by Honor James
Lords of the Expanse 2
Trained in Blood
As a lady of her world, Violet Macy was raised to be gentle, considerate, polite, and demure. But the training she gets when taken off the streets is more than even she can bear. Armed with knowledge of the enemy of her people, she makes a daring decision and heads straight for them.
As colonel of a ship in the Vampire fleet, Titan Rostam has seen and dealt with many things. But a half-naked female requesting asylum is a first for even him. With danger nipping at her heels in the form of the Syndicate, he has a choice to make—hand her off or marry her. The choice he makes will reshape his life.
As a seer of future events, Violet had no idea just how dramatically her life would change when she escaped her prison. Now if she can only survive long enough to enjoy it with the man who surprises her every day of her life.
Genre: Futuristic, Science Fiction, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 59,538 words
TRAINED IN BLOOD
Lords of the Expanse 2
Honor James
EROTIC ROMANCE
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
TRAINED IN BLOOD
Copyright © 2013 by Honor James
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-701-7
First E-book Publication: July 2013
Cover design by Viola Estrella
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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DEDICATION
For my family, every last one of you. Your support during this amazing process has been invaluable. Without all you’ve done for me, from snacks to the way you tiptoed from the room as I tried to figure out my latest chapter in the wee hours of the morning, I wouldn’t have gotten this one written.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. And for the next time, my darling children, momma needs more chocolate.
TRAINED IN BLOOD
Lords of the Expanse 2
HONOR JAMES
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Reading through the reports he occasionally put his initials here and there on the documents depending on what was needed. It had been a very long four months that he and his crew had been on patrol, but they were on the last leg of their tour and would be headed home soon enough. Thankfully though, they had been able to take leave on several planets on their mission route, thus giving everyone a break, but still after four months everyone just wanted to be back on their own soil, with their families and friends.
“Sir, we’re receiving a security warning priority three,” a young lieutenant said, approaching him with a data pad. Passing it over, he stepped back and folded his hands behind him. “It’s in the Syndicate’s space but we are the closest vessel.”
Turning the pad around, he read through the information. “They have nothing that can get here in time?” he asked the lieutenant.
“No, sir, we spoke with the nearest vessel and they asked that we handle this as they can’t get here in time to deal with the situation.”
“Understood,” Titan said with a small frown. “Someone stole a spacecraft?” he asked, looking up with a clear question on his face.
“Yes, sir, apparently one of the residents wasn’t willing to wait for the shuttle back to wherever they needed to go and decided to get there their own way,” the lieutenant filled in for his superior officer. “The small spacecraft was taken from the port and, after a few false starts and nearly taking out another vessel landing, they got it into the air and broke orbit. No other vessels on the ground were available to follow and none of them have tracking abilities, the tractor technology, or a hold large enough to pull the vessel in. I followed procedures and contacted the Syndicate to alert them to the situation. They had already received the same and, while they are dispatching a vessel to the area, they cannot get here for nearly a week and by then the vessel could be anywhere.”
Nodding slowly Titan finished reading the short report and made his decision. “Alert command to what we are doing. Transmit all the reports and transmissions with the Syndicate as well. Helm, new coordinates,” he called out and then read off the galactic coordinates. Once it was confirmed he handed the data pad back to the other man. “Good job, Lieutenant,” he said.
“Thank you, sir,” the lieutenant replied, taking the pad and turning to return to his station. He was ecstatic. Getting any sort of accolade from the colonel was so rare that he’d never heard of one, and yet to receive one was career making. Sitting back at his station though he was calm and went back to work. He knew better than to express anything in public. It was not how things were done in their society and it would only get him reprimanded which would nullify any accolade.
“We are on course for the last known location of the vessel,” Titan’s second said, moving up beside him. “We’ll be in scanning range within twenty minutes, sir,” he added, going to military rest.
“Let me know when we are there, Major,” Titan said, turning his attention back to the other reports to finish his work. He�
��d have to do a debrief when they reached home port, but having all his reports in order would cut that time in nearly half.
“Sir,” the major said just over twenty minutes later, “we are within scanning range and have picked up a small space craft.”
Looking up Titan nodded and seconds later the information was being displayed on the main board that spanned the front of the command center. Pushing up from his chair Titan moved around his console to stand in the main area before the screens. “No weapons, excellent shields but a lot of power,” he commented as he scanned the readings quickly. “Helm, get us within range of the vessel. Communications, once we are close enough hail the craft and order them to stop their engines and lower their shields.”
“By that point, sir, they will be on our border,” the major murmured in a low tone, shooting him a look. Titan knew he’d done the same calculations he had to get to that conclusion.
“We will not shoot first, Major,” Titan said softly, keeping the command decisions and chitchat between them as the crew had no need to know anything of this. The crew knew procedure and their laws stated that without any contact from a vessel approaching their borders meant they fired first and asked questions later. But in this case Titan was rescinding those orders temporarily.
“Understood, sir.” The major nodded. “What are your orders then, sir?” The question hung in the air from the major.
“We will order them to cease and desist. From there we will decide, Major,” Titan said in a louder tone so that all his crew would hear the words and understand. “How long until we are in range to pull them aboard?” he asked, looking to the crew at the radar stations.
“Another ten, sir,” a young sergeant said without looking up from his station.
“Sir!” came a sharp voice at the station one over. “We’ve got another vessel approaching, sir.”
“Damn,” muttered the major. “Identify, Sergeant,” he ordered sharply before moving to stand behind the young man.
“On screen now, sir,” the sergeant said, all heads turning to the main display.
“I thought the Syndicate said they had no vessel in range.” Titan growled, seeing the standards of the Syndicate spacecraft.
“They did say that, sir,” the major reported tightly.
“They lied in other words,” Titan snarled. “What are they doing?”
“They are powering up all weapons, sir, and they are burning hot,” the sergeant reported, his words telling them that the ship was putting their engines into the red to reach the vessel.
“Do we let them deal with it, sir? Perhaps the vessel was not originally in the area and just received word from their leaders,” the major enquired.
“Time to the spacecraft reaching our border?” Titan asked sharply, his eyes watching the markings on the large map laid out before them all.
“They are on the outer edge now, Colonel,” one of the Sergeants said sharply.
“Warn off the Syndicate vessel,” Titan ordered, looking to the lieutenant at the communication station. “If they breach our borders they will be fired upon. Arm weapons, armor and shields full power,” he added, looking to another station in control of weapons and their shielding. “Get us there as fast as possible. Major, target the Syndicate vessel and make sure they know we are not amused by their movements.”
“Yes, sir,” the major said, moving toward the control area for the large ship’s engines and directional controls.
“Sir, we’re in visual range of the small spacecraft,” a voice said sharply.
“Full alert, flash message command,” Titan ordered, knowing that the communications station scrambled to ensure that all information and data their vessel was holding was sent in a burst message back to their home world. It was a safety measure in case they were destroyed, not that any of them planned on dying that day, especially by Syndicate weapons. “Time to intercept of the spacecraft?” he asked, looking toward his men.
“Two minutes,” he was told in a tight voice, the young man manning the radar tense. It was the sergeant’s first mission and it was to be a smooth border patrol, nothing more.
Moving up behind the young man Titan looked down at him. “Breathe,” he murmured quietly just for the man’s ears. “We’re bigger, better armed, and we are better shielded than the craft out there. They can’t hurt us,” he said in an attempt to reassure the young man with the facts and keep his mind where it was needed, on the task at hand.
“Yes, sir,” the sergeant murmured, taking a breath and visibly relaxing.
Nodding Titan looked to the display. “Time?” he asked the young man.
“Thirty seconds and counting, sir,” the sergeant reported in a stronger, clearer tone. Pressing a couple buttons he nodded when the time dissipated completely.
“Pull the vessel aboard now,” Titan ordered as he turned to look at the major. Getting a nod in return the major moved to supervise the operation of bringing the small spacecraft into their shields and then into a landing bay.
Three tense minutes later the major turned. “The craft is in bay four, sir,” he reported.
“The Syndicate craft?” Titan asked, eyeing the screen.
“Still coming for us, sir,” a sergeant said quickly, the tension rising again.
“Back us further into our territory, Major, and if that ship breaches the border fire three warning shots over their hull.” Titan shared a look with his second.
“Aye, sir.” The major nodded with a gleam in his eyes. They both knew that the third shot would graze the vessel, accidently of course.
“I’ll be in the bay seeing just who our ‘guest’ is,” Titan said. “Command is yours, Major.”
“Command is mine, aye, Colonel.” The major moved so he was able to see all that was going on around them.
Signaling to four of the guards in the corridor as he moved to the lift Titan refocused his attention. The major would handle anything the Syndicate stupidly did. Right now they had a “guest” on board that no one knew anything about. Riding the lift he looked to the guards. “Assume whoever is on board is armed,” he ordered. “But do not fire unless fired upon or if I order otherwise.” Looking to one he nodded to the side piece. “Put your weapon on stun just in case they are not armed and are not cooperative, Chief.”
Seconds later they moved up the corridor to the bay and he signaled the other four guards waiting there. “Open it and remain here,” he ordered. When the door opened he stepped inside with the guards fanning out, one moving to the control panel that was holding a shield around the vessel to keep it from allowing the occupant to open the ship and run. “Open the vessel,” he ordered a second guard as the first shut down the shielding and they got into position.
The ramp came down and they all stared at who was there and just what they were dressed in, or rather, what they weren’t wearing. “They called out a hunt on a consort,” Titan murmured in confusion as he stared at the female standing there in just enough clothing to be legally covered by all standards but definitely not warm.
Chapter Two
“This one is going to be difficult to break,” the discombobulated voice said from behind the dark curtain.
“I don’t care what it takes, break her. Look at her, she is perfect,” the rough-as-nails voice said scratchily, as if he were talking through a cold or something worse. “She will be the perfect one to break the bastards.” He growled.
“We will try not to break her, sir.” There was a pause and a thump followed with the sound of papers falling and then the squeak of the man’s voice. “I meant mark her, sir. We will break her, I meant mark her.”
“Make sure that you don’t mar her beauty because that is what will take those smug emotionless bastards down.” The sound of a body falling was clear and then the closing of a door followed by the one man coughing and then saying, “No, no, I’m fine, dammit. Start her on the drugs.”
“Yes, sir,” came the small feminine voice before she saw the chocolate-skinned
woman entering the curtained room where she was strapped to a metal table. “Seems as if you are the unlucky one today, I’m sorry,” the woman whispered before she pressed a hypodermic gun to the side of Violet’s neck and depressed the lever.
The gag in her mouth and the metal bands around her body kept her from moving from the pain of the hypodermic gun to her neck. She wanted to scream as she felt the acidic burn of the drug sweeping through her system but all sound was cut off before the black ink of unconsciousness overtook her and forced her under.
* * * *
Six hundred and fifty-one sunrises through the four-inch window from the one wall that was concrete and steel, the one wall that kept her from the outdoors, that was how long she was in the sixteen-by-eight room. Three walls of solid glass, a ceiling of glass, and floor of charged metal, when they chose, was the reminder that she was never alone. She couldn’t see who watched her but she knew they did. Her face often turned up to the sun that came in that small window.
It looked as if she was always looking out that window and they had often remarked on that, using it as her gift if she would just cooperate. What they didn’t know was that she was actually using it to watch the incoming and outgoing space travel. They may think they were breaking her, but they weren’t.
“It is time for your poise lessons,” came the silky-smooth voice of a woman that Violet had never met. But Vi knew what that meant. She knew that she had to move to the center of the room where there was a small indent now from her feet. Standing tall and straight she held her shoulders back and head up as she listened to the electrical current start to hum all around her on all the other parts of the floor.