She shouldn’t feel this jittery, this out of control. “Right.”
“Here.” He slid off the table, and for a second they were pressed together. “Let me fix your cut.”
She let him wave the medscope over her wound, although she could have done it herself. “Here we are again, healing wounds.”
“Hazard of the business.”
“I guess you get hurt a lot.” The thought didn’t sit well with her.
“A bit, but not every hunt. Some are downright boring.” He set the scope aside, his gaze tracing her face. “But so far this hunt has been anything but boring.”
“Someone has to keep you on your toes, Phoenix.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The scream of alarms jerked Eos out of sleep.
She nearly fell off the narrow bunk in her small cabin on theInfinitas. Pressing one hand to her racing heart, she got up and pulled a shirt over her thin sleeping tank and shorts.
They’d had a day of smooth cruising. She’d almost gotten used to the gentle hum of starship engines and the mesmerizing blur of stars out the window.
Now something was very wrong.
She ran out into the hall, the checker-plate metal floor was cool under her bare feet. She entered the cockpit just as the alarm cut off.
The Phoenix brothers were already there.
Dathan’s bare chest drew her gaze, but when she looked at the angular-shaped cockpit windows, her mouth dropped open. “What the hell is that?”
Neon red spread across in front of them. As far as she could see. It was the color of the royal robes of Windassia.
“The Devil’s Nebula.” Zayn spat the words from the pilot’s seat.
“Fuck.” Dathan slammed a fist against the large screen on the command console.
She shifted uneasily. “Didn’t you know it was here?”
Niklas shook his head. “The nebula changes location within the quadrant.”
Zayn scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s somehow connected to the end of a wormhole. It randomly jumps through space.”
Eos’ gaze moved between them all, taking in the tense faces. “Okay. What aren’t you telling me?”
Zayn looked up. “It’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
She frowned. “What?”
He clapped a hand over his chest. “You don’t know your classics.”
“It’s completely lawless,” Niklas said.
“Every murderer, thief, slave trader, and assassin in the quadrant calls it home. They have some sort of homing beacon set up so they can find it when it moves.” Dathan looked at Zayn. “How long to go around?”
“Weeks.”
Eos twisted her hands together. How could something so beautiful be so bad? “You’ve been here before?”
“Once.” Dathan shoved his hands on his hips. “We chased a thief in who’d acquired an artifact we were after. Once was enough.” He flicked a glance at Zayn. “Z came here once before with the Galactic Strike Wing.”
