Chapter 12
Reyne’s Ship
Orbiting Valeria
Everything came back to Kendra in an overwhelming rush—the horrid massacre of her family, her brutal abduction and being drugged.
Kendra tugged at her shackled wrist. Hate was too mild of a word to describe how she felt about Reyne—her merciless vile captor. He had lied and manipulated her, but she also recognized that she willingly fell into his elaborate trap.
Speaking of him. He was nowhere to be found. She was alone in the cockpit of what she assumed was his ship.
Just how long had she been unconscious? Hours? Days?
With nothing better to do, Kendra peered through the window to see if you could figure where they were. A brilliant white was in orbit around a massive blue-green hued planet. She gasped. It had to be Calypsta, which meant the moon was Valeria—her despised home world.
And Talear was just on the other side.
Well, she wasn’t going down without a fight and vowed to kill her vile captor if given the chance.
She scanned the cockpit in search of a weapon—anything that might give her an advantage.
A glimmer of light flashed off the edge of a steel dagger resting on the control panel.
Unfortunately, the blade was out of reach.
Not ready to give up yet, her eyes darted around the cramped space.
The discarded syringe caught the corner of her eye. It lay just behind the pilot's chair. Stretching for it, she cursed when her fingertips grazed the floor just out of reach. She tugged at the shackle, contorted her body in uncomfortable ways that hurt, but she still couldn’t reach it.
Fuck. A frustrated oath escaped her lips before something occurred to her.
Her boot was awkward to remove but she eventually managed to tug it off.
Using it as an extension of her arm, she tried to sweep the syringe in her direction.
It took a couple attempts at tossing the boot, then pulling it back, but eventually it landed in the right location, and she corralled the syringe within her reach.
After snatching it up, she jammed her foot back into her boot.
A smile lit her face as she inspected her prize. The syringe still contained a good amount of the purple toxic substance.
Kendra felt triumphant. Bold.
She tapped the tip like she had seen Reyne do earlier and almost squealed with delight when a drop appeared. Oh Reyne, you vile henchman, you have a surprise coming. She couldn't wait to see the shock on his face when she bested him with his own drug.
A series of metallic bangs echoed through the air, as if someone had kicked metal, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps heading toward her.
She hid the syringe beneath her thigh, careful not to prick herself.
She glanced at her blunt nails and feigned a bored expression.
Out of the corner of her she watched Reyne storm into the cockpit with a fierce huff.
He leaned over the controls and started flicking switches and jamming buttons.
He appeared furious. Good. Whatever was going on, she didn’t care.
His preoccupation worked to her advantage.
One. Her grip tightened on the syringe as she waited for her perfect opportunity to attack.
“Fuck.” he muttered and scraped his palm over his cheek and down his jaw.
Two. With her thumb on the plunger, she took a deep calming breath.
He turned, so that his back faced her.
Three. She leapt to her feet and plunged the sharp tip into his right arm, squeezing the remaining dose into his muscular bicep. “Let's see how you like being drugged, henchman!”
Reyne whirled on her with the honed reflexes of a warrior and gripped her arms, yanking her towards him with such force her wrist scraped against the metal shackle. “You. Little. Fool. Do you know what you have just done?” he bellowed, his stormy gaze impaling hers.
She swallowed a rising lump, growing fearful of the rage blazing from his intense glare.
“Well? Do you?”
Pain sped up her arm as his unrelenting fingers bit into upper arm flesh. Her brain couldn’t form words, so she just stared at his clenched jaw and shook her head from side to side, letting the empty syringe fall from her loosened grip.
He shook her until her teeth rattled.
Without releasing his iron grip, Reyne glanced at the ceiling, took a deep breath, then his gaze seared hers once again.
"Let me explain to you what you have just done.
" He spoke in a deadly calm voice that belied the fierce temper that radiated from his rigid posture.
"Odin sabotaged my ship. We are out of fuel and need to make an immediate landing—an immediate crash landing. "
His face was so close, warm breath feathered her cheek. “Oh.”
“Oh?” He parroted with a sharp bark, a vein throbbing at his temple. “Are you able to pilot a ship?”
She blinked. “Um…well, no.”
“Well, neither will I. And do you want to know why?” His sharp glare felt like daggers stabbing her in the eyes. “Because I’ll be fucking unconscious. That’s why.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. Sabotage? Crash landing? Unconscious? Her free hand fled to her throat. Nausea rolled in her gut, and it had nothing to do with the lingering effects of the drug.
“Not dead, as you had obviously hoped,” he spat. “There wasn’t enough vetravine to kill you, let alone me. A man twice your size.”
“What?” The squeak that fell from her lips sounded pathetic, even to her own ears. “You said it was deadly?”
“You were never in any danger.” Reyne released with a savage thrust.
Her head snapped as she stumbled and fell into the co-pilot’s chair.
“I was bluffing. Damn you.” He let loose a string of curses, wiped a blood drop from his bicep and smashed the syringe beneath his boot with an angry stomp that scattered pieces flying in all directions.
Kendra gaped up at him in mute silence, questioning if she heard him correctly? When he told her that it was deadly, she had believed him. It never occurred to her that he was lying. Why would he? To scare her into compliance, of course.
If she hadn’t loathed him before, she certainly did now.
Reyne slid into his chair and wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. With a deep steady breath, he said, “Be glad you chose my arm, that will at least give me some extra time before the vetravine takes full effect.”
“Can’t you just take the antidote? You know, that foul tasting stuff you forced me to swallow?” She gagged just thinking about the awful bitterness that still lingered in her mouth.
Not looking in her direction, he released a deep sigh. “There isn’t more. I only had one dose. And like a complete and utter fool, I gave it to you because I didn’t enjoy seeing you unconscious.”
Before she could digest his words, the ship’s engine sputtered again, followed by a bang that had a weird hollow ring. The ship lurched forward, jarring them both. She swallowed again and gripped the armrest. “Are we landing on Valeria?”
“Valeria? How convenient would that be?” Reyne's bark of laugher was laced with sarcasm. “Odin planned well. But no. We are not landing on Valeria.”
“Can’t we just drift and wait to be rescued?” That seemed like a perfectly acceptable plan to her. Armathea would come to her rescue. She had no doubts.
“We don’t have enough fuel to escape Calypsta’s powerful orbit. A crash landing is inevitable.” A three-dimensional image of a large blue-green planet appeared on the viewer in front of him, rotating in a slow circle.
Calypsta. She stared at the image in horror. “Are you out of your mind? We can’t land there. Calypsta is toxic. Why…it’s…it’s…suicide.”
Reyne continued to plot a course and switched on the comm. center “Talear, this is beta zeda nine, requesting immediate assistance, do you copy?”
The comm rattled in response. “This is Talear command. What is the situation?”
“I have a fuel leak, and I need to make an emergency landing on Calypsta.”
“No, you can’t land…” she started to shriek, but Reyne’s arm shot out, cutting her off mid-sentence with a hand over her mouth. She grabbed his wrist with her free hand and tried to bite his palm.
“Roger, send us your projected point of impact, and we will dispatch a convoy to the planet’s surface.”
“Copy, transmitting rendezvous point now.” Reyne’s hand dropped, his eyes closed, and his chin fell forward. A second later, he was back on task.
The ship lurched again and Calypsta’s vivid green surface came fully into view, closer than she had realized. They had entered the planet’s atmosphere.
The engine’s sporadic sputtering ceased and the ship bucked.
Then nothing.
An eerie silence settled in the cockpit. Her heart pounded against her ribs. “Are we out of fuel?”
“Obviously.”
“No need to be sarcastic,” she bit-out, itching to land her palm across his cheek just to add another bruise to his handsome face.
A key landed in her lap. “Unlock yourself and come over here.”
Horrified, Kendra gaped down at key. He was a complete lunatic. What could she possibly do? She wasn’t a pilot.
“If you want to survive, I suggest you do as I say…now!”
With trembling fingers, she fumbled with the lock, freeing herself from the biting shackle. A beat later he reached for her, his fingers digging into her flesh again as he dragged her across the cockpit and onto his lap.
Kendra squirmed as the feel of hardened muscles beneath her thighs sent a jolt to her toes.
“Relax, princess. I’m just going to give you a crash course in piloting.
” He spread his thighs, pushing her securely between them.
He released the yoke latch and the steering control fell forward.
He forced her hands around it. “My ship isn’t designed for a crash landing, so you are going to have to switch from autopilot to manual.
” He pointed to a red switch. “Then pull back on the yoke before we hit the ground. Do you understand?”
Kendra didn’t, not at all, but she shakily whispered “yes” anyway.
“Good girl,” he murmured with the first hint of a slur. “I’ve plotted our landing into the navigation system. I may have only minutes before I pass…out.”
His forehead collapsed into the back of her head, thrusting her forward. Her elbow slammed into the control and a warning alarm sounded and a red light on the control panel began to flash.
The loud reverberating noise jarred Reyne awake. He quickly reached around her to stop it. “I’ve never been drugged before, this is…intoxicating…liberating…I like it.”
“Are you serious right now?” she shrieked in disbelief. They were about to die, and the vile wretch was enjoying his intoxication. Forget slapping, she was prepared to clobber him with her balled fists.
His head dropped to her shoulder this time. Dead weight.
When rising bile threatened to choke her, she blurted. “Reyne, you can’t fall asleep. Please. I need you.”
His head lifted with a deep, slurred chuckle.
Warm breath caressed her nape as he nuzzled her neck from behind.
“Do you, now?” A solid arm snaked her waist, pulling her back firmly against his chest. Deft fingers ran through her loose strands, tugging on her scalp.
He forced her head to the side, further exposing her neck.
“Mmm, I love your glorious hair…it smells like flowers and sunshine, I can’t stop wanting to bury myself in it,” he confessed with a drunken purr. “While I bury my cock deep inside you.”
Crimson crept up her neck, staining her cheeks. She clutched the steering device so tight her knuckles turned white. “Don’t say things like that.”
Moist lips lightly traced the shell of her ear. Another jolt shot to her toes. Kendra tried to squirm away, but solid muscles anchored her firmly in place.
“Stop it,” she demanded and swatted at his arm in a useless attempt to escape his unbreakable hold. “We are going to die.” When he didn’t release his iron hold, she tugged on the crisp hair dusting his forearm.
“Remember, don’t take your hands off…the…yoke,” he murmured, each word groggier than the one before. Fingers continued to slide through her strands, tugging when he encountered tangles.
“Reyne, stop. Please.” She bucked, trying to force his attention back to the dire situation at hand—the eminent crash that was about to end both their lives.
Moist lips touched her nape, his tongue gliding across the sensitive skin below her earlobe.
“Mmm, I can’t stop. Won’t stop…do you really want me to stop?
” Reyne questioned with a husky slur and continued to bombard her senses with his rogue tongue while he fisted her hair.
“Doesn’t matter. If I’m going to die…I’m going to do it… with the taste of you on my lips.”
Kendra fought to stifle a moan. She wanted to close her eyes in surrender, but she had to focus on the ship.
She had to keep them alive.
His hot mouth closed over her hypersensitive skin as he licked, sucked and nipped the flesh between her ear and collarbone, all the while murmuring incoherent words in a deep raspy voice that vibrated against her bare flesh.
She was about to succumb to his drunken seduction, when treetops came sharply into view. Fumbling, she flipped the red switch. With palms drenched with sweat, she yanked on the yoke as Reyne had instructed. A beat later his head pitched onto her shoulder again, only this time his hold went slack.
He had passed out.
Realizing she was on her own, Kendra offered several desperate prayers to any deity who might be listening.
The vessel pitched forward, scraping the treetops with a grinding screech so terrifying, she fought the urge to cover her ears. Instead, she tugged the yoke towards her with all her might.
Protruding branches tore against the hull, their resistance futile against the ship's momentum.
Finally, with a deafening sound of twisting metal, they plummeted through the canopy, sending leaves and woody debris flying in all directions.
Jarred forward, her forehead collided against the window.
More violent impacts tossed her body into every part of the cockpit, eventually throwing her to the floor as the ship drove into the ground with a frightening crack of splintering machinery and grinding metal.
For the second time in one day, Kendra’s consciousness spiraled into blackness.