Page 52 of Venomous Lust
Hazel sat on the bed, staying silent. Somehow, she knew this was what Celaith needed; silence to say the things she had not said to anyone else before.
“I was only a babe when the civil war started on my home planet. Our species had fought before, as sharing a planet isn’t easy and such is the way of life. One species always has to be on top. No two civilizations can simply coexist.” Celaith spoke softly, but her voice was stronger than before. “I don’t remember any of it. My mother and father fled, leaving behind everything they had. They were wealthy, rich enough to possess a great ship, and they probably thought they had a better chance of just rebuilding their lives on another planet. Or they just wanted to hide until things quieted down. I’ll never know. I don’t even remember their faces. All I know is things didn’t go their way and they died. They were killed by pirates, and I was going to follow them. Then, Roohl came. He was after the bounty on the pirate captain. He found me, hiding in an air circulation duct. He took me in, fed me, clothed me. Taught me. Being a bounty hunter is the only life I’ve ever known.”
Silence descended as Celaith stopped talking. A wealth of pain hung in the air between them, full of unhealed wound and untold secrets.
“I’m an orphan, too,” Hazel said. “But I still have a sister. I haven’t seen her since Knut sold her. Maybe, when all this is done, I’ll see her again.”
Celaith looked up at Hazel, a faint smile on her lips. “I hope you get to see your sister.” She opened her mouth to speak more, but whatever the Arvak said was lost in the noise.
The Myrador shook like its frame was collapsing all around them. A deafening, blood-curdling screech of tearing metal filled the air.
Then another quake, this time strong enough to throw Celaith and Hazel to the floor in a heap of panicked flesh.
“What’s happening?” Hazel shouted above the howl of sirens. “Are we being boarded again?”
Celaith screamed as a third quake shook the room. Her dark pink eyes turned to Hazel, full of panic.
“No.” She shook her head. “We’re being attacked.”
Chapter 17
Hazel
Her knees almost buckled under their combined weight and Celaith’s small hands dug into her flesh painfully, but that was just a remote fact in the back of her mind. Hazel didn’t care about the pain, didn’t care that her legs and back were screaming under the strain. The only thing that mattered was the fast succession of explosions that rocked the Myrador like it was a bug trying to fly in a storm.
Celaith was trying her best to walk, but she was losing her strength fast, and they were nowhere near the command center where Khal and Zaxis were no doubt trying their best to fend off whoever was attacking.
“Just a little further,” Hazel encouraged as they turned into the long hallway leading to the command center. “We’ll get there.”
Celaith nodded, her face scrunching with resolve, but she missed her next step as another quake made the Myrador shake to its foundations. Both of them ended up on the floor, screaming mindlessly.
“Hazel!”
“Celaith!”
Two male voices rang out from just beyond her field of vision and soon strong, steady arms lifted her to her feet, untangling her from Celaith. Hazel locked gazes with Khal, noting from the corner of her eye that Zaxis was picking up Celaith.
“Who’s doing this?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Khal’s truthful answer chilled her to the bone. “There was no warning, no attempt at communication. They just started blasting us as soon as we were in range. All I know is that it’s a warship, and the technology is from the Ring, but there’s no identifier on it. It doesn’t even emit its serial identifier to the required frequency.”
“How can this be?”
Khal’s hands closed around her shoulders, helping her walk to the control room where she sat heavily in one of the seats backing up to the wall. Her fingers trembled as she fumbled with the restraints.
“It’s not supposed to be possible,” Khal answered as he helped her secure herself in the seat. “No ship built inside the Ring escapes the Identification Agency.”
Khal turned from her after answering, going back to his captain’s seat, strapping himself in in a few efficient, fast motions. Zaxis already sat in his own co-pilot seat, his fingers running over the controls like across a piano keyboard, his face focused, his gaze intense. At Hazel’s side, Celaith lay slumped in her seat, unconscious once more. She wasn’t nearly as strong as she wanted everyone to believe, and there was no telling how much this had set her back in her healing. Gerkin had really done a number on her.
Another quake rattled the Myrador, this one longer, stronger. Too long. Panic invaded each of Hazel’s cells as she watched Khal pilot the Myrador away from the warship, dodging many explosive charges, but not all of them.
“The shields are going to fail,” Zaxis stated in a detached, remote tone. Efficient, unafraid. “The next direct hit and we’ll have a hull breach. Then, it’s down to seconds.”
A long pause, another missed detonation, close enough to rock the Myrador.
“We have to land.” The only indication of Khal’s feelings was the pale tint of his knuckles as he held to the controls. “We’re in range of Muhar—set the calculations and divert all powers to clouding.”
Zaxis’s hand ran over the controls, then he lifted his gaze to Khal like he’d just understood what the Eok was saying. “If I divert all control, we won’t have the engines to land. We’ll crash.”
