He studied her for a negative reaction but she only seemed more interested so he went on.
“Niftrills sometimes work on the ships they use to transport a valuable ore…talix metal. One of those Niftrills is a smuggler. I was hoping to…intercept him.”
“Why?”
His sat-watch dinged and crackled before he could answer.
Nia was watching him.
“He’s contacting me.”
“Who…the person who hired you?”
He glanced her way. “Something like that.”
The watch crackled again and he activated the comms.
“Yes?”
“What’s your status?”
He glanced at Nee-ya once more. “I told you there’s been a…situation. There’s something else, something important that I have to do.”
There was a pause.
“I’m surprised. You never…turn down assignments,” the person said.
His eyes were still on Nee-ya as he spoke. “Well…this time, I have reason to.”
There was another pause on the line.
“This job…it’s…you are our last hope, Urgmental. Countless lives will be lost if you do not retrieve this package.”
Ka’Cit stood and turned away from Nee-ya then, trying to mask the growl that rose in his throat.
“Get someone else to do it.”
He had to take her home, back to Riv’s Sanctuary. She’d be safe there. He couldn’t go off on some job when she needed his help.
“Negative. That is not possible. You are our closest source.” A pause. “It is our last effort to help these humans.”
Ka’Cit froze. Humans?
He trusted this contact so he’d never bothered to find out why they’d wanted the rare metal. He was more than happy to screw over the High Tasqals at any chance. Heck, he was doing it for free.
“Humans?” He and Nee-ya spoke at the same time and Ka’Cit glanced in her direction again.
She was wide-eyed now, staring at him.
“Humans?” she repeated and took a step closer.
The voice coming from his sat-watch continued. “We need that package.”
Something passed across Nee-ya’s features then and she turned, headed back to her seat, and buckled herself in.
“I’ll update you later.” Ka’Cit watched her as her shoulders set. He’d seen that look before when she’d grabbed the blaster and ran beside him straight toward their enemies.
“I have to go…” he said and the crackle in the sat-watch stopped as he ended the call.
“Nee-ya?”
She glanced over her shoulder, a look of determination in her eyes.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay, I will take you home.”
She shook her head. “Not home. Let’s go do this job of yours.”
Ka’Cit almost stuttered. “What?”
“Let’s go.”
Was she losing her mind?
“I could never… It’s dangerous. Risky.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.”
He studied her for a bit.
That was true. He’d seen her in action first-hand.
Still…
Ka’Cit ran a hand through his hair once more.
He couldn’t, in his right mind, take her with him.
“I don’t think you have enough time to take me back to the Sanctuary and get this job done, do you? Fuck.” She let out a laugh that was without mirth. “There are other humans out there somewhere. God knows, I don’t even want to believe it. But they need your help. You need to go to get whatever this package is.”
When he didn’t budge, she continued. “If you take me down there, I’d be the reason those humans die. I won’t let that happen. I’m perfectly safe right now—have been ever since you came on that ship after me. I trust you.”
Her words made a lump form in his throat.
“Now you need to trust me.” She turned back around. Her gaze pointed out the view screen. “Let’s go.”
Her shoulders were set. Her arms were crossed, and as Ka’Cit watched her, his worry soon turned into something else.
It was a similar feeling to the one he’d felt when he watched her shoot down the Niftrills.
She was unafraid, determined…fierce—the exact type of female he’d have loved to have by his side if he wasn’t…well, if he could give her the sort of life a female like her deserved.
Memory of just a few moments before came back to him.
He’d never felt anything so soft. Nothing so good.
Her lips.
Her body against his.
Bless the stars…it had felt like an out-of-body experience—as if he hadn’t been there anymore and he was watching himself from afar.
With her against him, it felt as if he was drowning, as if he couldn’t breathe—for he had stopped breathing. He’d been afraid to even exhale lest he break the magic of the moment.
She was beautiful.
Perfect.
And she’d felt so phekking good.
His life-organ thumped in his chest and Ka’Cit had to swallow hard. He inhaled deeply, his lungs filling up with air as if he had indeed been drowning and just broke the surface of the water.
Raxu…
He didn’t know what was happening, he only knew that it scared the phek out of him.
There was like a supercharged magnet that was pulling him toward her, even when he knew he should turn the other way.
He was weak.
Because no matter if he tried to ignore it, it would always be there.
His curse.
Taunting him every time he looked in the mirror.
For both their sakes, he should take her home. He should stop this now before it got further because spending more time around her would only make the inevitable harder.
But could he?
Could he really do it?
No.
Not yet.
Just a few more moments in her presence before he had to say goodbye.
“I’ll take you with me, but on one condition.”
22
“What’s your condition?”
Ka’Cit dropped into the other seat and when she looked his way, she realized he’d put on his mask again.
His face was once again shielded from the world.
“If I tell you to run, you have to run. If I tell you to hide, you must hide.” His green eyes met hers through the slit in his mask and they bored into her soul. “Don’t turn back, don’t worry about me, just go.”
There was a lump that formed in her throat.
She knew what he was saying, that if something should happen to him, she should leave him there.
She couldn’t do that. What type of person would she be if something happened and she left him for dead?
Still, she jerked her head and gave him a nod.
He eyed her for a bit and
