Break Out (A Blood Hunter Novel, book 1) Read online

  Break Out

  The Blood Hunter Series

  Book One

  by

  nina croft

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2011 by Nicola Cleasby.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 109

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

  Entangled Publishing is a subsidiary of Savvy Media Services, LLC.

  Edited by Liz Pelletier

  Cover design by Heather Howland

  ePub ISBN 978-1-937044-04-6

  Kindle ISBN 978-1-937044-05-3

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  To my mother, who always had a book close by.

  Chapter One

  Rico hurled himself behind the huge trunk of a tree and stood, back pressed against the rough bark as the missiles whizzed past.

  An arrow thwacked into the wood behind him, and every muscle in his body tensed. He reached gingerly around and snapped it off. In the dim light, he held the shaft to his face and cursed loudly—wooden arrows. It was almost as though they were expecting him.

  “Goddamn heathen peasants.” He might as well be back in the Dark Ages.

  In the distance, a pack of hounds bayed for blood. His blood. And they weren’t getting it.

  He braced himself and peered around the trunk, through the thick stand of trees, and spotted the crimson glow of a hundred torches not too far in the distance. Breathing in, he caught the oily scent of burning pitch.

  A triumphant roar filled the air. The hounds must have picked up his scent.

  Rico cursed and darted off again, weaving through the dense forest with blurring speed. He could outrun the mob and the hounds, but it was a damn poor way to end an evening.

  When the sound of voices faded behind him, he slowed down and finally came to a halt. Time to get the hell out of there. Leaning against a tree, he switched on his comm unit.

  “What is it?” Tannis sounded irritated, and Rico frowned.

  “I need picking up.”

  “It will have to be later—I’m busy.”

  He cocked his head to one side, listening for the sound of the mob, judging its distance. His pursuers would be on him soon. Tannis had better get unbusy and fast.

  “Tannis, stop whatever it is you’re doing, bring my goddamn spaceship, and pick me up.”

  She was silent for a moment. “I’ll think about it.”

  The line went dead. He stared at the comm receiver on his wrist. She’d cut him off. Gritting his teeth, he imagined the pleasure of tossing her mutant body out of the ship’s airlock. Only first, he had to get back to the ship. He pressed his finger down until he heard the line open.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Tannis, are you aware that I’ve rigged The Cazador to blow if I don’t input a unique numerical code every twenty-four hours? Come and get me or the whole ship goes up.”

  “Good try, but I don’t believe you. You don’t think that far ahead.”

  He took a deep breath. “Do you remember that time last year?”

  “What time?”

  “The time I saved your worthless life. At great personal risk to myself.”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “So bloody well reciprocate.”

  A shaft of burning pain shot through his leg and he jumped, then stared down in disbelief at the arrow sticking out of his calf, an inch below the knee. “I’ve been shot,” he said.

  “Shot? By what?”

  “By a big fucking arrow. Get down here. Now.”

  He yanked the arrow from his leg and flung it to the forest floor. “Or you’re fired,” he added and shut off the connection.

  His pursuers were close now, so close he could hear the fierce crackle of flames mixed with the rise and fall of excited voices. He ignored the pain in his leg and took off through the trees again. A few minutes later, he skidded to a halt.

  Straight in front of him, the land fell away abruptly. He peered over the edge. A long way below, water roared. A lot of water. A lot of cold water. He hated cold water. He searched the sky for any sign of Tannis, but a thick layer of cloud obscured the moons and he saw only darkness. He jammed his finger onto the comm unit. “You here yet?”

  “Have a little patience. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  “Great, just great. The problem is, I might not be here in five minutes.”

  “Don’t be so melodramatic. Just hold on.”

  He stared over the edge into the dark, turbulent water. “Hold on to what?”

  A low snarl sounded behind him. With a sigh of resignation, he turned to face his pursuers. They emerged from the shadowy tree line, torches held in front of them, before fanning out to form a semi-circle around him.

  One of the hounds crept toward him, belly close to the ground, growling softly. It reminded Rico a little of the dogs back on Earth, probably even had some real dog DNA in there somewhere. Rico growled back, baring his fangs. The animal got the message, turned tail, and ran.

  A tall man stepped forward to stand at the center of the group. He wore the long black robes of a priest, and Rico groaned. Not heathens after all. Bloody religious fanatics. He should have expected it.

  When man had fled to the stars nearly a thousand years ago, the old religions had gone into an abrupt decline. By the year 2500, they had all but vanished from the universe, and good riddance as far as Rico was concerned.

  But that had changed with the discovery of Meridian.

  A rare, radioactive element with the ability to bestow immortality on those lucky enough to afford its exorbitant price, Meridian heralded the evolution of a new class—the Collective. Super rich and virtually indestructible, the Collective quickly gained power. Now, they ruled most of the civilized universe.

  But while not everyone could afford Meridian, everyone wanted immortality, and the old religious beliefs had gained a new popularity. The Church of Everlasting Life offered a cheaper, if less reliable, alternative with its promise of an afterlife in paradise.

  On these isolated outer planets, the Collective’s influence was slim and the Church took advantage of that and jumped in to fill the gap. A shudder of loathing ran through him. Rico had no feelings either for or against the Collective, but he hated the Church as only someone who had lived through the Inquisition could.

  “Son of Satan,” the priest cried, and the mob behind him roared.

  Rico rolled his eyes. “We’re not actually related.”

  A second man stepped forward, dragging a girl with him, and the priest grabbed her hair, tugged back her head. In the flickering light, Rico saw the puncture wounds in her ivory neck and had a flashback to the sweet taste of her blood.

  “I have been ordained by God,” the priest said, “for the punishment of the wicked and the eradication of evil.”

  “Get a life,” Rico muttered. “Look, it’s honestly no big deal—the marks will heal in a couple of days. You won’t even know I was here.”

  His words didn’t seem to impress them. Of course, the Church was rarely impressed unless they were slaughtering innocents, and Rico was the first to admit he hadn’t qualified as an innocent in numerous lifetimes. If ever.

  Five men ste
pped forward, and Rico watched them warily. They raised their bows, cocked their wooden arrows. Drew them taut and aimed them straight at his heart.

  Rico glanced over his shoulder at the icy water below. He was going to have to jump. “Shit.”

  He tensed himself, ready to dive over the edge, just as the sky filled with noise and light. His gaze shot upward. He released his breath. The shuttle hovered above them, and a laser beam shot out, cutting the ground between him and the archers. A voice boomed from the open hatch.

  “Lower your weapons.”

  But they were already edging backward. The shuttle flew lower, almost touching the ground, and Rico lunged for the open hatchway. “About bloody time.”

  The mob was almost back in the trees now, but at the last moment, the girl pulled free and raced toward the shuttle. She stared up at them, imploring. “Take me with you, Rico.”

  He looked at Tannis, raised an eyebrow.

  “No freaking way.” She reached across and slammed her palm to the door panel.

  Rico had a last brief glimpse of the girl. He hoped she’d be okay, that her people would treat her as a victim, though she’d hardly been reluctant.

  “What took you so long?” he growled as the hatch slid shut behind him, and the shuttle sped away from the planet.

  Tannis swiveled her chair to face him. She ran a hand through her short, dark hair and raised one brow in accusation. “Been eating the natives, Rico?”

  “Dios, you go out for a snack and all you get is hassle. I’ve got to eat.”

  He hobbled across and sank into the seat next to her, rubbing his leg and tossing Tannis a wounded look. His ship’s captain was no Florence Nightingale, but dammit, his leg hurt. “They shot me.”

  “Aw, poor baby.” She uncoiled her lean body from the chair and came to stand over him, her cold, yellow eyes looking him over. Reaching down, she tore open his pants leg. The bleeding had already stopped, the wound healing over. “You’ll live.”

  He frowned. “So what kept you?”

  “While you were down here playing, I got us a job.”

  “Legit?”

  “Shit, no.”

  His mood lightened. “Dangerous?”

  “For this sort of money, it’s probably going to kill us.”

  He grinned. “Sounds like my sort of job.”

  Chapter Two

  “Are you ready, Lieutenant?” The colonel’s words sounded in Skylar’s mind.

  “Yes, sir. I’ve arrived at the rendezvous point.”

  “You know how important this mission is to us?”

  “I do, sir.”

  “Then I suggest you lock down the link. Good luck.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Skylar sent a message to her internal AI unit to break all contact and blinked in the sudden silence. For the first time in many years, she was alone inside her head. It was a strange feeling and not entirely unpleasant.

  She’d spent most of her life on active combat duty, but always as part of a team, never alone. Then she’d been promoted to a more strategic planning position, and she’d missed the fighting, but not the barracks life. Now she’d moved on, handpicked to be part of the elite intelligence division. She only hoped she would find some challenge in the job to stave off the restlessness that seemed a constant companion these days.

  This was her first solo job, and she’d planned it carefully. She’d factored in everything she could discover about the El Cazador and its crew, put that somewhat scanty information together with all possible permutations of events, added a probable fuck-up factor of ten, the highest level available, and this had been calculated as her best-chance-of-success scenario. Still, she wished she’d come up with a plan that didn’t involve her looking quite so ridiculous.

  Tugging at the neckline of her silver tube dress, Skylar tried to ignore the fact that even staring straight ahead, she could still see her breasts. She’d never considered herself particularly well endowed, had never given the whole breast thing much thought, but this dress had the effect of making them impossible to overlook.

  Christ, she’d give anything for a jumpsuit and a laser gun.

  But there was no point in putting this off. Taking a calming breath, she reached across and opened the comm link.

  “Kestrel 617, calling El Cazador.”

  “This is Captain Tannis of El Cazador.”

  “I’m at the rendezvous point.”

  “We’ll be there in an hour.”

  The link went dead.

  Skylar sat back in her seat as the adrenalin surged in her veins. The game was on.

  . . .

  “Rico, get your lazy ass out of bed. Our client just called. We’re on our way.”

  Rico had been aware of Tannis the moment the door glided open, but maybe, if he kept his eyes shut, she would get the hint and go away. When her booted feet stomped across the cabin, he knew it wasn’t going to happen. He buried his face in the pillow.

  “Rico!”

  Something sharp prodded him in the lower back until he rolled over and opened one eye. Tannis stood, legs braced, staring down at him, his sword dangling from her fist.

  He frowned. “Hey, put that down—it’s dangerous.”

  “Actually,” she said, holding up the sword, “this is a toy.” She opened her fingers, and the sword clattered to the floor. Tannis drew the laser gun from the holster at her hip and pointed it straight at him. “Now this is dangerous.”

  “Dios.” He went up on one elbow and regarded her balefully through half-closed lids.

  They’d docked last night at a spaceport close to the rendezvous point, waiting for the client to make contact, and Rico had taken the opportunity to indulge in a little recreation. He felt good, sated with food and sex, but the one thing guaranteed to spoil that mood was a laser shot in the backside. And he knew from experience she’d do it.

  He opened his eyes fully and glared. She stepped back, and he knew they must still be glowing crimson from his recent feeding.

  “Shit,” she muttered.

  Reaching down, she flipped over the corner of the black silk sheet, revealing the naked woman beneath. Rico followed her gaze. The woman’s eyes were closed, her skin pale with the waxy perfection of a lily.

  “Is she dead?” Tannis asked.

  He frowned. “Of course she’s not dead. What do you take me for—some sort of monster?”

  Though he had taken a lot of blood, and the woman was rather quiet. He nudged her with his toe. She rolled onto her side, snuggled into the pillow, and Rico sighed in relief. He was willing to kill if he had to, but he had nothing against this woman—she was only doing her job. Besides killing by accident was just plain careless.

  Tannis reached down, running a slender finger across the woman’s throat. The puncture wounds were already closing.

  “Neat,” she murmured. “But what have I told you about bringing whores on board my ship?”

  Rico pulled himself up and swung his legs out of bed. “Whose ship?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You asked me to be captain. So you do what I say.”

  “Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”

  Her finger tightened on the trigger of the laser gun, and he held up a hand. “Okay, Okay. I’ll get rid of her.”

  He reached across and punched the comm unit next to the bed. “Al, get in here.”

  Rolling to his feet, he stretched, raking a hand through his hair and scratching his scalp where the skin tingled. He could still feel the residual buzz of the blood in his system, and he closed his eyes to savor the feeling.

  When he opened them, it was to find Tannis, propped against the wall of his cabin, arms folded across her chest. At least she’d holstered the pistol. Her gaze dropped to his naked body. She didn’t look impressed.

  “Shower,” she snapped and pointed to the cubicle.

  “What are you—my mother?”

  “I just don’t want you smelling like a brothel when we meet the client.”
<
br />   Rico decided compliance was the easier option—besides, she was right—he reeked of cheap perfume.

  When he came out of the shower cubicle, Tannis was still leaning against the wall, tapping her foot on the metal floor. Al’s slight figure hovered in the open doorway. The boy peered warily into the cabin. His huge, gray eyes widened as he took in Rico’s naked figure, then shifted quickly away. Dios, the boy was skittish, always acting as if he expected Rico to bite. It irritated the hell out of him. The scrawny bag of bones wouldn’t be worth the effort it took to catch him. He was one of Tannis’ strays, picked up starving on some backwoods planet.

  “Get in here,” Rico snapped.

  Al sidled into the room, keeping close to the wall and as much distance as possible between them, and Rico narrowed his eyes. If Al wasn’t careful, Rico would give him something to really worry about. He flashed his fangs, and the little remaining color drained from the small face. Al stared at Rico as though mesmerized. Rico stared back. Come to think about it, the boy was quite striking, with that pale flawless skin and shock of dark red hair.

  “Rico!” Tannis glared at him.

  “What?”

  “Leave him alone.”

  He shrugged. “What did I do?”

  Tannis didn’t answer. Instead, she turned to Al, her expression softening. “There’s a woman on the bed,” she said. “Make sure she’s off the ship in the next five minutes.”

  Al took in the naked body on the bed. Rico hadn’t thought the boy’s eyes could widen any further, but they did, until they almost bulged out of his head, and Rico had to catch himself before he laughed at the kid and pissed Tannis off even more. Tannis was protective of her crew. He could get an arrow through the leg, and all he’d get from her was a load of sarcasm, but if one of her precious little charges was threatened…

  Al took a tentative step closer. “Is she dead?”

  “No, she’s not bloody dead.” Rico ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus, why does everybody think I go around killing people?”

  “Well, it has been known,” Tannis said mildly.

  “Only when they deserved it.” He glanced at Al and couldn’t resist adding, “Or when I was really hungry.”