Ignite by Tana Stone

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kalex

I strapped myself into the cockpit of the fighter, tugging the straps so roughly they bit into my flesh through the borrowed flight suit. I grunted at the pain, welcoming it. Anything was better than the ache gnawing at my gut. The familiar sounds and smells of the hangar bay were comforting—burning fuel, clanging metal, roaring engines—but they weren’t distracting enough to make me forget what had happened.

I tried to push the recollection from my mind, but her shocked face had been seared into my brain. Shock followed by an expression that could only be described as revulsion mixed with fear.

Zoey hadn’t been pleased by my attempt at romance. She’d been horrified. So horrified that she’d literally turned and run from me.

Grek. I raked a hand through my hair with a growl. How had I been so wrong? I’d been sure that she wanted more than just mindless—but incredible—sex. Didn’t all females?

“Not her,” I said darkly under my breath. Or maybe just not with me.

That thought stabbed at me, making me miss the previous numbing ache. I’d been convinced that her body’s eager response to mine and her obvious desire for more sweaty encounters had meant that she desired me. But had it only been me who wanted more? Had I been falling for her, but falling alone?

I turned my attention to the inside of my cockpit and the blinking lights that indicated that the ship was ready to launch. Flipping a switch to engage the engine, I forced out a breath as the machine beneath me rumbled to life. Why was I letting this get to me? Hadn’t I been the one to insist I didn’t want any attachment? I’d only agreed to her proposal because it was no strings attached. The last thing I’d been looking for was a romantic entanglement—especially with her.

Memories of my hands moving across her skin and her eyes half-lidded with desire made my cock twitch and my pulse quicken. I’d been a fool to think it could ever be anyone but her. Zoey had been challenging me and firing my blood since the moment she stepped on to the station. She was the kind of woman who could stand up to me and give as good as she’d take. I didn’t know if I was going to miss fighting with her or fucking her more, but one thing I was sure of—losing her was going to carve a hole in my heart.

“Everything okay over there?” Jax’s voice came through my cockpit as if he was sitting next to me, although he was in his own fighter.

I glanced over at the glossy black ship beside me and the Drexian pilot looking at me. “Couldn’t be better,” I lied, touching the device hooked to my ear engaging the energy helmet around my head. “Let’s do this.”

He gave me a curt nod, and fired up his own engine, the haze from both of our ships making the Drexians on the flight deck appear distorted. With a roar, his fighter shot forward and across the flight deck.

I waited until he’d cleared the enormous mouth at the far end before slamming my own thrust lever forward. The force of the acceleration pressed me into the back of my seat as the ship rumbled down the length of the hangar bay and burst through the energy field and into space.

Adrenaline surged through me as I banked hard to the left, hugging the curve of the station as I flew one full orbit around it, before breaking off and joining Jax’s fighter. From out here, the space station looked like a glittering jewel, lights shining from within the transparent hull, and shiny steel curling around the inside. Even though I knew it was built from reinforced steel and thick, clear polycarbon, it appeared almost delicate when I peered at it from a distance.

“This is it.” Jax’s voice boomed into my compact cockpit. “The last indications of an energy rift came from these coordinates.”

I scanned the inkiness of space surrounding the station. If this is where the Kronock had intended to jump, it would have put their battleship virtually on the doorstep of the Island. A protective rumble worked its way up my throat. Not on my watch.

Glancing at my console, I shook my head. “Levels look normal now.”

“Let’s set up a search,” Jax said. “We’ve got the rest of the security patrol out here with us. We might as well set up a proper search grid.”

“Agreed.”

I let Jax take lead. I might be the station’s captain, but it was his patrol team. I was only along for the ride. And to get my mind off Zoey, I thought.

Muttering a curse under my breath that she’d left my thoughts for mere minutes before rushing back in, I forced myself to focus on the task at hand. If Jax’s hunch was right, it meant that the Island was in graver danger than we’d originally suspected. But it also meant we had a chance to eliminate that threat.

The other Drexian fighters fanned out around us, falling in place beside Jax as we began to fly in a standard Drexian search pattern. I swiveled my head to view the row of identical, pointed-nose fighters, pride surging within me. I’d missed flying with my fellow Drexians. Being the captain meant I commanded from a distance, but I missed being in the trenches with other warriors.

A red light flashed on my console, lighting up my cockpit. “I’ve got something.”

“Same here,” Jax said. “Looks like we’re right on top of the energy rift.”

The energy readings displayed on my console rose quickly, causing more alert lights to blink on and off. It wasn’t just the energy readings that were off the charts—it was everything.

“What’s going on out there?” Vekron’s voice broke into our comms link. “We’re picking up some unusual fluctuations from here.”

I glanced toward the Island, my gaze going instinctively to the top where the command deck was located. I couldn’t see anyone inside the darkened glass of the wide view screen wrapping around the bridge, but I could easily imagine Vekron standing at attention and watching us, his dark hair pulled tight on top of his head.

“We’re reading them too,” Jax said. “It’s not just energy though. I’m reading gamma rays.”

“You should back away from the source until we can determine what it is and how powerful it might be,” Vekron said, his voice breaking up on the last words.

I wasn’t one to shrink from a fight, but I also wasn’t in the mood to have my fighter blasted apart.

“Engaging reverse thrusters,” I said.

From the corner of my eye, I saw that Jax was doing the same, and his ship was reversing course alongside mine. Then my ship shuddered and jerked forward, slamming the back of my head into my headrest so hard I yelped.

“Grekking hell!”

I tried to lift my hand to rub my head, but I was pinned to my seat as my ship was propelled forward. The air left my body, and I closed my eyes as the ship emitted a series of beeps and wails. I couldn’t even take a breath until the ship was thrust forward and everything went quiet.

With a gasp, I opened my eyes. The ship was no longer wailing, and lights weren’t flashing on the console. The console showed nothing unusual. No anomalous readings. No fluctuations.

I managed to lift a hand to my head, which had started to throb. “What the grek was that?”

“Kalex?” Jax’s voice was low and cautious.

I glanced to my side, grateful to see his ship next to mine. “Did you feel that?”

“Affirmative.”

“Vekron,” I said. “Did you record any of that?”

“Vekron’s not here,” Jax said.

I swung my head to the other side where the Island had been. He was right. It wasn’t there. Instead, there was a hulking gray Kronock battleship, the armor covering its hull like the scales of the Kronock themselves. Bile rose in my throat as I glanced around and realized that only Jax and I had been pulled into whatever energy rift had brought us to Kronock space.

We’d found the enemy. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that they’d found us.