Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) (2 page)

Chapter
1

Tanjelia Dracon, youngest of the Dracon triplets, closed the carton holding the last of her belongings and sealed it.  She stood up and looked around at the now bare room that she’d shared with her sisters for the past four years.  Graduation had taken place six weeks earlier, but they’d stayed on for the summer session as tutors.  Now the summer session was over, the campus nearly deserted, and they were about to embark on the two week journey between college and home for the final time.

“Are you finished packing, Tani?” Salene called from the living room of their dorm apartment.

“Yep, this is the last of it,” Tani called back, dragging the carton into the living room and adding it to the small mountain of cartons that represented all of their belongings save for the three suitcases by the door.

“It’s kind of hard to believe that we’re finally going home to stay,” Rayne said as she finished wiping down the inside of the chiller. 

“No kidding,” Salene said.  “I got a message from my guys.  They’re throwing a party for us when we get home.”

“You’re so lucky, Salene,” Rayne said with a sigh.  “Gryphons.  And really cute ones, too.”

“They’re great guys, but I don’t think they’d appreciate being called
cute
,” Salene said, then stopped talking as she took in Rayne’s expression.  She crossed the room to give her a hug.  “Don’t worry, you’ll find your Rami soon.  Or they’ll find you.  We only just turned twenty one, Rayne.  There’s plenty of time.”

“I’ll probably have to go to Arima House,” Rayne said, hugging Salene back.  She shrugged.  “I’m not knocking it, it’s a good place.  But there’s nothing at all romantic about putting your hormones on display in the Hidden City for everyone to sniff.”

Tani cleared her throat.  “I need to run down to the music hall for my guitar.”

Salene and Rayne turned to look at her with matching expressions of pity in their eyes which they immediately tried to hide.  “We’re sorry, Tani,” Salene said.

“Don’t be,” Tani said.  “You should be happy to be going home to your Gryphons, Salene, and I certainly don’t want you to hide that from me.  I don’t begrudge your happiness, I promise.”

“I know you don’t, Tani,” Salene said, then bit her lip to keep from saying anything else, knowing it would just make Tani feel worse.

“You’d better hurry,” Rayne said, changing the subject for all their sakes.  “The cab will be here in an hour.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll go straight there and back, I promise,” Tani said.  She went to the counter where her purse sat, reached in for her wallet, and left the apartment.  She opened the wallet while she walked down the long corridor, removed her student pass so she’d have it handy for gaining access to the music hall, then put both the wallet and the pass in her jeans pockets. 

She pushed through the swinging door at the end of the hall, crossed the dorm lobby, and went through the security door, glad that she had a good reason to get away for a few minutes. She tsked herself for forgetting her guitar, though.  It was a very special instrument that her favorite honorary uncles, the Bearens, had commissioned to be custom made for her small hands by the best guitar maker in seven systems.  It was a valuable instrument, but to Tani it was priceless because her uncles had given it to her.

Once outside, she turned left toward the music hall, walking quickly.  A few blocks and three turns later, a tall, slender woman with chin length black hair and golden skin came around the next corner.  Tani slowed her step and grinned. 

***

Ganzorig Khaan, Steel to all who knew him, left his private bunk and headed for the
Stray’s
control room.  He was anxious, nervous and tense, emotions that, up until a year earlier, he’d rarely experienced.  Now they were his constant companions.  All that changed these days was the level of intensity and today that level was very high.  So much depended on Astra’s success.  If she failed, all hope of outside help would die.  Without help, what remained of his people would die, along with it.

After making sure that Astra had been safely transported down to EDU-12, he’d gone to his private quarters for a hot shower, hoping it would relax him.  It hadn’t worked, but it was better than sitting around watching the images from the micro cam on Astra’s collar while she ran around New Oxford’s nearly deserted campus. 

“Steel, get your ass in here!” Khurda shouted over the ship’s comm.  “Hurry!”

Steel flinched at the sudden, unexpected shout that was so loud it hurt his ears.  Then he broke into a full out run.

***

“Astra,” Tani said.  “This is a surprise!  When did you get here?”

“About an hour ago,” Astra replied, barely returning Tani’s smile as she hurried toward her.  “I need to talk to you, Tani.”

“All right,” Tani said, her smile fading as they both came to a stop on the sidewalk.  “What’s the matter?”

“Can we go somewhere more private?”

“I don’t have very much time,” Tani said apologetically.  “We’re leaving in about an hour.  I’m on my way to the music hall right now to get my guitar.  Do you want to walk with me?”

Before Tani finished speaking, her eyes went to two identical men who were rounding the corner behind Astra.  Astra turned to follow Tani’s gaze, then gasped.  She reached out, grabbed Tani’s hand and started pulling her back in the direction Tani had just come from.  “Come on Tani, run!”

Tani didn’t waste time asking questions.  She just started running, following Astra as she raced down the quiet street, around the next corner, and into an alley.  They ran to the end of the alley and stopped, finding themselves at a dead end. 

***

“What is it?” Steel demanded as he burst into the control room.

“Nomen!” Khurda said tensely without looking away from the view screen which was currently split to show images from two different cam feeds. 

“
Demii
!” Steel swore, stopping behind Khurda’s chair.  The right side of the screen displayed an overhead view of two bald men walking side by side down a sidewalk, taken from orbit by the external surveillance cam on the
Stray’s
hull.  The left side of the screen displayed the view from Astra’s micro cam, which currently showed her rounding a corner, then hurrying toward a petite woman in jeans and a sweater with short, wayward red hair.

“Is that her?” Steel asked, a strange sensation running down his spine when he saw the soft gray eyes and warm smile that filled half the view screen. 

“I think so,” Khurda said.  “We should’ve waited until I got the stars-be-damned sound fixed!”

“We didn’t have time for that, Khurda,” Steel said.  “How far away are the Nomen?”  No answer was necessary since he looked away from Astra’s view to the overhead cam view in time to see the Nomen round the corner behind Astra.  He looked back to Astra’s view, relieved to see that she was already running.

“Get me down there,” he ordered.  “Now!”

“I can’t, Steel,” Khurda said, his eyes never leaving the screen. 

“Why the hell not?” Steel shouted, watching as Astra turned into an alley, his heart leaping into his throat when he realized it was a dead end.  They were trapped.

“Because if I transport you down there, I won’t be able to transport them up for another three minutes,” Khurda said tightly, his fingers racing over the console before him.  “I’ve got their location, but I need Astra to activate her transport beacon before I can get a positive transport lock.”

Both men watched, their hearts pounding, nervous sweat dotting their faces as they waited.  A light turned green on Khurda’s console and he jammed his finger down on the transport activation key so hard that it cracked.  “Thirty seconds,” he bit out.

“It’s not fast enough,” Steel said as he watched the petite woman through Astra’s cam, every cell in his body screaming with the need to be down there, on the ground, where he could protect both women. 

***

Tani’s heart sank when she saw that the alley was a dead end.  She looked around for an escape route.  A door, a window, some way for them to climb the wall behind them, anything, but the buildings on either side of them were locked and empty for the summer.  They were well and truly trapped.  “Tell me what’s going on, Astra.”

“Those men following us are going to try to kill or abduct me,” Astra said, tapping rapidly on the comm device strapped to her wrist.  “The
Stray
is locked onto my beacon,” she said a moment later.  “But I don’t think we’ll transport out of here fast enough.”

Tani watched as both men turned into the alley and started toward them, their pace steady, but not hurried, their hands drawing the knives hanging from their belts.  “How much time do you need?”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Stay here,” Tani said, then took off running straight up the alley toward the men, startling them enough that their steps faltered, then stopped altogether as they watched her. 

Good boys, just stand right there and stare for another couple of seconds
, Tani thought as she ran a little bit further, veering sharply to the right where several crates were stacked against the wall.  She took a running leap at the crates, then pushed off the top of the pile with one foot and leapt again, this time kicking off the top of a garbage can.  She kicked off of that, aiming for a spot on the brick wall a couple of feet in front of the two big men and about level with their height.  She hit her mark with the ball of one foot, then pushed off, twisting her body so that she landed on one man’s broad shoulders, her legs straddling his neck. 

She locked her legs together and, using all of her body’s momentum, twisted hard.  The big man’s neck broke with a sharp crack.  She relaxed her legs and threw herself off of him, flipping in the air so that she landed on her feet a couple of yards in front of the remaining attacker. 

He was watching in open mouthed disbelief as his companion fell lifelessly to the ground, so Tani took advantage of the extra couple of seconds to run back to the garbage cans and grab one of the lids.  She held it by the edges in both hands, tilted it upward at just the right angle, and planted her feet before twisting her body sideways just as the second man started for her, roaring furiously with one big knife in each fist.  When he was about six feet away, Tani swung the lid around with all of her power and released it.  If the man had been further away, it might not have done much damage since it was so big.  As it was, it struck the big man right in the Adam’s apple with enough force to crush his larynx, just as she’d intended.  He raised both hands to his throat as he began gagging and gasping for air. 

Tani started to relax just as two more men entered the alley, both identical to the first two.  At the same time Astra shouted.  Her choices were simple.  Go with Astra and get transported out of the alley, or let the big guys have her. 

She spun around and raced back to where Astra stood waiting for her.  “How much time?”

“Five seconds,” Astra whispered.  Tani reached into her pocket for her student pass and dropped it on the ground just as both men reached to their belts, raised their arms and threw something at them.  Astra shoved her aside, and Tani felt something hit her arm with a sharp sting.  She heard Astra grunt, then everything turned black.

***

Steel saw the petite woman’s lips move as she spoke to Astra just before she took off running straight for the Nomen who’d just turned into the alley.

“What is she doing?” Khurda demanded, but Steel could only shake his head, too surprised to speak.  They watched in silence as the small woman ran directly at the Nomen.  Then she…did something.  They missed it when Astra moved suddenly, raising one arm which blocked the cam on her collar.  Then the arm went down and they gasped as the small woman seemed to fly up the wall, then throw herself at the nearest Nomen.  Steel’s mouth dropped open when she landed on the Nomen’s shoulders, then flipped off of him, landing lightly on her feet in front of them.  The Nomen fell lifeless to the ground, but the small woman was already moving again.  They watched in disbelief as she took the other Nomen out…
with the lid of a trash can for star’s sake!
...then ran back to Astra.

“Five seconds,” Khurda said tightly just as the petite woman reached Astra, clearing their view of the alley from the micro cam.  Steel’s heart stopped beating altogether as he watched a new pair of Nomen reach for weapons and, half a second later, release them. 

“NO!” Steel and Khurda both shouted at the same time.  Then Khurda hit another button and the feed from Astra’s cam went black. 

“They’re up,” Khurda announced, but Steel was already out the door.  He ran down the corridor toward the transport room as fast as he could, praying that he’d find both women alive and well when he got there, but already knowing that he wouldn’t.

***

Nica Fadden stepped out of the bathroom, still tying her bathrobe as she hurried to the hand vid on the dresser.  Normally she would have let it go to message until she was finished with her shower, but not this time.  Something was warning her that she needed to get this call.  She pressed the
Accept
button, not completely surprised by the face that appeared on her screen.