by Nina Croft
“She’s perfect. I’ve even fixed the dodgy drives,” he replied.
Saffira could hear the pride in his voice. He loved this ship. How could he love a machine? And how could she be jealous of a hunk of metal?
Tannis turned to Rico. “And can you get us back through the hole?”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
“And he is the best pilot in the whole goddamn universe,” Skylar murmured. “Both universes.”
“So that’s it. We head home.”
Saffira opened her mouth to speak, but Thorne stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Wait,” he whispered.
…
She closed her mouth and gave a slight nod. What had the winged guy said to her? Devlin experienced a flicker of sympathy for the other man. He reckoned protecting Saffira was probably a full-time job. She was obviously impetuous, leaping headfirst into trouble without thinking things through. Like telling an obviously frustrated guy that he was fated to get into her pants. Trouble.
Shit but she’d been sweet. It had felt so good to give in. He was sure that just five minutes more and he could have been buried deep inside her. Instead, his balls still ached.
“What about the Trakis One?” Callum asked. “Shouldn’t we at least go check it out? See if they’re alive? There’s a small chance the cryo system will still be functioning on the emergency power supply.”
Devlin dragged his mind back to the problems at hand. The Trakis One was one of the twenty-four ships that had left a doomed Earth a thousand years ago, taking the Chosen Ones and thus ensuring the survival of humanity. After five hundred years, they’d finally arrived at a system capable of sustaining life. They named it the Trakis system and the individual planets after the ships which colonized them. Life was looking up for mankind. Well, except for the ones on board the Trakis One, the ship carrying the last president of the Federation of Nations, which was promptly sucked into the black hole that guarded the first planet and was never seen again.
“And if they are alive—what then?” Tannis said. “There are ten thousand people on the Trakis One. The Blood Hunter is big, but we can’t take them all. So what do we do, wake them up and tell them we’re leaving them on a broken down spaceship?”
“We could go check out the ship,” Skylar said. “Maybe Devlin can get her going again.”
Devlin snorted. “And maybe Devlin has better things to do—like getting back and killing Temperance Hatcher.”
Everyone ignored his comment.
“And if he can’t?” Tannis asked.
“We don’t wake them,” Rico said, “and we sort something out on the other side. Some sort of salvage job.”
“Pull them out?” Devlin considered the idea. He could set up a tow system. They could come back once Hatcher was dead. “Might be a bit dodgy through a black hole, though.”
Rico shrugged. “Ferry them out, maybe.”
“Let me ask you something,” Tannis said to Rico. “You brought us through that black hole—how much was skill and how much was luck?”
Rico grinned. “Hey, I’m a lucky guy.” He shrugged again. “I reckon about fifty-fifty.”
“And you’d be willing to take that risk how many times?”
“I never said I’d ferry them out. But there’s a lot of valuable stuff on that ship—someone might be tempted.”
“Not forgetting the last president of the Federation of Nations,” Skylar said.
“And his daughter,” Rico added, sending Callum an amused glance. “Ex-fiancée of our esteemed leader.”
“Piss off,” Callum muttered.
Devlin relaxed back, stretched his legs out, and watched Rico wind up someone else for a change. It had been a revelation to see the crew of the Blood Hunter work together. A group of total misfits, they shared a bond that he’d never had with the men and women under his command.
He realized with a start of shock that he had started to feel part of that.
Shit. He was going soft. Time to get back to his own people.
Tannis shot Callum a narrow-eyed look and Devlin could almost see the silent communication pass between them. They were doing the telepathy thing—it gave him the creeps. What would it be like to have someone else in your head? He didn’t want to know.
“Hey, it was a long time ago,” Callum said. “And she was a complete and total bitch.”
“Gorgeous, though,” Rico murmured and earned himself an elbow in the ribs from Skylar.
“We definitely don’t wake them up, then,” Tannis said, then ran a hand through her short, spiky hair. “So that’s the plan. We make a quick stop on the way. Devlin can assess the ship—see if she’s fixable. If she is, we fix her, wake them up, and afterward, the president and his goddamn daughter can do what they like. If not, we leave them and worry about it when we get home. But really, when did we become so bloody altruistic?”
“Callum’s having a bad influence on you,” Rico suggested.
“That would be more believable if Callum had ever had an altruistic thought in his whole goddamned long life,” Devlin murmured.
Callum grinned. “Piss off.”
“So, final business of the day,” Tannis said, waving a hand toward Saffira. “What do we do about these two?”
The whole room focused on Saffira and Thorne. Her face was expressionless, but he could almost see her mind working furiously. What did she want? She gave Thorne a quick sideways glance and he nodded, the movement almost imperceptible. She licked her lips. Heat rushed to his groin, and he crossed one ankle over his knee.
“I need your help,” she said.
Here it was. Either he was about to find out what she was up to or she was going to tell them a complete fabrication. He was guessing the latter. All the same, he leaned forward in his chair.
“And just how do you think we can help you?” Tannis asked.
“I can’t tell you the details. But I would ask that you visit the Sisterhood with me, and we can tell you more.”
The captain stopped her pacing, turned to face Saffira, and shot her an incredulous look. “Let me get this straight. You want us to go back down onto that planet. The planet with the things that can zap our minds with one goddam thought. I don’t think so.”
“We saved your lives.”
Good point.
“And we’re truly grateful. Really we are. But no goddamn way.”
“You got into Circle of Change without anyone seeing, you can do this.”
“No freaking way. It’s too risky. We just lost Janey and the Trog. I’m not risking anyone else. At least not for strangers.” She looked around her crew. “Anyone got a different opinion—say it now.”
Tannis paced while she waited but, when it became obvious that no one was going to speak, she came back to stand in front of Saffira and Thorne.
“You did save us, and we appreciate that. But you have two choices: you can come with us, back through the black hole, back where you came from.” She nodded to Thorne.
“And what about my people?” Saffira said. “Are we just to abandon them?”
Tannis ignored the question. “Or we can give you a shuttle and you can go back to the planet on your own.”
“Please,” Saffira said, taking a step forward and resting a hand on Tannis’s arm. “It’s important. Just meet with my sisters, only a few minutes, then make a decision as to whether to help us or not.”
“Well, just because I’m a democratic sort of person”—Devlin snorted and she turned to glare—“I’ll put it to a vote.” She turned to face the room. “Okay, people, those in favor of going back to the planet from hell, with the really unfriendly creatures who can zap our minds with a thought, raise your hands.”
No one raised a hand. Hurt flashed across Saffira’s face, and Devlin’s arm twitched, but he kept his hand firmly at his side.
“So all those in favor of getting as far away as fast as possible, raise your hands.”
Saffira looked straigh
t at him. He held her gaze as he gave a shrug and raised his hand in the air. As did everyone else.
“Looks like it’s unanimous,” Tannis said. “You’ve got five minutes to make up your minds.” And she strolled away.
Saffira turned to Thorne and spoke, but Devlin couldn’t hear the words. Though he could tell from her expression that she was far from happy.
Thorne put a hand on her arm and Devlin’s muscles tightened at the sign of familiarity. She was all heated up, speaking quickly, passionately. Had he ever been that passionate?
Of course he had, but while she was all about the fires of youth, he’d honed his passion, his need for revenge, to coldness so it was a ball of black ice at his core.
Part of him hoped they would go. She unsettled him. On the other hand, parts of him—mainly his dick—hoped she would stay. He shifted in his seat at the thought and intercepted an amused glance from Rico. The damned vampire always gave the impression he knew exactly what Devlin was thinking. It never failed to piss him off.
No, it was better that she left.
Once he’d believed he could have a life with his brother. That once the whole revenge thing was done with, they could go away, be a family again, build something together. Maybe on one of the outer planets where there would be no petty rules and restrictions. No government interference and no religious assholes to screw up their lives. That was pretty much what Saffira’s colonists had been after—a brave new world. And they’d ended up here. Poor sods.
Now Tris was gone, and he could see nothing in his future, nothing beyond killing Hatcher and destroying the Church of fucking Everlasting Life.
He glanced across at Saffira and found her watching him, her eyes filled with some emotion—sadness, or maybe regret, he wasn’t sure. And he knew what her decision was going to be. Hell, he’d always known. She wouldn’t betray her people for a quick ride out of here. In her own way, she was as committed to her cause as he was to his. And he respected her for that even if he considered her cause misguided.
She headed over to where Tannis and Callum stood together. “We’ll take the shuttle,” she said and her words carried clearly across the space between them.
Something twisted inside him.
But it was for the best.
“Are you sure?” Callum said, but he was speaking to Thorne rather than Saffira. “Come back with us. We need someone who knows what we are, what we are going to become.”
“I can’t leave my people. But you could stay and meet more of us,” Thorne replied.
Callum glanced around, his gaze settling on Tannis. “No. The captain’s right, the risk is too high.”
“Then this shuttle…?”
“Of course, But perhaps while it’s being readied, you’d spend some time talking with me.”
“Why not?”
Tannis joined them and they wandered over to where Devlin still slumped in his chair. Tannis raised an eyebrow. “Cheer up,” she said. “We’ll have you back home, with your little band of rebels, killing Christians in no time. But right now, could you go ready one of the shuttles?”
“Set it to thought control,” Callum said. “We can program it to Thorne’s brainwaves.”
“You can do that?” Thorne asked.
“Yeah, I had the technology developed. The whole ship responds to thought control. It can be programmed to respond to any of the Collective’s minds and presumably yours as well.” Callum sounded so proud, as though he’d developed it and built the whole ship himself, instead of just ordering some minion to do it.
Devlin rolled to his feet and stretched, caught Saffira peeking at him, and stretched again. “Aye, aye, captain.”
Tannis grinned; despite their troubles, she appeared truly happy. But then only hours ago she’d been all but dead—anything was an improvement over that.
“Can I come?” Saffira asked.
He turned to her. Was she going to try to persuade him to seduce her again? He sort of hoped so. “Why not?”
She gave her companion a last long look and stepped toward him. “Let’s go then.”
“Saffira.” Thorne spoke her name and she twisted to look back at him.
“What?”
“Remember what I told you?”
She grinned, suddenly looking younger. “I always remember. Just sometimes I choose to ignore you.”
He shook his head.
“So what did he tell you?” Devlin asked as they entered the transporter bubble. “Docking bay,” he murmured.
“He told me that I should play hard to get. That men get a little scared if a woman comes on to them.”
His lips twitched. “I’m not scared.”
“Maybe you should be,” she muttered.
He looked down at her, a long way down. “Of a little thing like you?”
She cocked her head to one side and studied him. “Do you always judge a person by their size? Is bigger always stronger, better?””
“Not better, no. Stronger, usually.”
The doors opened onto the docking bay, and he headed across to where an impressive array of shuttles stood in neat lines. Shuttles of every size, from one-man capsules to vessels almost as big as the old Blood Hunter.
“There are so many,” Saffira murmured from beside him. She was looking in awe.
“This ship was designed by Callum, and you could say no expense was spared.”
“You don’t like him, do you?”
Devlin thought for a second, which brought him up short. A month back, he wouldn’t have hesitated. Did he hate Callum? “I hate what he represents. I hate the Collective and the fact that for political expediency they allowed my family to be slaughtered.”
“They did?”
“Didn’t you learn that in your history lessons? The Collective downgraded all genetically modified organisms to animal status. That allowed the Church to kill us without repercussions.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be—it’s history. But as to Callum Meridian—the man. No, I don’t hate him. He’s made mistakes, but who hasn’t? And he’s a lazy egotistical bastard who thinks just because he’s the Leader of the Goddamn Universe he has the right to tell people what to do.”
She smiled. “Doesn’t he? I suppose someone has to. Is that what you’d like if your rebels win? To rule the universe.”
“Hell, no.”
“So what do you want?”
He shifted, uncomfortable at the direction of the conversation. Rico had once warned him that it was a mistake to make his whole life about revenge. That there were only two possible outcomes. Either he failed and was basically fucked, or he succeeded and was left with no purpose, no life, no nothing—basically fucked. Devlin reckoned it was official—he was fucked. Win or lose, there was no future for him. He was too damaged by hate. And maybe too much of a coward to ever try to get close to anybody again when he’d lost everyone he’d ever loved. He looked up to find her watching him, her brows drawn together in a frown, as though she was trying to work out what made him tick. He could have told her. Hate, rage, the need for revenge. “I want to destroy the Church and kill the man who murdered my brother. After that…” He had no clue. “So what about you—do you plan to rule if your little rebellion wins?”
“No. If we succeed, we will get the planet we always dreamed of. And Thorne will lead us as he should have done all those years ago. And I’ll…” she shrugged. “I don’t know. It depends… But first we have to win.”
She looked so earnest and sure, her eyes glowing with passion. He dropped his gaze, lingering on the swell of her breasts under the horrible jumpsuit. She had beautiful breasts, full and firm and… He shook himself as his dick twitched, reminding him that he was still horny as hell. Maybe they could have a quickie in the shuttle.
He raised his eyes and found her giving him a strange look. Perhaps it was time to change the subject before she got back onto that weird time travel shit again. “Come on, let’s find your transport.” How quick w
ould he need to be? She wanted him. He was sure of that. But time was running out.
He’d decided on a short-range, two-seater shuttle, which would get them down from orbit, but at the last moment, he veered to his right, where a larger model stood. Still a two-person craft but with a slightly greater range. It occurred to him that Saffira might come along as far as the Trakis One and maybe they could spend a little quality time together—get his rocks off—before they parted forever.
“Open.”
The door slid open and he climbed the ramp and entered. The shuttle consisted of a single space about ten feet by ten feet, with two seats facing a bank of consoles.
Saffira brushed past him and jumped into one of the seats, bouncing a little. She looked so young, he felt a flicker of guilt for even thinking about seducing her. But who was he to defy fate? And besides, at twenty-one, she was hardly likely to be innocent.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“Just that here we are alone again and if we want to make those visions of yours come true, maybe this is our last chance.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“Then how does it work, sweetheart?” He stepped in closer, leaned down, and placed his hands on the arms of the chair, caging her in. Her purple eyes were huge, unblinking, and the pulse in her throat was clearly visible beneath her thin skin. He wanted to lick that point. Taste her. His gaze dropped to where her nipples poked at the material. He shifted one hand and laid it over her breast, felt the hammering of her heart.
“You want me, sweetheart?”
She gave a quick nod of her head.
“Well, you can have me. But it’s going to have to be short and sweet.”
Lowering his head, he stroked his tongue across her throat, nipping the skin with his teeth, and she gave a little jump. He tugged the fastener, slowly, not wanting to frighten her. His whole body was tense with need, his dick once again rock hard, his balls aching. But he needed her to enjoy this—maybe the whole dream-lover thing was a challenge.
He parted the material, baring her breasts, the nipples tight and swollen, dark red, and he took one in his mouth and suckled. She was with him all the way, moaning low in her throat as a small hand slipped behind his neck to hold him tight. She was making little pants of excitement now, which made his own breath come faster and the blood throb in his cock. He kissed her other nipple and then licked his way up her throat as his hand slid beneath the jumpsuit and lower, to tangle in the silky curls at the junction of her thighs.