Truthbreaker Read online

  TRUTHBREAKER

  By

  Kelly Lucille

  Text Copyright Kelly Lucille 2020

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  "Truthsayer Kelia. Trig wait." The voice calling her name stopped her right when she was sure she was going to make it back to her quarters without having this conversation. Again.

  "Commander Malik," she answered with her usual serene tone, as she turned and faced the man she had hoped to avoid. "Does the High Ambassador have further need of my skills?"

  Malik was a dark-skinned, dark eyed, dark haired, warrior of a man who had earned both his rank of Commander in the Alliance Marines, and Captain of the High Ambassadors elite guard. The man was all business most of the time, all six feet of stern brow and deadly muscle. But the few times he had gotten her alone, like now, he made no secret of the fact that he would like to be significantly closer to her than work acquaintances. Not that he was inappropriate, more like determined in his regard. She had learned enough about the man to know he would never go where he was not invited. That did not change the dominant way he pushed her just a little with every look and casual touch to let her know he was not giving up.

  "No," he said, as he came to a stop in his usual way, just the tiniest bit closer than comfortable. Not so much that she felt threatened and could take umbrage, but enough that she knew he wanted to get closer still. "I wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner with me, since we are unusually both off duty at the same time."

  Trig shook her head and sighed. "You are persistent," she muttered. "I will give you that." She shook her head again and spoke with the cool formal voice she used whenever she was faced with such a question and gave him the same answer as always. "The answer is still no, but I thank you for the honor of your request."

  "But you want me to stop honoring you with such invitations?" he asked with almost a smile guessing the rest of what she was not saying. Even if she could see the frustration in his eyes. She also saw the humor, and the determination.

  She turned fully to face him and was sure to look him dead in the eye. She did not have to speak for him to read the affirmation of that in her eyes.

  "You could just go out with me," he said his smile growing and she understood from the spot of wickedness in his eyes that it had worked on many women before her and why. "You might like it."

  The man had a very sexy way about him, and his dogged pursuit and dangerous almost predatory assurance was not in any way shape or form unattractive. Unfortunately for him she had no desire or need to get closer to him or any of the other handsome warriors employed by the High Ambassador. She could not image a worse idea than to start a relationship with a man this entrenched in Alliance duty, no matter how attractive he might be. She had too many things to hide to get that close to anyone.

  Trig turned and placed her palm print on the keypad and stepped into her room, turning to face the warrior as he stepped closer as if to follow. She held out a hand, careful as ever not to touch him. "You know what I am, commander, and you know I cannot lie, so take this as it is meant and without the misconception that I am either playing some lovers hard to get game, or being untruthful in my regard. I want to be left alone, and that is not going to change. Goodnight and goodbye, Commander." Then she hit the com plate to close the hatch between them before he could come up with some other argument to try to get her to give him a chance. She read the disappointment on his face before the metal swished shut between them, but it was the stubborn gleam that accompanied it that told her the man was still going to pursue her.

  If he would have listened she would have told him not to bother. The last person she would ever go out with was a guard of the High Ambassador and marine guard of the fleet. Not with her secrets.

  There was not a single person still alive who knew what she hid so carefully, and she needed to keep it that way. The last thing she needed was to get involved with a man who would be honor bound to report her if he ever discovered what she was. Truthsayers were revered wherever they went, revered or if they were unlucky or stupid enough to be left vulnerable, they would be hunted and enslaved.

  What she was? Well, not even the umbrella of protection being in the employ of the high ambassador granted her would be enough protection if that information was discovered.

  Malik might be a sexy and, from what she had seen, honorable man, but no man was worth taking that chance, so she would do as she always did when her shift was over, and stay in her cabin and keep her body, and her secrets, to herself.

  At least she had a nice room, she thought as she dropped her com and I-dent bracelet on the table and looked around. A luxury apartment on the High Ambassador’s command frigate was not only the safest place she had ever been, it was also the most comfortable. Which was good, since she spent most of her off time within these walls.

  The thought was not the comfort it was supposed to be, and she berated herself for her greed. Did she really yearn for more, when so many had less? She had comfort and safety. She could do without companionship or the stars forbid, love.

  Trig walked to the view screen at the back of her personal area. That she could see the stars directly from her own quarters was a great deal more than most of the Ambassador’s staff had. The lounge area was massive compared to most. Right now it was for sitting, later she would say a command and it would become whatever size bed she wanted. There was an open space she could use for her meditations and martial arts, but with a press of a screen her own food prep station would slide out of the walls. The same with a bathing area and storage compartments where she stored her apparel. She had everything from Ceremonial robes to nanite armor for her job, not to mention her casual ship wear and sleeping sets, so it was a bigger area than most had.

  Since she had not bothered to command on lights, it was ambient light that reflected off the metallic walls of the ship and showed her reflection. Making her look almost ethereal in the flowing robes of her office. Of course underneath the flowing sapphire blue robes was a full set of Faustian nanite armor.

  She might be the safest she had ever been in the employ of the Ambassador, but that did not mean the job was without risks. Not everyone reacted well to the presence of a truthsayer, even in diplomatic circles. So beneath her robes she wore the armor and the thigh high boots identical to the marines who guarded them. Though unlike the ones the marines wore, hers were not bulging with pockets of weapons but smooth and skintight, giving her an ease of movement only nanite armor can.

  A truthsayer, like the ambassador himself, rarely went armed. So while she had learned the basics of hand to hand, knife work and swords and blasters, she was not proficient in any of it. To be truly proficient required using it against an actual opponent until the moves became muscle memory rather than j
ust knowledge in your brain.

  But who would she spar with? Malik? Or one of the other space marines in his crew? That would be the same as participating in the other social activities that abounded on the ship, exposing her to friendships and interest from others. All it would take would be one slip up on her part, one thoughtless sentence for someone to realize she was more than she seemed. That a truthsayer that was unable to lie, was living the biggest lie of all.

  Trig was still lost in her morose thoughts when something, some awareness brought her back to the here and now. The dark of the room had not bothered her when she came in, but now she allowed that niggling feeling in the back of her mind to the front and realized something that she had been sensing. Something that her other thoughts had drowned out.

  She turned to investigate the shadows that were too deep and impenetrable for the light of the stars to reach and knew that dark space for what it was, a lie. In the second it took for her powers to reach for that dark space to find the truth behind the lie a man stepped out of the shadows as if born of them. She reached for her I-dent bracelet to signal for help. Only her wrist was bare, and when she looked down at it she found only the golden shimmer of her own skin. She lunged for the front table and the I-dent bracelet sitting on it, even as the illusion cleared and a man was revealed. She caught only a glimpse of him as she moved, just an impression of dangerous male animal, but it was enough to know this was not anyone on the ambassador’s staff.

  She did not even get two steps before a flash of a stun went off and she was falling. She blacked out before she hit the floor.

  ***

  How the fuck did she know where he was? Being a truthsayer did not give anyone the ability to see through illusions. Not in his experience, and he had done this kind of thing too many times to think he had somehow given himself away.

  Tyber walked over to the woman slumped on the floor and studied her as he had done since she walked into the room. Proximity did not tone down the effect of that golden hair and skin any more than distance had. So tiny, he thought, remembering what she had looked like before he had stunned her to sleep. Sad, he had thought then, and he did now. Beautiful without a doubt, and extremely fuckable with all that golden skin and long braided hair, that was almost metallic in its gold shimmer. He did not blame the marine for wanting her, he would have to be a fool and blind on top of that not to, and he had met the Captain of the High Ambassador’s guard, though thankfully not in combat. A fool the man was not. It complicated matters. Malik was not a man he wanted to deal with, not with the strength of the Alliance at his back. If he had a personal interest in the little truthsayer, the elite marine might take offense to them snatching her right from under his watch.

  Tyber smiled at the thought. The last time he had faced off with the marine commander they had been on the same side, and still almost managed to come to blows. Of course the man had wanted to jettison Tolan Lark out the nearest air shaft.

  Not something Tyber would normally have a problem with really. The persnickety mercenary could drive most people to homicide, but he was mated to a friend and had just saved all their lives at a high cost to himself. Killing him while he slept because the good people of the Alliance were afraid he would come out of his healing sleep in a Shakien rage and slaughter them all had probably been the wisest choice, but that didn't mean Tyber or those with him were going to let it happen.

  Tolan Lark had survived, and so had everyone else, for the most part.

  Well, Tyber added in his own head, everyone that mattered to him had survived so that was really all that mattered. Malik may have a different idea about it, just as he was not likely to look favorably on them taking someone he not only saw as under his protection, but that he had taken a personal romantic interest in.

  Tyber could see how that might sting a little.

  He lifted the girl into his arms and signaled Lore on the ship. He did not want to be anywhere in the vicinity when the high ambassador and his elite guard realized someone had gotten through their shields and taken off with their pretty little bird.

  The fact that Jax had done something to his ship that made it not only possible for them to cloak themselves against an Alliance Command Frigate and its entire armada, but also teleport through their shields was a bit of a shock to the system. Truthfully, until he was back on board his ship and light years away he was not going to believe it himself. He would leave it to the lovely lady Lara to explain to her father the high ambassador what they had done and why. He never would have believed his truthsayer was in danger in his care if they had gone to him first.

  A flash of light later and Tyber was on his ship, handing off the small soft female to his first mate. He knew Lore felt the same soft wispy fabric of her robes, and the nanite that they hid beneath them. Even with all those layers she barely weighed enough to cause a hitch in his step. Lore studied the woman suddenly in his arms with his usual unflappable demeanor.

  "I take it the mission was a success then?"

  "Remind me to kiss Jax right on the lips when we see her again," Tyber said by way of answer. Heading for the bridge, even as he recognized Mac already had started the ship moving carefully away from the fleet by the changing vibrations under his feet. "I knew she was a genius with repairs, but I had no idea the woman could work bloody magic."

  Lore followed behind him with the female. "I do not believe her Shakien mate would look favorably on such a move. Perhaps a simple thank you?"

  Tyber flashed a smile back at the only man alive he trusted completely. "Where would be the fun in that?" He motioned him back the way he had come. "Get her to Doc and have him wake her up. I only stunned her but no sense taking chances and I have a few questions I want to ask before we get her to Port Sea and they take her off our hands."

  "Questions?" Lore studied the girl in his arms before meeting his eyes. "Questions you cannot wait for her to wake up naturally to ask?"

  Tyber looked at Lore with the female in his arms and wondered at his own impatience to see her when she was aware and looking at him. He wanted to see her eyes when he asked his questions. And no, he could not explain it, but he didn’t want to wait. "I'll be down as soon as we clear Alliance space. Have her awake and ready for me."

  "Waking someone from a stun is not always the best idea. Why not just let her come out of it on her own."

  "She knew I was in that room," the voice was deep and almost melodic in its dark undertones. "I want to know how. Wake her up."

  CHAPTER TWO

  The first thing Trig recognized when she was forced out of her stun was a massive headache, the likes of which she had never felt before. The second was that she was no longer on the Ambassadors frigate. That knowledge would have sent her into a quiet panic if she did not recognize who had taken her. Though they had never spoken, or officially met, she recognized two of the men surrounding her. Tyber Relian, Captain of the Jezebel and his first mate Lore Trugarian. The third man had to be crew. Since she was on a bed in what was clearly sick bay she had to assume he was the on-board medic. He looked the part with his kind brown eyes and trim beard. He was young for a Doctor, but he moved about the room with a familiarity and sureness that belied his years.

  "I know you have questions,” He said with a reassuring smile. "I am Doctor Henry Morgan, of the Jezebel. I assure you; you are in no danger. The captain will explain everything to you, but I imagine you have quite the headache. I would like to administer a pain blocker if you are agreeable?"

  "No blocker," Trig said, her voice nearly a whisper under the pain, as much as she would like it to go away, blockers never worked on her. "I have an unusual reaction to most of them."

  "I see," The Doctor said and gave the man she recognized as the Captain a glare before patting her hand, then stepping back. "I am sorry to hear that. If I had known you would be suffering without aid I would have let you sleep off the stun naturally."

  "Don't worry about it Doctor. I would prefer to be awake and aware for m
y kidnapping, even with the headache."

  "You are the truthsayer Kelia?" Captain Tyber Relian forcefully inserted, ignoring the next glare from the Doctor.

  "I am," she tilted her head to study him through the pounding in her head. "Was there some doubt of who you were taking?"

  "Malik called you Trig," he said with a shrug of broad shoulders. If she was not suffering from the pain the man had inflicted she might admire that molten honey voice of his. As it was she wanted nothing more than some answers, no matter who gave them. She would be civil and informative until she didn’t like his answers.

  "My full name is Trig Kelia. Malik found that out on his own and took liberties, but everyone calls me Kelia, or truthsayer."

  "You don't like the name Trig?" That was the first time the first mate spoke, and it drew her eyes to him.

  Like the Captain there was something about Lore Trugarian that drew a woman's attention and kept it. They had similar builds, both just over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and trim hips. Fit without being muscle bound like the marines she was used to. Sleekly muscled, was the best way she could think to describe them. Lore's black eyes and long black hair, along with his buttoned up black uniform and shiny knee boots, with his two swords across his back and a blaster at his hip, gave him the appearance of an elegant killer, while his Captain looked the definition of a pirate. Both wore ship standard, which was basically a tunic and trousers with shiny boots, yet the way Lore Trugarian wore his in all-encompassing black made it look more like a military uniform than space pirate, while his Captain with his sleek muscles and roughish good looks might as well have been wearing a flowing white shirt and leathers.

  It was disconcerting to be under the eyes of both men. One dark and brutally beautiful with his almost regimental demeanor, and the other charismatic and just as sinfully handsome in his own way. She had to force herself not to blush under their scrutiny.

  That, Trig assured herself with an inner huff, was just ridiculous. Kidnapped, remember?