Broken (4 page)

He
leaned back, eyeing her the way someone would a feral dog as he dug his fingers
under the splint on his broken arm.

“Stop
that,” she said, secretly delighted that he finally seemed to be losing some of
his damned
Xyran
attitude. “You’re going to mess up
the wrappings. You’ve got a lot more healing to go before you can take those
off.”

“It
itches.”
Jaxt
cocked his head. “If I tell you what
happened, will you go hunt more turkey?”

She
went still. Her needling actually worked? “Yes,” she said, immediately. She
leaned forward, not wanting to miss any of this.

He
sighed, a weirdly human gesture,
then
began. “I am
captain of the
Xyran
Warship
Kinruul
. My father forced me into
military service as a punishment.”

Sky
stared at him. She had trouble imagining him with a father, let alone one that
could force him to do anything. Even broken and unconscious, he’d exuded the
kind of authority she wished she had. “You have a father?” she asked, then
clapped a hand over her mouth. He wasn’t going to like that question.

He
gave her a disgusted look. “Of course I have a father. What, did you think I
sprang full-grown from a fountain, like
Xyran
the
Great?” He made a derogatory gesture.

“All right, all right.”
She tried to appease him. “I didn’t mean anything by
it. I mean, I thought maybe your father was dead. Or something,” she muttered.

“The
old tyrant is very much alive,” he said harshly. “It is his fault I’m here on
this hateful planet.”

“Hey!”
she protested. “Earth isn’t that bad.”

He
raised a dark eyebrow at her. “I thought you said it was a ‘crappy planet’?”

She
stared at him. He remembered that? Sky shook her head. It didn’t matter. He’d
soon be gone, anyway. “So, you’re a ship’s captain. So what? How is that a
punishment?”

He
snorted. “Military service is the way poor, low-status tribesmen move up in the
world. And I was born a lord.” He reached up with his good arm and rubbed the
top of his head in a curious gesture.

The
lump on his head is long gone,
Sky
thought, watching him curiously.
What’s he feeling for? Is it a nervous
habit?
She laughed at herself silently.
No way.
Xyrans
don’t have nervous habits.
Or a sense of humor.
Or any emotions other than arrogance.

“I
met a slave from the neighboring estate. He was dying,” he said, dropping his
hand to his lap.
“Starving.”
He eyed her closely. “You
are too thin, too. You need to eat more. You should hunt more turkey.”

She
bristled. “My weight has nothing to do with your story, thank you very much.
And I
will
get another turkey, just as soon as you finish telling me
what happened to you. It’s not every day
aliens
fall
from the sky, you know.”

He
laughed.

Sky’s
jaw dropped.

Jaxt’s
smile disappeared immediately. “You look like you swallowed a very large, very
hairy arachnid.”

She
snapped her teeth shut. “Finish your damn story,” she gritted out.

He
inclined his head regally. “I found a slave.
Zoen
was
dying. I took him home and fed him. He grew up with me.”

“What
does this have to do with landing on Earth?” she interrupted. He was going to
take so long telling his story she’d have no time to cook the turkey she’d
stashed down the trail before night fell.

“Do
you never shut up?” he asked her, growling. His skin darkened slightly.

Their
skin can change with their emotions? Interesting,
she thought, surprised. In all the time she’d been
taking care of him, it hadn’t changed once from the normal human flesh tone,
except at the very beginning. And he’d been suffering from a great deal of
trauma at the time.

“
Zoen
became my blood-sworn kin.” He pointed to his mouth.

Sky
had no idea what he was talking about. It had to be significant, though, given
the expression on his face. “I don’t know what that is.”

Instead
of answering, he opened his mouth and put a finger on his gums. His forked
tongue no longer freaked her out at all, thank goodness, not even when he used
it to scent things. While she watched, fangs slowly pushed out and down.

“What
the hell?” she asked, fighting the urge to scramble backwards, away from him.

He
dropped his arm. “It is a feature, not a defect,” he said pompously.

Sky
blinked,
then
chuckled. “Was that a joke?
An actual joke?
No way.”

He
smiled again, just a little bit. “Our fangs are for mating and for swearing the
blood kin oath. Sometimes that is the same thing, sometimes not.”

“Mating?”
Sky didn’t see what fangs had to do with it. He had a cock and balls just like
a human male—she’d seen them when she was treating his wounds.

“When
our people mate, we bite each other at the moment of climax. This mingles our
scent together for all time, so that all know to whom one belongs,” he
explained.

Sky
shivered. Suddenly, the thought of his fangs didn’t seem quite as scary. She’d
always like teeth during sex. “Is that why you smell like cinnamon?”

He
blinked,
then
snorted. “Cinnamon is a rare Earth
spice, correct?”

She
nodded.

“When
Zoen
and I swore oath to each other, our scents
mingled.” He didn’t elaborate.

Sky
tried to wrap her head around the image of
Jaxt
biting another male
Xyran
. To her shock, she liked
the idea, maybe a little too much. She squirmed slightly, irritated at the
flush on her skin. “Wait, so you’re telling me that you had sex with a slave?”

He
hissed, his face suddenly going from relaxed to
enraged
.
“
Zoen
is no longer a slave!”

Sky
scrambled backwards, away from his anger. “I’m sorry! I’m
sorry,
I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”

He
growled at her. “My father said much the same thing you did.”

Oh
shit.
Sky rubbed her face. “I’m
sorry. I just didn’t understand. I don’t know how your whole culture works.”
She waved her arms in frustration. “I know you enslave women. I had no idea
that males could be slaves, too.”

He
blew out a harsh breath. “Those with high status and power can do whatever they
please. If they desire slaves, no one may gainsay them.”

She
swallowed, but kept going. She hadn’t survived this long by being a coward.
“Except, you did, right?
By swearing oath
to
Zoen
?”

Jaxt
looked at her for a long, tense moment.
“Precisely.”
He leaned back again, rubbing at his broken arm. “
Zoen
was a slave until the moment we swore oath. After that, he became my second. My
right hand.”

Sky
glanced down at his hands. She could hardly believe she was going to ask this…
“But what about children?
You and
Zoen
are both male.”

To
her shock, he let loose a short burst of laughter. “
Zoen
and I are not lovers.” He pursed his lips.
“At least, not
yet.”

Now
she was really confused. “But you said you bite each other during sex.”

He
nodded. “Yes, and we also bite each other when swearing blood oath. Blood-sworn
kin are rare. There are perhaps two or three such bonds in the entirety of our
race right now.”

Sky
still couldn’t figure out how they bit each other if they weren’t lovers. “Can
you make the fangs come out anytime you want, then?”

“No.
Only when aroused.”

Sky
sucked in a breath.
What?

He
took pity on her, to her surprise. “The thrill of the forbidden was arousing
enough when
Zoen
and I swore oath to each other.” He
leaned in. “Being close to you is also arousing enough.”

“Oh
my God,” she breathed.

He
smiled. Sky stared at his mouth. His fangs had come down again.

“Come
closer,” he said.

Sky
narrowed her eyes. Her body was saying
hell yes,
but her mind was
telling her to be fucking careful. “Why?”

He
sighed and sat back again. “You are a contrary female.” He glared at her.
“Because I wish to kiss you, that
is
why. Is that not
what humans do?”

“You
never finished your story.”

He
shook his head. “You have a gift for souring my mood, woman.”

She
frowned at him, irked. “You know my name. Use it.”

“Yes,
yes,” he said, irritatingly. After a moment he sighed again and continued. “My
father scented the change on me immediately. It enraged him. He sent us both
into the military. I was appointed captain, because of my status and the
training I’d received. The soldiers under my command did not respect me. They
plotted against us.” He nodded at her look. “Yes, mutiny. They ganged up and
beat me, then dropped me on your planet, expecting I would die soon enough.
They should have finished the job.”

“They
did that because of your father? They resented you?” Sky asked, not sure where
this was going.

He
shook his head. “No. They hated me because I swore blood oath to a slave.
A half-
Alphan
, half-
Xyran
abomination.”
He laughed again, but this time the sound was bitter.
“Little did they know their captain was also a half-
breed.
”

Chapter
Four

Zoen
guided the ship to an easy landing at the base of a mountain ridge. He’d
managed to evade the humans’ radar, but avoiding
Alphan
and
Xyran
ships was much more difficult. He’d picked
up a
Xyran
tail halfway to Earth and had spent four
frustrating days backtracking and laying false trails in an effort to shake
them. When he’d reached Earth’s solar system, the space was crawling with
Alphan
ships: shuttles, warships, merchants.

Bah!
Fingers in every basket, so greedy,
he thought, flicking on the cloak that would keep the ship hidden from
prying eyes.
Alphans
weren’t much better than
Xyrans
,
as far as he could tell. In his experience, the strong ruled the weak. The only
exception he’d ever seen to that rule was when
Jaxt
had saved him. In return,
Zoen
would use his strength
to keep his blood-sworn kin alive, until one of them drew his last breath.
Jaxt
was the only sentient being who mattered. He was the
only one who ever would.

Zoen
opened the hatch and stepped out onto the dying world. A hot breeze shuddered
over his skin. After one quick look, he stepped away from the ship and let his
color change from the normal flesh tone he used in everyday situations to a
dusky brown, the perfect match for the deepening shadows and dust around him.
He grabbed his receiver and checked his position, then set off across the dry
landscape.

****

Jaxt
picked at the bindings on his arm. The woman had no idea how fast a
Xyran
healed, but she would find out soon enough. He smiled
in the dark, listening to her breathe. Sky was strong.
Beautiful.
The only female he’d ever met who didn’t shrink from him in fear.

She
fidgeted in her sleep, and he let himself drink in the sight of her smooth
skin. Her eyes were a startling blue, strangely compelling.
Zoen
would approve, too,
Jaxt
knew. He slipped the leather
and wood from his arm and flexed his muscles. The bones had knit, and now he
needed to regain his strength. He performed a series of exercises,
then
put the splint back on. Sky’s arm flailed out, fingers
fisting tightly. She frowned with her eyes closed.

Nightmare,
he thought, reaching out.
She has too many
nightmares.
When he touched her forehead, her face smoothed out and she
rolled over. He stroked her back gently, soothing her until she sighed and her
breathing indicated that she’d slipped into a deeper stage of sleep.

“Sky,
you will be our mate,” he said quietly, testing her name on his lips for the
first time. “When
Zoen
comes, you will understand.”

“Understand
what?” she mumbled, rolling over again. She blinked at him, squinting in the
dim light of the fire. “Were you just talking to me?”