#the finale!!!!!!!!!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

amoebaforce · 3 months ago

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Cat/Mouse

Part 4 of 4 (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

After a string of bold thefts rocks the Edenite art scene, veteran hunter Nadine picks up the bounty of a lifetime. Fifty thousand credits, just to capture the elusive thief and bring her in alive. It should be an easy job... but one look at her mark tells Nadine she might have bitten off more than she can chew. On a space station full of secret dealings, dirty money, and luxurious lies, it seems even the simplest contracts are prone to complication. tags: violence, blood, strangulation, graphic language

Nadine stood a good long second over Web’s shuddering body, ears ringing like she’d detonated a mine. She could hardly catch her breath, blood hot in her veins, mind roaring with a strange mix of glee and rage. If she had more time, she’d hit him again. She’d break his other thumb to match, she’d kick him in the–

“Nadine,” a fuzzy voice called. “Nadine!”

A small lilac hand found the crook of her arm. Ulu’zah breezed into view, all four eyes awash with tears. Nadine felt all the air rush out of her lungs. The ringing faded into vast, empty silence.

“We need to go,” the thief said, voice thin and unsure.

Nadine knew she was right. But before that, there was something she needed to do.

“Deactivate your virus,” she told Ulu’zah.

“Huh?”

“The worm you got spoofin’ the cameras. Turn it off. I’ve got a guy in the system; he’s gonna need to see.”

Ulu’zah hesitated, then gave a short nod and pulled a handheld processor from her bag. As she tapped the screen, Nadine felt her earpiece crackle.

“Nadine, what– Oh shit.” Xerxes uttered a long sigh. Nadine could almost see him rubbing his temples, eyes slicing between the Diralith on her arm and the male on the floor. “Alright, change of plans, I guess.”

Nadine shot the camera a knowing look, then shoved her feet back in her shoes and jerked her thumb toward the door.

“Right,” Xerxes said flatly. “I can guide you toward the exit, but the staff is already nearing the vault.”

The lock unsealed with a click. Nadine took Ulu’zah’s hand, trying and failing not to notice how soft and cool it was in hers. The two shared a quiet glance, and then they were running. Web shouted out behind them, but the slam of the door cut his voice in two, leaving nothing but footsteps and labored breathing to fill the empty air.

“First right,” Xerxes reported. “Down the steps. Second left.”

Nadine whispered his instructions aloud, and Ulu’zah followed. Half a minute in, a distant cry echoed through the metal halls, and each overhead light turned sickly red as the alarm began to wail. Nadine gritted her teeth and ushered Ulu’zah down a narrow corridor.

“Sorry ‘bout the noise, baby,” the hunter muttered.

Ulu’zah’s brow crumpled, but she said nothing.

“Guards coming by,” Xerxes warned sharply.

Nadine slowed to a stop. Wordlessly, she took Ulu’zah by the shoulders and backed her into a shallow alcove, pressing her to the wall just as a veritable platoon of armed guards rushed past the end of the passageway.

Chest to chest, gazes locked, nervous systems wired, it felt like neither of them could breathe. It wasn’t just the adrenaline — it was the closeness, too. The scent of each other’s skin, the heat of their bodies. How long had it been since they’d touched like this? Eight, nine days? With all that had happened since then, it may as well have been a lifetime.

Nadine lifted her hand to Ulu’zah’s face, too swept up to think better of it, and the thief flinched as if expecting a slap. Nadine tasted bile. Anger swelled inside her, but she forced it away. There would come a time, gods willing, when she could fix this. When she could help Ulu’zah get her revenge. But first, they had to survive this. So Nadine stroked her thumb along the little thief’s cheek and wiped away a crystalline tear. Under the strobing crimson light, it glistened like a sharp-cut ruby.

Ulu’zah finally exhaled, softening into the touch just a little. She searched Nadine’s face, delicate features creased with confusion, yet there was no rejection in her icy blue eyes. Just that same quiet sadness as before. Under all the noise, she whispered:

“I changed my mind.”

Nadine smiled. “Easy way?”

Ulu’zah bobbed her head. “Easy way.”

The last of the guards hurried past them, and Xerxes chimed in once more.

“Give it two more seconds, then hang a left. Go seventy-five feet, and you’ll find an exit door. But you need to hurry, Nadine — if you don’t get out before they sweep the basement, you’ll be locked in.”

The hunter swore under her breath, and Ulu’zah shot her a questioning glance.

“We gotta make a break for it, and we gotta make it soon” Nadine explained, urging the thief back into action.

She didn’t need much urging. Ulu’zah moved with newfound vigor as they rounded the corner, silent and focused as she ran to keep pace with the taller female. Just as Xerxes said, the pair spotted a thick metal door awaiting them — but it was clear at once that he’d neglected to mention a vital detail.

“Damn!” Nadine hissed, heart sinking at the sight of another numbered keypad.

Xerxes swore, too. “What the– I don’t have a passcode on file! This is supposed to be a standard lock. Shit– Try the one from before. Two-seven-three-six-nine-four-one-nine.”

Nadine did as she was told, breathing slowly in an effort to keep her cool, but when the little screen flashed red, she uttered another foul word.

“What’s wrong?” Ulu’zah asked, voice tight with worry.

“Don’t have the code.”

A smirk tugged at the Diralith’s lips. “Is that all?”

She pulled out her processor for a second time, along with a laser cutter the size and shape of a pen. In seconds, she’d sliced through the metal casing and yanked out the computer’s innards, fingers deft from frequent practice. Ulu’zah rearranged some wires, plugged her processor into the lock, and activated a familiar-looking program.

“That little thing can break a lock?” Nadine remarked, keeping watch over their flanks.

“All the new ones can, if you know how to write the code,” Ulu’zah said.

Nadine huffed to herself, a reply sparking on her tongue, but the slamming of a nearby door took the snark right out of her mouth. She and Ulu’zah exchanged urgent looks.

“Two incoming,” Xerxes said, voice tight. Nadine might have thought him concerned, but she’d worked for him long enough to know better.

“Ulu–” Nadine started.

“Just a few more seconds,” the thief murmured back, fingers hovering over the cords. “Come on, come on…”

A flash of green and a tiny beep. Ulu’zah tore the processor from the lock just as the tip of a boot emerged from a side corridor that was far, far too close. Nadine reached over Ulu’zah and ripped open the door, practically steering the thief forward to get them outside faster. The females tumbled out into a dark alleyway. Nadine slammed the partition shut again, ignoring the rising outcry behind them, and together they rushed for the main thoroughfare. There, they could blend into the bystanders, slip into another alley–

But as they rounded the corner, all semblance of Nadine’s plan crumbled to dust. She and Ulu’zah skidded to a halt, suddenly face-to-face with three hulking males, dressed in black and packing a pistol each. Xerxes swore in her ear. Ulu’zah let out a clipped scream as Nadine stepped between her and the newcomers.

“This is bad,” Xerxes said. Nadine could hear him typing in the background. “Very, very bad.”

Yeah, no kidding. The hunter’s mind raced a thousand miles a second, running through all of their options. They were barely outside the alley; turning back meant facing the auction guards and the police. Going forward meant tangling with deadly weapons. The odds were shit, either way.

The tallest male, a brutish-looking Uroki, grinned as he read the look on her face.

“Well, lookee here,” he drawled, malice glittering in his amber irises. “You find yourself a friend, little Twig?”

Nadine knew that name — she’d seen it before, on that data packet. So it wasn’t nonsense, after all. It was Ulu’zah’s call sign.

“Piss off, Lake!” the Diralith snapped. Her words were resolute, but the quake in her voice betrayed her.

“Forget the plan,” Xerxes exclaimed. “I’m calling the Feds.”

Anger throbbed through Nadine’s head. After all this time, all this work, Xerxes wanted her to give up? No way — no fucking way. She was going to finish this tonight, one way or another.

“Hey now,” Nadine said, just a little too loud. “There ain’t no need to get all hostile.”

Xerxes audibly bristled. “Nadine? What the hell are you doing?”

She took a step forward and lifted her palms. This was a desperate bid, based on an awful lot of wishful thinking, but damn was she ready to gamble.

The Uroki called Lake cocked his brow. “Hostile? Nobody’s hostile here, ‘cept maybe the traitor hiding behind you.”

“Good,” Nadine said. “Good. Maybe now we can talk a little business.”

He smirked. “You wanna talk business with me, hunter?”

She smirked back. “Nah — I ain’t got time to be chattin’ with alleyway thugs like you, Lake. I wanna talk to the bastard you work for.”

Lake’s lips twitched into a snarl. Behind Nadine, Ulu’zah went stiff. Xerxes stuttered some shocked string of syllables, with not a lick of sense between them.

“Well then, I guess it’s your lucky fuckin’ day,” Lake said.

And as if conjured, a glossy black shuttle came rolling down the darkened street behind him. The thing was luxury incarnate — fully tinted windows, chrome trim, kitten-purr engine — but to Nadine, it might as well have been a hearse. Her stomach cartwheeled inside her. She’d planned to drag this out a little, give herself some time to think, but it seemed she wouldn’t get the chance.

Ulu’zah inched closer as the shuttle stopped, her breaths coming sharp and quick. Nadine reached back to lay a hand on the thief’s arm. Lake and the other goons stepped aside, and the shuttle door opened on silent hinges, revealing a palatial cabin done up in shades of black and red. Two wide bench seats framed the cabin — one empty, and the other occupied entirely by an enormous male in a cream-white suit.

Their faces were obscured by the open door, but Nadine knew who they were. She could feel it in the way Ulu’zah froze.

“Get in,” Lake grunted, gesturing to the open door with the tip of his gun. “Time to go for a ride.”

Xerxes inhaled sharply.

“Nadine, forget the plan. The Feds are coming — stall or run, but do not get in that shuttle. I know you want to finish this, I know you want to help that girl, but–”

Nadine saw red. Jaw flexing, she plucked the comm from her ear and tossed it aside. The trio of lackeys didn’t seem to notice, but oh, Ulu’zah saw. Her palm found the center of Nadine’s back, fingers trembling like leaves.

“Alrighty then,” the hunter replied aloud. “C’mon, sugar.”

She urged Ulu’zah to stand at her side, saying under her breath:

“Keep ahold of that bag.”

Ulu’zah just gulped, her expression crumpling like a paper bag. Nadine almost grimaced. But Ulu’zah’s knuckles went obediently tight around her pack, and in her glassy eyes flickered something deadly and all-too-familiar. If the thief was going down, she was taking someone with her. Nadine just hoped it wasn’t going to be her.

She helped Ulu’zah into the shuttle, glaring daggers at the leering males until she finally ducked her head through the door. It was like entering a cave made of silk — complete with a monster lurking within. There he was, seven feet of muscle and sinew swathed in pure-white scales, all leading up to an angular, reptilian face adorned with membranous frills. Rock.

Once, a long time ago, a crewman from a merchant freighter told Nadine a story about white-scaled Vaxxori. They were rare, hatched from only one in 1,000 eggs, and that made them deeply auspicious. Females were prized for their beauty and desired as wives, while males were bestowed titles and powerful positions of authority. In fact, as the tipsy sailor told it, the commander of Vaxxor was himself a white-scaled male, as were most of his closest advisors.

Back then, Nadine didn’t want to believe it. The whole idea recalled some of Terra’s most heinous histories, and that left a bad taste in her mouth. Surely regular, modern people didn’t really think that way, regardless of where they came from. But now, sitting across from one such “gods-favored” male, Nadine appraised the look in his small, golden eyes, and she changed her mind.

Rock smiled. His teeth were razor-sharp. “Well, well — if it isn’t Nadine Haylea, bounty huntress extraordinaire.”

Heart pounding in her chest, Nadine slung her arm around Ulu’zah’s shoulders as the shuttle lifted away from the curb. Time to cast the dice.

“And you must be Rock,” she replied. “Just the guy I wanted to see.”

His nostrils widened in amusement.

“You’ve been quite the busy bee lately,” Rock told her. “Accosting my forger, levying threats against my organization, smashing my teleporter, punching my favorite employee… Am I meant to believe you’ve done all this just to get my attention?”

Nadine gave a tiny shrug. “You’re a hard man to get ahold of, Rock. Pullin’ a few stunts seemed faster than writin’ you a letter.”

She read his face, seeking something, anything, that might key her in to his thoughts. Even the smallest insight would help — a twitch of the mouth, a squint of the eye — but there was nothing to see. Rock was calm as could be. She had not so much as chipped the veneer of his contempt.

And yet… a non-reaction was still a reaction. He was comfortable; unconcerned. Rock unclasped his hands with a dry chuckle.

“You have me now, huntress. Tell me, what message could possibly be so urgent?”

Nadine stole a glance at the Diralith to her side. She sat with her feet together and her arms crossed, gaze glued to the floor, body so still that she might not have been breathing, but each tendril curling back from her temples shuddered with terror. Nadine stroked a furtive thumb over her shoulder.

“It’s real simple, really,” Nadine said. “From where I’m sittin’, we each got somethin’ the other wants. I just wanna settle our books.”

His demeanor went a little sharp. It was intrigue, or maybe murderous instinct. Nadine wasn’t sure — his features were still too new to her eyes.

“Holding my product hostage, are we?” Rock sighed to himself. “Very well — I shall entertain you a moment. What would you ask for it? A few million credits? A crate of palladium bars? Perhaps the deed to a mining asteroid, while you’re at it.”

Despite her knotted gut, Nadine forced out an easy laugh, shaking her head like they were old friends shooting the shit.

“Gee, that’s mighty tempting, Rock, but it really ain’t like that. See, I want to give the pitcher back — honest, I do. That’s why I’m only askin’ for one little thing.”

“And what, precisely, is that?”

Nadine settled deeper in her seat, knees spread wide. “Ulu’zah.”

She might as well have told him to fuck himself. Rock’s eyes went dangerously narrow, and a silent Ulu’zah shivered against Nadine’s arm.

“You… wouldn’t know what to do with her,” Rock said slowly, like he had to roll each word over his tongue before he spat them out.

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out,” Nadine replied.

Now Rock’s grin twisted into a snarl. “You really think I’d give up my best asset in exchange for some little clay trinket, huntress?”

“No — I think you’re an entrepreneur. I think you’d release an unhappy employee from their contract in exchange for an ancient vase worth ten times her debt.”

Rock’s pupils dilated, and for just a moment, he almost looked impressed under all the seething rage. He flexed his hands in his lap.

Probably practicing how he’s gonna throttle me, Nadine thought bleakly.

As if he’d heard her, Rock said, “Why should I bother? I could kill you right here, and no one would ever know.”

Nadine had been asking herself that same question. Luckily, she’d already found an answer.

“I mean, you could kill me,” she agreed, “but I reckon the mess wouldn’t be worth the effort. Steam-cleaning the seats, bleaching the fixtures… and that’s only if you manage to outrun the Feds.”

Rock went still as a statue, blinking for the very first time since Nadine sat down. Now that she knew the look of his anger, she could pinpoint the moment it shifted into rage.

“The Feds?” the Vaxxori repeated thickly. “You’re gonna call the Feds on me?”

Nadine shook her head. “I don’t want to. But if you kill me, this here gadget will do it for me.” She pointed to the thick, steel belt buckle under her navel. “Don’t know how it works, really. Some business with micromachines and heartbeat sensors.”

The Vaxxori’s stare was like gravity: a crushing weight against her form, trying to fold her small and grind her to dust. But Nadine wouldn’t break so easily. She let her knees slide even wider. Rock growled and snapped his head toward Ulu’zah instead, hoping to find a softer target.

“And what of you, little Twig?” he barked. “Do you have anything to say on this matter? Or are you just going to let this Terran filth steal you away from me? Me, the male who picked you out of the gutter, fed you, housed you — the male who turned a helpless wretch into a peerless artist, the envy of enterprises galaxy-wide?”

“You’re wrong,” Ulu’zah said, clear and resonant as a silver bell.

Rock’s pupils swallowed the gold of his eyes.

“What?”

Ulu’zah lifted her head and repeated, louder this time, “You’re wrong. You didn’t make me an artist, Rock. I did that myself.”

“Twig–”

“You hear me? I did that!” Anger stained her every word. “It’s my education, my talent! You might’ve gotten me out of that cell on Pivarri, but it wasn’t because you wanted to save me. You just wanted to put me in a different kind of prison.”

“Why you–”

Rock bared his teeth, but Ulu’zah shook her head at him, a wild courage throbbing through her eyes. Now she was yelling.

“No! No, you’re not gonna ignore me this time, Rock! You’re not gonna lock me in my room or punish me. You’re gonna shut up and listen. I’m done. Understand? Done with the lying, the stealing, the hiding — done with you. And if you don’t wanna spend the rest of your miserable life in a Federation hell-hole, you’d better take our fucking deal.”

The silence that followed was a dire thing. Nadine’s breath slowed, her body preparing itself for whatever came after this. A fist, or a foot, or maybe a knife… But Rock was motionless as the side of a cliff, and Ulu’zah’s glare was the water come to erode him.

Pride swelled in Nadine’s chest.

Holy crap, she thought. This might actually work.

Then Rock smiled, and her whole body flashed cold instead.

“So it’s true,” he hummed. “You’ve actually fallen for the huntress.”

Ulu’zah’s cheeks flushed violet as she sucked in an indignant gasp. She lurched forward like she was going to hit him, but Nadine read the tension in her knees and grabbed her before she gave him a reason to react.

“Oh, screw you!” Ulu’zah shrieked, wriggling to be free.

Nadine wanted to agree, but her heart was beating too fast for words, thrashing like a bird with a broken wing. Why the hell would Rock say that? Just to get under Ulu’zah’s skin? Or maybe just to piss Nadine off. But if that was his goal… Well, he’d failed rather spectacularly. The Terran cleared her throat.

“Alright, that’s enough,” she said coolly. “You heard the lady — void her contract, take your pitcher, and we can all be on our merry ways. Unless you really wanna try your luck with the cops.”

Rock considered her for the briefest moment. Nostrils twitching, eyes shining.

“I think I’ll take my chances.”

And then, he pounced.

Nadine never could recall what happened next. One second, she was in her seat, holding Ulu’zah’s arms with both hands. The next, she was pinned to the cabin floor, ears ringing from an open-palmed slap to the face. Rock’s thick fingers caught her by the throat as pain bloomed across her jaw. Somewhere behind his hulking form, Ulu’zah screamed.

“Terrans,” the Vaxxori spat, face twisted in a ghastly grin. “You all think you’re so damned special. Exceptions to every rule, heroes in every story… Well, let me remind you of your true place in this universe, Nadine Haylea.”

Rock brought the back of his hand across her other cheek, and blood pooled behind Nadine’s teeth. She gurgled and sputtered, clawing fruitlessly at the palm around her neck as her eyesight spotted and blurred.

“You are worse than worthless. You are insignificant. Inconsequential. I am superior to you in every conceivable way. I could crush you under my heel in an instant, as easy as killing an insect.”

Nadine coughed a mist of crimson over Rock’s knuckles, her mind a raging torrent.

Stay calm, it scolded her. Think rationally. Keep your airway clear. Wait for a chance to get free. Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm.

But Ulu’zah was still screaming, still pleading, beating her fists against the plane of Rock’s back, and the sound flooded Nadine’s veins with a dark and primal urge — like a wolf’s howl forcing a reply from its pack.

“You’re so fulla shit, Rock,” the hunter wheezed, anger taking hold of her. “You ain’t a mob boss; you’re a playground bully in a nice suit.”

With a guttural roar, Rock lifted Nadine by the throat and bashed her back down. Stars danced through her vision, and the rush of air past her lips only pulled his fingers tighter around her windpipe. Ulu’zah fell to her knees.

“Please,” she begged. “Take the pitcher. Take me. I won’t leave you. I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll take more jobs, extend my contract — I’ll even keep my door open! Just please, please don’t kill her!”

Rock smirked. “You must be confused, little Twig. Negotiations are over.”

He turned his head a fraction of an inch, just enough to look in Ulu’zah’s eyes, to see the devastation written there inside them — but that was all the distraction Nadine needed. She took a handful of his shirt collar and pulled, channeling every fiber of her power into an upward thrust of the knees. Her patellas met the center of Rock’s stomach; pain exploded from both sides. Rock’s breath fizzled from his lungs. Shock slackened his body and uncurled his fingers, and Nadine seized the moment to heave him to the side and sidle out from his murderous clutches.

She vaulted to her feet and spat a glob of blood onto the carpet. Rock staggered as he panted around his fangs, face etched with molten fury. Ulu’zah scrambled to the farthest corner, narrowly avoiding a gratuitous swing of the Vaxxori’s tail, and pressed her back to the wall.

“Wrong again,” Nadine said. She raised her fists before her. “We’re just gettin’ started.”

Rock curled his lips at her and took a heavy step forward.

“Think you can win?” he asked.

Nadine shook her head. “Nope. But I don’t have to.”

She expected him to question her, to ponder her meaning, but Rock was unfazed. He laughed like a crazed hyena and wound back a left hook. Nadine weaved to the side as it sailed past her, then ducked beneath a right jab, air whistling viciously past her head. Shit, was he strong. Catching one of those might knock her cold, or worse.

All the more reason not to get hit.

She was smaller than him, and mercifully quicker — and, even better, Rock’s fighting was heavy, imprecise. He wasn’t used to his victims striking back. She could work with that. Reading the arc of his swings, Nadine dodged a third blow, then a fourth, keeping herself balanced on the balls of her feet.

“Why are you doing this?” Rock asked, as if voicing a thought aloud. “Risking your career, your reputation, your very life, and for what — a pathetic vector from an indigent, backwater planet?”

These were rhetorical questions, wholly disinterested in real answers, but Nadine offered one anyway.

“I care about her.”

Rock tossed her a cruel snort, followed by an even-crueler fist. Nadine dodged it by the width of a hair, heart skipping as his scales glittered past her nose. She swore under her breath.

Where the hell was her backup? Sure, it always took a few minutes for the Feds to get off their asses, but the main station was only a mile away. Nadine could’ve walked there by now. Could’ve taken Ulu inside, tucked her somewhere safe, far from all the rancor and the violence and the fear… Could’ve made sure Rock would never see her again.

That wretched heat boiled through her again — the same she felt that night in the alley, watching Web grab Ulu’s arm. Nadine bared her teeth and slid under another hook, then let the rage explode. The sole of her dress shoe crashed into the back of Rock’s knee. He shouted a curse as he lost his balance, and when he caught himself on the edge of the bench, his claws ripped long gashes through its velvet plush.

“Enough of this,” he hissed.

Rock threw himself at her once more, snapping his jaw like a rabid dog. Nadine lurched back, tried to duck, but she was no match for a Vaxxori scorned. Rock caught her throat in his palm and slammed her all the way back to the cabin floor, then pinned her down with a knee to each elbow. Nadine’s joints cracked and popped under the weight, forcing out a ragged scream.

“I should have done this right at the start,” Rock told her. “Nipped you in the bud. Oh, well — lesson learned.”

And he squeezed, and squeezed, harder than Nadine thought possible, and for longer, too, until the edges of the world were black and foggy. Until Ulu’s frantic pleas went silent. Until, suddenly, there came a loud cry and a cacophonous shattering. The hand around Nadine’s throat went limp. Fell away.

Nadine sucked in a big, beautiful breath, and it felt like the first one she’d ever taken. She coughed and sputtered and shoved Rock’s heavy form, and he slid almost-limply onto the floor beside her. Adrenaline shivered through her as she pulled herself to her hands and knees.

All around her were broken shards of pottery, all glazed in beige and white, some spattered with viscous flecks of red. Nadine blinked once, then twice. The pitcher — it was broken, but how? It was packed away…

But crumpled nearby was a familiar paper wrapping, and above it a vision of sublime wrath: Ulu’zah, steel-faced and slow-breathing, gaze fixed tranquilly upon her handiwork. Nadine’s jaw slipped loose. She gulped, and her entire upper half burned with pain. Her groan seemed to shake the Diralith from a trance.

“Oh,” she whispered, brow crumpling down at Nadine. “Are you okay?”

The hunter nodded. “I’ll live.”

That seemed to calm some nerve within Ulu’zah. She nodded, giving the cabin a determined scan.

“Right. Gotta land this thing.”

Nadine agreed and inched a little further from Rock’s twitching body. She could tell by the half-words sloshing in his throat that he was only stunned — and she didn’t want to be anywhere near him when that inevitably changed. Behind her, Ulu’zah ran her hands along the walls until she found a seam, then pried open a little door to reveal a blinking control panel. After a second of silent study, she pressed a few buttons and Nadine felt the shuttle start to descend.

Precocious relief thudded through her. She sighed and mopped her brow with the back of her wrist.

“Holy shit,” she muttered. Then, “You broke the art.”

Ulu’zah blew out a disbelieving laugh. “Yeah, well… it was that or nothing, I guess.”

Nothing wasn’t really the right word, but all of the better ones were too big, too thorny to lay comfortably on a tongue. Maybe their mouths would grow to fit them someday; maybe they would not. Nadine didn’t know.

“Thanks,” she said instead.

A phantom smile echoed across Ulu’zah’s face. She turned away, feigning a glance at the controls, and her bitten lips parted around a reply, but an abrupt siren-wail broke the moment in two. This time, the females sighed in unison.

“Oh, I never thought I’d be happy to hear that sound,” Ulu’zah said.

The shuttle found solid ground and whirred to a stop, and the single siren split into a chorus, surrounding them at every angle. A voice blared through a nearby megaphone, making some demand Nadine couldn’t quite make out. All the noise shook Rock even closer to consciousness. Growling and muttering, he groped a hand across the floor, looking for a person to kill or a weapon to do it with. Nadine was on her feet before he raised his head.

“That’s our cue,” she chirped.

Ulu’zah slapped the panel, and the hatch released with a tiny puff of air. Now the megaphone-voice was clear as day.

“All occupants must exit the shuttle now! Come out with your hands up! Slowly! Palms open!”

With one last nod exchanged, the pair stepped out into a swirl of chaos — blinding spotlights, screaming alarms, flashing lights in a hundred hues of red, and maybe six dozen weapons trained right at their hearts. The bossy Fed instructed them to step away from the door. When they obeyed, a half-dozen bodies in padded armor rushed inside the cabin, ready to take the real prize. An unfortunate task. Rock was already roaring again.

An agent shuffled Nadine and Ulu’zah back to the makeshift perimeter, and from the crowd stepped a stocky Terran male with olive skin and a mane of silver curls. He lifted a ring-studded hand to pluck the cigar from between his lips. For the first time in Nadine’s life, the grassy smell of vetiver made her smile.

“Xerxes,” she gasped, hands falling back to her sides.

“Let me guess,” Ulu’zah said. “The voice in your ear?”

Xerxes sauntered a little closer, eyeing the smaller female up and down. “In the flesh. And you must be the illustrious Ulu’zah.” His attention sliced back to Nadine and the quick-spreading bruises on her face. “You alright?”

Nadine grunted. “Been better.”

“Hmph. The price of heroics, I suppose.”

Ulu’zah crossed one arm across her chest, feet shuffling as though she were fighting to keep them in place. She cast the bounty broker a wary look.

“Are you going to arrest me now?” she blurted.

Xerxes considered her for a slow second. Nadine could only imagine what swirled there in his mind — ironies without measure, fallacies beyond reckoning, quips hitherto uninvented. But the male’s little smirk was shockingly malice-free.

“Not me,” he answered. “The Feds… soon as they’re done with that, anyway.”

Xerxes tipped his head toward the shuttle, where four burly agents were half-carrying, half-dragging Rock onto the pavement. Trailing just behind were the other two Feds, nursing jaws and arms that must’ve caught his stray fists. The now-handcuffed Vaxxori swore and gnashed his maw, trying to shoulder-check the agents against the walls, thrashing like a salmon in a net — but against so many equitably sized foes, the effort was entirely wasted.

Ulu’zah took one look and burst into tears.

“Oh, Dirax– Oh, oh…”

She wobbled a half-step backward, right into Nadine’s open arms. The agents shoved Rock into a prison craft, and Ulu’zah turned, crushing herself into the hunter’s broad chest. Her fingers laced themselves under Nadine’s blood-spattered collar.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Nadine told her. “It’s okay. I’m right here.”

She snaked her arms around Ulu’zah’s back, ignoring the arch of Xerxes’ brows. She was in for a lecture later — probably worse, if she was being honest — but in that moment, Nadine didn’t care. All that mattered was the female wrapped around her.

“I can’t believe it,” Ulu’zah wept. “It’s over. It’s… over.”

Nadine held her a little tighter. “You’re safe, Ulu. He’ll never hurt you again.”

Ulu’zah’s crying pitched a little higher, then crumbled into deep, open sobs. Xerxes grimaced and busied himself with a passing agent, ordering them to do some inane task or another, if only to look at someone else. It was all the same to Nadine. She let Ulu’zah’s sorrow soak her jacket, her shirt, all the way down to her goose-fleshed skin. And when Ulu’zah sighed and wiped her eyes, murmuring a quiet thank-you, Nadine cupped her dampened cheek in one palm.

Even now, under these frenetic lights, with her swollen eyes and disheveled clothes, she was a devastating beauty. It was incomprehensible. Uncanny. Nadine drifted her thumb across Ulu’zah’s lower lip.

“I’m riding to the station with you,” she told her.

“You don’t have to,” Ulu’zah replied quietly.

“I want to. ‘Sides, I gotta give them a statement… and probably my clothes, too.”

The Diralith managed a thin chuckle, tracing an absentminded circle on the back of Nadine’s neck.

“Alright.” A pause. “Did you… Did you mean what you told him, Nadine? Do you really care about me?”

A nameless feeling seized her then, turned her reckless and brash.

“It’s the truth,” Nadine said. “I care about you. And it’s not ‘cause you’re pretty, or ‘cause I’m tryin’ to pull one over on you. I mean, you are pretty, but that’s not what I’m talkin’ about. It’s like… I look at you, and I see everything at once. The past, the future, all these possibilities just floating around. Ugh, I don’t even know if this makes any sense–”

But Ulu’zah cut her off. “It does.”

And with the barest downward urge, she pulled Nadine into a lush, unhurried kiss. Every cell in her body rippled at once. Surprise melted into delight, streamed through her veins, pooled in every neglected corner of the vessel she was. Her hand slotted perfectly into the small of Ulu’zah’s back. She closed her eyes, letting each sense drown one by one. The universe shrank, retracted, until this was all there was — until everything was a single shade of purple.

#cat/mouse #sci fi romance #wlw romance #lesbian romance #alien x human #sci fi #the finale!!!!!!!!!!

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