Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

I let myself relax back into the closeness of him. “I understand,” I whispered. “I’m worried too. Seeing Galo in the hallway—I feel like I keep putting people in harm’s way. Orion would never have been able to make you go, if it wasn’t for me,” I admitted, pushing away tears. I didn’t want him to see how much it was getting to me. I was stronger than this, but at this moment, I didn’t feel it. In fact, I’d never felt so scared and vulnerable, fearing for the lives of those I cared about. If I messed up on Vysanthe, it wasn’t just Navan and I that I’d have to worry about—it was everyone on Earth. Everyone I loved. Angie, Lauren, Roger, Jean… All of them.

“Galo will be okay,” Navan promised, though I didn’t know whether or not he was saying it just to comfort me. “They’ll likely keep him to trade for one of their own, if the Fed were to capture a rebel coldblood.”

“Sometimes, there are things worse than death,” I reminded him, thinking of the chip in my neck, and the power Orion now wielded over me. Over us both.

Slowly, Navan lifted my head up, forcing me to look in his eyes. There was an oath in them, a promise that everything was going to be all right. It must have been hard for him to appear so confident, when I knew the insecurity he felt when it came to protecting other people. It stemmed from losing his sister, Naya, even though her death hadn’t been his fault.

Gratitude swelled in my heart for him, that he was being so strong for me. Seizing the moment, I looped my arms around his neck, my hands running through his hair, and pulled him to me, my lips crushing against his in a desperate kiss. Fireworks went off inside me, my mind emptying of everything but him. I wanted to feel his warmth surrounding me, strengthening my resolve for what was to come. This had to be worth fighting for, right?

It was frantic, his hands on my hips, running up the curves of my waist, bringing me as close to him as possible. His kisses weren’t soft or delicate, but that wasn’t what I wanted anyway. I wanted passion and fire, to remind me I was alive. As his mouth fell to my neck, planting fierce kisses along the fragile skin of my throat, I knew how easy it would be for him to taste the blood that ran in my veins. He never would, but the thought crossed my mind. My pulse quickened as his lips returned to mine, his tongue exploring my mouth. I felt the world fall away. It was just me and Navan, unified.

Like this, we could take on anything Orion and Vysanthe had in store.



About an hour later, the door burst open to reveal two guards. I had been sitting next to Navan, holding him, and immediately drew away, but the smug look on the faces of the two coldbloods told me they already knew what had been going on between us. Feeling my cheeks flush, I scowled at them, determined not to let them sully what Navan and I had.

“The ship’s ready,” one of them said.

“Best not keep them waiting,” the other added, flashing a fanged grin in my direction.

With that, Navan took my hand and led me out of the room, following the two guards through a labyrinth of hallways. We exited through a seemingly innocuous door, out into the bright light and fresh air of the real world. I had never been so glad to draw crisp oxygen into my lungs, or see the sun gleaming overhead, casting its warming rays down through the invisible barrier of the compound and onto my face.

The gentle caress of a light breeze on my skin felt almost heavenly. It seemed I would get to take one last look at Earth, before I left it… for who knew how long. There was a good chance I would never make it back.

“What if this all goes wrong?” I whispered urgently, gripping Navan’s hand.

There was a gleaming ship, similar in structure to Navan’s Soraya, standing in the middle of the open expanse of ground, the shimmering, liquid-metallic surface shifting beneath the light of the sun’s rays. It was all getting too real now. Never in a million years had I thought I’d leave Earth. A painfully short time ago, such a thing hadn’t been possible for someone like me. An astronaut maybe, after years and years of training, but not me.

“I’ll make it work. Trust me,” Navan replied, so casually I wanted to scream. How could he be so calm, in the face of something so life altering? I had a feeling he was doing it to spare my feelings, to show he was confident of our success, but that just led me to wonder what he was really thinking, beneath that stoic fa?ade.

As promised, there were four coldbloods and two shifters waiting on the field in front of the ship, their eyes all turned toward us. I shuddered at the sight of the shapeshifters in their natural form, their pale flesh hanging from their limbs like melted pools of skin. I quickly looked elsewhere, taking in the faces of the four coldbloods. Lazar was there, though I couldn’t say it was particularly nice to see his familiar face. The other three were burly males with the same shaven buzzcut, though one had a shock of white-blond hair, while the other two had jet black. Three sets of impenetrable, dark eyes looked over me, making my skin crawl.

“Welcome aboard the Asterope,” Lazar announced, gesturing at the ship behind him.

Pressing a button on the side of the ship, Lazar prompted a gangway to slide out from the underbelly of the vessel, as a door shot upward with a click. With no time to waste, everyone entered, though Navan and I hung back, not wanting to be the first on board.

As soon as I stepped into the interior of the vessel, my heart sank. It was much smaller than I’d anticipated, with barely enough room for Navan to stand upright. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t something so tiny. I mean, where were we all going to sleep? Were there hidden pods somewhere, where we could rest our heads on the trip? I didn’t even know how long it was going to take, but I knew it would definitely be long enough to need to eat and sleep and move around a bit.

“I suppose we should get down to business—who is sleeping where, and who is sleeping with whom?” the blond-haired coldblood spoke up, a curious glint in his dark eyes, which, upon closer inspection, were actually a very deep shade of brown. His voice was gruff, with a hint of mischief in it.

Lazar shot him a look. “Not now, Kalvin,” he warned.

Kalvin shrugged. “Why not now? It’s a long journey, and I’m going to need some shuteye at some point. Might as well get it out of the way now, before we set off.”

Lazar sighed. “Well, I’m going to get us off the ground. You can talk amongst yourselves for a while. I’ll be sleeping in the cockpit, so don’t think to include me in your game of pairs,” he said, before disappearing through a door at the far end of the ship’s cramped main room. I watched him go, not feeling comfortable being left alone with three strange coldbloods and two shifters.

“So,” purred Kalvin, turning his intense stare in my direction, “who gets the girl?”





Chapter Fourteen





At the sound of Kalvin’s words, my blood ran cold. I didn’t want to share with anyone but Navan. Clearly feeling the same, Navan stepped a little in front of me, his arm slipping around me.

“There are only three sleeping pods, and there are seven of us,” Kalvin continued. “So, who gets the girl to keep him warm on this long, cold trip?” He winked, my stomach turning.