Not everyone likes Aurelians. Especially not Aurelians who arrive in an Empire-Class Reaver, which can only mean you’re working for the Army, Law Enforcement…
…or you’ve gone Rogue.
“Well,” Allie counters, “what if I decide to go alone? Are you going to stop me? Are you going to keep me locked up in the hotel room?” Her eyes narrow. “Tell me plainly, Hadrian. Am I still a prisoner?”
She’s challenging me.
Half of me wants to put her over my lap and turn her bottom red for that insolent tone. The other half? It knows she’s right.
Allie is no prisoner – but there’s still no way in hell I’m letting her walk into The Rhino alone and unprotected. From what I’ve read in the files the AI brought up, The Rhino is the kind of place you go to buy sex…
…and, if you like it, you can buy the woman who provided it.
Tempers always run hot in places like The Rhino, too. They’re hotbeds of bar fights and stabbings. It gets even worse when when Aurelians come into the pictures. The kind of guy who frequents establishments like The Rhino generally have chips on their shoulders. They find themselves feeling emasculated around Aureliens – and sometimes, such men can’t resist trying to prove that they’re the big dog around such parts.
They invariably fail – and it’s an ugly process when they do.
In short? I wouldn’t let Allie go into that place alone.
“Yes,” I warn her. “I will stop you. I’ll personally hold you down before I let you go into The Rhino alone.” I can’t hold back: “Are you stupid? Do you want to follow the clues the right way? Or do you only intend to find out what happened to your little sister by sharing her fate?”
Allie’s anger is suddenly like boiling magma, scalding me through our Bond.
She also reacts physically – and I let her slap hit me hard across the cheek.
I’m actually impressed. Allie is very fast for a human. I’ve got reflexes honed by a century of combat, and two-hundred years of police training. I could have stopped her if I’d wanted, but…
The second slap, a backhand, hits my other cheek. That one I didn’t have time to think about stopping.
The third slap I stop an inch from my face, grabbing her wrist tightly.
“If you’re done beating me up, Allie – let’s talk strategy.” I turn to the leader of our triad. “Daccia, we’re going to the dining hall.”
“Go,” he nods. “I can handle descent and landing. AI shows no hostile forces – and if something comes out of nowhere, I sure as hell can out-pilot them.”
There isn’t a man, woman or Toad who could claim to be Daccia’s rival behind the thrusters of a Reaver.
Allie struggles against my hand, still wrapped around her wrist.
I keep hold of her for two long seconds – just long enough to make my point – and then I let go. I leave her rubbing her wrist and head to the dining room. Kitos follows. A moment later, I hear her footsteps behind us.
17
Allie
My heart is pounding against my chest – like it wants to burst out.
I’ve heard an Aurelian expression before: The deadliest poison is hope.
In all my years on the run, I’ve begged the Gods for a sign about the fate of my sister. I’d never found one.
It didn’t help that I was barely managing to survive on my own, let alone having the resources to look for a girl who’d gone missing three years prior. I thought it was hopeless – that sign I prayed for would be like a sign to something else if it ever actually arrived…
…and then it did.
Within days of being captured by these Aurelians, I suddenly have my first real lead. I’ve now got access to the Aurelian Law Enforcement’s famed database – or, at least, I do until my triad is cast out of the Aurelian Law Enforcement service; turned from trusted agents to wanted fugitives.
The triad.
Not my triad, Allie. You can’t think that way! Staying with these Aurelians would just be another form of captivity.
In any event, my pulse is racing as I follow behind Kitos and Hadrian, eager to enter the dining room and learn their plan.
I’ve already learned one very important thing today. I can hide my aura. Not completely – but enough to avoid detection by my Bonded mates.
I’d spent hours practicing, while I lay half-awake, half-asleep, in that hazy state of being that only painkillers can bring on.
During that period of lucidness, I experimented with the Bond – delving deep into myself to touch my own aura. While there, in the very depths of my subconscious, I found something very important. I can mute my own aura – obscuring both my emotions and my location.
The test was in sneaking up on the triad in the cockpit. If they’d been able to sense me coming, there would have been no surprise in Hadrian’s face when he’d turned and seen me in the doorway. As it was, the surprise was clear and apparent – he’d had no clue. None of them had.
I’m sure of it. The Aurelians may be good at concealing their emotions on the outside, but through the Bond it was very clear to me.
That means that when I do finally get away from these Aurelians, I can stop them from coming after me. It means I don’t need to turn them over to Law Enforcement anymore. I won’t need to get them killed, or imprisoned. All I’ll have to do is just get out of their reach. Then, they won’t be able to track me down.
It’s a huge weight off my mind – alleviating the guilt that had been eating away at me for the last day.
Finally, the three of us enter the mess-hall. Hadrian motions for me to sit
