Starblind (Starblind #1)

by D T Dyllin

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re forgiven. Now tell me about your relationship with this altered human.”

  “I loved him,” Nina stated without any preamble. “I loved him as much as any young woman can love. The relationship was ended by my mother. She was right to do so. My father would have done much worse than mangle my face if he found out. Years later I met and married the man who became Ambassador Aralias. We were happy for a time.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “Until … I still don’t know how he found out, but he did. He said he couldn’t stand to look at my face anymore … ” The tears spilled, trailing down her cheeks. “He said he wanted to kill me but couldn’t because of who my father is.” She swiped her face with the back of her hand. “He—he—” Sobs shook Nina’s thin body. “He deserved to die by my hand.”

  I couldn’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her. Sure I’d felt betrayed by Maddox when he’d dumped me, but what the ambassador had done to Nina took things to an entirely new level beyond fucked up. “I’m sorry, Nina, you’re safe now.”

  “And so are you. I’m tired of my kind’s blind hatred. We’re raised to believe we’re better, and we have the right to dictate who lives and who dies. But what I saw in my husband … my kind is not better, we’re worse. So much worse.”

  “You’re not,” I whispered. “You saved me.”

  Nina sat up, baring her teeth while her tears still flowed freely. “Not for you. For me. I wanted revenge. And I want more. I can help you. I can help you bring down the Denards.” She ground her teeth together. “They are no longer my people.”

  “Well, I’m all for revenge. I was planning on getting it on your recently deceased hubby so I have some time on my hands. I think you need to tell all of this to the Gartians, though. Can you really blame them for not trusting you?”

  “No, I can’t. I wouldn’t blame them if they executed me.”

  “They won’t. I’ll make sure of it.” I turned to leave but paused. I didn’t know how much beauty really meant to the Denard culture, but obviously it had to mean something or Ambassador Aralias wouldn’t have scarred Nina’s face as punishment. “We can get your face fixed. I know a great plastic surgeon. He owes me a huge favor and he has all the latest equipment. You could look good as new in a matter of minutes.”

  Nina smiled. “I will wear these scars as a reminder of what was done to me. It will fuel my need for revenge. When I’ve done all I set out to do—if I get that chance, then and only then will I consider taking you up on your offer.”

  “Sounds fair enough. So I’ll leave the offer as an open ended one for whenever.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No. Thank you. Regardless of why you did it, you still saved me by helping me escape. And for that I will forever be grateful.” Nina fell into silence as I left the room. I couldn’t help but wonder what was taking so long to set Nina free. I decided to go ahead and check out the situation.

  As I made my way out of the Gartian prison, I passed several guards who nodded at me politely. Not one of them spoke to me. Polite, non-friendly bastards. I practically ran into Ash on his way into the prison, obviously searching for me. His face was lined with worry, his eyes slightly wild.

  “What’s up?” I nibbled on the inside of my cheek.

  “There are several military New Earth ships just outside Gartian territory. They’re here for you, Janey.”

  “What? I don’t understand. Why the hell am I so in demand lately? What did they say exactly? And how the hell does everyone know I’m here?” I never did find out how Nina had pulled that one off. I’d have to ask her later just to have my curiosity slaked.

  “They’re claiming you’re an escaped New Earth criminal. They’re demanding for the Gartians to hand you over.”

  “Not that again. Tell them to fuck off. I’m not a New Earth citizen. I—”

  “There’s more. Their claim has been sanctioned by the UGFS. If the Gartians don’t cooperate then an embargo will be placed on them. They can’t let that happen, trading their alloy is how they survive.”

  “They can’t actually expect us to agree to me just going with them?” I gulped. I really couldn’t fault the Gartians if they did. I was just one person. We were talking about an entire species being affected by what could possibly go down.

  “They need for us to leave, Janey.”

  “They’ll snap us up the minute we cross out of Gartian territory. And why the hell is the UGFS backing New Earth’s claim on me?”

  “You keep forgetting about the cloaking capacities of The Pittsburgh. We can make a successful run for it if we do it just right.”

  Oh, yeah. The cloaking system the Gartians had installed. Duh. The Pittsburgh could now be invisible, thank God. “Again, why the hell is the UGFS backing New Earth’s claim? I’d guess it had something to do with Ambassador Aralias but he’s dead.”

  “It really could be that they want you for your fire capabilities. They have legally petitioned the UGFS for the return of someone they’re claiming as a criminal.”

  “Then maybe I should face this claim head on.” If I was on the run from a UGFS arrest warrant then I would again be back in the situation of not being able to be a bounty hunter. Come on, Universe! I thought we talked about you owing me. Multiple times! Now you’re just being a bitch!

  “No, it’s better if we put a safe distance between you and them before we look into the matter. This is the kind of thing that’s always better to be safe than sorry.” Ash’s eyes implored me to listen to reason, for once, instead of simply running off half-cocked.

  “Yeah, okay. So we head out immediately then? What about Nina?”

  Ash was already turning away to head back out of the prison. “We don’t have time to worry about her now. We need to ready ourselves for departure.”

  I dug my nails into Ash’s muscular forearm. “Like hell we don’t have time. I owe her my life and she’s already proven she’s not lying.”

  Ash’s muscles flexed under my fingertips, but he didn’t pull away from me. “Unless you want to take her with us—”

  “Done. Let the Gartians know that I will be taking her into my custody on The Pittsburgh.”

  “Janey,” Ash warned.

  “Nope. There’s nothing you can say to change my mind.”

  He snorted. “That’s what I’m always afraid of. Damn stubborn phoenix women.”

  It was my turn to smirk. “And I’m only half phoenix.”

  “That seems to be plenty enough for you.”

  I slid against him, standing on my tiptoes. “It’s one of the reasons you love me.”

  “Damn straight.” We gazed into each other’s eyes for a few moments before he pressed his lips to mine for a brief, but intense kiss. My senses all narrowed down to only him until he pulled away, causing me to grumble in protest.

  “Come on.” He wrapped his arm around my waist, propelling me forward. “We’ll have plenty of time for that later.”

  I nodded but couldn’t help but be worried. Wasn’t it always the male of the species who put sex first? Ash was being too rational and reasonable, which could only mean one thing: He was more distressed about the current situation than he wanted me to believe. Not good. Not good at all.

  I sat ramrod straight in my captain’s chair on The Pittsburgh. Zula was in her flight chair, opting to do the flying herself instead of trusting the auto-pilot in this situation. Tamzea was ensconced in the med wing, while Masha and Dar were manning the engine room, making sure everything was running at top capacity. As for Nina, she was in her new living quarters.

  But Ash … I’d wanted him with me on my ship; a fact that I’d assumed was just going to happen. Much to my dismay, he’d insisted on running a distraction for us. He was going to fly out of Gartian territory on The Phoenix, hoping it would just be assumed that I was on that ship. Then The Pittsburgh would just slip under the radar … literally.

  I hadn’t understood why we couldn’t just leave, but Ash
insisted we had to offer some kind of plausible deniability for the Gartians. And I’d eventually agreed. The Gartians had been good to us and I didn’t want them to have to suffer because of me. It didn’t mean I wasn’t upset about the plan nonetheless. Being separated from Ash again, especially with such a risky plan, already had my nerves at an all-time high.

  “I’ll see you soon.” Ash’s voice briefly touched my senses before disappearing.

  “You ready?” Zula glanced over at me.

  “As I’ll ever be,” I grated.

  “He’ll be fine. The plan is about as sound as any of yours.”

  I winced. I wasn’t known for my spectacular success rates when it came to my crazy plans, especially lately. “Let’s hope that’s not true.”

  “Ash is not the focus of this hunt.”

  “No, but he is wanted by the UGFS.”

  “He may not be. That may have gone up in smoke with Ambassador Aralias. We don’t really know the situation.”

  “Exactly.” We didn’t really know anything. Which, by the way the Universe had been behaving lately, was probably a bad thing.

  “I’m ready when you are.” Zula changed the subject, obviously annoyed because I wasn’t listening to her well thought out reasons. Or that’s the way she usually saw it anyways.

  “Has Ash already launched?” I was stalling. I knew he had. That’s what his message in my mind meant.

  “Yes.”

  “Ok-okay … well, I guess let’s go.”

  Zula turned and raised her blonde eyebrows at me. “Was that a command? You want me to go?”

  “Yes! Just go!”

  “Going,” Zula muttered.

  The Pittsburgh roared to life, and we surged out of port and into the air. I bit at my nails as the darkness of space loomed before us. Sure enough, several large, military New Earth ships could be seen off in the distance hovering in wait. The sight was very disturbing to me. In between us and the New Earth ships was The Phoenix. It was headed straight at them going at a pretty good clip. I wondered when Ash would hop to a light slide? I dropped my hands to the armrests on my chair, digging my fingers in.

  “Come on. Just do it. Come on.” But The Phoenix continued to hurtle straight at the New Earth ships. “If he doesn’t jump soon they might think he’s planning to attack or crash into them. They could shoot first.”

  Zula didn’t respond as we continued to track across space at a much slower speed. “He needs to go to a light slide … now.” My heart was thrumming in my ears, and sweat was accumulating on my face.

  “Ash, what the hell are you doing?” I screamed at him in my head. But of course the jackass ignored me.

  “Oh my God!” I rushed over to window to get a better look. The New Earth ships were angling themselves so they could—

  “They’re going to fire!” Red lasers tracked across space, and The Phoenix exploded right before my eyes. It was déjà-vu with what had happened with The Pittsburgh, but this time I knew what to look for. Fragments, debris … it was all there. “NO!” I screamed. This can’t be happening. This isn’t real. “Ash!” I dropped to my knees, breaking into sobs.

  “Get back to your chair, Jane,” Zula commanded. “We need to hop into a light slide.”

  I curled in on myself, letting my despair rip at me. I should have known. I should have seen it coming because the Universe just didn’t seem to want to see me happy. I could have been happy with Ash, and that’s why the Universe had ripped him away.

  “Get back to your chair—NOW!” Zula roared.

  I’d never heard her yell before. Not on that level. I numbly crawled back to my seat and strapped myself in. A moment later I felt the familiar pressure of a light slide. After another moment it was over. Dark space without any New Earth ships glowed before us. I slumped over, despair taking a hold of me.

  “Glad to see you would miss me,” Ash said, humor in his tone.

  I inhaled sharply as I lifted my head to see him standing directly in front of me. “How?” I narrowed my eyes at him as his smirk registered. It had all been a part of his plan. He’d just not wanted to tell me in case it didn’t work out for some reason. Unbuckling myself, I stood slowly, wiping at my already drying tears. “You are the biggest asshat that I’ve ever come across in my entire life.”

  Ash pretended to ponder my words. “I doubt that.”

  “How could you? How could you do that to me? It was dangerous! I want to kill you with my bare hands!” I wrapped my arms around him, and yet I couldn’t resist the need to hit him. I beat my fists into his muscular back, wanting to hurt him for scaring me like he had.

  He gave me a lopsided grin. “Only you could threaten to kill me over putting my life in danger.” His face dropped into serious lines. “I did it to protect you. And it worked. Now we can mov—”

  “I hate to interrupt your special little moment, but we have a problem,” Zula said sharply. I glanced over to see her white knuckling the edge of the control panel as she leaned over her rear-viewing screen. “A small New Earth special ops ship just dropped in behind us. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

  “Shit.” I scuttled over to have a look past Zula’s shoulder. Sure enough, what she said was true. Not that I doubted her, but I guess I just wanted to see it with my own eyes. “How much longer can we maintain the cloaking without starting to drain power from something else?”

  “Just a few more minutes. It sucked up a lot of power going into a light slide while still cloaked, but we couldn’t risk not doing it.”

  “There’s no way they could have followed us. How could they have followed us?” The evidence was undeniable, but how? How had a special ops ship known what was going on?

  “New Earth special ops ships are equipped with top of the line heat trackers for when they do search and rescue,” Ash said. “It’s possible if someone knew what to look for, they could have tracked my flame when I came onto The Pittsburgh.”

  “And once they were locked onto to you they could have tracked us by way of your heat signature,” Zula finished for him.

  And who did I know that was a New Earth special ops agent and had also seen what Ash could do? Fuck me. “Maddox.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking,” Ash agreed.

  “So now what? As much as I can’t stand him I really don’t want to have to kill him.”

  “We invite him onboard,” Zula said.

  “What?” Ash and I exclaimed in unison.

  “Show him that your powers come from your mate bond and not from hiding your abilities. What are they going to do? Even if New Earth scientists can duplicate your DNA, they can’t make spliced humans bond with a full-blooded phoenix, especially since they’re practically extinct.”

  Ash raised his eyebrows. “She has a point.”

  I couldn’t disagree. If I admitted the truth, then maybe I could get everyone off my tail and I could go back to being a bounty hunter. I really, really … wanted that. “Looks like we’re about to prepare for a guest.” I caught Zula’s gaze. “Tell him whatever lie to get him onboard, and try to get him to come alone.”

  “Got it.”

  I grabbed Ash’s hand. “I’m still mad at you, but we’ll deal with that later. For now, let’s go get ready to entertain my ex-boyfriend.” Oh joy.

  “You had to tell him that my own crew has decided to hand me over?” I glared at Zula as she snapped the laser cuffs in place on my wrists. “I think you’re getting way too much enjoyment out of this.”

  Zula, wisely, stayed mute on the subject. Ash was biting the corner of his lips on one side to keep from smiling; he was also getting too much enjoyment out of me in laser cuffs. I had no doubt it was because of how I’d kept trying to ensnare him in them when we’d first met. “I can slip right out of these if I want.” At least I thought I could. Ash said I had all his powers now that we were fully bonded. I’d experienced the going full out flame thing but I wasn’t exactly sure how to control any of said powers just yet.

 
“He doesn’t know that,” Zula stated, with yes, a glint in her eye.

  “How can he be so clueless and have managed to track us?”

  “Not much is known about phoenixes. Plus, he doesn’t even know what you are. He knows nothing, really, which is why we need to enlighten him.” Ash pulled me to him, dropping his mouth to my ear. “I wouldn’t mind using those on you later when we’re alone, by the way.”

  I tried to ignore the warmth that bloomed within me. The cuffs wouldn’t hold me, but it still didn’t damper the sexiness of the idea of being dominated by Ash. I could switch it up sometimes if he wanted. I didn’t always have to be in control. I could let go in that way—with him. My mind hummed around the idea of Ash naked and—

  “Way to distract me.”

  “Here he comes,” Zula announced as she peered out the small window into the airlock.

  I let myself lean into Ash for a moment before pushing off of him to stand up straight. “Go hide,” I instructed.

  Ash was going to stay out of sight like the rest of my crew unless he was needed. I was really hoping he wouldn’t be. He disappeared in a puff of flame, my muscles tensing the instant he was gone.

  “Get ready,” Zula whispered. She pressed the button to let Maddox in.

  The door slid open smoothly and Maddox stalked inside, his gait recognizable to me even in his spacesuit. He tore off his helmet and bee-lined straight for me, barely noticing Zula. “Jane,” he snarled, “I can’t believe it’s come to this.”

  I ground my teeth together so hard my molars ached. “Maddox. What a very unwelcome surprise.”

  “The powers you have—you’d just keep them from us—from your people? All because of what happened years ago?”

  “They’re not my powers. You really don’t understand.”

  “I gave you a chance to make me, but you refused—”

  “And you were going to let them experiment and torture me! I know what we had was never love, but I at least thought you would care enough to not want to see that happen to me! Let’s not forget how you also would have let me burn in that room. Burn alive! You were only worried about your damn self. Please don’t tell me it’s all because I shot you in the arm like a million years ago. I was just a stupid teenager.”