Among Galactic Ruins (5 page)

She blinked. Those damn black spots didn’t
want to go away. “I think I might faint now.”

***

Damon hadn’t felt fear like this in a really
long time. When he’d seen that creature choking Lexa…

Damon wrapped his arms around her and pulled
her close to his chest. A second later, her arms wrapped around him
and held on…tight.

She didn’t faint, but she leaned against
him, her fingers tangled in his T-shirt.

He stroked her hair. “Knew you were too
tough to faint.”

She gave a little laugh that turned into a
sob, which she muffled against his shirt. “I thought I was going to
die. I couldn’t breathe.”

He kept stroking her. When had he, Damon
Malik—known as one of the most deadly covert agents in the
galaxy—ever offered comfort to someone? He was usually the one
doing things people needed comforting against. Lexa was an
appealing, warm weight against him, all feminine softness leaning
into him like…like she needed him.

“Come on.” He helped her up and over to the
bed. The sheets were in disarray and twisted.

She sat. “Water?”

He strode over to the tiny bathroom and
filled a glass. When he sat beside her, she snapped on the tiny
lamp attached to the wall beside the bed.

And then he saw her neck.

God, the red welts were an ugly stain on her
smooth skin. It would bruise.

She gratefully accepted the glass and drank,
wincing a little.

“I have a medscope,” Damon said. “Let me
grab it.”

He saw a flare of fear in her eyes. She
didn’t want to be alone. He stepped back, about to tell her to come
with him.

Then she pushed her shoulders back. “Okay.
I’ll wait here.”

Stubborn, brave and proud. Damned if he
didn’t like her more for all of those.

He made the journey to his room quick. He
was back in a second and settling beside her on the bed.

“Ah, shit, Princess.” He stroked a gentle
finger over the largest welt. “That bastard really did a number on
your poor neck.”

“It’ll be fine,” she croaked.

He lifted the slim metal tube of the
medscope. “After this, it will be.” He switched it on and a
pale-blue light shone out. He held it over her neck and waited as
the machine healed her wound. The devices were great for any
small-to-medium wounds, but anything worse required a visit to a
medbooth or a doctor.

As the injury disappeared, the lines of pain
around her mouth loosened. “Thank you.”

He snapped the medscope off and, unable to
help himself, stroked her neck with his fingertips once more. She
shivered, her gaze dropping to the floor.

“Medscopes are expensive.” Her gaze lifted
again. “How’s an ex-spy like you afford one?”

That was the drawback of the device, and the
singular reason why every person in the galaxy didn’t have one. He
set it aside. “It was a gift.” For an assassination he’d carried
out. “From a grateful princess who was exceptionally impressed with
my abilities.”

The smallest smile flickered on Lexa’s face.
She was slowly shaking off her fright and shock.

“Did they hurt you anywhere else?”

She shook her head. “I’m okay. They were
after the map.”

Damon stilled. “The map? You’re sure?”

She nodded.

Shit
. That complicated things. He’d
been hoping they were just opportunistic thieves who preyed on new
arrivals. “Who else knew about the map?”

She shook her head. “Only us. Marius.” She
paused, her mouth firming. “Dathan.”

Damn, Damon didn’t want the kid to be behind
this. He’d thought he’d read a need in the young treasure hunter to
prove himself the old-fashioned way. Not by taking shortcuts.

Lexa snapped her fingers. “And Brocken
Phoenix.”

Hmm, that made more sense. “We’ll check with
Dathan in the morning. In the meantime, we need to be careful. No
wandering off alone, always keep your Sync in reach.”

“They took my Sync.”

“Damn. At least they can’t get into it.”

Her lips quirked. “Not with the new
encryption you put on it.”

“That you bitched about endlessly.” He
pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “We’ll get you a
new one tomorrow.”

“I doubt we’ll find one with a 4D scanner
built into it like mine.”

“We’ll see. Here, take this.”

She took the laser pistol. Her touch wasn’t
hesitant, like he expected. She examined the weapon like a pro. He
raised a brow.

“Standard self-defense training for
astro-archeologists. Never know when you might be on a dangerous
dig…or a deadly treasure hunt. Plus, that brother thing again.”

“Do you have another copy of the map and its
clues?”

“Yes. It wasn’t all on the Sync.”

Clever girl
. “Where is it?”

She grabbed the chain around her neck and
lifted the purple pendant. “The thief was closer to it than he
knew. I saved images of the map and the text, as well as my
translation, onto a memory chip and had it made to look like
jewelry.”

He fingered it. “Not bad, Princess. We might
make a spy out of you, yet.”

She grinned. “I have my talents too, Mr.
Malik.”

His fingers brushed hers and something arced
between them. He suddenly realized she was wearing only tiny sleep
shorts that left her slim legs bare, along with an equally tiny
tank top. One strap had been torn, revealing the top swell of one
full breast.

Her eyes stayed on his face. “We don’t like
each other.”

“Right.” Unable to stop himself—him, the
king of control—he brushed his fingers over her bare shoulder. Her
skin was so smooth.

She shivered. “You think I’m a trouble
magnet.”

“And you think I’m arrogant.”

“An arrogant ass.” She lifted a hand and ran
it down the side of his face. Her nails scratching over his
stubble.

“That was it.” He brushed some of her hair
back from her face. Then he touched her now-healed neck. “Does it
hurt?”

She shook her head, her lips parting. “Not
anymore.”

“This is probably a really bad idea.”

“Yes. Really bad.”

Thinking about those angry red marks
reminded Damon she’d been attacked and hurt. She was vulnerable.
For all his faults, taking advantage of a woman wasn’t one of
them.

He took a deep breath and pulled back. “You
should get some sleep. You need to be rested to start our hunt
tomorrow.”

Her eyes flashed and her lips pressed into a
line. “You’re just going to ignore this?” She waved a hand between
them.

“Like you said, we don’t like each
other.”

“That’s all you’re going to say?”

God, if she kept pushing him, he’d crack and
push her back on that uncomfortable bed, strip her naked and put
his mouth on her. “You’re high maintenance. I don’t need the
aggravation.”

With a sniff, she got to her feet, clutching
the torn strap of her shirt. “I’m remembering why I don’t like
you.”

Reluctance sat heavily on him, but he forced
himself to move away from her to the window. He slammed the
shutters closed and pulled a multi-tool from his pocket. He flicked
on the mini-welder, watching as it shone bright gold. Quickly, he
welded the shutters closed.

“Damon! You’re damaging someone else’s
property.”

“I already broke the lock on your door to
get in here. I’ll pay Stellar. I’m sure she’ll be more than happy
to take my e-creds.” And Lexa would be safe.

He strode to the door and glanced back.
Damn
. Just looking at her—her hair a tumbled disarray, the
creamy skin of her arms and legs bared by that tiny little outfit
that would haunt his dreams—made him want to slam the door shut and
grab her. He’d had more beautiful women than Lexa Carter, certainly
more experienced. But she seemed to ignite something in him that
had been dormant his whole lifetime.

She strode toward him, a determined look on
her face. Every muscle in his body went tight.

“See you in the morning, then.” She slammed
the door closed in his face.

Damon stood there for a second, then he
grinned. She was cute when she was angry.

He pulled one of his laser pistols out of
his belt, checked it, then he slid down the wall to sit. He was
going to do whatever he had to do to keep her safe. Even if it
meant an uncomfortable night on guard duty.

The next morning, Lexa stepped out into the
bright Zerzuran sunshine and came to an abrupt halt. “We’re riding
on those?”

Two steps ahead of her, Damon looked back
and grinned. “Your central systems upbringing is showing,
Princess.”

Three huge…beasts stood in the center of the
dusty street. They were very round, and close to the size of the
small transport she drove to work, with shaggy, brown hides that
were full of tangles. They were fitted with simple riding blankets
and rope reins.

Beside them, their treasure hunter was
talking with a huge hulk of a man with a bald head. All the animals
were laden with supplies tied onto their unkempt hides.

Damon ran a hand down the side of the
nearest animal. “Ballo beasts. These things can bloat themselves on
water and go for months through the desert without needing water
again. People here have been using them for centuries.”

She eyed a nearby desert speeder. “Why not
take something like that? They don’t touch the sand, so they won’t
get bogged.” She looked at the ballo beasts again. “And surely
they’re faster.”

“Sand.” Dathan appeared beside them. “Gets
into everything and engines usually quit. Plus, we’d have to carry
too much fuel. Desert speeders are okay for day trips, but nothing
longer.” The treasure hunter slapped the hulking man beside him.
“That’s why my man, Hunk, here, has set us up with some of his best
ballos.”

Lexa swallowed. The man was…enormous. He had
a faint orange tint to his skin, and no hair on his head, just tiny
ridges of bone and a face Lexa guessed only a mother could love. He
was almost seven feet tall with giant shoulders and legs like tree
stumps. “Hi, Hunk.”

The man ducked his head and looked at his
boots.

“Hunk doesn’t say much. Actually, anything
at all. His mouth can’t form the sounds. His species, the Doshan,
communicate with sign language and grunts.”

“Hey, bitch!”

A deep voice echoed through the street. The
few people out and about this early all looked up, some scrambling
away.

A tall, disheveled man was bearing down on
them.

“Fuck,” Dathan muttered.

The man looked like he was north of fifty.
He had the weathered face of an outdoorsman, and an athletic,
stocky body. “We had a deal.”

Lexa blinked. He was talking to her? The man
strode right toward her, menace radiating off him.

Damon stepped in front of her. “You want to
stop right there, or I’m going to have to hurt you.”

Something nasty ignited in the man’s blue
eyes.

Eyes exactly the same shade as Dathan’s.

Brocken Phoenix. She saw the resemblance now
and could see this man had once been as handsome as his son, before
the ravages of hard living and alcohol had gotten to him.

Lexa wasn’t about to let a drunken bully
call her out in the street. Or let Damon play the macho hero to her
damsel in distress. She stepped around Damon, pressing a calming
hand to his arm.

“Mr. Phoenix, I presume?”

Brocken sneered. “That’s right.”

She smelled kila fumes wafting off him.
“Well, my deal with you was for you to meet us at the
spaceport…
yesterday
. I paid you a significant deposit for
you to be there with the supplies I’d requested.”

Brocken opened his mouth but Lexa kept
going, using the tone she reserved for unruly schoolchildren who
visited the museum.

“You broke our deal. We did go looking for
you, only to be told you were indisposed.” She leaned toward Damon.
“That’s polite code for drunk in a gutter with an empty bottle of
kila.”

Damon ran his tongue over his teeth. “Got
it.”

“We found someone else more suitable.” She
sniffed. “Consider yourself lucky I didn’t ask you to return the
deposit.”

Brocken’s eyes bulged, his face turning red.
“You can shut your high-and-mighty mouth. One stinking day late and
my own son steals my hunt away!”

“That’s not my problem, Mr. Phoenix. Dry
yourself out and then you’ll get your hunts.”

“Are you fucking him?” Brocken glared at his
son. “He’s got an eye for the pretty ladies, even ones as
hoity-toity as you. He’s got a face the ladies love to ride,
something about a talented tongue.”

Lexa felt anger pulse through her. “You
rude—”

“Dad.” Dathan shouldered forward. “Back off.
You can’t talk to Lexa like that—”

Brocken swung out with a fist.

Dathan dodged with a practiced move and
avoided a blow to the head, but his father caught him in the
shoulder.

Lexa gasped and leapt forward, but Damon
beat her to it. He knocked Brocken’s arm away and shoved the man
back a step.

“Drop it, Phoenix. I’m not a boy or a woman,
and we both know who’ll end up lying bleeding in the street if you
try that again.”

The chill in Damon’s tone made Lexa swallow,
but she couldn’t look away from his face. The easy charm was gone
leaving behind the hard-eyed stare of a man who knew how to
kill.

Brocken clearly saw it as well. He stepped
back. “You’ll die in the desert with this young fool leading you.
The desert vultures will pick at your bones.” He spun and strode up
the street.

Dathan sighed, his gaze on his father’s
back. “He used to be so good. Best treasure hunter on the
planet.”

Lexa watched a wealth of emotion cross the
young man’s face—grief, anger, resignation.

“Least my brothers got out. They aren’t here
having to deal with him every day.”