Hyperspeed Dreams by Anna Carven

Chapter Sixteen

“Lodan,”Nythian hissed, before launching into a stream of rapid-fire Kordolian. He let out a grunt of exertion as he pulled the restraint away from Tasha’s neck. “You’re safe,” he said quietly, putting a big, reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Why do you think Lodan asked me to watch you, hm?” He let out a soft chuckle. “She isn’t going to do anything to you while I’m here.”

“She?” Tasha croaked, now completely and utterly confused.

“It’s the ship. Lodan says it’s just a malfunction. He’ll have it under control in less than a siv.”

“Just a malfunction? The stupid thing just tried to kill me,” Tasha gasped. Her chest heaved. A cold sweat covered her forehead.

“If the ship doesn’t kill you, the Enqua withdrawals will,” Zharek said quietly in the darkness, his voice as cold as winter ice.

For some reason, Tasha got the feeling the medic was terribly angry.

How the fuck does he know… he can tell all that… just from sticking those things on my body?

Why did that make him angry?

“Enqua?” Nythian’s voice became sharp; urgent. “I don’t like the sound of that. Now why does it sound familiar?”

“It’s a very old drug,” the medic replied. “From Zor times. I don’t know how or why it exists in this part of the Universe, but there is no doubt that you are suffering withdrawals from Enqua, Tasha. Because of our physiological compatibility—well, we are practically the same species, seeing as we are able to reproduce and have viable offspring—it works on humans too. In a Kordolian, the effects would be much more pronounced, but there is no mistaking the signs of prolonged Enqua use.I haven’t seen a single case in my lifetime, but the signs are unmistakable. The violet rings around your irises… they weren’t always there, were they?”

“N-no.” Tasha had always assumed they were a side-effect of the strange modifications done to her body.

The ship was perfectly still and silent again, just like its namesake. Tasha braced for another violent shudder, but it never came.

The restraints around her body withdrew one by one, leaving her free to stand. She did just that; in the cold, in the darkness. As the faint blue lights returned, so did her night-vision, revealing the two Kordolians standing over her, staring at her with strange, disbelieving expressions—as if she’d just grown a second head or something.

They started to argue in Kordolian. Tasha heard her name peppered amongst their rapid-fire speech. She heard Lodan’s name several times.

“Oi,” she snapped, desperately trying to hide the fact that she was unsteady on her damn feet. “I’m right here, you know. You haven’t explained anything. The drug they’ve got me on is called Ambrosia. I was going to tell you earlier, but I didn’t get a chance. Maybe you know it. Maybe you’ve got a different name for it. I’ve never heard of Enqua before. But please…” She shuddered as thoughts of Lodan invaded her mind yet again. What the hell just happened? What had he done to make the ship go back to normal?

Why did she suddenly long for him?

“Tell me you can fix me. Please.”

The medic’s bleak expression turned her heart cold.

“I don’t know,” the medic said at last. He’d gone from wary and cautious to ice-cold in a heartbeat. “For now, I can give you an analogue that will dampen your symptoms and eliminate the risk of fatal complications, but you’ll need to get another dose of the real thing soon to keep you alive… to buy me time to figure out how to beat it. Enqua is complicated and exceedingly rare. I don’t know how humans are able to possess it, or why they even feel the need to mess around with it. They don’t know what they’re…” His voice trailed off. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.

Tasha’s stomach clenched.

Another dose?

“If you don’t have the answers, even with all your advanced tech, then there’s nothing I can do.” Her voice grew cold. The only way to save her from this hell was to break into Praetorian HQ and steal the drug, and there was no way these aliens were going to do that for her sake.

At least her family was safe now.

She had two options. She could just go back and surrender to Praetorian… and beg them for Ambrosia… and then try and kill as many of them as possible before they took her out.

Or she could die right here on this ship, knowing she’d done everything she could to atone for her sins.

As long as they’re okay.

The only four people in the world she cared about.

“Nah.” Nythian planted himself in front of her and crossed his arms, looking every inch the stubborn bastard. “What’s that deathly look on your face, human? You really think I’m gonna let Alexis’s long-lost sister suffer and die from something as simple as a chemical withdrawal?” He leaned forward, baring his fangs for a split-second. God, he was fierce. How the hell could Alexis be with this guy? “You really think Lodan’s gonna let this slide after all the trouble you’ve given him? Let me tell you something, human. When it comes to working a mission—well, with the exception of the boss—my brother is the most pedantic, methodical, and thorough bastard out of all of us. Now that he’s got you, he’ll want to make sure everything’s put right. He’s like that, you know.”

“Like what?” Tasha couldn’t help her curiosity.

“A bit of an obsessive bastard. Likes to do things properly. I suppose we’re all like that, in one way or another, but he’s an elite pilot, too. They’re a different breed.” A wistful look crossed his hard features.

Well, that’s reassuring.

“Who gave it to you?” Zharek demanded. He stood and pulled his wild hair back from his face, twisting it into a long tail that he quickly tied at the nape of his neck. With his lithe, angular frame and elegant features and those wickedly curved obsidian horns, he looked the most… high-elf-prince-demon out of all the Kordolians she’d seen so far. Like a character straight out of some dark fairytale… only he was a little too eccentric; a kind-of geeky mad professor type, and there were no geeks in any of the fairytales she’d ever read.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right with him. Perhaps she only recognized it because she wasn’t quite right either. “I got all my supply from the same source—the Praetorian Mercenary Corporation’s headquarters in Geneva. As far as I know, it’s the only place on Earth where you can get Ambrosia…”

“Enqua,” Zharek corrected.

“Whatever.” A spark of hope dared to ignite in her chest. “If you know what it is, then why can’t you make it… or get it from somewhere else?”

“You need another dose within the next day-cycle, and stealing it from Earth is the fastest way to get it. Enqua is not something that one just makes. I will have to consult the ancient texts. There’s no Enqua on any of our ships. It has been prohibited on Kythia since the genesis of the New Empire.”

Prohibited?

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Tasha shrugged. “After what it’s done to me, I’d ban it too.”

“You should thank the Goddess you’re human.” Zharek’s fangs flashed. “The effect on you is nothing compared to what it would do to one of us. That’s why we have to remove every last trace of it from the face of the Earth. Humans should not have it in their possession.”

“Shouldn’t have plasma guns, either,” Nythian growled, his eyes narrowing.

Tasha froze. Did he know about Praetorian’s newly acquired plasma weapons? How? What would he do if he found out that she’d actually held their plasma weapons in her bio-modded hands?

The two Kordolians loomed over her, dissecting her with hard, calculating eyes, their expressions inscrutable. Tasha was acutely reminded of the fact that they were very much alien, because in that moment, nothing about them felt even remotely human.

Panic threatened to descend upon her once again. She wanted to lash out.

Don’t.

Tasha balled her fists, desperately trying to ward off any involuntary reaction.

She couldn’t guarantee that this Nythian would be as understanding with her as Lodan had been, even if he was Alexis’s mate.

He was Kordolian, after all.

She took a deep breath and willed herself to stillness.

Control came much more easily this time.

Mucheasier than when she was around Lodan. What was it about that guy that made her lose her shit so quickly?

Deep down, she already knew the answer to that.

It was because she was attracted to him.

Shit.

To his cold precision and perfect control.

I’m screwed.

To his surprising restraint, his patience; to those unexpected moments of softness, wrapped up in lethal insta-healing, warrior-alien silver.

She looked up and stared into two alien faces at the same time, feeling the pressure of two gemstone-hard stares. Trepidation coiled around her heart.

It was ridiculous that she could even feel this way. She was an elite assassin—one of the best Praetorian had ever created—accustomed to killing without a second thought.

The conditioning had made her that way; she’d become numb, turning into a robot, an automaton, a vessel for someone else’s will.

Never thinking, just doing; obeying—until they’d pushed her too far.

Until she’d snapped.

And now she was here on a dark alien ship, surrounded by dangerous creatures that had taken possession of her entire family, and she’d never felt more alive.

Could they really…?

Tasha was trembling, but she schooled her voice to its usual flat coldness. “What will you do when you find them—the humans that have the Enqua?”

All traces of Zharek’s earlier strangeness—that rumpled awkwardness of his—suddenly disappeared. In its place was a certain kind of haughtiness; an arrogance that could only ever be described as Kordolian. Humans couldn’t pull that shit off. “We will do what we always do to those that steal from us.”

“Oh yeah?” Tasha’s heart pounded so hard she could almost hear it. “What’s that?”

The medic’s fang-sharpened smile sent a chill down her spine. “Destroy them. And take back what is ours.”