by Natalie Grey
“Another … skier.” Alec’s lips were bleeding. He clutched at Yelena’s shirt, leaving a bloody smear. “I was … wrong guy. They’re going to kill him. On the slope. Have to save him…”
All of a sudden, Bellatrix’s hackles went up. The Enemy, the man with the weak scent like a wolf, was looking at Yelena. And Bellatrix did not like the way he was looking. He snatched at something on the ground.
The man screamed, “There is only power!” his hand raising up.
Get out of the way!
But Yelena didn’t hear, all of her attention was focused on her brother.
There was no thought, no hesitation. Bellatrix leapt in front of her mistress as the gun went off with a roar.
“NO!” The scream was raw, ripped from her throat.
Yelena heard a sizzle of energy and a blaze of heat nearby, and the man with the gun screamed in a way she was sure she would never forget, but she couldn’t pay attention to any of it. She was at Bellatrix’s side, pressing her hands desperately over the flow of blood. “No, no, take me—take me, instead. Trix. Trix!”
Tears were running down her cheeks. She had come here to save Alec, and while she had Alec, she had gotten Bellatrix killed.
Yelena was sobbing, rocking back and forth as Bellatrix wheezed with pain. There had been no doubt in the dog, nothing but the absolute, pure love of one pack mate to another.
She didn’t deserve that kind of love. “You saved me,” Yelena whispered. Tears were running down her cheeks. “You saved me, and I can’t save you. I’m so sorry.”
You saved me, too. The thought held no pain and no fear, only love. I would never let you be hurt.
“Gott Verdammt! ERIC!” Bethany Anne shouted and then Eric was there. The man levered his arms beneath Bellatrix’s body.
“Come with me,” he told Yelena.
“No—no, just let me be with her.” It was a childish plea, but she couldn’t bear to let Bellatrix be in more pain.
“We will save her.” He picked Bellatrix up and ran for the door.
“It’s not possible,” Yelena whispered.
But Ecaterina hauled her up. “Come on. Leave your brother with John, he’ll be okay. We have to get to the Pod!”
“Go,” Alec called weakly. He had blood smeared around his mouth for some reason, but he already looked stronger. “I’ll be fine, go.”
Yelena didn’t know what a Pod was, and she didn’t care. She took off after Eric. If there was a chance of saving Bellatrix, she would do anything.’
Bethany Anne watched the black Pods take off, heading into the sky. She’d given Eric very exact instructions but she had another task and called Pete to join her.
The trip through the forest was quick, and they found the underworld lackey without much trouble. He was flailing around in the dark. Perhaps he thought he was quiet, but both she and Pete could easily hear him. When they stepped out from the trees in front of him, the man froze.
“Hello,” Bethany Anne said pleasantly. Her eyes went red, her fangs slid out. “Going somewhere?”
The wolf next to her chuffed in anticipation.
The man stumbled back. “Emilian?”
“Not so sadly, not with us any longer.” Bethany Anne stalked forward. “He’s paid for his sins. Are you ready to pay for yours?”
“Please—please, I was only trying to stay alive!” But he felt her hands on his head, dragging him down as she looked into all of his thoughts.
“Earlier this evening, I found another one of you assholes. Do you know what I told him?”
“No.” He was sobbing with fear.
“I told him that I would let him go because he had a child to protect … and because he hadn’t actually taken part in Emilian’s crimes.”
Oh, no.
“Marcel, you are judged and I have found you guilty.” The last thing Marcel ever saw was red eyes blazing down at him. He only lived another moment, but it was a moment filled with every agony he had inflicted on the man back at the house.
Multiplied.
Bethany Anne let the now inert body drop into the snow. “What you sow, so shall you reap. Your deeds will come back to you tenfold. Enjoy hell.”
She looked around herself. It only took a few moments before she sensed a faint pulse of life nearby. As she pushed her way through the underbrush, she let herself fade back to looking human.
The skier lay on the ground, half delirious. His eyes focused on Bethany Anne. “Are you … real?”
“I’m real.” She crouched down next to him in the snow. “We have to get you to safety.”
“Dangerous.” He barely made out the word. “And I’m going crazy. Saw a big wolf. A big wolf. So big.”
Bethany Anne motioned to Pete to stay back. “Now, now, I’m sure you didn’t see that.”
“I know.” The skier’s head lolled and he winced as she picked him up. “It’s … crazy, right?”
“I hear people hallucinate all sorts of things,” Bethany Anne told him, her voice soothing. “But there’s no reason to be afraid. No wolves around.”
“Uh-huh.”
Theo passed out before he thought to ask just how a slender woman was carrying him so easily.
On the G’laxix Sphaea, Hidden in a Romania Forest
Three days later, Yelena opened her eyes, and stared up into a friendly face.
“Hi!” Ecaterina offered her a hand to get up. “So. How are you feeling?”
“Good. Better than good.” Yelena stretched. “I feel like I slept for a week.”
“Almost.” Ecaterina handed her a shirt and pants. “You’re all healed now.”
“I wasn’t hurt.” She felt a bit guilty about that. “How is Bellatrix?”
“Out and frolicking in the snow. Absolutely fine.” Ecaterina gestured to a heavy winter coat. “You two just took a while to wake up so you got moved in here. And you might not have been injured, but you could say the pod-doc cures … everything. So old injuries, muscle knots, all of that. You’ve been upgraded. So has Alec.”
Somewhere across the room, Alec gave a sleepy mumble.
“Alec!” Yelena went over to look down at him, and winced when she saw he was naked. “Get this man some pants.”
Ecaterina threw them across the room, laughing.
“How do you feel?” Yelena asked him. Her brother’s skin was completely clean. No trace of the torture remained there, and she could not even see the scar he’d gotten when he was twelve, on a sharp rock in the river.
“Good.” Alec sat up. “I had some weird dreams, though. And where are we? Some kind of hospital?”
Yelena and Ecaterina exchanged a look.
“Sort of,” Yelena explained. “We’d better take you to see Bethany Anne and then get you setup in a hotel.”
Chapter Nine
Virgil Baciu settled back into his chair. His smile was confident. He had heard nothing from his contacts in the countryside, but Theo was still missing.
Whatever had happened, it was clear that his rival was not coming back. He thought of Theo’s wife, Mariana, and a cold smile touched his lips.
It had never been about business for Virgil. The truth was that he could never forgive Theo for winning Mariana’s heart. And now that Theo was gone, Virgil was sure it was only a matter of time before he could make Mariana fall in love with him.
But first, he would take everything else Theo had valued—starting with his business. He looked down at the contract on the table in front of him. The people selling him the business were late for this meeting, which irked him, but there were no other buyers now that Theo was out of the picture. They would have to sell to Virgil to avoid bankruptcy, and Virgil had also readied himself to buy Theo’s company for a pittance when word finally broke that the man was dead.
Maybe he should take up skiing as well. He laughed softly to himself.
The door opened behind him, and Virgil allowed contempt to touch his voice.
“You’re finally here. Good.”
<
br /> “How interesting.” The voice was amused. “I didn’t think you’d be pleased to see me.”
Virgil spun in his chair, his jaw gaping open. “But you….”
“Should be dead?” Theodor Dimitru smiled coldly.
He certainly wasn’t dead, and to add insult to injury, he looked … well, taller than Virgil remembered. More muscular. The very picture of health.
“I’m so glad to see you alive.” The words tasted bitter as Virgil forced them out.
“I don’t think you are,” Theo said quietly. He reached out to open the door, and two policemen came into the room. “And they don’t, either. They know everything, Virgil. They know you hired people to kill me.”
“Wait—how did you—” But Virgil was hauled out of the room before he could say anything else.
Theo smiled after him and then took a moment to look over Virgil’s contract as the business owners filed into the room. He smiled up at them.
“Well, now, gentleman. Should we talk about transfer of ownership? I think I can offer you much better terms than my competitor.”
“Thank you so much.” Yelena hugged Ecaterina tightly. “Thank you all,” she added, grinning at all of them. She couldn’t stop smiling these days. Sometimes, she was so happy she thought she might cry—though she thought of what her no-nonsense grandmother would say to that and kept her tears inside. She couldn’t stop the smiles, though.
“How is your brother?” Bethany Anne pointed to the door of the hotel room.
The door opened a second later. “I thought I heard voices,” Alec said, peeking out into the hallway.
“You should be resting!” Yelena shooed him back toward the door.
“I should be dead,” Alec said simply. He smiled at his twin, and then at the group assembled there. “Instead I just feel a bit tired from the healing.” He flexed an arm, “I think my muscles may be getting bigger.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” John nodded. He put his hand to his ear for a moment and leaned in to talk to Bethany Anne. “The Pods will be here to pick us up in a moment.”
Bethany Anne nodded, but she was still looking at Yelena. “So … do you want to come see the rest of the crew?”
“Where are they?” Yelena didn’t understand for a moment, and then her eyes got huge. “Wait. In space?”
“Why not?” Bethany Anne grinned. “You’re both doing well.”
“I can’t leave Bellatrix.”
“You don’t have to. Ashur lives on the ship with me,” Bethany Anne explained. “And, by the way, about Bellatrix—”
“She’s bigger,” Yelena interrupted. “And that’s saying something. And last night….”
“Yes?” Bethany Anne smiled. She had a feeling that Yelena’s nanocytes were doing new things now that she’d been exposed to the pod-doc.
“I had the weirdest dream,” Yelena muttered. “It was like I was…”
“A wolf?” Pete suggested.
“No, not quite.” Yelena shook her head as she tried to remember. “I had paws, though. I wasn’t human. I was….” She broke off, and her eyes got wide. “I was Bellatrix!” She shrugged, “Weird.”
“I don’t think that was a dream,” Bethany Anne suggested. “I would think, based on my time with Ashur, that what you are experiencing is real.”
Yelena’s lips pressed together before she replied, “I really was seeing something from inside of her head, you mean?”
“Yes. And it’s something we could test for you up on the ship. I’m sure the whole team would be interested.” Bethany Anne thought about something for a moment before continuing. “And I think Ashur and Bellatrix are sweet on each other, too, so there’s that.”
“They are, aren’t they?” Yelena grinned. “Well, I suppose I could at least go see it. What d’you think, Alec?”
He smiled but shook his head, “I think I’ll go home and be the responsible twin for once,” he chuckled. “You go, I’ll get home on my own.”
“Can you?” Yelena asked.
“Maybe I’ll need to be tended to by the cute receptionist for a few days.” He winked. “Seriously, I’ll be fine. You go.”
“And you promise—”
“No, I won’t tell Mom where you went.”
“Thanks,” Yelena said, in relief and turned to Bethany Anne. “Okay, let’s go.”
Eric led the way down the corridors and out into the sunshine. There was a scuffling noise in the forest and all of a sudden, Pete started laughing.
“What? What is it?”
Ashur emerged from the underbrush, snow coating his fur. Bellatrix followed him, also disheveled.
“Uh, I don’t think they’re just sweet on each other,” Pete explained. “I think you might have some puppies on the way.”
Yelena sank her face into her hands as everyone started laughing.
Chapter Ten
“Bobby B!” William called out as he strode across the floor of the hangar bay. “That lager came in, if you want to come test it.” He looked at Bobcat’s latest effort to play with a helicopter. “Ah, what’s that you’re working on?”
“Better stabilization for Shelly 3.0.” Bobcat held up a tiny piece of equipment with a triumphant grin. About the size of a marble, it emitted a tiny ticking sound as he plugged it into a drone. “This little beauty means that even our Queen isn’t going to be able to make my girl flip.”
“Was that a problem?” William frowned as he stared at the drone. He stepped back as the blades whirred into motion and the drone rose into the air.
“Hell yeah. Do you have any idea how much force she can summon when she jumps somewhere?” Bobcat mumbled, playing with the controls.
William watched the little bladed devil. His friend was hell on wheels in a real helicopter, but there had been Band-Aid accidents in here before, “I thought she could just … you know, disappear.” He asked, keeping his eyes focused on the little killer.
“She can.” Bobcat maneuvered the drone into the center of the open area. “But let’s just say, sometimes she likes to make an entrance. And I like my girl not to flip over when she does. Watch.” The drone had been loaded with projectiles. As Bobcat pulled a tiny trigger on the controls, the projectiles shot out one by one. The recoil should have sent the drone tumbling, but it barely rocked as it hung in place.
William nodded and grinned, and then ducked and turned as one of the rotors came flying off, “Hey!”
Bobcat’s eyes lifted, “Of course, there are other problems,” he shrugged as he landed the drone. He retrieved the rotor and looked at it, “That should teach you always to have on your eye protection. Now we need to make new blades. But I’ve got Jean helping me with that. Some of the stuff she makes the armor out of, and….” His voice trailed away on a strangled note, his eyes not looking at the blade in his hand.
“What?” William looked behind him to see what had caught Bobcat’s eye.
“Uh … hi.” The woman lingering in the doorway waving her hand back and forth was tall and slender. Black hair flowed down over her shoulders, and her grey eyes were large. Her face was fine-boned, her mouth small—but smiling tentatively as her eyes took things in around the work area. “Am I interrupting anything? I’m just exploring.”
“Uh, you should, um….” Bobcat swallowed.
William’s smirk was tiny, so far. “Hi, I’m William. And you are?”
“Yelena.” She stuck out a hand as he walked over to her.
Bobcat had the sudden, strong urge to beat his friend with a broken drone. Well, it would be broken as soon as he hit William over the head with it.
Repeatedly.
“You really should stick to the civilian portions of the ship,” William was explaining. “If you came in with the last batch of civilians—”
“Oh, I thought … uh, I came up with Bethany Anne and Ecaterina and everyone.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry, we met in Romania, and she invited me up. If you’ve seen a big black German Shepherd, th
at’s my dog, Bellatrix.”
He nodded, “I did hear something about that.” William rubbed his chin. “So you’re allowed to be around here?”
Yelena’s voice was polite, but pretty positive, “Oh, yeah. John said I could look around.”
Bobcat groaned. If he was competing with John, he didn’t have a hope in the world. Except that Jean had John and Bobcat could get John re-focused by accidentally on purpose saying something to Jean.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t get John killed before the truth came out.
The woman stared at him curiously. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Well,” he ran his hand through his hair, smiling. “Bobcat.”
“Bob … cat?” She pronounced the name carefully. “Is that an American name?”
“Nah, it was my call sign and it just stuck.” Bobcat wiped his sweaty palms on his shirt before shaking her hand. It was funny, he’d had all sorts of things he was planning to do today—something really important, as far as he could remember—but he couldn’t think of a single one right now. “So you’re, uh … you’re staying on the ship?”
“Just for now. To look around. And they want to do some tests on me and Bellatrix.” She hunched her shoulders. She was smiling at him.
Smiling. At him.
Dimly, he thought he heard William say something. He looked over at his friend, who for some reason was smirking, “Huh?”
“Lager,” he pointed back behind him, “I said, are you gonna come test that lager?”
“Yeah, be right there.” Bobcat could almost taste the cold beer sliding across his tongue.
Yelena’s face fell. “I’ll get going, then. It was nice to meet you—William, Bobcat.” She gave Bobcat a smile as she said his nickname.
He stood rooted in place. He’d never been so torn. He looked at William in mute appeal, and had the distinct impression that the other man was trying not to laugh.
Beer.
She looked so sad.
But beer.
He heard himself say, “I mean, I could put off tasting the beer, though. Someone should give you a proper tour of the ship, after all.”