Victorious Star (23 page)

Victoria assumed a full attention stance.
Wait a minute, isn’t staring rude?

Seht squeezed her shoulder.
Absolutely.

I see…
Victoria took a calming breath and stared. Moribund’s size was daunting. His arms were almost too big to fold over his own chest. His head nearly brushed the curved ceiling. He was so big there wasn’t room for anyone else in the narrow hall. He couldn’t possibly maneuver well in this tight a space. Hell, with all that bulk, he probably couldn’t maneuver well even in a space big enough to hold him. Why would someone this big stand in a hall almost too small to hold him?

Intimidation.
Seht’s inner voice was nearly a growl.
It’s his trademark.

Victoria frowned.
That’s stupid. In a hallway this small, if you take out his knees, he’s nothing but a stationary target that no shot could miss.

Good observation.
Seht sounded almost cheerful.

Moribund’s brows lowered. “I do not remember your pet being female.”

Seht lifted his chin. “I was forced to find a replacement for the one that escaped.”

Moribund focused on Seht. “He escaped.” It wasn’t a question.

Seht nodded. “I spent a number of years searching, but Fate proved unkind.”

Moribund curled his lip. “I find that difficult to believe.”

Lord Syrhus snorted. “I assure you, my cousin wasted quite a bit of his time searching for his obsession.”

Seht slanted a cool glance at Lord Syrhus.

Moribund nodded and delivered a chilly smile. “He did seem quite fixated on that runt.”

A hard swell of emotion erupted from Seht.
He wasn’t a runt. He was starved and beaten nearly to death.

Moribund turned his cold gaze on Victoria. “What’s your name, sweetheart?” He smiled.

Victoria gave him a sweet smile that hid her teeth.
Oh, what a pity, I don’t have a voice.

Seht’s hand tightened on her shoulder.
Get behind me.

Lord Syrhus cleared his throat. “If you will excuse us, Moribund, we have business to prepare for.”

Moribund focused on Lord Syrhus. “You’re here for the auction?”

“Of course.” Lord Syrhus smiled coolly. “If we don’t end up with your dreadnought, at least we’ll know who does.”

Victoria’s senses went on high alert. They had to be talking about the
Arcane,
the ship that Admiral Moraine had supposedly brought in. But then, the Moribund Company was supposed to be owned by Moraine… Her thoughts ground to a halt. This huge vicious man was Admiral Moraine, hero of the Imperium?

You only
just
figured this out?
Seht’s thoughts were laced with bitter sarcasm.

“If you succeed in acquiring my dreadnought…” Moribund smiled and glanced at Seht. “You’ll need a nav-pilot to fly it.”

Lord Syrhus raised a brow. “Can we borrow yours?”

Moribund’s smile broadened but his expression frosted. “I thought you already had.”

Victoria ducked completely behind Seht’s back.
He can’t mean me?

Seht’s thoughts echoed with a deep sadness.
He doesn’t.

Moribund bowed. “A pleasant evening, Prince Syrhus, Prince Seht.” He rose and abruptly turned into a cross hallway and walked swiftly away. His entire staff, previously invisible behind his huge bulk, filed after him.

Victoria watched them march by. Each staff member was dressed in plain, inconspicuous black, but the way they moved was unmistakably Imperial military. A face struck her as odd. It was oriental, female and coldly beautiful -- and utterly blank.

Victoria felt a cold chill skitter down her spine. If this was Moraine’s staff, then she was looking at the famous Kazi “Kamikaze” Sakata, but her personality seemed to be missing.

The narrow hallway opened up into a broad and crowded passageway. Light bloomed everywhere. She glanced up and discovered that they had entered a glassed-in tunnel way. The sound of massive turbines caught her attention. The staff around her rearranged themselves into a protective circle around Seht and Lord Syrhus.

Victoria was able to see that they were in some kind of railway station. They walked right past a parked tram bustling with passengers.

The party moved to an unmarked door that had to be coded open and then continued into another narrow tunnel that led to a small station empty of people, where a short three-car tram, utterly empty of passengers, hummed, waiting by the walkway. Several guards hopped onto the tram with electronic scanners. They hopped back off and everyone piled on.

Inside the tram was pure luxury with deep-piled rugs of emerald green and a pair of broad black velvet couches. Cushioned seats lined the walls. Victoria watched the rifle-bearing
skeldhis
take up positions at the car’s doors.

Seht relaxed on one of the couches. He looked up at Victoria expectantly.

Victoria remembered at the last second that she was supposed to kneel on the floor. She turned and knelt as gracefully as possible by his heel.

Seht pressed her head against his knee.
Good pet, you remembered.

Victoria’s cheeks heated with humiliation. She nearly bit him.

Lord Syrhus took a seat on the couch opposite Seht. “I’m guessing she’s still new?”

Victoria stilled and schooled her expression to a dead neutral.

Lord Syrhus nodded at Victoria. “She obviously has some obedience training, but she hesitates.”

Seht sighed. “She’s used to serving as a pilot,
Atehf.
The part of a
seysehn
is very new to her.”

Victoria felt her cheeks heat.
Seysehn
literally translated as flower, but the word was used to mean concubine, someone kept for sex.
A sex-toy…

The train car rumbled and jerked, betraying that they had been coupled onto an engine. Steady vibration and a slight rocking indicated that they were underway.

Lord Syrhus grinned. “Don’t tell me you stole another Imperial?”

Victoria worked to keep the mortified expression off her face.

“This from you,
Atehf?
I take them one at a time. You convert whole ship-loads…”

Lord Syrhus curled his lip. “Of mercenaries.”

Seht snorted. “Truthfully speaking, I stole this one from a mercenary.” He grinned. “It was he that stole her right out from under her former Imperial Captain’s nose.”

Lord Syrhus chuckled. “How the hell did he pull that one off?”

Seht leaned back in the couch. “The Imperials were at a way-station on the wrong side of the border. They weren’t even paying attention when he simply walked off with her.”

Victoria stared at the floor.
Fate, I was so stupid…

Lord Syrhus raised a doubtful brow. “She just wandered off with him? What did he do, seduce her?”

Seht chuckled. “He engaged her in conversation, then used a stunner. He had her dominated into flying his ship within hours.”

Victoria desperately wanted to crawl under the carpet.
Now I sound stupid and weak-willed.

Seht touched a clawed hand to her shoulder.
Trusting perhaps, but never weak-willed, pet. I saw the blood from his sword at your throat, but you never made a sound.

Lord Syrhus snorted. “Really, so how did you get her?”

Seht shrugged. “He wasn’t paying attention, so I walked off with her. I had her collared and processed within two nights of her original capture.” He grinned. “She’s an excellent pilot,
Atehf.
Which is, of course, why I took her.”

Lord Syrhus leaned forward. “She’s a prime; she must have made a kill?”

Seht nodded. “Two.”

Victoria flinched.
A lot more than two…
She couldn’t even count all her duels since the academy. Mostly space-dock idiots that simply wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The fines had nearly destroyed her savings. She’d stopped going off-ship while on leave to avoid killing somebody stupid.

He means since your change.
Seht snorted. “It was a little unexpected. She was attacked and went into
rahyt
before her third course.”

Lord Syrhus sighed. “You know that the
mahfeht
enforcers are going to want her?”

Victoria’s gaze drifted over to the aqua-eyed enforcer seated by the door. He was watching her again. She snapped her gaze back to the floor.

Seht released the softest of rumbling growls. “I did not make her to sell.”

“So, another obsession.” Lord Syrhus leaned back and folded his arms. “You should at least send her for
upuaht
training. It’s a useful skill for a prince’s
rehkyt.”

Seht nodded. “As I said before,
Atehf,
I’m considering it.”

The tram rumbled to a smooth halt. The door was opened and they filed out for another long march through more narrow passageways.

When you go through the next door, you may be asked to stop. Present your fist as you did before and follow any instructions.
Seht’s thoughts were threaded with uncertainty.
Remember, react to nothing.

Victoria stopped herself from nodding.
Yes,
‘Syr. She followed Seht’s back through the broad doorway.

Skeldhis
apparently had a taste for the massively dramatic, ornately baroque and oppressively dark. Black mirrors framed in floor-to-ceiling velvet drapes spread across the distant walls. Thick, dark red carpeting lay across the midnight marble flooring. Black glass-figured tables edged in chrome were scattered everywhere surrounded by exotic and gracefully curved chairs. Broad oddly-shaped divans and expansive couches covered in jewel-toned velvets sat poised in small groupings.

Victoria was tapped on the shoulder.
Shit…
She stopped and peeled off her glove, while keeping an eye on Seht as he continued across the expanse. The rest of the staff filed past her. She glanced to her left and found an older gray-eyed and heavily scarred
skeldhi
holding a small sensor. Just past his shoulder, the aqua-eyed skeldhi stood quietly.

Victoria presented her fist. The scanner touched her lightly. She turned away to watch Seht. He had stopped and turned back to see where she was.

“Acknowledged. You may go.”

Victoria released her breath and sketched a quick bow at the older skeldhi. She turned and strode toward Seht while struggling to get her glove back on. She passed a long divan and noticed someone lying on the carpet near it. Victoria took only a quick glance, but it was enough to make the hair on the back of her neck rise.

Stretched out in repose like a feline was a voluptuously curved platinum blonde
rehkyt
female, sporting an amazingly complicated hairstyle. The fact that she was entirely nude wasn’t what made Victoria’s neck-hair rise. It was the slender gold chain looped around her graceful throat in addition to her
shen,
and the leash that was attached to one leg of the divan.

Then she noticed other
rehkyt
both male and female, lounging on the floor by scattered chairs and couches, each wearing a gold chain leash.
Skeldhis
lounged on some of the couches and divans. More than a few stroked the heads of their leashed companions while in conversation with other
skeldhis.
Apparently the
skeldhi
definition for
rehkyt
or ‘pet’ was literal.

Victoria focused on Seht, clamping down on her thoughts, and her expression. She lengthened her stride.

A gentleman wearing a long, sleeveless black robe over a complicated bodysuit bowed and smiled as he joined Seht. His silver mane was pulled back into a snug braid. Twin swords were sheathed at his hips.

Victoria slowed her stride and approached Seht’s left. Suddenly she could see the multitude of tiny blades threaded throughout the gentleman’s suit and the notch in the lower curve of his ear.
Mahfdhyt,
an enforcer-executioner…

“I assure you, it was completely unplanned,
Mahfeht’syr,”
Seht said politely.

Victoria’s breath caught in her throat.
Mahfeht’syr
meant lord master-enforcer. This was another
skeldhi
lord.

Seht glanced at her.
Kneel at my side exactly as you did for Ravnos,
he projected.
Keep one hand on the floor and the other in plain view.

Victoria dropped to one knee, pressing her palm to the floor with her other arm folded against her body.

The master-enforcer tilted his head. “I’m assuming from her dress, that she has some skills already,
Deshryt?”

They’re talking about me…
Victoria had to remind herself to breathe.

Seht shook his head sadly. “Dueling skills only, from previous training,
Mahfeht’syr.”

The master-enforcer’s brows rose. “Dueling,
Deshryt?
Then she’s going to need reconditioning to break the habit of competition…”

Victoria puzzled over the
skeldhi
word for competition. The meaning seemed to be linked to both fair play and suicide, but not honor.

The master-enforcer tilted his head. “I can do a full skill assessment here…?”

“A proper assessment would be very time-consuming,
Mahfeht’syr.”
Seht shook his head. “I’m afraid I only brought the one. I’d like to have use of her during my stay.”

The master-enforcer raised a brow. “Only the one,
Deshryt?”

Seht smiled. “I’m traveling light.”

“I understand,
Deshryt.”
He nodded. “May I see her?”

Victoria worked to keep the annoyance off her face.
See me? I’m right damn here!

Seht nodded. “Of course,
Mahfeht’syr.”
He tapped Victoria’s shoulder with a finger.
Rise calmly and keep your hands down. Keep your chin up, hold very still and do not look him in the eye. Do not react when he touches you.

Victoria rose as smoothly as her tired legs would allow and stood, shoulders back with her hands open flat to her sides. She focused at a point past the master-enforcer’s left shoulder, took a deep breath and worked on projecting calm. This was nothing more than an inspection.

The master-enforcer stepped close and his fingers skimmed down her arms.

Victoria took slow, even breaths to control her instinctive shivers. She caught the scent of leather and warm metal. Her heart thumped in her chest. He didn’t smell right.

“Augmented?”

Seht nodded. “Piloting tech and some body modifications for speed and stamina,
Mahfeht’syr.”

His hand rose toward her head. “How aggressive?”

Seht smiled. “Quite.”

The master-enforcer made light contact with the side of her jaw.

Victoria had to fight to hold still and keep her breathing even. She didn’t like being touched under normal circumstances, but this was worse. It wasn’t that he was dangerous, though clearly he was very dangerous; she could smell just about every weapon on him and the oil he used to clean them. It was more that she could smell him as a male, and he smelled utterly wrong. It was unnerving.

“New?”

Seht nodded. “Very.”

The master-enforcer nodded. His fingers brushed around the points of her ears.

Victoria felt somehow violated. She took a deeper breath to stop her lower throat from making a sound she strongly suspected would come out as a growl. She did not want this man who smelled so very wrong touching her. She glanced over at Seht.

Seht raised his brow, but said nothing. His silent thoughts implied that he was waiting for something.

The master-enforcer caught her head between his palms.

Victoria gasped in surprise, and fought the urge to jerk back. Her hands flexed into fists. She forced them back open.

“Augmented eyes,” the master-enforcer noted quietly. “And not used to handling.”

Seht shrugged. “Part of her piloting tech, and I confess to being quite selfish,
Mahfeht’syr.”

She felt his fingers along her jaw, then his thumbs brushed her cheeks. Sudden sharp pressure popped her mouth open. She made completely reflexive noise that seemed to be a cross between a snarl and a whine.

“Be still,” Seht said calmly.

Victoria tried to relax her breathing, but she knew she was fighting a losing battle. His palms had a vise grip on her head while his thumbs dug painfully into her jaw, keeping her mouth open.

The master-enforcer peered into her open mouth. “Full set. Small but nicely pointed.” He released her jaw.

Victoria trembled with affront but held still. She had to close her eyes to keep from glaring at him. She blinked them back open but she knew the anger was on her face.

“How new?”

Seht shrugged. “Days.”

Victoria saw his hand swing at her face. She froze and braced for the impact, determine to put up with it and not embarrass Seht.

His hand cracked hard against her cheek, jerking her head to the side.

She gasped and tasted blood. Her teeth had cut the inside of her mouth.
Son of a bitch!
Other than that, it hadn’t been that bad. Her cheek stung but former captains had struck her harder. She licked the blood from her lip and turned back to face him. At the last second, she remembered to not look directly at him.

He nodded. “Good control.”

Seht released a soft breath.

The master-enforcer raised his hand again.

Victoria set her jaw.

The hand abruptly changed direction and swung for Seht instead.

In a lightning-fast move, Victoria intercepted the intended blow with her forearm. She glared into the pale blue eyes of the master-enforcer and growled in warning. She was willing to put up with his crap, but she was not willing to let him strike Seht.

He bared his teeth, daring her to challenge him.

She dropped her arm and turned her eyes away. She was not going to get into a fight she wouldn’t be able to win, but damn it, every drop of blood in her body wanted to bite him for trying to strike Seht.

His other hand rose in a strike; not at her, at Seht.

Between one moment and the next, a lightning flash of white heat flared at the back of her skull and logic was utterly gone. She blocked the blow with a fist, and shoved herself between them. She snapped at him with her sharp teeth.
Mine!

The master-enforcer leapt back out of range. He was grinning.

She only noticed that his teeth were on aggressive display. She dropped into a fighting crouch vibrating with violent anger. If he made one move toward them, she would kill him; she would rip his heart from his chest…

“Victoria!” Seht called out sharply.
Victoria? Can you hear me?

Huh?
Victoria snapped awake.
What?
She rose from her crouch on shaking knees.
Yes,
‘Syr. She winced. The back of her head ached and her hands trembled.

“Down.” Seht pressed his hand on her shoulder.
Relax. It’s over.

Victoria dropped back onto her knee.
What the hell just happened?
Seht’s hand was a comforting weight on her shoulder.

You lost your temper.
Seht’s thoughts were laced with both amusement and relief.

The master-enforcer stepped closer. “I’d say she definitely deserves the steel,
Deshryt.”

Seht nodded. “I thought so as well, but I’m glad for your personal endorsement.”

“You have it, without doubt,
Deshryt.”
He nodded at Seht. “I applaud your control over one so new. She came out of
rahyt
very quickly.”

Victoria felt her breath stop in her throat.
I was in
rahyt?
A blood-rage?

Only for a short while…
Seht squeezed her shoulder. “I thank you for your high regard,
Mahfeht’syr.”

“However, I’d keep her under supervision and away from the males. She’s likely to bite.” His gaze dropped onto Victoria with definite amusement.

Victoria averted her eyes.
I’ll bite you first…

Pet…
Seht tapped the top of her head.
Be nice, you just received permission to wear clothing.

Victoria stilled.
Huh?

“A very good catch,
Deshryt.”
The master-enforcer glanced at Victoria. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider?”

Seht shook his head. “I think she’s already too attached,
Mahfeht’syr.”

“You’re probably correct.” He nodded. “Aggressive as she is, she maintained control until I struck out at you. That was a possessive display,
Deshryt.”

She focused on the red carpet.
Yeah, yeah, so I like you, whatever…
Seht’s clawed fingers bit into her shoulder in warning.

“She seems fairly obedient,” the master-enforcer continued. “The willingness is apparent; however, she will need that possessiveness curbed, or it will cause serious behavioral problems later.”

Seht nodded. “I will take that into consideration,
Mahfeht’syr.”

The master-enforcer raised his brows. “I advise additional handling,
Deshryt.
The sooner, the better.”

Victoria frowned.
Handling?

He wants me to share you with others.
A thread of anger shimmered through his thoughts.

Victoria nearly smiled.
But you are, with Ravnos.

The master-enforcer nodded at Victoria. “You could leave her with us during the banquet,
Deshryt.
I have a very skilled
nehkyx
among my staff. He’s already expressed an interest in your
rehkyt.”

Victoria’s heart leapt into her mouth.
Nehkyx
literally meant “whip.” He was offering Seht a trainer.

Seht shook his head. “Thank you for the generous offer,
Mahfeht’syr,
but as I said, I only have the one. I would like to have use of her myself.”