Flying Through Fire (Dark Desires)

by Nina Croft

  In the end, it took them two weeks to make it back to somewhere they recognized. At least it had given him time to fix the shuttle, so they were in control once more. Saffira was wrung out, and he felt little better, the need to find Candy burning him up. Finally, they popped out of a wormhole, right into orbit around Trakis Two and they were only a week after they had initially disappeared. Hopefully the Blood Hunter would have made it here by now.

  Hallelujah.

  A sense of excitement gripped him. He was going to see her again.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “What the hell do you mean, ‘she’s not here’? Of course she’s here. Where the hell else would she be?”

  Thorne stalked down the ramp of the shuttle and onto the black, sandy floor. The domed roof of the cavern was sliding closed over their heads, and he could feel the panic swamping him. He had to stifle the urge to jump back into the shuttle and head out.

  Except he had no clue where to go.

  “We thought she was with you,” Daisy said.

  He rubbed at his scalp. He’d told himself that he just had to get here and then the panic would go away, because she’d be safe.

  Except she wasn’t fucking here.

  He tried to slow his breathing and the rapid thump of his heart. Off to the side, Saffira was getting a bollocking from Devlin. “Don’t ever do that again. Not ever. I don’t care if the whole human race is about to disintegrate. Do. Not. Do. That. Again.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Okay? Is that it? And you certainly don’t do it and leave me behind.”

  “No, Devlin.”

  “No?” He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder, crossing the cavern and climbing the ramp to the Blood Hunter to disappear inside.

  Thorne turned back to Daisy. “What happened? Why the hell would you think she was with me, when it’s blatantly obvious that she is most certainly not with me?”

  Rico answered, “We couldn’t exactly see what was going on. It was a little smoky out there. Then Saffira’s shuttle vanished off the monitors, and we presumed you’d succeeded and persuaded her to go. A minute or so later, Candace disappeared. There was nowhere else for her to have gone but with you. And did I mention we couldn’t see fuck-all?”

  “By the time we got a shuttle out there,” Daisy continued, “there was nobody to see. No shuttles, no dragons—everything was gone. So where the hell else would she have gone but through your wormhole?”

  Thorne had no clue, and there was that panic again, turning his vision red.

  “I saw her. As the wormhole closed.” He paced the sand, trying to get his head around it, but nothing made sense. How had she vanished? Shuttles didn’t vanish. If she’d been burned by the dragon, there would have been debris remaining.

  But no debris and no dragon.

  “Let’s go look at the feeds.”

  “Okay, but I doubt you’ll see anything. Because there was nothing to see.” Rico took a step closer and rested a hand on Thorne’s arm. “She’s indestructible. We’ll find her.”

  Thorne gave a quick nod, forcing down the panic, calming his mind, and then headed across the sand to the Blood Hunter.

  “Is she fixed?”

  “Not quite. Devlin has been working on her, but we need some parts. Which means a trip into Pleasure City to see if we can scavenge what we need. The place is deserted.”

  “Why isn’t he on to it?”

  “He will be.” Rico’s tone was soothing, and it made Thorne’s wings vibrate.

  “We need to get moving.”

  “We will.”

  He whirled around. “Will you stop fucking placating me?”

  “Yeah, if you stop acting like an asshole and calm the fuck down.” Rico’s eyes narrowed on him. “You should have locked her in the brig again if you wanted her to stay where you left her. Or maybe explained what you were doing, and she might not have run after you, intent on saving your miserable life.”

  He was right. Knowing that didn’t help.

  Fergal was at his usual console when Thorne walked out onto the bridge. He glanced up as Thorne approached him. “Welcome back. I take it Saffira and Candy are with you?”

  “Saffira, yes,” Rico said from behind him. “Right now, she’s apologizing to Devlin. But it appears we’ve lost Candy.”

  Fergal’s gaze flicked from the vampire back to Thorne. “She didn’t go through the wormhole with you?”

  “Obviously not.” He took a deep breath. “No. I only saw her as it was closing behind us.” He waved at the console. “Can you show me the feeds?”

  Fergal shrugged. “I can, but they don’t show much.”

  “They show fuck-all,” Rico muttered.

  But a second later the screen flickered to life. “This is straight after you left the airlock,” Fergal said. “I’ll speed through it until the interesting bit. There.”

  Thorne studied the screen, watched as he appeared in the bottom of the frame, flying through space, his wings a blur of speed. Up ahead the two dragons stood off against Saffira. His speed increased but it was clear he wasn’t going to reach them in time. Then the whole screen exploded in a ball of fire. He had a brief glimpse of Saffira’s shuttle, hurled backward through space by the force of the blast.

  “Pretty impressive,” Rico muttered. “Now what exactly did that?”

  Thorne ignored the question and stared at the screen. “Backtrack.” The image went backward until just before the ball of fire. “There,” he said. A second shuttle, smaller, could be seen at the edge of the screen. Candy.

  “Candy to the rescue?” Rico murmured. “It must be love.”

  Thorne watched again, keeping his attention on the small shuttle until the world exploded and she vanished from sight. Awe filled him. He’d done that. He relived again the moment of absolute power, when nothing had seemed impossible.

  Now here he was, and he felt helpless.

  He continued watching the screen, but there was very little to see. He caught an occasional flash of wings as he flew through the flames, but on the whole it was a mass of confusion. And there was no sign of Candy.

  He watched for ten minutes, searching for the wormhole, but it was impossible to see through the fire and the smoke. By that point, he and Saffira must have been long gone, but he saw nothing of Candy’s shuttle. Eventually the flames died down, and the smoke cleared, and there was nothing remaining. The space was clear. The monitor withdrew to give a bigger picture, and he searched for something—anything—that would give a clue as to what had happened to her.

  “There’s something else,” Fergal said. “I’d picked up a third dragon approaching. And it should have been there when we arrived. But again—nothing.”

  That was interesting. Had that been the source of the voice in his mind, telling him to pull back the power?

  Rico turned from the screen to look at him. “So are you going to tell us what happened?”

  “I will, but maybe when we’re all together. Right now, we need to get out there find out what happened to Candy.”

  Rico considered him for a moment. “I’ll set up a meeting with Tannis—she’s being a pain in the ass.” He turned to Fergal. “You getting anything from that surveillance system you set up? Any sign of anything?”

  “Nothing at the moment. The surveillance close by was all knocked out by the explosion. I’m still searching in the area, moving outward, but it’s limited. Something could have slipped through.”

  “So the only thing we can do,” Rico said, “is head back to the same spot and see if we can find anything, any clue of what might have happened.”

  Thorne didn’t like it. He had an idea that they would find nothing, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. And no way could he sit around and do nothing.

  He had to find Candy, and then he had to decide how to move forward. What to do with his newfound ability. He could kill dragons. Whether he could kill them all before they caught on and killed him first, he didn’
t know.

  But he did know he couldn’t do this alone.

  He was going to need backup. So he was going to come clean.

  “Let’s get going, and I’ll tell you on route.”

  “Good enough. We have to stop off at Pleasure City and see if we can find the parts Devlin needs. Then we’ll be on our way.”

  …

  Two hours later they were in orbit above the planet.

  “Tannis is joining us in five,” Rico said as Thorne entered the conference room.

  They were all present except Devlin, who was in the engine room working on the damage. He’d found all the parts he needed. Hopefully they would be able to head out of orbit soon.

  Thorne waited while people took seats around a circular table, and then sank into one opposite Saffira. A deep sadness still lurked in her eyes, but a sense of peace emanated from her. He guessed—though she hadn’t admitted it to him—that in the back of her mind she’d always believed it would come to her sacrificing herself. And for the first time—certainly since the attack on Espera—she was accepting that she had a future. That she didn’t have to die.

  She caught his gaze and smiled. She had faith in him again, and he wasn’t sure it was justified. He still had no clue what he wanted long-term, except that he wanted to destroy the dragons. But for what purpose? To ensure the survival of mankind? He wasn’t totally convinced mankind served any purpose, and maybe the universe would be a better place without them.

  Rico filled up glasses with whiskey and slid one across to him. “You might need this. The captain sounds seriously unhappy.”

  Thorne swallowed the alcohol, put the glass down, and Rico refilled it, just as a light flashed and a life-size image of Tannis appeared in the center of the table. She certainly looked pissed, with her eyes narrowed and her hands fisted at her sides. “So what the hell is going on, and when can I have my spaceship back?”

  Rico grinned and raised his glass. “We’ve lost Candy. And not yet.”

  Her eyes narrowed even farther. “What do you mean, you’ve freaking lost Candy?”

  “She pinched a shuttle and flew off to save her boyfriend, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Actually, it was more than a puff of smoke. In fact, there was a whole lot of smoke.”

  Tannis pursed her lips. “Do Jon and Alex know?”

  “We thought you might tell them. As soon as the ship is fixed, we’re heading out to where she was last seen. Fergal will send the coordinates, and they can meet us there.”

  There was a moment of silence. “As soon as the ship is fixed?” Her nostrils flared. “You’ve broken my freaking ship?”

  “Not broken exactly.”

  Thorne raised a brow.

  “Okay,” Rico conceded, “broken pretty much describes it, but Devlin is working on her, we’ve picked up the parts we need, plus a whole lot of spares, and he’ll have her good as new in no time.”

  “He’d better,” Tannis muttered. She thought for a moment. “And what was Candy’s boyfriend doing through all of this?”

  Rico cast him an amused glance. “That’s what we’ve all been waiting with baited breath for him to tell us.” Rico turned to him. “So, big guy. What happened?”

  Thorne stared at the ceiling. He still hadn’t determined exactly what he was going to tell them. Now, he decided on the truth. He took a deep breath. “I killed one of them.”

  Everything was quiet for a minute.

  Tannis was the first to break the silence. “I thought they were immortal. I thought they couldn’t be killed, like the Collective.”

  “We can be killed. It just needs a hot enough fire. Same for dragons.”

  “Well, that doesn’t exactly tell us much. How did you kill it?”

  He shrugged. “Honestly?”

  “By all means, let’s be honest.” Tannis didn’t sound happy.

  “I don’t know.” He closed his eyes for a second and went to that place where he now knew the power slumbered. He poked it with a stick, and it stirred. “I don’t know how I did it. But I’m sure I can do it again.”

  “That’s good news,” Tannis said. “Isn’t it? So we go after the fuckers and we explode their fucking heads off.”

  Thorne had always liked the captain’s direct approach, but he felt he had to point out one small issue with the plan. “There is a good chance that if I can do that to them, they can do something similar to me. To all of us.”

  “You’ve never been able to get into my head,” Rico said. “So not me.”

  “Or me,” Daisy added with a flash of fang.

  Fergal raised his glass. “And I’m pretty sure that I’m okay.”

  So that was three of them who would hopefully come with him. It was weird; a little while back he’d wanted to be alone. Now the idea that he would have these people at his back comforted him. He hoped he wasn’t dragging them all to their deaths. Tannis was pacing the tabletop, chewing on her nails. She wasn’t going to be pleased by his next words.

  “It does mean you’re not coming back anytime soon.”

  “Fuck,” Tannis snarled.

  “I second that,” Rico said. “You stay away until this is sorted. We don’t want anyone exploding your pretty little head.”

  Or Skylar’s. Rico clearly wanted to keep his woman well away from the action.

  “Piss off, Rico.” But Tannis didn’t argue.

  Thorne glanced across at Saffira. She sat almost hunched in her chair, as though, if she could make herself small enough, he wouldn’t turn his attention toward her. Not a chance.

  “The only way I’ll agree to do this is if you”—he stared at her until she raised her gaze from the table and looked back—“agree to get the hell out of here and stay away until it’s over.”

  “Can’t you use me or something? I could draw them out for you.”

  “Never going to happen.”

  “Why?”

  He was aware of everyone watching him. He shrugged. This wasn’t negotiable. “Because that’s the way I want it. We can find them using Fergal’s system. That way, we might have an element of surprise. If they come for you, they’ll be expecting us to fight back. Besides, I want you safe.” He tried a small smile; it didn’t feel natural. “You’ve done your bit and saved the world. Time to take a step back.”

  The door to the room slid open, and he dragged his attention from Saffira. Devlin stood in the doorway. He strode in and came to a halt behind her. “I agree. You need to go.”

  She raised her head to him, and took his hand. “So do you. All the others have gone to safety. If I go, then so should you.”

  “Not all the others,” Devlin said with a nod in Thorne’s direction. “I can’t go. If anything happens to the ship, then I’m the best chance of getting her going again.”

  Saffira narrowed her eyes. “You love this ship more than me.”

  He dropped a kiss on the top of her head, and Thorne was sure something passed between them. “No, I don’t,” he said out loud. “But you know I’m right. And the risk is probably no greater for me than for the others.” He waved at Rico, Daisy, and Fergal. “I might be Collective, but I’m male, so they have no real interest in me.”

  Saffira nodded, and Thorne could feel the resignation emanating from her, and the sadness. But then she looked at him, and resolve hardened in her eyes. “I’ll go, but you look after my man.”

  “I think he can look after himself.”

  She took a deep breath. “So where should I go?”

  “Not where,” Thorne said. “When.”

  “You want me to open a wormhole?”

  “A small one. A very small one. You can’t go too far wrong with that.”

  “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence,” she grumbled.

  “Go pick up the others and take them to Trakis Twelve.”

  “How far back?”

  He thought for a minute. He’d like to say a long way back, before the dragons came to this universe, which was just about twenty-two years a
go. But the further back she went, the higher the risk she would get it wrong and end up God knows when. He needed a compromise. “A little over a year. That way there’s no chance of bumping into yourself in this universe, but if something happens and you can’t get back, you’ll only have a short wait, and we can come for you when this is sorted.”

  “A year on Trakis Twelve? Are you kidding?”

  “Yeah,” Tannis added. “Are you kidding?”

  “No, don’t stay on Trakis Twelve for too long. Don’t stay any one place for long. You can go back at regular intervals, check in, but otherwise keep moving.”

  She huffed out her breath. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

  “And I’ll go quietly. Just sort this freaking mess out.” With that, Tannis was gone.

  Well, that was one problem solved. Thorne tossed back the last of his whiskey and got to his feet. “This meeting is over. Let’s go find Candace.”

  “I’ll go prep a shuttle for Saffira,” Devlin said, taking her hand and dragging her to her feet then into the transporter bubble. Thorne suspected it would be a prolonged good-bye. It didn’t matter. As long as she was off the ship and heading for Trakis Twelve in the next hour, they could take as long as they liked.

  “Right. Time for us to go.”

  Rico rose to his feet. “Who’s in charge here?”

  Thorne studied him for a moment. The truth was he didn’t want to be in charge—he’d sworn he was never going to be in charge of anything ever again. But at the same time he wanted things done his way. “You’re in charge.”

  Rico grinned with a flash of fang. “Do I hear a little reluctance in your voice?”

  “No.” He frowned. “Are we going?”

  Rico’s lips twitched. “We are. Six hours to explosion point. Why not rest—you look like shit.”

  Thorne didn’t answer, but he closed his eyes and forced the tension from his muscles.

  Wherever Candy was, he would find her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Candy came awake to the squeal of tearing metal.

  She opened her eyes.

  Shut them again.

  There was nothing out there she wanted to see. But behind her closed lids, her brain was sifting through the brief visual clues she had picked up in those few seconds.