Fenturi Fate Read online

  “No, you can’t—”

  “I will…if you don’t find me the Mari. Then again, that’s not much of a threat, is it? More like a reward. You’re a sweet piece, aren’t you? Hard up for a man, hmm? I can help. Just do your job, sweetheart.”

  Ren smirked at her outrage, relieved she didn’t seem pleased to be attracted to him either. She’d lost none of the fire that had so drawn him to her, and he couldn’t help being pleased about that either.

  “I’d rather take up residence on Nine and Dead than share myself with you, nefstha,” she hissed the Nexian insult, and Ren found himself unable to look away from her mesmerizing bright indigo eyes. Odd, they’d seemed bluer before.

  “Nine and Dead? Now, sweetheart, that’s not the way it seemed to me a moment ago.” The color in her eyes flickered, and he swore he knew her, on another level that should have been impossible. What—?

  She blinked and shifted her gaze to the ship’s viewport.

  Ren shook his head, uneasy at such nonsensical thoughts. Another look at her eyes showed them to be blue. Nothing more. How could he possibly know anything about her? She was a pirate’s captain, for star’s sake.

  “I think you’re done here.” Dare cleared her throat, recovering her composure with a quickness that impressed him. “I’ll contact you in three days. In the meantime, I’ll put the word out for this Mari.”

  He shook his head. “This must be done quickly, but quietly. I don’t want the Mari to get wind we’re looking for him and go into hiding. He’s Fenturi, and they hate anything Bylaran.”

  “I know that.” Dare frowned. “Everyone knows that. I just wish you’d tell me why he’s so important to you.”

  “You don’t have a need to know,” Ren said with a superiority that clearly grated on the little seductress. He stifled the urge to touch her skin again and turned on his heel to leave.

  He sensed her following in his footsteps as he rejoined the others, now in the control room. The Rovi and the blond male had regained consciousness and looked relieved to see Dare. Seeing the overly concerned look on the blond man’s face, Ren felt a misplaced surge of jealousy. Giving in to a rare sense of impulse, he yanked Dare to him and kissed her too fast for her to refuse him.

  When finished, he saw her crew looking stunned while his grinned and laughed.

  She whipped her head back from him, but he caught the fist she aimed at his face and held her, the connection once again tugging at that part of him he did his best to keep buried. “Remember what I said. You have three days.”

  Her scent seemed to ripen, with both annoyance, desire and fear.

  He could live with that. He smiled and gave her a mock salute, then teleported back to his ship. Three more days until they met again. He couldn’t wait.

  -6-

  “What are we going to do?” Shea rested her head back on her seat.

  “It’s been two days, Dare,” Roc pointed out. Unnecessarily.

  Dare blew out a breath. They’d put out silent feelers, but she knew they’d get nothing for their troubles. How could they when the person the Legionnaires hunted captained their ship?

  She looked at Jace. How much should I tell them?

  “The truth,” he said aloud.

  Mra curled around her legs for support.

  She squelched a bout of nerves and faced her friends—her family—and prayed they wouldn’t reject her. “Roc, Shea, there’s something I should probably tell you.”

  “You’re Fenturi. We know.” Roc shrugged.

  Shea nodded.

  “Wait. What?” Dare stuttered in shock. “B-but. How did you know?”

  Shea huffed. “Please. Dare, it’s obvious. I’m just surprised the Eyshan6 nobs didn’t see it right off, considering they’re Bylaran Legionnaires. Then again, they’re men.”

  Roc glared at her before turning back to Dare to say, “I’ve been all through the Mother Worlds, most of the Near Worlds and some Outer spaces. You have the speed, agility and instincts of a Fenturi. And yeah, there are a more of you floating around the System than those dumbass Legionaries know.”

  Dare’s heart raced. How many more?

  “Most telling though,” Roc continued, “is when you forget to tone it down. That’s what nailed it for me. Your skin kind of glows, and your blue eyes turn a bright purple.”

  “Violet,” Shea corrected. “Purple is too blah a description. I mean, they get really rich, and so pretty.” Shea smiled.

  Roc’s face took on an odd expression, one Dare would swear seemed…embarrassed? “There’s, ah, well, one other thing.” His gaze shifted from Dare. “You also have these weird moments of… It’s a kind of luring, pulling thing. And it can be overwhelming.”

  “You got that right,” Jace muttered.

  “What?” Dare didn’t understand.

  “You’re like a walking aphrodisiac,” Roc blurted. “It can be disconcerting.”

  “You never mentioned this to me.” Shea turned on Roc with a frown.

  “Well it’s not something I’m going to talk to you about,” Roc grumbled. “Jace knows what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

  Jace nodded. “I’ve told you before to do something about that,” he said to her, his eyes full of humor. “Like Roc said, it can be a bit…disconcerting…until you get used to it.”

  Shea frowned. “I’ve never sensed it.”

  “That’s because you’re female,” Jace explained. “Dare’s got some sort of sexual chemistry, a potency, if you will, that bleeds over at times. I’m wondering if that’s what happened with your Legionnaire.” He apparently still had issues with Ren’s departing kiss.

  Despite explaining the blasted captain had only been trying to goad her, Jace thought the man meant something more.

  Ignoring Jace’s musings, she hurried to move back to her original topic. “So you know I’m Fenturi. There’s something else, something I don’t understand. This Mari they want us to find. If they’re looking for a Fenturi with a mark on his shoulder, they’re actually looking for me.”

  She pulled back a section of her top and showed them the two crescent moons intersecting above two small circles on her right shoulder. Roc and Shea looked at each other in surprise before turning back to her.

  She covered up, still bewildered. “I’m not a man, not this ‘Mari’ they want either. I have no idea why they’re hunting me. I haven’t stepped foot on Bylar in over a dozen years.”

  “You can’t show them that,” Jace said.

  “No, you can’t,” Shea agreed with a wry look at Jace. “I didn’t understand my impulse to blanket our bodies with an illusion when they ordered us to strip, but I do now.”

  “What?” Jace looked innocent. “What did I do?”

  “The secrets on this ship are enough to choke a Rovi,” Roc muttered.

  Jace’s eyes narrowed, but Dare interrupted before they could start on him. Bad enough she’d shared dangerous secrets about herself. Knowing about Jace would put the others in serious peril. “We have one day left, but I can’t give them someone who doesn’t exist either. I’m no Mari, and I’m not about to find some Fenturi in hiding and give him or her up to what we all know is a sure death.”

  Jace sighed. “We know what we have to do.”

  “No, I don’t think—”

  “Yeah, I think that would help,” Roc said with a satisfied grin. “I knew it.”

  “Knew what?” Shea looked from Roc to Jace and back again. “What’s going on? What we talked about? Or—”

  Roc groaned. “Would you shut up? They’re trying hard to be all mysterious. Let’s at least let them think we’re stone cold stupid and ‘safe’.”

  “Damn.” Jace glared at all of them. “You four—yeah, you too, Mra—are not making my life any easier.”

  Mra growled and flicked her tail at him. The cat might not admit it, but she had a soft spot for the crew, and Jace in particular. Which reminded Dare of how the guidecat had acted around Ren…

  “We might
not make your life easier, but we did make it richer,” Shea piped in with a gamine grin. “The Legionnaires let us keep the gravity machine.”

  “Not the point.” Jace gave Dare a What can we do with these two? look. “This is what we’re going to do. Dare, contact Eyshan6 tomorrow as planned. Make sure they agree to a face-to-face meeting. I’d like to do a more thorough study of our infatuated Captain Ren.”

  Dare didn’t want to put Jace at risk, because the Psi had been hunted down with a ferocity that made the Fenturi slaughter look like play. But she knew they needed more information than they had. Jace needed to be in close contact for a mind probe.

  “Fine. But in the meantime, we need to come up with some vague explanation for what we’ve been doing the past two days.” Their scans had been discreet, but not too discreet, so the Legionnaires would be able to track their activities. Still, anyone with half a brain would realize they’d been stalling.

  Shea purse her lips, a familiar look that said her devious mind was clearly at work. “Why not tell Captain Ren we’ve been tying up all other loose ends while putting out gentle feelers for the Mari? That way it won’t look too odd that we haven’t been totally heels-to-hell out searching for the guy.”

  “Guy, not girl.” Jace nodded. “It’s actually to our benefit the overbearing Legionnaire thinks he’s looking for a male.”

  “But what is a Mari?” Dare asked, frustrated. “Most of the Fenturi were exterminated from the System due during the Bylaran purge. We need to find out why they want this Mari, and what part the poor fool has to play in their game.”

  “You do realize you’re referring to yourself as a poor fool.” Roc just stared at her.

  “I’m not the Mari,” she said through gritted teeth. “And before you say it, Jace, I’m still not convinced they want me. I bet this mark on my shoulder is common for Fenturi of my bloodline.”

  It wasn’t on your mother or father, Mra told her. I can see the memories you still block, young one. I’m sorry, but it’s only a part of you.

  That didn’t help.

  “The possibility of your family out there is one we don’t want to overlook, do we?” Jace asked. “I know your parents are gone, but maybe your have other family you—”

  “My family is right here.” Dare moved to the door. “End of discussion. Now I’m going to pour over some old charts in the library.” She left, and Mra padded after her. Stars and bars, what were they going to do?

  Roc watched her leave, concerned for the young woman he considered a sister as much as his captain. “I get the impression Dare doesn’t like talking about her past.”

  “Oh? What gave you that impression?” Jace ran a hand through his white-blond hair. Another fugitive with secrets not so secret. “She needs to get over her stubbornness before it gets her killed. These Legionnaires want her, or someone like her, very badly. And something about that Bylaran captain really bothers me.”

  “Maybe the fact that he kissed her?” Shea asked slyly.

  Jace frowned. “Dare’s like a sister to me.” He paused. “So you two knew she was Fenturi all along?”

  Roc answered, “I can’t speak for Shea, but it’s only recently I put it together. For the past five years we’ve been crew, living together, working together, in pretty close quarters. At first I thought her uncanny physical abilities merely an adaptation to this lifestyle. I mean, you can’t exactly be a successful pirate in the System if you’re slow and uncoordinated.”

  Shea nodded. “It helps that very few in the System have ever encountered a Fenturi outside of Bylar. I mean, I’ve seen vids, but I’ve never seen a Fenturi up close. The fact that she hides that glowing skin tripped me up until I saw her bright and shining a few months ago.”

  “What about Mra?” Jace asked. “That always concerned us, that the cat would give her away.”

  “Dare told us she was from Kre, so having a cat for company isn’t all that unusual,” Roc said. “Many of the felines on Kre bond with the humanoids on the planet. But I’ve always thought Mra was more than a typical Kre cat.”

  Jace didn’t deny his unasked question, so Roc took that as a sign he’d been right about the cat.

  “Guys, don’t take Dare’s reticence to tell you everything as a slight.”

  “We don’t,” Shea said. “By keeping us in the dark she was actually protecting us. Were we to be questioned by Legionnaires or interrogated by System checks and mindscanned, we couldn’t betray her or ourselves holding knowledge we didn’t have. By the Dark World, you don’t think either of you know everything I’ve done in my sordid past, do you?”

  Roc frowned. “I thought I did.”

  “Nope. And trust me, you don’t want to know. How would it sit on your glorious gray skull if you found out I’d done something that could get you all killed for merely breathing the same air as me?” she ended with the dramatic flair only Shea could use and get away with.

  Damn if he didn’t love her more every day. Roc refused to laugh at her, protecting her pretty little hide from himself, as usual. “Really? You’re that dangerous?” he scoffed. “We’ve all been on the run, outlaws for too many years to be innocent of anything anymore.”

  “He has a point,” Jace added with amusement at Shea’s pique.

  Roc wanted to sigh with appreciation. She looked so cute with her petite features scrunched up like that. No one would guess that the beautiful redhead was worth over fifty thousand beks, dead or alive, on the Motherworlds. She really did know how to annoy the law like no one he’d ever met.

  Jace stood and stretched. “Well, danger twins, I’m going to beard the lion in her library,” he said with a grin. “Always loved that ancient phrase, even if I have no idea where it came from.” He left to join Dare and found her pacing back and forth in the library, Mra sitting patiently in her chair and nipping at the large claws in her forepaws.

  “Spit it out loud, Jace.” Dare had closed herself off to his internal questioning.

  He sighed. Despite the fact Roc and Shea seemed to know every damn thing and accepted her, he knew she felt exposed, vulnerable. He understood, only because he’d feel the same way were his secrets suddenly uncovered.

  “It’s me, Dare. You don’t have to shut me out.” He sat across from Mra, his gaze steady as Dare’s energy seethed like a wild Kre cat.

  “It’s stupid. I just don’t like having everyone suddenly knowing about me.” She looked uncomfortable.

  He had to shake her out of her mood before her turbulent emotions created energy they would all be better off not sharing. “Honey, I know. But we’re not just everyone. We’re family, and we love you.”

  She blinked a few times to hide the tears pulling at his heartstrings. “I know. I love you all too.”

  “Good. So you know we care for you. Dare, we need to talk about something.” He waited until she stopped pacing and turned to face him. “The lapses you’ve been having lately, the starfire.”

  Her expression closed off. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “We have to. Deep down, you know you’re not like other Fenturi. Mra’s told you enough about your people to know that.”

  She shrugged but said nothing.

  Mra’s ears perked, and the cat watched Dare with an intensity Jace found interesting.

  “Sure, you have Fenturi features, if one looks close enough. But without the glowing skin and purple eyes—” features he’d helped her learn to conceal with Psi skills “—you could be mistaken for a Vembi pleasurer,” he added for levity.

  Dare quirked a small grin that soon disappeared. “I thought I’d been doing such a good job of hiding, but Shea and Roc knew. I have to wonder how many others do. Blane figured it out. That’s why he tried to take me down on Vembi.”

  “He was an isolated incident. But give Roc and Shea some credit. They’ve been living with you, side by side, for years. I’d think something wrong with them if they hadn’t ferreted your identity. Besides, you feel comfortable with them or you�
��d never have let down your guard.”

  “Yet you never let yours down, do you?”

  He felt uneasy at the sudden turn of attention. “Not often. But this isn’t about me. I think—and so do you, if you’d admit it to yourself—that you are the Mari. The starfire you harness is what they’re after. It has to be. It’s too unusual and what makes you so different from other Fenturi. With a look inside Ren’s mind, I can learn information you need to know, to help you.”

  “It will be dangerous. The captain is more than he seems.”

  “For that reason, we need to find out why he wants you. You’ve never before heard mention of a Mari? You’re sure?”

  Dare shrugged. “I haven’t been around another Fenturi for twenty years. Everything I know comes from Mra.”

  Jace knew she wouldn’t want to hear it, but it needed to be said. “If we don’t get the answers we need from Ren, we’ll have to seek them at the source.”

  A flash of panic hit him hard before she shielded herself again. “No.” She looked calm and composed, but he’d felt her unease. “It’s not safe. Bylar is off limits. I won’t ever go there again, not while I have breath.”

  “You will, Dare,” Jace said, feeling the prediction as truth. “I fear you’ll have to.”

  ***

  “Ren, you’ve got a message from your pirate,” Castor boomed in a loud voice filled with speculation. “You remember her? That beautiful creature you—”

  “Enough. By the Dark World, you’ve been riding me about her for days,” Ren growled. He should never have kissed her in front of his men. He’d only intended the kiss to reinforce his authority, and grate the blond male watching. Or so he kept telling himself.

  “Never seen you kiss a criminal before is all.” Castor grinned.

  “Aye, Captain,” Primo chimed in. For weeks the sullen pilot had ignored everyone. Now he’d finally found his voice…and at Ren’s expense. “I hear she was a rare beauty, almost as precious as a Nexian gem.”

  The Hams laughed, and even Phin had a comment. “Truly, Captain,” the little blue Informa added. “From the descriptions I’ve heard she seemed just perfect for you.”