Angeli (13 page)

With a sneer, Niko shot Gregori point-blank. The beam would have dropped him if he hadn’t kept his force field around himself and Adelita while they’d been spying on base. As it was, the blast knocked him against the rocks, his wings breaking his fall and protecting his spine.

So much for not fighting his own people. Gregori flipped up and aimed at Niko. His former lieutenant didn’t know the weapon had dead batteries.

“What the fragging hell, Niko?”

“I knew we’d catch you eventually.” The other man’s dark eyes burned with something. Fanaticism? Vengeance? His wings retracted into battle stance. “You’re predictable.”

Gregori shifted his wings to the half spread of battle stance as well—ready to leap into flight or bristle with tactanium at any moment. He’d fixed that, at least. “If that’s the case, why’d it take you three weeks to get this close?”

Nikolas didn’t lower his weapon but didn’t shoot. “There are things in heaven more important than a blasphemer and deserter.”

“Not to you, apparently.” Niko had been part of nearly every group of Ship-lickers who’d come after Gregori, despite the fact that handlers were supposed to be off duty during retrieval. Sometimes the son of a hole even showed up alone.

Niko glanced at Adelita, who was climbing to her feet, and back at Gregori. His sensor array flashed as it fed him information. “Why did you seek to desecrate this poor mortal creature known as Adelita Louisa Eleanor Martinez?”

“What do you care?” Damn Niko, anyway. He’d been one of the worst “desecrators” on Terra, and they’d argued about it many times.

“I care about all mortals,” Nikolas said.

Adelita clasped her hands as if praying. Her binoculars swung around her neck on a strap. In a sycophantic voice that didn’t sound like the woman Gregori had come to know in the past several days, she said, “Oh, blessed angeli, you know of me. You must have heard my prayers.”

“I wasn’t desecrating her,” Gregori said. What the crap was Adelita playing at? She’d kissed him first.

“The Lord sent me to reclaim you, Archangel.” Nikolas snapped out his arms so multipurp bands slid into his hands, flashing into twin silver swords. “It’s time for you to answer for your sins and be judged.”

Blades instead of lasers? Fine by Gregori, considering the state of his fusion cell. He answered Niko’s challenge with blades of his own.

They sprang together in a collision of force fields that flared like lightning. Gregori whirled, the impact propelling him backward through the air. His field wouldn’t last long; he had to deactivate Niko’s before he realized Gregori’s was practically fried.

Luckily tactanium blades were one of the few things that could slice through a force field.

Unluckily Nikolas knew that, too.

They met again with blades extended. Again their force fields repelled the tactanium. Gregori’s field sputtered.

He caught the smirk on Niko’s face before the other man flew straight up in the air, trying to gain leverage. Step one in how Gregori had coached members of his unit to collapse a force field.

But he hadn’t shown his students all his tricks.

Gregori allowed Nikolas to hover above him and then hurtle down like one of Terra’s hawks after a mouse.

Adelita gasped.

Gregori widened his stance and held his blades over his head in a cross as if protecting himself. Right before Nikolas struck, he used the other man’s precipitous descent against him. Gregori flicked off his force field and whipped the blades point-up, where they pierced Niko’s shield like pins into a balloon.

Niko, startled, allowed his swords to be deflected to Gregori’s wings. His body smashed into Gregori like a wrecking ball, and the two of them tumbled across the ground.

Gregori shortened his blades for hand-to-hand. He and Niko rolled in a fast, vicious scrabble of tactanium and curses. Head butt. Elbow to chin. Dagger to arm. Gregori felt a slice across his leg and grappled for a firmer hold on his opponent. He allowed Niko to spin him onto his back and assume he had the upper hand.

“Surrender, traitor.” Nikolas’s eyes blazed as he held a blade to Gregori’s throat above the armor. Sweat beaded on his brow. “Your crusade is over.”

Gregori raised an eyebrow. “You think you can take me? Better call for backup.”

“I don’t need backup.” He dug the blade into Gregori’s skin, and Gregori felt blood trickle down his neck. In a harsh whisper Nikolas added, “You’re not so talented outside the training arena, are you?”

Gregori wrapped his arms around his opponent. Squeezing Niko so close he could smell the other man’s last meal, Gregori slipped his thinnest blade under Niko’s arm and slashed the endo-organic connectors to his wing pack.

Nikolas’s wings flopped halfway free of his body with an electric hiss.

“Talented enough,” Gregori said.

“Dammit, Gregori, that was new tech.”

Gregori maneuvered his feet into Nikolas’s gut and kicked the man away with all his strength. Niko slammed into a rock and rebounded. His wing pack lay broken behind him.

Now he couldn’t fly and had no force field. Would he use his array? Gregori and Adelita needed to get the hell out of here before a squad showed up.

Gregori spun around. There. She’d backed a safe distance away from the confrontation.

“Let’s go,” he ordered, holding out his arm to her. Niko had no hope of catching them without wings.

She stared wildly between him and Niko. “Angeli, no!”

Nikolas charged. Right before their swords met, he rotated his arm, triggered his laser and shot Gregori in the chest.

Again.

Without his force field, the laser seared Gregori’s armor and skin and tossed him end over end. Only the combination of armor and his reinforced skeletal system stopped the ray from going deep. He hit the ground and skidded across rocks and briars, pain obfuscating his vision, his motility, his hearing.

Adrenaline pumped through him, speeding his healing process. He shook his head, trying to clear his eyesight. Agony seared his body as his chest heaved. Someone seized his shoulders and jerked him to his feet.

A fist pounded the side of his head.

Not Adelita, then.

Luckily it had been a fist instead of a blade. That meant Niko didn’t want to kill him. Gregori moaned and let his body go limp. It wasn’t difficult to fake unconsciousness. As soon as Niko’s grip shifted, Gregori acted.

Shooting into the air with powerful flaps of his wings, he hoisted Nikolas off his feet. Wrapped one hand around his throat. Used the other to yank the sensor array out of his temple.

Niko muffled a harsh cry. Involuntary array removal hurt like a bitch, but Gregori felt zero pity. For Ship’s sake, Niko had shot him twice. His armor was split, and his chest blazed with pain. It would have killed a human not enhanced for combat.

Trying to murder another Shipborn was so against code he was amazed Niko had tried it. As far as he knew, the only code Nikolas General-son broke involved screwing Terran women as though his life depended on it. Niko must have been counting on Gregori to turn his force field back on.

Good idea. He chucked the struggling Niko toward the ground and activated what was left of the field. All around him was darkness. Rubbing his eyes to stimulate his vision, he flapped higher into the air.

Bleary colors smeared the black. His eye sockets tingled as his body fought to repair itself.

Laser blasts whooshed his shield, hot as fire, and tumbled him through the air. Gregori increased his elevation. Couldn’t tell how far away the ground was, but he could hear Adelita’s voice, a stream of words in her other language. He recognized a few items, like burro and idiota.

He couldn’t understand much, but without the array, Nikolas wouldn’t understand any.

In addition to whatever Adelita was saying, a barrage of laser fire whistled toward Gregori. He managed to avoid one of three shots. Should be three of three. Damn his eyes! Explosions burst him around as Niko’s aim struck true.

With every hit, the force field sputtered.

“Your protections are failing,” Nikolas called. Gregori oriented himself toward the voice and squinted. Blotches of red, green, and gray. “Our Lord has spoken. What will be, will be. Give up before you get hurt.”

In response Gregori winged farther from the laser blasts. Easier to dodge with more distance. He’d never leave Adelita…but he could come back for her. Niko wouldn’t hurt her. Code dictated he leave her to fend for herself.

Of course, Niko shouldn’t have been dirtside in the first place, haring off alone, chasing Gregori, so who knew what he was capable of? The Terran mission had changed his friend, not for the better.

Gregori soared higher. Adelita’s rant sharpened in a way that left no mistake that what she was saying was not sweet and kind.

“Would you cease that infernal chatter, woman?” Niko yelled. “The devil talks less than you do.”

Adelita switched to English. Her words softened. “Forgive me. I’m frightened, and you’re in pain, aren’t you? Your wings.”

Gregori’s vision cleared enough to see her creeping toward Nikolas, her posture stooped and timid. Worshipful admiration shone from her beautiful face. He’d certainly never seen that expression coming from her, not even before he’d told her the truth.

As such, he was instantly suspicious.

“See?” she told Nikolas, gesturing at Gregori. “The fallen one flees your holy might. I’m humbled by your presence.”

Nikolas stared at Adelita. He didn’t seem distrustful. He only knew what his array would have told him before Gregori removed it. “Mortal, I’m here to arrest the fallen one. Nothing else. Leave in peace and pray for the rapture to take you. Out of my hearing.”

“Why can’t you take me?” She fell to her knees in front of Niko. “I beg of you.”

“Don’t beg.” Nikolas squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Get up.”

“Am I not worthy?” Adelita leaned forward. Her cotton shirt clung to her breasts, revealing their generous shape.

“I’m not the judge of worthiness.” Nikolas splayed his hand over his eyes as if he didn’t want to acknowledge Adelita’s charms. “Woman, if you don’t go now, I’m not responsible for my actions.”

Gregori suppressed a growl. He’d seen this dance too many times with his team. His and Niko’s arguments about it had never ended amicably. Niko and the rest acted like it wasn’t their fault, what they did with the Terrans. They were too tempting to resist. Never mind that Gregori had managed.

Already Niko’s hand had dropped to his side.

Adelita shook her hair back and pleaded with him. “Have I not proven myself to the Lord in my trial with the fallen one?”

Nikolas took one halting step toward Adelita and her cleavage. “Gregori put you through a trial?”

“He was perverted by Satan into committing such…such strange acts. The things he made me do. Angeli, you wouldn’t believe it.” She raised her hands in prayer, seemingly unaware her shirt had begun to unbutton itself. Even from here, Gregori could see her brassiere and lovely breasts.

“Not this one, Niko,” Gregori ordered. “Dammit!”

“Shut up, apostate.” Nikolas raised his arm. Gregori ducked the laser blast Niko didn’t bother to aim.

“You and Gregori?” Niko asked Adelita.

“Don’t you already know what I did?” She trailed a finger down her breastbone. “You’re all-seeing.”

“I am practically all-seeing.” Niko’s attention was fully on her now. “You know why you weren’t chosen, with your…perverted acts. Confess your sins to me and be cleansed.”

Gregori watched with growing consternation as Adelita flung herself at Niko and embraced his legs. Niko let her, let her touch him. Caress his thighs.

Wrath and jealousy sparked inside Gregori. He knew what Niko was thinking, but what was Adelita thinking? Was she a sex-starved lunatic?

“I’ll tell you everything. Just don’t send me to the devils,” Adelita pressed her face against Niko near his groin, which was not covered by the torso armor. Only because he had superior senses could Gregori hear her next entreaty. “Take me, angeli. Please. I’ll do anything.”

Nikolas tilted Adelita’s face up. “Anything?”

“Anything,” she gushed.

No, she fucking would not. Gregori dropped like a stone toward the pair as Nikolas stroked Adelita’s shiny hair.

Right before Gregori struck, Nikolas realized his danger and dodged, dragging Adelita with him. Gregori slammed to the earth with a shower of dirt and rocks.

“That’s enough.” He glared at them both. Nikolas raised his arm to shoot, and Gregori did the same.

Then Niko lowered his arm—and angled it at Adelita, behind her head and out of her line of sight.

“Surrender, fallen one.” His teeth glinted at Gregori in a ferocious grin. “Or else.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Niko was threatening to kill a sentient female? Having sex with them was one thing, but what in the Mother’s name had happened to his friend the past several weeks?

Who was this person?

“You’re an abomination.” Nikolas flexed his wrist, and Gregori knew he was one thought away from laser fire. He stroked Adelita’s hair and smiled, but the smile was more like a snarl. “Remove your bands and toss them at my feet.”

Niko had to be bluffing. Had to be. He wasn’t a murderer, no matter his skill with weaponry.

Gregori took one step forward, blades slipping into his hands like friends.

Niko’s expression turned to ice. His wrist cocked. “I said remove your bands.”

Not for anything would Gregori risk Adelita’s life. He retracted the blades slowly, a prolonged, metallic slide, and studied his former lieutenant for signs of psychosis.

“Let her go,” he told Nikolas, “and you can have my bands.”

“It’s a trick. Save me from him, angeli.” Knocking aside Niko’s arm, the one pointing a laser at her head, Adelita scrabbled behind her so-called protector.

Niko allowed her to hide behind him. With tightened lips and narrowed eyes, he assessed Gregori.

“If you had any power left in you, you’d have blasted me by now.” Niko raised his arm again. “On your knees.”

Gregori rubbed a hand over his chest. Through the ripped armor he could feel it had scabbed over but ached as though the wound was fresh. “You intend to kill me?”