Recalled Read online

  Table of Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  Kaidan

  Xiva

  About the Author

  Recalled

  Book Three of the Space Mage Series

  Izzy Shows

  Copyright © 2017 Izzy Shows

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  1. Kaidan

  2. Xiva

  3. Xiva

  4. Xiva

  5. Kaidan

  6. Xiva

  7. Kaidan

  8. Xiva

  9. Xiva

  10. Kaidan

  11. Xiva

  12. Xiva

  13. Xiva

  14. Kaidan

  15. Kaidan

  16. Xiva

  17. Kaidan

  18. Xiva

  19. Kaidan

  20. Xiva

  21. Kaidan

  22. Xiva

  23. Kaidan

  24. Xiva

  25. Xiva

  26. Kaidan

  27. Xiva

  28. Kaidan

  29. Xiva

  30. Xiva

  Also by Izzy Shows

  About the Author

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  Also by Izzy Shows

  The Codex Blair Series

  Grave Mistake

  Blood Hunt

  The Fallen’s Crime

  Dark Descent

  Wild Game

  Grim Fate

  High Stakes

  Samhain Resurrected

  The Fallen Hunter

  Tainted Light

  Summer Storm

  Anthologies

  Codex Blair Omnibus 1: Books 1-3

  Ruled by Blood

  Blood Captive: Origin

  Blood Huntress

  Blood Slave

  Blood Queen

  Space Mage

  Eradicated

  Provoked

  Enslaved

  Recalled

  Exiled

  Kaidan

  The world was a dark and cruel place, but I was no longer serving the whims of a mistress, unable to make my own decisions.

  I stepped off the ship and looked around. I'd bartered my services as a bodyguard in exchange for passage. It was the only thing of value I had. Xeti Three Station wasn't the most reputable, but it was the best place to go if you were looking for information. It was notorious for being visited by slavers. If I was going to find out where Xiva had gone, this was the place to do it.

  A bolt of pain went through me. We'd been separated for only weeks, but it felt more like centuries. I never thought I'd miss the presence of someone else in my mind. Hell, I hadn't exactly imagined I would have someone else in there. Not having the reassurance of her presence was torture.

  Hopefully, it would be over soon.

  I adjusted the bag full of clothing and supplies I'd picked up on the way here and started moving toward the center of the station. It would be my first stop on the long journey to finding my way home.

  "Kaidan? Can you hear me?"

  I stopped cold in my tracks. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest at the soft voice in my mind.

  No, it couldn't be. I wasn't that lucky, but the surge of hope I felt wouldn't be denied.

  "Oh my God, Xiva, is that you? Please, don't be my imagination," I said through the yeva bond. My heart was full to bursting at just being able to feel the bond again. God, I hoped this wasn't my brain tricking me into thinking all would be well.

  "It's me! Oh, thank Vivoth, I found you. Where are you?"

  She shouted my name. The sound came from just around the corner. My lips tilted up in the first smile I'd had in a while. I couldn't hear the sound of her feet striking the metal floor, but that was to be expected. For all her strength, she was feather light and never made a noise when she moved.

  I laughed out loud. "Settle down. I can already hear you."

  I sped up as I rounded the corner, and my eyes landed on her instantly. I couldn't help it. I stopped in my tracks and just drank in the sight of her.

  How had I forgotten how beautiful she was?

  Her skin was pale beneath the effervescent blue hue pulsing rapidly on her skin—a sign she was experiencing heightened emotions—and her eyes, a mingling of purple and pink, burned brightly. Her white hair streamed behind her as she ran toward me and threw herself into my arms.

  Dropping the bag to the floor, I clutched her tight to my chest, terrified if I let go for even a second, she would disappear. Thank God, she held just as tight, threatening to squeeze the life from me.

  "I never thought I'd see you again," I whispered, nuzzling my face into her hair and breathing in her sweet scent. All my senses were on high alert and tuned to her, making sure she was really here.

  This wasn't a fever dream. I could feel her in my arms, smell her, hear her. For some reason—though I didn’t deserve it—I’d been given the sweetest gift in the universe: the return of the woman I…

  I frowned and pushed the thought away, not sure where it had been leading.

  "I was afraid—so afraid," she said, her voice soft and cautious.

  "I can tell." I pulled back some and took another good look at her. God, I could never get enough of the sight. "Your skin is pulsing like crazy."

  "Shush!" she reprimanded me, but she laughed as she shifted in my arms. The movement caused her breasts to brush against my chest, and my relief was replaced by a fist of lust striking deep inside me. My body responded, and an urgency to take her followed right on its heels.

  She was back, and she was mine. Tavixi had been wrong when she'd said that I loved Xiva—I wasn't the loving type—but I'd wanted Xiva from the very beginning. At that moment, I couldn't see a single reason why we couldn't be together now that we were reunited.

  A blush stained her cheeks. "It's not proper to comment on that."

  I smirked. "I'm not proper." My voice became husky, and my gaze dropped to her lips.

  I could hear her heartbeat speed up with my superhuman hearing—a gift from the genetic experimentation that had been forced on me long ago. The scent of her arousal filled the air. My nostrils flared, and my need for her heightened.

  She shifted again in my arms as if she might be thinking about moving away from me. I tightened my hold on her. Her hip brushed against my obvious erection, but I made no move to hide it.

  She knew damn well that I'd wanted her back on Eyrus. There was no point in pussyfooting around it now. She gasped the most innocent little sound. I couldn't help from grinning.

  Someone cleared their throat behind me. They probably didn't like our little display of affection.

  "Norton." It was a deep, familiar voice.

  My blood ran cold. Xiva's eyes widened as she grasped me closer. I stiffened in her arms.

  I knew the voice. It could only mean one thing. "I've gotta put you down now, Xiva," I said. "I'm sorry." I didn't want her getting caught in the crossfire.

  "No!" She
clung to me, her skin flaring. "I only just got you back."

  Damn, she was making this hard for me. I had no intention of leaving her, though.

  I grimaced. "I know—"

  "Norton!"

  I swallowed the thick lump in my throat. With a bit more effort, I forced Xiva to the ground and turned around.

  Yep. Commander Osgard. One of the few men who could call themselves my superior. I knew I'd recognized the voice, but a small part of me had hoped it was a case of mistaken identity.

  How could that be, though, when he'd known my name?

  Osgard glared as if I'd done something to offend him personally. Then again, the man had always taken the code of conduct straight to the heart. The code was the most important thing to him.

  "Norton, I am hereby placing you under arrest. You are charged with being absent without leave, and you will be returned directly to Earth for your trial," he said, his expression stony and unreadable.

  A soft, anguished gasp sounded behind me—Xiva—and a low growl rumbled in my throat. If he thought he was going to take me away from her after I'd only just gotten her back, he had another thing coming.

  "Fuck that," I snarled, my hands balling into fists.

  With the way the government on Earth worked—rotten and corrupted to the core—there was no hope for a fair trial in my future. AWOL wasn't something they would let go of easily, especially not when I was the perfect little super soldier they'd invested so much money into. They'd probably lock me up and throw away the key.

  Not going to happen.

  "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Norton," he said. "But it's happening."

  He pulled out a pair of magno-cuffs from behind his back and took a step forward.

  Another growl built in my throat, and a brief look of fear flickered across his face.

  Good, the fucker should be afraid. I hadn't gotten where I was in the ranks by bowing down to my enemies.

  He made a grab for my wrist. I sidestepped out of the way, too fast for him to make contact, as I clocked him right on the nose. He stumbled back a few paces, a hand flying to cover his bloodied nose. He narrowed his eyes.

  I didn't care if I was officially branded an enemy of Earth. I wasn't going to prison just because some woman had decided to buy me. That was the farthest thing from my fault, and I wasn't going to be punished for it. There'd been enough punishment already.

  Osgard clipped the cuffs back to his belt and cracked his neck from side to side.

  Walter appeared at my side, both hands tugging on one of my upper arms. Where the fuck had he come from? How had I missed him?

  Must have been too caught up in the reunion with Xiva.

  I glanced down. My eyes narrowed even though a surge of happiness at seeing him went through me. I'd been worried he'd been taken when we had, so it was a huge relief to know he was all right. The kid needed to be protected.

  "Kaidan, don't do this. This isn't the time or place for this kind of reaction," he said, his eyebrows knitting together in concern. "Just calm down."

  "If I go with him, I'm never going to breathe air as a free man again." I jerked my arm out of his grasp and faced Osgard again.

  "You're only going to make things worse for yourself. We can fight your charges. Xiva and I can testify. You won't be held long." He sounded so sure, but that was to be expected. He was young and naïve. He still believed in the system. He hadn't seen it fuck over everyone the way I had.

  I clenched my jaw. "It won't work."

  "Listen to the man," Osgard said. "You try to escape now, and I'll have to include it in my report. I'm inclined to forgive your little outburst. I’ll leave it out if you agree to go quietly. There's no reason this needs to get ugly."

  I jabbed a finger at him. "You know as well as I do this isn't going to end with anything else but me locked away for the rest of my life."

  He shook his head. "That doesn't need to be true. Your young man here seems to believe he has a testimony that will get you off."

  "The courts are never going to listen to him."

  "Well, your options are to find out if he’s right, or try to run. I guarantee we’ll track you down, and then you really won't see anything but the inside of a cell."

  Taking a moment to think through my options was all the opportunity Osgard needed. The next thing I knew, he had a taser gun in his hand and aimed at me.

  Fuck.

  I needed to delay him long enough to get the gun away. "Osgard—"

  He shot me before I could get anything else out.

  My last thought before everything went dark was that I was losing Xiva again.

  I was going to be alone.

  Xiva

  "No!" I fell to my knees, clutching Kaidan's chest, horrified at seeing him drop to the floor like that. His eyes were shut, but thankfully, he was still breathing. I looked up at the man Kaidan had called Osgard with venom in my eyes. My power coiled within me and waited to be unleashed on the man who had dared touch my yeva.

  "Xiva, step away from Kaidan," Walter said evenly, touching my shoulder with one hand. "We need to do this by the book."

  I flew to my feet and whirled to face him.

  "Why?" I knew my hurt was clear on my face. "Why would you stop Kaidan from fighting back?"

  "You of all people should know that the laws must be followed"—he sighed—“We have to fight within the confines of the law. You know how that works, don't you? You must have been involved in some similar system on Eyrus."

  I wavered as I listened to his words. How had I forgotten the importance of the law? It had been all that had guided me, aside from Vivoth and Nytoc, when I had ruled as High Priestess of the Aelodhari. But I didn't know the first thing about politics on Kaidan and Walter's home world.

  But Walter seemed to have faith in them, even if Kaidan hadn't. I didn't know who to believe was right.

  Osgard cleared his throat. "Ma'am, I can assure you he will have a fair trial."

  He bent down, pulled Kaidan up, and slung one of Kaidan's arms over his shoulder so he could support him—carry him. Away from me.

  Panic surged in my chest.

  "Your young man said you have testimony to give, right?" He seemed so nice now that he wasn't confronting Kaidan as if he genuinely cared about how this would go.

  "Yes, that is true," I said slowly. We could testify that he'd been taken into slavery, and it wasn't his fault he'd been kept away from Earth for so long.

  "And they'll listen to us." Walter’s tone was soft and coaxing as if I were some sort of wild animal. "Trust me, Xiva. We can handle this from the inside.."

  I sighed, running a hand through my long, white hair. I didn’t like this. All of my instincts urged me to protect Kaidan, but the humans were a good people, a just people, weren’t they? I had to trust the system. "All right. We'll do it your way."

  "Thank you, ma'am," Osgard said. "I appreciate your cooperation."

  I glared, giving in to the vicious emotions roiling inside for once. It wasn't what I was supposed to do. As High Priestess, I had been expected to balance my emotions and contain them, more so than any other member of my people—the Stryx. But I couldn't help it just now.

  "Do not hurt him," I said.

  "I would never," he said. "He'll be safe. Meet us back on Earth, and we'll get this all sorted out."

  Walter patted my back. "Come on, Xiva. We need to prepare for the trip."

  Vivoth above, it wasn't fair at all. I'd only just found Kaidan, and now he was being taken away from me again. I couldn't stand it, but it didn't seem like I had any other option but to follow the rules for now.

  The rules should have comforted me. I'd always depended on them in the past, but just now, I hated the idea of allowing a system to continue that would separate me from my yeva—my other half.

  I spared one last murderous look at Osgard and then turned to stalk back to the ship.

  Walter walked silently beside me, the air between us tense. I wasn't h
appy he'd stopped me from interfering, but I couldn't hold on to the animosity for long. Walter was only doing what he thought was right. He was just trying to help.

  We reached the ship and went inside. Walter sealed the door behind us, and I took a seat on one of the couches in the interior of the vessel. It was a small, cramped area intended for passengers to stay while the pilot flew the ship. There were two sleeping chambers in the back. The cockpit had several vid screens to see space while piloting. One display was dedicated to calls for clearance landing and communicating with ships that might need aid during the journey.

  Walter stood in front of me. He dragged a hand through his short hair and then adjusted his glasses. "All right, we need to put a plan together."

  I frowned. "I thought we were just going to tell them what happened."

  He fidgeted a little. "Well, we're going to have to tweak a few things. We can't tell them that we just left Eyrus to go and see a few planets before returning home. That's what they're accusing Kaidan of. If we do, we're sealing his fate. Instead, we tell them about your brother destroying the base and wrecking the mission. Then we say we were heading directly back to Earth to inform everyone of what had happened but were intercepted when we stopped to refuel. Kaidan was captured, and we had to rescue him from slavery. We were heading to Earth when Osgard found Kaidan."

  I narrowed my eyes.

  It sounded like Walter didn't actually trust the system to do the right thing.

  I shook my head. "We can't lie about what happened."