Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Nik! Nik!” Mal pressed her palm to her cousin’s face and slapped gently.
“His respiration and heart rate are steady.” Xander’s voice was all calm and reason. “He’s fine, Malin, just unconscious.”
She didn’t feel calm. At all. Ever since she’d found Nik slumped in an armchair completely out of it, fear was a wild animal eating at her insides.
Justyn appeared behind them. “I take it our missing treasure hunter is to blame?”
“I’m guessing yes.” Mal shook her head. “Not the first time Darc’s tackled Dathan, Zayn, and Nik. And she appears to have a particular hard-on for Nik.” Malin was truly afraid for her cousin. All the stories about Nera Darc were…really, really scary.
Niklas’ blue eyes opened. He sat upright. “Fuck!” He looked around the club, eyes searching. “Fuck, she got away.”
Nik didn’t swear much. Not unless he was really, really pissed. “Well, your vocab seems to have temporarily devolved, but otherwise you seem fine.” Mal studied him, then her eyes zeroed in on his neck. “Is that a bite mark?”
His hand flew to his neck. He ignored Mal’s question. “Did you see where she went?”
“No, she was gone when we found you,” Xander answered. “I take it you didn’t get the invite.”
Nik shook his head. “I’m sorry, Xander.”
Mal watched Xander’s face. She knew no one could read him like her.
He was on the edge. His jaw was clenched so tight she was worried it would shatter. If he couldn’t save his planet… Mal was really worried about him.
“Where does that leave us?” Justyn sank into the chair beside Nik.
“We’ll have to find another way to locate Technis.” Mal tried to put as much determination into her tone as she could.
Justyn frowned. “I don’t know of anyone else on Galaxy’s Edge who received an invite.”
“We’ll sneak in, then,” she said.
“Tough to do. Forge’s security is legendary. Has to be when your planet wanders the galaxy, encountering who knows what.”
They all lapsed into silence.
Xander’s next words were low and dangerous. “I will hunt down Nera Darc and get the invite. If she won’t give it to me, I’ll kill her.”
“Xander!” Mal’s heart stuttered. She’d never seem him so icy.
“Wait a second—” Nik started.
Xander gave a vicious shake of his head. “Enough playing. My people are running out of time. I will get the invite. Whatever I have to do.”
Mal closed her eyes for a second. In her heart, she knew Xander was an honorable man. His duty was vital to him but if he crossed this line… She knew he’d killed, but outright murder wasn’t him.
“Let’s get out of here.” Nik started to rise, then he paused and patted the pocket of his black trousers.
He sank back into the chair and from his pocket he withdrew a beaten square of metal.
With a frown, he studied it, then his face cleared of every emotion.
His eyes closed for a second, then he handed the metal out to Xander. “I think this is for you.”
Xander stared at the square, his gaze shooting to Nik’s. Justyn and Mal both leaned over. She couldn’t make anything out of the strange strokes engraved on the metal.
“Well, fuck me,” Justyn said, a small smile on his lips. “What the hell did you do to her, Phoenix?”
Nik shook his head. “Nothing.”
“What is it?” Mal snapped.
Xander looked down at her. “It’s the invite to Forge’s ball.”
Mal looked at Nik. “She just gave it to you?”
“It appears so.”
“I don’t like this. Dath and Z won’t either.”
Nik fingered the side of his neck. “Well, it just shows that Nera Darc continues to be as unpredictable as ever.”
Xander gripped Malin’s arm. “We have the invite. Now, we need to get to Technis.”
Nik nodded. “We need to take on some supplies for the trip.”
“And you’ll need the coordinates for the portal for the Via Maris Bridge,” Justyn said. “I can help with that.”
“Well, looks like we’re going to a ball.” She let her gaze travel down Xander’s long form. “I need a ball gown, and you need a tuxedo.”
Xander watched as the Infinitas pushed back from Galaxy’s Edge and Zayn maneuvered the ship away from the station.
Finally, they were heading to Technis.
Finally, he was going to get the Antikythera back.
He listened as Zayn finished communication with Galaxy’s Edge Docking Control. Behind them, he heard Malin and Dathan talking at the holo-table, discussing and studying what they could find about Forge and his base on Technis.
He wanted this over with. The mechanism back in his hands.
He wanted his control back. He’d been ready to murder a woman—maybe she wasn’t an innocent woman, but she’d never done anything to him. His hands curled, his knuckles tight.
If this is what emotion did to him, he wasn’t sure he wanted it. He looked over at Malin. She was smiling at Dathan, and it lit up her sweet face. She had hot, potent emotion bursting through all of Xander’s emotion filters like they were paper.
But without emotion, he couldn’t have Malin. And that seemed just as untenable.
Needing something else to focus on, he glanced at the brooding Niklas beside him. The man sat touching the bite mark on his neck.
Since they’d returned to the ship, Niklas had refused to talk about what had happened with Darc. Xander didn’t care, they had the invite, but he knew it worried Malin, so that in turn worried him. He wanted her happy.
“How long until we reach the bridge portal?” Xander asked.
Zayn was tapping the control screen, his gaze flicking between the screen and the windows out front. Ahead, a huge starfreighter was moving past them, heading into dock at the station. “Not long. Couple of hours.” He glanced at Xander. “Ever taken a bridge before?”
Xander shook his head.
“It’s a pretty cool experience. Downsides are once you’re in, there’s no coming out until you reach the other end. Once you’re committed, you’re committed.”
“And it’ll take us four days to reach the end instead of two months.”
“Right.” Zayn touched a button. “BEll, let everyone know we’re about to hit interstellar speed.”
“You got it, Zayn,” the computer answered. Then her voice came over the loud speaker. “Sixty seconds to interstellar speed. Please strap in for transition.”
Seconds later, Malin and Dathan slipped into the chairs behind the pilot’s seat. “Hey.” Malin shot Xander a smile.
“Malin.” He wanted to touch her.
Her gaze moved to Niklas and her face turned troubled. “You okay, Nik?”
“You’ve asked me that ten times.”
“Actually, she’s asked you twelve times,” Xander said.
“And you haven’t given me an answer once.” She sniffed. “You keep answering with some prevarication.”
Nik let out a deep sigh. “I’m not. But I will be.”
“Interstellar speed now,” Zayn said.
In the windows, the pinprick stars turned into a stream.
Dathan crossed one leg, resting his ankle on his knee. “Best you steer well clear of Darc from now on, big bro.”
Nik made a sound, which Xander guessed could be agreement or not.
He also suspected it was another prevarication.
Xander hadn’t mentioned to anyone that he’d detected elevated levels of testosterone and vasopressin in the oldest Phoenix brother back in the club, both indicative of sexual arousal.
Whether he wanted to be or not, Niklas was extremely attracted to Nera Darc.
“How well do you know Darc?” Xander asked.
It was Dathan who answered. “She appeared on the treasure hunting scene about seven years ago. Out of nowhere. At first, we didn’t pay her much attention. Wanna-be treasure hunters come and go.”
“But she didn’t go.”
“Nope. To my ever-living regret.” Dathan shot a quick glance at his brother. “Then she started targeting our hunts. Not every one, just the really valuable ones. And started taking an unhealthy interest in all things Phoenix.”
Niklas stayed quiet.
“Centax Security has records on her,” Xander said.
Nik’s head shot up. “What?”
“She’s brushed up against us a few times, and stolen some artifacts from a neighboring allied planet. We took an interest.”
Nik’s jaw worked and finally he said, “What do you know about her?”
“Not much,” Xander admitted. “I suspect she created the identity of Nera Darc.”
Nik’s shoulders slumped.
“And I don’t blame her.”
Malin leaned forward, brow creased. “What do you mean?”
“The only thing we could find was a minor reference linking her to two planets.”
“What planets?” Nik asked.
“Novalia and Klavinoi.”
“No,” Malin breathed.
“Never heard of them,” Dathan said.
“Novalia is a military world. Children are bred and raised to be soldiers,” Xander told them.
Dathan tapped his fingers against his knee. “Darc is deadly and well-trained, but I can’t see her following orders.”
“And Klavinoi is—”
Niklas leaped to his feet, his body singing with tension. “It’s a fucking slaver world in the Byzantium quadrant.” He slammed a fist into the back of his chair, then stalked off.
“What am I missing?” Dathan asked quietly, staring at the doorway where his brother had disappeared.
Xander sighed. “The ruling aristocracy of Klavinoi buy slaves for everything. Household work, farming, industry.”
“Okay.” Dathan watched him intently.
Malin shifted in her seat. “I’ve heard of Klavinoi. Dad had the opportunity to visit the salvage yard there. He turned it down. They collect the most beautiful girls in the galaxy and…train them in all the sensual arts. They’re renowned for their sex slaves.”
Zayn turned around. “Shit. Black heart aside, they don’t come more beautiful than Darc.”
Dathan rubbed a hand over his face. “Well, I can’t see Darc as a slave either.”
“We could find no definitive record that she was ever on either planet. But without knowing what her real name is…” Nera Darc would remain a mystery.
Conversation moved onto other topics. Niklas never returned to the cockpit.
Then BEll’s voice interrupted. “The bridge portal is coming into view.”
They all leaned forward. Xander was the first to see it. A small smudge of silver light straight ahead.
It looked like a funnel made of shimmering silver. Similar to a huma-field, but wilder, more energetic. The large mouth of the portal was a huge circle and the tail of it seemed to disappear into nothing.
“Markers are embedded at the mouth of the portal.” Zayn didn’t look up from the controls as he slowed the ship and lined them up with the entrance.
“The portal is a natural formation, but the tech holds the portal open and steady for ships to transit through.” He tapped the screen again.
“I enter the gate codes, then it locks us on the right trajectory for a smooth entry.”
“Can you enter without the codes?” Malin asked.
“Yep.” He shot a grin back over his shoulder. “A few crazy buddies in the Strike Wing tried it. They said it was a hell of a rough ride. Puked all over their cockpit. Not to mention you risk smashing into the side of the portal, which wouldn’t be a pretty way to go.”
“Eww,” Malin said.
“Yeah, eww.” Zayn’s grin widened. “Worse still, you enter the bridge on the wrong course, and you could get spat out in the middle of nowhere.”
“Not good,” she agreed.
“Nope. Okay, one downside of bridge travel is that communications are delayed. We won’t have instantaneous contact.
We’ll be able to send static messages, but they’ll have to travel to the portal and the portal markers will transmit them.
So, if anyone needs to contact their wives, do it now.
” Another grin, this one a little soppy. “I’m calling my sweet assassin.”
Dathan stood. “I wouldn’t let her hear you calling her that. I’ll call Eos.” He pulled a face. “And no doubt spend most of the call talking with the pink-haired horror.”
The affection Xander detected in the man’s voice told him that Dathan wasn’t too upset about spending time talking with Lala.
“No one to call?” Xander asked Malin.
“No.” Her sigh was almost silent.
“You wished you did.”
“All girls want to fall in love, Xander. I know you don’t believe in love, but I want to have someone who cares for me.
” Her gaze turned inward. “My mother died when I was four. I only remember her a little, but what memories I do have are her and my father kissing in the kitchen. They were always smiling and holding hands.” Now, her face turned sad.
“After she died, that’s when Dad starting traveling the galaxy collecting salvage.
It was like he just couldn’t sit still, the memory of her was too strong.
He never had a romantic relationship with anyone ever again. He loved her that much.”
Xander watched Malin’s expressive face and knew that even if he did believe in love, a love like that was not possible for him. His duty to Centax was his reason for being. Not another person. He felt that sharp pain in his chest again.
Malin turned to him, purple eyes luminous.
“I want to be the center of someone’s universe.
To know if I’m in trouble or hurting, they’ll come for me.
To know that nothing else is more important to them.
” Her shoulders slumped. “A nice little daydream, but I’m thinking I might be reaching for the impossible. ”
He hated seeing her like this. “Malin—”
Zayn strode back in. “Coming up on the bridge portal now. Strap yourselves in. This should be smooth, but you never know.”
As Malin turned away, Xander swallowed a curse and sat. Everyone strapped in and watched the shimmer of silver fill all the ship’s windows.
“Here we go,” Zayn said.
The console was beeping. Zayn adjusted the controls with practiced ease, and smooth as silk, the Infinitas slipped into the bridge portal.
Star-studded space disappeared, replaced with a stream of silver outside the windows. Xander stared at it. It was like flying through a cloud.
It also seemed to dampen noise on the ship, leaving a muted, hushed quality.
“Welcome to the Via Maris Bridge.” Zayn unbuckled and stood. “Now, everyone kick back and relax. We have nothing to do for four days but wait, prepare, and maybe play a few games of Crossfire.”
Xander felt a need to scowl. Waiting was not his strongest skill. He wanted the Antikythera in his hands.