Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

“Very well, let’s see if you make it through, shall we?” she said softly, before the screen flickered off.

Navan whirled around. “Hide everything, immediately!” he shouted, running out of the cockpit and back into the main space. “We’ve got Impalers coming, boys! Hide the weapons. Hide everything we don’t want the border guard finding!”

I sprinted after him in time to see Nestor, Cristo, and Kalvin come hurtling out of the hallway a moment later, clutching handfuls of guns and boxes of weapons. Their eyes were wide in fear. The shifters followed soon after, carrying stacks of items.

“What are Impalers?” I gasped, heaving a particularly heavy trunk up into my arms.

“The Vysanthean border guard—well, Queen Gianne’s border guard, anyway,” Navan explained rapidly, tossing a bag of rifles to Kalvin, who was running past. He caught them with lightning-fast reflexes.

“Why are they called Impalers?” I pressed, following Navan toward Lazar. He gave me a look, making me realize it was probably a stupid question, and I shuddered.

“You, shifters, change into something vaguely Carokian!” Navan instructed, confirming that it was a real species. The two shifters looked at one another uncertainly, their skins unchanging.

An air of panic bristled through the ship as Lazar led everyone to a shimmering square in the wall of the Asterope, his hand seeking out a secret button that opened a hatch, invisible to the unknowing eye. Without a moment to lose, everyone shoved the boxes and trunks of weaponry into the hatch, making sure there wasn’t a single box of ammo left out in the open. The only thing that stayed out were the metallic vials and boxes of supplies. After all, it had to look like a ship that had been lived in for a short while—the journey from the fake rebel outpost was a week-long journey, after all. I did what I could, throwing containers and bags at whoever was ready to catch them, until there was nothing left cluttering the narrow hallways of the Asterope.

A knock rapped at the front door.

The sound echoed through the confined space, filling me with dread. Everyone whirled around, their eyes on the spot where the gangway slid out. I didn’t doubt these Impalers could have knocked the door down if they’d wanted to, but for now they seemed eager that we should open the ship up to them. A gesture of cooperation.

Lazar lunged for the button that concealed the invisible hatch, the fa?ade sliding down with a rapid swoosh. To my surprise, I could see no hint of the square storage space in the wall’s smooth surface once the screen was down. We had stashed everything just in time.

The Impalers were here.





Chapter Sixteen





Navan opened the door to the Asterope, allowing the border guard in. The moment the door swung up, I was petrified of being sucked out into the darkness of space, but it seemed the Impalers had brought some contraption with them that attached to the outer wall of the ship, creating a tunnel through which they could move from their ship to ours.

Instantly, it was confirmed to me how they’d earned their nickname. They loomed in the doorway, brandishing large pikes with sharp, golden tips, the metal and the staff streaked with red. They reminded me of the spears I’d seen the rebel coldbloods using back at the hidden compound, the weapons crackling and fizzing, as though electricity pulsed through them. I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of one of those. The spears had looked torturous enough.

The Impalers wore black and red, with streaks of greasepaint on their faces, making them look even more horrifying than they would have without it. The leader stepped forward, his blue eyes scrutinizing the ship, and everyone gathered in the main space.

Panicking, I turned to see that the shifters had morphed into green-skinned beings with bulging scarlet eyes and webbed feet, their backs hunched over, their mouths gaping open. They looked amphibian, and frankly repulsive… though perhaps not more repulsive than their natural form.

“Stay here while we search your vessel,” the lead Impaler instructed, ushering his colleagues into the small space.

There were ten of them, some male, some female, though all equally terrifying. Branching out from the main space, they flooded the corridors, entering the pods. I could hear the sound of things being thrown around, the whole place being ransacked in search of contraband.

One of the large male Impalers stopped in front of me, his eyes boring down into mine. Quickly, I dropped my gaze, taking on the role of subservient underling. He sniffed me, jabbing my shoulder with the end of his pike. The tip bristled, but no shock of electricity jolted down my arm. He was just testing me, checking to see if I’d react. I didn’t, keeping a cool head, playing the part I’d been assigned.

“What are you?” he growled, his breath hot on my face.

I shook my head. “Nobody, sir,” I breathed.

“You got that right,” he sneered, before pulling away, evidently satisfied that I wasn’t harmful. Even so, my heart was pounding in my chest, my lungs barely able to catch a breath. Now, more than ever, I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to be on the edge of Vysanthe, with no choice but to land or die. I wanted to be home, wrapped up in the safety of familiarity. Even the comforting sight of Navan’s eyes, watching me closely, couldn’t take the all-consuming fear away.

Once or twice, several of the Impalers walked past the spot where the hatch was hidden away, but the design was too clever, foxing them. They didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, their eyes barely glancing over the invisible panel as they moved on to more obvious hiding places. They turned over all the food boxes, pulling out everything, only to cast each item aside once they realized what it was. In the cockpit, I could hear a few of them rattling around. They exited, shrugging at their leader with disappointed expressions on their faces.

They hadn’t found anything.

“Remain here. The queen will be in touch shortly,” the leader said, once he had regrouped his troops. With that, they left the ship, the outer door sliding shut after them. I could still hear the sound of their heavy boots on the walkway they had connected from their ship, but that soon faded, leaving the Asterope in uneasy silence.

I was about to ask a question when Navan lifted his finger to his lips. “In case they’ve stuck bugs on the ship,” he whispered.

I nodded. The last thing I wanted was for those terrifying individuals to return because of something I said. Instead, my eyes flicked to the invisible hatch. Lazar was standing beside it, his arms folded across his chest. With the Impalers’ surveillance uncertain, it was clear nobody wanted to open the hatch… just in case. It would have to wait until we were on the ground.