by Nina Croft
No. She shivered. He hardly appeared human. “What is he?”
A flicker of amusement lightened his features. “Just hope you never find out, little girl.”
Little girl? She wasn’t that little. Though she supposed next to him and Thorne she must appear that way.
Forcing her fear down, she stepped closer. The blonde was still unconscious, but behind her a man with wings was already stirring. Judging by those wings, he must be older, stronger. “She’ll be all right,” she said. “Really, they just zapped her mind, but it won’t be permanent.”
Some of the tension drained from the dark man, and he nodded once. “Let’s get the hell off this shithole. We’ve got what we came for. Time to leave.” He picked up the blonde as though she weighed nothing and strode up the ramp to disappear inside the ship.
Devlin turned back to her. “Well, thanks for the rescue and be seeing you. Not.”
He was going to walk away. Did he really feel nothing, no connection between them?
“Mr. Starke—Devlin—we saved you. The least you can do is take me with you.”
Beside her Thorne bristled. “You are not going on board that ship alone.”
She glanced at his face and took in his steadfast expression—he wasn’t budging on this. She scowled but turned back to Devlin. “Okay, the least you can do is take us with you.”
“Give me a reason why.”
So we can make love?
So I can fulfill the prophecy and save my people?
Not really wanting to go with either of those options, she improvised. “The Wardens will wake up. And they’ll kill us if they find us here.” She took a step toward him and laid a hand on his arm. “Please.”
“So why don’t you and your friends just fly away?”
She resisted the urge to stamp her foot. “The others can. But Thorne is…” she thought quickly, “…tired from saving you. It takes a lot of mental energy.”
“You’re lying.”
“I never lie,” she lied.
“Take them,” a voice said from behind her. She turned around. The winged stranger was awake. He rose up onto his knees then pushed himself to his feet. He had short dark hair, a handsome, lean face, and the violet eyes of the Others.
“You giving the orders now?” Devlin snapped.
“We should let them come. I want to talk to them. I want to find out about this place. These people. I want to know what they are. What we are.” He turned and went to the other woman, the dark haired one who was still unconscious. “Tannis, sweetheart, wake up.” When there was no reaction, he turned back to Saffira. “Will she be all right?”
“Yes.”
“She’s new,” Thorne said. “It will affect her badly. But she’ll come around.”
The man nodded, picked her up and, holding her cradled against his chest, disappeared into the ship.
Saffira blew out her breath and then glanced around. There was just Devlin and her people left now. And the Wardens, unconscious on the ground.
Devlin shrugged. “The Leader of the Universe has spoken. So I guess you’re coming with us.” He didn’t sound happy about it, and what was that “Leader of the Universe” comment about? But she had what she wanted. As long as Thorne wasn’t going to be difficult. An ominous scowl was plastered across his face, and she held his gaze trying to convey how important this was.
He took a deep breath and gave a single nod. She saw the silent communication pass between him and Rory, before her guard rose into the air and quickly vanished into the darkness with the whoosh of wings.
The excitement was back, bubbling inside her. She cast Devlin a look, lingering on his tall, powerful figure, her gaze sliding down his body, snagging on the bulge in his pants, then back up to his face.
He raised an eyebrow. Oh Lord, had he caught her ogling his penis? Heat washed over her skin, and his eyes widened. He’d probably never seen anyone blush quite like her before, and she cursed her affliction.
Luckily, at that moment, one of the Wardens stirred on the ground.
“Time to go,” Thorne said.
Chapter Two
Devlin stiffened his spine as the adrenaline oozed from his system leaving him shaky and weak.
Shit. He was alive.
And he’d really thought this time he was dead.
That was happening all too frequently lately and it would have pissed him off because he had things to do. Important things, like ripping Temperance Hatcher’s head from his shoulders. He stretched, taking note of the kinks in his body, the new bruises. He’d gone down hard and he’d feel it in a few hours, but Christ those things had been strong. Their winged attackers lay on the ground around them. He counted eight. One was twitching.
Definitely time to go. Time to get off this shitty planet and out of this crappy universe.
Though they’d have to do something with their new passengers first—he glanced over to where the girl stood, looking tiny next to her huge winged friend—hopefully that wouldn’t take long. He strode toward the ramp, waved to them to enter, and the girl hurried forward. Her friend hung back, then shrugged and followed. He didn’t look happy.
“Welcome to the Blood Hunter,” Devlin murmured as the girl passed him.
She cast him a quick sideways glance. Her skin was returning to normal, the color receding.
What was she? He didn’t think she was Collective, like Callum and her big friend with the wings. While her huge eyes were violet, they didn’t have the inhuman glow of the Collective, but were pale purple like the flowers his mother used to grow outside the back door of their house. And she’d blushed violet, a wave of color washing over her skin when he’d caught her staring at his dick.
She was slender but with the definite swell of a pair of womanly breasts beneath the drab jumpsuit she wore. The clothes were the only thing drab about her. Her dark red hair was long but pulled into a ponytail, her skin pale like cream with freckles smattered across her small, straight nose. She had a wide mouth. He admired her from behind as she headed up the ramp. She had a great ass and long legs. Maybe taking them on board wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
His dick jerked in his pants. He was always horny as hell after a fight. Plus he hadn’t been laid in…longer than he could remember.
She glanced over her shoulder and caught him staring at her ass, and he gave her his best long, lazy smile. The violet washed over her skin again. She bit her lip and hurried into the ship.
He looked away and found her friend had halted at the bottom of the ramp and was staring at him through narrowed eyes. He had the same dark red hair as the girl, but cropped close to his head, glowing violet eyes, and fucking great wings. Power rolled off him in waves, but strangely, it felt like the girl was the one in control. The big guy hadn’t wanted them on the Blood Hunter—still didn’t by the expression on his face—but she had overridden him.
“Keep your hands and your eyes to yourself, human,” the winged guy muttered.
“Are you and she…?” Devlin raised an eyebrow.
He appeared almost shocked at the implied question. “The Sibyl is mine to protect.”
Devlin guessed that was a no. Good. He’d never wanted any woman enough to fight for her. There were other more important things to fight for. And what the hell was a sibyl? No doubt he would find out soon.
He followed them up the ramp, pressed his palm to the panel, and locked the docking bay doors behind him. Then he spoke into the comm unit on his wrist. “Daisy, we’re all on board and ready to go.”
“Right, Devlin. Take off in one minute.”
“I’d make that less than a minute. The bad guys are waking up.”
“Okay. Three, two, one…”
The ship lifted off smoothly, just as something slammed into the docking bay doors. “We’ve got a hanger-on, Daisy. Any chance of shaking him off?” He peered out of the viewer; one of their attackers clung to the side of the ship. Devlin had no clue whether they could break through the doors,
but he didn’t want to find out. The ship twisted and spun, the guy’s grip broke, and he tumbled back toward the planet. At the last minute, he spread his wings and glided away. The Blood Hunter shifted beneath them and they were heading into space.
He turned back to the girl and her protector. Both stood in the center of the docking bay, staring around them with wide eyes. “The two of you look like you’ve never been on a ship before.”
“I haven’t,” the girl said. “We have no ships. No technology,”
“The thirteenth protocol forbids the development of machines,” Thorne added.
Running his hands through his hair, Devlin regarded the two newcomers. What the hell was he supposed to do with them? The girl returned his gaze, a hungry, hopeful expression on her face. But what was she hoping for? Callum had said he wanted to talk to them, but Devlin doubted he’d be talking to anyone until Tannis regained consciousness. Apparently, Callum and Tannis were in love—he’d really thought Tannis had better taste. And Rico would no doubt be similarly preoccupied until Skylar awoke, because they were in love as well. Goddamn ship was like a goddamn brothel.
The only other crew member, Daisy, was flying the ship. So that just left him.
Great.
First things first.
“So why did those guys attack us?” he asked. They’d swooped out of nowhere, knocked out Callum, Skylar and Tannis—the Collective members among the crew—without any warning or any weapons. Leaving just him and Rico to fight them off. They’d have been dead if rescue hadn’t arrived.
“They were the Wardens. They guard and protect the Circle of Change. And you violated the fifty-eighth protocol,” the girl said.
“Just how many protocols do you people have?”
“A lot.” She flashed him a grin. “Too many.”
“And the fifty-eighth?”
“Forbids the changing of any females. They’re considered abominations.”
He presumed she meant Tannis and Skylar.
Tannis was a brand new convert, but Skylar was a long-term member of the Collective, the ruling faction back in their own universe. Five hundred years ago, Callum Meridian had crash-landed on Trakis Seven, and there stumbled across the secret of immortality. Named Meridian after its founder, the substance bestowed eternal life, plus a few other—not necessarily beneficial—attributes. A new class of people had evolved—the Collective—and they ruled the universe with Callum at their head. Well, until he’d decided to take an extended vacation on board the Blood Hunter.
Presumably these Wardens were the same as the Collective.
Which made sense. After all, that’s why they had dived through the black hole and into this universe. In search of an alternative source of Meridian, the only thing that could save Tannis from the poison killing her. And they’d found it, only hours earlier, and just in time. Tannis was cured and changed—though obviously some of the locals were pretty pissed off about that.
Though not all of them. He had no doubt that they would have died down there without the help of these two. But what did they really want, and why had the girl insisted they come on board? Because she’d lied. He could sense that. She could have escaped with the winged guy. Instead, she’d whispered something to her protector, and he’d appeared almost shocked.
Time to discover what their agenda was. And it had better not interfere with his or it wasn’t happening.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go find out what you’re after.”
He led them to the far side of the docking bay and into one of the transporter bubbles. “Conference room one,” he murmured when they were all inside.
Callum had built this ship while he’d been Leader of the Universe. No expense was spared and it was big—made for men with wings, and even in the transporter bubble there was space to spread them. The whole ship was on the same scale. Five times as big as the old Blood Hunter and all brand new and shining. She was a beautiful piece of engineering, and Devlin would have happily spent his life seeing to her every need—if he hadn’t had more pressing things to do. His time on the Blood Hunter was temporary; it was his brother Tris who had been their engineer. Devlin had merely joined them to help out on a job.
Their father had also been an engineer and he’d taught Devlin and Tris everything he knew. Well, right up until Devlin was fourteen, at which point the Church had slaughtered his parents and his sisters. Devlin and his six-year-old brother had been the only survivors of the massacre.
And now his little brother was dead.
“What’s the matter?” A soft voice asked from beside him.
He peered down at her. She was probably a foot shorter than he was, though not particularly short for a woman. “The matter?”
“For a moment, you looked…sad.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “I’m not sad.” Sad didn’t cover it. He’d gotten over “sad” a long time ago. Buried sad beneath his rage and fury and need for revenge. No, he hadn’t felt sad even when Tris died. Just a burning corrosive hatred. Sad got you nowhere.
She opened her mouth, but closed it again as the transporter glided to a halt and the doors slid open onto one of the conference areas. There was a large open space with a bank of consoles along one wall and a large central table with chairs all around. There were no portholes—they were deep within the ship—but Devlin crossed to the nearest console and switched on the external viewer. One screen showed the black hole with the huge hulk of the Trakis One languidly orbiting around it. As she must have been for the past five hundred years, seemingly lifeless, but still in one piece.
A second screen showed the ochre planet now far below. He spoke into the comm unit. “Daisy, you want to put us into orbit until the captain wakes up.”
“Sure thing.”
The girl came up beside him. Reaching out with one hand she lightly touched the screen, tracing the shape of the planet with her fingertip. “So beautiful.”
What the hell was beautiful about it? It was a goddamn planet and not a very attractive one from what he’d seen. In fact it was creepy as hell. Complete with flying monsters who could take down half the crew with a thought.
She turned to her companion. “We’re in space, Thorne. Really in space.”
Devlin sensed the excitement bubbling inside her. Had he ever felt that sort of excitement? Maybe when he was a child, before… He shook his head; he couldn’t remember. For some reason that pissed him off.
“Could we take a break from admiring the view and get to the fucking point?”
She glanced away from the screen, an almost hurt look flashing across her features. “The point?”
“Who the hell are you, might be a good place to start.”
The winged guy stepped forward. “I am Thorne.”
“Well, that tells me a lot.”
“I am protector to the Sibyl.”
“The Sibyl?” He’d mentioned the word earlier. “What the hell is a sibyl?”
“That would be me,” the girl said. “I’m Saffira Lourdes.” Unlike her friend, she held out her hand for Devlin to shake. He stared for a few seconds but made no move to take it. “I don’t have anything contagious, Devlin. It’s safe to touch me.”
He shrugged and placed his hand in hers. As her fingers closed around his, she gazed up into his face as if searching for something. A tic jumped in his cheek and he jerked back his hand, but her fingers tightened.
“Saffira?” Thorne spoke from beside them and she blinked and released her hold. Devlin had to fight the urge to rub his hand down his pants to get rid of the tingle.
He shook his head. “What is a sibyl and what do you want with us?”
“The sibyl is a time-mancer.”
“Right, a time-mancer. Not getting any clearer here.”
“I see time, the past and the present, glimpses of possible futures.”
“Of course you do,” Devlin muttered. She was obviously not quite right in the brain. That was no doubt why she needed a protector. Her lips tw
itched. So she found him funny, did she? “What is it you want with us?”
“I need you to help me save my people. And…” She cast a quick glance at her companion and her lips twitched again. “And I want you to be my lover.”
Had he heard her right? “Come again?”
She stared into his eyes, and he couldn’t look away. “I’ve seen us together. In the future we are lovers.”
Someone snorted. Devlin finally tore his gaze from her to where Rico lounged in the open doorway. Devlin’s muscles tensed as he gave the vampire a quick once-over, but Rico was back to his normal self. Dressed all in black, long boots, silver pistols at his waist, silver sword at his back, he looked a total asshole, but at least the monster had retreated. His eyes were no longer crimson but dark, almost black. The blood was gone from his face, and a lazy smile curved his lips.
“Your reaction wasn’t very flattering, Starke. I’d take her up on the offer if I were you. You’ve been a little tense lately.”
“Fuck off,” Devlin snarled.
He didn’t mind a quick post-fight shag, but he wasn’t signing on to be anyone’s preordained fucking lover. No way. Anyway, he didn’t make love. He had sex.
And did she really believe that crap?
She was staring at him expectantly. Just what exactly did she want him to do? He glanced at Thorne, who stood beside her, an expression of resignation on his face. Maybe he was used to her making outrageous statements. Maybe that was why she needed a protector, because she threw herself at any and every available man. She’d fixed on him because no one else was available. That was all it was. Maybe that’s how the two of them worked. She drew in the men, lured them into a sense of security with that lover crap and then they…
Then they did what?
He had no fucking clue.
“It’s true,” she murmured. “In the future, we are lovers.”
