The Iron Altar Series Box Set One: Books 1 to 3

by Casey Lea

  It was impervious and she should have known that. Her hair swayed with shame when she finally managed to step away. Falkyn was in mortal danger and she had no time to waste on panic.

  Amber turned to find the Maker, who had wedged himself into the lab's far corner. She threw off fear and fury to move to the control console. “In truth it might work. Falkyn has royal blood.”

  The Maker joined her in a rush. “Do tell. Why would that matter?”

  “Give me access to your console right now,” Amber ordered.

  The Maker bobbed his head, but made no effort to help. “You wish for aid and I wish for answers, lady. I'm sure we can reach some-”

  “The BGP added mermaridian genes to kres aristocrats, because we needed more aggressive leaders. Now open your interface, drakkit and stand by to integrate the new DNA sequences.”

  The gentik thrust out his hands and a spinning hologram appeared that was already tracking Falkyn's metamorphosis. The Maker began shunting chromosomes, forcing a viable pattern, while Amber leaned forward to become just as busy, feeding energy to Falkyn's new cells. There was so much of his body to rebuild...

  “It's working,” the Maker grunted, but Amber didn't pause. The genetic recombination was fine, but the creation of new body parts was lagging. The chamber had never been designed for such a power drain and its store of matter was already running low.

  The hologram turned red and a low hiss sounded the alarm. The Maker pulled his hands free in dismay. “It failed. He's dying.” He noted the time on his console and turned to Amber. “Condolences, lady. Using my genetic re-write to cure such extreme injuries would have been a breakthrough indeed.”

  Amber stared blankly at the images floating around her, which all flashed the same warning. Falkyn was dead and nothing would stop it. Nothing could stop it.

  Except her. She plunged her hands into the hologram and seized all the power the lab's generator could offer, until the lights died and the complex went dark.

  The Maker clutched at her in the blackness. “What's wrong? What have you done?”

  “What I must.” A single source of light remained, so low and purple it took a minute for their eyes to even register it. It was all that was left of the hologram and it showed the only flow of power remaining.

  A ribbon of energy unrolled from the generator to Falkyn and Amber began adding matter to it, her hands deft despite the low light. She cannibalized everything in storage, from food and clothes, through to expensive instruments, anything she could reach. It all flew apart and was drawn to the chrysalis.

  “What are you doing?” the Maker wailed. “You've sent my shields offline. My lab will be revealed to any who look.”

  “I don't care who finds-”

  A klaxon alarm wailed from the Maker's com and he slashed it to instant silence, as if scared someone might hear. He clutched at Amber again, and he was shaking. “You don't understand. The t'ssaa target me. The Great Father refuses to wait longer for results and has grown angry over perfectly normal losses among the embryos. He won’t negotiate, or hear my apology. His troops plan to kill me.”

  Amber pried his fingers loose and returned to throwing matter at the chamber. “It's not your death I care about.”

  “Will you not offer me protection? I've aided one of your students today and done my best with this other.”

  “You-! You are delusional. Run away and don't ever ask for my help again.”

  The Maker stumbled back and was instantly forgotten. Amber's fingers flew faster and more energy drained. The purple ribbon started to twist through the velvet dark and still she persisted, until it began to unravel as the generator was pushed past its limits.

  She sent energy from her com to the chamber sensors, but Falkyn's life signs were still erratic, though his body continued to regenerate and she continued to feed it. A hum filled the lab, a final protest from the generator, and then all power failed.

  Amber pushed away from the console and her com lit the room beyond. The metabolic field still glowed, pushed to full power by the final shunt. She had no idea what was happening within it. Would Falkyn survive if she opened it now? Could she open it now? Of course not. Such an override would need a password.

  Amber turned and searched for the Maker in the glow from her wrist. He was gone. Gods drakkit. She might not be able to wait for the field to release. She needed to be able to free Falkyn if the t'ssaa came. She sprinted forward, driving through the dark on a beam of light. The last door opened and she hurtled into the pit, colliding with the far wall and bouncing off, already staring up toward the distant sky. There was no sign of her quarry.

  Amber's com pulsed and she squandered the last of its energy in a drive to the heavens. She hurtled upward and her power failed just as she shot from the pit. She leaned forward to curve through the air and landed safely on the lip of darkness. She teetered there before finding her balance, her head turning and fronds twisting until she caught the hint of a familiar mind. She was instantly running, barging out of the alley and into the crowd of a larger thoroughfare. The Maker was just ahead.

  Amber shoulder-charged a mutt and forced her way past a t'ssaa without hesitation. She reached out, but the Maker sidestepped to avoid a Beserk and she missed. She lunged after him again and caught his shoulder, making him rear sideways with a shocked whinny. He turned and raised a shaking fist, but Amber gripped that too. “Professor, please. I need the code to free my friend.”

  “He lives?”

  “I think so, yes.”

  The tall figure bent over her and beamed. “Delightful. We must publish this together. What an epiphany. We’ve changed the face of medicine.”

  Something in Amber snapped. Her fingers closed in the Maker's clothes and she pulled him down to her level. “I'll change your face, if you don't give me the password.”

  “Of course.” The gentik quickly tapped his com and a data stream briefly linked it to Amber's.

  “My thanks.” She was gone with the words, running back the way she had come.

  The Maker called after her. “You don't mind if I publish alone then?”

  Amber heard him, but made no attempt to answer. The only thing that mattered was back in the lab. She reached the side street, then the alley and then the pit. She ran toward it, but the road suddenly lifted beneath her feet. The pavement heaved and cracked and a roar filled the street. Something had exploded. Right under her.

  Amber rolled into a wall, thrown aside by the force of the blast. She lay stunned and despairing trying to believe this was anything other than a t'ssaa attack on the Maker's lab. It could be something else. The docks were dangerous, even in daylight. It might be something as simple as a volatile cargo that was badly handled. It could be... anything. It had to be.

  Amber pushed herself upright and shuffled along the wall. The pit now gaped as wide as the street and smoke rose from its ragged mouth. Her heart quivered. The lab was lost.

  39

  Flying Free

  Ace and Mist simply stared at each other for a long time. They stood on the summit of the port control tower, but were oblivious to Gratuity spread out below them. They were much more aware of their hands, brushing together and then twining fingers.

  “Okay,” Jace finally said. “Let's do this thing. On the count of three. One... two-”

  Misty turned her back to the drop, braced both feet on the edge and pushed off, hauling Jace with her. He yelled and she let go, to soar backward in a perfect swan dive from the tower. He was left flailing at the air and dropping face first to meet the ground.

  “Fly,” she yelled up at him, while he blinked in shock and tumbled once, then twice, the terramac closer and darker with each spin. His wings snapped out in instinctive reaction to steady his spin, and he looked for Misty. She was still diving - a streak of light shrinking to meet the ground.

  “Now,” Jace yelled, “use your jets.”

  However, she laughed and her eyes shone silver with delight. He grimaced and t
ensed, while his shoulder blades jerked together. The reaction was as instinctive as before and forced air out of his wings. The result was instant. Wind rushed from the micro pores lining the lower edge of each wing and Jace shot upward. He looked down in panic, and Misty had dwindled to a bright mote. He tried to pull back on the thrust, but hardly slowed, veering in a wild curve instead.

  Misty was gone and Jace was blazing through the air. The space port was already way behind- hell. A landing ship dropped into his path and he flinched, wings twisting automatically. He rolled sideways and away, so that his foot scraped the hull, but nothing more, before he curved past the monster. The jets in his wings pulsed again, to send him spiraling up through the atmosphere.

  He yelled into the rushing air, a scream of defiance and delight. This was the best. No experience in his whole life could match it. His eyes widened while his fronds bushed, taking in every detail. The world curved away below him and he yelled again. Then he remembered Misty.

  Jace cut his jets completely at the thought and his upward momentum vanished. For a second he was poised on the edge of space and then he began to fall. This time he spread his wings wide and flat. The result was less spectacular than before, but just as immediate. The air caught him and abruptly he was soaring. Instead of rushing through the wind he was moving with it. His body was as buoyant as if he was swimming and his distance from the ground as irrelevant as a swimmer’s distance to the bottom of the sea. He was part of the sky and it held him up without effort.

  Jace's face began to ache and he realized he was still wearing an enormous grin. He tried to stop beaming, but it was impossible. Until he remembered Mist again. Dammit. Not that he was really worried. That girl was unbelievably tough and anyway he'd know if she was hurt. Still, he should probably check. He looked down and back, past his toes, to find the space port, but clouds blocked his view.

  Jace banked in a wide curve and began dropping, angling down to meet that stretch of white. He grimaced when visibility faded and spread his fronds wide instead. There was a heat signature. Right below and coming fast. Coming straight at him. He back-scooped with his wings just in time.

  Jace straightened in midair, his body falling to hang vertically between his wings and something jet-propelled flashed straight past his nose. No, not something. Someone. Misty's mind sent Kisses, then she was gone and he was laughing again. Laughing harder than he ever had. Who knew life could be this much fun. He never wanted to touch down.

  Jace soared on, hunting his prey, but she had vanished in the cloud. The air was strangely still and silent. Any noise was muffled, but the fog to his left eddied in an unnatural gust and his head snapped in that direction. However, his fronds tracked the opposite way and his instincts were right. Misty shot out of the swirling white behind him at full speed. He laughed and jetted after her. He caught up and they climbed together, to finally shoot free of the clouds, both trailing wisps of vapor into the cold blue sky. They circled each other, rising in a spiral and their laughter and the sunlight spun with them.

  Misty suddenly tilted her wings and flew straight into Jace. They collided and he grabbed her automatically. He braced himself to take her weight, but she spread her wings and let them curve backward, bowing up toward her shoulders so she could soar beneath him, laughing in delight. She snuggled closer until they flew together, face to face and she could whisper in his ear. “Have you ever done it while flying?” Her fronds wrapped around Jace's, while her mouth covered his.

  I've done... ah, many things while flying, but not sex. Too dangerous, I would think. At least while I'm just flying me.

  Misty's amusement was silent this time. Actually you're flying both of us. want/need/desire Her lust collided with his and then merged with it. Jace pulled her close against him, until their bodies were locked together as tightly as their mouths. Flying with her was beyond belief, but the kissing had to be a bad idea. Dodging ships was fun, but you needed to notice them first. He really should stop. He would stop. Any minute...

  Misty moaned and stretched herself along Jace, so that his mouth moved lower, until his lips settled in the hollow of her throat. He could feel her pulse beating like butterfly wings, while her legs tightened around him.

  He didn’t care when her wings drooped under her, limp and forgotten, so he really was flying for two. The flying was increasingly irrelevant. A cargo float dropped past, close enough for Jace to raise his eyes and see the driver's startled expression, but then it was gone and forgotten.

  Jace returned to the soft neck brushing his teeth, but Misty pulled brusquely away and left him gaping. His mouth snapped shut, while he swallowed something that felt more like disappointment than relief. What a time for his love to be sensible and realize they were still in traffic.

  His pulse slowed and thought returned, along with a fresh realization. He’d spent the past two weeks trying to scratch an itch he could never reach, with all the wrong women. The fact was, he'd fallen in love-at-first-sight with Misty. Maybe not quite at first-sight or even first kiss, but certainly once their minds met. He'd ached for her ever since, without giving a damn that she was scrawny and bustless. To him she’d been radiant and trying to ignore that was torture.

  He’d kept it down deep of course, where emotions belonged, out of sight and out of mind. Which was exactly where his lust needed to go as long as they were flying in shipping lanes.

  Jace swallowed disappointment and offered a rueful smile, but the look Misty gave him was smouldering. He gulped and she peeled herself further out of his embrace, but only far enough to tear at her new dress. She ripped it in two and the shreds fluttered free, while his resolve flew away with them. He was abruptly lost in a spiral of warm updraft and warmer woman.

  Jace pulled Misty close again with an arm around her waist, while his other hand explored her breasts and his mouth followed. She arched harder, pressing up against him, until any sex from his past, everything from his past seemed pale. His lips worked back up to her throat and he sucked at her skin. He kept on kissing her and never wanted to stop. They were rocked by the wash of something large passing very close, but he scarcely noticed.

  Misty's breathing was ragged when she panted a plea in his ear. “Not just kisses. More.” Her hands hooked around Jace's belt and he grinned. He could do more. She tugged against the belt with growing force, but before she could work it loose he reached down to yank it open and pull his jeans off. It took several seconds to kick them free, but then they were both naked and soaring together.

  Misty's legs wrapped around Jace's hips and energy surged between them. His skin goose-bumped and it was scary how good that felt, but then everything about Misty was scarily good. There was no need to think anything through and no time either.

  One moment they were two and the next they were joined. He groaned and drove his fingers into her hair, but she hissed and tensed beneath him. He remembered too late it was her first time, but before he could react to that she bit his ear. Hard.

  “Hey.”

  “Distracts the virgin,” Misty gasped.

  Jace grinned and ignored the blood trickling down his neck. “I don't think it's supposed to work like that.”

  “Works for me.” More.

  They were back to more. Awesome. And it was. It was so much more than he was used to. Not just sweeter and warmer than sugar stones on a sun-kissed beach, but their minds were really together again, the way they had been the first time they kissed. He dove into it… into her, until she cried out and spasmed beneath him, curling up against his chest.

  Jace thrust again, making Misty claw at him and then his wings snapped wide. His head jerked back, tendons standing out against the muscles of his neck and he might have yelled. He wasn't sure and didn't care. Nothing existed in the universe beyond what they were feeling. There was a final intense moment of shared pleasure, before both went limp. They collapsed into each other and he wrapped his arms and wings around her to keep her close.

  “Falling,” Mis
ty murmured against Jace's chest and although he couldn't hear her over the rush of the wind his fronds sensed her comment.

  “Oh, yeah,” he admitted into her hair. Her fist thumped his chest and alarm surged into his mind, along with delight. She folded her wings, then twisted in his arms, until her back was pressed to his front and she could look straight down. “No, we're truly falling.”

  Unfortunately she was right. Jace clearly saw the curve of the ground leaping to meet them, despite the fact that Misty was in his way. His face was pressed to the back of her head and all he could actually see were white strands of hair whipping in the gale. So how could he be staring at Gratuity in every grimy detail? Somehow, without even trying, he was looking through her eyes again. He wanted to marvel at that, but the rusty towers below were far too close and they were out of time.

  The force of their fall grew so great they were shaken like confetti. Jace's wings snapped open and the wind seized him. He snarled and fought for control. A giant had him by the shoulders and it was agony to resist, but he did.

  He stopped the billowing in one wing and the wild flapping at the tip of the other to arch them taut against the sky. They caught the air cleanly and the fall slowed. They pirouetted in one final, too-tight circle, before he sent them soaring again. The ground stopped charging to meet them and he clutched her more gently.

  Jace pressed his face to the back of Misty's head and sighed. He felt exhausted, while his shoulders and chest ached. “You could have helped.”

  “What? I was helping my tail off. My shoulders are still aching.”

  “From doing what exactly?”

  “All that straining...” Misty stopped, as if only now aware that her back was plastered to Jace and her wings were trapped between them. “I could have sworn I was flying.”

  “Actually that was me.” They soared in silence while their minds compared notes and they tried to separate back into two individuals. It was surprisingly difficult. Misty finally twisted in Jace's arms again, to face him with a shrug.