Kept by Luna Voss

Chapter Three

Barion

“This is fucked,” Korva groans as he drives us to the garage in a black, unmarked van. “This is not the way this was supposed to go down.”

“Hey, same plan, really,” I shoot back with a shrug. “Just a couple days early.”

“Stay still, you,” Melyta chides me, rubbing medicated cream on the facial injuries I sustained from Nullion a couple days before. “I’m almost done.”

I grimace, but look at her with grateful eyes as I allow her to finish putting the cream on my bruises. It really does help a lot.

We stop in the parking lot across the street from Johnson’s Garage and I stare at it. I’ve been there many times before, but never like this. I’ve never broken in before. I’ve always had a key.

Technically, I still have a key. But if I use it, the security system will record that I was the one who entered. So not exactly an option. Frustrating.

“Did you guys settle on a plan to get into the garage?” I ask Korva as he drives us closer. I can’t help but notice that there are two cars in the parking lot. That means multiple guards.

“Well, we never really picked an option,” my friend replies. “But your lady was thinking she’d just use her power to rip the doors off.”

I turn to Melyta, and she nods. “I think I can do it.”

“Are you sure? That’s a lot.”

“Korva still has the explosives if we need a backup.”

“Have you ever moved anything that big before?”

“At the spaceport! I pulled a fuel line out of a ship. I told you about that.”

I bite my lip. “That’s true. I just don’t want you hurt.”

“I’m not going to get hurt!” she protests, looking adorably insistent. “Barion, I can do it. My power’s been getting stronger lately. Ever since you marked me.”

“I also seem to recall more than a few broken plates.”

“That’s different,” she scowls. “That doesn’t mean I can’t control it when I try. It just… slips out sometimes.”

I can tell this is important to her, and I understand why. It’s her friend we’re rescuing. I sigh, knowing I’m going to agree even though it’s against my better judgment. Really, I didn’t even want to bring her here. I’m supposed to be protecting her. I’d keep her swaddled in bubble wrap most of the time if she let me.

Three days into being mated to this woman, and she’s already got me wrapped around her little finger,I think to myself. What can I say. Maybe I am a softy.

“Okay, you can use your power to open the door,” I tell Melyta. “But as soon as it’s open, you run back to the car and you stay there. Are we understood?”

She nods very seriously. “I understand. I think I can even do it from the car.”

Korva grins at her. “You can be the getaway driver if I don’t get there in time.”

Melyta shakes her head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. I’ve never even driven a car before.”

Korva looks shocked. “Oh, wow, really? Okay, I have to teach you sometime.”

“You can teach her after we break into Johnson’s Garage,” I say through gritted teeth. “Let’s get this the fuck over with.”

“Are you sure you can do this from the car?” I ask Melyta as we park in front of Johnson’s Garage.

“It doesn’t make a difference,” she tells me. “As long as I can see it clearly through the window.”

“Not to pressure you, but we should probably move fast,” says Korva from the front seat. “They might have already noticed we’re here.”

Melyta nods and falls silent, focusing on the garage. I watch her, fascinated. Seeing her use her power is still the coolest thing for me. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it. However strong Voorian males might be, we can’t move things with just our minds.

Suddenly, a loud clunk rings through the night. It’s hard to tell by the dim light of the street lamp, but I think a piece of the metal garage door just folded outwards. I hold my breath, not wanting to interrupt my mate’s focus in even the slightest way.

Crash!With a mighty carrying sound, the garage door is blown outwards, narrowly missing our van. Melyta puts her hand to her mouth, her eyes following the enormous piece of metal guiltily as it sails past us and clatters into the street.

Then she slumps backward in her seat in exhaustion, and Korva and I hit the pavement.

“I’ll take left, you take right,” I hiss as we run in the direction of the newly open doorway, both of us pulling black masks over our faces.

He nods, drawing his weapon, and I do the same. No plasma pistols tonight. We may be doing this fast, but there’s no way in hell we’re going to be able to do it quiet. Both of us are carrying old-school shotguns, like the kind you’d use for hunting, with the barrels sawed off and the shells fed by magazine. Anything we hit with these things is going down.

A figure sprints into the open part of the garage from some internal room, reaching for his weapon as he spies us.

“On the left!” Korva warns me.

With a deafening report from my shotgun, the figure crumples.

“I’ll stand guard, you look for the girl,” Korva shouts, positioning himself with a view of both doors inside the building. “She should be somewhere in the back.”

I run for the back area of the garage, my gun at the ready. Empty room after empty room. Finally, I come to a storage area. I’m about to pull the door open when a plasma bolt sears by me, singeing my forearm.

Fuck.I turn to see one of Nullion’s former subordinates opening fire in my direction, and I’m only barely able to get behind a desk in time. A volley of deadly plasma splashes into the door behind me.

“Nullion says to stop shooting!” I yell out in a high-pitched voice.

“Huh?” the gangster grunts in obvious confusion. The shooting stops.

With a grin, I discharge my shotgun twice in his direction and hear the body hit the floor.

Picking myself up from behind the desk, I move quickly to the door of the storage room. This has to be where they’re keeping Jenyta. The door is locked, so I position my shotgun carefully and blow it open.

It’s her. I spy her immediately, even with the lights off. She’s standing upright in some kind of weird, rectangular tank, with an IV drip going into her arm and other tubes as well. I’ve never actually seen one of these in person before, but I know the contraption containing her must be a high-security Imperial prison restraint system. Her face looks almost peaceful, unconscious behind a glowing blue force field.

Thankfully for our purposes, the United Planetary Empire needs to be able to move these things just like we do. There’s a button marked hover on the control panel, and the entire device begins to float about a foot above the ground when I press it. Perfect.

“I’ve got her!” I shout to Korva, wheeling the dolly down the hall to the main garage area, weapon at the ready. “We clear?”

“Clear!” his voice yells back. “Except— wait, fuck.”

His shotgun blares out twice.

“Okay!” he yells. “Now we’re clear.”

* * *

Melyta

I watch frantically from the passenger seat of the car, full of nerves. I hear gunshots. What’s happening? Please, please, please let everyone be okay.

And then through a doorway in the back of the garage, I see a glowing blue box. What the hell is that?

It’s Jenyta.Unconscious, trapped behind a force field, held captive in some kind of tank. It’s hovering above the ground, and as it gets closer, I can see that Barion is behind it, pushing it along.

I wince as two shots rang out. Ripping my eyes away from Jenyta, I see Korva’s gun smoking. On the other side of the room, a dead body slumps through an open door. Korva yells something, and Barion pushes Jenyta into the big open space.

But through a window to the left, I can see something else. Two men, both of them armed, ready to burst through a closed door into the garage where Barion and Korva are standing. Neither my mate nor his friend seem to have a clue. How could they?

They’re about to get ambushed.

I try to conjure my power, but I can’t. I already used all my energy to open the garage door. In horror, I watch through the window as the two enemy gangsters check their guns and then begin to count down from three on their fingers.

* * *

Barion

“Do you hear Melyta yelling something?” Korva asks nervously, covering me with his weapon as I push Jenyta’s restraint system through the garage. “We’re sitting ducks out here.”

“I don’t think so,” I grunt. “But then, we’ve been shooting guns inside, so I really can’t hear shit right now.”

Korva laughs. “Yeah, when all this is done, remind me to see a—”

Suddenly, the door to our right bursts open and two of Nullion’s thugs emerge. I experience a split second of sheer terror as I realize that even if Korva reacts in time, we’re probably both still dead.

And then the van slams into both of them with a wet crunch, the engine roaring as it reverses at full throttle. Our attackers fly back into the wall, bouncing off of it and landing in a heap.

The van squeals to a stop, only about a foot from hitting the back wall itself. Then it lurches awkwardly forward, rolling over one of the gangsters’ legs in the process.

“All aboard!” Melyta shouts through the window. “Rescue Express, leaving the second all three of you are in the fucking van!”

Korva and I don’t need to be told twice. He rushes to open the back of the vehicle, and I maneuver Jenyta’s restraint system inside.

“I’m going to have to lie her down,” I grunt to Korva. “Here, help me.”

We manage to get her into the car, then Melyta scoots over to the passenger seat and Korva takes the wheel. We’re back on the road and speeding away from Johnson’s Garage before I even have my seatbelt on.

“Is she okay?” Melyta asks frantically, clambering over the seat divider to join me in the back.

I nod. “Yeah, she’s fine. Look, you can see her breathing. She’s just heavily sedated.”

The relief is visible in Melyta’s entire body, as though she’s finally letting out a breath she’s been holding in for days. She leans against me, staring at her friend through the blue force field.

“We’re going to be able to get her out of that, right?”

“Yeah, definitely. It just might—”

I break off, trying and failing to hide a wince as she leans against the arm that got hit with the plasma both. Her face falls.

“You’re hurt,” she tells me with an almost reproachful look.

“Just a scratch,” I say, shaking my head. “Happens when you’re getting shot at.”

She interlocks her fingers with mine, nuzzling her head against my shoulder. “I hate that you got hurt,” she says, looking genuinely upset. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

“I’m fine,” I assure her, “really. In a couple of days, you won’t even be able to tell that it happened.”

“That’s what you said about your face,” she frowns, kissing my shoulder.

I put my arm around my mate and squeeze her, touched by her concern. “And my face is almost better. Just like my arm will be.”

“I didn’t get hurt at all,” Korva pipes up from the front seat. “Thanks for asking.”