Demon Untamed (10 page)

Cale nodded and dove out of the room. A guard called out in surprise but, by the gurgled sounds that followed, Cale had subdued him easily enough.  

Cale peeked his head back into the room and tossed a stolen gun to Ethan. “Here, you'll need this, pirate.”

Ethan caught it, and Cale winked before disappearing once more through the door.

“Typical demon,” Ethan shouted, following after him. “Wanting all the action for yourself.”

“You called it,” Cale hollered back.

Together they fought their way back to the shuttle. The element of surprise swayed luck to their side.

When they reached the docking bay, they took out the overseers and were soon jettisoning away from
Extarga
. As soon as they were safely away, Cale sent
Marada
an encrypted signal, hoping the ship was in range.

Ethan didn’t want to bank on it. As he glanced at the flight panel, checking the state of their fuel—not great—he said, “We should head to the nearest station or planet. What’s close by?”

Cale charted their position and then a three-dimensional map displayed on a small screen at his front. “The closest planet is Undewla. Nothing else is within reach.”

Ethan cursed. The inhabitants hadn’t been welcoming, and any fuel to be found on Undewla would be covered by layers of ice and frozen bedrock. But it didn’t look like they had much of a choice. If
Marada
didn’t come for them, they could either drift aimlessly through space till they ran out of air, or take their chances on Undewla.

Cale set their course, muttering, “Gods, I hate that planet.”

Chapter 9

“Sonya,” Aidan pleaded from his station. “Eat something and go rest for a few hours. I’ll call you the moment something appears on our radar.”

“Aidan, I’m fine. Quit harping,” she chided.

Aidan’s concern was not unfounded. She hadn’t left the control room but for a few useless attempts at sleep, and still she could not eat. The churning of her stomach made the thought of food unappetizing.

It was difficult to think of anything else but poor Anya, back in the hands of that bastard, Darius. Her brothers, possibly dead. The pirate likewise.

Unless…

Could Ethan have set them up from the start?

The thought snaked through her mind like a disease taking root. He was a pirate, after all. They’d known him for all of two seconds, and in that time they’d been drugged, locked up, and now separated. Practically gift wrapped and handed to their worst enemy. Ethan had been the one to lead them to Undewla.

“Aidan?” Sonya hesitated before continuing. “Do you think Ethan betrayed us to Darius?”

Conversations from other crew members died down to listen in as Aidan took a moment to contemplate her question. “I don’t want to start throwing accusation around until we get the others back and can question them about it.”

His answer was far too democratic for her liking. “Do you think it’s possible, or not?”

“Of course it’s possible. He did admit to having contact with Darius on the asteroid. But Darius had been tracking us long before then.”

She felt her fangs descend. “If he did, I will not rest until I’m sure he has suffered ten times what my family may have gone through.”

She clamped her teeth together. She was speaking as if they were already dead. But what else could she think? Too much time had passed already. Her brothers would have sent word by now, unless they’d indeed been incapacitated.

Just as the tormenting thought swirled through her mind, Aidan snapped to attention, focusing on his console.

“A distress signal,” he announced to the room. “It’s from the shuttle”

Sheer elation nearly made her dizzy. Then she grew pensive. “How far out?”

“Not far, a few hours maybe.” He didn’t wait for Sonya’s orders and pressed the ship’s engines hard.

As they drew near the shuttle, Sonya inquired as calmly as she could, “Is anyone on board?”

Aidan tapped a sequence of buttons. “There are four life signs.”

A smile broke across her lips. She slumped back in her chair, overwhelmed by the wave of relief. “And what of
Extarga
?”

“Our sensors aren’t picking anything up, but that doesn’t mean much. It didn’t show last time till it was too late.”

“There aren’t any boulders to hide behind now,” she discerned. “Alright, let’s make this a quick retrieval and then get the hell out of here. Divert power to the shields and bring all weapons online. Any sign of
Extarga
, don’t wait, start firing. Open transmission to the shuttle.”

Cale’s voice echoed through the speaker. “For once, little sister, I’m glad you’re such a disobedient pain in the ass.”

“Missed you too, Cale. Is everyone okay?”

Pause.

“We’re alive,” he said in a languid tone.

“I feel like that should have sounded better than it did.”

“Anya will not wake. She was hurt badly.”

Pain laced a rope around Sonya’s throat. “I’ll have Doctor Oshwald meet you in the docking bay.”

A few stressful moments later, the shuttle docked without incident. She had Aidan set a course in the opposite direction, then added, “Take over command for a while. I’m going to go check on them.”

Aidan nodded. “If they’re not too banged up, give ‘em each a good smack in the face for me.”

“Will do.” Sonya raced to greet her family, arriving just as the docking bay finished pressurizing. The doctor, who had already been waiting, stepped through the doors first, seeking his patient.

Sebastian gripped Anya’s limp body to his chest as though someone might snatch her from him.

And the blood! They were all covered in massive amounts of blood, their clothing stained and torn, but the skin underneath appeared unmarred.

“Follow me to my quarters, Doctor,” Sebastian said. “You can examine her there.” Before he left, he offered Sonya a tight nod in silent approval.

Cale approached and clasped her on the shoulder—his way of saying she’d done well—and then continued past her. To Ethan, he said, “Come on, pirate. You’re buying.”

“Next time, demon. I’m done for at least two days. I’m surprised I’m still standing as it is.”

“Don’t be a pansy. Come take the edge off with me.”

Sonya glanced between the two, confused by their unusually chummy exchange.

When Ethan refused to relent, Cale grumbled, “Suit yourself.”

She watched as Cale disappeared through the hatch, no doubt on his way to The Demon’s Punchbowl to help himself to her liquor. Speechless at the lackluster reunion, Sonya threw her arms wide in a baffled gesture.

“Thanks for not giving up the search,” Ethan said from behind her.

Sonya didn’t bother to look at him. “It wasn’t for your sake.”

“Of course, but I’m no less grateful,” he responded in that aloof timbre of his.

“Care to explain what went on while you were gone?”

“It’s a long story. Perhaps at a later time.”

Sonya’s rounded on him. “Odd, don’t you think? That Darius shows up right as we arrive at Undewla.”

Ethan stilled, his eyes narrowing. “What are you getting at?”

“Just that it’s quite a coincidence. Almost as if Darius knew where we would be.” She didn’t hide the accusation in her tone.

He bristled. “Are you kidding me with this?” At her glare, headed, “You’re really suggesting that I had something to do with it?”

“Did you?”

He took a menacing step forward. Sonya held her ground, somewhat amused by the idea of his attempting to threaten her. Her smirk seemed to infuriate him further.

Then he paused, his demeanor changing, as if he were disgusted by
her
. Something in that response grated, and she lost her smile.

“I’m not entertaining this ridiculous conversation.” He turned to leave.

“Spoken like the truly guilty.”

The swiftness of Ethan’s attack caught her so off guard that her mind struggled to regain its equilibrium. She found herself pinned to the ground with Ethan on top of her. The bastard had kicked her legs out from under her and trapped her arms beside her head. The shock of it pounded a heavy beat in her chest, and her breaths quickened as she looked at him with utter disbelief.

His eyes blazed with fury. “Do you have any idea what we’ve been through? Anya nearly died! Still might. And you mean to accuse me of putting her in that position? You must think me wretched indeed.” His sneer was coupled with an emotion she couldn’t place.

“Get off of me!” Sonya wiggled under his weight.

He tightened his hold around her wrists, leaning in closer, his expression downright dangerous.

She tested her limbs, but was unable to pull free. Panic surged. Refusing to admit how thoroughly he’d subdued her—not to mention how embarrassingly easily—she made her expression nonchalant. Yet she feared he could hear the steadily increasing rhythm of her heart.

Worse, confusion bombarded her as she realized she wasn’t only frightened, but excited.

Suddenly, Ethan turned puzzled and his grip loosened. Not quite enough for her to get free, however.

“I’ll say this once, demon. Another accusation like that, and I won’t be so nice as I am now.”

Sonya snorted. “Pirate, if you hadn’t caught me by surprise, we’d be in a completely different position right now.” She caught the unintentional innuendo in her words and flushed. Unwanted images flashed in her mind, causing a heated pulse to rake up her body. She quickly reined it in, hoping Ethan’s mind wasn’t as perverse as hers seemed to be at the moment.

To her horror, he smiled. “If I hadn’t been tortured and sleep deprived for the last however many days, I might let you test out your theory,
vietta
.”

Sonya gasped. “Tortured?”

“Yes. Constantly, and ruthlessly.”

She eyed him up and down. “I see no cuts, scrapes, or bruises.”

He sneered back at her. “Ah, well, I must be a liar then. I’ll be sure to inform your brothers we all imagined it.”

Sonya ground her teeth before commenting, “I think you may have a different idea of what can be considered torture.”

“I’ll remember that the next time a blade is slicing its way down the side of my face while I’m chained down.”

Sonya tilted her head in confusion as a sickly feeling churned inside her. Had her brothers experienced torture like that? She searched his face, looking for a hint of a scar and finding no evidence.

“I can see I’ll never convince you, so I won’t bother to try. Go ahead and believe what you wish.” He pushed himself to stand, freeing her from his grasp.

She sat up, but remained where she was on the floor. Without a backward glance, he disappeared into the hallway.

In hindsight, she should have retaliated then and there, while his back was turned, but something in the way she had reacted to being at his mercy tormented her into stunned passivity. She cursed her body’s response to him, utterly confounded by it.

That word he had called her repeated in her head.
Vietta
. The way he had said it, she could almost swear it was meant to be tender, but nothing could be more ridiculous.

After a moment, she pushed to her feet and made her way to The Demon’s Punchbowl. Cale had let himself in and was seated at the bar, guzzling the last bit of her best liquor.

She approached him. “Tell me what happened.”

He blurted out a curse, wiping his mouth. “I was hoping not to recount it so soon.”

“So it’s true? You were tortured?”

“Aye. And that snake, Darius, had too much fun doing it.”

Sonya plopped down on a chair next to him and looked him over. “You’ve healed from it already? That’s quick, even for our kind.”

“Turns out the pirate’s a healer. He helped Anya first, then was able to heal us just before you picked us up. Lucky break he was there, too, or Anya would have died on that ship.” A crease formed between his brows, and he stared into his glass as though concentrating on a single thought. “Sebastian would have gone mad.”

Sonya wondered if Cale was thinking about Velicia. Shortly after his mate’s betrayal and their escape from the war that had devastated their planet, Cale had resigned himself to the Edge. Typically, when a demon loses a mate, an unending trip to the Edge is inevitable. “Sebastian would have returned to us, just as you did,” she reasoned.

Cale gave her a somber look.  “For some reason, I seriously doubt it.”

She supposed he was right. Cale’s circumstance had been unique. He hadn’t lost his mate through death. In fact, Velicia could still be alive for all they knew. Yet her betrayal had been no less painful for Cale. He had slipped to the Edge, rendered a violent snarling beast. She and Sebastian were forced to keep him confined for many years.

Sonya would visit his cell often and speak with him as though he could understand her and might actually respond. She had never truly expected it to happen, though.

Then, one day, his eyes had cleared, and his manner returned to normal, surprising them all.

She couldn’t imagine how devastated Sebastian would have been if Anya had died, and she couldn’t assume that they’d be so lucky as to revive another demon from that kind of madness a second time.