I checked my wrist. “Three minutes until ground assault.”
The Atlan who’d been standing in front of me grunted. “We’ll be finished by then.”
I grinned up at him. I couldn’t help it. “Find the Nexus and alert me at once. Do you understand? No one touches him without authorization from me.”
“We heard the order, Vice Admiral.” The Atlan transformed in front of me, growing taller, broader, his jaw elongating, becoming thicker. His smile was menacing now. Frightening. I ignored the display.
“He’s mine, Warlord. Spread the word. Anyone touches him and I’ll have their balls in a sling on my belt.”
His bellow of laughter rolled back down the hallway as I moved to the control panel and removed the lockdown on Level One transport. I comm’d the Karter, knowing my mate would be listening from his position on a transport pad on the battleship. Worrying.
“Karter, this is Vice Admiral Niobe. Transport three has been cleared. Recovery of prisoners is underway. Level One lockdown has been removed. You are free to transport.”
“Casualties?” Commander Karter’s voice was clear. Controlled. But I knew he wasn’t asking for himself, but for the rest of his crew. They had family down here. Sons and mates. Brothers.
I looked up at one of the three Atlans who had been left behind to guard me—and the transport pad. “Warlord?” I asked.
He lifted one of the Prillons from the ground and placed him on the transport pad. “So far, none. We are saving as many as we can.”
There was pain in his voice, resignation I more than understood. We’d all lost friends in this war. “Zero casualties to report. Operation ongoing.”
“Understood. We are initiating transport to Level One. Aerial assault incoming.”
“Understood. Prepare The Colony to receive incoming warriors.”
“What shape are they in?”
As if that wasn’t a loaded question. But Karter knew I wouldn’t lie or sugarcoat the truth. I looked over the third Prillon placed on the transport. He was covered, head to toe, in silver. However, the warrior next to him had little to show for his time with the Hive but some implants on his forearms. “Varied. Some of them are fully integrated. Tell Doctor Surnen he might not be able to save them all.”
“Understood. Karter out.”
“Niobe out.” I watched from the control panel until Quinn’s group had successfully transported to Level One. They would clear the area, then make their way down to Level Two. The Atlans would get the prisoners off this floor, move up the single elevator to Level Two, and we would meet the Level One assault team somewhere in the middle.
That was the plan.
Only problem was, we had no idea where the Nexus was—or what he was truly capable of—and that could change everything.
I motioned one of the Atlans to my side and placed his palm on the biometric station, scanning him into the system. “This transport is yours now, Warlord.”
The other two paused, one dropping the last of the six Prillons onto the transport pad with a loud thud. “What are you doing, Vice Admiral?”
“I am leaving you three in charge of this room. I have some hunting to do.” Perhaps it was my imagination, or wishful thinking, but I could smell him now. The Nexus. His stench had been all over my mate when I released him from the cage I could see now across the corridor. I hadn’t known what I was scenting at the time, but when Quinn had told me about his time in this place, I’d connected the dots.
Quinn would be hunting him as well, eager for vengeance. The order to take the Nexus alive had been given to everyone on this mission, but I knew my mate. I’d seen the need to kill in his eyes, and I couldn’t blame him. Not really. That creature had tortured Quinn, killed his friends and made Quinn watch. And Zan, I didn’t know what the Atlan had planned in his own mind.
The Nexus deserved to die, and accidents happened on the battlefield all the time.
But not this time. And with the Nexus ’s scent filling my head, I knew he’d been here, and not long ago.
For the first time in my life I felt like a true Hunter, an Everian. I felt my father’s blood flowing in my veins and the thrill of the hunt pounding through my body. I wasn’t afraid of my gifts. I didn’t feel like a freak. I felt powerful. Unique. Special.
Because of Quinn. Because he accepted me as I was. Desired me without even knowing a thing about me. Wanted me. He’d hunted me.
And for the first time in my life, I was hunting with a true purpose of my own. I had someone to protect. Someone I cared about.
Someone I loved. Quinn.
This time, it was personal.
That blue bastard was mine.
9
Quinn, Latiri 4 Subterranean Base, Level Two
* * *
The Nexus crouched opposite me, his dull, black eyes impossible to read. There was no expression there, no response to pain. He did not telegraph his movements, the claws protruding from his fingertips long, curved and sharp as any blade. He was nearly as fast as I, an Elite Hunter.
But not quite.
Which was why a cut on his cheek bled dark blue, the color bringing a smile to my face as we slowly circled one another. I’d drawn first blood, and I was in no hurry to finish him. This kill was mine and I’d take my time with it, just as he’d taken his time with me. He’d tortured the Hunters under my command and made me watch, forced me to listen to their screams, kept me weak and helpless in my cell while he killed good warriors that I’d grown up with. Trained with.
They’d been brothers in truth, if not in blood. My brothers. My family.
A circle of silent warriors surrounded us. There was no cheering, no taunting from the other fighters who had transported here with me. Not only had I personally survived torture at his hands, but my mate had set us all free. Not literally, but if not for my mate, my female, Commander Karter would not have known the Hive had overrun this base, and every warrior we’d come back to rescue would have been lost forever.
My mate had bought me the right to this moment and the warriors surrounding me would not deny me this kill. Nor would they try to stop me, despite our orders. They knew. They understood.
This fucker had tortured our friends, our family.
We’d been here less than an hour. The attack had been swift, the plan having gone perfectly. We’d all come together, fighters from different backgrounds but with one purpose. The mission was considered a success. Every contaminated, integrated, captured Coalition fighter had been transported off this rock to The Colony, or to a medical station on board the Karter. I didn’t envy the doctors their jobs, deciding who to try to save, and who was too far gone. Watching warriors’ bodies disintegrate on the table when their Hive implants were removed. Or telling their loved ones that they could never return, that they’d been banished to live out the remainder of their lives on a rocky planet far from home.
Why some survived the removal of their Hive implants and some did not was, as far as I knew, a mystery.
This blue bastard in front of me probably knew, but I wasn’t interested in talking to him, only in making him bleed. Die.
I heard the elevator doors slide open, followed by murmurs as the fighters who’d been on the other levels continued to arrive. At least a dozen Atlans stood surrounding us now, silent statues with one purpose—to make sure the Nexus never left this circle.
If I didn’t kill him, they would tear him to pieces.
I.C. wanted him alive. We all knew it.
But this was personal. He was ours right now. And he would be ended.
“Why do you waste time, Everian? Your games are inefficient.” The Nexus questioned me with a voice void of all emotion. I doubted he understood taunting, but that’s what it was. His dark blue patchwork flesh appeared to be held together by strands of silver, a monster bound by shimmering thread. Except that thread moved like living serpents winding and twisting through his flesh. The movement was slight, slow, measured. I doubted any but a Hunter wou
ld see the subtle shifts between the assortment of blues that created the appearance of a face, but the effect took any hope of normalcy from him. Did he even have a face? Or was that patchwork created for this galaxy, just for us? What was he beneath the uniform and metal and strange blue flesh?
Whatever the Nexus might be, he was not one of us, a living, breathing entity with a soul. He was other.
The oddity increased when I observed that, despite the past five minutes of intense sparring with an Elite hunter, the Nexus was neither winded nor showing signs of pain. He bled, but did he feel? Did he care if he lived or died? Did he have any emotions under that hideous blue skull?
“I’m going to kill you.” I stated my intent as calmly as I could. A fact. Nothing more.
“Repeating threats is also inefficient.” He truly did not seem to care whether he lived or died, which only made me want to make him suffer. But would he suffer? I didn’t know, but it was definitely going to happen.
“And all the integrated fighters you lost today?” I asked.
If he could shrug, he would have. “Easily replaced. Water-based organisms of your type and size are plentiful in this part of the universe.”
This part of the universe? Fuck. Were the Hive not just in our galaxy, but others? Just how far did their threat spread? Every planet had a different name for our galaxy. The Coalition Fleet assigned our galaxy a number. But to fighters like me, to the innocents living on the planets we protected, this galaxy was simply home. Coalition space.
“What do you find in other parts of the universe?” Sick fascination stayed my hand. I was speaking to one of the Hive minds, one of their leaders. I was no longer chained in a cell. I was not one of his water-based organisms now.
“We have integrated a multitude of other life forms.”
What. The. Fuck? “Like what?”
He tipped his head as if assessing either the sincerity of my interest, or the reasoning behind my question. “You primitive life forms would not be capable of understanding the complexity of the others.”
Primitive life forms?
Gods, he was evil, arrogant. And slow.
I moved with no warning, giving the opposite side of his face a matching mark.
When I was finished with him, he’d be bleeding from a hundred cuts.
Then I’d kill him. I grinned, narrowed my gaze, ready to inflict more.
“Enough! What is going on here?”
I froze and the Nexus turned his head in the direction of the perfect female’s voice. My female. My mate. The look on his face made my blood run cold. Not fear. It was as if he’d been waiting for her.
“Stay back, Niobe. He’s dangerous.” I yelled the warning over my shoulder, afraid to take my eyes off my prey. He wasn’t as fast as I, but he would be impossible to stop if I didn’t see him initiate a move. Even surrounded by Atlans.
“Move,” she snapped and the ring of fighters parted.
My mate stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with two Atlan Warlords, chin high, a look I’d never seen in her eyes.
No. I’d seen it once before, right after she killed those three integrated Vikens the first time we’d been here—right before she’d set me free.
“Warlords, please take the Nexus unit into custody and bring him to me.”
“No. Niobe, no,” I told her.
Her eyes flashed with fury as they met and held mine. Every Atlan in the circle had responded to her order, closing in on the Nexus like a seven-foot wall of power.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
And Niobe wasn’t going to let me kill him.
Turning away, I caught Zan’s gaze and held it long enough to be sure he understood what I wanted.
His slight nod let me know he not only knew, he agreed. I could go talk to Niobe in private, convince her that what I needed—what we all needed—was right. The Nexus had to die. Now. In front of all the fighters he’d tortured. In front of the fighters whose brothers and fathers and families he’d hurt.
Zan took my place in front of the Nexus as two other Warlords moved into place, restraining his wrists and ankles. Our enemy was trussed and ready for delivery to the vice admiral in less than a minute.
“Zan, hold him here,” I said.
“Yes, sir.” I didn’t outrank the Atlan, but I didn’t really have a place in the Coalition’s pecking order. Elite Hunters were special operatives, given a lot of latitude in what orders to follow, and who we had to report to.
But that freedom did not go to Niobe’s level. A commander? Yes, under the right circumstances. A captain? I didn’t bother worrying about.
But a vice admiral? And my mate? I had to convince her to do the right thing.
I moved to Niobe and leaned in close. “Can we speak in private?”
Her gaze lifted from the blue monster to me and she gave a curt nod before leading me back to the still open elevator box. She stepped inside and closed the door, sealing us inside. Alone.
Her hands lifted to my face and she inspected me with an intensity I’d never experienced, not even from a doctor. Her care, her concern for my well-being was something new to me. Yes, I had sisters who harassed and teased me, but no female had ever looked at me like this.
Like I mattered. Like I was an important part of her.
Like she loved me.
Did Niobe love me? My body lit up at the possibility, but I forced it back down. I’d only met her earlier today. Fuck, was that all? And yet, perhaps she did love me. And if she did care, she’d give me what I needed.
I needed to kill that fucking monster outside these doors.
“He deserves to die, Niobe.” I stated the fact bluntly and her gaze clouded, her hands dropping from my cheeks to her side.
“I agree.”
I sighed. Thank the gods.
“Good. Then this discussion is over. I’ll finish him and we can go back to the Karter and get to know each other better.” I meant that I’d take her back to the battleship, wash every inch of her curves and then conquer her body until she collapsed from exhaustion. That was my idea of the perfect end of an insane day.
She shook her head. “No. He’s coming with me to I.C. Core Command.”
I was shaking my head before she’d finished the sentence, my hands rising to wrap around her shoulders. “No. He’s mine.”
Her eyes narrowed, her gaze deliberately dropping to where my firm grip tightened on her arms. “Elite Hunter Quinn, you will release me at once. You are not to touch that Nexus unit again. In fact, you will remain in this elevator and return to Level One where you will transport back to Battleship Karter to be reprimanded for insubordination.”
My blood ran cold as she stared me down.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This was not my mate. This was not the woman who’d wrapped her body around me and come all over my cock. This was an I.C. operative, a vice admiral, an officer in the Coalition who could have me thrown into prison for what I’d done here. But she’d agreed with me. I didn’t understand.
I removed my hands slowly. “Niobe…”
Her chin tipped up. “You may address me as Vice Admiral. I am taking the Nexus unit to Core Command, as was ordered by Prime Nial himself, then will return to the Academy in approximately one week. You will turn yourself in to Commander Karter for disciplinary action.”
“No. I. Niobe—”
She cocked her head to the side and I realized just how much trouble I might be in… and didn’t care. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—talk like this to Karter or any other superior.
I swallowed hard. “Vice Admiral, the Nexus killed my entire unit and made me watch. He tortured me for days. He’s singlehandedly murdered thousands of Coalition fighters and even more innocents. He has to die.”
She waved her hand and the elevator doors slid open. There was no mercy—no love—fuck, no feeling at all in her eyes when her gaze locked with mine. Like she was a Nexus unit. Emotions on lockdown. “You have your orders, Hunter. I will not repeat myself.”
/>
She stepped off the elevator and the crowd of fighters parted like she’d waved a wand and magically divided them into perfect lines. They moved silently, clearing her path to the Nexus who was on his knees, his hands locked behind his back, his ankles shackled, and a black cloth bag covering his head.
Niobe didn’t even look back at me. She removed two small transport beacons from her pocket, placed one on the Nexus, one on herself, and one second later, they both disappeared. No floor vibrations or hair raising with that transport.
Zan stood where the Nexus had been moments before, his hands clenched into fists, the muscles on his neck bulging as he fought down his beast.
He’d wanted the kill as badly as I, and my mate had denied us both.
No. Looking around the room of silent, sullen fighters, I realized that she had denied us all. It wasn’t until I stepped to the edge of the elevator, stopped, remembered that she’d ordered me to Level One, and to transport back to Battleship Karter for disciplinary action, that my heart began to crack into pieces.
My mate… no, the vice admiral… no, my mate had betrayed me. Betrayed us all.
I’d had less than a day to win her heart, and I’d failed.
She’d not just denied me the kill, she’d left me behind.
10
Quinn, Battleship Karter, Canteen
* * *
“What the fuck are you doing here, Hunter?” Karter said as he approached.
We were in the canteen the floor below the command deck at a table in the back corner. The room had been filled fifteen minutes earlier with those who had finished a shift and with those eating in preparation for one. S-Gen machines lined one wall, windows lined another. Looking out, the universe was as black as I felt. Stars and galaxies spread from one side to the other, reminding me that my mate was out there on one of those bright white specs. Light years away.
The clatter of dishes and silverware were Commander Karter’s backdrop. I breathed in the tangled scent of hundreds of meals, not my mate’s scent. She wasn’t on the battleship. I knew it, not only because I’d watched her transport from Latiri 4 to… somewhere with that blue fucker, but because I didn’t smell her. Didn’t hear her breathing or her heartbeat. I didn’t sense her.
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