“Felice and Katarina will go together,” Calder told Kieran as they waited to give Justin and Deanna distance. “Then you and me. We’ll be two Shareem hanging out together, looking for something to do. Even if we get stopped and idented, the ladies won’t.”
Felice’s heart beat faster. She didn’t want to say good-bye to Kieran again, but she knew Calder was right. Katarina had the robes of a highborn woman, and Felice could walk along behind, pretending to be her servant.
Kieran clearly did not like the arrangement, but he gave Calder a short nod. “Just wait a minute, all right?”
He pulled Felice aside, hands going to her shoulders, caressing them. He said nothing, but searched her eyes—for what, Felice didn’t know, but she hoped he found it.
“If I don’t see you again.” Kieran’s words broke off, his voice gruff. “If I don’t see you again . . .” He cleared his throat. “Aw, hell, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Felice touched his cheek. “We’ll meet at the docks. On the ship. Just like we split up and met here. It will be okay.”
Kieran shook his head. “It’s different. You know it.” He leaned to her. “I’ve been half asleep all my life. You’re waking me up. I don’t want that to stop.”
“Won’t.” Felice found her voice breaking, the words sticking in her throat. “We’ll find each other. I promise.”
Again Kieran shook his head. “When something’s too good to be true, usually turns out it is. I don’t want to hope.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Felice said softly. “I’ll find you again, Kieran. If we don’t make it onto the same transport at the docks, then after that. I’ll search the universe for you, Kieran. I promise.”
Kieran swallowed. “I’ve never felt like this before,” he said. “Never will again.”
Felice’s heart swelled until she couldn’t feel anything but pain. And yet happiness mixed with it, giving her a joy she’d never experienced. Kieran’s eyes were dark blue, his hard face the most beautiful she’d seen in her life.
“Me either,” she said.
Kieran touched her face, as though he hadn’t heard what she said, or understood. Then, with a suddenness that took her breath away, he had her lifted against the nearest wall, kissing her hard, his body crushing hers. She felt his cock hard and strong, the need in him never far away.
It was a rough, raw kiss, making Felice’s heart pound and every part of her yearn for him. Her heart was breaking too—he was right—if they got separated, if Kieran was arrested, even if he managed to escape—they might never see each other again.
But Felice was right too. Kieran broke the kiss, anguish in his eyes and moisture with it. “I mean it,” Felice said swiftly. “I’ll scour the universe for you.”
Kieran nodded. “Damn it.”
“Come on, big guy.” Calder’s voice was surprisingly gentle.
Kieran drew a long breath. He gave Felice one last, fierce kiss, then he set her on her feet, released her, and followed Calder across the warehouse. He scooped up his robes at the door, and was gone.
*** *** ***
Felice walked a few paces behind Katarina, watching the hem of Katarina’s decorated robe flap just above the dusty street. Katarina, anonymous under all the fabric, walked with her head up, her stride even. Her arrogant assurance—which Felice had observed in other highborn women here—was a direct contrast to her blushing happiness in the warehouse, where she’d clung to Calder, tears in her eyes, as she told him good-bye.
A few patrollers glanced at them, probably wondering why a highborn woman was wandering around back streets near the docks with only one servant. But Felice had watched the citizens of Bor Narga in action. Katarina’s robes signaled status, and only a patroller who didn’t value her job would stop a highborn woman and ask her about her business.
The thought of Kieran out here, with patrollers striding around, itching to arrest Shareem, made Felice’s heart squeeze in fear.
I’ll scour the universe for you
, she’d said. And Felice hadn’t been kidding.
Katarina took her time making her way to the docks. She pretended to shop in the garish markets, as though she were slumming. She’d pick up something from a vendor’s stall, look at it, then put it back and dust off her gloved hands. Or she’d gesture at it, and have Felice pick it up. Katarina was careful not to actually buy anything, because then she’d have to use her credit slip, which would announce her identity.
Felice saw no Shareem on the way, but when they finally slipped inside the dockyards, Shareem were there. Not Kieran, but Rees and the one called Brandt.
Felice and Katarina melded into the shadows with them. “Calder?” Katarina whispered.
Rees shook his head, and Katarina and Felice shared an anxious squeeze of hands.
One by one, more Shareem materialized. As Felice knew by now with Kieran, they could move swiftly and silently—hunters who’d never been allowed to hunt, at least not in the strictest sense.
“First transport is over there,” Rees said, pointing across the dark docks.
The sun was well down, the dockyards flooded with artificial light, but the glaring spotlights only touched the most important ships. Captains of smaller cargo transports had to make do with less security, but that suited the Shareem’s purpose tonight. Only smaller ships were able to leave directly from the dockyards—the huge liners and massive cargo transports docked in orbit, shuttles moving from them to the surface.
“Brandt,” Rees whispered. Brandt, who was minus his lady at the moment, flashed Rees a smile, shook his hand, and slipped away. Felice tried to track his progress to the ship, but lost him in the darkness. “Lady Ursula is already there,” Rees said, explaining Brandt’s lady’s absence. “Katarina? You’re next. You’re the most important one to get out of here.”
“Disagree slightly, but not entirely,” Katarina said, touching her abdomen. She quickly enfolded Rees in a hug. “Thanks, Rees. For everything. Get Calder’s ass on board fast as you can, all right?”
She hugged Felice in a flurry of robes and a faint scent of antiseptic, then faded into the shadows in the direction Brandt had gone.
“Go,” Rees said to Felice.
Felice shook her head. “Waiting for Kieran.”
Rees let out the barest sigh, but he must have recognized the stubbornness in her voice. He said nothing more, and they waited.
A few more Shareem appeared here and there, alone, directed by Rees to the first ship. Felice didn’t know them, had only seen them in the last meeting in the warehouse—they didn’t have lifemates circling them like satellites. They each gave Rees a grin or a quiet high five and made for the ship.
“A couple more,” Rees whispered. “Then we start loading ship two.”
“Talan?” Felice whispered back.
“Already on board. Trust me, that took some doing.”
Felice imagined it had. The fiery little woman, the only one able to make Rees soften, would be furious if Rees didn’t make it onto the ship. And heartbroken.
Calder loomed out of the darkness so quickly that Felice jumped and stifled a gasp. Calder was huge and frightening looking, more so than the others.
“Kieran?” Felice asked quietly, looking behind Calder for sight of the man she needed to see.
Calder shook his head. “We split up. Too many patrollers. He’s coming.”
Rees gave him a nod. “Go to Katarina.”
Calder gave Rees a long look, the two men sharing something without words. At last Calder gripped Rees’s hand, pulled him into a brief, tight hug, and faded silently into the shadows.
Now for Kieran . . .
Time passed. No others came. Rees, who’d been like a stoic boulder, started to look around, restless.
“Something’s wrong.”
“Don’t say that,” Felice said quickly. “Nothing’s wrong.”
But she felt it too, that itch between her shoulder blades, her fighter’s instincts firing up.
Kieran, where are you?
“Get on board,” Rees said, his voice hardening. “That transport needs to get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving without Kieran.”
Rees made an exasperated noise. “Gods, why are women so damned stubborn?”
“Because we love you,” Felice said, folding her arms. The air was hot, the chill that darkness brought still hours away. “Kieran’s not just a quick fuck to me, all right?”
Rees looked at her for a long time, his eyes glittering. “Mmm,” he said finally, but stopped arguing.
More time passed. The triple moons of the world floated across the sky, two close together, the third lagging behind. A sign that Kieran was following, would catch up to Rees and her soon? Or was Felice just fantasizing?
Rees left his place so quickly that Felice almost missed it. He approached two Shareem walking together—Aiden and Ky? She couldn’t see. Had they let Brianne make her own way here, alone but safe in her highborn status as she walked through the streets?
Felice followed Rees, staying in the shadow of a small freighter that looked as though it had been abandoned. Likely hadn’t, because Bor Narga was good at shoveling away old junk to let new, better moneymakers in. But it had been parked here a while if the buildup of sand around its resting struts was any indication.
Felice reached the three Shareem, who were deep in another shadow. The newcomers were indeed Aiden and Ky—Aiden for once not grinning and joking, Ky his usual frowning self in black leather.
“Fucking patrollers everywhere,” Aiden was saying. “We got stopped.”
“Brianne’s safe,” Ky said. “She wasn’t with us. Patrollers let us go, but they’re watching. They’re looking for Kieran still, and they’re talking about a missing patroller.”
Felice stopped herself saying,
Shit,
in case the sibilant carried.
“First ship is loaded and ready,” Rees said.
As he spoke, a rumble filled the darkness, the ship firing up. It would keep its engines subdued until it rose out of the gigantic bowl that was the dockyards. After it was a safe distance above the surface, it would ignite all engines and take itself out of atmosphere, on its way.
Felice imagined Katarina and Calder, Brandt and Lady Ursula, smiling at each other in excitement as they felt the ship vibrate, knowing they were leaving for freedom.
Felice wanted that with Kieran.
Where the hell was he?
“Did you see Kieran?” she asked.
Aiden shook his head, and Rees turned a scowl on her. “No,” Aiden whispered. “He must be lying low.”
“Damn it.” Felice wondered if he’d gone back to Dr. Laas’s hideaway. In that case, he’d be safe, but she wanted to
know
.
A few more Shareem came to join them as the ship increased its engine power. Searchlights shot to it, making sure other ships saw it rising, even though no one else seemed to be waiting to take off.
Felice and the Shareem watched the little freighter move upward, floating, trembling in the air. Aiden let out a quiet breath. “May the gods keep them safe.”
Ky watched with an intense look, and Rees lifted his hand in farewell.
“Calder make it?” Braden asked, coming up behind his friends.
Aiden nodded and pointed to the ship. His black chain gleamed faintly in the darkness.
“Second ship’s ready,” Rees said. “Go, while everyone’s watching that one.” He pointed at two of the newly arrived Shareem, who slipped away.
Felice’s heart squeezed and pounded. Aiden, Ky, and Braden waited, tense.
Rees opened his mouth to direct one or all of them to go, when another man jogged out of the darkness—Mitch, the human pilot.
“Get out,” he said fiercely. “Patrollers. A shitload of them coming. I think they were tipped off somehow that Shareem are on that ship. They’re trying to stop it.”
“The fuck they will,” Rees snapped.
“I’ve got my transport,” Mitch said. “I can take a couple of you.”
“What about Judith?” Aiden asked.
“She’s stuck at the bar, being questioned. She knows what she’s doing—she kicked me out to warn you.”
“Screw this.” Rees left the knot of men and marched out toward the middle of the dockyard, more lights coming on.
Rees walked right into the light, stood, and waited.
“What the holy fuck is he doing?” Braden asked fiercely.
Felice felt sick. Any second now, patrollers would charge in, take aim at Rees, kill him. Or at the very best, arrest him and drag him away to kill him later.
But no patrollers came. Even Rees was surprised by that. He gave up waiting for attack and made for the dockyards’ entrance. Mitch growled something and followed him.
Ky said, “The assholes,” and charged after them, Aiden right behind him. Braden followed, and Felice sure wasn’t going to stand there and wait.
Behind them, the little ship rose higher, testing its engines, making sure that when it blasted out, everything worked instead of blowing them up. The time it took to do flight checks had never seemed so long or maddening.
Felice heard yelling. First, shrill-voice patrollers, then an answering male voice that she’d come to know very well.
Rees charged to the entrance, Felice sprinting to be right behind him.