His Fire Maiden (3 page)

“I think the elements refer to the ones we are meant for,” Evan said. “Not who we are.”

“She didn’t say that,” Rick protested. “I’m metal. I know it.”

Dev didn’t speak. There was nothing for him to say. It was as if she’d found the one secret weapon that could hurt him and stabbed him with it—the desire to be loved and accepted. A physical ache filled his chest, so he held himself rigid and waited for the pain to pass. He knew he was not meant to find love, but to have it dangled before him so unexpectedly was most brutal. His hand clenched. He wanted to punch Rick. He wanted to chase after An and make her tell him more. For if he had a chance at losing love, then that meant there was actually a chance he would someday find it. That hope was the cruelest part of all.

And maybe the whole curse thing was just a mean prank told by a cranky spirit, and nothing had really changed.

R
ifflen Federation Military Base
, Several Months Later

“Back away. That is the general’s heart alarm. He’s dying.” Captain Violette pushed past the men who were rushing toward the general’s door. They couldn’t do anything for him, not if his heart alarm was already sounding. She hurried to be by her father’s side, hoping in vain to make it in those last seconds of his life. When she’d obeyed his order to escort the mysterious Josselyn safely onto the base, she never expected the woman would dare to murder him in his own office. Why would she? He was giving Josselyn land, travel papers, and credentials. Why would she kill him?

Violette’s stomach tightened. Time appeared to slow as she strode toward the office door. Part of her had been waiting for this day for the last thirty years, since he’d made her promise an oath over their bloody arms, but she never thought it would result in his death. Her father was so healthy, so good, so…

Dead?

The base’s alarm repeated in a series of two short beeps and one long. Violette ignored it. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to rewind time, back to the moment when Josselyn approached her on the floating bucket of asteroid dust they called a fuel dock out in the middle of deep space. She should have disobeyed her father. She should have insisted on being in the room with the two of them. Already she knew it was too late. Her father was gone. There were no last seconds to be had with him. Not with the alarm. The death notice was being automatically sent out to the Federation.

Her father hadn’t talked about Josselyn since the day Violette found the holo-box—until a few weeks ago when he simply told her it was time. It would appear her father’s mystery lady was real—
very real
—and, by the look of her, too young to have plagued her father’s conscience as long as she had. Josselyn looked to be Violette’s age, maybe even younger, but had been born when her father was a very young man, which made her closer to a hundred. If Violette hadn’t known about the Federation’s short stint preserving prisoners into a stone-like state, she would have wondered at the clear discrepancy in the timeline.

Violette kept moving. She didn’t let her panic or grief show. The general wouldn’t have wanted her to display weakness. As she touched the door, she said to the soldiers, “You have your orders. As his heir, I’m in charge now until the federation sends his replacement. This base operates on the old codes, and I invoke my rights.”

She walked into her father’s office, and the sick feeling intensified. Violette had grown up with Josselyn’s name in her head, a recording that never stopped playing in her dreams. The woman wasn’t in any database she’d ever accessed. And the most surreal part was that when she finally met Josselyn, the woman didn’t even know who Violette was—no idea she was talking to the general’s daughter.

A shudder of grief washed over her as she found her father’s lifeless body slumped in the chair behind his desk.

“No,” Violette whispered. “Not this.”

Josselyn lay on the floor, pale and weak. Her wavy light brown hair was streaked with blonde highlights. The locks looked dull, almost as dull as her grayed expression. Her head was in the lap of Evan Cormier.

Josselyn had given the surname of Cormier when Violette had flown the woman onto the base. Evan’s vessel had followed them. It was Violette’s business to know the landing spacecrafts and who was on them—not that too many travellers wanted to visit a military compound sunk beneath sand dunes. Josselyn had been running from Evan’s ship, or from someone on it. Violette didn’t really care about that detail. Evan was probably trying to stop Josselyn from committing murder. Looking at the man’s face now, it was obvious he loved Josselyn. His tender hands moved desperately over the woman’s body, as if his willpower could save her.

For a moment, Violette thought the woman was dead and was glad for it. But the feeling was short-lived, as she took in the blue tint of Josselyn’s flesh. The coloring gave away the woman’s illness. Whoever had released her from her stone prison didn’t finish the process. She was dying. If the syringe on the floor next to them was any indication, the general had tried to give her the cure for the stasis sickness. Every instinct inside Violette urged her to let Josselyn die.

End this now,
Violette’s mind whispered,
before she can get off this base. Take your revenge. Shoot her. No one will stop you. They’ll give you a civilian’s medal. She killed a Federation General.

Violette’s gaze found the bloody knife. It was the same slim dagger her father had used to cut her for the blood oath. She looked at her arm, to where the scar was hidden by the long sleeves of her dark shirt. That one memory kept her from leaping forward. Her promise. If it were her last act in the galaxy, she would keep her blood oath.

“Just as he said it would be,” Violette stated, looking directly at Evan. Even as she saw his anguish, she couldn’t bring herself to feel compassion. Not in that moment. Not for Josselyn. “I didn’t want to believe him, but he has been waiting for her my whole life. He told me she would come to end him, his ghost.”

“You don’t understand what is happening here,” Evan answered. Had the situation been different, she could have appreciated the fear in his deep brown eyes. “You can’t.”

“I understand that a very young girl swore a blood oath to her father.” She tugged at the white cross laces running up her tight sleeve, pulling them apart to show the long scar on her forearm. “I understand that today that oath has been fulfilled. But, mostly, I understand that once Josselyn is safely off this base, and the affairs of my father are wrapped up neatly, and a new general is in place, my obligation is over. I will come for her. I will come to avenge my father, for, unlike him, I do not forgive her. When she wakes, tell her Captain Violette sends her regards.”

“There is no need. She’s dying. Your father killed her years ago when he imprisoned her into stone.” Evan lifted Josselyn into his arms. Her limbs flopped without protest. “I recommend you find a better use of your energy. Revenge will only eat away at your soul.”

“There is a chance she will survive.” Violette crossed the room, going toward her father. She lifted the syringe off the floor. “He gave her the antidote. He might have killed her, but he also saved her.” Then, pulling a disc key from beside her father’s hand, she tossed it at Evan. He caught it, barely, as Josselyn nearly fell from his arms. “That is for her. The safe is on Quazer in the Glamour District. I’m revoking your ship’s permission to stay on the base because you refused our standard inspection. Your shipmates have been unharmed and await you. I recommend you take her and go.”

“Thank you,” Evan said, looking as if he would say more.

“Get out of here.” Violette’s voice caught. She didn’t want their thanks.

Evan didn’t need to be told again. He carried Josselyn from the room.

Violette’s anger slipped into misery. Now alone, she stumbled to her father’s body. She willed him to move, to speak, to open his eyes. The alarm stopped as she kneeled on the floor. Her forehead pressed into his knee as it had done when she was a little girl. The silence was more unnerving than the blaring noise. The scorched mark of a laser stained his white cotton uniform, next to the blood-ringed pierce of a knife wound. Either would have been deadly.

Death had come for her father and Violette had delivered her to his doorstep. How could he have made her do that? How could he expect her to live with herself knowing she had?

She opened her mouth to speak as she reached to touch his face. No words came out, as she thought,
I have kept my promise. I gave you my word that I would not lift a finger to stop what she chose to do. Today, my word to you is fulfilled. She made her choice and so now I make mine. Josselyn will pay for what she’s done to you, as will any who try to stop me. Whatever happened to make you think this was a fair ending? You were wrong in thinking this just. I make a new promise to you. Josselyn will face justice. I promise you, father, she will pay for her sins.

Violette lifted the knife and drew the tip along the old scar. Blood beaded up on her flesh. “I swear it by my blood, and nothing can break a blood oath.” She collapsed on the floor and began to cry. “Why did you make me bring her? Why…?”

D
ev stood tense
, ready for battle within the underground military base. Being trapped in a metal compound wasn’t his idea of a strategic plan, but they hadn’t been given a choice. Josselyn was on Rifflen seeking revenge and they had come to aid her escape. When Evan asked for help rescuing the woman he loved, Dev didn’t hesitate. Once upon a time, he had been the one who needed to be saved from impossible odds. Evan’s vision was the reason he was alive. Dev would do anything for his friend.

As they waited for Evan and Josselyn, Dev was well aware of the stares he received from the humanoids living beneath the sands of Rifflen. Their looks of fascination warred with terror. It was nothing new. The terror would win. When it came to him, the terror almost always won.

“Where are they, Dev? That alarm can’t be a good sign.” Jackson whispered under his breath. The man took a small step down the metal docking plank as if he was debating going after Evan in a premature rescue. The ship vibrated as the engines warmed. “I don’t like this place. Who buries a city under the sand?”

Dev didn’t answer. Jackson wouldn’t expect one. The fact that they were on a Federation base didn’t help. Pirates and military didn’t socialize well.

Evan would contact them if he needed assistance. Besides, with Evan’s psychic ability to sense the ever-changing future, he should have been able to tell them if they expected big trouble.

Dev heard a child gasp and glanced to where a hairy beast of a half-humanoid kid pointed up at him. It never made sense why people feared the red demon alien, but not the hairy ones, or the blue ones, or the slimy ones. Though, the way the Bevlon’s acted, it wasn’t surprising. His father’s people loved their evil reputation. Without giving away that he saw the kid’s rude gestures, Dev turned his attention back to the metal entrance where Evan should emerge.

“Where is he?” Jackson repeated, his hands twitching.

“Hold,” Dev ordered calmly. He watched as the soldiers mingled amongst the civilians to see if they acted suspiciously. Only a few guards had responded to the alarm. The others held their place. Dev crossed his arms, silently daring them to attempt to breach the ship. None of them tried.

Inside the base, the air was stale, tainted by the gut-churning smell of roasting meats. The artificial sun lights gave a low hum. In the docking area the ceilings were high, but from what he could tell, the military base was shaped like a squashed sphere, tapering in height the closer one walked toward the outer edges. The high center point was where they entered, through a tall column that would expand out of the sands to let ships come and go. Overhead a combination of steel beams and windows did little to give the feeling of space. He wondered why they bothered with windows at all. The sand moving past the large panes made it feel like being buried alive. Below, workers aimed lasers at welded bolts, tediously reinforcing them one by one to protect the compound from sand erosion. They were quite the marksmen.

“About bloody time,” Jackson swore, shaking Dev from his thoughts.

Dev followed his friend’s gaze to the far side of the docks. Evan carried Josselyn, his arms strained as he rushed toward the ship. The base guards eyed Evan as he passed. Their hostility became palpable, thickening the air.

Dev instantly moved down to the bottom of the plank to make sure no one went for a gun or tried to stop their departure. He knew Josselyn had come to Rifflen seeking revenge and had most likely found it. What he didn’t understand was why the base’s officials were letting them fly out of there unharmed. But then who was he to question a bit of good fortune?

“Jackson,” Evan called, stumbling. Jackson rushed down the plank and across the docking area to help Evan carry Josselyn on board.

Dev’s eyes swept from soldier to soldier, calculating the risk. He listened to the sound of his friends’ footsteps. Suddenly, everything seemed to stop.

A woman emerged on the far side of the docks following Evan, arms crossed, green eyes hard. Curly brown hair danced around her chin as she moved. The soft locks were at odds with her fierce demeanor. The slender tailoring of her outfit, tight brown pants, and matching deep cut top, accented her tall figure. He found himself studying the curve of her hip and the long line of her legs. Her lips were pressed together in irritation, but they were full and red—the kind of lips that could command men with harsh orders or soft kisses. Dev wasn’t sure which would be more effective a method, but he knew which he would prefer.

She neared the docking plank, shouldering past a few members of the crowd to stand several paces away from him. Her eyes met his. He didn’t like what her look did to him. Desire surged to his surface, hotter than an exploding Bravon sun. Electric fire snapped between them. He wanted to kiss her but had a feeling she would prefer to shoot him. An entire conversation happened in that one look without words ever needing to be spoken.

“Who is that woman?” Dev asked, before he could stop himself.

Evan glanced to where he indicated. “Captain Violette. Long story, but the short version is she’s not too happy with us. I’ll fill everyone in once we’re in orbit.”

Dev didn’t detect fear buried in the raw emotion swimming in Violette’s gaze, not even a glimmer of it. She looked too delicate to be so tough, and yet his years of training told him not to underestimate this woman.

“Walk straight,” Dev whispered gruffly, grabbing Evan’s arm and practically dragging him up the plank. They needed to get off the base, but more importantly, he needed away from that woman. He didn’t like the rush of emotion that filled him when he looked at her—curiosity, desire, protectiveness. He was a warrior always ready for battle, but even he could admit when it was best to retreat. “We don’t want to be stuck here waiting for the next chance to take off.”

Not for the first time since it happened, Dev thought of An’s curse. Evan’s destiny had been realized with Josselyn when they found her imprisoned in stone on an ice tundra of a dead moon. If that was simply fate or fulfillment of a prophecy, Dev didn’t know. What he did know is that he’d spent a lot of lonely nights trying to force any personal hope out of his head. And now, with one look, he was thinking she might be his element of earth as they were buried beneath the sand as their eyes met, or metal for the stretch of metal flooring that now separated them, or fire for the churning in her hot gaze and the feeling in his blood…

Or nothing. He was reaching for clues that were not there. She was nothing because men like him did not get to fall in love. His destiny lay in battle, in protecting others. He was a demon spawn after all, and who would want to love a demon?

A new alarm activated to interrupt his thoughts and break the spell of her impassioned gaze. The noise punctuated the clanking of metal against metal. The center column began to rise. Dev released Evan as they neared the top. Instantly the docking plank lifted to seal them inside the ship. And, as he glanced through the narrowing view as the door closed, he saw the woman still stared at him with her intense eyes. She nodded once before turning her back.

Fire,
Dev thought,
she is unquestionably fire.