Bianca D'Arc (2 page)

“
A little of both, actually. You
know I can’t talk about certain things, but they do give me a lot
of leeway in how I conduct my work, making allowances for my gift.
Right now, my gift is telling me that I have to be on that
concourse tomorrow.”

“
Why?”

She frowned. “I don’t know exactly. All I know is
that we have to be there or...”

“
Or what?” The expression on her
face didn’t bode well. And it didn’t escape him that her plans had
gone from
I
to
we
in
the blink of an eye. It didn’t really matter. Whatever the
situation, there was no way he was going to let her face it alone.
At least this way, he wouldn’t have to argue with her about
it.

“
If we aren’t there to stop it…”
she paused, her expression grim, “…that young man will die and our
war with the jits will escalate beyond anything that’s come
before.”

The war had been going on for centuries. It had
started with small incursions into the Milky Way Galaxy, then
spread until the human population of the Milky Way decided they’d
lost enough ground to their rival humanoids and started pushing
them back. System by system the jits had been pushed out of the
human dominated galaxy, back into their own corner of the
universe.

It had been going on for generations and the forays
by jits seeking a foothold in the Milky Way never let up. Oh, there
were lulls now and again but the jits kept mounting small
offensives, constantly testing human defenses along the galactic
rim.

The war had kept Alex and his friends employed and
would serve the next generation of soldiers as well. It had gotten
so that soldiers were almost like a different breed of human. The
big, strong, fast men from each planet were culled at a certain age
and put into soldier training. From that point on, their lives took
a new path. They weren’t quite welcome among regular humans after
that. They’d seen too much, done too much, to ever be considered
harmless again.

Most soldiers shared a common distaste for the
ongoing war. The young ones were usually more idealistic, but the
older ones who’d seen too many friends fall in battle knew to be
more wary. If there was a way to prevent the war from escalating,
Alex had to take it—whatever the cost.

He’d take a bullet if it meant saving his comrades
and sparing his galaxy even more bloodshed. He’d die if he had
to.

“
I’ll go.” His voice was pitched
low, echoing the grim feeling that filled him. “After first shift
lunch, I’ll stake out the departure concourse.”

“
I’m going with you, Alex.” She
put her hand over his where it rested on the table top. The feel of
her skin always made him sweat. She was so soft, so womanly. He
couldn’t afford the distraction. This was too important. Protecting
her was too important.

“
No, sweetheart. You stay here,
where it’s safe.”

“
I can’t.” Agony touched her face
and he flipped her hand, taking it in his, offering comfort. “I
don’t know what the threat is but I see a man. I see his face. He’s
the one. The assassin. Maybe part of a team. I see myself
struggling with him and then you arrive. And then…” Her eyes stared
straight ahead and glistened with emotion.

“
Then what, Del?” he asked softly,
coaxing her to spill the rest.

“
I don’t know.” She shut her eyes
against the memory of the vision. “We tumble and fall. People catch
us but I don’t know… It’s all so jumbled. Confused. Unclear. But it
has to be both of us. Without me, you won’t recognize the
man.”

“
Why? You could give me a
description.”

“
That’s just the thing. I can’t.
He has some sort of chameleon suit. He changes his appearance at
will. But I see his true self. No matter what form he wears on the
outside, my vision will guide me true. It’s one of my lesser
abilities.”

“
You’re kidding.” He let go of her
hand and sat back, leaning against the cushion of the booth. “You
can actually see through chameleon tech?”

“
I’m afraid so.” She looked a
little bashful. It was charming, really. “They never figured out
how I do it or how to reproduce the effect but it’s been tested and
confirmed. I can always see the true self beneath any kind of known
chameleon tech.”

“
You are one amazing freaky talent
after another, aren’t you?” He stared at her, enchanted all over
again by the wondrous things this little woman could do. He
realized as he watched that she was growing uncomfortable. He’d no
doubt said the wrong thing. Even after all the years and effort
he’d extended to learn to fit in among regular humans, he still
reverted sometimes to the blunt grunt he’d been when he was a raw
recruit. “I’m sorry, Del. I didn’t mean to insult you. I think your
skills are impressive.”

She brushed off his apology and stood from the
booth. A false smile pasted on her face, she straightened her
skirt, looking for imaginary lint.

“
I suggest you get your affairs in
order and set up the bar to run without you for... maybe a few
weeks. Maybe longer. Just in case. I’m going to contact my chain of
command and let them know you and I are both likely to go off the
grid for a while. My boss will no doubt pass it down to yours if
you don’t have time to report.”

She probably knew he was on a reporting schedule.
Unless there was something critical going down on the station, he
only reported to his superiors via roundabout methods that weren’t
likely to be discovered. The next report would be sent the day
after tomorrow. He could send a special urgent message through more
direct channels, but what did he really have to tell them? Just a
few vague visions from Della. He couldn’t report that.

“
Sounds good,” he agreed, standing
also. He walked with her toward the front door. “Do you need an
escort home?”

“
No, I have a securecart waiting
for me.” She stopped as he unlocked the front portal. He stepped
outside with her and handed her into the robotic unit that would
drive her straight from the bar to her room without stopping. Once
inside, she’d be safe from anyone who might otherwise try to waylay
her.

She paused with her hand on the front panel. Once
she closed it, the cart would lock down and start its journey
through the darkened, late shift station night.

“
I don’t think it’s going to be
final, if it’s any consolation.” She was speaking in vague terms
now that they were outside the secure zone of the bar.

“
I wouldn’t be telling the truth
if I didn’t say that eases my mind somewhat. Then again, past
experience tells me that in these kinds of situations anything can
happen.”

Alex leaned down and kissed her. It was a short
kiss, but it was the first time he’d initiated any sort of intimacy
with this woman. The one woman he wanted above all others. The one
woman he could never have.

She was human. He wasn’t—not anymore. He’d
volunteered for Enhancement. That meant he’d been changed forever.
He’d promised himself when he’d made the decision to go ahead with
the Enhancement that he’d never get involved seriously with a
woman. The same treatment that made him a better soldier also took
away his virility. Maybe that was the wrong word, he reflected as
he looked at her beautiful face. He could still get it up. Della
could make him hard with just a smile. His equipment still worked,
but the Enhancement had made him sterile.

That would mean something to a woman. Especially a
woman as soft, warm and loving as Della. She was the perfect woman
for him and she was all wrong. He’d known it almost from the first
time she had walked into his bar. She was the one. The only one for
him.

The only one he’d never have.

But if he was going to face death with her by his
side on the morrow, he thought he deserved just one little kiss. A
dream of a kiss to live on should the worst happen tomorrow.

Stepping back, he closed the hatch of the securecart
on her lovely, startled expression. The mechanism clicked into a
locked position and the cart took off under its own power. He saw
Della look back and he raised one hand in a subtle wave, saluting
her as she drove off in the cart.

He’d see her tomorrow. Tonight he would live on
dreams of her soft lips under his.

Chapter Two

Della hadn’t shown her face
at
The Rabbit Hole
until the tail end of first shift lunch break on purpose.
That little kiss last night had left her in a tailspin. She’d given
up on Alex and then, all of a sudden, he’d turned the tables on
her.

She was confused by his behavior to say the least.
For months now, she’d been working as a card dealer at his bar.
She’d watched him. What sane woman wouldn’t? He was gorgeous and
smart. He also had a kind heart though he did his best not to let
others see it. He had been courageous and ingenious, helping to
defend the station when it had been overrun by pirates.

In short, he was damned close to the perfect man. At
least in her eyes. Except he had made it pretty clear from the
outset that he wanted nothing to do with her. Oh, he’d been
friendly enough, but nothing more.

He’d greeted her with a nod when she arrived near
the end of first shift lunch break. That was all. No intimate smile
to acknowledge the small step he had taken toward intimacy the
night before. Not even a raised eyebrow. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.

Della was deflated. She’d been both dreading and
looking forward to seeing him this morning but after all her
internal conjecture and worry, he hadn’t even given her a little
conspiratorial wink.

Damn the man. Sometimes he was the most frustrating
creature in the entire universe. He never did as she expected and
she rarely received premonitions that featured him even in a
supporting role.

That’s why she had been so surprised by the vision
the night before. Seeing Alex in her mind had been startling. He’d
been fighting. She’d only seen him in action once before, during
the pirate attack, when he’d taken her and a group of military
retirees from the bar to his secret weapons cache. He’d handled
those weapons with easy familiarity and discharged them with
incredible precision. She hadn’t seen him fight anyone hand to
hand, yet his display of martial arts skill in her vision was
somehow familiar.

It was as if she knew him from some other place.
Some other time. As if they’d been together before. To her certain
knowledge, she’d never met retired Special Ops Colonel Alexander
Hambly before arriving on his doorstep. Even then, he’d been
familiar to her. She’d seen his face only once before that
momentous day—in a vision. The same vision that had prompted her to
take the job as a card dealer in this unlikely corner of the
universe.

Much of her job was about timing. She had an uncanny
knack for knowing where she needed to be and when she needed to be
there. Psychic abilities were not common among humans. Only since
branching out into other parts of the Milky Way galaxy had psychic
phenomena become more accepted. When faced with telepathic races
like those living under the Trylidex Phenom in a small star system
on the opposite side of the galactic spiral, humanity had come to
believe that such things truly did exist.

It was rare, of course. Humans had only ever
produced a small number of gifted individuals in each generation.
Della was one. The gift of foresight had run in her family for
generations. She was but one of many seers in her familial line,
but her gift was the strongest in centuries.

“
You ready?” Alex had positioned
himself next to her without her even being aware of his presence.
He moved like a cat, he was so silent. She tried not to let it
startle her. Over the past few months she had trained herself not
to react when he surprised her. It didn’t always work, of
course.

“
Ready when you are.” She pasted a
bright smile on her face that she didn’t really feel. Apprehension
filled her at what would happen next if her vision held true. The
really scary part was, her visions usually did hold
true.

Alex put a guiding hand on the small of her back,
making her jump the tiniest bit. He usually didn’t touch her if he
could help it. And since their farewell the night before, she was
overly sensitive to his every move.

They left
The Rabbit Hole
and waited at the
transport tube station for only a few seconds before a private car
coasted to a stop in front of them. Alex ushered her into the
cramped compartment, then sat next to her in the two-seater he’d
called from the console. She was surprised he had opted for the
smallest of the cars available. He was a big man. This tiny bubble
was hardly big enough for them both.

She felt the warmth of his tall, lean body all up
and down her side where he pressed against her. He stretched his
arm over the back of the seat as the hatch closed on the bubble and
the car coasted out into the stream of zero G pods racing around
the station’s structure.

It wouldn’t take much time to get to the departure
concourse, yet she found herself wishing for the ride to take just
a little longer. Being this close to Alex was a treat. He was in
her personal space, as she was in his. She inhaled lightly,
enjoying the subtle scent of his soap and aftershave. He always
smelled so good. So enticing. He made her want to stroke him and
lick him like a favorite treat.

But aside from the night before, he had rarely given
her any indication he might return her feelings. Never one to pine
over what could have been, Della had tried her best to ignore the
sparks that jolted between them anytime they brushed against each
other accidentally in the bar. Alex usually kept his distance, but
every once in a while, a certain amount of contact could not be
avoided.