Warrior's Pain (Cadi Warriors Book 4)(7)

“Should we follow them?” Gio asked.

The young smuggler had clearly gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd.

“If you want to end up like Bohdan over there, go ahead,” Cyprian replied as he gestured to the mangled body on the tarmac.

Cyprian stood to his full height and assessed the casualties, then strode over to Vintor.

“This went better than expected,” Vintor said, after making sure they were alone.

“It did. Our cover is still intact, and we don’t have to worry about freeing June, or the Toufik, the idiots recently abducted.”

There were still another seventy Toufik missing, but at least it wasn’t twice that number. Cyprian was glad his hairy friend Thunder had just been liberated. The male and his clan had been willing to act as Cyprian’s captives, so he and Vintor could infiltrate the band of smugglers. The last thing the general wanted, was for the clan to actually be abducted.

“And the smugglers are down one cruiser.” Vintor cast Cyprian an ornery smile. “It looks like Mave survived. That’s good. I guess,” Vintor added flatly.

“His time will come.” Cyprian clapped his coconspirator on the back. “We’d have a difficult time learning where the rest of the Toufik, human, and Exo are being held, if Mave got his head blown off.”

“True. I guess we better meet up with the band of bastards.”

Cyprian pasted on his best pissed rogue general face, as he and Vintor joined the group of smugglers. The confusion on Mave’s face was satisfying. Cyprian planned to twist the knife further.

“So, I lost my chattel because your males robbed the province refugee camp along with a large plantation nearby,” Cyprian growled at Mave, not even pausing for pleasantries, as he confronted the leader.

“At least you didn’t lose your cruiser. If Bohdan wasn’t dead on the tarmac, I’d let you watch me gut him,” Mave roared, blaming the dead smuggler for leading Ashtoret to the airstrip.

“Let me tell you how this is going to go.” Cyprian stepped into Mave’s personal space. “I’m going to do you the honor of loaning you my ship. And in return for my generosity, you are going to take me to the auction, where you’ll pay me twice the value of the Toufik I lost. If I’m satisfied with what I find, we can move forward with this partnership.”

“And if I say no?” Mave snarled. The male had been annoyingly tight lipped about his operation.

“No problem. I’m sure the exceedingly honorable Jurou Biljana will wait in orbit with your first shipment of Toufik, while you find another vessel,” Cyprian remarked sarcastically, as he turned and started walking away with Vintor.

The silence was palpable for those few steps. Mave was no doubt surprised Cyprian knew who was behind part of this plot.

“We leave in an hour,” Mave growled.

A cocky smile spread across Cyprian’s face. He held up his hand in acknowledgement to Mave, as he and Vintor continued toward their cruiser.

“Looks like we’re going off-world,” Vintor commented. “You up for the challenge?”

“Challenge? All we have to do is sabotage the Toufik auction, steal back a Miran Sona ship, and find a missing human,” Cyprian chuckled.

“Yeah, it’ll be good to see a bit of action again,” Vintor grinned back.





Chapter 2. Welcome to Distraho




Riley

Riley jerked awake, but couldn’t move an inch. Where some people awoke all discombobulated, she had always been instantly lucid. Riley clearly remembered the flesh merchants attacking the M’s ship.

Where am I? Riley wondered as panic ensued.

She froze, the second she heard a foreign voice nearby.

“As you can see, your merchandise is fine. The female is waking,” the garbled voice said.

“When will she be up for auction?” A different voice asked.

“Auction, my ass,” Riley growled, as she opened her eyes, and tried to focus them in the bright light.

Showing off her surly attitude probably wasn’t the best idea, since she was strapped to a table. Riley was so incredibly angry, it just popped out. Never in her life had she felt this level of rage. Riley could feel the acrid emotion burning through her veins. It felt like a living thing crawling beneath her skin. Riley doubted she could prevent the reptiles from auctioning her off, but she refused to go quietly.

“It appears the language implant is working,” the first voice replied with its strange wavering intonation.

Riley’s eyes swung to the speaker. It wasn’t one of the reptilian pirates. The creature looked more like an octopus, with a bulbous head and a beak for a mouth. It’s billowy, bald head was covered in iridescent spherical markings, that shifted from yellow to blue. But it was the creature’s eyes that freaked her out more than anything else. The pupils were an unnerving sideways figure eight shape.