Ryke smiled, knowing exactly what that order would be. “I’m feeling particularly obedient, Snake-Eyes. Don’t miss your chance.”
Ryke made it to the captain’s quarters just before Anguissa and paused to watch her approach. He loved the grace and power of her walk, that she was forthright and resolute. She was unlike any woman he’d ever known and he was surprised to realize that he liked that just fine.
In a way, it was too bad that they had no future together.
He wanted to see their child and was saddened that he never would.
Anguissa halted a few steps away from him, her snakes swaying, her dark eyes filled with mysteries as she studied him. “Tell me why you didn’t feast on Hellemut.”
“You are what you eat,” he acknowledged.
“I’m serious.” She came into the room and closed the door behind herself, sealing them into the space together. It immediately felt warmer and more intimate, and his awareness of her redoubled.
He wanted.
So he explained. “So am I. The problem with feasting upon animae is that you take on more than the energy of the life force. You absorb the attitudes and prejudices, the anger and the hatred, too.”
“Not the love?”
“There isn’t a lot of that on Centurios. I’m thinking that Captain Hellemut’s stores were a little low, as well.”
The barest smile touched Anguissa’s lips then disappeared. She looked soft and seductive, yet enigmatic. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking and he didn’t want to slip to find out. There was something beguiling about Anguissa.
Something it might take a lifetime to understand.
“Thank you for sharing those memories,” she said quietly.
“Maybe you’ll have something good to tell our child about me.” He lifted her hand in his, winding his fingers between hers.
“You don’t have to go back to Centurios.”
“I do.”
“Your son.”
Ryke nodded. “We had a wager, Fire-Breath, one that you won. Are you going to collect?”
Her smile was immediate, lighting her eyes with anticipation. “Is that an invitation, Soul-Stealer?”
“This is probably as close as I’ll ever get to being at your mercy.”
Anguissa laughed. “Oh, don’t say that. I can be very persuasive.” Her hand slid over his shoulder and down his chest, her gaze locked with his. “You might like it this way.”
“Go ahead,” he murmured, his anticipation rising. “Convince me.”
Anguissa tugged off her boots. She stood then and smoothed back her snakes, then eased out of her uniform, revealing the creamy perfection of her skin. Ryke reached for his own boots but she seized his hands, guiding them to a rail over his head. “Don’t make me tie you down,” she purred. “You’re helpless, remember?”
“I’m never helpless,” he said and realized it was true. He could always slip, and Anguissa had shown him that.
She leaned over him, soothing him with her touch. “Then pretend to be, just this once, just for me.” She punctuated her request with a sweet hot kiss, one that lit a blaze deep inside him. “You might like it,” she whispered.
Ryke was starting to think he just might. He knew she wouldn’t try to injure him, even though she had the power to destroy him—just as he had the power to destroy her and chose not to use it. Ryke found himself capitulating to her, even though she was a dragon shifter. Her kiss became hot and hungry, proof that she had sensed the change in him, and he felt that inferno rise within him.
He recalled Mareeqa’s passivity and knew that would never arouse him again.
He liked his princesses fiery now, thanks to Anguissa.
She broke their kiss and turned her back upon him, giving him a fine view as she removed his boots. She slid her hands under the top of his uniform and pushed it over his head, tossing it across the room as she surveyed him with satisfaction. Her hands were beneath the waist of his pants, her fingers awakening his skin everywhere she touched, and she worked them free as well.
He was nude before her, her smile telling him exactly what she thought of the view. She knelt on the sleeping couch beside him and it was all he could do to keep from reaching for her. She brushed her lips across his, teasing him, then closed her hand around his erection and gave him a gentle squeeze. Ryke caught his breath, Anguissa smiled, then she bent to kiss his nipple.
He gripped the bar with both hands, wanting to seize her with all his might but also needing to keep his side of the bargain. It was unnatural to just lie back and let her pleasure him, but incredibly exciting, as well. She sucked on his nipple, teasing it to a tight peak, then grazed it with her teeth. He felt himself get harder and thicker, felt the pulse in the base of his cock, and heard himself moan. Anguissa teased his nipples a little more, waiting until he moaned again before she braced herself over him and took his erection in her mouth.
Her mouth was soft and warm and sweetly teasing. He felt her tongue and thought he would explode, then opened his eyes to find a feast arrayed before his eyes. He whispered her name and Anguissa lowered herself over him. He licked her and felt her shiver and loved that he wasn’t going to be passive in this encounter after all.
They teased each other for what seemed like an eternity, building the flames of desire and tormenting each other with the promise of release. Each time Ryke got close, Anguissa changed her movement, lifted her head, or paused to blow upon him. He was writhing beneath her, his muscles taut and his breath coming quickly, his pulse hammering in his ears. He was slick with her juices and hungry for more, but she denied him, making him yearn to conquer and claim.
But then she might abandon him.
He had to charm her, but charm was not a trait Ryke possessed in abundance. He was used to taking or denying, to claiming or discarding. He usually persuaded with force.
He decided to learn. He touched Anguissa more boldly, echoing her game of tease and retreat. He saw her sway over him, felt her heat rise, tasted the ardor of her arousal. He tormented her, keeping his hands on the bar, using his tongue and his lips and his teeth, even as she used the same weapons against him, until she moaned from the very bottom of her soul and shook violently.
She turned to face him, eyes flashing. “You’re wicked.”
“I’m trying to be persuasive,” he replied and grinned at her quick intake of breath.
“I want your hands on me,” she said as she moved to straddle him the other way. Ryke was quick to comply and heard himself purr as he caught her butt in his hands. “I want you to touch me, Ryke, touch me as if you can’t get enough.” Ryke didn’t hesitate to comply. He pulled her closer, wanting her more than he’d wanted a woman before. She bent and seized his head in her hands, bracing her weight on her elbows as she kissed him.
He liked her ferocity. He liked that she demanded what she wanted.
He liked best of all that he could give it to her.
She rolled her hips and took him inside her slick heat with one smooth gesture, a move that made him catch his breath. He thought his heart might explode when she eased lower and accepted all of him. He felt himself shake, then opened his eyes to find her smiling at him.
“All mine,” she whispered and he liked that just fine. He had one hand on the back of her waist and the other on the back of her neck, his embrace full of the perfection that was Anguissa. His heart thundered and he knew that no other woman would ever compare.
“For now,” he countered. “Unless you come to Centurios.”
“Will you make it worth my while?” she teased and Ryke inhaled sharply as she moved.
“Always, Princess,” he managed to whisper, his voice hoarse, and knew it was true.
She straightened, sitting atop him proudly, her breasts inviting his caress. He cupped them, teasing their peaks, loving the view. “Convinced yet?” she asked, then stretched her arms over her head and began to ride him.
Hard. Her hips rocked and her breasts filled his hands. H
er back was arched and she gasped as she rubbed herself against him. His entire body was taut, but she drove him onward, demanding more than he’d imagined he could give.
Ryke felt there wasn’t enough air in the cabin. “Anguissa!” he cried but she just rode him faster, driving him on to his release. He was perilously close but he wanted them to find pleasure together. He eased one hand between them, touching her so that she moaned. She bit her lip and stretched up, her skin flushing so beautifully that Ryke didn’t want to blink. Her gaze locked with his as they moved faster and faster, driving each other to the precipice.
Then he pinched her and she roared with her release, locking her legs so tightly around him that he could only do the same.
Anguissa was dizzy.
But satisfied.
Was she ever going to get enough of Ryke?
She braced her chin on her elbow and surveyed him. He was already watching her, his eyes narrowed to slits and a smile curving his firm lips. She reached out and traced the outline of his mouth with a fingertip. “Are you my HeartKeeper?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, his voice rumbling in his chest and his eyes glowing. “What are the job qualifications?”
“Love, Ryke. Something you don’t believe in.”
He rolled then, easing her beneath himself and bracing his weight over her. “You might change my thinking about some things, Snake-Eyes, but never that.” He kissed her before she could argue with him and she felt the lack of his presence in her thoughts.
“We’re close to Centurios,” she whispered when he lifted his head. He surveyed her, his eyes glinting, and she wondered what he was thinking.
Then he rose and tapped the comm to the deck. “How is everything, Bakiel?”
“Quiet and stable. We’re within hailing distance of the Centurios starport.”
“Good.” Anguissa came to Ryke’s side to speak into the comm and he smiled down at her, that cocky satisfaction lighting his gaze. She watched him, anticipating his reaction to her next words. “Tell them I’ve come to collect the bounty on Ryke. I think the live one, but I could still change my mind if he doesn’t behave.”
“If you’re going to be an opportunist, Snake-Eyes,” Ryke said, with a thread of humor in his tone, “you should collect the higher bounty, the one for delivering me dead.”
Anguissa smiled because she saw his confidence that she wouldn’t do that. “But that won’t answer the question, Ryke. When someone wants me dead, I like to know why. Don’t you?” She gave him a look, watching relief settle through him, then stretched to kiss his cheek. “I’m going to put you in shackles,” she whispered.
“Not a chance,” he replied, sealing his words with a kiss. “I’ve had my share of being controlled.”
“But...”
“But nothing,” he said, interrupting her. “I might need to defend us.”
Anguissa had her doubts about that plan and didn’t hide them. “It would be good if you could keep from looking like a conquering hero.”
Ryke chuckled. “There’s only so much of my nature I can change, Princess.”
Then she left the cabin, striding toward the deck.
She felt him watching her go.
But she didn’t hear him in her thoughts. They’d already parted ways, for all intents and purposes, and that saddened Anguissa more than she knew it should.
She didn’t love Ryke.
She couldn’t love Ryke.
She wouldn’t.
Eight
Centurios.
A planet wreathed in fog and shadows. It appeared to be veiled in smoke. Even the starport looked menacing. It was dark and heavily armed, its design both antique and heavy. It could have been brute force in orbit.
A planet with umbros in charge. Anguissa shivered. She’d checked the reference on her personal device and hadn’t found it reassuring either.
* * *
Centurios: A planet in the Vergon system in the Qaton sector. Although many sentient species make their home on this, the only habitable planet in its system, the reputation of one species is known throughout the galaxy. Umbros, a class of predators with a taste for either blood or souls, originate on Centurios. Despite being a minority of the population, umbros have been the planet’s overlords for more than half of the planet’s history, maintaining authority with a combination of terror and violence. The umbros subsist upon the blood or soul, whether the host is living or recently deceased. It is believed that their appetites were established when the various peoples of Centurios waged frequent war and some of them consumed corpses because of widespread famine.
* * *
There are more than eleven other castes in this highly organized and divided society, including the pale custos who each serve the will of a single umbro, even to their own detriment. The planet itself is over half water, dominated by a single large and predominantly flat land mass, with the capital city at its center. Centurios maintains a starport but given the widespread fear of their overlords—and the tendency of umbros to infiltrate alien societies and feed, thus leaving a trail of victims—the ability of Centurios to conduct trade has been severely curtailed. The relative net worth of Centurios has declined as a result, as had the standard of living of its populace.
* * *
Ryke was sitting on the transport deck with his hands behind his back. They weren’t bound as he wouldn’t agree to that, but someone might be fooled at a glance. His head was slightly bowed and he did look a little bit less confident than usual.
Anguissa still wasn’t sure that anyone would be convinced he was a prisoner, but she didn’t want their last discussion to be an argument.
Either way, he’d be home soon, and she’d be heading back to Incendium.
Maybe on the way, she’d figure out what to do with the payload of the Archangel.
And what to do about Bond.
First things first.
“Any reply to our hail?” she asked Bakiel.
The custo shook his head. “Silence.”
Ryke frowned and Anguissa knew he was going to try to take command. She got abruptly to her feet, seized a length of cloth, and marched toward him. He smiled at her, his gaze assessing, but his smile faded when she snapped the cloth around his head and blindfolded him. He paled and she knew he was shaken.
Still, he stayed out of her mind.
Was something wrong? Anguissa dismissed the idea as soon as she had it. Ryke wouldn’t lie to her. It was a gift to make their inevitable parting easier.
“Finally, you look like a captive,” she teased quietly instead.
“Snake-Eyes...” he growled.
“A feint is only as good as the performance, Ryke.” Anguissa whispered to him, knowing he was struggling against some dark experience but confident that he could persevere. “You’ve survived worse. Trust me on this, or we’re all dead.”
He exhaled, shaking a little, then lifted his head proudly. His posture was the perfect blend of resignation and bravado. His trust humbled her and fortified her determination to succeed.
“But they can’t be gone,” she said, raising her voice and aware that their conversation might be monitored. “We have indications of life forms on the station...”
She was interrupted by an authoritative voice that boomed from the comm and proved that her assumption was correct. “Magnetawan, this is Centurios Starport. Identify the three life forms aboard.”
No greeting. No polite salute or diplomacy. Anguissa bristled.
“Greetings,” she replied, her tone cool. She didn’t look at either Bakiel or Ryke. “I am Captain Anguissa of the Gloria Furore, coming to collect the bounty offered for Ryke of Centurios. His custo is aboard, as well.”
There was a moment of silence, which Anguissa chose to interpret as surprise. “Ryke of Centurios is said to be dead.”
“He’s not. He’s my captive.” There was no reply, so Anguissa pushed a little. “Do you deny that there is a posted bounty?”
“Show hi
m.”
The abrupt replies annoyed Anguissa, but she hid her reaction as well as she could. Her mother, Ignita, always said that there was no cause for rudeness and in this moment, Anguissa could only agree.
She gestured to Ryke. “He’s on the transport deck, ready to be delivered as soon as the payment is made.” The input tracked her gesture and displayed Ryke to whoever was on the other side of the comm. “I assume you want a voice imprint for verification.”
“Yes. We do not transfer funds without verification, Captain Anguissa.”
Ryke yelped, as if he’d been given an electric prod, which Anguissa thought was truly inspired. Then he continued in a low growl. “Anyone I know in command today?”
The display flickered to life and Anguissa was shocked by the pallor of the face that filled it. She wasn’t nearly as surprised as Bakiel, though, who caught his breath and turned even more white than usual. Ryke stiffened, apparently aware of Bakiel’s reaction even though he couldn’t see it.
The man on the display looked slightly familiar, but Anguissa didn’t manage to place him before Bakiel whispered “Titus!”
“Titus?” Ryke echoed. “How did you end up with this responsibility? It’s a little beneath the tasks of the emperor’s custo. Have the ranks of my father’s soldiers diminished this much?”
The fair man smirked. “Much has changed in your absence.”
“I’m surprised that my father offered a reward for my return,” Ryke continued, looking about as vulnerable and defeated as a champion of the universe. Anguissa was glad that he was blindfolded and noted that Titus didn’t seem surprised by his manner. “I never expected to be ransomed, given that I was an outlaw on Centurios.”
“You were missed, Ryke,” another man said, and Titus was replaced on the display by an older man. He shared Ryke’s proud profile and noble bearing, and Anguissa recognized him from Ryke’s memory. Even though he was older, he appeared to be virile, and his eyes shone with the same glimmer that illuminated Ryke’s. His voice was low and melodious and Anguissa might have been charmed.