Centauri Fury: A Harem Space Fantasy (Centauri Bliss Book 4) Read online

  "We're getting a general transmission," Dela said, tapping away at keys to bring it up on a screen.

  Lexi Ch'Kai was standing before a group of Ardoka. They were still in the club down on the surface. That much was clear from the decor behind her and the piles of corpses.

  Dela said, "This is going out wide to most of the Imperium. They're using whatever they did to infiltrate the traffic control systems, sending it out on the emergency broadcast channel."

  "Can you block them?" Quinn asked.

  "Does anything in my resume say super-hacker? Maybe if we had one of the brains still aboard," Dela said, frustrated.

  Lexi stared into the camera, her voice strong and threatening, "People of the Imperium. I am Lexi Ch'Kai. For too long you have sat complacent while your rulers preyed on innocents. You have allowed yourself to be complicit in their crimes against the other species of the galaxy. You felt safe with the power of your Emperor, of your military."

  "The lady is certainly passionate," Quinn said.

  "I kind of agree with her. I mean, not the crazy murdering people everywhere thing, but I've always hated the Imperium's position on aliens," Dela said.

  Lexi continued, "The Emperor is dead. Your military has turned on each other. Criminals flourish. We could save you. Those who you cast aside, those you wronged, we could be better."

  "Main guns are charging again. Past the point of the previous ones," Dela said.

  Quinn tapped at the controls, readying a sequence. Once it was in place he hit the comm.

  "Lexi is getting all high and mighty, and is about to rain serious fire and death down upon this world. Tell me you're ready," Quinn said.

  "We know. We picked up the transmission too. Red hotness needs a few more minutes," Tourmaline said.

  Lexi was shaking her head. "But you do not deserve salvation. You have not earned mercy. Humanity, the foes you've made are coming for you, and this world will be but the first to burn."

  "Guns at full power," Dela said.

  That was their cue. Quinn hit the sequence he'd programmed and the thrusters fired, pulling them away from the charging conduit and spinning the ship so they could open fire.

  The explosion sent debris flying and large arcs of energy dancing along the hull. The Centauri Bliss was already leaving the sight of the blast at full power. Shots were streaking over the outside of the dreadnought to impact the next closest conduit.

  The image of Lexi flickered and vanished, replaced by Jinx. If Lexi were dignified fury, Jinx presented a far different image dressed in her Queen of Thieves garb that left little to the imagination, and with her runes glowing brilliantly. The background was one of distinctly alien technology, strange green swirls of metal covered in elongated glyphs that pulsed in ways to give one a headache after looking at them for a few seconds.

  Jinx said, "You might know me. Queen of Thieves, although most of you probably think me just a story. Real, chilly, and trying my best to save Hogarth Three. I've a soft spot for criminals, for a lot of folks really. Lexi wants you to feel your doom is coming for you, she wants you to give up and believe there is no hope left. Me? I disagree."

  Dela told Quinn, "Whatever Kalisa is doing, it’s working. They have safeguards against overload, but they're struggling."

  The Centauri Bliss wasn't able to hide from the Ardoka sensors any longer. Point defense systems opened up and Quinn was forced to execute stomach-churning evasive rolls on the way to the next charging cylinder which again exploded in a spray of metal.

  "I'm stealing Lexi's comm channel. I'm stealing her vengeance. I'm stealing the victory today. It's kind of what I do," Jinx was saying.

  There were over two dozen explosions from the Ardoka vessel, every charging conduit at once overloading. Their guns were down.

  Jinx's transmission cut out, but Lexi's didn't return. Instead the view was now from the sensors of the Centauri Bliss.

  "Lifeboat, launching from the engine section. It’s going to be close," Mara called.

  It was. They'd barely gotten the lifeboat aboard when the Ardoka ship exploded, purple and green bursts of energy ripping it apart.

  Lexi couldn’t possibly have had enough time to get aboard—she'd been left on the planet with whatever forces she had. Quinn had no interest in hunting her down, they'd done enough.

  11

  "You'd think you already didn't have a small army of wives, judging from how nervous you appear," Kalisa said, as she stalked around Quinn.

  They'd no more than gotten the team aboard before Kalisa was insisting Quinn's presence in the bedroom to properly consummate their marriage, and infect him with Chaos magic.

  Mara had objected, loudly and violently upon learning about the arrangement, but ultimately yielded when Quinn and Tamara showed how unified they were on the matter. A deal was a deal.

  "You imply that there is a good chance of this making me explode, and not in the fun way. Man has a right to be a bit twitchy," Quinn said, as he studied her.

  The reluctance to this wasn't about going to bed with Kalisa. While she didn't have the flawless perfection of the genetically modified members of the family, her strong features fed perfectly into the sort of feral danger she radiated.

  Quinn also had to admit he'd been staring at her for awhile. Because of Kara he was aroused constantly now in the presence of any of the family, and given Kalisa couldn't really leave the ship and didn't exactly dress modestly, he'd stolen a lot of glances at her toned form.

  Kalisa rested a hand on her hip and tilted her head to study him. "Oh, you'll definitely do the fun way. The other perhaps, but not today. You're no Order mage yet."

  "You've got a new rune," Quinn said, surprised. This one curled around her neck and along one shoulder, glowing red like all her others.

  "I do, and you to thank for it. I knew those engines had a magical component, but I hadn't counted on just how challenging it would be. I very nearly unwove myself on that vessel," Kalisa said, sounding more gleeful than troubled by her near-death.

  "So how does this ... work?"

  "You'd think you'd know the basics," Kalisa said in dry amusement, starting to undo her top. Her breasts would make a nice handful but they weren't massive, tiny dark nipples already hard as they were exposed to the air.

  "You know I don't mean that," Quinn said.

  "I'm more powerful than my apprentice, but you are more loyal to her. That is going to be problematic," Kalisa said, undoing her bottoms as well and letting them fall to the floor. There was nothing beneath them and Quinn took a moment to admire the sight.

  It was true, and obvious. Jinx was one of Quinn's first wives and had saved his life on many occasions. Jinx was going to be the mother of his child. Quinn loved and trusted her, while neither could be said of Kalisa. For all that he intended to honor the deal, it didn't change the facts.

  Quinn slipped out of his own clothes. It didn't require the presence of one of the others for him to be turned on in Kalisa's presence. His body seemed quite excited enough all on its own.

  "Lay down," Kalisa said, gesturing to the bed.

  Quinn took a place on his back and Kalisa moved to settle herself atop him, straddling his hips. There wasn't even an attempt at foreplay before she was easing herself onto him, not that she seemed to need it. Kalisa was as excited as he was.

  "This might fail, but it’s the best I've come up with. You'll want to keep one hand here," Kalisa said, taking his right hand and moving it to rest on the rune on her left thigh.

  The touch was very nearly electric, dizzying. The rune seemed to radiate power beneath his palm.

  "Does it matter that it’s that one?" Quinn asked.

  "My first. The one that all of us original Unshackled share. The rune of Chaos," Kalisa said. "You of the second generation and later must earn your runes. We of the first were given ours."

  The contact with the rune grew more intense the longer Quinn held his hand there, the very touch of that flesh changing. At one moment feel
ing exactly as he would expect, the next scaled like Vess, or furred, cold as ice, or painfully hot.

  "That sounds like a story," Quinn said.

  "One I scarce remember. We, all of us on the Chaos side, were driven mad by it. To a one we became monsters and terrors of the worst sort," Kalisa said, then she became almost wistful. "Until Opalia freed us."

  The history lesson was intriguing, and for the moment for it was incredibly ill-timed.

  Kalisa was already beginning to rock her hips, building up to a slow rhythm, and she ran her hands over Quinn's chest before she leaned to press a hungered kiss against his lips.

  Further storytelling was forestalled until Kalisa drew back.

  "That was Jinx's ancestor," Quinn said.

  "The first Empress. Once our captain, once our friend," Kalisa said. "We still don't know how she did it, not exactly, but she bled herself dry of magic. Her and all her line. Gobbled up every tiny shred and gave it to us. Just enough Order to keep us sane, to make us human again."

  Quinn was having an increasingly hard time focusing on the conversation. The movement of their bodies together consumed his attention, and the rune beneath his hand seemed to be squirming as if alive.

  "But then you tried to murder everyone?" Quinn asked.

  "Opalia might have forgiven us our crimes. Not so the Emperor who replaced her. I know this is not the time for tales, but you should know a little of the history of what you are getting into." Kalisa’s breath was hot as she ghosted a kiss against Quinn's neck.

  Every time one of Kalisa's runes brushed Quinn's flesh it left the same sensory confusion as the one beneath his hand. In a strange way Kalisa seemed to be losing definition, flickering like the might-have-beens Quinn experienced during a jump. One moment she had no runes, then every square inch of her flesh would be covered in them, then she briefly became a version heavily scarred with only the original.

  "You're ... sort of melting away," Quinn said, the sheer overwhelming oddness was starting to make him feel feverish, delirious.

  "Let me," Kalisa said. "You aren't just coupling with me, but with Chaos. This will be uncomfortable for you. We're going right to the edge and staying there. And we're going to stay there for a very long time."

  "So you're trying to drive me insane in more ways than one," Quinn said with a breathless chuckle.

  "I am, actually. Hold you there long enough, and you'll break with need. I'll become the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, every single one of me. You'll beg and plead, and do anything just to finally find release," Kalisa said, and her lips once more sought his for a kiss, her teeth nipping at them before she pulled away again. "For a moment I'll own you body and soul."

  "And you think I'll let you in," Quinn said, in sudden understanding.

  "I don't need an eternity. A moment of you being more loyal to me than her is enough, and I will tear that moment out of you," Kalisa said, her hips continuing that steady slow rocking that was becoming agonizing.

  It was madness of a sort. Atop him and beneath his touch Kalisa continued to morph and shift, and the more his will continued to erode beneath that pleasure the more he couldn't even remember which aspect of her was real. It didn't really matter.

  The longer it went on, the more Quinn ached for her, that longing spreading to every form. That longing soon becoming one for Chaos itself.

  Somewhere there in the night, after hours had gone by, Quinn's mind well and truly snapped. When it did he finally found his release, Kalisa too. The constant swirl of the possibilities she might be finally coming to a standstill, and they both were left spent and panting.

  Quinn was different. There was an awareness of the room around him now. Of the air currents, of their flow, of the untapped possibilities of them all.

  Kalisa shifted off Quinn, although she kept a leg hooked over his as she snuggled against him. "I feel I earned another rune after that performance."

  "It worked, didn't it?"

  "It did, and you didn't wind up with a tail or anything too odd," Kalisa said.

  Quinn remembered some of the clansfolk he'd seen in her fortress. A lot had animal features.

  "You're not even joking, are you?" Quinn said.

  "Not. You have gray eyes now. Very slate-colored, pretty, I like them. Some physical change is usual," Kalisa said.

  "And I suppose now you have two apprentices."

  "Unless you have another Chaos mage on board. A lot of what you can do will come instinctively and is going to be unique to you. Once you get a handle on that, I can help you refine it.".

  "And I'm now ... contagious," Quinn said.

  "Didn't think of that before making the deal? I've got an idea for that," Kalisa said, prodding Quinn in the side. "But not tonight. That first time might have been all about business, let’s see if we can't manage some for fun."

  They did.

  12

  "This is stupid. I should just use a gun. Or maybe explosives," Kara said, glaring at the water.

  It was three days since they'd blown up the Ardoka dreadnought and they'd set down on a farming world. Jinx's speech might have accomplished just what they needed. It gave them some pull in the right areas. It also made them go loud in a big way.

  The profile of the Centauri Bliss was already well-known and those searching for her should be able to identify the ship, but that didn't mean they needed to make it easy. Melody was busy completely re-rigging the ship’s transponders. It was something Imperium authorities always tried to make impossible, and smugglers were always working to keep one step ahead.

  That meant setting down somewhere well out of the way, in this case an agricultural world that was dominated almost entirely by farming drones. The lakes also had fish. The fishing trip had been Tourmaline's idea.

  "Guns or explosives wouldn't be sporting. If you can't win a battle with the weapon you're dealt, you're not much of a warrior," Tourmaline said.

  It was easy for her to talk. She'd already caught four of decent size. That put her ahead of either Quinn or Vess, who had joined her.

  "You should get in there and snap them with your jaw. That is the only real way to hunt for fish," Vess said.

  It was a strange experience, fishing with Quinn's newly acquired Chaos senses. He could almost see the possibilities, thin red lines threading their way through the water. The more chaotic the situation, the more lines, and the more possibilities to sway to a desired outcome. Not that he could really do that yet.

  "I'd bite a fish," Kara said thoughtfully. "More fun than trying to lure one in with a stick and a bug."

  "We are not biting anything. What is wrong with you people?" Tourmaline said, tossing them both a scowl. "Here I thought I was the savage."

  Quinn got a bite. Jerking his pole he began to reel it in, the fish putting up quite a struggle. More than he'd expected and he found his feet slipping in the mud.

  Tourmaline moved over to grab his arm, fingers curling into place to hold him. "Careful hotness. They pack a punch."

  Quinn was finding that out. The pole and line were both made of durable enough materials they wouldn't easily break, even against a struggle such as this.

  It took a good minute to finally reel the fish in. It was gray-blue in color with countless whisker tendrils that writhed.

  Quinn tossed it into the bucket where it swam with the others Tourmaline had already caught.

  "Maybe next time we can go hunting for something even bigger. Ever heard of a razor fang? They have these razor-sharp spines, and fangs! They're so much fun," Kara said.

  "Immune to fire?" Vess asked.

  "Nah, but they have this big, thick skin that makes them super-durable. No healing factor though."

  "Is that another one of those monsters from your home world? We are so not visiting that place," Quinn said.

  "I think it sounds fun. If we ever take a vacation from fighting royals, we should go hunt monsters," Vess said.

  "Best prey is always going to be other people. I was
a bounty hunter for some of my lives. Even when you know what you're doing, people always find a way to surprise you," Tourmaline said.

  "I was enjoying that until I hooked up with all of you," Kara said, as she recast her line. "I haven't missed it. You guys pick way bigger fights."

  "So how is the whole agent of chaos and destruction thing going?" Tourmaline asked Quinn.

  "When do I get to punch you in the face like Jinx?" Kara asked him.

  "You don't. Chaos magics do combat differently. I'm supposed to ... you know, not get my face punched," Quinn said.

  "Sounds like you need someone to try and punch you in the face to get that right," Kara said brightly.

  "You aren't still punching Jinx, are you?" Quinn asked.

  Kara frowned a moment. "Every day. It was kind of fun at first, but now even I'm feeling a little guilty about it. I think I must have broken her nose two hundred times by now. Every time she stands back up and says we go again."

  "She's made of tough stuff," Tourmaline said.

  Vess said, "My people have a saying. Scales over spirit. Younglings who haven't mastered the shift charge into combat without their scales fully grown."

  "That is why she's going to learn with me doing the punching. Then when it counts, she's going to be more than just one mean little dragon thing," Kara said.

  "Has Tamara talked to Dela?" Quinn asked Tourmaline.

  Kalisa had used their last visit with Joline to fabricate the implants. Now with this down-time she'd implanted them. Although she'd come through the surgery fine, Dela had been locked up in her quarters since.

  "Tried. You'll want to give her some time. Having your whole nervous and muscular system rewired? It's not easy. Usually you do it as a kid when the body is more resilient," Tourmaline said.

  "That's right. You've got some scientists in that head of yours too," Quinn said, pulling back his line and casting it again.