Page 6 of The Alien's Stolen Rebel

“What were you trying to do?” The Vehn lady hissed her question at me, fingers digging painfully tight into my flesh. “Frax will not kill you, but he will make you suffer if you’re caught trying to escape.”

“Why did you help me?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heat. Okay, so it hadn’t been exactly the smartest escape plan ever tried, but I hadn’t had time for a better one.

She looked at me as though I was an idiot and traced the scar on her cheek with one finger. “I do notwant Lady Astara to have the satisfaction of seeing you dead. Nor do I want my own plans for my husband to be derailed by your presence. Since you lack the wit and skill to escape on your own, what else can I do but rescue you?”

I didn’t quite follow her logic, but I wasn’t about to argue. “Thank you.”

Her lip curled and she sniffed. “I am not doing this for you. It took a lot of unpleasant work to reach the number two spot among Lord Frax’s wives, and I have no intention of being displaced by some newcomer. Now, hit me.”

“What?” I stopped and stared, and shetskedimpatiently, gesturing to an unbolted grill on the wall.

“You heard me, human. Behind that grate is a maintenance shaft. It will take you into a hangar with a relatively unguarded ship, so this is where we part ways. But those guards saw me with you, so I need an excuse for how you slipped away. Now, hit me.”

I swung at her, my fist hitting home on her cheek and rocking her back. Anger flashed in her eyes. “Weak. Do it again, do it properly.”

I was glad she made it so easy to dislike her. Hitting my rescuer at full strength wasn’t easy, but I put my weight behind a punch that landed with a crunch on Mishoni’s nose. She staggered back, blood running free down her face, but she smiled viciously up at me and nodded. I think there was approval in her expression, but didn’t stop to check.

The grill swung aside easily, and I scrambledthrough it, crawling into the narrow shaft beyond. It was a tight fit, would have been even in sensible clothes, and in a wedding dress it was all but impossible to squirm through. Under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t even have tried, but running from a fate worse than death counted as an exception. Fabric tore as I wriggled my way around corners, and I scraped my arms and legs on exposed bolts.

Hope my jabs cover me for alien tetanus,I thought, trying to make it light-hearted. It was a real, though. I had a full range of vaccinations, every colonist did, but I had no idea what diseases might hide in an old Vehn station.

It felt like I crawled for a million years. I doubted it had been ten minutes. Either way, I made it to another grating and peered through it. I couldn’t see much except a few barrels and, beyond them, stars. A forcefield pressure barrier, keeping in air and heat. Mishoni had told the truth about the hangar. I could have cried with relief, but there wasn’t time. A few swift kicks knocked the grating free, and it clattered to the deck, making me wince.

There was no response, so I risked sticking my head out and looking around. The hangar was deserted.

But not empty. A single ship waited in the center of the bay, and it looked incredible. I stared at the magnificent ship hovering above the deck, stunned by its beauty. Light glittered from the black, glassy hull, cut like a gem and shaped like a blade. It looked sharp enough to slice starlight, and like it was just waiting forthe chance to go fast. An inviting glow shone from an open hatch on the ship’s underside, where a lowered ramp gave access.

There was no time to stop and admire it, but as I was about to run out across the open floor, a door to the hangar slid open and sounds of chaos and alarm spilled through. I dove behind the junk pile, cursing whoever had interrupted my escape.

4

KREEL

As I’d expected, the party quickly degenerated into chaos, which made slipping away unnoticed easy. Dozens of drunk thugs, warlords, and gangsters stepping out for their own purposes kept Frax’s security teams far too busy to watch me. Between the secret bargains, the duels, the hook-ups, and a few encounters that might have been any of the above, one Argentian warrior behaving himself got no attention at all. I may not be the stealthiest of my siblings, but I knew enough to avoid the patchwork security system.

I knew where to go, and the best route to take. I’d done my homework, and it wasn’t hard to work out where Frax kept his favorite ship. Getting into the hangar? That made for a tougher challenge. Two guards waited at the door, disciplined by the standards of Frax’s horde, and the security network was a lot tighter. I couldn’t see a gap in the surveillance.

Time to go loud,I thought, and marched up to theguards as though I had every right to be there. The two of them shared a resigned look. Apparently I wasn’t the first drunk, entitled guest they’d had to deal with tonight. I would, however, be the last.

“Sir, you can’t be here—” the taller guard started, and I grabbed her by the neck before she finished. Her partner, a solid block of muscle, reacted with commendable speed, swinging his gauntleted fist into my stomach.

Had he gone for a lethal attack, that might have ended the fight. But they still thought of me as a guest, someone they’d get in trouble for killing. His punch aimed to disable me instead.

I didn’t give him a chance to rethink his mistake. Doubling over and gasping, I swung his partner into him and sent them both tumbling to the deck. Before either could recover, I pounced and knocked their heads against the metal, over and over, until both lay unconscious.

No alarm sounded. I didn’t let that fool me, though. Under the eye of the security grid, my attack wouldn’t go unnoticed. Reinforcements were probably already on their way. I had to move fast.

Fortunately, the lock was old. High quality, strong, difficult to spoof—but old enough that the codebreaker I wore on my wrist knew how to override it. In a bare few heartbeats, the heavy door unsealed and slid open.

That was when the alarm erupted, klaxons blaring a discordant howl of warning. Frax to the tee, I realized. Attacking, maybe killing his guards? Nothing to make afuss about when it might scare the guests. But threaten to steal from him? He’d alert the entire station to stop that.

Despite my hurry, I paused in the doorway to look at the sight that greeted me. One ship, all on its own, waited in the middle of the hangar.

TheStarshadow.As beautiful a ship as the stories said, diamond hull gleaming black, lines sleek and clean. It lookedhungry, eager for speed and space.

Exactly what I intended to give it.

I closed the hangar door behind me and crossed the deck, fast but vigilant. Being shot now, on the verge of success, would be a bitter joke.

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