Born of Ice (The League #3)(5)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Devyn let out a sound of supreme disgust. “You would think one of you could say, ‘Great flying, Captain. Thanks for saving our worthless asses.’”

His words amused her, but she couldn’t quite bring a smile to her shaking lips. He was right, though. That was some of the best flying she’d ever seen.

Sway wiped an arm across his sweat-covered brow. “One day, someone’s going to make the markings on this ship, and then we’re going to be absolutely screwed.”

Devyn shrugged off the warning. “They might, but there’s never been a League prober born who could outmaneuver a Dagan and you know it.”

Alix looked up at the mention of the Dagan surname. Everyone in the shipping or running business knew of the infamous family of smugglers. Their exploits were legendary, especially Caillen Dagan. That man had been a god among smugglers and had vanished mysteriously in the prime of his career.

And Devyn’s relation to them was something extremely important Merjack had failed to tell her during his briefing. Anyone related to that family was indeed someone to be reckoned with.

Sway scoffed. “Your aunt and uncle would be proud of you, no doubt. But your mother would have your head if she ever saw you do what you do.”

Devyn swung his chair around to face Alix. “Any complaints you want to add to his?”

Startled by his sudden attention to her, she focused her gaze on his dangerous brown eyes. She wasn’t used to men who joked about life and death, and the things in between.

Her father and his crew had possessed no sense of humor whatsoever.

A strange surge of emotion filled her, but she couldn’t quite name the sensation. She shook her head. “No complaints, Captain, but as soon as my legs can walk again, I think I need to lie down.”

Sway shook his head. “See, Dev, you’ve already crippled our new engineer. Good job, dumbass.”

Ignoring him, Devyn unstrapped himself from his seat. “C’mon, I’ll help you to your room.”

Alix started to protest, but the words stumbled on her tongue as she looked up at him standing over her. Maybe it was the lighting, or her shaky nerves, or maybe her leftover fear. She wasn’t sure what caused her sudden muteness, but as she watched him, she could barely breathe.

Gracious, he was sexy and disturbing.

He unstrapped her and helped her up from her chair. A half smile played across his lips with a devastating effect on her. No longer sure if her shaky legs were a result of the flight or the man, she slumped against his long, lean body.

Devyn draped her right arm over his shoulders and held her wrist with his right hand. He wrapped his other arm around her waist. She swallowed at the intimate contact.

“I think I can manage to make my way on my own.”

His gaze burned into hers, and for a moment she feared he might be able to see past her defenses and detect the way he unnerved her.

Or worse, see her deceit.

“C’mon. It’s not often I get to play a gallant hero to a damsel I distressed. Don’t interfere with my good deed for the decade. I assure you, they’re few and far between.”

Well, since he put it that way …

The heat of his body warmed hers as he led her from the bridge and down the corridor. Goodness, but he smelled delectable. It was such a sharp, spicy scent ..

All man and all good.

She swallowed as she tried to think of something that could distract her from her thoughts. “That was some really good flying, Captain. How’d you know a hyperspace opening was there?”

That devilish grin returned. “I inherited my uncle’s star charts that detail every opening in the trigalaxies. Most of them are unknown by anyone except my family. I’ve found them immensely helpful whenever The League thinks they’ve got my hyperdrive locked down.” His eyes twinkled in the dim light. “They can block our ship, but they can’t block the entire galaxy.”

Alix frowned. “Your uncle?”

“Caillen Dagan.”

Her stomach hit the floor. Caillen Dagan was the baddest of the bad. Even though he’d vanished when she’d been in diapers, smugglers and League officials still wet themselves whenever his name was mentioned. His reputation was the stuff of legends. “I heard he was dead.”

He didn’t respond to either confirm or deny it.

She narrowed her gaze on him. “Are you really a Dagan?”

Devyn nodded, his features serious. “Son of a Dagan Seax and the equally notorious C.I. Syn. Only fitting I ended up on the questionable side of the law.”

Alix came to a complete stop. C.I. Syn was the most infamous filch and assassin who ever lived. Again, his name alone sent terror through the hearts of anyone who heard it.

And here she was, standing next to his son. How much of his father’s brutality had Devyn inherited?

He gave her a gimlet stare. “You got a problem with my history?”

Nice attitude. Obviously he was defensive about his parents. Not that she blamed him. She’d be a little waxed, too, if she had a genetic link to people like that.

She shook her head in honesty. “No, but I’m curious about how your parents met.”

The question seemed to amuse him. “My mom was hired to track my dad down and arrest him.”

“I take it she let him go.”

“No. She shot and stabbed him the first time they met and did, in fact, hand him over to the authorities… twice.”

She was completely stunned by what he described. “And he let her live?”

He shrugged. “My dad’s a forgiving man where my mom’s concerned.”

Obviously. Still, how could anyone be that tolerant? She couldn’t imagine ever forgiving someone for shooting her.

“And I thought my parents had a screwed-up relationship.”

Devyn cocked an eyebrow. “I know your father ran a freighter. What about your mom?”

She squelched her sudden burst of panic before she gave herself away. He must never know about her mother or her sister. She couldn’t even think about that right now without her head becoming light and her sight dimming in mortal terror.

She had no doubt that this fierce man would absolutely kill her if he ever learned she was here to betray him and his crew.

“She…” Alix paused while trying to think up a believable lie. She shifted her gaze to the floor, hoping he couldn’t detect her deceit. “She disappeared when I was just a kid. I don’t really remember her.”

Skittish about the turn in their conversation, she let go of him and sprinted the rest of the way to her room.

Devyn scowled at her hasty departure. “Alix?”

She didn’t even pause.

How weird was that? But there had been no mistaking the frightened look he’d seen on her face when he asked about her mother. Tempted to go after her, he decided it would be best to give her time to get used to all of them slowly.

Trusting strangers wasn’t easy for most people. In all honesty, he envied her that suspicious nature. Blind trust had gotten him screwed more times than he could count.

All right, Alix. Keep your secrets. So long as they don’t threaten the crew, I’ll let you live.

Alix sat on her bed, dreading what she was going to have to do— scan the ship’s logs looking for proof of Devyn’s criminal activities, then transmit them to Merjack. But honestly, she was scared of being caught. What would they do to her?

Kill you.

Most likely. It’ll probably be brutal, too. They might even feed you to the dog.

He doesn’t have a dog.

Yeah, well, he might get one just to feed you to it.

She’d never been the kind of person to let something as ridiculous as rational logic interfere with her fear. And while she sat in indecision, her parched throat begged for something to drink.

Well, she didn’t have much choice. She had to go find something to drink before the dehydration made her sick.

She got up and decided to try the bridge first. If her luck held, Sway or Vik would be there, and Devyn would have gone on to do something else.

Reaching the door, she pushed the touch-activated lock. The portal opened and she sighed in disgust. Since when had luck ever been on her side? Devyn stood to her right, leaning over a panel where he worked. He glanced up at her. “I’m glad you’re here. I thought I was going to have to wake you.”

Alix frowned at his tone, which landed somewhere between frustration and relief. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve got a fluctuation in the radiation shielding and I think gamma rays are leaking in. Vik can’t pinpoint it.”

Alix’s eyes widened. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. Stepping up to the panel, she ran over the gauges. They had pulled out of hyperspace and were traveling at fifty-percent light speed. She glanced over the diagnostic test Devyn was running and saw the leak.

“Out of curiosity, where did Vik go? I haven’t seen him since we launched.”

“He’s plugged into the ship.” Devyn looked up. “Vik, say hi to the lady.”

“Must I when I’m trying to find a leak? Contrary to your beliefs, just because I’m a mecha, I’m not immune to it. It could melt my wiring as easily as it can mutate you.”

Devyn rolled his eyes. “He’s a surly bastard. You’ll get used to him.”

She wasn’t too sure about that, and if he was part of the ship, that made her job a lot harder. Vik would know the instant she started pulling up data on Devyn. “So where’s the shield’s power source?”

“I’ll show you.” Devyn led her back to the corridor.

Halfway down the hall, he stopped and pushed the controls for a lift to the lower deck. “The air gets a bit thin. If you start getting sick, let me know.”

“Believe me, if I start getting sick, you’ll be the first to know since I’m sure it’ll be all over you.”

Without responding to her sarcasm, he stepped into the lift. Alix followed, but quickly wished she hadn’t. The small compartment forced them together in an intimate proximity she found horribly unsettling. She bit her lip and tried not to brush up against his hard, muscular body. All too well, she remembered how it felt to be in his arms.

“When did you notice the leak?” she asked, trying to distract herself from those thoughts about him.

“A few minutes ago. I was about to buzz your room for you to come investigate this.” He looked down at her and smiled. “So what brought you out?”

She licked her dry lips. “Dehydration.”

A deep frown creased his brow. “Why didn’t you say something before I brought you down here?”

The anger in his voice startled her. “Why are you growling at me?”

“I don’t know. I’m frustrated, and you should have told me you were thirsty. That’s not something to play around with out here.” For such a reasonable response, the tone of his voice wavered on violence.

“Well, I’d rather die of thirst than radiation poisoning. I daresay it’s less painful.”

Devyn relaxed a little. “I guess you’re right.”

Alix stared up at him. Never in her life had she been so attracted to a man. Maybe the knowledge that she couldn’t have him caused the strong attraction. Or was it his feral reputation that enticed her so? She knew he was capable of killing anyone who got in his way.

Especially her.

Whatever the source of her attraction, all she wanted was to taste his lips and feel his arms around her once again.

With a soft whir, the door opened. Relieved, Alix walked out first. Stepping past her, Devyn led her to the engineering room and punched in a sequence of keys to open the door. “The code to enter the room is ClAria 1-8-4-9-3. Capital on the C and the middle A.”

A wave of disappointment ran through her at the mention of a woman’s name and the note of obvious affection in his voice when he spoke of her. Was that the woman Merjack had said she favored? “CIaria?”

“Sway’s wife.”

She’d known from the gold band on his arm that Sway was married, but it still caught her off guard. “Is she not part of the crew?” Since runners could spend months at a time on a mission, it wasn’t unusual for a married man to have his wife on board.

“No. dana’s a junior senator for the Hyshian government. Since she travels so much, and they don’t have any children for him to watch, Sway stays with me.”

Alix frowned at him. “That sounds odd.”

He shrugged. “Only by most humans’ standards. The Hyshians are obscenely matriarchal. The males can’t do anything without female consent. The men even take their wife’s name.”

She found his good humor infectious as he looked at her with those dark eyes. Still, the thought of owning someone, even in marriage, was revolting to her. Having been a slave her entire life, she couldn’t imagine voluntarily subjugating herself to someone else. “How does he stand it?”

“He loves her more than his life. But it can be hard for him to submit. Hyshian males are as aggressive as any other. I’ve been told that some wives drug their spouses to keep them in line. Some even surgically alter them.”