Dark Solstice (26 page)

Raathe divided a piercing glance between the two of them when they’d finally joined him. Rhea wondered if he’d overheard the conversation or if the look denoted suspicion that they’d taken the time to screw before they climbed down. Neither of them had made any attempt to keep from being overheard—in fact most of the conversation had been shouted in anger—but she was more inclined to think the second guess was probably closest to the mark.

It was really hard sometimes to convince herself that they actually did care about her and weren’t just fighting over who got the munch.

Maybe she
was
deluding herself?

And maybe it wasn’t just about their feelings for her but hers for them?

She’d dismissed the possibility that it might be nothing more than gratitude, though, when she’d thought they’d been killed. There was nothing like discovering that a person was lost to bring home just how deeply one felt about them. Gratitude toward them wouldn’t have made her feel as if a vital part of her had died with them. If she hadn’t truly loved them it wouldn’t have been thoughts of avenging them that had driven her, that had given her the strength to contemplate something so horrendous as taking the lives of others. The drive for self-preservation would have made her want to protect herself, but she thought it more likely that she would’ve frozen in terror at the crucial moment than acted if grief hadn’t hardened her heart.

In the scheme of things, did it really matter either way? All they had or were likely to have was now. Sooner or later someone would come even if they managed to elude the warden’s men and stay alive. Eventually they would be captured or die. Even supposing they could survive in this alien environment, they weren’t going to get the chance to find out.

She thought, if it came down to living here for the rest of her life and being with Raathe and Justice that she would be able to bear it as long as she could be with them, but that seemed the least likely scenario.

Raathe, she saw, had been busy relieving the corpses of everything of any use. Her belly tightened with revulsion, but she had no trouble grasping the necessity of it. They only had what they’d been able to find in the ship and carry away. If the men had anything on them that might make a difference they couldn’t afford to be squeamish.

Bracing herself, she moved to one of the downed men and patted her hands over him to feel for anything he might be carrying.

“I’ve checked that one.”

Rhea glanced at Raathe and surged to her feet with relief. “Oh.”

There was speculation in Raathe’s gaze. “The suit might be useful, though.”

Dismay filled her, but she looked down at the corpse again, realizing he was probably right. All they had were the clothes they were wearing. It revolted every feeling, now, to consider wearing the dead men’s clothes, but how would she feel about that when and if the suit she was wearing became virtually useless? They might not have to worry about the subzero freezing temperatures outside, but it was certainly cold enough inside the cave at night to die from exposure if they had nothing at all to protect them from the cold, particularly when they had no means of warming themselves.

“Damn it, Raathe!” Justice snarled as she bent down again and began struggling to roll the man over so that she could undress him.

“It’s alright, Kyle. He’s right. We could die without extra clothing.”

Raathe moved to crouch beside her, helping her. “We should gather up what we can and move,” he said neutrally.

Rhea nodded. “You think there’s others?”

He shrugged. “I saw several ships bearing down us before we crashed. I’m guessing at least two or three more squads like this one. The skimmers are another matter. If they’d had more, I imagine they would’ve converged on us all at once.”

“Can we use them?”

“One of them is totally fucked up—stray shot caught it. Another one is slightly damaged but workable … so that gives us two.”

There was an appreciative gleam in his pale eyes when she met his gaze that reduced the discomfort she felt about blowing up one of the skimmers. She reddened anyway. “I’m not much of a shot.”

He flicked the tip of her nose playfully with his index finger. “I’d still rather have you with me than any other woman I’ve ever known.”

She smiled at him tentatively, feeling her chest swell with a warm, floating sensation, wondering if he included Amy in that ‘any other’.

He chuckled. “At least you missed me. I was standing about a yard behind him.”

“Oh god!” Rhea gasped, horrified. “You’re joking, right?”

He shook his head at her. “You know me, munch. I’m always as serious as a heart attack.”

They collected four of the suits. The others were two badly damaged, Raathe decided, to be much use—and six laser rifles, along with two field med-kits, bottled water and a dozen more s-ration meals. Kyle had loaded their packs onto two of the skimmers and secured them when they reached him and was working on patching the damaged skimmer Raathe had told her about.

He didn’t meet Rhea’s gaze.

“I don’t know how much mileage we’ll get out of this one. Rhea should ride with you on the other one. I’ll take this one and see how long I can baby it.”

Nodding, Raathe divided their spoils between the two skimmers. When he’d secured them with the rest of their supplies, he caught Rhea around the waist and helped her onto the rear of his skimmer. She settled uneasily. She’d never ridden on one of the things before and she didn’t particularly like the idea of doing so now. It certainly couldn’t be safe to perch on an open vehicle that had the speed capabilities of the skimmers.

Raathe twisted to look back at her when he’d settled in front of her. “You good?”

She managed a weak smile.

A gleam of amusement entered his eyes. “You’ve got the pack behind you and me in front. Just hold on tight, baby. I won’t let you take a spill.”

Somewhat reassured, Rhea looped her arms around his waist.

Switching the skimmer on, he revved the engine, allowing it to lift free of the ground. He turned his head to look at Kyle on the skimmer beside them.

Rhea glanced at Kyle, as well, relieved to see that he’d managed to get his own skimmer started. He revved his engine and grinned abruptly at Raathe. When she glanced at Raathe, she discovered he was grinning back at Kyle.

She rolled her eyes. Men and their toys!

The skimmer shot forward so fast she nearly got whiplash. Tightening her hold on Raathe, she burrowed her face against his back and squeezed her eyes closed, dizzied by the blur of the landscape they were passing so rapidly.

She hoped Raathe was right and the warden didn’t have more skimmers, or at least hadn’t brought more with them. At the rate they were moving, there was no way the warden’s men would catch up to them again any time soon.

She hoped.

Her heart rate slowed after a while, the tension slowly draining from her as she grew more accustomed to the skimmer. She still didn’t like it, but she had no doubt that both Raathe and Kyle did. They’d stopped grinning like kids, but they looked mightily pleased with themselves every time she cracked an eyelid enough to peer at them.

She was pleased if it came to that. As little as she liked the sensation of flying at such speeds on an open vehicle, it certainly beat trudging every step of the way on her own steam. She was exhausted, physically and emotionally, from everything she’d been through. She hadn’t realized just how weary until she began to drowse.

The sudden deceleration and Raathe’s grip on her slipping arms roused her. Raathe brought the skimmer almost to a stop. “You alright back there, munch?”

Rhea nodded sleepily.

“Going to sleep on me?”

She nodded again.

She sensed when he turned to look at Kyle. “She’s done in. We need to stop.”

“We’ve put enough distance between us and them we can afford to … unless we hear more skimmers,” Kyle agreed.

Rhea sat up a little straighter at the promise of stopping. It occurred to her that she should probably object, tell them she’d be fine if they wanted to go on, but she wasn’t sure she would be. Revving his skimmer up a notch, Raathe cut a slow circle, apparently using the headlights on the skimmer to get a better look at the area. Finally, he flew forward a short distance and allowed the skimmer to settle to the ground, cutting the engine. The sudden silence was near deafening. The sudden cessation of movement and vibrations from the machine was almost as disorienting. Rhea nearly fell off the skimmer when Raathe dismounted. He caught her, tried to steady her on her feet, and finally swept her up into his arms when he saw how wobbly she was.

She should’ve objected to that, too, she supposed, but she didn’t. Instead, she looped her arms around his shoulders and snuggled her face against his neck. Sadly, it didn’t last long. He strode across the ground only a short distance before he bent down to set her on her feet. She locked her knees with an effort and peered around when he’d left her and returned to the skimmer for the packs.

Her tail bone hurt. She rubbed it and her numb butt absently while she looked around for a likely place to settle and finally just wilted to the ground where she stood. Curling into a tight ball on her side, she pillowed her head on her hands.

Someone shook a thermal sleep bag out beside her. It wasn’t until he scooped her up and deposited her in it that she realized it was Raathe. He followed her down, settling beside her and closing the bag around both of them. Surprise flickered through her but not enough to really rouse her. Neither did the hopeful nuzzling along her neck.

Uttering a deep sigh when she failed to respond to his overtures, Raathe arranged her to suit himself and relaxed.

Smiling in her mind, Rhea snuggled closer. “I’ve missed this,” she mumbled against his broad chest.

His hand, which had been idly gliding over her back, paused long enough to arouse Rhea’s mind more than she wanted. She shouldn’t have said anything, she realized in dismay, feeling the urge to kick herself. With those three little words she’d reminded him she’d spent the time while he was being tortured in solitaire in Kyle’s arms.

Stupid!

“I missed it, too, munch.”

She relaxed, but there was an odd tone to his voice that niggled at the back of her mind for a while before she drifted into oblivion again. Her head was still swimming with exhaustion and her eyes felt as if they’d been glued shut when she was woken by Raathe and Justice stirring to break camp. When she managed to get her eyes open, her eyes burned as if someone had poured salt in them. She wanted nothing in those moments but to roll over, cover her head, and go back to sleep, but, from the noise her companions were making, she realized they knew she’d awakened.

Groaning, she managed to sit up and pry her eyes open a slit to scan her surroundings for the water supply. Seeing no sign of it from her position on the ground, she struggled out of the sleep bag, staggered to her feet, and wove a tight circle to widen the search. The weak light filtering from above gleamed on a small pool nearby, pinpointing the water she’d been hunting, and she wove a slightly drunken path in that direction.

“Don’t get in. We don’t know what might be in there.”

Halting abruptly at Kyle’s words, she managed to turn to stare at him stupidly without tripping over her own feet. “Water’s pure,” she managed finally.

He bared his teeth, demonstrating a clamping motion. “I meant
in
the water.”

The biting motion clicked in her mind and she turned her head to stare at the water again as it finally sank in that it was a pool, not the trickle she’d been accustomed to seeing—possibly deep enough for living creatures, although they hadn’t seen anything so far but the plants, or at least
she
hadn’t. Stalking toward him resolutely, Rhea snatched his laser pistol from the pocket on the leg of his suit, whirled around and stalked back toward her goal.

Kyle stared after her for a long moment and finally glanced at Raathe, wondering what he made of her behavior.

Raathe’s expression was indecipherable but after a moment, he dragged his gaze from her and looked at him. There was a gleam of amusement in his eyes and something else Kyle couldn’t quite put his finger on. Worry?

He was a little uneasy about her himself. Everyone coped with trauma in their own way, but he wasn’t convinced Rhea was coping at all. “That doesn’t bother you?” he asked finally.

Raathe returned his attention to Rhea. “Which part?”

Kyle frowned, wrestling with his uneasiness and trying to identify exactly what it was about her behavior that worried him. Finally, he shrugged. “The exhaustion—the gun—helping you search the bodies. No hysterics—except directly after the attack, she hasn’t cried once. Not that I’m complaining, but …. Women generally deal with things like that.”

Raathe focused his attention on collecting and stowing their gear. “We didn’t know her before,” he pointed out.

Kyle came within an inch of admitting that he knew pretty much everything about her there was to know even if he hadn’t met her in person and had the opportunity to learn her personality. “Maybe not,” he conceded after a moment, “but I’ve been with plenty enough women to know that there’s some things pretty much all of them have in common—they don’t hold their emotions in—not like she does. She’s never dealt with anything even close to what’s happened to her. Even the whores—and you know they’ve dealt with the dregs and probably seen and been embroiled in as much violence as any man in the prison, maybe more given their trade—are prone to hysterics.”

“You think she’s going to break?” Raathe asked after a long moment.

Kyle felt a wave of nausea and realized Raathe had unerringly isolated the heart of his anxiety. “I’m wondering if she already has.”

Raathe sent him a hard look. “She hasn’t. She’s adjusting.”

“And you know this?” Kyle asked tightly.

“I know this,” Raathe said implacably.

“They teach you psychology when they were training you to be an assassin?” Kyle demanded irritably.

“They did.” Raathe paused, reluctant to share his intimate knowledge of Rhea, but then he didn’t think he cared for the trend of Justice’s thoughts. It wasn’t going to help her to have Justice behaving as if she was crazy or treating her as if she was. “She releases in her sleep—and during sex. She’s afraid to let down her guard any other time.” He lifted his head and fixed Justice with another hard look. “Don’t underestimate her. She’s smart and she’s strong. She’s doing fine.” He uttered a snort of wry amusement after a moment. “Don’t be surprised in she blows up, though. I’ve been expecting it any time. Sooner or later something, maybe something that seems insignificant on the surface, is going to be the last straw and she’ll erupt like a volcano.”