Daniela

They’d stayed inside Daniela just long enough to get their revenge on Desmond. But when Daniela had opened her eyes again . . . she was alone. The creature was gone.

“Laragh? Is she still there?” Niamh asked, but Daniela shook her head.

Niamh looked crestfallen, her eyes filled with a grief Daniela could taste. It made sense. Niamh and her twin, Laragh, had been like two halves of the same person. Now that Laragh was gone, a part of Niamh was dead.

They were sitting inside a maintenance closet. They’d been stashed away in there as soon as everyone had realized Desmond was not coming belowdecks.

“You’ll take Desmond Delay out from here,” Jessika had said, before she’d handed them a shortwave radio and locked Daniela and Niamh inside the closet. “We’ll be out here kicking ass and taking names.”

And now their job—hers and Niamh’s—was done.

“Lyse?” Niamh said into the radio.

There was a crackle and then Lyse came online.

“Stay there. We’re on our way.”

The radio went dead and Daniela raised an eyebrow.

“Where the hell does she think we’re going?”

Niamh smiled, her nervousness off the charts.

“What’s wrong?” Daniela asked.

“Nothing—” Niamh started to say, but Daniela could tell that Niamh was going to lie to her, so she reached over and took the other woman’s wrist.

A flash of a conversation . . . Thomas telling Niamh to stay with Lyse . . . and then Daniela was back in the closet with Niamh.

“What did you just do?” Niamh asked, shocked by Daniela’s ability to invade her mind.

“You want to know if he’s lying to you?”

Niamh stared back at Daniela, dazed.

“I . . .” She didn’t finish the thought, just nodded.

“It’s hard to tell unless I touch him for myself, but, honestly, I didn’t get a bad vibe. If he wants you to go with Lyse, then you should probably do it.”

Niamh visibly relaxed, the tension leaving her body.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“I think so,” Daniela said. “And I agree. He’s pretty hot. You could probably make out with him when this is all over.”

Daniela had added this last bit because she had sensed how embarrassed Niamh was by her attraction to Thomas—and Niamh did not disappoint, blushing bright pink.

“Oh, no, is it that obvious?” Niamh asked.

Daniela laughed.

“No, I’m an empath and I just touched you. It’s what I do.”

“Oh, yeah,” Niamh said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Okay, good.”

There was a knock on the door and then the hatch opened to reveal Lyse and Jessika standing in the semidarkness of the passageway. Jessika was holding a gun, and she used it to indicate that they should follow her. It was very quiet on the ship, and the red emergency lights only added to the surreality of the situation.

Jessika put a finger to her lips, encouraging them to stay silent as they moved down the darkened passageway. A blast of gunfire rang through the air.

“Get down!” Jessika yelled before shoving Daniela to the ground.

A second later, Lyse and Niamh were on the floor beside her as Jessika returned fire. Someone at the end of the passageway screamed, and Daniela knew they’d been hit. There was more gunfire, which Jessika returned, and then she was grabbing Daniela by the shirt collar and lifting her to her feet.

“C’mon, there’ll be more of those where that came from.”

Daniela had never been manhandled so gracefully by another person before. Jessika was tough and gorgeous, and the woman knew her way around munitions. It was not the time to be getting all hot and bothered, but Daniela found herself completely turned on. She’d never had the best of luck with the ladies, but, dammit, she sure hoped when this was all over that she could spend a little time with Jessika.

“Stop drooling over our escort,” Lyse whispered in her ear as they followed Jessika farther down the passageway.

“Can’t help it,” Daniela whispered back.

Their back-and-forth got a hiss to be silent from Jessika, and they stayed quiet after that. At the end of one passageway, they encountered two bodies, both in black combat fatigues . . . The Flood. Daniela was just glad they didn’t have to step over any dead blood sisters.

After winding through passageway after passageway, they eventually arrived at their final destination: the mess hall. The interior was lit up like a shopping mall. Table after table filled with women . . . the blood sisters they’d rescued from the underground research facility.

“They’re doing a lot better,” Niamh said, her voice filled with surprise.

“They perked up as soon as you guys arrived,” Jessika said, and they followed her as she threaded her way through the tables until she found Dev and the girls. Dev had given them stacks of napkins to play with and Marji was trying to show Ginny how to fold paper planes with them.

“It’s working,” Dev said as soon as they approached. “It was such a good idea.”

She was smiling, but underneath the smile she was stressed.

“We took care of Desmond,” Daniela said. “He’s not gonna be messing with anyone ever again.”

She knew her words sounded harsh, but she would cry over his death at a later date . . . and she wouldn’t be mourning the man upstairs, she’d be mourning the death of the man she’d thought he was.

“I’m sorry for your loss. Both of you,” Dev said to Lyse and Daniela, but she didn’t look sorry at all.

“Don’t be,” Daniela said, and Lyse nodded.

“Tell us about the spell,” Lyse said, changing the subject.

“Well, the girls and I got the women together and we worked it into being . . . I think it will hold as long as necessary.”

It had been Thomas’s idea. There was so much magic on this ship, why not use it to fashion a protection spell? So he and Dev had worked to weave a spell that would make the mess hall and everything in it invisible to anyone who meant the women on the ship harm.

“We gave them each a symbol to cast in their minds, and it’s working,” Thomas said as he came to stand behind Dev.

Daniela was glad to see that the two of them seemed to have put aside their differences and were working together. It was stupid to have any infighting when there were about a hundred armed Flood members roaming the halls.

“Well, you’ve made it easier for us to take them out without anyone else getting hurt in the crossfire,” Jessika said; the gun that was in her hand was sheathed now. “With that said, time for me to go back out there.”

“Thank you,” Daniela said. “Thanks for looking out for us.”

“Let’s just say that when this is all over, you and I will figure out a better way to thank me,” she said, giving Daniela a wink before she walked away.

Daniela watched until Jessika was gone, but her mind was already working out ways to show her gratitude to the sexy woman with the gun.

“I think she likes you,” Niamh said.

Lyse laughed and shook her head at Daniela.

“There’s way more than ‘like’ happening there, Niamh.”

“Yes, I would have to agree with Lyse on that front,” Thomas said.

I seriously hope Lyse is right about that, Daniela thought, but she didn’t weigh in.

Daniela could feel the spell working all around them—it gave a sharp, metallic taste to the air.

“So what? We just hang out here until Jessika and the Eagles take everyone out?” Daniela asked.

“That’s it exactly,” Lyse said. “You guys stay here. I think you have it well in hand.”

“Does that mean you’re going now?” Dev asked, her eyes welling with tears.

“Yeah,” Lyse said. “I think it does.”

“Don’t go!” Ginny said, clambering out of her seat and throwing herself at Lyse’s waist. “Marji says you might die. Don’t die, please.”

Marji was still sitting at the table, but her head was down and she looked like she was crying. Dev went over to her older daughter and knelt beside her.

“What’s wrong? What’s happened, Marji?”

But Marji just shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks and onto the tabletop.

“Baby, tell me—”

Thomas came to stand on Marji’s other side.

“Why don’t you let me?” he said to Dev.

“Well, I—”

“Let him, Dev,” Daniela said. She’d seen the way Marji looked at Thomas. Maybe her hero worship would get her talking.

Dev nodded and stood back up, letting Thomas have a moment with her daughter. She sat down in one of the chairs and pulled Ginny onto her lap.

Daniela watched as Thomas inclined his head toward Marji.

“It can’t be that bad. Why don’t you whisper it in my ear?”

Marji shook her head no.

“Please?” Thomas continued. “It’s always better to say it out loud. Takes the power of it away.”

Marji thought for a moment, and then she leaned over and whispered in his ear. He nodded, listening.

“I see,” he said, nodding again.

When she was done, he stood back up and laid his hand on her shoulder.

“It’s hard to know these things, my dear. But sometimes we are forced to bear things we think will break us.”

He kissed Marji on the top of the head.

“You did beautifully,” he added. “Now go give Lyse a hug and tell her that you love her.”

Slowly, Marji climbed to her feet.

“I’m sorry, and don’t die,” she cried, and ran to Lyse, burying her face in Lyse’s waist.

“It’s okay,” Lyse said, stroking the girl’s hair. “You know that this isn’t the end . . .” Lyse continued, but Marji pulled away, looking up at her.

“I know it’s not,” she said, in between hiccupping tears. “I love you, Lyse.”

She wouldn’t say any more after that, just held on for a moment longer and then went to join Ginny and Dev. The moment passed, but it had made Daniela feel very, very sad.

•   •   •

Lyse hadn’t asked Thomas to tell her what Marji had said to him. She didn’t seem to want to know.

Well, the first thing I’m gonna do is harass the information right out of him, Daniela thought as she, Thomas, and Niamh waited in the galley to see Lyse off.

“So I just scroll through the past and try to figure out what went wrong?” Lyse asked.

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Thomas said.

Lyse nodded.

“Okay, I guess it’s now or never.”

“Be safe,” Daniela said, hugging Lyse tight and then releasing her.

“I’ll try,” Lyse said, and gave Daniela a wink.

“Be careful,” Thomas said, letting Lyse hug him, too.

“Like I said. I’ll try.”

Lyse took a step back and lifted her arms in the air. A glowing ball of blue neon light crackled in between her hands.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you on the other side,” Lyse said, giving them a halfhearted grin—and Daniela watched as the orb grew large enough to encapsulate Lyse’s entire body.

“Go now!” Thomas said to Niamh.

Niamh didn’t blink. She just hurled herself at the glowing orb, slipping inside just as it popped out of existence.

“Holy crap,” Daniela said.

Niamh and Lyse were both gone.

And that was when shit on board the destroyer really hit the fan.