Talking about losing my edge, I wondered just how long the man had been following me before I caught on. It was damn sloppy of me not to notice right away. I had been too busy thinking about the future, and the present had almost caught up with me. I turned down an alley and used a burst of speed to put some distance between myself and whoever it was. To my surprise, they kept up with me. That wasn’t normal—no human could do that, not unless they had been modified. Had one of the beasts finally made an appearance? The wet dog smell that normally permeated the air around them wasn’t present. That only left me with one realistic option. It had to have been one of the men in white.
This time I wouldn’t hold back. Drake wasn’t here to save my ass, and I didn’t have a way to get in touch with him. That meant I had to strike hard and fast, no remorse. I could feel guilty about taking this man’s life later, now it was just him or me. I wanted to live.
Another burst of speed separated us just enough for me to turn and pull out my knife before he came running into view. He threw out a wall of power. As it came towards me I remembered the last time I had fought one of these men and thought about how I could defend myself. The force slammed into me, but I could still move. This man either wasn’t as strong as the last one or he was conserving his power. Either way, he was going to die.
He pulled out his staff and ignited the tips. “As a Brother of the Light, I name you demon, and curse you to walk forever in the shadows of hell.”
Jesus, was this guy crazy or was there some truth to what he was saying? Sure, I needed blood to survive, but a demon….come on. If such things existed, I wasn’t one of them. “I’m no demon, whack job. I’m just a woman with a few dietary restrictions.”
“And lies will spill forth from the lips of the abomination, but they shall fall on deaf ears.”
Ok, this guy had seriously lost it, but I was still fine with killing him. Just because he was crazy didn’t mean I’d end up any less dead if he hit me with that staff. I kept my guns holstered. For now the knife would have to be enough. I parted the wall of force holding me in place like Moses and slammed into him from the side before he could lift his staff. He flew fifteen feet towards the wall and hit it with a crunch.
The staff fell from his hands, and I moved in for the kill. The blade came down on target, but at the last second, it shifted to the side only leaving a scratch across his midsection. Another gust of wind hit me pushing me back. As I landed, he pulled his staff through the air and back into his hand. That was one hell of a magic trick.
The tips ignited as soon as he touched it. This time he moved towards me. He kept changing the direction his power was pushing from, keeping me off balance. But I hadn’t shown him any of my power yet. I also knew he couldn’t keep this up forever. If his power failed, I would have the easy kill I desired. If he made me work for it, things might get a little sloppy. Before he drew too close, I sent out a small burst of my own power. It was a simple thing really. Anyone that was walking towards the sound of our battle simply turned around and found somewhere else they needed to be. A simple suggestion that should keep anyone from interrupting us until this was over.
I tripped as a gust caught me from behind, and that was when he lashed out with his staff. I managed to leap over it but as I came down, another gust hit me, this time from the right. As I leaned into it, the force disappeared followed by a push from in front of me. This guy was really starting to piss me off. I darted forward slashing with the knife. This time it bounced off his staff, and I earned a kick to the midsection for my efforts.
It was a good thing my body had changed while I had been sleeping. It was a strong kick and obviously augmented by some of whatever ability he was using. He expected me to be thrown back, but instead I used my own power to anchor my feet. So when he rushed forward to follow his attack, he ran right into me.
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight against me. His ribs cracked after less than a second. They must have hit something vital inside because he let out a gasp and dropped his staff to the ground. The red electricity faded from the tip. I spun around behind him and bent his neck to the side. After using all of that energy, I needed something to fill up my tank again, especially if he wasn't alone.
“I made the mistake of showing compassion once, it’s a mistake I won’t make again.” He let out a moan as my fangs sank into his neck. The warm blood flowed over my tongue, and I relished the taste. The bagged stuff was ok, but this was pure bliss. I knew I should try and take this man’s memories, but I didn’t want to have to sift through all the crazy. All I wanted to do now was get back to the Talon and get off of this station. A cry of anguish made me look up from my victim, and even as this new challenger moved forward, I kept feeding.
CHAPTER 28
CAPTAIN DRAKE
We were watching a singer that had been all the rage ten years ago. That seemed like what they all did now, they made it big, disappeared for a few years, and then launched a comeback on some resort station. Hey, I get it, do whatever it takes to keep making the credits. Lifestyles don’t support themselves. The only time it didn’t make sense to me was when it was those boy bands, and they were older than I was.
The show felt like it was winding down, but there was no way to be sure. Our silent shadow was three rows behind us and a little to the right. I was starting to feel a little more comfortable with him around. He wasn’t aggressive towards any of us, but I knew that would change when Samantha showed up.
It wasn’t the first time since we let her out of the box that I thought about just cutting my losses. Sure I felt bad for her, but this meant we had to step twice as fast around the law and if they ever found her with us…well, we were just screwed. We could just fly away now and wash our hands of the whole damned thing. Kyra and Richard would be heartbroken, but the rest of the crew would understand. It wasn’t an easy decision, shit, I wasn’t even sure if it was the right one, but it would give us the best chance to keep going on.
It was funny how my mind worked. The easy way always jumped to the forefront as the best way to do things, but life wasn’t easy. I’d mapped my own way across the stars long enough to know that easy could get you killed just as fast as being meticulous. That was the crux of it. I knew my life would be simpler without Samantha in it, but I didn’t think it would be better. She would be an asset to the crew, and after some time, I thought they would all grow to like her. Maybe even Gabe.
All I had to do was try and find a way to keep my thoughts about her platonic. It wasn’t easy to do. She was beautiful and probably would never age. That was something you didn’t see a lot of these days, or ever. She had just the right amount of kick-ass, mixed in with a decent sized helping of attitude. Five years ago, I would have let her drain all of my accounts for a weekend alone with her, but now I had Maze.
Maze and I had done the on again off again thing for a long time. Mostly because she knew I wasn’t really ready to settle down. Something changed when we had been facing almost certain death on Marachari Five. Facing off against cybernetic wolves and a battalion of soldiers had almost killed the both of us. Something in the moment had changed me, and I realized just how much Maze meant to me.
If there was a God he must have been laughing at me. Nothing in this life came without sacrifice. The choice was simple, I could try my luck with Samantha and lose Maze forever, or I could man up and stick to the commitment I had made. My word was my bond on the job, but my past history with women let me know I was in trouble. Shit, why were things always so complicated?
Our not so silent shadow let out a scream and started running for the door. I nudged Maze, and we both chased after him. We would have to come back for the next show, if they would ever let us back in after the exit we had just made. D’avin was fast, faster than anyone had a right to be. I was winded but found the strength to keep pushing forward. He ran as if the devil was nipping at his heels.
Another scream sounded from in front of us. It sounded like he s
aid the word “no” but his voice was choked with sobs. It was the saddest sound I’d ever heard from a man outside of the battlefield. It was as if someone had killed his best friend. I’d heard noises like that in the war more often than I’d like to recall. Those shuddering sobbing screams always tore out your heart. What in the hell happened?
We came around the corner to see Samantha looking up. Blood dripped from her lips, and D’avin’s brother was hanging limp in her arms. She reached up and snapped his neck before letting the body drop. D’avin was already racing towards her, a guttural scream pouring from his lips. It was fury mixed with sadness, and maybe just a touch of insanity. Losing family could do that to you, a brother or a sister made it even worse.
Samantha dropped into a crouch like she was ready to go to battle. I didn’t like where this was heading at all. D’avin pulled his staff from behind his back, and it extended the tips crackling to life with electric energy. He let out a burst of power so strong Samantha was thrown from her feet. She was still trying to recover when his staff started coming down towards her.
My gun was in my hand before I even knew what I was doing. The shot hit D’avin in the leg. It was enough that his strike with the staff missed. Samantha stood up and grabbed him. She bent his neck to the side and was about to strike.
“That’s enough!” I couldn’t begin to understand why I shouted for her to stop. Leaving D’avin alive was a mistake, one I was likely to regret.
Somehow my words reached her, and she looked at me. Her eyes glowed slightly red, and her fangs were descended. Blood was smeared all across her mouth, and her hair was a tangled mess. Even in that moment I found her beautiful. What in the hell was wrong with me?
She tossed D’avin aside and started moving towards us. He crawled to his brother and pulled him into his arms. He sat there rocking back and forth, tears streaming down his eyes. A few trickles of blood leaked from his leg but nothing that would be life threatening. I hoped the shot hadn’t made the limb useless, but even if it did, they had surgeries that could repair almost anything if you had the credits.
Maze was scanning the alley we had come down and the one other intersection that was visible. Somehow no one was coming towards the sound of gunfire or the wailing man in front of us. Samantha made it towards us, and I put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
I could tell Samantha wasn’t in a good place right now, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. These men had come here to kill her and she had only done what she needed to in order to survive. “Are you ok?”
She looked back at the man cradling his brother, and I saw a shiver pass through her body. “Not really.”
I hoped she could feel me through the link we shared. I wanted her to know that it was ok, and that she still had a place on the Talon with us. There were no judgments coming from me. I’d killed plenty of men and some of them weren’t even trying to kill me. This was something that was a reasonable action, not something she needed to doubt herself over. Tears had formed at the corners of her eyes. That was all I needed to be reminded that she had been human once. I knew she hadn’t come here looking for a fight, but after she had been attacked once she couldn’t risk it. I pulled her into a hug. “It might not feel like it now, but it will be all right.”
She sobbed against my shoulder. “I don’t think anything will ever be all right again.”
I pushed her back and looked into her eyes. “It will be, I promise.” Maze cleared her throat behind me, and that snapped me into action. “Let’s get you back to the Talon.” I brushed her hair back and pulled up her hood. I handed her off to Maze, and we started to leave.
D’avin screamed from behind us. “I don’t care where in the verse you go. I’ll track you down and kill you all.”
My first instinct was to put the man out of his misery. It probably would have been a kindness. I shook that thought off, there had already been enough killing. Despite the fact I’d have to look over my shoulder for this man, he was at the bottom of a long list of names. Get in line, asshole. I had just as many people that wanted me dead as I could call friends. One more wasn’t going to change anything.
“See to your brother, and try to forget about us. Next time, I won’t stop her from killing you.”
He said something, but I couldn’t make it out over his sobs. I hated leaving him there as broken as he was. He had seemed like a decent enough man. He was just doing what he had been taught. It was funny how that worked. You could both be trying to do the right thing and still end up on opposite sides of an issue. Maze and Samantha had already made it out of the alley, it was time for me to catch up. I hit my comm to call everyone back to the Talon. We wouldn’t be staying on Serenity for long after all.
CHAPTER 29
CAPTAIN DRAKE
It had been three days since we left Serenity. Gabe was still a little surly that he had been called back to the ship. Apparently, he had been in the middle of a little female companionship. Everyone else seemed to be ok. Ice had even started to bond with Samantha once she found out that she had been in flight school. They spent hours on the bridge, Ice bringing her up to date with all the new technology. It would be nice to have another pilot on board, it would give Ice a break when she needed it. That was if she ever decided to leave the bridge.
Things had slowed down to almost a crawl, and I was starting to get itchy. I needed something to do. Roaming the verse might be fine for some people, but for me it was almost as bad as being trapped in one place. Who would have thought I’d be searching for work instead of enjoying the momentary respite.
Our reinstatement papers to the mercenary’s guild had been accepted. We were restored with full privileges, which meant we could take whatever jobs we wanted to. I was scrolling through the listings now. I thought something easier might be in order considering that it was our first job back. So far nothing had caught my eye.
That also meant that Dr. Marcom didn’t know we were involved with what happened on Mars. He might have suspected it, but he didn’t know for sure. That was just fine by me as long as he stayed out of our hair. We would have to keep a low profile for a while and keep Samantha off of their radar. I was confident we could do just that, and after a while the heat level would die down, and life would get back to normal.
That didn’t mean it was all clear sailing and open skies. We had made an enemy out of the Brotherhood of the Light. While they didn’t have a presence in the rim or Alliance space, I knew D’avin would never stop looking for us. The death of a family member could easily push you to extremes. The loss of his brother might push him even further. I hoped that he would fade away, but I wouldn't count on it.
I’d just happened on a little smuggling job that felt right when my comm beeped. I accepted the contract and hit the button to accept the call. “Drake, here.”
“Captain, I might have found something,” Ice said.
“Well, I found us our next job, sending you the coordinates now.”
“Captain, this is serious. I found something on that secret project you had me working on.”
“You mean the one I only asked you to open and send to me, that I had strictly implied that you were no longer to be working on it.”
“That’s the one.” I could hear the smirk in her voice. “I think I found out what got Max killed.”
“Well if it’s shitty news like that, you should probably just lay it on me.”
“I don’t even know if he dug this out of the data but just knowing he had it might have been enough. I think I found out who was in charge of the scientist that abducted our favorite vampy friend.”
“You mean it’s not Dr. Marcom?”
“If this is right, he is in charge of the project, but all the funding is coming from a Mr. X.”
“Mr. X seriously…that’s all you’ve got?”
“Yeah, and some of the account numbers. I could probably start back tracing this stuff to find out more, but I wanted your permission first.”
&nb
sp; Was that something we even needed to get into right now? I knew it would be important to Samantha but I felt like what we really needed was to just get back to work. If we didn’t take the chance on this information now we might never get the chance again. I didn’t want to end up like Max, and there was the rest of my crew to think of. Tracking this information down might put all of their lives in unnecessary danger.
“Track him down, but slowly. I don’t want anyone finding out who’s poking around in his business.”
“You got it, Captain.”
The comm clicked off, and I returned back to my thoughts. A smuggling job was just the thing we needed to feel out our new team dynamic. Low risk, ok rewards. Just the kind of thing to ease our way back into the guild. It might be the last easy thing we got to do if Ice found this Mr. X. Once that happened, things were going to start moving quickly and wouldn’t slow down until one of us was dead.
EPILOGUE
DR. MARCOM
The phone was about to ring, and I didn’t exactly have the best news. Samantha had slipped through our fingers somehow, and the facility had been destroyed. Outside of losing our most promising asset, we also lost the entire staff at one of our facilities. They wouldn’t be easily replaced. My father had warned me to never disappoint Mr. X. It had always seemed like such a small worry. The man never called or showed up at any of the facilities. We just fed him all of our research, and he continued to send us the credits that funded all of our projects.
Now the phone was ringing, and I felt my heart jump into my throat. I liked my job and the lifestyle that it afforded me. All of that could be gone before I hung up the phone. It was such a simple thing, and yet it had gone so horribly wrong. I suspected the smuggler had something to do with it, but I didn’t have the proof I needed to hang him out to dry. With Mr. X, there was no guessing. When you spoke it had to be the truth, and it had to be supported by facts. I didn’t have any proof, at least not yet.
Genetic Purge (The Galactic Outlaws Book 2) Page 20