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  Tazzy blinked at the wave of liquid silver that was wrapping the prince from ankle to neck.

  Quell held up his hand. “Silver, enough! We are guests here.”

  Silver held up his hand and the wrapping retreated, returning to him. “I apologize, Your Majesties. Your son was taking advantage of the Commander’s manners.”

  Their majesties waved off the disturbance. “Please, return to the table, Sollas.”

  Sollas resumed his seat and kept his hands to his self for the rest of the meal.

  When the tower of sculpted sugar arrived, they all applauded.

  Tazzy was relieved. She wasn’t sure which of the Decolian’s were better at glaring, Silver or Sollas.

  Dessert was in the form of a heady wine that Tazzy had trouble finishing. When the king and queen dismissed the diners, Tazzy wasn’t sure that her knees would hold her.

  She thanked her hosts, and they smiled at her, their gazes curious.

  Tazzy rose to her feet and inclined her head toward Sollas. “Thank you for a fascinating evening.”

  He got to his feet and towered over her, swaying slightly. “I wish that we could repeat this experience when there were not obnoxious guests around.”

  She didn’t know how to react to that, so she extended her hand again, and he pressed a kiss to it. When he turned her hand over and placed a kiss in her palm, she heard a hiss of warning a moment before Silver launched himself over the table and into the prince of Decolian 12.

  Chapter Three

  Tazzy stood back while the two men fought. Royal guards stumbled into the room, but a short bark from the king and they retreated again.

  Tazzy watched them pound on each other fist to flesh for a few minutes, and then, she had had enough. Moving quickly, she touched each man on the jaw and then stood back. “Halt.”

  They froze with their fists raised in midair.

  “Calm down.”

  They lowered their fists.

  “Stand up and apologize for being idiots.” She crossed her arms over her breasts and tapped her foot.

  Rusalla was laughing, and the Guardians were looking at her with surprised admiration.

  The king and queen were just blinking in amazement.

  The men bowed and apologized to their hosts.

  Tazzy inclined her head. “As I seem to be the cause of the disruption, I thank you for your hospitality and look forward to returning to duty tomorrow morning. This has been an eventful day off.”

  The king and queen dismissed her, and Tazzy didn’t waste time. She bolted as decorously as possible.

  She retreated to her room in the garrison and got into her comfy clothing. She grabbed her book and crawled back into her window seat.

  Tazzy tried to read to keep calm, but she couldn’t concentrate. Arkenor was here, he was a Guardian, and he still sent her pulse spinning. Add that to the fact that she had just outed her talent and she had really had one helluva day.

  Life had taken a weird turn, and it looked like her quiet little posting was about to hit the fan.

  Yuula laughed as Tazzy worked her way through breakfast. The events of the evening before were spreading throughout the imperial garrison. She finished her meal, returned her tray to the stack and walked to her office. She had to run bodyguard duty for some nobles who wanted to negotiate with the king and queen.

  It was time to get back to the tasks she actually enjoyed. She took her skiff and met them at the spaceport, driving them across the city and into the main entryway.

  The nobles from Decolian 9 wished to engage in a marriage contract for their son. If Rusalla was amenable, she was the first choice; Sollas was the second.

  Their son was a hulk of a man with a surprisingly light step as he walked through the halls. In a mean moment, Tazzy had to think that Sollas might do better with a partner who could simply put him where he wanted him.

  It might be character building.

  After the polite rejection by the king and queen, stating that their children would follow family tradition and select their own mates, her guests nodded their acquiescence. Under that stricture, there would be no treatise selling their children for political advantage.

  They were not invited to stay, and so, Tazzy took them back to the spaceport and kept them under watch until their ship lifted off.

  The moment she was free, she hit a street-vendor stall for some charred meat on a stick and headed back to the palace. Getting a snack on the go was better than most of the offerings that she could consume on this world so far from home.

  She went back to her office, filed a report about the day’s activity and headed for the gym. It was time for some nice, honest sweat that didn’t involve a fantasy of a man in a mask with brilliantly blue eyes.

  She was a third of her way through her workout when a ripple of intrigue ran through the other users of the facility. Tazzy paused and looked to see what the fuss was and saw Silver signing autographs and shaking hands.

  Yuula paused in her own workout. “What is he doing here?”

  “I have no idea. Don’t the Guardians have their own gym?” Tazzy tried not to stare at the female members of the royal guard who were fawning over Silver.

  “I imagine that they do, but it is probably not full of attractive and sweaty women.” Yuula chortled.

  She had a point. Every female of compatible specie was lusting after the masked Guardian.

  Tazzy returned to her workout, pulling and pushing weights that she would not have been able to lift back home. Enhancements were a wonderful thing in her line of work.

  She was on her backbench pressing twice her body weight when Yuula shifted to one side and Silver took the spot.

  “You look well, Rikkat.” He looked funny at the peculiar angle, but his expression was also sweet.

  She grunted. “It has been a while. They said you did not make it. I am glad to see that they were wrong.”

  “As was I. The measures they had to take were extensive. There was no going back.” He muttered his last sentence.

  “So I gathered last night. Family rivalry between you and Sollas?”

  Silver shrugged. “We have often been attracted to the same women. Last night was no different.”

  She let out a blast of air and sat up. Tazzy grabbed a towel and wiped sweat from her skin. “So nice to know that some things don’t change.”

  “You are angry with me.” He nodded.

  “You think? I thought you were dead for days, and then, you are alive but would not speak to me. I think I am entitled to anger.”

  Silver looked around. “This is hardly the place for this conversation.”

  Tazzy twisted her lips. “You picked it. I was just engaged in my customary nocturnal activities and you showed up.”

  “Oh? I thought your activities involved going to the Companion clubs.” He crossed his arms.

  “Special assignment to retrieve Prince Sollas. He likes to be paid for his services, and he didn’t know my face.” She got to her feet and headed for the locker room.

  She heard him follow her and did her best to ignore him. She grabbed her long robe from her locker and headed for the showers.

  “You mean you were on assignment?”

  “Of course I was, idiot Guardian. Sollas was expected for dinner at the palace and was showing no indication that he would attend on his own. I was asked to get him as I am right in his preferred specs.”

  “So, you haven’t taken to trolling for strange men on strange planets?”

  Fully dressed in her workout gear, she stepped under the shower and let it soak her down. With careful movements, she stripped off her gear and stowed it in a bag along with the towel. It was amazing how it was second nature to have all her workout clothing incinerated. Her sweat had enough strength to induce a fugue state, but without her to control it, it could be dangerous.

  She finished scrubbing and looked at Silver through her lashes.

  He was staring at her left side with a sick horror. “
What happened?”

  It was a little surreal to be having this conversation in a shower.

  “It’s classified.” She shrugged and finished shampooing her hair. The green, purple and black locks were her crowning glory. Once clean, she stepped onto the drying pad, and then, she slipped on her robe.

  With her bag at her side, she headed back to her locker, Silver following in her wake.

  “I don’t understand what happened to you, Rikkat.”

  She twisted her lips to the side. “I know. You weren’t with me. The replacement I got didn’t make for an effective team.”

  He paused. “You were injured because I wasn’t there?”

  “I was injured because I depended on a new partner. We didn’t know each other well enough to anticipate the other’s moves. I went right, he went left, and I survived.”

  “He died?”

  “That’s correct. Now, the rest is classified, and I am sticking to it.”

  He blinked behind his mask, his vivid blue eyes wide with surprise.

  There was a commotion in the locker room, and Flick came in with his eyes covered. “Silver, we have a mission.”

  Tazzy shrugged, “Go ahead. I am not keeping him.”

  Silver scowled. “This is not the end of it, Rikkat.”

  “Make an appointment, Guardian. I have my duties to the imperium to attend to.” It took all of her focus not to lean into the hand that he placed on her shoulder.

  “I will speak to you soon, and I will make an appointment.”

  He left her alone, and she waited until he was out of the locker room before she let her shoulders sag. It wasn’t as horrible as she had anticipated. She had stuck to her guns and gone about her business as if he wasn’t there. It had cost her.

  Tazzy wrapped her robe again, snuggly covering every inch of her. She used the lift to get her back to her quarters in the garrison where she tossed the bag of clothing into her personal incinerator. It was her largest expense.

  Having the ability to enthrall men and women with a simple touch was fine for the job, but it was annoying when it came to having a private life. She had sacrificed her private life, and now, there was only the job left behind. There was no room for anything else.

  Tazzy sighed and curled up in her window seat again, staring out at the new sky and the foreign stars. She was going to have to make a decision, and it was not going to look good on her record.

  Chapter Four

  Seated behind her desk, she checked her schedule. A call was waiting for her from Guardian control. The Imperial Guard dispatcher was also waiting for her, and since she worked for them, they were her first call.

  “Good morning, Dispatcher.”

  “Good morning, Commander Rikkat. We have been getting good reports from your new posting.”

  “Thank you. In that regard, I am requesting that I be reposted to another world.”

  The dispatcher’s cheerful face went blank. “What? But you just arrived.”

  “I have a history with one of the Guardians, and as we will no doubt collide during our duties, I am requesting a reposting.”

  The dispatcher rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, that leads to the nature of this call. I have received a request to have you work with the Guardians as imperial liaison. The commanding officer believes it is a good posting, and they have approved it.”

  Tazzy got a headache. “You are kidding.”

  “I am not joking. You have been handed over to the Guardians to be their go between with local law enforcement. They will be calling you shortly.”

  “They have already called. I returned your call first.”

  “Then, you had better get into communication with them soon, or they will send their commanding officer to speak with you in person. They were most insistent that you join them. Your alteration qualifies you for Guardian service, but it is subtle enough that it need not be made a matter of public record.”

  Tazzy rubbed her forehead. “Wonderful. I was just settling in at the garrison.”

  “Sorry. Now, make that call.”

  “Yes, dispatcher. I hate packing.”

  “I know. Dismissed, Commander.”

  The screen went dark.

  Tazzy keyed in the code for Guardian control, and she waited. The Nyal officer with deep red eyes soon filled the screen.

  “Commander Anastasia Rikkat of Terra, you have been reassigned to the Guardian program as imperial liaison. You will be collected by the end of the day and relocated to the Guardian base on Decolian 12. All notices have been filed with the imperium and the royal family on Decolian 12.”

  “Wonderful.” She scowled.

  “Do you have any requirements?”

  “Yes, I need a lock on my door, a private incinerator and an extensive and disposable wardrobe. My skin gives off a chemical hypnotic and my workout clothing can be used to sedate anyone, anywhere. It needs to be destroyed or cleaned before it can be used for ill.”

  “Understood. Your biological necessities have been taken into consideration and uniforms are en route. You will begin your duties in three days.”

  There was no negotiation in that tone. She was the imperial liaison to the Guardian program whether she wanted to be or not.

  A knock at her door distracted her for a moment, and the Guardian control officer used her distraction to cut the call.

  Quell, Flick and Silver came through her doorway without her authorizing entry.

  Quell inclined his head. “Commander Rikkat, I believe that you have been informed as to your new posting.”

  She nodded and set her desk to rights, “I have been, Guardian.”

  “Excellent. Please come with us.”

  “My bags?”

  “Already packed and in our transport.” Flick smiled shyly.

  Tazzy narrowed her eyes. “You went through my quarters?”

  Flick nodded. “As fast as I could. In and out in under two minutes.”

  Quell inclined his head. “We will do our best to respect your privacy when we are not on duty, Commander.”

  “Thank you, Guardian.” She nodded and quickly made a file packet that she would be able to access from any location. Her fingers flew across the screens, and she looked up when she was done.

  “Well, if you have my things, I suppose that I am at your disposal.” Tazzy stepped around her desk and smiled at Quell, grinned at Frisk and she sobered her face when she met Silver’s gaze. He was staring at her with nothing but calm in his blue eyes.

  “Excellent. Shall we?”

  She stood before them. “If you are ready, then we shall.”

  They closed ranks around her and escorted her out of her office, down the hall and out of the palace.

  The palace guards stared and whispered as they passed, but no one spoke to her.

  They escorted her onto the transport, and she settled into a seat on their transport. They took off a moment later with Quell at the controls.

  She watched the surface go by, and as they increased speed, she closed her eyes. They crossed oceans and skimmed along mountain ranges before they settled on the pad at their base, her new home.

  Flick smiled, “Come on, it is time for the grand tour.”

  She put her hand in his. “Thank you. I suppose that it is better I get familiar with my surroundings now rather than later.”

  Silver was still silent, but he kept close.

  The buildings were connected via covered hallways, skylights were plentiful and the square footage was mind-boggling.

  “You are the only woman on base, so we have given you quarters off to one side. You will have privacy in this wing.” Flick smiled and his tail twitched from side to side.

  “Thank you, and have my laundry requirements been met?”

  “They have been. You have a private clothing scrubber and laundry unit at your disposal.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “How long has this been planned?”

  “Well, Quell knew he wanted you on board the moment
that he found out your history was sealed, but before that, we were instructed to prepare quarters for a liaison. About three weeks ago, we got the orders.”

  Three weeks earlier, she had just been given the clean bill of health and got into the routine of not leaving her clothing lying around. It had been her hardest habit to break. Going from a slob to being organized was the most difficult part of her change.

  Flick opened a set of double doors and pushed them wide. “These are your quarters. You have a private com unit, wardrobe, bathing chamber and bedroom. When we are not on assignment, you can come here for complete privacy. The rest of the base is at your disposal, of course.”

  A parade of bots carrying her bags trooped in and began to unpack for her.

  Flick ducked his head. “I took placement scans of your room before I packed. We don’t have a window seat for you here, but there is an observatory in the north wing. You can make yourself at home there when you want to read in the starlight.”

  She blinked. “I didn’t leave anything in the window seat.”

  “Silver mentioned that you liked to look up at strange stars while you read.”

  The man in question was nowhere near them.

  “He did?”

  “Yes, he said that when he knew you before, you could never pass up a look at new stars and constellations. How long ago was that?”

  Tazzy tried to play it off. “A year, maybe two.”

  Flick smiled, “Shall we begin your tour?”

  “Certainly. Am I to address you all by your call signs at all times?”

  “It is preferable until you are an official Guardian yourself. You are not bound by the same regulations as we are. Rules must be maintained.”

  Tazzy nodded. “Understandable.”

  They walked back toward the transport bay; he showed her the skimmers and the larger shuttles, some with weapons and others without.

  He took her through the pool area, the gym, showed her the observatory and they ended in the common rooms. The kitchen, dining area, seating area and what appeared to be a games section were all in one open-concept collage. Quell and Silver were sitting next to each other and in deep conversation that stopped the moment Flick and Tazzy entered the room.