Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson
45
Mercy
With eight daysleft of travel, things have become tedious on the ship. Damon, Amias and Cassidy all have jobs and tasks. Damon spends most of his time in the pilot’s chair, keeping one eye on the horizon and another on our tail. Despite his confessions to me the other night, his demeanor doesn’t change much. He’s focused on getting us to the meet-up location. After that? I don’t know what will happen.
He and Amias do take shifts manning the helm, while Cassidy’s mechanical engineering training comes in handy. She’s constantly tinkering, repairing or upgrading the ship.
This leaves me with little to do but wander the halls, trying not to worry about what comes next. I know I can trust both my Custo and Damon to get me to safety, but what comes after that? I’m still owned by the Master. Will he just let me go?
I mull this over in the laundry—a tiny room I found down a flight of stairs off the kitchen. It’s fairly primitive and it takes me twenty minutes to figure out where to put the packets of soap but I finally get the first load started. Realizing this is something I can help with, I walk down the hall toward the private quarters. Cassidy and Amias’ door is ajar. I press my hand against it and it opens wider.
My jaw drops.
The couple is on the bed, in the middle of a very intimate moment. And I’m not trying to be intrusive. I’m not, but my feet are frozen in spot—not because they’re making love but because I’m seeing Amias, a Trad, in his true form.
His perfection is still evident; hard, lean muscles spread across this bare back. But his skin is no longer human, instead shimmering with scales, red and orange, rolling with his movements. A long tail hangs from his backside, curving at the tip. Cassidy’s eyes are closed as he pounds into her, her breathy cries encouraging her mate to move harder—faster. I’m transfixed by the colors, the rhythm.
A deep groan brings me to my senses and I take a step backwards, banging my elbow into the hard metal door. Amias glances up and what I see is even more alarming; red eyes, curved protruding horns, sharp fangs.
“Sorry,” I whisper, bolting from the room.
My interruption doesn’t stop them because a moment later, over the thrum of my heart in my ears, I hear the sounds of their climax, echoing off the corridor walls.
The whole scene leaves me confused—overwhelmed. Their lovemaking was different; feral. Exciting, which disturbs me, because although I’ve come to understand that Amias may not be a bad person, he’s still a Trad. And I should be repulsed by him in an intimate setting. That’s not the case. Seeing them stirs a fire in my belly that, as the afternoon progresses, I try hard to forget. Not just because of the embarrassment of finding them that way, but because it makes me long for my Custo. I miss them. I miss being with them. I miss their hands and faces and we’d only just begun to discover one another when I was ripped away.
It’s not fair.
I’m dwelling on these emotions when there’s a knock on my door.
“Mercy?”
It’s Damon.
I open the door. “Hi.”
His eyes search my face. I’m surprised when he says, “You’ve been quiet today. Everything okay?”
Is he actually checking on me? “Just feeling a little homesick, I guess.”
His eyebrow raises. “Earth home or Athion home?”
“Athion, believe it or not.” I give him a weak smile. “I miss the guys. We’d really started hanging out a lot together. They walked me back and forth to work. Alex had the night shift and I have insomnia, which gave us a lot of time to spend together.”
“You have insomnia?”
“Yeah, since the journey up here.”
Without warning his hand reaches out and he grazes my cheek. Then he drops his hand like he’s been burned. He probably has. My skin feels hot from his touch. “I don’t sleep much either. Well, the alcohol helps.”
It’s an admission of weakness, and not the first in the past few days. Damon’s walls are slowly coming down and I’m not sure how I feel about it.
“Don’t feel like you have to hide out in here, okay? We’re around if you want to talk.”
“Thank you.”
He turns to leave and I shut the door, going back to lie on my bed. I have a feeling it’s going to be another long night on the ship.
* * *
I must dozeoff because I don’t know how much time has passed when there’s another knock on my door.
“Coming,” I call, dragging myself out of bed. This time I’m less surprised to see him, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have something unexpected for me.
He clutches a data pad in his hands. “I realize the past week or so has been hard on you. Being alone out here, adjusting to a new kind of world. And I know I’m not the easiest to get along with sometimes.”
I laugh at this and he adds, “Okay, that may be an understatement.”
“You’ve been very accommodating.” His expression is skeptical. “Seriously.”
“Well, maybe you can tell that to Kai and the others. Let them know I’m not keeping you in a dungeon or something.” He holds out the pad.
“Y-you’re going to let me talk to them?” A wave of emotion rolls over me.
“I should have done it sooner. I was being a controlling dick.” He watches me carefully. “And it’s not without risk, I didn’t lie about that. But there are ways to circumvent the tracking systems. Cassidy set it up and she’s a genius with this stuff.”
“Damon,” I say, searching for the right words. “Thank you so much. I really needed this.”
He shoves his hands in his pockets and gives me a tight smile. “I have it all set up. Just press the button. There’s a time limit,” he says apologetically. “You can see the countdown clock in the corner. Anything past that isn’t cloaked.”
I nod, holding back the pinprick of tears. I don’t want to cry in front of him and he must sense it because he ducks away and walks down the hall, leaving me alone with the device.
I settle back on my bed and rest the pad on my knees. I wipe my face but don’t care that I look like hell, pressing the button before the kind, generous Damon that showed up just now comes back and changes his mind.
Taking a deep breath, I press the button.
There’s buzzing—sort of like with a telephone. At the bottom of the screen a timer ticks—we have five minutes.
The first thing I see is the side of a face—blue skin, chiseled jawline. “Finally decided to check in?” Kai says, not looking at the screen. “This better not be a call to bitch about how Mercy is making you crazy, because our girl isn’t going to put up with your shit.”
“Kai?”
His head snaps toward the screen. “Mercy?”
Tears spring back to my eyes. “It’s me.”
“Laird above, you’re a welcome sight. Are you okay?” His eyes comb over me. “Where’s Damon. Is something wrong?”
“No. Everything’s fine. He just let me use the data pad to call you. I think he felt bad for me.” I laugh.
Something in Kai’s expression softens. “Damon doesn’t feel bad for people, Mercy. It’s not in his nature. You’re getting to him.”
“What does that mean?”
He shrugs. It’s so good to see his face. His handsome, sexy, amazing face. “It means that Damon lost himself a long time ago and it’s going to take a strong person to bring him back. I tried and failed. So did the others. But you? I shouldn’t be surprised.”
My stomach twists irrationally. Do I even want to be the one to bring Damon back? I have my own problems—first and foremost, being a slave.
“Do you have a plan for when we meet up?” I ask.
“Getting you the hell out of there and back to Athion. There you’ll be in protective custody.”
“What kind of protective custody?”
“The kind where you’ll be assigned housing and a job as planned and three amazing Custo will take care of you.”
I can’t fight the smile bursting on my face. “You’re kidding. They’ll let that happen?”
“We protect our women, Mercy,” he says. “And now that you’ve become a target for the Master, our superiors will do everything they can to keep you safe.”
It’s a huge relief to know that I can go on with my career and relationships. I just have to get back to Athion to make it happen. My eyes slip to the timer at the bottom of the screen. “We only have a few minutes left. Can I talk to the others?”
“Yeah, of course.”
The pad shifts and Dimka’s gorgeous face comes into view followed by Alex, squeezing in by the side. I cry again and we catch up—quickly. I don’t have time to tell them everything that’s happened, but we do get the chance to tell each other how we feel. When there’s only a minute left, Kai takes the pad and places it where they can all fit into the screen.
“I know it’s been difficult up there,” he says. “Damon isn’t easy, but he’s one of us. There isn’t another being we’d trust with your life.”
“I know. Thank you for calling him to come get me. Things were looking bad.”
“Don’t be afraid to take him down a notch, Mercy,” Alex says.
“Or to bring him back home,” Dimka adds, quietly.
“Do you think that’s possible?” I ask, knowing Damon likes hiding out here, alone with his demons.
“If anyone can do it, it’s you."
The timer runs on the final seconds and there’s not enough time to say everything I want. Everything I feel.
The screen goes blank and I sit for a while longer with the pad on my knees. I’ll get to tell them soon how I feel about them—face to face.