“Meeting in the conference room in half an hour,” a brusque voice barked. “Be there.”
“Where—” But the comm was cut off abruptly.
Why did he get the impression nobody on this ship liked him?
Clearly, they were the type to hold grudges. He didn’t give a toss whether they liked him or not as long as they did what he paid them to do. But he realized that wasn’t entirely true. There was one member of the crew he wanted to like him.
An image of the captain flashed in his mind. Though she’d told him she didn’t mix business with pleasure, he would have to persuade her otherwise. From her reaction to his kiss, he had some work to do. For once, he was going to have to exert himself for what he wanted. The idea had a certain novelty value.
…
“You’re late,” Tannis snapped.
Callum had wandered around the goddamn ship for what seemed like an age. He hadn’t found the galley and was still hungry. He had only found this place because he’d pushed his way into Skylar’s mind and asked for directions. He’d guessed she hadn’t been pleased by the intrusion. Hard Luck. They should have sent somebody to escort him. And given him some goddamn food.
The room was big and airy. The decor, like the rest of the ship, black and silver. He quickly counted the people. Five. He reckoned this must be the whole crew on board, except for the ship’s engineer who, from the reports he’d read, appeared to be some sort of recluse. The assassin and his little priestess were obviously elsewhere—he’d seen no sign of them.
His gaze was drawn first to Tannis leaning against the far wall, arms folded across her chest, one booted foot tapping the floor. She briefly caught his eye and looked away.
He moved on to the vampire, Ricardo Sanchez, owner and pilot of the ship, with Skylar next to him, one hand resting on his thigh as if to restrain him.
Finally, two women. One he didn’t recognize. She was beautiful, well dressed, with dark red hair. The other was the green girl, Daisy. She was the only one who appeared pleased to see him. She had a wide grin on her face and waggled her fingers in his direction.
The vampire shook off Skylar’s hand and stood in one fluid move. He stalked toward Callum, moving with the lithe grace of a predator, and suddenly Callum was afraid. His mouth went dry, and every brain cell screamed at him to run. Rico was dressed all in black, with a pistol at his thigh and an honest-to-God sword at his back. But it wasn’t the weapons that caused Callum’s heart rate to speed up, it was the fact that the vampire was snarling, one corner of his upper lip curling to reveal a razor-sharp fang.
He came to a halt in front of Callum, drew back his fist, and punched him in the face.
Chapter Three
Callum heard the crunch of bone as his nose broke. Pain flooded his face, and his mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. He swallowed and looked around to see if anyone was going to help him. Only the green girl appeared alarmed—well the grin was gone at least. Skylar looked resigned and shrugged when she caught his gaze. The redhead was studying her nails. Tannis hadn’t moved—she certainly wasn’t rushing to his rescue. He was on his own. Something told him that he couldn’t back down now. If he showed just a little of the fear he was feeling, his credibility would be lost forever, but no way could he win this fight. He would be lucky to survive it.
He forced his gaze to the vampire and decided he wanted a gun, a big fucking gun.
“That’s for messing with Skylar’s head,” Rico growled. “And this is for kissing Tannis.”
The fist flew again. This time it landed on his chest, and he went down under the force of the blow. He lay unmoving for a minute. God, that hurt as though his chest had caved in. Bloody vampire—he had an urge to sack the whole lot of them right now. Except if he did that, they might just dump him out of the airlock without a spacesuit.
He pushed himself onto one elbow and stared the vampire in the eyes. “Finished?” he snarled and called up the power from deep inside him, allowed it to glow from his eyes.
A flash of surprise crossed Rico’s face.
Tannis moved at last to stand in front of the vampire, hands on her hips. She looked annoyed. Maybe she did like him, after all. “Great, just great, Rico. Why don’t you tell the whole freaking ship that he kissed me?”
And maybe she didn’t. She was just annoyed the vampire had told everyone he’d kissed her. But why had she told the vampire?
Rico didn’t answer. He looked down at where Callum lay. “Yeah, I’ve finished. For now.”
Callum staggered to his feet and shook his head, spraying blood from his broken nose around the room.