Page 18 of Black Star

Chapter Eight

“Is there even the slightest possibility you’re wrong about this, Viktor?”

Damon was not only trying to salvage what was left of his heart, but his pride as well. During the battle, Viktor and Ranier had figured out how the Hand of God ships had managed to keep course with them from such a distance. They hadn’t locked onto them -- they’d been following a beacon set to beam a high intensity burst to a special receiver on the other ship. The problem was finding it. When the enemy had started firing on Sword Breaker , Viktor put it together and had Black Star comb the area for that transmitter. When Phoebe had isolated herself outside the ship, finding the thing had been easy. It was on Phoebe herself.

“It’s there, Captain. Planted deep within her brain. Black Star found it, but she says the probabilities of removing it are not good. Well, not without killing -- or severely damaging at best -- the host. When this was done, it was done with the intention of it staying there forever.”

“So, she sneaks on board with a tracking device implanted in her brain. Why? The one time we were in danger, she and that other woman saved our asses. And when we caught her, it was because she removed herself from the presence of too many people.” Damon scrubbed a hand over his face. “What was she out to accomplish?”

“Maybe the idea was to get us away from witnesses, or to catch us by surprise to give them a greater advantage. They had to know they were no match for us on an even field.” Viktor shrugged. “I suppose you’d have to ask her. I’d ask the men who followed her, but they fled as soon as they were able.”

“Well, whatever the reason, they’ll always be able to find us as long as that chip is in her head, or as long as she’s with us.” Damon felt tired. Old and tired. “Damn.”

“If you’ll pardon me for interrupting, there’s something you should know before you go making rash decisions.” The silky feminine voice startled Damon, but Viktor didn’t seem a bit surprised.

“I take it you’ve kept something from me? Again?” When Viktor was angry, things like this only enflamed him. “How am I supposed to be your link to the human world if you won’t give me information I need?”

“I’m trying to, dear, but you’re a tad hard-headed. You tend to hear what you want to hear and not what you need to hear.”

If Damon hadn’t been in such a bad mood, he probably would have laughed. The ship sounded like his own mother.

“Well, enlighten us, dear . I’m sure we’re just dying to know.” Viktor looked angry enough to punch something.

“First of all, if you’d care to look, you’ll notice not one, but two beacons. One of them is coming from somewhere on Sword Breaker .”

“So?” Viktor was probably getting himself in deeper and deeper. If he was going to continue his relationship with this ship, he was going to have to learn not to argue with a woman who had all the facts when he didn’t.

“So, dear, who is still aboard Sword Breaker who came from the same place little Phoebe did?”

“OK, so she and the other woman are both spies.” Now Viktor was being stubborn. Truth be told, he had been stubborn the whole time because the man hated being wrong even more than he hated asking for help.

“Or they don’t know they’re being followed. Have you even researched your enemy at all, Viktor?”

“I --”

“Of course you haven’t.” Black Star was as smug as any woman Damon had ever met. He continued to believe his policy of keeping silent was a good thing. “If you had, you’d have discovered that no one has ever left their community. Those who tried were always hunted down and killed. Now, I know I’m just a hunk of metal thrown together with a human brain, but you add that to the very specific type of transmitter imbedded so deep inside the brain of these women and you realize the Hand was looking for the escaped women, not you or myself.”

For the first time since Damon had met the man, Viktor was speechless. He stood there, a murderous look on his face and a vein in his temple prominent in his anger. “Damned ship.”

“Best you not forget it either, Viktor. I’ve been damned since the day I was transferred to this hunk of metal. Naturally, I have no patience for people who refuse to see what’s right in front of them because they’re too proud to admit they’re wrong.”

“OK.” Damon figured they’d work out their differences eventually -- they had to if they were going to survive together and function as the symbiotic beings they needed to be. Perhaps if he had Nadira explain how she and Sword Breaker managed to find peace together it would help him. He looked at Viktor’s normally fierce controlled features. The pure rage and impotent fury shining there made him think there was probably nothing that would help. The man would have to find the answers on his own. For now, however, there were more important things to worry about. Damon knew the woman the Black Star had been, and she hadn’t changed much at all except maybe to be less tolerant. He knew Viktor, too. The man could only be pushed so far. Pushing him any more was unhealthy for everyone around him. And futile. “They were after Phoebe and her friend, but the question is did they know and simply refuse to tell us?”

“That I couldn’t say, Captain. All I know is you have a young woman in a cell who’s frightened and hurt. Perhaps you should have asked her that before you treated her like the very men she was running from.”

Yep. Just like his mother. And just like his mother, she was right.

“What I don’t understand is why she risked the lives of those eight men, taking them on a crazy space walk like she did. The only way that makes sense is if she knew she would be detected and was trying to draw the Hand back to the ship she was supposed to be on in the first place. She hadn’t intended to be taken to Sword Breaker .”

“And her mad dash outside to help Diamond? The two of them single-handedly saved this ship and everyone aboard. Does that sound like someone who wanted to intentionally hurt those men?”

“No matter what Viktor thinks, Nani, you are a very wise woman. You always were.”

“Nani is dead, Damon.” The sarcastic know-it-all persona was gone in an instant. The Black Star now sounded angry, bitter, and very much alone.

The only relief from her tortured existence was when she was allowed to link up with Sword Breaker , who had been her lover in another life when both of them had been human. Mikiel, the captain of Sword Breaker , and Damon both tried to allow them a continuous link, but distance sometimes interfered. As a result, they tried not to separate the ships unless it was absolutely necessary.

“All that’s left of Nani is her love for Darian. The rest of her died the day the Black Star was born.”

“I’m sorry. Things might have been different if I’d spoken up or tried to stop the madness Samair precipitated.”

“Certainly things would have been different. You’d have been executed, or worse, stuck in a hulk of twisted metal and computer chips.”

None of them spoke for a while. The silence was deafening and very uncomfortable.

“There’s something both of you should know,” Black Star continued in a more controlled tone. “These two women may well be the key to the salvation of both the Vok’nair Empire and the Asalian Coalition. I can’t say why, but there’s something tickling my sensors about this whole situation. I just can’t figure it out yet.”

Damon looked at Viktor. He’d hoped to have the man offer some insight, but Viktor’s eyes were glazed over and pure fury covered his face. “You just love making a fool out of me don’t you, bitch?” Viktor was almost frothing at the mouth, he was so angry. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Better still, why didn’t you let me in on your little secret when we last practiced our link?”

“I hid nothing from you, vampire. Anything you didn’t pick up is your own limitation.”

Damon held his breath. The strain on Viktor the last few months had been tremendous. The link he had established with the ship caught him completely by surprise. Combine that with the fact that he’d had to alter his survival methods drastically since taking on the assignment aboard the Black Star , and he had pushed himself to the breaking point. No one would serve on a ship with a vampire who fed from anything other than synthetic blood, so it had been necessary, but very uncomfortable. Add a frustrating female into the mix and it was a wonder the vampire had lasted this long.

“Viktor, what do you need?”

“You know what I need! Find me a willing female and let me drain her while I fuck her senseless, and I might be sane for a few minutes.” He wasn’t lying. That was exactly what it would take. Unfortunately, there was no one outside of a woman from his own race who could tolerate what Viktor needed to dish out. Damon had to find a way to get them to the vampire home world. Fast.

“You’re confined to quarters for the remainder of the journey. We’ll use best possible speed to get you home. Until then, you’ll understand if I place security fields on your residence.”

A moment of sanity returned to Viktor’s eyes. “I’m afraid it might be too late, Damon. Double and triple secure everything. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Please.”

It was a horrible thing to see a man Damon considered the most controlled person he’d ever met slipping into a madness of violence and lust. It was like watching the most gifted of minds degrade with the ravages of age, only much, much worse. The violence about to be unleashed could kill them all.

“I’ll see to it personally.” It pained Damon to watch as three guards escorted his friend away, but he didn’t have a choice. A vampire on the rampage was a horrifying prospect.

But not nearly as horrifying as the possibility of either learning Phoebe was a spy for the Hand of God, or losing her because he had treated her like the very people she was running from.

* * *

Phoebe was numb. She had come to terms with the possibility she’d lost her freedom. What she was having trouble with was why. There was no way she could have completely misjudged Damon. He simply wasn’t that type of person. So the question remained -- why?

Her tears dried soon after they fell, and she vowed she’d not waste them on a man who didn’t love her. She’d been strong her whole life. She’d fight her way through this, too. She hadn’t survived this long only to let a man strip her of her pride. If she was to be a captive the rest of her life, however short that might be, she’d meet the challenge as she had every other -- with her head held high.

Lying on the small cot -- the only furniture in her cell -- Phoebe faced the wall, pulled her knees to her chest, and tried to calm her mind enough to rest. The stars only knew what lay in store for her over the next few days. Or months. Or…

She cringed. She’d deal with that when the future was more certain.

She’d just about dozed off when the door to the holding area whooshed open. She didn’t have to look to know who it was.

“Leave us.” Damon’s gruff, husky voice held a deadly note of command. Phoebe sat up and took a deep breath. She didn’t want the guard there any more than Damon did, but she needed someone there to make her keep her resolve. Breaking down in front of anyone other than Damon wasn’t an option.

The guard, Chaz, stood at attention, but made no move to leave. “I’m sorry, Sir, but I can’t do that.”

Damon looked a little startled. “I beg your pardon?”

“The rumor ship-side is you and Viktor believe she’s responsible for the attacks against us and Sword Breaker .” The young man swallowed. “We respectfully suggest that your logic is flawed in that line of thinking, Sir.” The poor man obviously didn’t like going against his captain.

Damon smiled. “Relax, Chaz. We’ve already seen the error of our ways.” Damon turned to Phoebe. “I still have some questions, but rest assured --” he turned back to Chaz, “-- she’s perfectly safe with me.”

Chaz -- bless his soul -- looked to Phoebe. “Miss?” It was obvious the young man didn’t take going against his superior’s orders lightly, but having done so, he wasn’t about to back down.

Phoebe stood. “I’ll be fine, Chaz. Thanks for your help. You and everyone.”

“We know what you did during the first battle, and the others told us how you got them back to the Black Star during the second one. That was the most creative and bravest thing any of us have ever heard of. We figure we owe you for that.” He grinned then. “Not to mention the food.”

Phoebe’s heart lifted. “Thanks for standing up for me.” She glanced at Damon, and bitterness filled her heart. She wanted to say so much. No one had ever had the courage to take her side in anything. No one had ever cared enough. No matter how much she’d done, no matter how many times she put her life on the line for others, no one had ever returned the favor. “You’ll never know how much it means.”

Neither Damon nor Phoebe said anything until Chaz got to the door. “I don’t want to be disturbed. See to it no one enters, no matter what anyone hears this time.” Apparently the entire ship had heard about Viktor and Ranier’s breach of Damon’s cabin door security, because Chaz snickered quietly as he exited.

They were alone. Phoebe drank in the sight of him. Even though she was hurt and angry, he still looked good enough to eat. His reference to the last time they’d made love took her breath as the memory washed over her. Nothing in her life had prepared her for the pleasure she had found in the arms of this man. She doubted if anything in the universe would ever give her as much pleasure ever again. He was everything she had ever wanted in a lover. He could be so gentle, yet his passion for her had matched hers for him. When he had experienced his own pleasure, he had held nothing back from her.

“You have every right to hate me, Phoebe.”

“What makes you think I don’t?” She couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t right that the perfect man for her had to be an asshole.

“The way you’re looking at me.” He started walking toward her, a predator stalking his prey. “The lust shining in your eyes tells me you still want me, and I don’t think you’re the type of woman to want a man you hate.”

Phoebe refused to retreat. Instead of backing up in the face of his advancement, she planted her feet and raised her chin to look him in the eye. “Just because I still want to fuck you doesn’t mean I want you .”

Her words seemed to make something snap inside him. He crossed the remaining distance between them in a rush, fisted a hand in her hair and pulled her to him none too gently.

“I can definitely fuck you.” He kissed her, plunging his tongue into her and, in the process, taking her soul as completely as he took her mouth. “Nothing in my life has ever compared to the way I feel when you’re in my arms, Phoebe. And I’m not leaving you this time until I make you feel the same way.”