Taken (Calliston Series - Book 1) (3 page)

How dare he!
S'rea seethed. She spun around, picked up the nearest object and hurled it across the room. A few moments later, the door she had been listening at opened.

"S'rea," her father said, and paused. A plush chair lay in pieces against the far wall. "How much did you hear?"

"He can
intend
all he wants, father," S'rea told him. "But I will kill him if he tries."

Tarn cautiously approached his eldest daughter. He put a large hand on her shoulder and pulled her into his arms. "You are not supposed to kill them."

"Accidents happen, father. Accidents happen."

* * *

Viktor cracked his neck. A few more days had passed and still they were no further along than when they had first introduced themselves. It wasn't from lack of trying. Both sides, however, had their hands tied. The Aligned Worlds had set out specific guidelines for what Viktor could and couldn't agree to; likewise for Tarn and the Lyrissian government and king. Viktor quite liked Tarn. The Lyrissian representative was intelligent and insightful. If he had any negative traits, Viktor had yet to see them. It was easy to be comfortable with Tarn, which was saying something considering how tall and intimidating a being he was.

"What is on your mind, U-man?" Tarn asked.

"These talks," said Viktor. "A lot depends on us finding a middle ground."

Tarn sat back and rested his hand on his brawny girth. "What else is on your mind?"

Viktor sighed and gently tossed his reading tablet onto the table between them. "Your daughter, actually," he confessed. "About the other night. I didn't intend to mate with her."

"I know," said Tarn.

Viktor looked up, surprised. "You do?"

"I am not as stupid as I look," said Tarn. "You, as a U-man, would not know all our ways. Mating is not something we share with outworlders."

"So I got this lovely souvenir for nothing," Viktor said, and gestured to the slowly healing scratches on his face.

Tarn barked, a noise Viktor already knew to be laughter. He wasn't yet sure if it were the same for all Lyrissians or just unique to Tarn. "My respect for you increased that night, U-man," Tarn said. "Seeing to my daughter's needs over your own. Not many Lyrissians would have done what you did."

"I'm willing to bet they wouldn't have dismissed the guard, either," said Viktor. "Has she told you why she rejects her suitors?"

Tarn nodded. "Many times. All my other daughters are happily mated. This, S'rea tells me, is not the life for her. She is an intelligent Lyrissian with a gift for science. She is the reason I am here."

"I don't understand," said Viktor.

"Females are sacred," Tarn said, carefully choosing his words. "They bring life into the universe. They hold sway over the males. Start wars. End wars. Life and death. It may not seem like it to you, U-man, but they hold most of the power. Either some males realize this and wish to take it away, or they go to the opposite extreme and smother their females. It is not pleasant to have that done to you. S'rea is smart enough to see this. If we do not reach out and spread out across the universe, females like S'rea will be a rarity. So I am here for her."

"That is a noble reason," Viktor said.

"What is yours?"

Viktor smiled. "It is my job."

"Your other reason?"
 

"I needed a new challenge. I needed to get away," said Viktor. "To find myself again."

Tarn nodded. "That is noble."

* * *

S'rea accepted a drink from Viktor, who cautiously smiled at her. The wounds she had inflicted upon his face were slow to heal. If he had been a Lyrissian male, they would be a distant memory by now. Knowing that made her feel something. What exactly, though, she didn't know. It wasn't a happy emotion, that much she was certain of. Perhaps it was regret.

Her father was the last to receive a glass of the red liquid. He lifted it high in the air and declared in Common, "To tomorrow. May it be better than yesterday."

"To tomorrow!"

S'rea sipped at her drink. Her father, in his usual customary manner, drank all of his in one gulp. He smacked his lips together in appreciation and smiled at his daughter. S'rea would have smiled back under her veil, except the glass slipped from her father's fingers. She watched it fall in slow motion to the deck and smash. By the time she looked back up, her father was clutching his throat.

"Father!" she cried, and ran to him.

Not a sound escaped his lips as he tried to gasp for air.

"No!"

* * *

Viktor paced back and forth outside the door to medbay. His hair was disheveled from the abuse he was putting it through and his suit was a crumpled mess. Never before had something like this happened. Not that he knew exactly what had happened. All he knew was that he had given Tarn his drink and now the Lyrissian representative, S'rea's father, was on the other side of those doors in an unknown state.

Someone had suggested poison, and Viktor had immediately thought of Roger's warning. Assassination. The
why
was obvious: they wanted the negotiations to fail. The
who
was what they needed to know in order to put things right.

The doors opened and Viktor stopped pacing. S'rea stood framed in the doorway. Her eyes, usually a dark color, were now tinged with yellow. She glared at him and he swallowed hard.

"You," she growled.

"Me?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"
You
gave it to him."

"Poison?" Viktor asked.

"So you admit it," said S'rea. She stalked forward, eyes glued to his.

"No," said Viktor. "I don't admit to anything."

"No, you would not be that stupid."

"Thank you. I think," Viktor said, still wary.

S'rea circled him. "Your U-man doctor thinks it was a reaction to something added to his drink."

"And I gave him the drink. I think I'm seeing where you're going here," said Viktor. "But I want these talks to succeed as much as your father does."

"So you say."

Viktor expelled air in exasperation. "S'rea, is he okay?"

"He will live," she finally admitted. "If he had not, we would not be discussing this now."

"I consider myself duly warned," said Viktor.

"You would be dead."

"I got that."

"I wanted to make that clear, U-man."

"Do you blink?" Viktor suddenly asked.

"Pardon?"

"The whole time you've been glaring at me, you've not blinked once."

As if to dispute that, she blinked and changed the subject. "Who, of your people, would want to assassinate my father?" she asked.

"Why does it have to be
my
people? What about yours?"

"My father handpicked them all. They are loyal to him and his cause," she said.

Interesting
, Viktor thought.
His cause, not ours
. "I'll agree to be open about the possibility it could be one of my people, if you do the same."

"I will do no such thing."

Viktor snorted.

"What?" she demanded.

"For all I know, it could have been you," he said.

"How dare you."

Viktor continued talking over her. "Perhaps you don't agree with your father and his principles, his views for the future of the Lyrissian people. Perhaps you hate him for the restrictions he imposes."

He wasn't able to say anything else, for S'rea slapped him. Hard. So hard, in fact, that he had to check himself for any broken bones before he picked himself up from the deck.

"Ow," he said after working his jaw. Viktor looked up when S'rea remained silent. Her eyes had grown wide and her veil fluttered in time with her heavy breathing. She composed herself quickly, but still Viktor saw.

"Just for the record, I wasn't attempting to mate with you," he said.

S'rea growled. "I would not mate with you if my life depended upon it."

"Good to know."

* * *

"S'rea?" Tarn called out as he tried yet again to get his daughter's attention. "S'rea, stop pacing. You are making me go cross-eyed."

"What father?" S'rea asked as she stopped in her tracks.

"I asked, why are you so agitated?"

"An attempt was made on your life," S'rea exclaimed. "I have reason to be agitated."

"Of course, of course," Tarn said. "However, I wonder."

"You wonder what?" she asked.

Tarn shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing."

"What is it, father?"
 

"I wonder if one of my entourage did it," Tarn said quietly.

S'rea whirled on her father. "How can you say that? They are loyal to you."

"Are they, S'rea?"

"Yes," she said with more confidence than she felt. "It has to be a U-man."

Tarn shook his head. "No."

"No?" she repeated in disbelief. "How can you say that?"

"For two reasons, my daughter. First, how could they know what could poison me? Second, they have very little to gain from disrupting our talks," Tarn explained. "The border we share with them is a very little, almost insignificant, area for them. They can afford this war. We cannot."

S'rea sank down onto the corner of her father's bed as she considered his words. This news was completely new to her. "But the government said…"

"The government says a lot of things," said Tarn. "Not all of it can be true. The U-mans are a much larger, more spread-out species than we are."

"Karo," she said.

"Is not here. But one of those I thought loyal to our cause may secretly be one of his followers," Tarn agreed grimly.

"Harom could guard you."

Her father glared at her. "Do not think I am the only target. Harom will remain with you." Before she could protest further, he said, "You should warn the U-man. He is vulnerable."

* * *

Viktor's door chimed and he scowled. He exited the bathroom, glanced at the clock on the wall and stubbed his toe on the sofa as he made his way to the door. It opened to reveal not his friend Roger—the ship's commanding officer, whom he was expecting—but S'rea.

"What is that on your face?" she immediately asked.

"Haffin hehl," Viktor tried to reply around the toothbrush still in his mouth. He removed the toothbrush while his other hand checked that his towel was still firmly wrapped around his waist. "Shaving gel," he said again. He noticed her silent guard loitering in the corridor.

"You have no ridges," S'rea said, and reached out. Her touch along his shoulder was feather light, and he had to fight off the urge to shiver.

"Sorry to disappoint," he said, and stepped away from her. "What do you want, S'rea?"

"I want many things, U-man, but none of them are why I am here."

Viktor raised an eyebrow at her cryptic answer. "Sounds like something a man should hear with pants on. Take a seat. I'll be back in a second. Tell your
babysitter
to come on in."

* * *

S'rea scowled at the U-man's retreating back. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the image of a partially clothed U-man female on his right shoulder. She had heard that U-mans carved images into their flesh after their kills, but had not expected to see one on this peacetalker—especially not of an image as delicate as that.

Once the door to the bathroom closed behind Viktor, S'rea turned her attention to his living space. It was smaller than the one she shared on Callisto with her father, and sparsely furnished. No decorations or artwork adorned the walls. It was as if the room was not occupied.

Viktor returned a few moments later and gestured for her to sit on the sofa. He himself took the chair, putting a small coffee table between them. His gaze darted to Harom, who stood unobtrusively in a corner, to assure himself they were not alone.

"What is the picture on your shoulder?" S'rea asked.

"Mistake of youth," said Viktor. "I'll get rid of it one day."

"Why?"

"Why?" he asked, and laughed bitterly. "Because it's a tattoo of my wife—I mean my ex-wife."

"Ex-wife?"

"Former mate."

S'rea's eyes widened at the news. "I am sorry to hear that your mate died."

"She didn't die. We divorced," he said. "Divorce is when mated couples dissolve the union."

"No one has to die?" she asked.

Viktor paused at that. "Lyrissian unions end only in death?"
 

S'rea nodded. This was proving to be a very informative discussion. The U-man way of life seemed to be more complicated than she had initially thought. She was even more intrigued that the male was branded by the female to formalize their union.

"No one has to die," he told her.

"Then I am glad your former mate still lives," she said.

"Don't be," he said. "Now, what did you want?"

"My father wanted me to warn you that there may be another assassination attempt."

Viktor waved his hand dismissively. "The colonel has ordered around-the-clock protection from his own security personnel. Your father's safety is being taken very seriously."

S'rea flared her nostrils. "He does not fear for himself.
 
He fears for you."

"Me?" said Viktor.

"Yes, you. He believes, as you do, that the one responsible is Lyrissian. He also believes that we are all targets, including yourself. You are weak. You are the next obvious target."

"I'm not weak!" said Viktor.

"Would you like me to slap you again?" S'rea asked.

Viktor shook his head. "No need. I'm weak. I'm man enough to admit it."

"So I will offer myself as protection," she said.

Viktor sat up at that. "You want to protect me?"

S'rea nodded. She knew he didn't like the idea, and from the corner of her eye she could see that Harom was of the same opinion. "My father would be most upset if anything were to happen to you. You have already assured me that he will be safe. So I will offer you the same."

* * *

"But you're—" he started, but the look that flashed in her eyes warned him. Defeated, at least for now, he said, "—perfectly capable of protecting me."

"Yes," S'rea said. She got to her feet and added, "If you will excuse me, we will be back soon with my belongings."