Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (16 page)

"I would like to run some tests on you, if you don't mind,”
Dro said.

Her voice was abrupt and cold when she said,
“No."

He did not take offense at her tone. He had been the one to find the records of what had been done to her so he understood.
"The tests I want to do are noninvasive. Something is going on and I am worried that it may be too much for your body to handle."
Blue couldn't help the small part that wanted to let him run his tests. He genuinely was worried about her.

"Don't fret so much. My body has been through a lot and it always recovers pretty fast."
She patted his hand and left with Leo on her heels.

In the corridor heading to her quarters she saw Jayden striding towards her. He blocked her way forcing her to stop. It was the first time they had been alone all week. His purple eyes pinned her in place. He was a man that commanded attention and wore the authority he had like a comfortable cloak. She wondered if his hair softened his strong face any when it wasn't tied back. No, she decided, nothing would soften that chiseled face when he smiled at her. It wasn't a friendly smile. More like a predator to prey smile. If he thought she was the prey he was in for a surprise.

"I see you decided to wake up,” he said.

"It wasn't exactly a voluntary nap but yes, I'm awake."

"What happened to cause you to pass out like that?”

Blue thought about it before saying, "It took too much of my energy to heal the chrystal. I didn't know what I was doing so I wasn't prepared for it." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'll do better next time."

"There won't be a next time. Dro thinks it could kill you,” Jayden said.

"Don't be silly, as you can see I am fine. At least it didn't try to become one with me,” she said a little sarcastically referring to the big chrystal.

She started to walk around him. He blocked and used his body to pin her against the wall. When she tried to push him away he took her arms and held them above her head. "I want you,” he said boldly. Shocked, Blue shook her head. She was flustered and his body pressing into hers was sending electricity singing through her veins.

"Too bad people don't always get what they want,” she managed to say through gritted teeth.

"But princess, I always do. And I will this time too because you want me as much as I want you. You are just too scared to admit it."

"I will never submit to you."

"I don't want your submission, I want your active participation,” he said in a silky seductively low voice that sent shivers to join with all the other unfamiliar feelings coursing through her.

He lowered his lips to hers slowly and without hesitation she brought her knee up between his legs, hard. He let go of her with a gasp of pain and surprise. She hurried past him. "You cannot run far princess, the ship is not that big.”

"Stop calling me princess,” she yelled back lifting a hand and giving him the finger. Not that he would understand, but the childish gesture made her feel better. "Traitor, why did you let him do that,” she said to Leo. "Anyone else and you would have had them for lunch. But no, you don't seem to have a problem with him manhandling me. Why is that? Next time I swear I'm going to use my knife on him. Arrogant slug,” Blue ranted to Leo all the way to their room.

Jayden watched her stalk off. She got to him like no other woman ever had. When he was in the same room he had trouble concentrating on anything but taking her in his arms and kissing her until they were both senseless. His dreams were filled with her and all the things he wanted to do to her luscious body to please them both. He was getting to her too. He knew he was. When he entered a room she made an excuse to leave and if she could not, she pretended to ignore him while sneaking glances at him. He knew this because he was always watching her.

When Dro told him she was awake he had rushed out of engineering eager to see for himself. She had looked tired and disheveled but he felt such relief at seeing her on her feet. It had stopped his heart when she collapsed in his arms.

He was not sure what he wanted from her, but… Yes, there was a big but in the equation. He played with women he did not keep them and there was the but. She was Idris's sister and he could not play with her if he wanted to keep that friendship. He had to decide if he wanted to keep her or not, or at least if he wanted to try.

He had not had a lot of luck with serious relationships with women. Starting with his mother. She had been a stone cold bitch only interested in the money and position that came with being married to his father. After giving him two children she refused to share his bed and proceeded to make all of their lives miserable until she had died when he was twelve.

He had fallen hard for a woman the exact opposite, he thought, when he was young. She had acted so sweet and shy, refusing to sleep with him until they were bonded. His younger self had believed every lie that fell from her lips. Until he had come home a day early to find her in bed with another man. When he had called off the bonding ceremony she showed her true personality.

Since then he made sure to let every woman he played with know that it was just uncomplicated fun. He had a strong feeling that nothing with Blue would be uncomplicated.

The next day he was in engineering along with Jos and Idris. They had made the decision to shut down and install the Ice Chrystal in the engine. They were relatively safe in this area and Idris was confident that they would have no trouble making up the time they would lose by stopping. In fact he predicted they would have at least fifty percent more power for both speed and weapons.

That fact was what had convinced Jayden to allow them to shut down the engines. It made him nervous to be sitting here with no power or weapons. They were a target with no defenses at the moment and he felt like his naked ass was hanging out for anyone to take a shot at.

Sparks and Vihan were in the control room monitoring the sensors and he was here watching the process. Blue was also watching closely. Idris was explaining the procedure to her. The Trilleion was his design and Jayden saw the pleasure he took in showing her off to his sister.

Jos removed the smaller ice and Idris set the new one in place then started making the many adjustments and connections needed. It was a long tedious process but Blue never lost interest and before long both Jos and Idris were giving her instructions to help. Her smaller delicate hands were useful for some of the smaller connections needed.

Jayden stayed out of their way, watching from where he leaned against the wall. He made frequent trips to the control room to check the sensors himself. He trusted his men but he was not good at doing nothing. Everyone had a job right now but him. He was relieved when he heard Jos say, "Okay, last one done. Let’s power this baby up." He entered a series of numbers and symbols and the column holding the chrystal lit up with bright bands of power running up and down the column in a continuous movement.

Idris kept looking at his display and the information coming through. "Everything is good to go,” he said.

Jayden spoke into the com, "Sparks, we are ready down here. I am on my way up now.”

Sparks put the ship through a series of maneuvers testing the engines before exclaiming, "This is great! I love this ship."

"How long before we can go to hyper?" Jayden asked him.

"Anytime you want,” was the reply.

"Lay in a course to Shillidon then and let’s get going. We have an informant to meet and a traitor to find.”

They were on their way to finish what they had started and Jayden was ready. This little side trip had cost them two weeks of time but they came away with a big prize. Now he would locate the informant and find out who was selling their secrets to the Ragillians.

"Where's Blue?" Jayden asked Idris. It was rare to come into the control room and not see her at one of the stations since she had come aboard. "Down in the rec room kicking Vihan's ass."

“You are joking.”

"Probably, but she wanted some exercise and Vihan offered to teach her some fighting techniques."

Vihan was one of the few men who could fight Jayden to a draw. He was a brute force kind of fighter and Jayden could not imagine him as a teacher. This he had to see.

Blue had worked up a sweat sparing with Vihan. He was good. If he got his hands on her she was toast. She wore gloves to avoid being distracted by his thoughts when she made contact. Which was not as often as she wanted. But he did sport a few bruises to go with the ones he had given her. It had taken awhile to convince him to stop treating her like a fragile piece of glass but once she did, he came at her fast and hard. She still wasn't convinced he was using all his strength but that was ok. He would learn the hard way.

He came at her, she ducked, twirled and jammed an elbow in his back before falling back a step. She barely avoided his huge hand to the side of her head, but not the kick he followed it up with to her stomach. She felt the breath being knocked out of her as she fell back. She let herself go loose as she hit the floor and kept going in a smooth roll to land back on her feet. She swept her left leg out to connect with his knee and brought the heel of her hand to his solar plexus.

They went after each other fast and furious, fists and legs flying almost too fast to follow. Jayden and Idris who were used to watching and participating in this kind of bout, watched in disbelief as she more than held her own.

Jayden winced in symphony as she landed a blow to Vihan's groin. His experience too recent to forget the pain when she had done the same to him in the corridor. "I don't think she's going to fit in well with the ladies of Shillidon,” he told Idris dryly.

"No kidding. She might kill them,” Idris said. The women of his planet were not fighters. Shillidon was used to having the technological advantage and few of his people, let alone the women, were physical fighters.

“She is better than you Idris,” Jayden said as he watched her land another blow.

“Do not rub it in,” Idris grumbled as the bout came to a close. Both combatants bloody, bruised and sweaty. They watched Vihan bow his head in respect then say something that made Blue smile.

Jayden sucked in a breath, his body going instantly hard. It was a good thing she did not smile much if this was the result and she was not even smiling at him. It transformed her beautiful face into something poets would write about and men would fight to the death to see. She looked up and met his eyes, her smile leaving her face at the sight of him. He decided right then that he would make it his life’s mission to bring it back. Shalla help them both, because he was not going to let her go.

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 16

The next few days passed swiftly and with the added power they were flying along faster than any ship had ever gone. The time it had taken to install the healed chrystal had been made up within hours.

Sparks picked up a distress call coming from an uninhabited planet several light years away. The unwritten law of all space faring races was to always respond to distress calls. After all that could be you one day.

"It's coming from a Dalor. According to the distress signal one of the beta rings cracked when they went to hyper and threw them off course. They are asking if anyone has a replicator to make the part and install it or a lift to the nearest space station,” Sparks said.

"Can we make one for them?" Jayden asked Jos.

"Sure, it is a simple part. I am surprised that they cannot make one themselves though.”

"So am I. Sparks is there anyone closer who can help them out?"

"No, we are it. There is not much traffic in this part of space."

Jayden knew they did not have a choice. It might be weeks or even months before another ship came this way. The Dalors were a secretive race of miners and were always on exploratory missions to find new astroids or planets to mine. They supplied the Alliance with a lot of the raw material needed to produce the metals to make space ships and other items.

It was puzzling that they would be this far away from their home world without the means to make their own parts, but he could not ignore them no matter how much he needed to get back to his mission.

"Take us out of hyper. Let’s make this quick,” he said.

"There is too much interference from the electrical storms to get much from the sensors,”
Dro projected. “
The atmosphere is breathable but I would not want to breath it for long. Temperature is not too bad. It looks like it stays at about ninety degrees day and night. You are going to get wet though. There is only one season, the rainy one."

Dro continued to scan the planet as he pulled all the information the Alliance had on this planet.
“According to this there are rather large predators on the planet so watch your backs."

"Can you pinpoint where the call is coming from?" Jayden asked Sparks.

“It is coming from the western side. From one of the larger land masses. It is consistent with the Dalors but that is all I can tell you.”

Jayden decided to go himself and take Blue and Leo with him. His decision had two purposes, well three actually. It would give Leo a chance to explore a little while he fixed the Dalor ship. It would also give Blue the opportunity to see and work on another ship’s systems plus it would give him the perfect chance to spend some time alone with her. He needed her to trust him. He knew from her response to his kisses that she was attracted to him. He also knew that she was strong willed enough to walk away without a second glance if she did not learn to trust him.

Blue didn't say much on the way to the planet, instead she concentrated on watching everything Jayden did. The simulators weren't the same as actually flying. Jayden explained everything he was doing before turning the shuttle over to her. "It's all yours.” Blue was delighted to take the controls. After getting the feel for it. She piloted the shuttle through space smoothly.