Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)

He turned to Ianthan, narrowing his eyes. “A logical person would suspect you. Or at least suspect you had something to do with this.”

“I swear, Navan, I have no idea!” Ianthan said. “I had nothing to do with this, and I can’t imagine why my father would have either. He only wanted to escape to Queen Brisha with a blood sample; being accepted by her was his only objective. There’s no reason on Vysanthe why he’d come ransacking this place. And when would he have done it? How would he have done it? What would he have done with all your equipment? There’s no way!”

Navan seemed almost relieved as Ianthan spoke; there really didn’t seem to be a way that Jethro or Ianthan could’ve pulled this heist off. I had a feeling it would’ve been more than Navan could handle right now, to find out his best friend had been involved in this, too.

“We’ve got to get that ship fixed,” Navan said, breathing out. “It’s the only way.”

“Do you think it could have been other humans who found this place and raided it?” I asked softly.

There was a long pause. “It's possible but unlikely. I… I do have another idea what might’ve happened here.”

“What?” I lowered myself onto the ladder and climbed down.

Navan set Ianthan with a dark look. “I think it was The Fed.”

I scrunched up my face in confusion. “Huh? The Fed?”

“What?” Ianthan said. “What makes you say that?”

Navan continued to prowl, addressing me first. “The Fed is a supernatural federation that operates in this quadrant of the universe, and essentially helps to maintain peace and good relations between worlds. It’s a protective and intermediary agency.”

“What? I’ve never heard of it,” I said, my mind being blown open yet again by another facet of our universe I’d previously been oblivious to.

“You wouldn’t have,” he replied. “Although The Fed does have a base here on Earth, they don’t make themselves known to humans.”

“Why’s that?”

Was there the slightest hint of amusement in his eyes? “Don’t take this the wrong way, but the rest of the supernatural community generally sees your kind as . . . rather primitive and immature; and a little too trigger-happy when it comes to their weapons.”

“Oh,” I said. He did have a point. “I guess that’s fair enough.”

“Humans aren’t the most powerful species in the universe.” Now Navan did smirk. “I mean, a good deal of your population honestly believes that they’re the only intelligent life form in the universe.” He and Ianthan both laughed. “Which is so ridiculous and narrow minded it’s almost unimaginable. So, you can understand why your kind were never deemed fit to join The Fed, officially—and so the alliance contains no human members—but Earth is in their circle of watch, nonetheless.”

“And you think they somehow found this place and raided it?”

“I know they operate on Earth because I encountered an agent here, several weeks ago.” He pursed his lips, shaking his head. All traces of the previous smile was gone. “I was utilizing my holograph map, and it must’ve given off some strong, irregular frequencies that a nearby Fed agent picked up on. Damn. I should’ve known better.”

“What happened?”

“I’d say it was the last thing he expected—to find a coldblood. The Fed doesn’t have much jurisdiction in our corner of the universe, and they despise Vysanthians to the core. We stand for everything they are against—they seek to preserve and balance, while we essentially seek to destroy. That agent fired at me before I could explain why I was here. I had no choice but to kill him; otherwise, he would’ve taken me in, or worse. Still, I feared that he might have already alerted his base to my presence. I waited for three days, expecting that if his fellow agents were coming, they would do so within that time. When they didn’t, I assumed the agent I killed had not yet transmitted his findings to his base, and I needed to return to Vysanthe, so I left… Which I now realize was a mistake.”

“The agent who came to get to you,” I said, my head reeling. “He was… a different kind of supernatural?”

Navan nodded. “Earth’s base is manned by a lycan unit.”

“Lycans?”

“I guess you would be more familiar with the term werewolf, though they are different.”

“Werewolf?” I said, again trying to wrap my brain around what he was telling me.

“What do we do?” Ianthan said. “I mean, this is bad, right? This is really bad.”

Navan swallowed hard. “It’s only bad if we give up. And we’re not going to. We have to get my ship fixed… And the only way to do that now is to stake out the Fed and convince them to return my tools.”

“That’s insane!” Ianthan exclaimed. “The Fed would never negotiate with you! To them you’re a filthy Vysanthian! They’d shoot you down on sight, before you could even get a word out—and that would be even if you hadn’t murdered one of their agents.”

“I know.” Navan glanced at me. “Which is why we might need to try a different tactic.”

I looked from him to Ianthan, then back. “What?” I asked. “Why do I have a feeling I’m suddenly about to get a lot more involved?”

“Because if it was a human who made first contact with them, then we might at least get a meeting,” Navan replied.

“And tell them what?” Ianthan asked. “What would a human tell them, exactly, in order to convince them? That we need those tools back to intercept a human blood sample that’s on its way to Vysanthe? That would get The Fed asking serious questions, which would inevitably lead to revealing Vysanthe’s search for immortality.”

“Why would that be so bad?” I asked.

Ianthan exhaled. “If there’s anything our Queens agree on, it’s that The Fed should never be given information about our activities, because all that will do is encourage them to scrutinize Vysanthe more than they already have,” he explained. “If Gianne—or her sister—found out we were behind the leak, we’d be in for a fate worse than death. We’d all be.”

I could only imagine what such a fate might consist of, but from the petrified look in Ianthan’s eyes, I knew I didn’t want to find out.

“I didn’t say it was the ideal plan,” Navan said, clearly frustrated. “Do you think I want to risk something happening to Riley? But it’s the only way. If we don’t try, then we’re never going to be able to get back, the blood sample will arrive in Vysanthe, and then they’ll—”