Flying Through Fire (Dark Desires)

by Nina Croft

  A huge, black wolf sprawled across the cot bed, paws spilling over the side. She lay still, but each breath lifted her sides, and some of the tension drained from him. Rico released his grip, and Thorne stepped forward.

  Her head lifted a little, and her lids flickered open, black, liquid, exhausted.

  He searched her eyes, nose, and ears for signs of blood, but there was nothing. Finally, he couldn’t resist touching her. The fur was silky soft beneath his palm. The wolf laid her head back down and closed her eyes.

  “She’ll be okay, now,” Rico said. “Leave her to sleep. When she’s rested, she’ll shift back, and she’ll be fine.”

  He was vaguely aware of Tannis talking to Jon on the comm unit, but the words hardly impinged on his consciousness. A huge wave of exhaustion rolled over him, and he stumbled and rested his hand on the edge of the bed.

  “You saved her,” Tannis said. “Thank you.”

  He shook his head. He needed to be alone. He’d broken his own rules today. He’d forced himself into another’s mind. He’d always thought rules were inviolate. That was the point; they gave you something to cling to when the going got tough.

  But he would do it again in a second if it meant saving Candy. That’s why he had kept his distance from her. And why he would do so again in the days to come, until he finally managed to drag his sorry carcass back to Espera where he belonged.

  Because he would do anything to save her.

  And when a man was capable of destroying everything around him with a thought, that was a dangerous situation to be in.

  Better to take himself out of harm’s way.

  Because Candy being Candy, she would never take the safe course, and one day he would do something he would regret forever.

  So he would go.

  And he would never again tell her how he felt.

  It was better for everyone that way.

  Chapter Six

  Candy woke with her chin resting on her paws and no immediate memory of when she had shifted. Raising her head, she sniffed the air. Chemicals, her own musky odor and…Thorne. His scent lingered, filling her with a sense of peace.

  But she was alone.

  Turning her head slowly, she surveyed the room. She guessed she was in the sickbay, but she couldn’t be sure, because she’d never been sick before. Well, not since she’d first turned. After that, at the first sign of a sniffle she’d shifted, and the illness had vanished.

  Presumably that’s what had happened. She couldn’t remember shifting, but she could remember being sick. She’d been dying. They’d locked her in the brig and then left her to die. Of course, they hadn’t known about the dying bit.

  She spent a moment taking stock of herself. As usual after shifting, all her senses were acutely aware, her vision crystal clear. Whatever sickness had ailed her was gone. She felt vital, alert, ready to go find some trouble.

  Was Thorne still here? If he wasn’t, she was going to hunt him down and drag his sorry ass back. When would he accept that they needed him far more than that pathetic bunch of farmers on Espera? They would cope without him.

  His place was here on the Blood Hunter.

  At the thought of Thorne, her tail wagged and something flickered in her memory. What had happened? While she was perfectly capable of logical reasoning in this form, her thought processes tended to be a little simplistic.

  She came up on all fours and willed the change to come over her. It flowed through her with ease, and a few seconds later, she sat on the edge of the cot in human form, legs dangling over the side.

  Her clothes were in a crumpled pile on the floor by the bed. She reached down and picked up the black vest top—it had been torn down the middle. Closing her eyes, she had a quick image of Thorne, fingers curled in the neckline of the top, ripping it from her.

  How many times had she dreamed about Thorne losing control, tearing her clothes from her body, and making mad, passionate love to her? And why was she so sure, despite her recalcitrant memory, that last bit hadn’t happened.

  Sadly, it was coming back. And actually, there wasn’t a lot to remember.

  They’d locked her in a cell and abandoned her. She’d gotten sick and passed out and then woken here. Except there was a hazy bit in the middle, where Thorne had come and found her, dragged her back from the brink of death. Told her he’d die without her.

  How romantic was that?

  And how totally unlike Thorne.

  He’d told her he would kiss her if she awoke. She’d been trying to get Thorne to kiss her since she was sixteen years old. Now he’d promised—if only she survived. Well, here she was. And she was going to make sure he lived up to his part of the bargain.

  After pulling on her leather pants, she slipped on what remained of the top and tied it under her breasts. There was a remarkable amount of skin on display, including the paw print tattoo on her belly, but she didn’t want to waste time going back to her quarters. If Thorne had really bolted for home this time—as he’d threatened so many times before—then she wanted to be after him fast. Of course, that would probably involve stealing another shuttle. But she was pretty sure they wouldn’t lock her in the brig again. Not after they’d nearly killed her the first time.

  She found her boots, tossed in the corner of the room, and she was ready to go. First she crossed to the small sink. She splashed water on her face and studied herself in the mirror. She looked okay. A little wild, but there was no trace of the violet tinge to her skin.

  Thorne had saved her life. She knew that. She’d been nearly gone, and he had dragged her back. And she would repay him by saving him from himself. Because someone had to do it.

  She took the transporter bubble directly to the bridge. As the doors opened, she stood for a moment, her gaze going directly to Thorne where he stood across the room. His figure was rigid, the tips of his wings vibrating. He was talking with Rico and Tannis, which was probably why he was so tense.

  “Tell me again,” Tannis said, “about the bit where, all on her own, my ship decided to jump sideways.”

  “It was an accident. It won’t happen again.”

  “What sort of accident? And how can you be sure?”

  “I lost control.”

  “You lost control of what?”

  His lips tightened. “My mind. For a moment I had a…”

  “Brain fart?” Tannis suggested. “And that caused a whole star cruiser to leap sideways?”

  “I…” He ran a hand around the back of his neck, and Candy sensed the frustration in every line of his body.

  Thorne had lost control? That had to be a first. He was the most over-the-top, always-in-control guy she had ever come across. Though, there wasn’t a lot of competition. Most of the guys she knew were total hotheads who probably considered self-restraint a character fault to be ruthlessly eradicated.

  He turned away and saw her at last. His whole body went still, and his gaze ran down over her, his violet eyes darkening to midnight. But she didn’t know what emotion he was hiding. Because his face was—as usual—blank. No way was he going to get away with that.

  He’d been deep inside her head. And now she wanted him deep inside her body.

  His gaze lingered on the expanse of bare flesh at her belly, and then her breasts, barely covered by the tied-up tank top. And at last she caught something in his expression.

  Lust.

  “You owe me a kiss,” she said, and the lust was gone in a flash, replaced by…panic?

  Without giving herself time to back down—or Thorne the chance to run away—she strolled across the bridge, keeping her gaze fixed on his face. The rest of the room vanished as she came to a halt in front of him. Thorne was a good eight inches taller than her, but half of that was covered by her boot heels, and she only had to tip her head a little to stare up into his face.

  His eyes were narrowed, his nostrils flared, his lips held in a stern line. He had lovely lips, the top sculpted, the bottom full and sensual and… She sighed,
licked her own lips, and saw his attention flicker.

  Reaching out a hand, she rested it flat against his chest so his heartbeat thudded beneath her palm.

  A step closer and they were almost touching along the lengths of their bodies. A shiver of anticipation ran through her, tingling across her skin, settling in her belly. She swallowed, and her eyes flicked around the room. She’d almost forgotten the other people present. Now she caught Rico’s gaze, and he lifted one eyebrow, his mouth curling into an amused smile. Tannis stood beside him, her boot tapping on the floor.

  They probably thought she wouldn’t do this. Or Thorne would stop her. But Thorne was standing completely still, not even a tremor to his wing tips, as though he was keeping everything screwed down really tight.

  And she was going to do this.

  Who knew if she would get another chance? He could leave any moment, as he’d been threatening to do for the last six months, ever since her parents had been found and he’d decided his temporary guardianship was over. That’s all he thought of her…a charge who had to be taken care of until she could be passed back to her rightful owners.

  Well, now she had one chance to prove she could be more than that.

  Deep down, she knew he’d said whatever it took to get her to awaken. But she had sensed his thoughts, his feelings, and they were real.

  She took a deep breath, ran her hand up across his chest, over his shoulder, and around the back of his neck, digging her fingers into his short, silky hair. For a second he remained completely stiff, and then something seemed to snap inside him. His arms, which had been hanging by his side, wrapped around her. One slid up her back to burrow in her long hair. He gripped it tight and tugged her head back.

  As she caught a last glimpse of his eyes, a brief flash of fear flickered through her mind. Power whirled in their depths. How had she ever had the nerve to bait this man?

  But then his mouth was on hers and all rational thought was shoved from her mind.

  He wasn’t gentle.

  And she’d always expected him to be gentle, but this was a harsh, fierce kiss, as though he couldn’t help himself, and she loved it. Her mouth opened beneath his and his tongue thrust inside. He tasted of spice, hot and sweet, as he stroked her tongue. The kiss deepened, and she tasted the metallic taint of her blood as her inner lip was ground against her teeth. He must have tasted it as well, and he tried to pull back, but her arms were around his shoulders now. She held him to her and pushed her own tongue into his mouth, along the rough edge of his teeth, the roof of his mouth.

  The world was spiraling out of control.

  Literally.

  Something loud and bright flashed close by and her eyes opened.

  Thorne stopped moving. She tried to urge him on. She wanted more. If this was the only kiss she got—

  Another flash and she shook her head and glanced to the side. Tannis stood, legs braced apart, laser pistol raised to the ceiling. And the ship was spinning.

  Thorne pushed her gently away, and she didn’t hold him. What was going on? She stepped back and watched as his eyes closed and he visibly regained control. And the world stopped whirling.

  He opened his eyes and they were back to normal, his expression once again blank.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Tannis said. “Maybe we’d better lock her back in the brig while you’re onboard.”

  Thorne blinked, shook his head. “That won’t be necessary.”

  “Really? That was just a kiss. What happens if she actually gets inside your pants? I’m guessing we might all spontaneously combust. And that’s not happening under my command.”

  “Turn off the thought-control,” Rico said.

  Tannis studied him for a moment, and then nodded and pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Callum, close off the ship’s thought-control. I’ll explain later—it’s a great one.”

  Had Thorne kissing her—or rather, if she was honest, her kissing Thorne; she had initiated it after all—really made the ship lose control?

  Holy moly.

  Tannis was glancing between the two of them. “One of you is going to have to go. Either that, or we’ll have to shut down the thought-control permanently, and that will piss off Callum.”

  “It won’t happen again,” Thorne said through gritted teeth.

  “Well, you see, a couple of months ago, I might have agreed. But you seem to be…unraveling a little. Perhaps you’re feeling a little…unstable.”

  “He needs to get laid,” Rico drawled. “Badly.”

  “God forbid. I don’t even want to think about that.” Tannis paced the bridge a few times and then came to stand in front of Candy, her lips pursed as she studied her.

  “What?” Candy asked, trying not to squirm under the scrutiny.

  “Just wondering how you turned out to be so much trouble,” Tannis said. “Did you get anything from your mother?”

  “Nope,” Rico put in. “She’s all Jon.”

  Candy loved her father dearly, but she suspected the words weren’t meant as a compliment, and that hurt, though she tried to deny it. Her mother was easily the nicest person she had ever met, though she could be fierce if she needed to. Obviously, no one saw her as “nice.” Her father was… Well, he was an ex-assassin who’d been the best at his job, and he tended to be a little on the morose side.

  She wasn’t morose.

  She admitted to a tendency to misbehave, and she even understood why.

  She’d grown up with stories of these people—the crew of the Blood Hunter. As a child she’d idolized them. But that had changed as she’d grown older, turning to resentment. The crew had vanished, left her parents behind, and she knew that was her fault—well, hers and Angel’s. They were the reason her mother and father hadn’t dived head first into a black hole along with the rest of them. Later on, her parents had spent years searching, leaving the safety of their fortress on Trakis Two, offering rewards for information about the ship. If they’d not done that, they would never have been caught.

  So over the years, she’d come to resent the crew of the Blood Hunter. To blame them for her problems. Then when they had finally turned up, she hadn’t felt in the least inclined to jump to their orders.

  Now she felt a strange sensation. She wanted them to like her, not just put up with her because of who her parents were. She wanted desperately to be part of this, part of the crew, but she suspected most of the time they saw her as nothing more than a pain in the ass.

  She glanced down at herself, biting her lips. They tingled from Thorne’s kiss. Swallowing, she peered up at him, and found him watching her.

  …

  He could still feel the sting of desire. She’d kissed him. He’d kissed her back, and his whole mind had whirled out of control. His dick twitched at the memory, and he shifted, then caught Rico’s amused glance and held himself still.

  Jesus.

  He’d known all along it was a bad idea. She got to him in a way no one else ever had, reaching into his mind, dragging out his deepest desires.

  And he couldn’t afford anyone getting into his mind. Even he didn’t understand the full extent of his powers. How could he? There had never been anyone to tell him. He suspected even the dragons themselves didn’t know how far the genetic mutations would go.

  So far, immortality, telepathy, wings…he’d thought that the limit, but there were new changes. The exploding head thing for one—that was something he could have done without.

  He turned his attention back to Candy. His one weakness. Christ, she looked sexy in that torn top and tight leather pants. The top revealed most of her breasts and belly, and his cock jerked again. He forced his attention upward to her face. For a second, she looked lost and hurt, like a child, and his heart went out. No way was she as tough as she tried to pretend. She was desperate for approval, but with no understanding of how to achieve it, having been on her own for too long.

  He held her gaze and stared into her beautiful eyes—huge, gray, the ir
ises circled in black. “She has her mother’s eyes,” he said. “And much more.”

  Something flickered across her face, and the rigidity went out of her tense figure, her shoulders drooping.

  “Hmm,” Tannis said. “I’ll take your word for it. For now—are you okay? Are we safe?”

  He nodded. “The thought-control is disengaged.”

  “How about exploding heads?” Rico asked. “Is anyone’s head likely to explode in the near future?”

  “Not unless someone pisses me off,” he muttered.

  “We’ll try not to. But I can’t promise anything.”

  The console beeped, and Tannis strolled over. “We’ve reached Trakis Twelve. Looks like we’re ready to go down to the surface.”

  Good. Once he had seen what was going on, he’d be on his way.

  Tannis tapped a few keys, a frown forming on her face. “I can’t find any life forms—which isn’t a good sign. And there’s no response to the comm. Shit.” She pressed another key, and a screen lit up on the wall. At first it showed the whole planet, but then zoomed in, flashing up a number of scenes from the surface.

  Nothing moved.

  “Double shit,” Tannis muttered. “I’m going to take a shuttle down there. See what’s going on.”

  “I think we pretty much know what’s going on,” Rico said.

  They were all dead. But they had to see for themselves. “I’ll come,” Thorne said.

  “And me,” Candy replied. They all turned to look at her, and her eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “You’ve just recovered from the sickness,” Tannis said. “No way are you going near that planet. I’ll lock you in the brig again if I have to.”

  “But—”

  “No!” Thorne almost roared the word, and she took a step back, eyes widening. Maybe she thought he might explode her head. But no way was she risking being exposed to the poison again.

  To his surprise, she nodded slowly. “Okay.” She gave him one last look and turned, strolled to the transporter bubble. “I’m going to clean up. I’ll see you when you get back.”

  “That was weird,” Tannis said as she vanished from sight.

  “Almost surreal,” Rico added. “Did she actually just do what someone told her to do?”