by Nina Croft
She pursed her lips. “Obviously not, otherwise he would have done so.”
“Of course, he would.” Devlin made no attempt to keep the sarcasm from his voice.
She dragged her attention from the monitor to him. “If you believe that, why are we here?”
“It’s not my choice. My suggestion was we try a little persuasion.”
“You could never make Thorne do something against his will. He’d never give in to torture.”
“Maybe not if we tortured him. But perhaps someone he cares for?”
Her eyes widened. She blinked a couple of times and something flashed across her face. Disbelief? Hurt? Why did that cause a little hitch of guilt in his gut? “You told them to torture me?”
“I doubt we would have had to go through with the threat. He would have caved.”
“But you would have?”
“We’ll never know now.”
She stared up at him with those huge, hurt eyes and the guilt swelled inside him. “Could you have tortured me?”
He’d done worse in his time. But maybe not to a woman he’d nearly made love to. Could he have done it? Probably not. Could he have allowed Rico to hurt her? Definitely not. He never expected someone else to do a task he wouldn’t do himself. But he’d keep that to himself. Better she thought the worst of him. That would rid her of her foolish dreams.
“So who said no?” she asked.
“Guess.”
“Tannis?”
“She was seriously considering it. The thing you have to remember about Tannis is her crew comes first, and she recently lost two members. She’s not about to risk the rest. Plus she hates being double-crossed.”
“Callum?”
“He and Skylar are Collective. They reckoned in the end that he was telling the truth and that he couldn’t override whatever hold these Old Ones of yours have on the ship. But they were willing to go along with the majority decision.”
“So did anyone say no? Why aren’t you torturing me right now?”
“Daisy probably would have—she’s a soft touch, but she was with you. No, it was Rico.”
“The vampire?” She sounded shocked. “Why?”
“Who knows with Rico?” He certainly didn’t believe it was through any scruples the vampire might have about torturing a pretty girl. He had an idea that Rico was just curious, intrigued by the whole time travel crap. He’d once told Devlin that one of the ways to survive immortality was to be incurably nosy.
“Hey, you two young lovers. Are you coming?” Tannis called from across the docking bay, and he realized with a sense of shock that the doors had opened while he was focused on Saffira. Already the air was sweeter, and his lungs no longer ached for oxygen.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go meet your friends.”
He headed for the doors, with Saffira at his side; her face still held that hurt expression.
“I didn’t ask for this,” she said chewing on her lip. “Part of me just wishes I could go and forget it all. I always dreamed of flying away.”
“Nothing to stop you. Tannis said you could come along.”
She shook her head. “It’s not possible. I have a purpose in life. I can’t just walk away. You know that better than anyone. Could you walk away from what you have vowed to do?”
“No, but I don’t have any dreams left to fulfill.”
“That’s sad.”
Yeah, he was a goddamn pity case.
He decided they’d chatted enough. Anymore and he might just burst into goddamn tears. Not waiting to see if she followed, he strode down the ramp and into a circular cavern. Though he supposed it didn’t qualify as a cavern as it had no roof but was open to the sky. Above his head, the darkness faded to a pale washed-out blue. Everything about this planet was muted. How had Saffira ended up so alive growing up in a place like this?
“Right,” Tannis said. “Devlin and Callum, work with Thorne and his people. If they can get access to the mind control systems, then disable them. Rip the bloody thing out if you have to. I want to be able to leave straightaway. This place gives me the creeps.”
It gave him the creeps as well. He’d heard that Trakis Seven, the planet where Meridian was discovered five hundred years ago, had been hell to visit and poisonous to anyone who didn’t get the Meridian treatment. While this place wasn’t overtly uncomfortable, something wasn’t quite right. He breathed in; the air held a faint scent like spice, but it was acrid, almost burning, that teased his nostrils.
“Me too,” Rico said. “Makes me feel like I have a gigantic hangover.”
“Yeah,” Tannis pressed a finger to her forehead. “Okay. The rest of us will go meet with this Sisterhood, see what they have to say.”
As she spoke, Devlin caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. A whole load of winged men emerged from one of the tunnels. He pulled his laser pistol free as the others did the same.
“Lower your weapons,” Thorne said. “These are my people. They’re here to help.”
Devlin shoved his pistol back into its holster, but couldn’t shake the feeling that help was the last thing they were going to get today.
…
The bastard had wanted them to torture her?
Saffira scowled as she watched Devlin disappear back on board the ship with Thorne and his men.
Of all the crew on the Blood Hunter, he seemed the most skeptical. The most likely to resist their pleas for help. Maybe because he truly believed he needed to get back to his own world, to his own people. He wanted revenge, and she couldn’t blame him. But she too had a cause. And her need was greater.
The vision tugged at her consciousness. “Come,” she said. “The Sisterhood has been called. They are waiting for us.”
She led the way into one of the tunnels, hewn out of the hollow mountain. She’d walked this way so many times. Tannis fell into step beside her, her hand resting casually on the pistol at her thigh.
“So who are we here to see?” she asked.
“My sisters,” Saffira replied.
“Literally—real sisters?”
“No. It’s an honorary title. They are time-mancers, like me. Although I’m the strongest.”
“So they can see the future?”
“Sometimes.”
“And they live here?”
“The twenty-first protocol states that all time-mancers must be registered with the Wardens. And once they are registered, they spend their whole lives imprisoned.”
“Well, obviously that didn’t happen to you and your…sisters.”
“We are known by the color of our eyes. If we’re found before registration, then we’re brought here to safety. And there are also those who are born here.”
“Is that what happened to you?”
“No. I was born on the outside, taken from my parents, and brought to the Sisterhood. But when it became clear how strong I was, Thorne took me away from here.”
“Why? I thought it was safe.”
“It is. But the air here is saturated with the drug we use to strengthen the visions. And I would get no rest, living in a constant other time and place. So Thorne made me a home in the mountains, looked after me.”
They emerged from the tunnel into a circular chamber. A dim blue light glowed from the flames burning in the sconces around the walls. Twenty-four women sat in a circle on the sandy floor, surrounding a raised dais in the center. They wore jumpsuits like hers, but a pale violet in color. The one closest rose to her feet and came toward them. Her belly was swollen; her baby would be born soon.
“Medina,” she said.
“Chosen One,” the woman replied.
“Chosen One?” Tannis muttered from beside her. “Is that you? A little pretentious, isn’t it? And what exactly have you been chosen for?”
“I told you. My people have a prophecy that the one will save the future of mankind and lead them to the Promised Land.”
“Something to live up to, I suppose. And have you any idea ju
st how you’re going to do this?”
“Some. I’m hoping to discover the rest today.”
Medina glanced from her to Tannis, then past her to where Rico and Skylar stood behind. Her eyes widened as she took in the glowing violet eyes of the two women.
“And the abominations shall walk among us,” she murmured.
“Is she referring to us?” Tannis asked but didn’t sound too concerned about being called an abomination.
“It’s part of the Prophecy,” Saffira said. “When the abominations walk among us, the time to act is at hand.”
“Cool. As long as that acting doesn’t involve us. We said we’d listen. No one agreed to any acting.”
Saffira opened her mouth to argue but clamped it closed as the vision snatched at her mind.
“Come,” Medina said. “It’s time.”
Saffira nodded and turned to Tannis. “You may stay and sit over there.” She waved toward a bench seat built into the wall on the far side of the chamber.
“Is this some weird religious shit?” Tannis asked.
“Not religion, no. We are not believers in the one god. More of a…science. We use the drug to enhance the visions, but if we do this alone, we’ve been known to become adrift in the past or the future and unable to return. In the beginning, we lost people whose minds never came back to the present. Now, we only use the drug in the presence of the rest of the Sisterhood. They ground us and bring us home.”
Well, that was mostly true. Except for her. She sometimes took the drug at home. Only Thorne knew that, but she was strong enough. And just sometimes…sometimes she’d wanted to dream of her lover. Of Devlin. Away from her sisters.
She winced as a sharp pain hit her in the temple. Medina reached for her as she swayed. “Come, Sister.”
She was vaguely aware of the three crew members heading to their seats, but the vision was taking over. She allowed Medina to lead her to the dais and, with a sigh of relief, she lay down on her back and stared at the arched ceiling, seeing the intricate patterns carved into the rock. Medina raised her head and held the cup to her mouth and she swallowed convulsively, the taste both bitter and sweet, flooding her mind as it trickled down her throat.
Medina’s soothing hands stroked her hair. For a few seconds longer, she fought it, then the tension trickled out of her and she allowed the vision to take control.
She was in a room surrounded by space. She’d been here before, but now she knew she was standing on the bridge of the Blood Hunter, and the space surrounding her was the huge circular screen that wrapped around the walls. Somewhere far behind them lay the planet, the only home she had ever known, but her eyes were glued straight ahead. The whole screen was dominated by a huge writhing wormhole. Like a shadow in space, the tail led back from the opening, black on black. Inside the opening whirled a vortex of iridescent gases.
Forcing her gaze away, she searched the space surrounding the hole, fixing its position in her mind.
“You want me to fly into that thing,” a voice said from behind her. “Are you fucking out of your mind?”
She opened her mouth to answer, as the vision faded to darkness, and another took its place, rolling over her mind like the dawn of a new day…
…She felt different, but she couldn’t analyze how and it was important to remember every aspect of the vision, if they were going to make sense of it afterward. Then she was speaking and she listed to her own voice, again somehow changed…
“You are our only hope, Mr. President. God has spoken through me. The Earth will be destroyed and if mankind is to survive, you must lead your people to the stars. You must select the…Chosen Ones. They will be the future of humanity.”
The man’s face was ashen. “I don’t know how.”
“God will show us the way.”
Even in the vision, she caught an echo of her own amusement. Obviously, she was lying, but why?
The man in front of her faded and…
…The vision she always waited for was upon her. And she was in Devlin’s arms. Though something was different. Always before, she had felt his love, felt totally at one with him, now her body clamored for his touch, but her mind was closed. He stared down at her, his eyes dark with passion and something else.
Almost as though he hated her.
She was sprawled on top of him and his hard hands gripped her hips and rolled her beneath him, thrusting into her with one fluid lunge of his hips. Pain shot through her, her whole body stiffened, and he went still.
“More than you bargained for, honey?” His tone held a hint of sarcasm. And she knew she’d hurt him.
She reached up and framed his face with her hands, forced him to stare into her eyes. “I love you,” she whispered.
Hate and grief and pain and fear all warred on his beautiful face. “I don’t want your love.”
“It’s yours anyway. It’s always been yours. And I’ll be yours until the end of time.”
And at her words, the darkness seeped from his face, and his eyes filled with hope.
He opened his mouth and she tried to hold on to the vision, but another was drawing her away. And she wanted to stay with Devlin. And then…
…She was standing alone on a planet’s surface, surrounded by the shadowy forms of trees. The night was dark and, far behind her, the crackle of flames and the mutter of voices filled her with terror. She should run, but something held her firmly in place. She stared up into the vastness of space and watched as the Blood Hunter flew away leaving her alone in a strange land.
“Come back,” she whispered. “Don’t leave me.”
Chapter Eight
“Did you believe one word of that bollocks?” Devlin asked in a low voice as they followed Thorne down a corridor cut out of the mountain.
Callum strode beside him and didn’t falter. “I take it you didn’t?”
The ship was once again theirs. Thorne had explained the link would have been broken when the ship entered the hollow mountain. In the end, all they’d had to do was disconnect the mind control centers, so when they took off again, these Old Ones wouldn’t be able to take control. That was done, and now Devlin was eager to go. He had a bad feeling about this place, and if there was one thing he’d learned over the years, it was to take notice of his bad feelings.
Something was going down, and he suspected it wasn’t going to involve them flying away all nice and peaceably.
“Don’t you think it’s all a little convenient? They wanted us here and—lo and behold—here we are.”
“You thinking they had something to do with the ship going AWOL?”
“I honestly don’t know. All this mind stuff does my head in. But you’re one of them—could they do it?”
He’d been hoping Callum would say “no way” and when he didn’t answer immediately he cast him a sideways glance. The Leader of the Universe was deep in thought and a small smile curved his lips.
“Sorry,” he murmured a few seconds later. “I was just checking in with Tannis. Could they do it? I don’t know. I’ve grown in strength over the past five hundred years. Who knows what I’ll be like in ten thousand? But right now, I don’t think we have a choice, and I don’t think they mean us harm.”
“No. I think they want something from us. And I’m guessing it’s not going to be something we want to give. We need to get back. Hatcher’s forces were devastated, but the longer we leave it, the more time he has to regroup.”
“Let’s go find out what it is they want, then.”
Thorne stopped at the entrance to a chamber. Inside, the light was dim, glowing with a faint violet hue. The room was quite large, maybe fifty feet in diameter. A group of women knelt in a circle around a central dais. His eyes fixed on the stone platform. Saffira lay on her back, her long red hair trailing over the edge to reach the sandy floor of the cave. Her eyes were closed, and it was clear she was unconscious, though beneath the closed lids, her eyes flickered.
He suspected she was deep in one of her vi
sions. Was she making love to him?
“Over there,” Callum said, nudging him in the side.
He dragged his gaze away from Saffira to the other side of the room where Tannis, Rico, and Skylar sat together on a bench. Tannis looked bored and was chewing on her nails, Rico and Skylar sat with their heads close together, no doubt whispering sweet nothings.
He walked around the edge of the room and sat on the other side of Skylar, leaving the seat next to Tannis for Callum, in case they wanted to hold hands or some soppy shit. Thorne sat on his other side.
“So what’s happening?” he asked Skylar in a low voice.
“Not a lot,” Skylar answered. He always got the impression that Skylar didn’t like him, maybe because she was ex-Corps, and she could never forget that he’d been right at the top of the Corps’ “Most Wanted Dead” list for a long time.
“Your girlfriend is having a vision,” Rico added. “Probably dreaming of you.”
He glanced back at Saffira right as her eyes blinked open. Her head rolled to the side and she looked straight at him. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered.
He knew she spoke to him, but whether now or in some dream, he had no clue.
Don’t leave me.
But he had no choice. Even if he didn’t have things he needed to do, what could he offer any woman? His body, that was all. He suspected that Saffira would want way more and there was nothing left worth having.
“Sweet,” Skylar murmured from beside him, and he realized everyone had heard the words. He ignored the comment.
One of the other women rose to her feet and went to Saffira, putting an arm around her shoulder and helping her to sit up. Saffira slumped on the dais for a moment, her long hair falling over her face, then her shoulders stiffened. With a trembling hand, she hooked her hair behind her ear revealing her face. Her eyes glowed brighter than before, and a faint violet hue tinged her skin.
From the drugs?
Pushing herself to her feet, she swayed and rested a hand on the dais to steady herself. She looked around the room. “I have seen.”
“We have witnessed,” the roomful of women replied in chorus.
Devlin realized it was some sort of ritual. A shiver ran through him. Not only the place, but the people gave him the creeps. All this mumbo jumbo about time travel. Did they really believe it?
