Rico coughed loudly. Devlin released her hand, but slowly, his fingers sliding against hers, before focusing on the vampire. His eyes narrowed as though he couldn’t quite place who or what he was. Which was unsurprising. Not many people had come across a vampire before, and even less knew what they were facing. A few sensed the difference, that there was something not quite right, but most assumed he must be some form of GM.
“This is Ricardo Sanchez,” the Trog said. “Owner and pilot of El Cazador.”
“Rico is fine,” Rico said and thrust out his hand. Devlin took it but the contact was brief, and Rico raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to tell me I’m nice?” he asked.
Shit, Rico was going to be an asshole. Tannis sighed and waited, not even considering trying to deter him. When Rico wanted to be a dick, nothing was going to stop him.
But Devlin just smiled. “I suspect ‘nice’ isn’t a word used to describe you often.” He studied Rico, his head tilted to one side. “What are you?”
Rico grinned, flashing the tips of his sharp white fangs. “Guess?”
“Jesus,” Devlin muttered. “Nice friends you’ve got, Tris.”
“They’ve been good to me,” the Trog said.
Devlin pursed his lips but then nodded abruptly. “Why don’t we sit down and you can tell me just what you think we can do for you, and why the hell we should do it.”
He sank into a chair and rested one booted foot across his thigh, leaned back, and gestured to the empty seats around him.
Tannis took the seat opposite, Rico sat beside her, and the Trog took the chair next to his brother. Tannis tried to get her ideas together. Having met the man, she had to decide what was the best approach.
Direct, she decided as his fingers started tapping on the arm of his chair.
“We want you to help us intercept a ship.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Because it belongs to the Church, and you hate the Church.”
“Indeed I do. Tell me the rest.”
“There’s actually more than one ship. There’s the one we want destroyed and then five more guarding the main target. They’re all Mark One cruisers and heavily armed.”
“Where are they heading?”
“To Trakis Seven. Their aim is to destroy the planet, and the Collective’s source of Meridian.”
“And so destroy their power base and no doubt wrest control from the Collective. I heard they’re in chaos. Callum Meridian is missing and…” He broke off and frowned, then pressed the switch on his wrist and a small screen appeared. He read for a minute and then turned back to them. “I thought I recognized the name, El Cazador. It’s the ship that supposedly kidnapped Callum Meridian from Trakis Four.”
“We did not kidnap Callum Meridian.”
“Pity. I would have liked a chance to get at the bastard.”
Great, just great.
She decided to move past the subject of Callum for now. Time enough for that later. “So will you help us?”
“I might.” He got up and paced the room, moving with a feline grace that Tannis found very easy to watch. “I’ll need to get my inner circle to sign off on this, but I think they’ll go for it.” He glanced at his brother. “But I’m getting the distinct feeling that you haven’t told me everything yet. Tris? Anything else you want to add?”
The Trog glanced toward her, a question in his eyes, and she nodded. There was no point in trying to keep secrets if they wanted this man’s cooperation.
“There are two members of the Collective on board El Cazador,” Tris said.
Actually, there were technically three, if you included Venna, though if she stayed on her own shuttle…she supposed two was accurate enough.
“One is an ex-intelligence officer with the Corps—”
“Ex?” Devlin interrupted. “I thought once in, they never left.”
“Skylar’s different. But I trust her, she’s good people.”
Devlin ran a finger down the scar on his cheek. “You do know how I got this don’t you?”
Tris shook his head. But Tannis had a good idea.
“The fucking Corps. Set an ambush and nearly finished me off. They’re not my favorite people.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and scowled down at them. “And the other?”
The Trog grinned. “The other is Callum Meridian.”
“What? I thought you said you didn’t kidnap him.”
“We didn’t kidnap him. We’re working for him.”
His eyes narrowed, the greeny-gold icing over, and for the first time she saw the man who was the Collective’s “most wanted dead” terrorist. A little shiver ran through her.
“Let me get this straight,” he said, his tone equally icy. “You want me to help you do some sort of job for Callum Meridian?”
“Not exactly.”
“So explain.”
Tannis shrugged one shoulder. “Callum Meridian has employed us to take him to Trakis Seven. We’re not going to be able to do that if the Church blow the planet up before we get there. So we’re not asking you to help us take him there. We’re asking you to stop the Church from blowing up Trakis Seven. And you get to kill a few Church people in the meantime. What’s the big deal? Who do you hate the most, the Church, or Callum Meridian?