told her he was proud of the life she had made for herself, even
begrudgingly admitted that she had chosen two strong warriors to bond with, although
he was still not convinced he was happy she was bonded to the two of them.

She also filled him in on her
current mission, explaining the ramifications of what would happen if Lord Lobo
Khan was able to continue to sell the synthetic
xili
drug on the black
market. Jaden was furious, wanting to know exactly what the drug did and how it
worked. Skylar told him, informing him that it affected the Tarins
approximately the same way it worked on humans.

They had reluctantly parted ways
to go to bed. Skylar’s heart ached a little when she realized she had once
again had to choose which of her bonded to sleep with for the night. Sticking
to the pattern, she had sought Dom’s bed and sighed in pleasure when he had
welcomed her with open arms. They had made love slowly, loving one another
before they slept.

Her last thought before she
closed her eyes had been to figure out a way to bridge the divide between the
three of them.

It was late morning by the time
she woke, hearing one of the maids enter the room to deliver a dress that was a
gift from her father. Skylar wasn’t used to having people walk into her room
unannounced and neither was Dom, and they frightened the maid with their aggressive
reactions to her intrusion. After apologizing, Skylar had gone to take a bath
in the adjoining bathing room while Dom had gone back to sleep. While she was
soaking in the large bath, Arik had joined her. She watched with avid interest,
her hunger for him was more pronounced now that she knew his touch.

He had sensed the moment she’d
woken through their bond and had come to her. They whispered words of love to
one another as they made love, then he had helped her dress in the blood-red
gown before he had put on a set of Tarin warrior’s clothes that her father had
given him. The tight-fitting, flexible, black armor looked wicked on him,
highlighting the white hair that fell around his shoulders.

Dom had grumbled at them to leave
him be as they left the room hand-in-hand, but he told them he would join them
shortly in the main hall for their meal. Skylar felt strange walking into the
hall wearing a dress, but the tender way her father looked at her when he saw
her made the discomfort worth it.

“You look absolutely beautiful,
my little Sky.”

She smiled. “Thank you for the
dress. It’s lovely.”

“This dress belonged to your
mother. I’ve kept all her things locked away, along with what used to belong to
you,” he told her. “Perhaps in my heart I knew you would return one day.”

Skylar wrapped her arms around
his waist and lost her breath when he squeezed the air out of her lungs when he
returned her hug. After long moments, she pulled back and took hold of his arm
and let him lead her to the table for the mid-day meal.

Dom stumbled into the hall a few
minutes later, and his mood darkened when he was told there was no coffee on
Tartarus. Reva entered the hall a few minutes later, frowning down at the
dark-gold dress she was wearing. With her golden skin and light hair, she
looked like a glowing flame, beautiful and bright.

Skylar murmured her thanks to her
father for providing her friend with something to wear, but was shocked when
she was told he hadn’t done it. For a moment Skylar figured one of the maids
had thought to take care of the task, but she knew she was wrong when she saw
the look of male satisfaction on Lord Rego’s face as he stared at Reva.

He turned his head and met
Skylar’s eye, quirking up a brow in silent challenge. She wanted to tell him he
was wasting his time, but thought the arrogant male would be better off
figuring that out on his own.

It was when everyone was once
again seated at the table that Skylar decided to bring up her plan for how to
take down Khan. She had expected resistance, but the violent reactions from all
the males at the table was—in her mind—slightly extreme.

“No. Absolutely not,” Jaden
growled.

Dom nodded. “Fucking right it’s a
no.”

“It’s too risky,” Jax said.

“Crazy,” Matt Malloy muttered.
“She’s fucking crazy.”

“Look, I know there are risks
involved but this is the best chance we have to find Khan and take him down. We
need to move fast before words spreads about my return and we don’t have any
other options. Our thermal imagining of the mountain range can’t penetrate the
mineral layers in the rock, so we can’t know for sure where Khan’s hiding. We
have to go in and find him, and this is the best way to do it. I can do this,”
Skylar insisted.

“We. We can do this,” Reva
corrected.

Malik shook his head, his lips
thinned in anger as his jaw clenched. “No, you cannot. We’ve tried something
like this before and it didn’t work. It is too dangerous for you.”

“They killed our warrior before
he could even get close enough to confirm Khan’s location,” Jaden snarled. “I
just got you back. I will not lose you now.”

“You won’t,” Skylar assured him.
“This is my job. We can and will get Khan’s location and track down the
xili
plants. These men subjugate and enslave women. They will never expect Reva and
I to be capable of doing something like this. You will be able to track us and we
can end this. End him.”

“If our imaging systems can’t
find Khan, what makes you think we can successfully track you,” Jax countered.
“We might lose the signal of the tracker, and then you’ll be fucked.”

Arik leaned back in his chair as
he smiled. “We don’t need a tracker. We are connected mind-to-mind through our
bond. I can find Skylar anywhere in the universe.”

Skylar’s heart was heavy as she
saw Dom’s jaw clench, but he remained silent. She knew that it hurt him that
she and Arik had a special bond he couldn’t be part of, but she didn’t know
what to do about it.

“We are not helpless females,”
Reva argued, her eyes flashing with anger. “You insult us both by questioning
our ability to do this mission.”

“We aren’t questioning your
abilities, we’re questioning your sanity,” Malik snapped, earning a glare from
Reva.

“Would you like me to show you
just how capable I am you stupid male?” Reva snarled.

“Try me, kitty-cat. We’ll see who
comes out on top.”

Jaden slammed his fist down on
the table. “Enough! It is pointless to argue about this. The females will not
be used as bait.”

Reva snorted. “If we had dicks
you would not hesitate to go along with our plan.”

“If you had dicks, this mission
would be pointless,” Matt Malloy interjected.

Jaden crossed his arms over his
chest. “It doesn’t matter. You will not do this, I forbid it. That is final.”

***

Chapter Thirteen

“Well, this sucks.”

The very next afternoon, Skylar
and Reva found themselves chained together in a metal cage on the back of a
vehicle pulled by an animal that resembled a horse, only it was slightly larger
and more hairy. The Tarin male driving the vehicle whistled a cheerful tune as
he drove them down the bumpy road.

“You’re the one who wanted to
come along,” Skylar reminded her friend.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know it was
going to be so freakin’ hot out today. I’m sweating like crazy. I’m a damn cat
who lives in the jungle, so, that’s saying something.”

Skylar had to agree.

Sweat dripped down her face, and she
cursed softly as she lifted a hand, only to be pulled short by the shackles
around her wrists. They had allowed themselves to be chained by the informant
when he put them in the back cage for authenticity. Raising her elbow, she used
it to push her hair back from her face trying to cool her skin a little. It was
blistering hot out and the humidity from last night’s rain did nothing to help.
She looked around at the barren landscape as they traveled. It was a sea of
reds and browns baking under the scorching sun.

This better work, she thought.

After a long argument, Skylar and
Reva had been able to convince the group that their plan was the best possible
solution to find Khan fast and take him down.

Malik had an informant who traded
goods of all kinds to both sides of the war. They had contacted him last night,
arranging with him to transport Skylar and Reva to a representative of Khan’s
in the guise of selling the women so they could be tracked back to Khan’s
mountain holding. The informant usually didn’t like dealing with men like Khan,
but he had a source that told him how to get in touch with the right people and
he agreed to go along with the arrangement to help take down Khan’s network.

The plan itself was sound, but
there were many variables that made it dangerous to the women. Still, they were
both fighters and could handle themselves in any situation, which minimized the
risk.

“The sun is beginning to set. The
heat should get better once it does.”

“Let us hope,” Reva grumbled.
“Sorry, I don’t like being chained or being put in a cage.”

“I remember.” Trying to lighten
the mood, Skylar grinned at her friend. “What is it about us being together
that makes people want to lock us up?”

Reva chuckled. “We seem to bring
out the best in them.”

The cart slowed and the driver
turned around. “Hey there, my pretties. We are coming to the meeting spot where
my source told me Khan’s men will be waiting. You should lay down or something
since you are supposed to be unconscious-like. Good luck!”

Skylar and Reva shared a look
then they both glanced down at the floor of the cage. It was dirty from the
animals that the man usually transported, but they had little choice. They both
lay down and the vehicle began moving again. The women spoke softly to one
another for the next fifteen minutes until they heard a new voice call out,
“Halt!”

The driver slowed the cart to a
stop near a large cropping of boulders, and called out a greeting. Based on the
noise around them, two male Tarin had joined him on the road.

“Hello! I’m Berte,” the driver
replied cheerfully. “Gerrad usually meets you to sell your wine to you, but he
has the fever so he asked if I would make the journey today. I have two barrels
in the back, just like you requested.”

Skylar and Reva felt the cart
move as the driver jumped down. They heard the crunch of footsteps heading
toward the back of the vehicle and by the abrupt halt of sound, they knew they
had been sighted.

“What do you have there?”

“Two stupid females that snuck
away from their guards at the Hades Outpost last night. They wanted to see if
all the rumors they’d heard about sex with Tarins was true. I found them passed
out in the shade of a rock. Seems they wandered around some, then got lost.”

“What do you plan to do with
them?”

“Sell them, I guess.”

Suspicion entered one of the
males voices when he asked, “Why aren’t you going to keep them?”

Berte laughed. “I have more use
for coin than I do pussy.”

“We’ll take them”

“What are you willing to give me
in exchange?”

“Who says we have to give you
anything?”

Berte laughed again. “Since
Gerrad gets most of his supplies from me, it would be a shame if you decided to
cheat me. Good luck surviving out here without the usual luxuries you order.”

One of the males cursed, then the
three of them began haggling over the price of the women and the wine until a
deal was struck. The cage door was opened and Skylar forced herself to remain
limp as she was transferred from one vehicle to another. A few seconds later,
Reva was placed next to her on the floor of a wagon. Lucky for them, this time
the wagon was covered so they had some shelter from the burning sun.

“
Arik, we just made contact
with two of Khan’s men. They’ve taken the bait and we’ve been transported over
to their vehicle.
”

“
I do not like you calling
yourself bait
,” Arik admonished softly through their bond. There was a long
pause then he said,
“Dom would like me to inform you if you are harmed there
will be hell to pay, and your father is threatening to lock you up for the rest
of your life.
”

“
Comforting.
”

He chuckled. “
We are about a
mile and a half behind you. We’ll follow you back to their base. Be safe, my
love.
”

“They didn’t even check our chains,”
Reva whispered after peeking around to make sure they were alone and wouldn’t
be heard. “Some males are just stupid...like that Malik.”

Skylar had a hard time swallowing
down her laugh at her friend’s obvious irritation with the Tarin lord. “We are
just females to them, not a threat. I’ve made contact with the team. They are a
mile and a half behind us and tracking.”

“Good.”

One of their captors let out a wild
laugh from outside the vehicle. “We got ourselves a deal. Maybe we should try
them out now. You know, give them a taste of a real Tarin male.”

“I want to kill him first,” Reva
whispered, and Skylar couldn’t help but agree.

“No, you know Khan. He likes them
clean and pretty before he gets a hold of them. Besides, he has a chase
scheduled tonight. Adding these two into the mix should win us big favor with
our lord.”

Skylar heard one male jump in the
back of the vehicle with them, then she was roughly pushed on her side.
Fighting the urge to open her eyes, as she felt a sharp sting on her thigh as a
needle was jabbed into her.

Fuck!

“I’m giving them a little
something to make sure they stay out until they’re prepared for tonight. I
don’t like it if they cry unless I’m fucking them.” Both males laughed.

Vile little fuckers...

Oh yeah, Skylar thought before
she passed out. She couldn’t wait to kill them.

****

Skylar woke slowly.

She was getting damn tired of
passing out, even if she had been drugged. Not wanting to give away that she
was awake, she reached for her connection with Arik in her mind and was
relieved to find him waiting for her.

“
Stars! Skylar, where have you
been?
”

“
They injected me with
something that knocked me out. Where are you?
”

“
When I lost my connection
with you, we traced you to the meeting point. I could still sense you, but it
is much more difficult to do so when you are unconscious,
” Arik explained,
his voice filled with strain. “
We followed the tracks of the vehicle you
were in, but we lost them at the pass leading to the mountain. I can feel you
better now. We are coming for you.
”

“
We’d appreciate the company.
”

Sky opened her eyes slowly and
realized that she was in some kind of cave with a thick wooden door as its only
exit. There was a torch fixed to the wall giving off a little light, but
otherwise it was dark. She turned her head and saw Reva sitting up with her
legs crossed at the ankles, her back up against the wall. “Feels like déjà vu,
doesn’t it?”

“It really does.” Skylar soft
laugh turned to a groan as she started to get up. Her body ached, but she
forced herself to a sit up anyways. She let out a vile curse as she got a good
look at Reva, then looked down at herself. They were both stripped of the
clothes they had been wearing and were now dress in a tiny scrap of material
that could barely be called a dress. On both of their necks they wore collars
made of a thick metal material.

Skylar pulled at it, but it
wouldn’t budge.

“Don’t bother. I’ve tried that
already, and it zaps you if you fuck with it too much,” Reva said in disgust. “Hurts
like a bitch. It also stops me from shifting. I’ve never encountered something
like this, and I vow on the Helix moons that I will kill whoever created it.”

“I’ll help,” Skylar offered. “Do
I even want to know why we are wearing....this?”

“You probably don’t, but I heard
the slaves that dressed us talking while I was waking up. You know my system
burns off drugs faster than yours does. Anyway, they were saying they didn’t
understand why they even bothered to dress us, but we are to be part of
something called a chase. Males chase us through the catacomb maze down here,
and whoever catches us gets to rape us. They seem to like tearing the clothes
from the females during this farce, so that is why we are dressed like this.”

“That’s it. Everyone here has to
die.”

“Agreed,” Reva bit out darkly. “I
did hear that there is a lab somewhere down here, along with several other
females that are being held captive and a stock room of other shit they sell.”

Skylar paused before relaying all
the information she’d just learned to Arik. She could feel his rage and tried
to reassure him. “
Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.
”

“
Don’t you let them put their
hands on you, Sky.
”

“
I don’t plan to. Besides, at
this rate, perhaps we can take down a few other bastards we would have normally
had to chase down.
”

His reluctant amusement came
through their connection. “
Well, there is certainly that bright side.
”

“
Yeah, just call me your
optimistic ray of sunshine.
”

“
We’ll be there soon. Stay
safe, keeper. I will be monitoring you...you are not alone.
”

Skylar relaxed at his words, then
decided to try something. Raising her hands to the collar she sent a surge of
energy through her hands and yelped as the metal sparked and burned around her
neck. The pain was worth it as she heard a small clicking sound and the collar
snapped open.

“It stings,” Skylar warned as
Reva grinned at her.

“I don’t care. Get this thing off
of me.”

Sky knelt down beside Reva and
sent another surge of energy through her hands to deactivate the collar. Reva
let out a low snarl of pain then yanked the collar off of her with a relieved
sigh. “I feel so much better now.”

“Glad to be of service.” They
grinned at one another.

Reva’s head cocked to the side
and she held up a hand. “Someone is coming.”

Both women reluctantly replaced
the collars back on their necks, but hid the fact they weren’t latched any
longer by covering the opening with their hair.

Skylar tensed up as a large
shadow filled the room when the door to their holding cell slammed open. “You
are awake? Good. We’re getting ready to begin.”

“Who are you? Why are we here?”

The man stepped forward and two
others followed, holding up a torch so they both became visible. The man who
had spoken was fairly attractive, but his demon eyes were filled with madness
as he looked down at her. Without any warning, he lashed out and struck Skylar with
a hard backhand.

She heard Arik’s curse in her
mind as she hit the floor, and took a few extra seconds lying there to replace
the collar that had almost fallen off. Turning her head slowly, she wiped at
the blood trickling from her split lip as she glared up at him as the other two
males pushed three crying Tarin females into the cell.

“You don’t speak until given
permission, slave.” He smiled, making him look downright evil. “It’s not often
that I have the pleasure of adding humans and shifters to my harem. Now, to
explain the rules to all of you at once since I hate to repeat myself. I am
Lord Khan, but you may call me Master. You are about to participate in one of
my little hobbies. Every once in a while I reward some of my loyal guards with
what I like to call a chase.”

Skylar knew Arik was listening to
Khan as he spoke through their bond, and she used their connection to allow her
to hold back the violent energy she could feel building inside her.

“The chase will begin here. You
are given the chance to run and hide, but the labyrinth of the catacombs can be
confusing to maneuver through. There are twelve of my guards participating
tonight, along with three of my close friends. Since they enjoy being entertained,
and you are to be just that...entertainment.” He grinned. “They will be chasing
you, and when they catch you, they will take their prize. Since there are only
five of you, expect to be used well tonight.”

The three female Tarins were
sobbing softly, but Skylar was burning with fury.

She had heard enough.

“Sorry, fuckhead. I really don’t
care to play your sick, twisted little game. Count us out.”

Khan’s eyes narrowed in anger and
he pulled a device out of his pocket, holding it up so she could see it. “You
will pay for your insolence.”