In the Devil's Nebula (Phoenix Adventures #2) (22 page)

“Ria.”
Thump. Thump
. “What the hell
are you doing?”

She appeared on the other side of the glass.
“I have to go. Don’t worry about the shuttle. I’ll send a message
and tell you where you can pick it up.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the shuttle.
Where are you going?”

Her face was so solemn it broke his heart.
“Away. I’m the Guild’s number one target now. I don’t want any of
you hurt.” Her voice hitched. “I don’t want you hurt.”

“Damn it, Ria.” He slammed a fist against
the door. “Don’t go. We can protect you.”

“Assassins strike before you even realize
they’re there.” She shook her head. “If one of them hurt you…I
couldn’t live with that.”

“Let me help you.” He spread his palm out on
the glass, wished he could touch her.

Something flashed over her face. “I wish
things… Look, it’s best if I go. You need to think of your brothers
and Eos.”

“Ria.” Helplessness choked him.

“Can you please take care of Lala? Help her
out, wherever she wants to go.”

“You know I will. But stay, and we can help
her together.”

Ria pressed her hand to the glass, matching
her palm to his. “I wish things could have been different.”

“Ria.” He moved closer now. “You love me.
You can’t leave.”

She blinked, her mouth opened but she
couldn’t seem to find any words.

“You love me,” he continued, “and I love
you.”

She closed her eyes for a second. When they
opened, their beautiful green depths were filled with a glaze of
tears. “I’ve never loved or been loved before.”

“Stay and I’ll show you how good it can
be.”

“God, Zayn.” She leaned her forehead to the
glass. “I want to. I want to so much.”

He leaned his own forehead against the door
and cursed the glass that separated them.

“But most of all,” she continued, her voice
raw, “I want you safe.” She lifted her head. “If I stay, they’ll
come for you. You know it and I know it.”

“We’ll fight them.”

“The entire Guild? That’s not possible.”

“We’ll run. I’m good at fast. We’ll find
somewhere to hide.”

She sighed and a tear slid down her cheek.
“You can’t hide from assassins. They’ll hunt us to the edge of the
galaxy. Do you really want to live like that? Never see your
brothers? It’s just another type of prison, another loss of
freedom.”

He knew she was right, but it didn’t make
him feel any better. “Please don’t leave me.”

Her chest hitched. “Take care of yourself,
Zayn. Be happy.”

She leaned closer and pressed her lips to
the glass. He did the same, feeling like his insides were being
torn out.

Then she pulled back and walked away.

Left with no options, Zayn took a few steps
back. Moments later, the shuttle lifted a few centimeters off the
floor with a quiet roar.

The shuttle bay doors retracted, the opening
covered by a purple huma-field that kept the atmosphere inside.

Zayn’s hands curled into fists. He forced
himself to watch as the shuttle launched. Through the field, he saw
the shuttle lights spear into the black of space.

She was gone.

He spun and thrust a fist into the wall.
Skin tore and blood bloomed. It didn’t ease the pain tearing
through his insides.

He wasn’t sure if anything would.

***

Ria entered the comm booth on the busy
Rendarian street. As the doors slid closed behind her, it cut out
the noise of the busy city outside.

Rendar was a high-tech planet covered
completely in megacity. Huge skyscrapers speared high into the hazy
sky and neon lights blinked in all colors from every surface. She
couldn’t even see the tops of the tallest buildings as they were
lost amongst the clouds of pollution and the streams of air
transports.

She turned to the control panel and caught a
glimpse of herself in the mirrored surface above the panel. She’d
taken a page out of Lala’s book when she’d crafted her disguise.
Ria’s hair was a bright, eye-searing pink and cut in a blunt bob
that swung around her chin and she’d changed her eye color to a
muted silver. She wore black leggings with a pink and black skirt
that hit her mid-thigh. A simple black tank on top showed off the
temporary tattoos she’d applied to her arms. They circled her
arms—a sprinkle of stars, comets and pink-hued nebulae.

Zayn probably wouldn’t even recognize her.
She rubbed at her ridges, covered by derma patches to hide them.
The disguise wouldn’t fool the Assassin’s Guild for long and she
knew she needed to change her looks every few days to stay ahead of
them.

She tapped the control panel and crafted a
short, simple message to Zayn.

Shuttle on Rendar. Hangar #4509, Gormand
Spaceport.

Her fingers hovered over the screen, and a
lump the size of a starship lodged in her throat. God, she missed
him. There were so many other things she wanted to say.

Instead she just sent the message.

By the time he got here, she’d be long gone.
She was booked on a transport shuttle leaving for the galaxy’s edge
in an hour. Maybe from there she’d hook up with a deep-space convoy
headed outside the galaxy into uncharted territory or find some
seedy edge bar to get drunk in.

She turned, ready to leave, when her senses
flared to life.

Someone was watching her.

Ria stared at the steady stream of people on
the sidewalk outside. Nothing jumped out. She grabbed her makeup
applicator from the tiny backpack on her back. She dialed in for a
pink lipstick and applied it, but her focus was on the street.

There.
The assassin lurked in the
shadows across the busy street. Still, but poised for action.

Ria shoved the applicator back in her bag,
then pushed through the doors. She moved quickly, trying to put as
many people as she could between herself and her hunter. At the
next corner, she glanced over her shoulder.

The assassin was in a full sprint, heading
straight at her.

Ria ran.

She slammed through the crowd and raced out
onto the street. Transports screeched but Ria dodged and made it
safely across. She turned a corner and kept running.

Another glance back. She’d put some distance
between them, but he was still coming.

Ria dodged into a busy bar. It was packed
with people drinking.

“Hey Pinkie, let me buy you a drink.”

She ducked under the arm of the inebriated
man in the elegant suit and pushed through the revelers. A crash of
glass had her spinning. The assassin was headed toward her,
shouldering people out of his way. Several people had lost their
delicate fluted glasses filled with brightly colored drinks, and
splinters of glass scattered across the floor.

“Hey! Stop.” Three dark-suited security
guards were shouting and heading in their direction.

Damn it.
Ria kept moving. She spied
an elevator at the back of the room. Quickly, she slipped inside
and jabbed the button for the top floor.

When she lifted her head, she saw the
assassin running toward her, full-tilt.

“Come on, come on.” She jabbed the button
again.

The doors started closing. The assassin
reached out.

And the doors hissed shut before he got
there.

Ria sagged against the wall.
Too
close
. The assassin looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t
quite place him. There were far too many in the Guild for them all
to know each other. What she could see was that he had that focused
intensity of the die-hard assassins who lived to kill.

This was her life now. Running. Hiding.
Changing disguises. She wrapped her arms around her middle. Then
she thought of Zayn. The taste of him, the feel of his strong arms
around her. Her heart ached.

The elevator slowed and when the doors
opened, she straightened. Time to think about survival, not the
things she could never have.

She stepped out into a giant glass-encased
room. Although it wasn’t the tallest building in the district, it
still showed death-defying views of the neon city below. She headed
toward the large balcony. Outside, a brisk wind ruffled her
hair.

The
ding
of the elevator had her
turning. The assassin exited. As he strode toward her, he pulled a
sword from the scabbard on his back. Now she recognized him. One of
Master Ronin’s apprentices.

Ria looked over the railing. It was seventy
stories down to the hectic street below. She looked back at the
assassin.

He followed her onto the balcony. “You are a
traitor to the Guild.”

“The Guild betrayed us all. Didn’t you hear
about the regeneration lab? How you, how we all, were created?”

The assassin’s clean-cut face remained
unchanged. He sliced his blade through the air. “You’re also the
murderer of my master.”

Okay, she probably wasn’t going to get
through to this one. Ria wrapped her fingers around the balcony
railing.

When the assassin lifted his sword, she
jumped onto the railing and crouched like a gargoyle. When he
swiped the deadly blade at her, she leaped out into space.

The wind rushed past her as she fell. She
touched the button on the strap of her backpack. Small, aerodynamic
wings exploded from the pack. Her descent slowed, but was still
terrifyingly fast. She used the wings to guide her plunge, eyeing a
patch of concrete that would make the best landing spot.

The ground rushed up at her much faster than
she would have liked. Her feet hit and she somersaulted. The impact
jarred through her and pain burst in her shoulder. But she rolled
back onto her feet and pressed the button to retract the flight
wings.

She didn’t know if her hunter could see her,
but she tossed a jaunty salute upward and then blended into the
crowd.

After three blocks, she ducked into a side
alley. She needed to get to the space port and catch her ship out
of here. The more distance she put between her and Zayn, the safer
he and his family would be. The more distance between her and the
Guild, the safer she would be.

A movement in the shadows had her slowing.
Two dark robed figures pulled out of the darkness.

Great
. She yanked her blades from
under her skirt. These two didn’t waste time with words. The taller
one came at her holding blades of his own.

Steel met steel. Ria pivoted, ducked and
swung upward. Her blade sank through fabric and into the flesh at
his side. With a hiss, he spun, swiping out with his own knife.

Ria felt the kiss of the metal on her bare
arm. She ignored the pain, readying herself. The assassin moved in
again. She jumped upward, planted a foot in his belly and used it
to launch herself up. She brought her second blade down, straight
into the back of his neck.

He fell to his knees, a gurgle escaping his
throat. Ria leaped off him and landed in a crouch.

Before she could draw a breath, a thin,
silver garrote wire flashed in front of her.

The second assassin yanked back. Ria managed
to get two fingers between the wire and her skin, saving herself
from a quick beheading.

“I will kill you,” the woman whispered.
“Just let go. End your miserable existence.”

Ria’s existence was pretty miserable right
now. But she wasn’t giving up. The Guild had already taken her life
not once, but twice. She sure as hell wasn’t making it a third
time.

But as the female assassin yanked back
harder, one of Ria’s fingers slipped off the wire. The metal dug
into her last finger and part of her neck. Blood started a steady
flow down her skin.

She couldn’t hold the woman off much
longer.

With her free hand, Ria tried to reach back
and grab the assassin. But she was well-trained and kept out of
reach.

The blood made Ria’s fingers slippery. In
those moments, she thought again of Zayn. His lean, handsome face
and his voice as he told her he loved her.

Ria’s hand slipped. She cried out as the
wire met the flesh of her neck.

Ria waited for the pain.

But it was the assassin who cried out and
then her weight was gone.

Ria slumped forward, the wire falling to the
ground. She pressed a hand to the bleeding wound on her neck and
spun on one knee.

Before she could blink, strong hands were
hauling her upright. “Ria? Are you okay?”

Zayn’s face was the best thing she’d seen
all day. She managed a nod. She looked past him and saw Dathan and
Niklas binding the wrists of the unconscious assassin.

Zayn’s fingers brushed over her hand at her
neck. “Let me see.”

She let her hand drop and he touched her
neck with a gentle stroke.

“Isn’t bad, but you’re damned lucky. She was
about to take your head off.” He yanked Ria forward and into his
arms.

She thought about fighting him, but she
didn’t. She wanted him to hold her. She wrapped her arms around
him.

“God, if we’d been a minute later…” his
voice trailed off.

Ria rubbed her cheek against his shirt. “How
did you find me? I barely sent you the message about the
shuttle.”

He laughed. “You think we’re stupid enough
not to have a tracker on our shuttle?”

She raised her head. “I checked it, I didn’t
find anything.”

“A sweet little invisible tracker that Malin
cooked up. It’s undetectable.” He fingered her pink hair. “Not sure
this is your style.”

A part of Ria was glad he was there. But
another part of her wasn’t, because he’d just put himself, and his
brothers, in the line of fire of the Guild.

Zayn gripped her shoulders. “You’re coming
with us.”

“No.” She struggled to pull away from him.
She nodded at the assassin on the ground. “This is only the
beginning, Zayn.”

“I don’t care.”

Stubborn male. “They’ll keep coming. It’s
going to get worse. I’m catching a shuttle for the edge.” Damn, she
would have missed her ride by now. But there’d be other
transports.