Dark Matters (Class 5 Series Book 4)

by Michelle Diener

  She felt a glimmer of hope despite the unsteady beat of her heart as the howl was joined by a second, and then a third.

  Virn made mistakes when he was under pressure. She and Dray would need to keep sharp, wait for their chance. If they were patient, it would come.

  The hovers rose and then shot through the swirling gray white, and she had to tighten her grip on the seat with her inner thighs. There was no way she was holding on to Virn himself.

  In her head, she sang Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.

  It made a great soundtrack to the howls that were now behind them, and the fear she could sense from Virn.

  She looked over to the hover Dray was on, saw he hadn't been tied on either.

  They exchanged a look.

  Yes. They would find a chance. But not if they couldn't take a hover when they ran. Because Lucy didn't think whatever was howling behind them was friendly.

  Kol.

  Dray had researched Tecra thoroughly before he'd even set foot on the Urna, and he had read up about kol--the top predators on Tecra other than the Tecran themselves.

  He noticed all the soldiers had unsnapped the flap on their shockgun holsters, and there had been no show of bravado. They'd gotten onto the hovers, and they'd moved.

  He hadn't even considered kol when they'd left the facility, and by the surprise on Virn's face, neither had their unstable prison guard.

  Virn, Dray could tell, was just now realizing all the ways he'd been screwed over. Maybe the kol would be his breaking point.

  After half an hour, when the howls were far behind them, Virn pulled to a stop, not getting down from the hover.

  “We can't camp here.”

  “No shit.” The soldier Dray had heard the others call Clin revved his hover engine.

  “Where then?” The one they called Graven rubbed a hand through feathery hair that was slick with moisture, then flicked the droplets off his fingers.

  “Back to the coast. The kol keep away from there.” Clin looked behind him, and the other soldier who sat behind him on the hover, Rua, shifted, then gave a nod.

  Virn looked over at Bly, the soldier who rode in front of Dray. “You have a suggestion?”

  Bly pulled out his handheld. Tapped it. “I know there's some cliffs near Stunnelly that are riddled with caves. You have to climb down to them, so we'll definitely be safe from the kol. And we could use Stunnelly for supplies.”

  “How far?” Virn swung off his hover, his boot striking Lucy's arm as he did so, and walked over to Bly.

  The blow didn't look deliberate, but he neither paused nor apologized.

  Dray could feel the fury build up in him again at the casual use of force.

  He looked over at Lucy, but she didn't look back. Her face was serene, as if she hadn't even noticed what happened.

  Except she must have.

  Clin joined Virn, and they bent their heads over the screen.

  “It's five hours away!” Clin stepped back. “Mainly because we've been headed in the opposite direction for hours now.” He looked boldly at Virn, fury in his eyes.

  “I was putting distance between us and the facility.” Virn stared back.

  “Well, we won't be getting there before dark. We'll have to find a place to sleep tonight.” Bly put his screen away. “Got any ideas?”

  “I say we leave them out here, head back to the facility.” Rua spoke for the first time.

  There was a moment of silence, and Dray carefully looked over at Lucy. Her gaze was locked on Virn.

  “That's not the deal.” Virn's voice was low.

  “The deal sucks.” The soldier behind Graven, Krian, gave a snort.

  “We're involved,” Virn said. “We participated by guarding her at the facility. And we get a promotion out of it.”

  “Sure we will.” Clin's cynicism seemed to run deep.

  “You leave, you can't go back,” Bly said.

  “You sure about that?” Graven asked, too much in step with Krian to not have already discussed it with him.

  “What, you mean just go back as if nothing happened?” Bly's eyes narrowed.

  Krian lifted his shoulders. “What are they going to say?”

  “Maybe 'stand up against that wall so we can kill you without hitting anyone behind you'.” Clin didn't look like he was making a joke.

  “They kill us, they have to explain our deaths. They ignore us, and we ignore them, everyone's happy.”

  “Well, not happy,” Rua said. “Because we wouldn't have done what they wanted.”

  “How about you give us one of the hovers, let us be on our way, and there can be happiness all round.” Lucy spoke for the first time.

  Clin's gaze snapped to her, as if he just remembered she was there. And could understand every word.

  “I'd keep quiet while your betters speak,” he said, low and mean. “You're the cause of all this.”

  She leaned toward him and Dray could see the incandescence of rage in her eyes.

  “You and your asshole leaders are the cause of all this. I would give everything I have to be back home, to have never have heard of you and never have seen this planet. You should have left. Me. Alone.” She drew in an unsteady breath. “But, noooo. Here I am. Do whatever you want, but don't you ever tell me this situation is on me. It's on you. You fucker.”

  There was absolute silence.

  Dray felt the rise of warmth in his chest. Pride. Absolute respect.

  This woman was amazing.

  “So, is this mutiny?” Virn obviously decided to pretend the last conversation hadn't happened.

  “If they call us tomorrow and ask us to bring her back?” Bly put the question out into the tense silence. “And we say 'sorry, we let them go'?”

  The possibility of that scenario played out on their faces. Dray realized he was beginning to be able to read them better.

  “I'm in for now. For now.” Clin emphasized the last point. He didn't look at Lucy as he moved back to his hover.

  “The rest of you?” Virn looked them each in the eye.

  No one looked away that Dray could see. They were still very much in rebel mode, but no one wanted to be the first to test the waters. Yet.

  “Then let's find somewhere to camp that won't get us eaten by kol.”

  Chapter 24

  It was cold.

  So, so cold.

  Lucy hunched over herself. She was so miserable, she didn't even complain when she was jostled as Dray sat down beside her.

  He held something out, and she realized it was a cup of grinabo.

  Virn had refused to give her a new cup because he claimed she'd been responsible for her one being broken. She'd simply stared at him and then walked away, shaken at the extent of her anger.

  “You don't mind sharing Earth germs?” she asked, taking it with her bound hands before he could answer, and swallowing a mouthful. She made a sound of surprise, because it was actually hot, something she hadn't expected.

  “No. Earth germs are fine with me.”

  She grinned around another sip. “Thanks.”

  The heat of him had started to seep through to her, and unable to help herself, she leaned in to him, snuggling in as close as she could.

  He went still for a beat and then adjusted, lifting his bound hands up and over her head, so she was in the circle his arms made. His heat surrounded her.

  “Cold?”

  “Freezing. Aren't you?”

  “My uniform compensates for the temperature. So, no.”

  “Huh.” She thought about it. “Is it only for the military, the fabric your uniform is made from?”

  “No.” He lifted his chin so she could put her head on his shoulder, and then lowered it to rest just above her ear. “Most clothing is made from something with temperature control capabilities.”

  “Obviously not on Tecra.” She was wearing what Dray had found for her in the drawers of the bedroom in the house on the cliffs. They were soft and comfortable, but so thin the wind blew
straight through them. Fortunately the cloak was warm. Maybe it was made of thermoregulating fabric.

  “I think those clothes are leisure clothes meant only for indoors. I should have looked for others for you, but at the time, I thought we were safe.”

  She could hear the regret in his voice.

  “It's okay. The cloak and the shoes are warm.”

  She wondered how Bane was doing. He was looking for them, she was sure of that. Although there seemed to be little chance he'd find them where they were now, huddled on the top of a low hill, hovers parked in a circle around them, something like a tarpaulin attached to the hovers to give rudimentary shelter.

  The hovers cut the wind, but the air was still freezing, and the fog was just as thick as ever. It pressed in on them, claustrophobic and smothering.

  “What do you think Bane's doing?” She spoke softly, but the Tecran were talking among themselves and weren't paying any attention to her and Dray.

  “Whatever he can do while still staying hidden.”

  “Why does he have to hide?” She didn't understand all the politics of this, but it was clearly complex.

  “Because the UC Ambassador asked him to. We didn't want to make the Tecran even more nervous and resentful than they already were by having him hover over them in a threatening way.” The puff of his breath on her ear made her shiver, and she hoped he put it down to the cold.

  “So, he's big and intimidating?”

  Dray went still, then gave a laugh. “I associate Earth women so closely with the Class 5s, I forgot you've never met him, or seen his battleship.”

  “I wish I could. I wish I could see him right now.”

  She felt his lips quirk.

  “Me, too.”

  “He's the first person to help me since I was abducted, aside from Dr. Farnn, and she only did it when the tide turned against her. I owe him a lot. Even if he can't find us, I'll always be grateful to him.”

  He hesitated. “He won't stop looking until he does find you. And if you're hurt or . . . dead, I think the Tecrans will be a lot more than just nervous and resentful. They'll be annihilated.”

  She scoffed. “What makes you think that?”

  “There are three other Earth women under United Council protection. Each and every one has helped a thinking system escape their bonds. Rose McKenzie freed Sazo and Bane. Fiona Russell freed Easi and Imogen Peters freed Oris and tried to free Paxe. Bane told me that all four remaining thinking systems have been searching for you since Paxe told them he'd taken you from Earth and the Tecran had whisked you out of his hold.”

  “Just because they care what happens to me doesn't mean they are dangerous to anyone else.” She closed her eyes, drank the last of the grinabo.

  “They don't like anyone else. Maybe, for strategic reasons, they'd think twice about harming the Grih, but Bane's neutral. He doesn't have any loyalties to anyone, except you and the other Earth women, and his fellow thinking systems.”

  “It's a long stretch to go from 'not having loyalties' to worrying they'd cause harm.”

  He shook his head, she could feel the movement against her hair. “The thinking system wars indicate otherwise.”

  “There was a war?” She didn't open her eyes. She was too comfortable and warm.

  “A long time ago. It taught us to be wary of thinking systems. It's why we prefer doors with handles, rather than ones that open electronically, if that's practical. Why we have so few lenses for security. Why we choose stairs over lifts if we can. All things that were used against us in the Thinking System Wars.”

  She yawned, her jaw actually cracking her mouth opened so wide. “Sorry.” She covered her mouth with bound hands.

  Dray drew back from her, and she made a sound of protest as she lost his warmth, but she couldn't seem to find the energy to do anything about it.

  “We need blankets too.” Dray's voice was so loud, she forced her eyes open.

  The soldiers were sitting huddled close to the hovers under the tarpaulin, settling themselves in with thin sleeping mats and blankets, and they seemed momentarily astonished.

  “Now.” Dray's tone was implacable. “She's cold enough already. Do you want her to get sick or die of exposure?”

  Clin rose to his knees, looking at them with dislike, but he eventually shuffled to the storage hold of the hover they were leaning against.

  He tossed them a single mat and a blanket.

  She wondered if there were more available and he was just being an asshole, or if there really was only one spare.

  Dray laid it out lengthways along the hover, so they were completely under the tarpaulin, and then lay down, the blanket in his bound hands. He lifted his arms again, and seeing where he was going with it, she hesitated a moment, and then wriggled until she fitted in beside him, head on his shoulder, hands tucked between them. His arms came down to encircle her again.

  The blanket settled around them, and she anchored one side under her hip, so no cold air could get in.

  For a moment, she just lay, her body weeping with joy at being horizontal, and warm.

  Conscience prompted her. “Your shoulder will be numb if we stay this way.” It was also intensely personal, intensely intimate.

  She could hear his heart beat beneath her ear, felt the small adjustments he made beneath her.

  She'd thought him attractive from the moment she'd seen him, but running for their lives, dealing with captivity, had redirected her focus to simply stay alive.

  Now that she had a small moment of safety and calm, he was all-encompassing.

  She shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold, although his reaction, tightening his hold, told her he thought it was.

  “I'll let you know when I can't feel my shoulder.” His already gravelly voice sounded a little raw.

  She lifted her chin to look up at him. “Are you getting sick?”

  He cleared his throat. “No.”

  She subsided, and eyes closed, decided to nap a little if she could.

  She woke with a start she didn't know how much later.

  For a moment she was confused. There was no sound, even the wind had dropped, and she was lying on her side, Dray spooned around her.

  She was warm and as comfortable as sleeping on a thin mat on hard, cold ground could be, but her heart was racing.

  She could hear Dray's quiet breathing, and careful not to let in cold air, lifted up on an elbow to look around the camp.

  The Tecran were sleeping.

  She frowned at the scene, sure something didn't make sense, and then she worked out what it was. One of the soldiers was missing from their mat.

  Her mind cleared. They'd obviously scheduled a watch.

  Maybe the guard moving around was what had woken her.

  She relaxed back down under the blanket, but now she was awake, she realized she also needed to answer a very pressing call of nature.

  She tried to convince herself it could wait, and then gave up, sliding carefully out from under Dray's embrace and the blanket.

  A hand gripped her upper arm.

  “What is it?” Dray's voice was alert, as if he hadn't just been in a deep sleep.

  “I have to go . . . um . . .” She didn't know what the colloquial Tecran was for using the facilities.

  But she didn't have to. Dray nodded, started rising.

  “No. You don't need to come with. I'll be quick.”

  He hesitated.

  “I don't need an audience.” She grinned at him in the darkness, and he subsided down. Gave a nod.

  She had gone to sleep with her boots on, so she crawled over Dray, an awkward maneuver with her hands restrained in front of her, and then squeezed through the gap between their hover and the one beside it in the circle.

  Once she stepped out, she blinked in sudden realization that the fog had almost completely cleared.

  The night sky glittered, something she hadn't been able to see with the tarpaulin overhead.

  It was magica
l.

  And it could wait, because she really needed to answer the call of nature now.

  She made out a nearby bush by the light of Gyre, which was full and bright, its much smaller companion, Anar, in perpetual crescent because of Gyre's shadow.

  She walked behind it for privacy, cursing the restraints at her wrists. They weren't tight, but they made everything more difficult.

  She supposed she should be grateful Virn had retied them in front of her body, or this would have been near impossible.

  When she was done, she emerged and walked back to the hovers, looking up at the beauty above her.

  It hit her every now and then that she was in an extraordinary situation, that there was an element of wonder and adventure about it that was no less real even though it had been forced on her.

  But she was here. And she couldn't go home. Bane had made that clear. So there was something healthy and healing in seeing the good around her as well as the injustice.

  After looking up for a few minutes, it occurred to her that whoever was on guard hadn't so much as approached her, let alone asked her what she was doing up.

  Frowning, she turned to looked toward the camp, only a few meters away, and realized she couldn't see anyone.

  She moved back to the hover circle, her gaze sweeping left and right.

  A sound to her left made her freeze.

  She turned, but there was nothing visible in the darkness.

  Worried now, more than a little uneasy, she took the last few steps to reach the hovers, and as she squeezed between two of them, something threw itself at her.

  In the dark, she caught the glow of eyes and flash of teeth before she got on the right side of the hard, cold metal of the hovers.

  She smelled the stink of fetid breath, felt the splatter of saliva against her cheek, and she screamed as she fell backward, landing on her back in the center of the camp.

  “Kol?” Dray was beside her, so fast that he had to have already been moving before she fell.

  “I don't know. Something with teeth.”

  The Tecran were awake, now, she could hear them shouting at each other, and perhaps whoever had been on watch.