Lovers of the Galaxy: Book Three: Raiders of the Lost Heart (2 page)

“Received. ETA, one Earth hour,” Acwel responded and
cut contact.

Standing, Volund turned his attention to the
hand-drawn outline of the building on the wall. There were a total
of four doors to the bottom floor of the bank. They would change
all of the exit door’s security. He’d already replaced the windows
on the second day here. Nothing would break through them. The Bone
Eaters couldn’t see into the building, which helped keep their
whereabouts safe, for now.

Next to their position were three smaller buildings
that could easily be connected to the bank. Tomorrow, he and Acwel
would clean them out and secure their ground floors. Connecting the
buildings would give them room to set up a more secure lab, a
security office and other things they would need here in their new
home.

“Volund?” Venus’s soft whisper broke through his
concentration. He turned to see her standing in the doorway looking
at the floor.

***

Volund had walked right by her without a glance,
something he’d never done and it hurt her. Oh, she knew that his
mind had been working overtime, trying to figure out how the Bone
Eater got back in the building. She already knew the answer since
she was the one who’d open the door.

It was another reason for Volund to be furious with
her, but the woman had been clawing at the outside door, wanting to
come inside. She didn’t have the heart to leave her out there.
Plus, Venus had been afraid all the noise would draw more attention
to their location.

That didn’t mean she hadn’t kept a very close eye on
the woman. She had let the woman in and watched as she proceeded to
the lab where she had been before. At that point, Venus had made
sure the door had closed behind her and it had locked, or so she
thought. When it turned out that two children had gone missing
right after she let the woman in, she thought for sure her life was
over.

The thought of these children being hurt, because of
her carelessness, brought fresh tears to her eyes. Once more, Venus
knew she should have asked for Jaxxon’s or Volund’s help.

If she thought they were angry with her now, they
would be furious with her when she told them what she’d done.

Jaxxon had sent her out of the lab, afraid she would
come to harm. Unsure of herself and her feelings hurt, she couldn’t
concentrate on anything right now. So she stood staring down at the
ground afraid to look up. Her belly seemed to be in her throat, but
she had no other choice than to inform Volund of what she’d done.
Her mates were in charge of their protection and needed the truth
from her.

“I know how the Bone Eater got inside.” She took a
deep breath and let it out. “I released the lock for the exterior
door. I’m sorry if I worried you. I just got so excited about the
woman coming back. I know once I saw her on the monitor I should
have called you two, but I just wasn’t thinking straight. Then when
the little girls went missing…” She let out a little cry and
hiccupped at the same time. Tears ran down her cheeks and blurred
her vision.

His boots appeared in front of her. He placed his
hands on her shoulders and squeezed. Slowly, she lifted her head,
taking in all that was Volund. With the armor gone from his body,
he wore no shirt, and his chest muscles rippled as he moved. She
wiped away the tears.

Needing to touch him, she placed her hands on his
chest and raised her head to stare into his gaze.

“When will you learn to trust us? Venus, you can’t
keep doing this. Someone could have been hurt or killed.” He shook
her gently before hugging her tightly to him.

“We’re lucky that little ones weren’t attacked. Why
didn’t you inform us?” He stepped back and looked down at her. “We
would do anything for you.” The last part of his sentence was harsh
like a whip’s bite. He turned away from her and swung a chair out
to the middle of the room and sat on it.

“Strip and lay yourself over my knee, Venus.” He
didn’t look at her, his voice void of all emotion as he waited.

Jaxxon appeared behind her and ordered, “Go on, don’t
make him wait.”

She’d been so focused on Volund, she hadn’t heard
Jaxxon come into the room behind her. Both of her men were right.
It was past time for her to rely on her men more. Unbuckling her
jeans, she shoved them down and stepped out of them. Not wearing
any undergarments, she was bare from the waist down as she walked
over to Volund.

“Top too,” he said, his gaze meeting hers.

Seeing the pain and disappointment in his expression,
she flinched.

She lifted the sweater over her head before she
chickened out, and lied down over Volund’s lap. Her fingers barely
touched the floor.

He cupped her buttock. “I’m disappointed in you,
Venus. Since we’ve been here, you have never done anything so
stupid.” One hard smack rained down on her butt cheek.

She jumped, an excited cry bursting from her.

“We have gone out of our way to include you in the
decisions we make, but you continue to behave like you are alone.
This will not happen again!” His voice continued rising, but he
caressed her ass instead of spanking her.

“Stand and go upstairs, Venus.” He lifted her off his
lap and moved purposefully out of the room, leaving her there in
the middle of it with Jaxxon.

With one look, Jaxxon shook his head and turned to
follow his brother, but stopped. “In all my years, I’ve never seen
Volund so furious.” With those words, he was gone. She stood there
and let the tears roll down her face. Venus would never forget the
wounded expressions on both Jaxxon’s and Volund’s faces.

Plopping down in the chair Volund had just vacated,
Venus didn’t even flinch when her sore ass touched the wood.

For three months, Volund and Jaxxon had been with
her. Each night, they would hold her and love her. During the day,
they slowly worked at eradicating her small town of Bone
Eaters.

“What have I given to them in return?” she whispered
into the air only her ears heard the sadness.

Determined to make it up to her men, she grabbed her
top and slipped it on, followed by pulling on her jeans before she
headed back up stairs.

In their quarters she had made on the top floor of
the bank, Venus began chopping up the rabbits Volund had skinned
earlier. Neither he nor Jaxxon would talk to her. Whenever she
entered a room, they would usually leave. Finished, she placed the
pieces in the sink to drip.

The children from the orphanage were all fed and
tucked into their new beds on the fourth floor, below. Venus
admired the closeness the sisters shared. When she’d left them two
floors below, Charlotte slept beside her sister as she recouped
from her injuries. Venus turned and admired the two new men who sat
at her table going over the map she’d drawn earlier. Acwel had
black hair to his shoulders while Badden’s was pink and down to the
middle of his back. Both men were at least six and a half feet,
almost as tall as Volund.

“Venus, what is this building here?” Acwel asked. He
pointed to the old church on Fourth Street.

“It’s called a church, a place of worship for some of
our people. There are a number of them around.” She wiped her hands
on the small towel she held. “Here, here and here are the three
churches. I’ve stayed away from them, because at the end, a lot of
individuals sought out these places for help. If you’re going to
clean them up, be careful. They might be loaded with Bone
Eaters.

Acwel nodded and handed her a strange looking thing.
“This is similar to what you call a pen, but it’s also more than
that. When you put it on the map, it will not only show the
buildings you are going around, it will memorize everything. Please
tell us what areas we should include in the fencing. After we are
done helping Volund clear these three structures, Badden and I
would like to start building an outer wall. This way, we won’t have
any more of these creatures appearing within our enclave.”

She looked up. Volund stood in the doorway. “Volund
what are you going to do with the three buildings next to us?”
Venus asked hoping to break the ice. When all she wanted to do was
wrap herself in his arms.

“We’re going to connect all three places to the bank.
I want a separate office for security and separate building for the
labs. This way little children won’t wander into them and get
hurt.” Venus flinched.

The dig about the children getting hurt sliced right
through her as she placed the large baking dish into the cooker.
She swallowed and tried to act normal preparing the rabbits and
vegetables. Setting the temperature through tear-filled eyes, Venus
nodded and then escaped into her bedroom, slamming the door shut
behind her.

The blare of alarms caught her by surprise. She
removed the remote controller from her belt and sucked in her
breath. Again there was trouble in the lab, just something else
Volund would blame her for.

She flung open the door and reached for her gun.
Venus ran for the back stairways, not wanting to confront Volund.
Tonto, her german shepherd, raced after her with Ino and Ka, Jaxxon
and Volund’s animals, running ahead of them.

Turning the corner, to the last set of stairs, she
reached the bottom floor door. She froze upon seeing Volund there
before her. He picked her up and held her against the wall, glaring
at her.

“
Schizma
! What do you think you are doing? I
mean it, Venus, you will not put yourself at risk!” he snarled,
fangs inches away from her face.

“Volund, it’s my lab!” She tried brushing his braids
back, but he set her on the stairs and stepped away from her.

“Go upstairs until we make sure everything is
alright. You can check out our lab later with Badden.”

He turned, but Venus couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Volund, please talk to me.”

“There is nothing to say, Venus. You risked children.
In some ways you are like Randle. We just don’t know you like we
thought we did.” With that, he was gone, leaving her stunned.

Venus quietly made her way up the stairs, all the way
up to the rooftop and the garden she’d made of it. Tonto, sensing
her mood, quietly followed her along with Ino and Ka. She thrust
open the heavy metal door and stepped out into the cool autumn
night.

Reaching the edge of the roof, Venus stared out at
the night. From what she could tell not many Bone Eaters were out
yet. The bright solar powered lights that turned on at night around
the city cast too many shadows.

One of the things she always made sure of was to have
well-lit roads at different places around the town. That way if any
humans made their way here, they’d be able see what was going on
around them.

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the stars.
Tonto whined beside her, and she sighed. “Seems I really screwed up
this time, Tonto, and I don’t know how to fix it.” She crawled up
onto the ledge along the roof, and sat with her legs dangling over
the edge.

Ino snorted beside her, and she reached out petting
him. “He’s right, though. I thought of nothing except my
experiments. The children came here for a new start, and I put them
in danger with my stupid decision.”

Venus didn’t know how long she sat up there staring
up at the sky. Her mind wouldn’t shut down. Too many things running
through it, until, the door behind her opened.

Jaxxon and Volund both came through the door and
stood behind her. “We were worried about you,” Jaxxon stated.
“Could you climb down from there, please?”

Not wanting to give them another reason to be angry
at her, Venus moved off the ledge and over to the patio lounger
she’d placed up here a couple of months ago.

Lowering the chair back, she gazed up at the stars.
“You were right, Volund, I did do something like Randle would have
done, but you’re wrong about one thing. I’m not like him. If you
two are angry, fine, I understand. I made a huge mistake, one I’ll
regret for a long time, but to deliberately hurt me, attack me
emotionally, was just as wrong.”

She looked at Volund for a minute then at Jaxxon. “Go
eat. The food should be done by now. I think I’ll stay up here and
just admire the stars.”

“You should come inside. There is a chill in the air
tonight. You could get sick.” Jaxxon moved to her side and stared
down at her.

“If I get cold, I’ll come in. There is no reason for
you to worry. I’m safe up here. I’m not letting Bone Eaters in the
bank and you don’t have to leave a room whenever I enter it.” She
couldn’t even look at him it hurt so much inside.

Jaxxon lifted her into his arms, taking her place on
the chair. He kissed her cheek, and placed her on his lap.

Totally shocked, she laid there not moving. “What are
you doing?” she cried. Venus shifted and started to push herself
up, but he held on tight as Volund came over and kneeled next to
them.

“Your punishment time is up. We want you in our arms
now.” He lowered his head, but she snarled and kicked Jaxxon in the
shin with her heel, shocking him. He loosened his hold enough for
her to escape.

“My punishment is over? You mean this whole…?” She
waved her arms at them. “Ignoring me and hurting me with your
comments was a punishment?” she yelled.

Jumping off the chair, Jaxxon frowned and turned to
his brother. She knew they were communicating with each other,
which only made her angrier. Her men were confused. Venus watched
the different expressions that flashed across each of their faces.
She glared at both of them as they faced her.

“By our customs, when one’s woman does something
wrong to hurt herself or others, she is punished. For the
equivalent of six Earth hours we have nothing to do with you. It
does hurt us to do this to you, but it’s a lesson that must be
learned,” Volund said, crossing his arms over his chest like that
was the end of the discussion.