Dark Flight (Refuge Book 2)

by Cynthia Sax

  Dark Flight

  Cynthia Sax

  His mission. His challenge. His forever.

  Orol, the Refuge’s second-in-command, has been given what he believes is a simple mission—escort two human females to the settlement. The winged warrior arrives at the meeting site to find one of the females missing and the other aiming a gun at his head. To rescue the first, he must capture the second. Once he has Rhea in his talons, however, he realizes he never wants to let her go.

  Her enemy. Her captor. Her everything.

  Rhea doesn’t trust anyone. She certainly doesn’t follow commands issued by a gorgeous flying male with glittering eyes, a beautiful face, and a seductive touch. Orol is dominant, edged with darkness, and determined to find her sister. Rhea will do anything to prevent that, even if it means playing sensual games of submission with her powerful enemy, seducing him into forgetting everything except her.

  * * *

  Dark Flight is a STAND-ALONE SciFi Romance set in a gritty, dark world.

  Dark Flight

  Copyright 2017 Cynthia Sax

  Ebook design by Mark's Ebook Formatting

  Discover more books by Cynthia Sax at her website

  www.CynthiaSax.com

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given All Rights Are Reserved.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First edition: July 2017

  For more information contact Cynthia Sax at

  www.CynthiaSax.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Afterword

  Also by Cynthia Sax

  Excerpt – Releasing Rage

  About Cynthia Sax

  Chapter One

  Rhea trusted no one.

  She loved Paloma, would protect her sister with her life, but she couldn’t trust her. Her sister was young and gullible. She told everyone everything and believed only what she wanted to believe.

  Even now, the sixteen-solar cycle old girl chattered beside her on the bridge of the merchant ship, sharing every thought passing through her brain. She didn’t care that the Humanoid Alliance was hunting them, confident her sister would safeguard her as she always had.

  Rhea, having six more solar cycles, had been responsible for her sister all of Paloma’s lifespan. Their parents had been spies, busy with their larger cause, relaying information from their Humanoid Alliance neighbors to the Rebels they secretly supported. Their children, beings Rhea often suspected had been conceived as part of their parents’ cover, were an afterthought.

  She had sheltered Paloma as best as she could, striving to give her the semi-normal upbringing she never had. Her sister had known nothing about their parents’ activities.

  It was safer that way. Paloma couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.

  When their parents were finally apprehended and executed, Paloma had refused to believe they were guilty of espionage, wouldn’t accept that they were dead.

  Rhea, having seen their deaths with her own eyes, was alone in her grief and alone in her worry. Their mother, before being captured, had told Rhea to go to the Refuge, a settlement on Carinae E.

  That destination was their sole hope. The Humanoid Alliance had tracked them to every stop they’d made en route. They’d been saved once during their journey by strangers. They’d been betrayed by numerous others. Luck, careful observation, and Rhea’s skills with a gun had kept them alive.

  Rhea flicked her gaze between the main viewscreen of the merchant ship and the personal viewscreen embedded in the console. There were no signs of any other ships and that made her nervous.

  The Humanoid Alliance wouldn’t give up so easily.

  She didn’t know why warriors were pursuing them. It might have something to do with the blueprints her mother asked her to study two planet rotations before the Humanoid Alliance had knocked on their domicile’s door.

  If that was the case, the Humanoid Alliance need not be concerned. She could remember very little of the vessel’s design.

  “Is that our new home?” Paloma leaned forward, her beautiful face lighting up. “It’s…it’s…” Her enthusiasm immediately dimmed. “It’s very blah.”

  Rhea was very blah. A slender, tanned, brown-eyed brunette, she was plain compared to her sister, a voluptuous, blue-eyed, pink-skinned blonde.

  Males preferred Paloma. Rhea wasn’t emotional about that. It was simply a fact, like the universe being large and stars being bright. She was shocked when Marowit claimed Rhea was his preference.

  But that had been yet another lie, a trick to gain her trust.

  “Carinae E is a desert planet.” Rhea tapped on the personal viewscreen, refreshing the image. The monitoring system indicated no vessels. “This is the Refuge.” She marked the location on the main viewscreen with an X.

  “Why are we deviating so far to the left?” Paloma wrinkled her nose.

  “The wind currents around the settlement make it impossible to approach from above.” The wind currents weren’t natural, beings had told her. Kralj, the Ruler of the settlement, had special powers.

  Was that why her mother had sent them here? Would those special powers protect them?

  Rhea didn’t know.

  The main viewscreen flashed red. An unfamiliar ship had entered the monitored space.

  “Strap yourself in,” Rhea advised, her voice flat. A lifespan spent hiding her parents’ activities had taught her to conceal all emotion.

  “They could be friends.” Paloma’s bottom lip curled but she did as she was told.

  Her sister thought everyone was a friend. Rhea fastened her harness. “It’s a Humanoid Alliance warship.” She increased the merchant ship’s speed, heading for the planet.

  The engines groaned and the panels rattled.

  “Captain Lethe and Officer Ghost flew a Humanoid Alliance warship.” Paloma pointed out.

  “That’s not their warship.” The human captain and her cyborg had been the strangers who helped Rhea and Paloma at the beginning of their journey, saving them from a Humanoid Alliance attack.

  Theirs had been the last friendly faces Rhea and Paloma had seen. The two of them were on their own.

  “We could hail the beings in the warship and explain.” Paloma continued to fuss. “Father and Mother aren’t spies. This is all a big misunderstanding.”

  “We’re not hailing them.” And it hadn’t been a misunderstanding. Their parents had been spies. But even if it had been a mistake, the Humanoid Alliance wasn’t known for open-mindedness. When in doubt, they killed all the beings in question.

  The ship shook as they entered Carinae E’s atmosphere.

  “This is why you don’t have any close friends.” Paloma pouted. “You don’t trust anyone.”

  Rhea gritted her teeth as she steered their ship. She didn’t have any close friends becau
se her entire life was a lie. It was better not to talk to anyone than to fabricate stories she would have to remember.

  And she had trusted someone—Marowit. Guilt coiled low in her gut. Flattered by his attentions, she’d allowed the handsome, charismatic male to woo her, spend time with her, fuck her.

  Rhea hadn’t completely let down her guard. She’d been hiding her true self for too long. She didn’t know if total honesty was possible with anyone. But she had shared what she’d thought had been small, unimportant details about her planet rotations.

  That mistake led to her parents being captured and executed. She’d killed their mother and father by trusting the wrong being.

  The merchant ship broke into the planet’s troposphere. The warship fired on them. Rhea swerved the vessel to the right. The missiles hit the side of a mountain.

  Their merchant ship skimmed over a chunk of rock, scratching the metal underbelly of their vessel. The warship followed them.

  Paloma continued to mutter about making peace and explanations, threatening to hail their Humanoid Alliance attackers. Rhea said nothing, her focus on their survival, on extracting themselves from their current precarious situation.

  Sweat trickled down her spine underneath her gray flight suit. She lowered their ship, flying it close to the surface, hoping the size differential between their vessel and the warship would give them an advantage. The white sand underneath them parted, waves on an ocean of land.

  More missiles arced toward them. She steered their ship, dodging one, two. The third one clipped the left side of their vessel, taking out one of their thrusters, jolting them.

  Paloma screamed. Their ship’s wing dragged against the ground, sparks flying from the points of contact. Rhea pressed her lips together and compensated for the reduced power, leveling the vessel.

  “We’re going to die.” Her sister gripped her chair’s armrests, her knuckles whitening.

  “Not if I can help it.” Rhea would take care of Paloma, keep the only being in the universe she cared about safe, transporting them both to the Refuge.

  “How can you be so calm?” Her highly emotional sister verged on the edge of hysterics. “They’re shooting at us.”

  Rhea had spent all of her twenty-two solar cycles knowing that one wrong word could result in death, that the smallest physical reaction—an intake of breath, a trembling finger, a higher pitch in her voice—could give her parents’ activities away, dooming them all. She had learned long ago to conceal her emotions, hide her thoughts.

  It irked her that her sister, the being who should know her the best, didn’t realize Rhea’s calm façade was exactly that—a façade.

  The warship was gaining on them. The missiles were becoming more difficult to avoid. Rhea glanced at the viewscreen embedded in her console. The Refuge remained far away. “We won’t make it.” Her voice was flat.

  Paloma whimpered. “Don’t say that.”

  “There’s an escape pod.” There was only one. It was small, could hold a single being. “Get into it. Press Eject.”

  “Noooo.” Her sister wailed. “I’m staying with you.”

  “We’ll only be parted for mere moments.” Rhea hoped that was the truth. There was a possibility she wouldn’t survive. “There are containers of beverage, nourishment bars in the pod. Remain inside it. I’ll find you.”

  “I didn’t mean what I said last planet rotation, about wanting my own life, about—”

  “I know you didn’t.” They didn’t have time for that conversation. “Get in the escape pod, Paloma. Now.”

  Her sister gulped, unfastened the straps around her body. “You’ll find me?”

  “I promise.” Rhea didn’t have to say more. She had never broken a promise to her sister. Paloma knew that.

  Her sister stood, took three steps toward the door. Then she paused, as though changing her mind.

  That was typical Paloma, always fighting her on every decision. Rhea’s patience was at the breaking point. She opened her mouth to snap at her sister.

  Paloma flung herself against her, hugging her tight. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Rhea fought to get those few strangled words out, emotion swelling inside her.

  Paloma squeezed her once more and hurried out the door without saying another word. That was how scared her normally talkative sister was.

  Rhea would keep her safe. She flew the ship with grim determination, veering it to the left, to the right, between boulders larger than multi-level domiciles. Missiles exploded around them, flumes of fire spiraling upward, sand spraying like shrapnel against their vessel’s panels.

  The bridge without her sister was quiet, eerie, lonely. Paloma wasn’t the easiest company. She was in that awkward stage between being a child and a fully grown female. But they were sisters and Rhea loved her with everything she had.

  Without her sister, Rhea had nothing and no one.

  The system indicated Paloma had entered the escape pod. Rhea lowered the landing gear, increasing the cloud of sand behind her ship, hoping that would conceal her sister’s exit.

  The escape pod detached.

  The warship behind her didn’t slow.

  Rhea exhaled, relief washing over her. The Humanoid Alliance hadn’t detected the escape pod. Her sister should be safe.

  Missiles arced from the ground, the assault from a direction she hadn’t expected. Shit. Rhea steered to the right. She was fighting multiple enemies. The locals were shooting at her also. The few inhabitants of this planet were hostile.

  Most of the beings were Rebels. Their hatred was especially strong for the Humanoid Alliance and that was whom they focused on.

  The locals pummeled the warship pursuing her vessel with missiles, hammering them from all sides. The warship shot at her ship, intent on downing it, on killing anyone on board.

  Rhea jutted her jaw and did her best to avoid being hit. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Tension pulled tight across her shoulders. If she could outlast the warship—

  A missile blasted the remaining thruster on the left side. Fuck. The ship spun. Its nose and tail ground against the rock around her. Fighting for control, she knew her efforts would be futile.

  An explosion rocked her ship from the rear. That must have been the warship. It had been the only object behind her. But its destruction had come too late.

  Her ship was going down.

  She reversed the thrusters on the right side. That slowed the spin. It didn’t stop the ship’s descent. It plowed into the ground nose first, the boom temporarily deafening Rhea.

  She flew forward. The harness caught her before she hit the console, the straps digging into her shoulders and stomach. The breath whooshed out of her body.

  Beams crashed to the floor around her, narrowly missing her chair. Viewscreens shattered. Pain, sharp and intense, jabbed her left shoulder, causing stars to explode in her skull and the bridge to spin merrily around her.

  Severed circuits popped and hissed. The ship stopped moving.

  Rhea sagged, her back touching the chair, and agony coursed through her, causing her vision to gray out. She straightened once more, reached behind her, touched metal. Something the size of her hand stuck out of her body.

  The shard was foreign and frightening and she wanted to remove it. Now. But her father always told her panic resulted in poor decisions. She tried to wiggle the fingers of her left hand.

  They didn’t move. Her arm was useless. The shrapnel must have sliced deep, probably had severed veins. She couldn’t treat the area, could barely reach it. If she yanked the metal out of her shoulder, she’d bleed to death.

  It had to stay where it was. Using her right hand only, Rhea unfastened the harness, pushed herself to her feet. She swayed, lightheaded, and looked around her.

  Guns. She’d need guns. There was always one in the front pocket of her flight suit. Rhea never went anywhere unarmed. But she needed more.

  Opening the compartment under the console, she extracted a simila
r gun plus one long gun, slipped the smaller weapon into her pocket and slung the larger one over her right shoulder. Her vision blurred, the pain excruciating.

  She staggered across the bridge, avoiding the live circuits hanging from the ceiling. The wires snapped and crackled with energy, lighting the darkened space.

  The ceiling had collapsed over the doorway. The floor had buckled. The combination left only a small opening to exit through.

  Rhea eyed it. The hole was tiny but so was she. She might be able to fit through it and there really was no other choice. It was the only way off the bridge.

  She crawled up the wreckage, moving as quickly as possible. A downed ship on a supply-challenged planet would attract scavengers. And her sister was alone, would be scared. It was Rhea’s responsibility to protect her.

  Her right knee brushed against debris, its edges extremely sharp, and she sucked in her breath, more pain added to her misery. Warmth dripped down her shin.

  The panel she was balancing on shifted, tilting out of the door. She slid down the piece of metal, was airborne for a heartbeat. Guns fired. Projectiles zinged past her.

  She landed with a plop on the sand and rolled under the ship, almost passing out as the shrapnel in her shoulder was pushed deeper into her body. Breathing heavily, she grabbed the long gun with her one functioning hand.

  The air was hot, dry, smelled of mechanical lubricant and projectile residue. Debris from the ship blocked her from sight, providing a shield to hide behind.

  Judging by the directions projectiles were being fired from, there were four, five, maybe more attackers. She was injured, was only one being, had use of only one hand.

  But she was an excellent shot. Her mother had called her a natural. Rhea had practiced, improving her skill, until there had been no one in their settlement who could match her.

  That skill hadn’t saved her parents. When the Humanoid Alliance arrived at their domicile, Rhea faced a choice. She could rush her sister to safety or stay with her parents, protect them if needed.

  She had chosen Paloma, always Paloma, as her parents had always chosen the Rebel cause over their offspring, going away on missions as soon as Rhea was able to care for her sister, not thinking how their double life affected the young females, how it put them at risk.