An Apocalyptic Need (3 page)

“Bad news?”

She ignored him for a moment and then reached to press a comm unit on the wall. A beat later a voice filled the room. “Yes, captain?”

Captain Cari Pascale fixed her exotic hazel gaze on him as she spoke. “I’m done with the prisoner, you can take him away now.”

“Yes, captain.”

She walked away from the comm, her expression thoughtful.

“I’m gathering from that call that you’ve been told to kill me.”

Her gaze sharpened as her thoughts returned to the present. She shook her head but didn’t elaborate.

The door slid open with a whisper and two big men in crimson uniforms strode toward Grimm. He ignored the dark-haired man as he slipped a laser over the restraint and it melted away from Grimm’s wrist. The man with the silvery hair of a Venutian grabbed Grimm’s arm, his longer than usual fingers tightening like steel bands around Grimm’s biceps.

Grimm’s gaze never left the captain. The woman’s perfect white teeth worried her lush bottom lip and her brow was furrowed in thought.

Grimm could tell she struggled with some kind of decision. Finally, she looked up, the fine lines between her eyes clearing. “Take him to my quarters and confine him.”

The men shared a look. “Captain?”

She frowned. “Are you questioning my orders?”

The Venutian widened strange yellow eyes. “Lieutenant Alcott said he’s to be destroyed.”

She looked into Grimm’s eyes and, amazingly, smiled. “I’ll speak with Lieutenant Alcott. I’ve decided to take the prisoner’s advice and keep him. As a sex vassal.”

~AN~

“Has your embedded spy reported in?”

The Huntsman considered the question for a long moment before responding. “Yes. They destroyed a pirate ship.”

Audie Kord peaked a dark blond eyebrow. “That’s good, right?”

The Huntsman nodded, frowning. “Unfortunately one passenger escaped. I believe you know him, Sorceri Kord.”

Audie folded his hands in front of him, waiting.

The small statured, balding man who ran the Sorceri Authority slumped in his chair, his non-descript features folded in thought. A few beats later he blinked, lifting his gaze to Audie as if he’d just remembered he was there. “It’s Forbes.”

Audie frowned. “Grimm was on a pirate ship? Why?”

The Huntsman shook his head. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I’ve heard rumors that he was working with a rogue group of reborn…”

Audie’s hackles rose. “Sir, Yeira has assured me…”

Lifting a hand to cut Audie off, the little man shoved from his chair and started pacing. “I know Yeira’s not working against us, Kord. You don’t have to lecture me about that again.” He stopped before Audie, lifting his gaze to meet his hunter’s. “But that doesn’t mean Grimm is on the same page.

“You think Grimm’s working against the Sorceri?”

The Huntsman expelled a breath. The lines between his pale, brown eyebrows indicated his displeasure. “It certainly looks that way.”

“Grimm is very loyal, sir. That just doesn’t make any sense.”

The Huntsman’s gaze snapped back to Audie’s. “Then explain to me why he was the only one to be brought aboard the
Morte Stellam
? Why he just happened to escape the
Angel
before it blew…as if he was warned? And why the Captain of the
Morte Stellam
asked for him to be brought to her right away instead of killing him outright?”

“I’ll admit it looks suspicious…”

“It looks more than suspicious, Kord. I believe Grimm is working with the rogue Sorceri.”

Audie shook his head. “I just don’t believe it. Are you sure you can trust your spy? The rogues always seem to be one step ahead of us.”

The little man’s body stilled, tightened, and his face darkened with anger. Guide magics danced against Audie’s skin, stinging him. He clenched his fists against the desire to rub his arms. The Huntsman pressed closer, his small hands fisted. “Grimm has conspired against the Sorceri before, hunter.”

“He believed he was doing the right thing, sir. And he’s paying the price for that decision now.”

“It isn’t too much of a stretch to see him as bitter, Kord. To see him looking for vengeance.”

“I’m sorry,” Audie told the leader. “I don’t believe it. Something else is going on here.”

The Huntsman held Audie’s gaze for another moment, his magic pinging wildly around them. Then he seemed to calm down, his energy finally retreating. “I hope your loyalty isn’t rewarded with further treachery, hunter.” He paced away, his hands clenched behind his back. “Until we know for sure, Forbes and the woman, this Captain Pascale, will need to be watched. I’m tasking you with that, Kord.”

Audie inclined his head, secretly relieved by the assignment. He would give Grimm the benefit of the doubt. Another hunter might not. “As you wish.” He turned to leave.

“And Kord…”

Audie stopped, turned back. “Sir?”

“Leave Yeira out of it. I don’t want the reborn to know their compatriot might be a rogue.”

Audie couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t lie to her and he wouldn’t deny her the chance to fight a growing evil. But he decided against telling the Huntsman that. Instead he inclined his head, saying nothing.

Let the leader of the Authority think what he would about the gesture.

Audie knew in his heart he could never agree to being disloyal to the woman he loved.

~AN~

Grimm paced the small cell built into the Captain of the
Morte Stellam’s
bed chamber. His gaze kept sliding toward the huge bed with the impossibly fluffy coverings. Thinking about his sterile quarters on the
Avenging Angel
and the narrow, hard-as-a-rock sleeping platform he’d used for seemingly endless nights, he decided her bed was possibly the most decadent thing he’d ever seen. More than that, he couldn’t help thinking it was proof of her weakness. No
real
soldier would deign to sleep on something so soft.

Despite his harsh assessment of her capabilities, Grimm couldn’t stop his traitorous thoughts from picturing her splayed naked over the tempting object, her silken, strawberry-blond hair arrayed around her.

Grimm could almost taste her pale skin, imagining what it would be like to lick his way down the slender column of her throat, inhaling her sweet scent at the spot where her pulse would beat against his lips.

His cock pressed painfully against the stiff denim of his jeans. Grimm shook his head, forcing the lustful thoughts aside to concentrate on the more immediate problem.

His escape.

The door from the bathing room slipped open with a whisper that brought Grimm’s head snapping around. He’d expected to see her standing there. Had readied a tart reprimand for her treatment of him. But the sight which met his gaze was enough to wipe all thoughts from his mind before he could utter them.

In fact the view from his comfortable cell brought his thoughts to a complete halt and caused his body to still, though his cock thickened with lust.

She stood before the closed door, her legs spread wide and her arms held slightly away from her body, as if ready to do battle. The ugly braid was gone and in its place was a soft, wavy cloud of hair that curled around her face and flowed like silk over her shoulders, curling lovingly over her full breasts.

The few, strategically placed lights in the room seemed to caress her form, turning the gauzy gown she wore to a gossamer film that highlighted rather than hid her softly rounded hips, long shapely legs and the darker tangle of curls between her thighs.

The sleeveless gown draped from her shoulders and hung low, showing a wide swath of pale, plump breast and much of her flat stomach in the U-shaped drape. Unfortunately for him, the folds of fabric hid her nipples, giving him only a tantalizing glimpse of plump roundness beneath.

She stared at him with something unreadable sparkling in her gaze, her full lips twisting slightly as if she were chewing them.

She looked impossibly sexy…and irrefutably unhappy.

Grimm swallowed past an uncomfortable dryness in his throat and forced words through his lips. “So this is the way it’s going to be? You’re going to keep me locked in this room and use me as a sex toy?”

Her lips tightened briefly and then turned up at the corners. When she smiled the lines furrowing her porcelain brow smoothed away. “Would that be so horrible, pirate?”

Grimm’s gut tightened under a wave of sheer lust. His mind and body were at definite odds over the prospect. While his body heated and hardened with happy anticipation, his brain told him nothing good could come from her plan for him. So he searched for a scathing response but found only four, comparatively unimportant words. “I’m not a pirate.”

She cocked her head, exotic hazel eyes narrowing. “Lies, pirate? When we are about to engage in the most pleasurable of activities together?”

He couldn’t quite bring himself to repeat his denial. Instead he watched her, telling himself he was trying to anticipate her next move so he could step in. But he was enjoying the view oh so very much.

Finally she moved, swaying toward him. The gown lost its iridescence as she moved out of the light and Grimm was left with only the memory of it in his mind. But what a memory it was.

As she approached his cell, her scent infused him and the coil of need in his gut tightened to a near painful state.

She stopped mere inches from the bars of his prison and slipped her gaze over him, lingering at his groin. Her golden brows lifted at the sight of his bulging jeans. Her lips parted and the tip of her tongue slipped through before she seemed to catch herself and snapped her mouth closed. “Don’t worry, pirate. I have no intention of using you as my sex vassal.”

Grimm nearly groaned his disappointment.

Her exotic gaze lifted to his face, a study in lust despite her words. “This…” She lifted her arms, indicating her appearance. “—was all for show. It’s important that certain…people aboard this ship believe you are unimportant.”

Grimm frowned. “What people? What’s going on?”

She held his gaze for a moment and her body shifted closer. Grimm’s gaze slipped to the twin peaks of her nipples showing through the gauzy fabric with her movement. He swallowed hard.

“That is no concern of yours.”

“Then why am I here?”

The worry lines returned to her brow and Grimm longed to smooth them away with this thumb. “Because I need to figure out what to do with you.”

He shook his head, frustrated on many levels. “You’re not making any sense, captain.”

She slipped a hand through the bars and touched his face, cupping it with her hand. “Just because you don’t understand, doesn’t mean I’m not making sense.” Her words were soft, husky, and her breath fanned across his face, stirring the embers of lust already burning him from the inside.

Grimm grasped her wrist, hating the slight widening of fear in her eyes. He pulled her hand from his face and leaned closer. “Whatever you’re playing at, know this, I won’t be used as a pawn against the Authority. I’m no traitor.” He pulled her close until her breasts smashed against the bars of his cell. She leaned away from him as he softened his tone and went on. “You can’t take anything from me through force,
captain
.”

Her face gave away nothing. Before he knew that she’d even moved, a small, surprisingly strong hand closed over his cock, squeezing it hard. “It appears that your body hasn’t gotten that message, pirate.”

Grimm held her gaze a moment longer and then released her wrist.

She softened her grip on his shaft but rubbed her palm over it for a long, delicious moment before retreating. “Pleasant dreams, pirate.”

Grimm thought he might actually die from need as he watched her sway away from him. To his amused surprise she knelt beside the bed and pulled something from beneath it. The beautiful captain spread a thin pallet on the floor and laid down on it, pulling a wafer-thin covering over her form before turning away from him to sleep.

A soldier after all,
he mused. Grimm wished the realization made him feel better. But he was starting to suspect he was so far out of his league there was no going back.

Cari was impressed by how well-behaved her sex vassal was. So impressed she couldn’t help being suspicious. She watched him carefully whenever she got the chance, looking for signs that he was preparing for a moment of defiance, or an opportunity to escape.

But Grimm Forbes seemed resigned, if not content, to stride through the ship behind her, flanked by two guards holding the golden chains that declared him her sexual possession.

Cari only wished he were…her sexual plaything. God knew she’d had some colorful and very heated dreams on that very subject the night before. She tightened her thighs against the thought and tried to concentrate on the star charts her lead navigator had laid before her.

“This route is blocked by the Authority,” Benlocken Spence told her, sliding his blunt fingertip over the slick surface of the chart. A swirl of gray smoke wafted past from the thin panatela tuber bobbing between his lips as he spoke. The aroma of the smoke was sweet and spicy, unexpectantly bringing a stab of nostalgia along with its delicious scent. She had a persistent memory from when she was a child of a man holding her in his lap, his deep voice rumbling through her as he talked and smoked.