Flying Through Fire (Dark Desires)

by Nina Croft

  If only her parents were on the Blood Hunter right now, but they’d stayed on Trakis Five. They’d spent too long cooped up over the last years, and now they were making the most of their freedom. Angel was with them, but Candy had decided to stay on the Blood Hunter.

  She knew Thorne planned to go back to his people, and she wanted to be close. She was determined she wouldn’t make it easy for him to go, but she wasn’t sure why it mattered so much. He’d made it perfectly clear that he wanted nothing to do with her.

  And the traitor had abandoned her to her fate with Rico and Tannis, who were clearly not happy. Neither of them had spoken a word to her on the short trip.

  The docking bay doors of the Blood Hunter opened, and Rico took the shuttle into the hangar. Candy jumped to her feet as the engines died. A hasty getaway might be in order. But as the doors slid open, Rico came up beside her and rested a hand on her shoulder. The coolness of his skin seeped through the leather of her borrowed coat.

  Most times it was possible to forget that Rico wasn’t human. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them. She peeked at him sideways, and his upper lip curled, revealing one sharp white fang. For a second, a wave of almost primordial fear washed through her.

  She forced it down. He wouldn’t touch her. Tannis wouldn’t let him. Would she? She caught the captain’s eye, but Tannis shrugged and glanced away.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Rico asked as she shuffled from foot to foot.

  “My cabin?” she said, her tone hopeful.

  “Not happening. What did we tell you would happen if you stole another shuttle?”

  “Hey, I only borrowed it. I was going to bring it back.”

  Rico ignored her interruption. “What did we tell you?”

  “That you’d put me in the brig. But you didn’t mean it.”

  Rico gave a short humorless laugh. “Want to bet?”

  They wouldn’t. Would they?

  What was she supposed to say—I’ll tell my dad? He’d probably agree with them. She glanced down the ramp and saw Skylar standing at the bottom, her hand on her laser pistol. Raising her eyes to Skylar’s face, she found an expression of amusement stamped on her features.

  Skylar was Rico’s woman, and had once been a member of the Corps, the Collective’s elite army. Now she was the security officer on board the Blood Hunter, and she was dangling a pair of cuffs from one hand.

  Oh, no. They wouldn’t dare.

  Rico nudged her from behind, and she stumbled onto the ramp.

  Across the docking bay, Thorne’s shuttle had already landed, and he was lounging in the open doorway, arms folded across his chest as he watched. He wouldn’t let them do this to her. Would he? But he made no move to protest as she came to a halt in front of Skylar.

  “Turn around,” Skylar said.

  She ignored the command and gazed mutinously into the distance, still not believing that they would really do this to her. She was one of them.

  Rico gripped her shoulder from behind and turned her away from Skylar. “And give me my coat back,” he said.

  She narrowed her eyes, shot daggers at him, but shrugged out of it and threw it at him. His lips twitched as he caught it. The bastard found this amusing. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a silver flask and tucked it down the waistband of her pants. “Something to keep you company.”

  Her gaze shot to Tannis behind him, who had a wide grin on her face.

  Candy ground her teeth together as Skylar locked the first cuff around her wrist, grabbed the other, and locked that as well, so her hands were bound behind her.

  All sorts of words and suggestions hovered on the tip of her tongue, most of them not physically possible.

  “How long?” she spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Until you say you’re sorry, and that in the future you’ll obey orders.”

  “Never going to happen.”

  “Then it’s going to be a long time.”

  She should have kept her mouth shut, but she had never been very good at that. Skylar took hold of her upper arm and led her away, passing close to where Thorne still lounged against his shuttle. At least he didn’t appear amused. She wasn’t quite sure what he appeared, but amused didn’t come into it. Then, as they came up level, his eyes dropped down over her body. With her arms behind her back, her breasts were thrust out in front of her. Heat flared in his face.

  Shit, he liked the cuffs. She wished she’d known that when she’d tried to seduce him all those years ago. Her nipples tightened.

  “Pervert,” she muttered as they passed.

  Then they were heading down into the bowels of the ship, to somewhere she had never been before—the brig.

  As the door of the cell closed behind her, she slid down the wall and sat on the floor, legs stretched out in front of her while she examined her surroundings. Not that there was a lot to study. The room was about nine feet by nine feet, with plain white walls and only a narrow cot bed for furniture. At least it was clean. She was betting she was the first person to ever occupy one of the cells—the crew of the Blood Hunter weren’t the types to take prisoners. They were more likely to eat them.

  The position was awkward, and she wriggled her hands underneath her bottom and then along her legs, finally threading her feet through so the cuffs were in front of her. Then she sat back and considered just how hard saying sorry would be, and whether they really expected her to mean it.

  Drago was dead. Her life pretty much from the age of twelve had been all about finding those responsible for betraying her parents to the Church and then seeing they paid. Now it was over. Time to move on. But to what?

  Rico had once warned her that it was dangerous to make your life all about revenge, because even if you succeeded, you were left with nothing. But maybe there were other things she could do—if they ever let her out of here.

  She thought about Thorne’s expression as she’d passed him, the way his gaze had lingered on her breasts. They tingled, her nipples hardening. Maybe she was a pervert as well. Maybe they could be perverts together.

  Yeah, there were other things she could pursue. Making Thorne realize there was more to life than duty could be an interesting project. Actually, she was itching to get started.

  He wouldn’t leave before they let her out of here, would he?

  How hard could it be to say you were sorry? She didn’t know—she’d never actually tried it, but there was a first time for everything.

  She jumped to her feet, searching the room for the comm button, when a sharp pain jabbed her in the skull. She swayed, smashed into the cot. The pain came again, blinding her. She crashed to the floor and everything went dark.

  Chapter Four

  Thorne watched until Candy disappeared, and then exhaled loudly.

  “Hey,” Tannis said, coming to a halt in front of him, her hands on her hips, a scowl on her face. “You keep saying you’re leaving, and yet here you still are.”

  He shrugged. “I’m going, but first I want to hear your thoughts about this sickness.”

  She pursed her lips. “Fair enough. I’m guessing you have a few thoughts of your own.”

  “I might have.”

  “I’ll call a meeting. Then we can share, and afterward you can bugger off.” She whirled around and headed to the nearest transporter bubble.

  “You know,” Rico said, coming up beside him, “if she really didn’t like you, you’d be off the ship by now.”

  “She likes me?”

  He grinned. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that.”

  Thorne decided not to pursue the conversation. Tannis had a long memory, and she was unlikely to forget Thorne’s betrayal. Back when they’d first met, he’d needed the help of the crew of the Blood Hunter—help they hadn’t been willing to give voluntarily. A little mind coercion and blackmail had been required. Though, he figured Tannis had come to acknowledge that he’d had no choice. And he had also saved their lives.

  He followed Rico into the
transporter bubble that took them directly to the conference room. Tannis was already there, along with Callum Meridian. He glanced up as Thorne entered.

  “You’ve decided to stay? I’m glad.”

  “Only temporarily.”

  At least one person was sad to see him go. Well, two. He was sure Saffira would be happy he was still around. She’d been doing her best to persuade him to stay. She wasn’t here right now; she and Devlin had taken one of the shuttles and gone planet-hopping on the outer reaches of the system—keeping out of the way. If she stayed in one place for long, she tended to attract unwelcome visitors, who could hone in on her mind and track her down. So while the Blood Hunter had remained in orbit around Trakis Five, she and Devlin had kept on the move, occasionally returning to refuel, stock up, and catch up on any news.

  “Has Saffira been told what’s happening?” he asked.

  “They’re on their way back,” Tannis said. “They’ll rendezvous with us when we’ve decided where we’re going.”

  “Jon and Alex?”

  “They’re on their way to meet us.”

  “Fergal and Daisy?”

  “Where do you think?” Tannis replied.

  Probably in Daisy’s cabin. But they were going to have need of Fergal’s unique talents very shortly.

  “Candy?” Callum asked.

  “Locked up tight in the brig and not looking too happy about it,” Skylar said, coming into the room and going straight to Rico. He grabbed her and sank into one of the seats with her in his lap, kissing her soundly. Everyone ignored them.

  “Did you find out why she took off?” Callum asked.

  Thorne nodded. “Yes. She found the man responsible for betraying her parents.”

  “And…?”

  “It’s over. He’s dead.”

  “At least she’s effective.”

  “She’s an undisciplined brat,” Rico said. “So she killed him, did she?”

  Thorne had an inconvenient habit of only lying when he absolutely had to, and the evasive words slipped out before he could think better of it. “He was already dying. He had the sickness.”

  Rico studied him, head cocked on one side, eyes narrowed. “Are you avoiding the question?”

  “Maybe.” He didn’t want to lie; besides, Candy would probably relate what had happened once she got over sulking about being locked in the brig. But neither was he keen to talk about it. He still wasn’t sure exactly what had happened.

  “I don’t suppose this guy’s head exploded?” Rico asked.

  “Why would you think that?” Callum asked.

  “Just a hunch.” Rico raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

  Thorne had been expecting the question, but he still hadn’t decided how much he wanted to reveal. “It may have.”

  For a brief moment, he had a flashback to the black rage that had overcome him. Breathing deeply, he calmed himself. He couldn’t afford to lose control like that.

  “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Tannis said. “Why the hell did his head explode? That’s never been part of the Meridian poisoning. Has it?” she asked, turning to Callum.

  “Never.”

  They all looked at Thorne, and he scowled. “Drop it. We have more important things to discuss.”

  Tannis narrowed her eyes and a look passed between her and Rico.

  “Okay, for now,” Rico said. “But maybe we’d all better be careful we don’t piss off our friend here.”

  Tannis glared at him. “Have I mentioned how much I fucking hate it when I don’t know what’s happening on my ship?”

  “There’s nothing happening,” Thorne said.

  She tugged on her lower lip and then shook her head. “Okay…for now. So this sickness…anyone got any ideas?”

  “I think we all have an idea,” Rico said. “And I’m guessing it’s the same one. The dragons are producing a poison which is making everyone sick.”

  “What do we know?” Tannis paced the room as she talked. “Six months ago, Trakis Two was attacked by dragons. Shortly afterward, the human population started to get sick with something that seems remarkably similar to Meridian poisoning. Whatever caused that, killed anyone who came into contact with it. The only thing that can save you is ‘joining’ with Meridian. I presume that’s because it turns a human partly into one of those things—crap, I’m part fucking dragon. Have I mentioned how much I hate fucking dragons?”

  “So the Meridian treatment gives you some sort of natural immunity from whatever poison the dragons are producing,” Rico said. “Sounds good so far.”

  “What I don’t understand”—she turned to face Thorne—“is why none of your people ever got sick? You were in the dragons’ universe for ten thousand years, on a planet with a shitload of dragons. Why were you okay?”

  “I presume they were protected by the mountains. The dragons built them up to keep out the brainwaves so they could sleep. Perhaps a side effect of that was the poison—whatever it is—also couldn’t get out. Or maybe they didn’t produce it while they were sleeping.”

  “Can we presume we’re all safe from this poison?” Skylar asked. “That all of the Collective are immune? What about vampires? And cyborgs? Werewolves?”

  “From what Sardi said, only humans are affected by it, so we’re good.”

  “Are the dragons doing it on purpose? Is their intention to destroy everybody they come into contact with?”

  Thorne considered the question. The truth was, despite having shared a planet with the dragons for ten thousand years, he had never even seen them during that time, and he’d only had limited mind contact. Right at the start they had communicated with him, told him what they expected, listed out the protocols his people needed to follow. Back then, all he’d cared about was ensuring their survival, and he’d had no choice but to follow the rules.

  But strangely, in all the times they had communicated, he had never had a sense of evil from them. Just an ancient determination, a powerful will.

  He shook his head slowly. “No. I don’t think they’re doing it on purpose. I think they probably don’t even realize or notice.”

  “Or care?” Skylar asked.

  “Or care,” he agreed.

  “So what do they want?”

  “We know that,” Skylar said. “We’ve always known. They want Saffira dead.”

  Many millennia ago, the dragons had traveled through time and space at will, creating wormholes that had connected distant universes and times. But they had nearly destroyed the world, and so they had outlawed time-travel, and the time-mancers among them had voluntarily killed themselves so the world might be safe.

  Saffira was the first time-mancer to be born since, and now they wanted her dead. They had woken from their long sleep, travelled from their own universe into this one, and were now hunting for Saffira. If she stayed in one place too long, they locked in on her. Found her.

  It had happened a few times, until Saffira had realized and kept on the move.

  “Well, they can’t have her,” Tannis snapped. “She’s crew, and we don’t give up our crew. Not for anyone, and certainly not for a load of fucked-up dragons.”

  “They probably also want you and Skylar dead,” Thorne said. “The fifty-eighth protocol states that it is an abomination for females to be changed.” That was meant to prevent the creation of any more time-mancers, as they had always been female.

  “Well, they’re not having us, either.”

  They were all silent for a few minutes.

  At least his people should be safe. When they’d returned to this universe twenty-two years ago, they’d headed for their original destination—a planet they’d named Espera, so far from the main Trakis system that it was unlikely the dragons would hit on there by accident. The Blood Hunter had never visited, and consequently Saffira had never been close to the planet. Maybe it was as well she hadn’t taken him up on his offer of a place with them. Had she always known that the dragons would come after her?

&n
bsp; Saffira no longer shared her visions with him.

  “Don’t tell her about this,” he said. “Not until she and Devlin are back on the ship.”

  Tannis gave him a narrow-eyed look, then a quick nod. “First of all, we need to check this out. Prove there really is a connection between this sickness and the dragons. So when was the first time we saw them in this universe?”

  “When we were hiding out on Trakis Twelve searching for Jon,” Skylar said.

  “Okay, so is there anyone we know on Trakis Twelve?” She turned to Thorne. “Are any of your people or Collective out there? Anyone you can contact?”

  Thorne shook his head. Trakis Twelve was an inhospitable place, only lightly populated. The Church had maintained a prison there for a while—now destroyed.

  Normally it would be easy to contact someone by more conventional methods, but the last six months had thrown the universe into chaos. Most of the communication systems were down.

  Tannis pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Daisy. Stop whatever it is you’re doing. I need Fergal up here now. Time he started earning his keep.”

  Her brows rose as she listened to the answer. “Five minutes, then.” She resumed her pacing. “Let’s head for Trakis Twelve. We can turn back if we get confirmation that everything is okay there.”

  Fergal and Daisy appeared in the doorway ten minutes later. Thorne studied the other man, looking for outward changes, but he appeared the same. He was carrying a bowl and shoveling stew into his mouth as they entered.

  “What do you need?” he asked between mouthfuls.

  “Can you contact Trakis Twelve for us?”

  He shrugged and sat himself down at one of the consoles. Thorne watched, fascinated. He’d heard about this but had never seen Fergal perform his magic. He didn’t even open up the console, just closed his eyes. His lashes flickered, but apart from that, he sat perfectly still.

  A minute later, he opened his eyes. “Nothing. It’s as if the planet doesn’t exist. All the systems are dead or offline.”

  “I’ll go set our course for Trakis Twelve,” Rico said, rising to his feet and placing Skylar on the floor. “Let’s go see what’s left of the place. I have a feeling…not much. I’ll also contact Jon and Alex, tell them to return to Trakis Five, and we’ll pick them up on the way back.”