Born of Ice

Trusting strangers wasn’t easy for most people. In all honesty, he envied her that suspicious nature. Blind trust had gotten him screwed more times than he could count.

All right, Alix. Keep your secrets. So long as they don’t threaten the crew, I’ll let you live.



Alix sat on her bed, dreading what she was going to have to do—scan the ship’s logs looking for proof of Devyn’s criminal activities, then transmit them to Merjack. But honestly, she was scared of being caught. What would they do to her?

Kill you.

Most likely. It’ll probably be brutal, too. They might even feed you to the dog.

He doesn’t have a dog.

Yeah, well, he might get one just to feed you to it.

She’d never been the kind of person to let something as ridiculous as rational logic interfere with her fear. And while she sat in indecision, her parched throat begged for something to drink.

Well, she didn’t have much choice. She had to go find something to drink before the dehydration made her sick.

She got up and decided to try the bridge first. If her luck held, Sway or Vik would be there, and Devyn would have gone on to do something else.

Reaching the door, she pushed the touch-activated lock. The portal opened and she sighed in disgust. Since when had luck ever been on her side? Devyn stood to her right, leaning over a panel where he worked. He glanced up at her. “I’m glad you’re here. I thought I was going to have to wake you.”

Alix frowned at his tone, which landed somewhere between frustration and relief. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve got a fluctuation in the radiation shielding and I think gamma rays are leaking in. Vik can’t pinpoint it.”

Alix’s eyes widened. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. Stepping up to the panel, she ran over the gauges. They had pulled out of hyperspace and were traveling at fifty-percent light speed. She glanced over the diagnostic test Devyn was running and saw the leak.

“Out of curiosity, where did Vik go? I haven’t seen him since we launched.”

“He’s plugged into the ship.” Devyn looked up. “Vik, say hi to the lady.”

“Must I when I’m trying to find a leak? Contrary to your beliefs, just because I’m a mecha, I’m not immune to it. It could melt my wiring as easily as it can mutate you.”

Devyn rolled his eyes. “He’s a surly bastard. You’ll get used to him.”

She wasn’t too sure about that, and if he was part of the ship, that made her job a lot harder. Vik would know the instant she started pulling up data on Devyn. “So where’s the shield’s power source?”

“I’ll show you.” Devyn led her back to the corridor.

Halfway down the hall, he stopped and pushed the controls for a lift to the lower deck. “The air gets a bit thin. If you start getting sick, let me know.”

“Believe me, if I start getting sick, you’ll be the first to know since I’m sure it’ll be all over you.”

Without responding to her sarcasm, he stepped into the lift. Alix followed, but quickly wished she hadn’t. The small compartment forced them together in an intimate proximity she found horribly unsettling. She bit her lip and tried not to brush up against his hard, muscular body. All too well, she remembered how it felt to be in his arms.

“When did you notice the leak?” she asked, trying to distract herself from those thoughts about him.

“A few minutes ago. I was about to buzz your room for you to come investigate this.” He looked down at her and smiled. “So what brought you out?”

She licked her dry lips. “Dehydration.”

A deep frown creased his brow. “Why didn’t you say something before I brought you down here?”

The anger in his voice startled her. “Why are you growling at me?”

“I don’t know. I’m frustrated, and you should have told me you were thirsty. That’s not something to play around with out here.” For such a reasonable response, the tone of his voice wavered on violence.

“Well, I’d rather die of thirst than radiation poisoning. I daresay it’s less painful.”

Devyn relaxed a little. “I guess you’re right.”

Alix stared up at him. Never in her life had she been so attracted to a man. Maybe the knowledge that she couldn’t have him caused the strong attraction. Or was it his feral reputation that enticed her so? She knew he was capable of killing anyone who got in his way . . .

Especially her.

Whatever the source of her attraction, all she wanted was to taste his lips and feel his arms around her once again.

With a soft whir, the door opened. Relieved, Alix walked out first. Stepping past her, Devyn led her to the engineering room and punched in a sequence of keys to open the door. “The code to enter the room is ClAria 1-8-4-9-3. Capital on the C and the middle A.”

A wave of disappointment ran through her at the mention of a woman’s name and the note of obvious affection in his voice when he spoke of her. Was that the woman Merjack had said she favored? “Claria?”