Sudden Storm [Tales of the Cidatel 21] Read Online Free PDF

walking behind her.
    Storic whispered, “To the left. Down the hall, and the shuttle bay is on the left. They grabbed us at the jump site. You were right, there was a shuttle scoping you out.”
    Vexa muttered, “It doesn’t matter if I was right. You were hurt because you were with me, and I can’t even help carry you to the shuttle.”
    Storic laughed. “You could use air.”
    “And then I would get so hungry, I would simply take your entire body down to its component parts. That is not something I am going to risk. Can you fly like that?”
    Storic was slung between two battered males who were listening to their exchange with amusement. “I can. I only need to get to a broadcast point. Ours will come running.”
    Vexa opened the door to the shuttle bay. “Then, let’s get moving, people. I am overdue for a snack.”
    Sixteen folk crammed into a shuttle meant for four. Vexa took up the medical bed and put herself into a waking trance. The worst off of the other prisoners took the bunks and the others crouched in the aisles and the tiny kitchen. Every surface was covered with living and breathing creatures, and Vexa was terrified that if it took too long, she was going to turn to one of them as a meal.
    The lives of everyone aboard were in Storic’s hands.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    She felt the cessation of movement and listened to the voices of the Citadel staff taking the prisoners out of the shuttle. Everyone was very careful to keep away from her, and Vexa was very pleased by that.
    When she was prodded awake, she sat up to watch the pole being used dissolve into mist after contact with her shoulder. “I am going to head for the quarry. Please make sure that there is nothing in my way.”
    Instructor Althoth nodded. “It has been cleared. Is there anything else you can consume?”
    Vexa got to her feet. “Fire is best, but stone will do. It just takes more of it.”
    Althoth blinked. “Oh. Very well. The path is clear.”
    Controlling herself, she stepped off the medical bed and left the shuttle without dissolving it into its component atoms.
    She was shaking with hunger as she walked and grimly remembering that the side effect of her power was the first thing that they designed into the Destroyer. Of course, the Destroyer didn’t eat what she took apart. That was Vexa’s problem.
    The path to the quarry where the stone of the Citadel had been extracted was mercifully short. Vexa walked through the rock to the furthest edge and stood, letting her body return the energy that she had expended on the station.
    She pulled power into her, turning the stone to dust and then even less. Light dimmed, and still, her body demanded more.
    With darkness swirling around her, she let her consumption rage until a flicker of brightness distracted her.
    Burn walked up to her and beckoned her. “Come, Vexa, take what you need.”
    She blinked. “I don’t want to take too much.”
    “You won’t. I trust you. Come on. Stop chewing rock and take some fire.” His expression bordered on sensual as flames flickered and flared all over his skin. The marks on his body glowed bright.
    Her hands shook as a craving swirled through her. She stepped down from the stone and closed her eyes at the feel of the blaze against her skin.
    She touched his hands, he pulled her sharply against him, covering her mouth with his and pouring the fire into her.
    The hunger flared and then was sated. She smiled and pulled away. Embarrassment flickered through her. “I am sorry you felt it necessary to come down here.”
    He brushed hair off her face. “I am sorry the director did not send me out with you. He knows better now.”
    She smiled, and when his eye contact became too much, she pressed her forehead to his chest. “How did he figure that out?”
    He chuckled, and she could hear it as well as feel it. “Storic is in the healing wing, and she said that you mentioned her as a possible meal twice, before you put yourself