Nina Croft

by Blood Hunter 03 Death Defying

  Janey nodded. “Yup, owned by our good friend Callum Meridian. There’s no connection at all to the Collective, except— there.” She pointed at a line on the screen. “Venna Harkness, Chief research officer. She’s Collective, there’s a flag by her name.”

  “I take it that’s Callum’s friend, currently sitting in the conference room,” Rico said.

  “Yeah, and my fucking angel.”

  “What?”

  He sounded shocked, and she turned to glare at him. “How did you think I knew to look? Venna fucking Harkness is the fucking bitch who visited the center when I was a kid.” The rage rose up inside her again. “She gave me fucking chocolate.”

  She slammed her fist into the metal wall and then winced at the pain to her already abused knuckles.

  “What are you going to do?” Rico asked. “You want me to deal with it?”

  “How?” she sounded suspicious.

  “I’ll toss them out of the airlock.”

  “They’re immortal. It won’t kill them.”

  “No, but they might spend most of eternity floating in space.”

  “Nah—their telepathic—they’ll just call up for help.” She shoved her hands into her pocket.

  “Well, we do know how to finish them off for good. Jon’s done it before, I’m sure he’d do it again if you asked him nicely.”

  Jon had been an assassin, and a successful one. He was the only person to ever manage to permanently kill one of the “indestructible” Collective. He’d ended up in the high security prison on Trakis One as a result, waiting for transport to the Meridian mines, until the crew of El Cazador had broken him out. He didn’t like the Collective. Hell, he didn’t like many people, though he’d mellowed a lot since he’s come on board. Falling in love would do that for you.

  Tannis had no doubt that he would kill Callum if she asked.

  But she wasn’t sure yet what her plan was.

  “Well?” Rico asked.

  Rico sounded impatient and she frowned. “You’re awfully keen to finish him off. Why?”

  “You forget I spent three months in that place as well. I would have died there if you hadn’t got me out.”

  That was true. Tannis paced the room as she tried to think through the rage that clouded her mind. She realized she still wanted the Meridian treatment, though it was becoming increasingly clear to her that she wanted nothing to do with the Collective afterward. But she would worry about that later. And to get the treatment she needed to go to Trakis Seven, and she needed Callum alive.

  So for now, she had to curb her impatience and not set her resident assassin on him and his blonde friend. There would be plenty of time for that, and she’d enjoy it all the more for the wait.

  What to do?

  While she might be willing to put off her revenge, she needed some sort of immediate retribution or she might explode. She ran her tongue over the sharp points of her incisors.

  “Don’t do anything,” she said.

  “What are you planning?”

  “Nothing permanent. I want my Meridian treatment, so they live—for now.”

  When she entered the conference room, the two were sitting close together, reading something from a palm screen Venna had opened. They were so engrossed, they didn’t notice her, and she stood just inside the doorway and watched them for a minute.

  They made a beautiful couple, Venna’s blonde beauty the perfect foil for Callum’s dark good looks. Hatred coiled inside her, but Tannis kept her face expressionless as she coughed to make her presence known.

  They both jumped and glanced up guiltily. A flash of annoyance crossed the blonde’s pretty features, and she snapped the screen closed as though to hide it.

  Callum looked pleased and then a puzzled frown settled on his face. “Are you okay?”

  She pushed herself away from the wall and sauntered over.

  “Sorry, I had to run out there,” she said, pasting a sugary smile on her face.

  “Is everything all right?”

  “Everything is fine.”

  She’d never done this before, but there was a first time for everything. She lowered her lashes and peeped at him through half closed eyes. Her tongue flicked out, and she moistened her lower lip. His gaze followed the movement, and his eyes darkened.

  Good.

  She moved a little closer and put her hands in the back pockets of her pants pushing her small breasts forward. His gaze dropped.

  Even better.

  “Callum!” Venna’s tone was impatient, but he waved her away with a careless gesture of his hand, his gaze never leaving Tannis.

  “Could I talk to you a minute,” Tannis murmured.

  “Of course.”

  Her gaze flicked to Venna. “Alone.”

  He almost jumped to his feet. “Definitely.”

  She pivoted and walked from the room, trying to make her hips sway the way that Janey’s always seemed to do. She sensed Callum coming up behind her. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw Venna still seated, her mouth open. Then she dismissed the woman from her mind. Her time would come. Once out of the room, she turned to Callum and placed a hand on his chest. His heart rate was fast beneath her palm.

  She leaned in close. “Let’s go to your room,” she whispered the words against his throat, then stepped back and looked up into his face.

  “Why not yours?” he asked.

  “Because yours is nearer.” She stroked her fingertips down his chest and over his belly, to hook in the waistband of his pants.

  “And I really don’t want to wait.”

  His breath caught in his throat with an audible groan. He grabbed hold of her hand and almost dragged her along the corridor. They were at his door in seconds, and he slammed his palm to the panel and hustled her in as the door slid open.

  Once inside, he crowded her against the wall so she could feel the cool metal through her shirt at the back, and his hot body pressed the length of her front. She gasped as she felt the hard length of his erection prodding her belly.

  “Were you jealous?” he asked, his tone smug.

  She had to bite back a bitter laugh at the question. Of course, that’s what the egotistical bastard would think.

  “I didn’t like seeing you with her.” Well that was the goddamn truth.

  “She’s an employee that’s all. No need for you to be jealous.

  It’s you I want.”

  “And I want you.” Yeah, she wanted him all right. Wanted him rolling about on the floor in agony.

  She reached up and stroked her fingers down over the rough skin of his cheek, then curled her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him toward her. Her mouth opened for his kiss and his tongue thrust inside. His lips hardened on hers, deepening the kiss. For a few seconds, she allowed herself to relax against him. Then she took his lower lip between her teeth and bit down hard. The warm metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. Callum made to pull back, but she held him tight with the hand at the back of his neck, while she pumped him full of the venom from the glands at the base of her incisors.

  He went still, then the first spasm racked his body. Tannis released her hold and shoved him away. He stumbled as she leaned back against the wall to observe. She’d never seen the full effects of her venom before, and she watched with interest.

  “What have you—” He broke off as another spasm ran through his body. Swaying, he put out a hand, then stumbled again and gripped on to the back of a nearby chair. His face leached of color, his legs buckled, and he crashed to the floor, dragging the chair with him. He landed on his wings and rolled so he came up on all fours.

  His head hung down and he retched, vomiting up a mixture of blood and his stomach contents, and she grimaced.

  “Nasty,” she said. “You see, that’s why I didn’t want to go to my room.”

  He continued to vomit until nothing further came out, then he collapsed to the floor on his belly and lay still.

  Tannis waited a couple of min
utes, but when he didn’t move, she stepped closer and nudged him in the ribs with the tip of her boot.

  His head rolled to the side, and he peered up at her out of half-closed eyes. “Why?”

  “Maybe I was very jealous. Don’t worry—I’ll send your friend in—she can mop your fevered brow.”

  A faint sheen of sweat glossed his skin. Shivers ran down through his body and his huge wings fluttered feebly. Finally, he closed his eyes, and the tension went out of him. Presumably, he’d lost consciousness. Pity—she would have preferred the pain to go on a little longer.

  For long moments, she stood looking down at him, then she drew the scrap of material from her pocket and tossed it to the floor by his nose. She whirled around and stalked from the room.

  Rico was waiting outside; he peered in through the door as she exited.

  “What did you do to him?”

  “I bit him.”

  “Really? He doesn’t look too good.”

  “He’ll live. More’s the pity.” One more thing she wanted to do.

  She pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Daisy, there’s a woman in the central conference room, can you pick her up and show her to Callum’s cabin.”

  She leaned against the wall, her hands clenched at her side and tried to ignore Rico while she waited.

  Daisy appeared with Venna in tow a couple of minutes later.

  The blond had a pleasant—if entirely insincere—smile plastered on her angel face. That would soon go.

  Tannis waited until Venna was level with her, then she straightened, drew back her fist and punched her right in that smile.

  “That’s for the fucking chocolate,” she snarled and stalked away.

  Chapter 9

  For the first time in his life, Callum wished he wasn’t immortal, and he could just die quietly and the pain would stop. He lay very still, because if he moved, he hurt. His wings hurt, his arms and legs ached, his stomach felt like he’d been disemboweled and the hollow filled with molten metal. His head thumped, his mouth tasted disgusting and a thick sour stench filled his nostrils.

  He would have liked to whimper but that would involve moving, and he really didn’t want to do that yet. Maybe not ever.

  “Callum?”

  He opened one eye at the urgently spoken word. Then closed it again.

  “Callum?” The tone was sharper this time.

  “What?” He forced the word out through his torn lips. He must have bitten through them, because they hurt as well.

  “Are you all right?”

  Stupid fucking woman.

  The words sounded loud in his head, but he decided to keep them to himself. He suspected he was going to need her help any minute now, when he finally got the nerve to try and get up. No point in alienating her completely. He settled for a, “No.”

  “Oh. Because we have to get out of here. That woman is crazy.”

  What woman? And what was Venna doing here anyway?

  In fact, where was here? And what the hell had happened. He opened his eye again—the one that wasn’t glued to the floor— and peered around the room. His room.

  It came back to him slowly. He’d come here with Tannis. She’d kissed him, then she’d…

  Bloody hell—she’d bitten him. On the mouth. That’s what was wrong with his lip; the sadistic bitch had bitten him, then injected him with some sort of poison.

  But why?

  A pair of legs came into his vision, high heels, and slender ankles. Then Venna crouched down so her face appeared in his line of vision. Her nose wrinkled in an expression of disgust.

  “Ugh.”

  Very useful.

  There was something wrong with Venna’s lip as well. It looked like somebody had punched her.

  Obviously, she must have realized she was being less than sympathetic, and she reached out a hand and gingerly stroked his forehead. “Oh, you poor thing. What happened to you?”

  He preferred the earlier approach—at least it had been sincere. When he failed to answer, she continued.

  “They told me you had some sort of fit. They said I needed to look after you. And then I got here and that women hit me.

  And nobody did anything to stop her. And really, Callum, you’d be better off with someone else looking after you. I’m not good at this stuff.” She gestured to him and to the room in general. “And I think I’d better get back to my pod.” She gave the door a nervous glance. “She might come back.”

  He presumed ‘ she’ was Tannis. But why had she hit Venna?

  And why had she bitten him?

  Time to get out of this pool of vomit and find out. Taking a deep breath, he placed his palms flat on the floor and pushed.

  Nothing happened. He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and tried again. This time he managed to lever himself onto all fours. He rested for a minute, his breathing ragged. Heat flushed his skin one moment. Shivers raced through his body the next. He wanted to throw up again, but knew there was nothing left in his stomach.

  “You don’t look well.”

  “Really? What a surprise,” he muttered. “Look, why don’t you do something useful and get me a glass of water.”

  He waited until she’d disappeared before pushing himself up onto his knees. Something lay on the floor in front of him. He picked it up, studied it, a frown forming on his face. It was a scrap of material and looked like it had been torn from a shirt.

  He didn’t recognize the insignia, but it said, CM Research, so he presumed it must be something to do with Venna and the work she’d been doing for him. He’d pretty much given her a free hand and a lot of money. And gotten not much for it. She reported regularly but had yet to tell him anything of interest or use.

  He needed a shower, but the thought of actually standing up didn’t seem much of a possibility right now. Instead, he dragged himself onto the bed and collapsed face down, his head buried in the soft pillow.

  Someone prodded him in the back, and he groaned.

  “Callum. Your water.”

  He wanted to tell her to go away, but he also wanted to ask her about this company. Was it somehow connected to Tannis and El Cazador? But how? Could they have done work for Venna? A job that had gone wrong? Something had pissed Tannis off.

  If he hadn’t been immortal, he would be dead.

  He rolled over and pulled himself up so he was half-sitting.

  Venna handed him a glass, and he sipped the water, wincing when it hit his stomach.

  “So this fit you had,” Venna said. “You think it’s another change? Something to do with Meridian?”

  “No.” He touched a fingertip to his lip, felt the jagged puncture marks.

  “So…?” She sounded impatient, and he shrugged.

  “Tannis bit me.”

  “What?”

  “She must produce some sort of venom. She kissed me—”

  “What?”

  Christ, she was getting repetitive. “She kissed me, then she bit me, then she injected me with some sort of poison.”

  Her brows drew together. “Why? I mean she didn’t seem very friendly, but I just thought she was unstable and jealous.” Her finger touched her swollen lip. “But that seems a little excessive. Is it some sort of assassination plot?” She glanced at the open door.

  “We need to get off this ship.”

  “Not an assassination attempt—she knew it wouldn’t kill me.”

  “So why?”

  “I think she’s unhappy about something.” That was the understatement of the century. “I just don’t know what.” He held out the piece of material. “What do you know about this?”

  Venna took it from him, but then dropped it on the bed with a grimace of disgust. For a minute, she stared at it, her lips pursed.

  “It’s the badge from the uniform of one of your companies.”

  “One of my companies?”

  “CM Research. I set it up about thirty years ago, to do some experimentation into Meridian.” She shrugged. “The research ca
me to nothing, and I closed the company down about fifteen years ago.”

  Callum ran a trembling hand through his hair, but he could feel his body fighting the poison and slowly throwing off the effects. He took a sip of the water and considered what she had told him, trying to work out how it could fit in with Tannis.

  “What sort of experiments?”

  “Genetic mostly, mixing some of our altered DNA with human and other…things, seeing if we could get it to take. But as I said—it came to nothing. Most of the subjects died, a few lived, but they never assimilated the altered DNA.”

  “Subjects?”

  “The subjects of the experiments.”

  “People?”

  “I suppose.” She frowned. “What are you getting at? You’ve never questioned the way I do my research before.”

  No, he hadn’t, had he? Hadn’t been interested enough—all he’d wanted was results. Now, he had an uncomfortable feeling that he was about to come face to face with some unpleasant truths. He wasn’t sure he wanted to continue with this, but he forced himself to go on with the questions.

  “Who were these people? Where did they come from?”

  “How do I know?”

  “Then find out. And now. You must have access to the records.”

  Her face took on a mutinous expression, and for a moment, it looked like she might refuse. But obeying him was too inbuilt, and she opened the palm screen on her left hand and started flicking through the files. “What is it you want to know?”

  “The subjects, where did they come from and what happened to them?” The ones who survived at least. He waited, impatient for her to give him the answers he knew he wasn’t going to want to hear.

  “Well?” he prompted.

  She shrugged. “They came from different places. Some were prisoners, heading for the Meridian mines—we just borrowed them for a while.”

  “Some? What about the others?”

  “We bought some from the Church.”

  He shook his head, then wished he hadn’t as pain shot through him, piercing his skull. “How can you buy people from the Church?”

  “They weren’t people. They were GMs.” She sounded defensive now.

  “Since when have GMs not been people?”

  “Since we condoned the Church’s purge for political reasons,” she snapped.