Pursued by the Imperial Prince (Imperial Princes Book 1) Read online

  The two warriors swept off the bridge side by side, a dramatic show of force, and Seth cocked his rifle just before they reached the door. Without a word, a squad of troopers in the black-on-black uniform of the sector peeled off from their positions and fell in behind them.

  “Show off,” Jareth muttered in an amused undertone as they headed down the corridor at a fast pace.

  “Yeah. A little. Can’t blame me, I don’t get to do this much anymore. Too many bloody council meetings.” Seth’s lips quirked. “Any clue why Zared would do something so stupid?”

  Jareth shrugged. “Stupid as in boarding an Imperial Prince’s battle cruiser, or stupid as in getting himself shut in Sedj Idirianna’s med bay? While she’s in there?”

  Seth’s eyes widened as that angle hit him broadside. “Goddess, I almost feel sorry for him.”

  Sedj might be petite and cute as all hell, even if no one dared use the word within her hearing. Despite being a doctor, she was a fully paid-up member of the Sector, and rather a scary one in Seth’s opinion. There was no one better at killing than someone who understood the way the body worked. He’d seen Sedj in battle a few times, and she was damn good at what she did.

  “How about we just shut the door, clean the blood up later?”

  “You are an evil man, Jareth Nikolai, you know that?” Seth chuckled as his comm. tag chirped at him. “This is Kai Renza, go ahead.”

  The voice on the other end was that of the bridge comm officer. “Your Highness, you wanted me to check the harem chamber?”

  Jareth gave the order for double-time and Seth smoothly upped his pace as he answered. “Yes, everything okay? They’re not too panicked, are they?”

  There was a telling pause. Seth’s heart flipped over in his chest. “What? Talk to me.”

  “Sorry Sire, yes, the women are fine.”

  Relief surged through him. He’d been half expecting to hear the pirates had gotten into the harem. “Except…”

  “What? For the Goddess’ sake, spit it out, woman!”

  The small group stepped into the lift. Jareth punched at the buttons to whisk them down two levels to the infirmary level.

  “…the Lady Jaida, Sire. She’s not in the harem chambers.”

  The world tilted on its axis. Gray pressed at the edges of Seth’s vision as his fingers tightened on his rifle. His voice was tightly controlled as he answered. “Where is she?”

  “The trooper on guard said she felt unwell during the attack, so one of the others took her down to the med bay. That was two hours ago, though, and he says they didn’t come back up.”

  Jaida was in the med bay. He just knew it. He knew wherever there was trouble, she’d be at the bloody center of it. His heart threatened to freeze right there in his chest. He couldn’t lose her. Not now, not ever. If she died…

  “Okay. Thank you. Kai Renza out.” He cut the comm and looked at the small group around him. They looked back, silent, their expressions determined. For the first time in a long time, Seth was where he belonged.

  “Right, listen up because I’m only going to say this once. As soon as we leave this lift on the medical level, we are combat operational. The objective is to retake the med bay by any means, so I expect extreme violence from the whole bloody lot of you. As the man said, ‘let’s blow these fuckers away.’”

  “Sir!”

  The reply was echoed by all the men in the lift. With swift, practiced movements, they checked the weaponry they were carrying. Without really thinking about it, Seth checked the charge on his battery pack and grunted in approval. It was fully charged. A good thing, because he wasn’t wearing a tactical rig so one battery was all he was going to get.

  The lift clunked to a stop, Jareth with his finger on the hold button to stop the doors opening. “Okay. Heads up. Corridor in front of us hangs a left toward the med bay. The main doors are a hundred meters on the right. Doors were closed, they may not be now. There may also be guards posted. We’ll work in two fire teams. You, you, and you on alpha team with me. You and you, you’re bravo team with Princey here. Make sure he doesn’t fall over his own feet.”

  “Cheers mate, love you too.” Seth didn’t get a chance to say anything else as Jareth released the button and the doors slid open. He lifted his rifle to his shoulder and nodded to indicate he was ready. On silent feet, the first fire team moved out, the four men darting down the corridor with Jareth in the lead. Halfway down they dropped into cover positions, making sure their firing arcs overlapped. Once they were all in place, Seth moved out.

  His heart pounded, adrenalin surging through his veins at the prospect of battle as he headed past the first team one by one. Without looking back, he knew his own fire team was following him. His world was reduced to the view through his sights, the cross hairs overlaid on his vision as he passed Jareth.

  There wasn’t much cover in the corridor. The Vengeance was an imperial battle cruiser so the amount of clutter in main areas was minimal. For want of anything better, Seth tucked himself behind one of the support struts. Meager cover at best, but it was better than nothing. It shielded most of his body, and he planned to be firing back at anyone throwing laser bolts his way.

  Bravo team poured past him, fanning out in the corridor and darting across the intersection to take positions either side of it. They’d be the fire-support as Jareth’s team got a foothold into the corridor the med bay was on.

  A small chirp from his tag alerted him of an incoming comm. The double bleep was the sector channel, which meant both fire teams were hearing it. “This is Bane. We’re on the port corridor approaching med bay. I hear you guys have some trouble down there?”

  “‘Bout time you got your butt down here, Devil.” Jareth dropped into cover next to Seth, his eyes sharp as he considered the corner. “Pirates have taken Medical, unknown hostiles, unknown hostages. At the least we know the medical staff—”

  Bane cut him off, impatience in his voice. “Is the doc in there?”

  Jareth sighed. “What is it with you lot and bloody women? I got prince-boy here mooning about, and now you’re google-eyed over the doc…I should be running a fucking dating service not a regiment. Tell you what, let me know when you plan to proposition the CMO and I’ll book you a bed for when she hands you your ass on a plate.”

  “Hey!” Seth protested as he moved out again and passed Jareth. “I do not moon. Get your ass into gear, old man, otherwise you’ll miss out on all the action.”

  He chuckled, catching Jareth’s rude gesture out of the corner of his eye. The colonel ordered Bane’s team into position on the opposite side of the med bay, organizing a dual offensive that would take Zared’s forces inside by surprise. That was the plan anyway. All bets were off where Zared was concerned.

  The teams poured into the corridor, surrounding the glass doors. On a normal day there would be movement visible inside. Today there was nothing. Seth nodded toward the two troopers either side of the door. With the ease of long practice, they pulled spray canisters from their rigs and sprayed the contents over the glass. The liquid splattered then foamed up into a blue froth.

  “Clear!” The one on the left announced as he slapped an ignition patch into the foam and turned his face away. To a man the group in the corridor followed suit.

  Cra-a-ck.

  The door exploded inwards in a shower of broken shards. Before they’d hit the ground Seth was on his feet with the rest of the team. Out of habit he looked toward Jareth who was leading the assault.

  Jareth gave the signal to attack, and with adrenalin pouring through his veins, Seth led the charge through the door.

  10

  “You all do exactly as you’re told ,and no one will get hurt. You have my word on that.” The pirate leader and his men fanned out through the medical bay. Jaida was as stunned as the rest of the medics. How had they gotten aboard? Where were the men whose uniforms they had been wearing?

  Her mind supplied the answer before she’d finished the thought, and sic
kness rose up from her gut, a hot wet tide that threatened to choke her. They were dead, they had to be. There was just too much blood for them to have survived whatever these men had done to them.

  “Who’s in charge here?”

  One of the soldiers on a bed near her struggled to sit up, the expression in his eyes angry as he looked at the pirates. “That would be me. Commander Benaris.”

  The tall pirate nodded. His mismatched eyes, one green and one white, contained no expression as he raised his pistol and shot Commander Benaris point blank, a single shot between the eyes. Benaris slumped back on the bed. His sightless eyes stared up at the ceiling as a trickle of blood ran down his shocked face.

  The pirate looked around the room, arrogance in every line of his body. “I’ll ask again, who’s in charge here?”

  Sedj moved. Not a step forward as such but enough of a movement for all eyes in the room to focus on her. Unlike the dead commander her face was blank as she looked at the pirate leader. “That would be you, obviously.”

  He clapped, pistol in one hand. “At last, someone with brains. Very good, my dear. And you would be?”

  “The chief medical officer, Selena Norvairan.”

  Jaida blinked at the lie, her gaze dropping to the woman’s white lab coat. The name tag that had been there earlier was gone. Confusion mounted within her. Why would Sedj lie about her name? As carefully as she could, Jaida scanned the faces of the people around her. No one seemed at all surprised by the CMO’s lie. In fact, they’d all managed to remove their name tags unseen.

  “Norvairan. You’re not listed on the ship’s manifest.” Another of the pirates accused, approaching his leader’s side and looking at a small data device in his hands.

  “No, I won’t be. I’m a new transfer. The old CMO bought it dirt-side on the ship’s last mission, so I was drafted in to cover.” Sedj folded her arms and gave him a deadpan expression. Her manner was the typical medical response of insubordinate with a hint of “I don’t care.”

  Jaida had to admire Sedj’s courage.

  The pirate grunted. “Fair enough. I’ll buy that. Combat medics often end up fatalities on planet-side retrieval,” he explained to the guy at his side, who didn’t look convinced. Black, beady eyes glared at the petite doctor with malevolence. Two of the male medics moved to subtly flank Sedj. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed another medic reach out and pocket a laser-scalpel while all eyes were on the CMO.

  Jaida kept her eyes forward, not wanting to draw attention to the movement. Confusion and hope coiled in the pit of her stomach. A laser scalpel could be used as a weapon, which left only one conclusion. The medical staff was going to try and fight the pirates.

  Why though? That was sheer suicide. The invaders were well armed and obviously knew what they were doing. But…why would Sedj conceal her name? Unless there was some reason she didn’t want the pirate to know who she was. But why would that matter? Her head threatened to explode as she tried to work it all out.

  “Right, ladies and gents, I’m sure we’re about to attract the attention of most of the troopers aboard ship, so if you could all make your way to the back of the room… Unfortunately I’m afraid your emergency exits today are…well, there are none.”

  The pirate chuckled at his own joke as he motioned them all backward. The others with him took that as the signal to move forward too, brandishing their own weapons.

  “Okay people, let’s do as the man says,” Sedj ordered, her voice calm and firm over the subdued panic emanating from some of the medical staff. “Start moving the patients around to the intensive care recovery area. Any one that can walk, walks. Beds for the rest. Here, you…come help me with this one.”

  Jaida looked around behind her then realized Sedj was talking to her. “Oh right, yes. Sorry, ma’am.”

  Quickly she joined the other woman and started to unhook one of the medical beds from its computer hook up. As they were doing so, Sedj used her movements as cover to press a laser scalpel into the trooper’s hand. His startled gaze shot to her face, but turned grim as he nodded, concealing the makeshift weapon in the covers by his thigh.

  “Grab the corpse,” the pirate leader ordered behind her. “We need to send a message that we’ve arrived.”

  Jaida started to wheel her bed toward the back of the bay. The skin between her shoulder blades itched. Each second took an eternity to pass, an eternity filled with the sound of her breathing and her blood rushing in her ears. Tension coiled tighter in her stomach as she waited for a shout from behind her. There was no way they were going to get away with this. The pirates were going to realize what the medical personnel were doing.

  “Thank you, ma’am. Just turn me a little. Perfect. Now, get down behind the bed.” The trooper on Jaida’s bed used a large hand to push her down behind him. Crouching, she looked around. The medical beds that had been pushed to the back of the room had been arranged in an odd pattern. Almost random, but even her limited military knowledge told her the configuration would shelter as many people as possible.

  And provide a place to fight back from.

  “Hey there, how you holding up?”

  Almost on cue Sedj dropped down into a crouch next to Jaida. Her aqua eyes were large in her face but the expression in them wasn’t panicked. It was clear and focused as she watched the pirates in the front of the room bundle Benaris’ corpse out the front door. Jaida felt sick at their joviality and jokes as they manhandled the murdered man.

  “Bastards. You’d think they’d have some respect.”

  She was reminded once again why she avoided dealing with pirates. Most of them were the kind of people who’d happily dance in their own mother’s entrails.

  “No respect, no morals. It’s what they are.” Sedj’s voice was low as she answered. “Things are about to get hairy in here. What I need you to do is stay behind cover and not be a hero. Let us handle things. Okay?”

  Jaida nodded and checked that the pirates still had their attention elsewhere. “What’s going on?” She let her confusion show on her face. “You aren’t reacting as I’d expect a doctor to. Doctors don’t usually arm their patients during a hostage situation. Shouldn’t you be trying to mediate…negotiate their surrender? Hurt none, that kind of thing?”

  Sedj’s snort was immediate and dismissive. “Fuck that. They came into my medical bay and killed my patient. They’ll get what’s coming to them.”

  Straightening her arm the doctor pulled back her cuff and showed Jaida the inside of her wrist. The ghost of a tattoo shimmered over the pale skin. At first glance it looked like the typical medical caduceus but, as she watched, the design shifted a little. Instead of the snakes being wrapped around a staff, they were wrapped around a winged dagger.

  Her intake of breath was sharp as her gaze flew to Sedj’s face. She’d seen that symbol before, on a report on Seth’s desk. Right next to the elite forces logo and stamped “classified.” Surprise rolled through her as she realized the smaller woman wasn’t just an ordinary doctor.

  Jaida nodded once, the movement brisk and professional. Experience had taught her the best thing to do in a crisis was not to panic and find someone who knew what they were doing. Follow orders and ask questions later.

  “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

  Sedj smiled and patted her arm. “Good girl, you’ll do well. Seth made a good choice…don’t be too hard on him, eh? Any idiot can see he’s head over heels for you. Why do you think he chased you for five years?” With that she was gone, moving onto the group huddled behind the next bed.

  She watched Sedj for a long moment, shocked into silence. Seth loved her? How…when? She crouched behind the reassuring bulk of the medical bed as the thoughts chased each other around in her head. She’d always thought he’d chased her for revenge. Her world titled on its axis. What if it hadn’t been revenge? What if…her throat closed over as her heart leapt in her chest. What if it had been because he loved her and couldn’t let her go?

/>   She shook her head, not caring that people around her were giving her funny looks. They could think she was a stark raving lunatic for all she cared. She had more important things to think about at the moment. Seth couldn’t love her. If he did, why had he left a courtesan’s robes for her after their first night together?

  The memory of his valet holding the red silk out to her replayed over and over in her mind’s eye like a holo on a loop. Good enough to fuck, but not good enough to wed. The valet’s exact words, or what she could remember of them. He’d been saying something else as she fled the room, but she hadn’t heard it over the sound of her own sobs.

  Cra-a-ck.

  The sharp sound signaled the start of the attack as the glass doors at the front of the medical bay shattered and fell in a curtain of shards. Gas canisters rolled across the floor, billowing smoke, followed by troopers in black. The room filled in seconds with thick smoke and the sizzle-pop of laser bolts. She coughed, trying to keep the smoke out of her lungs as it burned her eyes.

  “Go, go, go!”

  Voices shouted above the noise of the firefight as she huddled behind the empty bed. The trooper in it was gone, his shadowy form sliding into the smoke, laser scalpel in one hand. She bit her lip. Tools meant to heal were now being used to kill.

  “Red, how many hostiles?”

  Jaida caught her breath. That was Seth’s voice; she recognized it instantly. Everything in her, every instinct she had, wanted to leap up from the shelter of the bed and run to him. She bit her lip harder and forced herself to stay where she was. All she would do if she went to him was get in the way, and possibly get people killed.

  “Red…you there, babe? Talk to me…”

  Jealousy rose, hot and immediate. Who the hell was Red, and why was Seth calling her babe? She crept to the edge of the bed on her hands and knees and peered around it. The smoke was still thick but she could make out indistinct figures just for a split second or so before they disappeared again.

  “Yeah…I’m here. I counted eight.” There was a bone-chilling scream, one that cut off with a sickening gurgle. “Make that seven.”