Flux (Starblind #3)

by D T Dyllin

  “Oh, fuck.” Jane halted directly in front of me, my face nearly meeting her back. “Our friends from before seem to be a bit curious about the flattened forest.”

  Ash handed me the computer, immediately surrounding me in a wall of flame. His disembodied voice wafted through the air. “Jane, you’re going to need to take them out.”

  “On it.” Her boots started across the scorched dirt with intent.

  “In phoenix form so they don’t see you coming. We don’t need a shootout. Plus, if their bodies are found before we get out of here, then it’ll look like some mishap. Just blow up the hover craft with them in it.”

  “Fine,” she growled.

  “Get down, Zula. Laser gun ammo can pass right through me. I doubt they’ll shoot, but this is Jane we’re talking about, she could do something rash.”

  Dropping down to the ground, I curled myself around the computer. “Are we far enough away from the blast zone Jane’s about to cause?”

  “Should be.”

  His response had me curling into a tighter ball, my hands trembling. I’d been thrust into more life endangering situations lately than I’d ever hoped to face in the entirety of my life. Even I had my limits when it came to not having a breakdown. I wasn’t an adrenaline junkie like Jane was, and I was hoping I wouldn’t find myself in a heap of Galvraron denial like my brother had been several times. After all, if not for Kade and me, Mikla wouldn’t still be alive.

  An explosion sounded, the ground shaking, Ash’s flame wavering slightly. “Well I’ll be damned. She did it without going rogue for once in her life.” Releasing me from his flame, Ash strode over to Jane, a broad smile on his face. “Good job, Janey, I knew you could do it.”

  She delivered him an answering grin before it fell away, her eyes narrowing. “You did not just ‘good job, Janey,’ me. Seriously? Want to pat me on the head and offer me a treat, too?”

  Ash’s grin turned lecherous. “Sure, I have just the treat in mind. Just close your eyes, get on your knees, and open your mouth.”

  Sighing, I lugged the computer past them, knowing their tiff was foreplay for them. “Can we get on the ship first? Then you two can go do whatever it is you’re going to do, but behind closed doors, away from my view.”

  “Who has the remote?” Jane patted down her pockets. “Ash, did you bring it?”

  “Why would I bring it when you said you were going to?”

  “Zula? Did you—”

  “No, you never let anyone get their hands on the remote.” I kicked our cloaked ship. “Hey in there! Open up, it’s us!”

  Thankfully, a few moments later, the door swung open, Dar peering out. “Why didn’t you use the remote?”

  Shoving past him, I grumbled, “Jane misplaced it.”

  Jane and Ash continued to argue, warming each other’s libidos up, as they clomped onto The Pittsburgh, Jane closing and locking the door behind them.

  Ignoring them, I shoved the computer at Dar. “Make yourself useful. You and Masha see what you can find on here.”

  Dar’s eyes glinted. “A Galvraron super computer. I’ve always wanted to get my hands on one.”

  “Knock yourself out. Oh, and any headway on figuring out how we’re going to get out of here?”

  Dar nodded, his gaze riveted to the computer with interest. “Yes, Masha is making some small adjustments to our electrical system and we should be space born within the hour.”

  “Jane, did you hear—”

  Jane and Ash were gone, probably working out their issues while naked. I swore they just fought to ratchet up the sexual tension between them. Phoenixes, as a species, were odd, fiery in temperament as well as in body.

  “Okay, then.” I patted Dar’s metal arm as I moved past him. “I’ll be in the prison or medical wing if anyone needs me.”

  Kade jumped to his feet, his gaze literally lighting up when he saw me. But then his countenance cooled, and he settled back down on the cot in the corner of his cell, silently regarding me.

  “I’m back.” I moved my hands down my body, doing a little shimmy. “And, look, I’m fine. You didn’t have to worry.”

  He sniffed the air. “You smell like smoke.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “How close were you to being burned alive?”

  My face contorted with annoyance. “It wasn’t like that. Ash surrounded me in his flame form so I couldn’t be seen.”

  “He … surrounded you? He had his body around yours?”

  “His flame form. In a circle. To form a protective perimeter.”

  “His body surrounded you in order to protect you?”

  “It was his flame form.”

  He leapt to his feet, his hand banging off the bars. “I should have been the one protecting you! Not some other male!”

  “Whoa … whoa … whoa … settle down. Ash is mated to Jane. You know this. He has zero interest in me beyond friendship.”

  “So you’re interested in him? Do you want to fuck him? Who else? Eron? Dar? Is that the real reason I’m in here? Because you’ve decided you don’t want to be with me? You’ve had your fun and now you’re done?”

  “Okay, I’m done … with this conversation.” I whirled around, jogging from the prison. Kade was getting worse by the second. I hoped I’d find better news in the medical wing.

  “Hey.” Tamzea greeted me, a gentle smile on her lips. “Have you heard the good news about getting out of here?” Although something positive, it wasn’t the good news I was hoping for.

  “Yeah.” I glanced at Mikla, who didn’t bother acknowledging my presence. “We got a computer with, what I hope, has what we need on it. Dar and Masha are going to set to work on it as soon as we’re out of here.” I shifted back and forth, swaying with anxiety. “Any news on the Kade front?”

  “We have two possible solutions,” Mikla mumbled, causing me to lean in to hear him. “One will most likely work, and the other is stupid.”

  “Let me guess … yours is the option that will most likely work, and Tamzea and Eron’s is the stupid option.”

  Tamzea patted me on the arm in sympathy. “It’s as if you know him.”

  “All right, so what are they?”

  Mikla stood, two needles in his hand. “I need to get some of Kade’s blood so I can isolate the dragon …” He was gone before he finished.

  “Does he think Kade is just going to let him draw blood?”

  “He probably will if he explains it’s for you,” Eron said. “I know that would work for me if it was Tamzy.”

  “Yes, but you’re sane.”

  “Now he is.” Tamzea brushed her fingers along his back, eyeing him appreciatively. “You didn’t get to witness his behavior after you were taken to Telvin. But, enough about Eron, we need to discuss the better, sane option.”

  “Okay,” I drawled. “What is it?”

  “Together Eron and I can alter your energy fields, making them similar to Kade’s. It should be able to trick the bonding magic into working so you can accept his mark, therefore solving the problem of him slowly losing his shit.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Magic?”

  Tamzea giggled. “Yes, I remember someone, a very smart someone, telling me that magic is merely a word for scientific anomalies not yet explained. Since we don’t know how the dragon mate bond happens …” She waved her hands in the air. “Tada! Magic!”

  Mikla scuttled back into the room, two vials of blood in his hands. “Now all I have to do is isolate the dragon DNA, like I said, then I can inject it into Zula.”

  I threw my hands up in the air, backing away. “Oh, no. Just a second. You are not splicing me with dragon DNA. That’s your solution? You don’t have any of the equipment here, not to mention the incredible pain. Oh, yeah, and the fact that you’d be altering my genetic makeup. There’s no telling the consequences.” I patted Tamzea on the head. “I think I’m just going to let the Mazatimz get a crack at this first.”

  Mikla carefully placed Kade’s blood
on the table. “It’s not splicing. Because no, I don’t have the equipment. But I can isolate the dragon DNA, and inject you with that, along with a bonding compound. It will infuse your system with the correct genetic sequences for the dragon mate mark to form.”

  “What? None of that even makes sense. You can’t just inject me with dragon DNA and a bonding compound and hope for the best.”

  “I never hope for the best. I deliver results.”

  Grabbing Tamzea by the arm, I dragged her into the hallway. “Did you check him for any trauma? Because what he’s saying sounds … crazy.”

  Tamzea blew out a long breath. “There seems to be a lot of that going around lately, but no, there’s nothing amiss with his energies.”

  I nibbled my bottom lip. “Doesn’t mean there’s not something mentally wrong. I thought he came back from his breakdown, but I could be wrong.”

  “Hopefully we won’t have to find out if my and Eron’s solution works.”

  Squeezing her hand. “How soon can we try?”

  “Now if you want.”

  Bursting with hope, I grinned. “Yes, now works for me.” I veritably skipped to the prison, Tamzea and Eron following at a much slower pace.

  “LaLa!” Kade flew at the bars as soon as I was in view of him. “Did it work? Did Mikla’s treatment work?”

  “Umm … we’re going to try something else first.” I didn’t want to dampen his mood. For the moment, he seemed like his old self, no growling and no ordering me around.

  “Oh.” Crestfallen, his hands fell to his sides. “That’s a no then.”

  “He’s still working on his treatment. It’ll take some time to separate your blood, but I’m hoping Tamzea and Eron’s solution will render Mikla’s pointless.”

  Moving into the prison, Tamzea smiled at Kade in greeting, tugging Eron along after her. “We’re going to alter Zula’s energies to be more in line with yours. It’ll be simple and painless. We just need to link with you and her together.”

  Kade’s expression turned hopeful again. “What do I need to do?”

  “Just lie down and close your eyes. Concentrate on relaxing so it’ll be easier for us to get in.” She glanced at me. “You too, Zula.”

  I laid on the floor, the cool metal causing goose bumps to race up my exposed arms. Forcing my eyes shut, I attempted to clear my mind. Yeah, right. Your mind is never clear. Never not going a mile a millisecond. “I’m ready.” Or I was as close as I’d ever be.

  “Me too,” Kade said.

  “We’ll start then,” Tamzea whispered.

  Warmth washed over me, sweeping away all the tension from my extremities. My second heart halted, and my first slowed to a languid pace, allowing my breathing to be deep and sure. It was as if I was sinking through the floor, and floating to the ceiling at the same time. Sparks of gold danced behind my closed lids, mesmerizing me in the patterns and shapes they formed. It reminded me of the star nymphs and the first kiss I’d shared with Kade on that little escape pod.

  “Mmm …“ he grunted, yanking me against his chest.

  My hands flew up, pushing against the wall of muscle encircling me. “Stop. I—”

  His lips slanted over mine, his tongue plunging in to demand control of my mouth. I immediately acquiesced, my mind blanking, sudden lust roaring through my system as my mechanical heart jumped into action. Awkwardly, I climbed up into his lap to straddle him, my pelvis undulating frantically in search of release. Arching back sharply as Kade ground the bulge in his pants against my core, my hands flew out wildly, slamming my palms against cool metal and buttons.

  It was as if Kade’s very essence infused with mine, an overwhelming sense of him in my core, a link spiraling from him to me, and me to him. It’s working! It has to be working! Joy danced within, all doubts and worry lifting away.

  And then it all ended. Leaving me adrift in pitch-blackness, deep dankness muddling my very soul. I opened my mouth to scream, but ichor flowed down my throat, infecting me.

  “I’ve got her! I’ve got her!” Tamzea’s voice shattered the silence, and I sputtered to breathe, my eyes open but no shapes taking form.

  “Kade,” I croaked. “Where’s Kade?”

  “He’s fine. He’s fine. And so are you.” She hugged me tightly, her small frame trembling around mine. “Everything was going so well, I don’t know what went wrong.”

  Blinking the room into focus, I took in shuddering breath after shuddering breath, my need to be in Kade’s arms overwhelming. “I need him. I need to see him. I was connected, we were—” I shivered. “And then it was gone … he was gone, and I was drowning in darkness.”

  “LaLa,” Kade rumbled, his voice nothing more than a low rasp.

  Scrambling to my feet, I rushed to his cell, stretching my arms in towards him. “Kade, I was—I was—” A sob tore from my chest when his hands entwined with mine.

  “It was so good for a minute. I want it back,” he said, his hot lips brushing the inside of my left wrist.

  “Me too. I want it back, too.” I’d had doubts about bonding with someone permanently, even Kade. I loved him, and wanted to be with him, but the push for our bond was one out of necessity because the choice came down to having him forever or not having him at all. But that moment of pure bliss we’d shared—the one that went beyond the physical, beyond mere mental—our souls had brushed against each other’s, and to know what that felt like, to feel that kind of connection with another living being … I wanted it. All of me wanted it.

  I pulled his arms through the bars to me so I could pepper his hands with kisses, needing to show him some kind of physical affection. “We’ll find a way. I promise. We’ll find a way …“ Or I’ll die trying. No wonder he’d been so crazed. If that was what his soul had been craving with me, I understood.

  “We’ll try again, and we’ll keep trying until we get it right.”

  Tamzea’s hand settled on my shoulder, and she turned me to her, my hands falling away from Kade’s. “No. We can’t do that again. It won’t work, and if we keep attempting to manipulate your energies it may very well kill you.”

  “Why won’t it work?” I cried. “I mean, it was working for a minute. We were connected.”

  “I don’t know why. But both Eron and I sensed the problem and that’s why we stopped.”

  Falling to my knees, tears free fell down my cheeks, my insides ripped open and bloody. “I can’t lose him. Not now. Not after that. You have to try again. Just one more time.”

  “No.” My gaze snapped up to meet Kade’s, his eyes boring into mine. I couldn’t have heard him right. “I said no.” He repeated as if he’d just read my mind. “I won’t risk you like that. In the end, if I have to be put down, you’ll eventually move on. I won’t. Your death would equal two deaths. But mine … well, mine would only equal one. It’s illogical to risk you when your life is important to more than just me, and my life is only important to you.”

  My temper flared. “Don’t you tell me no. You don’t get to tell me no. My body, my decision. And don’t you dare try to use logic against me. Me … a Galvraron! I use logic against you, not the other way around, and that’s what I’m about to do.”

  Forcing myself to my feet, I leaned against the bars of his cell, pressing my face against it. “Love is illogical, which makes everything illogically done … logical. It’s the irony of it. And everyone needs love of some sort. That part took me a while to figure out. It’s like we’re all flowers, and love is the sun. We need love to grow, and bloom. We need it to thrive. Therefore, I need you to do more than simply exist, which was what I’ve been doing my entire life. So your life may only be important to me, but that’s enough. You don’t get to decide that it’s not, you stubborn, pigheaded, arrogant, Talsen!”

  Kade’s lips tipped up slightly on one side, his gaze unreadable. “None of that made any sense at all. That wasn’t the best work of a Galvraron. I was under the impression that your kind excelled at anything to do with logic, or—” />
  I slammed my hands against the bars. “Shut up. I know exactly what you’re trying to do and it won’t work.” He was trying to make me forget, turn everything into a joke so I’d start to second guess things, and do exactly what he wanted. Not this time. Whirling around, I glared at Tamzea and Eron. “You may not want to try anything else, but I know someone who will.”

  Not bothering to spare Kade even a parting glance, I ran as fast as my legs would carry me to the medical wing. I arrived out of breath, and full of resolve.

  “I’m ready to try it your way now, Mikla. What do I need to do?”

  His eyes lit up, a smug smile tugging at his lips. “I knew you’d see it my way. After all, I am always right.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  “Masha and Dar have us ready to go,” Jane’s voice warbled over the intercom. “I need you in the control room, Zula, as fast as you can get here. Everyone else, strap in, this might be a bumpy ride.”

  “Okay, just— I’ll be back once we’re off of Xianfrey and on our way to the Gartian planet.”

  “I’ll be ready and waiting,” Mikla said.

  Clinking up the small metal ladder that lead to the next level in The Pittsburgh, I struggled to catch my breath. When was the last time you simply strolled anywhere and weren’t rushing to get there because of an emergency of some sort? Definitely before Jane decided to take Ash as a bounty, effectively setting off the chain reaction which would send all of our worlds spinning.

  “Hey! Took you long enough.” Jane was lounging in her captain’s chair, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “I’m ready to get out of here.”

  “Like I’m not,” I grumbled, flopping into the flight chair, and strapping myself in. “Where’s Ash?”

  Jane flittered her hand through the air. “Who knows? He’s lurking around here somewhere, waiting to piss me off.”

  As much as Jane loved Ash, she hardly ever admitted it out loud, at least to any of the crew. I didn’t know why she bothered to deny it, though; she wasn’t the type to keep a mate around if she didn’t have deep feelings for him.

  Punching in the launch codes, the engines came online, the ship vibrating slightly. The Pittsburgh ran a lot smoother since its overhaul courtesy of the Gartians. “Here we go,” I muttered, flipping the switch to engage the lift off thrusters.