Hotbloods 6: Allies

Stone bared his teeth. “Listen ‘ere, pal. I traveled with ‘er for over a month, while you were hearin’ of her second-hand. Ye didn’t even know her!”

“Well, you were going to sell her on the flesh markets!”

“No, I weren’t, ye lyin’ sack of fish guts. I don’t go in fer that sorta thing. I trade in inanimate objects only.”

Xiphio snorted. “Says the man with the living creature wrapped around his wrist.”

“That were a one-time thing. I already explained all o’ that,” Stone hissed. “I’d never ‘ave sold Ren to no one, even if I were in the market fer that kinda stuff. She’s special!”

“I know she’s special, which is why I knew, even before I met her, that I would fall madly in love with her.”

“D’you know how mad that sounds? Can ye hear yerself?” Stone shook his head. “Must be all that deep water back home gettin’ to yer head, crushin’ the sense out of it.”

Lauren stood up and folded her arms across her chest. The two guys turned to her slowly, her actions silencing them. Evidently, they were expecting her to put one of them out of his misery. I watched her in anticipation, wondering which one she was going to choose.

“I guess neither of you has considered my feelings in all of this?” she said calmly. “Look at the pair of you, squabbling like kids over a toy. Well, I’m not a toy you can play with, and I’m not a prize to be won in some slinging match. I’m not interested in either of you. At least, not right now.”

“What do ye mean?” Stone asked, his face remaining blank. Next to him, Xiphio looked downright crushed.

“We’ve got way too much to worry about without bringing crushes and feelings into the equation. We just don’t have time for any of this nonsense,” she said firmly. “My home is in danger, in case the two of you had forgotten. That includes my parents, my friends, every creature, every plant, every book. It’s all at risk—everything I’ve ever loved is under threat, and you two are fighting over something that doesn’t matter right now.”

Xiphio’s cheeks were purple with shame. “I just wanted you to know that I care… before we enter a fight we might not win.” His tone was bordering on childish, and I could see from Lauren’s face that she wasn’t impressed.

“If you really cared about me, the way you say you do, you will be my friend and ally first, before asking for more. I need people to have my back and the backs of everyone on this ship. I need you to be working together, not fighting over who you think has more right to be with me.”

Her words cowed them both in an instant, and the two of them exchanged a shy glance.

“Sorry, Xiphio,” Stone muttered.

“Sorry, Stone.”

Lauren smiled. “Good. Now, I don’t want to see either of you for the rest of the evening. I suggest you go and get to know each other better before we reach Earth. Although, Xiphio, you should put on some clothes first.”

“Yes, Miss Lauren,” Xiphio mumbled.

“Sure thing, Ren.”

With that, the boys left the room, hurrying off with their tails between their legs. As soon as they were gone, I flashed an impressed look at my best friend, giving a low whistle of congratulations. I’d never seen her like that before. As much as I hated to admit it, Lauren’s time with the scavengers had done something remarkable, turning her into this fierce young woman who could command respect from anyone. The shy creature she’d once been had gone, though there was something sad in that, too.

“I can’t believe what a badass you are!” I laughed as I wandered over to join her on the edge of the bed. “Honestly, you’ve changed so much. It’s like you’re a completely different person. A total badass person.”

A funny expression drifted across her face. “I’m not a different person. I’m the same Lauren I always was.”

“Still, I can’t imagine you doing that a month ago.”

Lauren rubbed the back of her neck. “I just… I have a better picture now of who I am on my own. Before, I was always one of three, you know? When we got separated, I learned what it meant to just be me, without the two of you propping me up.”

I felt stung by the words. “I guess I never thought of it like that.”

She reached over and took my hand, a warm smile on her face. “Please don’t take offense to it, Riley. It has nothing to do with you or Angie, or anything that the three of us have shared. I love you both just as much as I always did. The only thing that’s changed is, now, I’ve found a sense of independence that I didn’t have before. It’s the kind of independence I’d hoped to get in college—it just came from being on board a scrappy little spaceship instead.”

Lauren leaned against my shoulder, and we sat like that, side by side, as I marveled at all the ways the universe had changed us.





Chapter Thirty-Eight





Three days later, Lauren, Angie, and I were huddled in front of the cruiser windshield, watching the planets of our solar system pass by. It was weird to see them close up, after a lifetime spent hearing about them on the news, or in documentaries, or described in textbooks. Pluto came first, with its snowy heart showing on the surface. Even if it was technically categorized as a dwarf planet these days, I still liked to think of it as fully-fledged. Then, Neptune passed in an electric blue haze, followed by the peculiar blue of Uranus.

Naturally, Angie snorted. “Ha, I’ve seen Uranus.”

“Real mature, Ange,” Lauren chided playfully.

She shrugged. “What? Someone had to say it.”

We fell silent again as Saturn appeared alongside the cruiser, her icy rings glinting, then the mighty Jupiter with its signature red spot. We started to really get excited as Mars came into view, knowing we weren’t far from home now. Soon enough, we would see the familiar sight of Earth again, and though I was thrilled by the prospect, it didn’t quite seem real. Earth felt like a dream, left over from another lifetime.

As we passed by the welcoming warmth of the rusty-colored Mars, the cruiser came to a standstill, just short of Earth. Even so, we could see it through the glass pane, all three of us in complete awe at the vision of our beautiful blue, green, and white marbled home. Tears sprang to my eyes, my heart overwhelmed at the sight. Turning to my friends, I could see I wasn’t the only one.

There she was, just as we’d left her, with no sign of Queen Gianne and her army anywhere. I wasn’t sure which one brought me more happiness—that we were home, or that we’d reached it before Gianne could.

“Why’ve we stopped?” I asked, turning to Bashrik. I was too excited about going home to think straight.

“I figured we should stay up here a while longer before landing,” Ronad chimed in. “The merevin Feds aren’t here yet, and we should probably get in touch with the lycan contingent before we start setting any shields up. Plus, we’re going to need to conserve our energy up until the last moment, when we put the nudus on.”

Bashrik nodded. “Yeah, the last thing we want to do is start building shields without the lycan Fed knowing about it. They might think it’s an attack and start retaliating.”

So close… and yet, so far, I thought grimly.

Navan came up and put his arm around my waist, before addressing the room. “We need to get in touch with the lycans and make sure they’re fully on board with the plan, so we can figure out how they’re going to prevent mass human panic. We can’t exactly make the shields invisible, so we’ll have to explain it somehow.”

“And how do we contact the lycans?” I wondered, remembering how difficult it had been the last time. “I mean, we don’t even know where their headquarters are.”

Dio, who had been minding his own business in the corner, sat up straighter, attracting our attention. “It’s good you’ve got me, then, isn’t it?”

“What, does your kind have a pack mind or something? Like, a telepathic link?” Angie asked, arching an eyebrow.

Dio laughed. “Not quite. I used to be a Fed agent. I wasn’t stationed here myself, but these will probably be the same bunch I left behind when I got kicked out.”