Death Defying (Dark Desires) (10 page)

Chapter Seven

Tannis knew he was behind her, but she didn’t turn, just stayed where she was, gazing at the blank screen.

Everyone else was sleeping, or at least she presumed they were. She’d tried to, but sleep had eluded her, and in the end she’d given up and come up to the bridge. It was Daisy’s turn on watch, but Tannis had offered to take over and she’d gone to bed.

How had Callum known she would be here? Or maybe he’d been expecting Daisy. But she didn’t believe that. She’d avoided him since their kiss. He’d been trying to get her alone, and had even come to her room last night, but she’d ignored the buzzer, and eventually he’d gone away. Afterward though, she couldn’t get the memory of his kiss from her mind. Or the rest of her body. She’d never felt this way before. Not even close. And she’d done something she’d never expected to do and touched herself.

Closing her eyes, she’d pictured Callum as he’d looked just before he kissed her, his eyes dark with desire. She’d run her hands over the swell of her small breasts. Touched the nipples lightly with her fingertips. It hadn’t been enough, and she’d slid her hand down over her belly and between her thighs and found herself wet with desire. And he wasn’t even there. She’d got up, showered, and come up here, but she felt edgy and restless.

The problem was, she still didn’t know if she wanted to take this thing between them further. She wished she could get to the bottom of why he was the one man who seemed to affect her like this. Maybe she was attracted to the power. He was so different. People usually came on board
El Cazador
because they were hiding, or in trouble. And she’d end up feeling responsible for them.

But despite finding himself on the wrong end of Rico’s and her fists, she was quite aware that Callum could look after himself. There was a reason he’d risen to be Leader of the Universe, and it wasn’t only the Meridian.

Maybe something inside her liked the idea of someone else taking control, perhaps even looking after her for a change.

After she’d escaped the research center, she’d sworn she would never put herself in anyone’s power again. So maybe she should wait until she’d had the Meridian treatment and they could meet on a more even footing. But he would be leaving, returning to his real life ruling the world. And what would she do? She’d never really thought past getting the treatment. What would it be like having other people inside her head, reading her mind? She had problems enough controlling what she said, never mind what she thought. They’d just have to accept her as she was.

Most of the Collective stuck close together. They lived on Trakis Five and found some sort of position within the government. Or they joined the Corps, the Collective’s private army. Skylar had been in the Corps, the intelligence section. Maybe Tannis could do that, though she suspected she would make a crap soldier—she hated taking orders—she was much better at giving them. Maybe she could persuade Callum to put her in charge. Or perhaps, she would just stay on
El Cazador.
Why shouldn’t she? Skylar had broken from the Collective and nothing terrible had happened. Yet.

Everything had been quiet on the bridge. Janey had all the scanners working constantly, but they showed nothing. No one had followed them from Trakis Two, so it looked as though they were in the clear. They could keep the rendezvous with this Venna woman tomorrow, and then be on their way to Trakis Seven. It could all be over in a week.

Now, she could see Callum’s reflection in the polished black screen of the monitor. Should she move? Instead, she held herself very still as he leaned in toward her.

He kissed the side of her neck, and at the soft brush of his lips, a shiver ran all the way through her. His warm breath fluttered against her ear and prickles of awareness quivered down her spine.

“So why are you scared of sex?”

The question whispered against her ear, but didn’t make any sense. Was she scared? She was hot, bothered, in danger of melting into a puddle at his feet, but scared?

“Mind your own business,” she said, but the words lacked heat.

“Oh, I think it is my business.” His voice was dark, rich, and full of promise, and then he kissed the soft place where her neck met her collarbone, and she almost swooned.

She couldn’t have moved even if she wanted to, and she wasn’t sure she did. Maybe she liked the whole someone-else-taking-control thing after all.

His hands came to rest lightly on her waist, their heat radiating through the thin material of her T-shirt. They slid up over her rib cage, settling on the swell of her breasts. He squeezed gently, as though learning the shape of them, and heat pooled low in her belly. She peered down at his big hands holding her, the skin golden against the bright scarlet of her top. His palms rubbed across her tightening peaks, the friction was delicious, and a funny, little noise left her mouth.

“How scared are you, Tannis?”

She didn’t think he expected an answer, which was just as well as she wasn’t sure she could speak. Or not make any sense. As she watched, he plucked at the nipples with his long, elegant fingers. Unable to help herself, she leaned back against the hard length of him, her bottom coming up against the rigid proof that she wasn’t the only one affected by their encounter. Without conscious thought, she pushed against him, and he growled low in his throat.

One hand left her breasts and stroked over her stomach. She held her breath as he found the gap between her T-shirt and her pants. For a moment, his hand rested on the bare skin, and then he pushed down inside the waistband. His fingers drifted through the curls at the base of her belly. Her insides melted. She could feel herself becoming hot, wet with need.

Every nerve ending yearning for his touch. Screaming for release.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

His hand stopped moving. “What was that?”

She wanted to yell at him to ignore it, but he was already withdrawing from her. Closing her eyes, she tried to get herself under some sort of control. She brought up an image of her old guard, Grady, and pictured his hands on her body. It was like liquid nitrogen over her heated skin, and her body was her own again. She stepped away.

When she was sure her voice would sound normal, she spoke. “It’s the scanners—looks like we’ve got company.”

“Shit. Bloody good timing.”

She turned slowly to find him watching her.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” She sounded terse, but she couldn’t help it.

“I just—”

He broke off as Janey appeared in the doorway. For once, she wasn’t immaculately turned out but mussed from sleep, her dark red hair loose about her shoulders. If anything, she looked more beautiful without the heavy makeup she normally wore like a mask.

One drunken night, over a flask of Rico’s whisky, Janey had told Tannis of her past. Janey had married young, using her looks to catch the perfect man, rich, powerful, handsome, and a complete bastard. She’d spent five years with him before she’d had the courage to do something about the relationship. She hadn’t said exactly what she’d done but from the smile on her face at the time, Tannis guessed it had been terminal. She’d been on the run since—apparently her husband had powerful friends and even after ten years, there was still a reward out for her. She’d said she didn’t regret it.

Now, her eyes widened slightly as she took in Tannis and Callum standing close together, and Tannis took another step away. Her brain was slowly clearing from the haze of sexual desire.

“We have company,” she said.

Janey yawned. “I know. I set the scanners to alert me if they picked anything up.” She crossed the room and sat down at her console, her fingers flicking over the controls. “They’re definitely heading this way.”

“Coincidence?” Tannis asked, without much hope.

“I doubt it. They’re locked right on us.”

“Can you get an identification?”

“Give me a minute, and we’ll have a visual.”

Tannis pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Rico?” She closed her ears for a moment while he got his moaning done with—Rico was never his best when he first woke up. “Get to the bridge and bring Skylar. We may have a problem.”

“Got it,” Janey said and Tannis moved closer to get a view of the screen. Callum came to stand beside her.

She frowned, expecting to see the Collective’s huge star cruiser, but this was someone else.

“Shit.” A smaller Mark Three cruiser filled the screen, similar to
El Cazador
, but white with a black cross on the side.

“The goddamn Church. Again. What the hell do they want?”

Actually, if she gave it any thought, it could be one of many things, but she’d been doing her best not to think too much about the Church. She’d really hoped that with the death of Hezrai Fischer, their Church-related problems had disappeared. Maybe not. They needed their resident Church expert.

She pressed her comm unit and tried to get hold of Alex, but got no reply. She reckoned they must have switched off their comm units, no doubt bloody shagging again, and she called Rico instead.

“Pick up Alex and Jon on your way; they’re not answering.” She turned back to Janey. “Have they tried to call us yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, tell me as soon as they do.”

She shoved her hands into her pockets and paced the bridge while she waited for everyone to arrive. She had a bad feeling about this and not just because she hated the Church. Which she did.

When the planets had first been colonized, a great deal of experimentation had gone into genetic modification, mainly using genetic material brought from Earth. The idea had been to make humans more suitable for the conditions on the planets, which weren’t always as hospitable as Earth. Later, the experiments had been extended just to make people stronger, faster, whatever they might gain from a particular animal or plant, or what the researchers thought they might gain.

When the Church had risen to power in the aftermath of Meridian, they had called for a purge of the GMs, labeled them abominations, and millions had been slaughtered. That was a couple of hundred years ago, and now any GMs kept out of the Church’s way. Mostly they were left alone as long as they maintained a low profile.

But some people still did the research in secret, believing it was the way forward for mankind, and the Church eradicated them wherever they were found. Tannis had always presumed her own family had been scientists killed by the Church, who then sold Tannis and her sister to the research station. But she’d only been four years old, so she couldn’t remember much of her family.

“Do you know what they want?” Callum’s quietly spoken question broke into her memories. She’d been avoiding looking at him; now she could feel heat steal across her cheeks.

Holy freaking Meridian, she was blushing. At least she presumed she was blushing; it wasn’t something she had ever done before. But she couldn’t stop remembering that only five minutes ago, the Leader of the Known Universe had had his hand down her pants. Wow. She squirmed at the memory. Her gaze dropped to those hands and her breasts tightened as she remembered how his clever fingers had touched her. She swallowed.

“Tannis?”

Her gaze flew to his face. “Sorry, what did you say?”

He grinned and his own gaze dropped to her chest where her nipples were clearly outlined under her T-shirt, and her face heated even more. Bloody hell, she’d better get herself under control before Rico got there or she’d never live it down. The nipple thing—maybe. The blush—never.

“I asked if you know what the Church want.”

She pried her mind away from sex. “Could be one of many things—Alex, Hezrai Fischer… Who knows with the Church—they’re all mad.”

“They’re calling us,” Janey said.

“Ignore them for a minute. I want the others here.”

Rico came in with Skylar beside him. Tannis crossed her arms over her chest. He gave her a quick glance but then crossed to stand beside Janey. “What have we got?” he asked.

“The Church.”

“Great. Have I mentioned—”

“Yes, you have,” Tannis butted in before he could really get going. Then wished she hadn’t as his gaze swung around. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her, before moving on to Callum and back to her.

“Are we interrupting anything?”

“Nothing that hadn’t already been interrupted. Where are Alex and Jon?”

“On their way.”

They appeared in the doorway. “What’s happening?” Alex asked with a huge yawn.

“Your old friends have come to play.”

“The Church? Why?”

“We have no clue yet. Now, we’re all here, so let’s find out shall we? Janey, put him on.”

“This is High Priest Temperance Hatcher, leader on the one true Church, seeker of the truth, loyal—”

“For Christ’s sake, just get on with it,” Tannis snapped. “Say what you want and piss off.”

There was a minute’s silence, though she could hear his heavy breathing on the other end.

“We want the bloodsucking spawn of Satan who murdered our beloved Hezrai Fischer.”

Tannis switched off the comm and turned to look at Rico, one eyebrow raised.

“Does he mean me?” he asked. “Why is it everyone seems to think I’m related to Satan?”

“I wonder,” Skylar murmured, and he grinned.

“Beloved Hezrai Fischer?” Alex said. “That’s a joke—they hated each other. I bet he had a dance on Hezrai’s grave. And we did him a favor. He would never have become High Priest while Hezrai was alive.”

Tannis switched the comm back on. “Well, you can’t have him. Anything else? Because if not, we have things to do, so good-bye.”

“We want our High Priestess returned to us. She is the bride of God.”

Alex edged a little closer to Jon, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her tight against him. The Church would have to go through Jon to get to Alex and that wasn’t going to happen. He would die first, and that wasn’t going to happen either—not on her watch.

She wondered whether they should tell them their priestess was now a werewolf. Would they still want her back? Somehow, she doubted it. Also, there was the little fact that the “Virgin Bride of the Everlasting God” was no longer a virgin—far from it.