Break Out

chapter Four

Skylar wondered how much longer they would keep her waiting. She tapped her foot, impatient to get moving.

Excitement fizzed in her blood. This was actually going to work. She would do it. She had to. The colonel had impressed upon her how important this mission was—she couldn’t fail. Her future depended upon it.

The door slid open. Ricardo Sanchez―Rico, as the captain had called him―stood in the opening. He didn’t enter but lounged against the frame, watching her. He was alone this time, and Skylar forced what she hoped was a bimbo smile onto her face.

He didn’t return the smile. He still wore the shades, so she couldn’t see his eyes, but his mouth remained a compressed line.

She got to her feet, needing to move. Maybe the plan wasn’t going so well after all.

“Mr. Sanchez—Rico—”

“Sit.”

Had she really thought his voice sounded like warm honey? That one word cut through the air like ice. She didn’t even have to think about it. She sat right down. Her lips were suddenly dry, and she ran the tip of her tongue over them.

“Is there a problem?” she asked and decided that the squeak in her voice was quite allowable within the parameters of her character.

He strolled into the room, one hand resting on the laser pistol at his thigh, and came to a halt in front of her chair, far too close. He was tall. And broad. And menacing. She licked her lips again.

“Just a small one.”

“Well, I’m sure we can sort it out.” When Rico didn’t rush to agree with her, she decided to give the bimbo smile another try. Her dry lips stretched across her teeth in what she hoped would bring an answering smile from Rico.

He grinned, but for some reason it didn’t make Skylar feel any better at all. “Oh, I’m sure we can.” His smile broadened and the tip of one white fang showed briefly.

Skylar’s heart stopped. Then started again, so loudly she could hear the blood thundering in her veins.

Holy Meridian. What the hell was this guy?

Her mind flashed back to the rumors she’d heard about him, rumors she had ignored as too ludicrous to even consider. Just stories dredged up from the past.

She forced herself to take a deep breath. He could be any number of things. One rather large tooth did not mean he was a….

He reached up and slipped the shades from his eyes. His gaze locked with hers, and ice-cold prickles skittered down her spine. She’d been in some perilous situations in her time in the military, had faced off against some of the scariest bad asses in the known universe. But they’d all been human—or mostly human. Nothing had ever chilled her like the darkness she sensed lurking behind his eyes.

“Er—I just have to pop back to my shuttle for a moment.” She stumbled to her feet. “I forgot to—”

She closed her mouth as he continued to stare at her out of those crimson eyes. Who, or rather what, had eyes the color of blood?

He reached out a hand, placed one finger on her shoulder, and pushed her down.

Skylar collapsed onto the chair but decided that wasn’t so bad. She doubted her legs would have held her much longer anyway.

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember her training. What to do if caught. What to do if facing torture. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to mind.

Concentrate.

She could turn off her pain receptors, but not many people were capable of that sort of neural control and it would give her away. Unless she could pretend she was feeling pain, but somewhere along the way she’d lost faith in her acting abilities.

So, keep the pain receptors on? That didn’t seem such a good option either, but probably the higher chance of success. While she didn’t like pain, she could deal with it.

Taking a few deep breaths, she pushed her fear to the back of her mind.

She knew they wanted the money. She’d seen the greed in the captain’s eyes. She just had to hope that they wanted the money more than Rico wanted—

Again, her mind refused to finish the sentence. After all, she didn’t actually know what he wanted.

He licked his lips, ran his tongue over one sharp white fang, and stepped towards her.

Okay. She didn’t know, but her mind was doing a good job of guessing. Or a bad job.

She shook her head, took another deep breath, and sat up straight. She studied him quickly. His whole figure radiated tension, and a predatory hunger lurked behind his eyes. She had to find a way to diffuse the situation. What would work?

“So,” she said and was proud of how normal her voice came out, “this problem… Are you going to tell me what it is, or are you just going to stand over me and drool?”

Surprise flashed across his face. He grinned again, and this time some of the lethal energy eased from him. The atmosphere in the room changed instantly, and he stepped back, sank into the chair opposite, and rested his booted feet on the small table between them. He didn’t put the glasses back on but sat regarding her, head cocked to one side.

She held herself still, running a relaxation mantra through her mind, and finally her fingers uncurled and her breathing returned to normal.

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re a cool one.”

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t be?”

“Oh, plenty of reasons.”

A shiver ran through her at the dark promise in his voice.

“The problem?” she prompted.

He shrugged. “I don’t believe a word of your story.”

“Why?”

He ignored her question. “And you’re way too cool for someone who must suspect she’s in big, big trouble.”

Cool? She couldn’t remember being this frightened—ever. Maybe she was a good actress after all.

“What makes you think I’m lying?”

His eyes ran over her, lingering on the swell of her breasts. “Believe me, I’ve met a few space tramps in my time, and you do not fit the mold.”

What’s wrong with me?

She bit her tongue to keep from asking the question.

He sat up and leaned toward her. “Who are you working for?”

“I’m not working for anyone.”

He sighed. “Look, we can make this relatively pain-free. Or—”

He paused dramatically, and Skylar rolled her eyes. “Or what? You’ll torture me?”

“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of eating you.”

Instead of fear, that thought conjured up some rather interesting possibilities, and she squirmed in the seat. “Ugh,” she said in case he’d noticed.

He laughed and relaxed back in his chair. “Who are you working for?”

Skylar sighed. There were some occasions when only the truth would do—but was this one of them?

“Okay, I lied,” she said. “But not about everything.”

She hesitated. She knew interrogators were more likely to believe you if they had to work for the information.

“Yes—?” he prompted.

“I do want you to extract a prisoner from Trakis One. And they have scheduled him for transfer to the mines in ten days. But he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Who is he?”

“My brother.”

He frowned. “Why would you lie about that?”

“Because I didn’t think you would take the job if I told you the truth.”

“Honey,” he said, “boyfriend, brother, it makes no damn difference to me. And you’re making no sense but you’d better start soon.”

“He’s not a bank robber.” She paused again.

“Dios mio,” Rico muttered. “I think I might torture you after all. Will you get on with it?”

She bit her lip. “He’s a member of the Rebel Coalition, and he’s being held for the assassination of Collective member Aiden Ross. You must have heard about it.”

“Ahh.”

She was certain, from that one word, that she had him. The Rebel Coalition usually had no fight with the Collective. Their goal was to bring down the Church of Everlasting Life. But Aiden Ross had been an advocate of the Church, and a supporter of some of its more radical activities, including the slaughter of millions of ‘abominations’, as the Church referred to anyone with less than one hundred percent human DNA. By destroying him, the rebels hoped to discourage any future collaboration. Skylar doubted they’d done any such thing. More likely, the Collective would now go all-out to exterminate the rebels, but that was beside the point. “I knew you wouldn’t go up against the Collective. Nobody will.”

“So why don’t his rebel buddies break him out?”

“I went to them, but they wouldn’t do it. They said that nobody had ever broken out of Trakis One, and they weren’t going to waste good credits trying.”

“Nice friends.” He regarded her closely. “I’m suspecting there’s more.”

She nodded. “I had to find a way to get Jonny out. He’s my baby brother, and I’ve always looked after him.” His eyes were no longer crimson but had darkened to the color of bitter chocolate. She was sure he believed her. “I’ve got good contacts. We’ve been part of the Rebel Coalition for years—ever since our parents were murdered during the Purge.” She wondered whether a few tears would go down well at this point, but decided against it. “We gave them our whole lives and they abandoned Jonny. I knew I couldn’t rescue him alone, that I’d have to pay somebody to help me. So I stole some money from them.”

“How?”

“It was easy. I’m quite high in the hierarchy—I have access to funding.”

“That’s where the money in the account came from?”

She nodded again. “Now the Coalition is after me, and I can’t go to anyone I know. I had to find someone who wasn’t tied to either the Collective or the rebels.”

“What about the Church of Everlasting Life? The high priests will often go against the Collective just to piss them off.”

She shook her head. “Not this time. Aiden Ross was their strongest supporter in the Collective. Anyway, they won’t work overtly against the Collective. The Church is powerful, but only because the Collective allows it to be—they know that. Besides, they wouldn’t help Jonny. He’s a known rebel and a GM. You know how the Church feels about the experiments. They’d put him down rather than save him.”

Skylar held his gaze, willing her features into a pleading semblance. When his shoulders appeared to soften, she was careful not to let the corners of her mouth turn up.

. . .

She gazed up at him with those huge eyes, and Rico frowned. The interview hadn’t gone as expected.

The problem was—he liked her.

He’d expected her to fold immediately, maybe cry, but he’d been basing that presumption on her appearance. Stupid, when he’d already concluded she was not the tart she’d portrayed. She was tough, and toughness was one of the few traits he admired.

The other problem was—he believed her.

Her story made sense. The vast majority of people would not go against the Collective. A black mark in its books meant absolutely no chance of the Meridian treatment even if you could afford the exorbitant prices. And everyone lived in hope of somehow finding the money and gaining immortality.

Everyone except him, of course.

Rico spoke into the comm unit. “Tannis?”

“What?”

“Are you getting this?”

“No. I’ve gone deaf all of a sudden. Of course, I’m getting it. You want me down there?”

He sighed. “Yeah.”

“Aww, poor Rico. Fun time over?”

“Maybe.” He glanced across at Skylar where she sat nibbling on her succulent lower lip. He’d known she was afraid, but he was also aware it wasn’t only fear she felt. He could scent her arousal, the sweet muskiness making him shift in his chair as his body hardened in response. “Or maybe not.”

He sat back and tried to detect any flaws in her story while he waited for Tannis to join them.

There was one thing about the story he didn’t understand. “Your brother,” he said to Skylar, “how did he do it? No one’s ever managed to kill one of the Collective before.”

“I don’t know. He never shared the details with me.”

“Hmm, very convenient. I heard he managed to completely destroy the DNA, making reconstruction impossible. I’m betting the Collective weren’t too happy about that.”

He’d also bet they’d be sending their own private army after anyone attempting to free the killer. And nobody wanted to be targeted by the Corps, not even Rico.

Tannis strode in before he could ask any more questions. She ignored Skylar and perched on the seat next to Rico. Her eyes shone with excitement—the prospect of money always had that effect on her.

“I think you’re going soft, Rico.”

He grinned. “Honey, if you can find one soft spot on my body right now, you get another chance at that right fang.”

Her eyes drifted over his body, lingering on the bulge in his pants. She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ever think of anything else?”

“Sometimes. But not often. So, what do you think?”

Tannis studied Skylar. “Do you believe her?”

“It makes sense. Not many people would go up against the Collective. Hell. Are you sure you want to? It’ll end your chances of getting the treatment if they find out.”

He knew Tannis’ ultimate aim was immortality, though he had serious doubts about how she would fit in with the Collective. No one, outside the Collective, knew how Meridian worked. The treatment appeared to have no outward physical effects other than turning the eyes a deep, inhuman violet, but it altered something fundamental inside the mind, forming a tight bond with the rest of the group. And Tannis was a loner.

She’d actually make a much better vampire than a Collective member. He bit back a grin as he attempted to visualize Tannis as a sex-crazed predator. It would almost be worth the risk of changing her just to see how she’d cope with that. In all the time he’d known her, she’d never taken a lover.

But Rico hadn’t changed anyone in over a thousand years, and he had no intention of doing so now.

“That might be true,” Tannis said. “But I’ll have no chance of getting the treatment if I don’t get the money. So we’ll just have to make sure they don’t find out.”

“The job’s still virtually impossible.”

As far as he was aware, no one had ever escaped the prison on Trakis One. Security was top of the range, as the prison held mostly the Collective’s prisoners, many incarcerated for attempting to break into the Meridian stores. It seemed ironic to Rico that most of them ended up surrounded by the stuff, laboring in the mines on Trakis Seven. Instead of the immortality they sought, they got a reduced lifespan due to overexposure—if they were lucky, they lasted two years. Though maybe lucky wasn’t the right word to use—he’d heard their slow death was far from pleasant.

Tannis interrupted his thoughts. “No job’s impossible. I say we go for it.”

Rico got up and paced the room. The prospect of an impossible job at least sounded a little bit more interesting than the smuggling jobs Tannis normally took on.

Skylar sat in her chair, hands clenched on her lap. “So you’ll do it?” she asked. “You’ll get Jonny back for me?”

Rico came to stand over her. This position gave him the perfect view of her cleavage, and the hunger rose inside him. The darkness had drawn back, the need to feed and kill receded until it was no more than a background buzz, but that didn’t mean he no longer wanted to taste her.

“Under certain conditions.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What conditions?”

“Well, you see, the problem is—money alone doesn’t interest me. So if I do this I want a reward.”

Tannis coughed behind him. He was quite aware how much money interested her. “A reward as well as the money,” he added.

“What do you want?” Skylar’s eyes narrowed.

“You, of course.”

“Me?” It came out as a squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Me? I’m not sure I follow. Just how do you want me?

He smiled with a flash of fangs. “Every way there is, darling.”

. . .

Skylar licked her lips and stared into his eyes. She knew what he meant, and instead of the expected fear and revulsion, heat curled in the pit of her stomach. She took a deep breath. “Isn’t that sort of fatal?”

“Not necessarily.”

Not exactly a comforting answer, but did she have a choice?

“You get little Jonny for me first. Afterward…” she trailed off.

“Afterward,” he agreed, and she relaxed.

A small flicker of apprehension nudged at her mind, but she ignored it. She’d promised herself she’d do whatever was needed to get the job done. Besides, his crude demand for a “reward” eased her conscience slightly; once ‘little Jonny’ was out she doubted Rico would be in a position to collect anything.

Minutes later, they left, and Skylar stood alone, staring at the closed door. It seemed the job was back on track. If not quite as originally planned.

At least this way she could get out of this dress and these ludicrous high heels. The sooner the better. She crossed to the door and pressed her palm to the pad, but it didn’t respond. She had a momentary flash of panic, but she forced it down. They were just being cautious—they were unlikely to give her a free run of the ship until they trusted her a little more.

She went back to her seat and pressed the comm link.

Tannis answered. “Yes.”

“I was wondering if I could go back to my shuttle. Pick up some stuff. Get changed.”

“No problem. I’ll send someone to escort you.”

. . .

Skylar frowned down at the small figure standing in the open doorway, hands shoved in the pocket of his baggy pants. He wasn’t what she’d expected. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected. After all, so far she’d met a hybrid and a—she stopped short, her mind still refusing to say the word. Anyway, this one appeared almost normal, like an ordinary young boy, though with his mop of dark red hair, skinny figure, and huge gray eyes, he seemed far too young to be on this sort of ship, exposed to these sorts of people.

“He’s a vampire, you know.” The boy spoke for the first time.

Skylar scowled. “Actually, I was sort of in denial about that bit, but thanks for spelling it out for me.”

The boy cocked his head to one side and examined her. “I just thought you should know. There might still be time for you to get off before he eats you.”

“I’m sure he’s not going to eat me,” Skylar replied. Actually, she wasn’t sure at all. Hadn’t she just agreed to let him?

“He always eats the pretty ones.”

“Always?”

He nodded solemnly. “I can stay outside when you get to your shuttle. I’ll tell them that you overpowered me. Maybe you could hit me or something, make it look like you knocked me out. You might get away.”

“Just who are you?”

“I’m Al, the cabin boy.”

“Well, Al, I don’t want to escape. Your captain’s going to help me save my little brother.”

“Oh. Well maybe the captain will keep you safe. She keeps the crew safe.”

“And who keeps Tannis safe?” Skylar couldn’t help the question. She’d been wondering about Rico’s relationship with his captain ever since she’d met them.

“Nobody,” Al replied. “Tannis can beat any old vampire.”

She could detect a good measure of hero-worship in his words.

Skylar shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, but no can do. I told you, they’re going to help me save my brother.”

“It must be nice having a brother,” Al said, his tone wistful.

She heard the longing in his voice. “Do you have any family? Do they know where you are?”

“No. I’m an orphan.”

He sounded so forlorn that Skylar had to resist the urge to hug him. Instead, she followed him back the way she’d come.

“I’ll wait for you out here,” Al said at the entrance to her shuttle. “I’m to take you to the bridge afterward. The captain wants to talk to you.”

In the privacy of her shuttle, Skylar kicked off the ridiculous shoes and stripped off the dress, tossing it on the floor and heaving a huge sigh of relief. She pulled on a black jumpsuit made of a strong yet supple material and long boots, strapped a laser pistol to her waist, and began to feel almost normal. Finally, she pulled off the wig and ran a hand through her short blond hair.

When she came out of the shuttle, Al peered behind her as if looking for the “pretty” one, and she grinned.

Skylar had never been anyone’s idea of a “reward” before, and while her mind might balk at being treated like a pleasure provider, another part of her—mainly the part between her breasts and her knees—was secretly thrilled.

With her no-nonsense, military demeanor, she’d always had a tendency to intimidate men, and she’d found that useful. The laser pistol didn’t hurt either. Now, Skylar couldn’t wait to see if the sexy pilot was as easily frightened off.

In all likelihood, Rico would take one look at her and decide he didn’t want that reward after all.