“Waking up in the medi-center.” The answer spilled from her lips without a conscious decision. To her surprise, she found it impossible to lie to someone, who’d treated her so kindly and blushed for imagining him a monster.
He tipped her chin with a gentle forefinger, forcing her to meet his midnight gaze.
“I meant before that, sweetness.”
“Nothing.” She swallowed against a sudden lump of emotion.
“Nothing?” He stroked down her arms, making her tingle and leaned closer until his breath puffed against her lips.
She nodded, unable to speak, because she needed all her energy to keep from stretching up and brushing her mouth against his.
“Amnesia?” Bittersweet said gruffly. “Handy.”
“Not for me,” she muttered.
“Give her a break. She hit her head hard enough to jar anyone’s memories.” Dark chocolate tucked her against his side, snuggling her in nice and tight.
She barely registered his defense, closing her eyes to absorb the comforting heat of the big, hard body sheltering hers.
“You’re playing with a loaded phaser. Memories or not, she’s a dragon shifter on the cusp.” Bittersweet snorted skeptically.
She heard him and laughed, relieved he was joking. When no one else joined in the fun, she opened her eyes and looked from one sinfully seductive man to the other, waiting for them to break out chuckling. Both stayed grimly serious.
“He’s joking, right? Everyone knows there’re no dragons.” She nudged dark chocolate.
They exchanged a meaningful look.
An uncomfortable feeling a whole conversation had happened, on some level she couldn’t access, eroded her confidence.
“I’m Diablo.” He indicated the other man. “He’s Gunn.” The taller dipped his chin toward the skeptic then angled back toward her.
“I’m Zaynah,” she blurted, excited by the miracle of her name popping into her head. She waited, hoping for more, but further memories failed to materialize.
“That’s a real pretty name,” Diablo drawled. His deep voice soothed her disappointment and sent tendrils of excitement skittering along her synapses.
Gunn shot him a censorious glance.
Diablo grimaced, but nodded agreement.
“There’s a lot at stake here, sweetness. My brother isn’t convinced you’re trustworthy. The tattoo on your arm identifies you as a d’skeku assassin.”
“Is that what it means mean?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed, letting her absorb the information.
Assassin? Me? Not likely, although she did miss having weapons. Perhaps they were right about her.
“These desk cues are bad?”
“D’skeku,” he corrected her, pronouncing it slowly, dee-sec-coo. “Badness depends which side you’re on.”
“They’re the emperor’s tools.” Gunn’s tone left no doubt as to his opinion.
“You seem to know a lot about them.”
“We should. We were d’skeku.”
“You’re not now?” The conversation veered into crazy territory.
“No, we’re definitely not now.” Gunn scowled at her. “The d’skeku serve as the royal family’s personal guards. An entire regiment, made up of our brothers, was murdered by Prado, emperor of the Orion Galaxy.”
“How were you two spared?”
“He needed someone to blame.” Diablo’s tone chilled. “He chose us to for that role.”
“We escaped, with Xeth’s help, by stowing away on a mining transport,” Gunn said.
She considered what they’d said, factoring in the bitterness under their words.
“So this ruler is evil and I’m one of his personal soldier—your enemy?”
“Exactly.” Gunn nodded grimly.
“We were d’skeku,” Diablo reminded him.
“We’re fire demons, strong enough to break the imperial conditioning, my brother.” Gunn snorted.
“We don’t know what she can handle.” Diablo’s jaw firmed.
“Are you willing to risk the alliance for her?” Gunn countered.
“Maybe there’s a way to make this work.” Diablo turned to her. “Will you allow my brother to examine you?”
She hesitated, not at all certain she was ready for whatever that entailed.
“A mind probe doesn’t hurt. You can trust him to protect you.”
She considered making a run for it. But where would she go? Diablo had asked for her cooperation. She wasn’t stupid—she understood the request was a formality. They could do anything they pleased with her. That he’d requested permission went a long ways toward gaining her trust. Before she lost her nerve, she faced Gunn.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Come with us.” Diablo guided her into the room they’d emerged from.
The obvious command center resembled a warship’s bridge more than anything she’d seen on land. Large monitors ringed the walls, showing streaming views. A display of erupting volcanoes competed with fiery meteors and particle storms. Muted hums, clicks, and buzzes harmonized into the comfortingly normal background music of an intergalactic cruiser, except this operation was much bigger.
“Are we on a space station?”
“You’re inside Ranin Seven.” Diablo held her gaze as if searching for her reaction. “One of Zenon’s natural moons. The satellite’s subsurface has been altered to facilitate duranium mining.”
She nodded, acknowledging his statement of fact.
“Have I been here long?”
“A few hours.” Diablo’s mouth tightened.
Gunn closed the distance between them, crowding his brother aside. He guided her through the main room to smaller chamber with a generous sleeping bench, brushing aside a rumpled nest of covers and framed her face with one giant hand.
“Relax.” His grip was firm, but surprisingly gentle.
Wonderful, he just wanted the impossible.
“Try to relax, it’ll be easier on you,” he amended his order with a grin that softened the hard planes of his face and made him much harder to resist.
***
Gunn moved closer slowly, not wanting to scare her more than he already had. At last, his forehead touched hers. Steeling himself to penetrate her shields, he lowered his own barriers, and then slid inside her mind.
Suddenly he sank in deep. Not even a trace of shields impeded his probe. She was wide open. He’d never been this deep inside another’s thoughts, except for Diablo’s. Zaynah’s mind was nothing like being in his brother’s head.
Staggered by an image of himself, inhaling her fragrance and hardening, he reeled and tried to pull back. Only to get clobbered by her sweet sensual response—the yearning ache of a female body ready for possession. Her powerful feelings knocked him sideways. He reacted by growing harder than ever.
Caught in the grip of an arousal he’d never dreamed existed, he faltered, his lowered shields disintegrated, and then he lost control. He fumbled for the tab of his jumpsuit.
Diablo slipped into his thoughts, holding out a familiar lifeline—giving him a way out of Zaynah’s mind.
Now, he had new problems. And leaving was the last thing he wanted to do.
In the few seconds he’d lost control, Zaynah captured him body and soul.
Little fragments of his memories, dreams, and secrets flickered away, moving beyond his reach. She absorbed the data bits with stunning speed.
When his brother realized what was happening, he tried to reinforce Gunn’s shields. The patch attempt failed.
Worse, Diablo’s own shields began to leak and pieces of his identity fed into the steady flow of information pouring into Zaynah.
Adjusting to the loss of control, Gunn drifted, exploring her mind.
Her long-term memories were there—barricaded behind a field he couldn’t penetrate. The data was as inaccessible to him as it was to her, which reassured him. She’d been honest with them. His confidence built further as she simply absorbed t
heir data, showing no inclination to turn either Diablo or him into mindless puppets.
Equally dangerous to her potential for mind control, was the sensual longing that flowed under every thought—making her more irresistible.
Terror streaked between her recent memories. Her mind flashed in rapid bursts of keen intelligence as she analyzed and compared her impressions of them and the station with a stunning knowledge base.
Slipping deeper into her stream of consciousness, he found more images of Diablo and him. Inaccurate pictures of the three of them naked that made the tips of his smoothed ears heat and the base of his hidden horns itch with need.
Gunn planted a suggestion that she sleep now and wake refreshed in a few hours. Then he tried to pull out of her thoughts.
“Stay Gunn, I need you,” she whispered, reluctantly allowing him to leave.
Her plea, pulled at him like a siren’s song. Shaking from the effort, he disengaged until he was fully back in his own shattered head.
“What’s wrong?” Diablo, grasped his biceps, steadying him.
Zaynah dozed comfortably in his arms. He forced himself to look away from her, meeting his brother’s worried eyes.
“She wants us.”
“Is it possible she’s bonding with both of us?” Diablo scowled.
“Yes…I don’t know. I think…yes. She thinks we smell delicious,” Gunn grinned pleased, embarrassed, and aroused by the vivid impression of bittersweet chocolate she associated with him. An impression he didn’t share with his brother, instead he matched Diablo’s scowl. “She thinks we’re human.”
Not that he needed to explain her thoughts to his brother. He’d been in her head just as deep.
“She knows we’re demons now.” Diablo’s hard features softened. “And she still wants us.”
“I’m fairly clear on that point,” Gunn muttered.
His brother’s eyebrows rose. “I’m not getting what’s bothering you. What’s the problem with her wanting us?”
“For one thing, she’s going to go crazy trying to reconcile what she thinks she knows about demons and how she feels about us. Apparently, she saw us while we were back in the medi-center and she was terrified.” Gunn shifted his heavy erection, trying to ease the nagging pain. “She told us the truth about not remembering anything.”
“I never doubted it.” Diablo grinned at small shifter with a sappy expression. “That’s good. Don’t you get it? Her imperial conditioning is a non-issue.”
“We can’t be sure of that,” Gunn said.
“Stands to reason. The conditioning starts in the egg, right?”
“That’s what I’ve heard—they made serious changes to the entire d’skeku program after Prado had our brothers killed. It wasn’t just a matter of using only humans. The conditioning was pre-coded into their genetics,” Gunn wondered how a dragon shifter had gotten through the strict screening process for the elite corps.
Diablo continued with unusual cheerfulness, seemingly unaffected by Gunn’s doubts, “Whenever the conditioning started, it’d still be part of her long term memory.”
Nodding cautiously, Gunn agreed.
“Makes sense. However, it’s only a temporary reprieve. Not a permanent solution. Bonding with her doesn’t guarantee her deep conditioning will change. We’re still the enemy. Someday, her memories will return. Then she’ll want to kill us. And we won’t be able to raise a hand to stop her—not even in self-defense.”
He didn’t add the rest of what he was thinking. A bonded male demon was incapable of hurting his mate. Humans weren’t as faithful, and no one knew much about dragons.
A skynet alert pinged in his comlink. He scowled at the signal. “I’ve got to get topside.”
Diablo reached out for Zaynah.
Reluctantly, Gunn allowed Diablo to take her. He was on duty and his brother wasn’t. Therefore, the defense system was his responsibility.
Zaynah stirred and her thoughts reached for Gunn.
“Need you, Gunn.”
His name on her lips worked on him like a force field, holding him locked in her small hands.
“We’ll stay with you. See what’s up,” Diablo said easily. “If Zaynah gets tired she can rest in the watch commander’s quarters.”
His brother’s casual words lifted the compulsion to stay.
She snuggled closer to Diablo, apparently satisfied.
Gunn faked a cough to cover his sigh of relief. This time he didn’t have to choose, plus Diablo wouldn’t be completely alone with her.
If she wanted both of them, and everything he’d seen in her mind said she did, then they’d share her.
It wouldn’t be the first time they’d shared a female. And yet, he wasn’t sure he could share this one. He worried about Diablo too. As close as they were, his brother kept his feelings to himself.
Is it possible to share a mate?
Fire demons were notoriously possessive. Gunn had never heard of a demon tri-bond arrangement. However, if they couldn’t find a way to share her, one of them would have to die. Soon.
Silently, he vowed to take his own life rather than force Diablo to choose between Zaynah and him.
Chapter Five
Gunn monitored Ranin Seven’s surface, air space, and the drone feeds from the surrounding sectors, assimilating the flow of information with no strain and without dampening his sexual excitement. His thoughts never left Zaynah and his aching need for the sweet release he’d only find with her. He shifted trying for a less tortuous position for his rigid cock.
Before probing her thoughts, he’d been terrified Diablo had already bonded with the assassin. After forging a mental link with Zaynah, he realized the truth. She hadn’t trapped his brother and she wasn’t faking the amnesia. Her long-term memories were blocked, beyond her reach or his. Only what she’d experienced and observed since regaining consciousness in the medi-center was clear and accessible. Her lively mind had dismissed the glimpse of their true forms as a stress induced hallucination. Aside from an indoctrinated prejudice against demons and the minor problem she’d doubtless been ordered to assassinate them on sight, she’d been designed perfectly—for both of them.
Super-bonus, with her as their mate, they were stronger. The added power gave either of them a chance to run Skynet alone until they found another high-level fire demon willing to work with them.
She was the perfect solution to all their problems, until their human illusions failed or she regained her memories and imperial conditioning kicked in—then helpless to defend themselves, Diablo and he died.
A New Eden intergalactic ship appeared on the display’s edge, hovering to land. Seconds later, the beep of an incoming communication interrupted his gloomy thoughts.
Okay to set her down?”
“You’re cleared for lane five.”
“Gotcha.”
A few minutes later the same craft hailed again. “Need help with the mineral transporter cluttering the south end of your landing field?”
“I might see my way to letting you haul her away for the right price.” Pleased by the friendly interest, Gunn kept his tone casual. “Is that you Helax?”
“In the flesh and your dreams, Gunn.”
“Who unhooked your chain?”
Helax chuckled. “Better watch it, pal. Or I’ll think you’re jealous. Mythos and I agreed to alternate the duranium runs this year. Gives us both a chance to enjoy our mate, if you read me.”
Gunn tucked that tidbit away for further thought.
“How’d you hear about the royal ship?”
“Data travels fast when duranium is involved,” Helax sidestepped with a non-answer.
His evasiveness meant they had a leak in their operation.
Duranium gave them a mighty lever, which made bargaining almost too easy. The rare element also required constant vigilance and ruthless defense because the precious commodity drew pirates, traitors, and would-be conquerors the way starlight beckoned flowers to bloom.
&nbs
p; The mineral funded more than half of the interplanetary alliance. A combination of the natural violent currents between galaxies, the technology to channel nature’s raw power, and their own Goddess-given command of fire had kept their mining operation safe so far.
How long they’d able to manipulate the fiery meteor showers with just the two of them was something he didn’t want to think about. The same way he didn’t want to consider what happened after one of them—please Goddess have mercy not both—developed mating mania. Judging from the shards of pain stabbing his balls, he wouldn’t be able to ignore the problem for long. A shudder shook him. Puberty and its aftermath had been bad enough. After Zaynah’s arrival, his sex drive jumped several notches into near frenzy territory.
“Grizzly five-seven-seven, requesting permission to debark, you still there, pal?”
The New Eden officer’s words snapped Gunn’s attention back to the control room. He cleared his throat. His voice still came out in a growl.
“How many in your surface party?”
“Just me. The rest of these clowns don’t need to leave the Grizzly. I brought a land transport, if you’ve got room for a small crawler.”
“Plenty of room.” Gunn checked the available slots. “Park your crawler in bay eight. Be sure to wait for the green light before leaving your vehicle.”
“Audio off-line again?”
“We suffered a little imperial damage recently.” Gunn smoothed the illusion that disguised his demon markings into place.
Helax wouldn’t be put off by a minor detail like horns, but no telling about his men. Most humans found his natural form disturbing. It was wise to remember the mask. Besides, why set the warrior on edge when he wanted their cooperation?
“I read you pal. Maintenance never ends. I’ll keep us parked until you flash the all clear.” Helax chuckled.
Within minutes he entered the control tower and dismissed his crew. Once they were alone, he sniffed with surprising delicacy.
“Where is she?”
Gunn considered playing dumb for a nano second then discarded the ruse.
“She’s with Diablo. How’d you know?”
Flight of Dragons Page 70
