Free Assassin's Hunger by Jessa Slade Page A

and something in him yearned to creep out of the shadows and bask in the reflected glow.
    Torash smiled back and slipped into the suite without further argument. Another shock. The door hissed closed and snicked as the red lock engaged. It wouldn’t be opening again without an override from the captain or Benedetta.
    He let out a harsh breath at the squandered opportunity. If the attackers took the ship…
    “They won’t if you’d get to your thrice-tangled post,” Shaxi said.
    He’d barely muttered the last words aloud, but of course her enhanced hearing had captured the comment. “The captain would want the girls to be safe.”
    “They are, for the moment.”
    So they were, damn it. “What next?”
    She glared at him as if he should know. “My task is to secure the girls—which is done—and then neutralize the threat.”
    He gestured. “After you.”
    With a shake of her head, she reversed course, out of steerage and back toward the heart of the ship. The heart of the fight.
    Though the situation was urgent and grim—and he could very well find himself removed from his covert mission if the underwriters deemed him incompetent or compromised—his gaze wandered down the sleek, powerful form ahead of him.
    He’d done well choosing the uniform from ship’s stores. The smart fabric fit her like a second skin, supporting and yielding in all the right places. And the way it cupped her ass—
    She spun, hazer at the ready, and he snapped his gaze up with guilty quickness.
    She frowned at him, her eyes bright gold with her cyber-embeds at full alert as she scanned his body, lingering at his hip. “You aren’t armed?”
    She must have seen his hazer during the scuffle at the cantina. It wasn’t a weapon he showed off. He’d have to be more careful around her. “When the charge hit, I ran to find you three.”
    She let out a hissing breath. “I should have left you with the girls.”
    He should have stayed there. Then this would all be so very unnecessary. But for the first time in years, his pulse sped of its own accord, the hot flow whispering swiftly through his veins and honing all his senses.
    She touched her comm, her eyes unfocused as she listened. “Yes, Captain. They are locked in. On my way.” Without another glance at him, she raced on.
    And without another glance at the locked door where his assigned targets lurked, he followed her.
    The ship rocked again, the bulkhead groaning. It was more a sound of annoyance than real strain. The attackers had not engaged with a stronger second detonation.
    “That charge was too weak to effectively breach the cargo bay hatch,” Shaxi said into her comm. “It’s a distraction.”
    “They’ll try to disable the thrusters,” Eril warned. “They want to keep us here so they can crack us like a malac shell at their leisure.”
    Her lips curled, not the same smile she’d given Torash, but the fierce delight of a warrior facing battle. “One easy way to take care of that.”
    Even as she spoke, the thrusters fired. If anyone had been nearby, they’d gotten a sunburn worse than Khamaseen’s double stars.
    But instead of the Asphodel ’s usual effortless ascension, the ship lurched. Eril cursed and braced himself against the bulkhead. Shaxi swayed with the motion.
    He swore again. “The crosswinds have gotten stronger. We won’t be able to rise through them.”
    “Seems the captain believes otherwise.”
    “There’s no way—”
    A roar, louder than either explosion, ripped through the ship. Shaxi’s eyes widened as she was tossed into him. They both clutched for the exposed wall struts, steadying themselves and each other as the ship canted hard to one side.
    “They got at least one thruster,” Eril said. He tightened his grip on her upper arm where the smooth curve of muscle met the bone of her shoulder as the ship pitched the other direction.
    Shaxi shifted her jaw. “I’m not sure a light cruiser like this can maneuver with a thruster