Chapter Thirty-Five

Laser fire spit through the air. Philip dropped to the ground. I dove, hit the decking hard, Stinger out.

He flattened himself next to me, swearing. He was unarmed, but his eyesight was excellent. "There!"

I fired at the telltale red point of light, heard the high-whine of another laser pistol behind me. Sully, angled against the edge of a door panel in the brightly lit control room.

"Airtight's on!" I sent a few more shots into the darkened bay. "Get back to the control room."

Philip's voice was a low rumble. "Room's not sealed. That won't help us."

He was right. The wide door panels, large enough to permit cargo access, were still locked open. The edges of the doors, the single row of chairs and the small ops desk provided little cover.

"Looks like someone wanted to remove that option," he added. The rapid discharge of Sully's laser pistol whined behind us. "Can we disable the outer doors?"

"Sully's headed there."

Laser fire sizzled a few feet from us. I answered with three shots back at the source. "How'd they find us?"

"This Lazlo knows Thad. That nun knows you. Probably someone followed us from Thad's office."

Another barrage streaked in our direction. Much too close this time.

"Move!" Philip barked.

I sprang into a crouch then bolted to a low ops console behind us, Philip beside me.

"Been awhile since we had this kind of fun." He was breathing hard.

I automatically scanned left and right, catching his tense grin. "You always were a demon for night training."

"It kept you close to me." His hand wrapped around my upper arm. "On three. Break for that back wall. Lots of cover there."

He squeezed my arm. "One. Two. Three."

We ran in a semi-crouch. Laser fire followed but fell short. It stopped when we reached the side wall.

I saw outlines of the familiar ladders, panels, more op-consoles jutting out. Large, hard fronted storage cages offered the best protection. I sidled behind one. Philip snugged up against me. We were both breathing hard now.

Then suddenly a scream, a woman's voice, echoing in the bay.

"Sullivan! The unholy shall die!"

Philip's eyes went wide.

"Berri Solaria," I told him. Laser fire continued to whine through the bay. "Devout. And persistent."

My eyes adjusted to the dim light. There was a wide rampway grating overhead, ladders, more op-consoles. More cages. Berri's people couldn't cross the center of the bay without being seen. And they couldn't run along the outer doors, which were ringed by lights. But they could cross overhead on the maintenance rampways.

Philip's gaze followed my own. "We'd hear anyone coming across there. Could get a clear shot at them. I don't think they're that stupid."

It had been over five minutes since I'd run after Philip. He was right. Berri and her friends wanted us together in the center of the bay walking to the ship, easy targets.

Now, we were in two different places. We needed to get back together, find a way out.

I turned. Philip's mouth came down hard on mine, his arms locking around me. He kissed me with an intensity I'd forgotten, with all our arguments, our anger and hurt feelings. He kissed me with an intensity of a man who'd known my body, intimately, for eight years. And knew exactly how I liked to be kissed.

Laser fire whined again. I jerked back, shaken.

"Chaz. I'm sorry." His voice rasped.

"Not here. Not now." I ignored my unsteady emotions, pushed myself quickly to the edge of the cage and tried to make out shapes in the shadows. My ears strained for footsteps, the rustle of fabric. But except for Philip's harsh breathing and the pounding of my own heart, it was quiet again.

Too quiet.

Red target beams erupted into white streaks from the patches of darkness under the pinnace. I trained the Stinger on the lights. The underside of the ship flashed in more small bursts. I hit landing struts, scanner arrays. A cargo stage near the ship's stern sparked. But not our attackers. They must have moved under the pinnace when Philip and I had run for the far wall.

More laser fire came now from my right, from far down the long bay wall, flaring against the pinnace's hull. Sully. I caught a flurry of thought pictures. Ren and Verno pulling back into the lifts just as two Crossley Burke security jogged past. Reinforcements. Lazlo was bringing in reinforcements.

Tell Ren to call Thad's office. I sent Sully the link number and an emergency code.

He acknowledged, adding, Tell lover-boy to keep his goddamned hands off my wife.

His label for me since Dock Five. To dissuade Ilsa, tease Dorsie. And now, no doubt, to irritate Philip.

Sully fired off another long burst toward the ship. Panel's trashed. They're not going to open the bay doors. They want those datatabs first. Badly. We must have stumbled on something very important.

Whatever it was, it was on its way to Drogue. Who's with Berri?

Lazlo. And another male, name's Talard. Feels like a professional shooter.

Three against three. I liked those odds.

We need a manual emergency hatch. Or we're going to have to take the pinnace.

I knew the core. Shuttle bays aren't my specialty.

Another burst of laser fire. An ops panel about fifteen feet in front of me sizzled, sparked. Sully hadn't answered my comment about shuttle bays. I hoped he was linked to Ren, that Ren had found Thad quickly. That-

Not yet. Chasidah. I felt a pause, wariness. We need that manual exit hatch. Guthrie has to know the layout. But when he learns you're linked to me, he's going to... react.

I frowned. React?

I love you. I'd never hurt you. Don't ever forget that.

Sully?

Tell him what we know. How you know it.

I stepped back behind the cage edge, suddenly afraid, but I didn't know why. "Philip. Listen to me. Berri's out there with Lazlo and another professional assassin, Talard. Ren and Verno know what's going on. They're trying to reach Thad. But Burke has people in all the corridors now. Might even be bringing reinforcements. I don't know shuttle bays. You do. We need an manual exit hatch."

Philip stood very still beside me. "How do you know all this?"

"I have a link with Sully."

"Telepathic." It wasn't a question. And he didn't give me time to respond. "How long?"

"What in hell does it matter? We have to-"

"How long!" His voice was rough. "Since I intercepted you in Calth?"

"Before that."

"Damn him."

"It doesn't-"

"It does. Goddamned Ragkiril filth. And he's hearing me, through you, he's hearing me. He's probably even telling you not to listen. He doesn't want you to know the truth."

"He's not-"

"He is. He has. I'll tell you what he's done. He touches you, constantly. Overwhelms your senses with intense pleasure. Then he makes you his lover. Has he taken you, has he mated with you in the Kyi?"

I was dimly aware of laser fire whining in the bay behind me. But I remembered clearly the hot passion, and spiraling upward in Sully's arms through gray fuzzy soft.

Philip took my silence as an implied admission.

"Bastard!" Contempt hardened his words. "He's made you his ky'sara, his bond- wife, slave. The link is part of the way he controls you. When he tires of you, he'll break it through a zragkor. Or he'll kill you. That's what a Kyi-Ragkiril is. That's what they do."

I stared at Philip, aware of my heart beating rapidly in my chest, aware that my breathing was just as rapid. Aware that there was nothing in my mind but silence. And pain.

I remembered what I'd been taught in Non Human Cultures 101 about zragkors. About Ragkirils. Intense pleasure. And then you die.

"We need an exit hatch, Philip. Manually operated." My voice shook.

"Chaz." He touched my arm.

"If we don't get out of here, it won't matter. None of it. So tell me where there's a goddamned exit hatch!"

"There are two." His voice was calm. But his grasp on my arm tightened. He was fighting anger. I was fighting pain. "This Lazlo knew what he was doing, coming at us from the right side. Main emergency hatch is back there. We'd never make it across the bay. The other's under the pinnace, into the maintenance pits. He's got that one now, too."

"Then we have to take the pinnace, or the hatch below it. Sully says we can do it."

"Agreed. If I were armed, we could take them from three different directions."

I shoved the Stinger at him. "I've got my Grizni. If I can get close enough-"

No! Guthrie takes my Carver.

"Chaz?"

I held up my hand, stilling Philip's question. Then you'd have nothing.

Hellspawned Ragkiril filth don't need anything, angel-mine.

Sully, stop it! In spite of my own wrenching emotions, the raw pain in his words tore at me.

A gentling flowed through me, like a wordless apology. I'll be fine. I have a few tricks left. Give me a few minutes to move to your position. Tell Guthrie he's getting my Carver. But not my wife.

I tried to lower my hand but Philip held onto it. "Give me the Stinger back. Sully's giving you his Carver."

He hesitated only a second before he handed me the laser pistol. "There are supposed to be ways to break a ky'saran link. I'll help you."

"I need to cover Sully. They might pick up his movements." I pushed myself to the edge of the cage again and locked my gaze on the pinnace. Locked my emotions in the biggest mental duro-hard in the universe. Soldered it shut.

Shadows were hazy in the grayness. Only the outer door ring lights were bright. But they were shielded, angled to shine toward incoming ships. The bay received their residue and their reflection off the dull metal doors.

I heard a rustle of movement, but didn't take my gaze off the pinnace. Sully swept against me, hot, hard and sweaty. He dragged me into his arms. We stumbled back against the bulkhead, my face, my Stinger in his chest.

Philip's hand clamped my shoulder. "Let her go."

Sully's arms were locked tightly around my back. He was breathing hard, each breath pulsing warmth, tenderness, desire. Just like Philip said.

I splayed one hand on the front of his shirt, angled back. His arms relaxed. In the dim lighting, I could see his eyes were infinite, black, endless. And focused behind me.

"You know nothing of me, Guthrie." His voice was soft but his words were clipped and hard. He reached between us for the Carver, held it out.

Philip checked the clip for power, blatantly distrustful.

I stepped away from both of them. "Where's Ren?"

"Going back up to Thad's office. Burke's people have this level fairly well locked up. I'll know more of what Thad can do when Ren and Verno get there."

"What do we do, now?"

"The pinnace is my first choice," Philip said quickly. "We've got supplies, weapons. Could blow through the bay doors, if we have to."

Sully made a short motion with his hand. "Her ramp's very exposed. How long to uncycle her hatch lock?"

"Two minutes, if her codes haven't been scrambled."

"And if that won't work?" I asked. "Where does the exit hatch go?"

"Maintenance tunnel between levels. If I were this Lazlo, or Burke, I'd expect we'd try that. That might even be how they're bringing in reinforcements."

Sully tilted his head. I thought of Ren. "Not yet. Still just the three there."

"We have to draw them out, split them up. Get control of the pinnace before reinforcements arrive," Philip said.

"Berri will come after me, once she sees what I am. It's her mission."

I remembered her charging, wild-eyed, into the Karn's ready room, screaming about demons. "She has a rifle."

"She won't try to kill me right away. Her type always lectures you, first. You two handle Lazlo and Talard. We'll make it."

"There are two cargo stages between here and the aft of the pinnace." Philip touched imaginary points in the air. "It's a bit of a zigzag, but it's cover. We can probably make that."

"I'll head for the bow. Draw Berri out that way."

Philip frowned. "They'll see you before you're halfway across the floor."

"I have no intention of using the floor."

"Sully-"

He placed his finger on my lips. "Hush, Chasidah."

Even in the dim light I could see energy ripple across his shoulders, like a rolling wave. Rising, merging. For a hundredth of a heartbeat I saw a ghost shadow behind him, stepping into him and out of him at the same time.

Then it was Gabriel with his finger on my lips, Gabriel with eyes of obsidian, Gabriel with wings cresting his shoulders, framing his body.

Not a jukor. Just Sully, just Gabriel Ross Sullivan with wings. A Kyi-Ragkiril with infinite eyes.

He brushed his thumb over my mouth. Chasidah-angel. Nothing to fear.

Philip's shoulders were rigid. Gabriel glanced at him. "Your research is excellent, but incomplete. You've explained ky'sara. You owe it to Chasidah to explain ky'sal. Or is that the truth you don't want her to know?"

Philip's voice was harsh. "I only know what you've done to her. I have no proof of any link- "

"An equal link." Gabriel stepped toward the edge of the cage, listened for a moment to things only he could hear in the shuttle bay. "If she is ky'sara to me and I am ky'sal to her, it's a link forged of love, not control. And that zragkor you threaten her with would kill me. Or isn't that in your family's research?"

"I don't know what her link is to you."

"But she does," Gabriel said softly. "All that I am, is hers." He studied the rampway overhead. "Keep their focus on the ground for a few minutes, will you?"

Gabriel-

Nothing to fear.

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