Flying Through Fire (Dark Desires)

by Nina Croft

  “And how do you expect us to do that?”

  “That one. He is of the same flesh and blood.” Hatcher turned slowly, raised a skinny arm, and pointed a bony finger straight at Thorne.

  He straightened. “How many dragons?” he asked.

  “Twenty.”

  “You need to evacuate.”

  “The only ship that has tried to leave was burned as it breached their ring, and all on board died in the flames of hell.”

  Jesus, this was tiring.

  “So how come you managed to sneak away?” Rico asked.

  “I was already off-planet. I am infected with their pestilence. I would not risk any more of my people.”

  Sounded plausible.

  But time to finish this up. Hatcher had had his say, so what would happen now? Would they kill him? Maybe this had been the priest’s way of ending his suffering—a quick death instead of a lingering one.

  Probably, the old man wouldn’t or couldn’t end it himself. That would be against his religion.

  “So what do we do with him now?” Rico asked.

  “Let him go,” Daisy said.

  Fergal kept quiet.

  They all turned to Devlin. He nodded. “Send him back. This is worse than anything we can do to him. I reckon knowing his God is doing nothing to save him is revenge enough.”

  “So you will come?” Hatcher asked. “You will save my people?”

  “It just so happens, we’re heading in that direction,” Rico said. “Now piss off. You’re messing up my ship.”

  Hatcher nodded once. His priests stepped toward him, but Fergal beat them to it and took his father’s arm.

  At the top of the ramp, they faced each other.

  “Maybe you are not beyond redemption. Go with God, my son.”

  Fergal nodded once and tuned away, striding down the ramp. He didn’t turn back as the doors slid closed and the ship took off. Daisy wrapped her arms around him, and he buried his head in the curve of her shoulder. He stayed there until the ship was gone, and only the scent of death lingered in the air. Then he stood up straight and cleared his throat. “Right then, let’s go kick some dragon ass.”

  Thorne gave a wry smile. “Let’s go try.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  When she resurfaced this time she knew without a doubt she was changed irrevocably and forever.

  She had no clue how long she had been out, but she was pretty sure at some point she had shifted—her sarong dress was in tatters around her, rent with claw marks. When she peered inside herself, she found wolf awake and eager and changed as well, in some indefinable way which would no doubt come clear in time. One thing she would have plenty of now.

  Werewolves were long lived but not immortal. Now, within reason, she couldn’t die.

  Sitting up, she peered down at her naked body. The thing was still wrapped around her forearm, but as she watched, it crumbled and fell to the floor like ashes.

  All around her, the others waved lazily in the still air. As she pushed herself to her feet, power and strength flowed through her. She felt vitally alive, bursting with life, raring to go.

  At that moment, she sensed a knocking, but this time she understood the voice in her mind.

  “You are well?”

  Even as she nodded, she realized he wasn’t going to see that however telepathic he was. “I am. I think.”

  She picked up the shreds of her sarong, wrapped it around herself, and searched the area. It took her a moment to spot the tunnel leading out of the cavern.

  As she came out into the open, she saw darkness had already fallen. Was it even the first night since she had entered the chamber? She had no clue how much time had passed. She was filled with an eagerness to get out, to discover why the dragon had saved her. What his plans were. Whether he could return them to her universe. Thorne would be worried. She needed to get back.

  The dragon awaited her out in the circular valley, crouched on the sand.

  “I am Kronus.”

  “Hello. I’m Candace.”

  She had no clue what language she was speaking, not her native tongue for certain, but it came to her naturally. Her bag lay on the sand close beside him and she crossed the space and rummaged inside for a bottle of water, then sank down to the sand, rested her back against a rock, and drank. Finally, she turned her attention to Kronus.

  “Why?” she asked. “Why did you save me? And what happened, anyway? And can you take me home?” She stared at him expectantly. He returned the stare from inscrutable eyes. “Well?” she prompted.

  Smoke trickled from his nostrils. “I did not save you to question me.”

  She tucked the empty bottle back in her bag and rose to her feet, tightening her sarong before she sashayed across the sand. She’d had a lot of experience dealing with arrogant males. Kronus was really just one more. If she showed any sign of weakness, he would walk all over her.

  She came to a halt in front of him and stared up and up. “Look, mister—”

  “Mister?”

  “Kronus, or whatever your name is. Just tell me why I’m here. What happened back there? I mean, is it going to hurt you to answer a few questions?” She could almost sense his confusion, and she pressed on. “And isn’t there anything you would like to know? You answer my questions, and I’ll answer yours.”

  “You will answer mine anyway.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  She folded her arms across her chest and turned away.

  Something slammed into her mind, pain filled her skull. Inside, her wolf growled and clawed. She released her control and the change shifted over her and the pain was gone. She stood on all fours, waited for the dragon to renew his attack, but nothing. And no words entered her mind. She tried to project but failed totally.

  Interesting.

  She stalked around the dragon, came to a halt in front of him, and gave a wolfy shrug. Seemed he couldn’t touch her mind in this form. The only thing he could do was incinerate her, and that would put an end to whatever his motives were for saving her in the first place. She shifted back, scooped up her sarong, tied the tatters around her breasts—for some reason, she couldn’t forget he was a male—and stepped up close. “Shall we try again?”

  He snorted fire, but she took that as a positive response.

  “So maybe we can take it in turns. I ask a question, then you ask a question. Okay?”

  This time smoke trickled out; she took that as an affirmative as well.

  “I’ll go first, then. What happened back there, and why did you save me?”

  “That is two questions.”

  “Pretty please?”

  “The First Changed killed one of my kind.”

  “First Changed? Who’s that?” An image of Thorne filled her mind. “He did? Cool.”

  “Not cool. It was unexpected.”

  She glanced around, found an outcrop of rock which would bring her on a level with the dragon’s eyes and scrambled up, perching herself with her legs dangling over the edge. “So, Thorne killed a dragon. What happened next?”

  “When one of our kind dies in another universe—such as yours—their spirits return home, forging a path through space and time. The one and only instance when a male of our species can call up a wormhole. You were sucked in.”

  This was clearly the dragon’s home planet. “So I would have ended up here anyway?”

  “No. You would have collided with the wormhole and your ship would have exploded.”

  She remembered back to that last glimpse. Yeah, she’d been about to crash. “And you saved me. Why?”

  He was silent for a moment, no doubt considering his answer. “I am not entirely sure.”

  Well, that was honest, if not particularly useful.

  “I believed you may be of use as a bargaining tool.”

  Was that why he’d allowed her to be changed, to join with the Meridian? Because he could hardly use her if she was dead? “Nice.”

  “I am not nice.”

&n
bsp; “Actually, I was being sarcastic. But maybe that doesn’t come across too well with this mind talk stuff. Which might make things difficult.”

  “Explain sarcasm.”

  “Another time. So you were saying…?”

  “I acted on impulse, which is unusual for my kind. Then once I had your ship, the wormhole was closing, there was no time to come out the way we had gone in, and so I followed the pathway here.”

  She thought back to what she knew of this universe. In their own world, the black hole at Trakis One led here. That was how the Blood Hunter had originally come through, and how the dragons had escaped to the Trakis system. Though the Blood Hunter had taken another route back, through a wormhole Saffira had opened. That had landed them where they wanted to be but not when. They had come out in the Trakis system over twenty years after they’d originally left.

  Her shuttle was never going to fly again, but now there might still be a way back. The black hole at Trakis One was still there. If the dragons had gone through it the first time, then presumably Kronus could do it again. She was Collective now, so she could survive in space. They could fly out of here. Her on the dragon’s back. A shiver of excitement ran through her.

  “Can you take me back to my own universe?”

  “Yes.”

  Well, that was easier than she’d expected. She’d thought he would make things difficult. She jumped to her feet and scrambled down the rock to stand on the sand in front of him. “Let’s go then.”

  “I can take you back, but only when the time is right.”

  A scowl tugged at her lips as she studied him, trying to keep her annoyance to a manageable level. She suspected that was going to prove difficult when dealing with a dragon. “And when will the time be right?”

  “We must return no earlier than when we left. Otherwise we will risk a paradox.”

  “A paradox? What’s that?”

  “When two forms of a life-force inhabit the same time and space.”

  “And that’s bad?”

  “It can be…dangerous.”

  “Oh.” She resisted scratching her head. Time travel had the ability to scramble your brains. “But what’s the problem? If we go back now, then it will presumably be a whole day later, at least, by the time we get back.” She had an idea she was missing something and wasn’t going to like the answer when she got it.

  “When my people die in another world, their spirits come back home.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’ve had that bit.”

  “They come back home to the last time they were here.”

  Ah. When was that? She tried to work it out in her head. The Blood Hunter had reappeared just over a year ago. “You’re kidding me. A year? You won’t take me back for a year? You’re saying we have to stay here for a whole freaking year?”

  If thoughts could rise in volume, then she was screaming. No way could she stay here a year with Mr. Cheerful. She’d go insane. She had to be doing something. Anything. She did not do well when she had too much time to think.

  “No.”

  She calmed a little at the dragon’s negative response. “Thank Christ, for that. Seriously, we would have both gone insane.”

  “We do not have to stay for a year. We must remain here for the equivalent of twenty-two of your years plus a little more.”

  “WHAT?”

  Kronus shuffled a step back, his huge eyes widening.

  “No way. That is so not a good idea.”

  “The dragon who died left this universe twenty-two years ago.”

  She exhaled. The black hole at Trakis One linked only space, not time, so that meant if they went through it now they would end up home…? Shit, twenty-two years before they left. She forced her brain to slow down, and the panic receded a little. There was a way around this.

  This time she did scratch her head, then pressed her fingers to her eyes as though she could force her brain to work harder. “But there’s nothing to physically stop us going back now?”

  “No.”

  “Then I vote for risking this paradox thing. Let’s go. I take it you’re going to fly us out of here.”

  “Yes. But not yet.”

  “I thought we’d just agreed.”

  “Nothing was agreed.” He sat back on his haunches and studied her. “If we go through the black hole now, we will arrive before the date of your birth.”

  “So?”

  “What will you do?”

  “At least there would be something to do. And there are one or two things that, given a second chance, I would go back and tell myself about.”

  She could go back and warn her dad about the ambush. She could tell Thorne to go save his people. There was so much good that she could achieve.

  “Exactly. Paradox.” Kronus interrupted her thoughts. “You would change the very fabric of the reality. You would bring us to a time when this did not happen. Then how did you get there? How will the events that brought us to this time and place occur? What will you do when you come face-to-face with your own self? As surely one as…self-indulgent and impulsive would eventually do.”

  Christ, two of her in the world. Poor Thorne wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “Hey, I’m not self-indulgent.” Though she probably couldn’t argue the impulsive. “And how come you know me so goddamned well after one day in my company?”

  “I see into your true self.”

  That didn’t sound good. “How about we go through, then we can hole up somewhere quiet, just not as quiet as this. I’ll promise to be good, then we can come back here—”

  “No.”

  “Well then, we could—”

  “No.”

  “You’re not even going to negotiate this?”

  “No.”

  She turned and stalked away. One year had seemed impossible; twenty-two was too long to contemplate. It was unreal. It was her lifetime over again.

  “It is a mere speck in the passage of time.”

  She whirled around to find the dragon had flown the short distance after her. “Hey, get out of my head unless you’re invited.”

  He hopped back a little, spread his wings, and it occurred to her that one day she would have wings. If she survived the next twenty-two years.

  Shit.

  One day at a time.

  That’s what she needed to do.

  He stomach was rumbling again. She’d go back to the shuttle, get some food, and tomorrow she would explore. Thorne’s people had survived here for thousands of years. Surely she could manage a mere speck in time.

  She cast a quick glance at Kronus. Was he hungry? What did dragons eat? Wasn’t it supposed to be virgins from the stories from Earth?

  Did she hear a snigger in her head? She grinned back. “Don’t look at me. You’re shit out of luck.”

  “We absorb energy from our surroundings.”

  “Really? Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”

  “No.”

  She glanced up at the sky. The single sun was going down and the day was nearly over.

  Only another eight thousand to go. Give or take a few…

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Thorne stared at the screen. They were coming up on Trakis Five, the planet almost filling the forward monitors. The other thing the screens showed were dragons. Lots and lots of dragons.

  “Why didn’t we pick them up?” Rico asked. “How the fuck could we miss that many dragons?”

  “Probably because they’re close to the planet,” Fergal replied, sounding totally unfazed by the vampire’s irate tone. “And all the surveillance is down around Trakis Five, either knocked out in the war or taken down.”

  “Can you get us between them and the planet?” Thorne asked.

  “No problem.” Rico went back to the pilot’s chair and switched the ship to manual. They were in stealth mode, so right now the dragons had no clue they were being watched. Rico flew the ship through a gap between a silvery gray dragon and a drab green one. They were hovering in place, as t
hough waiting for some signal. But what?

  When they were through the cordon, Rico turned the Blood Hunter around so she was facing the dragons. This close, Thorne could see their violet eyes, the trickle of smoke from their nostrils. As though they could sense him, the two closest turned and focused their attention on the ship they couldn’t see. Thorne deliberately blanked his mind and finally their attention wandered.

  He turned to Fergal. “Are you picking up anything from Candy’s shuttle?”

  Fergal glanced up at him. Was that pity in his eyes? “No. Nothing.”

  Shit. Dread clawed at his insides. They’d been searching for any sign of her shuttle, and Jon and Alex had been doing the same, but there was nothing. It was as though she’d vanished from the universe. And maybe she had. He, more than anyone, knew of the limitless possibilities. He could only hope that wherever she was she would find her way back to them. He would not give up hope that somewhere she was alive. And he had an eternity to find her. Well, at least if he survived the next few hours he would.

  “So how are we going to do this?” Rico asked.

  “This,” presumably, was him killing dragons. He’d been practicing, and he’d found he could concentrate the power and explode small items. He was better close up and in the vicinity of the object, though he suspected, when he understood the feeling more, merely the knowledge of a target’s existence would be enough for him to obliterate it.

  Not a comforting thought.

  But right now, probably his best bet was to get out there, up close and personal. He wasn’t sure whether he could take out more than one, but he had to try. If they retaliated, then it was over, and they’d wasted their time.

  “I’m going out there,” he said.

  “Is that wise?”

  He frowned at the question. That was the plan they’d come up with. A crap plan, but the only one they had. “I wasn’t even aware you knew that word.”

  Rico grinned. “It’s not one I use frequently. But then, this is the first time I’ve found myself in this particular situation.”

  “Bit late now to start thinking about being wise. Anyway, we don’t have a lot of options.” He exhaled. “No, we stick to the plan. You and Devlin take the shuttles out and keep them distracted. I’ll try and pick them off one at a time.”