Page 41 of Vex
The cold mountain air bit at her exposed skin, sharp and real. Her bare feet stung against the snow-covered rooftop, and the silk of her ruined evening gown clung to her like ice. She was alive. Impossibly, miraculously alive, standing in the aftermath of dragonfire that should have reduced her to ash.
Maera Daxkar stood next to Zymon and the smoldering wreckage of her speeder. She didn't look like a woman whose escape was cut off. She was smiling.
Luisa really didn't like that.
"It's over, Maera," Vex said. His voice was steely fury. He was pissed, and smoke was coming off of him in waves. "Surrender yourself to my custody, agree to testify against your co-conspirators, and you'll get some leniency."
Maera's smile widened, revealing teeth that looked too sharp in the emergency lighting from the burning speeder. She straightened her jacket with deliberate calm, as if facing down an enraged dragon lord was just another business meeting.
Zymon shifted beside her, his hand moving toward his weapon, but Maera raised one finger, and he froze. The woman had nerves of steel. But there was something in her eyes, a glittering confidence that suggested she wasn't nearly as trapped as she appeared.
"You can't touch me without violating the casino rules, Lord Vex." Her voice carried the smooth certainty of someone who'd built a career on knowing exactly which laws applied when.
"Those rules ceased to matter the moment you tried to kill my mate." The word came out as a growl, and fresh smoke curled from his fingertips. The temperature around him spiked, turning the falling snow to steam.
His mate? Where?
He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it.
Her?
The contact sent electricity shooting up her arm, warm and impossible. His palm was furnace-hot against her frozen fingers, and she could feel something deeper in the touch, a connection that hummed beneath her skin like a live wire. Her logical mind reeled, trying to process what he'd just claimed, but her body seemed to already know the truth.
What Luisa felt went far beyond confusion, but she tried to keep her face neutral. Answers were for later, when Maera Daxkar wasn't on the edge of getting away with everything.
Maera's expression faltered for only a moment. "We can work something out here. That data could make us both rich beyond your wildest dreams."
"I don't need money." The dismissal was so absolute, so casual, that it drove home just how different their worlds really were.
"And the data's gone," Luisa added, her mind catching up a bit and feeling triumphant. It didn't counterbalance the unsteadiness caused by Vex's declaration.
Mate.
What the hell.
Maera froze. The color drained from her face, leaving her looking waxen in the orange glow of the burning transport. Zymon's head snapped toward her, his expression shifting from professional calm to barely contained panic. For the first time since Luisa had met her, Maera looked genuinely rattled.
"You never had access to that data," Maera sneered.
"Your man found me in the private servers. I corrupted that data ten minutes before he got to me." The words came easily, delivered with practiced confidence.
"Then why were you still there?" Zymon demanded.
"Because I was doing a thorough job." She met his gaze without flinching.
In one fluid motion, Zymon drew his blaster and leveled it at her chest. The weapon hummed to life, its energy coils glowing with lethal intent. Vex's response was instant—fire erupted around his hands as he stepped directly in front of Luisa, blocking her from the line of fire.
"You're not getting away," said Vex. "But I can make this easier for you."
"After what happened to your precious mate?" Maera scoffed. "I'm not an idiot."
And there was that word again.
The standoff stretched between them. Zymon's finger hovered over the trigger while Vex's flames danced higher, casting writhing shadows across the rooftop. The wind howled around them, carrying the acrid smell of burning metal and whatever chemicals went into making a speeder all speedy.
Mechanical whirring cut through the tension.
Half a dozen security drones materialized from the storm, their sleek forms circling the rooftop with military precision. Red targeting beams swept across the snow, painting everyone in crimson light.
