Deadly Pursuit (A Blood Hunter Novel, #2) Read Free Page A

damage?” Tannis asked.
    “None.” Rico studied the console in front of him. “At a guess, they’re warning shots…so far.”
    “Yeah—but warning us of what?”
    “They’re trying to comm us,” Janey said. “You want to hear what they have to say?”
    Tannis shrugged. “Why not?”
    “Just a moment—I’ll put it on speaker.”
    “This is High Priest Hezrai Fischer.”
    As the familiar voice boomed around the bridge, Alex jumped and the breath caught in her throat. She would have fallen out of her chair if she hadn’t been strapped in. After the initial shock, she froze in her seat and peeked surreptitiously around, sure everyone must be able to see her guilty secret. No one was paying her the slightest attention, and she forced her muscles to relax. Maybe it had nothing to do with her. Maybe it was a huge coincidence. She chewed on a fingernail.
    Should she sneak away now? But she needed to know, and besides, she was on a space cruiser heading through deep space; where was she supposed to hide?
    “ Dios ,” Rico muttered, “it’s the goddamn Church. Have I mentioned how much I hate the Church?”
    “Frequently,” Skylar said drily.
    Five hundred years ago, the old religions had almost died out, but that had all changed with the discovery of Meridian. While not everyone could afford that route to immortality, everyone wanted to live forever, and the old beliefs had gained a new popularity. The Church of Everlasting Life offered the masses a cheaper, if less reliable, alternative with its promise of an afterlife in paradise. They had quickly grown until they were now the second most powerful faction in the civilized universe.
    Tannis opened her comm link. “So, you’re a High Priest. Big deal. Whatever it is you’re selling, we don’t want any.”
    Hezrai ignored the comment. He’d always been excellent at ignoring what he didn’t want to hear. Which included most of what Alex had ever said. She and Hezrai had existed in a state of mutual animosity for as long as Alex remembered. Longer than that even, according to Sister Martha. Apparently, Alex had thrown up all over him at their first meeting and things had only gone downhill from there.
    “We believe you have something that belongs to us,” Hezrai said. “We want it back.”
    It?
    Wasn’t it just like him to refer to her as an it ? He’d never seen her as a person.
    Rico glanced around the room. “Anyone got a clue what he’s talking about?”
    “No idea,” Tannis said.
    Alex shrank into her chair and tried to make herself very, very small.
    All her life, except for the last three months, she had done her duty, and it had been hard—every single day a struggle against the stultifying boredom of ritual and routine. Even so, this time away was only ever meant to be temporary. She’d always known she had to go back sometime. There were people who believed in her, had given up their lives for her. But was it so wrong to want to see a tiny bit of the world before she returned? To live a little?
    Yes, she’d go back. But just not yet. There were things she had to do. An image of Jon’s nearly naked body flashed across her mind—important things.
    Tannis ran a hand through her short, dark hair. “They’ve obviously fucked up and confused us with someone else. We have shit that belongs to them.” She was silent for a moment as she considered their options. “As far as I’m aware, at the present time we’re not holding any illegal contraband on the ship. Why not let them board, check things out, and maybe they’ll piss off and leave us alone.”
    Alex sneaked another peek around the room and found Skylar watching her, her inhuman violet eyes speculative as she studied her. Skylar raised one eyebrow, and Alex sank lower into her chair and tried to keep her expression blank.
    Skylar swung around to face Tannis. “You really think that’s a good idea?”
    “You have a better one?”
    “Well, it would be hard to come up with a worse