Chapter 4
Directly below them, a great hulking structure appeared to grow out of the darkness itself. Closer inspection revealed that it was manmade, but hewn out of the black rock that made up the surrounding landscape. Callum stared at the monitor and tried to ignore the feeling of misgiving the view gave him.
There were rumored to be all sorts of sinister things living in the murky lands surrounding Pleasure City. The place was a big tourist draw, but visitors were cautioned against travelling beyond the city limits. Those that ignored the warnings were seldom seen again.
The planet came up frequently in Council meetings. Some wanted to go in there and clean the place up. Others believed that a place like Trakis Two was needed—at least all the low-lives were concentrated in one area. So far, they had done nothing.
Rico hovered El Cazador above the structure. He was a great pilot, but Callum itched to get his hands on the controls. Flying had been his life once, but how long had it been since he’d been in the pilot’s seat.
“You heard from Alex or Jon?” Tannis asked.
“They’re not answering at the moment,” Janey said. “But they called in last night and said everything was clear. And the heat sensors are picking up just the two life forms.” Janey frowned.
“Hey, do vampires show up on heat-sensors? Aren’t they, well, sort of dead?”
Rico glanced back and grinned. “Are you suggesting I’m a cold-hearted bastard?”
“We’re going to see a vampire?” Callum asked. He looked to Tannis, but she was doing her best to ignore him. And had been since their kiss yesterday.
Janey answered his question. “Nah, the vampire’s dead. Rico killed him last visit. We’re just making sure the place hasn’t been taken over by something equally unfriendly.”
“Or more so,” Rico added darkly. “Let’s see if the systems are still on line. Otherwise, we’re going to have to find another way in. Where the hell are Jon and Alex? They’d better not be off somewhere bonking again. Wait, there’s something happening.”
As Callum watched, a fissure formed in the black rooftop.
“Welcome to vampire city.” A voice came over the comm unit. Jon, the assassin, Callum presumed.
“We’re in,” Tannis said.
The two sides of rock parted, revealing a cavern inside with a landing pad directly below them. Rico took them down and landed light as stardust.
“Right.” Tannis rubbed her hands together. She looked pleased. I’ll go see what the newly-weds have to say.”
Tannis headed for the door and Callum followed. She paused and a flicker of annoyance passed over her deadpan features when she caught sight of him, then it was gone.
Callum trailed behind her to the docking bay and waited as Tannis pressed her palm to the outer doors. They glided open.
The place was in darkness, but as he watched, lights flickered on illuminating a huge black-walled cavern, with black sand floors and several tunnels leading off into stygian darkness. A shiver ran through him—the place gave him the creeps, and he couldn’t work out why.
Two figures appeared from a tunnel opposite and headed toward the ship. The assassin and the priestess—an incongruous coupling. Jonathon Decker was huge, broad as well as tall. Next to him, Alexia appeared tiny in her bright pink jumpsuit.
He studied her as they came to a halt at the bottom of the ramp. There was something different; he just couldn’t pinpoint what. Last time he’d seen her she’d been dying. Now, she looked vibrantly alive, her huge grey eyes sparkling, her skin glowing. A low growl sounded to the side of her, the assassin wasn’t happy that he was looking at the girl. Or maybe he just wasn’t happy that Callum was on board.
“Everything okay?” Tannis asked.
“Yeah. We’ll tell you over dinner. We’re starving.”
They hurried past into the ship and Callum turned to watch them go. There was something not quite right about the two of them, something not quite human, but he couldn’t work out what.
“Werewolves,” Tannis said.
“What?”
“You don’t need any of your fancy mindreading tricks to guess what you were thinking. You were wondering what was odd about them. With Jon on his own, you could overlook it, but the two of them together…”
“Werewolves? Do werewolves even exist?”
“Oh yeah, and other things apparently. Rico’s promised to tell us about them one day.”
“The priestess—was she always…”
“A werewolf? No. But your people nearly killed her, and it was the only way to help her live.”
“I never even knew they were real,” he murmured to Tannis.
“Me neither, until we broke Jon out. Rico recognized what he was straight away.”
“He would. I presume they came with us from Earth. But how?”
“Ask Rico. Come on, let’s go get some food as well.”
He realized she was leaving. He wanted to reach out take her arm, but something in her demeanor tonight stopped him. She was giving off don’t touch vibes in waves. But still he didn’t want her to go.
“Wait.”
She turned back, her face expressionless. “What?”
“I think we need to talk about what happened yesterday.”
She shrugged. “Nothing happened. Or at least nothing important.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but she held up a hand. “Look, let’s just get the job out of the way. You know, I meant it when I said I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
“How about if I fire you?”
She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Then we dump you here and we’re off.”
He took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s go get that food.”
The others were all in the galley when they got there. Even the elusive Trog was sitting beside Janey, silently eating. He raised his shaggy blond head briefly when they entered then turned his attention back to his food.
Jon and Alex were already seated with food in front of them.
“So?” Tannis asked.
“Nothing,” Jon said. “The place is clear.” He went back to wolfing down the food. He glanced up after a few seconds. “What.
We’re hungry. Takes a lot of energy—shifting.”
“So does bonking,” Tannis said sourly.
They ignored the comment and cleared their dishes. Tannis stood leaning against the counter, foot tapping. Only when his bowl was scraped clean, did Jon look up again. “I told you, nothing to worry about. The place is cleared out. Found a few dead people but nothing alive.”
“Good,” Tannis said.
She sank down into a chair. For the first time since Callum had met her, she appeared tired. He went to the food dispenser, got a bowl of stew, and took it to her placing it on the table in front of her.
She looked up, surprise flashing across her features, then she picked up a spoon and started to eat. After collecting his own food, Callum took the chair opposite, where he could watch her.
He realized he liked to watch her. He liked the clean lines of her face—not really beautiful—but exotic. The yellow eyes with their thick fringe of dark spiky lashes, the lustrous black hair, usually standing on end, from where she’d run her fingers through it. This close, he could see the faint luminosity of her skin, with its fine sheen of scales. He knew her skin was soft; he’d run his fingers over it yesterday. And felt that long lean sinuous body pressed against his. He shifted in his chair as his body reacted to the memory, and she glanced up to find him watching her. For a minute, she returned his gaze then she broke the contact and continued eating.
The conversation had started up around him, and he allowed himself to relax. A casual camaraderie existed between these people that he hadn’t experienced in many years. Again, he realized how empty his life was, how cold and sterile his existence had been for centuries. He ate his food and allowed the atmosphere to loosen the tenseness in his muscles. Tenseness that had become part of him. Finally, he put hi
s spoon down and looked around.
Rico caught his eye, one eyebrow raised in query. And Callum remembered what Tannis had said down in the docking bay.
“Where do werewolves come from?” he asked. “For that matter, where do vampires come from?”
Rico sat back in his seat and pursed his lips as if considering whether he should answer. Then he shrugged. “From Earth.”
“But how did they get here? The places on the ships leaving Earth were limited.”
“I know. Twenty-four ships each carrying ten thousand Chosen Ones—the hope of the human race—each person selected by a totally rigged lottery system.”
“So?”
“Well there were a few of us excluded from the lottery, and we didn’t think that was fair. So we took matters into our own hands.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you were back on Earth?
You’re actually that old?”
“One thousand five hundred and ninety-six to be precise.”
Callum did the math. “You must have been born in the Middle Ages.” His mind reeled, and he forced himself back to the topic, but one day he’d love a long chat with the vampire. What had the Earth been like all those years ago?
“When you say ‘we’ do you mean more vampires?”
“Vampires, werewolves, a few other things you might hope never to meet.”
“Nice friends you have,” Skylar commented.
Rico cast her a grin. “They weren’t exactly friends—you could say we came together for a common cause. Anyway we needed a ship, so we approached one of the captains and made him an offer.”
“An offer?”
“In exchange for dumping half his load of Chosen Ones and replacing them with our little group, I would give him immortality.”
Shock hit Callum in the gut. “You turned the captain of one of the Trakis ships into a vampire?”
“I did, and it was one of the worst mistakes I ever made. Not that we had much choice—we did our research and Bastian was the only one who came up a possibility. You fly-boys were such a load of goddamn heroes.”
“Fucking hell. You’re talking about Sebastian Faulk. Captain Faulk of the…” He trailed off as the implications filtered through his mind.
“Captain Faulk of the Trakis Two,” Rico finished for him.
“Yup, that was Bastian. I take it you knew him.”
Callum was finding this hard to believe. He’d known Sebastian well, though they’d never been friends, just co-workers—the guy had been a complete dick. “We trained together. All the crews did in the years before we left.”
“I don’t get something,” Tannis said. “You landed on Trakis Seven, but that was five hundred years after the ships left Earth.
You weren’t immortal back then, you couldn’t have been alive all that time.”
“No. When we set out, we had no clue where we were going or how long it would take to get there. So each ship had ten crews.
When we set out nine of those crews were in cryo, to be woken when they were needed. I was the last Captain of the Trakis Seven.”
“What happened to the other ships? If there were twenty-four. They didn’t all get here.”
“We split up,” Rico said. “After two hundred years, they decided there was a better chance of finding a habitable planet if we went in different directions. The Trakis Thirteen to Twenty-four, headed towards the Andromeda system. We went in the opposite direction.”
“What happened?”
“We don’t know,” Rico continued. “We managed to maintain contact for nearly a hundred years, and then we lost them. Of our group, some of the ships were damaged and never made it.
The Trakis Three, Eight and Nine. The others all landed safely on different planets—we chose Trakis Two—it seemed a sensible choice considering most of us had an aversion to sunlight.”
“What happened to the Trakis One?” Tannis asked.
Callum could answer that one. He’d been awake at that point and ten years into his stint as captain. “She was lost in the black hole when we first discovered the Trakis system. She got too close and was sucked in—we lost contact immediately—never heard from her again.”
“Wow,” Janey said. “Poor things. To come all this way and then it just all ends like that.”
“So what happened to Sebastian? I take it he was alive until recently.”
“Yeah. Rico staked him a few weeks ago.”
Callum frowned. “Why? I mean—why now—after all this time?”
Rico gave him a slow smile that curled his lips revealing the tips of his sharp white fangs. “Because he pissed me off.”
A shiver of primordial fear trickled down Callum’s spine.
Occasionally, it was possible to forget what Rico was. Now wasn’t one of those times. Despite the relaxed outward appearance, there was a darkness in the vampire, kept under rigid control, but there nevertheless. Callum refused to be intimidated. Again.
He returned the smile. “I’ll have to make sure there are no stakes around next time I annoy you.”
Because he was pretty sure if they spent time together, then he was going to piss Rico off. They both liked their own way too much.
Rico grinned. “Good idea. Waste of time with you anyway.”
Tannis sat back. “We should be safe here for a couple of days.
We just need to keep a low profile until your person turns up.”
“I need to go into the city,” Callum said.
“Not a chance,” Tannis snapped. “This isn’t a freaking holiday.
I’m going into Pleasure City with Janey and Skylar. We need some supplies, and we can check how hot things are. If there’s nothing happening, the rest of you can go in later. But not you,” she said to Callum.
“Why not me?”
She gave him a look as though he was mad. “Because there’s a reward out for your return and you’re hardly inconspicuous.” She waved at his wings.
She was right, but he still needed to go. He’d made a promise to the colonel. He would keep a low profile, slip into the city and out again before anyone noticed he was there.
Folding his arms across his chest, he sat back but didn’t say anything further.
…
Tannis actually liked Pleasure City—she wouldn’t have wanted to live there, but the occasional visit was fun. The place was vibrant, full of color and noise. She’d even done some shopping. Janey had appeared slightly perplexed when she’d told her she wanted help picking new clothes—well it was a first.
But she had bad news for the rest of the crew. Unfortunately, there was no one around to give it to. The ship appeared curiously quiet as she strolled onto the bridge.
She knew Alex and Jon had shifted and gone out to do whatever werewolves did in the dark—she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Rico had warned them to be careful. Jon had just grinned and they’d headed off into the perpetual night.
Tannis had left everyone else with instructions not to leave the ship until she returned. Only the promise that they could have a trip into the city if all was clear had kept the crew from mutiny.
So where the hell was everybody?
Because all was not clear. There were comms about the kidnapping and reward all over the city, and she was about to give out the “good” news that everyone was confined to ship. Except just about “everyone” was conspicuous by their absence. Only Daisy was present, and she looked decidedly shifty.
At that moment, Alex strolled onto the bridge, hands shoved in the pockets of her hot pink jump suit. She appeared relaxed.
“Have you told her yet?”
Daisy shook her head, her ponytail swinging. “No.”
“Told me what?” Tannis said.
“Where is everyone?” Janey asked, as she and Skylar stepped onto the bridge.
“I was just about to find out.”
“They’ve gone,” Alex said.
“Gone? Who’s gone and where?”
“Callum, Ric
o and Jon.”
“Jesus,” Tannis muttered. “Is no one capable of taking orders on this ship? Did I not say, ‘do not leave the ship’? Is that so hard to understand?”
“So where have they gone?” Skylar sounded way too reasonable.
Daisy shrugged. “We’re not sure. It was Callum’s fault.”
Irritation pricked at her nerve endings. He was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“It was just after Alex and Jon got back. He came and told them he wanted to go into the city. Said he had something important to do and apparently he’s never been to Pleasure City—fancy that—living all that time and never—”
“Will you get on with it?” Tannis ground out.
Daisy pursed her lips but continued. “Well, Rico told him, no.
That you’d said none of us were to leave the ship. There was a bit of an argument. You know, I really don’t think Callum is good at taking orders. Anyway, he seemed to back down and stalked off in a sulk. Next thing we know, he’s pinched a speeder and set off on his own.” She giggled. “Rico wasn’t happy. In fact, he was really pissed. He took Jon and they set off after Callum, but that was an hour ago.”
“Have they called in?”
“No. But I’m sure they’ll be all right. They’ll catch up with Callum, Rico might punch him again—or Jon might—I don’t think Jon likes him very much, then they’ll bring him back.”
Tannis tried to ignore to worry gnawing at her insides. Janey was right; chances were they would all get back without any problems. But bloody Callum was hardly likely to blend into the crowd with those wings. “Well, try and get hold of them. If you can, stop them before they get into the city. There are pictures of Callum blazoned over every building in Pleasure City.”
She paced the bridge and bit back the urge to rant. Why the hell couldn’t he have stayed put? And what the hell did he want in Pleasure City?
Stupid question.
He’d been trying to get it on with her since he’d come on board.
No doubt, when he’d failed, he’d decided to go somewhere he could guarantee a more certain result. There were more pleasure providers on Trakis Two than the rest of the known universe put together. The idea of Callum screwing one of them filled her with rage.
Nina Croft Page 7