Shades of Dark

by Linnea Sinclair

  “You could be overestimating your abilities,” Ren said quietly.

  Sully gave a short, harsh laugh. “I wish to hell I was.”

  “You didn’t kill Gregor when you made him sick before jump,” I pointed out.

  “No, I just damned near made him comatose for a full shipday. And I wasn’t even in the same room with him. That was half of a thought. Half of half of a thought to do that.”

  And the fact that he could do that disgusted him.

  “Okay,” I said. “So you’re not overestimating your abilities. Then you’re underestimating yourself—your humanity, your compassion. It bothers you that you can do these things. That is your check and balance, right there. When it stops bothering you, then I’ll kick your ass out of my bed. But until that time, we need your help.”

  He walked over to me, put two fingers under my chin, and tipped my face up. “I don’t underestimate my humanity or compassion. You are my humanity and compassion, angel. You’re the only thing keeping me sane anymore.”

  “Then have Chasidah in the interrogation with you,” Ren said.

  His fingers slid from my face, fisting. “She doesn’t need to see that side of me.”

  “She won’t. You’ll control yourself because of her. And as your ky’sara, and a human not a Ragkiril one, her link with you can’t be perceived as a threat.”

  Sully started to turn away but I grabbed his fist, wrapping my fingers around his. “I’m willing to be there. We have to at least try.”

  He stood stiffly, not pulling out of my grasp but not responding in kind either. “How much time do we have?” he asked finally.

  “About nine hours to Narfial’s outer beacon. I don’t want to cut it too close, Sully. We’ll need time to react to whatever you learn from Gregor and Aubry.”

  This time he did pull away. He dropped down on the sofa, elbows on his knees, and scrubbed at his face with both hands.

  “And we also need to get some sleep,” I added. “You didn’t get much last night. Neither did I. Even if whoever Gregor’s working for isn’t an immediate threat, we have Del to deal with. And we’re shorthanded. This is no time for us to be working on the edges of exhaustion.”

  I waited for him to quip that he could help with my exhaustion, but he didn’t. He just sat there, elbows on his knees, his mouth pressed against his fisted hands. Several minutes passed before he nodded. “Let’s get this over with.” He shoved himself to his feet.

  “I’ll get Verno to bring—”

  “Not the ready room. The storage room next to the brig. We use that. I don’t want crew around.” His face was impassive but his eyes were fully dark.

  Ren extended his hand. “If you need me…”

  “I need you to pray, my friend. Just pray. Hell is a dark and lonely place. The two of you are the only light I have.”

  He strode for the door, stopping only to strip off his weapons belt. He looked over his outstretched arm at me and Ren as he hooked it on the peg. “That will get Gregor thinking. He’ll wonder why I’d risk confronting him unarmed. By the time he figures it out, it won’t matter anymore.”

  I heard his bitterness clearly. I could almost taste his fear. “Sully—”

  “Lower deck, Chasidah. Five minutes.” He slapped at the palm pad then disappeared into the corridor.

  Gregor and Aubry may have been in the brig, but it was Sully who was the caged animal. The storage room was empty save for a heavy square metal table and four chairs. Sully had dragged one chair out to the corridor. He would talk to Aubry first, then Gregor.

  He might as well have dragged two. He wouldn’t sit. He stood, arms folded, back braced to the wall. Then hands shoved in pockets, boots splayed wide, head bowed. Verno was waiting for my signal to bring in Aubry. I needed to make sure Sully was ready to do this.

  Don’t give up on me, angel-mine. No matter what you hear or see. Remember, please, this isn’t the only thing I am.

  Aubry tried to kill you. Whatever he and Gregor are doing has hurt all of us. And you remember. I’m Fleet. We’re used to a little pain.

  This could be a lot more than a little.

  Are you forgetting who was fighting by your side in the shuttle bay in Marker?

  He stopped staring at his boots and lifted his head slightly. A sad smile played over his mouth. You’re a half-decent shot. For a girl.

  I took the reemergence of his quips as a good sign. I reached over and tapped the brig icon on the intraship panel on the wall. “Ready, Verno.”

  “On our way, Captain Chasidah.”

  Sully swore softly and, arms crossed over his chest, leaned back against the wall again with a thump.

  “Bergren. Sullivan.” Aubry’s high-pitched voice held no note of nervousness as he stood stiffly on the other side of the table. I was no longer Captain Bergren to him. I wondered if I ever was.

  “Sit down,” I told him. He glanced up at Sully, towering behind me, then sat. His gray short-sleeved shirt was ripped and stained. His thick short hair—not quite brown and not quite ginger—stuck out in odd spikes. The bruises on the side of his face were dark and ugly. They hadn’t healed as quickly as Sully’s. It looked as if Sully had fought back.

  Kicked the shit out of him, until Gregor shot me.

  “Would you like to make a statement before we begin?” I asked Aubry.

  He frowned then shrugged. He’d never known Fleet or its protocols. “I didn’t steal nothing. I’m just tired of this, okay? I want out. Off the ship. Gregor said he did too, so there we were. You want to put me off on Narfial, that’s fair. You go your ways. I go mine.”

  “You tried to kill me.” Sully’s voice was quiet, hard.

  “I thought you was going to kill Gregor. I mean, you was like crazy or something. I didn’t want to fight. I just wanted to leave.”

  I heard something in the back of my mind. It was the smallest of sounds. A whisper, little dust motes of words. Don’t tell. Run. Won’t know. Stupid. Fear. Asshole. Can’t kill me. Leave. There’s time. Lies.

  I fought the desire to shake my head to clear it.

  Ignore it, Chasidah. Sully’s voice. Clear, gentle. The word-motes hushed, hushed…

  “Who’s paying you and Gregor to steal information from my ship?” Sully asked.

  Aubry snorted. “Paying me? What, you think I’m working for Fleet or something? She’s the Fleeter.” Aubry jabbed one finger in my direction.

  Blame her. Bitch. Gregor knows. Fucks Sully. Fucks Ren too.

  Energy vibrated through Sully.

  Down, boy, I told him.

  “Who is paying you and Gregor to steal information?” Sully repeated, more slowly this time, spacing the words out as if his teeth were clenched. I didn’t doubt they were.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The word-motes changed tone. Not Aubry thinking but Aubry remembering what Gregor said. Got something good. Big money. He’ll never know. Fuckin’ Burke’s a waste. Real money. Ship. Weapons.

  There was more, but I couldn’t catch it. It was so small, muted, I wasn’t even sure what I heard was correct.

  Behind me, Sully shifted, leaning down so his palms were flat on the tabletop. He was shoulder to shoulder to me. Almost eye level with Aubry. I couldn’t see Sully’s eyes. I didn’t have to. He said two words.

  “Hayden. Burke.”

  Aubry twitched slightly. “What?” Then he froze, eyes wide, mouth slightly open.

  And suddenly sounds, voices, faces, colors, smells…everything raced past the edges of my mind in a nauseating blur. I tried to focus on it but I couldn’t. It would suck me in, down.

  I stared at my hands, surprised to find they weren’t shaking. I wasn’t even sure they were my hands. So I wrapped my thumb and forefinger around the Grizni, feeling its smooth cool surface.

  My world righted itself. The word-motes kept streaming by at impossible speeds but for some strange reason, as long as I held on to that bracelet, I was balanced.

 
; Silence. Then a huge exhalation of air. Aubry, head bowed, forearms leaning against the table. He swayed, sucked in more air. Shuddered some out.

  I looked over at Sully, and for the first time saw the silvery haze floating around him. I followed its path. Tendrils of it coiled over Aubry’s head, chest, and shoulders. Sully was in profile to me, his face impassive as Aubry shuddered and swayed, the tendrils moving with him—or moving him. I couldn’t tell.

  Something told me I should be very afraid. I didn’t want to think about that right now. Aubry was someone who’d hurt us. He’d tried to kill Sully. And Sully had done this before, this zral, this retrieval of information. This removal of a memory.

  We could leave Aubry on Narfial. He’d find work as a drive mechanic on some other ship. But he’d never remember Gabriel Sullivan or Chasidah Bergren.

  Aubry’s head dropped onto his arms. I looked closely. He was breathing, his eyes closed.

  “Sully?” I said his name softly, almost as softly as the word-motes that had raced through my mind.

  Sully was still braced against the table but his head was bowed. And he was breathing hard, his chest heaving. I didn’t know if I should touch him. Just like when he’d saved Ren’s life, and Philip’s. His head had been bowed then too, his breathing ragged.

  And just as when he’d saved their lives, he edged one hand toward me, turning it, palm up. Asking. Needing. I took his hand. A rush of heat flowed into me then out of me again, back to him.

  Still with me? Angel?

  You’re stuck with me, Sullivan.

  Damn. Slowly he lowered himself onto the chair. That’s the best news I’ve had in decades.

  I contacted Verno again and he carried the slumbering Aubry back to the small lockup. Gregor had his own cell but we wouldn’t talk to him for at least fifteen minutes. Sully needed water, lots of it. And we needed to talk.

  Sully sprawled in the chair, a large bottle of water in front of him that had been full minutes ago. Now it was almost empty.

  He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. I didn’t remember him being this tired after he’d read Philip’s mind on Marker. But he had been drained after the zrals he did on Kingswell and Paxton, so maybe reading thoughts and erasing them were different. And he was still healing.

  “Who’s Aubry working for?” I asked him.

  He huffed out a sigh of frustration. “Gregor. All that work and the son of a bitch doesn’t know a goddamned thing that we hadn’t guessed. Gregor tells him what to do and he does it, for the stated fee.” He shot me a glance. “Aubry’s not exactly a self-starter.”

  “But you mentioned Burke!”

  “Gregor rambled about a lot of things to Aubry, one of which is the fact that Tage and Burke want me dead. Gregor feels the whole thing’s about my family’s money. He’s fascinated by my money—or Burke’s money, as he sees it. He told Aubry a couple of times that whatever he could get out of me, he could get double out of Burke, if he wanted to. He said he had plans. But he never told Aubry what those plans were, or if Burke was part of them.

  “So it could be Burke. It could be the Farosians. It could be someone else entirely. The thing is, Aubry never bothered to ask. He didn’t even know what Gregor had in the duffel.”

  “Where were they going with our shuttle?”

  “Walker Colonies, for starters. Gregor told Aubry he had enough money to get a ship. Gregor would pilot. Aubry would keep the engines running. They’d split the take on whatever jobs they did.”

  “What kind of jobs?”

  “Whatever Gregor told him to do.”

  I must have had a completely incredulous expression on my face because Sully reached over and patted my hand. “Chasidah. I could tell you the man’s a moron, but that would lead you to believe he has more intelligence than he does. I’ve been in his mind. Trust me. Except for what he knows about ship’s drives, it’s all vacant real estate in there.”

  “A little more vacant, now.”

  The fingers that had been stroking mine stilled. “He’s stupid enough to say something. I couldn’t take that chance.”

  “Sully.” I paused after his name as he had after mine. “The man tried to cut your brain in half with a wrench. The fact that you left his with a few new holes is nothing you need apologize for.”

  He squeezed my hand then brought it to his lips.

  “Was it painful for him? For you?” I knew I was still processing that I’d been part of a zral. Despite what we’d been taught at the academy, it hadn’t left Aubry writhing on the floor in pain. Still…

  “I’ve seen him drink. He’s likely had worse hangovers.” He was holding my hand tightly. “He was easier than I thought. There was no resistance. So I did everything I could to make sure there won’t be problems. I don’t like this, Chasidah. I really don’t. You know that.”

  “You want to take a break? An hour?” I was worried how much Aubry seemed to drain him, though the color had come back to his face now.

  “I want this finished,” he said. “And I don’t want to have to do this again.”

  Gregor said nothing when Verno closed the door behind him. So I decided to give him something to think about. After all, that was why we were here.

  “Sit down, Mr. Gregoran.”

  Like Aubry, his clothes were torn and stained, his face bruised, and a dark crusted trail over his mouth and cheek suggested a considerable nosebleed. His thinning brown hair was plastered to his head. He stared at Sully, once again leaning against the wall behind me. Then his gaze dropped to me.

  He’s wondering if you’re armed, Sully told me. He’s delightfully puzzled that I’m not.

  Does he honestly think he can make a run for it?

  He’s sizing up the situation, getting his lies in line.

  Evidently satisfied with what he saw, Gregor eased down into the chair.

  “Would you like to make a statement, Mr. Gregoran?”

  “What is this, fucking Fleet?”

  I gave Sully a mental nudge. Is he even wondering how I know his name?

  I received an affirmative mental nod.

  “Meevel.” I used his first name deliberately. “Would you like to make a statement?”

  Gregor’s gaze darted around the small room. “Where’s the blue-skinned mind-fucker?”

  The tiny whispers of word-motes started again. Reading me. Another room. Behind me? Fuck them. Bitch.

  I was less surprised by their appearance this time and tuned them out, including his various intimate and insulting descriptives of my anatomy. His command of profanity was impressive, but it wasn’t anything I’d not heard before somewhere, sometime on the decks or the docks.

  “We have the archivers. We found the snoopers,” I told him. “We know about your gambling debts. It must be difficult keeping up with those, even with what Sully was paying you.”

  “That’s my business.”

  “It becomes mine, Meevel, when you put the Farosians on our tail. But then you sold them out too, didn’t you?”

  He leaned his elbow on the left arm of the chair. “I got nothing to say to you, Bergren.” He all but spat out my name.

  “Then talk to me.” Sully’s voice was low, flat, angry. He took one step forward and out of the corner of my eye I could see him standing, his arms still folded over his chest. I couldn’t see his face. I didn’t have to. His voice said it all.

  “Sure, Sully.” Gregor’s lips twisted into a sneer. “Here goes. Fuck you.” Kill. Space me anyway. Alive. This long.

  “You think I’m going to kill you, space you anyway,” Sully said, parroting Gregor’s thoughts back to him. “Why have I even kept you alive this long?”

  Gregor’s eyes widened briefly. Ren. Back room. Transmitter.

  “Ren’s not on this deck. There is no back room. No transmitter. It’s just you and Captain Bergren. And me.”

  A high-pitched sound squealed softly through my mind. It halted. Started again. Halted. I realized Gregor was creating the sound an
d Sully was stopping it.

  “That’s a useless technique,” Sully said, a tone of dry amusement in his voice. “I hope you didn’t pay a lot of money for it.”

  Gregor’s widened eyes narrowed then he frowned. Blind. Mind-reader. Can’t kill. “I don’t know what you’re talking—”

  Silver haze suddenly erupted through the room. Gregor flew backward in his chair as if hit by a blast from an ion cannon. His head smacked against the wall, spittle flying from his mouth.

  Gripping the edge of the table, I half-rose out of my seat, a surge of adrenaline almost forcing me to my feet. The silver haze evaporated as quickly as it appeared.

  Sully hadn’t moved.

  “Now you do,” Sully said, his voice deathly quiet, as I sat down again. “Now you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  Gregor struggled to right himself, grabbing onto the arms of the chair. His eyes were wild. “What the fuck’s going on?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Sully said. “We can do it the easy way or the hard way. You’ve just had a very small taste of the hard way. Choice is yours. Make it. Now.”

  Sully? I could fear Gregor’s fear. But I also felt Sully’s anger simmering rapidly. Anger that hadn’t surfaced against Aubry.

  It’s okay. Gregor has to be handled differently.

  Sully had warned me when I first arrived on the Karn that the only thing Gregor respected was physical force. But the physical force of a Kyi-Ragkiril was considerable.

  Trust me.

  We just need who he’s working for, I told him. Who’s waiting for us at Narfial.

  That’s all I want too.

  Gregor gripped the arms of the chair but didn’t pull back to the table. It was a distance of only three or four feet. But he seemed to need that space between Sully and himself. No, not Sully. The word-motes still whispered of Ren.

  “Why do you need me to tell you,” Gregor ground out, “if your pet mind-fucker can pull that stuff from my head?”

  “I don’t,” Sully replied. “But pulling will entail pain. Lots of it. That doesn’t bother me at all. Captain Bergren, however, objects.”