Rebel Souls (7 page)

He looked frail, maybe seventy pounds and less than ten years of age, but Ava knew the boy wasn’t defenseless. The child stood sentinel for a pack of wild children. A gold strip of fabric around his left arm, a primitive form of rank, told her he was a scout. The juveniles roamed the Blue District, wielding knives, razors, laser rifles, pipes, and anything else they could use as a weapon. The children wouldn’t hesitate to cut them to pieces, or beat them to death, if they had the unfortunate luck to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The child noted the patch on the sleeve of her shirt and gave her a curt nod, letting her know they could pass in safety. Ava reached into her pocket, extracted a credit chip, and tossed it to the child.

They might be dangerous, but they were still hungry children. She’d been there before, not knowing when her next meal would come. The streets took care of their own, and New Xiera Port was no exception. The funds would feed several children for a week. They’d share.

The child caught the chip and pocketed it. His gaze turned to the businessman. He hopped up from the trash receptacle, slung the strap of his rifle over his shoulder, and followed the man, who’d left the drug peddlers and ambled deeper into the bad neighborhood, most likely to shoot the buzz into his veins.

“He’s a dead man,” Ava said to Seth.

“Who?”

“The man in the fancy clothes who bought drugs from the dealers on the corner. He’s a target.”

“Who bought drugs?”

Ava nodded across the street to where the man walked. Seth turned his head and watched him as he rounded the corner. “You know this how?”

“He’s a junkie and needs a fix before he goes into mania, a nasty side effect of buzz. The child, he’s part of a gang—a sentinel, and he watched the entire transaction.” Ava shook her head. “Easy pickings.”

Seth lifted his wrist and the com he’d strapped on to his mouth, and Ava grabbed his arm. “Don’t. We’re being watched, and we could be targeted next if they think you’re a threat.” She snagged his sleeve and veered off course, pulling him across the street and after the man who was in danger. “They don’t like Regulators in this part of the city.”

Someone screamed as Ava and Seth rounded the corner. The children had already surrounded the man. Ava charged forward into the mass of knives, sticks, and pipes the horde wielded as they beat at the man, driving him to the ground. Several defensive wounds covered his arms and hands, and the sounds of meaty thuds filled the night.

“Ava. Oh, hell,” Seth spat and pulled his laser, leaving it on stun. The last thing he wanted to do was kill a child, no matter how bloodthirsty the little bastards were. He took aim and tagged the biggest child in the back, dropping him to his knees. Alive. Stunned and temporarily disabled, a lot less than the children had planned for the drug addict.

“Stop!” Ava yelled and wrenched a pipe from a child’s hand, flinging it against a clay-covered wall, chipping the stony surface. “Let him go!”

“Says who?” Another child swiped his razor across her forearm. Blood seeped from the wound, quickly soaking her sleeve.

Ava held the child’s gaze as he lifted his weapon to strike again. “Brodie’s Duchess.”

The children froze mid-attack and turned toward her. “How do we know?”

She lifted a medallion out of her shirt. Several children gasped. Seconds later the hoodlums backed away, slinking into the shadows from where they’d come. She tucked the pendant back into her top and studied the man on the ground, who whimpered and rolled into a ball on his side. Ava nudged him with the toe of her boot. “Get out of here before they decide to come back.”

The buzz addict grabbed her ankle and wept against it. “Thank you, thank you. I….”

“Save it for someone who cares.” Ava jerked her leg free. “I didn’t do it for you.” She turned to Seth, her composure like stone, her expression as cold as her name. She didn’t have to tell him who she’d done it for. He’d seen. If the orphans killed the man in front of the Regulator, he would have had to report it. The authorities would raid the neighborhood, and any child identified as being involved in the attack, would be arrested—and either expelled from New Xiera, or worse.

Ava spun on her heel and walked past Seth. “We need to leave.”

He frowned and stared after her. Who was Brodie’s Duchess, and why did the children back off when the name was mentioned? He’d never heard of her. Someone that powerful in the Underground would certainly be a name he’d know. He knew them all. Warlords, smugglers, black market dealers, slavers, gangsters, and pirates, but nowhere on his list was Brodie’s Duchess. And what was on the medallion she’d tucked between her breasts?

Another thing he planned to clarify before he and Captain Frost parted ways. He started after her, his stride eating the distance between them quickly. He snagged her arm, stopping her. The chain glittered around her neck, tempting him to pluck it from her cleavage. Seth reached for it.

Ava pushed his hand away. “Don’t. It was a birthday present.”

“Who is…?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She spun and walked away.

***

New Xiera Port docks, ten years before
….

“Come with me, Duchess.”

Ava snapped awake and stared into the lapis depths of Brodie Mark’s eyes.

“We’ll make history today.” He straddled her hips with his hands pressed into her bunk on each side of her head, leaning in with his lips inches from hers.

“I’m not dressed and if that was a pass, it was really bad.” The New Xieran summer had been hotter than usual and the scorching afternoon baked the air in her cabin, forcing her to strip to the thin T-shirt and her skivvies. Sometime during her nap, the sheet had worked down to her knees, exposing the naked flesh of her thighs and her belly, where her shirt had bunched up.

“Not a pass.” His smile started as a twitch in the corners of his mouth and quickly spread to his whole face. Jewels twinkled from around her hips and navel, reflecting in Brodie’s gaze. “And it’s more than obvious you’re not dressed, Duchess.”

“Brodie,” Ava gasped and grabbed the sheets. She yanked as hard as she could in an attempt to cover her body. Best friend or not, he didn’t need to see her nearly naked. “You’re not supposed to be here—when I’m alone.” She shoved his shoulder, pushing him back. “Uncle Theo will kill you if he finds you in here.”

Brodie shrugged, knowing there was little chance of that. Her uncle had left for a meeting and told Ava to stay put. She’d soon grown bored and dropped into sleep only to be woken by the twenty-year-old heartthrob.

“I’m serious. You shouldn’t be in here.”

“I know,” he said. “But you’re always safe with me. And when you’re not with me….” He pulled a medallion on a long chain from his pocket and dangled it before her. It spun around, glinting in the light pouring through her cabin’s portal window. “I have a surprise.” He dropped it on her chest between her breasts and leaned back in, pressing closer, until Ava’s breath caught in her throat. “Today is special—monumental.”

“It is, is it?”

His tangled hair hung in a mass of dreadlocks around his face and dirt smudged his left jaw. It didn’t temper his devastating looks. Many an innocent girl lost her virginity to Brodie at the crook of a finger, and Ava was determined not to be one of them.

She tugged her gaze from his and stared at the open door to her quarters, anything to get her mind off him. “You need to get out of here before my uncle comes back.”

“I will if you come with me.”

Ava turned back to him. “My uncle will kick my ass if I leave the ship.”

“What is it the Terrans say? Damned if you do—damned if you don’t?” He cocked his head and gave her a wicked grin. The muscles in her thighs clenched and her heart began to race. Two years older, Brodie had been the leader of a pack of feral children. Now a man, he’d joined the resistance and had quickly climbed the ranks. Taller by a foot and twice as strong, he could easily force Ava to come along, but instead, he asked with excitement beaming from his eyes. “You know you want to.”

Ava snorted and fought the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Brodie Mark, you’re likely to get me into trouble.”

He sat back on his heels and laughed. “I am trouble.” Brodie was as tough as a seasoned soldier and twice as lethal. He’d been forced to fend for himself and had killed to survive since the age of five. Brodie had very few things he valued, and those few things governed his honor code. That code meant he’d never harm a Rebel, or those that served the cause. Most of all he’d never harm her. Going with him should be safe.

She’d first met him on the street as he’d followed a target when he was twelve. She’d tagged along, wanting to get a closer look at his blaster rifle. Brodie told her to go away, but Ava had been persistent, dogging his heels until he’d spun around and knocked her flat. “Not this time. It’s too dangerous for little girls. Someday when you’re older.”

“I’m not a little girl. I’m ten.”

His gaze swept over her as he stared down. “You look like a baby.”

“I’m a Frost, not a baby.”

Brodie’s eyes had popped wide. He gave her a curt nod. “Be safe, Duchess. Go home. You can come another time. I promise, I’ll come and get you when you’re ready.”

It had been the first time he’d called her that, his pet name.

It had taken her years to realize it wasn’t a nickname, but a title, one she’d hold if her mother hadn’t murdered her husband and run off with her father.

“Well, are you coming?” Ava pulled out of her memories and stared Brodie in the eyes. She bit her lip, debating whether it would be worth the trouble she’d get into. Seeming to sense her indecision, he gave her his best pouty face. Ava’s heart skipped, and she fought the giggle. Puppy dog eyes looked ridiculous on the dangerous Rebel. She should tell him.

“Well, Duchess?” Charm, charisma, and heat rolled off him.

He knew she couldn’t say no
.

***

Seth grabbed her wrist and yanked her back to him. She twisted, breaking his grasp. Something warm and slick made it easy. He glanced down to see blood drip onto her hand and splatter on his boots. “You need a doctor.”

“I’ve suffered worse.”

“You shouldn’t suffer at all.”

“You’re not from my world, Seth. You can’t possibly know. We can stand around and talk about this, or we can move along—which I advise we do. Staying in one place for too long is a very bad idea. The children might have backed away, but they aren’t the only ones hunting in this neighborhood. You’ve heard of the Mish?”

“Cannibals—here in New Xiera? I thought they were a myth.”

“Not a myth, and we’re in their territory. They don’t care about anything but what they can make at an off-world market from your meat, and if you aren’t the right flavor, they’ll sell you as a slave. New Xierans are highly prized for their sexual abilities, but they’ll take anyone who gives them the opportunity, even if they’re not tasty.” She lifted the medallion. “This won’t stop them.”

Seth frowned. The more he knew Ava, the more of a mystery she became. The children could have killed her, but she’d charged in without thought to her personal safety, received a nasty wound, and saved a drug addict. They’d certainly killed before and if what he saw was normal behavior, they’d kill again. One thing was for certain, Ava Frost wasn’t as cold as she’d like him to think. There were so many contradictions to her icy exterior.

“I still have a job to do, and you’re under surveillance until I get some answers.”

“Fine, then surveil me in a safer location.”

Chapter Six

Brodie pulled Ava down the street. He held her hand, his fingers laced into hers. Energy zinged from the point of contact, making her stomach flip. “You didn’t think I forgot your birthday, did you?”

“It’s my birthday?” Ava stumbled and came to a stop. She’d not celebrated the silly Terran tradition since she was six, and only because her father had insisted. With her father and mother gone, the day seemed to become a normal day, twenty-six of the same hours she lived every year.

Brodie turned around and stepped in front of her. He took her other hand and walked backward, pulling her along. “It is.” He smiled. “I didn’t forget.” Mischief sparkled in his eyes, and Ava’s heart skipped.

“It’s not important.” Ava rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t bother.”

“Your uncle told me your father was Terran, that you celebrated your birthday every year when he was alive.”

She shrugged. “But I’m only half Terran. To the Nexians, it’s insignificant, a waste of time. Our births, our sex—everything about us is engineered from the embryo. Why celebrate the day you became a slave to a government?”

“But you weren’t engineered.”

“Many Nexians are. My mother…it’s not important.” She sighed. Maybe it was. She missed sitting with her family, opening gifts to celebrate holidays from another world. A child of two worlds, Ava never lacked for heritage, and her family had ensured she knew where she came from and who she was. Even so, they never tried to make her into somebody she wasn’t. Strange, Brodie would want to renew the traditions that died with her family.

“I’m Nexian, and I celebrate my beginning, even though I don’t know the exact date.” He let go of one hand and turned, tugging her along. “Almost there.”

She reflected on the direction they’d traveled, through back alleys, down the infamous Slaughter Ave., and deeper into the Blue District, heading for the hovering docks of the darker sector of the city. The star had already begun to sink on the horizon, and if she weren’t in Brodie’s company, she wouldn’t have set foot anywhere near where they now traveled. “Where are we going?”

“I told you, it’s a surprise.”

A surprise could be anything with Brodie. The neighborhood didn’t seem to faze him. A street orphan from birth, Brodie never lived in one spot long, bouncing from abandoned building to abandoned building with other unfortunates. At one time, he even took up residence in the scrap yard, where she’d first met him.