Hotbloods 5: Traitors

I followed him, my friends trailing after us into the belly of the vessel. As soon as we were inside, the three of us stepped off to one side. Navan disappeared into the cockpit, joining the other guys as they started up the engines. We took off, soaring above the palace and making for the outer walls of Nessun. We didn’t know where we were going yet, but the most important thing was to get out of the warzone.

I immediately made a beeline for the bathroom, desperate to wash the remains of Commander Korbin off me. There were clean clothes stacked on a shelf, and I changed quickly, as my friends leaned in the doorway, eager to continue our conversation.

“Anyway, what’s been going on with you? What have we missed?” Lauren asked. “All we’ve been doing is medical duty—fetching supplies and working on the wards. I’ve done some reading here and there, but that’s about as exciting as it’s been for me. Our dear friend has at least had a handsome man to distract her, but I’ve had nothing!”

“Hey, I’ve spilled every single bean there is to spill to you. You asked for vicarious romance, and I’ve given it to you,” Angie teased, prompting Lauren to pull a queasy face.

“Yes, but there’s such a thing as too much information.”

I gaped at Angie. “Did you and Bashrik…?”

She blushed. “This kind of conversation requires appropriate attention and consideration. I can’t just rattle it all off to you here, with certain people listening in,” she protested. “As soon as it’s just the three of us, alone with no eavesdroppers, I’ll tell you everything.” She winked, letting me know there was at least some juicy gossip to look forward to.

Lauren flashed me a warning look. “Believe me, you’ll wish you’d never asked.”

“Hush, you. My tales of romance and seduction are way better than any of those trashy romances I just know you’ve been sneaking out of Brisha’s library.”

“I haven’t been stealing anything like that! I don’t think a lot of Vysantheans are interested in that kind of thing, anyway.” Lauren laughed, giving our friend a playful shove.

“Oh, believe me, they are,” Angie whispered in a sultry tone.

I presumed Angie didn’t want to talk too much about it with Bashrik around, in case she said something that might embarrass him, but I was dying to know what they’d been up to since the last time I saw them.

Part of me wished Lauren had someone she could gossip with us about, but she’d always been more tight-lipped about boys than Angie and I. Plus, she didn’t seem to mind that there wasn’t a great romance in her life; she seemed happy enough to indulge in ours, listening and offering advice. Saying that, I knew it would happen for her one day, and when it did, it would be worth the wait. In fact, it would probably blow any other romance out of the water.

Once I was clean and dressed in fresh clothes, the three of us walked toward the cockpit. I could hear the guys debating over where to go next. Mort was suggesting a tropical moon and Bashrik was agreeing, but Navan wasn’t too thrilled by the idea of putting off our ally search. We’d already failed spectacularly with the Titans, but I was glad we hadn’t gone to them in the end, not after seeing how little they respected life. We wanted to stop all three factions from succeeding with the elixir, and we needed an army strong enough to eradicate the rebels, at the very least, but I didn’t want vast numbers of innocents dying because of it. I wanted soldiers who valued innocent life as much as I did. There might be bloodshed—I wasn’t stupid enough to believe otherwise—but I only wanted blood to spill from those involved in the fight. I wouldn’t have the deaths of children on my conscience.

“Why don’t we go to Mallarot, see if we can pick up any shifters to join our cause?” I suggested, drawing a sour look from Mort, who was back in his shifter form. “We can always drop in on anyone you want to see while we’re there, Mort.”

Angie made a face at him. “What are you? Are you crossed with a testicle?” she asked, forcing me to swallow a bubble of hysterical laughter.

“Angie, that is extremely disrespectful!” Lauren chided, though I could see she was struggling to hold back a giggle, too. “He is a shifter. That’s why you’ve seen him as both a frostfang and a coldblood.”

She chuckled. “I apologize, Mort. I shouldn’t have said that; you don’t look like a ballbag at all.”

“You think you’re clever, sunshine, but I’ve been called just about everything there is to call a guy like me,” he shot back. “My skin might look like one of your human testicles—and hey, you should know, sugar—but I assure you it’s pretty thick these days!”

Angie raised her hands in apology. “Honestly, I take it back! I think what you can do is cool. I wish I could transform into anyone I wanted. I’d start with a supermodel.”

“No, you don’t want to start there. Believe me, it only ends in disappointment and bits melting where you don’t want them to, at the worst possible moment,” he warned, before turning his attention back to me. “Mallarot might be your best bet if you want to get some easy allies. Shifters are easily persuaded into joining any cause that comes along, as long as it benefits them. We’re not particularly loyal to our own kind, for the most part. It’s why you’ll see us in most sections of the universe, handing out our loyalty like a creep with puppies.”

I glanced at Navan, Ronad, and Bashrik, who were grinning away at the exchange between Mort and Angie. “Mallarot it is, then! Set a course for the shifter planet.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Navan smiled, pulling me down into the copilot’s seat. He forced the throttle forward, the ship surging with it, putting as much distance between us and the Titans as possible.





Chapter Thirty-Seven





We’d only gotten as far as the icy plateau beyond Nessun’s mountainous walls when a warning sign flashed up on the control screen. The cockpit lights turned red as the sirens blared, and everyone came running into the room to see what was going on.

“What’s the matter?” I asked anxiously.

“It’s saying we have a breach in the hull. We can’t leave Vysanthe’s atmosphere if there are any holes in the exterior—we’ll break apart,” Navan explained, a frown furrowing his brow. “I’m going to set us down so we can take a closer look. Hopefully, a repair will only take a few minutes.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have flown in this rust bucket,” Ronad murmured, peering through the windshield at the bleak, dark landscape below. It was still night, with only the ship’s floodlights to illuminate our surroundings.

“We must’ve taken some fire from the aerial fleet without realizing it,” Bashrik said grimly, as the ship descended onto the icy wasteland. At least there were no Titans here.

As soon as the vessel landed, the seven of us hurried out into the bitter night to see what repairs needed to be made. I knew I could be useful here—engineering was my forte, after all, and I was really starting to get the hang of Vysanthean technology. Before I headed down the gangway, I snatched up the gun I’d taken from Korbin, just in case we came face-to-face with any stray soldiers. I also grabbed two blankets from the cargo-hold. I bundled one around me and threw the other to Ronad as we set off to investigate the ship’s exterior. Lauren and Angie had their own coats. According to Navan, the warning monitor had said there was a small hole in the lower left quadrant of the vessel, just below the water converter.

Sure enough, there was a tiny bullet hole in the metal shell of the ship, so small that nobody would have noticed it if the controls hadn’t pointed it out. I was glad they had. If we’d gone into outer space with even a tiny gap in the hull, it would have compromised the pressure of the interior, putting all of our lives at risk.