Farin the Dark Read online

  Ember ground her jaw and locked eyes with Farin across the way. She felt more than saw his reaction to their plans for her, but she did not need to remind him that he was being monitored and to give nothing. If anything that cold death she read in his eyes just went subzero. But she did not doubt that he was thinking of all the ways he would kill them all, just as Ember was.

  "And the Tellox?" the second man asked as he scribbled away on his data pad.

  There was a moment of thought before the taller man answered. "Send him to the pit after we harvest his DNA. The records show that Tellox DNA is as aggressive as the species itself so I doubt we will be able to use it in many of our splicing, but we can afford a small risk in one or two areas genetically. If he is as dangerous as they say he may even survive his time in the pit.”

  "And if he does survive?" The female finally asked a question. Her eyes once again glued to Farin in fascination.

  "Then we will attempt to breed him with the Siren, if she has not already accepted another."

  No, she did not think killing them would be a hard decision at all. Her eyes still locked on Farin's.

  She briefly wished her sisters were here, and then was just as quickly thankful they were not. No matter how reassuring it would have been to have them with her. If she could not have her friends at her back this time the dangerous male across with the cold eyes was a good second choice. Even if he made her feel things she had no business feeling in the all-seeing examinations of the labs.

  Here was hoping they both survived long enough to make destroying hell and escaping happen a second time in her life.

  CHAPTER NINE

  "What do you mean you have no idea where they are?" Lyric winced at the growl in Charm’s words. It was never a good idea to piss her off. But the four warriors that stood across from them at the meeting they had agreed to were doing a fair job of it. Not that it would take much with Ember missing. At first Lyric had assumed that it was some trick of the Tellox to nab themselves a mate, but a hailing from them to demand the return of their commander had put paid to that comfortable belief.

  She looked at Charm and shook her head when she saw the subtle change of the younger woman’s skin from her usual amber tone to a tinge of blue none of them wanted to see. Charm caught the warning and bared her teeth in a parody of a smile before she turned and stomped off away from the group at Lyric’s back. Her teeth were looking impressively sharp at the moment but not so much that they had to worry about an imminent berserker rage.

  Lyric turned her attention back to the Tellox. The one that had introduced himself as Celo, the second in command, was the only one who had spoken through the whole meeting. But she had no doubt that all of them were just as angry as Celo about the disappearance of what amounted to the leader of their entire people.

  "Ember was taken from our ship. She mentioned the Commander was with her when she informed us that your ship was not in cahoots with the one that fired at us. I can only assume that he was taken also."

  "And who took them?" Celo asked with the same cold dark tone he had used since he had demanded a meet between them. Since the ship that had fired at them had taken out their main shields, they were less inclined to argue any help they could get, at least until repairs could be made. She had seen no alternative but to meet with the Tellox. Especially since they had been able to get their commander onto their ship even with the shields up. A scary technology. One she would love to get her hands on. It was clear why the Alliance was willing to make the concessions to the Tellox with tech like that.

  Charm stomped back as Lyric blew out a breath. From the narrowed focus of the warriors she knew they had caught her telling silence.

  Celo growled, his eyes glinting fiercely at her lack of response. "Who took them?" he repeated, his unspoken warning clear.

  It had Charm growling and lunging at the males before Lyric took hold of her arm and used her own momentum to sling her around her and to the other side of Lyric and back where she had started her lunge.

  "It looked like pirates to us, but the way they attacked us and took only Ember and your commander makes me think it was not a random raid, and that Ember was the target. If that is the case I can think of only one place she might be, but that makes even less sense," she said knowing she was frustrating them as much as herself.

  "And why is that?" he asked.

  "Because we destroyed the labs when we escaped," she finally forced out the words, knowing that if their commander was taken they needed to know, even if it was something they had all kept secret between them for years.

  "It has to be the labs," Charm muttered behind her. "Anyone else would have targeted all of us or just you. They had to have heard about her or seen her and came to get their property back." The bitterness in those words was not lost on anybody. "I knew we should have gotten out of the music gig when it got so big."

  "What labs and why would they take the commander, and what do you mean by property? Your friend worked at these labs?"

  Charm laughed a bitter cackle before turning her changing eyes to the male. "You do not work there, not unless you are one of the soulless."

  "We were created in the lab," Lyric said her voice soft and she hoped not giving away the tumultuous feeling those words curdled in her belly. "The scientists took the stolen DNA of many races, after careful..." she searched for the right word but could not come up with anything that covered the evil that had gone on there and had to settle. "Examinations and experiments."

  Charm laughed another bitter sound. "Then they found all new experiments and examinations for the children they created with their tinkering."

  Celo studied them even closer clearly not liking what he was hearing. "You all came from there?"

  He did not wait for her nod before speaking. "Then wouldn't it make more sense if all of you were taken if they were trying to get back what they considered their property?"

  She could tell he liked the feel of that word almost as much as they did when he said it with such disgust. She shrugged. "Charm and I have been able to change our appearance over the years, but Ember is...unique, and most of her physical traits are memorable, and not something that can be altered. That was why when we came up with the performing idea to get us some starting capital it was not the siren who took the spotlight, and believe me, you only have to hear her sing once to understand what true magic is."

  "Which is why she was never supposed to be in the spotlight," Charm muttered her anger coating the bitterness on her tongue. "But some idiot attacked Lyric on stage, and it was Ember who took him out. And one look at her without her robe and it was all over."

  "We wanted to disappear as soon as it happened, but Ember argued saying we should finish what we started as the damage was already done, at least in Alliance space and under their protection for the shows we were not likely to fall prey to pirates." Lyric shook her head and closed her eyes at her own idiocy. "I was a fool to listen to her. We should have disappeared as soon as it happened."

  Clearly Charm agreed if the power of her kick to the random rock was any indication. The solid stone crumbled, half of it careening high enough to have the Tellox shifting uneasily while they watched the feat of strength. The rock disappeared into the dark trees that ringed their meeting spot on the strange forest moon where they had all agreed to meet.

  Before she could say something to distract the new level of attention away from Charm, another group of Tellox joined them in the clearing, a flash of blinding light and she was cursing her own stupidity. She would have done more than curse them if the one called Celo had not looked at the newcomer and growled.

  "Brax, what are you doing here? You were not invited to this meeting."

  Unfortunately even those words were not enough to stop Charm from leaping at the newcomers with swords drawn. Lyric was all ready for it to become a blood bath when Celo almost casually moved. His arms around Charm's waist he hauled her to a stop as if the effort to stop her powerful lunge was min
uscule. And he stood there with Charm held back to his chest while she looked from herself suddenly strapped to the Tellox almost casually. Her blades, out before her, still ready, but with the surprise of his moves, Celo had managed to shock the berserker right out of her, so she stood almost docile in hard warrior arms, a look of pure surprise on her face.

  Before she could get over her reaction and fight her new confines, he had released her and placed her behind him, as if she was not a threat to him and the rest of his people.

  As if he was protecting her from the newcomers.

  Lyric did not know if she was more surprised that he had caught and held Charm when she was in battle mode, and placed her at his back so benignly, or that Charm had not turned those deadly blades on him and the rest of his men when he dared to get in her way. It had her reassessing the danger they were in. Only now she knew the warriors were even more deadly than they appeared, and she was almost positive they meant them no harm. Both things, she had to admit, were a surprise.

  She was even more surprised when a slender woman who dressed like a well-armed pilot stepped from behind the giant newcomer. All the Tellox she had met so far had been big warriors, but the one they called Brax was more so. And the female he was currently hovering over like she was either his mate or his sister looked delicate beside the behemoth.

  She had never seen the Tellox Commander in person, but if he was anything like the rest of these men Ember could be forgiven for her recent attention deficit. All of them to a man were like hard bodied golden gods. Even Charm was looking at Celo's broad muscled back with a dumbstruck expression, and nothing ever distracted her.

  The small female Tellox waved at them all and then spoke. Her voice and tone older than Lyric was expecting from her young looks. "Actually we were invited. Sara sent word that you were going to need help and sent us ahead to let you know to expect company."

  Celo looked surprised at that, and he had not shown much emotion except calm deliberate anger, even with his Commander missing. She was not sure why the woman's words affected him so much until he seemed to go from angry to extreme worry in an instant. "Who exactly is coming if you are the advance warning."

  Ariel smiled at him and Lyric did not think she was imagining the evil inherent in that grin or the humor in those intelligent eyes. "From what Sara said it seems that we are going to need all the help we can get."

  She did not think the big warrior had it in him, but he seemed to pale at that. "Please tell me they are not bringing the children," he practically begged both the female, and from the direction of his eyes, the giant warrior at her back.

  The female laughed. "She was not that specific. And I have no idea why this is so important, only that something she saw, and a warning from the Travelers made it clear that getting Farin the Dark and his female back from the creatures that hold them is about more than what can be seen. The rest you will have to wait, because that was all she said."

  "Ember is not his female," Charm growled and Lyric took a step closer to her friend, both drawing the other woman's eyes. Charm, as usual, did not let the fact that they were surrounded by mountainous males of the warrior variety cow her. Instead she raised her chin and growled again. Her eyes narrowed in warning at the small female. Something none of the other Tellox cared for, at all. "She is ours, not his, and we can look after our own."

  The other woman raised a sardonic brow at that. "Really? How are you going to do that? Do you know who took them? Where they were taken? Why my sister saw them being experimented on?"

  At those words the fight went right out of Charm, and Lyric knew the sudden pale horror on her friend’s face would be reflected on her own.

  "It can't be them," Lyric choked out, feeling as if her throat were closing around the words. "We destroyed the labs, years ago."

  All eyes went sharp and moved from Charm to her and back again. Except Celo's eyes never left Charm’s suddenly haunted face. He growled as he stepped closer to her, taking her arm in his and pulling her closer to his big body.

  It could be an intimidation factor, Lyric thought absently, but something about the way he held her spoke more of protection, even as he questioned her with searching eyes. Lyric did not need to look at her friend to see her own fears mirrored there.

  Brax stepped closer to the female, but his attention was on Lyric even as his mate asked what they all were probably wondering. "What labs? Who? And why take the High Commander?"

  Lyric looked around at the group of Warriors and small Tellox female that surrounded them. She turned and met Charm’s eyes. Eyes she noted that had returned to their usual if mercurial jade. She no longer looked on the edge of fear or violence and Lyric thanked the stars for small favors. Nor had Charm stepped away from the warrior standing so intently over her. Not that Lyric blamed her for her strange reaction to the Tellox. If she had a legendary warrior at her back to make her feel safer now she wouldn't have moved either.

  In no other instance would either of them have that reaction, but when faced with the return of the labs, and Ember already in the hands of the white coats... Well, she could admit to extenuating circumstances.

  She took a deep breath and attempted to answer the woman's question, hoping even as she did, that this seer they were talking about was wrong. She met Charm's eyes one more time. The secrets she was about to tell were not just hers to keep. Charm caught her look, understood it and nodded once, looking conflicted but resigned. Lyric understood that too. They had kept these secrets too long to give them lightly, but if Ember had a chance, they needed all the help they could get.

  "Nearly a hundred and sixty years ago three of us escaped the labs that had made us. We blew it up, then sifted through the rubble that was left to assure everything was gone and would not be coming back." Lyric took in a calming breath, fighting back the memories that still haunted all three of them. "If your seer saw Ember and your Commander in a lab that means that, as we long suspected and feared, there was more than one. And they came for Ember."

  "A hundred and sixty years?" The woman looked them both over with more than a little curiosity and surprise. "That would make the two of you..."

  "We stopped aging at maturity," was all she said to that. They did not need to know that they were still short of maturity when they started coming into their abilities and managed their escape. That would necessitate explaining the abilities they had and telling some secrets did not mean they would trust these strangers with all of them. "I believe I am the oldest, Charm the youngest, but we were all created so close together that it is hard to say."

  What she had said was enough to have the other woman studying them harder. Lyric understood why when she finally spoke. "There are very few beings in the known galaxies that do not age. The Tellox and the Travelers are the only two I have heard of. A few others have managed to extend life and slow down aging, but they begin to at least show some aging around a hundred years. Yet the two of you look to be in your late twenties at most. The three of you, all from these labs, all share that trait? How?"

  Lyric shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. "I can't explain it to you. It was not something they discussed with us, and all the records were destroyed with the labs. As far as I know we were the only ones who survived from infancy, but I can't explain what made us different than all the others. I just know we were."

  Before the female Tellox could ask any more questions Celo spoke. "If you were all from the same lab, why did they not try to take all of you? Why just the Siren? And why the Commander when they had to know doing so would bring down the full weight of the Tellox down on them?"

  She shared another look with Charm. "There are only two possible reasons I can think of why we were left behind," she said carefully. "If they somehow had a copy of the records from the first lab then they would recognize Ember. There are certain traits of a Siren that cannot be changed, unlike with the two of us." She shrugged. "We are more adaptable." An understatement Lyric had no intention of expanding on. "T
he second possible reason is like the first. If they had no records of the labs, they would have no way of knowing that the three of us came from such a place. But Ember is a Siren, one of the few ever to have been seen away from the protection of Trios. If the labs still exist in some form she would be at the top of their collection list." She looked around and cleared her throat. "They would certainly not leave behind a Tellox warrior if one happened to be lying around without the usual defenses you all are known for. I assume since your Commander was amid the Tellox version of a courtship, he may not have been as well armed as usual?"

  Celo growled low and frustrated.

  Brax seemed to agree, his lip curling unhappily. His eyes on Celo he spoke with a deep gruff voice that highlighted his displeasure and frustration. "He walked in there with his shields down and without his advanced weaponry or armor didn't he?"

  Celo just nodded looking truly unhappy. "He had minimum stealth and shields but that was all. As any of us would have done when the hunt was for a mate. They would have had no way of knowing he was the High Commander either. He left behind the insignia of his rank."

  The Tellox female rolled her eyes at all of them, seemingly unimpressed with any of it. "Typical posturing," she grumbled, and then clapped her hands together and spoke louder. "So we know roughly why, and we can guess on the how they were taken, anyone have any idea on the where?"

  Lyric met Charm’s eyes and then turned back to the Tellox, shaking her head. Truthfully if they had any proof there was a second lab, let alone a location, they would have made it their life's mission to destroy it.

  She fought off the cold sliver of dread for her friend and instead hoped that the seer, whoever she was, had more to say when she arrived, and that her arrival was eminent. Every second they wasted before finding Ember was another second their friend visited hell.