Death Defying (Dark Desires) (5 page)

Come back, and we’ll call everyone off. We can do some damage control, say it was a stunt.

Piss off.

He broke the contact. It looked like the Council had some balls after all. Pity they had to wait until now to show them. At least his hard-on was gone. He supposed he’d better go and tell the captain that they should expect company, so they could start thinking about how to avoid it.

The crew of
El Cazador
had spent two weeks being pursued by the Collective and had managed to successfully evade them. He hoped they could do it again—one of the reasons he’d employed them. He’d wanted someone with no connections to the Council who could keep him out of sight while he worked out what he was and what he wanted to do with the rest of eternity.

The comm unit beside the bed buzzed. He pressed it to open.

“Meeting in the conference room in half an hour,” a brusque voice barked. “Be there.”

“Where—” But the comm was cut off abruptly.

Why did he get the impression nobody on this ship liked him?

Clearly, they were the type to hold grudges. He didn’t give a toss whether they liked him or not as long as they did what he paid them to do. But he realized that wasn’t entirely true. There was one member of the crew he wanted to like him.

An image of the captain flashed in his mind. Though she’d told him she didn’t mix business with pleasure, he would have to persuade her otherwise. From her reaction to his kiss, he had some work to do. For once, he was going to have to exert himself for what he wanted. The idea had a certain novelty value.

…

“You’re late,” Tannis snapped.

Callum had wandered around the goddamn ship for what seemed like an age. He hadn’t found the galley and was still hungry. He had only found this place because he’d pushed his way into Skylar’s mind and asked for directions. He’d guessed she hadn’t been pleased by the intrusion. Hard Luck. They should have sent somebody to escort him.
And
given him some goddamn food.

The room was big and airy. The decor, like the rest of the ship, black and silver. He quickly counted the people. Five. He reckoned this must be the whole crew on board, except for the ship’s engineer who, from the reports he’d read, appeared to be some sort of recluse. The assassin and his little priestess were obviously elsewhere—he’d seen no sign of them.

His gaze was drawn first to Tannis leaning against the far wall, arms folded across her chest, one booted foot tapping the floor. She briefly caught his eye and looked away.

He moved on to the vampire, Ricardo Sanchez, owner and pilot of the ship, with Skylar next to him, one hand resting on his thigh as if to restrain him.

Finally, two women. One he didn’t recognize. She was beautiful, well dressed, with dark red hair. The other was the green girl, Daisy. She was the only one who appeared pleased to see him. She had a wide grin on her face and waggled her fingers in his direction.

The vampire shook off Skylar’s hand and stood in one fluid move. He stalked toward Callum, moving with the lithe grace of a predator, and suddenly Callum was afraid. His mouth went dry, and every brain cell screamed at him to run. Rico was dressed all in black, with a pistol at his thigh and an honest-to-God sword at his back. But it wasn’t the weapons that caused Callum’s heart rate to speed up, it was the fact that the vampire was snarling, one corner of his upper lip curling to reveal a razor-sharp fang.

He came to a halt in front of Callum, drew back his fist, and punched him in the face.

Chapter Three

Callum heard the
crunch
of bone as his nose broke. Pain flooded his face, and his mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. He swallowed and looked around to see if anyone was going to help him. Only the green girl appeared alarmed—well the grin was gone at least. Skylar looked resigned and shrugged when she caught his gaze. The redhead was studying her nails. Tannis hadn’t moved—she certainly wasn’t rushing to his rescue. He was on his own. Something told him that he couldn’t back down now. If he showed just a little of the fear he was feeling, his credibility would be lost forever, but no way could he win this fight. He would be lucky to survive it.

He forced his gaze to the vampire and decided he wanted a gun, a big fucking gun.

“That’s for messing with Skylar’s head,” Rico growled. “And this is for kissing Tannis.”

The fist flew again. This time it landed on his chest, and he went down under the force of the blow. He lay unmoving for a minute. God, that hurt as though his chest had caved in. Bloody vampire—he had an urge to sack the whole lot of them right now. Except if he did that, they might just dump him out of the airlock without a spacesuit.

He pushed himself onto one elbow and stared the vampire in the eyes. “Finished?” he snarled and called up the power from deep inside him, allowed it to glow from his eyes.

A flash of surprise crossed Rico’s face.

Tannis moved at last to stand in front of the vampire, hands on her hips. She looked annoyed. Maybe she did like him, after all. “Great, just great, Rico. Why don’t you tell the whole freaking ship that he kissed me?”

And maybe she didn’t. She was just annoyed the vampire had told everyone he’d kissed her. But why had she told the vampire?

Rico didn’t answer. He looked down at where Callum lay. “Yeah, I’ve finished. For now.”

Callum staggered to his feet and shook his head, spraying blood from his broken nose around the room.

Rico’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. “Will somebody stop him from bleeding all over my ship? He’s making a mess. And he’s making me hungry.”

“I’ll go get something.” Daisy jumped to her feet and hurried from the room. Nobody said a word. Rico strolled to his chair and threw himself down. Callum’s legs trembled, but he waited until the vampire was seated before he sank into the nearest chair, perching on the front to accommodate his wings.

Daisy returned a minute later, her expression sympathetic as she handed him a damp towel. He pressed it to his face and realized his hand shook as well.

Callum couldn’t remember the last time someone had hit him. He reckoned it must have been back on Earth over a thousand years ago. Shit, his nose hurt.

But one thing was for sure—he wasn’t bored any longer. The corners of his mouth twitched in the beginnings of a smile. Tannis glanced at him sharply, and he blanked his expression.

“Right,” she said. “If everyone has finished playing, perhaps we could we get on with the meeting now?”

Rico grinned. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

She ignored him and turned her attention to Callum. “So you’re paying us a lot of money—what do you want in return?”

The blunt question surprised him; he’d prefer to keep his plans to as few people as possible. “Can we discuss this in private?”

“No.” She waved a hand around the room. “They’re going to be there and they have a right to know. Besides, I don’t keep secrets from my crew. So talk.”

Wincing, he sat back and prodded his nose. It was definitely broken, and he’d gotten blood all over his shirt. And he had no more clothes. Why hadn’t he thought to bring luggage? The problem was he’d had people to do everything for him, until he’d just about lost the ability to think for himself. He was almost embarrassed.

What to tell them, when he hadn’t expected to have to explain anything? He’d planned to have his bodyguards deal with any awkward questions and keep the crew in line.

“I need to lay low for a while.”

“Why?”

Annoyance flicked at his nerve endings. He was also unused to having to justify himself. Why couldn’t she accept what he said and just do what she was told? When he remained silent, she raised one arched brow, and he pushed down his irritation and organized his thoughts. “The Council was against us revealing the changes.” He gestured at his wings. “They wanted to keep them hidden, pretend they weren’t happening.”

“A little hard to hide,” Rico murmured.

Callum ignored the interruption. “I decided my people had a right to the truth. They should know what was going on with their leaders—”

“
My people
?” Rico scoffed. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a pompous git? And are you really expecting us to believe you’re doing this out of pure altruism. I mean—do we look like idiots?”

Someone tittered.

Callum gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. “Okay,
I
want to know the truth. I want to find out what we’re becoming, and I’m fed up with hiding.”

“That sounds more like it.”

“So I needed somewhere to lay low until they cool down and are willing to listen.”

“Is anyone buying this crap?” Rico said. “You know this is a load of bollocks. I say we take a vote and shove him out the airlock. Get rid of the problem.”

They
really
didn’t like him. But he wasn’t too worried. He’d only handed over half of the fee so far—the rest they would get when the job was over. If they were still alive.

Tannis must have realized that her money was at risk, and she shrugged almost apologetically. “Rico has a little problem with the fact that you messed with Skylar’s head. And you did spend a lot of effort recently, trying to kill us.”

“You assassinated one of us first,” Callum countered.

“Yeah, but he paid for the job himself—it was actually suicide,” Rico pointed out. “Besides, Aiden Ross was an asshole. We were doing you a favor.”

“Jesus, it’s like kindergarten in here.” Tannis pressed her fingers into her short hair.

It was damp, slicked back from her face. She must have showered since he’d come on board. Had she needed cooling down after he’d kissed her? Though remembering her reaction, he doubted that had been the reason—more likely wanted to scrub herself clean. The idea intrigued him.

“So, you want to lie low,” she said. “What else?”

“I’ve arranged to meet with my head of research. In two days’ time on Trakis Two. Then we’ll make a plan. I might or might not need you after that. But if I do, I’ll pay you more. The fee I’ve offered so far is for keeping me out of the way for two days and then getting me to Trakis Two. Easy money.”

“Sounds too easy.”

“Well, there is something else you need to know.”

She gave an exaggerated sigh. “And that is?”

“I just got a report that the Council has sent the Corps after me.”

“What? And that didn’t occur to you before you arranged this stunt?”

“No, I didn’t think it would be an issue—the colonel is a good friend, but it appears they’ve arrested him and put their own person in charge.”

“They’ve arrested the colonel?” Skylar said. “The Corps won’t be happy about that.” Skylar was herself an officer in the intelligence section of the Corps, or she had been until she’d gone AWOL.

“Maybe not, but in my absence, and the absence of the colonel, they’ll take their orders from the Council. There’s more.”

“Really?” Tannis asked. “Why aren’t I surprised?”

“They’ve reported me as kidnapped. By you. They’re offering a huge reward for my return.” He had a thought. “You didn’t actually send a ransom demand, did you?”

“No, but I’m thinking about it. Jesus, we’ll have every bounty hunter in the known universe on our tail.” She paced the room. “Great, just great. Janey, can you start a scan for anything that might be heading in our direction?”

“I’m already on it.”

She turned back to him, studying him as though he was something rather unpleasant. “Anything else?”

“Yes, I’ll need some clothes and some food and—”

She waved a hand. “Anything else important.” But she gave him no chance to answer. “No—good. Right. If this meeting is over, I have things to do.”

She was leaving, and he didn’t want her to go. Not without him. He stood up, stepped toward her, and lowered his voice. “About the kiss…”

“Forget it. I have.” With a final shrug, she whirled around and strode from the room.

Callum watched her go. She had a great ass. And he was pretty certain she hadn’t forgotten the kiss—
he
had no intention of doing so.

As she disappeared from sight, he glanced across to find Rico watching him. His hand went to his nose without conscious thought. One of the advantages to the Meridian treatment was they healed incredibly fast, but right now it felt sore and swollen. He winced, but at least the bleeding had stopped.

The vampire’s gaze was speculative. He strolled over, and Callum made himself stand his ground. Just for good measure, he spread his wings until the tips touched the walls on either side of him. The idea occurred to him, that perhaps he wouldn’t survive his sojourn aboard
El Cazador,
that he’d been a fool to trust these people. He’d started to believe himself indestructible, and that wasn’t the truth. He could be destroyed. And that the only person to ever kill one of their kind was a member of this crew—if not actually on board right now—didn’t bode well.

But Rico merely smiled, though the expression didn’t reach his dark eyes. Callum tried a quick mind probe. The vampire’s eyes narrowed, and Callum hit a wall. Another one he couldn’t read—it was bloody inconvenient.

Rico reached out a finger and poked him in the chest. “Keep out of everybody’s minds, and keep your dick in your pants, and we’ll all be fine.”

Callum was hungry, his nose hurt, his chest hurt, his only clean shirt was covered in blood. In fact, he was pissed off, and these bloody peasants seemed not to appreciate just how important he actually was. He twitched his wings and opened his mouth to tell Rico to mind his own sodding business—he’d do what he liked with his goddamn dick—when the whole ship lurched to the side and he was thrown to the floor. Something hit him in the chest and everything went black.

When the lights flickered on, he found he was lying on the floor with the vampire on top of him. Thankfully, not for long—his ribs were killing him. Rico rolled to his feet and strode across to where the redhead was sitting. How had she managed to stay in her seat looking totally unruffled?

“I thought you were checking if anyone was after us?” Rico said.

“I was. Whoever it is, they didn’t show up on the monitors.”

“Well, are they showing up now?”

Janey flicked a few switches. “Nope.”

Callum knew instantly who was out there. “It’s the Corps.”

“So why can’t we see them?”

“New stealth technology.” He strode across and leaned over her shoulder. “Here let me try something.” He pressed a few buttons, changed the frequency, and the monitor filled with a huge ship. He recognized her immediately—his ship,
The Endeavor
. They must have pulled her from her trials, the fucking idiots.

She was flanked by three smaller ships that hugged close to take advantage of the stealth technology of the newer, more advanced star cruiser.

Skylar came to stand beside him and peered at the monitor. “That’s the new Corps flagship. I’d heard she’d been commissioned—wow.”

“She’s a beauty,” Rico said, a faint tinge of jealousy in his voice.

“What’s going on?”

Callum turned from the screen as Tannis spoke from the doorway. She sounded irked. “You’ve been on this ship one hour and already we’re under attack. How come they caught up so soon?” Her eyes narrowed on him. “Have you been in contact with anyone? Perhaps you’ve decided you don’t want this trip after all.”

“No.”

“So how have they homed in on us so quickly? There’s a lot of space out here—this can’t be just good luck on their part.”

“Do you think we’ve got a bug on board?” Janey swiveled in her seat and eyed him curiously. “Like Jon had?”

“You bugged?” Tannis asked him.

“Not that I know of. They wouldn’t dare without my knowledge.”

“Yeah, right, of course they wouldn’t, because you’re so big, bad, and important. Get the scanner, Janey.”

Callum stood still as Janey ran the machine down over his body. Nothing happened, and he slowly relaxed. Then she moved around behind him.

Beep, beep, beep.

“They always put it in the ass,” Janey murmured. “Lend me your knife,” she said to Skylar.

Skylar drew a wicked-looking blade from the weapons belt at her waist and handed it to the redhead.

His mind reeled. They’d bugged him without his knowledge. When the hell had they done that? And why hadn’t they told him? The Council had suggested it years ago as a security precaution and he’d refused. It looked like they’d gone ahead anyway, must have been during one of the medicals. Bastards. And what the hell was that woman brandishing a knife at him for? No way was she cutting into him with that blade.

“Spread the wings and drop your pants.”

“What?” He peered over his shoulder as she crouched behind him, the scanner in one hand, the knife in the other. She grinned with relish as though she could sense his discomfort.

“I need to get the bug out, or we’ll never get away from…” She waved a scarlet-tipped hand at the monitor, where the Corps ships still hovered. He couldn’t see how they were going to get away anyway.
The Endeavor
was a Mark Five cruiser. He’d commissioned her himself. She was the fastest ship in space, with more than fifty times the firepower of
El Cazador
.

“Well…” Janey prompted.

He shrugged. Everyone backed away as he spread his wings. His hand went to the fastener at his waist, and he hesitated. Five sets of eyes watched him avidly. He glanced at Tannis, and she raised an eyebrow as though daring him. He couldn’t remember feeling this uncomfortable. Ever. This was no big deal. He turned to face the console, and Janey shuffled around so she was behind him.

He flicked open the fastener and pushed his pants down. Someone whistled, and he cringed inwardly but didn’t react.