Fenturi Fate (Spacestalker Saga Book 1) (18 page)

He looked too pleased with himself, his eyes growing dark, the smirk on his face unbelievably attractive. “You’re on board the
Eyshan6
, and my prisoner.”

“The others? Where are they?”

He sat down in the chair by the desk, overwhelming the room with his powerful presence.
“Your friends are aboard the
SpaceStalker
and even now move toward Bylar to await trial for treason.”

“
Treason?
What in stars for?”

“For standing in the way of Legion business.” He stared thoughtfully at her.
“Why didn’t you just come clean and tell me that you’re the Mari?”

Dare snorted.
“Oh sure, when you wouldn’t tell me or my crew why you wanted this ‘Mari,’ when it’s a known fact you people kill anything related to the Fenturi. Why wouldn’t I admit to being the one you sought?” Ren’s jaw clenched, and she smiled.
“What’s the matter? Truth hurt?”

“Look, you little Fenturi witch,” he said, his anger apparently not quite under control.
“The System needs your help. By the Goddess you
will
give it, or your friends won’t live long enough to hear you say no.”

Dare frowned. “You’re bluffing.”

“Am I? The System is on the brink of a Horde war. Despite what I might think, the king says you’re important.”

“Ass.”

“So, my little Mari.” His eyes darkened.
“Why don’t you begin with just how you ended up on Kre?”

“When you first boarded my ship and
demanded
help finding the Mari, I honestly didn’t think you meant me.
I have no idea what a ‘Mari’ is except a desolate moon off of Bylar.”

“Really?”
Liar
, went unsaid.

“Really.
I mean,
when you mentioned the blue markings on the shoulder I knew you were looking for me.
But I’m no Mari.
I’m Fenturi, sure.” She watched his eyes narrow, his mouth flatten at her words.
“I’m not ashamed of it.
But I’m not about to broadcast it to the Legion so you can hunt me down and kill me.”

“But I wouldn’t have tried to kill you, at least not right away,” he said smoothly.

Dare stomach dropped.
The way he now looked at her caused a fluttering response deep within her. “Yes, er, well…”
She stared down at her hands and tried desperately to calm her breathing. When he turned all intense and threatening, she found him at his most attractive. How messed up was she?

“Well what?”

She realized he meant her to continue. “Well, when you looked for the mark I hid it from you.”

“How did you do that, by the way? You didn’t have time to come up with anything, that I could tell.”

Dare refused to reveal Shea’s talent. “Suffice it to say I had you fooled. But why don’t you tell me how you found out I was the Mari.
Not a day after Jace and I left your ship, you had everyone out searching for me.”

“I have an Informa working for me.
You met Phin already, remember?” he asked with a small smile.

Dare groaned.
“I knew there was something odd about him.
When you started searching for me, I knew I had to leave.”
She couldn’t tell him Jace had picked up his thoughts and warned them to leave.
“We settled on Kre, and you know the rest.”

“No, I don’t.
So you hid out on Kre and decided to battle Olm pirates?
Sheer stupidity.
You drew attention to yourself by doing so.” He sounded so dismissive. The Bylaran jerk.

“Hey, they had a bellyful of slaves on their vessel.
Young ones.
We couldn’t let them leave with them.”

“So sentiment caused your downfall?” he asked.
His bitter laugh gave her the impression he wasn’t thinking about her just then.
“It really does all of you in, doesn’t it?”

She drew herself up. “Garen Vinopol, you might think—”

“It’s not Garen, and there’s no Vinopol,” he said firmly.
“Like I told you before, you can call me Ren. Or
My Lord
if it pleases you.”

Dare wondered at his displeasure at being called a Vinopol. He seemed to dislike any reference to his ties with Bylar. Strange, since as captain of the legendary Stalkers, he should have been proud to be a Bylaran.

Puzzled, she continued to study him.
His eyes had grown dark, but even the intensity of his gaze couldn’t mask his tiredness.
His strong jaw held a few days of stubble, only increasing the air of menace about him.

“So what would you really like to do to me if your king hadn’t commanded you otherwise?” she asked, unwisely, consumed with thoughts of his hands around her throat.

Then those hands would move lower, lingering on her collar bone, down her arms, to her belly and upward…

The look he gave her was one of hunger, and she instinctively backed away.

“Such a little tease.” He drew closer, leaving his chair to sit at the foot of the bed, next to her.
Dare moved as far back as she could, but he moved like lightning and dragged her down under him, so that his body pinned hers into the soft bed.

“You hate the Fenturi,” she reminded him even as her eyes fixed on his hard mouth.

“I should.” He stared at her, roaming over face.
“Yet I want you.” He pressed his hard body into hers.
“That’s your power, isn’t it?
To make men want what they can’t have.”

Dare couldn’t avoid the quick movement of his hands as he pinned her arms above her head.
Then his mouth took control of hers. There was no other word for it than ravishment. The commanding pressure of his lips increased her struggle for freedom, even as her body softened under his.

His anger morphed into something else, and her resistance ended as quickly as it had begun. His kiss turned from punishing to passionate and eased into a gentle teasing.
His lips and tongue teased her mouth, cajoled her to open and return the passion he coaxed from her.

His hands gripped her wrists tight while his body sank into hers, learning her through touch and taste. He smelled like wild male, a creature that would never be tamed, yet would come to the one it possessed. She wanted so much more, and her need consumed as much as it confused her. She’d never had a mate, never taken a lover. But she wanted him as if her body missed his touch.

Ren broke the kiss and stared down at her.
“You make men want you until they can think of nothing else.” His voice was thick, his body tense. And then he slowly backed off of her.
“But I’m not like the others.”
 

“I don’t know what you mean.” Dare wanted to wipe her mouth, as if that could brush away the heat of his touch.

“I want to bury myself in you so deeply until you melt around me. So wet, so hot, you ease the cold from my limbs.” His husky voice caused Dare to tremble.
“But I won’t.
I won’t touch you like that, because if I do you’ll win.”

“Win what?” she asked in frustration.
The man could make her lose her mind with seduction, but his words simply baffled her.

“Lucky for you, and me, we’re going on a little trip before we hit Nexios.”
He straightened.

“Nexios?” How had he gone from arousing to cool again?
His mood changes amazed her.

“You are to meet with a Nexian named Methan.”

“Wait. Methan? He sold me my ship.”

“Interesting,” was all he said before turning on his heel to leave.

“Wait!
What little trip are we making?
W
hen can I be released?”
When will you kiss me again?

The infuriating man laughed.
“Released? You’re as funny as you are beautiful.” The angry sound of his laughter echoed in the small cabin.
“No, Mari. You aren’t going anywhere.”

“My name is Dare.” She enunciated, angry with him. How did a man go from kissing the breath out of her to being so distant? What was his game?
“I’m not the Mari. When you finally realize that, don’t think to blame me for your mistake.”

Ren made no other comment.
He left through the door by the desk and locked it behind him.

She tried to leave, to no avail.
Damn.
She prowled around the room and found a small lavatory in what she thought was a storage closet.
Thank goodness for that. After making use of the lav, she discovered s
torage space on the wall next to the bed.
In a hidden panel, she found a wad of female clothing and frowned. What the heck?

She plunked back down on the bed, alarmed at how much it annoyed her to think of Ren in bed with some other woman.  

Though she’d never experienced sexual pleasure firsthand, she had enough Fenturi in her to welcome the idea of it. She’d witnessed sex on Vembi and in other worlds in many guises and manners.
She’d
even been kissed by Jace on those rare occasions when he forgot himself, then hastened to fulfill his desires away from her.

Yet no one had ever made her feel what Ren had.
She closed her eyes and cursed at her lack of willpower.
Having never been exposed to such intense feeling, Dare had no defense against it.
She should have pushed him away the moment he’d pressed her to the bed.

She sighed and snuggled under the covers of the bed. If only she hadn’t been so tired after using her starfire. Already she felt a lack of energy, tapped all over again. She wanted to never use her cursed power again.
The weakness that lingered afterward played hell on her control.
That had to be why she couldn’t resist Ren. It had to be.

She vowed that when she next awoke, she would stay clear of Ren Vinopol, no matter what he had in that devious mind of his.

Castor watched as Ren transferred via teleporter down to Vembi.
Ren had looked like an angry bear, hungry and frustrated no doubt, by the little Fenturi next to his room. Apparently Ren had tried to feed her before leaving, but the woman had been sleeping.

Ren insisted Castor feed her to get back her strength.

The Goddess willing, Ren would work off some of his frustration in a pleasure house on Vembi. Castor sure had.
He crossed the hallway to the galley, amused that Ren thought it a punishment to order Castor to feed the guidecat.
 As if anything could make Castor keep his mouth closed about Ren and Zebram.

Besides, Castor had been enthralled by the sleek feline since he’d first become a Bylaran Stalker. Since first encountering Mra, he’d been studying the creature’s history.
Castor put together a tray of raw vlarn meat and a few Bylaran root vegetables and brought it above deck to the green room.

He knocked, praying the creature wouldn’t lunge at him.
He’d brought his phaser but had sworn to Ren he wouldn’t harm a hair on the cat’s head.
For some strange reason Ren and the cat had come to an understanding.
Yet another way in which Ren’s Fenturi blood manifested.

He looked around him but could see nothing.
In the green room were several plants and trees that contributed to the oxygen the crew breathed.
In addition, the green room housed the water purification system and temperature generator as well.

Castor placed the tray on the ground under the large shadow of a Fen tree and jumped when something touched his leg.
He hadn’t seen the cat around him and still didn’t, when it suddenly shimmered under his eye and sniffed at the food he’d brought.

“Damnation.”

Mra return to the visible spectrum.
Amazingly, the cat could make itself invisible at will.
He knew the Stalker cats were purported to have an intelligence as keen as a human’s. But they tended to keep to their more animalistic instincts.
 

The cat raised its—
her
, Ren had corrected earlier—head and stared at Castor with intense blue eyes that reminded him of their captive.
He found to his amazement that the cat’s coloring matched Dare’s as well.
The patterns of coloring in both the cat and of the woman’s hair matched, the dark fur of the cat smoothly blended into red and gold at its feet and tail.

Mra gave him a slight
mreow.
Castor took a step back.
But unable to leave the creature without touching her soft fur, he asked, “May I touch you?”

The cat cocked her head before rubbing against his leg.
He forced himself to remain still and tentatively stroked the silken fur, marveling at its rich texture.
Deciding not to push his luck, he lifted his hand and backed away.

“Thank you.” He turned and left before she decided to attack.
 

Pleased and smiling about it, he decided to venture into the other cat’s den.
And wouldn’t Dare love being compared to a feline? He entered Ren’s quarters and passed through to the adjoining panel.

Ren, he noted, lived like a true warrior.
Not one comfort adorned any area of his room.
As if burned into him, Ren refused any comfort at all.
Well, his captain
was
at the moment on Vembi to be entertained, so perhaps all was not lost on the hardheaded warrior.

Speaking of hardheaded… He knocked on the panel door, moving through after a direct voice bid him enter.

Dare looked surprised to see him but said nothing.

“I came to see how you’re doing.” Castor saw her food tray untouched.
“You really do have to eat or you won’t regain your strength.”

Dare watched him with suspicion.

“For fek’s sake, it’s not drugged,”
he
growled.
“Fine. Both of you are too stubborn for your own good,” he muttered as he took a piece of food from her plate and washed it down with a sip of water from her glass.
“Satisfied now?
What would be the point anyway?
If we’d wanted you dead or drugged, we wouldn’t have taken the time to heal you, would we?”

Dare accepted the tray Castor thrust into her lap and started eating.

“So you’re the Mari, eh?” Castor studied her.

He could definitely see the Fenturi in her, now that he knew to look.
Her dark hair flared slightly into gold and red at the ends, like her cat.
Her thin face, dominated by her large, cat-like eyes, beckon a second glance.
High cheekbones, full lips and a small, straight nose put together for a captivating picture of femininity.

Though he hadn’t seen her naked in the med unit, he remembered her baring her soft skin for Legion inspection on her ship.
The woman had a shapely yet slim figure that would fit a man like a glove. No doubt Ren thought the same, hence his frustration after dealing with her.

“Are you through?” she asked haughtily.

He laughed. “You do the cool, condescending tone almost as well as Ren.”

“Ren? Oh, you mean Garen Vinopol. A royal Legionnaire.”

“You don’t want to call him that,” Castor said in a friendly warning and leaned back against the doorframe.

“Why not?”

“Don’t you know anything about Bylar, about the house of Vinopol?”

“No.
And I really don’t care to,” she said, but he ignored her.

“King Zedrax, that slimy bastard, died a month past.
He fathered two sons, but he never acknowledged Ren until moments before his death.
Ren’s mother wasn’t exactly of noble birth.” He figured Ren would let her know about his Fenturi blood if and when he decided to tell her.
“But Ren was raised to do as Zedrax bid.
N
one of it was pleasant, I can tell you that.”

Dare looked interested in spite of her words, so Castor continued.
“Ren’s brother has always loved him and that set off old King Zedrax even more.
Zedrax would put Ren in the midst of the most horrific battles.
Ren survived each one looking more like a hero.”

“I’ve heard stories of Zedrax,” Dare admitted.
“He was not a good man.”

“He did all right by Vinopol and the Bylaran people, I suppose.” Castor smoothed his mustache.
“But there are plenty of ways to be a good leader without obliterating opposing races. He spent years strangling his own people on hate.

“I’ve always liked the Fenturi.
Unfortunately, after so many years of killing, the Fenturi hate the Bylaran as much as Zedrax hated them.
So we deal with rogue raiders when we have to.
But to tell you the truth, Ren loves getting away from the stagnant planet as much as the rest of us do.”

“So you do most of your patrolling offworld?” Dare asked.

“Yes, for the love of Vembi, we do.
But I’ve got to tell you, Kre didn’t exactly impress me much.”

Dare smiled and Castor felt an answering warmth light within him.
She really was a gorgeous creature, so full of life
—
perfect for his captain.

“Growing up there doesn’t make it any more welcoming. You get used to the pirates coming and going. They’re not great, but there are pools in Kre, in the deep jungles, without compare.”

“Speaking of jungles, your cat, Mra, is above deck in the green room.”

“And you’re telling me this because…”

“Not as any form of leverage.
Just that I thought you might like a visit from it.
I mean, from her.
I’m sorry to say I’ve been instructed that you not leave this room.
But Ren didn’t say anything about me releasing the cat.”

Dare smiled.
“I’d love to see her.”

Castor nodded and moved from the door.
“I’ll be right back. I’ll be locking you in, just in case you get the urge to wander.”
He chuckled when she rolled her eyes and resumed her meal. Damn if she didn’t remind him of Ren in so many ways.

***

Later, when Dare lay back in bed, it was to wonder again about her circumstances, and in particular about Ren.

Castor had been a welcome diversion, as had Mra.
Dare
had been fortunate to spend time with her cat before Ren returned.
She couldn’t fathom why Ren would have brought Mra aboard but figured he intended to use Mra as more leverage, should Dare decide to leave her crew to fend for themselves.
As if she’d ever do that.

She’d been surprised to actually like Castor, a large man with kind brown eyes.
She didn’t dismiss his potential for violence, but she didn’t think he was the one of the Bylaran butchers she’d originally thought Ren’s crew to be.

Castor didn’t dislike the Fenturi, but Ren did because he’d been programmed to dislike them.
How sad to grow up unloved and forced to prove your worth.
At least she had been loved until the Bylarans had destroyed her parents.
Mra had been a wonderful guide on her journey into maturity.
A journey that was far from over, according to the arrogant feline.

Dare closed her eyes and wondered where Ren had gone.
T
he crew had been given some leave time in which to relax, or so Castor had mentioned.
She wondered if that spoke unwell of the future, or if the crew were simply relaxing due to a stressful few weeks.
She hoped it was the latter and wondered if Nexios would allow the possibly for an escape.

And yet… She needed to forego escape until she learned more about this Mari.
Obviously something huge was really going on if King Zebram had spent such considerable effort to capture her unharmed.
But then, who could be sure what Zebram would do?

She prayed her crew were okay.
After such a drain on her power, she knew she didn’t have the strength to try to communicate with him from such a distance. 
Were they okay? Was Ren with a woman tonight? Did Mra really like the stubborn captain? And why did it matter that she did?

Dare tried to fall back to sleep, but her body needed exercise.
Knowing she wouldn’t get back to sleep after hours of rest, she fell back on the exercises she’d learned as a young girl and worked until her body coated with sweat.
Encumbered by the robe, she nevertheless kept it on, in case of any surprise visits from the
Eyshan6
crew.

She had a feeling Ren would come again tonight. Would he try to kiss her again? Would it feel as good? Heck, should she let him? Decisions, decisions.

***

Ren stared in disgust at Nesham returning from the back rooms with a satisfied grin. Ren knew the Hams could go at it for hours with the pleasurers.

He frowned.
At one time he too had been able to lose himself in a woman’s soft thighs.
But not tonight. He swallowed another tankard of Bitter Blue.
That damned Fenturi pirate on his ship must have done something to him.
He couldn’t think of a woman without seeing her face, couldn’t touch or smell one without wanting…Dare.

As his frustration grew, so did his self-loathing.
For years he’d silently berated Zedrax for his weakness.
Had the king not lusted after his mother, Ren never would have existed.
The anger Zedrax constantly felt for Ren had been born of his own insecurities and disgust at his inability to resist a Fenturi.
A woman from that inferior, hated race had consumed Zedrax, as he’d constantly reminded Ren.

Now Ren felt the same thing for a Fenturi.
Like father, like son.
He swore and threw his drink to the ground, shards and ale spilling everywhere.
But no one said anything as when they caught Ren’s angry stare.

He stormed out of the bar, praying for something to relieve his rage.
Luckily the Goddess heard his silent plea, because he heard shrieking in a dark alleyway away from the light of the city.

He moved quickly and found a large collection of criminals encircling two hapless Vembi pleasurers.
At Ren’s approach, the motley crowd of Meklen, Pith and Kre filth sneered at him.