Shades of Dark (47 page)

And my rifle, my gun belt, and the
Kyi
-killer were out of reach, lying in a torn and tangled heap fifteen feet or so on my right.

A groan sounded on my left. I forced my head in that direction. Philip, sprawled on the floor near the base of a wheeled loader, his right leg twisted at an impossible angle, just like our attackers in the stairwell on Narfial. My breath caught in my throat. I’d slammed into a crate. He’d been tossed against a heavy-loader. The shattered leg was probably the least of his injuries. But his chest moved. Del hadn’t snapped his neck. He was alive.

I had to find some way to get him, but…Sully. Where was Sully?

I turned slowly back to Del, seeing what I’d missed with my blurred eyes the first time. Sully, facedown, about twenty feet from Del’s left. Blood pooled around his slack mouth. His eyes were closed. No lightning raced across his skin, no silver haze edged his coat.

God, no.

Bitter rage rose in me, fear right behind it. I clamped down the fear, but the rage fed me and I let it. I didn’t care. Del wanted a symphony. I’d give him the biggest fucking orchestra he’d ever heard.

“What would you do, Chasidah Bergren Guthrie Sullivan,” Del asked me softly as I turned back to him, “to keep them both alive?”

His taunt from that day on the
Karn
’s bridge. Only now there was another life at stake.

“Same answer as last time. I’d kill you.”

“Ah, the passion returns.”

“You agreed to a truce. A pact.”

“Yes. Gabriel lives. I’ll even grant you Philip. In return, I get my freedom, a ship, and the required offering of a student to his
guri
.”

I suddenly knew what that was. The article on
Kyi-Ragkirils
from West Baris University had detailed how a forty-first-century Ayirr Dynasty
guri
had demanded the transfer of a
ky’sara
to him as a gesture of submission from his students.

“You’re Serian, not Ayirr,” I spat out.

“And this is far from the forty-first century, but old traditions die hard. Shall we go?”

The silver haze lessened around me. I leaned slightly forward on my knees, as if the sudden change disoriented me. I felt for the knife in my boot. Still there. In my pocket was the small hand laser I’d taken earlier from the lab ship’s security officer. And I had my Grizni.

It might be hours. It might be weeks. It could be years. But I would kill him.

I raised my face, the pain on it very real. “You just tossed me halfway across a cargo bay. Pardon me for not getting up and dancing at your command.”

“My apologies. I do prefer pleasure to pain. But the latter has proven to be instructive at times. And the healing is so delightful.” He stepped closer, the
Kyi
’s pressure reducing in intensity again. He held out his hand but no energy erupted from it. He was offering to help me to my feet.

“And yes, of course I know you have the Grizni and are fantasizing about stabbing me, but I won’t let you right now. I promise after a few weeks, you won’t want to. There are other, equally as exciting ways to transfer energy.”

I ignored his hand and shoved myself to my feet. Silver energy traveled with me. “Let’s say I agree to go with you. How do I know you won’t leave them here to die?”

He looked at me as if my question was beyond inane. “You understand so little. Because it’s not my intention to kill Gabriel. This,” and power surged over his clenched fist, “is what we are. How we grow and learn. Gabriel will heal and be the better
Kyi
for what’s happened here. At some point, he may even challenge me and get you back. Probably in the next few months. And I look forward to it. He is extraordinary. I’m honored to call him my student, my friend.”

His friend? Dear God, it was all a game to him. Like lovers playing with loaded weapons on their wedding night.

“They need medical help,” I said. “Now.”

He shrugged. “You can contact Ganton and Captain Bralford once we clear dock.”

“Not good enough.”

Del’s mouth curved. “Stars, but you are a delight. I could take you this minute, completely. You’d be powerless to stop me.” He flicked his fingers. Silver haze raced over my body and for a moment I couldn’t move. Then it faded again.

“Like Brigitta Halemon?” I asked, hooking my thumbs into my pockets. A casual move I hoped he didn’t notice. “But that didn’t satisfy you, did it? Or we’d not even be having this conversation.”

“Point conceded, angel. So tell me what will please you. With what promise can I entice you onto my ship and into my bed?”

“Contact the
Karn
and the
Nowicki
now. Keep Philip and Sully alive until they arrive. When they’re twenty out from dock, I’ll leave with you.”

“You sound as if I know exactly where those ships are.”

“I think you do.”

His smile broadened.

“Just as I think—no, I
know
—you’ve controlled Nayla Dalby.”

That warranted a raised eyebrow. “I hadn’t realized I was so transparent.”

He wasn’t. It was just that pieces fell into place as I watched his fascination with female captains, or women in position of command. Women who could challenge him. I’d recognized that other female presence in his mind earlier. Not a captain but a commander. Dalby. At the helm of Del’s “sweet little ship” that he’d bought from an Elarwin. The same Interceptor that had challenged us before Narfial.

I also remembered his comment about Dalby when Philip brought up her theft of Fleet’s codes. He knew how to deal with her, he’d said. But the first time he said it, it was mind-speak. And I’d felt that frisson of excitement from him, that sexual hunger that needed sating.

But Dalby brought the Serian prince something more: information on what the Farosians were doing. For a Serian wanting to rule Baris again, controlling the Farosians was almost a requirement.

It also told me how he’d known so much about Sully and me when we arrived on Narfial, yet he’d been surprised to learn Sully was a
Ragkiril
. Gregor, who fed information to the Farosians, hadn’t known.

“You’re predictable, Regarth. Predictable men make the worst lovers, but I’ll deal with that
and
you to get what I want. Philip and Sully, alive and safe.”

He brought one hand to his chest. The other was still out, still wrapping me in a light but unbreakable stream of energy. “Your words wound me.”

“The best way to a man’s heart,” I told him, “is one clean shot from a Stinger—”

“—at point blank, set to kill.” Sully’s voice rasped hard to my right.

I wrenched around in my small silver-edge space. Sully was propped up on his elbows, blood coating half his face. The other half blazed hot with lightning. He clutched the
Kyi
-killer with both hands, his mouth drawn back in a grimace. Not just from the pain of his injuries, but from what he held in his hands.

“It’s time to end this,” he said harshly.

“You can’t—” Del opened his right hand but stopped, frozen, his fingers still curled. Surprise flickered across his features. He stared at Sully. Sully’s long coat, the containment field, was gone.

“I can,” Sully said, energy spiraling around him, licking up into the air like hungry flames, giving him what he needed to hold Del in stasis. “Not for long, but long enough for Chasidah to get out of here. Release her.”

“You will tire. Time is on my side then, Gabriel.”

“It’s not.” Sully touched the laser-sights. The red dot blossomed at Del’s throat, jerked down to his chest, then up again as Sully’s hands trembled. “Unlike Chasidah, I have no problems with killing you right now.”

“Do it and you’ll kill yourself. That’s not how the game is played.”

Del didn’t understand. Sully wasn’t playing a game here. “Sully, don’t!”

He ignored me. “As I said, it’s time to end this.”

“Don’t be idiotic. Then neither of us win. I thought you loved her.”

“I do, beyond all measure.” Sully’s voice was strained. “And I have nothing to offer her but pain. A life with an unholy demon who can barely control his hunger. Who is so desperate for power, he allies with one who’s even worse. You may be the devil incarnate, a true prince of hell, but you’ve made me your brother. The Empire will fare much better will both of us dead.”

My throat tightened. “Damn you, Sully, no!”

“I’m already damned, angel-mine. And it’s time.”

No. There were options. My fingers found the small hand laser. I didn’t know if it would pass through the energy field Del had around me, but I had to try. He was focused on Sully. I could—

Don’t interfere!
Del’s voice came hard and abrupt in my mind. The field around me flared, pushing air out of my lungs. The laser fell through my fingers.

And a blast of energy streaked by me. Del’s body arched backward from the impact. His knees buckled, his legs crumpling as a red lattice writhed across the startled expression on his face then down his shoulders, clawing its way around the small charred hole in his chest.

The silver haze around me vanished. I was running, screaming Sully’s name. I dropped to my knees next to him. He was on his back, gasping, the crazed red lines racing frenetically over his skin. One hand still clutched the pistol. I yanked it from his fingers, shoved it down by my feet. I took his face in my hands. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Sully, hang on.” I sobbed out the words as he stared at me with a curious detachment. “A med-kit. Burke’s ship. Five minutes. Then I can get you to sick bay.”

“I am so sorry.” His voice was a whisper. His breath, shallow. “All I’ve done is hurt you.”

“No, you haven’t!” His skin was clammy under my fingers. “You’re a strong
Kyi
. You can heal. Take my energy. Do it!”

“I can’t, angel-mine,” he said so softly that I had to lower my head to hear his words. My tears fell, dotting his face. “We’re…not linked…anymore. You’re free, love.”

“Sully, no. Please.” I brushed his face with kisses, my mouth touching the red writhing lines, the fading jagged streaks of silver.

His breath stuttered, his eyelids fluttering.

He was dying.

“Sully, please, try!” I was sobbing uncontrollably, my heart tearing into a thousand pieces. I felt helpless, stupid, worthless, and so damned alone. What good was the pride of the Sixth Fleet now? The man I loved was dying. Because of me. “Breathe, damn you! You did it for Ren, you did it for Philip. Do it for yourself. Do it for me!”

His eyes opened slightly. The fathomless obsidian, the infinite shades of dark faded to a dull silver. It took me a moment to understand. He was blind, his body failing as he slipped away from me. His breathing was labored. I folded my hand around his, bringing it to his chest. “Fight! Stay with me!” I squeezed his fingers.

His mouth moved. There were no sounds.

“Sully! Try!”

“Chasidah.” A barely audible, raspy voice. But it wasn’t Sully’s.

I looked through the blur of tears to where Del lay a few feet behind me. His eyes were clouded like Sully’s. Slowly he turned one hand palm up toward me.

“Go to hell, Regarth,” I sobbed out, my voice breaking.

“Rash’mh han enqerma,”
he whispered. “I wronged my brother. I offer my life, for his.” He unfolded his fingers and a small glowing ball flared. “Take it.”

Take it? “I…I can’t. I don’t know—”

“Touch me. Touch. Him. The
Kyi
knows…the rest.”

I had no time to decide how or why. I grabbed Del’s hand, trapping the glowing ball between our palms as I brought Sully’s arm over his head, his hand firmly in mine.

“Rash’mh han enqerma,”
Prince Regarth Serian Cordell Delkavra whispered again. “I shall walk as a Serian prince…among Serian kings.”

Heat blazed through me, up one arm, through my heart, down the other. Heat. Life. Power.

Breathe, Chasidah,
Del told me, his words barely audible.

I sucked in air, hiccuped out sobs. All my emotional duro-hards burst open—grief, rage, and fear pouring out.

Suddenly, Del’s fingers went slack, sliding through mine. His lifeless hand fell softly against the floor. His skin was flat, ashen. There was nothing left. It was up to me now.

I grasped Sully’s hand in both of mine. With every heated pulse I pushed, I breathed, I opened my heart, my soul.

Philip had to say my name three times before I heard him. He dragged himself over to me, one leg badly shattered but the rest of him in bearable pain. Or so he assured me. It could have been worse. Del could have also broken his neck, crushed his body completely.

I took one of my hands from Sully and reached for him.

“Sully breathed for you.” I stuttered the words out. “Now I’m breathing for him.”

“I know. I heard.” He pulled himself next to me, pain furrowing his features. He rested his other hand on Sully’s chest just as Sully had once done for him. “Will this help?”

I nodded through tears once again flowing heavily.

The cargo bay grew cold. An overhead flickered off, on, then finally off. Minutes passed. Hours, days, for all I knew. I had no concept of time. Philip and I leaned against each other for warmth, Sully’s fingers curled into mine, Philip’s hand on his chest. We breathed, we prayed, and we breathed again.

I refused to let go. I refused to let Sully die.

All that I am is yours. Stay with me,
ky’sal-
mine. Stay with me. And breathe, damn you. Breathe!

“Captain Bergren!”

I jolted awake. My head was on Philip’s shoulder but I still held Sully’s fingers.

Philip inched around, his hand firmly on Sully’s chest. “Jodey!” His voice was thin, pain-filled, and tired. “About goddamned time.”

Jodey Bralford and Marsh Ganton were running toward us. Just behind them were Ren and Verno. And three, no, five. No…I couldn’t count, but they were
Nowicki
crew and officers. And some from the
Loviti
.

They tried to pull me away from Sully as they gently placed him on a hovering stretcher. “You don’t understand. I can’t let him—”