Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sand gathered at Eos’ ankles. Fast.
She looked straight at Dathan. “I’d ask if you have a plan, but I can guess what you’ll say.”
He shot her a grin. “Best you don’t ask.”
Her heart jumped. That grin was quickly becoming her downfall. “How about you get us out of here? Quickly.”
He scanned the rapidly filling chamber. “Booby traps always have an off switch.”
“Really? I thought they were designed to keep people away from the treasure.”
“Sure. But greed is greed. The treasure owners need to get back to their treasure, hence a kill switch.”
“Please don’t use the word ‘kill’ right now.”
“Come, Doc. Help me find it.” He looked over at his brothers. “Need to find the kill switch.” He eyed Darc, standing with her weapon by her side. “You too.”
Eos didn’t have time to complain about the deadly hunter now being on their team. The sand was lapping at her knees.
“Everyone move to a different section of wall,” Dathan ordered. “Search for any irregularities, anything that doesn’t look right.”
Eos waded through the sand. A wall of carvings rose in front of her. The astro-archeologist in her wanted to touch the deep grooves, decipher the pictures, but survival was the better option right now.
There was a taut silence in the chamber, except for the gentle whoosh of sand. To her, it was a loud roar in her ears, worse than the sandstorm.
She imagined some other treasure hunter finding five mummified bodies here at some distant point in the future.
There was so much she hadn’t done. She spent all her time on digs, pouring over old records, living and breathing Star’s End.
She pressed her palms to the rock, her gaze sliding to Dathan.
To that strong, lean body, the tattoo twining around his arm, that too-long hair curling at his collar.
There was so much more she wanted. Stupid to only realize that now.
To know she’d thrown so much of her life away on the past and not realized how much of a future she could make with a man she loved.
And she did love him.
Completely.
By Suva. Bittersweet despair filled her, tears stinging her eyes.
Something moved under her palm.
She lifted her hand and stared. The carving was of a flag, covered in stripes and stars. One of the stars was a deep bronze metal. “I found something. A metallic star.”
The engraving on the timepiece came back to her. She fumbled in her pocket and yanked the timepiece out. Our greatest treasures rest beneath sanctuary, protected at the end of stars. Suva, the last part wasn’t a reference to Star’s End!
“Stars! Look for stars made of metal.” She pressed the star on the wall, and it moved.
“Got something.” Zayn was bent at waist level near the vault door, where the sand was now rising fast. “Looks like a carving of a constellation of some hunter guy. Metal star on his belt.”
“I’ve got another one,” Darc called out. She was on top of the sand, arm outstretched above her head. “Can’t quite reach it. Star inside a crescent moon.”
Niklas moved over and gripped her around the waist. He hefted her up, and her fingers brushed it.
“It’s metal.” Darc pressed it down.
How many more? Eos studied the chamber. “Look. Darc’s is directly across from me. Zayn’s is near the vault at ninety degrees to the others—”
“Clever girl, Doc.” Dathan slogged through the sand to the spot directly across from the vault door. “Must be here somewhere.”
He searched fast, his hands skimming over the wall. Eos scanned the pale stone, searching for something darker and metallic.
“Dammit!” Dathan shoved his hands on his hips. “Nothing.”
Eos swallowed hard. It wasn’t there. She struggled against the sand now touching her waist. “Maybe there are only three?”
Dathan gave a curt nod. “Depress the stars together. On three.” He counted them down. “Three!”
The floor trembled again. A light coat of sand dislodged from the roof.
Then more sand began to fill the room in a faster rush.
“There has to be another one!” Dathan spun back to the wall. He shot Eos a look she didn’t understand and then he dived headfirst under the sand.
“Dathan!”
She watched the sand swallow him up. Fear was an acidic drip in her chest. She chewed on her lip, waiting for him to come back up.
Time slowed. She heard his brothers talking in frantic undertones as she waited for him to resurface.
The sand kept rising, hitting the underside of her jaw. Come on, Dathan. Please don’t leave me.
A grinding noise echoed through the chamber. The sand stopped and there was silence.
He’d done it. With a smile, she let go of her star. The others did the same.
No Dathan.
Her chest tightened as she stared at the sand. Come on, Phoenix. She saw worry line Nik and Zayn’s faces. He’d been under too long.
“Dathan!” She fought to climb onto the sand and crawled over to where he’d disappeared. Nothing moved, no smiling face appeared.
She was sobbing, clawing at the sand. Then Zayn was beside her, helping her. Then Nik.
Where was he? She kept scooping away the sand.
Nera Darc knelt beside Nik and started digging.
Dathan, please don’t leave me.
Then a hand shot upward.
Eos gripped it and so did Zayn. They tugged and pulled. Dathan emerged in a rush and fell onto his back. His hair was covered in sand.
“Are you okay?” She cupped his cheeks. His eyes were closed, his face pale. But his chest was rising and falling.
“Fine.” He coughed, rubbing his eyes. “Did it work?”
“It worked, you foolish, courageous man.” She leaned down and pressed her lips to his.
“Hmmm.” He kissed her back and yanked her down. “I should save the day more often.”
“You idiot.” She thumped his chest. “You can’t die, because I’m falling in—” She snapped her mouth closed. All the feelings of thinking he’d almost died swirled inside her.
Life was too short to hold it in.
Be brave, Eos. “Because I’m falling in love with you.”
He froze, shock running over his face.
Her belly contracted. For once, she saw Dathan Phoenix speechless. At a time when she desperately wanted to hear him say something.
Suddenly, the sand beneath them shifted. She squeaked, and he gripped her.
“The sand’s retracting,” Niklas said.
They all stayed in place as the sand was slowly leaked out of the room. The energy field cutting off the way out blinked off.
Soon, Eos stood beside Dathan on the mosaic floor. He still hadn’t said anything, but at least he reached out and held her hand.
Another noise echoed through the chamber. They all turned toward the vault door.
It slowly swung open.
Holding Eos’ hand, Dathan walked into the Star’s End vault.
It was more than he’d dreamed. Paintings with large gold frames lined the wall, all kept inside pressure-controlled cases. In the main part of the vault, low metal shelves were lined with treasures—statues, jewelry, boxes. All pieces of Earth’s long-distant past.
“This is amazing.” Eos’ tone was reverent, her face dazed. She walked forward, then stopped by the first painting. “I think this is a Titian. We don’t have any surviving images of his work, but we have a description of the red-haired, voluptuous women he painted.”
Dathan eyed the nude woman who’d give the pleasure workers on Mohini a run in the curves department. “Fits.”
“Suva’s Grace.”
He followed her gaze. A small pedestal was illuminated under lights at the center of the vault. He followed her, watching the look on her face.
He smiled. He’d seen it before. When he made love to her.
I’m falling in love with you.
He couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t sure how he felt. Usually when a woman mentioned love, it was his cue to leave.
“The Mona Lisa.” She walked slowly toward the pedestal.
But as Dathan scanned the treasures in the vault, he wondered if what Eos thought she felt for him was enough to hold her to him.
Would she want to live on a graveyard moon and explore the galaxy with him?
He’d die cooped up in an apartment on Vedia, and he sure as hell wasn’t made for doing Institute work.
He shoved his hands in his back pockets.
Focus on the treasure, Phoenix. He should be calculating the dollar value of the Mona Lisa and deciding which collectors to contact.
She stepped up to the pedestal, and now he felt the same sense of awe at what was under the clear dome.
The painting fragment was contained in its own small synth-glass container three times the size of his hand. It was probably weapon proof and kept a constant temp and humidity. He looked at the painting.
Half a woman’s face. She wasn’t beautiful, but there was something about her. He could see all of her lips and her ambiguous half smile. Like she knew a secret she wasn’t letting anyone in on.
“She’s stunning.” Eos lifted the encased fragment.
He watched her face as she stroked the glass. “Stunning.”
“Well, it seems you’re one up on me again, Niklas.”
Darc’s voice had them all spinning. Eos shoved the painting behind her back. The hunter stood by the entrance to the vault, barely sparing a glance at the treasures.
Her gaze was on Nik. He stared back.
“Nowhere to go, Nera.”
“There’s always somewhere to go. If I can’t find one, I’d die trying to escape.
Captivity isn’t my style.” She glanced at Eos.
“Enjoy your spoils, Dr. Rai.” She looked at Dathan.
“For as long as Phoenix lets you. He’d sell all this in a heartbeat, of course.
Remember, trust is a stupid woman’s folly. ”
Darc lifted her wrist and touched the panel on her arm. Niklas lunged at her, but she danced back.
“I owe you one, Niklas. Watch your back.” She pressed another button and her visor snapped into place, then she disappeared.
Dathan’s jaw tightened. “Spectrum camouflage.”
“By the way—” the electronic voice seemed to come from nowhere “—I just sent out a general transmission about the discovery of the New Louvre Treasures. See you next time.”
Dathan slammed a fist against the wall. Beside him, Zayn cursed.
Eos sucked in a breath and pressed the Mona Lisa fragment to her chest. “Everyone in the quadrant would have received the transmission.”
“We’ll be inundated with the scum of the galaxy before we can lift off,” Zayn muttered.
“Plus, the Devil’s Nebula isn’t far away,” Dathan added grimly. “They might be tempted to venture out for something like this.”
Nik stepped forward. “Darc isn’t gone. No way she’d give this up. She wants us gone so she can help herself.”
Shit. “You think anyone will believe her transmission?” Dathan asked.
“Unfortunately, I think there are enough bottom feeders close by that a few of them would at least come and check it out.”
Eos looked around the chamber. “Some of this can’t be moved without destroying it.”
Niklas eased a small golden statuette into his backpack.
“Take what you can. The rest won’t be here by sundown.
” He lifted his head, scanning the room.
“And Nera, you won’t have it either.” He turned to his brothers.
“Once I realized Darc was here, I sent a text transmission. That’s why I was on my Sync earlier, Dathan.
I knew the Galactic Institute of Historical Preservation had a ship near Souk. ”
Dathan’s lips compressed. “You contacted the damn Institute?”
“I couldn’t let Darc get the treasures of the New Louvre. The Institute is a better option than the treasure being stolen, destroyed, melted down, or sold off on the black market.”
Dathan cursed. “You should have told us.”
“I wasn’t sure they’d listen to me. Fortunately, the Odyssey is commanded by an old friend who owes me a favor.”
“I don’t know whether to punch you or slap you on the back, but we’re running out of time.” Dathan snatched up some nearby gold jewelry and shoved it in his pockets. “Everyone grab what you can, then back to the Infinitas.”
“What about Darc?” Eos asked.
“Nothing we can do.” He pulled a small painting off the wall. “She won’t have much time to help herself anyway.” He raised his voice. “Institute isn’t real fond of you, Darc, so I wouldn’t hang around long if I were you.”
They carried what they could and hurried back to the ship. They set the treasure in a secret compartment nestled near the engines. Zayn snapped it shut. “If we get boarded, they won’t find it.”
But Eos refused to give up the Mona Lisa. She kept it clutched to her chest. Dathan didn’t remind her that technically it was his.
They milled around the holo-table while Zayn settled in at the cockpit controls. “Let me get BEll up and running again.” He tapped the screen.
“Ah, thank you for taking that bitch’s blocking program offline.” BEll’s voice rang through the cabin.
“You okay, BEll?” Dathan asked.
“Peachy. A little damage to my protein circuits, but nothing I can’t fix.” She sniffed. “I’d appreciate if you’d prevent bad guys from messing with me.”
Dathan rolled his eyes. “I’ll see what we can do.”
“I should also inform you that a large vessel is on direct course for this location. They’re about to enter the atmosphere.”
Damn it all to hell. “Any identification?”
“No, they’re blocking. But they are hailing.”
Dathan looked at his brothers. Zayn looked resigned, and Niklas was looking out a window.
“Put it through.”
The image of a uniformed man flickered to life in front of them. “This is Captain de la Cruz of the Odyssey. The Phoenix brothers strike again. Big this time, huh, Niklas?”
Dathan didn’t know if he was happy or disappointed that the man’s insignia was Institute.
Eos gasped and pressed her hands to the table. “Diego?”
“Eos! What are you doing with these reprobates?”
“This is her find.” Dathan did not like the way the guy was smiling at Eos.
De la Cruz’s eyebrows rose. “Well, congratulations, Dr. Rai. I’m sure you’re about to get the promotion of a lifetime.
In the meantime, we received a transmission from Dr. Phoenix to come and secure the treasure.
Sounds like we might have some inbound treasure hunters a little less upstanding than you guys.
” He pulled a face. “Hard to believe, but there you go.”
Dathan’s gaze was drawn back to the dark-haired woman beside him. She had everything she wanted now. Vindication, a pending promotion, the find of a lifetime, and galaxy-wide recognition.
And she’d fulfilled her promise to her mother.
The Mona Lisa was still clutched in her slim fingers. Was she going to keep to their bargain, and let him take the painting fragment and the treasures stashed in the Infinitas.
She looked up, her golden eyes shadowed.
Yeah, the Doc had everything. She didn’t need a rogue treasure hunter anymore.
She didn’t need him.