Prince of Dragons (13 page)

She smiled, pleasantly distracted as she felt his hot, silky shaft stroke against her ass cheeks.

“Hmm,” she approved. “It certainly is you.”

“I want you like this,” he murmured into her hair. “The way a wild beast covers his chosen female.”

She moved sinuously, stroking him deeper in the soft furrow of her ass.

“Hah,” she snorted. “The female chooses the male and draws him to her. He cannot help but come to her.”

He groaned deep in his chest. He lifted her enough for his cock to slide under her.

“Oh, you speak truth, siren. So much smaller and yet you hold me in your thrall.”

Since he was forging his way into her wet heat, she responded only by arching her back to help him. He thrust again and again, until he was deep inside her, then moved slower, simply enjoying being one with her. She tugged on his hand, pulling his fingers down over her mons to her clitoris.

Under her tutelage, he stroked her there as he slipped in and out of her.

She moaned her approval as pleasure twined through her and that wonderful urgency began to build, as if she would do anything to keep him moving inside her.

“Slyde…” she murmured, for the sheer pleasure of saying his name.

“Yes, my love.” He thrust harder, rocking her with him.

Her eyes widened in shock at the endearment, but then he did something extremely wicked and clever with his hand as he drove even harder and she gasped as she began to come around him.

He rode her hard through her orgasm, until his great body was burning with heat over hers, and he came with a muffled roar, his hot seed jetting into her. She came again with him and this time she screamed his name.

Chapter Twenty

The two pet handlers stood in the door way of the
Orion
’s makeshift pet enclosure. The Aquarian boy was rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“You see?” said the Pangaean, pulling him into the room. “You see why I woke you? We must do something. The creatures are very restless.”

The boy looked around him, frowning. The prince’s pets were indeed restless. Many of them were pacing about in their cages and some were emitting hisses or cries. The puppy was whimpering, scrabbling at his cage. Seeing the two, he began to yip and cry.

“We had better see if we can find what is wrong,” the Pangaean said. “I will walk this way. You go that way. Better look in the food closet. Perhaps one of them has gotten in there.”

The boy yawned. “All right. But I don’t see why you can’t look in the closet.”

He paused to pet the puppy, then continued on across the room to the storage closet. Opening the door, he peered inside, then stepped in. The door closed behind him.

Peering around the row of cages, the Pangaean lifted a small device in his hand and pressed a signal into the glowing screen. Then he waited.

There was a faint hiss and a muffled scream, then a series of thumps, as if a struggle were taking place. The storage closet did not open. From the rows of cages came scuttling, hissing and scrabbling as the inmates signaled their distress and tried to hide in their bedding. The puppy yowled pitifully, then huddled in the corner of its cage, whimpering softly.

The Pangaean stayed where he was, his eyes avid with a cruel excitement, breathing quickly. Then he turned and hurried from the room.

At last, it had begun.

The Aquarian majordomo surveyed the servants assembled at the early shift breakfast, in the small room reserved for their dining hall.

“Where is young Pool?” he demanded in Galactic, so all could understand.

Everyone shook their heads. A few looked at the Pangaean.

“I haven’t seen him since last evening.” He shrugged. “We cleaned cages and fed the creatures, just like always. Is he not in his bed?”

“I’ve already looked for him there,” snapped the majordomo, frowning down his aquiline nose at the small green servant.

“Everyone, keep an eye out for him. Boys that age get into trouble. He must have wandered off last night and fallen asleep somewhere.”

The Pangaean nodded obsequiously. “Yes, sir. I certainly will.”

The other Aquarian servants eyed him with disfavor.

“Fawning jellyfish,” one of them said in Aquarian.

“Indeed,” agreed another. “We’ll all look for Pool. He’s a favorite of my princess’s.”

The others nodded.

“I’ll begin in the arboretum.”

“And I in the holo-surround theater. Pool loves holo-vid.”

“Commander! Commander!”

Slyde opened his eyes, gazing blankly at the locker room around him. Had he dreamed an intruder? Then the warm, silken woman curled against him stirred, and he woke with a start, recalling where he was and just what he had been doing before he slept.

He relaxed his arm, which had tightened around her with protective instinct, and turned his head to look into sleepy, emerald eyes. She lifted her head from his shoulder, a crease between her arching brows. His gaze slipped down to her breasts, and his cock stirred as arousal slid through him, warm and sweet.

“Commander Stone! Sirena!” This time the voice was accompanied by loud knocking.

Sirena sat up beside him, pushing back her tousled hair. She followed as he vaulted off of the bench.

“Yes, we’re here! Doors—unlock.” They flew open, revealing Raile and Tahh. Both of them were in uniform, their faces grim. Foreboding seized his gut in an icy fist. “What is it?”

“What’s happened?” demanded Sirena beside him. She wore the red shift, wrapped hastily around her. She shoved a towel wrap into his hands, and he fastened it about his hips, his eyes on Raile.

“One of the Aquarian servants,” said Raile. “The boy is…dead.”

“Dead?” The ice spread. “How?”

“It’s—horrible,” Raile said, his eyes haunted. “He’s been savaged. And I know it sounds impossible, but it seems to be some kind of serpent.”

Slyde and Sirena exchanged one swift look of horror. Their instincts had been correct—they
had
scented a dangerous serpent on board. Somehow they’d missed it in their search.

“Where?”

“In the prince’s quarters. A food storage closet off the room where all the prince’s pets are caged.”

“Who’s with the body?”

“Izard,” Raile said. “The captain’s on the way.”

“Wake up every guard,” Slyde ordered. “We need a complete lockdown.”

“No one else is to know for now,” Sirena added as they hurried out into the passageway. “If anyone outside the guard inquires, even crew, tell them it’s a drill, but that no one is allowed from one section of the ship to another. We Serpentians are going to have to find the snake, or whatever it is.”

“And fast,” Slyde added. “Before it claims another victim.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Craig and Navos stood in the short passageway between the caged creatures and the ballroom, once again swirling with activity, but this time not for pleasure. The Serpentian guards, summoned from their sleep and night pursuits, paced nervously. The decorative seraglio screens and plush conversational areas favored by the Aquarians formed an incongruous backdrop to their militant bearing.

“Look at them,” Craig murmured to his second in command. “They’re like a herd of grazers that have scented a predator.”

Navos nodded, watching the Serpentians. “I believe they have, in truth,” he replied. “They have heightened olfactory as well as auditory senses. And they aren’t grazers, but fine hunters themselves.”

“They’re going to need those abilities now,” Craig said grimly. “Who or whatever killed that boy is a predator of the worst kind. If we don’t catch it soon, we’ll have a full- scale disaster on our hands. The passengers will panic.”

“Yes. Which is perhaps exactly the intention.”

Craig stared at him. “You’ve picked up a thought pattern behind this?”

“I have. A sentient being. Until this evening, he managed to hide his malice in the normal range, perhaps ingesting some kind of palliative drug. I’ll explore that more thoroughly when I can. In any case, now he has unleashed his malice. It’s as if…he is somehow urging the creatures onward.”

“Another attempt to bring down the
Orion
,” Craig said, his jaw clenching. “By the great God beyond, when I catch whoever is behind this, I will kill them with my bare hands!”

Navos nodded grimly.

“Do you wish to make an emergency landing on Carillon? We’ll be within range in two hours. We could evacuate the ship.”

“If necessary,” Craig said. “Safety is paramount. But meantime, we’ve got to see what our guard can do.”

They watched as Sirena ran into the ballroom, belting on her weapon. She sprang lightly onto a serving table near the passageway and called the guards around her, a warrior queen rallying her troops.

Sirena surveyed the faces of her guard. As one, they were pale and grim. They could all smell the same thing she could—death slithering.

“You all know a boy is dead,” she said. “We’re charged with finding the killer. Commander Stone and I believe it’s some deadly serpent—probably from Serpentia itself. We scented something the first night and searched the prince’s pets, but found nothing. It’s now clear our mistake was not to keep searching.”

“Be prepared for the worst. Whatever this is, it’s deadly. One of the handlers is dead, one missing. We may find another body. You’ll work in pairs—no solo patrols. Each duo will carry a molecular scanner and weapons at the ready. Com-links on at all times. I don’t care if you’re relieving yourselves—stay together and do not turn off your com-links.”

“Commander,” said Gart, a young guard with a cocky half grin. “If it’s just a snake we’re after, why the fuss? I hunt big vipers with just a blade back home.”

“Because this one has thus far managed to navigate this ship without being detected,” she said. “That means it’s either invisible, which we all know is impossible, or it’s using the ventilation system. It could be in many places.”

“Isn’t the ventilation system sectioned?” asked Layla, a female guard. “The screens should keep it cordoned.”

“Very good,” said Sirena with a nod of approval. “The system is indeed screened, to prevent anything from fouling the central generators. Whatever this is, it’ll be somewhere in this quadrant of the ship. But we still have to act fast.”

“Won’t the snake want to go to ground, now that it has killed?” asked another.

“It didn’t kill to eat,” said Slyde, entering the ballroom from the passageway with Craig and Navos. His face was taut. “It didn’t try to feed on the boy. It may be simply searching for a den, as you said, but if it encounters a living being, it will kill again.”

“Especially since Commander Navos believes it was set free by someone with a purpose,” added Captain Craig. “And if it succeeds in killing a passenger, or is even seen by one, the
Orion
is doomed. Our ship can’t survive another public disaster.” He looked around at all of them. “This is our third voyage. With your help, it won’t be our last.”

“You can count on us, Captain,” said Izard. There was a chorus of assent and restless movement. Sirena watched with grim satisfaction. Her guard was ready to be on with it.

Craig nodded. “I believe we can.”

“We’ll each take a section of this quadrant,” said Slyde. He moved forward, holding a holo-projection device and using it to send up a hologram of the ship and gesturing at it as he spoke, highlighting the ballroom, then the sections of the ships around it. “We’ll fan out from this area. Yvene and Tawnee have already worked these passageways within the prince’s quarters, so we know the creature’s not in there. Izard believes from the scent that it may be moving toward the passenger quarters. You’ll report back here to central command as you search each passage, each room along the way. If you find anything, we’ll all move in immediately.”

“We have less than two hours to find this thing and destroy it,” Sirena added. “If we haven’t found it when we pass by Carillon, we’ll land there and evacuate the ship. Let’s go.”

In a moment, the teams moved out at a jog.

“I’ll go with Tahh,” Slyde told Sirena. He looked down at her. “You’ll stay here as central command?”

She nodded. Then she touched his arm. “Be careful.”

He looked down into her eyes, his hand over hers. “And you, siren. I cannot lose you now.”

Then he was gone, leaving her staring after him.

On his sleek space cruiser, Rra sat back in his seat, a smile of satisfaction on his thin, green face as he and his small crew watched the holo-vid feed from the
Orion
.

“So, it begins,” he said. “Or should I say…it continues.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “The
Orion
is besieged once again. Poor, poor LodeStar crew. This time they won’t know what is among them until it’s too late. Dead passengers and crew, bodies littering the ship, all with the marks of great fangs on them.”

Beside him, Lly smiled, her lovely face serene, although her corn-silk hair wrapped tightly about her throat.

“Yes, it will be most horrific,” she agreed. “They’ll never survive the negative publicity.”

He laughed harder. “They won’t survive at all!” he cried.

Lly and the pilot exchanged a quick look. Rra was becoming more erratic, more emotional. A tycoon himself, his shipping line could have simply entered into direct competition with LodeStar, but Rra had an irrational hatred of Logan Stark and his company. He wanted to destroy them in the most public, humiliating way possible.

Lly didn’t care about Stark or his company, but since Rra had become consumed with his vendetta, her position as his mistress had lost much of its appeal. She was afraid of him now. Caution, she could live with. Living in fear was unacceptable.

Chapter Twenty-two

Sirena turned to Layla, who waited beside the hologram. “I’ll be right back. I want to see the body.”

“Captain, I’ll go to the bridge,” said Navos.

Craig nodded. “You have command of the ship.”

Craig walked with Sirena through the back passageway. They found Dr. Tentaclar kneeling beside the body. The boy lay crumpled on the floor of the storage closet between two large containers of feed. His blue eyes stared flatly, his skin milk white against the pale red of the blood pooled on the floor beneath him. Fang marks were clear on the skin of his throat and torso as Tentaclar carefully cut away his shirt.