Most of the Collective stuck close together. They lived on Trakis Five and found some sort of position within the government.
Or they joined the Corps, the Collective’s private army. Skylar had been in the Corps, the intelligence section. Maybe Tannis could do that. Though she suspected that she would make a crap soldier—she hated taking orders—she was much better at giving them. Maybe she could persuade Callum to put her in charge. Or perhaps, she would just stay on El Cazador. Why shouldn’t she?
Skylar had broken from the Collective and nothing terrible had happened. Yet.
Everything had been quiet on the bridge. Janey had all the scanners working constantly, but they showed nothing. No one had followed them from Trakis Two, so it looked as though they were in the clear. They could keep the rendezvous with this Venna woman tomorrow, and then be on their way to Trakis Seven. It could all be over in a week.
Now, she could see Callum’s reflection in the polished black screen of the monitor. Should she move? Instead, she held herself very still as he leaned in toward her.
He kissed the side of her neck, and at the soft brush of his lips, a shiver ran all the way through her. His warm breath fluttered against her ear and prickles of awareness quivered down her spine.
“So why are you scared of sex?”
The question whispered against her ear, but didn’t make any sense. Was she scared? She was hot, bothered, in danger of melting into a puddle at his feet, but scared?
“Mind your own business,” she said, but the words lacked heat.
“Oh, I think it is my business.” His voice was dark, rich, and full of promise, then he kissed the soft place where her neck met her collarbone, and she almost swooned
She couldn’t have moved even if she wanted to, and she wasn’t sure she did. Maybe she liked the whole ‘someone else taking control’ thing after all.
His hands came to rest lightly on her waist, their heat radiating through the thin material of her T-shirt. They slid up over her ribcage, coming to rest on the swell of her breasts. He squeezed gently, as though learning the shape of them, and heat pooled low down in her belly. She peered down at his big hands holding her, the skin golden against the bright scarlet of her top. His palms rubbed across her tightening peaks; the friction was delicious, and a funny little noise left her mouth.
“How scared are you, Tannis?”
She didn’t think he expected an answer, which was just as well as she wasn’t sure she could speak. Or not and make any sense.
As she watched, he plucked at the nipples with his long elegant fingers. Unable to help herself, she leaned back against the hard length of him, her bottom coming up against the rigid proof that she wasn’t the only one affected by their encounter. Without conscious thought, she pushed back against him, and he growled low in his throat.
One hand left her breasts and stroked down over her stomach.
She held her breath as he found the gap between her T-shirt and her pants. For a moment, his hand rested on the bare skin then he pushed down inside the waistband. His fingers drifted through the curls at the base of her belly. Her insides melted. She could feel herself becoming hot, wet with need.
Every nerve ending yearning for his touch. Screaming for release.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
His hand stopped moving. “What was that?”
She wanted to yell at him to ignore it, but he was already withdrawing from her. Closing her eyes, she tried to get herself under some sort of control. She brought up an image of her old guard, Grady, and pictured his hands on her body. It was like liquid nitrogen over her heated skin, and her body was her own again. She stepped away.
When she was sure her voice would sound normal, she spoke.
“It’s the scanners—looks like we’ve got company.”
“Shit. Bloody good timing.”
She turned slowly to find him watching her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” She sounded terse, but she couldn’t help it.
“I just—”
He broke off as Janey appeared in the doorway. For once, she wasn’t immaculately turned out but mussed from sleep, her dark red hair loose about her shoulders. If anything, she looked more beautiful without the heavy makeup she normally wore like a mask.
One drunken night, over a flask of Rico’s whisky, Janey had told Tannis of her past. Janey had married young, using her looks to catch the perfect man, rich, powerful, handsome, and a complete bastard. She’d spent five years with him, before she’d had the courage to do something about the relationship. She hadn’t said exactly what she had done but from the smile on her face at the time, Tannis guessed it had been terminal. She’d been on the run since—apparently her husband had powerful friends and even after ten years, there was still a reward out for her. She’d said she didn’t regret it.
Now, her eyes widened slightly as she took in Tannis and Callum standing close together, and Tannis took another step away. Her brain was slowly clearing from the haze of sexual desire.
“We have company,” she said.
Janey yawned. “I know. I set the scanners to alert me if they picked anything up.” She crossed the room and sat down at her console, her fingers flicking over the controls. “They’re definitely heading this way.”
“Coincidence?” Tannis asked, without much hope.
“I doubt it. They’re locked right on us.”
“Can you get an identification?”
“Give me a minute, and we’ll have a visual.”
Tannis pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Rico?” She closed her ears for a moment while he got his moaning done with—Rico was never his best when he first woke up. “Get to the bridge and bring Skylar. We may have a problem.”
“Got it,” Janey said and Tannis moved closer to get a view of the screen. Callum came to stand beside her.
She frowned, she’d been expecting to see the Collective’s huge star cruiser, but this was someone else.
“Shit.” A smaller mark 3 cruiser filled the screen, similar to El Cazador, but white with a black cross on the side.
“The goddamn Church. Again. What the hell do they want?”
Actually, if she gave it any thought, it could be one of many things, but she’d been doing her best not to think too much about the Church. She’d really hoped that with the death of Hezrai Fischer, their Church related problems had disappeared. Maybe not. They needed their resident Church expert.
She pressed her comm unit and tried to get hold of Alex, but got no reply. She reckoned they must have switched off their comm units, no doubt bloody shagging again, and she called Rico instead.
“Pick up Alex and Jon on your way—they’re not answering.”
She turned back to Janey. “Have they tried to call us yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Well, tell me as soon as they do.”
She shoved her hands into her pockets and paced the bridge while she waited for everyone to arrive. She had a bad feeling about this and not just because she hated the Church. Which she did.
The Church had a policy of exterminating all GMs, or abominations as they referred to anyone without one hundred percent human DNA. When the planets had first been colonized, a great deal of experimentation had been done into genetic modification, mainly using genetic material brought from Earth.
The idea had been to make humans more suitable for the conditions on the planets, which weren’t always as hospitable as Earth. Later, the experiments had been extended just to make people stronger, faster, whatever they might gain from a particular animal or plant, or what the researchers thought they might gain.
When the Church had risen to power in the aftermath of Meridian, they had called for a purge of the GMs, labeled them abominations and millions had been slaughtered. That was a couple of hundred years ago, and now any GMs kept out of the Church’s way. Mostly they were left alone as long as they maintained a low profile.
&nbs
p; But some people still did the research in secret, believing it was the way forward for mankind, and the Church eradicated them wherever they were found. Tannis had always presumed her own family had been scientists killed by the Church, who had then sold Tannis and her sister to the research station. But she’d only been four years old when it happened, so she couldn’t remember much of her family.
“Do you know what they want?” Callum’s quietly spoken question broke into her memories. She’d been avoiding looking at him, now she could feel heat steal across her cheeks.
Holy freaking Meridian, she was blushing. At least she presumed she was blushing, it wasn’t something she had ever done before. But she couldn’t stop remembering that only five minutes ago, the leader of the known universe had had his hand down her pants. Wow. She squirmed at the memory. Her gaze dropped to those hands and her breasts tightened as she remembered how his clever fingers had touched her. She swallowed.
“Tannis?”
Her gaze flew to his face. “Sorry, what did you say?”
He grinned and his own gaze dropped to her chest where her nipples were clearly outlined under her T-shirt, and her face heated even more. Bloody hell, she’d better get herself under control before Rico got there or she’d never live it down. The nipple thing—maybe. The blush—never.
“I asked if you know what the Church want.”
She forced her mind away from sex. “Could be one of many things—Alex, Hezrai Fischer… Who knows with the Church— they’re all mad.”
“They’re calling us,” Janey said.
“Ignore them for a minute, I want the others here.”
Rico came in with Skylar beside him. Tannis crossed her arms over her chest. He gave her a quick glance but then crossed to stand beside Janey. “What have we got?” he asked.
“The Church.”
“Great. Have I mentioned—”
“Yes, you have,” Tannis butted in before he could really get going. Then wished she hadn’t as his gaze swung around. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her, before moving on to Callum and back to her.
“Are we interrupting anything?”
“Nothing that hadn’t already been interrupted. Where are Alex and Jon?”
“On their way.”
They appeared in the doorway. “What’s happening?” Alex asked with a huge yawn.
“Your old friends have come to play.”
“The Church? Why?”
“We have no clue yet. Now, we’re all here, let’s find out shall we? Janey, put him on.”
“This is High Priest Temperance Hatcher, leader on the one true Church, seeker of the truth, loyal—”
“For Christ’s sake, just get on with it,” Tannis snapped. “Say what you want and piss-off.”
There was a minute’s silence, though she could hear his heavy breathing on the other end.
“We want the blood-sucking spawn of Satan who murdered our beloved Hezrai Fischer.”
Tannis switched off the feed and turned to look at Rico, one eyebrow raised.
“Does he mean me?” he asked. “Why is it everyone seems to think I’m related to Satan?”
“I wonder,” Skylar murmured, and he grinned.
“Beloved Hezrai Fischer?” Alex said. “That’s a joke—they hated each other. I bet he had a dance on Hezrai’s grave. And we did him a favor. He would never have become High Priest while Hezrai was alive.”
Tannis switched the feed back on. “Well, you can’t have him.
Anything else? Because, if not, we have things to do, so goodbye.”
“We want out High Priestess returned to us. She is the bride of God.”
Alex edged a little closer to Jon; he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her tight against him. Tannis knew the Church would have to go through Jon to get to Alex and that wasn’t going to happen. He would die first, and that wasn’t going to happen either—not on her watch.
She wondered whether they should tell them their priestess was now a werewolf. Would they still want her back? Somehow, she doubted it. Also, there was the little fact that the “Virgin Bride of the Everlasting God” was no longer a virgin—far from it.
“Sorry, that one’s a no as well.”
“And we want the abomination, Callum Meridian.”
“Jesus, you don’t want much, do you?” She glanced across at Callum. “You want to go with the nice priest.”
He grinned. “No, thank you.”
“You can’t have him, either.”
“We’re giving you the five minutes to surrender these three to us. Give us what we ask for and we will let the rest of you go so you can spread the word that that the Church is merciful.”
“Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen. So let’s say we don’t—what then?”
“We will obliterate your ship and all your crew.”
“Including your priestess.”
“We would prefer her returned to us, but her spirit will continue, and a new priestess will be born.”
She’d forgotten that bit. Damn—she’d thought Alex would give them some protection. She switched off the comm to give herself a second to think then turned to Rico. “Can you get us out of here?”
“Probably.”
“That’s good enough for me.” She flipped the comm back on.
“Piss off,” she said and ended the call. “Right then, get us out of here.”
“And quickly would be good,” Janey added. “They’re locking their blasters on us now.”
Rico sat in the pilot’s seat and flipped off the automatic systems. I suggest you all sit down and strap yourselves in. This might get a little rough.”
Tannis flung herself into the nearest seat and fastened the harness. Everyone else did the same. With the exception of Callum, they’d all experienced Rico’s evasive maneuvers before and weren’t taking any chances.
El Cazador turned slowly, shifting beneath them as the main thrusters engaged, and then they were heading straight for the other ship. Fast.
“Aren’t we supposed to be going in the opposite direction?”
Callum asked.
“Nah,” Rico drawled. “They’ll just follow us. The ships are about evenly matched, and it will get long and boring and messy.
Better to finish them quick. Put them out of the picture.”
“Can you do that?”
“He’s good, but he’s not as good as me. And I’m guessing he doesn’t want to die.”
“Er, neither do I,” Tannis said.
Rico flashed her a grin. “Hold on.” And he hit the blasters.
The other ship’s shields were up and most of the shots bounced off harmlessly. They countered, and El Cazador shook as the blasts took her across the bow. Tannis’s fingers tightened on the arms of her chair, but she kept her expression neutral.
She wasn’t really afraid; in the past fifteen years, Rico had gotten them out of worse situations than this. She glanced sideways at Callum—he was leaning forward in his seat, his eyes gleaming with excitement. He wasn’t bored now.
“He’s holding his position. He’s got balls, I’ll give him that,”
Rico murmured. “Let’s see just how big they are.” He flicked a switch, and their speed picked up, until Tannis was pressed back into her seat with the force.
It looked like they were going to crash. A horrible thought occurred to her—maybe this Temperance guy was as mad as Rico.
“Come on, come on,” Rico muttered under his breath.
They were so close now; the ship filled the monitor, the black cross huge and stark on the screen. Was this it? Were they going to crash?
At the last moment, the other ship dodged sideways, but she’d left it too late, and she spun out of control.
“Ha!” Rico punched the air, then swung El Cazador around and blasted the out of control ship. He fired shot after shot. Tannis could see that more hits were getting through the shields now. The other ship must have realized it as well. She turned and ran.
“Rico, I’ve picked up an outgoing comm from them. They’ve got back up on the way.”
“Shit. I wanted to finish them off.”
“Next time.”
“Yeah.” Rico didn’t sound happy, but he fiddled with the controls, and El Cazador peeled away and headed off in the opposite direction.
Tannis drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair while she watched the ship get smaller in the monitor. “We clear?” she asked after five minutes
“Yes, we’re clear,” Janey replied. “No one on our tail.”
Tannis scowled; she would have liked them finished off as well. “What is it about these church types that is so fucking irritating?” She cast Callum a speculative glance. “And why do they want you? I can understand them wanting Alex and even Rico, but why you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Have you been in contact with anyone on Trakis Five? Do you know what’s happening back there?”
“No, I’ve deliberately kept shut down.”
“Well maybe you should try. I don’t like this, and I don’t like the Church. I have an unpleasant feeling they’re up to no good.”
“They’ll be able to pinpoint me if I contact them.”
“No problem—we’re too far out for them to catch us up, and we’ll be gone by the time they get here.”
“Okay.” He closed his eyes, though beneath the lids she could see them moving rapidly. After a couple of minutes, he blinked, a frown forming on his features.
“I’m guessing the news isn’t good,” Tannis said.
“I can’t get hold of the colonel—he must be unconscious.
I spoke with Tyler. The whole place is in chaos. Shit, you leave them alone for five minutes and…” He broke off and ran a hand through his hair. “Fucking imbeciles.”
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