Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  “Everyone out.” Gerald's voice lowered, bringing an eeriness to the sudden calm in his manner. “Everyone except him.” He nodded at Victor. “And his mate.” He spat the last word, then wiped his mouth roughly on the back of his wrist.

  People began filing towards the door, their eyes wide, their voices low. Penny watched them for a moment before turning to check for Vincent. He stood, lounging against the wall, just inside the door, looking as cocky as he ever did. He wore a half smile, as though amused at the turn of events.

  “Well, well, well…didn’t think you had it in you, big brother.” Vincent accompanied his words with a slow clap. “You’ve come out of hiding, out of the closet, and admitted a secret marriage all in the space of ten seconds.”

  Victor grinned, turned to Vincent, and took a sweeping bow.

  “I said out. I just want the two who don’t belong. The aberrations.” Gerald interrupted them.

  Vincent turned sharp eyes to Gerald. “Of course he belongs. He belongs to me. He’s my other half.” He indicated Penny with a quick flick of his hand. “And so is she. We all belong to each other. We’re interwoven, locked together. Your way won’t work.”

  “My way is the only way on board The Salvation. It’s my ship, my way. Didn’t you know? And I have ordered you to leave. If you won’t listen to me, well, maybe you’ll listen to this.” Gerald reached above the bar and pulled out a small handgun.

  “That thing’s tiny.” Vincent laughed.

  “Don’t need to be big when it does this.” Gerald clicked off the safety, and his finger squeezed the trigger. At the last possible moment, he jerked his arm to the left and put a hole through the sign advertising the house ale in the corner of the room. “Next time, vampire, that will be you. I have bullets for every occasion. Wood, silver…you name it. Don’t think I didn’t assure my methods of control of such an unpredictable population before I bowed to the romantic whims of those who believe in happiness and partners and soulmates.” His voice slipped back to that of Geraldine on the last word.

  “Vincent.” Penny approached where he stood and took his arm. “We need to go. We can’t do anything, here.”

  “Aww, how sweet.” Gerald gestured towards the door with his gun. “Best do as she says. But don’t worry. I know where to find you.”

  “I’m not leaving my brother.” Each word sounded final. “What are you going to do with him?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about.” Gerald gestured again. “You’re testing my patience. Go, or there won’t be any vampires left on my ship.”

  Penny gave Vincent a gentle nudge, then a shove. “We can’t do anything here,” she repeated. “We need to wait for him to calm down, wait for Geraldine.” She crossed her fingers in hope.

  Vincent looked at her, his eyes bleak before his shoulders slumped, and he allowed her to lead him from the bar.

  “Where are we going?”

  She’d never heard him sound so defeated. “My room?”

  “Are you sure Gerald doesn’t know where your room is?”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea. But he won’t come straight away.”

  Tucking her hand into his, he dodged down a service corridor. “We should probably hide, anyway. Regardless of what Geraldine knows, I’m sure he has ways to find things out. What about…what was her name? Heather?”

  “Hazel?”

  Vincent nodded.

  “I don’t think she thought either of the others were aware of her, but she knew them.”

  “Still, we should take precautions.” He threw open a door, seemingly at random, and ushered her into a large cupboard space. “I’ve heard from Vic.”

  She looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

  “He said he’s all right. Doesn’t know where Derek has gone, though.”

  She squeezed his hand. “But Victor is okay?”

  “Yeah.” Vincent’s head fell forward, concealing his expression. “For now.”

  “Come here.” Before she even thought about it, Penny pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around him. No heart beat against her ear, but his familiar, comforting presence reassured her. They were together.

  He dropped a kiss into her hair before his mouth found her temple, her cheek, then her lips. His gentle pressure coaxed her to love him, teased a response.

  “Don’t leave me,” he broke off to whisper. “I’d have no one.”

  She cupped his cheek and kissed him again without reply, willing him to hear her unspoken promise.

  She didn’t break the kiss as his tongue twined with hers, or as he roamed his hands over her back, then brought one to cup her breast.

  He groaned. “I need you.”

  FOURTEEN

  PENNY WOKE with her hair plastered to her face, what felt like a thin layer of drool trailing across her cheek, and the smell of turpentine wafting from the dust sheet draped over her.

  Raising her head, she tried to wipe her cheek with a corner of the stinky sheet in the least obvious way possible, and she checked for Vincent.

  “How are you doing?” Tightening the arm he had wrapped around her, he pulled her closer to him.

  “Okay. What time is it? Has anything happened? How’s Victor?”

  Vincent’s gusty sigh stirred her hair. “I don’t know. He went quiet a couple of hours ago.”

  “What?” She shoved herself into a sitting position. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  “You need your sleep. It’s a condition of being human.” His eyes, as he held her gaze, were red-rimmed, the pupils dilated.

  “You can always wake me. Have you slept?”

  “Oh, you know.” He chuckled, the sound dark. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

  She suppressed a shudder at his graveyard humour and returned her attention to his twin. “What do we do about Victor? What did he say last?”

  “It wasn’t really words. Mostly feelings, then nothing. Something hurt him, I’m sure of it.”

  “Did he mention Derek again at any point?”

  “No, just earlier when he didn’t know where he was. Thought they might have jettisoned him.”

  “Might have, or did?”

  Vincent looked at the door, and she followed the direction of his gaze. Sometime while Penny slept, he’d barricaded them into the small cleaning supplies room.

  “Vincent.” She tried to drag his attention back to her. “This is important. If he’s still here, we can find him. We can find both of them. We have to try.”

  He turned to face her. “The Salvation is huge.”

  “Okay, but it’s also a finite space. How quickly do you think we can search it?”

  “How many friends have you got?” He offered her a weak smile and a small squeeze of her hand. “We almost need an entire tribe of people.”

  Heat rose to her cheeks. “Um, how many friends right now? Probably not too many if they all know I’ve been pushing this weird matchmaking thing of Gerald’s.”

  “Well, we’ll just go as fast as we can, then, I suppose. Come on.” He tugged her to her feet before he shifted the things he’d piled in front of the door. “We need to work out where to start.”

  They moved quickly down the corridor. The barren, curved steel sides left no room for shadows to hide in.

  “What time is it?” Penny kept her voice low. “Is it near sunrise?” The shutters were programmed to open automatically, creating an artificial sunrise, when The Commander deemed it daytime.

  Vincent’s ability to sense sunlight in relationship to his position still factored into his behaviours, even though he had little use for it aboard the ship, with so many dark spaces for him to retreat to. “It’s about 5 a.m.”

  In just under an hour, the corridors would start to fill with people on their way to work or trade. “We need to move quickly.”

  “Right. Want to split up and search, or stay together?”

  It was a tough decision. By splitting up, they could potentially cover more ground, but they’d be without
backup. Unless….

  “How do you do that talking thing with Victor? Is it a twin connection?”

  Surprise filled his face. “Yes and no. I think, for us, it is. But we—you and me—could do it, too, in the future, if you wanted to?”

  Hope fluttered inside her. “We should do it now, because then we can split up and be safe.”

  He took her hand, but the disappointment on his face confused her. “It isn’t for now, Penny.”

  “What? Why? I can’t think of any better time than right now.”

  He sighed. “Neither can I, but that’s not it. It’s part of something bigger. It’s a special moment, the merging of minds. It completes the mating ritual—there’s no going back. It’s bigger than marriage—a true hearts and candles and flowers occasion, if you like.” He looked down the corridor. “It’s not about being desperate and on the run from Gerald.”

  She shook her head. “You already have my heart, Vincent. We can’t do candles because of the fire and risk of you burning to a small heap of ash at my feet, and I’ve never been a flowers kind of girl.” She paused, taking in his eerie calm, his still posture. “You’re not rushing. Why aren’t you rushing? Is Victor already gone?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” He tapped his chest. “I think I’d feel it, and I haven’t felt it.”

  “Then we need to hurry. We need to find him. And, if it helps, we need to mind-meld, or whatever you called it.”

  “All right. Look, it’s supposed to be a ritual. It really is supposed to be special, and I wanted time to explain it to you properly—”

  “Vincent.” She tapped her foot and narrowed her eyes at him. “Just get on with it.”

  “We’ve already done half of it, the night I drank from you. So you just need to….” He lowered his head and nipped at his wrist until a bead of blood appeared.

  “Oh.”

  He met her gaze. “You don’t have to. I would never ask it of you if you weren’t sure. It ties us together forever. In ways I don’t even have the time to explain right now.”

  “More than we are?” Her fingers hovered over the healed puncture marks from where he bit her.

  He nodded. “More than that.”

  She squared her shoulders against a shudder and stepped forward. “How much do I have to drink?”

  “It varies from couple to couple. The weaker the connection between them, the more it takes.”

  She’d asked for the solution, and to save Victor, to prevent Vincent losing his brother, she’d do it. “I love you,” she murmured, as she lifted his wrist to her mouth. Her tongue lapped the bright red blood, the metallic taste exploding in her mouth.

  Vincent shuffled his feet and groaned. “Oh my God.”

  “Ssh!” She lifted her head to caution him against the noise. Confusion flooded her.

  “I didn’t say anything.” He shook his head.

  “You moaned.” She pressed her mouth back to his wrist.

  No, I didn’t. Vincent’s voice filled her head, and she jerked back.

  “Is it working?” Did it work?

  Vincent smiled and nodded. “We must be well connected,” he whispered. “Although I’m a little disappointed it didn’t last longer—that part is supposed to be very pleasurable, done right.”

  She twisted her mouth, doubting his words.

  I’ll show you later. A mischievous smile, full of promise appeared on his lips. But let’s go and rescue Victor first.

  Borrowed positivity washed through her as he gripped her elbow.

  “Thank you.” He murmured against her ear before he hurried up the closest stairwell. I’ll take the upper floors and the deck. You go take the lower ones. And stay out of sight of Gerald!

  He didn’t need to add that reminder. You’re a vampire. You should go below, out of danger of the sun.

  But he didn’t reply.

  The connection was still there, though. She could feel it.

  Oh God, oh God, oh God. Every step took her further into the workings of the ship. Things banged and clanked, pipes gurgled and hissed. Sweat trickled down her hairline, and she understood why the men who worked down here were generally those impervious to heat, or always had their tops off—not that she ever gawked at them or anything.

  Where are you? Vincent’s interrupted her thoughts.

  Desert level. How much could he hear?

  Okay, stay safe.

  Not too much, then. But unexpected amusement washed through her, and she blanked her thoughts, focusing on the noises. One persistent knocking beat was more than just a regular, repetitive sound. It seemed to have almost a rhythm or pattern. She slowed as she listened again.

  Tap. Pause. Tap, tap. Pause. Tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap, Pause. Tap, tap. Pause. She followed the sound.

  FIFTEEN

  EACH DOOR on this level had an old-fashioned doorknob and a porthole window, and she peered through each of them as she tried to establish where the knocking came from. Eventually, she came to a door where the sound was clearest and looked through. Nothing. Well, a row of tanks but nothing else…until she heard it again. More feeble, now, the tapping was still identifiable as something banging on a pipe. The metallic sound echoed through the corridor. She rapped on the door. An answering bang on the pipe sounded.

  Holding her breath, she tried the handle, but the door didn’t budge.

  I think I’ve got something.

  Where are you?

  I’m still on Desert, by the engines. There’s something in one of the rooms down here. Hurry, though, it’s pretty hot.

  Mmm…steamy. She heard Vincent’s amusement in the words he projected, but before she could respond, he spoke again. Try to stay out of sight. I’ll be right there.

  She looked around. Out of sight would be easy enough. The lights in the corridor were dim to keep heat levels lower, although they shone brightly enough in each of the engine rooms. There wasn’t much activity overnight, just a skeleton crew to ensure nothing broke down, and Penny exhaled a sigh of relief that the morning shift still hadn’t started yet.

  Closing her eyes, she drew back into the shadows and breathed deeply, sucking as much air into her lungs as she could, then waiting for the action to calm her.

  “There you are.”

  She startled at Vincent’s low murmur. “Stop sneaking up on me. At least warn me you’re coming.”

  He flashed a quick grin. “More fun this way.”

  “How about you? Any luck finding either of them? Victor say anything else?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. But he’s around, somewhere, I’m sure of it. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  She led him back to the door, but there was no more knocking. When she tapped again, the silence remained. “I definitely heard something before.”

  “Well, let’s see, shall we?”

  “But it’s locked.” She twisted the handle to show him.

  He waved a hand to dismiss her concern and reached out to clutch the doorknob. With a sharp turn of his wrist, he removed it entirely before pushing the door open. He turned to her. “Usually, I’m a gentleman. But, this time, I’ll go first, angelface.” He winked and strode forwards.

  With Vincent blocking her view, she couldn’t see further into the room than the floor between their feet. “Is there anything in here?”

  “I don’t kn—” He dashed forward and knelt next to a huge pile of something. “It’s Derek. He shouldn’t be down here in all this heat.”

  Over Vincent’s shoulder, she could just make out a tuft of white fur and stifled a gasp. “What have they done to him?”

  “I don’t know. He isn’t conscious.”

  “But he was. He was knocking. I heard him. Is he still alive?”

  Vincent rested his ear against the polar bear’s back and his face creased into lines of worry. “Yes, but his heartbeat is faint. We have to get him somewhere cooler.”

  Penny lifted one of Derek’s huge paws and tugged. “Oof!” She pulled harder.

&nbs
p; Vincent clambered around Derek, and something clanked under his foot. “Wait.” He bent and lifted a thick rusting chain. One end wrapped over one of the pipes on the wall, while the other fastened around one of Derek’s back legs. “He should have been able to break through this. Maybe the temperature…”

  Penny’s thoughts collided with each other as she wiped the sheen of sweat from her brow. “Someone must have helped Gerald bring Derek down here. Gerald couldn’t have managed a polar bear on his own.”

  “Not necessarily.” Vincent worked his hands over the chain as he spoke. “Gerald could have brought Derek down here in human form just fine. He could have forced him to shift once here, perhaps.” He glanced over Derek’s large form. “But how?”

  “And why?” Derek’s damp fur was so soft and thick as she sank her hands into it. She trailed her fingers over his fur-covered cheeks in a silent sign that he wasn’t alone.

  “Derek would succumb to heat more easily as his polar bear. This is torture.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “First, this—” Vincent snapped the chain as easily as if he held a bar of chocolate. “Next, we get him somewhere cold.”

  “The fridges in the kitchen?” Penny peered through the window in the door as she spoke. The corridor was still empty, but the ship would be waking up soon. “We’ll never get there unseen.” Worry crept through her as she looked back at the large white bear. “We can hardly slip him in your pocket.”

  “Think closer, sweet-thing. There are some pretty big fans on the next level down for keeping this whole place at a constant temperature. We only need to get him that far. Is the corridor clear?”

  “Yes, but—” she broke off as Vincent hoisted Derek over his shoulder, bending to support his weight.

  “Help me get him through the door.” Vincent’s voice came out in a strained croak as he shifted Derek’s weight. “Super strength accounted for; I still can’t hold him like this for very long.”