She shrugged and allowed herself a pleased grin. “I saw no reason to advertise our destination.”
“Thank you.” He nodded, his sincere gaze showering her with approval.
She didn’t need his damn approval.
Angel turned to navigation, but she couldn’t stop the glow of warmth he’d set off from making her stomach tighten—or from preventing her curiosity about the Rystani from escalating.
Chapter Three
FREE OF THE webbing, Kirek leaned over the console, peered at the vidscreen, and rubbed tightness from the back of his neck. Although Angel’s cleverness at misdirecting the Kraj appeared to have worked, he sensed … danger. However, nothing menacing showed on the computer’s systems.
“What?” Angel spun and confronted him, one hand fisted on a slender cocked hip, her eyes cool and assessing.
Kirek usually preferred to remain silent about his hunches until he could back them with factual data. But with his neck twitching and the mission so important, he made an exception. “The Kraj—”
“The Kraj,” Petroy spoke at the same moment, “just exited hyperspace. Distance less than one light year and closing.”
“Evasive tactics. Prepare to hyperjump again.” Angel leveled a piercing stare at Kirek. “How in hell did you know the Kraj would return?”
“I didn’t know.”
His intuition came often and was abnormally accurate. In the near future, he might need for her to accept his ability on faith. Besides, he liked showing off. It had been a long time since a woman had appreciated him for his unique abilities.
She raised her brow. “You just happened to guess they’d reappear in this quadrant of the galaxy … on a hunch?”
“Recalibrating hyperdrive.” Petroy’s hands waved over the console. The Kraj ship bore down on them with tremendous speed. “Kraj are loading weapons.”
“Jump to sector seven,” she ordered.
Kirek shook his head. “We don’t have time to hide in the dust clouds.”
Angel ignored his comment, but she tightened her lips in clear annoyance that he would question her decision. “On my mark. Jump.”
The webbing dropped again, and the hyperdrive engine engaged. Normal space disappeared, and the sensitivity of hyperspace returned. Kirek watched Angel tamp down her annoyance before she faced him once more. “I won’t tolerate command interference. If you ever again question my orders, you cannot remain on my bridge.”
“I apologize, Captain.” Kirek threaded his fingers through his hair and didn’t point out he’d only been making a suggestion. Apparently, questioning her command was a touchy subject. “I don’t believe we can lose ourselves in the cloud dust and outwit the Kraj.”
“Another hunch?” She lifted her chin, as if daring him to admit it.
“Partial hunch. Partial estimate from known facts.”
“What facts?” she snapped, drawing her body so taut her breasts lifted. Round breasts that appeared the perfect size to fill his palms. He imagined them swelling into his touch, the skin soft and smooth. Kirek knew enough about women to hide his admiration of her curves. Right about now, he didn’t need one of his hunches to realize that a show of interest in her very delicious-looking body would irritate her so much that she probably wouldn’t listen to a word he said.
Damn, his response to her was totally inappropriate, the timing ridiculous. He should be thinking about escaping the Kraj, but he couldn’t help himself, and he wondered if, along with his damaged psi, his judgment had been impaired. Finally, he managed to put his fascination on hold and kept his gaze locked above her neck. Mostly above the neck.
“The Kraj have stated they want me—not your salvage,” he pointed out.
She frowned. “You believe they’re trying to stop your mission?”
She caught on fast, even if she was eyeing him as if he had three brains. He shrugged and kept his tone unconcerned. “They seemed quite determined. That’s why we can’t simply outwait them in the dust clouds.”
She drummed her fingers on the console and then, as if she realized what she was doing, she clenched her hands. “What do you suggest?”
He respected that she was willing to listen. During his vast travels he’d found those with that ability rare. “What if we continue on to Dakmar as you’d originally planned?”
She eyed him but spoke to Petroy. “Status?”
“Exiting hyperspace.” The engines slowed. The webbing raised. The stars that had been appearing in space as streaking ribbons changed to stationary pinpoints. They’d popped out of hyperspace in a completely different quadrant—one that appeared empty of other spacecraft. “We’ve lost them, for now. But they may again appear right on our tail when we exit the clouds.”
“Keep me informed.” She eyed Kirek, her eyes glinting with speculation. While he couldn’t read her well, he didn’t believe her interest was hostile as much as curious. He could work with curious—especially when encased in a package as attractive as Angel’s. She gestured for him to follow her. “We will be in my work room, having a private chat.”
“Understood.” Petroy didn’t look up or change facial expression, but Kirek noted a tension in his shoulders that hadn’t been there before. Petroy’d had plenty of time to research Kirek’s background. While many of his activities and abilities had been kept secret, enough had made it into the public databases to make Petroy uncomfortable.
Beings who didn’t understand Kirek often feared him. Long ago he’d decided he could do nothing to change the short-sighted perceptions of others. As a child, and then later—before the wormhole blast had weakened his psi—he’d often wondered if being normal and accepted would be worth giving up his rare gifts. But now that he could no longer astral extend, he realized just how valuable his differences had been.
The freedom of leaving behind his body to soar with his mind through the universe at the speed of thought had been exhilarating. Yet for much of the time that he’d been separated from his body, he’d feared he wouldn’t make it back. Or if he did return, that his body would have died and he’d have been left alone to roam forever—as a spirit.
But after he’d reintegrated his mind with his body, he missed the freedom of astral extension. How human that was—always wanting to be in a state that he couldn’t have.
Angel’s workroom was tiny, organized with a vidscreen along one entire wall and bulkheads of dull gray bendar everywhere else. He saw no holopics of family, but personal items were shoved into cubbyholes and attached to shelves along the walls. A case of expensive frelle perched in a corner. Assorted bottles of Terran and Dellarin wine hung on a rack beside a painting from Scartar of an exotic green-skinned woman. Iridescent aqua seashells of a shape he’d never seen shared shelf space with rare books in a language he couldn’t read.
When a scruffy orange-and-white-striped animal tipped over a casket of glittering beads and lunged straight at Angel, Kirek used his psi to activate his suit. Moving at the speed of thought, placing his body between her and the menacing creature, he shielded her, his protective instincts and Rystani reflexes on automatic.
The creature slammed into his chest, all claws and hissing, the fur on its back rising. If not for the protection of the shield in his suit, the animal might have shredded his flesh.
Unhurt, Kirek grabbed the animal by the scruff of its furry neck. The creature screeched and hissed in protest.
“Don’t hurt Lion.” Angel barreled around him and reached for the feline.
Kirek frowned at her in confusion. “You keep a lion aboard your ship?”
He’d heard of the Earth animals that could be man-killers, with a nickname King of the Beasts, but he’d thought lions were larger. However, not even zoologists could be familiar with every life form on every world, and its small size didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. Many animals with high metabolisms could consume their own body weight a hundred times over in just a few hours. The way the creature had just attacked, Kirek suspected he was famished.
Although this one didn’t seem large enough to consume a human, he was taking no chances with her life and lifted the spitting creature out of Angel’s reach.
“‘Lion’ is my pet cat’s name.” She used null grav in her suit to float her to the beast and gently took him into her hands. The animal immediately settled into her arms, but the hair on its neck still stood straight up.
She had a pet. A living, breathing cat.
“I thought he was attacking you.”
“He was.” Angel grinned and cuddled the cat against her chest and under her chin. Clearly, she was in no danger. She threaded her fingers through the animal’s coat—his fur flattened, and he purred. If she’d held him against her chest and stroked him like that, Kirek would have purred, too.
Shoving aside his jealousy, he eyed the cat curiously. “You keep a pet on the ship?”
“I have his suit adjusted to automatic, and he likes it in space.” Her voice softened as she held Lion. “We’ve been together a long time. I rescued him from the streets about ten years ago. When I took off in the Raven, I tried to leave him behind with a friend, but the rascal stowed aboard.”
Her cat had a suit? He’d never heard of such a thing. “I’ve never had the luxury of owning a pet.”
“Cats aren’t a luxury. On Earth, you can pick one up for free at any animal center.”
“On Rystan, it was difficult enough to keep people fed. After my family moved to Mystique, I made one journey after another.”
He’d never had time to make friends with other children, but the lack of others his own age hadn’t bothered him since he’d had so little in common with them. He’d preferred the company of adults. However, a pet would have been a wonderful companion, and his heart lifted at the prospect of spending time with a domesticated animal. He broke into a wide smile of pleasure. “May I pet …”
“Lion?” She plucked the cat from her chest and let him look at Kirek. “He may not forget your rough treatment. He doesn’t like being held by the neck.” She spoke softly to her pet as if he was an intelligent being. “Lion, this is Kirek, a Rystani warrior who is on a mission to save the galaxy from the Zin.”
“You weren’t supposed to tell him that.” Kirek admonished, grin widening. “My mission’s a secret.”
“Lion can’t talk.”
“Sure he can.”
He let the animal sniff his hand then gently took the furry feline who gazed back at him, his yellow eyes wary, his back arched and stiff. He let out another sharp hiss.
Angel snorted but played along. “What’s he saying? That he doesn’t like you?”
Kirek stroked the soft fur, but the animal didn’t purr for him like it had for Angel. However, his fur finally lay down, and Kirek figured that was at least some progress. Lion’s stomach growled, and he wriggled to get down. Kirek wanted to hold him but wouldn’t force his will on a pet. “He says he’s hungry.”
“He’s always hungry.” She plucked a container out of a drawer and placed a handful of pellets into a fired clay bowl that was attached to an automatic watering device. “Cats are supposed to be picky. But Lion will eat anything.”
He expected the cat to gobble the food, but it ate daintily, chewing one piece thoroughly before going on to the next. The dry food didn’t look too appetizing, but as Angel had predicted, Lion didn’t mind.
Angel rested her hands on her hips, and her tone became guarded. “I suppose since you thought Lion was a threat and that you might be risking life and limb to protect me that I should thank you.”
He shrugged and tried to keep the sheepish expression from his face. “I’ve never seen a cat.”
Her eyes flashed with indignation. “Did you think I’d allow a dangerous creature on board?”
“You let me aboard.” He stepped closer and crowded her just a little. “And we are now alone. In my book, that’s a lot of trust.”
Didn’t she understand how tempting she was? What a vulnerable position she’d placed herself in by relying on his honor?
She rolled her eyes at the bulkhead. “You aren’t dangerous … to me.”
He allowed a measure of heat to enter his gaze. “I wouldn’t be so certain. You have no inkling of my intentions.”
She laughed, and her words turned bold. “So then tell me, Mr. I’m-so-noble-and-I’m-on-a-quest-to-save-the-galaxy-from-the-Zin, what are your intentions?”
Angel didn’t have a clue that Kirek found her sassy sense of humor attractive. While Kirek loved his mother, Miri, and accepted her traditional choice to tend hearth and home, he’d always enjoyed the company of independent women like his Aunt Tessa, who ran Mystique, and Alara, an Endekian scientist trying to discover secrets within her people’s biology who’d married Xander, another male of his family. But that he was attracted to Angel on a physical level as well as a mental one struck him like a sucker punch to the jaw. If he had his full psi, would he feel the same way? He had no idea.
Until now, he’d never believed in chemistry, or in that special zing of awareness that others claimed slammed them when they met the right person. But Kirek was fighting his attraction to her on every level. In that unguarded moment when he’d held her during the Kraj attack, he’d opened his suit’s filters, and her citrus scent had invaded his lungs, seared his brain, and now haunted him. Just the sound of her voice contradictorily relaxed and stimulated him.
Looking at her was a treat. Her tall and slender body had plenty of female curves to draw his eyes to places they had no right to go. Her face might not have been beautiful in a traditional sense, but her animated expression and the brazen challenge in her eyes fired his imagination.
Besides, he wasn’t averse to enjoying a woman during his mission. The only question was how direct should he be? Because damaged psi or not, he most definitely intended to pursue her. But he sensed she didn’t need to know that yet.
However, he had just the item to attract her interest. “What would you say about going after the biggest salvage haul in Federation history?”
Lion licked his paw. Angel sucked in her breath, and her eyes brightened. “You do know how to tempt a girl. Tell me more.”
“We’re talking about an entire world of metal—solid bendar, millions of miles of wiring, the latest in electronics, circuitry, and mechanical systems.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, as if bracing herself against falling for a trick. “A world of metal?”
“An entire planet that is about the size of Jupiter.”
“Jupiter? How do you know about Earth’s solar system?” Suspicion clouded her eyes.
“I was on Earth to stop the Zin virus from coming through the wormhole.”
“You were on Earth, but you’ve never seen a cat?” she scoffed.
“We were in the desert. A remote area on the southern continent of Africa. All I saw was sand and sky and more sand.”
She drummed her fingers on the counter. “An entire planet of metal?”
“Yes.” He kept back his grin. He’d used the right bait. Despite her disbelief, he read the thrill of the chase in her eyes.
“How come I’ve never heard of such a world?”
“The information isn’t readily available.”
“Then how did you hear about it? How do you know your data is accurate?”
“I’ve seen the world.”
She arched a skeptical brow. “What’s the catch?”
“To reach the world of metal, we have to find an ancient portal left behind by the Perceptive Ones. To find the portal, we have to go to Dakmar.”
“I don’t understand.”
“On Dakmar, I’m meeting someone who will give me the portal’s coordinates.”
“Why not just head straight for the metal planet?”
Here came the tricky part. “It’s in another galaxy.”
“Another galaxy? Stars, are you insane?”
“I saw it.”
“Really? How did you see it?”
“That’s a long story—
and even with hyperdrive it’s a very long trip.” Before she could tell him that he was out of his mind again, he quickly added, “However, with the portal, we can get there in a … timely fashion.”
Her eyes widened. “A portal that sends ships to another galaxy? That’s how you got there?”
“No,” he admitted, his hope rising that she really might come with him. Kirek had never planned to complete this mission alone. After he arrived on Dakmar, he’d always intended to purchase a ship and find a crew. While he didn’t know if the portal would send an entire ship or just him alone into the Andromeda Galaxy, his plan required human backup. His approach had to be done by stealth, so he couldn’t accept any help from those at home on Mystique, who would be watched closely by Zin spies.
“And how would we get back with an entire planet?”
He liked her use of the word “we.” As if she was already thinking of them as a team, she’d moved right to the practical aspects of the journey. “Once I sneak in and defeat the Zin, you can slice up the planet and return through the portal.” He hoped. He didn’t know for certain exactly how the portal worked.
She heaved a sigh of aggravation. “This is crazy. You have no idea if there’s even a portal in this galaxy, never mind one in the next. Or if it’s big enough to send through an entire planet.”
“I’m not guessing. My mathematics are accurate.”
“I suppose you have a math degree from MIT?”
He grinned. His credentials weren’t from the best college on Earth, but the most elite university in the Federation. “Actually I possess dual degrees in physics and math from the Zenon Institute.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, but his extraordinary education didn’t throw her. “You said you saw this Zin world?”
“Yes.”
“If you didn’t use the portal, how did you get there to see it?”
“When the Zin opened the wormhole on Earth to send through a virus, I astral extended.”
Rystani Warrior 04 - The Quest Page 4