Phantom of the Wind (14 page)

“So once you’re back on the
Borstal,
you’ll rescue the crown prince—your brother—and transport him over to the
Lhong Shee
and you’re off to where? Aduaidh Prime?”

“Even though the war is over and the treaties have been signed, Cengus is still under Coalition control. Until Aleyn is safe, the king doesn’t dare try to make them leave Cengus. The Coalition wants to keep a base in the Idimmu Galaxy and as long as they have possession of the crown prince, they can get away with it.”

“But if they have no leverage, they’ll be forced to leave Cengus,” Kendall observed. She looked at him. “But there’s still the matter of a warrant out for your arrest. You will still be an outlaw. Nothing changes that, Quinn.”

“The Burgon has plans for me,” the Phantom said. “For making me do what had to be done that day at the cottage, he will ensure my safety and yours.”

“My safety?” she questioned. “What are you talking about?”

“When I have Aleyn safely under my protection, the Burgon has agreed to allow me to retire from service. He’ll send the two of us—”

“The three of us,” Munchkin corrected.

Quinn smiled. “The three of us somewhere where we won’t have to worry about Coalition bounty hunters.”

“And where in this megaverse would that be?” Kendall snapped.

“On Theristes,” he replied. “With the Reapers.”

Before Kendall could comment, there was a heavy knock at her door. She jumped, her head swiveling toward Quinn, but he was already fading from sight. Her heart pounding, she got up and hurried to the door, opening it just as Captain Breen was getting ready to knock again.

“Your Vid-Com is down,” he accused. “Didn’t you turn it back on after the Amazeen’s visit?” he asked, plowing past her.

“Aye, but I turned it off again for personal reasons. Sorry,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“Turn on the Vid-Com and you’ll find out!” her captain snarled.

Although Kendall couldn’t see him, she knew Quinn was still in the room. She could sense him and Munchkin was staring at what appeared to be a blank wall.

Walking over to the Vid-Com controls, Kendall turned the unit back on and as soon as the screen came up, she gasped, her eyes going wide.

“It’s a Class 9 StarDestroyer from Riezell,” the captain grated. “It’s here to pick up your patient.”

Chapter Five

2227 CMT

The warship was massive with quad banks of plasma cannons that looked like the maws of ferocious prehistoric dinosaurs. With a wingspan that took up the entire viewing screen of the Vid-Com, the steel gray ship was sitting there giving all who saw it chills. Running lights arched across the elevated bridge, and beneath the belly of the gargantuan vessel were two Delta Division SubCruisers that had accompanied it as escorts.

“Morrison himself is on the
Raptor
. I had no choice but to invite him to be our guest but thank the gods he declined. He demanded we turn Quinn over to him immediately but I explained the man was still critical.”

Kendall slowly turned her head toward her captain. “You did what?”

Breen raised his head. “I was a friend of Rory Quinn’s before I was a warrior of the Coalition. Quinn may be a son of a bitch but he doesn’t deserve what the Riezell Conclave has planned for him. To even consider allowing Morrison to take him makes my blood boil. How the hell he ever managed to get himself caught…” He took a deep breath then blew it out through his teeth. “I can’t let the fool be turned into a cow patty. I have an urgent message in to both the Burgon and King Gabriel of Stori as well as King Ruan. One of them has to get back with me.”

“What did General Morrison say when you told him Quinn wasn’t able to be transported?” she asked, nervously twisting her hands. She wished she could tell him the
Lhong Shee
was close by—cloaked—and waiting her captain’s arrival.

“He gave us until 0900 tomorrow morning to turn Quinn over or he will send guards to fetch him. We’ve got…” He looked down at his watch. “We’ve got a little over eleven hours to think of something if I don’t hear back from the Burgon or the others.”

“You’re protecting him even though you know he’s an outlaw?” she asked, her respect for Breen growing as she saw him nod.

“Aye, I intend to.” He glanced at the Vid-Screen. “I’m going back to the bridge. Perhaps you should let Quinn know what’s happening.”

“I will,” she said, walking with the captain to the door. “Thank you, Sir.”

Breen cocked a shoulder. “I haven’t done anything yet, Doc, but I don’t intend to hand him over without doing everything I can to protect him. We may no longer be friends and he may hate my guts but I can’t just stand by and watch him meet the fate the R.C. have planned for him.”

As she closed the door behind her captain, she felt hands on her shoulders. She laid her head against the door. “You need to get back to sick bay and contact the Amazeen. She probably has to stuff tissue in her ears to keep the steam from spurting out.”

He pulled her back against him. “Not until we settle this between us,
Lhiannan
.”

She turned in his arms, slipping her hands around his waist and pressing the side of her face to his broad chest. “It is settled, Quinn. I knew there had to be an explanation for what you did that day at the cottage.”

“You forgive me then?” he asked softly.

“No, and I may never be able to forgive you. I know gods-be-damned well I’ll never forget what you did, but we can discuss it all later when there isn’t a StarDestroyer perched outside our window.”

“I did what I was ordered to do, Kenni,” he said. “I did what I thought was best for you.”

She smiled sadly. “Go back to the sick bay and find out where the crown prince is. If you need Captain Breen’s help, he’ll give it to you.”

“Aye, I believe he will, but what of Jaborn?”

“They are good friends, I think. My guess is Jaborn doesn’t know he has Prince Aleyn onboard his ship.”

“I don’t think he does either,” Quinn agreed. He crooked his finger beneath her chin and tilted her face up. “Just tell me you don’t hate me,
Lhiannan
.”

“I’ve never hated you, Phantom,” she said. “I just don’t like you very much right now.”

He smiled slowly. “How can I change your opinion of me, wench?”

“I don’t know that you can.”

Quinn lowered his lips to hers and gently kissed the sides of her mouth, her chin, the tip of her nose. He fused his gaze with hers. “You are my heart,” he said. “I merely existed until you came into my life. I was born in your eyes. When I could no longer see myself in those beautiful eyes, I was a lost and lonely man. All I did, I did so we could be together without the fear of looking over our shoulder every minute. The Burgon, Leveche, Cosaint, my father—they all promised me that I will not have done all this for nothing.”

His breath was warm and sweet across her face. He was looking at her with such longing, such passion and need, she felt it all the way to her toes. She ached for him. Her body yearned to feel his pressed down upon it. The juices of her sheath flowed with the memory of his fingers, his cock buried deep within her.

“It was hell for me, Kendall,” he said. “I stayed drunk a good deal of the time just so I could get through another day without you. Even on Hell-Twelve and sweltering in the sun breaking rocks twenty hours out of the day, I could not get you out of my mind. I kept hearing you cry and—”

She brought her hand up and laid her fingertips across his lips. “Don’t,” she said. “What was done is done, and it’s over now.”

He took her hand in his. “Not until you and I are back as we were before that day at the cottage,” he said. “I want our lives to be as they were.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, Quinn,” she said.

Moisture glistened in his eyes. “Can’t we at least try?”

“Oh we’ll try, Phantom,” she said. “We will definitely try.”

Munchkin was sitting in the doorway of the sleeping quarters. The Elfinish was very interested in what was going on over by the outside portal. Scents reached her and she sniffed, skinning her lips back to better draw in the strange smells. One smell was male and it oozed from the handsome humanoid male. The other smell was entirely female and it was hot and musky, signaling the humanoid female’s eagerness to mate.

Stretching out on the floor, the feline watched the two humanoids as they embraced. Their mouths were pressed together, slanted across one another in a very unsanitary fashion as far as Munchkin was concerned. She sniffed—disdainfully this time—but kept watching, eager to know how humanoids engaged in mating.

The handsome one dipped his knees and slid his arms under Kendall’s legs and back and lifted her. He carried her to the sofa, laid her down and covered her body with his. Once more their mouths locked as the female threaded her fingers through the male’s thick crop of black curls.

“Exchanging spittle is disgusting. Think of the germs you are giving one another,” Munchkin informed them, but they either didn’t hear her or were ignoring her.

The Elfinish’s pink gaze took in the male pushing up Kendall’s tunic and lifting her teat from the lacy thing that she insisted on strapping it in. She saw him cover the nipple with his mouth and begin to suckle.

“You have milk you didn’t tell me about?” she demanded of Kendall.

Annoyed with her humanoid companion, Munchkin decided she wanted to know what the milk would taste like so she closed her eyes and sent her spirit into the male, searching for the answer.

The feline’s eyes popped open. “No milk?”

But there were utterly astonishing thoughts running through the male’s head that garnered her immediate attention and fascinated the Elfinish.

He was heavy between his legs, painfully throbbing, and so full he felt nigh to bursting. The taut nipple between his lips was sweet, doing things to his lower body that should have been declared illegal eons ago. His hand was trembling as he held the soft globe steady for his suckling, the flesh like warm silk as he kneaded it. The thick erection lying between him and his woman gave evidence of his strong arousal and the smell of her juices wafting beneath his nose nearly drove him insane with want.

His lady was so exquisitely yielding beneath his hard body, her heat calling out to him like a siren’s song, beckoning him to enter and lose his soul. Her smooth arms draped around his shoulders and her hands were buried in his hair. He could feel her foot stroking the calf of his right leg as he wedged himself even tighter between her thighs. The stab of his cock probed against the junction of her legs and he strained, wanting to burst free of the fabric covering him, protecting her, and ram himself into her velvety sheath.

Frustrated, he grazed his teeth across her burgeoning nipple then practically levitated himself off her, coming to his feet to push the offending pajama bottoms from his taut body. He was staring at her—at the lushness of her one exposed breast, at the way she laid there so invitingly, wantonly. He could not stand there being any obstruction between them and took her hand, drew her to a sitting position then worked feverishly at peeling the tunic from her body, making quick work of ripping the fragile lace bra from her breasts, baring them to his view, his touch, his mouth as he bent down and captured one rosy peak.

His cock was fiercely erect, the dewy knob red and swollen and eager to penetrate his lady. He groaned at the thought then straightened, grabbed the elastic waistband of her uniform pants and began tugging them down her long legs, inhaling deeply at the wetness that clung to her lacy thong. It was all he could do to put his trembling hands on that frilly impediment and tear it from her, leaning down to bury his face in the sweet musk of her nether curls.

“Oh my,” Munchkin said, opening her eyes to see what was happening.

He rained kisses on the reddish-golden curls that wound so sweetly over her channel. Fleetingly, expertly, he flicked his tongue along the creases of her upper thighs then lapped over the moistness that drew him like a magnet. He zeroed in on the swelling bud that called to him then clamped his lips around that small, enticing protrusion. He growled low in his throat when his lady arched her hips up, the better for him to devour her. Lapping at her juices as he raked his teeth across the highly sensitive nubbin, he mentally grinned for his lady’s fingers were taut in his hair, pushing his head closer to her warm lips.

Sliding his hand over her thigh, he turned his palm so he could wedge it beneath her, his middle finger slipping unerringly into the dampness that beckoned him. In and out that one finger stroked his lady’s sweet heat then he added another—in and out, in and out—going deeper with each thrust. A third finger joined the other two and he hooked them upward, seeking the spot he knew would give his woman pleasure.

“Quinn, now,” Kendall pleaded. “Now!”

Munchkin sat up straight, her pink eyes widening as the male shoved his hands beneath her female companion and lifted her hips. He drove his straining cock between her legs, impaling her on his hard length.

“You’re supposed to be behind her, moron!” Munchkin said, but then realized humanoids apparently could have sex front to front as Kendall hooked her legs around the Phantom’s hips.

The male’s mind was roiling with images that—had she been able to do so—would have made the Elfinish blush. He had visions of being milked dry by his lady’s cunt. His staff was buried to the hilt inside her sheath and he was thrusting quickly, filling her so deeply that she grunted with each push. Once more he slanted his mouth across his lady’s, stabbed his tongue into the recesses of her honeyed cavern and in perfect unison with the thrusting of his cock took both openings like the corsair he was.