Chapter I

Charity events on Droma Station are all the same. The same people dressed to the nines trying to outshine each other. They stand around in small clusters and gossip about people they call friends, taking delight in the misfortune of others. Most care more about showing how many credits they can spend without batting an eye than helping those in need.

As someone whom grew up in the Draconian Empire, however, I find I want to help in the only way I can. We have excess, like any people, but we also have little in the way of poverty. The same cannot be said about the Commonwealth.

The events always take place in the same ballroom. An entire wall was nothing but glass that looked out into open space. Real wood covered the remaining metal walls. Large crystal chandeliers filled the room with light. Paintings hung around the walls while statues sat between them. No matter where you turned there was something worth seeing.

“Do you know what that is?” Daemon asked resting his hand on the small of my back and scaring me. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. It was a reminder that he was trained to move without a sound. To strike between one heartbeat and the next before disappearing again.

“A sword,” I said, turning my head just enough to look at him. He had a brand on his neck, a dagger that marked him as Special Operations in the Etu Space Navy. The marks on the hilt were for his rank; a commander.

“An Ikeran katana.”

“So a fancy sword?” I looked at him. For a supposed sociopath, he has a surprisingly boyish smile. Even so, the smile never reached his eyes.

“A really fancy sword.”

“Good gift for dad then? His name day is coming up.”

“You do realize, almost everything up for auction here today came to these people via the black market and before that were looted from the worlds you are supposedly raising money to help, right?”

“So that is a no on the sword?”

Daemon looked at me like he could not figure out if I was being serious or mocking him. It was a little of both.

“A sword like that should be used Aurora. It shouldn’t be a decoration on a rich man’s wall.”

I learned a trick from having him as my security for a couple of cycles. If you stare at Daemon long enough, he assumes he has said something that goes against social courtesies and apologizes. “I apologize, Lady Ryuu, I spoke out of turn.”

“Is there nothing here that interests you?” I asked to hide my smile, works every time.

“Nothing money can buy.”

“You’d be surprised what money can buy.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I turned and found myself face to face with Jax. If it had been any other night my heart, or my libido, would have been all aflutter to see the man I had shared my bed with but I felt nothing.

 “Jaxith Krayal,” Jax said extending his hand towards Daemon. Most days I thought I loved Jax and the rest of the time I was confident I hated him. I watched him trying it introduce himself to Daemon. Hatred was winning out but love was still there. Maybe it was only lust.

“I know.” Daemon looked between us. “You okay here?”

“Yeah Daemon, I will be fine.”

“Then I’ll be-” he took a few steps away and disappeared.

“I take it Daemon works for daddy,” Jax said tugging on his cufflinks. “Where’d he go anyway?”

“What are you doing here Jax?”

“I thought I had a date with a pretty girl.”

“We broke up.”

“Did we? I can’t imagine I would ever break up with you.”

I did roll my eyes then. “You did not do the breaking.”

He blocked my y attempt to walk away by resting his hand on my stomach. I stepped away. “I panicked Orie.”

I looked around the ballroom, in an attempt to find an excuse to end the conversation, but found no one worth talking to.

“My girlfriend wants me to meet her father. Fine. Whatever. That same girlfriend, who has previously told me nothing about her family, then tells me her father is.” He looked around the ballroom then leaned closer. “Luca Ryuu,” Jax whispered my father’s name like it was a bad word. “I think I have the right to hesitate, to panic. You do know who your father is right? What he does?”

“Then why are you here?” I let my eyes move back to him.

“Because I love you,” he stepped closer and rested his hand on my hip. That was all it took to make my heart threaten to escape my chest. Stupid heart. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, not your dad.”

How am I supposed to stay mad when he says things like that? I could have stayed mad longer, perhaps, if not for his emerald eyes. They are wicked eyes that had a way of getting me into trouble. The way he looked in his tuxedo, tailored to his slender frame, helped too. “So,” Jax lowered himself to just above my lips, “forgiven?”

“Do you really think that is all it takes to get back into my good graces?” I pushed him away but he grabbed my hand.

“I think presents will be involved,” he said, lifting my hand to his lips and kissing it. “Expensive ones.”

I smiled and shook my head as I turned my attention to the attendants. “What,” Jax asked when I shot him a questioning look. “I had to bid on something.”

“Because the twenty thousand credits you spent on a ticket, for a dinner you did not attend, was pocket change.” I shook down the metal bracelet I wore and held it over the scanner.

On Droma Station everyone wears one. They work as your identification, clearance, and declare your line of credit. If you are a merchant docked to refuel or sell your wares the port master issues you a temporary one. You have to set up a line of credit at the bank or you can trade hard goods�"precious gems and their like�"right there at dock.

“Pretty much,” he said as he leaned closer. Jax stole a kiss. It was a soft brushing of his lips against mine that was too quick to do anything for me. He took his box and tossed it into the air before catching it again. I winced at his rough treatment of something so old. “Besides did you actually look at the box?”

“No.” I turned back to my attendant. “I can take the sword now. I have security with me.”

She nodded and unlocked the case. It hummed with some invisible power the moment I touched it. Could a sword be happy? It felt happy. I held it for another second before passing it to my right.

“So he’s there,” Jax said looking around. Daemon had appeared for a second and vanished again, “like all the time?”

“All the time.” I grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the exit. He may not have attended the dinner but I had. I was more than ready for the night to be over. Plus the sooner we got back to my quarters, the sooner I got him out of his tuxedo.

Jax wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked towards the monorail station. It was not late night but the ballroom had a private monorail so the walk there was pretty quiet. A runner lined the floor to keep my heels from clacking. Artwork�"from across the galaxy�"covered the walls. And soft jazz music was piped in so that the entire walk was enjoyable. There were four ahead of us so Jax put us in the queue and turned back to me.

“The box.” He held it up. I stared at it for a minute. It was just random carvings, flowers and vines, but then I saw it. There was a flower on the top of the box. It seemed to be the starting point for all the other decorations. Right there in the center of the flower was a single rune.

“How did you see that?” I asked taking it from him.

“It’s a gift.”

I opened the box, empty. “Do you know what it says?” Jax asked looking at it over my shoulder.

“I think it might be a puzzle box.”

“Lame puzzle box if it just opens like that.”

“It is far more clever than that. You can open the box all you want but you only get the treasure if you figure out the puzzle.” I shook my head and smiled.

“Right but if anyone can outsmart a wooden box it’s my girl.” 

I resented being called his girl. It was a human trait to think sleeping with someone made them your property.

“It only wants you to think it is wood.” I smiled and offered him the box back. “I told you, it is a very clever little box.”

“I got that for this girl I know who has this weird obsession with the ones who came before but if she doesn’t want it-” Jax reached for the box and I stepped away.

The box slipped from my grasp as warmth spread across my stomach. I touched my hand to the source of the warmth and it came away coated in metallic gold, blood. My blood.