Free Close Contact by Katherine Allred

We’re drilled repeatedly, until our responses to danger are automatic. Plus, I had no practical experience to temper my reactions.
    With no conscious decision on my part, my training took over and I was moving before he finished speaking. My left hand went over his arm and slammed it downward. The move shifted the knife from my throat and numbed his muscles so he loosened his grip. I caught the knife with my right hand and swung it up in an underhand arc.
    The only thing that kept me from gutting him navel to breastbone was Lillith screeching in my ear and Peri slinging water everywhere as she dived at us.
    Both Reynard and I stood frozen in place, staring down at the knife pressed to his stomach, him in surprise, me in horror. It’s one thing to theoretically practice killing a human during training. It’s another thing entirely to realize you’d almost done it for real, and involuntarily at that. Especially when the human in question was one I’d been lusting after not a second before.
    A small sound escaped my throat and I dropped the knife like it had turned into a poisonous insect.
    Reynard stooped, scooped it up, and offered it to me hilt first. “Nicely done, girl. Who taught you to fight?”
    Hesitantly, I took the weapon, lifted my skirt and returned the knife to its sheath. Peri settled watchfully on my shoulder, her eyes tinged with red. The action gave me time to get my tongue working again. It also helped that Lillith was providing me with all the answers.
    “My father. He was a weapons master. As his only child and a female, he made sure I could defend myself when he was no longer able to protect me.”
    Moving to the one chair in the room, he sat and pulled on a pair of black knee-high boots. “He’s dead?”
    “Yes. When he sickened, he made arrangements for me to come here after he was gone, to Marcus Kent. They were friends once. I left the day after my father’s burial.”
    “What of your tribe? Was there no uncle or promised husband to take you in?”
    “No.” I was afraid to move, to express any emotion at all, lest I give myself away again. “The Bashalde called my father Gadjee , so we lived alone for the most part. After my mother died, her people stopped coming, except for the two men my father occasionally hired to bring supplies. I have no other close relatives.”
    He stood and went to the door, opening it to speak with the soldier waiting in the hall. “Send someone to find Marcus Kent. Tell him I need to see him immediately, and don’t mention the girl. Oh, and have someone bring food.”
    Scritch. I should have realized he’d send for Kent. The man would literally be walking into a trap of my making. It was just one more thing that proved I didn’t belong in this job.
    Before I could slump in defeat, Lillith whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ve been repeating everything you’ve said to Marcus and he’s been feeding me your cover story. He’s waitingon the soldier sent to fetch him and knows exactly what to say.”
    “You’ve talked to him? How?”
    “He has an implant. The frequency was in the data Dr. Daniels gave me. And by the way, your father was named August. Marcus says the name will hold up if the commander decides to check it out.”
    I barely caught a sigh of relief before it escaped, and then checked to make sure Reynard hadn’t noticed. He had picked up a comb and moved to stand in front of a mirror, but he was watching me in the reflection while he ran it through his hair.
    Automatically, I reached for his drying cloth, folded it, and hung it on the rail at the foot of his bed, and then straightened the personal items lying on a table nearby for maximum efficiency. When that was done, I gathered the soiled clothing he’d discarded before his bath and folded them.
    He was obviously dressing up for his meeting with the king. Would the people from the ship be there, too? I wanted to ask but didn’t dare. Instead I decided to take a roundabout approach and see