Blood Trails

by Alianne Donnelly

  “All this high-tech machinery and you still need a cable?”

  She gave him a look again. “One would think even someone like you would know that you can’t stream without a cable on a shuttle in flight.”

  What was that supposed to mean?

  Tempting as a fight with her might be, he didn’t press it. Just fished the cable out of another compartment in his bag.

  The shuttle shook as it took off and the cabin plunged into total darkness for a moment. Jeremy froze, not wanting to drop the damn thing where he wouldn’t ever find it again.

  A soft hand grabbed his none too gently and pried the cable from him. Night vision, he recalled. Good thing to remember for later on.

  The computer fired up, screen glowing to illuminate Hailey’s rapt silver gaze. She looked freaky and unnatural with her white hair, but beautiful at the same time. She bit her lower lip as she hooked her recorder up to the computer and when it slid slowly free Jeremy felt a sudden urge to lean over and catch her lip between his own. It was a completely male reaction and he wouldn’t have thought anything of it, except Hailey must have sensed something. She stopped her rapid typing, turned her head slowly, and narrowed her eyes at him. The slits of glowing silver should have looked menacing. And they did.

  But Jeremy found them … cute, too.

  She drew her lips back enough to show off one impressively sharp canine.

  Jeremy shook himself and looked away before she decided to test her claws on his face. Had Amelia mentioned anything about pheromones? He didn’t think so. She should have. Those things were dangerous at the best of times. He made a mental note to research—he speared a quick glance at her thoughts—Nosy, interfering, son-of-a-bitch mind reader! Gonna tear him a new one as soon as we land. And I know you’re list—

  Snow leopards. And how to avoid being mauled by one.

  The cabin lights came back on as the captain announced their successful departure from Jericho and rattled off the same information every pilot of every flight always did. Not that anyone was paying attention.

  This shuttle was built almost like a train. The cabins held a handful of passengers each and had restrooms attached. For flights this long the seats even adjusted down to narrow beds. Not exactly the comforts of home but enough to survive fifteen hours in proximity with a seriously pissed off, temperamental shape-shifter.

  Not that Jeremy blamed her.

  He still couldn’t believe they’d actually shared a dream. Or close to it. Jeremy had glimpsed images and sensations of it in her memories. It was as if they’d each had one half of the same dream. Hailey had never seen the other person in her dream, just as he hadn’t in his. But he at least had known who it was. Hailey had had a rude awakening figuring it out in the light of day.

  Jeremy rubbed a hand over his face. He’d have to ask Hunt about that. It took training to screen out other people’s thoughts but it also took training to project one’s thoughts to others. How could he have managed it in his sleep? And why Hailey?

  More importantly, why a dream like that?

  Maybe it was just similar frequencies aligning with each other, the same way twins could finish each other’s sentences and sense when one was hurt. Maybe he hadn’t manipulated anything. Maybe she would have dreamed it regardless. The only difference was that across that veil of darkness he’d dreamed exactly the same thing. Had he manipulated her dreams? Or had his own mind simply tuned into hers and gone along for the ride?

  And, holy hell, what a ride it had been.

  Jeremy flashed a quick glance at Hailey again. She looked preoccupied but he wasn’t about to chance another peek at her thoughts. Something told him they would not be flattering. Besides, he’d learned long ago that a person learned the worst things about themselves when eavesdropping.

  He pushed a few buttons on his armrest to stretch his seat out into a bed, turn on the warming feature, and the ambient noise reduction. The blanket was feeble at best but he still draped it over him as the pillow beneath his head expanded to just the right thickness and texture. The lights were dimmed low, soft music played, and Jeremy felt exhausted after his mental acrobatics of the day and the night before—intentional and not. Hailey was busily typing away on her computer, so engrossed in her work she probably didn’t even notice what was going on around her. It seemed like a good time to get some shut-eye. “Wake me when it’s time to leave,” he said.

  She flipped him off, still typing with one hand.

  Jeremy shrugged and closed his eyes.

  *

  Hailey cursed the telepath in her mind, using every profanity she knew of and some she made up on the spot. She cursed loudly, hoping he’d hear but apparently he’d chosen not to spy on her brain activity anymore.

  Bastard sonofabitch piece of shit jerkoff.

  She didn’t feel one bit better thinking it but maybe somehow all that negative energy would translate into his brain and give him some seriously messed-up nightmares. Yeah, that would make up for her own.

  The computer was a piece of crap. It didn’t even have instant stream. Hailey had to upload the images one by one and hope to hell it didn’t gank before she was finished. Though she had to admit the little piece of software that extracted text from the pictures was pretty neat. It cut down on a lot of typing.

  Hailey kept an eye on it while she brought up the browser to do a little research. It was already preset with Amelia’s user name and password and Hailey was fairly certain it was the same one she’d used before, which meant it was safe to use. Relatively. Feeling like some kind of criminal, she cast a quick look around to make sure no one was looking before she logged in. The telepath was sawing Z’s next to her. Looking at him made her feel exhausted and sleepy. She shook her head, ordered a coffee through the seat’s console. Next time Amelia sent someone to kidnap her she was going to demand first-class transportation.

  She scowled at background picture Amelia had uploaded. It was a family photo from so long ago Hailey couldn’t remember it. She was still a baby in the picture, barely sitting upright on her mother’s lap. Amelia had her hair up in a big pink bow and she was draped over her father’s knees and smiling into the camera. The Christmas tree behind them was lit and sparkling with ornaments and all around on the floor were piles of wrapping paper.

  Was Amelia trying to make her nostalgic? Hailey shook her head. All she felt was annoyed. She changed out the picture for a generic one of a sunset beach and brought the browser back up.

  As she began typing in her first query her vision dimmed to black for a second. She shook her head hard. What the hell? She blinked, looking around warily. The person three rows in front of her was watching the news. She could see the headlines on that miniscule screen. The one across the aisle was reading a digital magazine with swimsuit pictures while the woman next to him dozed off. Pervert.

  But Hailey could still see it; she wasn’t blind.

  Warily, she went back to work.

  A moment later it happened again. Hailey saved all her work, backed it up, and shut down the computer. Butterflies fluttered uncomfortably in her stomach. She left her computer behind and hurried to the restroom. After splashing cold water on her face she checked her eyes out in the mirror.

  They were doing that freaky glowing thing in the low light but her pupils were responsive and she could focus without a problem. What was going on here? Was her condition deteriorating faster than she’d anticipated? How much faster?

  A wave of dizziness swept over her with the next blackout and this time when her vision returned she was … she was…

  She was looking at a bombshell version of herself, dressed in skimpy underwear, writhing on a huge bed with satin sheets. It looked like the other Hailey was in ecstasy, moaning and arching, and Hailey’s body stirred to life.

  Only it wasn’t her body…

  Lust hit her like a punch to the gut and she stumbled to that bed but hesitated.

  The impostor Hailey was stunning, all smooth, supple sk
in and generous curves but still somehow exuding a tightly leashed, explosive energy. It drew her just like her white hair did, and her lush lips, and that sexy black, barely there lingerie that she wanted to take off with her teeth.

  Not me!

  The other Hailey opened her eyes, smiling a sly cat smile as if she knew what the real Hailey was thinking, and curled her fingers in sensuous invitation.

  Hailey almost fell over the impostor, wanted to so badly it hurt to not move. But she forced herself to step back. This wasn’t right. It’s not me…

  None of it was her.

  But the other Hailey pouted and reached for her, grasping on to—she gasped—something no woman had. And still, Hailey shuddered with pleasure at the touch. Hands so soft, but her grip so firm…

  Hailey fisted her hands in her hair and shook her head hard to banish the vision.

  She freaking hated telepaths!

  Her hands felt clumsy as she fumbled with the latch to get out of the restroom. She had to hold on to the seats she passed to get back to her own so she could wring that bastard’s neck. If he thought he could screw with her like this he had another think coming. Her mind was all she had to fix herself. No one was messing with that.

  He looked like he was sleeping when she got to their seats. Playing possum? That just pissed her off even more. Hailey reached for him, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and…

  …found herself tangled in the satin sheets, with the Hailey impostor’s legs around her and her impostor hands in her hair. She tugged; Hailey groaned. Not her voice. She curled her hips up and Hailey grabbed them to hold them still. Not her hands!

  The impostor laughed, tugged her down for a kiss.

  The shuttle shook like it had taken a meteor hit and Hailey went sprawling over the telepath. He woke up but before he did a split-second rapid fire of neurons plunged her right back into his dream.

  On his/her back, with the impostor straddling his/her hips. She smiled a feral little smile of victory. She had him/her right where she wanted. The impostor ground her hips down, threw her head back and shouted, “Yes!”

  She/he/they bucked upward, right into the impostor’s orgasm.

  “Shit!” she heard before the pervert grabbed her and shoved her off him. Somehow Hailey managed to get back into her seat, nearly sitting on her computer. Dazed, disoriented, pissed off, and so damn close to an orgasm that just crossing her legs would probably send her over the edge, Hailey squeezed her eyes shut and breathed deep.

  Her beast was stirring again, eager to come out and play. She felt its aggravation that she wouldn’t do anything about that little vision. Oh, but Hailey would. As soon as she got herself under control and could look at him again without wanting to rip his throat out with her teeth—or maybe rip his clothes off and straddle him…

  No!

  Oh, God, this was so, so wrong!

  “What the hell happened?” he snapped.

  He was pissed at her? “You tell me, Freakazoid,” she growled back, still not trusting herself to look at him.

  “Oh, I’m the freak?”

  Her hackles rose and her spine shivered in anger.

  “I was sleeping,” he said. “And the next thing I know…” He trailed off and she could just imagine the look of dawning horror on his face. He swore—at least she thought he did. Whatever he ground out between his clenched teeth, she didn’t catch it. When he spoke again he sounded tired. “I take it you saw?”

  She nodded. Saw, heard, felt. The reminder made her squirm and she gasped. Oh shit! Hailey crossed her legs tightly and clutched the armrest shuddering through the unexpected climax. Eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched against the deep moan working its way up her throat, she prayed no one would notice.

  Calen did. She could scent his lust, knew he was probably tenting his pants right now, but he could easily hide it with a blanket across his lap. It only intensified her reaction and for that she hated him even more. The leopard roared her victory. God, she was going to kill him so much for this!

  Calen swore again. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said, and she could hear in his voice he was just as embarrassed as she. “I’m not exactly a lucid dreamer. I have no idea how you got dragged into my head.” The effort to sound casual was totally ruined by the fact that his voice had just dropped half an octave and he kept it low, as if he couldn’t catch his breath enough to speak full out loud.

  Because he felt her coming?

  Just what the hell did someone say to something like that? Thanks for the first orgasm in months that I didn’t have to self-induce? You’re welcome for having come without actually coming? And he hadn’t ejaculated, she could tell. God, this was so messed up.

  “I’ll try not to sleep in proximity to you again. Maybe that will help?”

  She didn’t know what was worse, him having wet dreams about her and not knowing about it, or sharing them. It was a toss-up in her mind between feeling violated and turned-on. If her body was anything to go by, she’d happily go for round two, but there was such a thing as boundaries. Where exactly she was supposed to draw them in this situation, though, she had no clue.

  Wait … he actually sounded sincere. And contrite. She detected no lies in him, just unease and awkwardness. Yeah, she got that. A stranger having a spontaneous orgasm on a public shuttle right next to you was not exactly the icebreaker you’d think it would be. It didn’t lessen her anger any but she could understand not being able to get a handle on something.

  Could it be that he was no more in control of his abilities than she was? She might actually be inclined to forgive him if that were the case. Ironic; he could mess with other people’s thoughts, but couldn’t keep a rein on his own.

  “We don’t talk about this. Ever again,” she said.

  “Deal,” he eagerly agreed.

  Hailey nodded and retrieved her computer from the floor with a shaky hand. She had work to do. Best get to it, time being of the essence and all.

  Chapter Seven

  August 4th, 3032 Reynard Colony

  Jeremy checked the locks again to make sure no one except him could open them. This time he’d chosen a hotel in the middle of the posh district, an elegant structure that stretched toward the heavens. The suite he’d requested had two bedrooms, each on either side of a dining room, and a balcony overlooking the gigantic swimming pool oasis, tucked away from the rest of the city behind a living green line of demarcation. But Hailey wouldn’t be getting out of it on her own. Not unless she was keen on proving the old adage that cats always fall on their feet. He doubted that would be the case for a fall from the ninety-fifth floor.

  “I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” he told her at the door.

  She didn’t even look up. She’d been ignoring him ever since his subconscious mishap on the shuttle. He’d never seen a woman shut down so completely. Hailey wouldn’t talk to him, wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t even acknowledge his existence unless he made it absolutely necessary.

  Good thing, too. Jeremy didn’t think his raging hard-on would have argued his case. Sweet Jesus, the sight of her—the feel of her—coming right next to him on the shuttle refused to leave him. He was an embarrassment of a telepath if he couldn’t shield his mind when wide awake. But then again—a bad, bad thought made his mouth twitch to smile—maybe he hadn’t wanted to shut her out.

  Hailey’s eyes were reflective in low light like an animal’s but on that shuttle they’d glowed. They’d been glowing even when he’d woken up to find her in his lap and he could still see the glow when she’d squeezed them shut. The sight had short-circuited his brain and his shields had gone down as if they’d never even existed. Jeremy had felt her coming as sharply as if the orgasm had been his own. Just how he’d retained his power of intelligent speech was one of those things he would never understand. Jeremy had been one tiny mental filter away from telling her to look at him, selfishly wanting to see everything. He’d caused it, after all. Well, his mind had, anyway.

  And the messed
-up thing about it was that he’d been angry with her. She’d gotten to finish, while he’d been stuck in his seat with the hard-on from hell because people would notice if he went to relieve himself in the lavatories and the front of his pants preceded him by a considerable amount. They’d definitely have noticed him pulling Hailey back into his lap and working her up so he could make her come again like he’d wanted to.

  It had been the most uncomfortable fifteen hours of his life. Once his dick had finally gotten the message that it wasn’t getting any action, he’d even considered asking to move to another cabin to give her space, but he couldn’t trust her not to bolt the moment the shuttle touched down. As it was, he’d almost lost her in the crowds at the shuttleport. Maybe a leash wasn’t such a bad idea.

  Good thing he hadn’t broached the subject. Jeremy could tell the woman was just waiting for an excuse to knock him on his ass. He was just surprised she hadn’t done it yet. Hailey had, for all intents and purposes, given him a tentative break on this. It was unexpectedly charitable of her, a fact she was fully aware of. But Jeremy knew he still walked that razor’s edge and she could change her mind any second, which was why he was about to remove himself from her immediate vicinity to give her some time to cool off.

  The terrifying thing was that getting her here was the easy part.

  To get her to Torrey would be much more difficult. The planet was twenty-six light years away and traveling in the newly redesigned long-distance shuttles required the passengers to be asleep and immobile during the journey to prevent any problems. Would he even be able to get Hailey on the shuttle?

  Jeremy closed and locked the door behind him and made his way down to the media room. That was one thing he loved about these fancy hotels. Anything he needed, he got. In this case the hotel had an entire floor dedicated to just communication with outside worlds for the guests’ convenience.