Smuggler’s Legacy
Bradford Bates
Copyright © 2017 Bradford Bates
All rights reserved. This book is an original work of fiction, licensed for your personal enjoyment only. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover design by: Rebecca Frank
Edited by Jeanie Creech
Proofreading by Becky Bates
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Acknowledgments
Also by Bradford Bates
Before They Were Galactic Outlaws
Chapter 1
Samantha
“Is that an alarm I hear in the background?” Drake’s voice growled in my ear.
There wasn’t time to answer him just yet, not until I dealt with the three men that were following me. The good news was they were only human, and poorly trained humans at that. They weren’t even checking the doors or corridors they were passing. Instead, they were just sprinting after me as fast as they could. Not that they could ever catch me when I was using my enhanced speed.
I guess the thought of telling Vigo they lost his most recent acquisition was scarier than doing their job properly. Every door they left unchecked behind them was a death sentence waiting to happen. I planned on using the sloppy nature of their chase to eliminate them quickly. Then maybe I could even do something about the damned alarm.
Dropping out of vampire speed, I stopped at an intersection and waited for the men to reappear. When they did, I waved at them and gave them a hearty I’ve got what you want smile before turning to the left and slowly jogging down the hall. A few blaster bolts skipped off the walls as the men rounded the intersection at full speed. There was nothing quite like the smell of burnt ozone in the morning.
Before the men made it around the next corner, I jumped to the roof and used my ability to cling there. Two of the men ran past, guns still pressed to their shoulders ready to fire at the first sign of me. The third man came wheezing around the corner a few moments later. His gun held loosely in one hand while the other clung to his ribs as he tried to suck in enough oxygen to keep going.
He stopped almost directly underneath me letting his gun fall to the side as he grasped his knees and tried to catch his breath. Inching forward along the roof until I was directly over him, I waited for him to start running again. He stood there wheezing, and I was about to drop down on top of him when his radio sounded.
“Check in, George.”
He sucked in a few deep breaths trying to stabilize himself enough to speak. “I’m right behind you guys.”
“Yeah, that’s what I told Scott, but he said you fell back a while ago.”
“Why’s it so fucking important where I am?”
A new voice came over his comm. “It’s important because we lost her, and we need to know where you are so we can start working our way back to you checking the rooms.”
“What do you mean you lost her? Jesus Scott, we’re all going to hang for this. If she gets away, we’re totally fucked!”
“Well, maybe if your fat ass kept up, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.”
The one below me that was named George swore loudly before he pressed down on his mic to talk again. “If you think you can pin this on me, you son of a bitch, you have another thing coming.”
“Enough, you two!” said the first voice I heard. “George, just send us your position, and we’ll start making our way back to you.”
“Roger that,” George said as he started breathing softer for the first time. He hit a button on his wrist that must have sent his position to the team before he mumbled. “I’m not taking the fall for this because those assholes can run faster than me.”
I dropped from the roof landing silently behind George. His breathing was finally under control, but his pulse was still thrumming along like a freight train. I’d used a lot of energy during my escape, and it was time to replenish. I reached out and tapped George on the shoulder. He spun hand dipping down to catch his rifle where it was strapped over one shoulder. His hand reached the grip, and I clamped mine down on top of it, pinning his arm to his side. With my other hand, I spun him against the wall and kept his rifle firmly pressed in place.
My fangs descended, and I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t every day I got to feed on the good stuff. Real human blood, straight from the tap was a luxury. In fact, I mostly preferred to feed on the bagged stuff even though it was so bland. I didn’t really enjoy killing people just to eat, but for assholes like the guards Vigo hired, well, I was just making the world a better place. George’s face twisted in terror as he started to scream, then my fangs sank into his throat silencing him forever.
Sure, I could have fed and left him alive, but I was always afraid that my victims would wake back up. The last thing the world needed was a sociopath with vampiric abilities on the loose. Still, I didn’t know if I could even make more vampires, but I wasn’t going to take the chance on a guy like George. I finished feeding and then snapped his neck before shoving his cold body away from me.
There was only one person I wouldn’t mind feeding on and seeing where it went, and that was Drake. God, he was a piece of eye candy, with a damn good personality to boot. You didn’t find that very often. It was too bad he was already in love with the bane of my existence. Ok, Maze wasn’t really that bad. She just had something that I wanted, and it pissed me off to no end.
Drake had it bad for her, and I wasn’t going to step in the middle of it. Sure it would have been one hell of a fight between us, but if I killed her, and I most surely would, then I wouldn’t have a place on the Talon anymore; and I was sure Drake wouldn’t want anything to do with me. So I settled for dropping fun little innuendos to make him a little uncomfortable whenever we talked, but still I had to resign myself to the fact that I was going to have to move on. Plus, I was pretty sure that I was going to live forever or damned close to it. That meant I still had a shot if their relationship ever took a turn for the worse.
The footsteps were getting closer, so I jumped to the ceiling again and waited for the men to come around the corner. They didn’t even pause when they saw George’s dead body; they just sprinted straight to him. Maybe these guys were
too dumb to live. I was doing the world’s gene pool a favor by taking them out of it. I mean who sees a dead body, and doesn’t think, this is a trap?
When they reached George one of the men bent down, and the other kept his rifle aimed down the hallway. He turned to look the way they had come and then snapped back around just as quickly. His partner went to check on George’s pulse and then yanked his hand back from his neck almost as soon as he had touched it.
“Jesus Scott, looks like an animal ripped his goddamned throat out.”
“What in the fuck are you babbling about?”
The man just stood back up and shined his light on George’s neck. Scott looked at the wound and let out a low whistle. “Lucky bastard.” His friend just shook his head looking appalled. “What? He’s getting off easy. Vigo’s going to cut our nuts off and make us eat them before he kills us.”
“Only if she gets away.”
“Are you blind, mate? She’s already fucking gone.”
I dropped down behind them. “I haven’t left quite yet.” Both men turned towards me, and the look of surprise on their faces was priceless. I grabbed their heads and slammed them together. Their heads hit hard enough that it sounded like I had crashed a car into a solid steel wall at sixty, but their brains didn’t splatter everywhere. That was a plus. Nothing really said you don’t belong here like walking down the street covered in brains. It also meant I was learning how to control my strength. It wasn’t all that long ago I wouldn’t have been able to stop their heads from exploding on impact.
With my pursuit down, it felt like the right time to get back to Drake and company. “Any ideas on how to turn off this god awful racket?”
“I told you she was fine.” Maze’s voice came over the line with just a hint of an edge to it.
“Yeah well, even vampires need help sometimes,” Drake replied.
“Not as often as you’d think,” I broke back into their chat. The line went silent for a moment before Ice spoke.
“Just put one of my little devices on any computer in there, and I should be able to stop the alarm and unlock the doors. From what I’ve seen of Vigo’s system, he isn’t much for cybersecurity.”
“A man like Vigo counts on his reputation to keep people away. There probably isn’t another crew in the Midrim that would take him on directly like we are now,” I said almost casually as I moved into one of the rooms off the hall. It didn’t take long to find a terminal and place one of Ice’s wireless hacking devices on it.
The alarms stopped, and Drake’s voice came back over the comm. “The whole point of sending in Samantha was so that he didn’t know it was us stealing from him. The guy is a psycho with enough money to put a bounty on all of our heads.”
Gabe piped in. “No way to know if the plan worked until we scan the bounty board.”
“Now that’s a pleasant thought,” Maze chirped with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“Just get out of there and meet us back on the Talon,” Drake said before the line closed.
The hard part was done, and the resistance was down. Despite the fact that the alarm was off, I didn’t have a lot of time. Vigo wouldn’t be able to reach any of his men which meant he was probably on the way here with backup. So the sooner I got out of here the better. Bending down, I grabbed a key card off one of the guards and started running again.
The card worked to open the door at the stairs. I knew Ice said she would have them open, but I figured why wait for the hack to take place. As long as she had the door at the top of the stairs open when I got there I’d be good. The stairs rushed by in a blur as I took them three and four at a time never breaking stride. Forty stories later I came out on the roof. Ice had done her part. The door was open, and now it was time for me to complete mine.
I lived for this shit, literally. I loved being able to do things normal humans can’t. It had taken me awhile to come to some kind of grip with the fact that I was different and that I’d never be the Samantha that worked at the diner and went to flight school again; but I’d gotten there. Well, at least for the most part. There were still days I looked back on my old life and wished that I could have seen where I was going to end up. I’d probably have been dead by now, with my kids and grandkids carrying on my legacy. Now I didn’t even know if it was possible for me to have children. I doubted that it was. No one ever wrote a book about vampire babies.
Kneeling down, I strapped on the device Gabe dropped on the roof for me hours ago. I double checked all the harnesses and then ran towards the edge of the roof. Eighty flights up was the lowest I’d ever jumped with this particular rig, but it should still be fine from forty. If it didn’t work, I’d need the doc to scrape me up and pump me full of blood. That was if a vampire could even survive a forty story fall. I kind of had my doubts about that, despite the wounds I’d healed from. Going splat seemed pretty final.
My foot hit the edge, and I flew out over the empty space. I’d managed to add another ten feet of height and about thirty of distance before gravity decided it was time to make me its bitch. I started falling and didn’t waste any time hitting the button on my pack. The world’s smallest parachute opened. It was about four feet across with another foot of wing on each side. It was about two feet deep, so I could see the sky around me as I started to fall.
The ground was coming up really fast when the wings finally did their thing. I had no idea if the chute actually worked or if I just caught the luckiest of all updrafts. Still, I was in business now. I used the two arm straps to turn myself towards the space station and rode the momentum, covering at least a few miles before I started to slowly spiral down to the ground.
The landing was a lot softer than I had expected. When my feet touched the ground I hit the same button, and the chute pulled itself back into the bag on my back. Unstrapping the harness from around my waist and thighs, I tucked it into the bag making it look like any other backpack. Once everything was secure I started moving forward. It wouldn’t be long before I was back on the Talon, back home, back with my family.
Chapter 2
Captain Drake
Samantha strutted up the onramp like she owned the world. The skin-tight leather pants and fitted leather jacket didn’t do anything to dissuade the general public from that impression. That and her hips had quite the wiggle in them today. If I hadn’t made the choice to be with Maze, I’d have been following her around like a puppy. There were a few guys that had followed her close to the ship, but they all found somewhere else to be when I went down to greet her.
It was a good thing none of them had gotten a closer look at her. That or she looked so damn hot they didn’t care, but even I would have thought twice about approaching a woman whose mouth and hands were covered in blood. The blood around her mouth had been smeared as if she tried to rub her mouth off on her jacket, but it hadn’t quite worked. Now all of the blood had dried leaving her mouth covered in a dry crust. Shit, who was I kidding? If this had been ten years ago, I’d have been able to see past it, just for a chance to take her back to my cabin.
“Next time we are going to have to outfit you with a few wet wipes.” I pointed at my own mouth and made a circle with my finger.
Samantha’s tongue darted out and tasted the dried blood on her lips. “Oh, I didn’t even notice.”
“That and the hands,” I said with a little chuckle. It was funny the things you could get used to given enough time.
She looked down and then shrugged before meeting my eyes. “It’s almost like you’re not happy to see me.”
She pulled out a small bundle from inside of her coat, revealing just a hint of skin between her pants and the bottom of her shirt. I couldn’t stop myself from taking it all in. I was an old dog, and changing my behavior at this point wasn’t going to happen in a day, if ever. The bundle found its way into my hands, and I looked back up to see Samantha smirking at me.
“Any time you come back with a prize like this, I’m happy to see you.”
Samant
ha brushed past me drawing my gaze towards her as she slapped her butt and continued into the Talon. “Plus my ass looks amazing in these pants.”
“Yeah it does,” I muttered as I moved towards the crate at the bottom of the ramp.
“I heard that,” Samantha called back from inside the Talon.
Fuck. There I went forgetting about her super hearing, again. My mouth was trying to cash checks my dick couldn’t cover. Thankfully Maze knew I wasn’t going to act on any of those thoughts. Still, it wouldn’t hurt for me to keep my big fat mouth shut. The last thing any woman wanted to hear was her man talking about another woman’s ass. Shaking my head, I placed the bundle Samantha handed me into the crate. After closing the crate I paid the delivery fee and watched as a robot pulled away from the wall to collect the newly sealed package. Another job done, and just in time for us to get to the next one.
The robot picked up the crate for shipping and moved away from the Talon. I headed back up the ramp and into my baby. This ship meant almost as much to me as the people on it. The Talon was our chance to be free from governments, to take work where and when we wanted it. Without this ship, I’d have just been another angry vet, one that didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with himself after leaving the service. Now I had people to look out for, and they were my new family. I couldn’t imagine life getting much better than it was right now.
The holo unit in my pocket beeped confirming our payment had been received. That was probably the fastest I’d ever been paid after a job. It didn’t always hurt taking a job from a billionaire, especially when they didn’t try and double cross you. It seemed not too many people were willing to get on the wrong side of Vigo for a hundred and fifty thousand credits. The man had a reputation of taking these kind of things personal. Guess he shouldn’t have stolen the gun from someone who had more money than he did.
Smuggler's Legacy (The Galactic Outlaws Book 3) Page 1