Cats were big and mean looking under the best of circumstances, and when they started snarling, they were as menacing as pouncing tigers. Cronin didn’t back down one centimeter. He stood tall and chomped his teeth in Rollick’s face in answer to the challenge. “If the Emperor wishes, I would finish this contest now.”
Cesar shook me again. I finally answered him. “It’s complicated. The Prince is challenging the Captain to a fight.”
“What the hell for?”
I looked my lover in the eyes and knew there were things I could not bring myself to admit or explain. “They are fighting over me.”
Cesar’s scrutiny dug deep into my soul and his sharp eyes showed the gleam of his suspicions. “Good. I’ll negotiate with the winner.”
* * * *
Chapter 11
I thought Rollick’s challenge could be put on hold, at least until we returned to the Palace, but I was wrong. The two Cats wanted to brawl, now. It took every Warrior in the room to keep them from going at it right there.
The Emperor looked furious, but I sensed something else beneath his fiery temper … pride? He kept a keen eye on his son as the Warriors dragged both of the feisty Cats through the corridor to the opulent cafeteria. Everything on the Emperor’s personal ship was deluxe, ornate, decorated, beautiful, probably expensive as hell, and oversized. The cafeteria was at least fifty meters wide, and covered in glossy black tables with golden embroidered couches. It took the Warriors about three minutes to shove everything in the room aside. They cleared an area thirty meters in diameter.
We had ourselves a makeshift arena right there.
One of Cronin’s Warriors – Snaggletooth – the same bastard who had threatened me, supplied Cronin with his battle armor and his gauntlet. Cronin squeezed the grip and the blade lit up, lethal and ready to carve anything in its path – a fully functional battle gauntlet. They weren’t messing around with practice-shock weapons.
The Emperor’s guards suited up Rollick in the finest armor I’d ever seen. It was light, thin, but made to fit every contour of Rollick’s shoulders and chest. His armor even flexed when he moved, some kind of heavy metallic fabric. I wondered if the material could deflect a white-hot gauntlet blade.
As Rollick activated his right handed blade, Cronin called out to the Emperor, head bowed in respect. “May I request a concession from our esteemed Emperor? I ask that all Warriors stand aside for this contest. The Prince insults me publicly, without recompense. I beg for rights of non-interference.”
I had no idea what the fuck he was rambling about, but the Emperor knew, and from the way he hissed and laid his ears back, I guessed he was not happy with Cronin’s demands.
Rollick pointed at two of Cronin’s Warriors at his backside and ran his unruly mouth off again. “Keep your Warriors out of this contest, and I certify the Royal Guard will not interfere. If they break, then my guard will break as well.”
Watching Cronin swing his blade through the air in practice arcs, smooth and precise, with a confident power that belied an experienced fighter, I began to realize Rollick had made a huge fucking mistake. The Prince was strong, fast, and agile, but he lacked control and experience.
My hands started to shake when Cronin’s Warriors removed their battle gauntlets and laid them on the floor as a sign they would not interfere. The Emperor nodded his agreement, a dark, brooding look in his eyes, and Rollick’s massive security guard Warriors removed their gauntlets and set them on the floor.
Then the Emperor set aside his gauntlet casually, on the couch next to me.
Rollick and Cronin were the only Cats in the room with live weapons. Adrenaline surged through me with the sickening fear my friend wouldn’t survive the fight. Though I loathed the idea of returning to Cronin, my enslavement was not worth Rollick’s life. I couldn’t stand by and watch someone I loved die for me.
I raced up to Rollick and grabbed his left arm. “Please stop this. I am begging you to stop. For me. Do not make me watch you die. Please, Rollick.”
His fury raged on full-blast, like he’d flipped some kind of internal switch. The Rollick I knew and loved was not present anymore. He looked down at me with a growl on his lips. “You are mine, Angel. He will never lay his filthy hands on you again. Move aside and I will cleanse the air of his foul odor.”
I wouldn’t let go of Rollick, but the Emperor barked at me, and even Cesar understood what was taking place as he pulled me off Rollick’s arm, and back to the outer edge of the clearing to stand beside the Emperor.
“Don’t interfere. Let the fleabags kill each other,” Cesar urged in a whisper and kept a tight grip on my arm. I stood with my lover holding me, and waited to watch my best friend die by the hand of that slick bastard Cronin.
Yet again these Cats were treating me as their personal trophy, vying for ownership, fighting to control me or keep me bound in their service. I had no illusions about Rollick’s intent. If he won this contest, the fucker would own me, could claim rights … he could probably mate me if he wanted.
I prayed to a universe that never listened to me. I prayed for some way to be rid of them, of Cronin, Rollick, all these damned Cats that treated me as their toy, their plaything, their sexual servant, their political maneuver, their fucking profit center.
It happened in a flash. Both Cats closed in, sparking blades flying, and connected blade to blade in howls of rage. White-hot arcs of power exploded in a blinding electrical blast, leaving behind the scent of ozone and singed hair. Rollick’s speed pushed Cronin back, but the old Trader spun away and came at him sideways.
Dodge, feint, slash, dodge – they moved back and forth in a deadly dance of whirring blades and furious growls. They hit again blade to blade and snarled as the arc-welding flash left burn marks on their arms and chests. Those blades were like cutting torches, and the backsplash of their explosive clashes was hot enough to sear flesh.
My hands shook so bad I held onto Cesar and concentrated on my inner focus, trying to keep my adrenaline down. Cesar tried to rub my shoulders, but my muscles had gone rigid, straining for release, as I struggled against my every instinct to join the fight.
Slash, hack, slash, back and forth they brawled, neither of them hitting their marks apart from small flecks of hot energy burns. I had wondered at some of the older male Warriors whose chest and arms showed pock marks with no fur, and now I understood where they got their scars – from live gauntlet duels. As the fight raged on, the thing I feared most happened. Rollick pulled one of his stupid-ass spin moves and Cronin found a way inside.
Cronin’s gauntlet gouged a smoking hot burn across Rollick’s broad, muscular back. Rollick screeched in agony and arched his back, his concentration blown. Cronin stepped in with his elbow to the back of Rollick’s head with an audible crack. My best friend hit the floor face-down, and flopped, unconscious. Cronin stepped back, but when Rollick failed to regain his feet, I saw the Captain’s ears lay down and a vicious narrow look in his eyes. I knew what the fucker was about.
Cronin raised his gauntlet high in the air, ready to drop all his weight into a blow that would probably cut Rollick in half.
The Emperor roared in fury and gnashed his teeth. Cronin paused a moment, poised to strike, his eye on the Emperor. I knew he was going to do it anyway, kill the Prince, over me. I jerked out of Cesar’s grasp and my hand found the Emperor’s gauntlet. I leaped with all my pent up fury and the metal fist enshrouding my right hand smashed Cronin upside the head. I spun the tall Cat around with the speed and power of my blow. He tumbled aside and staggered in a daze. His Warriors picked up their gauntlets from the floor and lit their white-hot blades.
The Emperor and Cesar called my name, urging me to back off.
I stood over Rollick’s body and screamed furious things at Cronin in any language that came to my lips. The bastard Cat shook off my hit and spit blood and teeth on the floor. “You mark me for the last time, Angel.” The fool stepped up to swing at me and I squeezed the grip of my we
apon and activated the Emperor’s fiery blade across my knuckles.
I didn’t enter this fight to fuck around with singed fur and arc welding displays. I dived low and slipped past the slow-moving Cat to slice up his groin, all the way to his throat. I roasted cock, balls and intestines as I shrieked my rage at the son-of-a-bitch who ruined my life one too many times. Cronin fell to the floor, cut shear through to his spine, damn near split in half vertically.
He made funky gurgling noises as he convulsed and died at my feet. The arc blade of his gauntlet extinguished as the life escaped his body in a final growling whine. Nothing left of Cronin but bloody, burnt Cat meat.
Both his Warriors came at me. My instinct was to run, to divide and conquer, but I couldn’t leave Rollick to them. I stood my ground until the last second. The one on the right burned a lock of my hair as I ducked under to avoid his blade slicing through my throat. I slipped in and up from the bottom to shear his gauntlet arm off at the elbow – disarmed. Then I slashed across his throat and he staggered back and hit the floor.
The other Cat, the Snaggletooth bitch who’d once threatened me, bore down on me. I dived sideways to evade his advance and came back up on my feet, ready for him. He growled taunts. “I have your precious Prince. You forfeited his life when you violated the terms of combat.” He pointed his gauntlet at Rollick on the floor a couple meters away.
I saw it in Snaggletooth’s face when he decided he could hurt me more by hurting the Prince. There was no way to reach him before he cut through Rollick. Instead I called out in the most guttural, filthy Gran I could think of. “Your mother’s hips bear the scars of the hundred Warriors she serviced before birthing you from her bleeding rectum! Her ass was the cheapest hole this side of the galaxy!”
Apparently the Gran considered anal sex abhorrent, or maybe it was the reference to his mother that did it. The Cat screamed at the top of his lungs as if I’d twisted off his nutsack. He came at me in a full run and a furious wail of rage. He swung his white-hot blade in wide angular arcs from side to side, leaving no room to maneuver.
I understood then why they played the blade-clashing, arc-welding games, to block these full-on assaults. I knew I couldn’t out power him. My only shot was to get inside, past his reach, and let my speed take over.
I stepped directly into his white-hot charge and let his searing saw blade burn through my shoulder as I spun inside, past his attack. Screaming in pain and fury, I took his head clean off. His massive body barreled into me and slammed me to the floor in a tumble.
After catching my breath I extracted myself from the arms and torso of the headless Cat and regained my feet to find a room filled with awestruck, silent Cats and men. Holding my bleeding shoulder, swaying with the gushing flood of my euphoric pain, all I could do was smile and try not to giggle in their faces.
* * * *
Chapter 12
Something significant had changed in my world after the duel, but I didn’t know what it all meant. I accompanied Rollick and his doctors back to the Palace and watched them tend his wounds. The doctors kept trying to pick at me, to treat my shoulder and I had to shoo them away repeatedly. It was sore as hell, but I’d be fine soon enough. What had my unerring attention was Rollick.
His back had been slashed open pretty bad, and he’d definitely bear the scar for life. I feared his spinal column had suffered irreparable damage. The damn fool almost got himself killed for me, and I couldn’t bear to leave him alone. After many hours of sitting at his side, with him unconscious in a drugged haze, his sister Lenka convinced me to go see Cesar and his men.
Cesar had been allowed to dock his shuttle at the Palace Station. He and his men were given rooms in the Palace just down the hall. I made my way to Cesar’s room and he leapt up the moment I opened his door. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you tell me where to find you? I’ve been mad with worry!”
I was exhausted, emotionally and physically. I just wanted to rest. “I’m fine, Cesar. The Prince needs me. He was fighting for me. I’m the reason he’s hurt. He almost died for me.”
Cesar eyed the mostly healed wound on my shoulder. “Ah … Angel. You’re insane! I can hardly believe you stepped into the battle to take his place. Damn near lost your head.” He ran his fingers through my hair, pulling the dark, unruly strands away from my eyes. “The way you handle those weapons, girl. You’re a dangerous woman.” He kissed me hard on the lips. “You have my promise. I will never piss you off like that. And if I do, I’ll be running the other way as fast as I can.”
He was smirking and chuckling. It felt so good to be with him again, seeing his smile, his good cheer. I leaned into him for a hug and winced when he bumped my shoulder wound.
He looked at my wound in confusion. A creepy suspicion flitted across his eyes. “How the hell are you healing so fast? That torch slashed you open to your elbow. Now it’s …”
He grabbed my arm and leaned in to look closer. “Holy shit, it’s almost gone! You’re not even scarring.”
I watched him watching me, and I was so fucking tired. Tired of Rollick, of the Warriors and their xenophobic hatred, of Cats that perpetually expected something from me, and I was tired of lying to the man I loved. “It’s me, Cesar. I’m different from other girls …”
His glare filled with suspicion and he pulled my chin up to him, face to face. “What are you telling me?”
I could barely hold his gaze with the intensity of shame sweeping over me. I felt dirty, sleazy, like a con artist who had tricked him. “I … I’m not like you. I’m not like anyone else. I was made special, on Nugene. Doctor D’Anton designed me with certain … enhancements.”
The look on Cesar’s face flashed from shock to fear, then confusion. Oh God what would I do without Cesar. My throat closed with the crushing intensity of fear pressing all around me. I couldn’t handle losing this man. God, please don’t take Cesar away from me.
“You’re a fucking clone? Like the clones the DC and Nugene sell to the Gran?”
Through tears blurring my vision, I shook my head. “No. I’m nothing like the worker drones. I was Doctor D’Anton’s special project. He was a father to me. He said I’d get him the Nobel Peace prize. He said someday I’d save the human race. He was trying to perfect the human genome.”
Cesar let go of my arm and stepped back away from me. “And you couldn’t have told me this sooner? Why didn’t you tell me before we …”
Before we slept together. Before we made love for endless hours. Before he crossed the entire galaxy to save me from the Cats who claimed ownership of Nugene Corp cloning projects.
“I’m so sorry, Cesar. I was afraid. I didn’t know if I could trust you, or anyone. Jason said Nugene was operating illegally, in secret. You said the same thing! I’m illegal, Cesar. Don’t you see? I could never live in the Colonies or Earthside. Being with you, with the pirates of the asteroid belts, that’s the only life I can have once I get free of this collar around my neck.”
He backed away another step, and the distance between us fired a yawning chasm of pain in my chest. This ache had no switch to shut it off. It ripped and shredded my insides, twisting my heart and choking my throat. I would walk out an airlock to save myself from this horrid agony.
“I … I don’t know what to say, Angel. I can’t believe it. You look human. You sound and feel human. You fuck like a human! Like a woman!”
Suddenly he was so angry, and I didn’t know what to do, what to say. I could barely breathe in the panic of losing him. I dropped to my knees at his feet. “Please forgive me, Cesar. I wanted to tell you. So many times I wanted to tell you. I promise I will never lie to you. I swear upon my life I will tell you the truth, anything you ask of me.”
He looked down on me like he did not recognize me. I was not the same person in his eyes. The Angel he loved was gone, replaced with a genetically engineered clone, a thing, not a person. I knew the feeling of being a thing, a non-person. Most of the techs and doctors on Nugene looked at me
that way. Seeing the same look in Cesar’s eyes ripped my heart from my chest.
I couldn’t speak or breathe.
He stepped away from me, towards the door, like he had to get out of the room, could no longer stand to be near me. “I can’t, Angel. I … this is too much for me. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you are. I need to … I just need to think. I don’t know what to think of you.”
I choked back sobs and struggled against the urge to crawl to him on hands and knees. “I do love you, Cesar. I loved your brother too. When I lost Jason, you kept me sane. I love you so much, Cesar. I don’t know how to live without you. Please don’t do this, I’m begging you. I need you.”
“No matter what you look like, no matter how beautiful you are, I can’t see past this. You’re not human, Angel. I should have realized before, all the signs were there. Humans don’t fight three meter tall Cats with a cutting torch strapped to their arm. I’ve never seen anyone do the things you do, and look at your arm. The way you heal … it’s not natural.”
His dark eyes assaulted me with his fear and confusion. His rejection of a truth he couldn’t handle.
“I’m not the man you think I am. I’m not the man you want me to be. I can’t deal with this.” Though his cutting words made me feel like a monster, his eyes flicked back to the Cesar I loved. He seemed to be begging me to understand, to forgive.
What did he need forgiven?
I stood and snatched his hands in my shaking grip. I couldn’t let go, I couldn’t bear to lose him. “Cesar. I don’t care about your past or mine. I don’t want anyone else in this fucked up galaxy except you. I love you. I need you in my life. Whatever it is, whatever you’ve done, whatever your plans, I don’t care. I only want to be with you. I’m trapped with these Cats and I have no one. Can’t you see you’re the most important person in my life?”