Rico relaxed in his seat and pursed his lips as if considering whether he should answer. Then he shrugged. “From Earth.”
“But how did they get here? The places on the ships leaving Earth were limited.”
“I know. Twenty-four ships each carrying ten thousand Chosen Ones—the hope of the human race—each person selected by a totally rigged lottery system.”
“So?”
“Well there were a few of us excluded from the lottery, and we didn’t think that was fair. So we took matters into our own hands.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you were actually on Earth? You’re that old?”
“One thousand five hundred and ninety-six to be precise.”
Callum did the math. “You must have been born in the Middle Ages.” His mind reeled, and he forced himself back to the topic, but one day he’d love a long chat with the vampire. What had the Earth been like all those years ago?
“When you say ‘we’ do you mean more vampires?”
“Vampires, werewolves, a few other things you might hope never to meet.”
“Nice friends you have,” Skylar commented.
Rico cast her a grin. “They weren’t exactly friends—you could say we came together for a common cause. Anyhow, we needed a ship, so we approached one of the captains and made him an offer.”
“An offer?”
“In exchange for dumping half his load of Chosen Ones and replacing them with our little group, I would give him immortality.”
Shock hit Callum in the gut. “You turned the captain of one of the Trakis ships into a vampire?”
“I did, and it was one of the worst mistakes I ever made. Not that we had much choice—we did our research and Bastian was the only one who came up a possibility. You flyboys were such a load of goddamn heroes.”
“Fucking hell. You’re talking about Sebastian Faulk. Captain Faulk of the…” He trailed off as the implications filtered through his mind.
“Captain Faulk of the Trakis Two,” Rico finished for him. “Yup, that was Bastian. I take it you knew him.”
Callum found this hard to believe. He’d known Sebastian, though they’d never been friends, just coworkers—the guy had been a complete dick. “We trained together. All the crews did in the years before we left. What happened to him? I take it he was alive until recently.”
“Yeah. Rico staked him a few weeks ago.”
Callum frowned. “Why? I mean—why now—after all this time?”
Rico gave him a slow smile that curled his lips, revealing the tips of his sharp white fangs. “Because he pissed me off.”
A shiver of primordial fear trickled down Callum’s spine. Occasionally, it was possible to forget what Rico was. Now wasn’t one of those times. Despite the relaxed outward appearance, there was a darkness in the vampire, kept under rigid control, but there nevertheless. Callum refused to be intimidated. Again.
He returned the smile. “I’ll have to make sure there are no stakes around next time I annoy you.”
Because he was pretty sure if they spent time together, he was going to piss Rico off.
Rico grinned. “Good idea. Waste of time with you anyway.”
…
“We should be safe here for a couple of days,” Tannis said. “We just need to keep a low profile until your person turns up.”
“I need to go into the city,” Callum said.
“Not a chance. This isn’t a freaking holiday. I’m going into Pleasure City with Janey and Skylar. We need some supplies, and we can check how hot things are. If there’s nothing happening, the rest of you can go in later. But not you,” she said to Callum.
“Why not me?”
She gave him a look as though he was mad and waved at his wings. “Because there’s a reward out for your return and you’re hardly inconspicuous.”
Though she was right, he still needed to go. He’d made a promise to the colonel. He would keep a low profile, slip into the city, and out again before anyone noticed he was there.
Folding his arms across his chest, he sat back but didn’t say anything further.
…
Tannis actually liked Pleasure City—she wouldn’t have wanted to live there, but the occasional visit was fun. The place was vibrant, full of color and noise. She’d even done some shopping. Janey had appeared slightly perplexed when she’d told her she wanted help picking new clothes—well, it was a first.
But she had bad news for the rest of the crew. Unfortunately, when they arrived back, there was no one around to give it to. The ship appeared curiously quiet as she strolled onto the bridge.
Alex and Jon had shifted and gone out to do whatever werewolves did in the dark—she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Rico had warned them to be careful. Jon had just grinned and they’d headed off into the perpetual night.
Tannis had left everyone else with instructions not to leave the ship until she returned. Only the promise that they could have a trip into the city if all was clear had kept the crew from mutiny.