Adiron (Corsair Brothers 1)

My heart skips a beat in my chest. Keffing ghosts. I was right. Before I can scream like a child, though, the pale thing steps forward and I realize it's not a ghost.

It's a pale human.

I fire up my blaster, the cartridge whining as it comes to life, and instantly, Kaspar is on alert. He turns at my side, his blaster pointing in the same direction as mine.

"Don't shoot," the human calls out, raising her hands in the air. For a moment, her voice sounds so much like my sister Zoey's that my skin prickles. This female doesn't look much like Zoey, though. They're about the same age, but this one's got pale yellow hair falling around a small, heart-shaped face and bright green eyes. Her expression is one of pleasure as she takes a few cautious steps forward, and I can't help but notice that she's small. Where Zoey was short but sturdy, this one is slender and delicate.

She's also wearing next to nothing.

Her clothes are rags, her small feet bare. What once might have been a standard issue jumper (worn by ship crews and maintenance) is shredded. It hangs at her hips in pieces, a skirt that shows far too much pale, peachy-white skin underneath and slender legs. Her top is little more than a few pieces of fabric harnessed together to cover her tits, and the fabric is doing a terrible job. They're practically bulging out of the skimpy little top, and it looks like the fabric itself will give way at a single touch.

The female takes another wary step toward us, and as Kaspar lowers his weapon, she lets out a tiny sob and rushes forward, flinging herself into his arms. "We're saved!" she cries, weeping.

My brother looks over at me with pure bewilderment as he strokes the human's hair. She clings to his chest, sobbing, and the sight would be utterly comical if it wasn't so damned confusing.

"What's a human doing on board my family's ship?" Lord Straik calls out from behind us, marching up to my side. His clones remain a few paces behind, their weapons ready.

The female just burrows closer to Kaspar, as if he's the only thing keeping her safe. I've never seen my brother look so helpless. Kaspar's always got a plan, a way to figure things out, even if it's an utterly foolhardy, reckless plan. This is the first time I've seen him utterly stymied. Hate to say it, but I'm kinda enjoying the stunned look on his face as the human just snuggles closer to him.

"Wait a moment," I ask as something else occurs to me. "We? What do you mean, we?"

"There's three of us," the tearful human says, lifting her face. "Me and Jade and Helen."

"Where are they?" Kaspar asks, still stroking the human's silky yellow hair. I've never seen him look so instantly protective. Uh oh. That's not a good sign.

"Jade's guarding Helen." She hesitates, biting her lip. "Helen's…sick. We don't know how to take care of her."

"What do you mean, she's sick? How did she get sick?" Kaspar asks.

The human retreats a step and tugs on his hand. "It's something in the air. Please, come with me. I'll show you. You can help us."

Kaspar glances over at me and puts his blaster back into his belt, letting the human tug him down one of the halls. I glance over at Straik, who seems more annoyed than anything. Probably still pissed that humans are polluting the halls of the ship. Let him be pissed. I like humans. I think of Zoey, who's one of the best people in the universe. She's a human, one we adopted as our youngest sister after we rescued her from a slaving ship. She's smarter than all of us put together, and I miss her every keffing day. She's happy, though, acting as navigator on the Jabberwock, another pirate ship, and is mated to a stiff-necked but decent mesakkah male who treats her like she hung the stars.

Seeing this small human makes me realize how much I miss my sister, though. Corsairing through the stars isn't the same without the runt to crack jokes with.

The little female leads us down the hall, and we march after her. "What are you doing here?" Straik asks, his voice full of irritation. "Where's the crew?"

"They left us here," she says, glancing back, and her eyes fill with tears again. "They got in a pod thing and left us behind. They said there wasn't room for pleasure slaves."

"My crew wouldn't do that," Straik protests.

"But they did," the human says, her eyes big and sorrowful.

"Your men sound like dicks," I mock-whisper to Straik.

He glares at me and then shakes his head. "I don't understand. They never made it to port anywhere. Never contacted anyone. Why would they abandon a human and then just disappear?"