Maverick: A Supernatural Space Opera Novel (Witching on a Starship Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  And that damned vampire had a pack full of them. It had to weigh several thousand pounds, if not more.

  “Good,” I said, putting my hand on my hips and giving him a bored look. “I feel like I’ve been standing around waiting for you forever.”

  Jeffry the vampire glanced at the watch on his wrist and shook its head. “I know you can dial back time and all, but it has only been about a minute and a half. I think I’m moving pretty quick. Try and take some calming breaths. It’ll help. I promise.”

  He gestured around the room which I’d magically slowed down so we could do everything as quickly as possible. Once we teleported, I wouldn’t be able to dial back time nearly as well because we’d be jumping, but we’d just have to move fast. I could do that too.

  “I’m already bored by what you’re telling me,” I said, reaching up to finger the locket hanging around my chest. Cortina had given it to me, and it was made from the same crystals that powered the colander I’d used to transport the ship here. According to her, it would drastically increase my powers. The downside being that, of course, I’d use my magic up twice as fast or whatever.

  Then she’d launched into an explanation about metaphysical batteries and limits I ignored because I’d never actually run out of magic before. Never. I mean, I’d seen people do it, but even then it was always after something crazy like from splitting the Red Sea for days on end so your people could pass through unmolested or some shit.

  “You could stand to be a little more serious. We are trying to save the galaxy, after all,” the vampire said as he moved to the far wall and pulled what looked like a pulse rifle straight out of Guardians of the Galaxy off the rack on the wall. Then he held it out to me. “Want a gun?”

  “No,” I said holding my wand up. “I’ve got this. I’m good.”

  “Does that wand actually do anything?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as he strapped the pulse rifle to one thigh and grabbed another which he hefted in front of himself. So he was planning on dual-wielding them. Nice.

  “It’s got a dragon tail core,” I said, shrugging. “Not as good as phoenix feather, sure, but what it lacks in longevity, it makes up for in pizzazz.”

  “Are you bloody messing with me?” the vampire asked as he stepped up to me and offered me his free hand. As he did, the suit writhed away, leaving his pale flesh bare so I could take it. “None of those things are real.”

  “Dragons and phoenixes are both real,” I replied, confused as I took his hand and our suits joined together, swarming over our bare skin.

  A shiver rocked me as I glanced down at our entwined hands. His flesh was icy to the touch, and as I clasped my fingers in his even though it was like giving a hand job to a yeti in Antarctic, I barely resisted the urge to pull away. Man, I had no idea how Bella could actually have sex with Edward. I mean, his dick had to be freezing.

  “Yeah, but they don’t put that shit in wands. You’re just being stupid. Or trying to pretend Harry Potter is real.” He shook his head. “Either way, you’re not being serious, so you need to drop the act and focus. We could die out there. Or had that not occurred to you?”

  He was right, of course, but I never let a little thing like someone else being right make me act like a mature functioning adult. Besides, if I started to think about how dangerous this was, I’d never do it. Seriously. Not taking this seriously was pretty much the only thing keeping me together at this point.

  “It is real, and one of these days not only is my letter going to come in the mail, but I’m totally going to find that train at platform nine and three-quarters.” I clutched my wand tightly, anyway. Truth be told, there wasn’t anything special about my wand other than it helped me focus. It was why I turned my fingers into a gun when I shot stuff from them. Imagery was essential for witches since we had to visualize what we wanted to do.

  “Whatever you say,” the vampire said, choosing wisely to stop arguing with me. “Let’s go, Hermione.”

  “Oh, you’ll pay for that,” I said as I stared up at the ship visible through the translucent ceiling overhead. Our plan was simple. We were going to jump forward from ship to ship, planting explosives along the way until we got to the lead ship, hopefully before they moved into the asteroid belt. With any luck, we’d be done with them all before any entered, then we could pull back and watch the fireworks, and I could go home a hero.

  “I already have. I gave you a billion dollars,” he said as I focused my will and called upon my power. “You’re not really the brightest crayon in the box, are you?”

  Pink sparks began to leap from my skin, dancing through my hair and crackling along my skintight black spacesuit. My eyes zeroed in on the spaceship, settling on a spot just above the large thrusters on the ass end of the ship. My lips quirked into a smile as the gemstone hanging between my breasts began to sparkle like a disco ball.

  Energy wrapped around my entire body before branching off and swarming over the vampire until we both looked like pink versions of the human torch. As I focused, sweat began to bead on my forehead, and adrenaline surged through my veins.

  “Hold onto your butt,” I said, exhaling a breath of magic, causing our surroundings to disappear in a flash of blue light.

  A second later we appeared in space right above the Void Crusher. The metal gleamed below us as our suits began to glow with soft blue lights. Then Jeffry hit something on his wrist pad, and we slammed down into the hull. My hands and feet turned sticky as we impacted, and as tendrils of darkness extended from the suit and pressed against the hull, I stuck to the surface of the black metal craft like I was made of taffy and it was my kid sister’s hair. You know, if I’d had a kid sister and been the type of big sister who would put taffy into her hair.

  “Wow, I forgot how much I hated teleporting,” the vampire said, his face a little green as he pulled away from me so our spacesuits detangled themselves. He leaned heavily against the spaceship while the black void of endless space stretched around us, and I realized there was literally nothing protecting us from death but tight-fitting leather. “Give me a second.”

  “Um… let’s get a move on, we have a ton of ships left,” I said as I called upon my magic to try to slow down space and time, only as I did, I knew it wouldn’t work. I wasn’t sure about the mechanics of it, but as the reality around us shimmered, I knew it hadn’t. Worse, I was sure that would continue to be the case, because I could feel the speed of our travel pulling at the edges of my spell, causing it to fray and come apart like the time Billy Kent had pulled on that loose thread on the sweater my Grandma Sue had crocheted for me.

  The whole damn thing had wound up unraveling, and I’d cried when I’d finally noticed what the rat bastard had done. Right before I’d decked him in the face and broken his stupid red glasses.

  “I said to just give me a second,” the vampire snapped, still not moving as he swallowed hard like he was trying to keep from tossing his cookies all over the inside of his spacesuit. Part of me wondered how that would work. Would it pass through the dome around his head that held his bits and pieces together or would it splatter against the inside?

  Most of me, however, wanted to avoid seeing either one with extreme prejudice.

  “Stop being a girl,” I snapped, reaching into his pack and grabbing one of the bombs. Only now, we were in space, and if there was one thing space lacked, it was gravity. The bomb came away easily, and while I didn’t know how to work it, I suddenly realized I might have a way to fix that.

  “Hey, Oliver, can you hear me?” I asked aloud even though I was trying to talk to the fish guy back on our ship. It might have seemed silly, but Captain Brand had assured me that if I needed something, I could reach out to them via the fish man. “If you can, please respond.”

  “I’m here, Mallory. What’s up?” Oliver responded, only his voice thrummed inside my brain like a bass guitar with the subwoofer turned up to orgasmic levels.

  “Jeffry is having a bit of trouble not throwing up. How do I arm
this thing?” I asked, staring at the black bomb. It sort of looked like the three-pound weights I used in Zumba, only it was covered in lights and buttons, none of which made any sense to me.

  “On it. Give me a sec,” Oliver replied, and it was weird because I heard rustling in the background like someone had covered the receiver end of the phone with their hand. A moment later, the muffled conversation in the background ended, and Oliver came back on the line. “Okay, Mallory. Cortina just told me how to do it, and I’m sorry, but I don’t even remotely understand what she told me. You’re going to have to wait for Jeffry.” There was a nervous chuckle. “You can always try making his suit shoot full of adrenaline or something. That may help him with the teleportation sickness.”

  “Okay, I’ll try that,” I said, nodding because it was as good a plan as any. A quick glance at the vampire revealed he was still sucking in air like a drunk who’d had a few too many even though he didn’t need to breathe.

  “Good luck,” Oliver said as I grabbed his wrist, pulling it toward myself so the screen was in view.

  “Um… Oliver, how do I do this?” I asked as I stared at the strange symbols flashing across the screen.

  “Hit the menu button. It’s the one with the big pink triangle. Then press your thumb against the box on the left side where it says vitals,” the Atlantean said, and as I did what he said, another screen appeared asking if I wanted to perform outside assistance.

  “It’s asking about outside assistance,” I said, glancing at Jeffry who looked even worse than before.

  “Confirm it,” he replied, and as I did, the wrist pad began to flash green. Then Jeffry’s eyes snapped open, and the color returned to his cheeks. He swallowed hard, and his red eyes had gone black around the edges.

  “Thanks,” he growled, speaking a bit louder than I’d expected, so even though his voice was being transmitted to me via the suit, I still pulled back instinctively. “I feel much better now.” He looked me over approvingly. “Perhaps, you have some potential after all.”

  “Yeah great. Lots of potential. It’s like you’ve met my mom,” I replied as he pressed a few buttons, turned a couple knobs, and smacked the bomb against the ship. As he did the lights all went orange, and a sucking sound filled my ears before the bomb melded itself to the ship’s hull.

  “I have. She’s a lovely lady. One down, a bunch more to go. Let’s get a move on.” A smile crossed his lips as he stood and looked around, sighting our next target.

  “Wait, you know my mom?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him as I got to my feet to follow his gaze toward the next target. As I did, my stomach fell. The lead ship would be to the asteroid belt in seconds. That was something I wanted to avoid. If that happened, I wouldn’t be able to see where I was going, and that’d make it a lot more likely I teleported us into the center of a space rock. That was best avoided.

  “Yes. How do you think we knew about the Mavericks?” he asked, shaking his head at me. “Your mom told us. She’s a world class seer, after all. We always investigate her claims.”

  As he spoke, I wondered if that was how he’d found me. Was it through my mom? Hell, was that why I’d been recruited? For all I knew, my mom had told them I was necessary. It made me wonder if they’d recruited me for me, or because of my mom. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to investigate that further. No. We had a job to do now. Afterward, I could get answers to that question.

  “Okay, Jeffry, it’s time for a change of plans,” I said, and before Jeffry could reply, I grabbed the vampire by the scruff of the neck, called upon my magic, and focused on the lead ship, bypassing all the other ships we’d planned to hopscotch along. Then I teleported.

  15

  Instead of appearing on the hull of the ship like last time, we slammed into some sort of invisible shield surrounding the ship. Electricity zipped across my body, electrifying me like a mosquito in a bug zapper. I wasn’t sure how it’d happened because I’d been teleporting, but whatever this shield was made of kept me from teleporting through it. Damn.

  Fortunately, I wasn’t a goddamned bug. I was Mallory fucking Quinn, and this shit just served to piss me off. As my suit acclimated to the electricity before it could charbroil my dumb ass, I dug into the magical reservoir inside me, causing energy to swarm around my hands like I was Bishop, and this was an X-men comic. Then I drove my hands into the barrier.

  As my fingers pierced the ship’s defenses, sending rippling cracks skirting along the edge of the energy shield, I peeled it apart like it was a crab claw at an all you can eat Chinese Buffet. Wait, did I already make that joke?

  The vampire beside me did little more than mewl like he was about to worship the porcelain god, but I ignored him as I concentrated on keeping the hole in the shield from closing while he regained his composure. After what felt like forever, but was only a few moments, he reached into his pack and grabbed another bomb. He fiddled with the explosive, hitting a series of buttons with his thumb before he lobbed it through the hole.

  As it impacted the hull in front of me with a clang I didn’t actually hear because the vastness of space ate all sound, I jerked my hands back away from the ship’s shield, causing the energy to surge back together. Still, I knew we were about to have a problem because lightning was practically crackling from our spot on the shield. Surely, someone had seen us, and I didn’t want to be here when they came to investigate.

  Worse, I had no idea what to do because I didn’t want to risk jumping into another shield. Still, what choice did I have?

  “Which ships have shields?” I cried, hoping Oliver would know as I called upon my power to make a jump, only as I did, the world twisted into a smear of light and sound as a wormhole straight out of a fucking science fiction movie opened in front of us. My ears popped and my mouth went dry as we launched forward into the void of space so quickly, I nearly flew off the shield. I reached out, clawing for grip, and as I dug my toes into the shield’s surface like I was Spider-Man, the world turned into a swirl of purple, black, and death.

  As my feet started to come free, I dropped to my belly and buried one arm in the shield up to my armpit while wrapping my other arm around the vampire as he scrambled to hang on, his claws scraping against the shield like a dog on linoleum.

  Then the whole world vanished into oblivion.

  I had half a second to think I was dead as thunder exploded inside my skull and my vision erupted into a kaleidoscope of colors, but before I could even orient myself to that unfortunate reality, we popped back out into the vastness of space. Okay, maybe that was an overstatement.

  The ship I clung to and one other popped out into the vastness of space. No other ships were anywhere to be found.

  “What the fuck?” I muttered as I realized I’d just somehow survived a hyperspace jump while on the outside of the ship, which while good, meant I was trapped all alone in God knows where with a vampire who was somehow more pathetic than a sorority girl doing the walk of shame the morning after an all-night bender. Yippie.

  “Um… Oliver, are you there?” I asked, trying to remain calm as a pit of horror opened in my stomach and threatened to suck me into it like the black hole that loomed in front of us.

  “They won’t be able to hear you,” Jeffry said to me, his voice strained and feeble. “We’re about fifty light years from where we were. Oliver’s telepathy isn’t anywhere near that good.” He took a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. “We’re on our own.”

  “How do you know where we are?” I asked, turning to look at the vampire. “This wasn’t part of the plan?” My voice hardened as a sudden surge of fury ripped through me. “Was it?”

  “No,” he affirmed, starting to shake his head before he stopped mid-motion and clamped his lips together. His throat convulsed like he was swallowing, and he hastily turned away from me as viscous crimson fluid began to leak from between his fingers.

  “Gross,” I muttered, turning to stare at the black hole looming in front of us like a
void of death and destruction.

  Just looking at the black hole was enough to make every part of me wish I’d hugged my mother before we’d left because I was pretty sure I was never going to see her again. God, I really was a horrible daughter. What kind of person goes on a space mission without even calling her mom to say goodbye? I mean, she’d even reminded me.

  I was such a bitch.

  As I watched the black hole getting closer, I wondered how long I could survive in the vacuum of space if I leapt off this ship and let it careen forward into the black hole. Would it be long enough for the others to find us and rescue us? I mean, while we’d survived the hyperspace jump from out here, I was really fucking sure we weren’t going to survive a trip through a black hole even if we were inside the Maverick’s ship.

  “Um… what’s the plan, Jeff?” I pointed at the black hole and was surprised at how much fear I’d pushed from my voice. “Because I’m pretty sure if we go in there, whole generations will fall while we die thanks to time dilation.”

  “An excellent point,” Jeffry the vampire said, his voice somehow more feeble as he turned to stare at the black hole. Only, he didn’t sound nearly as scared as I felt like he should. Did he not realize we were about to die? “Zug has balls, I’ll give him that.”

  “Why?” I asked, turning my eyes back toward the shield surrounding the ship. It made me wonder if the shield was here because we were going into the black hole. It seemed crazy, but at the same time, the other ships hadn’t had shields. Maybe it would protect us? If that was true, maybe I could get us through it?

  “We’re at Alpha central,” the vampire said, and I must have given him a dumb look because he sighed. Loudly. “It’s not supposed to be a real place, but it was rumored to be the holding center for the ancient’s data center.” Again, I must have looked at him like he’d grown a second and third head because he sighed even louder. “It’s a mythical cache of weapons that can only be reached by going through the black hole. Think Atlantis, but in space.”