Geared for Pleasure (15 page)

A hard female voice spoke in hushed tones. “Phina, we have to hurry and we are out of options. It’s not here. There’s
nothing
here. You still aren’t sure where he keeps his high-profile imprints. The bribe-worthy kind.”

Phina sounded defensive. “How dare you doubt me? I found the
imprints, even fondled the sweet guard who never gets to leave his post. There is nothing in them we don’t already know. He must have hidden it when he disappeared from the Siren.”

The other woman sighed. “Then we have no other choice. Freeman will bring him with us, and I can get it out of him on the move.”

It’s not here.
What Phina had been looking for when she broke into the room? They were taking him. Whoever they were, Dare could not allow them to hurt Bodhan. She tensed, alert and ready to move if they took one step closer.

Phina’s chuckle was delighted. “Fair Dare of the bright blue hair. You may have held the boss’
sword
, but I have his gun aimed at your pretty head. Do not think you can fight me. I like you, you tasted sweet, and I have no desire to use it on you, but I will. Now sit up and turn around. No need to cover up on our account. You look scrumptious.”

Dare did as the Felidae asked, though she dragged the sheet with her to cover her breasts, her back still to the intruders.

She was angry. And sick of being taken places against her will. “You’ve been a part of the abductions all along then, Seraphina? Are you the reason Cyrus was smuggled off the Siren? How many victims did you seduce for them?”

She felt the pistol against her back. “I could kill you for suggesting that.”

“Wait.” The other woman swore. “Something you forgot to mention, Phina? How could you not tell me about her? Do you think this is a
game
?”

Phina’s voice was sober, every trace of amusement and ire gone as the gun fell away from Dare’s back. “I swear I had no idea. I mean, I knew she was
something
, but her scent is confusing.” She paused. “I assume we have another passenger?”

“We do. Get her dressed, and swiftly. The gas you released into the crew’s quarters only works for a few hours. That goes for the
head knocks I gave to the outside guards. It’s nearly dawn. They could wake at any time.” Dare heard her sigh. “Freeman, get that fancy bastard to the Deviant. Leave the note on his desk and keep your masks on.”

Phina hummed. “I love a bossy woman. And see how she worries. Come now, Dare. I will forgive you if you forgive me and get dressed.”

The Deviant. That was the name of the ship she had been looking for when Lucy Thrice interrupted her search. The name of the ship she’d been planning to seek out when they’d surfaced. Had it found her instead? And was it filled with more criminals?

Despite the queen’s seal, Dare was beginning to doubt her messenger. These people were thieves who could not find an object on an enclosed submersible. Why would she believe they could help her find her queen?

Unless she had been wrong about Bodhan. Had she just had the most profoundly powerful experience of her life with the man who had taken Idony?

No.

She did not believe she was wrong. Not this time. This man was what James believed him to be, what they all believed him to be, she would stake her life on it. She picked up the jacket Phina had thrown over to her side of the bed and spoke without turning to face them. “I demand to be taken to the Deviant’s captain.”

Phina tossed her boots, just missing Dare’s thigh as they bounced off the wall. “Lucky Dare. That is the plan. Just promise you won’t give me any trouble on the way. I have grown rather fond of you, you know, despite your accusations.”

She nodded, adding a silent caveat. No trouble. Unless they hurt Bodhan.

Dare studied the two dimly lit figures in the distance. The man was the size of a mountain, with hair that glinted gold in the
breaking dawn. He had a Bodhan-sized bundle over his shoulder, making her imposing lover seem no heavier than a sack of grain.

His slow, rhythmic glide kept him even with the woman beside him. She had dark hair that fell straight to her waist, her long black coat billowing out behind her to reveal a silver shimmer. She wore a sword at her side.

Dare wished she had a weapon.

These were crewmembers of the Deviant? And how was the Felidae beside her, the one still holding Bodhan’s unusual pistol, connected to them?

Dare took in her surroundings. The Siren had surfaced off an isolated cove, a long metal gangplank extending from the submersible to the shore. She could see the lighthouse used to guide sailors that was perched on a jetty along the sharply curved shoreline that gave Two Moon Bay its name. She could hear the birds that followed the ships at sea pleading for scraps nearby, but she could see no people. She’d surmised the women and other employees of the Siren were either knocked out by the gas they’d spoken of or by the hostile woman striding ahead of them. But where were the paying clientele? The guards who were supposed to be ready for any eventuality?

“Why is he unconscious?” She glanced at Phina. “If you aren’t connected to Lennis, why would you need to do this? Is he hurt?”

“Bodhan? No, he’s just resting. Trust me, it is the only way he’d leave his ship for ours. See this?” Phina lifted the arm not holding the gun and shook her wrist, the jangling sound directing Dare’s attention to her bracelet. At first glance it seemed like an ordinary trinket. A slender copper bracelet layered with thin gold and brass cylinders creating a unique design.

“The brass holds darts coated in poison and the sweet, shiny gold ones contain a sleeping draught. Big men will either die or take to bed, depending on which trigger I press.” She folded her fingers
toward her palm, indicating what Dare had believed to be dangling clasps. She hummed playfully. “I believe I hit him with a gold dart… but in the heat of the moment you can never be sure.”

When she noticed Dare’s expression she stopped smiling. “You are no fun to tease. He will wake up in a few hours, I promise. I told you I knew Lucy Thrice, and she knows her tonics.” Dare remained silent and Phina huffed. “I refuse to accept responsibility for this. You were
not
supposed to be in his room. He put you down with the guards. One of the more foolish decisions I have seen him make. You should have woken up near sunset with the others, feeling as though you’d had a tipsy night with the girls, and then you would be free. But no, you had to have your fun without me. Any day other than this I would say good on you for seducing the boss.” She fingered the pistol’s barrel absently. “Any other day and I would have joined you both and made sure you thanked me for it. I was disappointed, to say the least, that we weren’t able to finish our performance. Speaking of that, in case you were wondering about Lennis? He is no longer a danger to anyone.”

The way she’d said that, and the satisfaction Dare could feel rolling off her, made it clear that she’d killed him. Seraphina had killed Lennis. More difficult to swallow was the knowledge that Dare wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have done the same, given the chance.

“I prefer being conscious, just the same, thank you.” Protecting Bodhan and getting closer to the Deviant. Phina, however, still hadn’t given her much to go on. “Why are you doing this? Why to him?”

Dare felt the sand turning to hard, dry dust beneath her boots as they moved further away from the sea. She could see the angled rooftops of the coastal town and recalled how excited she’d been to come here, to be on land again, but not like this. Not at gunpoint.

“Bodhan has always been good to me.” Phina shrugged, her brilliant green eyes narrowing in thought. “Let me come and go as I
please, scratch my itches while lying low. But I won’t apologize for this. My loyalty lies elsewhere. Some secrets he has to share, for all our sakes.”

Loyalty. An image of the queen laughing at something Cyrus had said flashed in her mind. They were where Dare’s loyalty should lie.

Why, then, when she was closer than ever to her goal, was Bodhan’s well-being all she could think about?

They headed farther inland, away from the town. And the bay. “I thought we were being brought to the Deviant.”

The feline smile that first made Dare shiver returned to Phina’s lips. “We are, Dare. Trust me.”

She took Dare’s arm and turned off the path into the tree line. She felt the wide, waxy leaves of palm bend and break as they brushed past. The terrain grew rougher, and with every step Dare grew more confused.

When they reached a large outcropping of rock, barren of growth, Dare noticed four new arrivals, men weighted down with large barreled rifles, swords, and other assorted weaponry standing guard. What kind of battle had they been waiting for?

“We got company? More women. I like it. Hope one of ’em cooks.” The dust-coated man with the long braids in his beard smiled when he spoke, but it did not improve his appearance.

The man beside him was nervous. Twitchy, with shifty eyes and a piercing voice that hit Dare’s ears like bullets in the early morning air. “I thought the plan was to steal
things
, not people. I was against it. You know that, right? Against poking at the Siren in the first place. Bodhan is near scary as you, Captain. What if his men come after us? You know they will. You don’t think they’ll find us? You’d have to be pretty thick to believe tha—”

Dare jumped when the woman he had been walking toward whirled in the dirt to face her. Without a word she reached out to
pull Bodhan’s pistol from Phina’s already outstretched hand and spun back around in one graceful, elegant action.

In an instant the two men who’d spoken were dead on the ground, their insides revealed by gaping holes in their chests, as Dare attempted to process what she had witnessed.

She had never seen a theorrite pistol before. No other explanation existed for the focused emerald light that had blazed from the steel barrel like a bolt of green fire.

Of course it would belong to Bodhan. Was he hoarding a cache of the material? It should be no surprise to her after her trip in the Siren. Most of the critical systems in the submersible, from what she had observed, contained more than gears, cogs, and hydraulic power.

But the weapon itself was not the issue. The unexpected use of deadly force was. The remaining men had lowered their weapons, their faces pale with fear and respect.

The woman handed the gun back to Phina without turning, her attention focused on the perfect, seared circles the pistol had created.

“Clean and to the point. I like it. However, I still prefer my sword,” she said, seemingly unaffected by the bodies. “Does anyone else feel compelled to comment on my judgment and irritate me in general, or do you remember your terms of service?”

The men lowered their heads in acknowledgment, and Phina caressed Dare’s arm, whispering with a tone of admiration in her voice. “New crew never last long on her ship. One of the men still standing has been with her for years, loyal to the Deviant. The fate of the other is still any man’s guess. He looks a little green around the edges. Freeman and Gebby, though. She trusts them… as much as she trusts any man.”

Her ship.
This
was the captain of the Deviant? The woman who, though at the moment appeared to be without her ship and two of
her crew, held Dare’s and Bodhan’s life in her hands. And hopefully information on the true queen’s whereabouts.

From the edge of the flames into the fire, Dare mused, thinking of the infernal bit of flying clockwork that had started her on this journey. To date, she had been kidnapped, seduced, and then kidnapped again. The Wode guard had no clue of the current danger lurking in Centre City, and Dare was consorting with increasingly dangerous criminals. She had no weapons, no assistance, and no idea what would happen next. There had to be a way for her to gain the upper hand in this.

“I can feel you eyeing the pistol in Phina’s hand, Blue, but there is no need. Believe it or not, we are on the same side.” The captain turned and Dare got her first full view of the impressive beauty.

When she held out her hands, her jacket lapels opened to reveal a black choker made of velvet and a blooming ivory flower pendant resting against the base of her throat. She wore a man’s dark vest with matching pants and boots, as well as weapon holsters on her hips and thigh.

It struck Dare that she dressed as though she meant to be a shadow to be overlooked or a patch of weather to steer clear of. Her uniquely jeweled and shimmering sword, the flower that was her nod to femininity, and her flawless, heart-stopping face, however, made her stand out like sunlight through the storm.

Phina was exotic in a sensual, fiery way. Bodhan and Idony were singularly exceptional. This captain? She was art. From her thickly lashed hazel eyes framed by perfectly arched brows, to her shimmering, lush lips and stubborn chin. All the more frightening considering the offenses she had committed only moments before. An angel of death without mercy or remorse. And she had none—Dare could sense no traces of regret in her.

“I have seen no proof of our similarities,” she said, indicating the bodies with a wave of her hand. “Quite the contrary, in fact.”

The woman’s expression acknowledged Dare’s words. “And yet I received word to expect a certain blue-haired someone with a birthmark I could not mistake, from a messenger whose seal I honor.” She raised one of those perfectly arched eyebrows, acknowledging the spark of surprise Dare felt pass through her. “I assume you know of what I speak.”

Birthmark? Who
was
this messenger and how did he know about her birthmark? “Yes, I—” Dare’s words caught in her throat as Bodhan moaned, shifting on the larger man’s shoulder. Her heart leapt into her throat. Was he in pain? She had to get him back to the safety of his Siren. “We were supposed to meet, and here we are. That man is no part of this. Release him.”

The captain’s expression hardened. “Do not think to question my decisions or command me. It is no matter to me who or what you are. For the time being that man is my prisoner; he has something I need and he will not be released until I have it in my possession.”