Adiron (Corsair Brothers 1)

But we've never had nine men to tie up, plus more on the other ship. I don't know how they're all going to fit on one of the Star's escape pods, which hold six. Two pods, perhaps? It's twice the work, though. I think about this, and I pace a bit more. And more.

"Slave girl schtick or guns?" Alice asks, all business as the doors to the trap-room open up. Helen hits the release on her pod and sits up, a grin on her face as the blonde moves through the room, pulling weapons off the men.

I do the same, heading for Shirtless. Not because he was nice to me and I want to check his pulse, but because he had a big honking weapon strapped to his belt. I brush my fingers over his neck anyhow and find that his pulse is strong, if slow. Good. I pull out his blaster…and it's a different make than I'm used to. I have no idea how to operate it. I set it aside and turn to look at the next man. "How are you on guns, Alice?"

She picks one up and arms it, the pistol-like weapon whining as it comes online. "I think I'm good. I—"

"Guys?" Ruth's voice is urgent. "I'm getting a weird reading from the other ship."

"Are they firing on us?" I yell up at her, a cold prickle of fear moving through my system.

"I don't know what it is. I've never seen it before. It's a charge of some kind—"

That's the last thing I hear before an electrical rush courses through the Star, hitting me like static electricity and knocking me flat. My hair sticks straight up, and the wind is knocked out of me.

And I can't move a muscle.

Fuck.

12

ADIRON

I wake up with a slap to the cheek. My head pounds, and I've got an awful taste in my mouth. Blearily, I peer up at my oldest brother, Mathiras. "Why'd you hit me?"

"I need you to roll over." He pulls out a nasty-looking syringe. "You need a shot to counteract the gas you inhaled."

"I inhaled gas?" My memory's a blur, but I roll over. A moment later, I frown at him as my ass cheek stings. "I think you had too much fun doing that."

"I think you're right. You deserve it," Mathiras says, a disgusted note in his voice.

I do? I rub my ass once he walks away, noticing that Kaspar's laid out on a nearby med-bay bed, probably in the same situation as me. Heat burns through my veins, and I wonder what happened. I sit up, noticing that I'm without my tunic…and then memories creep in, filling in the fuzzy blanks in my mind.

A qura'aki. A trap. Jade.

I hop up from the med-bay table, and I can't help but notice that we're back on The Darkened Eye, not the Buoyant Star. Mathiras and his crew must have retrieved us from the other ship and brought us to med-bay. I look around and Dopekh and a few of the other clones are rubbing their faces, wearing bleary expressions. I count heads. Everyone's here, even Lord Straik, who rubs his red eyes and looks as if he wants to murder someone.

Probably does. That means I have to get to Jade first.

I storm out of the med-bay, ignoring Mathiras's sound of protest and the curious clones still in uniform who look up when I bust out of the room. I head down the hall, my skin still tingling from a reaction to the shot. I scratch at my chest and look around the Eye, trying to figure out where prisoners would be taken.

Ten credits says that Straik has a brig. He's pompous enough.

I turn to the a'ani at the end of the hall—Kaje, I think his name is—and try to sound authoritative. "Where's the brig?"

He tilts his head. "Head to the right and go down a floor."

Knew it.

I race down the floor, slapping the elevator's controls. I want to get there before Mathiras can stop me. Not that I think he will, it's just…I want to talk to Jade. Say hello to her. Let her know that she doesn't have to be afraid, because I'm not going to let anything happen to her. That no matter what happens, I'll make sure she's all right. All of the humans will be, I mentally tell myself, because Zoey and Sophie would want that. Kaspar and Mathiras will probably be on the same page as me when it comes to the humans, but I don't know Straik well enough to guess. And Mathiras is gonna be in a bad mood because we were tricked. He's going to stomp his feet for a while and wear his “disappointed brother” look and tell me that I shouldn't give my tunic to the enemy or get myself shut into a room because I gawked at a qura'aki. I know all these things. Everyone does. We just got distracted by a few pretty faces.