His Fire Maiden

by Michelle M. Pillow

  A shudder of grief washed over her as she found her father’s lifeless body slumped in the chair behind his desk.

  “No,” Violette whispered. “Not this.”

  Josselyn lay on the floor, pale and weak. Her wavy light brown hair was streaked with blonde highlights. The locks looked dull, almost as dull as her grayed expression. Her head was in the lap of Evan Cormier.

  Josselyn had given the surname of Cormier when Violette had flown the woman onto the base. Evan’s vessel had followed them. It was Violette’s business to know the landing spacecrafts and who was on them—not that too many travellers wanted to visit a military compound sunk beneath sand dunes. Josselyn had been running from Evan’s ship, or from someone on it. Violette didn’t really care about that detail. Evan was probably trying to stop Josselyn from committing murder. Looking at the man’s face now, it was obvious he loved Josselyn. His tender hands moved desperately over the woman’s body, as if his willpower could save her.

  For a moment, Violette thought the woman was dead and was glad for it. But the feeling was short-lived, as she took in the blue tint of Josselyn’s flesh. The coloring gave away the woman’s illness. Whoever had released her from her stone prison didn’t finish the process. She was dying. If the syringe on the floor next to them was any indication, the general had tried to give her the cure for the stasis sickness. Every instinct inside Violette urged her to let Josselyn die.

  End this now, Violette’s mind whispered, before she can get off this base. Take your revenge. Shoot her. No one will stop you. They’ll give you a civilian’s medal. She killed a Federation General.

  Violette’s gaze found the bloody knife. It was the same slim dagger her father had used to cut her for the blood oath. She looked at her arm, to where the scar was hidden by the long sleeves of her dark shirt. That one memory kept her from leaping forward. Her promise. If it were her last act in the galaxy, she would keep her blood oath.

  “Just as he said it would be,” Violette stated, looking directly at Evan. Even as she saw his anguish, she couldn’t bring herself to feel compassion. Not in that moment. Not for Josselyn. “I didn’t want to believe him, but he has been waiting for her my whole life. He told me she would come to end him, his ghost.”

  “You don’t understand what is happening here,” Evan answered. Had the situation been different, she could have appreciated the fear in his deep brown eyes. “You can’t.”

  “I understand that a very young girl swore a blood oath to her father.” She tugged at the white cross laces running up her tight sleeve, pulling them apart to show the long scar on her forearm. “I understand that today that oath has been fulfilled. But, mostly, I understand that once Josselyn is safely off this base, and the affairs of my father are wrapped up neatly, and a new general is in place, my obligation is over. I will come for her. I will come to avenge my father, for, unlike him, I do not forgive her. When she wakes, tell her Captain Violette sends her regards.”

  “There is no need. She’s dying. Your father killed her years ago when he imprisoned her into stone.” Evan lifted Josselyn into his arms. Her limbs flopped without protest. “I recommend you find a better use of your energy. Revenge will only eat away at your soul.”

  “There is a chance she will survive.” Violette crossed the room, going toward her father. She lifted the syringe off the floor. “He gave her the antidote. He might have killed her, but he also saved her.” Then, pulling a disc key from beside her father’s hand, she tossed it at Evan. He caught it, barely, as Josselyn nearly fell from his arms. “That is for her. The safe is on Quazer in the Glamour District. I’m revoking your ship’s permission to stay on the base because you refused our standard inspection. Your shipmates have been unharmed and await you. I recommend you take her and go.”

  “Thank you,” Evan said, looking as if he would say more.

  “Get out of here.” Violette’s voice caught. She didn’t want their thanks.

  Evan didn’t need to be told again. He carried Josselyn from the room.

  Violette’s anger slipped into misery. Now alone, she stumbled to her father’s body. She willed him to move, to speak, to open his eyes. The alarm stopped as she kneeled on the floor. Her forehead pressed into his knee as it had done when she was a little girl. The silence was more unnerving than the blaring noise. The scorched mark of a laser stained his white cotton uniform, next to the blood-ringed pierce of a knife wound. Either would have been deadly.

  Death had come for her father and Violette had delivered her to his doorstep. How could he have made her do that? How could he expect her to live with herself knowing she had?

  She opened her mouth to speak as she reached to touch his face. No words came out, as she thought, I have kept my promise. I gave you my word that I would not lift a finger to stop what she chose to do. Today, my word to you is fulfilled. She made her choice and so now I make mine. Josselyn will pay for what she’s done to you, as will any who try to stop me. Whatever happened to make you think this was a fair ending? You were wrong in thinking this just. I make a new promise to you. Josselyn will face justice. I promise you, father, she will pay for her sins.

  Violette lifted the knife and drew the tip along the old scar. Blood beaded up on her flesh. “I swear it by my blood, and nothing can break a blood oath.” She collapsed on the floor and began to cry. “Why did you make me bring her? Why…?”

  Chapter 4

  Dev stood tense, ready for battle within the underground military base. Being trapped in a metal compound wasn’t his idea of a strategic plan, but they hadn’t been given a choice. Josselyn was on Rifflen seeking revenge and they had come to aid her escape. When Evan asked for help rescuing the woman he loved, Dev didn’t hesitate. Once upon a time, he had been the one who needed to be saved from impossible odds. Evan’s vision was the reason he was alive. Dev would do anything for his friend.

  As they waited for Evan and Josselyn, Dev was well aware of the stares he received from the humanoids living beneath the sands of Rifflen. Their looks of fascination warred with terror. It was nothing new. The terror would win. When it came to him, the terror almost always won.

  “Where are they, Dev? That alarm can’t be a good sign.” Jackson whispered under his breath. The man took a small step down the metal docking plank as if he was debating going after Evan in a premature rescue. The ship vibrated as the engines warmed. “I don’t like this place. Who buries a city under the sand?”

  Dev didn’t answer. Jackson wouldn’t expect one. The fact that they were on a Federation base didn’t help. Pirates and military didn’t socialize well.

  Evan would contact them if he needed assistance. Besides, with Evan’s psychic ability to sense the ever-changing future, he should have been able to tell them if they expected big trouble.

  Dev heard a child gasp and glanced to where a hairy beast of a half-humanoid kid pointed up at him. It never made sense why people feared the red demon alien, but not the hairy ones, or the blue ones, or the slimy ones. Though, the way the Bevlon’s acted, it wasn’t surprising. His father’s people loved their evil reputation. Without giving away that he saw the kid’s rude gestures, Dev turned his attention back to the metal entrance where Evan should emerge.

  “Where is he?” Jackson repeated, his hands twitching.

  “Hold,” Dev ordered calmly. He watched as the soldiers mingled amongst the civilians to see if they acted suspiciously. Only a few guards had responded to the alarm. The others held their place. Dev crossed his arms, silently daring them to attempt to breach the ship. None of them tried.

  Inside the base, the air was stale, tainted by the gut-churning smell of roasting meats. The artificial sun lights gave a low hum. In the docking area the ceilings were high, but from what he could tell, the military base was shaped like a squashed sphere, tapering in height the closer one walked toward the outer edges. The high center point was where they entered, through a tall column that would expand out of the sands to let ships come and go. Overhead
a combination of steel beams and windows did little to give the feeling of space. He wondered why they bothered with windows at all. The sand moving past the large panes made it feel like being buried alive. Below, workers aimed lasers at welded bolts, tediously reinforcing them one by one to protect the compound from sand erosion. They were quite the marksmen.

  “About bloody time,” Jackson swore, shaking Dev from his thoughts.

  Dev followed his friend’s gaze to the far side of the docks. Evan carried Josselyn, his arms strained as he rushed toward the ship. The base guards eyed Evan as he passed. Their hostility became palpable, thickening the air.

  Dev instantly moved down to the bottom of the plank to make sure no one went for a gun or tried to stop their departure. He knew Josselyn had come to Rifflen seeking revenge and had most likely found it. What he didn’t understand was why the base’s officials were letting them fly out of there unharmed. But then who was he to question a bit of good fortune?

  “Jackson,” Evan called, stumbling. Jackson rushed down the plank and across the docking area to help Evan carry Josselyn on board.

  Dev’s eyes swept from soldier to soldier, calculating the risk. He listened to the sound of his friends’ footsteps. Suddenly, everything seemed to stop.

  A woman emerged on the far side of the docks following Evan, arms crossed, green eyes hard. Curly brown hair danced around her chin as she moved. The soft locks were at odds with her fierce demeanor. The slender tailoring of her outfit, tight brown pants, and matching deep cut top, accented her tall figure. He found himself studying the curve of her hip and the long line of her legs. Her lips were pressed together in irritation, but they were full and red—the kind of lips that could command men with harsh orders or soft kisses. Dev wasn’t sure which would be more effective a method, but he knew which he would prefer.

  She neared the docking plank, shouldering past a few members of the crowd to stand several paces away from him. Her eyes met his. He didn’t like what her look did to him. Desire surged to his surface, hotter than an exploding Bravon sun. Electric fire snapped between them. He wanted to kiss her but had a feeling she would prefer to shoot him. An entire conversation happened in that one look without words ever needing to be spoken.

  “Who is that woman?” Dev asked, before he could stop himself.

  Evan glanced to where he indicated. “Captain Violette. Long story, but the short version is she’s not too happy with us. I’ll fill everyone in once we’re in orbit.”

  Dev didn’t detect fear buried in the raw emotion swimming in Violette’s gaze, not even a glimmer of it. She looked too delicate to be so tough, and yet his years of training told him not to underestimate this woman.

  “Walk straight,” Dev whispered gruffly, grabbing Evan’s arm and practically dragging him up the plank. They needed to get off the base, but more importantly, he needed away from that woman. He didn’t like the rush of emotion that filled him when he looked at her—curiosity, desire, protectiveness. He was a warrior always ready for battle, but even he could admit when it was best to retreat. “We don’t want to be stuck here waiting for the next chance to take off.”

  Not for the first time since it happened, Dev thought of An’s curse. Evan’s destiny had been realized with Josselyn when they found her imprisoned in stone on an ice tundra of a dead moon. If that was simply fate or fulfillment of a prophecy, Dev didn’t know. What he did know is that he’d spent a lot of lonely nights trying to force any personal hope out of his head. And now, with one look, he was thinking she might be his element of earth as they were buried beneath the sand as their eyes met, or metal for the stretch of metal flooring that now separated them, or fire for the churning in her hot gaze and the feeling in his blood…

  Or nothing. He was reaching for clues that were not there. She was nothing because men like him did not get to fall in love. His destiny lay in battle, in protecting others. He was a demon spawn after all, and who would want to love a demon?

  A new alarm activated to interrupt his thoughts and break the spell of her impassioned gaze. The noise punctuated the clanking of metal against metal. The center column began to rise. Dev released Evan as they neared the top. Instantly the docking plank lifted to seal them inside the ship. And, as he glanced through the narrowing view as the door closed, he saw the woman still stared at him with her intense eyes. She nodded once before turning her back.

  Fire, Dev thought, she is unquestionably fire.

  Chapter 5

  The Conqueror, Deep Space

  “Evan and Josselyn.” Rick slid into his chair at the gaming table. They were in the common area of the ship where the crew gathered to socialize with each other. “I tell you. I knew Evan and Josselyn were going to hook up from the very first moment we rescued her from her pretty little prison statue. That’s why I held back with her. You know, so she didn’t get lost in all my charm.”

  “What kind of device do you wish to hook Josselyn up to?” Dev asked, frowning. He shared a look with Jackson and Lochlann. Rick had a penchant for twenty-first century Old Earth memorabilia and sayings, and they couldn’t always translate what his expressions meant.

  Rick sighed dramatically. “It is all torture and battle scars with you, isn’t it, Devekin? Don’t you ever think of anything else? For a hot-blooded guy, you’re not very—” Rick’s voice abruptly stopped as Dev stood from his chair. He held up his hands, laughing. “Easy, big fella. I’m only teasing.”

  Rick was right about one thing. Evan had found his true love. That accursed prophecy was at work. Dev was sure of it. How else would Evan find Josselyn so soon after Zhang An’s curse?

  With the newest addition of Josselyn Craven, there were eleven people on board the ship. Josselyn and Evan were in his chambers as she recovered from the last of her illness. Captain Jarek, his wife Mei, and their newborn son, Parker, passed most of their time in the captain’s quarters. Other than that, everyone else spent their days in the common area.

  At times, eleven felt very crowded. The isolation of deep space surrounded by the same people could become tedious, but that was the price of adventuring. It’s not like Dev had anywhere else to go. Well, unless you counted the fact Dev and Jackson’s often escaped to the VR training facility to fight various alien species for fun—and since they’d disengaged all the safety protocols, it really was fun. If things went too wrong, there was always a medical booth on board.

  Dev crossed his arms over his chest and arched a brow at Rick.

  “Hook up, get together,” Rick clarified, wagging his eyebrows suggestively. When no one gave him the response he was looking for, he grumbled, “Don’t you have some end of days battle to prepare for, Dev? I swear if you weren’t so damned ugly I’d think you and Jackson had a little something going on in the VR. Who needs to train for sixteen hours a day? It’s not like we’re heading off to war.”

  Dev didn’t take offense. Whereas Dev was all about maintaining order, Rick was all about pushing the limits until they broke. Right now, Rick was bored, as often was the case when the ship was on autopilot. The man could fly his way into or out of anything. Usually, it was in and out of trouble, and he typically took everyone on the ship with him. It was hard to find mischief when surrounded by nothing but the deep black.

  “What are you talking about? Dev is damned sexy.” Jackson winked. He reached over to grab a hard round food chip from in front of Lucien before putting it gingerly in his mouth to try it. Then grinning, he swiped the entire bowl.

  “Hey!” Lucien protested. He was half-human, half-Dere, with the strangest red-brown eyes they’d ever seen—unless they counted the red-green eyes of his older brother, Viktor. Lucien was in charge of communications, and Viktor was a mechanic who could rig anything.

  “These aren’t bad. Thanks.” Jackson laughed, moving across the room to lounge on a low couch while he enjoyed his pilfered food.

  “What do you guys do in the VR all day?” Rick stretched as if he’d take one of Jackson’s stolen chips.
Jackson pulled the bowl inches out of his reach.

  “We train to save your screwboy ass,” Dev answered.

  “I don’t need saving.” Rick again tried to grab a chip and failed.

  “I’ll remind you of that comment next time you get kidnapped by a girl.” Jackson laughed. “Again.”

  “Drug queenpin. She wasn’t just a girl,” Rick corrected. “Plus, it’s fate. You can’t fight fate. If I hadn’t been taken, Jarek wouldn’t have met Mei, Mei wouldn’t have brought us to her family’s palace, and, you know, you all should thank me for that prediction business. It’s clear that Evan and Josselyn owe all their present happiness to me. If I didn’t insult that floating b—”

  “Careful, Rick,” Jackson warned. “Zhang An may be dead, but she is still Mei’s ancestral spirit.”

  “That dead ghost broad is an ancestral pain in my—” Rick tried to answer.

  “Hand over the Torganian rum, space cadet,” Lucien broke in. “It’s clear you’re hallucinating grandeur again.”

  “Yeah, you must be crazy if you think the guys are going to thank you for that little stunt you pulled,” Viktor added.

  “Still too soon to joke about the curse?” Rick inquired, giving a playful smile. Everyone who knew Rick recognized that he felt sorry about what had happened but would never allow himself to admit it. The man hid his emotions behind jokes.

  The curse.

  Violette. Her name was Violette. Josselyn’s sister. The dead general’s daughter. Angry, beautiful Violette.

  Dev’s stomach tightened at the reminder of the curse, but he didn’t let his emotions show. There wasn’t an hour that had passed that he didn’t think about Zhang An’s words since seeing Violette on the docks. It wasn’t just that she was one of the most beautiful creatures he’d ever beheld; it was the pain in her eyes. Deep, soulful green eyes.