The Seek (29 page)

Kyn dropped a light kiss on Asha’s forehead, and followed him out of the med bay. They walked wordlessly back to his quarters. He motioned her to a chair, pacing up and down a little in front of her. ‘Do you know how my father died?’

Kyn hesitated. ‘A mission,’ she said finally. ‘I don’t know what it was.’ She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to think about that night, the one with Jedro. The night she had come back and The Council had told her about Pietr.

‘Well, I do,’ Symon said. ‘He thought he had found a Host.’

Kyn gasped. ‘Someone to take us in?’

‘Yes,’ Symon said, his voice thickening. ‘He’d been working on it for a long time. As you know, most planets are not keen, with our history. But Dad…he’d negotiated well, offered good terms. And he had set up a meet to seal the deal.’

‘What happened?’ Kyn’s stomach lurched drunkenly. ‘Did they doublecross him?’

‘No,’ Symon said, shaking his head to emphasise the point. ‘They didn’t. The Council did.’

The room seemed to spin a little at Symon’s words. ‘No,’ she said, standing up from her chair and moving towards the door. ‘All they want is to survive. They told me —’

‘On their own terms,’ Symon snapped. ‘They won’t accept any other way.’

Kyn frowned, trying to make sense of it. ‘Why would they not want us to have a home?’ Everything she thought she knew, all that had driven her for the last ten years started to fray at the edges.

‘Because then they lose control.’ He held up his hands. ‘They don’t want us to have any home. They want us to have the home they think is right.’ He shrugged, his mouth tight. ‘I don’t think they started bad. I don’t even think they would see themselves that way now.’

‘Maybe…’ Kyn groped for explanations. ‘Maybe they think it’s for the best. Our own planet. Our own —’

‘They killed my father.’ Symon’s words were short and brutal.

‘No.’ The room began to spin again, and Kyn sat back down. ‘How do you know?’

Symon sat heavily beside her, pulling a small V-pad from his pocket. ‘I still have it,’ he said, fingering the thing lovingly. ‘He talks about you. I always thought you might like to see it, one day.’ He looked at her questioningly.

Did she? Memories of Pietr swirled in her head. Fighting with him, talking with him, that big belly laugh, that irritated snarl at anyone he considered a fool.

She nodded.

Symon leaned in to her and touched a button on the pad. And there he was. Caught exactly as he had been the last time she had seen. Big and gnarled and gruff, his bushy grey beard making him look less like the fearsome warrior and brilliant tactician he was, and more like the old crazy her mother had always thought him.

‘Symon,’ Pietr said from the little screen, looking quickly behind him. ‘I don’t have long. They’ve tracked me down. But I need to tell you. Things are not as they seem. Not everyone agrees with The Council. Not all of those on Earth Three are bad. That’s just where they put them, the ones who disagree with them.’

Pietr rubbed his eyes and darted a look over his shoulder again. He seemed to be lying in some kind of dugout. Kyn could not make out where he was, but it was dark behind him and she caught sight of the odd flash against the blackness. Flares?

He went on. ‘They’re coming for me. The Council is coming, and I won’t survive it. They’ve sent Kyn to get Jedro, some fool’s mission. She might not survive either. But if she does’ — His voice broke up a little and he wiped his hands across his eyes again — ‘if she does, and if you ever see her again…’ His voice trailed off for a second, then he was back. ‘Tell her I love her. As much as I love you and Tabi. Tell her…’ He twitched as an explosion sounded close by. ‘…tell her she’s special. And she’s done good, but there’s a new fight now. Make sure she understands.’

Kyn’s gut twisted as she watched him. Symon picked up her hand and squeezed it.

Together they watched the last few seconds. ‘Symon, I love you, and Tabi, and Kyn. This experiment of ours…it started well, I swear to you it did. But it’s not right, what we’ve become. Survival isn’t everything. We need to fix it. You need to fix it.’

The picture started to disintegrate. ‘They’re coming,’ Pietr said, staring fixedly at the little camera. ‘Fix it.’

And then he was gone.

Kyn turned towards him. ‘Symon, is this…is this where The Backlash started?’

He nodded, taking her hand. ‘I know a lot, Kyntura, and there are others.’

Pieces started to slot together in Kyn’s brain. ‘Dona,’ she said. ‘The Explorer on Eden.’

‘Yes,’ Symon agreed, nodding. ‘And Asha, more recently.’

Of course, that’s how Asha had found Mirren. ‘That’s why he was with the Enforcers?’ She needed to know.

‘We know the Enforcers are their private police,’ Symon said, nodding. ‘The Council owns them. But we need to know more. Sometimes, if The Council needs them to do something really dangerous, Avengers ride along.’

Kyn nodded; she knew this. She’d always rejected the calls for volunteers. Most Avengers worth anything did.

‘We learned a lot from Asha’s report of that mission.’

Kyn closed her eyes.
Mirren’s family
. But what could Asha have done? At least he had saved her.

‘So, we have some people,’ he said. ‘But we need more.’

‘I know some things too,’ Kyn said. ‘The Haitites, they’ve been torturing them. The Enforcers.’

Symon nodded again. ‘I know. Dona…’ He gestured helplessly with one hand. ‘She knew. Or at least, she suspected.’

She paused, shaking her head. ‘But why would they do that? The Council?’

‘Dona thought they were doing biological experiments on them.’ A tiny growl escaped him. ‘Find their weaknesses, I guess,’ Symon said.

‘But why the Enforcers? Why don’t the Avengers know about this?’ Kyn shook her head, thinking about the clumsy brutality for which the Enforcers were known.

Symon dropped her hand, rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck. ‘All I can guess is the Avengers are more than military. They’re…’ He scanned the ceiling like he was looking for the right words. ‘…they’re pure or something. A symbol that we’re safe. And the Enforcers are —’

‘Obedient and unquestioning.’ Kyn got it. ‘So the Enforcers are on Eden 13 too.’ She shook her head, thinking about those solar whip scars. ‘No wonder the Haitites are pissed.’

‘The Council must want this star very badly,’ Symon said, taking Kyn’s hand again and squeezing it.

‘Not like this,’ Kyn whispered, her head spinning. ‘It shouldn’t be like this. This is what they did, the Gigarions. To us.’

Symon nodded, his eyes very dark and narrow. ‘What did the Council say? About Eden 13? What are their plans?’

‘They want it,’ Kyn confirmed.

Symon nodded again. ‘They trust you,’ he said. ‘That’s why they came here. To get it straight from you. What did you tell them?

‘I told them it can’t be done,’ she said, trembling inside at the thought of the lie. And of how easily she had told it, thinking about the solar whip scars on that orange body, and what the Haitite had done for Asha. Even before she had known about Peitr, she had known they could not take Eden from these people. ‘Not without losses we can’t sustain.’

‘Did they believe you?’

‘They believe I believe it,’ she said, thinking back over the encounter.

She leaned in to Symon and picked up his other hand. ‘Your father,’ she whispered, feeling his heart beat against his chest and thinking about the face of his father. The man who had saved her, more than once. ‘I’ll kill them,’ Kyn said. And she knew it was true. She wanted revenge for Pietr. And she wanted to stop what they were doing on Eden 13.

Symon shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, his eyes darker than she had ever seen them. ‘We will.’

He pulled away from her a little then, so he could study her face. ‘But right now, Kyntura, we’re going to do something else.’ He lightly brushed the sides of her face with his fingers, and shivers ran through across every millimetre of her skin.

She held her face up to him, because she didn’t want to think anymore. About all she’d seen on that damn star. About all the people they’d lost. About the Haitites, and their scars. About The Council, and all the lives they’d ruined playing God.

About what a damn fool she’d been to buy it all. She’d been like the rest — happy to be given a plan. Happy to fight so she could forget.

Well, now she wanted to forget a different way.

They would fix it, together. She knew they would. Or die trying.

But first.

Symon kissed her with all the force of ten years of wanting. ‘Damn you for leaving me, Kyntura,’ he growled against her mouth. His kiss was rough and demanding.

And she gave it back to him, all her fury, her confusion, her loneliness. She rolled it up into a package and hit him with it. She needed him, like she’d never needed anything before. More than she needed to fight; more than she needed to forget. She kissed him like he was the only thing left in the universe.

His mouth was hot and hard, and his hands were at her breasts. This wasn’t like the first time — eighteen and on the cusp of something. This was two angry, damaged grown-ups, who’d finally found their way home.

They were naked in a moment. And Kyn didn’t care that the bright lights of Symon’s quarters showed all of her to his hungry gaze. She was glad of them, so she could reacquaint herself with his body. She drank it in — the hard planes of him, the defiant green tattoos, his high buttocks, the sweet length of his cock.

He raised an eyebrow at her naked appreciation. ‘Not so bad yourself,’ he said, his lecherous grin turning sad. ‘A few more scars than I remember.’

He stepped forward and ran one long finger down the length of the most prominent one — one she’d earned the night she saved Jedro. The feeling of his touch on the sensitive keloid skin almost undid her.

‘I want you, Symon,’ she said, grabbing his hand and bringing it to her sex.

He didn’t need to be told twice. He picked her up and carried her over to his hard, functional bed. ‘Not as good as grass,’ he grunted. ‘But it’ll do.’ He laid her down and looked at her. ‘Beautiful,’ he whispered. ‘Just fucking beautiful.’

She nodded. ‘Hurry,’ she said.

He kneeled between her legs and put his hand back where she had placed it a moment before, sliding a finger into her. She knew he would feel how ready she was. ‘I could make you wait,’ he said, his voice ragged.

She studied the hard length of him, pushing up against the dark whorl of hair on his lower belly. ‘I guess,’ she said. ‘But who would you be punishing?’

He laughed and ran his hands roughly down the length of her torso, over her clavicles, shoulders and breasts, down her tummy, hips and legs, stroking her sex as he passed. Then he parted her legs and drove into her, leaning down to claim her mouth as he did.

Kyn’s skin was on fire and her insides clenched hard around him. It was as though every cell of her knew he was hers, and wanted to hang on. He pushed into her slowly at first, kissing her like she was oxygen. But in a moment they were both hungry for more. He built harder and faster, Kyn meeting him with everything she had. His lips were at hers; his hands on her breasts; their skin pressing into each other as though trying to mould into one.

‘I can’t wait,’ she panted, scraping her fingernails along his back, wanting to devour him like a wild thing.

‘I don’t want you to,’ he said, leaning back to watch her face. ‘Let go, Kyntura.’

And she did. She rocked into him and let her body unravel, releasing the tight ball of energy that built at her centre so it sent tingling shockwaves through her whole body.

And he slammed into her as she did, taking her further into the shivering wonder — making her focus and forget all at once.

***

Kyn lay, spent and panting in his arms, and traced a finger over the green chains ringing one beautiful bicep.

He reached down and tipped her chin up to look at him. ‘Do you know how I feel about you?’

She nodded. ‘And you?’

He nodded back at her, then took the finger that was under her chin and traced it in a cross-shape over her left breast. ‘Promise me, Kyntura,’ he growled. ‘Promise me that you will never leave me again.’

She smiled up at him. ‘I promise,’ she said, revelling in his possession. Then the smiled died on her lips. ‘Anyway,’ she said, her brain clouding over with swirls of black. ‘I can’t leave you.’

He looked at her, dark brown eyes wary.

She studied him earnestly. ‘We’ve got a job to do.’

Thanks for reading
The Seek
. I hope you enjoyed it.

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You’ve just read a book in my New Earth series. The other book in this series is
White Christmas
(a short prequel). Stay tuned for more to come.

If you liked this book, here are my other books, and there is more info over the page:

The Aegira Chronicles – sexy mermaid mysteries

Book One:
Fish Out of Water

Book Two:
Beached

stay tuned for Book Three

Lingerie for Felons
– an epic contemporary romance

This book was published by Escape Publishing. If you’d like to sample some more great books from my fellow Escape Artists, please turn the page.