Vall's Will (16 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Six

Shock

Plymon yelled as
another energy blast zapped into the brilliant light.

“Shut down!
Cease fire! Hold your weapons!”

Not six feet
away, Will stared, enthralled by the spectacle before her. She was shivering,
and her skin had taken on a bluish hue from the freezing temperature. Her
breath was a cloud puffing from her lips. A quick glance at his inner monitor
showed it was minus ten degrees and quickly dropping.

Something seemed
to take possession of her. She didn’t appear to hear their shouts. She didn’t
react. Then, to his horror, she began to walk toward the brightness.

“
No!
Will, no!
”

There was no way
he could grab her and hold her back. Not with his shields up. And if he dropped
his aura, there was the chance he could be trapped within the light’s spell
like her.

But he had to
try.

He dropped the
protective armor and took a flying leap toward her, reaching out with both
hands as unbelievable cold clamped around his body. His fingers started to close
around her arm and shoulder, when the light flared, blinding him.

And Will
vanished.

He landed
heavily on the floor and slid a few feet, skinning the side of his face from
temple to cheek. The other crew members yelled and raced over to where the light
had manifested itself. There was nothing to show it had been there. The cold
was gone, as if it had never been. Worse, their captain had disappeared.

As he rolled
over onto his back, Plymon knew his armor would show the temperature would be
back at its normal setting. He grunted as he got to his feet and stumbled over
to his monitor.

“Granth!
Scan the ship. Find her!”

“Already
scanned, Captain. Her signature is not on board the
Trinity.
”

Plymon paused.
Already
scanned, Captain
. With that one brief statement, he realized he was in
command. A shudder went through him. Yes, he had always wanted his own ship,
but not like this. Not at this expense.

“Magnus!
How long bef—”

“Three
hours, nineteen minutes,” the navigator interrupted.

“What was
that, Captain?” Granth asked. His pale face was duplicated on every other
person’s features. Enemy fire, they knew about. Other alien species, they’d
encountered many times in the past. But to have their captain snatched from the
safety of the ship racing through space had shaken them beyond anything they
had ever experienced.

“Was it the
Ben Objure?” another crew member questioned.

“No. That
wasn’t Objurian.”

“From the
species in the blue ship?” someone else suggested.

Before he could
reply, Magnus voiced what they all were thinking.

“I hope the
Captain is still alive.”

“We’re all
praying the same thing,” he muttered. Pivoting on his heel, he strode off
the bridge and took the tube down to the medical bay.

Killjorn was in
the middle of sorting and arranging medicants when he barged in. She glanced up
at him just as he stopped inside the doorway.

“Will’s
gone.”

Her jaw dropped
open. “What? Gone? What do you mean, gone?”

“We were
just invaded on the bridge by a blinding, bright light. For some fekking
reason, Will walked directly into it and vanished.”

The physician
dropped onto a seat as her legs gave way. “A light? She walked into a
light?”

Plymon motioned
toward the monitor. The bridge, like most areas of the ship, remained under
constant surveillance. He watch as Killjorn had the computer bring up the video
taken of those last few minutes. They watched as Will was talking to the crew
members, when the light suddenly appeared almost in the direct center of the
room. The glow went incandescent, and the monitor went totally black.

“What!”

Plymon reached
over the physician and stabbed at the buttons on the dashboard, but the
playback remained blank. He hit the fast forward, and within seconds the bridge
view returned. Except this time, it showed everyone’s shocked expressions, and
the Captain was gone.

“Back it
up,” Killjorn ordered grimly.

Plymon glanced
down at her questioningly, but obeyed, stopping the feed at the point when the
glow first appeared. Killjorn took the controls from him, and slowly tapped
forward button one micro frame at a time.

“There.”
She stopped and pointed to the screen. “Look.”

He squinted,
hard. “Is that a person?” Leaning closer, he studied the vague
outline in the middle of the anomaly. “That’s a person!”

“Yes, it
is.”

“Who…”
Stunned, he faced the woman. “Vall?” It was difficult to believe what
he was seeing, but everything inside him confirmed what he had suspected all
along.

“Sit down,
Plymon.” Killjorn stood and patted her vacated seat. “There’s
something I think you need to know.”

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

Reunited

Will took seven
steps, off the bridge of
Trinity,
and into Vall’s open arms. The
brightness faded the moment he gathered her against his chest, and the noise
that had filled her ears became a low rumble.

My Will.

He sought her
lips, urging her to lift her face where she’d buried it in the folds of his
robe. Will obeyed as her need for him exploded outward like the birth of a new
star. She threw her arms around his neck and clutched him tightly as his hands
slipped inside her uniform to find her soft skin.

My Will.

My Vall.

His mouth was
hot and tasted faintly of sweetness, as if he’d had a confection not too long
ago. His tongue was wet and rough as he ran it across her teeth, and she opened
herself even further for him. Somehow, he had learned to kiss. He had taken
what little he’d experienced and was now applying it to her. Tentatively,
experimentally probing as they breathed in each other’s air. Taking his tongue
between her lips, she lightly sucked on it, and Vall moaned in response. She
could feel his erection prodding her at the juncture of her thighs, and she
held him more tightly.

Something boomed
loudly in the distance. She felt the floor vibrated. Surprised, Will broke the
kiss and pulled back.

“What was
that?”

“They are
hitting us,” he spoke simply.

She glanced up
to see him unconcerned. “You mean, the Ben Objure are firing on us? We’re
at Regency Base?”

A sense of
urgency washed over her, temporarily buffering the intense emotions she had
been feeling. Her new focus tore through the nebulous clouds in her mind,
leaving her clear-headed.

She peered at
their surroundings. Having been on the base several times, she could tell they
were not on the orbiting space station floating several miles above Surro Two.
Instead, they were inside the planet, within the underground bunkers
constructed in case of enemy attack.

She and Vall
were alone in one of the storage bays. The wide expanses of grayish-brown walls
were sparsely lit with bare solar rods hanging from crude hooks. Several
payloads of cargo were stacked at one end. The doorless entry was directly to
her left.

“Vall, how
did I get here?”

“I brought
you.”

She smiled at
the sound of his voice. He knew she preferred to converse orally, and responded
in kind.

“You took
me off my ship?”

He rested his
cheek against her scalp, sighing with relief or pleasure. “I found
you.”

He was so warm.
The coldness that had nearly stopped her heart was almost gone, replaced by an
insistent need pulsating in her lower belly. Closing her eyes, Will allowed him
to envelope her again, rubbing along his hard body, soaking in his heat. She
felt him tug at her, urging her down to the bare dirt floor. Will hesitated.

This was wrong.
This was crazy. Seconds ago she’d been aboard her ship, and now she was
millions of miles away from it and reveling in the embrace of…

A
Resplendent.

For the second
time, she drew back and waited for Vall to make eye contact. In the dull glow
from the solar lamp, his golden eyes were amber.

“Vall, I have
to get you away from here. The Ben Objure want you, and they will continue to
bombard this planet until there is nothing left if we don’t surrender you to
them.”

“Will not
go.”

She was
momentarily confused. Was he saying he would not allow himself to be prisoner
again? Or that he wouldn’t leave the planet?

“We must!
You can’t stay here. If you do, everyone on this planet, everyone left up on
that space station, will die!”

He appeared
confused before asking, “Go where?”

It was a very
good question. No matter where he went, the Ben Objure would track him. Or have
other species well paid to track him. And Will could name at least six species
of hunters who were extremely capable of doing it. Not to mention the
mercenaries and other creatures for hire who would happily do it on the cheap
simply because he was being protected by the Regency.

There was
another boom, and the room around them appeared to react. Vall’s arms tightened
around her as he looked past her shoulder. A dark expression began to color his
face. The sight of it rang little alarm bells in her head. On another man, she
would think he was irritated, perhaps even becoming angry. On Vall, it seemed
to signal a change in him she didn’t want to see.

She shook him to
draw his attention back to her. “Vall.”

“Uli.”
He gave her a warm smile.

Before she could
respond, he kissed her again, sending her thoughts into a void. His energy
infused her, giving strength to her tired muscles, and driving his need for her
deep into her core. The dampened sexual spark she had tried to tame re-ignited,
until she found herself grinding her mound into his thigh. Vall whispered
something into her mouth that she didn’t understand. His hand went to her
buttocks and squeezed them.

“Vall.”
It was difficult to think. It was harder to speak. “Vall, what if someone
comes in? What if someone sees us?”

Although a part
of her didn’t care if they were caught making sweet love on the floor, her
training insisted she needed to find a safer place for Vall.

“Vall.”

“Will not
see. No one will see.”

He drew her
down, and this time she didn’t fight him. She couldn’t. He was peeling away her
inhibitions along with her uniform. With her breasts finally exposed, he kissed
her sternum and trailed his wet tongue down the middle, lingering finally on
her belly. Lapping her, tasting her, nuzzling her. Breathing hotly around her
lower abdomen, until she could almost feel it curling between her legs.

Unable to
resist, she ran her fingers through his hair and urged him to go there. To take
his tongue and taste her. To dive between her thighs with his beautiful mouth
and tongue, and destroy what was left of her sanity.

If Vall had been
an experienced lover, Will doubted she would find greater pleasure. It was his
ineptitude, and his desire to please her, his stumbles and his eagerness, that
sent her soaring among the stars when she reached her peak. She felt him jerk
her uniform over her hips and down to her knees. His warm fingers reached down
to spread her lower lips, and she raised her knees to give him better access.

I can’t be
doing this! I can’t allow this to happen! Not now! Not when so many lives are
at stake!

Control
yourself, Captain Tayte! Control yourself! You are a Nion warrior! You pledged
an oath to protect the lives of others! You swore to place their well being
above your own!

The voice
screamed inside her head as Vall’s tongue plunged inside her tight channel.
Will cried out, and at the same time, an overwhelming sense of guilt pressed
its weight on top of her. Her hands took on a life of their own and pushed Vall
away. The young man moved back and sat up, confusion and desire coloring his
face.

“I
can’t,” she gasped, reaching for her uniform. “Not now, Vall. I have
a job to do. I have to help those people. If you won’t help me—”

Another blast
shuddered through the storage bay. This time, bits of rock and dust sifted down
from overhead, covering them both with a layer of grit. Either the Ben Objure’s
aim was getting better, or the planet had taken too much of the pounding, and
was starting to fall apart.

The bombardment
distracted him, and anger glittered in his eyes. Will grabbed his chin and
turned his head back around to face her. “Vall, listen to me. Answer me.
It was you who fired back at the Ben Objure, wasn’t it?”

“I will not
go with them.” The flat statement hinted at his fear, at past memories.

“You have
to stop fighting them.”

His reaction was
swift. “No!”

“Vall, you
must leave. You can’t fight them all!”

“No!”
he replied, more emphatically.

“Then you leave
me no choice but to go up there and convince them to leave. Hopefully, I can
get them to believe that you’ll destroy their entire fleet if they
persist.”

Vall remained as
he watched her get dressed. “You have no shield,” he finally stated.

Getting to her
feet, Will sealed the uniform. “No, I don’t, but they don’t know
that.”

“I…need
you.”

“And I need
you,” she reassured him in a loving tone. She held out a hand. He took it
and got to his feet. When she kissed him, she could taste herself on his lips.

Let me
protect you,
he begged.

Everything
inside her said no. If things got ugly, she wouldn’t be able to save him. She
wouldn’t be able to stop the Ben Objure from taking him prisoner again. After
all, they had managed to kill his father, and that creature had been mature,
experienced, and powerful.

My Will, let
me protect you.

She broke away
from his mouth, lowering her head. “Vall, put me aboard the main ship. Put
me there so I can reason with them. I have to convince them to stop coming
after you. More importantly, I must get them to stop attacking the base.”

“I am going
with you.”

She stared up at
him and his determined gaze. “It’s too dangerous. What if they manage to
capture you again? I can’t risk it. I can’t risk…losing you.”

Pure love filled
his golden eyes as he moved closer to her and clasped her upper arms.
“They cannot take me. They cannot take you.”

“You can’t
say that. You can’t be sure. Remember what they did to your father.”

He hesitated for
only a split second. “You are my Will.”

“Yes, I am.
I’m also a Nion warrior, and Captain of the warship
Trinity of Hope.
I
have taken an oath to help those in need. If you want to help me, stay here,
but send me on board the main Objurian ship. And quickly, before it’s too
late.”

“I will go
with you,” he stated again, more forcefully.

“No,
Vall.”

She started to
protest further, when he swooped down on her, throwing the edges of his gray
robes around her. Before she could say anything, the supply bay faded away, to
be replaced momentarily with a background of cold space and stars. The abrupt
transition lasted only for a heartbeat before the bridge of the Ben Objurian
ship solidified around her. Immediately, three creatures turned in shock to
find her standing there. Will took a deep breath as she realized she had no
translator on her, until an arm clad in a gray robe reached around her waist,
and a warm figure pressed itself along her back.

Speak, and I
will tell them what you say.

This was her
chance. Her only chance. Even though she wished Vall had stayed behind as she’d
requested, she knew having him there with her had been a wiser decision.

She opened her
mouth to introduce herself, when one of the creatures lifted a weapon, aimed it
at her, and fired.