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  “No, I am just a humble security officer, here to make sure of the safety and health of all those on the station. It seems Stormyo has begun to attach to her.”

  “He is getting close to his season. We will find a suitable breeding partner for him when that time arrives. That little creature would probably calm him right out of his rut.”

  The security officer shrugged. “She might, but she might not. Stormyo does do better with repairs while she is there, but you might want to schedule some bathing and a change of clothing. She isn’t one of the women for intimate interaction. She will need to shower and dress before coming to medical.”

  The administrator blinked. “I had not thought of that. All of my employees are actually employees. They have their own quarters.”

  “Yes, and she is still in the cells until you devise an actual job description or rank for her. Think it over.”

  Y’tan, the security supervisor, looked down at the close-up of Jewel Springs’ face as she stared at Stormyo. If you knew where to look, the attraction ran both ways. It was just harder to tell with the Terran.

  He hoped that the Imperium got their act together sooner rather than later. He was only going to be able to keep the Terran in a neutral position for so long before the winners began demanding her. Rumours were already circling about the woman who should have been in the fighter quarters and battling on a daily basis.

  The guards who had seen the capture vid liked to talk.

  * * * *

  Jewel did push-ups, sit-ups and chin-ups in her cell. The rest of the time, she was bored and playing with her calm. She had managed to work it into strands, and she played with using it to stop arguments or let them fire up again.

  It felt unfair to play with them like that, but without a data pad to entertain her, she was going to have to do it the old-fashioned way.

  It took two days before she was summoned to medical again. She wanted a bath and a change of clothing, but the guards mentioned that it was urgent.

  Bathing in a tiny sink just wasn’t doing it for her.

  Jewel walked into medical and blanketed the entire space with calm. Her guards had to lead her to a private alcove where the horned man was getting work done on his inner thigh.

  “Hello, mistress. Would you hold my hand?”

  She blinked and walked to his side. He looked pale. He must have lost a lot of blood. She took his hand and he closed his eyes.

  “Thank you.”

  Jewel shivered as he stroked her palm with his thumb.

  “Are you cold, mistress?”

  She looked down and stared blankly into his eyes. “No.”

  She cocked her head. “Did you win or lose?”

  He smiled. “I won, of course. Do you not know who I am?”

  “How would I?”

  His lovely eyes narrowed as he thought about it. “I suppose you could have been a fan before you were hired here.”

  “I am not hired. I was taken from my mission as peacekeeper.”

  A calculating gleam came to his eyes. “So you are in the pens?”

  “The separated cells where the other women and men are?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes.”

  The doctor working on his inner thigh cleared his throat. “That is enough, Springs. We are trying to work here.”

  She went quiet but the patient squeezed her hand lightly.

  “I have been looking to invest in a companion, mistress. It has been quite a while since a woman has not fawned over me for who and what I was. Would you mind meeting with me outside of medical?”

  She shrugged.

  The doctors and assistants watched her as she remained quiet.

  The patient stroked his hand up her arm, and she blinked at the heat that followed the light caress.

  When her body flickered to life under the touch, confusion rolled through her. She jerked back with a frown.

  She kept him calm but moved out of his reach. No one had touched her with any kind of interest since she was a teenager. When her talent flared, she had the unintended effect of numbing her partner to the point where sex was no longer an option.

  Confusion rioted in her body as he continued his sly smile while the doctors completed his repair. She guessed that he knew something she didn’t know and that was as dizzying as anything else.

  Jewel remained close to him but out of reach until she was dismissed.

  She headed back to her cell with the guards and sighed at the punishment she was about to endure. Her food unit was gone and the cell walls were now transparent again. Her minimal privacy was gone.

  Her interaction with the patient was obviously not a desirable event. Sighing, she took a quick sponge bath and headed for bed. If she couldn’t do anything else, she would just sleep until she was summoned again. Exercise would burn calories she didn’t have the ability to replace.

  Jewel waited two days with only water. She was weak, shaking and unsteady on her feet when they took her to medical again and demanded that she calm their horned patient again.

  She took two steps toward him and fell to her knees. She was working to calm him, but she felt a weird pushback on her mind.

  Jewel heard an uproar in the medical center and arms lifted her before placing her on one of the beds.

  “Treat her before you touch me. Put it on my account.”

  His words echoed in her ears. Everything sounded like it was being shouted down a tube.

  “Champion, she doesn’t need treatment.”

  Jewel listened to her guard’s voice. He was the one that spoke to her.

  “Why is she so grey, so weak?”

  The guard cleared his throat. “She hasn’t eaten since she saw you last. Doctor’s orders.”

  Jewel looked over at the assistant who was approaching her with a hypospray. The burning hiss struck her, and she jolted but hands held her down.

  Five more shots were administered before her vision cleared. She sat up and nodded. “I am fine. Apologies for the disturbance.”

  An assistant brought her a glass of juice and it gave her a boost of energy. “Thank you.”

  The patient was next to her. Looking down with concern. “Why didn’t you eat? Was the thought of seeing me so unpleasant?”

  She shook her head. “No. There was no food.”

  His look of concern must have changed when he looked away from her, because the doctors took a step back. “I see. That won’t happen again.”

  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and swayed a little. “You are bleeding. You need medical attention.”

  “Yes, but you are not stable.”

  “I am fine. I can make it through your repairs.”

  “That is not why I am concerned. I believe I have a solution.” He smiled and picked her up, the gash on his arm and wrist bleeding as he carried her.

  He settled in the station where he was normally repaired in relative privacy, and he kept her in his lap.

  “Proceed with the repairs, Doctor.”

  He extended his arm toward the stunned physicians.

  The doctor nearest them picked up his kit and started work. Someone with the look of an administrator came to them and he inclined his head.

  “Champion Stormyo. We regret the discomfort you must have felt while waiting for treatment. I promise there will be no delay after your next injury.”

  Jewel felt the chuckle before she heard it.

  “I know. She is coming with me. If you will not care for her properly, I will.”

  Chapter Three

  Jewel sat quietly for the half hour that the repair took, and when she tried to rise from the Champion’s lap, he gripped her with an arm around her waist.

  “Excuse me, sir. I need to return to my cell.” Her guards were shifting nervously, so she calmed them.

  “No. If the station wants to play games with your health, I will simply tuck responsibility for you under my wishe
s.” He smiled softly. “I am Stormyo.”

  “I am—”

  “Springs.”

  “Jewel. Springs is my surname. My parents’ name.”

  His arm tightened on her waist. “A lovely name.”

  “Thank you. What are you saying?”

  He got to his feet with her in his arms. “You are coming with me.”

  The administrator looked at him in frustration, and Stormyo stared at him for a moment in clear challenge. When the challenge wasn’t taken up, Stormyo walked out of medical via an exit that Jewel had not left through before.

  “I can walk.”

  “I want to carry you. We are returning to my quarters via the private walkway used by fighters who have won more than five fights in a row.”

  “What happens when you lose?”

  He smiled. “I don’t lose.”

  The hallway was sparsely lined with doors, some transparent walls showed elegant apartments and others were opaque.

  He paused in front of a door and pressed his hand to the plate. The door disappeared and he stepped into a room three times as large as Jewel’s first apartment.

  “We are going to bathe and I will send for appropriate clothing for you.”

  “Wait, what?”

  He grinned. “I need to wash off the blood, and you haven’t had access to soap or a change of clothing since I first saw you.”

  She blushed. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

  “Oh, it isn’t. I recognize the bloodstain on the cuff of your dress from our last meeting. It was a safe guess.”

  He smiled and walked through the living space and into a bathroom that could have doubled for a swimming area. The bathing pool was huge, and a separate lav was off to the right and a dressing area to the left.

  Jewel was still wobbly when he set her down, and she didn’t put up a fight when he pulled off her grey gown.

  To her surprise, he helped her into the water without any weird groping. The water began to churn the moment she was in it, and he chuckled at her gasp, taking her gown and leaving the room.

  Jewel found a shampoo that smelled like pine and musk. She lathered up with relief and dunked her entire head as she rinsed.

  Scrubbing herself from head to toe only took minutes, and she felt better when she dipped in and out of the water for her final rinse, and she saw Stormyo waiting for her with a wide towel.

  Jewel exited the water via the steps, and she stood as Stormyo swathed her in the absorbent fabric.

  He sniffed her and chuckled. “You smell like my shampoo. I never thought that the scent would arouse me, but I am proved wrong.”

  Jewel blushed. “I do not know how to respond to that.”

  “You do not have easy access to emotional responses, do you?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “No. I can see them but am never sure what to do with them.”

  He stroked his hands over her back and buttocks, drying her with even strokes of his palms.

  “You had blood on you. Where did it go?”

  “I took a solar. There is another lav off the bedroom.” He chuckled.

  He was careful not to tangle his horns with her hair as he knelt to dry her legs. She didn’t know what species he was, but he seemed to have no trouble making rounds in her vicinity.

  His braided hair swung as he moved around her, getting all of the tiny water droplets with the edges of the towel until she was dry. He worked at her hair with a corner of the towel, and her scalp tingled as he combed her hair with his fingers.

  “There is a brush at the dressing table.”

  She nodded. “Ah, but is there a dress?”

  He chuckled. “Something I believe you will enjoy more.”

  Stormyo walked out of the room and returned with a tube filled with fabric. “Here you are. Something that fits you a little better than the gowns.”

  She opened the canister and pulled out two large wads of fabric. One was a set of low-slung tights in a rippling pattern. The top was snug, long sleeved and left her abdomen completely bare.

  “They are adaptable. Choose the colour and they will change.”

  She ran her hands down the tights and the colour changed from grey to blue to red. Jewel smiled. “Aside from the bare midriff, it is like my uniform clothing.”

  “That is the idea. I want you to feel comfortable at all times. This was as close as I could get.”

  “Thank you for your efforts on my behalf. What do you wish in return?” Getting things out in the open would make things easier for her to adapt to.

  “I believe that I would ask for you to be my companion, and when my rut occurs, I ask that you help to mitigate the effects.” He inclined his head and his horns dipped with the motion.

  “You want me to keep you calm?” Jewel wanted to make sure that she had the right idea.

  “By whatever means necessary.”

  She cocked her head and stared into his eyes. His gaze was completely accepting of whatever he saw.

  “Come with me. I have ordered a meal for you.”

  Jewel nodded and followed him out of the huge bathing chamber. He settled her at the table and went to get her food.

  “I can do that.”

  “Please, allow me to be a host. I get so few opportunities.”

  She sat back when he put the tray in front of her. “Thank you.”

  He put a pitcher of water next to her and provided her with a glass. He poured for her and smiled as he took his own seat.

  She looked at his arm, exposed as it was by the sleeveless wrap shirt in a chocolate brown that made his skin glow. “They healed you completely.”

  He looked down at his arm. “That is what they do.”

  “Did they kidnap you as well?”

  He chuckled. “No. I am a free man. I chose this life as a means to travel and meet other races.”

  “Lucky.” She faced her meal and started in on the delicately arranged food.

  “Not luck, desperation. I am a throwback to the genes of an ancient ancestor and I do not fit in with my own people.”

  She felt her lips pull down in a frown. “I know that feeling.”

  Jewel looked at him. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  Stormyo nodded. “I am, but I want to make sure you are comfortable before I call for my own meal.”

  “I am. Thank you.”

  He smiled and got to his feet, returning to the food dispenser. “Tell me about how you came to be here.”

  She blinked. “How far back do you want me to go?”

  “Begin at your home world and tell me what happened next.”

  Jewel sipped at her water and started her story while he selected his meal and returned to the table in a relay that covered half the surface with plates and trays.

  She kept talking as he ate and occasionally filched a tempting tidbit off one of his plates. “So, I did six months on Frekiad, mining world, as a peacekeeper and now I am here.”

  “Why were you selected? I am not complaining, but you are not an obvious choice.” He smiled.

  “One of the peacekeepers was wife to someone on this station. She was retrieved and all female officers with her. From what she told me, the others were ransomed back to the colony.”

  “And you remained here?”

  “As a gift to the station. Or something. She was lying a lot, so I am not sure why I am here.”

  “I can’t be sedated. I am guessing that when she told them what your skill was, they thanked her for her honesty in the matter as peacekeepers are generally supposed to keep special skills to themselves when it comes to teammates.”

  “You sound like you know about the protocols.”

  He smiled. “I have not always been a fighter. I did five years as a peacekeeper on my home world before it was apparent that even protecting the helpless, I would not be accepted.”

  She blinked. “Why not?”

  “Are you familiar with the D
orrsooni?”

  “Sure, tiny, little creatures about this high. Brown with freckles.” She held her hand out at her waist.

  “My parents are Dorrsooni. I am obviously not.” He drank something blue with a violet tinge.

  “My family is all emotionally normal. I am obviously not.”

  He chuckled. “You are. You just have your protective instinct first then cognition then emotion. You calm the room so you can examine it and act once you have a grip on the situation.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “You are not the first broadcasting empath I have met. You are the first to have a setting locked on calm though.” He smiled.

  She narrowed her eyes. “So you know what I am. Why did you bother with bringing me here?”

  “To get any medical treatment, I need psychic sedation, and I sensed that you were in danger going back to the cells. They would either starve you or begin to rent you out to fighters to punish you and reward them.”

  “Why punish me?”

  “You spoke to me, frankly and openly. They are worried that I will leave and I will take a good portion of their income with me. The fighters here are all free men and women. It is the service personnel that we run into the issue. We get attached to them and they are used against us. I thought to avert that by simply claiming you.”

  “Can you do that?” She leaned forward and snitched a piece of fruit from one of his plates.

  “I did. Now, we need to see what the fallout is. I have a fight in sixteen hours. I am inviting you to come and watch the bout. It will be safer for you be in public and out of their grasp.”

  She bit her lip. “That might not be a good idea. I can cast a pretty wide net if I have to, but I have a bigger problem with pulling it in.”

  “You are afraid you will calm me out of a killing frenzy?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “I fight calm. If you can keep from revving my opponent down, that would be appreciated.”

  “I will try. Will you get tapped for cheating if I am there?”

  He shook his head. “No. Emotional manipulation is acceptable in the rules. Men will often try and use women to gain the upper hand on their opponents. With you that is unlikely.”