A growl rumbled low in my throat, but I bit it back. “That was different. He suspected that female of being a danger. This female is clearly not.”
“If you wish for female companionship, we can arrange to stop at a pleasure planet, Raas. It has been a considerable amount of time since you joined your crew and sampled the pleasures of a female.”
“I did not take her for that.” I tried to think of anything but the small, curvy female with the gold curls. She was so different from the sophisticated and sultry alien pleasurers that it was almost laughable to think of her as an alternative. Where they were practiced and confident, she was innocent and unsure. Remembering the quiver of her bottom lip and her wide blue eyes made my pulse race and my cock ache. I might not have taken her to claim her, but it was undeniable that she stoked something within me. Something I had not felt in a long time.
“Then why, Raas?” Taan shifted to face me. “If not to warm your bed, why go to the trouble?”
I inclined my head toward the wide stretch of glass that looked out into space. “We are not headed back to our sector. We are on a course to Qualynn.”
“The mystical planet.” That made the warrior let out a resigned sigh. “The prophecy. I suspected as much when the female walked down that ramp.”
I nodded as his words trailed off. He was the only raider in my horde who knew why I wandered the ship at night and often looked deranged. He was also the only one who knew of the witch’s prophecy, although he’d never put much store in her claims that my affliction was a curse.
Taan’s brow furrowed, as he clearly thought back to what I’d told him, perhaps resurrecting memories he’d long discarded. “You believe this female is the one the witch meant?”
The curl of his lip told me all I needed to know about his opinion of the alien seer. “She is the first one we have encountered who fits the description.”
Taan did not look convinced. “Is it not possible, Raas, that the witch described a female we would not likely encounter easily? When do Vandar raiders, who patrol the lawless edges of the known galaxy, come across females who are pure of mind and body? Or have hair of gold? Have you never considered she might have been sending you on a fruitless chase that would only increase your madness?”
“Of course I have!” My booming voice made my majak flinch and more heads turn toward us. But Vandar warriors were known for raised voices and violent outbursts, so it was not wholly unusual. When my raiders returned their attention to their beeping consoles, I cleared my throat. “I am not so easily taken in as you might believe, majak. I have not been searching for the female of the prophecy. I’d actually put it from my mind and relegated myself to living with the nightly torment, but then she appeared.”
“How could a female so different from us be the one who helps you?” Taan frowned. “It doesn’t make sense.”
I shrugged and faced the view screen, squaring my shoulders. “The seer will tell me.”
“You intend to take the human with you to see her?”
“It’s the only way she can tell me if I’ve found the female from her prophecy.” I didn’t glance over at my majak, even though I could feel his gaze on me.
The mystical planet of Qualynn was not for the faint of heart, and I knew Taan was doubting my plan to take the innocent human with me. Not only was the alien seer located within the wildest pleasure house on a planet that was known for scorning rules or propriety, but we would have to cross through a swamp of illusions to reach it. Many had been known to disappear within the swamp’s hallucinations and never emerge.
“If she is not the female from the vision?” Taan asked, pivoting back to face forward.
“We return to Kimithion III and drop her off. Trust me when I say I have no desire to keep a female in our horde if she serves no purpose.”
Taan clasped his hands behind him and rocked back on his heels. “And if the witch says that she’s indeed the answer to your torment?”
I cut my gaze to him. “Then she stays with me until I no longer wake in a cold sweat, feeling more exhausted than when I closed my eyes. She stays with me until I am no longer mad with guilt.”
“Raas—“
I waved a hand to cut him off. “I know what you are going to say, my friend, but our Raas died on my watch. I was majak, and I was tasked with having his back, as you have mine. I failed in that duty, and nothing you can say will make me believe otherwise.”
“The Porvakians overwhelmed our forces,” Taan hissed, his voice matching the intensity of mine. “We never should have gone in the way we did. The Raas made a bad call.”
I gave a sharp shake of my head, attempting to keep the memories that dogged my sleep from invading my waking hours. But still, flashes of the battle rushed at me—my boots slipping in the blood of my fellow raiders, their screams as the aliens’ acidic flesh burned theirs, the coppery scent filling the air and making my stomach churn. “We are Vandar. We should have been victorious.”
My first officer grunted, his response barely a whisper. “But we are not invincible.”
We both glanced at the open console where my battle chief once stood. He’d also fallen at the battle with the Porvakians, and I had yet to appoint
