Jordan by Susan Kearney Read Free Book Online Page A

did you tell
me?
”
    “Because you and I have to work together to recover the Grail from the Tribes.”
    “You want
my
help?”
    “It seems preferable to locking you up in a cabin for the duration of the voyage,” he muttered.
    She cocked her head and petted the dog, not looking the least bit scared. But she should be. Ignoring his threat to her freedom,
     she circled back to the subject. “So exactly why did we have sex when we don’t much like each other?”
    He bit back a snort. She could speak for herself. He liked her plenty. He just didn’t
want
to like her. He had no time for a woman in his life. He’d had a few flings, but never had he allowed himself more than physical
     gratification. There’d be no emotional entanglements. He needed to focus all his energy on stopping the Tribes.
    “The Ancient Staff has powers that I don’t fully understand.” The Tribes had blown up Dominus before he’d been fully trained
     in the Staff’s powers. “You saw me switch up the power by pushing the crystal?” he asked, certain she’d carefully watched
     his every move. “There are two other crystals that serve as keys. We must find them to make the Staff fully functional.”
    Her eyes widened. “You’re saying the Staff’s working on minimum power and may not be at full capacity?”
    “Yes.”
    “And if you find the missing keys, the Staff might be stronger?”
    “Perhaps.”
    She shook her head. “Suppose it increases our lust even more?”
    He shrugged. “You’re free to get off at the next stop.”
    “That’s a birdbrained idea.”
    He choked back a chuckle.
    “I don’t like that thing randomly messing with my libido.” Her lower lip trembled, and she bit it to control the quiver.
    “I’m sorry. But we need to—”
    “Don’t tell me what I need to do.” She raised her head and glared. “You only paid for half this ship. That means I still own
     half.” He’d known this was coming. If she wanted to believe she was in charge half the time, he’d do his best to support her
     theory—as long as she didn’t get in the way of his mission. “And we may be cocaptains, but I’m keeping my distance from that
     Ancient Staff. And you, too.”
    “If you must.” Keeping her distance wouldn’t help, but he didn’t have time to argue or explain. She wasn’t fooling him with
     that cocaptains offer. Vi was too much of a control freak to share command. They’d be going head-to-head.
    And perversely, he looked forward to it. He liked that she had a backbone. Enjoyed the way her mind worked. And he loved her
     sexy ass.
    It was a good thing she couldn’t read his thoughts, or she would have decked him. Hell, for his own sake, he shouldn’t be
     thinking about how great she smelled or tasted or felt with those long legs wrapped around his hips. It was better for the
     mission if he kept his distance.
    He started to turn toward the galley. “You want to run systems checks while I figure out what those things were coming at
     us in hyperspace?”
    “All right. But do you have any idea where those missing keys are?”
    He’d been trying to figure that out for fifteen hundred years. “During my first trip to Earth, I gave one key to King Arthur
     for safekeeping, but it was stolen. Later, Trendonis, the Tribes’ leader, stole my Staff with the other two keys still embedded
     in the bark. When I finally got the Staff back, all the keys were gone. I found the triangular one on Tor, but the others
     could be anywhere.”
    “The staff was stolen in King Arthur’s time on Earth?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you found it again on the same world where Marisa, Lucan’s sister, visited and found evidence that the Tribes are about
     to invade Earth?”
    “Yes.”
    Her forehead wrinkled. “But how could that have happened?”
    “One of King Arthur’s knights was a man named Gareth. Long ago, he betrayed me and all dragonshapers to Trendonis. Gareth
     helped steal the Staff for the Tribes.”
    “Why would