by Nina Croft
He closed his eyes. “Candy?”
“I’m almost there. I’ll see you on the planet. And don’t shoot me.”
He frowned, but she was gone. Shut off. He probed but couldn’t make contact, which was unusual—he was powerful, could force himself into any mind, certainly that of a newbie.
“So what happened out there?” Fergal asked.
“Yes, I’d like to know as well,” Rico said. “What happened to the plan?”
“Candy contacted me. Through my mind.”
“I didn’t know she could do that.”
“She couldn’t. Anyway, she told me that if I killed one of them, it could potentially destroy the Blood Hunter and the planet and…everything.”
“Did she mention why or how?”
“It wasn’t a long conversation.”
“And where is she now?”
“On her way. She said she’ll meet us on the planet…and don’t shoot her.”
Fergal glanced up at him. “There’s still nothing from her shuttle. I’m monitoring the frequency.”
Somehow Thorne didn’t think she was on her shuttle. Who had she met up with? Where had she been?
But she was alive. He’d worry about the rest later.
“I’ll take us down,” Rico said and headed for the pilot’s seat.
Thorne sank into the nearest chair and ran a hand over his scalp.
Once again, he had no clue what was going on.
…
Well, at least no one had shot at them.
Thorne had greeted her last message with a stunned silence, though she knew he’d received it. She’d told him she was almost there, but not mentioned her mode of transport.
Hey, she wanted to make an entrance. How many people got to fly in on a dragon?
She was so fucking cool.
She was also hungry. Starving actually. She was going to have a proper meal for the first time in decades. She was almost looking forward to that more than seeing Thorne and her parents again.
And finally, there they were.
Close to the planet’s surface, a speeder raced along, making for the rendezvous point.
“Lower.”
Kronus swooped down so he flew only twenty feet above the ground. Then they were almost directly above the speeder and she could make out her parents in the back, Rico driving, and Thorne beside him. Her breath caught in her throat.
Maybe she sent out some sort of message because he peered up, shock flaring in his eyes. She leaned over so he couldn’t miss her—and waggled her fingers.
Rico glanced up, caught sight of them and the speeder swerved, nearly crashing into a huge boulder. She giggled.
“Take us in,” she said to Kronus.
The dragon swept ahead and touched down gently. It was nighttime, and off to the east she could see the lights of the city, and closer, the speeder coming up fast. She slid off his back and onto solid ground for the first time in days—since they had come through the black hole at Trakis One. Her knees almost gave way and she rested a hand on the dragon’s leg while her own steadied beneath her.
“Thanks,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want to stick around?”
“I think not. It will be better if you prepare them for our…negotiations.”
“So are you going to tell me what it is you want?”
“No.”
“You’re really annoying. You know that, right?”
“I do. Because you have told me so.”
“Yeah.” And more than once. “Well, good-bye for now then.”
“I will see you at the meeting.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Until then.”
He rose into the air, the spread of his wings momentarily blocking out the lights from the city. Then he lifted higher until he was no more than a speck of darkness against the night sky, leaving a faint trail of luminescence in his wake. When she looked back down, the speeder was there. At last. It halted right beside her, and a smile tugged at her lips as the door opened.
“Well, you certainly know how to make an entrance,” Rico said.
She gave a smug smile. “Thought you’d be impressed.”
She turned to Thorne beside him. The shock was gone–his expression was blank. She peered behind him to where Alex and Angel and Jon sat in the back. Alex jumped out and came toward her, engulfed her in a huge hug, squeezing so hard tears pricked her eyes. They’d clearly missed her, and to them she had only been away a matter of days.
Alex stepped back. “Where have you been? We were so worried.”
She glanced at Thorne. “Were you worried?”
“You know I was.”
Yeah, she’d felt the relief flood his mind at that first communication.
“But I knew you were alive.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Jon asked.
“And what the hell are you doing riding on a dragon?” Rico added.
“I’ll tell you. But first I need food. I haven’t eaten a decent meal in years.”
She refused to say any more as she squeezed herself into the back of the speeder between her mother and Angel. He clasped her hand and gave her a hard stare. “You look…different.”
She was sure she did. While the change stopped the aging process, she’d lived through twenty-two years, and that had to leave some trace. Plus, there was the whole purple-eye thing. “I am different.”
Thorne turned his head so he could look at her, his own matching eyes narrowing on her. “I missed you.”
She smiled and settled back. She was home.
The speeder took them through the city, straight to the Blood Hunter. She was parked in a huge open area in front of the palace. Callum and his council had once ruled from here. It had been taken over by the Church when the Collective had fallen into disarray and Callum had disappeared.
It occurred to her that with the Church destroyed, someone was going to have to take over. Thorne was the obvious choice, if he had gotten over his “I want to be alone” phase. She hoped so. He was a great leader.
The Blood Hunter wasn’t alone. She was surrounded by a number of smaller ships, including her parents’. And more were arriving all the time. People milled in between, ducking out of the way when another ship came in to land. No one seemed to be directing anything anywhere, and the whole place had an air of chaos. Rico dodged the speeder around yet another group. “Get out of the fucking way,” he yelled.
Someone was going to have to take control, and sooner rather than later.
The speeder drove straight through the docking bay and came to a halt as the doors slid shut behind them, cutting off the chaos.
“Who are they all?” she asked.
“The remnants of the army we had on Trakis Two. Apparently Jon has been contacting them, sending them to find the Blood Hunter. He thought we might need a bit of help.”
Candy jumped down and headed for the transporter bubble. Everyone followed. “Galley.”
She was so looking forward to this.
She went straight to the food dispenser, ordered beef stew, potatoes, bread, more stew. Absolutely no vegetables. She was so tired of vegetables. She would be happy if she never ate anything green again. When she turned around with her tray, they were all still standing just inside the door.
She sat at the table and started to eat. They all took seats around her. She ignored them while she took the first mouthful, slowly chewing; it was so good. She took another, and another. As she finished the first bowl, Daisy, Fergal, and Devlin appeared in the doorway. Good. She would only have to tell her story once.
“Welcome back,” Daisy said with a grin.
Candy mopped up the last of the gravy with her bread, popped it in her mouth, and relaxed back, replete. They were all staring at her.
“So tell us about your new friend,” Rico said.
She grinned. “Actually, he’s sort of an old friend now.” She looked across the table. Thorne sat opposite, staring at
her as though he couldn’t get enough. And for a minute, she allowed herself to look back. God, she had missed him. He was so beautiful, with his lean, handsome face all stern lines.
“Did you really miss me?”
“More than you can ever know.”
She felt a smile tug at her lips.
“Could you save the reunion with lover boy until later?” Rico suggested.
She shook herself. “Yeah.” But she gave him one last look and sighed. “So…from the beginning.” She took another deep breath. She’d had a lot of time to think about this and how to tell it. First things first. “It seems that if you kill a dragon in this universe—well, anywhere, actually—then the…essence of that dragon will go home, but not only to the place where it belongs but to the time it was last there. So when Thorne killed that dragon, it opened this super-wormhole which led back to their universe and the time he’d last been there—which was twenty-two years ago. I was sucked into the hole; my shuttle was dead, and I would have crashed, but Kronus dived in and sort of saved me.”
“Kronus?”
“My dragon friend.”
“And why did he do that?”
“He never did say for certain, but probably because he liked me.” She turned to Rico. “Hey, have you got any whiskey? I would murder for a drink right now.”
He pulled a flask from inside his jacket and handed it to her. She unscrewed the top and took a deep swallow, felt the warmth in her belly spreading outward.
“He stopped me from crashing, and then put the shuttle down on Thorne’s old planet. He tried to communicate but couldn’t at that point. Then I got sick, and he took me to the birthing chamber, and I was changed. After that he could talk to me. That was, for me, twenty-two years and seventeen days ago.”
Rico was stroking his chin, looking thoughtful. He glanced at Thorne. “So the wormhole your colony ship went down, must have been made when the dragon on Trakis Seven died, and you went back ten thousand years because that was how long the dragon had been in this system.”
“Exactly,” Candy said. She’d already had that discussion with Kronus. “So there we were, on Thorne’s old planet, twenty-two years ago, just after Thorne and his people had left for this universe. We could return here through the hole at Trakis One—it’s permanently open and never moves—but if we went through straightaway, we would end up back twenty-two years in this universe’s past. And that would cause all sorts of potential paradoxes. Kronus was freaking stubborn, despite my using all my persuasive charms. He said bad things could happen, and point blank refused to bring me back until we reached the time I’d actually left…if you see what I mean. So we had to wait until we caught up with you. Me and Kronus.”
“I bet that was fun.”
“Actually, it wasn’t too bad. Once I’d accepted he wouldn’t budge on the matter. I didn’t starve, and I was pretty comfortable. Thorne’s people had left enough behind that I had clothes and other things. And Kronus told me all about dragons, and I told him all about us. But that’s something for another day. Except that we did work out why people are getting sick, and it’s not on purpose, just a byproduct of the whole reproductive thing. Sort of dragon-hormones-gone-crazy. But they can switch them off.”
“That’s one good thing. So what happens now?” Thorne asked. “What does he want?”
“I told you—I don’t know. Though I suspect he wants Saffira.”
“He can’t have her.”
She ignored the comment. She already knew that. “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to kill her.”
“He still can’t have her.”
“No, I know that.” Even though she trusted Kronus, she didn’t trust the other dragons. “I think he’s had a falling out with the rest of them. They want to kill Saffira, and then go back home, and go back to sleep, or whatever it was they did. Kronus doesn’t want that. Anyway, he’d like a meeting.”
“No way.”
She ignored Thorne’s words and continued, “On the second moon in about eight hours’ time. Then he’ll tell us.”
“You’re not going anywhere near him.”
She patted Thorne’s arm. “Don’t be silly. If he meant me any harm, I’d know it by now.”
“So, are we safe until then?” Daisy asked.
“No. We can’t trust that thing,” Devlin answered. “We need to take precautions. We should get the hell out of here.”
“And leave everybody behind?”
“Why the hell not?” Rico said. “They can look after themselves. They’re not our responsibility. A goddamn load of nuns and cyborgs.”
“And Fergal’s friend, Stefan,” Daisy pointed out. “He saved Fergal’s life, and he won’t leave without the rest of them.”
“Then he can stay here.”
“Anyway,” Devlin said, “we don’t even know if we could take everyone off.”
“How many people are there on planet?”
“How the fuck should I know?”
Candy sat back in her chair and listened as the conversation got more and more heated and went absolutely nowhere, going around in circles and coming back to exactly the same place. How the hell had they survived so long? They were such a bunch of opinionated misfits it was a wonder they hadn’t self-destructed years ago. At least when Tannis was around, they had someone they all listened to. But until Tannis returned from wherever Saffira had her hidden, someone had to take charge and make decisions.
She glanced across at Thorne. He alone wasn’t taking part in the argument, just sitting back in his chair, sipping his goddamn whiskey as though the whole thing had nothing to do with him. She had to stifle the urge to pick up a chair and bang it over his head. He caught her gaze and raised an eyebrow.
The conversation dimmed as he stared at her, his gaze lingering on her face and then dropping down to her breasts and lingering there even longer. When he returned to her face, heat filled his eyes. Her pulse started up a steady throb, warmth flooded her system, and her nipples tightened. She swallowed. An overwhelming urge rose up inside her—to be out of there, and to drag Thorne with her.
She shook her head and the conversation came back into focus, louder than ever and with no sign of dissipating.
Well, someone was going to have to make a decision.
She cleared her throat.
No one took the slightest of notice, so she shoved back her chair and rose to her feet.
Still nothing.
She picked up her—empty—glass and dropped it on the floor, where it landed with a crash, and at last the voices around the table fell silent. All eyes turned her way.
She cleared her throat again. “We can’t make any final decision until after the meeting with Kronus. We need to know what he wants and what he’ll do if he doesn’t get it.”
No one said anything but at least they were paying attention.
“In the meantime, Fergal, go talk to Stefan. Find out how long it will take for him to pack up his lab and his people. Tell him to get ready to move fast in case we need to evacuate.”
Fergal grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
Hmm, who next? She turned to Devlin. “You make sure the Blood Hunter is in perfect condition, then go check out the other ships. See if anyone needs any help, and at the same time make a list of how many passengers each ship could hold if we have to make a getaway.”
He nodded but didn’t answer. At least he wasn’t arguing.
“Daisy, you see if you can take a census of how many people we’re looking at and where they are.”
“No problem.”
Well, that had been easy. She looked around the table her gaze snagging on Rico who lounged back in his chair, long legs stretched out, hands behind his head, a lazy grin on his face. “You got any orders for me, sweetheart?”
“Actually, I sort of thought you’d want to come along and meet the dragon.”
“Great idea.”
“Right then,” she said. “That’s it. We’ll leave for the meeting in two hour
s. In the meantime, I have something really important to discuss with Thorne.”
“You do?” Thorne asked.
She glared at him. “Yes. Come.”
“She’s gotten awfully bossy,” Rico murmured. “You’d better do what you’re told.”
Thorne tossed him a dirty look but rose to his feet. He came around the table, and she led the way out of the room, aware of all the eyes on her. Once out in the corridor, she turned to him.
She really couldn’t put this off any longer. There was something she needed to do. She closed the space between them, raised her arms, twined her hands around his neck, and tugged his head down toward her. For a second he resisted, and she thought she might have to resort to physical violence or mental coercion—Thorne might be way more powerful than she was, but Kronus had taught her some clever tricks.
She felt the moment he gave in; the tension drained from his body, and he lowered his head. Her nostrils filled with the spicy scent of him. She’d dreamed of that scent for so many years then woken up to find herself alone.
But he was here now.
Her mouth took his and her lips parted, her tongue pushing inside, tasting him. She shoved him back toward the wall and climbed up his body, wrapping her legs around his waist, pressing her core against the growing bulge in his pants. She growled in her throat and rubbed up against him, trying to crawl inside him.
Someone cleared their throat, and Thorne went still. She raised her head and glared at her audience, who had followed them out of the galley, then she turned back to Thorne.
“Did I mention? I missed you.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
At her words, something cracked inside him, and, ignoring the watching crew, he pulled her hard against his body. Her head burrowed into the curve of his shoulder, and a sob burst from her.
He was pretty sure she wouldn’t want the others to see her crying. He tightened his grip and headed to the nearest transporter bubble. She didn’t loosen her hold until the door of his room slid shut behind them. Then he untangled her arms and legs from around him and placed her gently on the floor.
He’d been feeling…actually, he wasn’t sure. Resentful maybe. She’d changed…grown. Without him. He hadn’t wanted her to change. He’d liked her just the way she was. But nothing that had happened had been her fault.