Lightning Destroyer: (Lighting Seeker Book 3)

Running Out of Time

"If you weren't necessary, I would kill all three of you right now for how terribly you handled things with my daughter," Kriss growled as she dropped her bag on the rusty old ship with a clang. We hadn't gotten three feet into the ship before Kriss began her scolding. Something no one could blame her for. They had lost her daughter to the most dangerous man alive.

Kriss' eyes flashed angrily to Mortem before she slammed her fist against the hatch button, sending a deep rumble through the belly of the ship as the door closed. "You knew what was at stake." Her jaw was tense. "I made it very clear that if she ever found you, if you ever had a hand in her joining your world, I would kill you if she got hurt."

"I know," Mortem replied, voice strangely calm.

She laughed in disbelief. "But I shouldn't be surprised right? Nothing hurts Mortem... Just those closest to him."

He winced but didn't deny it. Kriss strode up to him until they were a foot away from each other. Her gaze was deadly. "Don't make me regret letting you live."

Mortem took Kriss' hands, enveloping them in his. "I'll get 'er back Kriss. She's too much like ye to go down easy." 

Her eyes filled with angry tears. "But her father—"

"'as no idea who he's dealin' with." 

Kriss melted into his embrace when he opened his arms, anger evaporating into tears. "Do ye know why I didn't turn 'er away the day she showed up on me ship?"

Kriss shook her head, face still burrowed in his chest. Mortem tilted her head up, gaze fierce. "Because I recognized the look on 'er face. A look she got from ye. A look that said she wouldn't let me or anyone else stand in the way of what she wanted." He smiled, a dark grin crossing his whiskered face. "And I know she will give 'em 'ell until we find her."

Dash and Sky glanced at each other. They were invisible to Mortem and Kriss as they stared at each other, unspoken words passing between them. 

Let's give them space, Sky signed. 

They moved quietly into the hall. Dash shook out his hand as a familiar numbness worked its way into it. Not now, Dash thought. He didn't want to think about what the signs and flashes of pain meant. What the long-term ramifications were. 

Injured? Sky asked eyeing Dash.

Dash shrugged, hoping to brush off the conversation. "It's nothing."

Sky placed his hand on Dash's shoulder stopping him in the hallway, fingers gripping his shoulder tightly. Then he ripped Dash's sleeve off, revealing the bullet wound Dash got months earlier. 

Dash glared at his cousin. "You could have just asked me to roll up my sleeve. You didn't have to ruin a perfectly good shirt."

Well, we both have a habit of keeping secrets, Sky replied. And this is a big secret to be keeping if that is what I think it is.

Dash sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair and slid to the ground, deep in thought. "I got shot as we were feeling the Masquerade." He opened and closed his fist. "We didn't have the best tools to get the bullet out. I thought it was fine."

We? Sky asked. 

Dash took a deep breath, hesitant. "Vale." He looked up at his cousin. "She was with me when I got shot. We were sent out to get some AI's off of Mortem's tail and this was the result. She got the bullet out. I would have died if she hadn't been with me."

Sky sunk to the ground across from Dash. Are the symptoms getting worse?

The memory of that dark night washed over Dash. He remembered the pain that tore through his shoulder as the bullet ripped into his body. Falling into the river. Vale dragging him out and helping him to the bunker. Her hands shaking as she downed a finger of whisky to settle herself before she got to work. He could see her fear, her terror at the potential of making things worse. I don't want her to blame herself. It's not her fault.