Death Defying (Dark Desires) (6 page)

“Do you all realize we’re looking at the most powerful butt in the known universe?” Janey said.

“Wow—I feel honored,” Tannis replied. “Now get on with it.”

Callum ignored them. Leaning one arm against the curved silver wall, he willed this whole humiliating experience over. Fingers ran lightly over the curve of his buttocks. “Got it,” she murmured. “This might sting a little.”

Was that anticipation he could hear in her voice?

Bitch.

He peered over his shoulders and caught Tannis with her gaze glued on his ass. She looked up and straight into his eyes as the knife probed his flesh. Shit that hurt. It must have shown on his face, because she grinned. “Don’t be a baby.”

He gritted his teeth as the blade dug deeper. Was she deliberately taking her time? Finally, something popped free from his skin and fell to the floor.

“Okay, done,” Janey said. “You can put your pants back on.”

A slow trickle of blood ran down his left buttock, but he couldn’t think what to do about that, and he wanted his pants back on sooner rather than later. He pulled them up, folded his wings, and turned around just as Tannis smashed her booted foot on the small silver bug. She ground down, so he heard the splinter of metal.

Now his ass hurt as well. He tried the at-least-I’m-not-bored argument again, but it was losing its potency. He wanted to go home, to his palace, where people at least pretended to like him. A smile tugged at his lips at the pathetic thought.

“Okay, so that’s one problem solved. All we need to do now is get away from that ship and stay away, and we’re all good. Any ideas?” Tannis looked around the room. No one answered.

“They’re trying to comm us,” Janey said. “You want to hear what they have to say?”

“Not particularly, but I suppose we should.”

“This is Captain Harris of
The
Endeavor
. Please lock your weapons and get ready to be boarded.”

Callum knew Captain Harris—he was Tyler’s man. Fuck. He stepped closer to the comm unit and spoke.

“Captain, this is Callum Meridian. I’m ordering you to stand down and return to Trakis Five.”

“Sir, we have orders to ignore your orders. We’re here to take you home. ”

Tannis reached past him and slammed her palm on the comm unit, closing off the sound.

“I didn’t like the sound of his voice,” she said to the room in general. “Rico, can we outrun them?”

“Not a chance in hell.”

“Shoot it out?”

“I reckon we’d last about thirty seconds.”

The ship lurched sideways as another blast hit them. This time Callum managed to keep his feet until Tannis knocked into him, and they both went down. He landed on his back—an uncomfortable position when you had wings and a hole in your butt—with Tannis on top of him. His arms went around her automatically, and for a second he held her close. Her body was slender and firm, though he could feel the softness of her breasts against his chest. As he pulled her tighter, she stiffened, pushed her hands between them, and shoved hard. He loosened his grip, and she got to her feet, wiped her hands down the side of her pants, and glared at him.

Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet. “Don’t look so pissed at me,” he said. “You must have known this was a possibility—I was hardly going to pay you that exorbitant sum just to go on a joy ride. The reason I chose this fucking crappy ship and its fucking misfit crew was because you’d successfully managed to evade our forces. So whatever it is you did last time, do it again.”

“Rico?”

“Won’t work. That was one ship. We try and do the same, the smaller ships would spot us.”

“What did you do?” Callum asked. He’d read the account. The captain had reported that
El Cazador
had simply vanished from the monitors.

“We landed on the ship. It took us out of range of the scanners.”

“Clever.” It was, but he could see it wouldn’t work in this situation.

Rico crossed the room and sank into the pilot’s chair, running his hand through his hair, which had come loose from its ponytail. Skylar moved to stand beside him, resting a hand possessively on his shoulder. It was obvious the two were a couple, which explained why Skylar had parted ways from the Collective. No one had ever left before, and he wasn’t even sure it was possible to leave. Maybe physically, but not mentally. Whatever else Meridian did, it tied them together until at times it felt as if they were one consciousness.

They were a gestalt and gained power from being united, though they’d never understood how it worked and how they could make the most of that power. It was another of the things he wanted to investigate. Another of the things the Council didn’t want to look at too closely. They shied away from scrutinizing anything that might suggest they were somehow no longer human. As though by ignoring it, they would take away its potency.

Fools.

But it was another reason he’d chosen
El Cazador
. The colonel had reported Skylar’s defection and hadn’t understood the reason, though he said Skylar’s recent psych reports had stated she was bored and restless. That sounded familiar, and Callum had been interested to meet her. She didn’t look bored and restless now. She appeared vibrant, unconcerned about the possible attack.

As he watched, the vampire dragged her down onto his lap. “For inspiration,” he murmured, and she laughed.

“Get used to it,” Tannis said from beside him. “Bloody ship’s like a love nest these days. Rico, we’re under attack here.”

“Oh yeah, but I reckon they’re not going to completely obliterate us, not with his Leadership on board.”

“Another incoming,” Janey said. This time everyone was prepared and managed to stay on their feet or in their seats.

“What we actually need now,” Rico said, “is a miracle. Like divine intervention.”

“Like God coming in to save us you mean?” Janey asked.

“Just like that. Where the hell is Alex when we need a few prayers?”

“Well, I don’t know about God, but how about the next best thing?” Janey tapped a few keys to reset the viewer.
The Endeavor
vanished, to be replaced by a whole fleet of smaller ships. She focused on the leader, getting a close up. The ship was a Mark Three cruiser, white with a huge black cross on the side.

“The Church of Everlasting Life,” Rico murmured. “How nice of them to join the party. Have I mentioned how much I hate the Church?”

“Frequently,” Tannis said drily. “Are they after us, do you think? Could they still want Alex back?”

“I have no clue. Maybe they’re not happy that we killed their High Priest.”

“You killed Hezrai Fischer?” Callum asked.

“Rico did.”

“Yeah, he was an asshole. But all the same, they might not see it that way.”

“Or maybe they’re not after us at all,” Janey said.

“Why do you say that?” Tannis asked.

“I just plotted their course. They’re heading for the Corp’s ship. I don’t think they’ve even noticed us. And they’re battle ready—looks like they’re about to attack.”

“Why would they do that? The Church has always been allies with the Collective.”

“Not anymore,” Callum said.

“Why? What’s changed?”

“We got intel just before I left—they finally got around to appointing a new High Priest. A guy called Temperance Hatcher.”

Tannis shook her head. “Never heard of him.”

“Unsurprising, as he’s kept a low profile, which the Church were more than happy to allow him to do—he’s hardly the caring face of God. The man’s a fanatic—makes Fischer look a real sweetheart in comparison. And he hates the Collective.”

“Can they take on that space cruiser?” Tannis asked.

“Probably not,” Rico answered. “But they might keep them distracted while we slip away.”

Callum sank into a chair where he could still view the monitor. He got up almost straightaway, as his butt hurt like hell, and caught a grin on Tannis’s face. He leaned one shoulder against the wall instead and studied them.

They were all so calm. They must have known
The Endeavor
could utterly destroy them, but no one had panicked.

Long ago, he’d been a fighter pilot in the British Royal Air Force, before the Earth had become unstable, and he’d left on board the
Trakis Seven
. He remembered the sensation of going into battle, the calmness that had taken over, the sense that he was immortal and nothing could harm him. Now he really was just about immortal, very nearly impossible to kill, and he’d all but forgotten the feeling.

When they had finally accepted that the Earth was dying, they’d put a plan in motion to try and save humanity. It had taken twenty years to bring to fruition, every resource directed toward developing the technology they would need to survive. Wars had broken out as it became clear that not everyone would be saved, and he’d seen a lot of action toward the last days. He’d loved the adrenaline rush; facing death every day made him appreciate life.

In the end, twenty-four ships had left the Earth, named the
Trakis One
to
Twenty-Four
, each carrying ten thousand people. Most were kept in cryo, with just a small crew awake to monitor the ship’s systems. There had been other crews, ten in all for each ship, and when the crew became too old to function the next was awakened—enough, they reckoned, to last five hundred years. Callum had been the tenth and last captain on the
Trakis Seven
, and he’d been ten years into his captaincy when they’d finally come upon what was to be known as the Trakis system.

In the previous five hundred years, they’d encountered no planets that would maintain human life. They’d lost contact with twelve of the ships early on, after they’d separated. Three others had been destroyed by unexplained explosions. And the
Trakis One
had been lost in the black hole that guarded the system. The others had all landed safely—except for his—on whatever planets were deemed habitable, the planets taking the name of the ship that landed. He’d been allocated to what was now known as Trakis Seven. Coming in, he’d realized something wasn’t right and tried to abort the landing, but the planet had sucked them in and they’d crashed.

And the rest was history.

“They’re within range,” Janey said. “I think they’re communicating, but I can’t pick up the frequency.”

“Looks like that Corps ship is still focused on us—we try and leave now and they’re going to shoot us down. Come on,” Rico urged. “Shoot each other.”

As if they were listening to him, a series of volleys blasted from the Church’s lead ship. They hit
The Endeavor
on the rear end, with no visible effect. For a moment, it looked like they would ignore the offensive, but shots came again in a longer blast and finally,
The Endeavor
swung around and laser fire flashed from her guns. The smaller ship dodged, then came back straightaway, firing a continuous round of blasts, most of which hit their target but bounced harmlessly off the surface. Still it must have riled Captain Harris, because he returned fire, his attention diverted from
The Cazador,
at least for the moment.

“Hey, that Church guy’s good,” Rico said. “Beautiful. Let’s get out of here—nice and slowly—and hope no one notices us.”

Skylar stood to give him room, and he punched in a new course. They peeled away and headed slowly in the opposite direction. Callum narrowly resisted the urge to tell them to hurry up.

Finally, as the ships grew smaller in the monitors, Rico punched
El Cazador’s
main thrusters and she shot forward. After a few minutes, he glanced up. “So we still heading to Trakis Two?”

“I have no clue.” Tannis turned to Callum. “Well?”

He nodded. “I have a rendezvous there in a couple of days.”

“We’re eight hours out from the planet,” Rico said. “We can hole up at Bastian’s old place if Jon and Alex give us the all clear. It will keep us out of sight until your meeting.”

Callum liked the idea. He didn’t know who Bastian was, but he could visit with the colonel’s old love and do a little sightseeing. In five hundred years, he’d never been to Trakis Two—the planet that never sleeps. He’d heard it was a wild place. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

…

Tannis studied their faces. Callum appeared eager. His nose was clearly broken, his shirt stained with blood, and he obviously had trouble sitting. She almost grinned—she bet it was a long time since he’d felt like this.

She didn’t have happy memories of Trakis Two, but since most of the unhappy ones were because of Bastian, she reckoned she could overcome her misgivings. Bastian was dead, staked by Rico, after he’d nearly raped and drained Alex.

And Bastian did have a huge hideaway where
El Cazador
could lay up undetected. Alex and Jon were there now making sure nothing else moved in. There were rumored to be strange things living on the dark side of Trakis Two. Still, it was better than wandering aimlessly in space, and no one would be tempted to toss their client out of the airlock.

“Okay, Trakis Two it is.”

“Excellent, we can go clubbing,” Daisy said.

“You cannot go clubbing. We’re laying low.”

Daisy’s green eyes took on a mutinous expression. “We never got to go clubbing last time, either.”

Tannis pursed her lips. But maybe they all needed a bit of downtime. “I’ll check things out—if it looks safe, you can go. But only if it looks safe.”

Chapter Four

Directly below them, a great, hulking structure appeared to grow out of the darkness itself. Closer inspection revealed that it was man-made, but hewn out of the black rock that made up the surrounding landscape. Callum stared at the monitor and tried to ignore the feeling of misgiving the view gave him.

There were rumored to be all sorts of sinister things living in the murky lands surrounding Pleasure City. The place was a big tourist draw, but visitors were cautioned against traveling beyond the city limits. Those that ignored the warnings were seldom seen again.

The planet came up frequently in Council meetings. Some wanted to go in and clean up the city. Others believed that a place like Trakis Two was needed—at least all the lowlifes were concentrated in one area. So far, they had done nothing.

Rico hovered
El Cazador
above the structure. He was a great pilot, but Callum itched to get his hands on the controls.

“You heard from Alex or Jon?” Tannis asked.

“They’re not answering at the moment,” Janey said. “But they called in last night and said everything was clear. And the heat sensors are picking up just the two life forms.” Janey frowned. “Hey, do vampires show up on heat sensors? Aren’t they, well, sort of dead?”

Rico grinned. “Are you suggesting I’m a coldhearted bastard?”

“We’re going to see a vampire?” Callum asked. He looked to Tannis, but she was doing her best to ignore him. And had been since their kiss yesterday.

Janey answered his question. “Nah, the vampire’s dead. Rico killed him last visit. We’re just making sure the place hasn’t been taken over by something equally unfriendly.”

“Or more so,” Rico added darkly. “Let’s see if the systems are still online. Otherwise, we’re going to have to find another way in. Where the hell are Jon and Alex? They’d better not be off somewhere boinking again. Wait, there’s something happening.”

As Callum watched, a fissure formed in the black rooftop.

“Welcome to vampire city.” A voice came over the comm unit. Jon, the assassin, Callum presumed.

“We’re in,” Tannis said.

The two sides of rock parted, revealing a cavern inside with a landing pad directly below them. Rico took them down and landed light as stardust.

“Right.” Tannis rubbed her hands together. She looked pleased. “I’ll go see what the newlyweds have to say.”

Tannis headed for the door and Callum followed. She paused and a flicker of annoyance passed over her deadpan features when she caught sight of him, then it was gone.

Callum trailed behind her to the docking bay and waited as she pressed her palm to the outer doors. They glided open. The place was in darkness, but as he watched, lights flickered on and illuminated a huge black-walled cavern with black sand floors and several tunnels leading off into stygian darkness. A shiver ran through him—the place gave him the creeps, and he couldn’t work out why.

Two figures appeared from a tunnel opposite and headed toward the ship. The assassin and the priestess—an incongruous coupling. Jonathon Decker was huge, broad as well as tall. Next to him, Alexia appeared tiny in her bright pink jumpsuit.

He studied her as they came to a halt at the bottom of the ramp. There was something different; he just couldn’t pinpoint what. Last time he’d seen her she’d been dying. Now, she looked vibrantly alive, her huge gray eyes sparkling, her skin glowing. A low growl sounded to the side of her; the assassin wasn’t happy that he was looking at the girl. Or maybe he just wasn’t happy that Callum was on board.

“Everything okay?” Tannis asked.

“Yeah. We’ll tell you over dinner. We’re starving.”

They hurried past into the ship, and Callum turned to watch them go. There was something not quite right about the two of them, something not quite human, but he couldn’t work out what.

“Werewolves,” Tannis said.

“What?”

“I don’t need any of your fancy mind-reading tricks to guess what you were thinking. You were wondering what was odd about them. With Jon on his own, you could overlook it, but the two of them together…”

“Werewolves? Do werewolves even exist?”

“Oh yeah, and other things, apparently. Rico’s promised to tell us about them one day.”

“The priestess—was she always—”

“A werewolf? No. But your people nearly killed her, and it was the only way to help her live.”

“I never even knew they were real,” he murmured.

“Me neither, until we broke Jon out. Rico recognized what he was straight away.”

“He would. I presume they came with us from Earth. But how?”

“Ask Rico. Come on, let’s go get some food as well.”

He realized she was leaving. He wanted to reach out and take her arm, but something in her demeanor stopped him. She was giving off don’t-touch vibes in waves. But still he didn’t want her to go.

“Wait.”

She turned back, her face expressionless. “What?”

“I think we need to talk about what happened yesterday.”

“Nothing happened. Or at least nothing important.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but she held up a hand. “Look, let’s just get the job out of the way. I meant it when I said I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

“How about if I fire you?”

She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Then we dump you here and we’re off.”

He took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s go get that food.”

The others were all in the galley when they got there. Even the elusive Trog, the ship’s engineer, was sitting beside Janey, silently eating. He raised his shaggy, blond head briefly when they entered, then returned his attention to his food.

Jon and Alex were already seated with food in front of them.

“So?” Tannis asked.

“Nothing,” Jon said. “The place is clear.” He went back to wolfing down the food. He glanced up after a few seconds. “What? We’re hungry. Takes a lot of energy—shifting.”

“So does boinking,” Tannis said sourly.

They ignored the comment and cleared their dishes. Tannis stood leaning against the counter, foot tapping. Only when his bowl was scraped clean, did Jon look up again. “I told you, nothing to worry about. The place is cleared out. Found a few dead people but nothing alive.”

“Good,” Tannis said.

She sank into a chair. For the first time since Callum had met her, she appeared tired. He went to the food dispenser, got a bowl of stew, and placed it on the table in front of her.

She looked up, surprise flashing across her features, and then she picked up a spoon and started to eat. After collecting his own food, Callum took the chair opposite, where he could watch her. He realized he liked to watch her. He liked the clean lines of her face—not really beautiful—but exotic. The yellow eyes with their thick fringe of dark, spiky lashes, the lustrous, black hair, usually standing on end, from where she’d run her fingers through it. This close, he could see the faint luminosity of her skin, with its fine sheen of scales. He knew her skin was soft. He’d run his fingers over it yesterday. And felt that long, lean sinuous body pressed against his. He shifted in his chair as his body reacted to the memory, and she glanced up to find him watching her. For a minute, she returned his gaze then she broke the contact and continued eating.

The conversation had started around him, and he allowed himself to relax. A casual camaraderie existed between these people that he hadn’t experienced in many years. Again, he realized how empty his life was, how cold and sterile his existence had been for centuries. While he ate, he allowed the atmosphere to loosen the tenseness in his muscles. Tension that had become part of him. Finally, he put down his spoon and looked around.

Rico caught his eye, one eyebrow raised in query. And Callum remembered what Tannis had said at the docking bay.

“Where do werewolves come from?” he asked. “For that matter, where do vampires come from?”

Rico relaxed in his seat and pursed his lips as if considering whether he should answer. Then he shrugged. “From Earth.”

“But how did they get here? The places on the ships leaving Earth were limited.”

“I know. Twenty-four ships each carrying ten thousand Chosen Ones—the hope of the human race—each person selected by a totally rigged lottery system.”

“So?”

“Well there were a few of us excluded from the lottery, and we didn’t think that was fair. So we took matters into our own hands.”

“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you were actually on Earth? You’re that old?”

“One thousand five hundred and ninety-six to be precise.”

Callum did the math. “You must have been born in the Middle Ages.” His mind reeled, and he forced himself back to the topic, but one day he’d love a long chat with the vampire. What had the Earth been like all those years ago?

“When you say ‘we’ do you mean more vampires?”

“Vampires, werewolves, a few other things you might hope never to meet.”

“Nice friends you have,” Skylar commented.

Rico cast her a grin. “They weren’t exactly friends—you could say we came together for a common cause. Anyhow, we needed a ship, so we approached one of the captains and made him an offer.”

“An offer?”

“In exchange for dumping half his load of Chosen Ones and replacing them with our little group, I would give him immortality.”

Shock hit Callum in the gut. “You turned the captain of one of the Trakis ships into a vampire?”

“I did, and it was one of the worst mistakes I ever made. Not that we had much choice—we did our research and Bastian was the only one who came up a possibility. You flyboys were such a load of goddamn heroes.”

“Fucking hell. You’re talking about Sebastian Faulk. Captain Faulk of the…” He trailed off as the implications filtered through his mind.

“Captain Faulk of the
Trakis Two
,” Rico finished for him. “Yup, that was Bastian. I take it you knew him.”

Callum found this hard to believe. He’d known Sebastian, though they’d never been friends, just coworkers—the guy had been a complete dick. “We trained together. All the crews did in the years before we left. What happened to him? I take it he was alive until recently.”

“Yeah. Rico staked him a few weeks ago.”

Callum frowned. “Why? I mean—why now—after all this time?”

Rico gave him a slow smile that curled his lips, revealing the tips of his sharp white fangs. “Because he pissed me off.”

A shiver of primordial fear trickled down Callum’s spine. Occasionally, it was possible to forget what Rico was. Now wasn’t one of those times. Despite the relaxed outward appearance, there was a darkness in the vampire, kept under rigid control, but there nevertheless. Callum refused to be intimidated. Again.

He returned the smile. “I’ll have to make sure there are no stakes around next time I annoy you.”

Because he was pretty sure if they spent time together, he was going to piss Rico off.

Rico grinned. “Good idea. Waste of time with you anyway.”

…

“We should be safe here for a couple of days,” Tannis said. “We just need to keep a low profile until your person turns up.”

“I need to go into the city,” Callum said.

“Not a chance. This isn’t a freaking holiday. I’m going into Pleasure City with Janey and Skylar. We need some supplies, and we can check how hot things are. If there’s nothing happening, the rest of you can go in later. But not you,” she said to Callum.

“Why not me?”

She gave him a look as though he was mad and waved at his wings. “Because there’s a reward out for your return and you’re hardly inconspicuous.”

Though she was right, he still needed to go. He’d made a promise to the colonel. He would keep a low profile, slip into the city, and out again before anyone noticed he was there.

Folding his arms across his chest, he sat back but didn’t say anything further.

…

Tannis actually liked Pleasure City—she wouldn’t have wanted to live there, but the occasional visit was fun. The place was vibrant, full of color and noise. She’d even done some shopping. Janey had appeared slightly perplexed when she’d told her she wanted help picking new clothes—well, it was a first.

But she had bad news for the rest of the crew. Unfortunately, when they arrived back, there was no one around to give it to. The ship appeared curiously quiet as she strolled onto the bridge.

Alex and Jon had shifted and gone out to do whatever werewolves did in the dark—she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Rico had warned them to be careful. Jon had just grinned and they’d headed off into the perpetual night.

Tannis had left everyone else with instructions not to leave the ship until she returned. Only the promise that they could have a trip into the city if all was clear had kept the crew from mutiny.

So where the hell was everybody?

Because all was not clear. There were comms about the kidnapping and reward all over the city, and she was just about to give out the “good” news that everyone was confined to ship. Except just about “everyone” was conspicuous by their absence. Only Daisy was present, and she looked decidedly shifty.

At that moment, Alex strolled onto the bridge, hands shoved in the pockets of her hot-pink jump suit. She appeared relaxed. “Have you told her yet?”

Daisy shook her head, her ponytail swinging. “No.”

“Told me what?” Tannis said.

“Where is everyone?” Janey asked, as she and Skylar stepped onto the bridge.

“I was just about to find out.”

“They’ve gone,” Alex said.

“Gone? Who’s gone and where?”

“Callum, Rico, and Jon.”

“Jesus,” Tannis muttered. “Is no one capable of taking orders on this ship? Did I not say, ‘do not leave the ship’? Is that so hard to understand?”

“So where have they gone?” Skylar sounded way too reasonable.

“We’re not sure,” Daisy said. “It was Callum’s fault.”

Irritation pricked at her nerve endings. He was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“It was just after Alex and Jon turned up. Callum came and told them he wanted to go into the city. Said he had something important to do and apparently he’s never been to Pleasure City—fancy that—living all that time and never—”