In Dying Starlight

11.8

Well, at least Lee pulled through with kicking her out of his crew. I feel more than a little vindicated on that account. She appears to be arguing with the head woman in charge of the place. There wouldn’t be much reason for her to be here squabbling here if Lee hadn’t drop-kicked her out.

For a moment, I almost wanna laugh. She was with him for ages, his first in charge, and he kicked her ass out over me.

Then I remember exactly why he did so and put my hand on my gun. It’s far too late to go after her, I already know. At this point, it would just be considered cold-blooded murder. This may be a pretty lawless place, but if I just go up and shoot her in the face, the authorities will come after us. And we’re here for a reason. 

An important reason. 

I can’t go messing it up because I want to smash Kel’s face into the ground until it looks as bad as mine. 

Although, if she came after me, I’d be fully within my right to defend myself. It wouldn’t take much. All I’d have to do is provoke her, and I already know she hates me. The chances I could get her to try to shoot me without much work are pretty high—

“Aaron, what’s wrong?” Bat hisses. Someone walking by gives me an odd look and then hurries past.

His voice startles me out of the thought process I was heading down. “Guess Lee really did kick Kel out. She’s trying to get a job.”

Bat’s quiet for a long moment. “Ya know…I can probably shoot her without anyone knowing it’s me.”

That also just might be an option. Carefully, I force my feet back in the direction of Cath’s bar and walk as quickly as possible without running. As much as I’d love to figure something out, I don’t want to leave the humans any longer than possible, and still, if anything were to go wrong, we might have to flee the city before we got our job done. Even if I provoked her into an attack, we’d have to head out of here at top speed to avoid any problems. I still have my bounty up. I can’t ruin this whole thing over that scum.

Self-control, Aaron. Self-control and no premeditated murder. 

I’m still fuming by the time I get back to the bar. Even when I stomp up the steps, trying to school my expression in the neutral look of mild irritation I always have, Lalia takes one look at me from Cath’s kitchen table and goes, “What’s wrong?”

I give her a dreary stare. “Nothing.”

“Right. Very convincing.”

Zane is seated on the other side of the table. Far from trying to be suspicious, Cath seems to have him by the ear and is showing him pictures of something on her shimmering tablet. Well, so much for that paranoia. Yvonne and Anya, contrary to Cath’s mutterings, seem to have been force-fed bowls of the same vegetables. Anya makes a face. 

“What took ya so long,” Zane mutters and Cath flicks him in the face.

“Did you be getting my baby?” The old woman asks, heading for me around the table. 

Forcing myself not to sigh—how happy I was with myself long gone—I swing the backpack around and let Bat flatten himself against the bottom of the pack while I grab the little critter before Cath can see inside. 

“Aww,” Anya says. “I want one.”

Yvonne rolls her eyes.

“Barely had to threaten them,” I say, leaving out the part where Bat went inside and actually found the little thing. I still don’t trust Cath that much. 

She takes Plum as carefully as possible, mumbling to it and kissing its head. At least she doesn’t start crying—really, I can’t imagine the old woman doing so—I wouldn’t know how I’d handle that. It cheers me up just a little. Subtly, I scratch the top of Bat’s head.

“Seriously, why’d you look so pissed when you came in?” Zane asks. 

I give another glare, then sigh. Not that I particularly want to talk about it, but they should know the status of everything now that they’re in so deep with me. 

“Saw Kel.”

Yvonne chokes on her water and slowly turns to me. Both siblings stare at me blankly.

“Who?” Anya asks.

“The bitchy lady from Lee’s ship.”

“Ohhhhhh.” Anya squints at her vegetables. “The one you were gonna murder before Yvonne stopped you?”

She says it in such an unbothered way it’s a struggle not to laugh just a little. “Yeah, her.”

“Did ya murder her this time?”

“No.”

“Did ya want to?”

Cath looks amused by the whole thing, not particularly bothered she doesn’t know the details.

“Mind your own business,” I mutter.

Anya leans over to Yvonne and whispers, “I think that means yes.”

I make a childish face at her. Zane’s expression is still unreadable. So unreadable, in fact, that I tell him, “Look, it would take exactly one sentence of encouragement on your part before I’d say yes to us going and drop-kicking her into space.”

“That means murder,” Anya says. 

Zane glances at her, then at me, and cracks a pretty genuine smile. “I think we’ve gotten pretty derailed from all of this already, we should get the answers we’re looking for.”

A sign again, more than a bit disappointed. 

After a moment, Zane adds, “Not that we don’t already know.”

“Uh-huh,” I say dryly. It sounds like too much of an afterthought this time, as if he’s so nervous about the answer he forgot to be confident. As bad as I am at reading expressions, Lalia’s face seems to match her brother’s.

“Well,” I say, entirely too awkwardly, “did Cath show you where we’re heading, or were you stuck looking at pictures of Plum here the entire time?”

Cath pauses from her petting to shoot me a tired look. The animal’s already fallen asleep in her hand, a tiny ball of fuzz. Anya stares at it before finally getting to her feet and peering over the old woman’s arm, petting the animal gently.

“An unending amount of pictures,” Zane says, “but also a map. Here.”

He leans over the table, setting this tablet out. I head to his side of the table and lean over his shoulder, stopping myself from putting any weight on him. He may be healed enough to be walking around, but I don’t want to put any pressure on the still-frail skin on his shoulder. 

“Apparently, this is the quickest route.” He taps the screen and a blue line marks the direction through the layers of Zar. I set my tablet alongside his and let the information transfer. 

Then I squint at the map. There’s no way in hell I’m taking Anya and Yvonne down there. If I thought I could get away with it, I wouldn’t take Lalia and Zane, either. The people there are…less than friendly. No matter how tough Yvonne thinks she is, two pretty, soft princesses shouldn’t be down there. The only reason I’m fine going down is I doubt anyone can take me in a direct fight. 

Grimacing, I pick up my table, shooting Yvonne a look. I’ll have to leave them in the ship, after all. As much as I don’t like it, I like it a whole lot better than the idea of taking them down into the depths of this floating city. Anya’s comment about people taking her prosthetics suddenly seems much less silly, and I grimace.

“Don’t like what you see?” Cath asks. 

“Good place to get shot,” I mutter.

“If I be having a contact up here, I’d be sending you there. I’m not going to be having any fun with your sporadic visits if you’re dead.”

I crack a smile small enough it won’t freak her out. I believe her enough. Besides, I doubt anyone there’s gonna pick a fight with me. It’s my humans I’m worried about.

“Let’s get out of here,” I say, “The sooner we get this over with, the better.”

“Here,” Cath says, snatching my tablet again and transferring something over. A page appears with a photo of an unfamiliar woman and some pretty vague info. But now I have a face and a name, which is much better than just a map.

“Thanks. You and your old neighbor try not to kill each other, alright?”

“Bah.” She waves me off, seating herself back at the table with her sleeping pet. 

“Thanks, Cath,” I say again, herding the humans out as they say a chorus of goodbyes. 

* * *

“What? No, I’m not staying in the ship!” Yvonne shoves me in the arm as I head back toward the port. 

“Look, I mean this in the nicest way possible: you’re not nearly as tough as you think you are.”

Zane chuckles while Yvonne tries to burn holes in the side of my face with just her eyes, even past the glasses.

“You listen here—”

“No, you can listen. Let’s just assume I’d take you down there, which I won’t. However, there’s no chance in the entire galaxy I’d be taking Anya into that area. Which means we would need to leave her in the ship. Which means, either you stay with her or we’ll be leaving a ten-year-old princess by herself in the middle of a dangerous city.”

Yvonne opens her mouth and shuts it. Which means she has no argument and we both know it. Anya’s just doing her best to pout next to me. 

“I need you to listen to me this time. Bat will stay with you—”

“The hell I will,” comes his little voice from my backpack.

“Bat will stay with you, and we’ll be as quick as we can, and we’ll get the hell out of there. It’s quite a few levels down but not really that long of a walk. The whole thing probably won’t take more than an hour or two. You can be out of my marvelous presence for that long. I am begging you to listen to the fact that just because I have the emotional maturity of a teenage boy does not mean you know better than me at all times.”

Despite her sulking, Anya snickers.

“And believe me, if I thought I could leave Zane and Lalia in the ship too, I would. But I actually think they might shoot me if I try.”

“That is correct,” Zane says brightly.

“I don’t even think the DNA part should take very long. This stuff isn’t difficult to do, it’s just difficult to find someone who won’t turn us in. It really shouldn’t take long. I was being paranoid not wanting to leave you in the ship in the first place, but the idea that someone’s actually gonna even recognize you, let try to break in and get you, is practically impossible. Don’t open the airlock for anyone, and I mean anyone. I don’t care if they say they know me and tell you I’m dead. Do not open it for anyone other than us, do I make myself clear?”

A muscle feathers in Yvonne’s jaw, but she says, “Fine.” 

“And try not to drive Bat insane while you’re in there.”

“I’m gonna get you back for this,” Bat grumbles at me. 

I feel guilty about leaving him, and less safe doing so, but he’ll be safer in the ship than with me. Not to mention, he can fly the ship and work the weapons, and he’s near as good protection for the sisters as I am. I might be losing his backup, but I’ll feel a lot better knowing the three of them are safely locked away. Plus, I know he likes the two of them, even if he still doesn’t let Yvonne pet him.

Of course, I’d feel even better if Zane and Lalia stayed in the ship too, but good luck with that.

I’ll need their DNA to test again, but I’m not opposed to yanking a handful of hair out of Zane’s head. But I know even if I put my foot down and locked them in the ship, they’d just sneak after me.

Which reminds me, “And don’t sneak after me. Bat, if they try, bite Yvonne right on the ass.”

Yvonne gives me an evil side-eye but mutters, “I wasn’t going to sneak out.”

She puts her hand on Anya’s head, and I believe her.