Free Avenge by Viola Grace Page A

precise. Be sure, or we will have to find another one.”
    “Understood. I will speak to you in one hour.” Randr cut off the link and turned to watch the woman from the shadows.
    This was his nineteenth run through time and space, looking for this woman at precisely this time. Each time he had followed Aura to a world, he had missed her by hours and today, he was confident that he could catch her and bring her back where she belonged.
    * * * *
    Since Randr had disappeared, Aura was on her own, sipping at a glass of wine and making small talk with the assistant of one of the local representatives.
    A familiar figure passed along the edge of the ballroom and her blood ran cold.
    “Please excuse me, Rora. I think I see someone I know.” Aura smiled brightly while rage ran into her normally calm mind.
    “Go ahead. I will be here when you get back.” Rora sipped at her beverage with her short trunk and smiled.
    Nodding absently, Aura followed the man who had killed the ambassador of Gehnik just after her assignment three years ago.
    The assassin she was trailing had poisoned the water that Mishsha was floating in and the living jellyfish had not had a chance. Aura had been the only one who had seen him entering the quarters of the ambassador and that was because she had offered the man her services as kah-dore to assist him in communicating with the creature in the tank. The man had declined, indicating that he did not need her.
    One hour later, preparing to lock into the shuttle, she had been removed and given a going over by the local constabulary. Her innocence was easily proven, but they were not happy to have their best suspect cleared. The conversation in the hall had been recorded, as had a speech within the ambassador’s quarters clearly stating that the poisoning was for a bounty.
    It had cost her six months of investigation into every inch of her mind and a very good friend in the ambassador, so his killer’s face was not one she was willing to forget.
    He moved slowly along the perimeter of the crowd, speaking casually to anyone he passed.
    With every laugh and casual chuckle that he gave out, her soul burned a little more until her fury blinded her.
    Aura eyed one of the security officers standing by and bumped into him, lifting his stunner from his belt and apologizing profusely.
    He smiled and brushed her off, “No worries, miss. Have a nice evening.”
    With her gown rustling, she followed the assassin out of the ballroom and down the hall.
    He didn’t seem to be aware of her, but she quietly fiddled with the stunner until the safety was off and the power was ramped up.
    He passed a number of displays before stopping in front of a case. When he raised his arm to smash the glass, Aura lifted the stunner and fired.
    He screamed and fell to the ground, twitching dramatically.
    Caution was gone and she strode to where his body was writhing on the floor.
    A knife flashed in the dimness of the hall and embedded itself in her ribs. Aura fell back, clutching at her wound.
    The assassin stood and scowled at her, tilting his head as he stared. “You. The interpreter.”
    She didn’t speak. She could taste blood and pain was radiating through her.
    He reached out to take the knife back and she raised her hand, shooting him again, this time between the three eyes that decorated his forehead and straight into his brain. When he fell, she fired again. And again.
    When the stunner’s charge was empty and he was dead, she started to return to the party, the obscene broach of the wound and knife front and centre on her gown.
    Hands caught her and held her. Cursing was definitely the tone of the alien words coming to her ears.
    With a swift move, Randr lifted her and walked out into the gardens. “This is not how I wanted to see you, Aura, but hold on. We are almost home.”

Chapter Two
    A welter of images assaulted Aura’s senses—lights, men and women with long black hair, searing pain and then everything going