Oh, was that what that weird metal thing was against the wall of his workroom? It had definitely been big enough to hold a person comfortably, with plenty of room to spare. But…
“Why did he make it in his workroom?” She frowned. “I mean, what’s the likelihood that anyone is going to go wandering by that to get trapped in it?”
“He doesn’t actually expect to catch anyone.”
“Then, why built it at all?”
“He can’t help himself. It’s an instinct. Regardless of where he ended up or what else he’s doing, he would start building that trap. I was relieved when he started. Lvtl males will only forgo building a trap if they don’t feel their home is safe for a female. The fact that he’s doing it means he is comfortable here. That he feels this is his home. It means I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.”
Garnet tilted her head. Distracted from that interesting fact of Vytln’s species to focus instead on that last part. “Whatwereyou setting out to do?”
The question came to her lips before Garnet really even thought about the full implication of it. But now that it was out, she found she really wanted to know. Tanin rarely talked about his past, and he never talked about it in detail. She understood that it wasn’t a good one, so she didn’t push him.
But this wasn’t about his time on Rik-Vane. Not really. She wanted to know how he ended up here, with these guys, on this ship.
Tanin didn’t answer immediately, but his hands did come to a halt. He held on tight as he focused on her eyes. She cocked her head, watching him curiously.
“Were these guys your friends or something?” She asked. “Is that why you all escaped together?”
“No. We didn’t really know each other before. We knewofeach other, but I don’t think any of us had ever met before.”
“Then…?”
Once again, he remained silent for a long moment before answering. “I wanted out. It’s just that simple. I didn’t want to die there. Just another body to be tossed in the flames. If I was lucky. There’s really nothing more complicated to it than that.”
“Will you tell me more?” She shifted her weight. “I know it’s tough, but I’d like to hear about it. If you’re willing to, I mean.”
Chapter 35
Tanin
Tanin was determined to stop comparing his life on Rik-Vane to the one he lived now. He also refused to tell Garnet all the terrible details of what it was like growing up there. She didn’t need that touching her, and he didn’t want to dim her light with his shadows.
But she wasn’t asking about that part of his life. She was asking about his crew. About what led him here. And that, honestly, was something he didn’t want to distance himself from.
“All of them, my crew, were… infamous,” he finally started carefully. “I knew of them before I ever met them. Most people knew of them. They were some of the most powerful and deadly people on the station. I needed their skills to get out. The twins had the wealth I needed to buy the Humility. Trove had the connections to make it happen. Vytln could operate the ship. Sway could navigate it. Rok was strong enough to actually get us out and helping him got rid of the last barrier for our escape. Alred was my key to bringing it all together and making it happen. I needed all of them for our escape to work. So, I offered them a way out. I had to convince the twins. I had to save Rok. Alred was really the only one I didn’t need to barter with in some way. He understood what I wanted, and he wanted out too. Probably more than I did.
“All of us, in our way, wanted out. I offered them that escape, and they followed me because I was the only one who could bring them all together.”
“How?” Garnet asked, watching him carefully. Absorbing everything he was saying.
Tanin began moving his hands over her again. He wouldn’t say that these were happy memories. There were many times when he came uncomfortably close to death. Escaping that place wasn’t easy for anyone, but the males Tanin needed to do it happened to be the worst males to try doing it with. They were all lethal in ways that, like his own past, he wouldn’t let Garnet know about.
But he could at least tell her the broad strokes of it.
“Alred and I found each other first,” he said, focusing on her soft sweetness. Proof that he wasn’t living in those days any longer. “I was alone then. I was doing whatever it took to survive…”
Tanin had been hunting down the gang that desecrated his mother’s body. After she killed herself, they’d come upon her and harvested from her before she’d even grown cold. He’d made it his favorite pastime to kill their members. Punishing all of them for a crime that most didn’t even know about, much less had been involved in. Two stray members had come upon her by happenstance, then raided their meager possessions because it was easy. That was really all there was to it. A senseless, pointless act of greed that only led to senseless, pointless deaths. Such was life on Rik-Vane.
Tanin never claimed to be a good person.
One day, he’d pushed his luck to its limit and broke into the leader’s base, killing indiscriminately. Just because he could. Because he hated them. Because he had nothing better to do and if he didn’t kill, he’d be killed. That’s how things were there.
Tanin walked through the remains of the base, tracking blood through the now silent halls, viscera dripping from his knuckle claws. Back then, he didn’t have his ribbon yet, but he carried a long blade he didn’t like using. Why bother when his fists did more damage?
The gang was silent now. They’d been screaming at first. Calling out to each other in fear. They recognized the shadow that had fallen upon them. His crew weren’t the only infamous faces. Tanin himself was something of a horror legend.
Just a shame that no one knew his real name or face. If they had, they might not have touched his mother’s body. He might have been able to burn her properly. Maybe with the flower she loved so much.
