Deadly Pursuit (A Blood Hunter Novel, #2)

by Nina Croft

  Tannis had told him to keep an eye out for them and comm her as soon as they returned. Apparently, the ship was fixed and ready to go. All they needed was the crew.

  Rico had gotten back half an hour ago, his expression blank.

  “Is he dead?” Jon had asked when Rico made to walk past him without a word.

  Rico had nodded curtly, and disappointment stabbed Jon in the gut. He couldn’t believe how much he had wanted to do the deed himself. But he reckoned it was Rico’s right as Bastion’s sire. If it had been one of his wolves, he would have wanted to do the job himself. Rico and Bastion obviously had history, and he guessed this had been a long time coming.

  He had a thought. “What was the name of the ship you left Earth on?”

  Rico looked at him with resignation. “The Trakis Two.”

  “And I’m guessing Bastion was the captain you changed?”

  “Yeah, and the biggest bloody mistake I ever made. Not that we had much choice.”

  “What happened?”

  “He kept eating the Chosen Ones. He’d wake them up from cryo and drain them dry.”

  “And you objected to that?”

  “Hell yeah—there was no need. I put up with him for a hundred years, then I’d had enough. I stuffed him in cryo—he’s never forgiven me. Anyway, it’s over now.” He looked around. “Is Skylar on board?”

  “No. They’ve gone shopping.”

  “Shopping?” Rico sounded suitably incredulous. “Who’s gone shopping?”

  “All of them. Well, except the captain.”

  “Al?”

  Jon nodded, and Rico stalked off muttering about women under his breath.

  Jon was sitting on the ramp still waiting when the speeder pulled up and spilled out its cargo of women. To his annoyance, he immediately searched for Al. And found her.

  Last time he’d seen her, she’d been red-eyed and blood stained. Bruised and battered. And he wasn’t sure this was an improvement. Al was gone forever.

  Her hair was slicked back. Someone had covered the bruises on her cheeks and chin, though her lower lip was still puffed and swollen. But her clothes were the biggest difference. She’d replaced the baggy shirt and pants with a pink jump suit, skintight, molded to her high, full breasts—breasts he’d seen naked only hours before—and her slender thighs. The pants tucked into boots that had four-inch heels and came up to her knees.

  She appeared animated, chatting to Janey as they unloaded bags from the speeder, but the smile slid from her face as she caught sight of him watching her.

  “Pink?” he said.

  “Hot pink.”

  He turned away and headed inside the ship, not understanding the anger that pricked at him. Tannis met him in the open doorway. “Get on board. We’re out of here.”

  “What’s going on?” Jon asked.

  “I guess someone knows we’re here. There are about a hundred Collective ships orbiting right above us. We’re leaving. Now. And Rico wants everyone on the bridge.”

  Jon followed, feeling the rumble beneath his feet as the engines fired. Rico was already seated in the pilot’s seat when Jon arrived. He took a chair across from the vamp and strapped himself in. He’d seen enough of Rico’s flying to know a safety harness was a good move. The notion stopped him. Since when had he cared anything for his own safety?

  He’d never gone hunting for death, but neither had he avoided it. Now he realized—he didn’t want to die.

  Which was a real goddamn pity, because right now, he could see no way they were going to get out of this alive. The monitor showed a mass of small cruisers milling in the space above Bastion’s stronghold. At least a hundred, maybe more. Rico might be the best pilot in the universe, but there was no way El Cazador could break through that lot.

  He wondered who had contacted the Collective and given them away. It could have been Deke or Bastion. It was good to have friends.

  It didn’t seem right that he’d saved Alex, only to have her die like this. Maybe if they told the Collective that she was some important priestess, they would let her go. But if they were willing to kill Skylar, one of their own—even if there was a good chance they could regenerate her—then they were unlikely to save Alex, who was nothing to them.

  Jon almost wished he’d given in. Made love to her. It seemed sad that she should die without experiencing anything of life.

  The rest of the crew came in and took their seats. There was a sense of controlled urgency, but no one was panicking overtly. They must know they were about to be space dust. He sensed the moment Alex sat down across from him, but he purposefully didn’t look her way.

  Rico swiveled his chair to face them. “Good of you to join us,” he said to the room in general. “All the shopping done?”

  Skylar grinned. “Yes, boss.”

  He looked straight at Alex. “Bastion’s dead.”

  Her eyes widened, and then she nodded. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.” He turned back but carried on speaking. “I wanted you all in here because it’s come to my notice recently that you’re all crap at taking orders. So I want you where I can see you. And if I tell you to do something—do it.”

  “In your dreams,” Tannis said. “You know, we’re never going to get through that lot.”

  “We’re not going to go through them. We’re going to go around them, and hopefully they won’t even notice. Skylar, can you contact someone up there and tell them we’re coming out. We want to give ourselves up.”

  She frowned. “I told you. They don’t want us to give ourselves up. They want to kill us. We go out there, and we’re dead.”

  “What did I say about taking orders? Does ‘just do it’ sound familiar?” He sighed. “I want them to think we’re going out there, but we’re not actually going out there. I’m not a total moron.”

  Jon didn’t see what choice they had. That many ships, with that much firepower, it didn’t really matter where they attacked them, in space or on the ground. They were as good as dead.

  “But you’ve got a plan, right?” Skylar asked.

  “Have faith,” Rico murmured. “I’m too young to die.”

  “Why the hell not?” She closed her eyes. A minute later, she blinked and nodded. “They’re expecting us.”

  “Good.” Rico pressed the comm unit on his wrist. “You ready, Trog?” He listened to the reply. “Let’s do this.”

  A second later, the lights went out, plunging the bridge into near darkness, the only illumination from the monitor, which still showed the massed ships. Covered by the darkness, Jon gave in to the urge and turned his head so he could see Alex. Her eyes gleamed in the dim light, but she didn’t appear scared.

  Through the viewing window at the front of the bridge, he could see the cavern, or rather the stygian darkness where he knew the cavern should be. Then a faint light filtered down from above. The roof was opening, only a narrow slit at first, barely revealing the star-strewn sky, but the gap widened with each second.

  The ship was moving, but not upward. Instead, they were crawling along the cavern floor. Up ahead was the opening to one of the many tunnels, this one far wider than most. They were heading straight for it, hovering no more than a dozen feet from the ground.

  “Shit,” he muttered. The crazy bastard couldn’t really mean to go down there. Could he? There was no way they would fit.

  “Okay, breathe in, everybody.”

  Jon clenched the arms of his seat, waiting for the screech of metal on rock, his eyes glued to the vampire’s back. Rico’s shoulders were tense but somehow, he managed to keep the ship in the center of the tunnel. Once inside, the ship’s external lights came on, and Jon watched without breathing as they wound and twisted for miles.

  Finally up ahead, the tunnel came to an abrupt end. He waited for the ship to slow. Nothing happened. They weren’t going fast, but all the same, if they hit even at this speed, they would disintegrate.

  “Shit, Rico,” Tannis muttered. “Shoot it out.”


  “Can’t. They’ll see the explosion.”

  “They’ll also see the explosion if you crash straight into a solid metal door and blow us up.”

  “Actually, I’m hoping it works on proximity sensors. Otherwise we’re fucked.” He nodded to Alex. “Hey, maybe you could try a prayer right about now. We could do with a little divine intervention.”

  Alex put her hands together. Jon realized she was actually going to pray. Did she really believe there was a God out there? And if there was, did she think He’d be listening and would give a toss whether they lived or died?

  “Dear God,” Alex murmured. “Please open the doors. Rico says he’s sorry for all the bad things he’s done, and he promises to be better in the future.”

  Shock flared inside him at her words. They were about to die, and she was joking.

  Rico laughed. “Thanks, sweetheart, but I think that might have done the trick. God loves us after all.”

  Jon forced his gaze from Alex back to the viewer. A thin crack appeared in the doors, and then they slid back.

  Seconds later and they were out into the open sky. Jon waited from them to speed up to make a run for it. Instead, Rico kept the speed slow and hugged the contours of the land. He was a brilliant pilot, sticking so close to the ground that they wouldn’t show up as a separate entity. Still, Jon found his heart beating fast as he waited for them to be spotted, waited for the hoard to swoop down and annihilate them.

  The monitor was back on the cruisers above them. They still hovered above Bastion’s place, but at any moment, they would realize the Cazador was gone. Time crawled by as they inched over the barren landscape.

  Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he wiped it with the back of his hand. He was actually afraid. Jon almost didn’t recognize the emotion. He hadn’t been afraid of anything in a long time.

  How can you fear when you have nothing to lose?

  His mind refused to process the implications of that. Nothing had changed. There was still nothing to lose, and he planned for it to stay that way.

  The tension in the room slowly rose as each second stretched taut. Finally, Tannis snapped.

  “Shit, Rico, that has to be far enough. Get us the hell out of here.”

  “Getting to you?” He grinned. “Okay. We should be far enough not to be picked up. Hold on, children.”

  The engines roared, and they headed out into space at full speed.

  “Looks like we’re in the clear,” Janey said a minute later, and Jon released the breath he’d been holding for what seemed like hours.

  Next to him, Alex was grinning like an idiot. Didn’t she have the sense to know they’d nearly died?

  He unstrapped the harness and stood up. Everyone’s eyes locked on him as he stalked across the floor, but he kept his lips clamped together. If he opened his mouth now, he was sure something stupid would come out.

  In the privacy of his cabin, he shrugged out of his coat and tossed it on the bed. His skin was clammy and cold at the same time. He’d been certain they were going to die back there, and they hadn’t. Why wasn’t he feeling euphoric?

  He didn’t know what he felt, but he was sure fucking joy didn’t describe it.

  Edgy. Scared. Stupid. The list was endless, and none of it was good.

  Pressing his fingers into his eyeballs, he tried to reduce the pressure. Behind closed lids, he saw pink, hot pink, and he ground his teeth together to banish the image.

  He had to get out of there. He functioned better alone. If he could get away from these people, he’d be fine.

  They weren’t going to kill him, at least he didn’t think so. If they ever managed to get the Collective off their backs, he was sure he’d be free to go. So all he had to do was track down who’d set him up, find a way to get out from under this bounty—keep to himself, not get involved—and afterward, he could go back to his life.

  The thought filled him with no pleasure. That part of his life was over. It was time to move on. Which didn’t mean he had to throw all sense aside. Money was no problem; he had accounts all over the universe. Killing people was a lucrative profession, and he’d been good at what he did. The future was limitless—he could do anything he chose.

  But he’d do it alone.

  He threw himself down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Closing his eyes, he tried to sleep. No way. The notion came to him that he was waiting for something, and he was unsurprised when the buzzer sounded.

  Rolling to his feet, he smashed his hand down on the panel without checking the viewer. He knew who was out there—he’d been expecting her. No doubt come to parade herself in front of him and expect him to be all turned on by her tight little body in those tight little clothes.

  “What the hell do you want?”

  Even in the four-inch heels, she only came up to his chin, and he had to look down to sneer at her. Straight into her cleavage. He tried to remember her breasts last time he’d seen them, bloody and marked by the vampire, but he couldn’t summon the image to his mind.

  The fastener of her top was lowered so the creamy mounds almost overflowed the hot pink jumpsuit. Jon forced his gaze upward. Her eyes were downcast, almost demure. Another act. She tilted her head to look up at him. For the first time, she was wearing makeup, her eyes ringed with smudged black, making them appear even bigger. Like great limpid pools of neediness.

  She licked her lips. “Can I come in?”

  “No.”

  “Please. I just want to say thank you for saving my life.”

  “Then say it and go.”

  Alex blinked up at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, and a wave of horror threatened to roll over him and suck him under. He wanted to yell—don’t do this. Instead, he gave in to the inevitable, stepped back, and gestured for her to enter the room. Leaving the door open, he turned back to face her, folding his arms across his chest, doing his best to look formidable.

  She stood, nibbling on her lip as if unsure what to say now she’d wheedled her way in. Finally, she took a deep breath. “I know you think I’m a kid. But I’m not—I’m a woman. You’d know that if you took a moment to look.”

  He didn’t want to look. Or maybe he wanted to look too damn much. This was exactly why he should have nothing to do with her; she clouded his mind. Confused issues that were normally crystal clear.

  Her hand went to the clasp at the front of her jump suit, fiddling with it, and his gaze followed the movement. The fit was so tight, he could see her nipples clearly defined under the material.

  Heat pooled in his groin, and his balls ached viciously. He had an almost overwhelming urge to toss her skinny ass on the bed and lose himself in her. Except her ass wasn’t skinny. It was surprisingly full. Like her breasts.

  She wouldn’t know what had hit her.

  And that was the problem.

  The little fool had no clue what she was asking for.

  Maybe she’d tempted Bastion the same way. And the poor sap had died because of it. He almost wanted to kick himself for that betraying thought.

  Slowly, she lowered the fastener farther, until he could make out the shadowy curves of her breasts.

  His dick was already rock-hard. Luckily, she wasn’t looking in that direction.

  As she stepped closer, her scent teased his nostrils. She smelt like warm woman.

  “I was so frightened,” she murmured. “I thought I was dead. I was sure I was dead. And he was hurting me.” A shiver ran through her small frame, and she gazed at him with those limpid eyes. “And then I thought we were going to die back there, and all I’d ever know about sex was pain. I just want to forget.” The fastener was lowered another inch. “I know you like to do the chasing. But one kiss? Is that so much to ask? To help me forget. Then I’ll go, I promise.”

  She was manipulating him, but he could do absolutely nothing about it, and when she licked her lips again, he groaned.

  “You are the dumbest woman in the universe,” he muttered before giving in to
the unavoidable. Her mouth was soft. He had every intention of keeping his own lips closed, but her small tongue pried them open, thrusting into his mouth so he tasted her sweetness.

  His cock twitched, and he shuddered with the effort of keeping his arms by his sides. She was rubbing up against him now like a bitch in heat.

  The cradle of her pelvis rocked against his shaft, and he groaned into her mouth. She went still before drawing back to peer down the length of his body, and his cock twitched again. When she peeked back up at his face, her eyes were wide, and for a moment, something flashed in her expression. Then she lowered her lashes so he couldn’t see what she was thinking.

  But she was as turned on as he was, the hard points of her nipples pressing against the soft material.

  Jon couldn’t help himself. Sliding his hand inside the open top, he cupped her breast, rubbing his palm over the beaded nipple, squeezing gently. She winced, and he went still then dropped his hand and stepped back.

  She moved in close again. “Please,” she whispered.

  He parted the material and stared down at her. Dark bruises marred the perfection of one full breast. The other sported a double fang mark where the blood-sucking bastard had bitten her.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

  “The hell it doesn’t matter. It’s all that matters. You’re a kid in need of protection. And I’m not in the business of protecting anybody.”

  “Too late. You already saved my life.”

  “Then I’m not in the business of protecting you again. Go find someone else.”

  “You won’t need to. I’ve learned my lesson.”

  “Darling, people like you never learn.”

  “People like me?”

  “Reckless people.”

  She frowned. “I’m not reckless. I’ll have you know I’m the most unreckless person ever.”

  “Yeah, right. That’s why you came begging me to fuck you, hours after we’d met. And that’s why you went running into a vampire’s lair. And no doubt, why you stowed away on that ship in the first place. It’s only a matter of time before you do something else stupid, and as Rico said, next time maybe you’ll get us all killed.”