Treyjon: Star Guardians, Book 2 Read online

  Visions of slipping more than his tongue into Angela pranced through his mind, and for a moment, he forgot that they were standing in the middle of a busy promenade with a hulking svenkar looming nearby. A huge part of him wanted to pull Angela into the ship and up to his cabin, the captain and his followers be damned, but tittering from a passing group of teenagers brought him back to reality.

  With great reluctance, he pulled away from Angela. He checked on the men and found they were together now, standing on a moving walkway taking them away from the base. The captain stood farther up the same walkway. With at least a hundred people between them, it seemed likely Sagitta wasn’t aware of the stalkers. Treyjon had the duty to follow them and find out what they wanted.

  Or… maybe he could simply comm the captain and let him take care of his own problem?

  He looked down at Angela. At some point during the kiss, she’d eased closer to him and now leaned against his chest, one hand on his pectoral muscle. Lulu was licking at the wrapper now on the ground, thankfully not taking advantage of their distraction. Intensely aware of the straining of his cock, Treyjon again had thoughts of taking Angela back to his cabin—the way she was gazing up at him and stroking his chest wasn’t helping him focus on other things.

  But no, he had his duty. If alerted, Sagitta could certainly turn around and chase off his stalkers. But he might have a hard time catching them when there was that much distance between them. And if the men noticed Sagitta talking on his logostec and glancing back, they might flee before anyone could get close. It would be better for Treyjon to sneak up on them from behind. After seeing that kiss, they certainly shouldn’t think he was after them.

  “Treyjon?” Angela whispered.

  “Sorry, I have to go.” He stepped back, releasing her—hells, when had he slipped his hand down to cup her ass? “There are some men following the captain. That was just for—I mean, I didn’t want them to think I was watching them.”

  As soon as the words came out, he knew they were the wrong thing to say. They might have been true, but he hadn’t meant to imply that he’d only kissed her to put on a show and that he hadn’t enjoyed it. All she’d need to do was look down to see how much he’d enjoyed it.

  But her eyes widened, and the most hurt expression flashed across her face. Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment.

  “I…” He groped for something to say, a way to let her know that he’d liked the kiss. A lot. And wanted to do it again. But the men were getting farther away, and he couldn’t see the captain anymore. “I have to go.”

  He took a step, then paused.

  “Wait, let me have Lulu, please. She’s not trained that much yet, but she might be some use if I have to do any tracking. There’s not time to go back and get one of my males.” He reached for the leash, expecting her to relinquish it easily.

  But her fist tightened around it, and she glared at him. “Not without me.”

  “What?”

  “You promised a tour of the city.”

  “I can’t right now. This is important. This is my work.”

  “We’ll come with you,” Angela said. “And then you can give me a tour of the city. Both of us.”

  The svenkar came up beside her, growling low in her throat as she looked at Treyjon. Gods, the creature had bonded with Angela. Well, if nothing else, that meant she would protect Angela if they ran into trouble.

  “All right,” Treyjon said, turning toward the walkway. There wasn’t time to argue.

  6

  People squawked and ran away from Angela and Lulu, something difficult to do on the moving sidewalk. It was a lot like the ones in airports back home, with low walls and railings to either side. Some of the people jumped over them in their hurry to depart. Angela worried they were creating a commotion and that the people she and Treyjon were following would notice them because of it.

  A part of her didn’t care. She’d been so into that kiss, so delighted that, ever since leaving the cargo hold with the svenkar, he’d started looking at her as if she was a beautiful woman instead of not noticing her at all… It had stung to realize he hadn’t been into it at all. That it had been some ruse.

  She didn’t blame him for doing it, though a little warning would have been nice, but she blamed herself for falling for it. How had she not noticed that while his tongue had been doing those delightful things to her lips and mouth, his eyes had been focused on some man on the other side of the base? Admittedly, he was a damn good kisser for someone who’d been distracted, and she could hardly be blamed for getting all hot and tingly and forgetting about Lulu and all the people wandering past on the promenade. She should just be relieved he’d stopped when he had because she’d been on the verge of sticking her hand under his uniform jacket to feel the abs she’d seen in the rec room the day before. Or maybe she would have touched him lower to see if he’d been enjoying the kiss as much as she had…

  But, no. She knew he hadn’t been. And her cheeks were still flaming with embarrassment when they reached the end of the walkway and stepped off.

  He didn’t hesitate. He turned to the right and strode along a street filled with… she wasn’t sure what. They looked more like chariots than cars, even though they didn’t have horses hooked up to them.

  Angela told herself she should be enjoying the sights of the city and experiencing this new planet rather than dwelling on a stupid kiss. She ought to be recording videos for Juanita. Not that Juanita wouldn’t have her own tour later. With someone who enjoyed kissing her.

  “Stop it,” she muttered, rolling her eyes at herself.

  A growl from Lulu reminded her to focus on being a good pack leader. Good pack leaders didn’t worry about boys.

  Treyjon looked over his shoulder as they crossed an intersection, frowning as he considered Angela and Lulu. She was tempted to stick her tongue out at him, but that was even less mature than sulking over kisses.

  He glanced down a street, then crossed into a gap between buildings. To call it an alley would be ambitious. The svenkar barely fit into it behind Angela, and Treyjon’s shoulders bumped against the stone walls as they walked. This appeared to be a much older part of the city, and she tried to decide if it reminded her of pictures she’d seen of the Mediterranean and Greece. Maybe a bit. Here and there, they had passed some very old buildings reminiscent of the Parthenon, but they had looked as much a relic of times past as the temple in Athens. For the most part, the city reminded her more of a setting in one of Juanita’s science fiction movies. The drones and shuttles constantly flying overhead had something to do with that.

  As Treyjon led the way through a maze in the extremely narrow alleys, climbing up and down worn stone stairs built into the road, Angela grew more confused. There was nobody else back here.

  “Your captain didn’t come this way, right?” she asked.

  “No. Neither did the people following him, but I know where he’s going. If he doesn’t jump on a hover-chair, we might even get there first.”

  They took a left, the third or fourth they’d taken. And there had been some rights too. A couple of downs. An up.

  “Or we might get lost and mugged,” Angela said. “Didn’t you say you’d only been in the city three times?”

  “I never get lost. And nobody is going to mug you when there’s a svenkar trailing you, hoping for more stuffed gordoza leaves.”

  “That’s comforting.”

  “The svenkar or my sense of direction?” Treyjon finally stepped out of the narrow alleys, and they headed for a canal spanned by a fancy bridge full of sculptures of naked warriors in togas or robes or whatever they were called. Now that reminded her of the little she knew of Ancient Greece.

  “Lulu,” she said. “I’m not sure yet that I trust your sense of direction. We haven’t been lost together before.”

  “You’ll never be lost with me.”

  He winked back at her as they walked over the bridge. Were those cobblestones on the ground? A sign written in a
couple of languages, as well as pictographs, conveyed that the bridge was very old and that motorized vehicles weren’t permitted on it.

  “Are you always this cocky?” she asked.

  The cobblestones continued on the other side, widening into a big public square. Darker stones formed pathways, one leading to the closest of several buildings that definitely reminded her of how she imagined Ancient Greece. Columns rose up to high, flat roofs, and she glimpsed an open courtyard inside. What looked like an old temple stood off to one side, and more buildings with tons of columns lay behind those two. The modern technology didn’t seem to be present here, with a lack of the monitors and holographic displays and moving roads and sidewalks that she’d seen by the space base. Shuttles still flew overhead, but nothing landed.

  “Only when it comes to tracking people. And not getting lost.” Treyjon pointed toward a park on one side. It was full of trees with roots like vines—they grew down from the branches rather than out from the base of the trunk. Something hooted from the silver foliage above. “Let’s wait in there and try to look like tourists rather than spies.”

  “Will there be more kissing?”

  He stubbed a toe on one of the cobblestones. “That might not be a good idea.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” she said with a frown. She didn’t want fake kisses.

  His face grew closed, and he turned away, striding toward the park. He passed a few trees, then leaned against one that had a good view of the square and the central building. The roots dangling down like vines should hide them from the view of the people walking past.

  The square wasn’t busy, but it wasn’t deserted, either, and a few people sitting on benches in the park looked curiously at Angela and Lulu. Mostly at Lulu, she sensed. Her clothing didn’t seem that odd among the variety of outfits she’d seen since stepping off the ship, including those worn by the aliens. Aliens she’d heard about from the Star Guardians but hadn’t imagined very well. There had been people—was that the right term for them?—with fur and scales and feathers, and only one kind that had shared the two arms and legs pattern of humans. If Angela hadn’t been focused on leading Lulu, she would have been stopping and gawking openly at them all.

  Lulu was sniffing at the base of a tree now. Angela pointed to the grass, wondering if she could teach the svenkar to lie down. After a few more sniffs, Lulu dropped to the grass of her own accord, and that turned into her rolling onto her back and thrashing about with her legs in the air to scratch her shoulder blades.

  “I can’t believe nobody thinks you’re like a dog,” Angela murmured.

  “There he is,” Treyjon said.

  Angela peered between the dangling tree roots in time to see Sagitta stride between the columns and into the building.

  “Is he still being followed?” she asked. “By more people than us?”

  “We’ll see. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re joined in the park. Not many people stroll into the agora’s government buildings unless they work there and have to go. Spies would stand out, so they might choose not to—never mind.”

  Angela stepped closer to peer around his shoulder. Two men walked side by side toward the front of the structure. They carried brown satchels reminiscent of briefcases.

  “Those are the ones from the base? They look like they belong. Like politicians.”

  “Yes,” Treyjon said. “They didn’t have the cases earlier.” He lifted his logostec to his mouth as the men strode up the wide steps, walked between the columns, and headed into the courtyard inside the building. “Bridge, who’s in charge right now?”

  “That would be me,” a voice drawled over the device. “You looking for a reading of your aura, Treyjon? Or a new charm to keep you safe?”

  “No, Zakota. How is it possible that you’re in charge? All you do up there is fly.”

  “But I fly most excellently. And everyone else took off to enjoy the city. Except for Korta. He’s scouring out his labs. Want me to get him?”

  “No, I just want to tell whoever’s in command right now that the captain has a couple of nondescript men following him.”

  “Reporters looking to cover the exploits of the great Star Guardian Captain Sagitta?”

  “They don’t look like a film crew. Or people impressed by exploits.”

  “Huh, guess the reporters have stopped stalking him. After the war, they stuck to him like leeches every time he left the ship. You know someone even wrote some books about him? Fictional space adventures, not a biography.”

  “Oh?” Treyjon asked. “Did you enjoy reading them?”

  “I only read them to see if I was mentioned. But it was all about the war. Boring. Look, what do you want me to do about it? Warn him? Can’t you do that?”

  “Yes, that’s my next move. I thought someone responsible should know in case I lost him and he ended up in trouble. But I didn’t realize you were the only one on the bridge.”

  “I’m all kinds of responsible,” Zakota said. “Like right now, I’m going to be responsible for closing the comm on you.”

  Angela caught an exasperated look on Treyjon’s face, but he didn’t dwell on the conversation. He mumbled an order for his device to call Sagitta. But the captain didn’t answer, and he got dropped into a messaging system.

  Treyjon sighed and lowered his wrist. “He must have silenced his logostec for the meeting. I should have commed him earlier.”

  By now, the two men had disappeared into the courtyard or perhaps through one of the doors accessible from it.

  “I’m not sure random people are allowed in there, but we’ll take a look anyway.” Treyjon nodded toward the entrance.

  “Are random svenkars allowed?” Angela asked.

  “Svenkars go where they please.”

  When Angela walked after him, Lulu gave up on what had turned into a belly-up nap in the sun and followed them. Angela didn’t even have to tug at the leash. She was surprised and pleased with how well the svenkar was doing.

  She and Treyjon trotted up the steps, pausing inside a corridor with half walls and intermittent columns. They could see the inner courtyard much more clearly from here. It possessed plants and small trees, as well as gurgling fountains and a stream that meandered through, with several bridges crossing over it. A number of doors opened from the sides of the courtyard. Sagitta stood next to one of the doors in the back, conferring with two women and a man in white flowing clothing and sandals. She didn’t see the stalkers anywhere.

  “There,” Treyjon murmured, focused not on the captain’s group but above them, toward a second-story passage that ran around the courtyard and overlooked it. One of the two men leaned against a column up there. He wouldn’t be visible from Sagitta’s position, but he might be close enough to eavesdrop on that conversation. “Let’s visit him,” Treyjon added.

  “What about the other one?” Angela asked, following him toward interior stairs.

  “We’ll keep an eye out for him.”

  Treyjon walked soundlessly up the steps, and Angela tried to do the same. Lulu didn’t make any noise, despite her bulk and claws that should have clacked on the stone stairs.

  From the landing, Angela couldn’t see the captain’s group, but now she could hear their voices. She couldn’t make out words over the gurgling of fountains and the stream. Maybe that was why the water features were there. To make it harder for people to eavesdrop. Would the man be able to hear better from his spot?

  “Stay here,” Treyjon said, pointing to a spot on the landing. “Plant the female—Lulu—there, and stand behind her. I’m going to go up to the next level and try to come down behind that man. I should be able to grab him, but if he’s fast and runs, he’ll run this direction. Until he sees Lulu. Then he’ll stop and piss down his leg, and I can catch up with him.” He considered her with hesitation on his face, like he was doubting his plan already. “You shouldn’t be in danger.”

  “From the man or the pissing?”

  “Both, but do watch out for w
et spots.”

  “Ew.”

  Treyjon’s face grew more serious. “If he does try to barrel through past you and the svenkar, just jump out of the way. There’s no need for you to risk yourself for this. I should have taken you back to the ship.”

  “You could have if you’d found me some donuts first, but I’m still waiting for my sweets.”

  “It’s good of you to be so patient,” Treyjon said, smiling faintly.

  “It absolutely is,” Angela said. “I can’t believe there’s no coffee or Oreos in space. You people aren’t nearly as advanced as you think you are.”

  “Undoubtedly true.” He nodded toward stairs leading up to the next level, including another passage that looked over the courtyard. “Be ready.”

  Treyjon jogged up the steps and disappeared from view. Angela was tempted to walk the ten feet or so from the landing, to where the wall turned into a half wall, so she could peek around the corner and see the man. But if she could see him, he would be able to see her. She wasn’t exactly intimidating, and she doubted anyone would think her a spy, but he might recognize her from the base and get suspicious. Also, it might throw off Treyjon’s plan if the man knew she was there.

  “I urge you to consider the welfare of these women,” came Sagitta’s voice from below, drifting to her over the gurgle of the fountains. He was speaking louder than he had been earlier—she’d barely heard the conversation before.

  “A small group,” a woman replied. “It’s unfortunate that they were victims in this, but we can find good homes for them here. They would be trained to have the skills to find jobs and thrive on Dethocoles.”

  They were talking about Angela. Angela and the others. She rested her hand against the wall for support, then stood very still, trying to catch every word. Were these the archons Sagitta had spoken of? Or was this some preliminary meeting with government busybodies? Maybe the decision was still forthcoming.