by Nina Croft
“Believe me, if it was Collective, I’d know.”
Alex believed her. Although they hadn’t known it until earlier that day, Skylar was a member of the Collective.
Five hundred years ago, Meridian, a rare radioactive element, had been discovered on Trakis Seven. Meridian had the ability to bestow immortality on those lucky enough to afford its exorbitantly high price, and a new class had evolved—the Collective. Ultra-rich and powerful, they now controlled most of the civilized universe.
That Skylar was one of them still filled Alex with awe.
Tannis frowned. “If it’s not the Collective, who the hell is it?”
“I have no clue.” Skylar smiled sweetly. “But hey, you know what? It’s just possible that everything is not my fault, after all. It’s possible that maybe you’ve managed to piss off quite a few people all on your own.”
Tannis pursed her lips but didn’t answer. “Rico, you got any ideas?”
Rico grinned, revealing the tips of his sharp white fangs. “Could be one of thousands.”
“Well, they seem to have gone quiet. Have we lost them?”
“No. There they are.” Rico swung his chair back around and pointed at the monitor. Alex inched closer to peer around Skylar. The screen showed a ship, getting bigger by the second as it closed the distance between them.
“And it looks like they’re coming back for another go at us. Hold on, everyone.” Rico grabbed Skylar and pulled her onto his knee. “If we’re going to die, we might as well die happy.”
Alex spotted an empty seat, threw herself into it, and fastened the harness. Adrenaline surged through her bloodstream as she waited for the shot to hit them. They might all be going to die in a few seconds, and she had never felt so alive in her entire life.
The ship rocked as the blast struck El Cazador’s stern. For a few seconds, the lights flashed, and Alex’s small hands gripped the armrests tightly, her muscles locked solid. Then the ship righted herself, the lights returned to normal, and Alex released her breath.
“Any damage?” Tannis asked.
“None.” Rico studied the console in front of him. “At a guess, they’re warning shots…so far.”
“Yeah—but warning us of what?”
“They’re trying to comm us,” Janey said. “You want to hear what they have to say?”
Tannis shrugged. “Why not?”
“Just a moment—I’ll put it on speaker.”
“This is High Priest Hezrai Fischer.”
As the familiar voice boomed around the bridge, Alex jumped and the breath caught in her throat. She would have fallen out of her chair if she hadn’t been strapped in. After the initial shock, she froze in her seat and peeked surreptitiously around, sure everyone must be able to see her guilty secret. No one was paying her the slightest attention, and she forced her muscles to relax. Maybe it had nothing to do with her. Maybe it was a huge coincidence. She chewed on a fingernail.
Should she sneak away now? But she needed to know, and besides, she was on a space cruiser heading through deep space; where was she supposed to hide?
“Dios,” Rico muttered, “it’s the goddamn Church. Have I mentioned how much I hate the Church?”
“Frequently,” Skylar said drily.
Five hundred years ago, the old religions had almost died out, but that had all changed with the discovery of Meridian. While not everyone could afford that route to immortality, everyone wanted to live forever, and the old beliefs had gained a new popularity. The Church of Everlasting Life offered the masses a cheaper, if less reliable, alternative with its promise of an afterlife in paradise. They had quickly grown until they were now the second most powerful faction in the civilized universe.
Tannis opened her comm link. “So, you’re a High Priest. Big deal. Whatever it is you’re selling, we don’t want any.”
Hezrai ignored the comment. He’d always been excellent at ignoring what he didn’t want to hear. Which included most of what Alex had ever said. She and Hezrai had existed in a state of mutual animosity for as long as Alex remembered. Longer than that even, according to Sister Martha. Apparently, Alex had thrown up all over him at their first meeting and things had only gone downhill from there.
“We believe you have something that belongs to us,” Hezrai said. “We want it back.”
It?
Wasn’t it just like him to refer to her as an it? He’d never seen her as a person.
Rico glanced around the room. “Anyone got a clue what he’s talking about?”
“No idea,” Tannis said.
Alex shrank into her chair and tried to make herself very, very small.
All her life, except for the last three months, she had done her duty, and it had been hard—every single day a struggle against the stultifying boredom of ritual and routine. Even so, this time away was only ever meant to be temporary. She’d always known she had to go back sometime. There were people who believed in her, had given up their lives for her. But was it so wrong to want to see a tiny bit of the world before she returned? To live a little?
Yes, she’d go back. But just not yet. There were things she had to do. An image of Jon’s nearly naked body flashed across her mind—important things.
Tannis ran a hand through her short, dark hair. “They’ve obviously fucked up and confused us with someone else. We have shit that belongs to them.” She was silent for a moment as she considered their options. “As far as I’m aware, at the present time we’re not holding any illegal contraband on the ship. Why not let them board, check things out, and maybe they’ll piss off and leave us alone.”
Alex sneaked another peek around the room and found Skylar watching her, her inhuman violet eyes speculative as she studied her. Skylar raised one eyebrow, and Alex sank lower into her chair and tried to keep her expression blank.
Skylar swung around to face Tannis. “You really think that’s a good idea?”
“You have a better one?”
“Well, it would be hard to come up with a worse one. You’ve a couple of GMs on board—including yourself by the way—as well as someone the Church believes is a close relation to the antichrist.”
Rico grinned. “Hey, sweetheart, you referring to me? Because I’ve got to tell you—me and the antichrist—we’re not actually related.”
“Tell that to the Church,” Skylar suggested sweetly.
GMs stood for genetically modifieds. Captain Tannis and Daisy were both GMs—or abominations as the Church referred to anyone with less than a hundred percent human DNA. The Church had exterminated most of them in the Purge—one of the Church’s policies Alex had never believed in. Unlike Hezrai, who pursued it with maniacal zeal.
Daisy was a plant hybrid—she was green and could photosynthesize, which Alex thought was amazingly cool. El Cazador had picked up her damaged escape pod in deep space after the experimental station where she’d lived had been attacked and her family exterminated by the Church.
Tannis’s mixed heritage was a little less obvious but still clear in her skin—luminous ivory run through with shimmering iridescent lights—and her yellow reptilian eyes. No one knew where Tannis came from, except maybe Rico, and she never spoke of her past, but she also never made any attempt to hide her genetic modifications, which was unusual given the genocidal climate fostered by the Church.
As for Rico, well, the Church didn’t have an official stance on vampires. In fact, Alex had never even believed they existed until she’d met Rico. It had been a shock—one she hadn’t yet fully recovered from.
“We could make ourselves scarce,” Tannis said, gesturing to Daisy and herself. “Janey can deal with this High Priest. They can poke around a bit, satisfy themselves we don’t have whatever it is they think we have, and hopefully that will finish it.”
Skylar glanced briefly at Alex. “No.”
She knew.
She had to know. But how?
“No?” Tannis asked, her eyes narrowing so the pupils were no more than black slit
s.
Skylar stood her ground. “You made me security officer. This is a security issue, and I say no one from the Church is coming on board this ship.”
Tannis released an exaggerated sigh. “So what do you suggest?”
Skylar turned back to Rico. “Get us out of here.”
He grinned. “You know, I love it when you’re bossy.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just go.”
Chapter Two
After a few quick maneuvers, including one that still had Alex’s pulse thrumming, they left the cruiser far behind. Alex loosened her grip on the arms of her seat and breathed again.
“Piece of cake,” Rico murmured. “The Church hasn’t a clue about evasive tactics.”
Would that be the end of it?
Alex didn’t know, mainly because she was still reeling with shock from the idea that Hezrai appeared to be making a genuine effort to find her. That was unexpected. Oh, she was important in the Church’s hierarchy, and no doubt, it was embarrassing for them to have mislaid her. But she’d thought they’d keep quiet, and later she’d be able to slip back as though nothing had happened.
As usual, none of the crew was taking any notice of her, so she stood slowly and edged out of the room. But as she turned at the entrance, she sensed someone watching her. She was sure it was Skylar but kept her gaze fixed on the floor. Only when the door shut behind her did she break into a run and head for her cabin.
Once inside, she activated the lock, scooped up Mogg, and sank onto the bed. She stroked the soft black fur of his head. Mogg was a cat, like they used to have on Earth. Well, sort of. They’d become friends on Trakis Twelve, and Alex had smuggled him aboard El Cazador—she wasn’t sure how Rico would feel about animals on his ship. For all she knew, vampires might like cat blood—it wasn’t a risk Alex was willing to take, so she kept Mogg well hidden in her cabin.
The buzzer sounded.
Glancing at the viewer by the bed, she wasn’t surprised to see Skylar standing outside. Alex bit her lip, trying to decide whether to ignore her, but she couldn’t stay locked in here forever.
She had to face this. The buzzer came again, and she sighed.
After tucking Mogg under the bed, she rose to her feet and placed her palm to the panel until the door opened.
When Alex had first met Skylar, she’d thought her the most beautiful woman ever, with her long blond hair and silver tube dress. Now without the wig and wearing a fitted black jump suit and a laser pistol strapped to her waist, she still looked beautiful, but strong and tough as well. She was everything Alex longed to be, and a familiar shaft of jealousy prodded her in the gut.
“Hey, kid,” Skylar said. “You want to talk to me about anything?”
For a brief moment, she thought maybe Skylar didn’t know, hadn’t seen beneath her disguise. But the hope faded quickly under Skylar’s pointed gaze.
“Well?” Skylar prompted.
Alex stepped aside and allowed her to enter, but Skylar stood just inside the room and glanced around the small space. “Shit, this place is a mess.”
The room was a little untidy; Alex usually didn’t notice. She loved her cabin the way it was—she’d never had her own private space before. Back at the Abbey, privacy had been an unknown concept. She’d had people to pick up after her, to clean her room, bring her food—her every need catered to. Everything kept perfect. It had driven her mad. Now she preferred a little chaos.
Shoving her hands in her pockets, she stuck out her lower lip in her favorite “cabin boy” expression. “I like it like this.”
Skylar shrugged and opened her mouth to speak, but Mogg took that moment to stroll out from under the bed.
“Hey, you’ve got a cat.” Skylar stretched out a hand. Mogg hissed and leaped lightly onto the bed, where he sat watching them, his tail twitching.
Skylar cleared the clothes off the single chair and sat. “Come on, Al. Talk to me.”
Alex sighed and sank down onto the bed, stroking Mogg as she thought of what to say. “How did you know?”
“I knew you were a girl almost from the moment we met. I think you’ve only fooled the others because you’ve perfected the art of being invisible.”
She thought about what Skylar had said and a faint glimmer of hope awoke inside her. “So you don’t actually know who I am.”
“Sorry, kid. You’re Alexia, High Priestess of the Church of Everlasting Life.”
The glimmer evaporated.
“It came to me tonight,” Skylar continued. “I knew you looked familiar. I’d seen the comms—they’re all over the waves.”
“The comms?”
“Apparently you went missing, and they want you back. The comms hinted that you’d been kidnapped though. Anyway, there’s a picture—which doesn’t look a lot like you—and they’re offering a big reward. Tonight, it clicked. Rico said something about your reasons for hiding being your own—”
Shock tightened her gut, and her gaze flew to Skylar’s face. “Rico knows?”
“Not who you are, but what you are.”
“Has he known all along?”
“No. You might be a good actor, but you slip occasionally—he got interested.”
“Oh.”
It was over. Skylar was her friend. She might have been willing to keep her secret, but not the vampire. “Are you going to tell him?”
“Look, kid—”
Annoyance flicked her nerve endings. “I’m not a kid. I don’t think I’ve ever been a kid.”
Skylar ran her gaze over Alex, who managed to hold herself from squirming under the intense scrutiny. When she reached Alex’s eyes, her brows drew together. “No. I can see that when I look—you have old eyes. Just how old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Holy Meridian. Really? I placed you no more than fourteen—maybe fifteen.”
She gritted her teeth. “Yes, really.”
Skylar was still staring as though she didn’t believe her.
“I’m little, okay. It makes me look younger.”
“It certainly does. You must be a very good actor.”
“I’ve had to be.” Alex didn’t try to hide the bitterness in her voice. All her life she’d been acting, pretending to be the dutiful priestess while everything screamed in denial. Now she was heading back, and it was the end of her dreams.
It wasn’t fair.
She bit the words back, kept them inside—that was a child’s view of life, and she wasn’t a child.
“Don’t worry—I was always planning to go back. Now you can take me and get the reward. At least the captain will be happy.” Everyone knew Tannis was obsessed with getting enough credits together to pay for the Meridian treatment. Alex attempted a mirthless grin. It was nice to know she would be of some use. Not.
“Do you want to go back?” Skylar asked.
She shrugged. “I told you, I’d always planned to. I just wanted a little more time.”
“So what happened? I take it you ran away—but why?”
Alex leaped to her feet and paced the room. “One day, it all got to be too much. I couldn’t stand it anymore. The predictable routines, the endless rituals, the people. They were all so pompous and good and boring. And I’d never seen anything of the world, and I never would.” She halted in front of Skylar. “Have you ever felt like you’d explode if you didn’t do something…anything?”
Skylar nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’ve felt like that.” They were silent for a minute. “You know, we’re not so different—I’ve run away as well.”
Alex realized she meant from the Collective. Maybe Skylar did understand. “So what are you going to do?”
“It’s not up to me. I won’t make you go back—it’s your decision. You want more time—take as much as you like.”
Hope blossomed inside her, and her lips tugged up at the corners.
“But—”
Alex’s smile faded. “But?”
“Chances are, your friends will come after us again
. They must want you back badly.”
Alex chewed on her fingernail. “I don’t understand that bit. Honestly.”
“Perhaps because you’re their High Priestess,” Skylar said gently. “They love you.”
“Some of them maybe. Sister Martha. But Hezrai hates me.”
“The High Priest we spoke to?”
“Yeah, he’s a pompous old goat.”
“Well, he cares enough to come after you. All I’m saying is you need to come clean. Tell Tannis and Rico who you are, so they can keep away from the Church.”
“They’ll send me back.”
“They won’t.”
“The captain will want the reward.”
“Tannis likes money, but once you’re crew she won’t give you up. You know she’d die keeping her crew safe.”
“Maybe.” Alex felt a small resurgence of hope. Skylar was right—the captain took care of her people. But while Tannis might be the captain, Rico actually owned El Cazador. “What about the vampire?”
“Rico?” A small smile curved Skylar’s lips, and she stroked the purple stone on her finger. “He won’t be a problem.”
Alex knew Rico had given Skylar the ring. They thought they were in love. Well, as much in love as a vampire and a member of the Collective could be. Alex could see the attraction—sort of. Rico was gorgeous, with his long, lean body and midnight dark hair, but he was also a blood-sucking monster.
Still, Alex wasn’t sure she believed in love. She’d seen no evidence of its existence during her short life. Her own family had sold her to the Church for a measly thousand credits, and while the Church preached incessantly about love, the inner council was actually riddled with political intrigue and petty power squabbles. No, she didn’t believe in love. But she was glad Skylar did if it meant Alex could stay on El Cazador.
And it would be good to stop acting for a while. Her mind flashed back to Jon. Maybe he’d like her if she appeared more womanly. She could stop wrapping up her breasts, which was becoming increasingly irksome. And maybe Janey would help her. Janey knew how to dress and wear makeup…
“What’s going through your mind?”
Alex jumped a little at Skylar’s question and gave a casual shrug. “Nothing.”
