Gabriel, p.2
Gabriel, page 2
The sensible Dramok had never believed in love at first sight. Lust…sure, that was a given. Natural. Lust had been the sole initial drive when it had come to getting acquainted with his clanmates. Love had happened in its due course once the base urges had been satisfied, allowing him to contemplate the personalities beyond the delicious bodies he was eager to fuck.
But Gabriel…he incited more than a mere urge to bury cocks in mouth and ass. Gabriel pulled at Baknu in areas besides his groin, without benefit of more than a few minutes’ conversation.
“We’ll have to work them from both sides. There’s a sense of two against the cosmos with that pair. They won’t go to Kalquor for themselves, but they’d do it for each other.” Baknu’s deliberations had arrived at that simple declaration.
Kisk nodded in agreement. “He’ll defend her, she’ll defend him. I got that too.”
“If she’s convinced it’s to Gabriel’s benefit to go to Kalquor, Iliana will relent.”
“And if he feels she’ll be safer with a clan, he’ll try to sway her on our behalf,” Takat added with enthusiasm.
“Kisk—”
“Find out all I can about both. Learn what might convince them to come with us.”
“Right.”
Takat brought up a separate concern. “Earther males don’t get a free ride on Kalquor as the women do. We’re talking about a commitment to the boy.”
Baknu had already thought about that. The soft pull in his chest suggested keeping Gabriel would be a choice he was willing to make, but reality said he might not be right for the captain’s clan. “Another clan or a single man will want him if he isn’t right for us. With those eyes? That face?” Along with that desperate, hungry aura that begs men to feed him everything he’s been denied.
“And all the rest,” Kisk growled softly.
“If it comes down to it, his sister could claim family hardship. She could insist she needs him close. That’s a point worth making when it comes to convincing her to go, that she can require her suitors see to Gabriel’s living expenses on Kalquor.”
“Financial security for him as well as herself. Good bait to dangle.” Takat’s glance was significant.
“For her, yes. I’d prefer the boy choose us based on other things.” Though Baknu’s Dramok father had played the wealth game and won highly ranking clanmates he adored in the end, it wasn’t the captain’s practice.
“Gabriel’s spectacular,” Takat sighed, wistful as they reached the hectic dock where their freighter was being unloaded. “I hope he’ll think the same of us.”
“Let’s find out.” Baknu’s mission to collect Iliana, distasteful at the start, had taken on a promising glow.
Chapter Two
Gabriel clicked the button that closed the store’s open front with a retractable wall. Minutes later, he and Iliana left the shop through the door at the back of the stockroom. They navigated the brightly lit back halls until they emerged in the main concourse. They waved acknowledgement to other shopkeepers who were leaving for the night or showing up to work a late shift. A few greetings were called as they walked towards the in-house transport that would take them to the deck where they shared an apartment. After six years on the station, the-once novel sight of Earthers was common to the permanent residents.
Had an Earther vessel been docked at the station, Gabriel would have kept his shop open too. The sporadic stops from patrolling fleet craft kept him and Iliana fed, not to mention paid the loan that had launched their shop. An occasional alien might stop in and buy something out of curiosity, but it was Earther fleet personnel, eager for familiar snacks and foods so far from home, who kept the Rossis operating. The irony wasn’t lost on Gabriel that he and Iliana depended on the very society they feared and had turned their backs on.
Gabriel wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed the Kalquorians hadn’t returned that day. He glanced at his surroundings.
“They’re nice-looking guys, once you get past those weird purple cat eyes,” Iliana said.
His face warmed to be so easily read. “If you say so.”
“Please. You are crushing so hard on those Kalqs.”
Gabriel jerked and searched their surroundings, worried she’d been overheard.
“Ease up. Like the big hunk said, no ships from our world will show up for a few weeks. Which means no shopping for anything but necessities.”
He grinned at her warning, no doubt given because of the high-end shop their route took them past. He’d been drooling over a pair of Joshadan-made shoes for the last three months.
“Blue leather loafers would match a quarter of my closet. They’re absolutely necessary. You should be glad for me to have them.”
“Only if I can wear them long enough to kick them up your butt. You have plenty of shoes.”
They reached the in-house transport, and Iliana told it the deck they wanted. The door closed. Gabriel detected its typical motion under his feet.
“Three men,” he muttered.
“I knew you were crushing on them.”
“I was thinking for you. You’d have a ball ordering that many around. Telling them to jump and how high.”
“Jerk.”
“You’d be safe from execution on Kalquor.” The teasing note left his voice. Gabriel feared for his younger sister. Iliana was beautiful, with eyes as blue and hair as black as his. When Earther ships docked at the station with their fleet personnel, she stayed home despite how busy the shop became. Too many men far from home got unsavory ideas in such a pretty girl’s presence.
Being lonely and far from home has nothing to do with it. And it’s not her fault they refuse to leave her alone. He swallowed the helpless rage that rose like bile. Their childhood home of Mercy Colony, with religious standards often stricter than those even on Earth, had displayed its fair share of evil. There was no shortage of assholes prepared to force a vulnerable young woman into illegal pleasures that would result in her execution.
The transport halted, and the door opened. They entered the corridor that led to their quarters.
“What about you?” Iliana asked with a sidelong glance.
“What about me?”
“Those Kalqs offer a chance to be who you are without fear. To love. To get gross and sweaty with other men.”
Gabriel shoved her as she laughed at him, after checking to see who might have overheard her shocking statement. A neighbor was coming out of his apartment several yards down the hall, dressed for a night out. They’d dubbed the Isetacian Odin, after the all-seeing Norse god. It seemed an apt nickname for a being whose skull was surrounding by eyes. Odin, whose real name was unpronounceable for the Rossis, had been delighted with the dub and the legend behind it.
A nice guy. Unlikely to turn them in for Iliana’s crude humor when Earthers came to the station. As they passed each other, Odin and the siblings murmured warm greetings to each other.
Zryktysk Station’s allure for Gabriel and Iliana was that they were the only Earthers who lived on it. Positioned in the sector of Adraf space furthest from Earth and its holdings, it was too out-of-the-way for more than a few fleet ships to visit every few weeks as they conducted trade with various Galactic Council member worlds.
After six years of living and working on the station, Gabriel should have been long past jumping at shadows. He forced himself to banter as they reached their door, pretending his heart thumped along at a steady rate rather than galloping headlong in an effort to leap out of his chest.
“Me live with those Kalquorian brutes? They probably leave their dirty socks all over the floor. Track mud in. Sit around in their underwear watching—what’s that game they like called?”
“Kurble.”
“Kurble. Right. Yelling at the holoscreen, drinking beer—”
“Kloq.”
“Kloq, sure. Or bohut. They’d leave glass rings on my nice tables. Yuck.”
Iliana stepped into their apartment, grinning at him over her shoulder. “Gabriel and a clan, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S—”
She broke off with a shriek as Gabriel lunged at her. Laughing, she raced through the living room and down the hall, escaping to her room. The door lock clicked as he reached it, keeping her from the dose of noogies she had coming.
“Jerk!” he yelled at the stream of giggles drifting from her room. He grinned at the door before heading to the kitchen. He’d get Miss Smartass later.
He hummed as he set an indoor grill on the counter, his pulse slowing now that he was safe at home, safe from Earth, safe from gorgeous Kalquorians he had no business fantasizing about.
Safe. It was the best a guy like him could hope for.
* * * *
Mit-noc sat in the cockpit of the docked shuttle Nal had loaned him to fetch Gabriel. The Aksukt’s gaze remained on the vid monitor despite the Rossi siblings having disappeared into their quarters. The spy cam he’d installed kept tabs on the corridor outside the apartment. Traffic was picking up, with residents coming and going as day hours switched to night.
No Kalquorians. At least, not yet. Before fleeing the back room of the shop, Mit-noc had seen the clan’s interest in Gabriel, how their gazes had turned avid as the Earther joined his sister.
That had been all Mit-noc had witnessed. The instant he’d recognized Nobek Kisk, his only goal had been to escape before the vicious bastard caught sight of him.
Mit-noc supposed he should have been grateful to have escaped his past encounter with Kisk with only a severe beating. It could have gone worse, Mit-noc admitted. He could be rotting in a Dantovonian prison, with no hope of bribing his way out. Or worse, serving a sentence in a Kalquorian prison camp.
He, Mit-noc , a core kinsman of the prestigious Lin-gra Family of Aksukt, could have been sentenced to such.
Former core kinsman, a sneering voice in his head reminded him.
As if he needed reminding.
He continued watching the monitor, the image shimmering as it beamed from its unit set on the shuttle’s command console. The Kalquorians might show up at the Rossis’ home. The rumors of looming extinction for the race were growing stronger, the evidence piling up as they forced encounters with Earther females. Gabriel’s sister had enormous potential for a sizable financial score, except the Kalquorians had some bizarre code of honor that excluded outright slavery. Still, Iliana would fetch a pretty price on Dantovon. Brothel owners of a particular stripe would make lucrative offers to own the rights to Earther cunt. They’d have customers lined up out the door to enjoy such a rare treat.
Nal had forbidden Mit-noc to collect such a treasure, even to add to Nal’s stable. “Isolation from everything and everyone familiar breaks a new slave quicker,” he’d told Mit-noc when the Aksukt had made his observations about Iliana. “That boy is the priority, so he has to believe he’ll never see her again, unless I allow it. You’d be amazed what my toys do when such bait is dangled before them.”
Obsession. It was a disease among the many strange aliens Mit-noc had found himself among since his exile. The fact Nal would give up the gold mine of Iliana’s pussy, the rarest of brothel offerings, illustrated the madness of such fixations.
She was right there, the second-rarest cunt for the taking, alongside her brother’s almost-as-precious asshole. Only Kalquorian women were scarcer, their precious pussies never found for sale. The Rossi siblings were within reach, however. They could make a smart businessman a fortune.
Mit-noc had toyed with the idea of grabbing the two for his own financial enrichment, but only for a stray moment. True, they’d make him enough money to pay the debts that forced him to play errand boy and bounty hunter for Nal in the first place. And they’d finance his increasingly lengthy stays in the rapture dens, where yuphor smoke took him from the real world into impossible fantasies of returning home, of recovering his honor and destroying his enemies.
It took too much effort to keep such slaves in their place, however. Then there would be the shame of operating such a base business. Mit-noc, former core kinsman of the Lin-gra Family, a flesh peddler? He couldn’t stomach the vile concept.
Besides, if he stabbed Nal in the back by co-opting Gabriel, Mit-noc would find himself on the wrong side of a bounty. No, despite the substantial financial rewards, he couldn’t set up such a squalid business himself.
It was too bad he couldn’t abduct Iliana and sell her to an alternative brothel owner. By the time he delivered Gabriel to Nal and returned to fetch his sister for a second client, the Kalquorians would have lured her to their empire with their riches and devotion.
Mit-noc sighed, bored with watching the empty corridor. Damned Kalquorians. Especially that oaf Kisk and his brutal fists. Of all the days for a clan to show up, just as he’d tracked Nal’s plaything down, they had to pick now. Mit-noc was cursed.
He’d give the clan an hour to show up before daring to hope they were biding their time before bothering the Rossis again. If they didn’t turn up for a visit by then, he’d curl into sleep.
Maybe he’d dream of home. Of people who made sense.
Chapter Three
Morning arrived, full of promise and worries. Gabriel left the backroom of the shop exactly a minute before it was due to open. He gripped his antique maple baseball bat, its heft familiar. It wasn’t what he’d used to play in the league when he’d lived on Mercy Colony—the league had imported birch bats from Earth for its games.
Maple, more prone to absorbing moisture, was heavier. His bat had been around for generations, so he’d have never used it in an actual game. Even if it had carried no value as a rarity, it would have been too weighty for use in league play.
Once upon a time, it had sat in a case over a mantle in a home shared by a family of four. Then the family had been three, finally two. One day, the case had been broken open, the bat removed, and used for purposes it hadn’t been intended for.
It never went back into the case. Gabriel kept it close, in case it was needed again. He thought perhaps this would be such a day.
He watched the front of the store as the seconds ticked down to when he’d have to open for business or face a fine from the station for lateness. With five seconds left, he gave the order.
“Lights, up. Doors, retract.”
Another day at work, anticipated to be slow. With no Earth vessels docked at Zryktysk, Gabriel expected only those curious to see Earthers in this remote corner so far from any of his world’s colonies. Yet he watched with no surprise as three big men walked in as soon as the storefront retracted into the walls.
Baknu, Takat, and Kisk. The sight of the Kalquorians gave Gabriel’s guts the jitters, but not from fear. Fear would have been less confusing than what Gabriel felt at the sight of the muscled brutes.
He drew on the anger simmering beneath those upsetting sensations, propping his bat on his shoulder as they approached. “You’ve returned. I can’t say I’m surprised.”
They accorded his slugger barely a glance. The trio bowed to him. Such fine manners. Was he supposed to be impressed?
He resisted as best he could. Damn them.
They straightened, and Baknu took another step forward. He was within the arc of Gabriel’s swing, should he choose to take it. The Dramok captain wore his pleasant expression that insisted he hoped to be friends. Or more. He gazed at Gabriel with an unsettling warmth.
“Why should you be surprised we’ve returned? Your business has exceptional attraction.”
“So the news would have me believe. Over a thousand off-world Earther women have disappeared in the last twenty-four hours. My government is accusing Kalquor of kidnapping them. Any thoughts on that?” Gabriel’s grip tightened on the bat’s handle.
Kisk grinned. “Is that what the club is for? A rather primitive means of defense. I admire that.”
His attitude was teasing. Unconcerned. Maybe he thought Gabriel wouldn’t use it.
“It’s used in a game in which the player tries to hit a ball tossed at him by another player. But yes, it tends to have severe consequences when it makes contact with someone’s head.”
Actually, he’d aim for their ribs. Torsos didn’t duck out of the way as easily.
Despite his warning, the alien trio behaved casually, as if the conversation was a pleasant meeting with favorite acquaintances. Takat left the group, dividing his attention between the exchange and the shelves. He picked up a package of cookies and sniffed it with curiosity.
Baknu said, “You’re right to be concerned. Our planet tasked us with obtaining Matara Iliana by any means necessary. As I told you yesterday, the empire’s need has reached a point of desperation.”
“By any means necessary?” Gabriel was stunned he’d admit it outright.
“I have no intention of forcing your sister to leave with us. Abduction isn’t my general practice.” Baknu snorted, as if in disbelief that Gabriel would suppose him capable of such offense.
He wasn’t convinced. “So you say until I let down my guard.”
Baknu and Kisk exchanged a glance. Baknu shrugged, as if answering an unspoken question.
Kisk disappeared for an instant. Just a moment, as if performing a magic trick. Except he didn’t entirely disappear. Rather, his hulking frame blurred with movement of impossible speed. When he became solid again at Baknu’s side, Gabriel’s hands were empty.
Kisk held his bat.
The poor kid. Kisk was torn between the urge to laugh at Gabriel’s open-mouthed shock and wanting to console him.
When fear bloomed, taking over the gorgeous Earther’s features, guilt filled Kisk. He hadn’t meant to frighten Gabriel.
Before Kisk could reassure him that no harm was intended, Iliana dashed out of the dim back room of the shop, racing forward to put herself between her brother and the Kalquorians. She assumed a fighting stance, her body bladed, glowering at Kisk.
