Page 3 of Ghost Ship Numenon

Then Kahdrex sent the shambler flying with a powerful kick to the stomach, dragging me away before it could recover and almost throwing me toward an armored door between a coffee shop and a tailor. I stumbled, got my feet under me, and ran. With shamblers coming from both directions along the promenade, we needed to get off the concourse and put something solid between us and them.

For a wonder, the door was still powered. It slid open when I hit the switch, so I ducked inside and reached for the emergency switch. And hesitated. The temptation to pull the switch and lock Kahdrex out was strong. Against those numbers, he might last a few minutes, but he wouldn’t stand a chance of winning.

He’d do the same to you,I told myself, but still hesitated. My hand trembled on the switch, and then the chance was past. An unaccountable sense of relief rushed through me as the alien tumbled through the open doorway, tangled with a shambler and pursued by more.

I hit the emergency seal switch, and the door shut with a resoundingthump.It would need to be reset before it would open again, and while the monsters chasing us might press a button, I doubted they could work a manual restart.

That bought us time to breathe, so I looked around to see where we’d escaped to. A dim little room, shelves along two walls full of cleaning supplies. The other two each had a hatch, theone we’d entered through and its twin. I recognized the layout at once, since I’d been through one earlier.

We were in an internal airlock. One that someone had used for storage, almost certainly against regulations, but an airlock, nonetheless.

Kahdrex lay panting against the tarnished metal of the shelving. A look up and down his hard, powerful body showed no sign of injury, which was both good and absolutely the only reason I had my lingering stare. It had nothing to do with his muscular arms and…shut it, hindbrain. I amnotinterested in how sexy you think he is.

Even if he had saved my life. Fuck.

“What in the Void did youdo?”As soon as he’d caught his breath, he did his best to remove my sympathy, glaring and throwing the blame my way.

“Me? I just came aboard. There wasn’t time to do this, even if I knew whatthisis,” I said, glaring right back. “What, do you think I’m some kind of necromancer?”

With a growl, he levered himself to his feet. “Maybe you are. Maybe?—”

Whatever he’d been about to accuse me of, a loud thump interrupted him and made me jump. Another thump followed and another, corpses slamming themselves into the door we’d come through.

“That hatch is an inch thick metal,” I said.

“There’s no way they’re getting through,” he agreed. Another bang and the hatch shuddered, making a grinding noise. We shared a nervous look.

“No point hanging around to find out, though.” Kahdrex looked at the other door. “Let’s get moving.”

I nodded in shaky agreement.

4

KAHDREX

The airlock door let us out into what appeared to be maintenance corridors, more like what I’d expected from a warship. I didn’t feel happy about the change, though. The corridor was narrow, with piping extended from the walls. That left just enough space for two people to edge past one another. If the dead crew ambushed us here, we’d be in trouble.

Don’t borrow trouble, I told myself. Enough is following me already.

I glanced back at the human female, close enough to touch with my tail. She could have locked me out with the monsters, but she hadn’t. Maybe her anger at me wasn’t as strong as I thought.

Another loud thump behind us spurred me on, and I led the way into the maintenance ducts. We wouldn’t be any less dead if we stayed in the airlock, and at least this way we were getting closer to escaping. Perhaps it had been a poor idea to knock the human’s ship away—it had seemed a hilarious prank at the time. I no longer saw the humor as I tried to map out a way back to my ship.

A quick glance confirmed my human rival was close behind me, close enough to touch with my tail. I snarled at the images conjured by the thought: pulling her close and stripping the suit from her luscious body, taking her here and now.

Focus on getting out of here alive, fool. This situation is awful enough without letting the witch into my heart.

And it was bad. I’d studied what plans remained of theNumenon,but the maze of maintenance tunnels that snaked through the battleship was too complex to memorize. They coiled around the open areas of the ship, fitted in wherever there was space. Airlocks broke them up into sections, one of which would be near the port I’d docked at. Unfortunately, the layout was far from logical, and the signs followed an incomprehensible naming scheme.

When we entered the maze, I thought I knew where I was going. By the time we’d passed five junctions, I was no longer sure of where we were, let alone my destination.

Not a chance I’d admit as much to my human companion, though. I kept making turns as though I knew where I was going, hoping I’d find a marker I could use to orient myself. The easiest way would be to enter a main deck, but since the tunnels were free of hostiles, I was reluctant to leave them without knowing what we’d be stepping into.

“You realize we’ve passed this junction already, right?” Maddie asked, and I rounded on her with a denial ready. It died on my lips when I saw her pointing to a serial number stenciled on the wall. A serial number I’d seen earlier.Fuck.

“Memorizing a three-dimensional labyrinth is difficult,” I snarled. “Navigating it is harder.”

She didn’t hide her grin at my exasperated tone. I wanted to wipe it off her face, but she held up her hands for peace. “Hey, I’d just be taking random turns in here. At least you know where we’re going, even if you’re a bit confused about where we are.”

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