Nina Croft

by Blood Hunter 03 Death Defying

  “What’s happening behind?” she asked.

  Rico flipped the monitor and the screen filled with flashing lights. She stared at it trying to make sense of the chaos of ships.

  “Looks like they pulled it off,” Rico said. “They’re between us.”

  It did, and Tannis grinned. “Janey, can you get Devlin?”

  “No problem.” She flipped the comm unit to speaker. “He’s on speaker.”

  “Thanks, Devlin.”

  “My pleasure. You take care of my little brother.”

  “Will do. See you around.”

  “Remember that offer is always open.”

  “I’ll remember. Okay shut it down, Janey. Let’s get after that ship.”

  It took them an hour going at full speed before they picked up the weapons ship on their scanners. Callum stayed in his seat and watched the crew. They worked well together. There had been no sense of panic, well except for maybe Tannis. But she had more at stake here than any of them.

  She was up on her feet now, stalking the bridge, fizzing with energy. “Any sign yet?” she asked for the fifteenth time—he’d been counting.

  “Captain, sit down,” Janey said. “I promise I’ll tell you when they show.”

  She ignored the request and continued pacing, hands shoved in her pockets, and Callum sat back and admired her sleek sinuous figure. If all went well, they would be there and back within twenty-four hours.

  “There she is,” Janey said.

  “How long until she’s in range?”

  “Ten minutes.”

  Tannis flung herself back into her chair, fingers drumming in the armrests. “Well?”

  Janey sighed. “Nine minutes and thirty seconds.”

  “Okay,” Rico murmured. “Let’s get ready to blast the bitch out of the sky.”

  “Just hold on a second,” Callum said. He’d been considering an idea while they caught up. Now, he was interested to know what the others thought. “Janey, are you getting anything from them?”

  Janey glanced at Tannis, and she nodded her permission.

  “I’m picking up a lot of chatter,” Janey said.

  “What sort of chatter?”

  “I think it’s the Church, but I don’t think they’re communicating. It’s more like the steady pulse from some sort of tracking device.”

  Tannis swiveled in her seat to face him. “What is it?”

  Callum shrugged. “I have an idea.”

  “A good one?” Tannis sounded as though the notion of a good idea coming from him was unlikely.

  “Well, obviously I think so.”

  “Spit it out then.”

  “Why don’t we not blow her up?”

  “That’s an idea? It sucks.”

  “Why don’t we take her instead?”

  “Board her?” Rico said.

  “Why would we want to do that?” Tannis asked.

  She was being slow. He presumed Tannis wasn’t thinking straight. He hoped it was because of his proximity, but suspected it was more that she was close to getting the Meridian she had dreamed about for so long.

  “At the moment,” he said, “we’re planning on taking the shuttle down to Trakis Seven. But the shuttle is small for the three of us, and I’m not sure I trust Tannis and Venna in a small enclosed space together.”

  “Good point,” Tannis muttered.

  “Plus her range is short. The Cazador is going to have to stay relatively close in order to pick us up after we’ve been on planet.”

  “And,” Rico said, “we have to presume that if we blow up that ship, then they’ll come after us. Either the ones who survive the Rebels—and having seen their performance—I’m presuming some will, or they’ll send someone else to intercept us.”

  It looked like he had Rico on his side. “But if we take the ship,” Callum continued, “then use her to get to Trakis Seven, the tracking device will show her going exactly where she’s supposed to go.”

  “And the Cazador can get out of the way until we need to rendezvous.”

  Tannis sat for a minute, chewing on her lower lip. “Hmm, won’t they just comm the Church when we try and board?”

  “Not necessarily.” He turned to Janey. “Can you set up a jamming frequency? Stop any comms getting through, but keep the tracker functioning?”

  “Of course.”

  He turned back to Tannis. “So, what do you think, captain?”

  “Rico?”

  “I’m for it. Can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself.”

  “Skylar?”

  “I’m with Rico. It’s obvious, really.”

  “Okay, Janey—jam them.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “So how do we do this?”

  “Daisy can take the controls on El Cazador,” Rico said. “She can send them a few blasts from the front keep them busy while we sneak around the back in the shuttle.”

  “Who’s going?” Skylar asked.

  “I reckon you and me, Jon and Tannis. That’s four against four—it’s probably overkill, but no point in taking chances.”

  Callum was starting to feel as though he didn’t exist. Whose idea had it been anyway? “Five against four,” he said.

  Tannis swung around to face him. “You won’t be fighting.

  You’ll be staying in the shuttle with that woman until it’s all clear.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, but she continued without giving him a chance to speak. “You’re the only one who knows how to find that Meridian—you’re too valuable to risk”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Tannis smiled sweetly. “Who’s captain?”

  Shit. Had he really said he’d take her orders? He hadn’t meant it literally. She stood staring at him, hands on her hips.

  “You’re the captain.”

  “Thank you.”

  …

  The shuttle was a squash with six people. Rico got the seat as he was flying. Skylar stood behind him, her hand resting on his shoulder.

  Jon stood off by himself, arms folded across his enormous chest, a scowl on his face. Alex had put up a fuss when she’d realized they were not taking her, and for someone so small, she knew how to make her feelings clear. Callum knew exactly how she felt.

  Venna stood on the far side as though trying to keep as much distance as possible between them.

  Tannis lounged against the curved wall just inside the door, and Callum inched around toward her, his wings making it difficult in such a confined space. Everyone else was facing the monitor at the front, and he pulled her toward him, wrapped his arms around her, and leant back against the wall. For a moment, she stiffened then relaxed into him.

  He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Be careful in there.”

  “I’m always careful.”

  He let out a small bark of laughter, and all heads turned in their direction. He waited until they’d turned back. “Darling, I bet you’ve never been careful in your entire existence. For someone who wants to live forever, you picked a dangerous way of life.”

  …

  Callum’s words made her stop and think. For once, his touch wasn’t sexual, it was comforting, and she turned his words over in her mind.

  The truth was she’d spent her time in the research center terrified of death, every day an ordeal to be got through. But however terrible it had been, she hadn’t wanted to die—had clung to her dream of living forever.

  But since then, though she hadn’t courted death, she hadn’t been afraid to put her life on the line while doing a job. In fact, she’d enjoyed pitting herself against almost impossible odds. It made her feel alive.

  She decided he didn’t need an answer. Resting back against him, she closed her eyes and relaxed.

  Chapter 15

  Callum paced the shuttle and tried to ignore Venna.

  He couldn’t hear anything and the wait was driving him insane. He wanted to comm Tannis, but if they were in a fight, he might distract her.

  “Fo
r God’s sake, relax,” Venna muttered.

  She’d sat down in the pilot’s seat and was studying him as though he was one of her specimens. “What’s with you and the captain?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “All that lovey stuff?” Her tone held intense distaste.

  “Mind your own business.”

  “Actually, it is my business. You told me you’d lost your libido years ago. You said you thought it was another side effect of the Meridian. It’s in my files. So I’d really like to know if it’s not the case.”

  That sounded like Venna—her mind focused solely on the science. He thought back to the extremely uncomfortable night he had spent, with a raging hard on that had refused to subside.

  Nothing wrong with his libido.

  “Yuk,” Venna said. “Get that sick smile off you face. I’ll delete the entry from my records.”

  “Good idea.” He peered into the monitor, but could see nothing in the docking bay. “Where the hell are they?”

  “Don’t worry. She’s obviously impossible to kill. Meridian is wasted on her.” She got up and paced for a minute, then sat down again, and started gnawing on her fingernails. She was driving him nuts, but she was obviously stressed out, and he decided to take her mind off the whole thing.

  The thought brought him up short. Maybe he was turning into a nice guy after all. He was actually feeling pretty good; things were on track, and while he was sure Tannis would never forgive him, she was starting to see beyond the past. He felt a grin tug at his lips.

  “Let me repeat it,” Venna said. “Yuk.”

  Back to Venna. The one thing that could be guaranteed to focus her mind was talk of her research. “Tell me about the planet,” he said. “What’s my best chance of finding anything?”

  “We’ve been over and over this.”

  “Tell me again.”

  She took a deep breath, and he saw her brain click into action.

  “I reckon you’ll have about six hours before the sickness makes it impossible to function.”

  It didn’t seem very long to discover “the truth”. Why was he so sure that he would find his answers when Venna had spent years hunting and come up with nothing? Maybe it was just a gut feeling, but he’d learnt to follow those. Then he realized that wasn’t the case. The feeling wasn’t in his gut, but in his mind—in that part of his mind changed by Meridian, where he could communicate with the other members of the Collective. Could it be some sort of ancestral memory? Or was there something on the planet calling to him, drawing him back. But they had never found any living organisms on Trakis Seven or any sign that there had ever been an indigenous life form. One of their theories had been that an alien space ship could have crash landed much as they had. But again, they’d found no evidence to support that.

  “We’ll land close to the Meridian site,” Venna said, breaking into his thoughts. “But it’s still half an hour beneath the planet’s surface, that’s an hour there and back plus at least an hour for the treatment to take. That leaves you less than four hours.”

  “Doesn’t seem long?”

  “It will do when you’re down there, believe me.”

  He did. He could still remember the time he had spent on the planet—it had not been a pleasant occurrence.

  “So we go for the Meridian first?”

  “No. I suggest you leave that until last—the place messes with your brain but you don’t need much mental capacity to get to the cache.”

  “So where do we start?”

  “There’s a chamber, close to the place where the Trakis Seven crash landed and luckily quite close to the final cache of Meridian.

  It’s the center of the radiation—though it’s not really radiation— more like some sort of poison. I reckon that’s your best bet.

  I’ve been there a couple of times. It’s a weird place, but there’s something… I don’t know.”

  “You still think it’s some sort of alien?”

  It was something they had discussed many times, but never come up with an answer. Venna refused to commit herself to a conclusion that wasn’t firmly based in scientific fact.

  “Yes.”

  He’d been gazing at the monitor, but at her answer, he whirled around to face her.

  “Well, that’s a change.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve been doing some thinking, and I can’t see what else it could be. I’m hoping you’ll find some proof where I’ve failed. Go to the chamber, open your mind, and see what happens.”

  He nodded. His comm unit flashed, and he reached across and flipped the switch.

  “We’re done,” Tannis said. “Just clearing up, so you can come out now if you want to. We’re on the bridge.”

  “Come on,” he said to Venna. “The place is ours. Let’s get on with this.” A sense of deep excitement was rising up inside him.

  What would he find? The truth?

  The ship was built like the Cazador but on a smaller scale, and once out of the shuttle they headed up the ramp to the upper level. She was obviously new, still gleaming, with the smell of fresh clean air. They found the bridge, and he paused in the door. His gaze went straight to Tannis; she was standing to one side, talking to Skylar. She appeared unharmed and some of the tension inside him eased.

  He studied the rest of the place. It was obvious a fight had gone on in here, scorch marks from laser blasts scarred the walls, and a couple of bodies lay on the floor.

  Jon pushed past him from behind, entered the bridge, and picked up the nearest body, tossing it over his shoulder with ease. He grinned at Callum as he passed, carrying the dead crew member—presumably they were just dumping the bodies out of the airlock.

  The last body lay on the floor, eyes staring. There was no obvious cause of death, but when Callum looked closer, he could see the puncture wounds in the throat. He glanced up to where Rico was pacing the deck at the far side of the bridge. As though sensing his gaze, he turned Callum’s way. He appeared totally wired—his eyes glowing crimson, blood staining his lips, and a shiver of primordial fear skittered down Callum’s spine.

  “I’d stay away from him for a while if I were you.” Tannis came up beside him.

  “That was my plan. Are the crew all dead?”

  “Yeah. We did give them the chance to surrender.”

  “How much of a chance?”

  “Not much. It may have escaped your notice, but Rico isn’t too fond of the Church.”

  “It hadn’t escaped me.”

  “He was sort of blinded by the light flashing off the crosses around their necks.” She shrugged. “They chose to do this, so they must be willing to take the consequences.”

  “If you live by the sword you should expect to die by it.”

  “Something like that. And look on the bright side—at least they died believing they were going to heaven. But the good news is none of the systems have been damaged—she’s fully functional and ready to go as soon as we’ve cleared up.”

  Jon came in and picked up the last body, carted it out like so much rubbish.

  Tannis glanced at him. “This is really bothering you, isn’t it?”

  He shrugged.

  “You sent god knows how many men and women to their deaths in the mines, you’ve probably given orders that have killed thousands without blinking an eye. But faced with a few bodies and you go all squeamish.”

  She was right in a way. He’d always killed from a distance.

  Even when he’d been a fighter pilot back on Earth. But dead was dead, whether it was under your nose or a million miles away.

  “Take responsibility, Callum.”

  His anger flared. “You have no idea of the responsibility I take every day. You don’t think I know that my decisions can lead to deaths? But they also sometimes lead to life. Not every order I make gets people killed.” He’d actually done some good in his time as leader, but he was past defending himself, because the truth was he had done things that were indefensible. He hoped the
good outweighed the bad, but he was in no way sure.

  “Okay,” Jon said coming back on the bridge. “We’re done, and we’re out of here.”

  Callum glanced away from Tannis and saw that the others were standing by the door. Rico came forward, he’d come down from the high a little, though he still looked twitchy.

  He stalked over, wrapped his arms around Tannis, and hugged her. She stiffened in his arms—Callum reckoned she wasn’t really one for hugs—then she relaxed and returned the gesture. When she stepped back, she looked vaguely embarrassed.

  “Come back,” Rico said. He turned to Callum. “You keep her safe, or we’ll be looking for you.”

  He nodded. “I will.”

  Skylar was smiling. “Hey, when we see you again, I’ll be able to get inside your head,” she said to Tannis.

  “You’ll keep out of my freaking head,” she replied.

  “Good luck,” Jon said. “Call if you need us.”

  Tannis nodded. “We’ll see you at the rendezvous. It should be no more than three days.”

  “We’ll be there. Don’t be late!” Rico swung around and headed out the door. At the last minute, he paused, dug his silver flask out of his pocket and tossed it to her. “To keep you company.”

  Then they were gone. Leaving her alone with Callum and Venna.

  Chapter 16

  Tannis watched them go with a vague feeling of unease. It was that old, “everything is changing” feeling that had plagued her for the last few weeks, maybe longer. Probably since Skylar had come aboard with her offer of work.

  She felt the change in vibration under her feet as the shuttle fired up. There was no turning back now.

  Venna stood just inside the door. Tannis still couldn’t look at the other woman without a feeling of betrayal, which was crazy.

  While she hadn’t forgiven Callum, she could see past it. At least Callum was honest. He wouldn’t go around offering little children chocolate if he meant to do horrible things to them.

  Tannis stalked toward her and stood staring down at the woman. She did bear a strong resemblance to an angel—all blonde curls and big violet eyes.

  “Why the fuck did you give me chocolate?”

  Those enormous eyes stretched even wider. Venna tried to back away, but came up against the curved wall of the bridge and visibly jumped. Her gaze darted to Callum, who had followed Tannis over. “Callum, get her away from me.”