Ignite by Tana Stone

Chapter Nineteen

Kalex

I leaned one hand on the console and stared out across the bridge to the view of space. Our fighters swooped across the wide view screen as they made their security fly-bys, the shiny black hulls flashing against the inky sky that was dotted by pinpricks of glittering starlight.

As part of Inferno Force, I’d spent most of my time in deep space. It was the task of the elite fighting unit to monitor the outskirts of the galaxy and the border of Kronock space. The seemingly endless stretch of blackness was nothing new to me, and the deep-space location of the station reminded me of my time spent patrolling the No Man’s Land between Drexian and enemy space. Gazing out at such immenseness made the problems of the space station seem small by comparison, and my personal issues insignificant. If only I could convince myself of that.

“Captain?”

I twisted my head to look at the Drexian who stood beside me. He gave a quick but pointed glance at my hand, which was squeezing the edge of his console so tightly that the bones showed white through my skin. I released my vise-like grip, straightening and giving myself a mental shake. “All systems operational?”

The officer nodded, cutting his eyes briefly to the readouts on his glossy black console. “All readings within normal parameters, sir.”

I exhaled and left his station, positioning myself in the middle of the half-moon shaped command deck as the other officers at the standing consoles tapped away and the computer emitted an occasional whir or beep.

I pivoted to face the science officers seated at the consoles that ringed the back wall. “Have you picked up any energy fluctuations?”

A tall Drexian with sandy-brown hair cut short spun around in his swivel chair. “None, Captain.”

More good news, I thought, turning again to face the view outside the station. Then why did I feel so on edge? It couldn’t be because of what had happened with Zoey. I’d agreed to her proposal, which meant I should be pleased. No-strings-attached sex with an attractive female. What could be better than that?

I clasped my hands behind my back, squeezing them as I my mind went to Serge and the virtual date he was setting up for Zoey. Dryx. Why did it have to be with Dryx?

I didn’t understand why Serge was so hell-bent on finding a match for Zoey anyway. Hadn’t the woman told me she didn’t want anything serious? Wasn’t that why she wanted to keep our encounters so secret? And then moments after she tells me that, she agrees to a vid date that Serge sets up with a total stranger?

I curled my hands into fists and dropped them by my side. I didn’t understand females, and especially human ones. As pleased as I was that Zoey wasn’t going to report me, it didn’t make sense that she would want nothing but sex from me while she simultaneously pursued a match via Serge.

Then it hit me like a flying chunk of space debris. Maybe she didn’t consider me good mate material. Even though I’d never considered taking a mate myself, the thought that I might not be considered a good mate made me bristle. I was a highly skilled Drexian warrior who’d risen to the rank of captain. Not only that, but I took great pride in my ability to please females in bed. How could she think Dryx would be any better?

I scowled at the thought of the pretty boy I’d served alongside when I’d been first officer of Captain Brok’s ship. He’d been a tactical officer and good at his job, but he’d also had a reputation for seducing females that were not pleasurers. I’d gotten in more than one bar fight in a backwater outpost because an angry, cuckolded boyfriend had tracked him down. And this was the Drexian Serge had picked for Zoey?

“You mind if I ask what that view screen ever did to you?”

I started as Vekron sidled up to me. I hadn’t even noticed him enter the bridge, much less walk up so that he was standing beside me. I eyed my friend, his dark hair knotted at the top of his head. “I was thinking.”

“Mmhmm.” Vekron nodded as he faced the view screen. “Is this about what went on in the storage room?”

I jerked my head to him. “What?” Did he know what Zoey had asked me in that room? No, that was impossible. No one had heard us.

“I saw your face when you followed Serge, Reina, and Zoey from that room.” He inclined his head at mine. “It looked just as stormy then as it does now.”

I thought about denying it, but then I changed my mind. “Did you know that Serge is finding a match for Zoey?”

Vekron’s eyebrows lifted. “As in a mate?”

I nodded, twisting so that we were shoulder-to-shoulder again. “He set up a vid date with her and Dryx.”

“Dryx?” His voice was so loud it caused several nearby officers to stare at us.

I gave them all severe glances that told them, without me having to speak, to return their attention to their stations.

“The warrior we served with under Brok?” Vekron asked, his voice more measured.

“The very one.” I was pleased that Vekron seemed as shocked by this news as I was.

“Since when does that Drexian want a mate, much less a human one? I thought his taste ran to alien females with wings and tails.”

“And mates of their own,” I added. “Don’t forget that Dryx likes his females already attached.”

“Serge clearly hasn’t served with the warrior,” Vekron said with a dark laugh. “Or fought off one of his girlfriends’ angry mates.”

“Clearly.”

Vekron was silent for a moment. “You sure this has nothing to do with you and Zoey?”

I tried to keep my voice even. “There is no ‘me and Zoey.’”

“I’ve seen the way you look at her, Kalex. Besides, didn’t you tell me you kissed her?”

Grek. I had told him that. “To shut her up. She can’t seem to stop herself from arguing with me about everything.”

Vekron made a noise in his throat that indicated his disbelief. I didn’t respond, instead turning as one of my officers cleared his throat.

“Captain,” the Drexian said, from his post at comms. “Incoming transmission.”

“High Command?” I asked, grateful that the interruption had saved me from what was sure to have been more questions from Vekron.

“No, sir. It’s from one of our fighter patrols.”

Both Vekron and I swung our heads back to watch the fighters fly by the command deck’s wide window into space.

“Is there a problem with any of the ships?” I asked.

“Not according to our sensors,” my tactical officer said.

Vekron and I exchanged a wary glance.

“On screen,” I said.

The faraway glittering stars were replaced by a full-screen image of Jax in the cockpit of a fighter, his energy helmet humming around his head.

“Everything okay out there?” I asked.

“I wanted to see if the station’s sensors are picking up anything.” Jax’s brows pressed together to form a wrinkle between his eyes.

I glanced at my tactical officer, who narrowed his eyes at the readouts on his console.

“Nothing I can pick up, sir. I’ll run a more intensive diagnostic.”

“Do that,” I said, pivoting back to Jax. “Nothing yet, but we’re going to do a deep dive. What did you pick up out there?”

Jax rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Maybe I’ve been out here too long, but I thought I saw a flicker of something.”

Vekron took a step forward. “What do you mean, a flicker?”

Jax’s mouth twitched into a half-smile. “I knew the science guy would want a better description than that, but I don’t know how else to explain it. It was so fast and just a shimmer in the corner of my eye that now I’m thinking I must have imagined it.”

“Deep space will do that to you,” I said, even as Vekron paced a small circle in front of me.

“Was it a flicker or a shimmer, Jax?” Vekron asked, ignoring me and focusing entirely on the screen.

Jax paused for a beat before answering. “Both, really. A shimmer in space that flickered for no more than a second.”

“You didn’t see anything solid?” Vekron asked when he stopped pacing.

“If I’d seen something solid, I’d be making a lot more noise out here,” Jax said.

Vekron strode over to the tactical officer’s console. “I think I know which scans we need to be running and what we need to be searching for.”

My gut tightened at the serious set of Vekron’s jaw. “You don’t think—”

But my question was cut off as the image of Jax vanished from the screen, the entire bridge went dark, and alarms started to wail.