by Nina Croft
No one had yet made the connection between her and the attack earlier. They would eventually, but right now, they were too entertained by the whole virgin thing.
“So what happened?” Tannis asked. “Why aren’t you back there doing whatever priestesses do? What do priestesses do?”
Alex shrugged.
“Anyway, I would have thought it was a cushy number.”
“She got to wear that great outfit.” Janey giggled and waved a hand at the screen where Alex’s robe-clad figure still showed. “That would have been enough to make me do a runner.”
“Well, she’s hardly a fashion statement now. So why did you run?”
“I was bored. It was an impulse thing, but then I got stranded…”
“On Trakis Twelve?
She nodded.
“That was three months ago, and it looks like they’ve been searching for you ever since.”
“And now they’ve found her.” Everyone swung around to look at Rico. “That’s right isn’t it? They’ve caught up with you. That’s why you’re coming clean now.”
Alex would have liked to deny it, but he was spot on. It took Tannis a moment to process the information and her expression cleared.
“Shit. You’re what that High Priest guy was on about. You’re the thing that belongs to them.”
Alex nodded again.
“You’re the reason the Church came after us.” Tannis sighed loudly. “So what do we do now?”
Skylar shrugged. “We keep out of their way.”
“Why not hand her over?” Jon spoke for the first time. He sounded genuinely interested. “You get rid of the problem and pick up the reward.”
Tannis pursed her lips, her yellow eyes cold as she considered the question, and Alex peered around at the people in the room as fear gripped her insides. Janey and Daisy both wore identical expressions of sympathy, Rico still appeared amused, and Skylar’s face was blank. The captain’s expression was hard to read, and Alex waited for her to answer.
“Because he’s, or should I say, she’s crew, and we don’t give up our crew. Not to anyone. Not unless they want to be given up.” She turned to Alex. “Do you want to go back?”
The walls seemed to close in around her as she thought of the years ahead. The stultifying boredom that would slowly choke the life from her until even the will to live would abandon her. No, she didn’t want to go back. At some point, she knew she’d have to, just not right now.
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Well, you’d better stay then,” Tannis said.
At her words, a warm wave of relief washed through Alex.
“Though I suppose we’d better think of something else to call you,” Tannis continued. “Cabin boy doesn’t seem appropriate anymore.”
Alex had a few ideas. Now that the need to keep a low profile was gone, she wanted to learn everything. How to fly. How to fight. Maybe Janey would teach her how to hack into systems. Then when she went back, she’d be able to find out what everybody was up to—at least that might keep the boredom at bay. The ship’s mechanic the Trog was already teaching her how the engines worked—there had never been any need to keep a low profile with the Trog—even if he had guessed what she was, he wouldn’t have told. The Trog didn’t talk much. He basically hid under his scruffy hair and skulked around the engine room on the lower deck. Alex often wondered what he was hiding from.
“Okay,” Tannis said. “So now we know why the Church is after us. Let’s just keep out of their way. Hopefully they’ll give up—how important can one priestess be, right?”
The question didn’t seem to need an answer. Happiness bubbled up inside Alex until she had to fight to keep the grin from her face.
“And at least we know the Church doesn’t want you dead, so they’re not likely to blow us out of the sky without any warning. Unlike our other friends.”
Tannis turned to Skylar. “Any thoughts on why the Collective are so keen to see him dead?” She waved at Jon and frowned. “Why is he still half naked? Janey—go get him those clothes.”
…
Jon admired the sway of Janey’s hips as she left the room, then cast a surreptitious glance at Al, only to find her watching him out of those huge gray eyes. Hungry eyes. Heat curled in his belly, but he dismissed it—it had been a long time, that was all.
At twenty-four, she was no child, but he still wasn’t interested. If he had to have a woman, he’d choose the other redhead—she’d know what she was getting into. Or the green one. He’d never seen anyone quite that green before—she would have a certain novelty value.
But his eyes were drawn back to Al, and then to the screen where the image of the High Priestess still stared down at them. He was finding it hard to believe they were the same person. Her fear had been obvious as she’d waited for the snake lady to make a decision. She’d been in no way sure whether they wouldn’t hand her over, and her relief when she’d learned they would let her stay had been palpable. The decision confused him; he didn’t know what to make of these people.
The immediate animosity with the vampire, he had understood, and the fight had been good—had cleared away the lingering effects of the cryo. But now it seemed forgotten. Rico was murmuring to the Collective woman, but his body language was relaxed. As though he sensed Jon watching him, he glanced up, but Jon ignored the implied question in the vampire’s eyes.
His butt hurt where the redhead had sliced him open to get at the tracking device, and he stood up, ran his hands through his hair. The fact he was alive, and for the moment at least free, was beginning to sink in.
The snake lady was pacing the floor, presumably waiting for an answer as to why the Collective wanted them dead. He was curious as well. He had a few ideas, but he’d wait and see how this developed before he decided whether to share them or not. She came to a halt in front of him, a scowl on her face. She wasn’t beautiful, but she was definitely intriguing. If he looked closely, her skin glowed with a pearly iridescence. Her tongue wasn’t forked, which was a pity. He liked the unusual.
“I’m Tannis, captain of El Cazador. Rico is owner and pilot. Skylar’s in charge of security. Janey, who just went to fetch you a much-needed shirt, keeps the systems going. Daisy”—she waved in the direction of the green girl—“is copilot and Al, or Lady Alexia, you’ve already met.”
“Al’s fine,” the girl muttered.
Tannis raised an eyebrow. “Well?”
“Well, what?” Jon replied.
“Are you going to introduce yourself?”
“No.”
“Charming, isn’t he?” Rico murmured. “You’d think he didn’t like us. How’s that for gratitude when we went to all that trouble to get him out of prison?”
“If I’m not a prisoner, I’d appreciate if you would drop me off at the first habitable planet. I have things to do.”
“Well, there’s a problem with that,” Tannis said. “Since we freed your ungrateful ass, we seem to have become a little unpopular in certain quarters. Very powerful quarters. And we need to know why.”
He shrugged. “Lady, you’re mistaking me for someone who gives a fuck.”
She stepped up close and poked him in the chest with one finger. “Well, give a fuck about this, dog-boy—you’re not leaving this ship until we find a way out of this pile of crap. And I’ll shove you back into cryo if I have to.”
“You could try.”
“Yeah, and I’d succeed. Because you know what—I’ve got one of these.” She drew the laser pistol from her belt and shoved it in his belly. “And you don’t.”
For a moment, Jon considered taking the pistol from her. He was sure he could do it, but he wasn’t positive he could take the rest of them. So he kept quiet and waited for her to finish. His time would come.
“If I thought for one moment getting rid of you would get the Collective off our backs, I probably wouldn’t even wait for the nearest landfall. You’d be out the airlock. But Skylar doesn’t seem to think tha
t would do any good—which means we need to understand why they want you dead. So shall we try again?”
The redhead Janey came back at that moment and tossed him a black, sleeveless T-shirt. He took a moment to pull it on to give himself time to think. It was a tight fit, stretched across his chest, but at least this one wouldn’t rip down the back if he took a deep breath.
Jon considered his next move. He might have to work with these people for a while. At least until he could get away. And there was always the chance they might have information that would help him.
“So why did you get me out of prison? Tell me what happened.”
Tannis nodded as if recognizing his acceptance of the situation. “Ten days ago, Skylar approached us with a job. She told us she was part of the Rebel Coalition who are hell-bent on destroying the Church and the Collective and wanted to employ us to rescue her ‘little’ brother, Jonny, from the high-security prison on Trakis One.”
Jon swung around to face the blonde and studied her. She had short, military-cut hair, high cheekbones, and a wide mouth. Dressed in a black jumpsuit, boots, and a laser pistol once again holstered at her waist, she was beautiful in a tough sort of way, but those eyes sent a shiver of unease rippling through him. They glowed violet, almost inhuman. She must have worn contacts or they would have pegged her as Collective in a flash.
“I take it you don’t have anything to do with the Rebel Coalition?” he said. The Rebel Coalition was number three on his hate list after the Church and the Collective. They were a load of amateur assholes who gave professionals like him a bad name.
“No.” Her gaze wandered down over him in much the same way his had her. She was making a point. “Do you?”
He shook his head. “So why did you break me out?”
“I was under orders.”
“Whose orders?”
“My colonel’s. I’m an officer in the intelligence unit of the Corps.”
Shock hit him in the gut. The Corps were the Collective’s elite private army, and nobody wanted to take on the Corps. Not even him. But this didn’t make sense. “Why the hell did the Corps want me out of prison?”
“I don’t think they did. They told me it was a training exercise—to test the security at the prison. But we were met by an assassination squad—I think they wanted you dead but also wanted it to appear as though you had been killed trying to break out.”
“Why?”
“I have no clue. But I’m guessing you know something—or they think you do—that they’d rather didn’t get out. Any idea what that could be?”
Jon shook his head.
Tannis sighed and flung herself into an empty chair. “Let’s start from the beginning. Who employed you to kill Aiden Ross? Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention Skylar’s full name? Lieutenant Skylar Ross.”
Jon’s gaze flew to Skylar. “You’re related to Aiden Ross?”
“Sort of. I was descended from his brother. But don’t worry, we weren’t particularly close, and I’m not making this personal—yet. So who paid you to kill him?”
“I don’t know.” She cast him a look of disbelief, and he continued. “That’s not how I work. The information comes through anonymous channels, as does the payment. I never contact the customer directly. We need to look at this from the other side. Who would want him dead? You must have some ideas.”
“I don’t. Though he was never very popular—he was a pompous ass—he also had close dealings with the Church, which may have made people a little edgy.” She turned and grinned at Al. “No disrespect, kid, but the Church are a load of assholes.”
Al grinned back. The expression lightened her face. “I know.”
“Forget about why he was killed for a moment,” Rico said. “Could it just be that you succeeded in killing him at all? That’s no easy thing, and it’s the first time anyone’s managed to take out a member of the Collective permanently. How did you know how to ensure they couldn’t bring him back?”
“The information was delivered after I’d accepted the job. I was instructed very specifically on how it should be done.”
“Well, it worked,” Tannis said. “They’re supposed to be indestructible, or that’s what they’ve led everyone to believe. So how did you assassinate one of the ‘impossible to kill’ Collective?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but Skylar shook her head. “Keep that to yourself. If I get questioned, I want to be able to answer that the rest of you don’t know. Hell, that I don’t know for that matter.”
“So what if we threatened to release the information?” Rico said. “Or if we just go ahead and release it anyway. Once it’s open knowledge there would be no point in coming after us.”
“Great idea,” Skylar snapped. “How to make friends and influence people. I can guarantee—you put that information out on the open airwaves and they will hunt you down and kill you all, just out of revenge.”
“So what about the threat?”
“I’d really rather not go about threatening anybody at this point,” Tannis said. “My chance of getting the Meridian treatment will be zero if we piss them off now.”
Jon rubbed at the cut on his backside absently while he tried to figure it out. “Anyway, somebody else already has the information. Whoever employed me.”
“There is that,” Skylar said. “Besides, I can’t help thinking there’s something else.”
Tannis ran a hand through her hair. “I agree. I think there has to be more to it. And it likely has to do with why Aiden Ross was assassinated. If we can find out who ordered the assassination and why, it might give us some leverage. There has to be a way to track down who paid you for the job. You must know who contacted you initially.”
Jon thought for a minute. The only way he survived in his profession was by maintaining anonymity and by keeping his contacts a closely guarded secret. But he’d had it with the assassination business. He’d already decided killing Aidan Ross was his last job, and he’d been paid enough that he could afford to retire, so really he no longer needed his contacts. And one of them had betrayed him. Set him up.
“There is someone we can start with. The initial contact came through him.”
“Where can we find him?”
“Last time I heard, he was running a bar on Trakis Two.”
“Great,” Tannis muttered. “Trakis Two—isn’t that right next door to Trakis Five, where those guys who want to kill us come from?”
Jon shrugged. “Well, they won’t be expecting us there, will they?”
“Do you really trust him?” Skylar asked Tannis.
“Hell no—of course I don’t trust him. But unless you can come up with a better idea, I don’t see what choice we have.” She pointed a finger at Jon. “But you double-cross us, and I’ll deliver you to the Meridian mines myself.”
Jon ignored the threat.
“Hmm.” Rico switched on the console in front of him and concentrated for a moment. “Trakis Two would work. We need to head somewhere we can do some repairs. Apparently, the main thruster is damaged beyond anything the Trog can fix, and I know somewhere we can hole up on Trakis Two while we fix her up. That’s if he’s still there.”
“A friend of yours?” Tannis asked.
Rico sighed. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?” Skylar frowned. “Why does that make me worry?”
“Because you know me so well?” Rico grinned. “Let’s just say there’s a slight possibility he’ll want us dead more than the Collective.”
“Just great,” Tannis drawled.
Rico flipped a switch on the console, the remaining thrusters fired, and El Cazador took off for Trakis Two—the planet that never sleeps.
Chapter Four
Christ, he was hungry.
Jon was heading back to his cabin, but he really needed to eat. He raised his head, sniffed, and caught the faint trace of food in the air.
The smell led him to the galley at the center of the ship. It took him a moment to figure out how t
o work the food dispenser, but he eventually managed to get himself a serving of something that resembled stew and tasted almost like real meat. After wolfing down the first bowl, he got another, and sat at the table to eat it more slowly.
Things weren’t going too badly. They could be much worse. But even so, his nerves twitched. He didn’t work well with people. It was a long time since he’d even tried.
After his pack had been killed, he’d spent the following years tracing the people responsible and making sure they paid. Afterward, he’d lost his urge for killing, but he’d continued anyway because he was good at it and he’d found there were plenty of people around who would pay him—and extraordinarily well—to use his talents. But he always worked alone.
Long ago, he’d taken a vow never to change anyone—he didn’t want any other wolves relying on him, looking to him to save their miserable lives. He’d proven how crappy he was at the whole protection thing. And he’d never come across another werewolf either. The occasional rumor came his way, but if it sounded like his kind, he’d turned around and gone in the opposite direction as fast as he could.
He was better off alone. He liked it that way. Women he took when the need got too strong, but always women who knew the score, who wouldn’t ask for more than he was willing to give, which wasn’t very much. Women who could look after themselves. Women who were definitely not virgins.
The Virgin Bride of the Everlasting God.
Who would have guessed it—a High Priestess? He waited for the rush of hatred to overcome him. After all, she was Church, and he ought to hate her as he hated the rest of her kind. But she obviously wasn’t too keen on them herself or she wouldn’t have run away.
His lips curved at the memory of her discomfort. The sensation was strange. He didn’t smile a lot. A red flush had swept over her creamy skin as they’d teased her. Whether it had been from temper or embarrassment, he didn’t know. Probably both.
He had a flashback to the feel of her lying beneath him, and heat coiled in the pit of his stomach. She’d felt feminine but delicate, small-boned and fragile. The sort of woman who needed protecting. Not his sort of woman. And no breasts. He liked breasts. If he needed sex, then the other redhead would be a much more sensible option. And she’d had breasts. But although he tried to picture her, he couldn’t really remember what she looked like.
