Shades of Gray (25 page)

The General let her go instantly, leaving her to Kaid as he went to find the restroom at the rear of the shuttle.

“Dammit, what the hell did you do that for?” he demanded as she stopped struggling.

“He kidnapped Kashini, and held Shaidan hostage—that’s twice he’s had my cubs at his mercy,” she snapped. “Never again! He’ll do well to learn just whose wrath he faces for that!”

“You could have broken his jaw with that punch,” he said. “Dammit! Think of the consequences if you had!”

“Serves him right,” she growled, unrepentant.

“Don’t touch him again,” he warned, “or I’ll send you back on the shuttle to the
Tooshu
! I mean it! I’m going to see how he is.”

Kezule was washing his mouth out, still spitting some blood. The side of his face was swelling and changing color despite the cold pack he’d taken from the first aid cabinet there.

“I apologize for my mate’s behavior,” said Kaid awkwardly. “Are you badly injured?”

Kezule straightened up, the cold pack pressed to his jaw. “I’ll survive,” he said, his voice sounding slightly muffled. There was a faint glint of humor in his eyes. “Lost a tooth, but luckily we regrow them. I wondered what you both saw in that not-so-fragile-looking Human female. Now I know. Looks like your domestic life is as stormy as mine.”

Kaid glowered at him. “Don’t get me wrong, Kezule. Had it been any time but now, I wouldn’t have stopped her, armored or not. But we can’t have you going out of here looking like that, no matter how much personal satisfaction I get from seeing it,” he said, sending all manner of mental threats and anger in Carrie’s direction.

Moments later she came storming into the small washroom herself. “Out of my way,” she ordered Kaid, pushing him aside. “Since you’re so worried about what people will think, I’ll deal with it.”

Even Kezule backed away from her.

“Don’t worry, I’m not about to hit you again,” she said, grinning evilly at him as she began to take off her gloves. “I can’t promise this will work, but I’ll try healing it for you. That is, if you’ve enough courage to let me try.”

Kezule’s eyes darkened in momentary anger as he came forward, taking the cold pack away from his face. “No one accuses me of lacking courage, Madam.”

Tossing her gloves to Kaid, she reached up and grasped Kezule by the other side of his jaw, pulling his face down closer to hers, ignoring his small exclamation of pain.

“Nice knuckle marks,” she murmured before placing her right hand over the swollen and cut area and closing her eyes.

Kaid watched with his mind as well as his eyes, sensing what she was trying to do.

I need to draw on you for energy,
she sent to him.
This isn’t easy for me. I haven’t done this successfully since my days on Keiss with Kusac.

I know,
she said.
We’re trying to gain an ally here.

Kezule’s face suddenly took on a look of total shock, and he almost jerked away from her. At the same moment, Kaid felt a sudden surge of energy passing from himself to her, and then it was over. Letting go of Kezule, she slumped back against him momentarily then straightened up.

“It’ll still hurt,” she said tiredly, “but you deserve to suffer some of the pain at least. You had no right to involve our cubs in your fight against us!”

Kezule looked in the mirror, putting a hand up to run it unbelievingly across his now normal cheek and jaw. He winced briefly. “A female of many talents,” he murmured, turning back to them. “You may not think it, Carrie Aldatan, but I am a person of honor and scruples. Involving either your daughter or Kusac’s son wasn’t a decision I took lightly. And at no time did I ever intend harm to either of them. Shaidan was treated the same as my own daughter.”

“My trust of you will come very slowly, Kezule, if at all,” she said. “If I can’t see Shaidan, I want to talk to him.”

“Again, I must refuse. I don’t know what the Captain has told him about the rest of his family. I can’t take the risk that he knows nothing about you.”

“You can’t ...”

“He’s right, Carrie,” said Kaid reluctantly. “We can’t interfere. He’s Kusac’s son.”

And quite possibly mine!
she retorted.

With a low growl of anger, she snatched her gloves from Kaid, then turned and walked out of the restroom back to the passenger area.

“The things I do for my people,” Kezule muttered, throwing the cold pack into the waste bin and following Kaid out.

“Life gets complicated when you really have to lead, doesn’t it?” said Kaid, feeling a fleeting sympathy for the General.

Prince Zsurtul, now wearing one of the gray Prime battle suits, arrived with the others in tow as they rejoined Carrie.

“I trust your talk was pleasant,” Zsurtul said, looking from one to the other and frowning slightly.

“Informative,” said Kezule blandly. “I had better take my leave, Majesty. Your third bodyguard is with Captain Aldatan—his name is Q’almo. Kaid, I’ll have the suits sent over in a few minutes. May all our Gods be with you on this mission.”

“And with you, General,” said Zsurtul.

Zhalmo accompanied her father, waiting for the others to be out of earshot before stopping. “You know you said we’d know our mate when we met the one,” she said softly.

Startled, Kezule turned to look at her. “Excuse me?”

“I think I’ve just found mine.”

“The Prince? You can’t be serious, Zhalmo! He’s got too much drone blood in his ancestry.”

“Has he? Maybe he only looks like he has,” she said with a slight smile as she turned to leave.

 

Giyarishis had been monitoring the meeting carefully, pleased that the emotions of all had been so highly charged that they’d spared little attention to their surroundings. Now he closed down his small section of Unity and pondered what he’d learned.

The Hunter’s intrusion through the female Human on behalf of the Sand-dweller would have been applauded not so long ago, but now they wanted him to become more aggressive, less caring of others. Pushing him against his nature would not be easy. Too much and he’d notice, as would those around him. A word too soon would alert him to his unaccustomed behavior, make him change back. Too little pushing and the desired result would not be achieved. He’d need to watch him for moments when he felt anger and build gradually on those until the desired behavior pattern was so established that even censure from others wouldn’t alert him to what was happening.

This was not something he particularly wanted to do, but, as always, he would do the Camarilla’s will to the best of his ability.

 

“What prompted you to heal Kezule?” Kaid asked her when he’d gotten them underway to K’oish’ik’s moon, behind which they were to conceal themselves.

“Kusac,” she said shortly. “He sent to me, told me to try.”

“Kusac?” He turned to look at her in surprise. “You mean he . . .”

“No, he just sent that to me, nothing more. I couldn’t reply.” Her voice had the tone she used when she didn’t want to talk and Kaid knew it was wiser to leave her alone.

Under the watchful eyes of their two civilian engineers as well as six of Kusac’s people, the weather platform was operating again. Annuur and Naacha had finished repairing the damaged unit and were now back on the
Profit
with the rest of their sept.

J’korrash had gone back to the lower-level Life Support and, taking the gas feed off-line, had purged the air supply. Now it was safe for them all to breathe.

Kusac, Banner, and M’kou had taken over the Port Office and were sitting there waiting for Zsurtul to contact them. M’kou was busy talking to the
Kz’adul
on their private gossip channel, posing as the Port Officer. Already he’d gained a lot of useful information.

Tirak came in, rifle slung over his shoulder, helmet hanging from one hand. “The Orbital’s secure,” he said quietly. “The lower accommodation level has been totally isolated. We’ve rounded up all the personnel on the upper levels, apart from the scientists on duty, and they’re in the rec room under guard. Sheeowl’s prepping the shuttle next to the
Profit
now.”

Kusac flicked an ear in acknowledgment and checked his suit’s wrist comm, for effect rather than because he needed to. He could sense them out by K’oish’ik’s moon. “We should be hearing from Kaid any time now.”

“Alpha One to Beta One. Checking in.”

“That’s them,” said Banner, sitting up and looking over to M’kou, who instantly put the
Kz’adul
on hold.

“Alpha One, acknowledged.,” said Kaid. “We have the first message available for your patron now. Contact is Shikku, in the science lab.”

“Understood, Beta One. Patch him to us now. We’re ready to reply.”

“Be ready to take a live feed to the Orbital if need be,” Kusac warned in an undervoice as M’kou linked the
Kz’adul’s
private channel through to Kaid’s shuttle.

“How do you know this’ll work?” asked Banner.

“Prince Zsurtul was well known both in the Court and to the staff on the
Kz’adul
, especially those in the sciences because he was into everything, like any cub,” said Kusac. “I suppose you could call him a bit of a rebel in his culture—he tried to be one of the people when he could. He was well liked by everyone, I’m told.”

“Shikku, you didn’t come to see me on your last shore leave,” said Zsurtul’s slightly reproachful voice. “Are you well? It’s been a long time since we last spoke.”

“Highness? Is it you?” The voice was hushed, disbelieving. “Where are you?”

“It’s me, Shikku, and I’m close by.”

“Highness, wherever you are, you must leave, now! Believing you safe is all that’s keeping most of us going!”

“I am safe and with allies. We need your help, Shikku.”

“I’ll do what I can, Highness, but that won’t be much. We all learned early on that we couldn’t stand against the new Emperor. He’s brought back the Inquisitors—and there are collaborators everywhere who report the slightest thing to them.”

“The
Kz’adul
, how many people loyal to K’hedduk are on board? How many warriors?” asked the Prince.

“Only a dozen or so are loyal to K’hedduk—everyone knows who they are. We have five of his thugs on board—large and violent genetically altered peasants with not much intelligence that are fiercely loyal to him. There’s always one of them and one of the implants on duty on the Bridge, two in Engineering, and two more in the main air lock to the Orbital.”

“I need you to organize those you trust, Shikku. We’re going to reclaim the
Kz’adul.
”

“We can’t fight the Emperor’s soldiers, Highness!” The voice sounded shocked.

“You won’t have to,” said Zsurtul calmly. “I told you I have allies with me. You and your people only need to do two things for us, and we’ll see to the rest. First, make sure the collaborators are locked in their rooms—it is ship’s night there now, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Highness, and on K’oish’ik.”

“You will need to damage the door-locking mechanisms outside the collaborators’ rooms, and post two people there as guards to make sure they don’t get out.”

“We can do that,” confirmed Shikku, his voice firming again. “What else, Highness?”

“We need to dock a shuttle with the
Kz’adul
to get our soldiers on board. You’ll have to create a diversion to get the guard off the Bridge. We’ll be using the portside emergency docking bay on the fourteenth level.”

“That could take over an hour to set up . . . The soldiers, are they Sholans?”

It was Zsurtul’s turn to be surprised. “Yes, some are. How did you know that?”

Shikku chuckled. “We know you were on their world, Highness, and prayed you’d remained safely with them.”

“I couldn’t remain there while my people are suffering, Shikku,” murmured Zsurtul. “The Sholans are accompanying some of our own warriors—General Kezule’s commandos. Give them all the assistance you can. In fact, please download the deck plans of the
Kz’adul
to them.”

“We will, Highness. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have word.” This time there was real hope and enthusiasm in the Prime’s voice.

“Thank you, Shikku. I hope when you next have shore leave, you keep your word to come and visit me.”

“I will, Highness.”

The channel went quiet as Shikku signed off.

M’kou stirred and looked to Kusac for further orders.

“Ask him to address the Orbital now.”

“Greetings, Kusac. I heard your request,” said Zsurtul. “What do you need me to say to them?”

“Just that the Orbital is in the hands of forces loyal to yourself, Prince Zsurtul. Let them know those in custody will be released once the City and Palace of Light are in your control,” he said, raising his voice.