PROLOGUE
A leg swept Ava’s feet out from under her a split second before a hand shoved her shoulder. Her back hit a mat that was cushy enough to keep her from getting a concussion when her head struck it but not cushy enough to keep the breath from being knocked out of her. In the next instant, a figure knelt over her, raised an arm, and drove a knife toward her chest.
Fortunately, that blade had dulled edges and halted before making contact.
Eliana grinned down at her. “Gotcha. Your attention strayed.”
Ava grimaced. “Yes, it did.”
When her friend held a hand out to her, Ava accepted it gratefully and laughed when Eliana yanked her up with enough force to make Ava feel as if she’d just bounced off a trampoline. “Thanks. I shouldn’t have let my mind wander. Sorry about that.”
Eliana gave her a friendly pat on the back. “Don’t worry about it. I doubt that would’ve happened in a real battle.” Her smile turned wry. “You tend to stay focused when someone’s trying to kill you.” No doubt she spoke from experience, having spent centuries battling insane vampires and—more recently—mercenaries.
“I would hope so.”
“And you did well up until then.”
“Really?” Ava didn’t think Eliana was the type to offer empty compliments.
She smiled. “Absolutely.”
“Thanks.” Sheathing her practice dagger, Ava grabbed a towel off a nearby bench and wiped her damp face and neck.
Though they’d been training for the better part of an hour, Eliana hadn’t even broken a sweat. “So what distracted you?” she asked curiously.
Ava motioned to the other activity that was taking place in the spacious training room. “This did.”
For the thousandth time since she’d boarded the Kandovar, awe filled her as she glanced around. She still couldn’t believe this was her new reality. Five months ago, she’d been working in North Carolina for a company that bore no name and simply referred to itself as the network. Consisting of tens of thousands of humans and gifted ones, the network aided powerful Immortal Guardians who spent their nights hunting and slaying psychotic vampires most of humanity didn’t even know existed.
Ava hadn’t known they existed either until the network had invited her to apply for a position. Born with telepathic abilities, she’d been astonished to learn that she and her mother weren’t the only ones out there who were different.
Astonished and relieved and excited.
When she’d gone to work at the network, she’d finally met other gifted ones like herself, worked for powerful immortal beings who were even more different than she was, and had then been offered the opportunity of a lifetime: to be one of fifteen gifted ones and immortals to board the alien battleship Kandovar and travel to Lasara, a technologically advanced planet on the opposite side of the galaxy and homeworld of the Immortal Guardian leader’s adopted daughter, Ami.
Now they were four months into a trip that would take them thirteen. Ava trained daily with an Immortal Guardian and was friend to four others. To her right, Lasarans—a very long-lived alien species with special gifts of their own and amazing regenerative capabilities—trained as vigorously as Eliana and Ava did. On Ava’s left, members of the Yona species trained and looked for all the world as if they were stoically trying to kill each other.
Stoically being the operative word. Their grayish skin wasn’t the only thing that clued one in that they weren’t from Earth. Yona warriors never exhibited any emotion. At all. Ava had thought the huge males were some kind of advanced robots when she’d first encountered them.
“It’s trippy, isn’t it?”
Lured from her reverie, Ava glanced at Eliana. “What is?”
Her friend nodded toward the other occupants of the gym-like training room. “This. Being on an alien ship, heading for an alien planet, surrounded by not one but two alien species.”
Ava smiled. “It really is.”
“Just think how much trippier it must be for Lisa.”
She laughed. “I know, right?” Lisa’s history was one of the most unusual Ava had ever heard. And she had heard a lot of unusual stories since joining the network.
A gifted one like Ava, Lisa had met Lasara’s Prince Taelon under terrifying and bizarre circumstances on Earth. Now the two were lifemates (the Lasaran equivalent of married), Lisa was an honest-to-goodness princess, and the two had a beautiful infant daughter who had proven that gifted ones and Lasarans were reproductively compatible.
Ava couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to go from being a cash-strapped woman in her mid-twenties who was virtually alone in the world and painstakingly working her way through college to being a prominent member of an alien royal family to whom crew members frequently genuflected.
When Eliana’s gaze strayed to the open doorway, she straightened. “Speaking of aliens, there’s Ganix.”
“Who’s Ganix?”
“Chief Engineer of the Kandovar. Do you mind if we cut our training short today? I want to see if he’ll help me talk a pilot into teaching me how to fly one of those sleek black fighter craft. Either that or help me talk Ari’k into sparring with me.”
Ari’k was the first Yona Ava had met. He was also a member of the royal guard who protected Lisa, Prince Taelon, and their baby daughter. So Ava and her friends from Earth encountered him a lot.
“You want to spar with Ari’k?” she asked, surprised.
“Hell yes. I’m not a hundred percent convinced he can’t feel emotion and I want to see if kicking his ass will spark a response and piss him off.”
Ava laughed. “You’re so bad.”
Eliana grinned unrepentantly. “I know.”
“Go ahead. I’m about ready to call it a day anyway.”
“Yes! Thanks, Ava.” She hurried away.
“Let me know what happens,” Ava called after her.
“Will do!” Eliana disappeared through the doorway.
Shaking her head, Ava grabbed a bottle of water and headed for the quarters she and her friends from Earth had been allocated.
Lasaran crew members smiled and nodded to her, offering friendly greetings as she strode down one long corridor, then turned up another. It was nice. Evidently every Lasaran was born with strong telepathic abilities and was taught at an early age to erect mental barriers that would keep others out, so Ava wasn’t besieged by their thoughts. Her mind had never been this quiet while she was surrounded by other people on Earth. It was wonderful. And liberating. Because for the first time in her life, it made her feel normal.
Members of the Earthling Contingent were given lodgings that were clustered together in one area and reminded her of efficiency apartments. Each room boasted a narrow bed, a small table and chair, a cramped bathroom they called a lav, and a kitchen that was more of a nook.
As commander of the Kandovar, Prince Taelon had apologized for the meager accommodations. They hadn’t exactly been expecting guests. But Ava and the others didn’t mind. The Kandovar was a warship, not a cruise ship.
Through the open door to Mia’s quarters, Ava saw Mia, Natalie, and Michelle chatting as they sipped what she suspected was a very tasty tea Lasarans loved.