Rystani Warrior 04 - The Quest (21 page)
Read Rystani Warrior 04 - The Quest Online
Authors: Susan Kearney
Kirek took the disk from his suit and held it up. “Please scan and identify.”
The computer spoke in a teacher’s voice, lecturing slowly, as if its circuits were jammed. “The hand and arm are Rystani DNA with—”
“Computer.” Kirek interrupted. “I’m only interested in the fabricated disk.”
“Compliance. The material is a polylaminate of the type used by modern computers.”
“Can you identify the planet of origin from the composition?”
“Cross-checking components with natural resources. This may take some time.”
“How much time?” Angel asked.
The computer didn’t answer, but flashed a message saying their request was being processed off-site since the data they required wasn’t available locally.
Angel shifted impatiently from foot to foot. It was only a matter of time until the kids from that class talked to an adult who would realize that she and Kirek hadn’t belonged there. A report would arrive downtown, and a computer collating data would connect their appearance at the school and inform the botcops searching for them.
Every moment they wasted here narrowed their chances of escape. Yet, without knowing the location of the portal, they couldn’t continue their journey. Unfortunately, this library-turned-school’s antiquated system didn’t seem up to the task.
“Perhaps we should find a university.”
“Have you forgotten the Kraj that are outside and searching for us?”
The computer hummed then spoke. “It is impossible to fulfill your request. There are over one thousand planets which have the necessary resources to manufacture the disk—and that’s not counting interplanetary imports.”
“Scan the disk for DNA,” Angel requested. “Ignore Rystani genetic material.” Since she hadn’t touched the disk, she didn’t mention her own Terran biology. “Perhaps the contact left a few cells behind.”
The computer clicked. “There is a short hair, the length of an eyelash, which may have DNA. I’m processing.”
Kirek squeezed her hand. “That was a good idea. Alara would be proud of you.”
“Alara?”
Kirek rarely mentioned anyone in his past, but his fond tone made her curious, even as she noted she also had to suppress a twinge of jealousy.
“I met her during my last mission. Alara’s a brilliant Endekian physiologist, and with her help, Xander found two Perceptive Ones and a cure for the Zin virus.” Kirek cast Angel a teasing glance, as if he sensed her curiosity about his exact relationship with Alara, a relationship that shouldn’t have bothered her. “Xander fell in love and married her.”
“The eyelash is Numan,” the computer informed them, and a map formed on the holovid. “The planet is located here.”
A Federation quadrant showed a map of star systems and planets. The computer had marked Numan with a flashing purple light. Their current location on Dakmar pulsed orange, with a yellow line of light connecting the two locations via the best route.
Kirek required a cross check. “Does Numan have the necessary natural resources to manufacture the disk?”
“Negative.” The computer hummed. “But one of its moons mines the primary missing Numan metal, and there is frequent trade between the planet and the moon’s colonists.”
Angel leaned over the screen. “Computer, can you find a Numan disk reader on Dakmar or any closer systems?”
“Your inquiry requires an extensive search. This may take a Federation hour. Shall I continue?” Again the computer hummed, no doubt searching mercantile inventories as well as private sales.
Angel glanced at Kirek. He grinned. “Computer, please continue.”
“What are you so happy about?”
“We shouldn’t leave until school is out, when we can depart with the teachers without attracting attention.”
“This makes you happy because
…
?”
His eyes brightened with heat. “We have an hour. Alone. You and me.”
Her mouth went dry, and her gut tightened. She hadn’t even been considering making love. The idea of having him right now, right here, excited her, even as she protested. “The Kraj could break in here at any moment.”
“If they find us talking instead of making love, do you think it will lessen their determination to shoot us?” Kirek’s tone teased. He reached over and placed a warm hand on her thigh.
Desire angled up her leg. “What if some kid wanders into the library?”
His hand inched higher. “The walls are insulated to prevent sound from interrupting the students’ concentration. I’ve locked the door.”
She couldn’t think past the warmth of his hand and her need to touch him back. “But—”
“We only have an hour. Let’s not waste a moment arguing when we could be enjoying ourselves.” He slid his hand up her thigh to her bottom and drew her into his arms.
One minute ago, sex hadn’t been on her mind. But with just his touch to her leg, she was suddenly on fire for him.
Stars
…
She wanted him with a lust that coursed through her with amazing strength, took away her breath, made thinking almost impossible.
“What
…
is
…
happening?” she gasped.
She didn’t expect an answer. She hadn’t been specific enough for him to understand her question
…
and yet, even as her legs quivered and her breasts ached for attention, her mind knew that her body didn’t normally start this fast or burn with this much need.
“Remember when you wanted to see my feelings?” he asked, his tone serious, his hands busily stroking up her back and down over her bottom.
“So?” She frowned. Thankfully they didn’t have a mirror in the tiny cubicle. They didn’t even have a window that could show a partial reflection of her aura.
“You are feeling what I feel.”
“What?” She jerked back, her gaze searching his.
“The burning, the need, the hunger you feel is what I feel for you.”
God
…
Her feelings weren’t her own
…
they were his. She’d never heard of such a thing and didn’t know what she thought. Thinking was next to impossible as she rubbed up against him, her mouth hungering for his.
Awash in a sea of roaring lust, she wanted his hands all over her, everywhere. Her lips pulsed with the need to meet his. She was so damp and slick with the moisture creaming between her legs that all she craved was for him to have her. Now. Up against the wall. On the desk. Against the door.
Yet, those desires weren’t hers—they were his. She had no idea why he wasn’t kissing her, but somehow he held back and kept the ripping need from turning him into a savage.
“You understand what I’m saying?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Tell me,” he demanded.
“I’m feeling how much you want me.” She gulped, wondering if all men had such strong sexual desires and if so, how any of them ever managed to think about anything else. Stars. She was ready to melt. To explode. They had barely touched. “How do you stand it?”
He shot her a wolfish grin that sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine. “I’m not giving you a choice to say no.”
“Bastard.” She licked her bottom lip, knowing he was right and that later she might be annoyed with herself. But at the moment she couldn’t muster any clear thoughts—not with the overwhelming lust coursing through her.
Angel couldn’t think past the longing to place her hands around his neck, tug his head down, and lift her mouth to his. Usually when he kissed her, she adored the strength of his mouth, loved the way their tongues danced, but now as she yielded to his lips on hers, she also felt him rejoice.
His happy intensity fed her until her yearning matched his own.
There was no skill to their lovemaking. No subtlety.
She couldn’t wait that long. Her mind screamed with the need to have him now. Now. Right now.
He kissed her deep and hard. When he broke the kiss to turn her and bend her over the desk, she noted that both of them were naked. He parted her legs, bit her shoulder.
“Yes.” She threw back her head, lifted her hips, giving in to his wild demand.
He didn’t make her wait. In one fierce stroke he slammed into her, and she arched her spine, meeting him more than halfway. When he reached around her hips and slid a finger into her slick folds, she might have burst right them. But his psi clamped down over her, preventing her release, holding her right on the edge.
Her hips gyrated in a frenzy of need. Her arms barely supported her as her breath came in long gasps.
Razor-sharp delight mixed with a lusty burning for completion.
She couldn’t wait. Her mind spun. Her heart pounded her ribs. She was going to lose herself in a massive explosion. Her psi reached out to him and shoved hard, asking for what her body required.
And again, his psi demanded that she wait for him, even as his fingers centered on the tip of her core, driving her in a frenzy.
Stars
…
The man was torturing her with sweet pleasure, and she could barely stand the tension building, growing, burning with a ferocity that had her reeling.
He exploded, taking her with him in a storm so fierce, she couldn’t tell where his pleasure began and hers started. With the physical blast came a mental one. Of domination. Of possession. Of determination. Of
…
bliss.
“THERE IS A Numan disk reader on Abacore Prime.”
The computer coughed up the information before Kirek’s breathing had returned to normal. “The reader on Abacore Prime is not for sale.” The computer had given them more than basic facts, revealing itself to be a more advanced model than the
Raven’s
primitive system.
“Does that mean we’re going to Numan?” Angel asked, her eyes focusing on Kirek with a wariness he didn’t like. Had he pushed too soon and too hard once again? For a Rystani male, he was patient, but would Angel think so?
Kirek memorized the information on Numan then wiped the computer history clean. If the Kraj followed their trail to this vidscreen, he didn’t want his enemies to discover what he was interested in or why. “Once we’re back on board the
Raven,
maybe I can arrange for the reader to be brought to us.”
“It’s not even for sale,” Angel argued.
Kirek grinned. “So I’ll make the owner an offer he cannot refuse.”
“Like you did with me?” She boldly arched an eyebrow. But the wariness didn’t leave her eyes.
He kept his tone light. “Exactly.” She needed time and space to come to grips with what was happening between them. During their lovemaking, she’d startled him. For several minutes, her psi had shoved against his, seeming almost as strong as his own. Perhaps his own psi had reflected back—he couldn’t be certain. However, a conversation about his actions would not be in his best interests right now.
Oh, no. She lifted her chin and locked gazes, clearly in I-want-to-talk mode. “You should have asked me if I wanted you to—”
“I did ask.”
“You waited until I couldn’t say no.”
“As I recall, you were perfectly capable of speaking.”
“You transferred your lust to me
…
so your asking became rhetorical. No woman could have said no.”
He sighed, wishing he could have avoided this conversation. But since he couldn’t, he answered directly from the heart. “My feelings aren’t for any woman. They are for you.”
She swallowed hard, clearly uncomfortable. Good. Maybe now he could change the subject. Then the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day and saving him from saying more.
He opened the door and slipped out. They walked down a corridor filled with children and adults, all exiting the building.
“Don’t do that again,” she warned. He should have known she wouldn’t drop the subject.
But even with all the noise and chaos around them, he felt compelled to argue. “You don’t like the closeness we shared.”
“You made me want you.”
He chuckled. “I can’t make you feel anything you don’t want to feel.”
“Damn you.”
“Come on, Angel. Think. You were amenable to sex from the moment I mentioned it. I just hastened the process along a little faster than you were comfortable with.”
“What you did was the difference between accelerating a skimmer and jumping into hyperdrive.”
“So? You aren’t angry at the speed at which I got you hot and bothered.”
She rolled her eyes. “How dare you tell me why I’m angry.”
“You’re angry because I upped the level of intimacy between us beyond your comfort zone.”
She glared at him. “You know, sometimes I really don’t like you.”
He laughed again, trying to keep his tone teasing. “Yeah, it’s a bitch to be me because I’m never wrong.”
“Correction. Sometimes I really hate you.”
“Because I’m right
…
you hate me?”
“Yes.” She spat at him through gritted teeth.
Kirek could see her trying to sort through her feelings and work past her confusion. He didn’t know if she was succeeding, and though he was utterly certain of his take on her reservations, he wasn’t at all certain she would forgive him. Not because of what he’d done, but because she didn’t want to feel anything for him. Anger was her best defensive move to shut him out. Once they returned to the ship, he was about to give her another reason, several reasons, to stifle whatever feelings she had. That’s why he’d risked pushing her so hard, and he accepted that his plan may have alienated her instead of bringing them closer.
“Something’s wrong.” She stiffened, yanked him into the threshold of an empty classroom, halting them for no good reason he could see. But he was for any change at all in the subject.
“What is it?” In front of them, behind them, and to both sides kids walked, ran, and danced down the corridor. He refused to pull a weapon without a direct threat in sight, not with all the children still exiting the school.
“They know we’re here.”
“How do you know?” Kirek peered ahead and saw nothing alarming. No botcops. No Kraj.
“I can practically feel the malicious vibrations.” At his curious glance, she shrugged. “If you were a botcop and hostiles had hidden in a school full of kids, wouldn’t you surround the place and wait for them to walk out rather than take a chance of shooting a student?”
“Yes, but—”
“Trust doesn’t go just one way, Kirek.” Her tone remained firm, reasonable, and certain. “You have your-born-in-hyperspace psi, I sense
…
trouble. Right now, it’s out there. We need to find an alternate escape route.”
Angel was so strong and determined. So was her psi. When Kirek thought back to how strong her psi had been during lovemaking, he surmised it might be possible that she had a much stronger psi than he knew.
Again he wondered if it was fate that they had met. Several times during his lifetime the Perceptive Ones had interfered in the course of history. During his last mission Kirek had learned the Perceptive Ones wanted beings to evolve to a new level of evolution to fight the Zin—but would they go so far as to arrange for his path and Angel’s to meet? He didn’t know. All he was certain of was his knowledge—almost from the first time he’d seen her—that fate had played a hand in their meeting.
But those were questions for the Perceptive Ones—if and when they ever met again.
Kirek nodded toward the stairs. “Let’s try the basement. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go up to the roof.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Believing me.”
He grinned. “Who said I believe you?”
She socked him in the arm. His psi shield protected him, but he pretended it hurt.
“Ouch. That’s going to leave a mark.” He took her hand as they headed into a dank and dark basement. “But I’ve heard there’s an old Earth custom that requires kissing an ache to heal it.”
She shook her hand loose and flipped on a light. “You are impossible.”
“Persistent.” He placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Reckless.” She smirked, slipped away from his touch with a casual shrug.
“I prefer to think I’m daring.”
Janitorial supplies, a mop, cleaning materials, and a bucket stood in a corner with broken desks and outdated vidscreens. Electric wires jutted into central circuitry. Water dripped from pipes.
“There.” He pointed. “Those water pipes in the tunnel must come in from outside this building. If we follow them to an exterior wall, we can blast our way out.”
This was one of those times he really missed his astral power, to extend his psi beyond his body, and he had to tamp down his frustration. If he’d been fully healed, he could have zapped to the end of the pipes to see whether they should try this route or another. Now he wouldn’t know what awaited them until he went to the trouble of physically moving his body there.
He consoled himself with the thought he’d be following Angel, and he never tired of watching her. “You go first. That way if I get stuck—”
“I won’t be able to get back out.”
“We aren’t coming back this way.”
She frowned but slid into the tunnel. “Ever since I’ve met you, you keep sending me into tight spaces.”
“Hey, I wanted to walk out the front door. This was your idea.” He squeezed sideways, turned his head, and sidestepped after her.
“I’ve probably saved your life.”
He lowered his voice to a sexy whisper. “I’d be more than happy to show you how grateful I am
…
later.”
“Don’t you ever think about anything else?”
“Than how sexy you are?” At his words, she snorted, muttered a curse, but kept advancing.
He grinned, knowing it would irritate her if he didn’t let her have the last word. “Let’s see, would I rather think about your cute bottom scooting along in front of me or the Kraj outside ready to shoot us? I’ll take your hot little body anytime over—”
“Stop.”
“Don’t you want to hear how much I like—”
“I meant stop advancing, not making advances. I’m at a dead end.”
“Already? Can you hear anything?”
“Not hardly. Not past all the hot air coming out of your big—”
“Shh.” He heard the roar of an engine cycling. “Listen.” Pumps? The whoosh of a generator or some kind of motor? The sound stopped. Then, nothing. But they were underground
…
then he recalled the public transportation system.
“What is it?” Angel asked.
“There’s probably a mag tunnel on the other side of this wall.”
“One way to find out. Give me a little room.”
He scooted back, and so did she. “Ready?” Without waiting for his reply, Angel raised the blaster and fired. The wall crumbled.
She advanced and knocked over rocks and crumbling foundation with her boot then leaped out of sight. A moment later he jumped free of the tunnel onto a mag track.
“Seems like you were right.” Angel spoke with no hostility, and he took that as a hopeful sign. He’d found being right too often grated on some people’s egos, but she was all business, turning toward the tunnel and blasting it again, causing the ceiling to cave in on the pipes. “If anyone comes looking for us, maybe they’ll conclude that’s a natural cave-in.”
He doubted it. Close examination would reveal the blaster burn. But anything that slowed pursuit might give them an edge. He turned in the direction of the spaceport and began walking along the mag track.
They covered a quarter mile before Angel spoke, her voice tight. “What happens if a mag car comes through while we’re in this tunnel?”
“It depends on how much room the engineers left around the vehicle. Why?”
“A mag car is coming.”
“You hear it?” he asked, because his hearing seemed keener than hers, and he could only hear their footsteps on rock and her breath as they hurried down the tunnel, lit by emergency lighting.
“More like I feel it.”
“Vibrations through your feet?”
She shook her head. But he didn’t doubt her. How could he—when he also now heard the loud-and-clear roar of the oncoming mag car bearing down on them. “You don’t see a convenient cranny to hide in?”
