Page 9 of Hunting the Warlord's Daughter

He went rigid, a husky female voice filling his head. Saw a woman’s jaw line, her long neck. Saw fingers,hisfingers, smoothing glossy brown hair away from her ear—

A crewman bumped into him. Bolivarr whirled away from the display case, toward the man squeezing past, his hand shooting out to clamp around the neck.

CHAPTERSIX

Freeze!Bolivarr instantly stopped himself—but barely—jerking his hand away. He stared, fixated on the crewman’s jugular as the lethal desire to defend and protect pounded through him.Stand down. Stand down.

The crewman appeared oblivious to how close he’d come to injury—or death. He threw Bolivarr’s group a strange look then continued on with his companions.

Bolivarr rested his splayed hands on the display case and released a shuddering breath. Zurykk squeezed his shoulder. “Want to tell me about it?”

“Those earrings. They triggered a memory.”

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. It happened too fast.” Who was that woman? Who was sheto him?

Blast the thought suppression. Blast the bastards who implanted the cyber-vise in his skull, those whose job it was to guard their secrets—no matter what the cost to their subjects. Likely they were long dead by now, his Wraith handlers, whoever they were, and their secrets no longer viable. Yet they continued to control him, to outwit him, to torment him, teasing him with glimpses of his past, only to punish him the moment he veered close to answers.

He rubbed his jaw, turning away from his friends. His pulse was still elevated. He felt… dangerous. On edge. The barrier between what he had been and who he was now had thinned.What happens when the barrier falls completely?

What if he couldn’t control his impulse to attack next time? That was his real worry, going into Wraith mode again, putting his friends at risk—and Hadley, his sweet girl, his love—notseeing red earrings on a stranger.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Patterns formed in his mind, symbols. This was new. Numbers and letters swirled, dancing at the edges of his consciousness, like shadows moving behind a curtain. Five points of light came together in a pentagonal shape then broke apart.You used to know what this means. You understood it.

The first signs of a killer headache behind his eyes warned him to let this go, else thought suppression would kick in and drive him to his knees.

“You don’t look so good,” Zurykk said. “Let’s get you to sick bay.”

“I’m sick of sick bay.”

“You know what Doctor Kell said about more seizures.”

More seizures meant the possibility of a reassignment to shore duty, maybe even a discharge from the military. Bolivarr didn’t want to be pulled from his duty on theUnity. Or from Hadley. “Fine. I’ll go. But not without a gift.”

“Shall I box them up for you, sir?” The saleswoman held the ruby earrings cupped in her hand.

He winced and shook his head, peering at a selection of baubles. Then he saw it.Perfect.“I’ll take that one. Wrapped.”

* * *

An explosion rocked the ship. “Enemy targets in all quadrants!”

Lieutenant Hadley Keyren noted the first hint of panic in her bridge officer’s voice. There was no time to ponder Ensign Berloo’s alarm, or even hers. The time to second-guess was after a battle. That was, if one had an after.

Her warship was surrounded. Enemy ships were everywhere: a rogue battlelord and his loyalists. How had they so thoroughly caught her off guard? Were they that good—or was she that green?

Her vote landed somewhere in between. Despite her lack of battle experience, she—like everyone else—knew how Drakken battlelords fought.

With black, empty souls and no mercy.

Sweat prickled on Hadley’s temples. She fought off the same tendrils of panic she’d heard in Berloo’s voice. He and the rest of the bridge crew waited for the order that would save them, waited for the order that would turn this losing battle around.

Goddess, guide me through this.

Yet the goddesses to whom she’d prayed all her life were curiously silent now. She was on her freepin’ own, as her straight-speaking friend Rakkelle would say. Bolivarr would steady her with a glance, if only he were here. That morning, he’d gripped her shoulders and gazed at her with his dark, soulful eyes.“You have good instincts. Trust them. The best leaders always do.”

“Incoming!” Ekko, the weapons sergeant, shouted. Hadley caught the edge of the command console and braced herself. That one almost jarred her molars loose.

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