Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary Read Online Free Page A

display.

    “ Not wholly
Lyra,” he said and touched the screen in several different places.
A smile tilted his lips and she stared at them. A warm feeling
settled in her chest as she studied the subtle curve of his lips
and the hint of dusky pink about them that darkened where they met.
Her hair shifted again, floating upwards. His look turned to one of
fascination and his voice lowered to a whisper that felt too
intimate. “Where are you from?”

    Miali swallowed her words,
unwilling to tell him in case it made him realise who she was. It
didn’t seem as though they knew who they were dealing with. Whether
or not that was a good thing, she didn’t know. It was bad for them.
They would make less money. However, if they did know, that would
also be bad for them. If they were planning to auction her at a
market, they would need to announce that she was Lyran royalty in
order to get the best price. Any Lyran, Terran, Varkan or Minervan
army personnel in the area would come to her aid.

    She looked up at the dark
ceiling and the pinhole of light. Would her family have realised by
now that she was missing? Her ship should have made it to Dliaer.
Her family would have been expecting contact from her. Normally,
she spoke to them every few days. It must have been almost nine
since her last contact.

    Would the army come for
her?

    Would her brothers
come?

    Her father?

    He would kill all of these
Minervans in a heartbeat to protect her, just as her two brothers
would.

    She wanted them all dead.
She wanted them to suffer as her companions had.

    Staring at the man, Miali
hoped that he could see in her eyes every ounce of anger she was
feeling. She hoped that he knew it was all for him. When she was
free of these shackles, she was going to kill them all. This wasn’t
the way she had imagined the universe. She had known that the slave
trade was alive and booming, but she had never thought that someone
would capture her and turn her into a slave. She had never imagined
how horrifying it was, and somehow she knew that this was only the
beginning. Soon she would face the markets and then
what?

    “ I shall not
ask you again,” he said and tried to touch her.

    She moved her head to one
side, desperate to avoid him.

    “ Good. Then I
will not have to answer you.” Miali spat the words at him and
leaned back as far as the collar would allow.

    His fingertips grazed her
cheek and sent heat sweeping through her. She cursed the way her
body reacted to his touch, as though it wanted to feel it, longed
for it. This man had killed her companions. The hands that he
touched her with had blood on them.

    He muttered something
about her hair and scanned it again with the device.

    “ Not Lyran,” he
whispered and tilted his head to one side as though
fascinated.

    “ What does it
matter to you?” she hissed and glared at him. “Will I fetch a
prettier price if I’m a mixed species? Or are you worried that I’ll
be worth less?”

    He frowned at her, his
eyes dark and holding a hint of anger. What right did he have to be
angry? He had killed her companions, imprisoned her, and intended
to sell her to the one with the best offer. If anyone had a right
to be angry, it was her.

    His device beeped. He
looked down at it and smiled again.

    “ Dazkaran,” he
said and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
“Interesting.”

    On the screen of his
device was what looked like a DNA strand and information written in
symbols that she recognised as Minervan. It was a medical
device.

    “ Are you a
doctor?” she said and he raised his head, his eyes meeting
hers.

    “ The closest
there is to one on this ship. You’re part Dazkaran.” He took hold
of a strand of her hair and let it slip through his fingers.
“That’s why your body reacts so strongly to your
emotions.”

    His look turned
thoughtful.

    “ Sub-space
affects you because of this.”

    She was beginning to
wonder if he was more interested in her as a science project