Page 16 of Marked for Vengeance
She smiled at the directness of the query. He really didn’t have much in the way of filters. “Humans don’t have a military. It’s not permitted. But we have mercenary forces that do more or less the same thing. We did whatever we were paid to do. Mostly planetary defense, but we took other jobs, too. Eliminating raiders. Reacquiring lost assets. The usual things.”
“Ah. I didn’t know that.” He took a drink from his waterskin, the leather and simple stopper so different from her own plas-steel container.
“But you are not a mercenary anymore. You said you protect Maddison.”
“I was hired as her bodyguard ten years or so ago. It’s a prestige thing for the rich and powerful. Most of the time it was easy work.” That was true enough. The only person who posed a real threat to Maddi’s safety was her bastard husband. When he summoned his wife, Loris was never allowed to accompany her. She’d wait nearby and do what she could to help her friend in the aftermath.
“Havoc won’t let anything happen to her. Will he? He won’t hurt her? She’s been through a lot. Her former husband was a mean bastard.”
“If her male abused her, why didn’t she leave?” He moved close enough she could see his face now.
“She couldn’t. Their marriage contract was written so only he could break it, and he liked having her under his control. Once the contract expired, she left, and I went with her.
“So she was a prisoner?”
“She was. A bird caught in a golden cage. Wealth, luxury, everything she could ask for, but she couldn’t leave. Not even when…” Loris didn’t finish the statement.
“Havoc will take care of her. The fa’rel understand too well what it’s like to live in captivity.”
His reassurances helped. “Good. If he does anything to her, though, I will gut him and leave him to whatever scavengers live on this planet.”
“You won’t have to do that. If he harms your friend, I will beat him for you.”
“I fight my own battles, thank you.”
“Not anymore.” He thumped his chest. “I have sworn to protect you.”
Arguing with him was a waste of breath, and now wasn’t the time to explain the concept of consent. She changed the subject.
“You mentioned the fa’rel. Is that what you call yourselves?”
“It’s what the scrawnies called us.”
“And you kept the name?”
“Only that one. We chose our own names when we were still young. I am Vengeance because one day I will take revenge on the scrawnies for what they did to us.” He grinned. “And I didn’t like being called Research Subject Nine.”
“I bet you didn’t.”
She offered up more information about herself in exchange. “I kind of named myself, too. Loris was the name of a character in a story I read when I was growing up. My parents had lifetime contracts with an asteroid mining consortium. They were only supposed to have two kids who would take over their contracts when they got too old to work. I was their third child.”
“They hid my existence for a few years and then sold me to another family. I don’t remember them or the name they gave me. I was sold or passed along to several other families after that. Sometimes I was given a new name. Sometimes they didn’t bother and called me by the last one I’d been given.”
“They passed you from family to family like a possession?” The last word Vengeance spoke came out as more of a growl.
“Technically, I was a possession. Bought and sold based on what care I needed versus my value as a future worker.”
“You mean slave.” It wasn’t a question.
“They had prettier words for it, but yes.” She had a flash of pride as she remembered the day she’d found a way to escape. “But I wasn’t under contract yet. I was an investment of sorts. Only by then, no one thought I’d be worth much. Too stubborn.” She grinned.
He laughed, and the sound rolled through the night. It made her feel good.
“Anyway, I ended up getting sold to a mercenary group. They trained me and gave me a job I actually liked. I stayed with them until my contract ended more than twenty years later.”
She spread out her hands and took a small bow. “And that’s my story.”
“Thank you for sharing it. I want to know all your stories, Loris. But for now, we need to get moving.” He pointed ahead. “We’ll be back in the forest in another hour. Then we can stop for the night.”
