Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld) (7 page)

By now, his dick was so hard it was almost painful.

Saffira had gone still again, and she didn’t protest when he pulled free of her. His hand was slick with her juices and he slipped it down the front of his pants and gripped his cock, trying to ease the pressure. He closed his eyes as he pumped into his fist.

It occurred to him that there was nothing really special about virgins. Just that they’d never done it before. But everyone had to have a first time, and at least he could ensure she enjoyed it. He was doing her a favor. And she might as well learn right from the start that sex and love had absolutely nothing to do with each other.

He opened his eyes and found her watching him, a sated look in her eyes, her mouth slightly parted. Her jumpsuit was open almost all the way and he could see her breasts and right down to where the dark red curls just peeked out. He released himself, slipped his hand free, and reached for her…

And was hurled backward by some invisible force.

Chapter Six

Devlin crashed onto his back on the floor. Something landed on top of him, and it took him a moment to realize it was Saffira plastered along the length of his body. He didn’t have time to appreciate the fact before they were flung sideways. They landed with Saffira between him and the wall. As he made to push away, the ship rolled a full 360 degrees and the pair of them slammed into the ceiling and then down to the floor. He smashed into one of the chairs, and sharp pain shot through his hip and up his spine. Quickly he checked for Saffira. She lay a foot away, on her back, her eyes closed.

“Saffira? Sweetheart?” Panic laced his voice.

She blinked and the fear drained away. Devlin got onto his knees and crawled across the floor, collapsing beside her. As he sensed the next shudder, he grabbed the leg of the chair in one hand and wrapped his other arm around Saffira, trying to protect her, but she’d gotten the idea, and one hand came out to hold onto the chair above his. This time they stayed put. When the ship stopped moving, the floor was slanting slightly downward. The stabilizers were fucked. And something else. The life force of the ship was gone; she was dead beneath them.

He closed his eyes, waiting.

“Devlin! Are you okay?” She touched his shoulder and he groaned and sat up, running a hand over his scalp, wincing at the large lump at the back. He’d bruised his hip and maybe cracked a rib when he’d crashed into the chair, but otherwise he was all right.

“I’m fine,” he said. “How about you?”

A trickle of blood ran down from her split lower lip, and he reached out and stroked it away with his thumb. His gaze shifted lower to take in the rest of her—there was a lot of creamy flesh on show. Seemingly impervious to that fact, she ran a hand over her rib cage and down over her arms and legs. “No damage.”

“Good.” He tugged up the fastener of her jumpsuit and sat back on his heels. At least his erection had subsided. “What the fuck just happened?”

Something flickered across her face. Something he couldn’t identify but which made his early warning danger system flare into life. Then she shrugged. “It’s your ship. You tell me.”

“Never happened before.” Not before Saffira and her winged friend had come on board.

“I told you, this universe is unstable. Maybe something hit us.”

“Hmmm.” He pushed himself to his feet, tensing, half-expecting to be tossed around again, but whatever had crashed into them was gone.

“Come on, let’s get to the bridge and find out what’s happening.”

…

Saffira’s mind was racing as she limped along after Devlin. He turned and scrutinized her out of narrowed eyes. “I thought you were unhurt?”

“It’s nothing.” She’d hit her ankle, but the damage was minimal.

They didn’t have to walk far. Just to the transporter bubble. “Bridge,” Devlin said and absolutely nothing happened. “Bridge,” he growled and thumped the wall with his fist when he got no response. “Looks like we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

He strode off and she hobbled after him. He turned again, heaved a sigh, waited for her to catch up, and picked her up in his arms as though she weighed nothing. She thought about arguing, but she reckoned this might be the only time she’d get to be carried, and at least she could pretend it was romantic.

She’d had her first orgasm. At least her first real one. She was finding it hard to believe, but Devlin had actually had his hands in her pants…in
her
. And it had felt amazing. Afterward, she’d been sure he was going to make love to her…okay, if she was honest, he was going to have sex with her. Heat washed through her at the thought.

And then…

It had felt like they’d been attacked by something. But what? The Old Ones? But they never actually did anything. No one had ever even seen them. Maybe something else had come through the black hole after the
Blood Hunter
, but surely the ship would have picked that up.

She just hoped that whatever it was wouldn’t interfere with Thorne’s plans—presuming he had come up with a plan. And she hoped the ship wasn’t damaged beyond repair. She needed this ship.

She shifted in Devlin’s arms and felt him wince. “Are you okay?”

“Cracked rib—it’s nothing. Here we are.” He’d come to a halt outside a set of double silver doors. “Open,” he said. Then, “Shit,” as he obviously remembered that the voice control didn’t work. He was just sliding her out of his arms when the doors opened and Tannis stood there.

“Thanks for joining us. About freaking time,” she said. “Get in here and tell me what the fuck just happened to my ship, which you told me half an hour ago was fit and ready to go.”

“She was.”

Devlin tightened his grip on her, strode through the door, and lightly deposited her on one of the line of chairs. Saffira glanced around. They were in another large room, but this one circular. The light was dim, she presumed from some sort of emergency power system. A wraparound screen covered half the walls all the way around. It showed the view from the ship and, for a few seconds, she sat staring. On one side, she could see down to the planet, pale ochre and almost featureless from here. She swiveled the chair around; the opposite side looked out onto the vastness of space. She could make out the black hole the
Blood Hunter
had come through and the tiny speck of the
Trakis One
. Beyond that, nothing but stars and ripples in space that she knew would be wormholes. Leading to who knows where or when. A sense of anticipation filled her. Somewhere out there was her destiny. Or part of her destiny.

She searched the room for Devlin and found him poised over a bank of screens. He flicked a switch and a 3-D image popped up in front of him. He studied it intently for a minute.

“Well? Tannis snapped.

“Well, she’s definitely fucked,” Devlin replied.

“Thanks for that technical update. I’m glad we waited for it.” She turned to where Rico slouched in the pilot’s seat. “Have you got anything useful to add?”

He gave a lazy shrug. “I must concur—she’s fucked. Totally unresponsive.”

“The thing is,” Devlin added, “I can’t see why.”

“You’re not filling me with confidence here,” Tannis said.

“There’s nothing wrong.” He flipped a few keys and the image shifted. “There’s no damage. What happened anyway? What hit us and why didn’t the proximity alarms go off?”

“The alarms didn’t go off because nothing hit us.”

“Felt like a head-on smash with a space cruiser. What else would have unbalanced her like that?”

“Well, you see, that’s what I was hoping you could tell me.”

“Nope. No clue. Where’s our esteemed leader of the whole universe? Maybe he can give us an insight.”

“I’m here,” Callum said from the doorway. As he entered the room, Thorne appeared behind him. Saffira searched his face, but as usual, could read nothing. He nodded to her, but must have seen something in her expression because he came on over.

“Are you okay?” He stroked a finger over her swollen lower lip.

“I’m fine, just a couple of bruises.”

“What’s happening?” he asked in a low voice.

“They’re trying to work out what hit us. Apparently nothing.” She pursed her lips. This was bad news. “We’ll never get them down to the planet if the ship’s broken.”

“No. But look on the bright side—it gives us a little time to work out how to persuade them.”

“I guess you’re right.”

They both turned to watch as Callum and Devlin conferred over the 3-D image of the ship. From here, she couldn’t hear their actual words but from both men’s expressions, she guessed they were heated. Finally, Devlin stepped back. “I’m going to check on the engines—see if I can find anything out.” Shoving his hands in his pockets, he strode to the door. He glanced at her as he exited and raised an eyebrow. She wanted to go with him, but she needed to talk to Thorne, and she broke the contact and glanced away. Devlin shrugged and left.

“How did you find Callum Meridian?” she asked Thorne.

“Different than I expected. More…human.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“For us? I don’t know.”

“If you get him on our side, will he help us?” There was a chance Thorne could get into his mind and either persuade him or, if all else failed, coerce him into helping them.

“He won’t betray the captain. He loves her.”

Saffira had known he cared for the captain. She’d seen it down on the planet. But love? All she knew of love was from her visions. Her people didn’t fall in love. What was the point? Once the original colonists had died out, all future matings had been controlled by the Others. In a way, it made sense because their numbers had been low and the genetic pool small. “Could you force him?”

“Perhaps, but I think it more likely his brain would snap before he succumbed.”

“Well, I suppose we don’t want to snap the brain of the Leader of the Universe.” She sighed. “So what now? Do we have a plan?”

“I’ll come up with something. At least we’re still orbiting the planet.” He studied her. “So what did you and Starke get up to?”

She gave a nonchalant shrug. “Nothing much. He kissed me…” Then he put his hand down my pants and made me come and…

“And…?” Thorne prompted.

“And you could say the world moved and he ended up flat on his back with me on top. Unfortunately, it wasn’t anything like in my visions.”

A smile flickered across his lips. She loved getting a response from Thorne. He’d spent too long among the Others and had almost lost his humanity. “I’m glad. Maybe you’ll forget about him now and concentrate on what matters.”

“Maybe I will.” But she knew she wouldn’t. One day she and Devlin would be together. She had to believe it.

Thorne wandered off to talk to Callum. They were so similar. Tall, handsome, with the huge black wings furled at their backs, and they exuded an almost palpable aura of power. Rico joined them and she allowed herself to just stare. While her heart belonged to Devlin—or at least the Devlin of her visions—she couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed.

“It’s like a huge testosterone overload, isn’t it? Makes you all shivery.”

Saffira glanced away from the small group as Daisy plonked herself in the seat beside her. “Definitely,” Saffira replied. “So Callum is with the captain, Rico is with the blond woman?”

“Skylar.”

“Is there any other crew?”

“Jon and Alex. But they left us before we came through the black hole. They’re werewolves.”

Her eyes stretched wide. “They’re what?”

“Werewolves.”

“I can’t believe this. Werewolves are real?”

“Well, if vampires are real”—Daisy waved a hand at the small group—“why not werewolves?”

Saffira could feel a frown tugging her brows together. “
Vampires
are real?”

Daisy grinned. “You didn’t know? Rico is a vampire.”

She swallowed. Too much information. But she couldn’t resist scrutinizing him. He sort of looked human, though he hadn’t while he’d been fighting. And he’d just about beaten one of the Others with his bare hands…and teeth. As though he could sense her scrutiny, he turned slowly to face them and raised a brow.

Beside her, Daisy pointed at her mouth.

Amusement flashed across his face, but he curled his lip revealing the tip of one sharp white fang.

“Kronus!” Saffira muttered.

Daisy laughed. “We’ve gotten so used to it that we hardly notice anymore.”

“And does he…you know, drink your blood?”

“No, the captain made him promise. Except for Skylar of course, but she enjoys it. Apparently, the bite of a vampire can be orgasmic just on its own.” She shivered. “Can you imagine?”

No, she couldn’t. She tried to think what it would be like and totally failed. Daisy’s expression was dreamy. “You like him?” she asked.

Daisy sighed. “I’ve had a huge crush on Rico since the day I came on board.”

“When was that?”

“Three years or so. They rescued my pod from deep space. The Church had attacked my home, killed my parents. I’d escaped, but the pod was damaged. I might have floated away forever if they hadn’t found me. Anyway, Rico was so cool and the best pilot ever and I’d always wanted to fly.”

“But he never, you know, tried anything?”

“No. I told you he promised the captain. Before Skylar, he used to pay women, but he told me once that he’s old—he doesn’t need to feed very often anymore.”

“How old?” He didn’t look old, maybe mid-thirties.

“About fifteen hundred or so.”

“What?” She did the math. “So he must have come from Earth.”

“He did. On the
Trakis Two
.”

“Wow.” She knew from her history lessons that a fleet of twenty-four ships, named the
Trakis One
to
Twenty-Four
, had left Earth seeking a safe, new world. But even knowing her history, this was a lot to take in. She looked back at Daisy. “You don’t seem too concerned about the ship.”

“Rico will get us out of this. Or the captain. We’ve been in worse situations and come out alive.” Sadness filled her eyes for a moment. “Or at least most of us did.” She jumped to her feet. “Come on, let’s go see if they’ve found anything.”

Saffira followed her across to the small group.

“Tell me,” Thorne was saying to Callum. “The explosion that knocked out my ship all those years ago, do you know what caused it?”

“Actually, it was last week,” Callum replied. “And yes, I know.” He shifted a little, obviously uncomfortable. “I did.”

Thorne’s eyes narrowed. “You did? How?”

“I blew up Trakis Seven.”

Saffira started in shock. “What? The whole planet, but why?”

“Because the Church had taken the
Blood Hunter
—well, the old
Blood Hunter
and were holding the crew hostage. That was their price. They killed Janey, our tech expert, and Tris, Devlin’s brother.”

So Devlin’s brother had died only days ago. No wonder the pain was still raw. “But why did the Church want the planet destroyed?”

“They wanted to cut off the Meridian supply, but in fact it was already finished.”

“Trakis Seven was the source of…Meridian?” Saffira asked. “That’s what you call the stuff that causes the change?”