“Do they say we’re dangerous?” Sky asked.
“Yes.”
Sky raised her grav-gun, warning him not to get too close. “They’re not wrong. You abuse your daughter.”
“He’s not my father. He’s a helper,” Layna said.
“Who ties you up and starves you,” Amanda said. Her knife was at her side, but she was ready to defend herself.
“I told you to leave before morning,” Haren interrupted.
“I tried really hard. But I had to collect her,” Sky said, indicating Amanda.
“And I had to save her,” Amanda said, pointing to Layna.
“Are you going to take the antidote?” Haren asked, taking the bag of pills from Amanda and walking casually to the kitchen. He threw his jacket over the chair and poured a cup of tea for himself and another for Amanda. Then he took one of the antidote pills from the bag and downed it. “Do you not want my help?”
Sky’s knees felt weak. She grabbed one of the pills, then gulped down her tea with the medicine. His hand brushed hers, stirring excitement, and for a moment, she thought she’d been dosed with a fresh aphrodisiac.
“I’d prefer water,” Amanda said. “Is there food?”
Haren chuckled and handed Amanda a canister of cookies and a glass of water. Amanda still seemed wary. Sky felt foggy.
“What’s in this?” Sky asked.
“It’s a run of the mill green tea. Layna added a few herbs to placate your spirit,” Haren said, a sinister smile curling his lips. “The Prince of Law is a memory reader and I don’t want the him reading your true nature.”
Sky backed away from him, but those special herbs moved fast and her legs felt like wet noodles. She fell hard on the floor.
“Sky!” Amanda cried, throwing the canister of cookies at Haren.
Haren snatched Sky’s grav-gun and pointed it at Amanda. Then Layna and Amanda vanished. Swearing, Haren came around the counter and rolled Sky onto her back, checking her breathing.
“You killed me,” Sky whimpered, panic rising.
“You should have left when you had the chance. Close your eyes,” Haren said, cradling her head in his hands.
“I can’t,” Sky wept. She could feel her body dying, her throat closing, her world getting dark.
“My dear, I know what I am doing. I know what you are,” Haren chuckled, stroking her hair. “I’m surprised you didn’t see this coming.”
“I am not a Seer,” Sky spat, clinging to every breath even as the visions consumed her.
“Yes, you are,” Haren whispered. He was little more than a ghost in her vision now. She felt him kiss her, but then she felt nothing at all.
Saskia wanted Tray so badly, she could barely concentrate. She giggled and squealed as she chased Tray along the perimeter of the dome. The swim across the river had done little to dampen her lust, and seeing Tray’s soaked clothes clinging to his shivering skin lit her right back up. Were it not for the crustaceans that pinched her ankles, they’d still be fondling each other in the water.
“Warm in bed. Not ‘til we’re warm in bed,” Tray cried, jogging ahead of her. She clasped Tray’s hand, slowing him down as they rounded the dome to where the ship rested. Leaves had fallen from the trees and covered the wings of the ship. There were scorch marks on the ground from their landing. Saskia drew her stunner, but the weapon had been submerged and couldn’t be used until it was treated.
The gate to the city was tipped open, and a pair of service officers circled the ship, knocking on the hull. The ship was designed to withstand the ballistic debris of the Kessler cloud, so unless they knew exactly where to strike, their bullets would bounce off. The two officers went back to the gate and loitered by the opening. Saskia wondered if she could take both of them without a weapon.
Lacing her fingers with Tray’s, Saskia darted for the front landing wheel, then paused to make sure they hadn’t been spotted. Fortunately, the officers were bored of the impenetrable ship, and their conversation covered the sound of Tray’s drunken giggles. The wheels were as tall as she was. Saskia would have climbed the wing next, but Tray had a hole in his leg, and getting shot with her stunner had made him even slower. They made a dash for the back wheels, then Tray keyed in a command on his Virp to open the rear personnel door. As soon as it swung open, they slipped inside and slammed it shut. She peered outside again, but the two officers were still standing by the gate and chatting.
Crowing triumphantly, Tray toed off his wet shoes and dropped their soggy gear bag. Saskia peeled off his coat and he turned around, pulling her into a kiss. The urgent lust returned, and they stripped down to their undergarments.
“Babe, this hole in my leg needs some proper treatment if I’m going to have the energy to keep up with you,” Tray murmured between kisses and drawing her toward the lower deck. “And I’d feel better if you seal this cut.”
He touched the cut on her cheek. He’d bitten her from a combination of lust and resistance when they were swimming across the river. The sting of the cut was barely noticeable over the burning of the drug.
“What are you hungry for? I’m thinking cherries and waffles,” he panted.
“You start cooking. I’ll bring the knitter,” she said. The kissing and touching no longer helped clear their heads. This drug wasn’t an aphrodisiac; it was poison. Even his desire for food made her jealous.
Gathering the wet clothes, she went to the laundry room and tossed everything in the dryer. Her boots squelched with every step, but her instincts told her that she had to be ready to defend the ship. There was a bathrobe hanging by the door and she put it on, finding the dry fabric against her skin unexpectedly comforting.
The moment of comfort cleared her head long enough to remember the sting of her cheek and why she hadn’t followed Tray up to get food. It had been a late night and an early morning and Saskia wanted sleep. And dry boots. Shaking out Morrigan’s water-logged medical bag, she crossed the hall into the infirmary and her skin went cold. Morrigan lay on the center table, her body curled and stiff. The sheet covering her was stained with blood. Panic surged and Saskia ran to the bed, shaking Morrigan’s shoulder.
“Morrigan? Morrigan! Wake up!” she shouted. The drugs made her loud and irrational. She was a trained medic. This was not how she was supposed to behave.
“Saskia,” Morrigan said, shivering and pulling her thin blanket under her chin. Then she reached out from under the covers and touched Saskia’s cheek. “You’re hurt.”
“You’re lying in a pool of blood!” Saskia exclaimed, ripping the sheet away.
Morrigan groaned, like she was fighting a hangover, then she squirmed when she felt the blood between her legs. “Side effect of the fertility drugs they dosed us with. My cat-chip stopped working a while ago.”
“Detox,” Saskia decided. “I need a clear head. I can’t treat you like this! I can’t think!”
“Don’t! Don’t take the Detox. I made that mistake,” Morrigan said, rolling off the bed and stumbling against the counter.
Morrigan’s words hurt her ears and the stink of blood stirred bad memories. Saskia found the Detox already on the counter and loaded a jet.
“You do not want this,” Morrigan said, wrestling her for the jet. “I went through this last night. You do not want—”
“Don’t argue with me! I—”
Morrigan slapped Saskia’s bleeding cheek and Saskia’s fist clenched. Anger and resentment flaring, Saskia tackled Morrigan to the floor, trying to get the jet back.
“Whoa, whoa! What’s going on!” Tray hollered, trotting into the room, stuffing his mouth with a piece of cake. He didn’t try to intervene.
“Give me the Detox!” Saskia demanded, punching Morrigan in the face. Morrigan dodged and Saskia’s fist hit the floor.
“It’s not safe. Not against this drug,” Morrigan said, kneeing Saskia in the gut and flipping her over one shoulder. She pinned Saskia’s hands and braced her body, immobilizing her. Saskia had never thought of Morrigan as a fighter,
and she chalked her loss up to being poisoned.
“I’ll find something else,” Morrigan shouted, standing unsteadily. “Now let me clean myself up and… you know what. I don’t even care what you do. Take the Detox if you want to lose the next twelve hours.”
She tossed the jet into a drawer and stalked out of the infirmary, leaving Saskia stunned on the floor.
“Fix my leg, please,” Tray said, giving her a bite of cake. The protein-packed breakfast food tasted bitter on her tongue, but she wolfed it down. “We’re going to eat. Save the crew. And make love. To each other. Not the crew.”
“In that order?” Saskia asked.
“In that order,” he said, straightening her robe and brushing the crumbs from her chin.
Saskia shuddered at the promise. “Can I kill her?”
“No,” Tray said.
Saskia frowned and rubbed her bruised knuckles.
“Tell you what. After we finish the rest of the list, if you still want to kill her, we’ll talk,” Tray said.
28
The smell of sweat, refuse, and stale alcohol reminded Danny of an alley on Terrana where he’d drilled through the moonslate to rescue a kid from the Guard. Not all the refugees he saved rode Oriana to freedom. He rolled his tongue against the roof of his mouth, tasting dust from when his face hit the ground. His neck was bruised, and it hurt to breathe.
When he’d passed out, they were still outside, but now they were in a cage in the Festival hall. The bars that formed their cage looked like a sheep pen, double stacked for height. A wire mesh coated the bars, making it impossible to reach a hand through. The tables and couches were stacked on one side and it looked like a cleaning crew had been in the middle of sweeping when their work was interrupted. Shifting his weight, he groaned at the stiffness in his neck, and then he felt a body next to his.
Chase!
Danny muttered a fearful prayer, rolling as fast as his aching joints allowed. Chase was limp, his eyes closed, his body pale.
“Chase?” Danny said, touching his cheek.
Chase awoke with a raspy screech that lasted only a second before his whole body seized. Then he remained terrifyingly stiff and silent. Danny hugged him to warm him. The second half of the scream came out and Chase trembled against him.
“Chase,” he panted. “Be careful. Your neck. They dragged you after you passed out.”
“He took my pillow,” Chase whispered, his trembling fingers touching the bruises on his neck.
“How’s your leg?” Danny asked, trying to figure a way to support Chase’s head without wrenching his neck.
“Worse,” he sniffled, bracing his injured hand against his chest as he tested the leg. “What do they want?”
“Layna. The half-breed. They didn’t kill us, so there’s hope,” Danny said, rubbing his wrist. His hand was scratched where they’d cut away the Virp. His Feather was still on his ear, though, so he’d hear if Tray tried to call. “He had Hawk’s Virp. Why isn’t Hawk here?”
“He ‘corrupted’ the Prince,” Chase said. “I think he’s dead.”
“Oh, Zive,” Danny murmured. “Sometimes I wish I followed a vengeful god.”
“I’m sure the pantheon has a spirit for you,” Chase said. “Omisha?”
“That one’s the spirit of death. Ngozi is the one to summon for vengeance,” Danny said. “If you believe that sort of thing.”
They heard a scream from outside the hall.
“That’s Sky,” Danny said, his adrenaline surging. The residual drugs fueled an impulsive, irrational rage that made him dizzy. “Sky!”
Chase curled into a ball and covered his ears, but Danny kept shouting. The door to the hall opened and the Madame Magistrate entered, wearing formal regalia that spoke of status but lacked the glitter that permeated the Festival attire. A man in drab, brown attire and matching brown hair came in with her, and it took Danny a moment to realize he was looking at Chief Torrance.
“Apologies for the rough treatment, Captain. We don’t have stun weapons like yours, and your crew has proven violent,” the Magistrate said, taking a flimsy chair to a small platform. It seemed like there should have been a throne there, and her folding chair made her look like a pretender. “You shot two service officers when you left the Palace.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time. They let everyone else out,” Danny said, trying to shake the bars loose. The rough wire that coated it cut into his skin. “What are you doing to Sky?”
“The Prince of Law wanted to question her. Your memories tell us that she spoke to the corporeal spirit, but you did not,” the Magistrate replied.
Danny’s skin went cold, and he feared what else they’d learned about Sky from his memories. “What are you doing to her!” Danny shrieked. “Don’t hurt her. Don’t kill her! She’s not what you think.”
“Magistrate, he needs the antidote,” Chief Torrance spoke up.
“The Prince of Law gave it to him. The Captain has not administered it,” the Magistrate said. “You still have it, Captain. We did not dare touch you while you slept.”
“How can I trust anything you give me? Your food and drink are poison to us!” Danny snapped.
“An oversight we were attempting to rectify when your brother shot my cousin!” the Magistrate said. She stood threateningly, then her skin went white and she hurriedly sat again.
“Protocol, Magistrate,” Torrance reminded her.
“They don’t use titles. They understand family,” she hissed back.
“Sky!” Danny hollered.
“That creature has been attacking my people for days, and you found it within hours. What led you to the creature? What made you show it mercy?” she asked. “You attacked my people to find it, and then you left it. Why?”
“We weren’t looking for it,” Danny whined. “We were looking for Cordova. We were looking for medicine. Sky!”
The door burst open and two guards came in, each holding a long pole attached to a noose around Sky’s neck. There were long, red gashes across her torso, and blood on her dress, like she’d been slashed open by the claws of the half-breed. Her wrists were bound, and her fingers were at her neck, digging under the noose.
“Sky!” Danny screamed, throwing himself at the bars of the cage, trying to break through. “What happened to her? You monsters!”
“It would appear the corporeal spirit attacked her,” Collette said. “You are lucky Dr. Gossard found her in time.”
“That spirit did not tie her hands!” Dann raged.
“You shot two of my service officers before you left the Palace to hunt this thing. Your brother shot the attendant who asked him to remain in his room. My most recent report tells me that your sister abducted the doctor’s niece,” she said. “All this happened before I brought you in here. Your family made the first attack.”
The officer used the noose to slam Sky against the cage. Danny grabbed a hold of her dress, but the wire mesh was too dense for him to get a grip.
“Step back, Captain,” the Magistrate ordered. “Lie on the ground like your shipmate.”
One of the officers rapped the cage with a pole, smacking Danny’s hands to get him to let go of Sky. Swearing angrily, he paced in a circle, but Chase grabbed his ankle and forced him to the ground.
The officer tipped the door, released the leash from Sky’s neck, and used the pole to knock her off balance while slamming the cage closed. Danny threw his body under her to cushion the fall.
“Sky, what happened?” he whispered, giving her a soothing kiss as he carefully unknotted the rope binding her wrists. “Did they break into the ship?”
Sky shook her head. “The doctor. He tied me up. He must have cut me, because Layna was already gone.”
Danny seethed. He knew Sky’s spirit would heal her quickly, and he hoped the wound was not part of an attempt to prove she carried it.
“Where’s Amanda?” Danny asked.
“Disappeared. With Layna,” Sky whispered. “This is
unprecedented. We can’t both be in prison. Who’s going to rescue us?”
“If you’re feeling immodest, maybe you can rescue me right now,” Danny said, sliding his hand under her skirt. Sky rocked against him, pushing his shirt off his shoulders. He could tell she felt the intoxicating pull of the drug just as he did, and he was inexplicably excited about being able to rescue her in this way. He knew she wasn’t toying with him; she needed him.
“Excuse me, can you save this for when I’m not here,” Chase said, rudely pushing their faces apart.
“You could join in,” Danny said, pinching Chase’s cheek.
“Please don’t tease me,” Sky begged.
29
Collette’s heart raced and her whole body felt like it was pulsing from adrenaline. Her vision kept blurring with bits and pieces of premonitions.
“Magistrate. Collette, you really should lie down,” Chief Torrance whispered, using her name to highlight his concern. The small conference room smelled of sex and wine, but Collette felt so weak from the onslaught of premonitions that she sank into the nearest chair.
“And let you handle this? Last time I left you in charge, you poisoned the aliens!” she ranted, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes. “We need to find the rest of them.”
“We’re working on it. We have broadcasts going out and we’re pursuing tips,” Torrance said. “Magistrate. I may be at fault for their Festival poisoning, but I did not lead them to a corporeal spirit. They found it and spoke to it.”
“So believes the Prince of Law,” Collette said, rubbing her eyes, wishing she’d had time for a few more hours of sleep. The Prince of Law loomed behind Torrance. “What if you’re seeing a memory they haven’t had yet. You’ve seen my premonitions before. And yesterday, one of their people shared my premonition.”
“The captain confessed to the encounter,” the Prince pointed out. “He also seemed to have a heightened awareness of my presence in his mind. He seemed able to shield himself, and his wife was completely blocked to me.”
Premonition: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 7) Page 20